Wood is not under all circumstances an appropriate building material. Beside others, structural properties and biological durability determine the limits for the use of wood. Until recently, the only industrial applied method to improve the durability of wood was impregnating with toxic wood preservatives. Although much progress has been made in improving the fixation of preservatives (i.e. emi...

Background: Asthma is a chronic multifactorial disease with a high prevalence. Among asthma risk factors, the effect of baking in wood tenor ovens (traditional form of baking) on bronchial asthma is still debated. The aim of this study was to determine the association between baking in wood tenor ovens and incidence and control of bronchial asthma. Materials and Methods: This descriptive stu...

The new title diterpenoid compound, C(20)H(30)O, is a natural product isolated from Tetra-clinis articulata wood via chloro-form extraction. The asymmetric unit contains four mol-ecules with the same S,S configuration, deduced from the chemical synthesis. Indeed, an overlay analysis, calculated using structure-matching software, shows that the four mol-ecules can be superimposed. The central ri...

From workers of the red wood ant Formica rufa L. 68 compounds could be identified by com bined gas chrom atography-m ass spectrometry. Abdom ina contain a row of bishom ologue saturated and unsaturated uneven numbered hydrocarbons with undecane as the major product. In addition, 13 formic acid esters could be identified among which hexadecyl formate is present in particularly large amounts. Mai...

Xyleme is a dynamic warehouse for XML data of the Web supporting query evaluation, change control and data integration. We briefly present our motivations, the general architecture and some aspects of Xyleme. The project we describe here was completed at the end of 2000. A prototype has been implemented. This prototype is now being turned into a product by a start-up company also called Xyleme ...

Manure, an animal waste product with many negative economic and environmental issues, can today be converted using anaerobic digestion technology into a number of commercial products ranging from fertilizer, compost, animal bedding, and plant bedding. A number of new uses are now being explored such as bioenergy (both electrical and biofuel) and a lignocellulose-rich potential feedstock for eng...

This work describes the use of intermediate pyrolysis system to produce liquid, gaseous and solid fuels from pelletised wood and barley straw feedstock. Experiments were conducted in a pilot-scale system and all products were collected and analysed. The liquid products were separated into an aqueous phase and an organic phase (pyrolysis oil) under gravity. The oil yields were 34.1 wt.% and 12.0...

In order to get better knowledge about the volatiles produced by Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, a species recently discovered in Vietnam, its wood oil has been analyzed by a combination of chromatographic (GC, CC) and spectroscopic (GC-MS, (13)C-NMR) techniques. Forty components that accounted for 87.9% of the oil composition have been identified. The composition is dominated by nootkatene (20.7%)...

The reaction of a tannin extract (containing about 30"/0 carbohydrate) from loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) bark (two parts) and resorcinol (one part) at 12O"C for 24 h with acetic acid catalyst gave a product containing predominantly oligomeric procyanidin-4-resorcinol adducts (3Wo), unreacted resorcinol (22%). carbohydrate (20010). the resorcinol adduct 2R,3R,4S 4-(2.4-dihydroxyphenyl).fIavan-...

arquetry, also known as moaragh, derived from intarsia or inlay, is the ar t and craft of producing pictures and decorative designs by the skillful use of the grain, figure, and color of thin veneers of wood and other materials. In marquetry, the design is applied to a prepared base material, unlike the related craft of inlay where decorative bandings or designs are let into a solid item for em...