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Search results for: enhanced pretreatment
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Removal of cyclohexane vapors from air in biotrickling filters: Effects of gas mixture composition and circular economy approach
PublicationThis work presents results of investigations on biotrickling filtration of air polluted with cyclohexane co-treated in binary, ternary and quaternary volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mixtures, including vapors of hexane, toluene and ethanol. The removal of cyclohexane from a gas mixture depends on the physicochemical properties of the co-treated VOCs and the lower the hydrophobicity of the VOC, the higher the removal efficiency...
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Shear fracture of longitudinally reinforced concrete beams under bending using Digital Image Correlation and FE simulations with concrete micro-structure based on X-ray micro-computed tomography images
PublicationThe paper presents experimental and numerical investigations of the shear fracture in rectangular concrete beams longitudinally reinforced with steel or basalt bar under quasi-static three point bending. Shear fracture process zone formation and development on the surface of beams was investigated by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) whereas thorough analyses of 3D material micro-structure, air voids, width and curvature of shear...
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The Impact of Hybrid Flame Retardant Compositions on the Performance of Foamed Flexible Polyurethane/Ground Tire Rubber Composites
PublicationCurrent sustainability-oriented trends affect polyurethane (PU) materials and stimulate the incorporation of recycled or waste-based materials as fillers. Ground tire rubber (GTR) poses as an auspicious candidate due to the excellent performance of car tires. Despite the benefits related to the mechanical performance, it contributes to the increasing flammability of the resulting composites. Herein, presented work assessed the...
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Bioactive and biodegradable cotton fabrics produced via synergic effect of plant extracts and essential oils in chitosan coating system
PublicationFunctional antibacterial textile materials are in great demand in the medical sector. In this paper, we propose a facile, eco-friendly approach to the design of antibacterial biodegradable cotton fabrics. Cotton fiber fabrics were enhanced with a chitosan coating loaded with plant extracts and essential oils. We employed Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–Vis spectrophotometry, optical...
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Mechanochemically synthesized Mn3O4@β-cyclodextrin mediates efficient electron transfer process for peroxymonosulfate activation
PublicationThe rational surface engineering of heterogeneous catalysts is of great significance in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for eliminating refractory contaminants but remains challenging. In this study, β-cyclodextrin modified Mn3O4 (Mn3O4@β-CD) was prepared through a mechanochemical approach for peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation, which achieved efficient bisphenol A (BPA) removal via electron transfer process (ETP). The reactive...
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Neural Network-Based Sequential Global Sensitivity Analysis Algorithm
PublicationPerforming global sensitivity analysis (GSA) can be challenging due to the combined effect of the high computational cost, but it is also essential for engineering decision making. To reduce this cost, surrogate modeling such as neural networks (NNs) are used to replace the expensive simulation model in the GSA process, which introduces the additional challenge of finding the minimum number of training data samples required to...
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Genetic and pharmacologic proteasome augmentation ameliorates Alzheimer’s-like pathology in mouse and fly APP overexpression models
PublicationThe proteasome has key roles in neuronal proteostasis, including the removal of misfolded and oxidized proteins, presynaptic protein turnover, and synaptic efficacy and plasticity. Proteasome dysfunction is a prominent feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We show that prevention of proteasome dysfunction by genetic manipulation delays mortality, cell death, and cognitive deficits in fly and cell culture AD models. We developed...
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The contactless method of chip-to-chip high-speed data transmission monitoring
PublicationThis paper presents a technique of decoupling differential signals transmitted in a pair of microstrip lines on a printed circuit board (PCB), using dedicated coupler for high speed data transmission monitoring in chip-to-chip interconnections. The coupler used for signal probing is overlayed on the pair of microstrip lines under test, and provides a signal to the next blocks of the measurement system without disturbing transmission...
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Discouraging Traffic Remapping Attacks in Local Ad Hoc Networks
PublicationQuality of Service (QoS) is usually provided in ad hoc networks using a class-based approach which, without dedicated security measures in place, paves the way to various abuses by selfish stations. Such actions include traffic remapping attacks (TRAs), which consist in claiming a higher traffic priority, i.e., false designation of the intrinsic traffic class so that it can be mapped onto a higher-priority class. In practice, TRAs...
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Integration of protein tethering in a rapid and label-free SERS screening platform for drugs of abuse
PublicationSurface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has emerged as a promising technique for the rapid and ultrasensitive detection of molecular species such as drugs of abuse in biofluids. Yet, it remains a significant challenge to create a viable screening tool for multiple drug classes, owing to the lack of affinity of certain species for the SERS substrate and to the matrix interference in complex media. Here we report a protein tethering...
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Gas selectivity enhancement by sampling-and-hold method in resistive gas sensors
PublicationCommercial resistive gas sensors exhibit various sensitivity to numerous gases when working at different elevated temperatures. That effect is due to a change in velocity of adsorption and desorption processes which can be modulated by temperature. Thus, to reach better selectivity of gas detection, we propose to apply a known method (called the sampling-and-hold method) of cooling down the gas sensor in the presence of the investigated...
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Numerical analyses of novel prefabricated structural wall panels in residential buildings based on laboratory tests in scale 1:1
PublicationThe paper presents experimental and numerical investigations on novel prefabricated composite building wall panels for residential building constructions. The wall panels were composed of reinforced concrete ribbed elements with the core from the EPS foam as the thermal insulation. The wall panels in the full-scale 1:1 were subjected to vertical loads. In the first step, the experiments were analysed with simple usual static methods....
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Współpracować i konkurować w szkolnictwie wyższym – czy to ma sens? Analiza wybranych związków statystycznych
PublicationCel: Celem głównym artykułu jest wykazanie, że współpraca i pozycja konkurencyjna uczelni są ze sobą powiązane. Celem szczegółowym jest wykazanie, że sukces, jakim jest uzyskanie finansowania projektu badawczego jest powiązany z poziomem współpracy międzynarodowej konkurujących uczelni, a także z relacją liczby studentów do liczby nauczycieli akademickich. Materiał i metoda: W artykule przyjęto metodę ilościową, której elementem...
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Theological Intersections: Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’ in Modern Church Discourse
PublicationThis article critically examines the Catholic–Anglican theological dialogue, centering on John Henry Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’, Catholic synodality, and Anglican comprehensiveness. It illuminates the interconnectedness of these elements, revealing their potential to enhance ecumenical conversations. Newman’s concept of communal faith and divine primacy resonates across both traditions, advocating a transformative,...
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Understanding the Relation between HR Practices and Pull Approach to Knowledge Sharing: Case Study
PublicationThe aim of this study is to identify the relationship between human resource (HR) practices, knowledge seeking and knowledge giving by applying the lenses of the motivation-opportunities-abilities framework in the context of the multinational enterprise subsidiary located in Central Europe. The article presents the research results using qualitative methodology, mainly based on semi-structured interviews among employees of a...
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Knowledge-based functional safety and security management in hazardous industrial plants with emphasis on human factors
PublicationExisting and emerging new hazards have significant potential to impact destructively operation of technical systems, hazardous plants, and systems / networks of critical infrastructure. The programmable control and protection systems play nowadays an important role in reducing and controlling risk in the process of hazardous plant operation. It is outlined how to deal with security related hazards concerning such systems to be...
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Earthquake-induced pounding between superstructure segments of isolated bridge
PublicationThe use of seismic isolation in bridges is considered as one of the most promising advanced technologies to enhance the structural safety during earthquakes. However, the method results in larger displacements of superstructure segments increasing the probability of pounding between them. Reports after severe ground motions show that the earthquake-induced structural pounding may lead to significant damage in isolated bridges....
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Face Profile View Retrieval Using Time of Flight Camera Image Analysis
PublicationMethod for profile view retrieving of the human face is presented. The depth data from the 3D camera is taken as an input. The preprocessing is, besides of standard filtration, extended by the process of filling of the holes which are present in depth data. The keypoints, defined as the nose tip and the chin are detected in user’s face and tracked. The Kalman filtering is applied to smooth the coordinates of those points which...
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MSIS sonar image segmentation method based on underwater viewshed analysis and high-density seabed model
PublicationHigh resolution images of Mechanically Scanned Imaging Sonars can bring detailed representation of underwater area if favorable conditions for acoustic signal to propagate are provided. However to properly asses underwater situation based solely on such data can be challenging for less than proficient interpreter. In this paper we propose a method to enhance interpretative potential of MSIS image by dividing it in to subareas depending...
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Photocatalytic Decomposition of Air Pollutants using Electrodeposited Photocatalysts on Stainless Steel
PublicationThe aim of research was to develop an immobilization method for photocatalysts, which is an alternative to the sol-gel or dip coating methods and can be simply scaled up for technical applications. The investigated photocatalyst was TiO2, which was electrochemically deposited onto a cathode made of stainless steel. This deposited film was photocatalytically active. In order to enhance the photoactivity of the TiO2 film, commercially...
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MACHINE LEARNING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED BLOOD SMEAR ANALYSIS
PublicationIn this paper the authors propose a decision support system for automatic blood smear analysis based on microscopic images. The images are pre-processed in order to remove irrelevant elements and to enhance the most important ones - the healthy blood cells (erythrocytes) and the pathologic (echinocytes). The separated blood cells are analyzed in terms of their most important features by the eigenfaces method. The features are the...
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Network-assisted processing of advanced IoT applications: challenges and proof-of-concept application
PublicationRecent advances in the area of the Internet of Things shows that devices are usually resource-constrained. To enable advanced applications on these devices, it is necessary to enhance their performance by leveraging external computing resources available in the network. This work presents a study of computational platforms to increase the performance of these devices based on the Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) paradigm. The main...
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Energy efficient beam control for 5G antennas
PublicationThe rapid development of 5G and beyond systems demands improvement in communication speed, latency and safety to maintain the required quality of service. This paper presents an overview of different concepts of energy-efficient antenna systems, which offer beam-shaping and beam-steering functionalities, that enhance connectivity performance and can be used in 5G applications. Different designs for 5.9 GHz, 39 GHz and 60 GHz frequency...
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Study on Strategy in University Laboratory Class Teaching
PublicationLaboratory teaching is a critical way to ensure the effective input of techniques in engineering learning. Laboratory teaching not only contributes to improving course quality but also helps enrich comprehensive engineering application ability. However, there are some typical problems in current university laboratory teaching, such as rigid and isolated course design, outdated contents and materials, and not encouraging innovation...
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LSA Is not Dead: Improving Results of Domain-Specific Information Retrieval System Using Stack Overflow Questions Tags
PublicationThe paper presents the approach to using tags from Stack Overflow questions as a data source in the process of building domain-specific unsupervised term embeddings. Using a huge dataset of Stack Overflow posts, our solution employs the LSA algorithm to learn latent representations of information technology terms. The paper also presents the Teamy.ai system, currently developed by Scalac company, which serves as a platform that...
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Interline power flow controller - properties and control strategy in dynamic states
PublicationHigh-power electronic converter topologies, in such forms as Unified Power Flow Controllers (UPFC), Static Compensators (STATCOM) and Interline Power Flow Controllers (IPFC), have been used to enhance and optimize the use of transmission facilities, under the concept of a flexible ac transmission system (FACTS). In Europe, the anticipated proliferation of distributed-generation (DG) in the near future, driven by governmental initiatives...
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Hydrogen Bonds in Blends of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), Poly(N-ethylacrylamide) Homopolymers, and Carboxymethyl Cellulose
PublicationRecently, it was reported that the physical crosslinking exhibited by some biopolymers could provide multiple benefits to biomedical applications. In particular, grafting thermoresponsive polymers onto biopolymers may enhance the degradability or offer other features, as thermothickening behavior. Thus, different interactions will affect the different hydrogen bonds and interactions from the physical crosslinking of carboxymethyl...
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Material Flow Analysis in a cooked mussel processing industry
PublicationGalicia (NW Spain) is an ideal environment for mussel culture owing to its excellent natural conditions. It is the first Spanish and European mussel producer and the second worldwide after China. More than 50% of the mussel collected in Galicia is used in the processing industry, which produces different products, as cooked mussel that is canned, frozen or used in the food industry. In this paper a methodology based on Life Cycle...
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Performance Evaluation of Asphalt Binder Modified with Shear Thickening Fluid
PublicationThis paper aims at using a dilatant or shear thickening fluid (STF) [a non-Newtonian fluid consisting of particles of nano-silica suspended in a liquid medium, i.e., ethylene glycol (EG), which acts as a carrier fluid; proportion 40:60] as additive or modifier of bitumen in order to enhance its viscoelastic properties. A commonly-used performance grading (PG) system, storage stability test, and different conventional and rheological...
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Information Retrieval with the Use of Music Clustering by Directions Algorithm
PublicationThis paper introduces the Music Clustering by Directions (MCBD) algorithm. The algorithm is designed to support users of query by humming systems in formulating queries. This kind of systems makes it possible to retrieve songs and tunes on the basis of a melody recorded by the user. The Music Clustering by Directions algorithm is a kind of an interactive query expansion method. On the basis of query, the algorithm provides suggestions...
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Performance improvement of NN based RTLS by customization of NN structure - heuristic approach
PublicationThe purpose of this research is to improve performance of the Hybrid Scene Analysis – Neural Network indoor localization algorithm applied in Real-time Locating System, RTLS. A properly customized structure of Neural Network and training algorithms for specific operating environment will enhance the system’s performance in terms of localization accuracy and precision. Due to nonlinearity and model complexity, a heuristic analysis...
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Reconfigurable Antennas for Trustable Things
PublicationIn modern applications, the Internet of Things plays a significant role in increasing the productivity, effectiveness or safety and security of people and assets. Additionally, the reliability of Internet of Things components is crucial from the application point of view, where a resilient and low-latency network is needed. This can be achieved by utilizing reconfigurable antennas to enhance the capabilities of the wireless sensor...
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A Survey on the Datasets and Algorithms for Satellite Data Applications
PublicationRecent advances in the area of the Internet of Things shows that devices are usually resource-constrained. To enable advanced applications on these devices, it is necessary to enhance their performance by leveraging external computing resources available in the network. This work presents a study of computational platforms to increase the performance of these devices based on the Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) paradigm. The main...
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Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass and Municipal Waste into Useful Energy Using Advanced HiTAG/HiTSG Technology
PublicationAn advanced thermal conversion system involving high-temperature gasification of biomass and municipal waste into biofuel, syngas or hydrogen-rich gas is presented in this paper. The decomposition of solid biomass and wastes by gasification is carried out experimentally with a modern and innovative regenerator and updraft continuous gasifier, among others. A ceramic high-cycle regenerator provides extra energy for the thermal conversion...
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Digital Public Service Innovation: Framework Proposal
PublicationThis paper proposes the Digital Public Service Innovation Framework that extends the "standard" provision of digital public services according to the emerging, enhanced, transactional and connected stages underpinning the United Nations Global e-Government Survey, with seven example "innovations" in digital public service delivery -- transparent, participatory, anticipatory, personalized, co-created, context-aware and context-smart....
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Towards sugar-derived polyamides as environmentally friendly materials
PublicationAs part of our ongoing study investigating isohexide-based polyamides, we have synthesized isosorbide(bis(propan-1-amine)) (DAPIS) and studied its reactivity in the polymerization towards fully biobased polyamides. Polycondensation of nylon salts with various contributions of DAPIS afforded a family of homo- and copolyamides, which were characterized using complementary spectroscopic techniques. The chemical structure of the materials...
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Quantum metrology: Heisenberg limit with bound entanglement
PublicationQuantum entanglement may provide a huge boost in the precision of parameter estimation. However, quantum metrology seems to be extremely sensitive to noise in the probe state. There is an important still open question: What type of entanglement is useful as a resource in quantum metrology? Here we raise this question in relation to entanglement distillation. We provide a counterintuitive example of a family of bound entangled states...
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The potential of imogolite nanotubes as (co-)photocatalysts: a linear-scaling density functional theory study
PublicationWe report a linear-scaling density functional theory (DFT) study of the structure, wall-polarization absolute band-alignment and optical absorption of several, recently synthesized, open-ended imogolite (Imo) nanotubes (NTs), namely single-walled (SW) aluminosilicate (AlSi), SW aluminogermanate (AlGe), SW methylated aluminosilicate (AlSi-Me), and double-walled (DW) AlGe NTs. Simulations with three different semi-local and dispersion-corrected...
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Characterization of Optical and Electrical Properties of Transparent Conductive Boron-Doped Diamond thin Films Grown on Fused Silica
PublicationA conductive boron-doped diamond (BDD) grown on a fused silica/quartz has been investigated. Diamond thin films were deposited by the microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MW PECVD). The main parameters of the BDD synthesis, i.e. the methane admixture and the substrate temperature were investigated in detail. Preliminary studies of optical properties were performed to qualify an optimal CVD synthesis and film parameters...
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Multi-transformer primary-side regulated flyback converter for supplying isolated IGBT and MOSFET drivers
PublicationThis paper presents primary-side voltage regulated multi-transformer quasi-resonant flyback converter (MTFC) for supplying isolated power switch drivers. The proposed topology offers distinct advantages over frequently used flyback converter possessing one high frequency transformer with isolated multiple outputs. Particularly, when a large number of separate dc supply units is required, then MTFC enables improved regular distribution...
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Performance measurements and optimization of visualization of routes traveled in the distributed dispatcher and teleinformation system for visualization of multimedia data for the Border Guard
PublicationMonitoring of country maritime border is an important task of the Border Guard. This activity can be enhanced with the use of the technology enabling gathering information from distributed sources, processing of that information and its visualization. The system presented in the paper is an advancement of the previously developed distributed map data exchange system. The added functionality allows to supplement the map data with...
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Studies on the Combined Impact of Starch Source and Multiple Processing on Selected Properties of Thermoplastic Starch/Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Blends
PublicationThermoplastic starch (TPS)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) blends compatibilized with polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PE-g-MA) were prepared from various native starches (potato, maize and waxy maize) and subjected to multiple extrusion cycles. Source of starch has significant impact on its composition, hence properties of obtained TPS and their blends with EVA. Higher content of amylopectin in waxy maize starch, comparing to...
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Preparation and Characterization of Microsphere ZnO ALD Coating Dedicated for the Fiber-Optic Refractive Index Sensor
PublicationWe report the fabrication of a novel fiber-optic sensor device, based on the use of a microsphere conformally coated with a thin layer of zinc oxide (ZnO) by atomic layer deposition (ALD), and its use as a refractive index sensor. The microsphere was prepared on the tip of a single-mode optical fiber, on which a conformal ZnO thin film of 200 nm was deposited using an ALD process based on diethyl zinc (DEZ) and water at 100 °C....
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Hydrogen Embrittlement and Oxide Layer E ect in the Cathodically Charged Zircaloy-2
PublicationThe present paper is aimed at determining the less investigated effects of hydrogen uptake on the microstructure and the mechanical behavior of the oxidized Zircaloy-2 alloy. The specimens were oxidized and charged with hydrogen. The different oxidation temperatures and cathodic current densities were applied. The scanning electron microscopy, X-ray electron diffraction spectroscopy, hydrogen absorption assessment, tensile, and...
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Flame retardant epoxy/halloysite nanotubes nanocomposite coatings: Exploring low-concentration threshold for flammability compared to expandable graphite as superior fire retardant
PublicationEpoxy nanocomposites containing halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were developed and their low-concentration thresholds for thermal stability and flame retardancy were compared with that of epoxy system containing expandable graphite (EG), as a reference with superior flame retardancy. The effects of HNTs and EG on the peak of Heat Release Rate (pHRR), Total Heat Release (THR), and Time-To-Ignition (TTI) of the prepared samples were...
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Electrochemical performance of Co3O4/CeO2 electrodes in H2S/H2O atmospheres in a proton-conducting ceramic symmetrical cell with BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3 solid electrolyte
PublicationThe electrochemical performance of Co3O4/CeO2 mixed oxide materials as electrodes, when exposed to H2S/H2O atmospheres, was examined employing a proton conducting symmetrical cell, with BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3 (BZCY72) as the solid electrolyte. The impact of temperature (700–850 °C) and H2S concentration (0–1 v/v%) in steam-rich atmospheres (90 v/v% H2O) on the overall cell performance was thoroughly assessed by means of electrochemical...
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Small regulatory bacterial RNAs regulating the envelope stress response
PublicationMost bacteria encode a large repertoire of RNA-based regulatory mechanisms. Recent discoveries have revealed that the expression of many genes is controlled by a plethora of base-pairing noncoding small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs), regulatory RNA-binding proteins and RNA-degrading enzymes. Some of these RNA-based regulated processes respond to stress conditions and are involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. They achieve...
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Reactive extrusion of bio-based polymer blends and composites – Current trends and future developments
PublicationReactive extrusion is a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly method to produce new materials with enhanced performance properties. At present, reactive extrusion allows in-situ polymerization, modification/functionalization of polymers or chemical bonding of two (or more) immiscible phases, which can be carried out on commonly used extrusion lines. Although reactive extrusion has been known for many years, its application...
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Antibacterial Activity and Cytocompatibility of Bone Cement Enriched with Antibiotic, Nanosilver, and Nanocopper for Bone Regeneration
PublicationBacterial infections due to bone replacement surgeries require modifications of bone cement with antibacterial components. This study aimed to investigate whether the incorporation of gentamicin or nanometals into bone cement may reduce and to what extent bacterial growth without the loss of overall cytocompatibility and adverse effects in vitro. The bone cement Cemex was used as the base material, modified either with gentamicin...
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Experimental study and comparison with predictive methods for flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of HFE7000
PublicationThis article describes an experimental study of flow boiling of HFE7000 inside a smooth vertical channel. The investigation has been carried out in a circular stainless-steel tube with an inner diameter of 2.3 mm. The data have been collected for the applied heat fluxes q ranging from 61 to 205 kW/m2, the mass flux G ranging from 214 to 1006 kg/(m2 s), the saturation temperature Tsat ranging from 30 to 54 °C and the full range...