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This paper discusses five major parameters in desalination, namely technology, raw-water, energy sources, cost and environmental effects. Both size and yield have grown rapidly in desalination plants due to high performance in technology developments in the last few years. Five different types of desalination technology are presented and bench-marked for long-term use: multistage flash evaporation
Vectoring is a vital component of wideband wire- line communication systems. A disorderly leaving event (DLE) disturbs the vectoring operation since the precoder, which was designed for the channel before the change, is no longer up to date. Measurements indicate that the impact of a DLE can be serious for frequencies beyond 30 MHz, which corresponds to the band used by emerging wideband communica
The aim of the work presented in this thesis is the improvement of xylose fermentation performance of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing XYL1 and XYL2 from Pichia stipitis, encoding xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH). A recombinant strain of S. cerevisiae, fermenting both xylose and glucose to ethanol could decrease the production cost of ethanol from ligno-
The problem addressed in this thesis is how to account for environmental aspects when purchasing freight transports. This problem is addressed from a transport purchasing perspective. The result of the research is a model for how transport purchasers can incorporate environmental aspects when purchasing freight transports. This mode! is built on two tools and a work process. The first too! is a st
The major challenge in the development of new polymer membranes for fuel cells lies currently in the demand for durable membranes that allows fuel cell operation at high temperatures without extensive humidification requirements. Access to these membranes promises important benefits concerning the complexity, cost and performance of the fuel cell system. In this context, membranes functionalized w
There is a rhetoric in current European political agenda for widening access to ICT’s as part of a strategy for encouraging greater participation in public life. We argue against a naïve assumption that technology in itself could provide solutions. Knowing that systems with potential for meaningful use are available is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to bring about desire for use in any
The nature of scientific research and the development of scientific software have similarities with processes that follow the agile manifesto: responsiveness to change and collaboration are of the utmost importance. But how well do current scientific software development processes match the practices found in agile development methods, and what are the effects of using agile practices in such proc
The paranormal has gone mainstream. Beliefs are on the rise, with almost half of the British population, and two thirds of Americans, claiming to believe in extra sensory perceptions and hauntings. Psychic magazines like Spirit and Destiny, television shows such as Fringe, Ghost Whisperer and Most Haunted, ghost-cams and e-poltergeists, bestselling books on mind, body and spirit, and magicians li
Precision background predictions with well-defined uncertainty estimates are important for interpreting collider-physics measurements and for planning future high-energy collider experiments. It is especially important to estimate the perturbative uncertainties in predictions of inclusive measurements of jet observables, that are designed to be largely insensitive to non-perturbative effects such
High postprandial blood glucose levels are associated with increased mortality, cardiovascular events and development of diabetes in the general population. Interventions targeting postprandial glucose have been shown to prevent both cardiovascular events and diabetes. This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of a novel nutritional supplement targeting postprandial glucose excursions in non-di
Low rank structures are present in many applications of computer vision and machine learning. A popular approach consists of explicitly parameterising the set or matrices with sought rank, leading to a bilinear factorisation, reducing the problem to find the bilinear factors. While such an approach can be efficiently implemented using second-order methods, such as Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) or Varia
In Case C-364/13 International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCC) v. Comptroller General of Patents (December 18th, 2014), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) distinguished its’ earlier ruling in Brüstle v. Greenpeace (Brüstle) with regard to non-fertilized human ova stimulated by parthenogenesis. The Court found that in order to be considered a ‘human embryo’- and thus to be unpatentable
The 2014 Swedish National infrastructure plan allocated funds to implement a “Regional Superbus concept”. The concept involves the upgrading a number of existing regional express bus services to make them function as an alternative to investing in regional rail. The Regional superbus concept is an attempt to adapt the BRT planning philosophy to the regional scale and the context of the region it s
From the global to the local level, gender inequality is the most persistent and entrenched challenge to development. The local level of governance is closest to citizens. Decisions taken at this level have the most direct effect on citizen’s everyday lives, as improvements in living, working and leisure conditions depend on good local governance. This chapter focuses on local government. It attem
Excitatory amino acids are implicated in the development of neuronal cell damage following periods of reversible cerebral ischemia or insulin-induced hypoglycemic coma. To explore the importance of glutamate receptor activation in the posthypoglycemic phase, we exposed rats to 20 min of insulin-induced severe hypoglycemia. The rats were treated immediately after the hypoglycemic insult with four r
Background: Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) occurs as either a 27- or 38-amino acid neuropeptide and belongs to the vasoactive intestinal polypeptide/glucagon/secretin family of peptides. PACAP and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide have a 68% homology of their amino acid sequences and share three B-type G-protein coupled receptors: VPAC1, VPAC2 and PAC1 receptors. Method
Objective: Infliximab-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may respond insufficiently due to low serum infliximab (sIFX) levels, caused by anti-drug antibodies (ADAs). However, monitoring of sIFX and ADAs is not routinely implemented, and levels for optimal outcome have not been validated. We searched for predictors for sIFX < 0.2 μg/mL and ADA development in a randomized setting. Metho
This book argues that we are currently witnessing not merely a decline in the quality of social science research, but the proliferation of meaningless research, of no value to society, and modest value to its authors - apart from securing employment and promotion. The explosion of published outputs, at least in social science, creates a noisy, cluttered environment which makes meaningful research
In order to understand how visions and narratives about the Internet are articulated, negotiated, and circulated in China, one needs to address and unpack a number of interrelated issues. It is important to map who has the possibility to articulate visions on the Internet in China, who is actually doing it and why, what having a ‘vision’ actually means, and which platforms different individuals an
