Hydrogen and wood-burning stoves.

Wood-burning stoves, in Kenya and Mexico, are reviewed. With a Kenyan stove, burning charcoal, only 24% of the energy released reached the cooking pot. Initially, the proportion of CO in the leaving gases was 3%. Indoor concentrations of particulate matter (less than 2.5 µm diameter) can be abnormally high near a stove. Decarbonization, by using H2, is facilitated by a distribution system. Replacement by H2 would ultimately rest upon wind or water power, or it being a by-product in the production of heavier hydrocarbons from CH4. The averaged burning rate in the Kenyan stove was 10 kW, over 20 min, with an initial peak value of about 30 kW. A possible replacement is a hob, composed of an array of small diameter H2 jet flames. As an example, combustion of a 2 mm internal diameter H2 jet flame, with a H2 exit velocity of 27.2 m s-1, would release 0.84 kW. Bearing in mind its improved efficiency, a single compact hob with an array of about 10 jets would suffice. A difficulty is the low mass-specific energy of H2. H2 has a high acoustic velocity, and both high velocity subsonic combustion and blending with natural gas are briefly discussed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Developing resilient energy systems'.

Modular Synthesis of Constrained Ethyl (cEt) Purine and Pyrimidine Nucleosides.

A modular and scalable approach to pyrimidine- and purine-containing constrained ethyl (cEt) nucleosides is demonstrated. Minimizing stereochemical adjustments and protecting group manipulations, diacetone glucose is converted to two representative cEt nucleosides via a functionalized, common intermediate. The retrosynthetic approach to this complex class of drug precursors offers clear benefits over existing routes based on step count and efficiency.

Studies on the pathogenesis and survival of different culture forms of Listeria monocytogenes to pulsed UV-light irradiation after exposure to mild-food processing stresses.

The effects of mild conventional food-processing conditions on Listeria monocytogenes survival to pulsed UV (PUV) irradiation and virulence-associated characteristics were investigated. Specifically, this study describes the inability of 10 strains representative of 3 different culture forms or morphotypes of L. monocytogenes to adapt to normally lethal levels of PUV-irradiation after exposure to sub-lethal concentrations of salt (7.5% (w/v) NaCl for 1 h), acid (pH 5.5 for 1 h), heating (48 °C for 1 h) or PUV (UV dose 0.08 µJ/cm(2)). Findings showed that the order of increasing sensitivity of L. monocytogenes of non-adapted and stressed morphotypes to low pH (pH 3.5 for 5 h, adjusted with lactic), high salt (17.5% w/v NaCl for 5 h), heating (60 °C for 1 h) and PUV-irradiation (100 pulses at 7.2 J and 12.8 J, equivalent to UV doses of 2.7 and 8.4 µJ/cm(2) respectively) was typical wild-type smooth (S/WT), atypical filamentous rough (FR) and atypical multiple-cell-chain (MCR) variants. Exposure of L. monocytogenes cells to sub-lethal acid, salt or heating conditions resulted in similar or increased susceptibility to PUV treatments. Only prior exposure to mild heat stressing significantly enhanced invasion of Caco-2 cells, whereas subjection of L. monocytogenes cells to combined sub-lethal salt, acid and heating conditions produced the greatest reduction in invasiveness. Implications of these findings are discussed. This constitutes the first study to show that pre-exposure to mild conventional food-processing stresses enhances sensitivity of different culture morphotypes of L. monocytogenes to PUV, which is growing in popularity as an alternative or complementary approach for decontamination in the food environment.

Autoignitions and detonations in engines and ducts.

The origins of autoignition at hot spots are analysed and the pressure pulses that arise from them are related to knock in gasoline engines and to developing detonations in ducts. In controlled autoignition engines, autoignition is benign with little knock. There are several modes of autoignition and the existence of an operational peninsula, within which detonations can develop at a hot spot, helps to explain the performance of various engines. Earlier studies by Urtiew and Oppenheim of the development of autoignitions and detonations ahead of a deflagration in ducts are interpreted further, using a simple one-dimensional theory of the generation of shock waves ahead of a turbulent flame. The theory is able to indicate entry into the domain of autoignition in an 'explosion in the explosion'. Importantly, it shows the influence of the turbulent burning velocity, and particularly its maximum attainable value, upon autoignition. This value is governed by localized flame extinctions for both turbulent and laminar flames. The theory cannot show any details of the transition to a detonation, but regimes of eventually stable or unstable detonations can be identified on the operational peninsula. Both regimes exhibit transverse waves, triple points and a cellular structure. In the case of unstable detonations, transverse waves are essential to the continuing propagation. For hazard assessment, more needs to be known about the survival, or otherwise, of detonations that emerge from a duct into the same mixture at atmospheric pressure.

Monitoring of gene expression by functional proteomics: response of human lung fibroblast cells to stimulation by endothelin-1.

Proteomic methods have been used to monitor changes in protein synthesis in the first 4 h following stimulation of human lung fibroblasts with endothelin-1. Using pulsed [(35)S]methionine labeling, about 70 proteins with altered protein synthesis could be detected, and the 35 proteins showing the largest changes were identified by mass spectrometry. The observed proteins included unexpected proteins such as Sox5, two isoforms of Rab14, Rab3A, translationally controlled tumor protein, and one protein of previously unknown function. There was a wide range of different kinetic behavior, and groups of functionally linked proteins such as Rab14, nucleophosmin,and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B could be detected from similar kinetics. We propose that the functional proteomic methods are competitive with and have some advantages compared to expression profiling methods for monitoring gene expression.