SinodosChemistry

Coal contributes to around 25% electricity generation in EU and to industrial energy generation for specific applications. Most of European countries exhibit availability of coal deposits which are cheap to use. Up to date, most countries use a combination of various energy sources for electricity generation, with coal being the major contribution for most of them. On the other hand, due to the low carbon dioxide emissions regulations, coal use is reduced on a yearly basis across EU. Countries that cannot meet the set goals on coal contribution limits on their electricity generation balance are fined, as in the case of Greece.

Wind energy market has astonished investors by exhibiting huge increases in the last years. US almost doubled their installed power and the increases are expected to continue since required legislation for stability issues has finally been passed. This stability period is a great opportunity for US organizations to aggressively move towards clean energy and emissions free energy faster than other regions of the world. China’s performance has been unpredicted due to the financial slowing down that markets were aware of. However China installed 23GW in 2014 and 30GW in 2015, showing their commitment to emission free energy generation. Financial slowdown is continuing in 2016, but a continuous though smaller increase should be anticipated for China for the next few years.

Solar science has been experiencing continuous improvements in panels manufacturing for the last 15 years. The newest approach is the use of quantum dots in combination with the popular titanium dioxide and zinc oxide cores. Older approach utilized dyes instead of Quantum Dots and some organic perovskite based dyes have been reported to achieve 15% efficiency in laboratory scale. The main advantage of quantum dots occurs is their multi electron excitement, which can lead to great increases of efficiencies compared to single electron excitement of most organic dyes. The use of silica based panels seems to irreversibly be abandoned mainly due to higher costs of manufacture in comparison to nano structured metal oxides.

Oil is expected to go through a long period of low demand that will keep prices plunged. Different factors contribute to this conclusion, most important of them being:

-          Shale gas technology finding its way to other regions besides US [like Poland in Europe]. Further adaptation of the technology will drive economies towards shale gas and will provoke its universal use. Oil demand might have come to an end, at least for applications where it can be easily replaced by shale gas.

Wound treatment is a significant research field for the pharmaceutical industry. Biocompatible, non toxic, porous materials with high adhesion to skin cells are required in order to create the optimum wound dressing. Skin itself exhibits self healing ability. Wound dressings act in a two way fashion; they stop loss of important liquids from the body to the environment and they inhibit pathogens entry to the body via the wound. Optimum wound dressings are highly porous and based on bio compatible polymers such as chitosan. Fibrous nanomaterial coatings offer additional advantages such as more connection points to the skin surface, minimum permeability of pathogens, and an ordered microporous three dimensional modifiable network with tailored physical, chemical and biological properties. Hydrophilicity of the manufactured membrane coatings is a requirement that is easily met either by choosing a known hydrophilic polymeric matrix or by the tailoring of the coating surface’s structure.

Tumor cells and healthy cells exhibit some distinct differences; for example, some tumor cells shut down unnecessary functionalities in order to use maximum energy for cell proliferation [arginine auxotrophy]. Such unnecessary actions include the synthesis of some amino acids, which can also be supplied by the external environment. The basic enzyme related to arginine production is Argininosuccinate synthase [ASS] and many alterations regarding its presence and functionality have been observed in tumor cells. Other significant enzymes include Argininosuccinate lyase [ASL], Ornithine Transcarbamylase [OTC] and arginase. Arginine falls into this category of amino acids that are termed ‘semi – essential’. Early studies have suggested that tumor growth was correlated to increased arginine uptake, and the idea of arginine starvation of the tumor cells was conceived.

One of the diseases that remains scarcely investigated in regard to potential application of amino acids as medicine is the intractable epilepsy. Amino acids seem to be promising medicines for such cases, given the other approaches that have been used so far for their treatment. Such a thought has triggered research in the field with great results.

L-Leucine and L-Lysine have been used as inhibitors of seizures in mice, with protective action exhibited only in the first case; L-Lysine failed to provide protection against induced seizure. In addition to this discovery, it was also found that D-Leucine also acted as a seizure inhibitor, probably even more efficient that L-isomer. This is especially important, since D-isomer is found in the brain, in tiny quantities. D-isomer also exhibited long term action and inhibition even after the seizure was induced. Such effects make this amino acid a potential anti seizure agent that was unknown up to now.

Amino acids are well known to exhibit significant health boost effects when taken in optimum quantities and their lack has been correlated with various negative effects including psychological disturbances, loss of muscular and bone mass, and others. Of special attention is the positive effect that they may provoke on specific population groups that suffer from known health problems, such as elderly people. Several studies have been published on the subject, and major guidelines are presented here.

Numerous works have dealt with the relationship between protein intake and origin and bone mass loss rates. It can be identified that published works in the period 1990-2005 mostly supported that animal protein intake amount was correlated to increased bone mass loss rates, in contrast to plant protein intake case. Most works in the following decade however have suggested that increased animal protein intake was correlated with higher bone mass densities and lower bone mass loss rates. However, research works on amino acids effects on bone cell metabolism are scarce. The few works on specific amino acids effect on bone mass loss rates are quite revealing for the role of amino acids in this process.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and they have numerous proven roles in the human body, including organ functionality, storage of nutrients, cell structure of muscular tissue and many more. Lack of amino acids often leads to a series of problematic health effects, especially in specific population groups such as older people and hard training athletes. Specific amino acids are correlated to several of these effects and it is commonly advised to be also taken by the people in question in the form of nutritional supplements.

One such amino acid, with proven correlation to health symptoms, is glutamine. Glutamine’s most important role in the human body is the stabilization and tuning of the immune system. As a consequence, people with appropriate glutamine intake tend to exhibit good health even at harsh living conditions. Other secondary glutamine related phenomena are the optimization of sleep behavior, calmness of mind, and reduction of anxiety.