Eugene+Wong

Leaf Proteomic analysis of three rice heritable mutants after seed space flight From “Advances in Space research” Scientists in China were studying the proteomic changes (protein changes) on three mutant sets of rice seeds that experienced 15 days of space flight. The three mutant plants each grew differently. One grew more tillers but became dwarf. Another plant had higher grain yield and better stress resistance. The last plant matured earlier. The proteins in the leaves were extracted during tiller development and analyzed by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. 5 proteins were found to have changed significantly over the controls. The main functions of these proteins were photosynthesis, stress defense, and metabolism including RuBisCO activase, and glycine rich RNA binding protein. In a quantitative analysis, less protein spots and more down-regulated protein spots were detected in the mutants, indicating that there might be a major loss of protein in heritable variance rice plants after space flight. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V3S-4RV7YK1-2&_user=1400827&_coverDate=09/15/2008&_alid=882569734&_rdoc=26&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=5738&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=584&_acct=C000052589&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1400827&md5=d26a571ff438fc399addf21d1d680d94

“ Central side-effects of therapies based on CB1     cannabinoid      receptor     agonists and antagonists: focus on anxiety and depression” From “Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism” The CB1 receptors in the CNS are the receptors for the main ingredient, THC, in the drug marijuana. These receptors have been explored for use in the medical field to treat drug addiction, obesity with metabolic dysregulation, and pain management. The receptors are also involved in the modulation of stress, emotion, and habituation responses; common behaviors that are dysregulated in psychiatric disorders. Accordingly, the activation of these receptors is known to cause episodes of psychosis and pain; whereas its inhibition causes similar behaviors to depression and anxiety-related disorders. Future research opportunities lie in the investigation of the effects of synthetic agonists and compare with those of THC in order to explore possible advantages of such new substances. Also to investigate therapies to based on enhancement of endocannabinoid activity, memory, pain, and mood, rather than directly affecting the CB1 receptor to avoid psychotic side-effects. [|__http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WBD-4VTDPJT-C&_user=1400827&_coverDate=02/28/2009&_alid=887350122&_rdoc=20&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=6708&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=465&_acct=C000052589&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1400827&md5=6e2e708bf88369c2561dd8ae8c8e1455#sec__]

“Syngas yield during pyrolysis and steam gasification of paper” From “Applied Energy” There is new biofuel research that involves biomass and biowaste to create Syngas (Synthetic Gas). This research done at University of Maryland chose to use paper as their “biowaste”. They chose paper because it represents 1/3 of the municipal solid wastes. Another 1/3 of the solid wastes comprises of cellulosic materials, therefore this makes paper an even better testing material. Two different processes were tested in this experiment, pyrolysis and steam gasification. Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition through heating. Pyrolysis is an important chemical process that involves many cooking stages: baking, frying, and grilling. Steam gasification is the process that converts carbonaceous materials by reacting the materials with high heat and a controlled amount of oxygen, or in this case steam. The lab tested which method produced a high flow rate of syngas. At temperatures from 600-1000C, in intervals of 100 degrees, gasification had higher flow rates at each temperature tested and throughout each separate run. Energy wise, gasification of 35g paper yielded ~250-440kJ compared to ~50-300kJ produced by pyrolysis. At 600C, however, the flow rates and energy yield are comparable. [] “Syngas production from methane oxidation using a non-thermal plasma: Experiments and kinetic modeling” From “Chemical Engineering Journal” Traditionally,    syngas    production has been achieved by using catalytic reformers. However, in addition to its high economic investment cost                       and catalyst performances can be reduced by solid carbon deposition. The maintenance required to remove the contaminated catalytic equipment can present a major drawback                    . Moreover, catalytic sites need to be activated by heating at high temperature.              To overcome these catalyst difficulties, fuel reforming by plasma technology is becoming more popular. Thermal plasma, in which the electron temperature (>10,000 K) is equal to the gas temperature, has been successfully used in    syngas  <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> creation  <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">to increase internal combustion engine efficiency and to reduce Nitrogen Oxides  <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">  <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">emissions. Results have shown that H2 yields of thermal and nonthermal plasma are comparable, but nonthermal plasma has much lower energy consumption. <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The main role of such plasma is to provide the energy for the production of reactive species and to enhance fuel reforming reactions. The best energy cost of H2 gas production is ~45 kWh/kg is seen during the highest CH4/ air mixture mass flow rate of 0.175 g/s. <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The experimental data produced two results: <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">• High CH4 <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">conversion and maximum H2 <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">production are obtained at low flow rate and high initial concentration of methane in air. In these cases, most of the electrical energy supplied to the plasma is lost by thermal effect and not involved in the chemical reaction, entailing a high energy cost to produce H2. <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">• A low energy cost of H2 <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">production can be obtained at high flow rates and low initial concentration of methane in air, which decreases losses and enables a better use of electrical power by the chemical reactions. []