El Compostatge com a sistema de tractament de residus: compostatge de residus sòlids urbans - fangs de depuradores

L'augment de diferents residus orgànics i la problemàtica de la conservació del medi ambient ha comportat l'estudi de tècniques d'aprofitament d'aquests residus i la seva posterior utilització. Entre una de les nombroses tècniques, hi ha el "Compostatge" que dóna com a producte final el "Compost" (utilitzable com a adob o esmena orgánica en agricultura). En aquest treball pretenem de veure com podem realitzar aquest procés amb el mínim de despeses econòmiques així com de trobar una manera adequada de treure una mostra representativa de la pila, de la durada del procés i del tractament de la mostra per tal de realitzar els anàlisis.The increase of different types of organic refuses and the problem of the conservation of the natural environment has lead to the study of the techniques that make these refuses re-utilizable. Among these techniques we find the compostage which final product is known as the compost (utilizable in agriculture as fertilizer and as organic amendmend). In this study we try to explain how this process should be done being as cheap as possible and we also try to find the better way to sample (the sample mus representative of the pile) the time the process takes and the teatment of the sample in order to be analyzed.El aumento de diferentes residuos orgánicos y la problemática de la conservación del medio ambiente ha implicado el estudio de técnicas de aprovechamiento de estos residuos y su posterior utilización. Entre las numerosas técnicas está el "Compostage" que da como producto final el "Compost" (utilizable como abono o enmienda orgánica en agricultura). En este trabajo se pretende ver como realizar este proceso con el mínimo coste, así como encontrar una forma adecuada de sacar una muestra representativa de la pila, duración del proceso y tratamiento de la muestra para realizar los análisis

Exciton-Phonon Interaction Model for Singlet Fission in Prototypical Molecular Crystals

In singlet fission (SF), a spin-conserving splitting of one singlet exciton into two triplet excitation states, the transition between localized electronic states can be controlled and modulated by delocalized lattice phonons. In this work, we built an exciton–phonon (ex–ph) interaction model accounting local electronic states coupled with both local molecular vibrations and low frequency intermolecular phonon modes for SF in crystalline tetracene and rubrene. On the basis of the calculated electronic couplings at the equilibrium structure of the molecular dimer, a superexchange path for SF was found for tetracene while couplings between the triplet pair (TT) state and other diabatic states are zero for rubrene due to the high symmetry. Our further ex–ph spectral density analysis and quantum dynamics simulation based on our ex–ph interaction model suggested a thermal-activated mechanism for SF in rubrene crystal via symmetry breaking by nuclear vibration, which is in agreement with recent experiments. It is also shown that thermal fluctuations of electronic couplings in both tetracene and rubrene are mostly in the same order of magnitude at room temperature, and this could be one of the reasons for both tetracene and rubrene to exhibit SF time scales within a close range (hundreds to thousands of femtoseconds) in experiments

Slip rates on the Chelungpu and Chushiang thrust faults inferred from a deformed strath terrace along the Dungpuna river, west central Taiwan

The Chelungpu fault produced the September 1999 M_w = 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake, central Taiwan. The shortening rate accommodated by this structure, integrated over several seismic cycles, and its contribution to crustal shortening across the Taiwanese range have remained unresolved. To address the issues, we focus our study on the Chelungpu and Chushiang thrust faults within the southernmost portion of the Chi-Chi rupture area. Structural measurements and available seismic profiles are used to infer the subsurface geometry of structures. The Chushiang and Chelungpu faults appear as two splay faults branching onto a common ramp that further north connects only to the Chelungpu surface trace. We survey a deformed strath terrace along the Dungpuna river, buried under a 11,540 ± 309 years old fill deposit. Given this age, the dip angles of the faults, and the vertical throw determined from the offset of the strath terrace across the surface fault traces, we estimate slip rates of 12.9 ± 4.8 and 2.9 ± 1.6 mm/yr on the Chelungpu and Chushiang faults, respectively. These yield a total shortening rate of 15.8 ± 5.1 mm/yr to be absorbed on their common decollement at depth. This total value is an upper bound for the slip rate on the Chelungpu fault further north, where the Chushiang fault disappears and transfers shortening to adjacent faults. Combining these results with the recently constrained shortening rate on the Changhua blind thrust reveals that all these frontal faults presently absorb most of the long-term horizontal shortening across the Taiwanese range. They thus stand as the major sources of seismic hazards in this heavily populated area. The return period of earthquakes similar to the Chi-Chi event over a ∼80 km long stretch of the Western Foothills is estimated to be ~64 years. This value is an underestimate because it assumes that all the faults locked during the interseismic period slip only during such large events. Comparison with historical seismicity suggests that episodic aseismic deformation might also play a major role in accommodating shortening

A General Organocatalytic System for Enantioselective Radical Conjugate Additions to Enals

Herein, we report a general iminium ion-based catalytic method for the enantioselective conjugate addition of carbon-centered radicals to aliphatic and aromatic enals. The process uses an organic photoredox catalyst, which absorbs blue light to generate radicals from stable precursors, in combination with a chiral amine catalyst, which secures a consistently high level of stereoselectivity. The generality of this catalytic platform is demonstrated by the stereoselective interception of a wide variety of radicals, including non-stabilized primary ones which are generally difficult to engage in asymmetric processes. The system also served to develop organocatalytic cascade reactions that combine an iminium-ion-based radical trap with an enamine-mediated step, affording stereochemically dense chiral products in one-step

Discriminative training for Convolved Multiple-Output Gaussian processes

Multi-output Gaussian processes (MOGP) are probability distributions over vector-valued functions, and have been previously used for multi-output regression and for multi-class classification. A less explored facet of the multi-output Gaussian process is that it can be used as a generative model for vector-valued random fields in the context of pattern recognition. As a generative model, the multi-output GP is able to handle vector-valued functions with continuous inputs, as opposed, for example, to hidden Markov models. It also offers the ability to model multivariate random functions with high dimensional inputs. In this report, we use a discriminative training criteria known as Minimum Classification Error to fit the parameters of a multi-output Gaussian process. We compare the performance of generative training and discriminative training of MOGP in emotion recognition, activity recognition, and face recognition. We also compare the proposed methodology against hidden Markov models trained in a generative and in a discriminative way

La tercera revolución industrial en México: diagnóstico e implicaciones

Los materiales que se ofrecen en este volumen fueron compilados por los organizadores del Simposio Multidisciplinario sobre La tercera revolución industrial en México: diagnóstico e implicaciones socioculturales, económicas y científico-tecnológicas, que se realizó del 30 de septiembre al 4 de octubre de 1991 en el Auditorio Mario de la Cueva, en la Torre 11 de Humanidades de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Esta reunión surgió de la propuesta de los investigadores Ma. Luisa Rodríguez-Sala, del Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, y de Adrián Chavero, delInstituto de Investigaciones Económicas de la UNAM con el objeto de abordar la problemática de la ciencia y la tecnología desde una perspectiva multidisciplinaria y consecuentemente interinstitucional. Se juzgó conveniente que con base en el planteamiento elaborado para convocar a los ponentes se formaran tres apartados temáticos que incluyeran a grandes rasgos los temas siguientes: 1) Un marco epistemológico que permitiera reflexionar sobre el contenido y significado de la tercera revolución industrial y su alcances sociales. 2) El análisis de los elementos de diagnóstico en cuanto a políticas y toma de decisiones para conocer de qué manera empieza el país a enfrentarse a esa situación novedosa, y 3) Un diagnóstico del nivel específico de la investigación del país en el tema central visualizado desde la perspectiva de los científicos y los tecnólogos involucrados directamente en el campo de la investigación en algunas de las disciplinas que ya forman parte de la denominada tercera revolución industrial, la cual, en términos generales, se puede caracterizar por: a) La creación de sucedáneos a las materias primas que serán desplazadas por aquellos "nuevos materiales" producidos en laboratorio a escala industrial. b) La introducción de la informática, que entre otras consecuencias puede revolucionar el sistema educativo. c) La introducción al mercado de los productos que provienen de la biotecnología y la agroindustria, ya logrados en los países de elevado nivel de desarollo. Puede considerarse que se cuenta con un diagnóstico muy completo de la situación del país en esta materia,que abarca no sólo el aspecto científico-tecnológico sino también la repercusión en los ámbitos económicos; sociales y culturales que se tocan en estos trabajos. Sin embargo, se requiere la revisión periódica y recurrente de lo que significa para México el impacto de la revolución industrial, sobre todo su reflexión en marcos o situaciones que de aquí en adelante se presentarán cada vez más dinámicos, cambiantes y novedosos, con el objetivo de apuntar hacia soluciones a la problemática que plantea para México la irrupción de la tercera revolución industrial

Micronuclei detection by flow cytometry as a high-throughput approach for the genotoxicity testing of nanomaterials

Thousands of nanomaterials (NMs)-containing products are currently under development or incorporated in the consumer market, despite our very limited understanding of their genotoxic potential. Taking into account that the toxicity and genotoxicity of NMs strongly depend on their physicochemical characteristics, many variables must be considered in the safety evaluation of each given NM. In this scenario, the challenge is to establish high-throughput methodologies able to generate rapid and robust genotoxicity data that can be used to critically assess and/or predict the biological effects associated with those NMs being under development or already present in the market. In this study, we have evaluated the advantages of using a flow cytometry-based approach testing micronucleus (MNs) induction (FCMN assay). In the frame of the EU NANoREG project, we have tested six different NMs-namely NM100 and NM101 (TiO2NPs), NM110 (ZnONPs), NM212 (CeO2NPs), NM300K (AgNPs) and NM401 (multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)). The obtained results confirm the ability of AgNPs and MWCNTs to induce MN in the human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cell line, whereas the other tested NMs retrieved non-significant increases in the MN frequency. Based on the alignment of the results with the data reported in the literature and the performance of the FCMN assay, we strongly recommend this assay as a reference method to systematically evaluate the potential genotoxicity of NMs

Isolation and detection of circulating tumour cells from metastatic melanoma patients using a slanted spiral microfluidic device.

Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) are promising cancer biomarkers. Several methods have been developed to isolate CTCs from blood samples. However, the isolation of melanoma CTCs is very challenging as a result of their extraordinary heterogeneity, which has hindered their biological and clinical study. Thus, methods that isolate CTCs based on their physical properties, rather than surface marker expression, such as microfluidic devices, are greatly needed in melanoma. Here, we assessed the ability of the slanted spiral microfluidic device to isolate melanoma CTCs via label-free enrichment. We demonstrated that this device yields recovery rates of spiked melanoma cells of over 80% and 55%, after one or two rounds of enrichment, respectively. Concurrently, a two to three log reduction of white blood cells was achieved with one or two rounds of enrichment, respectively. We characterised the isolated CTCs using multimarker flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry and gene expression. The results demonstrated that CTCs from metastatic melanoma patients were highly heterogeneous and commonly expressed stem-like markers such as PAX3 and ABCB5. The implementation of the slanted microfluidic device for melanoma CTC isolation enables further understanding of the biology of melanoma metastasis for biomarker development and to inform future treatment approaches