Producción de biogás a partir de la biodegradación anaeróbica de la “vinaza” generada por las destilerías de alcohol y su aprovechamiento energético como combustible de calderas bajar los gases invernadero

El ingenio azucarero, dentro de su proceso, obtiene como residuo de la fabricación de azúcar un líquido espeso rico en azúcares llamado melaza, que es utilizado como materia prima para la fabricación de alcohol etílico en la destilería. Esta melaza es diluida con agua y fermentada por la acción de las levaduras para transformar el mayor contenido de azúcares en alcohol y CO2.Luego, este vino fermentado pasa por la columna de destilación para separar el alcohol por la parte superior de la columna y por la parte inferior sale un líquido color café llamado“vinaza”, que sería el efluente de la destilación,la cual contiene una gran variedad de componentes que en conjunto le confieren características especiales y su descarga indiscriminada puede ocasionar daños al medio ambiente. Con la finalidad de encontrar una alternativa de solución y aprovechamiento de la vinaza,este estudio presenta el beneficio energético que la destilería puede aplicar utilizando los conceptos de ecoeficiencia, bajando los impactos de efecto invernadero causados por el metano que va a la atmósfera,el mismo que se forma por la descomposición natural de la materia orgánica en el almacenamiento de la vinaza

Helichrysum stoechas (L.) Moench reduces body weight gain and modulates mood disorders via inhibition of silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) by arzanol

The prevalence of obesity is steadily rising, making safe and more efficient anti-obesity treatments an urgent medical need. Growing evidence correlates obesity and comorbidities, including anxiety and depression, with the development of a low-grade inflammation in peripheral and central tissues. We hypothesized that attenuating neuroinflammation might reduce weight gain and improve mood. We investigated the efficacy of a methanolic extract from Helichrysum stoechas (L.) Moench (HSE), well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties, and its main constituent arzanol (AZL). HPLC-ESI-MS2 and HPLC-UV were used to characterize the extract. HSE effects on mood and feeding behavior was assessed in mice. The mechanism of action of HSE and AZL was investigated in hippocampus samples and SH-SY5Y cells by western blotting and immunofluorescence. Oral administration of HSE for 3 weeks limited weight gain with no significant decrease in food intake. HSE produced an anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-like phenotype comparable to diazepam and amitriptyline, respectively, in the absence of locomotor and cognitive impairments and induced neuroprotective effects in glutamate-exposed SH-SY5Y cells. A dose-dependent reduction of SIRT1 expression was detected in SH-SY5Y cells and in hippocampal samples from HSE-treated mice. The inhibition of the SIRT1-FoxO1 pathway was induced in the hypothalamus. Molecular docking studies proposed a mechanism of SIRT1 inhibition by AZL, confirmed by the evaluation of inhibitory effects on SIRT1 enzymatic activity. HSE limited weight gain and comorbidities through an AZL-mediated SIRT1 inhibition. These activities indicate HSE an innovative therapeutic perspective for obesity and associated mood disorders

Iminium Salts of ω-Dithiafulvenylpolyenals: An Easy Entry to the Corresponding Aldehydes and Doubly Proaromatic Nonlinear Optic-phores

A short, high-yielding route to ω-dithiafulvenylpolyenals (1) via the corresponding iminium salts (2) and starting from trimethyl-1,3-dithiolium tetrafluoroborate is reported. The Knoevenagel reactions of either 1 or 2 with isoxazolone-containing acceptors afford merocyanines 7 and 9, in a process that is often accompanied by a vinylene-shortening side reaction. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that compounds 7 and 9, featuring two proaromatic end groups, are strongly polarized and show good second-order nonlinear optical responses

Effects of proanthocyanidin-functionalized hydroxyapatite nanoparticles on dentin bonding

Objectives To evaluate the effect of proanthocyanidin-functionalized hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHAp_PA) used as pretreatment at different concentrations on the microtensile bond strength (mu TBS) and endogenous enzymatic activity (MMPs) on pH-cycled dentin after 24 h and 6 months of artificial aging. Materials and methods Fifty human sound dentin blocks were randomly assigned to 5 groups (n = 10): (i) negative control (no treatment); (ii) positive control (pH-cycling); (iii) pH-cycling + 2% nHAp_PA for 60s; (iv) pH-cycling + 6.5% nHAp_PA for 60s; (v) pH-cycling + 15% nHAp_PA for 60s. A self-etch adhesive was used for bonding procedures before resin composite build-ups. Specimens were tested with the mu TBS test after 24 h and 6 months of laboratory storage. The proteolytic activity in each group was evaluated with gelatin zymography and in situ zymography. Data were statistically analyzed (p < 0.05). Results At 24 h, the TBS of the experimental groups were significantly higher than the controls (p <= 0.001), and no differences were observed between different concentrations (p > 0.05). Artificial aging significantly decreased bond strength in all groups (p <= 0.008); however, nHAp_PA 2% still yielded higher bonding values than controls (p <= 0.007). The groups pretreated with nHAp_PA exhibited lower MMP-9 and MMP-2 activities compared to the positive control group and almost the same enzymatic activity as the negative control group. In situ zymography showed that after 6 months of aging, nHAp_PA 2% and nHAp_PA 6,5% decreased enzymatic activity as well as the negative control. Conclusions Dentin pretreatment with nHAp_PA increased the bonding performance of a self-etch adhesive and decreased MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities after 6 months

Safety of 41 flavouring compounds providing a herbal flavour and belonging to different chemical groups for use as feed additives in all animal species (FEFANA asbl)

: Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety of 41 compounds to provide a Herbal flavour and belonging to different chemical groups, when used as sensory additives in feed for all animal species. Fourteen out of the 41 compounds were tested in tolerance studies in chickens for fattening, piglets, cattle for fattening and Atlantic salmon. No adverse effects were observed in the tolerance studies at 10-fold the intended level. The Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) concluded that the 14 tested compounds were safe for these species at the proposed use level and conclusions were extrapolated to all animal species. For the remaining 27 compounds, read-across from structurally similar compounds tested in tolerance trials and belonging to the same chemical group was applied. The FEEDAP Panel concluded that these 27 compounds were safe for all animal species at the proposed use level. No safety concern would arise for the consumer and the environment from the use of the 41 compounds up to the maximum proposed use level in feed

Successful fiber sensing technologies and hot topics for the near future

Inside the Photonics field Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) are currently being used and will still be used in the future in a wide number of applications because its properties present technical advantages over traditional techniques or, sometimes, is practically the only feasible solution. In this paper, the more successful techniques will be reviewed. Then a prospective for the near future of the market and hot topics in which invest research resources will be suggested

Context-dependent cheating: experimental evidence from 16 countries

Policy makers use several international indices that characterize countries according to the quality of their institutions. However, no effort has been made to study how the honesty of citizens varies across countries. This paper explores the honesty among citizens across sixteen countries with 1440 participants. We employ a very simple task where participants face a trade-off between the joy of eating a fine chocolate and the disutility of having a threatened self-concept because of lying. Despite the incentives to cheat, we find that individuals are mostly honest. Further, international indices that are indicative of institutional honesty are completely uncorrelated with citizens' honesty for our sample countries

Planck intermediate results. VIII. Filaments between interacting clusters

About half of the baryons of the Universe are expected to be in the form of filaments of hot and low density intergalactic medium. Most of these baryons remain undetected even by the most advanced X-ray observatories which are limited in sensitivity to the diffuse low density medium. The Planck satellite has provided hundreds of detections of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect and is an ideal instrument for studying extended low density media through the tSZ effect. In this paper we use the Planck data to search for signatures of a fraction of these missing baryons between pairs of galaxy clusters. Cluster pairs are good candidates for searching for the hotter and denser phase of the intergalactic medium (which is more easily observed through the SZ effect). Using an X-ray catalogue of clusters and the Planck data, we select physical pairs of clusters as candidates. Using the Planck data we construct a local map of the tSZ effect centered on each pair of galaxy clusters. ROSAT data is used to construct X-ray maps of these pairs. After having modelled and subtracted the tSZ effect and X-ray emission for each cluster in the pair we study the residuals on both the SZ and X-ray maps. For the merging cluster pair A399-A401 we observe a significant tSZ effect signal in the intercluster region beyond the virial radii of the clusters. A joint X-ray SZ analysis allows us to constrain the temperature and density of this intercluster medium. We obtain a temperature of kT = 7.1 +- 0.9, keV (consistent with previous estimates) and a baryon density of (3.7 +- 0.2)x10^-4, cm^-3. The Planck satellite mission has provided the first SZ detection of the hot and diffuse intercluster gas.Comment: Accepted by A&

A hot mini-Neptune and a temperate, highly eccentric sub-Saturn around the bright K-dwarf TOI-2134

Funding: ACC and TGW acknowledge support from STFC consolidated grant numbers ST/R000824/1 and ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. RDH is funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)’s Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (grant no. ST/V004735/1). SD is funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (grant no. ST/V004735/1). BSL is funded by a UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship (ST/V506679/1). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement SCORE no. 851555).We present the characterisation of an inner mini-Neptune in a 9.2292005±0.0000063 day orbit and an outer mono-transiting sub-Saturn planet in a 95.50+0.36-0.25 day orbit around the moderately active, bright (mv = 8.9 mag) K5V star TOI-2134. Based on our analysis of five sectors of TESS data, we determine the radii of TOI-2134b and c to be 2.69±0.16 R⊕ for the inner planet and 7.27±0.42 R⊕ for the outer one. We acquired 111 radial-velocity spectra with HARPS-N and 108 radial-velocity spectra with SOPHIE. After careful periodogram analysis, we derive masses for both planets via Gaussian Process regression: 9.13+0.78-0.76 M⊕ for TOI-2134b and 41.89+7.69-7.83 M⊕ for TOI-2134c. We analysed the photometric and radial-velocity data first separately, then jointly. The inner planet is a mini-Neptune with density consistent with either a water-world or a rocky core planet with a low-mass H/He envelope. The outer planet has a bulk density similar to Saturn’s. The outer planet is derived to have a significant eccentricity of 0.67+0.05-0.06 from a combination of photometry and RVs. We compute the irradiation of TOI-2134c as 1.45±0.10 times the bolometric flux received by Earth, positioning it for part of its orbit in the habitable zone of its system. We recommend further RV observations to fully constrain the orbit of TOI-2134c. With an expected Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect amplitude of 7.2±1.3 m-1, we recommend TOI-2134c for follow-up RM analysis to study the spin-orbit architecture of the system. We calculate the Transmission Spectroscopy Metric, and both planets are suitable for bright-mode NIRCam atmospheric characterisation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe