Pyrolitic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass, such as switchgrass and other agricultural residues, to bio-fuels is being considered for national energy security and for environmental advantages. Bio-oil, syngas and bio-char were produced and characterized from switchgrass at 400, 500 and 600 0C by pyrolysis. Bio-oil yield increased from 22 to 37%, syn-gas yield increased from 8 to 26%, and b...

Combined sewer sediment properties were studied in small-scale laboratory ̄umes. Physical and biological characteristics of freshly remoulded sediment beds and beds undisturbed for 1±4 days were examined. When sediment beds were incubated for 1±2 days, the beds became covered with bio®lm and the bed volumes increased by 20±40% due to the formation of methane-®lled cavities. The bed strength dec...

The bioinformatics community is becoming increasingly reliant on the creation of links among biological databases (DBs) as a foundation for DB interoperability. For example, a link might be created from a protein in one DB (such as PIR), to a gene in another DB (such as GDB), by storing the unique identifier (id) of the gene object within an attribute of the protein object. User interfaces can ...

The completion of the Arabidopsis genome and the large collections of other plant sequences generated in recent years have sparked extensive functional genomics efforts. However, the utilization of this data is inefficient, as data sources are distributed and heterogeneous and efforts at data integration are lagging behind. PlaNet aims to overcome the limitations of individual efforts as well a...

This paper presents a molecular mechanics study using a molecular dynamics software (NAMD) coupled to virtual reality (VR) techniques for intuitive bio-nanorobotic prototyping. Using simulated bio-nano environments in VR, the operator can design and characterize through physical simulation and 3-D visualization the behavior of protein-based components and structures. The main novelty of the pro...

Since completing the LOCO field experiments in 2005 and 2006, our efforts during the past year have focused on the analysis of the extensive data sets obtained in Monterey Bay. During the field experiments, our component investigated the bio/physical linkages in the upper water column by conducting high-resolution vertical profiles of hydrographic, bio-optical, and bio-acoustical properties in ...

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