A comparison of the different pathways that municipal solid waste (MSW) is going in large metropolitan centres such as Toyko, Paris and Mexico City is presented in the article ‘La recogida de basura en Mega-ciudades: En el marco de la sostenibilidad’ by Fabian Tron. Available in Revista INVI v.25 n.70 12/2010 on Scielo in Spanish.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
While the data on waste quantities itself is quite old and dates back to 2005, I found the system how household waste is handled differently in these three cities quite interesting. To get an idea of the “weight” of the different pathways, I decided to do a remake of the three figures as Sankey diagrams. Here is the one for Tokyo.

[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
Flows are in 1000 tonnes (kt) per year. There is an informal sector (Economia Informal) where waste streams are not under control of the municipality. The largest part of non-recyclable household waste goes directly to incineration or “reduction”. The remainder is led to treatment plants and eventually most of it ends up in landfill (Vertedero). Note that smaller flow quantities are over-emphasized and are not to scale (otherwise they would hardly be visible in the diagram).

If you want to see the two other Sankey diagrams, please let me know in the comments.

So, there’s this new study doing the rounds. Some economists decided to study the twitter followers of prominent coronavirus skeptics and fearmongers, and it seems that followers of Nassim Taleb were more likely to shelter in place, and less like to die of coronavirus, than followers of Richard Epstein or Cass Sunstein. And the differences […]

National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) fire managers, working together as the North Zone Interagency Fire Management Program, are preparing for multiple prescribed fires on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Fire managers anticipate initiating these prescribed fire treatments during the fall and winter months as weather and fuel moisture conditions allow. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/grand-canyon-national-park-fire-managers-preparing-for-multiple-prescribed-fires-on-the-north-rim.htm

Portugal is aiming to leap out of their COVID-19 lockdown by launching a series of clean energy projects that could generate 5.5 billion Euro in investment.

The post Portugal Preparing Several Billion-dollar Clean Energy Projects for Post-Coronavirus Future appeared first on Good News Network.

Old-growth forests provide unique habitat features and landscape functions compared to younger stands. The goals of many forest management plans in the Pacific Northwest include increasing the area of late-successional and old-growth forests.

Conservation measures for aquatic species throughout the Pacific Northwest rely heavily on maintaining forested riparian zones. A key rationale for this strategy is that the presence of standing and downed trees next to streams will provide a continuous source of wood, which is an important structural component of aquatic habitat.

Scientists, land managers and policy makers discussed whether riparian (stream side) forest management and policy for state, federal and private lands in western Washington are consistent with current science. Answers were mixed: some aspects of riparian policy and management have a strong basis in current science, while other aspects may not.

Over the past decade, wood-energy use in Alaska has grown dramatically.

The Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS) of the Northwest Forest Plan guides management of riparian and aquatic ecosystems on federal lands in western Oregon, western Washington, and northern California.

This guide presents a classification of the deep canyon and subalpine riparian and wetland vegetation types of the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests. A primary goal of the deep canyon and subalpine riparian and wetland classification was a seamless linkage with the midmontane northeastern Oregon riparian and wetland classification provided by Crowe and Clausnitzer in 1997. The classification is based on potential natural vegetation and follows directly from the plant association concept for riparian zones. The 95 vegetation types classified across the three national forests were organized into 16 vegetation series, and included some 45 vegetation types not previously classified for northeastern Oregon subalpine and deep canyon riparian and wetland environments. The riparian and wetland vegetation types developed for this guide were compared floristically and environmentally to riparian and wetland classifications in neighboring geographic regions. For each vegetation type, a section was included describing the occurrence#40;s#41; of the same or floristically similar vegetation types found in riparian and wetland classifications developed for neighboring geographic regions. Lastly, this guide was designed to be used in conjunction with the midmontane guide to provide a comprehensive look at the riparian and wetland vegetation of northeastern Oregon.

DALLAS, 5 de mayo de 2020 — Diez estudiantes universitarios recibirán becas de US$10,000 dólares de la American Heart Association que servirán para favorecer el trabajo que desempeñan estos alumnos para cerrar las brechas de disparidad en el ámbito de la...

DALLAS, May 5, 2020 — Ten college students are receiving $10,000 scholarships from the American Heart Association for their work to help close health disparity gaps – which appear to contribute to disproportionately high rates of sickness and death among...

Tags: coronavirus, FiveThirtyEight, modeling

The galaxy far far away has items both big and small. The Star Wars Size Comparison Video created by MetaBallStudios brings droids, people and planets together from the Star Wars movies (episode I to VIII, Rogue One and Solo). See how your favorites size up against each other.

Comparison of many things from the Star Wars movies. Only movies from episode I to VIII, Rogue One and Solo. Obviously not everything appears, only the most representative.

Providing scale and context to your audience is one of the key tenets of data visualization, and this video does a fantastic job of giving you the context of the size of everything in the Star Wars universe.

Found on Gizmodo.com.

Several nonlinear model reduction techniques are compared for the three cases of the non-parallel version of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, the transient regime of flow past a cylinder at $Re=100$ and fully developed flow past a cylinder at the same Reynolds number. The linear terms of the governing equations are reduced by Galerkin projection onto a POD basis of the flow state, while the reduced nonlinear convection terms are obtained either by a Galerkin projection onto the same state basis, by a Galerkin projection onto a POD basis representing the nonlinearities or by applying the Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method (DEIM) to a POD basis of the nonlinearities. The quality of the reduced order models is assessed as to their stability, accuracy and robustness, and appropriate quantitative measures are introduced and compared. In particular, the properties of the reduced linear terms are compared to those of the full-scale terms, and the structure of the nonlinear quadratic terms is analyzed as to the conservation of kinetic energy. It is shown that all three reduction techniques provide excellent and similar results for the cases of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and the limit-cycle cylinder flow. For the case of the transient regime of flow past a cylinder, only the pure Galerkin techniques are successful, while the DEIM technique produces reduced-order models that diverge in finite time.

A process has been developed for preparing 2-methoxymethyl-1,4-benzenediamine (IV-a), other compounds of formula (IV), and the salts thereof, all of which may be used as primary intermediates in compositions for dyeing keratin fibers.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a compound of formula wherein: R2 is cycloalkyl or alkyl, each of which may be optionally substituted; Y is —CONR3R4, —CN or CO2R5; R3, R4 and R5 are each independently H or alkyl; n is 1 to 6; wherein said process comprising the steps of: (i) treating a compound of formula (IV), where R1 is alkyl, with a compound of formula (V) and forming a compound of formula (IIIb); (ii) treating said compound of formula (IIIb) with a compound of formula (I1) to form a compound of formula (I).

A process for preparing alkylated p-phenylenediamine having the steps of reacting aniline and nitrobenzene in presence of a complex base catalyst to obtain 4-aminodiphenylamine intermediates, hydrogenating the 4-aminodiphenylamine intermediates to 4-aminodiphenylamine in presence of a hydrogenation catalyst, and reductively alkylating the 4-aminodiphenylamine to alkylated p-phenylenediamine.

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for analyzing sequential data. The sequential data can comprise a sequence of data points arranged in a particular order and thus representing a sequence. A number of such sequences can be analyzed, for example, to identify patterns or commonalities within the sequences or portions of sequences represented by the data. According to one embodiment, a method of identifying patterns in sequences of data points can comprise reading a set of sequential data. The sequential data can comprises a plurality of sequences and each of the plurality of sequences can represent an ordered sequence of tokens. A dotplot representing matches between each sequence of the plurality sequences can be generated. One or more patterns within the sequential data can then be identified based on the dotplot.

Provided herein are processes for preparing estolides and estolide base oils from fatty acid reactants utilizing catalysts. Further provided herein are processes for preparing carboxylic esters from at least one carboxylic acid reactant and at least one olefin.

Provided herein are processes of preparing sulfonated estolide compounds, and the removal of sulfonate residues from those compounds to provide desulfonated estolide base oils. Exemplary sulfonated estolide compounds include those selected from the formula: wherein z is an integer selected from 0 to 15; q is an integer selected from 0 to 15; x is, independently for each occurrence, an integer selected from 0 to 20; y is, independently for each occurrence, an integer selected 0 to 20; n is equal to or greater than 0; R6 is selected from —OH, optionally substituted alkyl, and optionally substituted aryl; and R2 is selected from hydrogen and optionally substituted alkyl that is saturated or unsaturated, and branched or unbranched, wherein each fatty acid chain residue of said compounds is independently optionally substituted.

The present invention is related to methods for the preparation of pharmaceutically acceptable salts of (+)-7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-(methanesulfonyl-methyl-amino)-pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S,6E)-dihydroxy-hept-6-enoic acid, intermediates thereof and methods for producing said intermediates.

Disclosed is a method for preparing optically pure (+)-ambrisentan and (+)-darusentan, comprising: firstly catalyzing the asymmetric epoxidation of a β-unsaturated alkene using a chiral ketone derived from fructose or a hydrate thereof as a catalyst, and then subjecting the product to an epoxy compound ring-opening reaction and substitution reaction successively to obtain optically pure (+)-ambrisentan and (+)-darusentan.

Catalyst compositions comprising metallocene complexes having polymerisable olefinic groups substituent on an organic group containing a cyclopentadienyl nucleus may be used for the preparation of polyolefins. The catalyst compositions may be in the form of polymers comprising the metallocene complex and may be suitably supported on inorganic supports. Polymers having a broad range of density and melt indices as well as low hexane extractables and excellent powder morphology and flowability may be obtained by use of the catalyst compositions. Preferred metallocene complexes are zirconium complexes in which the polymerisable olefinic group is vinyl.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a methylene-bridged biscyclopentadienyl compound having the formula I ##STR1##where L are, independently of one another, identical or different and are each a cyclopentadienyl group, by reacting one or two cyclopentadienyl compounds LH with formaldehyde in monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric form or formaldehyde-generating reagents in the presence of at least one base and at least one phase transfer catalyst.

A process to prepare an improved fluid rare earth phosphate catalyst composition useful in preparing alkylene oxide adducts of organic compounds having active hydrogen atoms is provided. The catalyst is prepared by dissolving a rare earth salt in a C9-C30 active hydrogen containing organic compound and then adding phosphoric acid to the organic compound rare earth mixture.

A method for preparing fuel components from crude tall oil. Feedstock containing tall oil including unsaturated fatty acids is introduced to a catalytic hydrodeoxygenation to convert unsaturated fatty acids, rosin acids and sterols to fuel components. Crude tall oil is purified in a purification by washing the crude tall oil with washing liquid and separating the purified crude tall oil from the washing liquid. The purified crude tall oil is introduced directly to the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation as a purified crude tall oil feedstock. An additional feedstock may be supplied to the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation.

A catalyst comprising an aluminosilicate zeolite having an MOR framework type, an acidic MFI molecular sieve component having a Si/Al2 molar ratio of less than 80, a metal component comprising one or more elements selected from groups VIB, VIIB, VIII, and IVA, an inorganic oxide binder, and a fluoride component.

Provided are a negative active material, a method of preparing the same, and a lithium battery including the negative active material. The negative active material includes a carbonaceous core that has a sulfur content of about 10 ppm to 900 ppm; and an amorphous carbon layer continuously formed on a surface of the carbonaceous core, wherein the carbonaceous core has a crystalloid plate structure, and a crystallite size measured from a full width at half maximum of the peak with respect to the surface (002) of about 10 nm to about 45 nm in an X-ray diffraction spectrum of the carbonaceous core. The lithium battery including a negative electrode including the negative active material has improved capacity characteristics and ring lifetime characteristics.

Methods for the synthesis of metal quantum clusters within the framework of a porous gel matrix are described. For example, Ag25(glutathione)18 quantum clusters are synthesized in a cross-linked polyacrylamide gel matrix. The methods can be performed on large-scale and yields monodispersed metal quantum clusters.

Set of compositions for preparing system-in-package type semiconductor device. The composition set consists of underfill composition for preparing underfill part and encapsulation resin composition for preparing resin encapsulation part. 1) A cured product of the underfill composition has a glass transition temperature, Tg, ≧100° C. and is the same with or differs from a Tg of a cured product of the encapsulation resin composition by ≦20° C. 2) Total linear expansion coefficient of the cured product of the underfill composition at a temperature not higher than (Tg−30)° C. and a linear expansion coefficient of the cured product of the encapsulation resin composition at a temperature not higher than (Tg−30)° C. is ≦42 ppm/° C. 3) A ratio of the linear expansion coefficient of the cured product of the encapsulation resin composition to the linear expansion coefficient of the cured product of the underfill composition ranges from 0.3 to 1.0.

An artificial silica marble comprises a matrix and a line pattern portion. The line pattern portion comprises fine lines having a width of about 50 to about 500 μm and forms a web- or net-like pattern. The line pattern portion divides or partitions the artificial silica marble into a plurality of irregularly shaped pattern portions to form an amorphous pattern in the cross section of the artificial silica marble.

The disclosure provides an ink jet ink for color filter and a method for preparing the same, as well as a method for preparing of a color filter. The ink jet ink for color filter comprising, by weight, 10 to 50 parts of aqueous nano pigment dispersion and 51 to 95 parts of a cold curing component.

Data is compressed using content addressable memory without disruption despite error using a plurality of content addressable memories to detect sequentially repeating data elements of the data. Compression information is generated for each sequence of repeating data elements that repeat for at least a compression threshold without any one of the plurality of content addressable memories generating an indication of an error for a matching content addressable memory entry. Individual data elements are output for each of the data elements that do not repeat for the compression threshold. Compression information is generated for each sequence of repeating data elements that repeat for at least the compression threshold and then generating a currently searched data element that matches the repeating data elements when any one of the plurality of content addressable memories generates an indication of an error for a content addressable memory entry that matches the currently searched data element.

The present disclosure relates to a method for detecting a parity error in a sequence of DQPSK symbols of a digital transmission system, comprising determining a first demodulated symbol r1; determining a second demodulated symbol r2; determining a first parity symbol p1; determining a second parity symbol p2; determining a super-parity symbol q1; and detecting a parity error in the sequence of DQPSK symbols by comparing a combination of the first parity symbol p1 and the second parity symbol p2 against the super-parity symbol q1, wherein a parity between two DQPSK symbols describes a phase difference between the two DQPSK symbols.

A method of preparing a simple ceramic ingot of a spent filter having radioactive cesium trapped therein, and a ceramic ingot of a spent filter having improved properties such as leach resistance, thermal stability, and cesium content are provided. The method includes grinding and mixing a spent filter having cesium trapped therein, adding a solidifying agent, and sintering the spent filter. The method of preparing a ceramic ingot of a spent filter can be useful in preparing the ceramic ingot of the spent filter from only the spent filter by means of simple grinding and sintering, and in preparing the ceramic ingot of the spent filter by adding a small amount of a solidifying agent. The ceramic ingot of the spent filter has a high density and improved thermal stability, and shows improved leach resistance since a leach rate of a radioactive material is remarkably low. Therefore, the spent filter having radioactive cesium trapped therein can be effectively used to prepare a stable ceramic ingot.

The present invention relates to methods for preparing a degradable polymer network. The methods for preparing a degradable polymer network comprise a) preparing a polymer composition comprising monomers of cyclic carbonates and/or cyclic esters and/or linear carbonates and/or linear esters and/or cyclic ethers and/or linear hydroxycarboxylic acids at a temperature between 20° C. and 200° C.; b) adding a cross-linking reagent comprising at least one double or triple C—C bond and/or a cross-linking radical initiator; c) processing the polymer composition (that contains the crosslinking reagent into a desired shape; d) Crosslinking by irradiating the mixture. Further, the present invention relates to a degradable polymer network. Furthermore, the present invention relates to the use of the degradable polymer network.

Methods or preparing para-xylene from biomass by carrying out a Diels-Alder cycloaddition at controlled temperatures and activity ratios. Methods of preparing bio-terephthalic acid and bio-poly(ethylene terephthalate (bio-PET) are also disclosed, as well as products formed from bio-PET.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing cyclic compounds having at least eight carbon atoms and at least one keto group, to the cyclic compounds obtained by this process and to the use thereof, in particular as fragrance or for providing a fragrance.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing menthone, starting from isopulegol, using specific homogeneous catalysts.

Disclosed is a method for preparing a compound of Formula 1 wherein Q and Z are as defined in the disclosure comprising distilling water from a mixture comprising a compound of Formula 2, a compound of Formula 3, a base comprising at least one compound selected from the group consisting of alkaline earth metal hydroxides of Formula 4 wherein M is Ca, Sr or Ba, alkali metal carbonates of Formula 4a wherein M1 is Li, Na or K, 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene, and an aprotic solvent capable of forming a low-boiling azeotrope with water. Also disclosed is a method for preparing a compound of Formula 2 comprising (1) forming a reaction mixture comprising a Grignard reagent derived from contacting a compound of Formula 5 wherein X is Cl, Br or I with magnesium metal or an alkylmagnesium halide in the presence of an ethereal solvent, and then (2) contacting the reaction mixture with a compound of Formula 6 wherein Y is OR11 or NR12R13, and R11, R12 and R13 are as defined in the disclosure. Further disclosed is a method for preparing a compound of Formula 7 wherein Q and Z are as defined in the disclosure, using a compound of Formula 1 characterized by preparing the compound of Formula 1 by the method disclosed above or using a compound of Formula 1 prepared by the method disclosed above.

A process for preparing a particle defoamer. The particle defoamer of 55%-75% of a carrier, 15%-35% of a silicone emulsion, 3%-10% of a texturing agent and 2%-10% of a solvent, based on the total weight of the particle defoamer; the process for preparing the particle defoamer is: (1)first adding a carrier A1 into a mixer, and then adding thereto a silicone emulsion B1, and stirring uniformly; (2)adding a carrier component A2 to the mixture obtained in (1), and stirring uniformly; (3)adding a silicone emulsion B2 to the mixture obtained in (2), and, after uniformly stirring, adding the solvent thereto and stirring uniformly; and (4)pelleting and drying by baking the mixture obtained in(3), so as to produce the product.

A computer-readable, non-transitory medium storing a character string comparison program is provided. The program causes, when executed by a computer, the computer to perform a process including splitting a first character string and a second character string into words; acquiring information including a semantic attribute that represents a semantic nature of each of the words and a conceptual code that semantically identifies said each of the words, from a storage device; identifying a pair of the words having a common semantic attribute between the first character string and the second character string; comparing the conceptual codes of the specified pair of the words between the first character string and the second character string; and generating a comparison result between the first character string and the second character string based upon a comparison result of the conceptual codes.

The present invention relates to I- and II-type crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, and to a method for preparing same. More particularly, the present invention relates to noble I- and II-type anhydride crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, which have a higher purity than conventional liquid L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, and one advantage of which is that formulations and dosages of pharmaceuticals are easily modified, and another advantage of which is that the hygroscopicity of the crystals are much lower than that of conventional polymorphic crystals, providing excellent stability during storage. The present invention also relates to a method for preparing the I- and II-type crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline. The I-type crystal of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline is characterized by having an onset temperature of 147° C. and an absorption peak of 150° C. based on differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis, and by having diffraction patterns where 2θ-diffraction angles are 9.8±0.2°, 12.0±0.2°, 14.3±0.2°, 15.8±0.2°, and 19.6±0.2° based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The II-type crystal of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline is characterized by having an onset temperature of 62° C. and an absorption peak of 66° C., and an onset temperature of 141° C. and an absorption peak of 145° C. based on DSC analysis, and having diffraction patterns where 2θ-diffraction angles are 10.3±0.2°, 12.2±0.2°, 13.4±0.2°, 14.8±0.2°, and 20.6±0.2° based on XRD analysis.

The present invention provides a process for preparing triorgano borates with low alcohol content.

The esterfication of hypophosphorous acid is followed by reaction with another molecule of alcohol under the action of a nickel catalyst to provide a green method for the preparation of H-phosphonate diesters. This method avoids the need for any stoichiometric chlorine unlike those based on phosphorous trichloride.

The invention provides a process for preparing diaryl carbonates from dialkyl carbonates and aromatic hydroxyl compounds using at least two reaction columns, a process section for recovering the dialkyl carbonate used in the reaction and for removing the alcohol of reaction, one or more process steps for removing the by-products obtained in the process which have a boiling point between that of the dialkyl carbonate and that of the alkyl aryl carbonate formed during the preparation of the diaryl carbonate, and a process step for further purification of the diaryl carbonate obtained from the reaction columns.

A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) controller receives new data that is to be written, wherein the new data is indicated in blocks of a first block size. The RAID controller reads old data, and old parity that corresponds to the old data, stored in blocks of a second block size that is larger in size than the first block size. The RAID controller computes new parity based on the new data, the old data, and the old parity. The RAID controller writes the new data and the new parity aligned to the blocks of the second block size, wherein portions of the old data that are not overwritten by the RAID controller are also written to the blocks of the second block size.

A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) controller receives new data that is to be written, wherein the new data is indicated in blocks of a first block size. The RAID controller reads old data, and old parity that corresponds to the old data, stored in blocks of a second block size that is larger in size than the first block size. The RAID controller computes new parity based on the new data, the old data, and the old parity. The RAID controller writes the new data and the new parity aligned to the blocks of the second block size, wherein portions of the old data that are not overwritten by the RAID controller are also written to the blocks of the second block size.