Physicochemical Properties of Torrefied and Pyrolyzed Food Waste Biochars as Fuel: A Pilot-Scale Study

Food waste is an important constituent of municipal solid waste, and research has been conducted to develop various methods for treating food waste and recycling it (e.g., fuel, landfilling, composting, conversion into animal feed, drying, and carbonization). Among these, the drying and carbonization techniques can change food waste into fuel; however, they need more energy than fermentation and anaerobic digestion procedures. In this study, we investigated the physicochemical properties of food waste biochar produced under torrefaction (270 °C) and pyrolysis (450 °C) conditions to establish its applicability as fuel by comparing temperatures, residence times, and conditions before and after demineralization. The higher heating value increased after the demineralization process under both temperature conditions (270 °C and 450 °C), and the chlorine level was lower at 270 °C temperature demineralization than at 450 °C. During the demineralization process, Na and K were better removed than Ca and Mg. Additionally, Cr, Hg, Cd, and Pb levels were lower than those according to the European Union and Korean domestic bio-SRF recovered fuel criteria, confirming the applicability of biochar as fuel.

A Theoretical Perspective of the Structure and Thermodynamics of Secondary Organic Aerosols from Toluene: Molecular Hierarchical Synergistic Effects

Toluene is an important constituent of liquid fuel, and it contributes to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) under photochemical conditions. However, the underlying mechanism of toluene SOA is...

The Philosopher’s Diet in Porphyry’s De Abstinentia: Characterizing a Historical Legacy of Minimalism in Food Consumption

Historical legacy, as an important constituent for the evaluation of the extent to which the past influences the present, sheds much light on some of the broader issues of the relation between the past and the present. One of the components of historical legacy is human food consumption habits. The domain of food consumption habits, in traditional Greek and Roman culture, contains a fairly noticeable diversity as it fluctuates between what seems to be two wide poles of dietary practices such as a simple diet, with the focus on minimalism and health and a luxury diet, with the focus on excess and extravagance. These poles, upon close analysis, have determined the dietary customs of antiquity while also formed a gastronomic identity. The impact of this historical legacy seems to have not only flavored Porphyry’s discussion of the nature of the philosopher’s diet in On Abstinence from Killing Animals but has also served in characterizing an advanced stage of minimalism in Greek and Roman food consumption habits.

Evaluation of the contributions of gold derived from hypogene, supergene and surficial processes in the formation of placer gold deposits

Placer gold particles have traditionally been considered as either detrital products of weathering or authigenic minerals growing within placers. Recent advances in understanding of gold chemistry/bio-geochemistry demonstrate that gold growth in specific environments is plausible, but opinions differ on the importance of ‘new’ gold in the overall placer inventory. Here we draw upon visual inspection over 40,000 polished gold particle sections from locations worldwide to evaluate the implications of gold alloy composition and particle heterogeneity in determining the contributions of detrital and authigenic gold to fluvial placers. We conclude i. the detrital model of placer gold formation is widespread and demonstrable, ii. supergene gold may be a locally important constituent of fluvial placers, iii. gold-rich rims on placer gold particles comprise two distinct components: a surface micron-scale addition of pure Au and a tens- of- micron- scale inner rim formed by Ag depletion, iv. the importance to placer inventories of gold particle formation and modification by biogenic processes is considerably overstated.

Experimental evidence for hydrogen incorporation into Earth’s core

Hydrogen is one of the possible alloying elements in the Earth’s core, but its siderophile (iron-loving) nature is debated. Here we experimentally examined the partitioning of hydrogen between molten iron and silicate melt at 30–60 gigapascals and 3100–4600 kelvin. We find that hydrogen has a metal/silicate partition coefficient DH ≥ 29 and is therefore strongly siderophile at conditions of core formation. Unless water was delivered only in the final stage of accretion, core formation scenarios suggest that 0.3–0.6 wt% H was incorporated into the core, leaving a relatively small residual H2O concentration in silicates. This amount of H explains 30–60% of the density deficit and sound velocity excess of the outer core relative to pure iron. Our results also suggest that hydrogen may be an important constituent in the metallic cores of any terrestrial planet or moon having a mass in excess of ~10% of the Earth.

Increasing Efficiency of Repetitive Electroacupuncture on Purine- and Acid-Induced Pain During a Three-Week Treatment Schedule

Acupuncture (AP) is an important constituent of the therapeutic repertoire of traditional Chinese medicine and has been widely used to alleviate chronic painful conditions all over the world. We studied in rats the efficiency of electroacupuncture (EAP) applied to the Zusanli acupoint (ST36) as an analgesic treatment over a 3-week period of time on purine (α,β-methylene ATP, dibenzoyl-ATP)- and acid (pH 6.0 medium)-induced pain in the rat paw. The two ATP derivatives stimulated P2X3 and P2X7 receptors, respectively, while the slightly acidic medium stimulated the “acid-sensitive ion channel 3” (ASIC3). It was found that the P2X7 receptor and ASIC-mediated pain was counteracted by EAP with greater efficiency at the end than at the beginning of the treatment schedule, while the P2X3 receptor–mediated pain was not. Our findings have important clinical and theoretical consequences, among others, because they are difficult to reconcile with the assumption that AP is primarily due to the release of peripheral and central opioid peptides causing the well-known tolerance to their effects. In consequence, AP is a convenient therapeutic instrument to treat subacute and chronic pain.

Horse and Mare in English, Kazakh and Russian Language Pictures of the World

The purpose of the article is to compare the linguocultural meanings of the zoomorphic image of a horse / mare. The horse / mare is an important constituent of life, as indicated by the significant amount of vocabulary assigned to the names of this animal in the compared language pictures of the world, the variety of manifestations of the horse in human life, the role in the agricultural, military, and domestic spheres. Six main areas were identified where vocabulary related to the vital activity, functioning of horses, their biological and physiological characteristics is usedas a result of the analysis of three linguistic cultures shows: biological gender; age; breed; horse suit; allures – types of horse movement; location and conditions of detention. The asymmetry of the implementation of linguocultural meanings in the studied language pictures of the world is noted. The thematic group "Biological gender" combines 25 signs. The thematic group "Age" includes 14 signs. The thematic group "Breed" consists of 11 signs. The thematic group "Color of the horse" includes 18 signs. The thematic group "Allures – types of horse movement" comprises 8 signs. In the thematic group "Place and Conditions of Detention" 10 signs are presented. The article contains 6 tables to illustrate the comparison. The lexical units of the English, Kazakh, and Russian languages are described, the differential features of the analyzed words and phrases with the meaning "horse", "mare" are established, the results of a comparative study of three linguocultures are summarized.

A Vision-Based Framework for Spotting and Segmentation of Gesture-Based Assamese Characters Written in the Air

The task of automatic gesture spotting and segmentation is challenging for determining the meaningful gesture patterns from continuous gesture-based character sequences. This paper proposes a vision-based automatic method that handles hand gesture spotting and segmentation of gestural characters embedded in a continuous character stream simultaneously, by employing a hybrid geometrical and statistical feature set. This framework shall form an important constituent of gesture-based character recognition (GBCR) systems, which has gained tremendous demand lately as assistive aids for overcoming the restraints faced by people with physical impairments. The performance of the proposed system is validated by taking into account the vowels and numerals of Assamese vocabulary. Another attribute to this proposed system is the implementation of an effective hand segmentation module, which enables it to tackle complex background settings.