Biodiesel from beef tallow: a technological patent mapping / Biodiesel de sebo bovino: um mapeamento de patente tecnológica

Beef tallow has become indispensable for the production of biodiesel since the introduction of biofuel manufacturing methods. The objective of this study is to create a technological map of patents that have employed bovine tallow in the manufacturing of biodiesel over the last ten years (2009–2019). The methodological approach was established using a bibliographic survey and a content analysis, in which keywords from the European Patent Office's (Espacenet) and Derwent Innovations Index databases were employed (DII). After a preliminary examination, 34 patents were found, divided into eight patent families, with China being the largest repository of these technologies, suggesting that the companies that promoted the use of beef tallow as a fuel had diversified completely, with no monopoly on technological content for a specific group of institutions

Promiscuous Binding in a Selective Protein: The Bacterial Na+/H+ Antiporter

The ability to discriminate between highly similar substrates is one of the remarkable properties of enzymes. For example, transporters and channels that selectively distinguish between various solutes enable living organisms to maintain and control their internal environment in the face of a constantly changing surrounding. Herein, we examine in detail the selectivity properties of one of the most important salt transporters: the bacterial Na/H antiporter. Selectivity can be achieved at either the substrate binding step or in subsequent antiporting. Surprisingly, using both computational and experimental analyses synergistically, we show that binding per se is not a sufficient determinant of selectively. All alkali ions from Li to Cs were able to competitively bind the antiporter's binding site, whether the protein was capable of pumping them or not. Hence, we propose that NhaA's binding site is relatively promiscuous and that the selectivity is determined at a later stage of the transport cycle

CNS targets of adipokines

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from American Physiological Society via the DOI in this record.Our understanding of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ has been transformed over the last twenty years. During this time a number of adipocyte-derived factors or adipokines have been identified. This paper will review evidence for how adipokines acting via the central nervous system (CNS) regulate normal physiology and disease pathology. The reported CNS-mediated effects of adipokines are varied and include the regulation of energy homeostasis, autonomic nervous system activity, the reproductive axis, neurodevelopment, cardiovascular function, and cognition. Due to the wealth of information available and the diversity of their known functions, the archetypal adipokines leptin and adiponectin will be the focused on extensively. Other adipokines with established CNS actions will also be discussed. Due to the difficulties associated with studying CNS function on a molecular level in humans, the majority of our knowledge, and as such the studies described in this paper, comes from work in experimental animal models; however, where possible the relevant data from human studies are also highlighted