A preparação do EM Pd foi escolhida pelo fato de já terem sido estudados em nossos laboratórios os EM Ni e EM Pt. Estes três eletrodos modificados (EMs) foram utilizados nas hidrogenações eletrocatalíticas (HEC) de substratos orgânicos para comparação de suas reatividades. A preparação deste novo eletrodo modificado revestido pelo filme misto poli-[éter alílico do p-(2-etilamônio) benzeno] e co-monômero éter fenil e alílico no suporte de bastão de grafite contendo partículas de Pd foi iniciada com a síntese do éter alílico do p-(2-etilamônio) benzeno a partir da acetamida do p-(2-etilamônio). A utilização do co-monômero éter fenil e alílico na estrutura do filme polimérico se fez na tentativa de espaçar a malha polimérica para conseguir melhorar os resultados das HEC de substratos orgânicos, pois estes teriam maior facilidade de permear (difundir) pela malha e também proporcionar um aumento na quantidade de partículas de paládio incorporadas ao filme. Depois da preparação, utilização e comparação dos EMs Ni, Pd e Pt foram desenvolvidos novos EMs mistos visando aumentar a eficiência nas HEC dos substratos orgânicos. O EM misto Ni/Ni já havia sido preparado e estudado nas HEC mostrando uma eficiência moderada. Preparou-se então os EMs mistos Ni/Pd e Ni/Pt para compará-los com o EM Ni/Ni e com os EMs Ni, Pd e Pt para verificar se ocorreria um aumento na eficiência nas HEC. A preparação destes EMs mistos foi feita utilizando a técnica de electroless. A eficiência dos EMs foi verificada através da GH a partir de uma solução de ácido sulfúrico, do volume de hidrogênio gerado, medidas de potencial de circuito aberto e de reação de HEC de substratos orgânicos. A caracterização dos EMs foi feita pelo cálculo da massa de partículas incorporadas e análise de raios X e MEV-EDX. Os substratos orgânicos estudados nas HEC foram: benzaldeído, n-valeraldeído, isoforona, 2-cicloexen-1-ona, cicloexanona, acetofenona, benzofenona, eugenol, isoeugenol, fenilacetileno, 3-butin-1-ol, benzonitrila, fenilacetonitrila, malononitrila e valeronitrila. Comparando-se os EMs Ni, Pt, Pd, Ni/Ni, Ni/Pd e Ni/Pt, o que levou aos melhores rendimentos nas HEC foi o EM misto Ni/Pd. A HEC da acetofenona e benzofenona levou a resultados inéditos na literatura com a hidrogenação dos anéis aromáticos. / The modified electrode (ME) Pd was chosen because ME Ni and ME Pt had already been studied in our laboratory. These three different MEs were used in the electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) of organic substrates so that their reactivity could be compared. The preparation of the new modified electrode ME Pd by using the mixed film poly-[ether allyl p-(2-ammoniumethyl) benzene] and the co-monomer allyl phenyl ether in carbon stick containing Pd particles. The preparation was initiated by synthesizing the allyl p-(2-ammoniumethyl) benzene ether through reaction with the acetamyde of the p-(2-ammoniumethyl) group. The co-monomer allyl phenyl ether in a polymeric film was used in an attempt to obtain more space between the polymeric film and to achieve better results in the ECH of organic substrates, since they could be introduced through the polymer and increase the quantity of Pd particles of incorporated in to the film. After the preparation of the MEs Ni, Pd and Pt and after they had been used and compared, new mixed MEs were developed in order to study their efficiency in the ECH of organic substrates. Mixed ME Ni/Ni had already been prepared and studied in our laboratory and it was shown to be moderately efficient for ECH. Mixed ME Ni/Pd and Ni/Pt were prepared so that they could be compared with mixed ME Ni/Ni, ME Ni, ME Pd and ME Pt. The preparation of these mixed MEs was carried out by electroless deposition. The efficiency of these MEs was verified by hydrogen generation from a mineral acid solution, hydrogen generation volume, potential of the open circuit and ECH of organic substrates. The characterization of the MEs was done by calculating the mass of incorporated particles and by SEM-EDX analyses. The organic substrates used for in ECH were benzaldehyde, n-valeraldehyde, isophorone, 2-cyclohexen-1-one, cyclohexanone, acetophenone, benzophenone, eugenol, isoeugenol, phenylacetylene, 3-butin-1-ol, benzonitrile, phenylacetonitrile, malononitrile and valeronitrile. A comparison of these MEs shows that the mixed ME Ni/Pd are the most efficient for ECH for all studied substrates. Acetophenone and benzophenone gave fully hydrogenated products; a fact that has not yet been published in the literature.

A comprehensive process intensification analysis was performed for the integration of the Pd-based membrane reactor technology into IGCC power plants by designing effective process control strategies as well as identifying and optimally characterizing inherently safe operational conditions to achieve the most favorable economic outcomes. Experimental results indicated that Pd-based composite membranes supported on porous stainless steel tubes, fabricated with H2 permeance values as high as ~50 m3/[m2.h.atm0.5] at 450°C were capable of extra purity H2 production (≥99.99%). Two illustrative process control and performance monitoring cases namely, process regulation and servo mechanism, were considered and quite satisfactory process control was attained by maintaining CO conversion at levels higher than 95% so that the retentate stream could become suitable for high pressure CO2 sequestration. From a process safety standpoint, process parameters and operating conditions were identified and optimized to achieve the target performance level of 98% CO conversion and 95% H2 recovery and at the same time to prevent conditions which could potentially induce hazards and thus compromise process system safety. Furthermore, the average total product cost of a water-gas shift membrane reactor module including manufacturing costs and general expenses was carefully estimated by taking into account the full cost structure and found to be 1464 $/ft2. Moreover, a comprehensive economic assessment was performed for composite Pd/Alloy membrane reactor technology options integrated into IGCC power plants in the presence of market and regulatory uncertainty (possible regulatory action on CO2 emissions) as well as technology risks with the aid of Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. Within such a context, it was demonstrated that an IGCC plant with embedded Pd-based membrane reactors and a stream of revenues coming from electricity and H2 selling (IGCC co-production mode), represented an economically attractive and advantageous option when comparatively assessed against its main competitors namely, an IGCC plant with shift reactors and double stage Selexol units as well as the more traditional supercritical pulverized coal power plant option with an Econamine unit installed for CO2 capture purposes.

This study explores how education and the medieval intellectual and pedagogical discipline of 'grammatical' developed in Iceland during the medieval period, defined roughly from the official conversion to Christianity c.1000 to the Reformation c.1550, The first chapter deals with social, institutional, and financial aspects of teaching and learning in medieval Iceland, surveying key figures and places, but also arguing that more attention shoulder be paid to the costs of learning and the effect of that on poor students. The second chapter addresses Latin education, discussing the importance of Latinity in medieval Iceland and the types of education that would involve Latin. It also addresses the idea of bilingual education and suggests ways in which extant venacular writings can provide evidence for how Latin was taught and learned using the vernacular, using the model of Old English bilingual education. Finally, the third chapter addresses vernacular topics of learning, focusing on the development of a venacular \(grammatical\) which is focused on the interpretation and normalization of Old Norse texts, rather than the understanding and use of Latin. Discussing these three components of educational history together is fundamental to understanding the intellectual and pedagogical dynamics behind the extant medieval Icelandic textual corpus.

Biofilmes são comunidades bacterianas complexas encapsuladas em matrizes poliméricas autoproduzidas e podem se desenvolver em superfícies inertes ou tecidos vivos. A formação do biofilme é um importante fator de virulência, pois permite à bactéria resistir às respostas do hospedeiro e à terapia antimicrobiana. Devido a essa elevada resistência aos antimicrobianos, é difícil estabelecer uma estratégia eficaz para o tratamento de infecções com formação de biofilmes, levando a falhas na erradicação das mesmas. Nesse contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo é desenvolver um modelo farmacocinético/farmacodinâmico (PK/PD) para descrever o efeito do ciprofloxacino (CIP) na presença de biofilmes de Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), visto que a modelagem PK/PD de antimicrobianos é uma ferramenta útil na escolha de regimes posológicos que atinjam o efeito bactericida máximo, minimizando o desenvolvimento de resistência. Para atingir esse objetivo, inicialmente um método analítico por CLAE/fluorescência foi desenvolvido para quantificar o CIP em amostras de plasma e microdialisado. O método desenvolvido foi simples, rápido e com sensibilidade adequada para corretamente caracterizar a farmacocinética plasmática e pulmonar do CIP. Posteriormente, um modelo animal de infecção pulmonar crônica foi adaptado da literatura e padronizado, permitindo a investigação da distribuição pulmonar do CIP em ratos Wistar sadios e infectados. Para tal, bactérias foram imobilizadas em beads de alginato a fim de manter a infecção por até 14 dias com cargas bacterianas superiores à 108 UFC/pulmão. Estudo de microdiálise foi então conduzido para avaliar as concentrações livres de CIP após administração intravenosa de 20 mg/kg. A análise não-compartimental (NCA) e a modelagem farmacocinética populacional (PopPK) dos dados foram realizadas nos softwares Phoenix® e NONMEM®, respectivamente. Diferenças significativas foram observadas no clearance plasmático (1,59 ± 0,41 L/h/kg e 0,89 ± 0,44 L/h/kg) e na constante de eliminação (0,23 ± 0,04 h-1 e 0,14 ± 0,08 h-1) para ratos sadios e infectados, resultando em uma exposição plasmática maior nos animais infectados (ASC0-∞ = 27,3 ± 12,1 μg·h/mL) quando comparados com os animais sadios (ASC0-∞ = 13,3 ± 3,5 μg·h/mL) ( = 0,05). Apesar da maior exposição plasmática, quando comparados com os animais saudáveis (fT = 1,69), animais infectados apresentaram uma penetração pulmonar quatro vezes menor (fT = 0,44). Diferenças na constante de eliminação pulmonar não foram observadas. Dados plasmáticos e pulmonares foram simultaneamente descritos por modelo PopPK constituído de compartimentos venoso e arterial, dois compartimentos representativos de duas regiões pulmonares distintas e dois compartimentos periféricos, representando outros tecidos que não os pulmões. Um clearance pulmonar foi adicionado ao modelo apenas para os dados de microdiálise dos animais infectados (CLlung = 0,643 L/h/kg) afim de explicar a exposição tecidual diminuída. O modelo desenvolvido descreveu, com sucesso, os dados plasmáticos e teciduais de animais sadios e infectados, permitindo a correta caracterização das alterações observadas na disposição plasmática e pulmonar do CIP decorrentes da infecção com biofilme. Para os estudos de farmacodinâmica, o efeito bactericida do CIP frente a biofilmes e células planctônicas de P. aeruginosa foi simultaneamente avaliado através do uso de curvas de morte bacteriana. Para a construção destas curvas, biofilmes de P. aeruginosa foram formados na superfície de blocos de acrílico e sua formação foi confirmada pelo ensaio cristal violeta e por microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Os blocos foram expostos a concentrações constantes de CIP (de 0,0625 a 10 μg/mL) e, em tempos pré-determinados, células planctônicas e de biofilmes eram amostradas para quantificação. Um modelo semi-mecanístico que incorpora um modelo Emax sigmoidal foi utilizado para descrever o efeito do CIP frente a ambos estilos de vida bacteriano. Uma subpopulação pré-existente com menor suscetibilidade ao CIP foi incluída no modelo e o efeito do CIP nesta subpopulação também foi descrito pelo modelo Emax sigmoidal. A comparação dos parâmetros estimados pelo modelo demonstrou que o efeito in vitro do CIP é maior para as células planctônicas (EC50 = 0,259 mg/L e 0,123 mg/L e Emax = 2,25 h-1 e 5,59 h-1 para biofilmes e planctônicas, respectivamente). A potência estimada do CIP para a subpopulação resistente foi muito menor para ambos estilos de vida bacteriano (EC50 = 2,71 mg/L e 1,15 mg/L para biofilmes e planctônicas, respectivamente). Os modelos desenvolvidos podem ser utilizados para a simulação de cenários não testados e servir como uma ferramenta para guiar a escolha dos regimes posológicos adequados, contribuindo para o sucesso terapêutico no tratamento de infecções associadas à biofilmes. / Biofilms are complex bacterial communities enclosed in self-produced polymeric matrices that can develop in inert surfaces or living tissues. Biofilm formation is an important virulence factor that allows bacteria to resist host responses and antibacterial agents. Due to this high resistance to antibiotics, it is difficult to establish an efficacious strategy for treatment of infections with biofilm formation leading to failure in infection eradication. In this context, the goal of this study was to develop a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model to describe the antimicrobial effect of ciprofloxacin (CIP) in the presence of biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), since PK/PD modeling for antibacterial agents can be a useful tool to choose dosing regimens and to achieve the maximum bactericidal effect, minimizing the development of resistance. To reach this goal, firstly an analytical method based on HPLC/fluorescence was developed in order to quantify CIP in plasma and lung microdialysate. The developed method was simple, fast and with enough sensibility to proper characterize CIP plasma and lung pharmacokinetics. Secondly, an animal model of chronic lung infection was adapted from literature and standardized, allowing the analysis of CIP lung distribution in infected and healthy Wistar rats. Bacteria were immobilized in alginate beads prior to inoculation to Wistar rats in order to sustain the pneumonia for 14 days, maintaining a bacterial load superior to 108 CFU/lung. A microdialysis study was then conducted to evaluate free CIP concentrations after an intravenous administration of 20 mg/kg. Non-compartimental analysis (NCA) and populational PK modeling (PopPK) of the data were performed in Phoenix® and NONMEM®, respectively. Statistical differences were observed in the plasma clearance (1.59 ± 0.41 L/h/kg and 0.89 ± 0.44 L/h/kg) and elimination rate constant (0.23 ± 0.04 h-1and 0.14 ± 0.08 h-1) for healthy and infected rats, respectively, resulting in a significantly higher CIP plasma exposure in infected rats (AUC0-∞ = 27.3 ± 12.1 μg·h/mL) compare to healthy animals (AUC0-∞ = 13.3 ± 3.5 μg·h/mL) ( = 0.05). Besides the plasma exposure, a four times lower pulmonary penetration was observed in infected rat’s lungs (fT = 0.44) in comparison to healthy animals (fT = 1.69), with no significant differences in the lung elimination rate constant. Plasma and lung data were simultaneously fitted using a PopPK model consisting of an arterial and a venous compartment, two compartments representing different regions of the lungs and two peripheral distribution compartments, representing tissues other than lungs. A lung clearance was added to the model for infected animals (CLlung = 0.643 L/h/kg) to explain the lower tissue exposure. The model successfully described the plasma and microdialysis data from both, healthy and infected rats and allowed to correctly describe the changes in CIP plasma and lung disposition in biofilm infections. For the pharmacodynamic studies, CIP bactericidal effect against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and planktonic shedding cells were simultaneously evaluated using the time-kill curves approach. For the time-kill curves construction, P. aeruginosa biofilms were formed in acrylic blocks, which was confirmed by the crystal violet assay and scanning electron microscopy. The blocks were placed in flasks containing Mueller-Hinton growth medium and exposed to constant CIP concentrations (ranging from 0.0625 to 10 μg/mL). At pre-determined time points, biofilm and planktonic cells were sampled for bacterial counting. A mechanism-based model which incorporates a sigmoidal Emax model was used to describe the CIP effect against P.aeruginosa in both llifestyles, biofilm and planktonic. The presence of a pre-existing resistant subpopulation was included in the model and also modeled with a sigmoidal Emax model to describe CIP effect in this subpopulation. Comparison of the parameter estimates showed that the in vitro effect of CIP is higher for planktonic cells (EC50 = 0.259 mg/L and 0.123 mg/L and Emax = 2.25 h-1 and 5.59 h-1 for biofilm and planktonic cells, respectively). CIP potency was much lower for the resistant subpopulation, for both bacteria lifestyles (EC50 = 2.71 mg/L and 1.15 mg/L for biofilm and planktonic, respectively). The developed models can be used to simulate untested scenarios and serve as a tool to guide dosing regimen selection, contributing for the therapeutic success of treatments of biofilm-associated infections.

Submitted by Joana Azevedo (joanad@id.uff.br) on 2017-08-07T19:38:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Gabriela de Rezende Fernandez.pdf: 2719120 bytes, checksum: a4e0277e6395cc9a69efd0a7c1d17e90 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia (bee@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-08-29T16:27:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Gabriela de Rezende Fernandez.pdf: 2719120 bytes, checksum: a4e0277e6395cc9a69efd0a7c1d17e90 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-29T16:27:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Gabriela de Rezende Fernandez.pdf: 2719120 bytes, checksum: a4e0277e6395cc9a69efd0a7c1d17e90 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-24 / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo definir diretrizes para a construção de uma metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos que tenha como foco a execução no ambiente de Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento & Inovação Tecnológica, e que auxilie os pesquisadores na condução dos projetos pertencentes ao programa da Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa e Inovação Tecnológica (EMBRAPII). Para isso, foram selecionas 11 características do modelo de negócio da EMBRAPII que foram confrontadas com as características dos projetos de Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação (PD&I) a fim de verificar o alinhamento do modelo de negócio da EMBRAPII com a natureza da PD&I. Paralelamente, foram analisadas as formas de gerenciamento de projetos padrão PMBOK® Guide, as metodologias de desenvolvimento de produto Scrum e Front End Loading (FEL) e a metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos PRINCE2™, com o objetivo de extrair elementos que poderão contribuir na construção da metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos das Instituições Científicas e Tecnológicas (ICTs) credenciadas na EMBRAPII. Para tanto, foi utilizada a experiência da investigante na construção e implantação da metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos no Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia. O presente estudo teve como resultado um conjunto de 11 diretrizes relacionadas às 11 características da EMBRAPII, que podem influenciar a metodologia em questão. / The goal of this study is to define guidelines to design a project management methodology that focuses on the execution of Research, Development & Innovation’s projects, and to assist researchers in conducting the projects included on the Brazilian’s National Program of Research and Technological Innovation, using EMBRAPII. With that objective in mind and in order to check the alignment with EMBRAPII´s business model, 11 EMBRAPII’s features were selected and compared with the characteristics of Research, Development and Innovation´s projects (RD & I). In parallel, the study also analyzed the world standard methodologies for project management such as the PMBOK® Guide, the product development methodologies Scrum, Front End Loading (FEL) and PRINCE2 ™, with the objective of selecting elements that may contribute to the construction of the project management methodology for Scientific and Technological Institutions (ICT's) accredited by EMBRAPII. Additionally, it was applied also the researcher experience in the construction and implementation of project management methodology at the National Institute of Technology. This study resulted in a set of 11 guidelines related to 11 characteristics of EMBRAPII, which can positively influence the methodology in question.

SiC is a hard man-made material and has emerged as an excellent material for a wide range of applications which are exposed to extreme conditions such as high temperatures and harsh chemical environments. These applications range from SiC being used as an abrasive, to a refractory material, to a semiconductor material for high power and high frequency electronic devices. The properties of the material for each application is different, with the semiconductor grade material for electronic devices being the most refined. SiC, with its excellent thermal properties and high resistance to harsh chemical environments, lends itself to being an ideal support for catalyst systems. Various characterisation & analysis techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography (GC) are used in this thesis to investigate the suitability of single crystal SiC for high temperature catalytic systems. Low temperature oxidation of methane was used to investigate the catalytic activity of: Porous and standard 4H-SiC with and without Pd Porous and Standard 6H-SiC with and without Pd. Nanocrystalline Beta-SiC powder with and without Pd. Part of the samples were impregnated with Pd using Palladium Nitrate (Pd (NO3)2) which is a common precursor for Pd. Activation treatments which were investigated were oxidation and reduction. Oxidation was generally better in activating the catalyst, as was expected, since the PdO phase is known to be more active in oxidising methane. A mixed set of Pd and PdO were observed by SEM and EDS which were the main characterisation techniques used to analyze the structure of the catalysts before and after the reaction. The Beta-SiC showed by far the best activity which could be attributed to the micro-crystalline powder format in which it was used, where as all other catalysts studied here were derived from crushed wafer pieces. Type II porous 4H-SiC was another of the samples which registered impressive results, vis-à-vis catalytic activity.

In this thesis, we describe linear codes over prime fields obtained from incidence designs of iterated line graphs of complete graphs Li(Kn) where i = 1, 2. In the binary case, results are extended to codes from neighbourhood designs of the line graphs Li+1(Kn) using certain elementary relations. Codes from incidence designs of complete graphs, Kn, and neighbourhood designs of their line graphs, L1(Kn) (the so-called triangular graphs), have been considered elsewhere by others. We consider codes from incidence designs of L1(Kn) and L2(Kn), and neighbourhood designs of L2(Kn) and L3(Kn). In each case, basic parameters of the codes are determined. Further, we introduce a family of vertex-transitive graphs 􀀀n that are embeddable into the strong product L1(Kn) ⊠ K2, of triangular graphs and K2, a class which at first sight may seem unnatural but, on closer look, is a repository of graphs rich with combinatorial structures. For instance, unlike most regular graphs considered here and elsewhere that only come with incidence and neighbourhood designs, 􀀀n also has what we have termed as 6-cycle designs. These are designs in which the point set contains vertices of the graph and every block contains vertices of a 6-cycle in the graph. Also, binary codes from incidence matrices of these graphs have other minimum words in addition to incidence vectors of the blocks. In addition, these graphs have induced subgraphs isomorphic to the family Hn of complete porcupines (see Definition 4.11). We describe codes from incidence matrices of 􀀀n and Hn and determine their parameters.

Hydrogen is considered as an alternative clean energy source due to the depletion of fossil fuels and related environmental problems. Steam reforming of bio-ethanol, has excellent potential for hydrogen production, with CO2 neutrality. Ni, Pd and Pt are the most active metals for steam reforming of ethanol. Improving catalytic activity of supported Ni catalyst by incorporating small amount of Pd or Pt is a successful method for increasing activity and stability of the catalyst. Development of active and stable catalysts with low coke formation and high hydrogen yield attracted major attention of researchers in recent decades. MCM-41 supported bimetallic mesoporous catalytic materials containing well dispersed Ni and Pd nanoballs were synthesized following an impregnation procedure. TEM images and XRD analysis of these materials indicated the formation of nickel and palladium nanoballs of 15-25 nm and 5-8 nm respectively, within the synthesized materials. These materials have quite narrow pore-size distributions in the range of 1-5 nm. In the calcined materials, nickel was in Ni+3 and Ni+2 states, however in the reduced sample most of the nickel was in Nio state, together with some NiO. Formation of NiOx crystals takes place after the calcination step. Impregnation of palladium into Ni/MCM-41 caused a decrease in the reduction temperature of NiO for about 50oC. Activity of the catalytic materials were tested in the reaction of steam reforming of ethanol.all the catalysts showed high conversion and quite high hydrogen yield over 400 oC. PdNi impregnated MCM-41 supported catalysts showed higher conversion of ethanol but lower hydrogen yield than Ni impregnated catalysts due to methane formation in the case of Pd incorporation. However, MCM-41 does not show enough hydrothermal stability for steam reforming of ethanol reaction. SBA-15 has very similar physical properties of MCM-41 with larger pores and high hydrothermal stability. Ceria also has widespread applications in catalysis area with its excellent oxygen buffering capacity. It can be used as catalyst support and also an improving agent for silica supports. Mesoporous silica SBA-15 with ordered pore structure was synthesized following a hydrothermal procedure and then bimetallic Ni-Ce and Pd-Ni-Ce incorporated mesoporous silica catalysts were prepared and tested in steam reforming of ethanol. On the other hand, ceria enriched silica structures i.e cerium/silicate composites were also synthesized. However the syntheses were unsuccessful due to the thermal sintering of ceria. Addition of ceria to the support structure decreased coke formation significantly.. According to the thermal gravimetric analysis studies conducted after ethanol steam reformin reaction at 600 oC, coke formation with Ni-SBA-15 (Ni/Si=0.10) catalyst was 40% and it was 10% with NiCe-SBA-15 (Ni/Si=0.10, Ce/Si=0.50) Activity test results obtained with Ni incorporated silica catalysts in steam reforming of ethanol gave high hydrogen yield over 4 (max. 6) and complete conversion of ethanol at 600 oC. SBA-15 found to be more stable catalyst than MCM-41 in the steam reforming of ethanol reaction. The highest hydrogen yield values were achieved by AlMCM-41 supported Ni-Ce impregnated catalysts. Aluminum in the slica matrix (3% wt.) increased the catalytic activity significantly, by giving acidic properties to the catalyst. Simultaneous and consecutive Ni and Ce impregnation were also examined. AlMCM-41 supported, consecutively Ce and Ni impregnated catalysts with Ce/Si and Ni.Si molar ratio sof 0.10, showed very high catalytic activity (5.8 at the beginning). AlMCM-41 supported catalyst were less stable because of high activity and consequently coke formation.

Car exhaust catalysts were introduced in the early 1980’s, to limit the release of pollutants such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. These catalysts contain noble metals such as palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt) and rhodium (Rh) and are able to simultaneously abate all three of the above-mentioned pollutants, hence the name three-way catalyst (TWC). The exposure to high temperatures (800-1000 °C) during operation and the presence of additives in gasoline and lubricants will, after a certain time, lower the activity of the TWC. High temperatures reduce the active area by causing the noble metals to agglomerate and sinter, whereas the additives alter the activity either by fouling the pores of the support material or by interacting with the metals. The main objective of this work was to develop a method which allows for the removal of contaminants (additives) from the washcoat and enables the redispersion of the active sites (noble metals), in an effort to recover lost catalyst activity. For this purpose, regeneration experiments were carried out on a wide spectrum of different commercial car exhaust catalysts. The influence of a thermal treatment in a controlled gas atmosphere, such as oxygen or hydrogen, and a redispersing agent, e.g. chlorine, on the activity of TWC was investigated by means of laboratory-scale activity measurements. Several complementary characterization methods such as SEM/TEM, XRD, BET, LA, XPS and TPR were employed to verify the effects of the regeneration treatments on the catalyst morphology (Papers I, II). The results show that partial regeneration of catalyst activity and noble metal dispersion was achieved after thermal treatment in an oxygen-chlorine rich atmosphere at temperatures below 500 °C. A wet-chemical regeneration treatment with dilute oxalic and citric acid solutions is evaluated in Paper III. These acidic solutions are able to dissolve and remove contaminants from the washcoat, thus partly restoring the catalyst activity. An investigation of the effects of an oxy-chlorine thermal treatment for regeneration of a ‘full-scale’ commercial automotive three-way catalyst was carried out (Paper IV). Improved catalyst activity for a high mileage catalyst could be observed, with emissions lowered by approximately 30 to 40 vol.% over the EC2000 driving cycle. The properties of fresh, aged and regenerated catalysts were then studied by means of labscale experiments, on a local as well as a global level using a mathematical model (Paper V). The model allows for comparison of the intrinsic properties of the active surface by deriving and tuning parameters of a fresh catalyst and verifying the activity of a regenerated or aged catalyst. / QC 20100812

Background: Data regarding both drug-related and non-drug-related costs in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are scarce, mainly due to the difficulties in data acquisition in experimental designs. Likewise, the reported impact of drug costs on total direct costs varies across different studies. In addition, the influence of comorbidities on both treatment costs and health-related quality of life has not been adequately evaluated. Methods: A sample of office-based neurologists (n = 315) in Germany was asked to examine up to five consecutive patients with PD (n = 1449) on a specified day during the study period. Patients of all ages were eligible and their evaluation was performed using standardized questionnaires. Results: PD-specific therapy costs increased with the stage of the disease, early onset of the disease and disease duration. The major costs were due to PD-related therapy, whereas other medications only resulted in minor costs. Disease stage mainly influenced direct therapy costs, with an observed increase of total daily costs from €7.3 to €11.3/day. In addition, disease onset at age < 65 years resulted in total daily costs of €11.2 compared to late onset of disease (> 75 years) with daily therapy costs of €5.3. In this patient group neuropsychiatric comorbidities such as dementia and depression were only insufficiently treated. In addition, these comorbidities severely affected health-related quality of life. Conclusion: Therapy costs were influenced by disease stage, disease onset as well as present comorbidities. Furthermore, comorbidities such as depression and dementia were diagnosed but were not adequately treated.