Blending of Hydrothermal Liquefaction Biocrude with Residual Marine Fuel: An Experimental Assessment

As with all transport modes, the maritime sector is undergoing a drastic transition towards net zero, similar to the path in which Aviation is already engaged through global decarbonization programs such as CORSIA for the International Civil Aviation Organization, or the Emission trading Scheme of the European Union). Maritime indeed shares with Aviation a common element: the difficulty of shifting to electric in the short to medium term. Therefore, the use of sustainable fuels represents the main and only relevant option in this timeframe. As sustainable biofuels will be used as blend components in the case of large-scale deployment, it is necessary to investigate the behavior of bio- and fossil-based fuels when mixed in various percentages, in particular for low quality products such as HTL (HydroThermal Liquefaction) and fast pyrolysis oils from lignocellulosic biomass and waste. Biocrude from subcritical hydrothermal liquefaction of undigested sewage sludge, produced at reaction conditions of 350 °C and 200 bar in a continuous HTL pilot scale unit, was manually mixed at 70 °C with residual marine fuel (low-sulphur type F-RMG-380 per ISO 8217) at two different nominal biocrude shares, respectively 10 wt.% and 20 wt.% in the mixture. While the former blend resulted in the technically complete dissolution of biocrude in the fossil component, the latter sample formed biocrude agglomerates and only partial dissolution of the biocrude aliquot in marine fuel could be achieved (calculated between 14–16 wt.%). The blend with 10 wt.% of SS biocrude in the mixture resulted in compliance with limits of total acid number (TAN), inorganics (in particular vanadium, sodium, silicon and aluminum) and sulphur content, while only the ash content was slightly above the limit.

Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis Type 6 (CLN6) clinical findings and molecular diagnosis: Costa Rica’s experience

Background Commonly known as Batten disease, the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) are a genetically heterogeneous group of rare pediatric lysosomal storage disorders characterized by the intracellular accumulation of autofluorescent material (known as lipofuscin), progressive neurodegeneration, and neurological symptoms. In 2002, a disease-causing NCL mutation in the CLN6 gene was identified (c.214G > T) in the Costa Rican population, but the frequency of this mutation among local Batten disease patients remains incompletely characterized, as do clinical and demographic attributes for this rare patient population. Objective To describe the main sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with a clinical diagnosis for Batten Disease treated at the National Children's Hospital in Costa Rica and to characterize via molecular testing their causative mutations. Methods DNA extracted from buccal swabs was used for CLN6 gene sequencing. Participants’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were also obtained from their medical records. Results Nine patients with a clinical diagnosis of Batten disease were identified. Genetic sequencing determined the presence of the previously described Costa Rican homozygous mutation in 8 of 9 cases. One patient did not have mutations in the CLN6 gene. In all cases where the Costa Rican CLN6 mutation was present, it was accompanied by a substitution in intron 2. Patients were born in 4 of the 7 Costa Rican provinces, with an average onset of symptoms close to 4 years of age. No parental consanguinity was present in pedigrees. Initial clinical manifestations varied between patients but generally included: gait disturbances, language problems, visual impairment, seizures and psychomotor regression. Cortical and cerebellar atrophy was a constant finding when neuroimaging was performed. Seizure medication was a common element of treatment regimens. Conclusions This investigation supports that the previously characterized c.214G > T mutation is the most common causative NCL mutation in the Costa Rican population. This mutation is geographically widespread among Costa Rican NCL patients and yields a clinical presentation similar to that observed for CLN6 NCL patients in other geographies.

Del trastorno del diálogo tónico a la inestabilidad psicomotriz: Taxonomía diagnóstica

The goal of this work is to deepen the relationship between hyperactivity and tonic dialogue, by considering the body as a common element of communication even if their psychomotor manifestations and meanings are different during development. While tonic dialogue is vital for the child in the constitution of the attachment bond, psychomotor instability is the expression of a difficulty in relating to reality. In the clinic it is difficult to place instability in international diagnostic classifications, due to the multi-problematic nature and variability of expressions of it. Research confirms the consequences of a disorder of tonic dialogue, constituting a model on which future behaviors will be organized. The authors hypothesize that each stage of the body communication, if lived with difficulty, constitutes a matrix on which diversified expressions of instability will be structured. The intent, therefore, is to collect theoretical-clinical material in order to subsequently make a diagnostic classification of psychomotor instability. El objetivo de este trabajo es profundizar en la relación entre hiperactividad y diálogo tónico al considerar el cuerpo como elemento común de comunicación, aunque sus manifestaciones psicomotoras y significados sean diferentes durante el desarrollo. Mientras que el diálogo tónico es vital para que el niño establezca el vínculo de apego, la inestabilidad psicomotora es la expresión de una dificultad para relacionarse con la realidad. La complejidad y variabilidad de los cuadros clínicos dificulta su ubicación en las clasificaciones diagnósticas internacionales. La investigación luego confirma las consecuencias del trastorno del diálogo tónico, constituyendo un modelo sobre el que se organizarán los comportamientos futuros. Los autores plantean la hipótesis de que cada etapa del diálogo tónico, si se vive con dificultad, constituye una matriz sobre la que se estructurarán diversas expresiones de inestabilidad. La intención es recopilar material teórico-clínico para posteriormente realizar una clasificación diagnóstica de la inestabilidad psicomotora.

The Social and Solidarity Economics, Public Policies, and Non-Monetary Economic Practices

The prevailing economic and social model contains great inequalities. Against this backdrop, the Republic of Ecuador, in its constitution of 2008, included recognizing ancestral practices at an economic and social level and granting special protection to “mother earth” or Pachamama based on the common element of solidarity between ecosystems and human beings. Despite this, continuous growth processes have blunted some of the tools and institutions created in Ecuador to redress poverty and rebalance existing economic and regulatory abuses. To analyze this situation, a series of group interviews were carried out in two communities of Loja (Ecuador) to analyze the scope and continuity of current ancestral practices and the effectiveness of processes established in the social economy. The analysis shows the lack of continuity of these practices and their associated benefits for people and communities with limited resources.

Las princesas de los videojuegos: algunos antecedentes pictóricos y literarios

RESUMEN: Las dos sagas clásicas de videojuegos de Nintendo, Super Mario Bros., (1985-) y The Legend of Zelda (1986-) tienen entre sus elementos comunes el conocido personaje de una princesa: Peach, en el primer caso; y Zelda, en el segundo. Del estudio de las re-presentaciones formales de estas dos figuras tipificadas se desprende la pertenencia a una tradición literaria y pictórica popular que asienta unos rasgos genéricos determi-nados y las ajusta a un canon literario y pictórico. El análisis diacrónico de la prosopo-grafía femenina con hincapié en los orígenes clásicos y medievales y su posterior desarrollo durante el Renacimiento y el Barroco europeos ayuda a crear un puente de conexión con la estética pictórica novecentista y moderna de corte medievalista y su influencia en el arte del cómic y la animación japonesas, lugar de origen de sendas princesas. ABSTRACT: Nintendo’s classic franchises Super Mario Bros. (1985-) and The Legend of Zelda (1986-) both have as a common element the known character of a Princess: Peach, in the first videogame; and Zelda, in the second one. From the analysis of the formal rep-resentations of these two typified figures, it can be seen how they belong to a popular literary and pictorial tradition that establishes certain generic features and adjusts them to a literary and pictorial canon. The diachronic analysis of female prosopogra-phy -with emphasis on the classical and medieval origins and its subsequent develop-ment during the European Renaissance and Baroque periods- creates a connection with the Victorian and modern pictorial aesthetics of medievalist style and its influence on Japanese comics and animation, origin of both princesses.

An Iterative Method for Solving Split Monotone Variational Inclusion Problems and Finite Family of Variational Inequality Problems in Hilbert Spaces

The purpose of this paper is to study the convergence analysis of an intermixed algorithm for finding the common element of the set of solutions of split monotone variational inclusion problem (SMIV) and the set of a finite family of variational inequality problems. Under the suitable assumption, a strong convergence theorem has been proved in the framework of a real Hilbert space. In addition, by using our result, we obtain some additional results involving split convex minimization problems (SCMPs) and split feasibility problems (SFPs). Also, we give some numerical examples for supporting our main theorem.

What Conservatives Value: Reply to Blackburn

In reply to Dean Blackburn’s ‘In the Shadows’, it is argued that the situated nature of the conservative ideology entails that its adherents cannot have a substantive set of shared values, but that their values will typically be a cultural inheritance. The epistemological element of conservatism may not be the most electorally salient in any concrete context, but has strategic value as the common element of conservatism most likely to support a public reason defence.

Repeated patterns in the evolution of size in island plants

<p>For reasons not fully understood, animals often evolve predictably on islands. For example, radiations of large, flightless birds are a common element of many island biotas. However, our understanding of how plants evolve on islands is comparatively poor. Further, an investigation into the evolution of island plants could help resolve unanswered questions about island animals. This thesis investigates insular size changes in a range of plant functional traits. First (Chapter 2), I explored size changes in 9 species of vines that have colonized islands from the New Zealand and Australian mainland. I asked whether leaf–stem allometry prohibits leaves and stems from evolving independently from one another. Island populations consistently produced larger leaves than did mainland populations. Moreover, changes in leaf size were not associated with concomitant changes in stem size, suggesting that trait allometry does not govern trait evolution on islands. Next (Chapter 3), I asked whether plants obey the infamous island rule, a putative trend in island evolution wherein small animals become large on islands and large animals become small. I demonstrate that plant stature and leaf area obey the island rule, and seed size does not. My findings illustrate that the island rule is more pervasive than previously considered, but that support for its predictions vary among plant functional traits. Third (Chapter 4), I demonstrate that the island rule results from evolutionary drift along bounded trait domains. The island rule has long been hypothesized to result from a suite of selective pressures. Applying my model to island plants, I show that evolutionary drift is the most parsimonious explanation for the island rule pattern. Finally (Chapter 5), to explore insular patterns in leaf size evolution, I conducted a large-scale, macroevolutionary analysis of leaf size on 98 of New Zealand’s offshore islands. Leaf gigantism was emblematic of island populations, and was most prominent in taxa with variable leaf morphologies on the mainland. Further, leaf gigantism was greatest in populations inhabiting old, distant islands, suggesting that time since divergence is a direct predictor of morphological differentiation between mainland and island populations. Overall, this thesis reveals novel patterns, and helps disentangle the distinct roles of natural selection and drift, in the evolution of plant form and function on islands. Finally, this thesis illustrates how investigating the changes in plant traits can help identify the evolutionary mechanisms operating on islands.</p>

Repeated patterns in the evolution of size in island plants

<p>For reasons not fully understood, animals often evolve predictably on islands. For example, radiations of large, flightless birds are a common element of many island biotas. However, our understanding of how plants evolve on islands is comparatively poor. Further, an investigation into the evolution of island plants could help resolve unanswered questions about island animals. This thesis investigates insular size changes in a range of plant functional traits. First (Chapter 2), I explored size changes in 9 species of vines that have colonized islands from the New Zealand and Australian mainland. I asked whether leaf–stem allometry prohibits leaves and stems from evolving independently from one another. Island populations consistently produced larger leaves than did mainland populations. Moreover, changes in leaf size were not associated with concomitant changes in stem size, suggesting that trait allometry does not govern trait evolution on islands. Next (Chapter 3), I asked whether plants obey the infamous island rule, a putative trend in island evolution wherein small animals become large on islands and large animals become small. I demonstrate that plant stature and leaf area obey the island rule, and seed size does not. My findings illustrate that the island rule is more pervasive than previously considered, but that support for its predictions vary among plant functional traits. Third (Chapter 4), I demonstrate that the island rule results from evolutionary drift along bounded trait domains. The island rule has long been hypothesized to result from a suite of selective pressures. Applying my model to island plants, I show that evolutionary drift is the most parsimonious explanation for the island rule pattern. Finally (Chapter 5), to explore insular patterns in leaf size evolution, I conducted a large-scale, macroevolutionary analysis of leaf size on 98 of New Zealand’s offshore islands. Leaf gigantism was emblematic of island populations, and was most prominent in taxa with variable leaf morphologies on the mainland. Further, leaf gigantism was greatest in populations inhabiting old, distant islands, suggesting that time since divergence is a direct predictor of morphological differentiation between mainland and island populations. Overall, this thesis reveals novel patterns, and helps disentangle the distinct roles of natural selection and drift, in the evolution of plant form and function on islands. Finally, this thesis illustrates how investigating the changes in plant traits can help identify the evolutionary mechanisms operating on islands.</p>

Knowledge Diffusion and the Dynamics of Citation Accrual

<p>The diffusion of knowledge through society proceeds like an invisible ripple that moves between agents through multiple information channels. However, some types of knowledge are recorded, systematised and digitised for the benefit of everyone. Patents and academic articles are examples of such codified knowledge. These documents also contain a common element that is utilised for linking new and established knowledge: citations. This thesis harnesses citations in patents and scientific articles as proxies for signifying the existence of knowledge flows between cited and citing documents, focusing primarily on the dynamics of citation accumulation and the mechanisms governing these dynamics. For this purpose, it is helpful to think of patents and their citations as nodes and links, respectively, in a network where new nodes join the network and distribute their citations among existing nodes. This mode of thinking leads directly to the question: How does the citation network grow? This thesis addresses that question both empirically and theoretically. Two mechanisms that can explain much of the observed citation dynamics are preferential attachment and node ageing. The former mechanism reflects the tendency for successful nodes (by citation count) to become even more successful, while the latter captures the propensity for knowledge to become obsolete over time. The independence of these phenomena is nontrivial, but has generally been assumed. We put this assumption to the test for both patent and scientific-article citation networks and found it to be generally true if precautions are taken to account for important context surrounding the meaning of citations. Achieving a clear separation of these mechanisms is found to be very useful both mathematically and empirically, as they can now be studied independently. Patents are particularly sophisticated documents, with various components holding specific legal meanings. Associating certain properties of these components with popularity in the form of citation accrual creates a rare opportunity to build a framework that can identify ex-ante node fitnesses and examine their effect on the growth of a citation network. We find that a significant portion of the preferential-attachment process observed in the patent-citation network can be attributed to basic properties of patents determined by their time of grant. Besides suggesting novel approaches towards estimating patent quality, the results of our work also provide a platform for gaining a deeper understanding of the various mechanisms that underpin the success-breeds-success dynamics ubiquitously observed in complex systems.</p>