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Code to make spatio-temporal predictions of air pollutant levels and meteorological variables, based on data observed at monitoring and meteorological stations
No full textL'accés al manual i al programari no estarà disponible fins la fi de la data d'embargament. Si esteu interessats a accedir-hi, contacteu amb Unitat de Valorització Oficina d’Investigació i Transferència Tecnològica (OITT) - UdG: [email protected] objective with this code is to present a hierarchical Bayesian spatiotemporal model that allows us to make spatial and temporal predictions of the levels of air pollutants and meteorological variables, efficiently and with very little computational cost. We specify a hierarchical spatiotemporal model using stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) of the integrated Laplace approximation (INLA). Our model allows us to make quite accurate spatial and temporal predictions of short- and long-term exposure to air pollutants and meteorological variables with a relatively low density of monitoring stations and with a much lower computation time. The only requirements of our method are a minimum number of stations distributed throughout the territory where the predictions are to be made and that the spatial and temporal dimensions are independent or separableEl nostre objectiu amb aquest codi és el de presentar un model jeràrquic Bayesià espai-temporal que ens permet fer prediccions espacials i temporals dels nivells de contaminants atmosfèrics i de variables meteorològiques, de manera eficaç i amb molt pocs costos computacionals. Especifiquem un model espai-temporal jeràrquic utilitzant les equacions diferencials parcials estocàstiques (SPDE) de l'aproximació integrada de Laplace (INLA). El nostre model ens permet fer prediccions espacials i temporals bastant precises de l'exposició a curt i llarg termini a contaminants de l'aire i a variables meteorològiques amb una densitat relativament baixa d'estacions de monitorització i amb un temps de càlcul molt inferior. Els únics requisits del nostre mètode són un nombre mínim d'estacions distribuïdes per tot el territori on les prediccions s'han de fer i que les dimensions espacial i temporal siguin independents o separable
CO2 in indoor environments: From environmental and health risk to potential renewable carbon source
No full textIn the developed world, individuals spend most of their time indoors. Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has a wide range of effects on human health. The burden of disease associated with indoor air accounts for millions of premature deaths related to exposure to Indoor Air Pollutants (IAPs). Among them, CO2 is the most common one, and is commonly used as a metric of IAQ. Indoor CO2 concentrations can be significantly higher than outdoors due to human metabolism and activities. Even in presence of ventilation, controlling the CO2 concentration below the Indoor Air Guideline Values (IAGVs) is a challenge, and many indoor environments including schools, offices and transportation exceed the recommended value of 1000 ppmv. This is often accompanied by high concentration of other pollutants, including bio-effluents such as viruses, and the importance of mitigating the transmission of airborne diseases has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the relatively high CO2 concentration of indoor environments presents a thermodynamic advantage for direct air capture (DAC) in comparison to atmospheric CO2 concentration. This review aims to describe the issues associated with poor IAQ, and to demonstrate the potential of indoor CO2 DAC to purify indoor air while generating a renewable carbon stream that can replace conventional carbon sources as a building block for chemical production, contributing to the circular economyThis project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreements No 101018274 (L.R. López) and No 101029266 (P. Dessì). A. Cabrera-Codony acknowledges Programa Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación (IJC2020-045964-I) and funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-112615RA-100). S. Puig is a Serra Húnter Fellow (UdG-AG-575)
Boosting ethanol production rates from carbon dioxide in MES cells under optimal solventogenic conditions
No full textMicrobial Electrosynthesis (MES) has been widely applied for acetic acid (HA) production from CO2 and electricity. Ethanol (EtOH) has a higher market value than HA, and wide application in industry and as a biofuel. However, it has only been obtained sporadically and at low concentrations, probably due to sub-optimal operating conditions. This study aimed at enhancing EtOH productivity in MES cells by jointly optimising key operation parameters, including pH, H2 and CO2 partial pressure (pH2 and pCO2), and HA concentration, to promote solventogenesis. Two H-type cells were operated in fed-batch mode at −0.8 V vs. SHE with CO2 as the sole carbon source. A mixed culture, enriched with Clostridium ljungdahlii was used as the biocatalyst. The combination of low pH (3 atm), were mandatory conditions for maintaining an efficient solventogenic culture, dominated by Clostridium sp., capable of high-rate EtOH production. The maximum EtOH production rate was 10.95 g m−2 d−1, and a concentration of 5.28 g L−1 was achieved. Up to 30 % of the electrons and 15.2 % of the carbon provided were directed towards EtOH production, and 28.1 kWh were required for the synthesis of 1 kg of EtOH from CO2. These results highlight that strict conditions are required for a continuous, reliable, EtOH production in MES cells. Future investigation should focus on improving cell configuration to achieve EtOH production at higher current densities while minimizing the electric energy inputThe authors acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PLEC2021-007802). M.R-C is grateful for the support of Spanish Government (FPU20/01362). P.D. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101029266. S·P is a Serra Hunter Fellow (UdG-AG-575) and acknowledges the funding from the ICREA Academia awar
Photoinduced Selective B-H Activation of nido-Carboranes
No full textThe development of new synthetic methods for B-H bond activation has been an important research area in boron cluster chemistry, which may provide opportunities to broaden the application scopes of boron clusters. Herein, we present a new reaction strategy for the direct site-selective B-H functionalization of nido-carboranes initiated by photoin-duced cage activation via a non-covalent cageπ interaction. As a result, the nido-carborane cage radical is generated through a single electron transfer from the 3D nido-carborane cage to the 2D photocatalyst upon irradiation of green light. The resulting transient nido-carborane cage radical could be directly probed by an advanced time-resolved EPR technique. In air, the subsequent transformations of the active nido-carborane cage radical have led to efficient and selective B-N, B-S, and B-Se couplings in the presence of N-heterocycles, imines, thioethers, thioamides, and selenium ethers. This protocol also facilitates both the late-stage modification of drugs and the synthesis of nido-carborane-based drug candidates for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT
Wielding the Cross: Crusade References in Cerverí de Girona and Thirteenth-Century Catalan Historiography
No full textIn 1213, fresh from victory at Las Navas de Tolosa, King Peter the Catholic of Aragon died at Muret, in a turning point of the Albigensian crusade, while siding with his Occitan vassals against the crusaders. His death left his young son, the future James I, in Simon de Montfort's custody, until Pope Innocent III claimed him and entrusted him to the Templar knights. This was a difficult period for the kingdom and the young monarch, as he recalls in his Llibre dels fets (Book of Deeds), but James, known today as the Conqueror, went on to acquire fame as a warrior and crusader. He was involved in several projected expeditions to the Holy Land in the 1260–70s, yet his successful campaigns, which allowed him to enlarge his possessions with Mallorca and Valencia, were all against peninsular Muslims. It was in the early stages of a crusade in Tunis that, after the Vespers uprising in 1282, James's son King Peter the Great, married to Constance of Hohenstaufen, made a detour in order to successfully claim the Sicilian throne from Charles of Anjou. Last but not least, in 1285, briefly before Peter's death, the king of France unsuccessfully tried to invade the Crown of Aragon with papal approval as a direct consequence of the Aragonese intervention in Sicily.
These pivotal moments in the history of the thirteenth-century Crown of Aragon, all associated with crusading campaigns, did not receive equal coverage in Catalan vernacular historiography, each version often revealing substantial differences, even disparities, depending on the nature of the outcome from a Catalan viewpoint, but also on the chronological distance from the incidents recalled and the motivations behind each report. Composed mainly in the last decades of the century, the earliest chronicles in Catalan are contemporary to the rise of vernacular historiography in neighbouring traditions, such as Alfonso of Castile's historical summae or the translation of the Grandes chroniques de France commissioned by King Louis IX, all undertaken c. 1270. In the Crown of Aragon, monks at Ripoll had been compiling the Gesta comitum Barchinone et regum Aragonie since the late twelfth century, based on which a Catalan version recounting rather swiftly some of the main events up to c. 1268 was drafte
Troubadour Selves under Debate
No full textAmong the principles guiding the current editions of troubadour poetry, both the perceived centrality of the author and the complex relationship between the historical and the rhetorical selves stand out as prominent approaches. The existence and relevance of the historical self – the real biographical details of the author – remain an acknowledged starting point, bolstered by the trends of medieval readings of troubadours, notably chansonnier (song-manuscript) compilers’ preference for attributed poems and their tendency to order materials around the author as a central building block. Just as medieval biographers did in their vidas (the brief prose accounts of a troubadour's life that introduce his corpus in some chansonniers), we still consider it necessary to reconstruct the troubadour's biography, sometimes resorting to clues within the poetic compositions. However, nowadays information from vidas is (not unreasonably) filtered to reject everything that is not considered historical. The result is a more reliable historical portrait, but an important aspect is lost: the persona used by troubadours to voice and perform each composition, which through iteration and accumulation of details becomes their identifying, distinctive persona. This rhetorical self is not usually defined and reconstructed by modern critics. Medieval vidas, in contrast, though they might not have fully distinguished historical and rhetorical selves, leaned more heavily towards the latter, and with good reason, since their goal seems to be a biography of the rhetorical self.
While modern editions of the complete works of a particular troubadour show the effort that has gone into gathering biographical details, there is a clear bias towards characterising the whole corpus in ‘objective’ formal terms, such as metrical or stylistic. Moreover, partly because information is so scarce, biographical data is generally linked to the poetic corpus only at very specific points, mostly the interpretation of topical poems or the reconstruction of itineraries and chronological sequences. Accordingly, there is little place for a reconstruction of the rhetorical self, even though this self, built out of elements springing from the entire poetic corpus, might very well be essential to convey the meaning of single poem
Lignin nanoparticles as Pickering stabilizers: emulsion engineering through physicochemical design and meta-analysis
No full textThis review systematically examines the principal physicochemical parameters that govern the formation, stability, and properties of Pickering emulsions stabilized by lignin nanoparticles (LNPs). We consider the role of particle size, charge and concentration, oil volume fraction, as well as emulsification variables (pH and shearing method). We demonstrate the broad applicability of fundamental physical chemistry principles in explaining the long-term stability of LNP-stabilized Pickering emulsions. LNPs with diameters of 25–50 nm, at concentrations between 0.2 and 2 wt%, generally yield emulsions stable for over six months. This suggests that rapid interfacial coverage by smaller particles, facilitated by high-energy emulsification, is critical for preventing initial coalescence. Such emulsions are generally more stable at acidic to neutral pH (pH 3–7). In addition, more negative LNP zeta potentials (up to −64 mV) correlate with enhanced colloidal stability due to the electrostatic repulsion between oil droplets. Furthermore, LNP modification such as acetylation and polymer grafting can significantly enhance emulsion stability by balancing surface wettability (hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity) and interfacial activity. A meta-analysis and support vector regressor with Bayesian optimization and eXplainable artificial intelligence (AI) analysis confirmed high-energy emulsification (ultrasonication, high-shear mixing), pH, and packing parameter (LNPsize/LNPconc ratio) as the main features that can influence the formulation of emulsions and lead to smaller droplets and larger lifetimes. Finally, we propose heuristics to tailor LNP-stabilized Pickering emulsions that require stability and functionality, including those used in agriculture and crop protection, food, nutraceuticals, stimuli-responsive and energy systems, as well as coatings.Authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to the project NextPack (PID2021- 124766OA-I00). Marc Delgado-Aguilar and Quim Tarrés are Serra Húnter Fellows. B.L.T. acknowledges funding from Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST) FSU-2022-021 project code: 8474000438. O.J.R. acknowledges the Canada Excellence Research Chair Program (Grant No. CERC-2018-00006) and the BC Ministry of Forests. M.A.H. acknowledges the Buckman FoundationOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Elsevier
The influence of post-curing methods on mechanical properties of photosensitive resins using vat photopolymerization for stents
No full textPolymeric stents represent a promising alternative to metal-based drug-eluting stents, offering advantages in biocompatibility, reduced vessel trauma, and potential device customization through additive manufacturing technologies. While much research has focused on bioresorbable stents, polymeric permanent stents may offer a safer and more stable long-term solution. However, polymers have inherent limitations compared to metals, including lower mechanical strength and lack of radiopacity. Vat photopolymerization is a promising candidate to manufacture next generation of vascular stents due to its precision and tuneable raw materials. To consolidate the polymeric network of photosensitive materials and to improve mechanical and biological performance of the printed parts, the step of post-curing is essential. In this work, four photosensitive resins were processed by vat photopolymerization and subjected to four post-curing methods (UV, Heat, UV + Heat, and Microwave). Eighty specimens per test type were evaluated through uniaxial tensile and three-point bending tests according to standardized protocols. Specimens were fabricated using vat photopolymerization and tested according to standardized protocols Key properties were evaluated including Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural modulus, and flexural strength. The results demonstrated that resin D80 exhibited the highest stiffness, specially when post-cured with UV and temperature (E, 6.4 ± 1.6 GPa), while D60 showed the greatest ductility (εb, 8.69 ± 2.3 %) with the same conditions. Post-curing methods had a significant influence on mechanical performance: the UV Light + Heat method notably improved tensile strength in D60 and D70 (330–350 %), whereas Microwave curing had a more pronounced effect on flexural properties on D80 (140 %). These findings contribute to the optimization of polymer selection and processing for biomedical devices manufacturing and provide validated data for future computational modellingThis work was financially supported by the Catalan Government through the funding grant ACCIÓ-Eurecat (Project TRAÇA2024-DESTOFU).
Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Elsevie
The composition of gases from a diffusion flame above longleaf pine needle fuel beds
No full textThe gas and tar composition of a wildland fire diffusion flame from longleaf pine needles is currently relatively unmeasured and more data are needed to fill in the gap between pyrolysis data and smoke plume data, thus improving physical and chemical modeling of wildland smoke formation. A pilot experiment to measure light gas and tar composition of such a flame is described for three flame zones: persistent flame (flame base), intermittent flame, and smoke plume. Flame gases from 24 experimental fires were collected in canisters and analyzed for CO2, CO, H2, CH4, and C2 to C7 hydrocarbon gases. Other light gases were measured using FTIR spectroscopy. Condensed gas (tar) samples were collected and analyzed using GC/MS. Results from compositional data analysis suggest significant differences in (relative) concentration of compounds detected in the three zones. Statistical tests for differences in flame zones were performed using canister data. Concentration of hydrocarbons relative to CO and CO2 decreased from the persistent flame zone through the intermittent flame zone into the flame-free plume. This was likely due to oxidation reactions in the flame as well as entrainment of air into the flame/plume. Partial agreement between persistent flame zone composition and pyrolysis data for a global kinetic model provided support for future use of the kinetics model in physically-based fire models. The identification of gases and tars in different flame zones supported a conceptual model of a wildland flameThis work was supported by the DOD/DOE/EPA Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program project RC-2640. JPA was supported by the project PID2021-123833OB-I00, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by ERDF A way of making Europ
Ultrasound Assessment of Diaphragmatic Function in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Cross-Sectional Observational Case-Control Study
No full textBackground and Aims: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are vulnerable to respiratory infections and chronic airway inflammation, which leads to diminished respiratory function. This decline is exacerbated by muscle tone abnormalities and reduced strength, worsening as CP progresses. Traditional lung function tests are often impractical for those with severe cognitive and motor impairments. Diaphragm evaluation through ultrasound imaging emerges as a non-invasive, easy-to-apply technique for assessing respiratory function in CP children. This study aimed to evaluate diaphragm function in CP and typically developing (TD) children using ultrasound, focusing on diaphragm thickness and excursion parameters. The study also explored factors influencing respiratory function, particularly the number of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI). Methods: The study included 10 CP (11.2; range 4–17 years) and 12 TD children (8.9 years; range 4–13 years). M-mode ultrasound assessed diaphragm thickness, thickening fraction (TF), and inspiratory slope (IS). Additionally, data on demographics, anthropometrics, medical history, and physical examination were collected. Results: The intra-operator reliability for diaphragm ultrasound measurements showed good to excellent consistency (over 0.86). Significant differences were found between CP and TD children; CP children exhibited lower excursion and IS, with a non-significant trend towards reduced diaphragm thickness. LTRI were associated to decreased excursion and IS, and increased TF in CP children. Conclusions: Diaphragmatic ultrasound is a non-invasive, reproducible tool for assessing respiratory function in both CP and TD children, even in cases of severe cognitive and motor impairment. It effectively identifies diaphragm dysfunction associated with LRT