Experimental Investigation of the Recovery of Soaked Paper Using Evaporative Freeze Drying

The aim of this article is to develop an experiment and a procedure to investigate the restoration of water-damaged paper and archival materials using freeze drying in order to allow a reproducible test and comparison of the influence of different operating conditions on drying time and restored paper quality. Firstly, a reproducible method for the preparation of soaked samples simulating water-damaged paper has been developed. Then, the samples have been freeze-dried in a laboratory-scale apparatus that allowed monitoring the temperature as well as the weight of the samples. The technique of evaporative freezing, which reduces the drying time required, has been used in this case. An innovative procedure for the visualization of the progress of the drying process has been validated, thus allowing the validation of a simple phenomenological model of the time evolution of the ice core volume; in addition, data on the residual moisture of the dried paper sheets in different zones have been given. Finally, optimization of this particular drying process by using simple or more sophisticated approaches has been discussed.     

Proteomic profile of differentially expressed plasma proteins from dystrophic mice and following suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid treatment

Purpose: Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (DI) ameliorates dystrophic muscle regeneration restoring muscular strength in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The further development of these compounds as drugs for DMD treatment is currently hampered by the lack of knowledge about DIs effect in large dystrophic animal models and that of suitable biomarkers to monitor their efficacy. Experimental design: In this study we applied proteomic analysis to identify differentially expressed proteins present in plasma samples from mdx mice treated with the Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and relative normal controls (WT). Results: Several differentially expressed proteins were identified between untreated wild type and mdx mice. Among these, fibrinogen, epidermal growth factor 2 receptor, major urinary protein and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) were constitutively up‐regulated in mdx, while complement C3, complement C6, gelsolin, leukaemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFr), and alpha 2 macroglobulin were down‐regulated compared to WT mice. SAHA determined the normalization of LIFr and GPX3 protein level while apoliprotein E was de novo up‐regulated in comparison to vehicle‐treated mdx mice. Conclusions and clinical relevance: Collectively, these data unravel potential serological disease biomarkers of mdx that could be useful to monitor muscular dystrophy response to DI treatment.     

Traffic analysis and synthetic models of second life

Virtual Worlds (VW), such as Massive Multiplayer Online Social Games, have been gaining increasing attention in the last few years, mainly due to the new way users interact with them. However, little effort has been devoted to understand their traffic profile and the implications to the traffic management area. With the current growing rate of VWs’ usage, their traffic demand could eventually impose a significant burden on the operation of a typical Internet Service Provider (ISP) network. In this paper, we seek to understand the traffic behavior of an increasingly popular VW application, namely Second Life (SL), from both the connection and network level perspectives. We also show results of a traffic analysis of a SL client, when an avatar performs different actions in the VW, at different places and under different network conditions. Our results show that SL makes intensive use of network resources (mostly bandwidth), since the capacity needed for having a full SL experience (listening to live music) may reach 500 kbps. We then extend the traffic analysis work on SL by providing analytical models for its traffic profile. We aim at helping the network management and planning area to estimate the impact of an intense use of such VW on access links or core networks. Such synthetic models are also useful to the networking research community for the use in network simulations.     

Initial rotor position estimation method for PM motors

This paper presents a method to detect the rotor position of permanent-magnet motors at standstill, which is suitable to avoid temporary reverse rotation at startup or starting failure. The approach is based on the investigation of the stator inductance variation as a function of the rotor magnets position and the stator current space vector. It involves the application of a proper sequence of voltage pulses to the stator windings, and the measurement of the peak values of the resulting current in order to achieve the rotor position estimation. Actually, the current measurements show significant uncertainties which affect the rotor position detection. In order to avoid these problems, the authors propose a novel procedure which combines an iterative sequence of voltage pulses with a fuzzy logic processing of the current responses and phase currents derivation based on the DC-link current measurements. The proposed method has been implemented on a /spl mu/C digital signal processor (TMS320F240). The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed solution. It can be applied in sensorless drives, in drives equipped with nonabsolute position transducers, with a wide range of motors, and it does not require the knowledge of any of the motor parameters.     

By‐products formation in catalytic combustion of aromatic compounds over a pt‐based catalyst

By‐products formation in the catalytic combustion of different aromatic compounds has been experimentally investigated. A commercial Pt‐based catalyst, in the shape of a short monolith, has been employed. Toluene, styrene, o‐xylene and cumene have been tested at low concentrations for conversions in the range 5–50%. The results confirm the formation of benzene in the combustion of toluene and styrene, as previously observed by other researchers, but in a very small amount; testing cumene, significant amounts of acetone have been found in the outlet flow. Some hypothesis about the reaction mechanism are put forward.     

Phytoextraction technologies for mercury- and chromium-contaminated soil: a review

Mercury and chromium represent two important elements of environmental concern and with a strong impact on human health. Several technologies are available to clean up the environment from these kinds of contaminants, but most of them are costly and difficult to use to get optimum results. Currently, phytoextraction is an effective and affordable technological solution used to extract or remove metals from contaminated soil and water by the use of plants as tools. This technology is environment-friendly and potentially cost-effective. This paper aims to compile some information about the two metals mercury and chromium, their effects and their possible treatment by phytoextraction, a branch of phytoremediation technologies aimed to confront metal/metalloid pollution. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

A ticket to ride: Education and migration from lagging areas

National policies may have heterogeneous effects at the regional level. When coming to programmes aimed at increasing human capital, worker mobility from poorer to richer regions can reduce the benefits of the policy for the former areas. We focus on Italy and estimate the impact of education on the probability of migrating from a lagging area to a leading one. Endogeneity is addressed by exploiting an increase in the minimum school-leaving age in an instrumental variable framework. We find that one additional year of education increases the probability to migrate by 1.7 percentage points (9% of the average migration rate).     

Extraction of pure lycopene from industrial tomato by‐products in water using a new high‐pressure process

BACKGROUND: Lycopene, a precursor of β‐carotene with a well‐known antioxidant activity, contained in many natural products such as tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), watermelon, red pepper and papaya, is usually recovered from natural vegetal sources using organic solvents and a purification step. In this paper an innovative process for the extraction of pure lycopene from tomato waste in water that uses the Naviglio^® extractor and water as extracting phase is presented. RESULTS: Lycopene was obtained in the all‐trans form at a very high grade of purity, not less than 98% (w/w), with an average recovery of 14% (w/w). The availability of high‐purity trans‐lycopene allowed measurement of the molar absorption coefficient. An alternative procedure for high‐performance liquid chromatographic analysis using a phenyl‐hexyl silicone phase as inverse phase and a linear gradient in water and acetonitrile is also described. CONCLUSIONS: The use of water as extracting phase considerably reduces the cost of the entire process when compared with the commonly used solvent‐based procedure or with the newer supercritical extraction process of lycopene from tomato waste. Lycopene, not soluble in water, was recovered in a quasi‐crystalline solid form and purified by solid‐phase extraction using a small amount of organic solvent. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry This article was published online on September 15, 2008. Errors in Figures 2 ‐ 4 were subsequently identified. The publishers wish to apologise for these errors. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected [September 19, 2008]     

Gas phase complete catalytic oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures

In this work oxidation of benzene and ethenylbenzene (IUPAC name for styrene) as single compounds and in binary mixtures over a Pt honeycomb catalyst were investigated. Both aromatic compounds showed zero-order kinetics over a wide concentration range. The ethenylbenzene reaction rate was affected weakly by the presence of benzene, whereas benzene oxidation was inhibited strongly by ethenylbenzene. The Mars-van Krevelen mechanism (which is generally accepted for single aromatic compound oxidation kinetics) gave rise to inconsistencies in describing mixture behaviour. A different kinetic model is proposed, where benzene reacts from the gas phase and ethenylbenzene is adsorbed on the catalyst competing with oxygen for active sites. This model was able to interpret the oxidation of mixtures quite satisfactorily.