Combustion of CH4/H2/air mixtures in catalytic microreactors.

The combustion of CH(4)/H(2)/HC mixtures in a very small space represents an alternative, innovative way to produce thermal/electrical energy. Pd/NiCrO(4) catalysts are lined on SiC monoliths via in situ solution combustion synthesis (SCS), and the monoliths are then tested by feeding CH(4), H(2), and lean CH(4)/H(2) mixtures into a lab-scale test rig at an output thermal power of 7.6 MW(th) m(-3).

Multipotent cells can be generated in vitro from several adult human organs (heart, liver, and bone marrow).

The aims of our study were to verify whether it was possible to generate in vitro, from different adult human tissues, a population of cells that behaved, in culture, as multipotent stem cells and if these latter shared common properties. To this purpose, we grew and cloned finite cell lines obtained from adult human liver, heart, and bone marrow and named them human multipotent adult stem cells (hMASCs). Cloned hMASCs, obtained from the 3 different tissues, expressed the pluripotent state-specific transcription factors Oct-4, NANOG, and REX1, displayed telomerase activity, and exhibited a wide range of differentiation potential, as shown both at a morphologic and functional level.