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SUMMARYThe dimensional changes of liver sections during the course of processing with glycol methacrylate (GMA) or with ethanol are described. Tissue processing with ethanol served as a control. During prolonged processing steps (24 h each), linear shrinkage of tissue specimens dehydrated with GMA at room temperature was 13.2%. Subsequent infiltration with GMA resulted in trivial swelling, and polymerization in slight shrinkage (2.3%). In comparison, processing with cold GMA resulted in shrinkage during dehydration (about 10.8%), a slight swelling in pure GMA, followed by shrinkage during polymerization (2.2%). Short routine processing schedules resulted in similar shrinkage/swelling patterns, although precise values differed slightly. In all experiments, ethanolic dehydration resulted in smaller dimensional tissue changes than did GMA dehydration.The dimensional changes of tissue sections during stretching on water, mounting and drying compensated for the major part of the shrinkage manifested during processing.

Abstract Electrolyte-separator-free fuel cell (EFFC) is a new emerging energy conversion technology. The EFFC consists of a single-component of nanocomposite material which works as a one-layer fuel cell device contrary to the traditional three-layer anode–electrolyte–cathode structure, in which an electrolyte layer plays a critical role. The nanocomposite of a single homogenous layer consists of a mixture of semiconducting and ionic materials that provides the necessary electrochemical reaction sites and charge transport paths for a fuel cell. These can be accomplished through tailoring ionic and electronic (n, p) conductivities and catalyst activities, which enable redox reactions to occur on nano-particles and finally accomplish a fuel cell function.

The acceptability, energy consumption, and environmental benefits of electric vehicles are highly dependent on travel patterns. With increasing ride-hailing popularity in mega-cities, urban mobility patterns are greatly changing; therefore, an investigation of the extent to which electric vehicles would satisfy the needs of ride-hailing drivers becomes important to support sustainable urban growth. A first step in this direction is reported here. GPS-trajectories of 144,867 drivers over 104 million km in Beijing were used to quantify the potential acceptability, energy consumption, and costs of ride-hailing electric vehicle fleets. Average daily travel distance and travel time for ride-hailing drivers was determined to be 129.4 km and 5.7 h; these values are substantially larger than those for household drivers (40.0 km and 1.5 h). Assuming slow level-1 (1.8 KW) or moderate level-2 (7.2 KW) charging is available at all home parking locations, battery electric vehicles with 200 km all electric range (BEV200) could be used by up to 47% or 78% of ride-hailing drivers and electrify up to 20% or 55% of total distance driven by the ride-hailing fleet. With level-2 charging available at home, work, and public parking, the acceptance ceiling increases to up to 91% of drivers and 80% of distance. Our study suggests that long range BEVs and widespread level-2 charging infrastructure are needed for large-scale electrification of ride-hailing mobility in Beijing. The marginal benefits of increased all electric range, effects on charging infrastructure distribution, and payback times are also presented and discussed. Given the observed heterogeneity of ride-hailing vehicle travel, our study outlines the importance of individual-level analysis to understand the electrification potential and future benefits of electric vehicles in the era of shared smart transportation.

This paper provides a review of the literature that applies the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to the assessment of the environmental performance of the life cycle of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management systems. This article is focused on generating a general mapping of the literature and on identifying the best practices in compliance with LCA framework and proposing directions for future LCA studies in this field. The temporal evolution of the research in this field and the aim of the studies have grown in parallel with the legal framework related to waste and energy efficiency of buildings. Most studies have been published in Europe, followed by USA. Asia and Australia, being at an incipient application stage to the rest of the world. Topics related to "LCA of buildings, including their EoL" and "LCA of general CDW management strategies" are the most frequently analysed, followed by "LCA of EoL of construction elements" and "LCA of natural material vs recycled material". Regarding the strategies, recycling off-site and incineration, both combined with landfill for the rejected fractions, are the most commonly applied. Re-use or recycling on-site is the strategy least applied. The key aspect when LCA is applied to evaluate CDW management systems is the need to normalise which processes to include in the system boundary and the functional unit, the use of inventory data adapted to the context of the case study and the definition of a common set of appropriate impact assessment categories. Also, it is important to obtain results disaggregated by unit processes. This will allow the comparison between case studies.

There are various transport phenomena (gas-phase species, heat, and momentum) occurring at different length scales in anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which are strongly affected by catalytic surface reactions at active triple-phase boundaries (TPBs) between the void space (for gas), Ni (catalysts for electrons), and YSZ (an electrolyte material for ions). To understand the multiscale chemical-reacting transport processes in the cell, a three-dimensional numerical calculation approach (the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method) is further developed and applied for a composite domain including a porous anode, fuel gas flow channel, and solid interconnect. By calculating the rate of microscopic surface-reactions involving the surface-phase species, the gas-phase species/heat generation and consumption related to the internal reforming reactions have been identified and implemented. The applied microscopic model for the internal reforming reactions describes the adsorption and desorption reactions of six gas-phase species and surface reactions of 12 surface-adsorbed species. The predicted results are presented and analyzed in terms of the gas-phase species and temperature distributions and compared with those predicted by employing the global reaction scheme for the internal reforming reactions.

The effect of substrate changes on the performance and microbial community of two-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was investigated in this study. The MFCs enriched with a single substrate (e.g., acetate, glucose, or butyrate) had different acclimatization capability to substrate changes. The MFC enriched with glucose showed rapid and higher power generation, when glucose was switched with acetate or butyrate. However, the MFC enriched with acetate needed a longer adaptation time for utilizing glucose. Microbial community was also changed when the substrate was changed. Clostridium and Bacilli of phylum Firmicutes were detected in acetate-enriched MFCs after switching to glucose. By contrast, Firmicutes completely disappeared and Geobacter-like species were specifically enriched in glucose-enriched MFCs after feeding acetate to the reactor. This study further suggests that the type of substrate fed to MFC is a very important parameter for reactor performance and microbial community, and significantly affects power generation in MFCs.

AbstractThe rotational spectra of two isotopologues of the 1:1 complex formed between acetone and ethanol have been recorded and analyzed by using Fourier‐transform microwave spectroscopy. One rotamer was detected, in which ethanol adopts the gauche form. The two subunits are linked by a conventional O−H⋅⋅⋅O and a weak C−H⋅⋅⋅O hydrogen bond, forming a six‐membered ring. Each rotational transition is split into five component lines due to the internal rotations of two nonequivalent acetone methyl groups. The V3 barriers to internal rotation of the two CH3 tops of acetone were determined to be 252(4) and 220(1) cm−1, which are noticeably lower than the value for the monomer (266 cm−1).

IntroductionBoth mean power output (MPO) and the distribution of the available energy over the race, that is, pacing strategy, are critical factors in performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of both pacing strategy and MPO to performance.MethodsSix well-trained, regionally competitive cyclists performed four 1500-m ergometer time trials (∼2 min). For each subject, the fastest (Fast) and slowest (Slow) time trials were compared and the relative importance of differences in power output and pacing strategy were determined with an energy flow model.ResultsThe difference in final time between Fast and Slow was 4.0 (2.5) s. Fast was performed with a higher MPO (437.8 (32.3) W vs 411.3 (39.0) W), a higher aerobic peak power (295.3 (36.8) vs 287.5 (34.7) W) and a higher anaerobic peak power (828.8 (145.4) W vs 649.5 (112.2) W) combined with a relatively higher, but not statistically different anaerobic rate constant (0.051 (0.016) vs 0.041 (0.009) W). The changes in MPO (63% anaerobic, 37% aerobic) largely explained the differences in final times. Athletes chose a different pacing strategy that was close to optimal for their physiological condition in both Fast and Slow.ConclusionDifferences in intraindividual performance were mainly caused by differences in MPO. Athletes seemed to be able to effectively adjust their pacing profile based on their “status of the day”.Keywordsmodelling performance, energy expenditure, aerobic, anaerobic, sports.