2nd Combined Working Group and Management Committee Meeting of Urine and Kidney Proteomics COST Action 29-30 March 2009, Nafplio, Greece

EuroKUP (Urine and Kidney Proteomics; www.eurokup.org) is a COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical research: www.cost.esf.org Action fostering a multi-disciplinary network of investigators from 25 countries and focusing on facilitating translational proteomic research in kidney diseases. Four Working Groups focusing respectively on defining clinically important research questions in kidney diseases, kidney tissue proteomics, urine proteomics and bioinformatics have been generated. The EuroKUP members had their second combined Working Group and Management Committee (MC) meeting in Nafplio, Greece from March 29 to 30, 2009. This report summarizes the main presentations, discussions and agreed action points during this meeting. These refer to the design of collaborative projects and clinical center networks for specific kidney diseases; establishment of guidelines for kidney tissue proteomics analysis by laser-based imaging- and laser capture microdissection-MS; development and characterization of a "standard" urine specimen to be used for assessment of platform capability and data comparability in clinical proteomics applications; definition of statistical requirements in biomarker discovery studies; and development of a specialized kidney and urine ontology. Various training activities are planned involving training schools on laser capture microdissection- and imaging-MS, workshops on ontologies as well as short-term travel grants for junior investigators.     

Industrial Application Aspects of the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CO in Aqueous Electrolyte

The industrialization of the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ toward CO in aqueous electrolytes has recently been started using silver-based gas diffusion electrodes. The performance of a CO₂-to-CO electrolyzer model on a 10-cm² cell size is assessed with respect to operating pressure, achievable current density at faradaic efficiency of CO above 90 %, composition of gas streams and operational lifetime. Operational lifetime has exceeded 1500 h. The first scaling step to 300 cm² has been accomplished. The rated power of such a cell is around 300 W.     

间歇精馏塔启动过程的模型化

引　言在以往的研究中 ,间歇精馏塔的模型大部分建立在平衡模型的基础上[1] ,系统初值的选取基于伪热初始状态 ,即每层塔板上有足够的积液量 ,塔板温度在泡点温度以上的汽液平衡状态 .多数间歇精馏过程的仿真模拟软件中使用伪热状态作为初始状态[2 ] ,例如 ,ＨＹＳＹＳ Ｒ○ (Ｈｙｐｒｏｔｅｃｈ )、ＢＡＴＣＨＦＲＡＣＴＭ (Ａｓｐｅｎｔｅｃｈ )和ＣＣ -ＢＡＴＣＨ Ｒ○(ＣＨＥＭＣＡＤ) .它们都是通过稳态和平衡计算为微分代数方程组提供了满足一致性要求的初始值 .间歇精馏过程的一个特点就是精馏塔频繁地从冷状态启动 ,初始状态会因再…     

Heterogeneous Ziegler–Natta catalysts with various sizes of MgCl<Subscript>2</Subscript> crystallites: synthesis and characterization

A MgCl₂-based Ziegler–Natta catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and IR spectra. We focused on the XRD reflection at 2θ = 50° to determine the thickness of MgCl₂ crystals, and validated these results with TEM pictures. SEM pictures were taken in order to measure the size of the nanoparticles formed by the MgCl₂ crystals. Several compounds were synthesized for comparison and to aid interpretation of the infrared (IR) spectra. The catalysts were prepared by precipitating MgCl₂, which was used as support material and subsequently treated with TiCl₄. The thickness of the catalyst crystals was calculated from the XRD reflection at 2θ = 50°. Changing the precipitation temperature within a range from 40 to 90 °C altered the thickness of the MgCl₂ crystal plates. The maximum thickness of 7 nm was achieved at a precipitation temperature of 60 °C. The SEM pictures showed that the nanoparticles had a diameter of ~200 nm. A crystal base unit had a volume that corresponded to that of a sphere of 3.5 nm radius. Thus, we estimated that a typical catalyst particle with a diameter of 20 μm contained about one million nanoparticles, each of which consisted of about 25,000 MgCl₂ crystal units.     

Assessment of the ecological potential of microreaction technology

The pros and cons of microreaction technology were investigated using life cycle assessment (LCA) for the first time. This evaluation method has the outstanding advantage that it takes into account the entire life cycle of a process or product from “cradle to grave”.In this LCA, the ecological advantages associated with the transfer of a chemical synthesis from a macro-scale semi-continuous batch process to a continuous micro-scale setup were researched. The two-step synthesis of m-anisaldehyde from m-bromoanisole was taken as a model reaction. Because of its highly exothermic behavior, this synthesis can only be carried out under significant safety precautions and with a high cooling energy effort in conventional batch reaction equipment. A reaction temperature of T=223 and 193 K, respectively, was chosen. The application of micro-structured devices allows a continuous isothermal reaction setup at . We analyzed two scales of producing m-anisaldehyde, the laboratory scale and the industrial scale, in order to get detailed information about possible ecological advantages of microreaction technology. Within the term “laboratory scale” a synthesis of 10 kg m-anisaldehyde under laboratory conditions was defined. Two Cytos^®-Lab-System modules were chosen as reaction devices in the case of the microreaction mode. Otherwise, the synthesis of 1 t m-anisaldehyde under real production conditions is determined as “industrial scale” production. The production in the Cytos^®-Pilot-System with 11 microreactors in parallel for each synthesis step serves as the basis of comparison with a conventional macro-scale batch production. The product mass flow of 0.06 kg/h per microreactor was the same on both scales.The results of the LCA clearly point out that the application of microreaction technology can lead to significant reductions of the environmental impact resulting from chemical production processes.     

Performance of sinking EDM electrodes made by selective laser sintering technique

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a nonconventional machining process widely applied for the manufacture of intricate shapes in hard materials which are not easily machined by conventional machining processes. The production of geometrically complex EDM electrodes is difficult, time consuming, and it can account for about 50 % of the total process costs. Selective laser sintering (SLS) can be an alternative technique to produce EDM electrodes in a faster way. This work conducted an experimental study on the performance of EDM electrodes made by SLS using pure copper, bronze–nickel alloy, copper/bronze–nickel alloy, and steel alloy powders. Important EDM performance measures such as material removal rate and volumetric relative wear were investigated and discussed for finishing, semifinish, and roughing regimes. This work contributes with an insight into the production of EDM electrodes via selective laser sintering, as an alternative technique to conventional machining processes, as well as to evaluate the performance of the electrodes, and also provide directions for future research on this field.     

Computing the arc length of parametric curves

Specifying constraints on motion is simpler if the curve is parameterized by arc length, but many parametric curves of practical interest cannot be parameterized by arc length. An approximate numerical reparameterization technique that improves on a previous algorithm by using a different numerical integration procedure that recursively subdivides the curve and creates a table of the subdivision points is presented. The use of the table greatly reduces the computation required for subsequent arc length calculations. After table construction, the algorithm takes nearly constant time for each arc length calculation. A linear increase in the number of control points can result in a more than linear increase in computation. Examples of this type of behavior are shown     

Simultaneous Single Unit Recording in vitro with a Photoetched Laser Deinsulated Gold Multimicroelectrode Surface

Flat photoetched gold conductors 12 ?m wide and 2 ?m thick, situated on a glass plate and deinsulated at their tips with single 8 ns UV laser pulses, have been utilized to record single unit extra-cellular activity from brain ganglia of the snail Helix pomatia. A fixed array of 36 such conductors, terminating in six rows and six columns in a 0.5 mm x 1 mm area, is capable of monitoring simultaneous single unit activity from numerous neurons. Spike amplitudes of 300?500 ?V are generally observed from the predominant 40 ?m diameter cells of these ganglia. Giant neurons usually produce signal amplitudes of over 3 mV that are simultaneously seen by many electrodes. Signals can be monitored by merely resting a locally desheathed ganglion on the recording area under its own weight in a shallow pool of Ringer. A 10 ?m diameter crater in a 3?4 ?m thick insulation layer has an impedance of 2?4 M?at 1 kHz. The capacitance of this metal electrolyte interface is about 0.5 pF/?m2, suggesting that the UV laser produces a partially colloidal gold surface. With this recessed tip design, simultaneous single unit recording from small neurons appears ensured if electrode impedances are below 4 M?, shunt impedances are above 30 M?, and glia cells are not allowed to reinsulate the end of the gold conductor.     

A Multi-Hop Packet-Switched AWGM-Star-Network Realized with TX/RX Arrays

Some of today's optical networks are based on the well known WDM-star topology. In most cases, these are single-hop networks equipped with fast-tuneable wavelength transceivers. For these well studied packet-switched networks, several protocols have been designed. In order to avoid the costs of the fast tuneable devices, a network based on an array waveguided multiplexer (AWGM) and arrays of non-tuneable or slow tuneable transmitters and receivers is suggested. In order to enable communication among all stations, a multi-hop environment is introduced which is determined by the AWGM routing matrix. In the case of slow-tuneable devices, the topology can be reconfigured in dependence on changing traffic patterns. In order to get a first insight into the performance of these topologies, we focus on the case of fixed transceiver units and an uniformly distributed traffic matrix.     

A High Resolution Position Sensitive Detector for Ultraviolet and X-Ray Photons

A new type of position sensitive detection system for ultraviolet and x-ray photons and for particles is described. A compact laboratory model with one-dimensional readout was constructed and tested. The full width at half maximum response to single x-rays was typically 0.13 mm, but the position determination accuracy was comparable to the channel center-to-center spacing of 0.053 mm. The detection system can be readily adapted to two-dimensional readout. Potential applications of this device for single-photon and flux counting in ultraviolet and x-ray astronomy are discussed.