Tropical Fruit Pulps: Processing, Product Standardization and Main Control Parameters for Quality Assurance

ABSTRACT Fruit pulp is the most basic food product obtained from fresh fruit processing. Fruit pulps can be cold stored for long periods of time, but they also can be used to fabricate juices, ice creams, sweets, jellies and yogurts. The exploitation of tropical fruits has leveraged the entire Brazilian fruit pulp sector due mainly to the high acceptance of their organoleptic properties and remarkable nutritional facts. However, several works published in the last decades have pointed out unfavorable conditions regarding the consumption of tropical fruit pulps. This negative scenario has been associated with unsatisfactory physico-chemical and microbiological parameters of fruits pulps as outcomes of little knowledge and improper management within the fruit pulp industry. There are protocols for delineating specific identity and quality standards (IQSs) and standardized good manufacturing practices (GMP) for fruit pulps, which also embrace standard operating procedures (SOPs) and hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), although this latter is not considered mandatory by the Brazilian legislation. Unfortunately, the lack of skilled labor, along with failures in complying established protocols have impaired quality of fruit pulps. It has been necessary to collect all information available with the aim to identify the most important hazards within fruit pulp processing lines. Standardizing methods and practices within the Brazilian fruit pulp industry would assurance high quality status to tropical fruit pulps and the commercial growth of this vegetal product towards international markets

Inovação tecnológica na área de ciências forenses: um estudo prospectivo

A inovação na área de Ciências Forenses é fundamental não apenas para garantir eficiência e confiabilidade aos exames realizados nos órgãos oficiais de perícia, mas, também, para que se acompanhe o próprio desenvolvimento tecnológico da criminalidade. Diante disto, o trabalho teve o objetivo de avaliar, por meio de prospecção tecnológica, o panorama da Propriedade Intelectual na área de Ciências Forenses no Brasil e no exterior. Para isso, foram utilizadas três plataformas de pesquisa (INPI, Espacenet e Orbit Intelligence), conjugadas a duas abordagens sucessivas (pesquisa ampla e pesquisa específica por área). O estudo prospectivo indicou domínio dos Estados Unidos e da China no registro de documentos de patentes relacionados às Ciências Forenses. De forma geral, percebeu-se que o atual desenvolvimento tecnológico na área de Ciências Forenses se concentra majoritariamente em áreas relacionadas à Informática, Eletrônica, Química/Bioquímica e Medicina/Saúde. Em âmbito internacional, notou-se uma participação sensível de órgãos de perícia no registro de tecnologias patenteáveis, sendo identificado, contudo, pouco registro/proteção de tecnologias por peritos criminais e/ou órgãos oficiais de perícia brasileiros

Pretreatment of microalgal biomass to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of carbohydrates by ultrasonication: Yield vs energy consumption

Microalgal biomass has been considered as a possible alternative source of carbohydrates and lipids in fermentative/reactional processes, called third generation of biofuels. Carbohydrates from microalgae are mostly composed by glucose and some pentose-derived polymers that must be hydrolyzed to be efficiently used. When enzymatic hydrolysis is applied a pretreatment is required. Sonication/ultrasonication is one of the most promising methods, and in this paper the influence of pretreatment time, sonication intensity and biomass concentration was validated, and the energy consumed in the process compared as well. Sonication intensity had the major role on the enzymatic accessibility. Pretreatment time can be used to decrease hydrolysis time. More than 90% of hydrolysis efficiency was reached when higher amplitude (sonication intensity) and pretreatment time were used. The applied energy influenced indirectly the hydrolysis process. The best saccharification/energy relation was reached when 50% of amplitude for 25 min was applied, obtaining 91% of hydrolysis yield and spending 2.4 MJ/kg of dry biomass. Keywords: Microalgae, Ethanol, Fermentation, Amylase, Cellulase, Sonicatio

Aspects of design management in the context of technological innovation centers

The organizational structure of the Technological Innovation Centers (NITs) integrates diverse and complex management routines that, in general, impact on the capacity of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ICTs) to effect the transfer of technology. In this sense, the NITs seek means and tools capable of assisting in the operationalization of these administrative processes. Among the various possibilities, this article brings, in particular, the conceptual approach to design management. Design management establishes recommendations for the use of design resources according to institutional goals. Based on this approach, the article aims to identify management activities within the NITs and their relationship with design management. To this end, a literature review was carried out to build the theoretical framework, a documentary research to survey the innovation policy indicators (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicação [MCTI], 2019) and application of a likert-type questionnaire in consultation with five technological innovation environments in the region Northeast of Brazil. The study is classified as applied research with a qualitative approach with an exploratory and descriptive objective. The research showed that despite the understanding of the potential of design to promote technological innovation, design management is not a practice systematically integrated into the management processes of the NIT. Subsequently, it was possible to present a set of propositions for the application of design management that support the combination of the essential and complementary activities of the NIT for the transfer of technology

Processo de produção de asparaginase pela bactéria Zymomonas mobilis e uso do caldo fermentativo e/ou da enzima purificada no tratamento de doenças

DepositadaA presente invenção refere-se ao processo de obtenção da enzima L-asparaginase II pela bactéria Zymomonas mobilis. O processo de produção consiste no crescimento da bactéria em um meio fermentativo, com diferentes fontes de carbono e de nitrogênio. Utilizando-se o substrato L-asparagina como fonte de nitrogênio, observa-se a produção enzima asparaginase a partir da formação do aspartato e da liberação de amônia. Experimentos realizados em meio sintético sem asparagina e em meio contendo apenas glicose extrato de levedura também resultaram na formação da enzima, mostrando que a mesma é constitutiva e que pode ser produzida em diferentes meios e condições de fermentação. Além disso, devido aos efeitos colaterais relacionados às asparaginases comerciais, a formação de asparaginase a partir da bactéria Zymomonas mobilis, mesmo com uma produtividade menor, tem a vantagem de que o caldo fermentativo deste microrganismo já é utilizado no tratamento de doenças

Tropical Fruit Pulps: Processing, Product Standardization and Main Control Parameters for Quality Assurance

ABSTRACT Fruit pulp is the most basic food product obtained from fresh fruit processing. Fruit pulps can be cold stored for long periods of time, but they also can be used to fabricate juices, ice creams, sweets, jellies and yogurts. The exploitation of tropical fruits has leveraged the entire Brazilian fruit pulp sector due mainly to the high acceptance of their organoleptic properties and remarkable nutritional facts. However, several works published in the last decades have pointed out unfavorable conditions regarding the consumption of tropical fruit pulps. This negative scenario has been associated with unsatisfactory physico-chemical and microbiological parameters of fruits pulps as outcomes of little knowledge and improper management within the fruit pulp industry. There are protocols for delineating specific identity and quality standards (IQSs) and standardized good manufacturing practices (GMP) for fruit pulps, which also embrace standard operating procedures (SOPs) and hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), although this latter is not considered mandatory by the Brazilian legislation. Unfortunately, the lack of skilled labor, along with failures in complying established protocols have impaired quality of fruit pulps. It has been necessary to collect all information available with the aim to identify the most important hazards within fruit pulp processing lines. Standardizing methods and practices within the Brazilian fruit pulp industry would assurance high quality status to tropical fruit pulps and the commercial growth of this vegetal product towards international markets

Influence of manure concentration as inoculum in anaerobic digestion of vinasse

Vinasse, main residue of the sugarcane industry, has high pollutant content, being subjected to the use in biogas production due to the high content of organic matter non-toxic to microbial action. For a consolidated process, it is necessary to study parameters that influence the process, in which the amount of inoculum is one of the major factors in the biological process of biogas production. This study investigated the influence of the amount of manure as inoculum (0.5 to 5.5%) during the biodigestion process, evaluating variables such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, biogas production, methane concentration, total solids and total phosphorus and nitrogen contents, as well as microbiological analysis in the sludge remaining in the digester. Biodigestion occurred normally, with hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 20 days, with an acidogenic phase, subsequent stabilization of pH and biogas production. The vinasse had COD and total solids reduced during biodigestion by around 67 and 40%, respectively. Biogas production was increased after the fifth day. Among the three studied conditions, there was no significant increase in efficiency of inoculum use and it can be used the lowest amount, 0.5 % (m v-1).

Inovação tecnológica na área de ciências forenses: um estudo prospectivo

A inovação na área de Ciências Forenses é fundamental não apenas para garantir eficiência e confiabilidade aos exames realizados nos órgãos oficiais de perícia, mas, também, para que se acompanhe o próprio desenvolvimento tecnológico da criminalidade. Diante disto, o trabalho teve o objetivo de avaliar, por meio de prospecção tecnológica, o panorama da Propriedade Intelectual na área de Ciências Forenses no Brasil e no exterior. Para isso, foram utilizadas três plataformas de pesquisa (INPI, Espacenet e Orbit Intelligence), conjugadas a duas abordagens sucessivas (pesquisa ampla e pesquisa específica por área). O estudo prospectivo indicou domínio dos Estados Unidos e da China no registro de documentos de patentes relacionados às Ciências Forenses. De forma geral, percebeu-se que o atual desenvolvimento tecnológico na área de Ciências Forenses se concentra majoritariamente em áreas relacionadas à Informática, Eletrônica, Química/Bioquímica e Medicina/Saúde. Em âmbito internacional, notou-se uma participação sensível de órgãos de perícia no registro de tecnologias patenteáveis, sendo identificado, contudo, pouco registro/proteção de tecnologias por peritos criminais e/ou órgãos oficiais de perícia brasileiros