| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(författare)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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Ingår i: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
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| 2. |
- Kim, O. Y., et al.
(författare)
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Bacterial Protoplast-Derived Nanovesicles as Vaccine Delivery System against Bacterial Infection
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nano Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1530-6984 .- 1530-6992. ; 15:1, s. 266-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The notion that widespread infectious diseases could be best managed by developing potent, adjuvant-free vaccines has resulted in the use of various biological immune-stimulating components as new vaccine candidates. Recently, extracellular vesicles, also known as exosomes and microvesicles in mammalian cells and outer membrane vesicles in Gram-negative bacteria, have gained attention for the next generation vaccine. However, the more invasive and effective the vaccine is in delivery, the more risk it holds for severe immune toxicity. Here, in optimizing the current vaccine delivery system, we designed bacterial protoplast-derived nanovesicles (PDNVs), depleted of toxic outer membrane components to generate a universal adjuvant-free vaccine delivery system. These PDNVs exhibited significantly higher productivity and safety than the currently used vaccine delivery vehicles and induced strong antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. Moreover, immunization with PDNVs loaded with bacterial antigens conferred effective protection against bacterial sepsis in mice. These nonliving nanovesicles derived from bacterial protoplast open up a new avenue for the creation of next generation, adjuvant-free, less toxic vaccines to be used to prevent infectious diseases.
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| 3. |
- Cockell, Charles S., et al.
(författare)
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Sample Collection and Return from Mars : Optimising Sample Collection Based on the Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial Volcanic Environments
- 2019
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Ingår i: Space Science Reviews. - : Springer. - 0038-6308 .- 1572-9672. ; 215:7
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- With no large-scale granitic continental crust, all environments on Mars are fundamentally derived from basaltic sources or, in the case of environments such as ices, evaporitic, and sedimentary deposits, influenced by the composition of the volcanic crust. Therefore, the selection of samples on Mars by robots and humans for investigating habitability or testing for the presence of life should be guided by our understanding of the microbial ecology of volcanic terrains on the Earth. In this paper, we discuss the microbial ecology of volcanic rocks and hydrothermal systems on the Earth. We draw on microbiological investigations of volcanic environments accomplished both by microbiology-focused studies and Mars analog studies such as the NASA BASALT project. A synthesis of these data emphasises a number of common patterns that include: (1) the heterogeneous distribution of biomass and diversity in all studied materials, (2) physical, chemical, and biological factors that can cause heterogeneous microbial biomass and diversity from sub-millimetre scales to kilometre scales, (3) the difficulty of a priori prediction of which organisms will colonise given materials, and (4) the potential for samples that are habitable, but contain no evidence of a biota. From these observations, we suggest an idealised strategy for sample collection. It includes: (1) collection of multiple samples in any given material type (∼9 or more samples), (2) collection of a coherent sample of sufficient size (∼10 cm3∼10 cm3) that takes into account observed heterogeneities in microbial distribution in these materials on Earth, and (3) collection of multiple sample suites in the same material across large spatial scales. We suggest that a microbial ecology-driven strategy for investigating the habitability and presence of life on Mars is likely to yield the most promising sample set of the greatest use to the largest number of astrobiologists and planetary scientists.
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| 4. |
- Tan, S. T., et al.
(författare)
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Energy and emissions benefits of renewable energy derived from municipal solid waste : Analysis of a low carbon scenario in Malaysia
- 2014
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Ingår i: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-2619 .- 1872-9118. ; 136, s. 797-804
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ineffective waste management that involves dumping of waste in landfills may degrade valuable land resources and emit methane gas (CH4), a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2). The incineration of waste also emits polluted chemicals such as dioxin and particle. Therefore, from a solid waste management perspective, both landfilling and incineration practices pose challenges to the development of a green and sustainable future. Waste-to-energy (WtE) has become a promising strategy catering to these issues because the utilisation of waste reduces the amount of landfilled waste (overcoming land resource issues) while increasing renewable energy production. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the energy and carbon reduction potential in Malaysia for various WtE strategies for municipal solid waste (MSW). The material properties of the MSW, its energy conversion potential and subsequent greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions are analysed based on the chemical compositions and biogenic carbon fractions of the waste. The GHG emission reduction potential is also calculated by considering fossil fuel displacement and CH4 avoidance from landfilling. In this paper, five different scenarios are analysed with results indicating a integration of landfill gas (LFG) recovery systems and waste incinerator as the major and minor WtE strategies shows the highest economical benefit with optimal GHG mitigation and energy potential. Sensitivity analysis on the effect of moisture content of MSW towards energy potential and GHG emissions are performed. These evaluations of WtE strategies provides valuable insights for policy decision in MSW management practices with cost effective, energy benefit, environmental protection.
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| 5. |
- Tan, S. T., et al.
(författare)
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SMART : An Integrated Planning and Decision Support Tool for Solid Waste Management
- 2014
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Ingår i: Computer Aided Chemical Engineering. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 1570-7946. ; 33, s. 271-276, s. 271-276
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Solid waste management (SWM) system combined waste streams, waste collection, treatment and disposal methods are critically important to a regional, to achieve environmental economic and societal benefits. Decision-makers often have to rely on optimization models to examine a cost effective, environmentally sound waste management alternative. This paper presents a new systematic framework for long term effective planning and scheduling of SWM. This framework has been converted into software called Solid Waste Management Resource Recovery Tool (SMART). SMART is a first-of-a-kind SWM tool to facilitate the tradeoffs analysis between technical, economical, and environmental at national, regional, state, province, or community level. This simple tool is useful for decision makers for the selection of MSW technology including incineration, landfill, composting and recycling are while minimising the costs and meet CO2 reductions target. The developed tool was applied in Iskandar Malaysia as a case study.
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| 6. |
- Goi, K. L. S., et al.
(författare)
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Elastic modulus of sintered porous Ti-Si-Zr, using activation by Ti-Si mechanically alloyed powder and TiH2 powder
- 2008
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Ingår i: Materials Science & Engineering. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-5093 .- 1873-4936. ; 475:1-2, s. 45-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A novel biomaterial based on Ti-Si-Zr was developed using the sintering process with a composition targeting at a bulk modulus in the same range as that of human bone, i.e. 10-30 GPa. Control of porosity should also be possible to allow for the promotion osseointegration. The sintering procedure involves the use of mechanically alloyed Ti-Si-powder, and TiH2, to promote bonding, but not consolidation. The effect of porosity on the bulk modulus using compression testing is investigated. The influence of sintering temperature, heating rate, and amount and size of the TiH2-activator on porosity are also investigated. The achievable bulk modulus was in the range of 20-55 GPa at porosity levels ranging from 16% to 54%. Porosity had a profound influence on the bulk modulus, and the choice of appropriate processing conditions enables the creation of an engineered porosity and bulk modulus primarily by varying the sintering temperature and the size of the TiH2-powder particles. © 2007.
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| 8. |
- Gu, Y. W., et al.
(författare)
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Solid state synthesis of nanocrystalline and/or amorphous 50Ni-50Ti alloy
- 2005
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Ingår i: Materials Science & Engineering. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-5093 .- 1873-4936. ; 392:1-2, s. 222-228
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A nanocrystalline/amorphous 50Ni-50Ti alloy was produced by solid state synthesis via mechanical alloying from elemental Ti and Ni powders. Using X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy techniques, a mechanically induced solid state reaction of 50Ni-50Ti was investigated. Results showed that nanocrystalline and amorphous Ni-Ti phases were obtained after mechanical alloying. The mechanical alloying of 50Ni-50Ti for 270 ks led to the formation of f.c.c. Ni(Ti) solid solution, characterized by a lattice parameter of 0.3558 nm, crystallite size of 14 nm and lattice strain of 0.98%. The particle size decreased with increasing milling time. The crystallite size of mechanically alloyed 50Ni-50Ti powders was substantially refined as the milling proceeded and the lattice strain increased with the milling time. The steady-state crystallite size was approximately 10-15 nm. The internal lattice strain in Ni-Ti alloy led to the disordering and the subsequent formation of amorphous alloy during mechanical alloying. After heat treatment at 1100 °C, the as-milled powders transformed into B2-NiTi phase and a small amount of Ti2Ni phase. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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