33 research outputs found
Physico-chemical treatment of water contaminated with the high explosives RDX and HMX using activated carbon adsorption and alkine hydrolysis
No full textPhysico-chemical treatment of water contaminated with the high explosives RDX and HMX using activated carbon adsorption and alkaline hydrolysis
No full textCorrection to: Isoform-specific patterns of tau burden and neuronal degeneration in MAPT-associated frontotemporal lobar degeneration (Acta Neuropathologica, (2022), 144, 6, (1065-1084), 10.1007/s00401-022-02487-4)
No full textThe article Isoform‑specific patterns of tau burden and neuronal degeneration in MAPT‑associated frontotemporal lobar degeneration, written by Lucia A. A. Giannini, Daniel T. Ohm, Annemieke J. M. Rozemuller, Laynie Dratch, Eun‑ Ran Suh, Vivianna M. van Deerlin, John Q. Trojanowski, Edward B. Lee, John C. van Swieten, Murray Grossman, Harro Seelaar, David J. Irwin, Netherlands Brain Bank, was originally published Online First without Open Access. After publication in volume 144, issue 6, page 1065–1084 the author decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an Open Access publication
KINETICS OF THE AQUEOUS ALKALINE HOMOGENOUS HYDROLYSIS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVE 1, 3,5,7-TETRAAZA- 1, 3,5,7-TETRANITROCYCLOOCTANE (HMX)
No full textIn order to get basic data for the design of a novel treatment scheme for high explosives we investigated the kinetics for the aqueous alkaline hydrolysis of 1,3,5,7-tetraaza-1,3,5,7-tetranitrocyclooctane (HMX) and the temperature dependence of the rate constants. We used an HPLC procedure for the analysis of HMX. All experimental data could be fit accurately to a pseudo first-order rate equation and subsequent calculation of second-order rate constants was also precise. Temperature dependence could be modeled with the Arrhenius equation. An increase of 10°C led to an average increase in the second-order rate constants by the 3.16 fold. The activation energy of the second-order reaction was determined to be 111.9 ±0.76 kJ·moJ‒1. We found the alkaline hydrolysis to be rapid (less than 2.5% of the initial HMX-concentration left after 100 minutes) at base concentrations of 23 mmol oH‒/L and elevated temperatures between 60 and 80°C.</jats:p
An investigation of carbon footprint reductions achievable in Cape Town social housing considering rebound effects
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Various life cycle studies have shown that solar water heaters (SWHs) have short greenhouse gas emission payback periods. Thus, it is believed that replacing electric geysers with SWHs will reduce a household’s carbon footprint. It is also believed that living in a well-located area close to jobs, schools, shops and public transport will reduce a household’s carbon footprint through reducing fuel consumption via private/public transport. These conclusions, however, do not take the rebound effect into account, where money saved from spending less on electricity or transport, is spent eventually, either on more electricity and transport, or on other goods and services with an associated carbon footprint
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Chemical and biological systems for regenerating activated carbon contaminated with high explosives
No full textActivated carbon has been used as a substrate for efficiently removing high explosives (HEs) from aqueous and gaseous waste streams. Carbon that is saturated with HEs, however, constitutes a solid waste and is currently being stored because appropriate technologies for its treatment are not available. Because conventional treatment strategies (i.e., incineration, open burning) are not safe or will not be in compliance with future regulations, new and cost-effective methods are required for the elimination of this solid waste. Furthermore, because the purchase of activated carbon and its disposal after loading with HEs will be expensive, an ideal treatment method would result in the regeneration of the carbon thereby permitting its reuse. Coupling chemical and biological treatment systems, such as those described below, will effectively meet these technical requirements. The successful completion of this project will result in the creation of engineered commercial systems that will present safe and efficient methods for reducing the quantities of HE-laden activated carbon wastes that are currently in storage or are generated as a result of demilitarization activities. Biological treatment of hazardous wastes is desirable because the biodegradation process ultimately leads to the mineralization (e.g., conversion to carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas, and water) of parent compounds and has favorable public acceptance. These methods will also be cost- effective because they will not require large expenditures of energy and will permit the reuse of the activated carbon. Accordingly, this technology will have broad applications in the private sector and will be a prime candidate for technology transfer
EIF2AK3 variants in Dutch patients with Alzheimer's disease
No full textNext-generation sequencing has contributed to our understanding of the genetics of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has explained a substantial part of the missing heritability of familial AD. We sequenced 19 exomes from 8 Dutch families with a high AD burden and identified EIF2AK3, encoding for protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), as a candidate gene. Gene-based burden analysis in a Dutch AD exome cohort containing 547 cases and 1070 controls showed a significant association of EIF2AK3 with AD (OR 1.84 [95% CI 1.07–3.17], p-value 0.03), mainly driven by the variant p.R240H. Genotyping of this variant in an additional cohort from the Rotterdam Study showed a trend toward association with AD (p-value 0.1). Immunohistochemical staining with pPERK and peIF2α of 3 EIF2AK3 AD carriers showed an increase in hippocampal neuronal cells expressing these proteins compared with nondemented controls, but no difference was observed in AD noncarriers. This study suggests that rare variants in EIF2AK3 may be associated with disease risk in AD.Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatic
Physical fitness in preschool children : correlates and intervention effects
No full textSummary: Children’s physical fitness has decreased over the last decades. At the same time, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has increased dramatically. For public health, these trends are alarming because overweight and a decrease in aerobic fitness are already in children associated with increased cardiovascular risks. In addition, the interaction between poor fitness, low physical activity and high BMI leads to a vicious circle. Preschool time corresponds to the time of the adiposity re-bound, a critical period for the development of overweight and obesity. Therefore, the preschool set-ting seems to be particularly relevant in the establishment of a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight.
This research is based on the Ballabeina Study, a multidimensional lifestyle intervention aimed at in-creasing aerobic fitness and reducing BMI in preschool children. The cluster-randomized trial was conducted in German and French speaking regions of Switzerland with a high migrant population. The intervention targeted four lifestyle behaviors during one school year: an increase in physical activity, a balanced nutrition, sufficient sleep and a reduction in media use. For this thesis, cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of physical fitness (aerobic fitness, agility, static balance and dynamic balance), body composition (BMI, BMI-group and body fat) and cognition (attention and spatial working memory) were assessed and analyzed. In addition, the effects of the intervention on physical fitness in pre-school children were evaluated. The thesis first describes the study design. The following publications focus on the physical fitness of preschoolers, on correlates and intervention effects.
The cross-sectional results showed that already in preschoolers, normal weight children performed significantly better in different dynamic fitness tests assessing aerobic fitness, agility and dynamic balance compared to their overweight counterparts. The differences in aerobic fitness and agility were more pronounced in older preschoolers compared to the younger ones. In the longitudinal analysis, the relationship between aerobic fitness, agility and balance with memory and attention was investi-gated. Higher baseline physical fitness was related to a better spatial working memory and attention at baseline, and to some extent also to their future improvements over the following 9 months. Contrary to this finding, higher baseline memory and attention levels were not associated with improvements in aerobic fitness or motor skills over the following 9 months. The dominant direction regarding the longi-tudinal association between measures was the relationship of physical fitness with future cognitive performance. The study also showed that the Ballabeina intervention was successful in increasing aerobic fitness and agility but not balance in the general population. Subgroup analysis revealed that overweight and low fit children benefitted at least equally from the intervention compared to their nor-mal weight and normal fit peers.
This research has shown that physical fitness can be increased in children over one school year with a multilevel and multidimensional lifestyle intervention. Although coordination was not improved as a result of the intervention, the findings of this study are of great value, because aerobic fitness is the
Physical fitness in preschool children: correlates and intervention effects
physical fitness component that is most strongly associated with health related outcomes. This re-search was also able to show, that differences in physical fitness between normal weight and over-weight children are more pronounced in older compared to younger preschoolers. It seems that the vicious circle of overweight and low physical fitness begins to manifest itself at this age. Therefore it is important to start with interventions already in preschoolers and to support children with low physical fitness starting at a young age. This might help to reduce the ongoing epidemiological trend of over-weight and low fitness in children and the development of cardiovascular risk factors in the coming years. It is encouraging that overweight and low fit children can benefit equally from the intervention compared to their normal weight and normal fit peers. With respect to the cognitive abilities, our data was able to contribute to the emerging field of brain fitness and highlights the importance of promoting physical education in school. In conclusion, Ballabeina offers an effective school-based intervention program to increase fitness and reduce adiposity in both, the general population as well as the risk roups of overweight and/or low fit children. ---------- Zusammenfassung: In den letzten Jahrzehnten konnte ein Rückgang der körperlichen Leistungsfähigkeit bei Kindern beo-bachtet werden. In der gleichen Zeit stieg die Prävalenz von Übergewicht und Adipositas an. Für die öffentliche Gesundheit sind diese Trends beunruhigend, weil eine tiefe Fitness und Adipositas bereits im Kindesalter mit erhöhten kardiovaskulären Risiken im Zusammenhang stehen. Dazu kommt, dass eine schlechte Fitness, eine tiefe körperliche Aktivität und Übergewicht sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und zu einem Teufelskreis führen können. Das Kindergartenalter ist eine kritische Zeit für die Entwick-lung von kindlichem Übergewicht, deshalb scheint der Kindergarten in der Vermittlung eines gesunden Lebensstils von besonderer Bedeutung zu sein.
Diese Forschungsarbeit basiert auf der Ballabeina Studie, einer Lebensstilintervention zur Steigerung der aeroben Fitness und zur Reduktion des BMI bei Kindergartenkindern. Die «cluster»-randomisierte Studie wurde in der deutsch- und der französischsprachigen Region der Schweiz durchgeführt. Die städtischen Settings waren geprägt durch einen hohen Anteil an Kindern mit einem Migrationshin-tergrund. Die einjährige Intervention zielte ab auf der Vermittlung von vier Lebensstilverhalten: mehr körperliche Aktivität, ausgewogenere Ernährung, weniger Medienkonsum und ein gesundes Schlaf-verhalten. Für die vorliegende Arbeit wurden Querschnitts- und Longitudinaldaten zur körperlichen Fitness (aerobe Fitness, Agilität, statisches und dynamisches Gleichgewicht), zur Körperzusammen-setzung (BMI, Gewichtsstatus und Anteil Körperfett) und zur Kognition (Aufmerksamkeit und visuelles Arbeitsgedächtnis) erfasst und ausgewertet. Zusätzlich wurde der Interventionseffekt auf die körperli-che Fitness der Kinder evaluiert. Die erste Publikation beschreibt das Studiendesign. Die darauf fol-genden Arbeiten konzentrieren sich auf die körperliche Fitness von Kindergartenkindern, auf Korrelati-onen und Interventionseffekte.
Die Resultate der Querschnittanalyse zeigten, dass normalgewichtige Kinder in verschiedenen dyna-mischen Fitnessparametern bereits im Kindergarten signifikant bessere Leistungen zeigen als über-gewichtige Kinder. Bei den älteren Kindergartenkindern waren die Unterschiede in der aeroben Fit-ness und im Hindernislauf (Agilität) grösser als bei den jüngeren. In den Längsschnittanalysen wurden die Zusammenhänge zwischen aerober Fitness, Agilität und Gleichgewicht untersucht. Bessere kör-perliche Fitness zu Beginn der Studie stand im Zusammenhang mit einem besseren visuellen Arbeits-gedächtnis und mit einer gesteigerten Aufmerksamkeit ebenfalls zu Beginn der Studie aber zum Teil auch mit einer besseren kognitiven Leistung neun Monate später. Dagegen standen die Gedächtnis- und Aufmerksamkeitsleistung zu Beginn der Studie nicht im Zusammenhang mit der späteren körper-lichen Fitness. Das bedeutet, dass der positive Zusammenhang zwischen der körperlichen Fitness und der späteren kognitiven Leistung die dominante Richtung dieser Verbindung ist. Die Analyse der Interventionsstudie zeigte positive Effekte in der Erhöhung der aeroben Leistungsfähigkeit und der Agilität, aber keine Verbesserung des Gleichgewichts. In der Analyse der Untergruppen konnte ge-
Physical fitness in preschool children: correlates and intervention effects
zeigt werden, dass übergewichtige Kinder und Kinder mit einer tiefen Fitness mindestens gleich stark von der Intervention profitierten, wie ihre normalgewichtigen und fitten Altersgenossen.
Diese Arbeit zeigt, dass die körperliche Fitness bei Kindern mit einem intensiven und vielseitigen ein-jährigen Programm signifikant gesteigert werden kann. Obwohl in der Koordination keine Interventi-onseffekte erzielt werden konnten, sind diese Resultate bedeutend, weil die aerobe Fitness für die Gesundheit die wichtigste Fitnesskomponente darstellt. Die Unterschiede in der Fitness zwischen den Normalgewichtigen und den Übergewichtigen waren bei den älteren Kindern verglichen mit den jünge-ren grösser. Übergewicht und reduzierte Fitness scheinen sich also bereits im Kindergartenalter in einem Teufelskreis zu manifestieren. Deshalb ist es wichtig bereits im Kingergarten mit Interventionen zu starten und Kindern mit einer tiefen Fitness möglichst früh Unterstützung zu bieten. Es ist erfreu-lich, dass gezeigt werden konnte, dass von der Lebensstilintervention auch übergewichtige Kinder und Kinder mit einer tiefen Fitness profitieren können. Die Daten in Bezug auf die kognitiven Fähigkeiten tragen zum noch wenig untersuchten Feld der «brain fitness» bei und unterstreichen den Nutzen der Bewegungsförderung im Kindesalter. Zusammengefasst bietet Ballabeina eine effektive Schulinter-vention zur Steigerung der körperlichen Fitness und zur Reduktion von Adipositas. Die Intervention war erfolgreich in der allgemeinen Bevölkerung, erreichte aber auch übergewichtige Kinder oder Kin-der mit einer tiefen Fitness, die zur kardiovaskulären Risikogruppe gehören
