Hydrothermal CO2 reduction using biomass derivatives as reductants

Producción CientíficaA wide range of organic substances, potentially derived from biomass, were tested as reductants for CO2 (as NaHCO3) in hydrothermal media. The reactions were carried out in batch reactors at 300 °C and 3 h. All the substances reduced CO2 to formic acid in yields up to 65%. These results agree to the mechanisms proposed in literature that suggested that reduction is carried out by primary or secondary alcohols. However, some substances without these groups gave significant yields to formic acid so new mechanisms were proposed. Out of all the compounds tested, glucose gave the highest yield to formic acid, probably due to its particular reaction pathways at the studied conditions. Effect of NaOH in the reaction using glucose was investigated to assure that formic acid is produced from bicarbonate. For ethanol and ethylenglycol, additional conditions were tested to study the dependence of the reaction with time and temperature.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project ENE2014-53459-R

Synergistic Hydrothermal Conversion of Aqueous Solutions of CO2 and Biomass Waste Liquefaction into Formate

Producción CientíficaCO2 utilization by conversion into useful chemicals can contribute to facing the problem of increasing CO2 emissions. Among other alternatives, hydrothermal transformation stands out by the high conversions achieved, just using high-temperature water as the solvent. Previous works have demonstrated that several organic compounds with hydroxyl groups derived from biomass can be used as reductants of NaHCO3 aqueous solutions as inorganic CO2 sources. Formate was obtained as the main product as it was produced by conversion both of the inorganic carbon and of the organic reductants, whose transformation into formate was promoted by the addition of NaHCO3. Based on these results, in this work, the hydrothermal conversion of NaHCO3 is performed together with the liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass (sugarcane bagasse and pine needles) in a one-pot process. Results show that yields to formate of 10% wt/wt (with respect to the initial concentration of biomass) are achieved by hydrothermal treatment of NaHCO3 and lignocellulosic biomass at 250 °C with a residence time of 180 min. Other products, such as acetic acid and lactic acid, were also obtained. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the hydrothermal reduction of CO2 combined with the hydrothermal liquefaction of residual biomass in a simultaneous process.Junta de Castilla y Leon - EU-FEDER (program CLU-2019- 04)Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (project RTI2018-097456-B-I00

Atención temprana e intervención familiar

La familia es el primer entorno donde nos desarrollamos y evolucionamos a nivel físico, educativo, social y emocional. Las experiencias en la primera infancia y los vínculos de apego que se establecen estarán determinados por el entorno familiar. Éste deberá ofrecer oportunidades suficientes para desarrollar aquellas habilidades y competencias personales y sociales que permitan a sus miembros crecer con seguridad y autonomía, siendo capaces de relacionarse y de actuar satisfactoriamente en el ámbito social. Cuando nace un niño/a con discapacidad se produce un shock en el sistema familiar. El hecho se percibe como algo inesperado y extraño que cambia las expectativas sobre el hijo deseado. La pérdida de estas expectativas y el desencanto ante la evidencia de la discapacidad (o su posibilidad), en un primer momento va a ser demoledor; es como si el futuro de la familia se hubiera detenido ante una amenaza. Con la presente investigación nos planteamos conocer el grado de información que las familias de niños con acondroplasia tienen en el momento del nacimiento de su hijo y de qué forma acceden a la misma, así como valorar las dificultades de la entrada a los Servicios de Atención Temprana y su implicación en los mismos. Finalmente se valorará la necesidad de crear o no una guía que les ayude en este proceso. Las hipótesis de partida que nos planteamos es que la mayoría de las familias que tienen un hijo con acondroplasia presentan un desconocimiento sobre esta discapacidad y su tratamiento. Que la información que se les proporciona en el momento del nacimiento, es insuficiente y poco tranquilizadora. Que el acceso a la Atención Temprana es difícil y con dificultades en la aceptación. Finalmente, nos planteamos la necesidad de una guía de Atención Temprana en Acondroplasia, que ayude en todo este proceso. La metodología aplicada está basada en un análisis a través de cuestionarios tipo Likert que se enviaron, a través de e-mail, a 17 familias de niños con acondroplasia que tenían entre 0 y 6 años. Las conclusiones, basándonos en los resultados de los cuestionarios, son que el grado de conocimiento de los padres sobre la discapacidad, en el momento del nacimiento, es muy escaso, que la información que se encuentra es mayoritariamente de tipo médico, que los profesionales médicos no aportan suficiente información a las familias, que el acceso a la Atención Temprana es difícil y que, principalmente, las madres se implican de unaforma activa en la intervención, aunque no existe una buena aceptación de la acondroplasia en estos primeros años y creen necesaria la creación de una guía de Atención Temprana.The family is the first environment where we develop and evolve on the physical, educational, social and emotional development. The early childhood experiences and attachment relation establishing will be determined by the family. This should provide sufficient opportunities to develop those skills and personal and social skills that allow its members to grow with confidence and autonomy, being able to relate and act successfully in the social sphere. When a child is born with disabilities is a shock to the family system. The fact is perceived as something unexpected and strange changing expectations about the desired child. The loss of these expectations and the disenchantment with the evidence of disability (or possibility), at first going to be devastating, it’s as if the future of the family had stopped at a threat. With this research we plan to determine the degree of information that families of children with achondroplasia have at the time of the birth of their child and how access to it, and to evaluate the difficulty of entry to the Early Intervention Services and their involvement in them. Finally, assess the need to create or not a guide to help them in this process. The hypothesis that we set is that most families have a child with achondroplasia have a lack of knowledge about this disability and its treatment. That the information provided to them at the time of birth, is insufficient and reassuring. That access to early childhood intervention is difficult and hard on acceptance. Finally, we considered the need for a guide to early childhood intervention in achondroplasia, to assist in this process. The methodology is based on an analysis by Likert questionnaires type that were sent through e-mail to 17 families of children with achondroplasia who were between 0 and 6 years. The findings, based on the results of questionnaires are that the degree of parental knowledge about disability, at the time of birth is very low, that the information found is mostly medical, medical professionals not provide sufficient information to families, access to early childhood intervention is difficult and mainly mothers engage in an active way in the intervention, although there is good acceptance of achondroplasia in these early years and they believe necessary the creation of an Early Warning guide

Perfil cognitivo-creativo del talento emocional

Much attention has been paid to emotional intelligence and its correlations with other psychological constructs during the last few years. Nevertheless, studies focusing on emotionally intelligent persons are scarce. The present work aims to study the cognitive and creative profile of students who stand out for their high emotional intelligence. A total of 1,024 Secondary Education students (M= 14 years old, SD= 1.16) took part in our research to that end. Emotional Intelligence was measured using the Emotional Quotient inventory Youth Version (EQ-i:YV, Bar-on & Parker, 2000), the Differential Aptitude Test-5 (DAT-5, Bennett, Seashore, & Wesman, 2000) was used to measure intellectual competency, whereas the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT, Torrance, 1974) served to measure creativity. Participants were divided into two groups: those with a high emotional intelligence (pc > 75) and those with a low-average emotional intelligence (pc < 75). The results reveal statistically significant differences in numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning and perceptive speed favouring the low-average emotional intelligence group. No statistically significant differences were found for creativity dimensions depending on the emotional intelligence level.Durante los últimos años se ha hablado mucho de la inteligencia emocional y sus correlatos con otros constructos, sin embargo son escasos los trabajos que estudian a las personas emocionalmente inteligentes. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo estudiar el perfil cognitivo-creativo de aquellos alumnos que destacan por su inteligencia emocional (IE). En el estudio han participado 1024 alumnos de Educación Secundaria (desde 1o a 4o de la ESO, M=14 años SD=1.16). Se ha medido la inteligencia emocional utilizando la prueba EQ-I:YV diseñada por Bar-ON (Bar-On & Parker, 2000), la batería de inteligencia DAT-5 (Bennett, Seashore, & Wesman, 2000) para evaluar la inteligencia psicométrica; y el test de Creatividad de Torrance (Torrance, 1974). Se dividió la muestra entre alumnos con alta IE (con un percentil por encima de 75) y alumnos con media-baja IE (con un percentil por debajo de 75) y se llevaron a cabo análisis de comparación de grupos. Los resultados indicaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en razonamiento numérico, espacial y rapidez perceptiva a favor de los alumnos con inteligencia emocional media-baja; mientras que no se hallaron diferencias significativas en las dimensiones de creatividad.This article has been funded by the Fundación Séneca and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (11896/PHCS/09. EDU2010-16370)

Simultaneous formic acid production by hydrothermal CO2 reduction and biomass derivatives conversion in a continuous reactor

Producción CientíficaThe reduction of CO2 to obtain formic acid in hydrothermal media can contribute to the reduction and valorization of CO2 emissions, but in order to apply it industrially, scalable continuous-flow reactors must be developed. In this work, a continuous flow reactor is developed that can process up to 1.2 L/h of bicarbonate solution. Glucose as model compound of the products of the hydrothermal decomposition of lignocellulosic biomass is used as reducing agent. Feed stream is suddenly heated at the inlet of the reactor by mixing it with a preheated water stream and instantaneously cooled after the reactor by decompression Joule-Thompson effect, allowing a precise control of the residence time and enabling to apply short residence times down to 1 s that are not feasible in batch reactors. Several operational parameters, as residence time, temperature and additives, were studied. Yields to formic acid up to 63 % were achieved at 300 °C with residence times lower than 1 min. In order to better understand the process, NaH13CO3 was used in selected experiments to check if the origin of formic acid was the reduction of bicarbonate or the hydrolysis of glucose It was found that almost 50 % of formic acid was produced due to the reduction of NaHCO3 after 10 min of reaction, a proportion significantly higher than that observed in batch experiments at similar reaction times. Furthermore, experiments performed without NaHCO3 or with other alkaline buffers demonstrate that NaHCO3 also promotes the transformation of glucose into formic acid, increasing the overall selectivity of the process and facilitating downstream processing.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (project RTI2018-097456-B-I00)Junta de Castilla y Leon - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (project CLU-2019-04)Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (project PGC2018-099470-B-I00

Formic acid production by simultaneous hydrothermal CO2 reduction and conversion of glucose and its derivatives

Producción CientíficaBackground: The hydrothermal reduction of CO2 using organic molecules such as alcohols can produce renewable fuels and platform chemicals, such as formic acid (FA). If the process is performed using glucose as reductant, the yield is especially high, because FA is selectively produced both by reduction of CO2 and by degradation of glucose degradation in alkaline hydrothermal media. Methods: This article analyzes the origin of formic acid using NaH13CO3 as CO2 source, assisted by HPLC and 13C-NMR to study the origin of FA. Significant findings: Results show that two reactions pathways take place: the first one, at short reaction times, consists on the decomposition of glucose into formic acid and other by-products, achieving low yield to FA-13C, whereas longer reaction times lead to a higher yield to FA-13C. Similarly, temperature plays an important role, being 300°C the optimal. Further reactions were performed using the main by-products of previous reactions (acetic acid, lactic acid, glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde) as reductants to understand the reaction mechanisms. Results indicate that the reduction pathway of NaHCO3 take place by oxidation of the by-products rather than by the oxidation of glucose itself, needing long reaction times to achieve significant high ratios of FA-13C/ total FA.Junta de Andalucía - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (project CLU-2019-04)Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (projects RTI2018-097456-B-I00 and PGC2018-099470-B-I00

Endothelial dysfunction is an early indicator of sepsis and neutrophil degranulation of septic shock in surgical patients

Producción CientíficaBackground: Stratification of the severity of infection is currently based on the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, which is difficult to calculate outside the ICU. Biomarkers could help to stratify the severity of infection in surgical patients. Methods: Levels of ten biomarkers indicating endothelial dysfunction, 22 indicating emergency granulopoiesis, and six denoting neutrophil degranulation were compared in three groups of patients in the first 12 h after diagnosis at three Spanish hospitals. Results: There were 100 patients with infection, 95 with sepsis and 57 with septic shock. Seven biomarkers indicating endothelial dysfunction (mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-ProADM), syndecan 1, thrombomodulin, angiopoietin 2, endothelial cell-specific molecule 1, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 and E-selectin) had stronger associations with sepsis than infection alone. MR-ProADM had the highest odds ratio (OR) in multivariable analysis (OR 11·53, 95 per cent c.i. 4·15 to 32·08; P = 0·006) and the best area under the curve (AUC) for detecting sepsis (0·86, 95 per cent c.i. 0·80 to 0·91; P < 0·001). In a comparison of sepsis with septic shock, two biomarkers of neutrophil degranulation, proteinase 3 (OR 8·09, 1·34 to 48·91; P = 0·028) and lipocalin 2 (OR 6·62, 2·47 to 17·77; P = 0·002), had the strongest association with septic shock, but lipocalin 2 exhibited the highest AUC (0·81, 0·73 to 0·90; P < 0·001). Conclusion: MR-ProADM and lipocalin 2 could be alternatives to the SOFA score in the detection of sepsis and septic shock respectively in surgical patients with infection.Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grants PI15/01959, PI15/01451 and PI16/01156

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry

Aim To determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW). Methods Observational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality. Results As of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; p<0.001 respectively). Age, male sex and comorbidity, were independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality and healthcare working with lower mortality (OR 0.211, 95%CI 0.067-0.667, p = 0.008). 30-days survival was higher in HCW (0.968 vs. 0.851 p<0.001). Conclusions Hospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality

Correction : Chaparro et al. Incidence, Clinical Characteristics and Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Spain: Large-Scale Epidemiological Study. J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10, 2885

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]