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Background, Aim and Scope Societal assessment is advocated as one of the three pillars in the evaluation of, and movement toward, sustainability. As is the case with the well established LCA, and the emerging LCC, societal life cycle assessment should be developed in such as way as to permit relative product comparisons, rather than absolute analyses. The development of societal life cycle assessment is in its infancy, and important concepts require clarification including the handling of the more than two hundred social indicators. Therefore, any societal life cycle assessment methodology must explain why it is midpoint- or endpoint-based as well as its reasons to be complimentary with, or included within, life cycle assessment. Materials and Methods: A geographically specific midpoint based societal life cycle assessment methodology, which employs labour hours as an intermediate variable in the calculation has been developed and evaluated against an existing LCA comparing two detergents. The methodology is based on using an existing life cycle inventory and, therefore, has identical system boundaries and functional units to LCA. The societal life cycle assessment methodology, much like LCA, passes from inventory, through characterisation factors, to provide an ultimate result. In analogy to economics and cost estimation, societal life cycle assessment combines, into its statistics, both data as well as estimates, some of which are correlated to elements of the LCI. It focuses on the work hours required to meet basic needs.A geographically specific midpoint based societal life cycle assessment methodology, which employs labour hours as an intermediate variable in the calculation has been developed and evaluated against an existing LCA comparing two detergents. The methodology is based on using an existing life cycle inventory and, therefore, has identical system boundaries and functional units to LCA. The societal life cycle assessment methodology, much like LCA, passes from inventory, through characterisation factors, to provide an ultimate result. In analogy to economics and cost estimation, societal life cycle assessment combines, into its statistics, both data as well as estimates, some of which are correlated to elements of the LCI. It focuses on the work hours required to meet basic needs. Results: The societal life cycle assessment of an appended case study indicates that Detergent 2 generates, relative Detergent 1, approximately 20% less employment in Russia, 35% less in France, and approximately five times more in Canada and South Africa, the latter derived from its higher aluminium content. There is essentially no difference in the employment in the use country (Switzerland) nor in Morocco, where some of the waste disposal was assumed to take place. Discussion: Given that housing is more affordable, in terms of shelter units per labour hour, in South Africa, compared to Europe, it is, therefore, of no surprise that Detergent 2 provides a societal benefit in terms of housing. Detergent 2 does, however, result in dematerialization, in that its environmental impact is lower (LCI). Therefore, as less resources are employed and labour required, in extraction, production and transport, the societal benefits in health care, education and necessities, a grouped variable, are lower for Detergent 2. This is despite the employment shift away from Europe and to less 'developed' regions. Conclusions: The assessment of societal impacts involves several hundred specific indicators. Therefore, aggregation is, if not impossible, at least heavily value laden and, therefore, not recommended. The impact of a societal action, derived from a product purchase or otherwise, is also highly local. Given this, societal life cycle assessment, carried through to the midpoints, and based on an existing LCI, has been developed as a methodology. The results, for an existing LCA-detergent case, illustrate that societal life cycle assessment provides a means to investigate how policy and policy makers can be linked to sustainable development. The sensitivity analyses also clarify the decisions in regards to product improvement. Recommendations and Perspectives: The goal of societal life cycle assessment is not to make decisions, but rather to point out tradeoffs to decision- or policy-makers. This case, and the methodology that it is based on, permit such a comparison. Substituting Detergent 2 for Detergent 1 reduces resource use at the expense of an increase in atmospheric and terrestrial emissions. Access to housing is improved, though at the expense of education, health care and necessities. As a recommendation, one would look at the fact that the majority of indicators are superior for Detergent 2 relative to Detergent 1and seek to improve the aqueous emissions in Detergent 2 via a change in the formulation. An energy or fossil fuel substitution at the site of production could also improve the societal benefits in terms of education and health care. While societal life cycle assessment remains in its infancy, a methodology does exist. The field can, therefore, be viewed in a similar way to LCA in the early 1990s, with a need to validate, consolidate and, ultimately, built toward a standard. The contribution is aimed at contributing to such a discussion and therefore proposes that a societal life cycle assessment be LCI-derived, geographically specific, based on mid-points, and use employment as an intermediate variable.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study a fractional grey model FAGM(1,1,tα) based on the GM(1,1,tα) model and the fractional accumulated generating operation, and then predict the national health expenditure, the government health expenditure and the out-of-pocket health expenditure of China.Design/methodology/approachThe presented univariate grey model is systematically studied by using the grey modelling technique, the fractional accumulated generating operation and the trapezoid approximation formula of definite integral. The optimal system parametersrandαare evaluated by the particle swarm optimisation algorithm.FindingsThe expressions of the time response function and the restored values of this model are derived. The GM(1,1), NGM(1,1,k,c) and GM(1,1,tα) models are particular cases of the FAGM(1,1,tα) model with deterministicrandα. Compared with other forecasting models, the results of the FAGM(1,1,tα) model have higher precision.Practical implicationsThe superiority of the new model has high potential to be used in the medicine and health fields and others. Results can provide a guideline for government decision making.Originality/valueThe univariate fractional grey model FAGM (1,1,tα) successfully studies the China’s health expenditure.

In a double-blind, cross-over study of twenty male volunteers intravenous injection of 0.4 mg naloxone prevented the impairment of psychomotor performance induced by low levels of blood alcohol. The possibility that alcohol produces intoxication by stimulating the release of endogenous opioid peptides should be investigated.

Abstract Ammonia is a possible candidate as the fuel for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In this work, an anode-supported SOFC based on yttrium-stabled zircite (YSZ) thin-film electrolyte was fabricated by a simple dry-pressing process. Directly fueled by commercial liquefied ammonia, the single cell was tested at temperatures from 650 to 850 °C. The maximum power densities were 299 and 526 mW cm −2 at 750 and 850 °C, respectively, only slightly lower than that fueled by hydrogen. Analysis of open current voltages (OCVs) of the cell indicated the oxidation of ammonia within a SOFC is a two-stage process. Impedance spectra showed the cell fueled by ammonia had the same electrolyte resistances as that fueled by hydrogen, but a little larger interfacial polarization resistances. Further, the performances of the cell were essentially determined by the interfacial resistances under 750 °C.

The literature is sparse on the adverse effects of moderate alcohol consumption and marijuana use during pregnancy. Recent studies have evaluated the association of these drugs of abuse with pregnancy outcome, each using interview and medical record data of over 12000 women. Children of marijuana users were more likely to have one or more major malformations, lower birthweight, and shorter gestation than children of nonusers. However, when logistic regression was used to control for other variables, these relationships were not statistically significant. The odds ratio for major malformations does, however, remain suggestive for marijuana. The use of similar logistic regression techniques revealed that the only statistical association between alcohol intake of 14 or more drinks per week was placenta abruptio. With the exception of placenta abruptio, alcohol intake of fewer than 14 drinks weekly was not associated with an increased risk of any adverse outcome. There was no association between alcohol use at any level and the rate of congenital malformations. Recommendations based on these data are presented.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-sensitization of photosensitizer without an external light source to produce a photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect based on the principle of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (PDT-BRET). First, we demonstrated that HeLa cells could efficiently express firefly luciferase (FLase) after the firefly luciferase gene was transfected with the FLase-gene plasmid (FLase-GP), and proved that FLase could act on the substrate firefly D-luciferin (FLuc) to produce photons. The generated photons activate the photosensitizer hypericin (Hyp) and induce cytotoxicity. Then, we successfully prepared carboxymethyl chitosan-modified poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (CPNPs) loaded with FLuc (FLuc-CPNPs) and with loaded Hyp (Hyp-CPNPs). Their physicochemical and pharmaceutical characteristics indicated that they were an excellent drug delivery system. Characterization of the biological effects showed that they could be located in the mitochondrial, had higher ROS generation and stronger cytotoxicity. In vivo results also showed that PDT-BRET was as effective as classic PDT. PDT-BRET and the related drug delivery system are expected to become a new platform for anticancer therapy.

Propolis has been used as a medicinal agent to treat infections and promote wound healing for centuries. The aim of the present study was to test the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities of a new type of Brazilian propolis, popularly called red propolis, as well as to analyze its chemical composition. The antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Staphylococcus mutans UA159 was evaluated and the chloroform fraction (Chlo-fr) was the most active with lower MIC ranging from 25 to 50 microg/ml. The hexane fraction (H-fr), having the highest concentration of total flavonoids, showed the best sequestrating activity for the free radical DPPH. The ethanolic extract of propolis (EEP) showed cytotoxic activity for the HeLa tumor cells with an IC(50) of 7.45 microg/ml. When the EEP was analyzed by GC-MS, seven new compounds were found, among which four were isoflavones. Our results showed that the red propolis has biologically active compounds that had never been reported in other types of Brazilian propolis.

Abstract Li[Ni 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 ]O 2 /graphite, Li[Ni 0.5 Mn 0.3 Co 0.2 ]O 2 /graphite and Li[Ni 0.6 Mn 0.2 Co 0.2 O 2 ]/graphite pouch cells were examined with and without electrolyte additives using the ultra high precision charger at Dalhousie University, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, gas evolution measurements and “cycle-store” tests. The electrolyte additives tested were vinylene carbonate (VC), prop-1-ene-1,3-sultone (PES), pyridine-boron trifluoride (PBF), 2% PES + 1% methylene methanedisulfonate (MMDS) + 1% tris(trimethylsilyl) phosphite (TTSPi) and 0.5% pyrazine di-boron trifluoride (PRZ) + 1% MMDS. The charge end-point capacity slippage, capacity fade, coulombic efficiency, impedance change during cycling, gas evolution and voltage drop during “cycle-store” testing were compared to gain an understanding of the effects of these promising electrolyte additives or additive combinations on the different types of pouch cells. It is hoped that this report can be used as a guide or reference for the wise choice of electrolyte additives in Li[Ni 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 ]O 2 /graphite, Li[Ni 0.5 Mn 0.3 Co 0.2 ]O 2 /graphite and Li[Ni 0.6 Mn 0.2 Co 0.2 O 2 ]/graphite pouch cells and also to show the shortcomings of particular positive electrode compositions.

Proton conducting ceramics (PCC) cells are promising energy conversion devices that enable high efficiency energy conversion at lower temperature range, solving the challenge of conventional solid oxide cells (SOCs) due to the high operating temperature. Electrochemical performance and chemical stability of PCC electrolyte has been investigated in recent studies, suggesting that rare-earth doped Ba(Zr,Ce)O3 perovskite-type ceramics are optimal materials exhibiting high proton conductivity and chemical stability during operations. On the contrary, mechanical stability of these PCC electrolyte materials has not been evaluated despite the fact that the mechanical properties are critically important for achieving long-term stable operation as fuel cells or electrolyser cells. For the development of conventional SOCs, mechanical stability during high temperature operation was one of the most significant challenges to deal with, which was attained as a result of detailed studies on in-situ elastic properties of composing materials such as oxygen ion conducting electrolytes and residual stresses. Similarly, for PCC cells, mechanical properties of cells and composing materials have been of significant interest in order to achieve mechanically stable long-term operation, even though PCC cells operate at lower temperature than SOCs. Furthermore, the metal-supported (MS) structure which provides superior mechanical robustness compared to anode-supported (AS) structure is expected to be applied effectively to PCC cells, which are called proton conducting ceramics – metal-supported cells (PCC-MSCs), leading to greater necessity of the mechanical evaluation of the cells and composing materials. Electrolyte is the most crucial component in an electrochemical cell and must be mechanically stable because ion transport and gas tightness made by electrolyte determines electrical performance. However, there has been important concern that larger thermal stresses might be introduced in PCC cells compared to SOCs, resulting from the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) mismatch between the electrode and electrolyte and from the chemical expansion by the hydration that occurs in a certain temperature range. The PCC electrolyte is highly in need of investigation on in-situ mechanical properties, especially on elastic properties. In this study, elastic properties of electrochemically promising PCC, Y-doped Ba(Zr,Ce)O3 perovskite-type ceramics, were investigated under high temperature conditions. Elastic moduli such as Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio were measured by the method that we previously developed for elastic investigation in high temperature conditions using ultrasonic waves. This method enables highly accurate and repetitive examination of elastic properties at high temperatures in materials with poor sinterability including PCC by measuring ultrasonic sound velocities in pellets typically fabricated for electrochemical tests. Pellets of BaZr1-xYxO3-δ (BZY) with different concentrations of doped yttrium, BaZr0.9Y0.1O3-δ (BZY10), BaZr0.85Y0.15O3-δ (BZY15), and BaZr0.8Y0.2O3-δ (BZY20), were fabricated. Additionally, pellets of BaZryCe1-yY0.1O3-δ (BZCY) with different ratio of Ce to Zr, BaZr0.7Ce0.2Y0.1O3-δ (BZCY721) and BaZr0.8Ce0.1Y0.1O3-δ (BZCY811) were fabricated. Powders of PCCs above were consolidated to be thick rounded shape and sintered in air. Each prepared sample was set in an electric furnace in laboratory air atmosphere and sound velocities were measured with the sample slowly heated up to 700 °C and subsequently cooled down to room temperature to calculate elastic moduli at each measuring point. In the first series of heating and cooling measurements for as-sintered samples, hysteresis on elastic moduli in intermediate temperature range was observed. We repeatedly conducted a series of heating and cooling measurements several times, and then the hysteresis was not observed any further. Fig.1 shows final state Young’s modulus of BZCY721, BZCY811, and BZY10 (BZCY901) without hysteresis. Elastic moduli at room temperature have not changed through multiple heating and cooling measurements, and crystal structures and lattice parameters were also confirmed to remain constant by x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The hysteresis found in a specific temperature range suggests that elastic moduli were influenced presumably by a change in defect structure of PCC caused by hydration or defect association of oxygen vacancies and dopants. At room temperature, Young’s modulus decreased with the increment of Ce concentration by 16 % from BZY10 to BZCY721. When materials have the same crystalline structure, Young’s modulus generally decreases as mean atomic volume of the base crystal increases. Because BaCeO3 has larger mean atomic volume than BaZrO3, this observation is qualitatively reasonable. However, in high temperatures, the difference became significant only for BZCY721, Young’s modulus decreased by 30 % from that at room temperature in BZCY721. These results suggest that Ce substitution causes different high temperature dependences. Figure 1