Estudio de compatibilización de las mezclas PET/HDPE

[ES] En el presente trabajo se ha realizado un estudio de compatibilización del sistema de mezclas PET/HDPE. Para ello se realiza una caracterización mecánica y reológica del sistema binario PET/HDPE (70/30 wt%) y posteriormente se añade SEBS (2.5 - 30 wt%) como compatibilzador de modo que nos permita recuperar alguna de las propiedades mecánicas, al mismo tiempo que nos ajuste las propiedades reológicas de la mezcla al proceso de inyección. La adición de SEBS como compatibilizador al sistema PET/HDPE más desfavorable (70/30), ha permitido una recuperación progresiva de las propiedades mecánicas. La adición de un 2.5% de SEBS al sistema PET/HDPE (70/30) produce un incremento de los valores de viscosidad en todo el rango de velocidades de cizalla estudiado, lo que confirma el efecto compatibilizador para bajos contenidos de SEBS. Esta compatibilización se observa en la sección de rotura mediante la desaparición del efecto skin-core. Esta mezcla presenta unas propiedades mecánicas aceptables y un comportamiento reológico adecuado para el proceso de inyección.Los autores desean agradecer Al VIDI de la Universitat Politècnica de València por la ayuda concedida al proyecto “Utilización del polietilén tereftalato reciclado (PET-R) en el sector del juguete”, Ref. 003-306 dentro del programa Primeros Proyectos de Investigación.Navarro Vidal, R.; Parres, F.; Peydro, MA.; Crespo Amorós, JE. (2013). Estudio de compatibilización de las mezclas PET/HDPE. Compobell, S.L. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/74083

Thermoplastic elastomer addition for recovering recycled plastics. Mechanical and thermal characterization

[EN] Recovery of recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) through mixing with styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene (SEBS) has been studied in this paper. To simulate recycled ABS, virgin ABS was processed through 5 cycles, at extreme processing temperatures, 220 degrees C and 260 degrees C. The virgin ABS, the virgin SEBS, the recycled ABS and the mixtures were mechanically and thermally characterized after the various cycles of reprocessing in order to evaluate their corresponding properties and correlate them with the number of cycles undergone. The results show that tensile strength of ABS remains practically constant as the number of reprocessing cycles increases, while in the material injected with SEBS the tensile strength decreases. Concerning the Charpy notched impact strength, the values of the ABS reprocessed at 220 degrees C remain more or less unchanged, while the values for 260 degrees C show a significant decrease. The adhesion of the SEBS causes, in both cases, an increase in impact strength. DSC techniques enabled us to observe how the glass transition temperature (Tg) remains more or less constant regardless of the number of cycles or the temperature, whereas the crosslinking is much greater in the samples reprocessed at 260 degrees C. As conclusion, it is suggested that the people who works handling and dealing with plastic that, when possible, use low temperatures of transformation of ABS instead of high temperatures. It is also recommended to recycle the ABS to those who work with it; to use 5% of SEBS added to the recycled ABS to recover the possible loss of properties.[ES] En este trabajo se estudia la recuperación de un Acrilonitrilo-Butadieno-Estireno (ABS) reciclado mediante mezcla con Estireno-Etileno/ Butadieno-Estireno (SEBS). Para simular el ABS reciclado se ha reprocesado ABS virgen durante cinco ciclos a las dos temperaturas extremas de procesamiento, 220ºC y 260ºC. Los materiales ABS virgen, SEBS virgen, ABS reprocesado y las mezclas han sido caracterizados mecánica y térmicamente para evaluar sus propiedades correspondientes y correlacionarlo con el número de ciclos de proceso. Los resultados muestran que la resistencia a tracción del ABS se mantiene prácticamente constante conforme aumenta el número de ciclos de reprocesado, en cambio, disminuye al aditivarlo con SEBS. Con respecto a la resistencia al impacto, los valores del ABS reprocesado a 220ºC permanecen prácticamente inalterables, mientras que para el reprocesado a 260ºC disminuyen de forma notable. La adhesión de SEBS provoca, en ambos casos, un incremento de energía de impacto. Las técnicas de DSC han permitido observar como la temperatura de transición vítrea se mantiene prácticamente constante independientemente del número de ciclos o de la temperatura; en cambio, el efecto de entrecruzamiento de las moléculas (crosslinking) es mucho mayor para las muestra reprocesadas a 260ºC. Como conclusión, se recomienda a los transformadores de plástico que, en lo posible, utilicen temperaturas de transformación del ABS bajas en vez de altas. También se recomienda a los transformadores que recuperen ABS, que utilicen un 5% de SEBS para mejorar las propiedades.Nos gustaría agradecer a la Subdirección de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de la Universitat Politècnica de Valencia la ayuda concedida al proyecto: “la investigación de sistemas ternarios aplicados a los materiales poliméricos para la mejora de residuos de estireno”, Ref.: 20091056 en el programa de los primeros proyectos de investigación (PAID 06-09), donde este trabajo es un fragmento.Peydro, MA.; Parres, F.; Crespo Amorós, JE.; Navarro Vidal, R. (2012). Recuperación de plásticos reciclados mediante adicción de elastómeros termoplásticos. Caracterización mecánica y térmica. DYNA: Ingeniería e Industria. 87(5):526-532. https://doi.org/10.6036/4674S52653287

Estudio de la miscibilidad de polímeros a través del análisis de la fractura

La miscibilidad entre materiales es un campo de la ciencia de gran importancia ya que estos estudios en metales han permitido conseguir las diversas aleaciones que se utilizan a nivel industrial. Estos estudios se han trasladado al campo de los polímeros y existen múltiples estudios que tratan de ello, donde se utilizan técnicas analíticas de diversa sensibilidad para evaluar los efectos en las propiedades mecánicas, térmicas, reológicas de dichas mezclas. Por otro lado, la mecánica de la fractura es aquella parte de la ciencia de los materiales que analiza la superficie de fractura con el fin de vincular dicha superficie a unas condiciones de tensión y tipo de esfuerzo. Estos estudios se han aplicado enormemente en los materiales metálicos, siendo en menor número los que se pueden encontrar respecto materiales poliméricos. La información que puede aportar el estudio de las superficies de fractura solo poseen carácter cualitativo y no cuantitativo, pero la presencia de zonas lisas, rugosidades, desgarros y otros fenómenos permiten acotar las causas que han podido provocar dichas morfologías superficialePeydro, MA.; Parres, F.; Navarro Vidal, R.; Crespo Amorós, JE. (2013). Estudio de la miscibilidad de polímeros a través del análisis de la fractura. Compobell, S.L. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/73819

Lipidomics Reveals Reduced Inflammatory Lipid Species and Storage Lipids after Switching from EFV/FTC/TDF to RPV/FTC/TDF: A Randomized Open-Label Trial

HIV and antiretroviral therapy affect lipid metabolism. Lipidomics quantifies several individual species that are overlooked using conventional biochemical analyses, outperforming traditional risk equations. We aimed to compare the plasma lipidomic profile of HIV patients taking efavirenz (EFV) or rilpivirine (RPV). Patients >/= 18 years old on EFV co-formulated with emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC/TDF) with HIV-RNA /=6 months were randomized to continue EFV/FTC/TDF (n = 14) or switch to RPV/FTC/TDF (n =15). Lipidomic analyses conducted by mass spectrometry (MS) were performed at baseline and after 12 and 24 weeks. OWLiver((R)) Care and OWLiver((R)) tests were performed to estimate the presence of fatty liver disease (NAFLD). No significant differences (83% male, median age 44 years, 6 years receiving EFV/FTC/TDF, CD4(+) count 740 cells/mm(3), TC 207 [57 HDL-C/133 LDL-C] mg/dL, TG 117 mg/dL) were observed between the groups at baseline. Significant reductions in plasma lipids and lipoproteins but increased circulating bilirubin concentrations were observed in patients who switched to RPV/FTC/TDF. Patients on RPV/FTC/TDF showed a decrease in the global amount of storage lipids (-0.137 log2 [fold-change] EFV vs. 0.059 log2 [fold-change] RPV) but an increase in lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) and total steroids. Compared with EFV, RPV increased metabolites with anti-inflammatory properties and reduced the repository of specific lipotoxic lipids

Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Plasmodium-infected and Non-infected Red Blood Cells as Targeted Drug Delivery Vehicles

Among several factors behind drug resistance evolution in malaria is the challenge of administering overall doses that are not toxic for the patient but that, locally, are sufficiently high to rapidly kill the parasites. Thus, a crucial antimalarial strategy is the development of drug delivery systems capable of targeting antimalarial compounds to Plasmodium with high specificity. In the present study, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been evaluated as a drug delivery system for the treatment of malaria. EVs derived from naive red blood cells (RBCs) and from Plasmodium falciparum-infected RBCs (pRBCs) were isolated by ultrafiltration followed by size exclusion chromatography. Lipidomic characterization showed that there were no significant qualitative differences between the lipidomic profiles of pRBC-derived EVs (pRBC-EVs) and RBC-derived EVs (RBC-EVs). Both EVs were taken up by RBCs and pRBCs, although pRBC-EVs were more efficiently internalized than RBC-EVs, which suggested their potential use as drug delivery vehicles for these cells. When loaded into pRBC-EVs, the antimalarial drugs atovaquone and tafenoquine inhibited in vitro P. falciparum growth more efficiently than their free drug counterparts, indicating that pRBC-EVs can potentially increase the efficacy of several small hydrophobic drugs used for the treatment of malaria

Daratumumab displays in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor activity in models of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and improves responses to standard chemo-immunotherapy regimens

Altres ajuts: This work was carried out at the Esther Koplowitz Center, Barcelona. Genmab and Janssen pharmaceuticals funded this research. Additional grants that contributed to this work included: [...], and CIBERONC (CB16/12/00334 and CB16/12/00225).CD38 is expressed in several types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and constitutes a promising target for antibody-based therapy. Daratumumab (Darzalex) is a first-in-class anti-CD38 antibody approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma (MM). It has also demonstrated clinical activity in Waldenström macroglobulinaemia and amyloidosis. Here, we have evaluated the activity and mechanism of action of daratumumab in preclinical in vitro and in vivo models of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), as monotherapy or in combination with standard chemo-immunotherapy. In vitro, daratumumab engages Fc-mediated cytotoxicity by antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cell phagocytosis in all lymphoma subtypes. In the presence of human serum, complement-dependent cell cytotoxicity was marginally engaged. We demonstrated by Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy that daratumumab fully penetrated a three-dimensional (3D) lymphoma organoid and decreased organoid volume. In vivo, daratumumab completely prevents tumor outgrowth in models of MCL and FL, and shows comparable activity to rituximab in a disseminated in vivo model of blastic MCL. Moreover, daratumumab improves overall survival (OS) in a mouse model of transformed CD20 FL, where rituximab showed limited activity. Daratumumab potentiates the antitumor activity of CHOP and R-CHOP in MCL and FL xenografts. Furthermore, in a patient-derived DLBCL xenograft model, daratumumab anti-tumor activity was comparable to R-CHOP and the addition of daratumumab to either CHOP or R-CHOP led to full tumor regression. In summary, daratumumab constitutes a novel therapeutic opportunity in certain scenarios and these results warrant further clinical development

Spitzer characterisation of dust in an anomalous emission region: the Perseus cloud

Anomalous microwave emission is known to exist in the Perseus cloud. One of the most promising candidates to explain this excess of emission is electric dipole radiation from rapidly rotating very small dust grains, commonly referred to as spinning dust. Photometric data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope have been reprocessed and used in conjunction with the dust emission model DUSTEM to characterise the properties of the dust within the cloud. This analysis has allowed us to constrain spatial variations in the strength of the interstellar radiation field ($\chi_\mathrm{ISRF}$), the mass abundances of the PAHs and VSGs relative to the BGs (Y$_\mathrm{PAH}$ and Y$_\mathrm{VSG}$), the column density of hydrogen (N$_\mathrm{H}$) and the equilibrium dust temperature (T$_\mathrm{dust}$). The parameter maps of Y$_\mathrm{PAH}$, Y$_\mathrm{VSG}$ and $\chi_\mathrm{ISRF}$ are the first of their kind to be produced for the Perseus cloud, and we used these maps to investigate the physical conditions in which anomalous emission is observed. We find that in regions of anomalous emission the strength of the ISRF, and consequently the equilibrium temperature of the dust, is enhanced while there is no significant variation in the abundances of the PAHs and the VSGs or the column density of hydrogen. We interpret these results as an indication that the enhancement in $\chi_\mathrm{ISRF}$ might be affecting the properties of the small stochastically heated dust grains resulting in an increase in the spinning dust emission observed at 33 GHz. This is the first time that such an investigation has been performed, and we believe that this type of analysis creates a new perspective in the field of anomalous emission studies, and represents a powerful new tool for constraining spinning dust models.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Changes in the Frontotemporal Cortex and Cognitive Correlates in First-Episode Psychosis

Background: Loss of cortical volume in frontotemporal regions has been reported in patients with schizophrenia and their relatives. Cortical area and thickness are determined by different genetic processes, and measuring these parameters separately may clarify disturbances in corticogenesis relevant to schizophrenia. Our study also explored clinical and cognitive correlates of these parameters.Methods: Thirty-seven patients with first-episode psychosis (34 schizophrenia, 3 schizoaffective disorder) and 38 healthy control subjects matched for age and sex took part in the study. Imaging was performed on an magnetic resonance imaging 1.5-T scanner. Area and thickness of the frontotemporal cortex were measured using a surface-based morphometry method (Freesurfer). All subjects underwent neuropsychologic testing that included measures of premorbid and current IQ, working and verbal memory, and executive function.Results: Reductions in cortical area, more marked in the temporal cortex, were present in patients. Overall frontotemporal cortical thickness did not differ between groups, although regional thinning of the right superior temporal region was observed in patients. There was a significant association of both premorbid IQ and IQ at disease onset with area, but not thickness, of the frontotemporal cortex, and working memory span was associated with area of the frontal cortex. These associations remained significant when only patients with schizophrenia were considered.Conclusions: Our results suggest an early disruption of corticogenesis in schizophrenia, although the effect of subsequent environmental factors cannot be excluded. In addition, cortical abnormalities are subject to regional variations and differ from those present in neurodegenerative diseases

Synthesis of Densely Packaged, Ultrasmall Pt02Clusters within a Thioether-Functionalized MOF: Catalytic Activity in Industrial Reactions at Low Temperature

The gram\u2010scale synthesis, stabilization, and characterization of well\u2010defined ultrasmall subnanometric catalytic clusters on solids is a challenge. The chemical synthesis and X\u2010ray snapshots of Pt02 clusters, homogenously distributed and densely packaged within the channels of a metal\u2013organic framework, is presented. This hybrid material catalyzes efficiently, and even more importantly from an economic and environmental viewpoint, at low temperature (25 to 140\u2009\ub0C), energetically costly industrial reactions in the gas phase such as HCN production, CO2 methanation, and alkene hydrogenations. These results open the way for the design of precisely defined catalytically active ultrasmall metal clusters in solids for technically easier, cheaper, and dramatically less\u2010dangerous industrial reactions

Calibration and performance tests of detectors for laser-accelerated protons

We present the calibration and performance tests carried out with two detectors for intense proton pulses accelerated by lasers. Most of the procedures were realized with proton beams of 0.46-5.60 MeV from a tandem accelerator. One approach made use of radiochromic films, for which we calibrated the relation between optical density and energy deposition over more than three orders of magnitude. The validity of these results and of our analysis algorithms has been confirmed by controlled irradiation of film stacks and reconstruction of the total beam charge for strongly non-uniform beam profiles. For the spectral analysis of protons from repeated laser shots, we have designed an online monitor based on a plastic scintillator. The resulting signal from a photomultiplier directly measured on a fast oscilloscope is especially useful for time-of-flight applications. Variable optical filters allow for suppression of saturation and an extension of the dynamic range. With pulsed proton beams we have tested the detector response to a wide range of beam intensities from single particles to 3 ×105 protons per 100 ns time interval.Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and co-funded with FEDER's funds within the INNPACTO 2011 program under Grant No. IPT-2011-0862-900000. This work was supported by the Spanish Plan Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica, Desarrollo e Innovacion Tecnologica (I+D+i) under Grant No. TEC 2013-48036-C3-1-R and the Valencian Local Government under Grants PROMETEOII/2013/010 and ISIC 2011/013. The work of A. J. Gonzalez is financed by CSIC with a JAE-Doc contract under Junta de Ampliacion de Estudios program, cofinanced by the European Social Fund.Peer Reviewe