On the potential for BECCS efficiency improvement through heat recovery from both post-combustion and oxy-combustion facilities.

In order to mitigate climate change to no more than 2 °C, it is well understood that it will be necessary to directly remove significant quantities of CO2, with bioenergy CCS (BECCS) regarded as a promising technology. However, BECCS will likely be more costly and less efficient at power generation than conventional CCS. Thus, approaches to improve BECCS performance and reduce costs are of importance to facilitate the deployment of this key technology. In this study, the impact of biomass co-firing rate and biomass moisture content on BECCS efficiency with both post- and oxy-combustion CO2 capture technologies was evaluated. It was found that post-combustion capture BECCS (PCC-BECCS) facilities will be appreciably less efficient than oxy-combustion capture BECCS (OCC-BECCS) facilities. Consequently, PCC-BECCS have the potential to be more carbon negative than OCC-BECCS per unit electricity generated. It was further observed that the biomass moisture content plays an important role in determining the BECCS facilities' efficiency. This will in turn affect the enthalpic content of the BECCS plant exhaust and implies that exhaust gas heat recovery may be an attractive option at higher rates of co-firing. It was found that there is the potential for the recovery of approximately 2.5 GJheat per tCO2 at a temperature of 100 °C from both PCC-BECCS and OCC-BECCS. On- and off-site applications for this recovered heat are discussed, considering boiler feedwater pre-heating, solvent regeneration and district heating cases.

APOE e4 polymorphism in young adults is associated with improved attention and indexed by distinct neural signatures.

The APOE e4 allele, which confers an increased risk of developing dementia in older adulthood, has been associated with enhanced cognitive performance in younger adults. An objective of the current study was to compare task-related behavioural and neural signatures for e4 carriers (e4+) and non-e4 carriers (e4-) to help elucidate potential mechanisms behind such cognitive differences. On two measures of attention, we recorded clear behavioural advantages in young adult e4+ relative to e4-, suggesting that e4+ performed these tasks with a wider field of attention. Behavioural advantages were associated with increased task-related brain activations detected by fMRI (BOLD). In addition, behavioural measures correlated with structural measures derived from a former DTI analysis of white matter integrity in our cohort. These data provide clear support for an antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis--that the e4 allele confers some cognitive advantage in early life despite adverse consequences in old age. The data implicate differences in both structural and functional signatures as complementary mediators of the behavioural advantage.

Interferon-alpha-Induced Changes in NODDI Predispose to the Development of Fatigue.

Interferon-alpha (IFN-α) is an important mediator of antiviral immune responses. It is also used clinically in the treatment of hepatitis-C infection. Though effective, IFN-α-based therapies can often impair mood, motivation and cognition, which when severe can appear indistinguishable from major depression. In susceptible patients, fatigue and motivational impairment emerge early and have been linked to changes in basal ganglia (striatal) metabolism, neurochemistry and microstructural integrity. Here we use neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) modeling of multi-shell diffusion MRI to investigate whether changes in orientation-dispersion index (ODI) or neurite density index (NDI) can predict the later emergence of IFN-α-induced fatigue. Eighteen patients initiating IFN-α-based treatment for hepatitis-C underwent diffusion MRI and blood sampling at baseline and 4 h after their first IFN-α injection. They were then followed up with regular psychological assessments for 12 weeks of treatment. IFN-α injection stimulated an acute inflammatory cytokine response and evoked acute fatigue that peaked between 4 and 12 weeks of treatment. Within the brain, IFN-α induced an acute increase in NDI in patients that experienced a simultaneous increase in IFN-α-induced fatigue but not in patients that did not. Acute changes in striatal microstructure additionally predicted the continued development of fatigue but not mood symptoms 4 and 8 weeks later into treatment. Our findings highlight the value of NODDI as a potential in vivo biomarker of the central effects of peripheral inflammation. We highlight the exquisite sensitivity of the striatum to IFN-α and further implicate striatal perturbation in IFN-α-induced fatigue.

New experimental density data and soft-SAFT models of alkylimidazolium ([C(n)C1im]⁺) chloride (Cl⁻), methylsulfate ([MeSO4]⁻), and dimethylphosphate ([Me2PO4]⁻) based ionic liquids.

Ionic liquids have been shown to have application in several areas of importance in the context of sustainable industrial activity. One application of particular interest is the ability of certain ionic liquids to dissolve biomass. This clearly marks them as useful materials with application within biorefineries. In this contribution, we present new coarse-grained soft-SAFT models and experimental density data of chloride (Cl(-)), methylsulfate ([MeSO4](-)), and dimethylphosphate ([Me2PO4](-)) based ionic liquids which are relevant for biomass deconstruction processes. Model parameters were obtained by fitting to pure component temperature density data, and the models were subsequently tested by assessing their ability to accurately calculate viscosity and interfacial surface tension. We also developed models of mixtures of the ionic liquids with water and short-chain linear alcohols. We decomposed the contributions to the excess Gibbs energy of mixing to chemical and structural contributions, and used this to provide some insight into the driving forces for solubility of molecular species in these ionic liquids.

Transferable SAFT-VR models for the calculation of the fluid phase equilibria in reactive mixtures of carbon dioxide, water, and n-alkylamines in the context of carbon capture.

The amine functional groups are fundamental building blocks of many molecules that are central to life, such as the amino acids, and to industrial processes, such as the alkanolamines, which are used extensively for gas absorption. The modeling of amines and of mixtures of amines with water (H(2)O) and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) is thus relevant to a number of applications. In this contribution, we use the statistical associating fluid theory for potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR) to describe the fluid phase behavior of ammonia + H(2)O + CO(2) and n-alkyl-1-amine + H(2)O + CO(2) mixtures. Models are developed for ammonia (NH(3)) and n-alkyl-1-amines up to n-hexyl-1-amine (CH(3)NH(2) to C(6)H(13)NH(2)). The amines are modeled as homonuclear chain molecules formed from spherical segments with additional association sites incorporated to mediate the effect of hydrogen-bonding interactions. The SAFT-VR approach provides a representation of the pure component fluid phase equilibria, on average, to within 1.48% of the experimental data in relative terms for the saturated liquid densities and vapor pressures. A simple empirical correlation is derived for the SAFT-VR parameters of the n -alkylamine series as a function of molecular weight. Aqueous mixtures of the amines are modeled using a model of water taken from previous work. The models developed for the mixtures are of high fidelity and can be used to calculate the binary fluid phase equilibrium of these systems to within 2.28% in relative terms for the temperature or pressure and 0.027 in absolute terms for the mole fraction. Regions of both vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibria are considered. We also consider the reactive mixtures of amines and CO(2) in aqueous solution. To model the reaction of CO(2) with the amine, an additional site is included on the otherwise nonassociating CO(2) model. The unlike interaction parameters for the NH(3) + H(2)O + CO(2) ternary mixture are obtained by comparison to the experimental data available for this system. The resulting model is found to correlate and predict the liquid-phase loading (moles of CO(2) per mole of amine) to within 0.091 of experimental data in absolute terms. The parameters describing the NH(3)-CO(2) interaction are then transferred to other n-alkyl-1-amines, and sample predictions of the fluid phase equilibria for the n-propyl-1-amine + H(2)O + CO(2), n-butyl-1-amine + H(2)O + CO(2), and n-hexyl-1-amine + H(2)O + CO(2) mixtures are presented. The latter mixture is found to exhibit regions of liquid-liquid immiscibility.

Attachment of astroglial cells to microfabricated pillar arrays of different geometries.

We studied the attachment of astroglial cells on smooth silicon and arrays of silicon pillars and wells with various widths and separations. Standard semiconductor industry photolithographic techniques were used to fabricate pillar arrays and wells in single-crystal silicon. The resulting pillars varied in width from 0. 5 to 2.0 micrometer, had interpillar gaps of 1.0-5.0 micrometer, and were 1.0 micrometer in height. Arrays also contained 1.0-micromter-deep wells that were 0.5 micrometer in diameter and separated by 0.5-2.0 micrometer. Fluorescence, reflectance, and confocal light microscopies as well as scanning electron microscopy were used to quantify cell attachment, describe cell morphologies, and study the distribution of cytoskeletal proteins actin and vinculin on surfaces with pillars, wells, and smooth silicon. Seventy percent of LRM55 astroglial cells displayed a preference for pillars over smooth silicon, whereas only 40% preferred the wells to the smooth surfaces. Analysis of variance statistics performed on the data sets yielded values of p > approximately.5 for the comparison between pillar data sets and < approximately.0003 in the comparison between pillar and well data sets. Actin and vinculin distributions were highly polarized in cells found on pillar arrays. Scanning electron microscopy clearly demonstrated that cells made contact with the tops of the pillars and did not reach down into the spaces between pillars even when the interpillar gap was 5.0 microm. These experiments support the use of surface topography to direct the attachment, growth, and morphology of cells. These surfaces can be used to study fundamental cell properties such as cell attachment, proliferation, and gene expression. Such topography might also be used to modify implantable medical devices such as neural implants and lead to future developments in tissue engineering.