The intermediate pyrolysis and catalytic steam reforming of brewers spent grain

Brewers spent grain (BSG) is a widely available feedstock representing approximately 85% of the total by-products generated in the brewing industry. This is currently either disposed of to landfill or used as cattle feed due to its high protein content. BSG has received little or no attention as a potential energy resource, but increasing disposal costs and environmental constraints are now prompting the consideration of this. One possibility for the utilisation of BSG for energy is via intermediate pyrolysis to produce gases, vapours and chars. Intermediate pyrolysis is characterised by indirect heating in the absence of oxygen for short solids residence times of a few minutes, at temperatures of 350-450 °C. In the present work BSG has been characterised by chemical, proximate, ultimate and thermo-gravimetric analysis. Intermediate pyrolysis of BSG at 450 °C was carried out using a twin coaxial screw reactor known as Pyroformer to give yields of char 29%, 51% of bio-oil and 19% of permanent gases. The bio-oil liquid was found to separate in to an aqueous phase and organic phase. The organic phase contained viscous compounds that could age over time leading to solid tars that can present problems in CHP application. The quality of the pyrolysis vapour products before quenching can be upgraded to achieve much improved suitability as a fuel by downstream catalytic reforming. A Bench Scale batch pyrolysis reactor has then been used to pyrolyse small samples of BSG under a range of conditions of heating rate and temperature simulating the Pyroformer. A small catalytic reformer has been added downstream of the reactor in which the pyrolysis vapours can be further cracked and reformed. A commercial reforming nickel catalyst was used at 500, 750 and 850 °C at a space velocity about 10,000 L/h with and without the addition of steam. Results are presented for the properties of BSG, and the products of the pyrolysis process both with and without catalytic post-processing. Results indicate that catalytic reforming produced a significant increase in permanent gases mainly (H2 and CO) with H2 content exceeding 50 vol% at higher reforming temperatures. Bio-oil yield decreased significantly as reforming temperature increased with char remaining the same as pyrolysis condition remained unchanged. The process shows an increase in heating value for the product gas ranging between 10.8-25.2 MJ/m as reforming temperature increased. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Clinical guidelines on long-term pharmacotherapy for bipolar disorder in children and adolescents

Bipolar disorder is a severe affective disorder which can present in adolescence, or sometimes earlier, and often requires a pharmacotherapeutic approach. The phenomenology of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents appears to differ from that of adult patients, prompting the need for specific pharmacotherapy guidelines for long-term management in this patient population. Current treatment guidelines were mainly developed based on evidence from studies in adult patients, highlighting the requirement for further research into the pharmacotherapy of children and adolescents with bipolar disorder. This review compares and critically analyzes the available guidelines, discussing the recommended medication classes, their mechanisms of action, side effect profiles and evidence base

When is an image a health claim? A false-recollection method to detect implicit inferences about products' health benefits

Objective: Images on food and dietary supplement packaging might lead people to infer (appropriately or inappropriately) certain health benefits of those products. Research on this issue largely involves direct questions, which could (a) elicit inferences that would not be made unprompted, and (b) fail to capture inferences made implicitly. Using a novel memory-based method, in the present research, we explored whether packaging imagery elicits health inferences without prompting, and the extent to which these inferences are made implicitly. Method: In 3 experiments, participants saw fictional product packages accompanied by written claims. Some packages contained an image that implied a health-related function (e.g., a brain), and some contained no image. Participants studied these packages and claims, and subsequently their memory for seen and unseen claims were tested. Results: When a health image was featured on a package, participants often subsequently recognized health claims that—despite being implied by the image—were not truly presented. In Experiment 2, these recognition errors persisted despite an explicit warning against treating the images as informative. In Experiment 3, these findings were replicated in a large consumer sample from 5 European countries, and with a cued-recall test. Conclusion: These findings confirm that images can act as health claims, by leading people to infer health benefits without prompting. These inferences appear often to be implicit, and could therefore be highly pervasive. The data underscore the importance of regulating imagery on product packaging; memory-based methods represent innovative ways to measure how leading (or misleading) specific images can be. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

BRACHYURY confers cancer stem cell characteristics on colorectal cancer cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are initiating cells in colorectal cancer (CRC). Colorectal tumours undergo epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like processes at the invasive front, enabling invasion and metastasis, and recent studies have linked this process to the acquisition of stem cell-like properties. It is of fundamental importance to understand the molecular events leading to the establishment of cancer initiating cells and how these mechanisms relate to cellular transitions during tumourigenesis. We use an in vitro system to recapitulate changes in CRC cells at the invasive front (mesenchymal-like cells) and central mass (epithelial-like cells) of tumours. We show that the mesoderm inducer BRACHYURY is expressed in a subpopulation of CRC cells that resemble invasive front mesenchymal-like cells, where it acts to impose characteristics of CSCs in a fully reversible manner, suggesting reversible formation and modulation of such cells. BRACHYURY, itself regulated by the oncogene β-catenin, influences NANOG and other 'stemness' markers including a panel of markers defining CRC-CSC whose presence has been linked to poor patient prognosis. Similar regulation of NANOG through BRACHYURY was observed in other cells lines, suggesting this might be a pathway common to cancer cells undergoing mesenchymal transition. We suggest that BRACHYURY may regulate NANOG in mesenchymal-like CRC cells to impose a 'plastic-state', allowing competence of cells to respond to signals prompting invasion or metastasis. Copyright © 2011 UICC.

Using alcohol unit-marked glasses enhances capacity to monitor intake:evidence from a mixed-method intervention trial

AIMS: In the UK, people tend to have poor knowledge of government guidelines for alcohol use, and lack the motivation and skills required to use them to monitor their drinking. The study aim was to determine whether using glasses marked with such guidelines would improve knowledge and attitudes, increase frequency of counting units and lower alcohol intake. METHODS: A total of 450 adults in the UK participated in an intervention vs control study with 1-month follow-up. The intervention group was encouraged to use glasses supplied by the researchers that indicated the unit content of drinks of different strengths and volumes, and stated the intake guidelines. Data were collected online. A further more in-depth interview with 13 intervention group participants enquired into their experiences of using the glasses. RESULTS: Analyses adjusted for baseline variables showed that the intervention improved the following: knowledge of unit-based guidelines, ability to estimate the unit content of drinks, attitudes toward the guidelines and frequency of counting unit intake. However, there was no significant difference in alcohol consumption between the groups at follow-up. Interviews suggested that the glasses encouraged people to think about their drinking and to discuss alcohol with other people. The design of the glasses was not appealing to all, and their initial impact did not always persist. CONCLUSION: Use of unit-marked glasses led to changes in people's reported use of unit-based guidelines to monitor their drinking but, in the short term, no change in consumption. Qualitative data suggested that the glasses could have an impact at the individual level (on knowledge and attitudes) and at a broader level (by prompting discussion of alcohol use).