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Aviation aims to reduce its climate effect by exploiting the potential of identifying alternative climate optimized aircraft trajectories. Such climate-optimized trajectories require a dedicated meteorological service in order to inform on those regions of the atmosphere where aviation emissions have a large effect on climate, for example, by contrail formation or nitrogen-oxide (NOx)-induced ozone formation. With the algorithmic Climate Change Functions (aCCFs) prototypes of a mathematical formulation for the temporal and spatial climate effects of aviation emissions in the atmosphere is provided, which relies solely on numerical weather prediction at the time and location of emissions. Based on the recently published consistent set of aCCF-V1.0, we here introduce newly derived calibration factors for the individual non-CO2 effects of aviation (NOx, water vapour, contrail cirrus) and establish version V1.0A of aCCFs (aCCF-V1.0A). ACCF-V1.0A represents an updated formulation of aCCF while exploring the current level of scientific understanding of individual climate effects of aviation emissions by evaluating quantitative estimates of climate effects with the state-of-the-art climate-response model AirClim. Individual scaling factors (i.e. AirClim calibration factors) are provided for the respective non-CO2 effects comprising contrail cirrus, water vapour and NOx-induced climate effects on ozone and methane, resulting uniformly in lower estimates in aCCF-V1.0A for all species compared to the earlier version aCCF-V1.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most liquid food flavours such as essential oils are volatile and prone to degradation in the presence of oxygen, light, moisture and high temperatures. Microencapsulation of volatile ingredients prior to use in food or beverages is a commonly used process to limit loss and degradation of flavours and aromas during processing and storage. Here, peppermint essential oil was microencapsulated via complex coacervation using a combination of bovine serum albumin and gum Acacia as wall materials. The resulting core-shell microcapsules were chemically crosslinked with a modified food-grade starch, and subsequently spray dried, resulting in dry microcapsules which could be easily redispersed in aqueous solutions. Microcapsule formation and stability, as well as microencapsulation yield of peppermint oil, were investigated as a function of polymer concentration, core material load/wall thickness and crosslinker concentration. The crosslinked peppermint oil microcapsules were spherical and mononuclear both before and after spray drying and redispersion, whereas control coacervate samples without crosslinker did not withstand the spray drying process. Microencapsulation yield as analysed by GC-MS showed no loss of peppermint oil during or after complex coacervation, and 54% loss after spray drying for the best combination of Polymer:Oil ratio and crosslinker concentration used here, indicating good overall protection of the core material.

Aviation significantly contributes to anthropogenic radiative forcing with both CO 2 and non-CO 2 emissions. In contrast to technical advancements to mitigate the climate impact, operational measures can benefit from short implementation times and thus are expected to be of high relevance in the near future. This study evaluates the climate mitigation potential of nine operational improvements, covering both in-flight and ground operations. For this purpose, an innovative approach is presented to compare the results of measure-specific case studies, despite the wide differences in the underlying modeling assumptions and boundary conditions. To this end, a selection of KPIs is identified to estimate the impact of the studied operational improvements on both climate and the stakeholders of the air transport system. This article presents a comparative method to scale the results of the individual studies to a comparable reference, considering differences in traffic sample size as well as CO 2 and non-CO 2 climate effects. A quantitative comparison is performed for operational improvements belonging to the same category, i.e., trajectory-related, network-related, and ground-related measures, and a qualitative comparison is carried out among all considered operational improvements. Results show that the in-flight operational improvements are more effective in mitigating the impact on climate with respect to ground operations. However, the latter generally have a weaker impact on the aviation industry and a higher maturity level. Further research could expand this study by assessing the effects of implementation enablers, such as actions at the regulatory level, to facilitate the acceptance of the studied measures in the aviation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using climate-optimized flight trajectories is one essential measure to reduce aviation's climate impact. Detailed knowledge of temporal and spatial climate sensitivity for aviation emissions in the atmosphere is required to realize such a climate mitigation measure. The algorithmic Climate Change Functions (aCCFs) represent the basis for such purposes. This paper presents the first version of the Algorithmic Climate Change Function submodel (ACCF 1.0) within the European Centre HAMburg general circulation model (ECHAM) and Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model framework. In the ACCF 1.0, we implement a set of aCCFs (version 1.0) to estimate the average temperature response over 20 years (ATR20) resulting from aviation CO 2 emissions and non-CO 2 impacts, such as NO x emissions (via ozone production and methane destruction), water vapour emissions, and contrail cirrus. While the aCCF concept has been introduced in previous research, here, we publish a consistent set of aCCF formulas in terms of fuel scenario, metric, and efficacy for the first time. In particular, this paper elaborates on contrail aCCF development, which has not been published before. ACCF 1.0 uses the simulated atmospheric conditions at the emission location as input to calculate the ATR20 per unit of fuel burned, per NO x emitted, or per flown kilometre. In this research, we perform quality checks of the ACCF 1.0 outputs in two aspects. Firstly, we compare climatological values calculated by ACCF 1.0 to previous studies. The comparison confirms that in the Northern Hemisphere between 150–300 hPa altitude (flight corridor), the vertical and latitudinal structure of NO x -induced ozone and H 2 O effects are well represented by the ACCF model output. The NO x -induced methane effects increase towards lower altitudes and higher latitudes, which behaves differently from the existing literature. For contrail cirrus, the climatological pattern of the ACCF model output corresponds with the literature, except that contrail-cirrus aCCF generates values at low altitudes near polar regions, which is caused by the conditions set up for contrail formation. Secondly, we evaluate the reduction of NO x -induced ozone effects through trajectory optimization, employing the tagging chemistry approach (contribution approach to tag species according to their emission categories and to inherit these tags to other species during the subsequent chemical reactions). The simulation results show that climate-optimized trajectories reduce the radiative forcing contribution from aviation NO x -induced ozone compared to cost-optimized trajectories. Finally, we couple the ACCF 1.0 to the air traffic simulation submodel AirTraf version 2.0 and demonstrate the variability of the flight trajectories when the efficacy of individual effects is considered. Based on the 1 d simulation results of a subset of European flights, the total ATR20 of the climate-optimized flights is significantly lower (roughly 50 % less) than that of the cost-optimized flights, with the most considerable contribution from contrail cirrus. The CO 2 contribution observed in this study is low compared with the non-CO 2 effects, which requires further diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) provides an interface to couple submodels to a base model via a modular flexible data management facility. This paper presents the newly developed MESSy submodel, ACCF version 1.0 (ACCF 1.0), based on algorithmic Climate Change Functions version 1.0 (aCCFs 1.0), which describes the climate impact of aviation emissions. The ACCF 1.0 is coupled via the second version of the standard MESSy infrastructure. ACCF 1.0 takes the simulated atmospheric conditions at the location of emission as input to calculate the climate impact (in terms of average temperature response over 20 years (ATR20)) of aviation emissions, including CO2 and non-CO2 impacts, such as from NOx emissions (via ozone production and methane destruction), water vapour emissions, and contrail-cirrus. The online calculated ATR20 value per emitted mass fuel burn or flown-kilometer using ACCF 1.0 in the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model is presented. We perform quality checks of the ACCF 1.0 outputs in two aspects. Firstly, we compare climatological values calculated by the ACCF 1.0 to previous studies. Secondly, we evaluate the reduction of NOx-induced O3 effects through trajectory optimization, employing the tagging chemistry approach (contribution approach to tag species according to their emission categories and to inherit these tags to other species during the subsequent chemical reactions). Finally, we couple the ACCF 1.0 to the air traffic simulation submodel AirTraf version 2.0 and demonstrate the variability of the flight trajectories when the efficacy of individual effect is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most liquid food flavours such as essential oils are volatile and prone to degradation in the presence of oxygen, light, moisture and high temperatures. Microencapsulation of volatile ingredients prior to use in food or beverages is a commonly used process to limit loss and degradation of flavours and aromas during processing and storage. Here, peppermint essential oil was microencapsulated via complex coacervation using a combination of bovine serum albumin and gum Acacia as wall materials. The resulting core-shell microcapsules were chemically crosslinked with a modified food-grade starch, and subsequently spray dried, resulting in dry microcapsules which could be easily redispersed in aqueous solutions. Microcapsule formation and stability, as well as microencapsulation yield of peppermint oil, were investigated as a function of polymer concentration, core material load/wall thickness and crosslinker concentration. The crosslinked peppermint oil microcapsules were spherical and mononuclear both before and after spray drying and redispersion, whereas control coacervate samples without crosslinker did not withstand the spray drying process. Microencapsulation yield as analysed by GC-MS showed no loss of peppermint oil during or after complex coacervation, and 54% loss after spray drying for the best combination of Polymer:Oil ratio and crosslinker concentration used here, indicating good overall protection of the core material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the last 30 years there has been an incidence increase of medullary carcinoma due to the development in diagnostic methods. MC represents 2% out of all thyroid carcinomas. Objective: Objective: Monitoring the therapeutic approach in medullary carcinoma Material and methods: Our retrospective analysis includes a cohort study of patients that underwent surgeries in 2nd Department of Surgery, UMFST Targu Mures, during 2018-2023. I have included individuals with the diagnosis of medullary carcinoma, meanwhile the exclusion criteria were: other type of thyroid dysfunction that underwent surgery, or associated with other types of anomalies (parathyroid). The results were statistically analyzed. Results: Within the examined period there were 422 cases of thyroid intervention, including 4% of which were represented by medullary carcinoma. 75% of those cases were women and 25% men, with the average age of 55. In 7% of the cases, the tumor was located in both lobes, 27% in the left lobe, and 67% in the right lobe. In 5 of the cases, total thyroidectomy (TT) was performed with CCND (central compartment neck dissection) and selective bilateral neck dissection; in 4 cases TT with CCND and selective unilateral neck dissection; one case of TT with CCND; 4 cases of TT; one case of right isthmolobectomy; one case of reoccurrence in central compartment Conclusions: Medullary carcinoma is a rare oncological condition which requires an extensive approach based on the clinical stage of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present and expand the simplest possible quantum cosmological bouncing model already discussed in previous works: the trajectory formulation of quantum mechanics applied to cosmology (through the Wheeler-De Witt equation) in the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) minisuperspace without spatial curvature. The initial conditions that were previously assumed were such that the wave function would not change its functional form but instead provide a dynamics to its parameters. Here, we consider a more general situation, in practice consisting of modified Gaussian wave functions, aiming at obtaining a nonsingular bounce from a contracting phase. Whereas previous works consistently obtain very symmetric bounces, we find that it is possible to produce highly non-symmetric solutions, and even cases for which multiple bounces naturally occur. We also introduce a means of treating the shear in this category of models by quantizing in the Bianchi I minisuperspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We clarify the question of clock transformations and trajectories in quantum cosmology in a vacuum Bianchi I minisuperspace. We consider a simple cosmological model consisting of an empty Bianchi I Universe, whose Hamiltonian we deparametrise to provide a natural clock variable. The model thus effectively describes an isotropic universe with an induced clock given by the shear. By quantising this model, we obtain various different possible bouncing trajectories (semiquantum expectation values on coherent states or obtained by the de Broglie–Bohm formulation) and explicit their clock dependence, specifically emphasising the question of symmetry across the bounce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We briefly review the problem of time in quantum cosmology and present two possible solutions. Time in quantum gravity is not a well-defined notion despite its central role in the very definition of dynamics. Using the formalism of quantum geometrodynamics, we briefly review the problem and illustrate it with two proposed solutions. Our main application is quantum cosmology—the application of quantum gravity to the Universe as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following recent claims relative to the question of large anisotropy production in regular bouncing scenarios, we study the evolution of such anisotropies in a model where an ekpyrotic phase of contraction is followed by domination of a Galileon-type Lagrangian which generates a non-singular bounce. We show that the anisotropies decrease during the phase of ekpyrotic contraction (as expected) and that they can be constrained to remain small during the non-singular bounce phase (a non-trivial result). Specifically,we derive the e-folding number of the phase of ekpyrotic contraction which leads to a present-day anisotropy in agreement with current observational bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the electrostatic actuation of microscale liquid-metal droplets. Contact angle; Determination of sliding condition parameter; Proportionality between minimum driving force and droplet dimension.

Electron beam freeform fabrication is a wire feed direct energy deposition additive manufacturing process, where the vacuum condition ensures excellent shielding against the atmosphere and enables processing of highly reactive materials. In this work, this technique is applied for the α + β-titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V to determine suitable process parameter for robust building. The correlation between dimensions and the dilution of single beads based on selected process parameters, leads to an overlapping distance in the range of 70–75% of the bead width, resulting in a multi-bead layer with a uniform height and with a linear build-up rate. Moreover, the stacking of layers with different numbers of tracks using an alternating symmetric welding sequence allows the manufacturing of simple structures like walls and blocks. Microscopy investigations reveal that the primary structure consists of epitaxial grown columnar prior β-grains, with some randomly scattered macro and micropores. The developed microstructure consists of a mixture of martensitic and finer α-lamellar structure with a moderate and uniform hardness of 334 HV, an ultimate tensile strength of 953 MPa and rather low fracture elongation of 4.5%. A subsequent stress relief heat treatment leads to a uniform hardness distribution and an extended fracture elongation of 9.5%, with a decrease of the ultimate strength to 881 MPa due to the fine α-lamellar structure produced during the heat treatment. Residual stresses measured by energy dispersive X-ray diffraction shows after deposition 200–450 MPa in tension in the longitudinal direction, while the stresses reach almost zero when the stress relief treatment is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]