Influence of the slope in the ventilation semi-transversal system of an urban tunnel

The covering of a section of the Inner Belt roadway (“Ronda del Mig”) in Barcelona gives rise to an urban tunnel of great length (1535 m). The tunnel is divided into two independent parallel galleries and its orientation is North–South, with a 2% upward slope towards the North. Although normal ventilation is achieved with jet fans, between the two galleries there is an interior passage for smoke extraction, in case of fire, through exhaust openings on both sides of this passage. Therefore, the tunnel has a semi-transversal ventilation system for fire incidents.The behavior of the smoke generated during those possible fire incidents in the traffic galleries was simulated with a commercial code, FLUENT^®, which allows a three-dimensional multispecies Navier–Stokes unsteady simulation. The mesh of each tunnel was made with about 250,000 triangular base prismatic cells. The simulated fire had a thermal power of 30 MW and the time step was set to one second, while the simulation covered 15 min.Special emphasis was put on the influence of the tunnel slope on the smoke’s behavior in each gallery. Simulation results showed that the fans’ capacity established in the project specifications was not enough to extract the smoke of a fire with the simulated power. A significant percentage of the smoke was aspirated through the exhaust openings but the rest continued rising to the tunnel portal due to the slope. This created a great risk mainly in the descending gallery with opposite traffic direction. For a more efficient extraction it was determined that the exhaust sections should be opened upward of the fire’s location. The standard opening, at both sides of the fire, reduced the capacity to extract smoke due to clean air aspiration from the lower portal.     

Characterization of a putative phosphorylation switch: adaptation of SPOT synthesis to analyze PDZ domain regulation mechanisms

Transient macromolecular complexes are often formed by protein-protein interaction domains (e.g., PDZ, SH2, SH3, WW), which are often regulated (positively or negatively) by phosphorylation. To address the in vitro analysis of PDZ domain regulation by such phosphorylation, we improved the inverted peptide method. This method is based on standard SPOT synthesis, followed by inversion of the peptide under acidic conditions to generate the free C termini necessary for PDZ domain ligand recognition. The benefit of the newly introduced acidic conditions is the preservation of the incorporated phosphate group during peptide synthesis. Furthermore, the improved method is more robust and shows an increased signal-to-noise ratio. As representative examples, we used the AF6, ERBIN, and SNA1 (alpha-1-syntrophin) PDZ domains to analyze the influence of ligand-position-dependent phosphorylation. We could clearly demonstrate severe down-regulation by phosphorylation of the PDZ ligand position -2 (<50 %) and slightly less at position -1 ( approximately 50 %). These results are specific and reproducible for all three PDZ domains. Finally, we confirmed the influence of negative regulation by using the protein kinase BCR as the AF6 PDZ domain ligand. For the first time, this approach allows the SPOT synthesis technique to be used to screen large libraries of phosphorylated peptides in vitro. This should ultimately help in the identification of phosphorylation-dependent regulation mechanisms in vivo.     

Small hazardous waste generators in developing countries: use of stabilization/solidification process as an economic tool for metal wastewater treatment and appropriate sludge disposal

The aim of this study was to propose a profitable destination for an industrial sludge that can cover the wastewater treatment costs of small waste generators. Optimized stabilization/solidification technology was used to treat hazardous waste from an electroplating industry that is currently released untreated to the environment. The stabilized/solidified (S/S) waste product was used as a raw material to build concrete blocks, to be sold as pavement blocks or used in roadbeds and/or parking lots. The quality of the blocks containing a mixture of cement, lime, clay and waste was evaluated by means of leaching and solubility tests according to the current Brazilian waste regulations. Results showed very low metal leachability and solubility of the block constituents, indicating a low environmental impact. Concerning economic benefits from the S/S process and reuse of the resultant product, the cost of untreated heavy metal-containing sludge disposal to landfill is usually on the order of US$ 150-200 per tonne of waste, while 1tonne of concrete roadbed blocks (with 25% of S/S waste constitution) has a value of around US$ 100. The results of this work showed that the cement, clay and lime-based process of stabilization/solidification of hazardous waste sludge is sufficiently effective and economically viable to stimulate the treatment of wastewater from small industrial waste generators.     

Changes in mobility of toxic elements during the production of phosphoric acid in the fertilizer industry of Huelva (SW Spain) and environmental impact of phosphogypsum wastes

Presently, about 3 million tonnes of phosphogypsum are being generated annually in Spain as by-product from phosphoric acid in a fertilizer factory located in Huelva (southwestern Iberian Peninsula). Phosphate rock from Morocco is used as raw material in this process. Phosphogypsum wastes are stored in a stack containing 100Mt (approximately 1200ha of surface) over salt marshes of an estuary formed by the confluence of the Tinto and Odiel rivers, less than 1km away from the city centre. A very low proportion of this waste is used to improve fertility of agricultural soils in the area of the Guadalquivir river valley (Seville, SW Spain). The chemical speciation of potentially toxic elements (Ba, Cd, Cu, Ni, Sr, U and Zn) in phosphogypsum and phosphate rock was performed using the modified BCR-sequential extraction procedure, as described by the European Community Bureau of Reference (1999). This study has been done with the main of: (1) evaluate changes in the mobility of metals during the production of phosphoric acid; (2) estimate the amount of mobile metals that can affect the environmental surrounding; and (3) verify the environmentally safe use of phosphogypsum as an amendment to agricultural soils. The main environmental concern associated to phosphoric acid production is that Uranium, a radiotoxic element, is transferred from the non-mobile fraction in the phosphate rock to the bioavailable fraction in phosphogypsum in a rate of 23%. Around 21% of Ba, 6% of Cu and Sr, 5% of Cd and Ni, and 2% of Zn are also contained in the water-soluble phase of the final waste. Considering the total mass of phosphogypsum, the amount of metals easily soluble in water is approximately 6178, 3089, 1931, 579, 232, 193 and 77t for Sr, U, Ba, Zn, Ni, Cu and Cd, respectively. This gives an idea of the pollution potential of this waste.     

Adaptive model of the gradient index of the human lens. I. Formulation and model of aging ex vivo lenses

A simple, parametric adaptive model of the refractive index distribution of the ex vivo crystalline lens is presented. It assumes conicoid (or nonrevolution quadric in 3D) iso-indical surfaces, concentric with the external surfaces of the lens. The model uses a minimum number of internal structural parameters, while the shape of the iso-indical surfaces adapts automatically to the external geometry. In this way, it is able to adapt and fit individual distributions as well as adapt to the changes of the lens shape and structure with age and accommodation. The model is fit to experimental data for individual eyes spanning ages 7 to 82 years, where for each eye the crystalline lens dimensions and iso-indical index data are known. The analysis demonstrates that only one age-dependent structural parameter is needed to replicate the internal iso-indical index structure, given age-dependent models for the external surfaces. An age-dependent-parameter global model is derived and is shown to predict age-dependent changes in the ex vivo lens power and longitudinal spherical aberration with age.     

Olive oil and oxidative stress

Oxidative stress is defined as an imbalance between the oxidant and antioxidant systems of the body, in favor of the oxidants. Oxidative stress produced by free radicals has been linked to the development of several diseases such as cardiovascular, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases Olive oil is the main source of fat of the Mediterranean diet which has been shown to be effective against oxidative stress associated diseases and also with ageing. Besides its richness in monounsaturated fatty acids, the oleic acid, olive oil contains minor components with antioxidant properties. In this review, we summarize the state of the art, and degree of evidence, of the body of knowledge concerning the protective role of the major and minor components of olive oil on oxidative stress.     

Macroporous ultramicroelectrodes for improved electroanalytical measurements

Recent work on the preparation of highly organized macroporous electrodes and nanoporous ultramicroelectrodes has been combined and extended to elaborate macroporous ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs) by template synthesis using colloidal crystals and following two different and complementary methods. On the one hand, arched porous UMEs were prepared, and on the other hand, cylindrical porous UMEs were obtained by using cavity UMEs. These macroporous UMEs have an active surface area which is up to 2 orders of magnitude higher compared to that of a classical disk UME as characterized by cyclic voltammetry. To study their analytical performance, the macroporous UMEs have been modified with a redox-active thiol and also a model bioelectrocatalytical system containing a redox mediator, a cofactor, and glucose-dehydrogenase. In both cases the electrochemical signal is amplified by up to 2 orders of magnitude, which increases significantly the analytical performance of such electrodes and therefore opens up new applications for this kind of miniaturized electrochemical system.     

A new computational method for MAT of injected parts integrated in part modelling stage

In this paper we present a simple and fast approach for MAT generation in discrete form. It is used for manufacturability analysis in the part modelling stage of injected parts. The method is a volume thinning method based on straight skeleton computation, modified and applied in 3D on B-rep models in STL. The volume thinning of the B-rep model is based on its boundary surfaces offset towards the model interior. The surfaces’ offset is done with an adequately proposed offset distance which makes some of the non adjacent offset model surfaces overlap (they ‘meet’ in mid-surface or MAT). Offset surfaces are used to reconstruct the topology of a new B-rep model (offset model). Overlapping surfaces in the offset model are detected, separated and aggregated to MAT. For adequate MAT precision and adequate MAT radius function, we propose to treat B-rep model concave edges (vertices) as cylinders (spheres) of zero-radius and offset them in an adequate way. On these bases, we present an iterative algorithm in which MAT is constructed in an incremental way by consecutive volume thinning of the obtained offset models. MAT construction is finished when an empty offset model is obtained. An algorithm has been created and implemented in Visual C++. Some of the obtained results are presented in this paper.     

Simulated annealing for improving the solution of the response time variability problem

The response time variability problem (RTVP) is a scheduling problem that has a wide range of real-world applications in mixed-model assembly lines, multi-threaded computer systems, machine maintenance, waste collection and others. The RTVP arises whenever products, clients or jobs need to be sequenced in such a way that the variability in the time between the points at which they receive the necessary resources is minimised. The RTVP has been demonstrated to be NP-hard and heuristic and metaheuristic techniques are needed to solve large, real-life instances. The best results, on average, in the literature for the RTVP were obtained with variable neighbourhood search hybidised with multi-start. Several algorithms based on simulated annealing are proposed to solve the RTVP. An extensive computational experiment is carried out and it is shown that the solution of the RTVP is clearly improved.     

An exact procedure for planning holidays and working time under annualized hours considering cross-trained workers with different efficiencies

Annualizing working hours (AH) is a means of achieving flexibility in the use of human resources to cope with the seasonal nature of demand. Some existing planning procedures are able to minimize costs through the use of overtime and temporary workers. However, due to the great difficulty in solving the problem, it is normally assumed both that holiday weeks are fixed beforehand and that workers from different categories who are able to perform a specific type of task have the same efficiency. Often the reality is different, and thus there is a gap between academic and real problems. In the present paper, those constraints are relaxed and a much more general and true-to-life problem is solved in an exact and very efficient way.