AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR CONTINUOUS MICROALGAE CULTIVATION IN PHOTOBIOREACTORS

The objective of this work was to design a automate system for microalgae cultivation on a continuous modes in laboratory scale and allow its remote monitoring and control. For this, a sensor were developed is able to measure biomass concentration. The concentration sensor used the principle of light scattering, that is, by measuring the turbidity of the culture medium by the use of a set of phototransistor and green led. It presented an mean absolute percentage error of 8.46% during the experiment. A pH, temperature and light sensor were also installed. The control of all the sensors was accomplished by means of an microcontroller. For remote control and monitoring of the controller, a database was designed and implemented on a Raspberry Pi connected to the network. The graphics and data collected are available on an HTML page that allows changes in the control mode of the photobioreactor, for example by changing the dilution rates. The controller was able to operate the photobioreactor in batch mode, as well as to maintain the culture operating in continuous regime. The continuous production of microalgae biomass in a continuous regime showed productivity 74.5% higher than the traditional batch process and 28.2% higher than semicontinuous cultivation

Effects of the rainy season on growth of Mimosa tenuiflora in dry tropical forest, Brazil.

Resumo

El nitrat de les fonts del Lluçanès: efectes sobre les comunitats de briòfits (molses i hepàtiques) = Nitrate in natural springs in Lluçanès region: Effects on the communities of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts)

Semi-natural springs contain complex communities of living organisms that look for constant water supplies. However, an excess of nitrate in the underlying aquifers could affect species richness, especially of those groups that are sensitive to pollution such as bryophytes (mosses and liverworts). In this study, we analyse water characteristics and presence of bryophytes in 93 natural springs in Lluçanès region. We find that although a few species can cope with a relative nitrate excess, most of them do not tolerate it, meaning that species richness decreases in the most polluted sources, showing an adverse effect of water pollution on the biodiversity of bryophyte

Mid-term effects on ecosystem services of quarry restoration with Technosols under Mediterranean conditions : 10-year impacts on soil organic carbon and vegetation development

Ajuts : This study was funded by the Department of Territory and Sus-tainability of the Government of Catalonia through the project"Research and innovation on the control and the restoration ofextractive activities.The use of Technosols for the restoration of limestone quarries overcomes the usual "in situ" scarcity of soil and/or its poor quality. The use of mine spoils, improved with mineral and/or organic amendments, could be an efficient and environmentally friendly option. Properly treated sewage sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants could be a suitable organic amendment and fertilizer (rich in N and P) whenever its pollutant burden is low (heavy metals and/or organic pollutants). Its appropriate use could improve essential soil physical and chemical properties and, therefore, promote key ecosystem services of restored areas, such as biomass production and carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity and landscape recovery. However, the mid-term impacts of these restoration practices on soil functioning and their services have rarely been reported in the available literature. In this study we assess the mid-term effects (10 years) of the use of sewage sludge as a Technosol amendment on soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrient status, and plant development in several restored quarries. Soils restored using sewage sludge showed a threefold increase in SOC compared to the corresponding unamended ones, despite the moderate sludge dosage applied (below 50 tonnes/ha). Plant cover was also higher in amended soils, and recruitment was not affected by sludge amendment at these doses. This study demonstrates that, used at an appropriate rate, sewage sludge is a good alternative for the valorization of mine spoils in quarry restoration, improving some important regulatory ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, without compromising woody plant encroachment

Capturing the Molecular Mechanism of Anesthetic Action by Simulation Methods

Significant computational efforts have been focused toward exposing the molecular mechanisms of anesthesia in recent years. In the past decade, this has been aided considerably by a momentous increase in the number of high-resolution structures of ion channels, which are putative targets for the anesthetic agents, as well as advancements in high-performance computing technologies. In this review, typical simulation methods to investigate the behavior of model membranes and membrane-protein systems are briefly reviewed, and related computational studies are surveyed. Both lipid- and protein-mediated mechanisms of anesthetic action are scrutinized, focusing on the behavior of ion channels in the latter case

Pbca-Type In2O3: the high-pressure post-corundum phase at room temperature

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Physical Chemistry C, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp5061599High-pressure powder X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering measurements in cubic bixbyite-type indium oxide (c-In2O3) have been performed at room temperature. On increasing pressure c-In2O3 undergoes a transition to the Rh2O3-II structure but on decreasing pressure Rh2O3-II-type In2O3 undergoes a transition to a previously unknown phase with Pbca space group which is isostructural to Rh2O3-III. On further decrease of pressure, we observed a phase transition to the metastable corundum-type In2O3 near room conditions. Recompression of the metastable corundum-type In2O3 at room temperature leads to a transition to the Rh2O3-III phase, thus showing that the Rh2O3-III phase is the post-corundum phase at room temperature. Our results are supported by theoretical ab initio calculations. Furthermore, they show that the Rh2O3-III phase could be present in other sesquioxides, thus prompting to a revision of the pressure-temperature phase diagrams of sesquioxidesFinancial support by the Spanish MEC under Grant No. MAT2010-21270-C04-01/03/04, MAT2013-46649-C4-1/2/3-P, by MALTA Consolider Ingenio 2010 project (CSD2007-00045) and by Generalitat Valenciana (GVA-ACOMP-2013-012). Red Espanola de Supercomputacion (RES) and ALBA Synchrotron Light Source are also acknowledged. B.G.-D. and J.A.S. acknowledge financial support through the FPI program and Juan de la Cierva fellowship, respectively. We also thank J. L. Jorda for fruitful discussions. A.L.J.P. acknowledges financial support through Brazilian CNPq. A.S. expresses thanks to FEDER Grant UNLV10-3E-1253 for financial support.García-Domene, B.; Sans Tresserras, JÁ.; Gomis, O.; Manjón Herrera, FJ.; Ortiz, HM.; Errandonea, D.; Santamaría Pérez, D.... (2014). Pbca-Type In2O3: the high-pressure post-corundum phase at room temperature. Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 118(35):20545-20552. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp5061599S20545205521183

Public Versus Private: Does It Matter for Water Conservation? Insights from California

This article asks three connected questions: First, does the public view private and public utilities differently, and if so, does this affect attitudes to conservation? Second, do public and private utilities differ in their approaches to conservation? Finally, do differences in the approaches of the utilities, if any, relate to differences in public attitudes? We survey public attitudes in California toward (hypothetical but plausible) voluntary and mandated water conservation, as well as to price increases, during a recent period of shortage. We do this by interviewing households in three pairs of adjacent public and private utilities. We also survey managers of public and private urban water utilities to see if they differ in their approaches to conservation and to their customers. On the user side we do not find pronounced differences, though a minority of customers in all private companies would be more willing to conserve or pay higher prices under a public operator. No respondent in public utility said the reverse. Negative attitudes toward private operators were most pronounced in the pair marked by a controversial recent privatization and a price hike. Nonetheless, we find that California’s history of recurrent droughts and the visible role of the state in water supply and drought management undermine the distinction between public and private. Private utilities themselves work to underplay the distinction by stressing the collective ownership of the water source and the collective value of conservation. Overall, California’s public utilities appear more proactive and target-oriented in asking their customers to conserve than their private counterparts and the state continues to be important in legitimating and guiding conservation behavior, whether the utility is in public hands or private

Biochars in soils : towards the required level of scientific understanding

Key priorities in biochar research for future guidance of sustainable policy development have been identified by expert assessment within the COST Action TD1107. The current level of scientific understanding (LOSU) regarding the consequences of biochar application to soil were explored. Five broad thematic areas of biochar research were addressed: soil biodiversity and ecotoxicology, soil organic matter and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil physical properties, nutrient cycles and crop production, and soil remediation. The highest future research priorities regarding biochar's effects in soils were: functional redundancy within soil microbial communities, bioavailability of biochar's contaminants to soil biota, soil organic matter stability, GHG emissions, soil formation, soil hydrology, nutrient cycling due to microbial priming as well as altered rhizosphere ecology, and soil pH buffering capacity. Methodological and other constraints to achieve the required LOSU are discussed and options for efficient progress of biochar research and sustainable application to soil are presented.Peer reviewe

Compressibility systematics of calcite-type borates : An experimental and theoretical structural study on ABO3 (A = Al, Sc, Fe and In)

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Physical Chemistry C , copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp4124259The structural properties of calcite-type orthoborates ABO(3) (A = Al, Fe, Sc, and In) have been investigated at high pressures up to 32 GPa. They were studied experimentally using synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and theoretically by means of ab initio total-energy calculations. We found that the calcite-type structure remains stable up to the highest pressure explored in the four studied compounds. Experimental and calculated static geometries (unit-cell parameters and internal coordinates), bulk moduli, and their pressure derivatives are in good agreement. The compressibility along the c axis is roughly three times that along the a axis. Our data clearly indicate that the compressibility of borates is dominated by that of the [AO(6)] octahedral group and depends on the size of the trivalent A cations. An analysis of the relationship between isomorphic borates and carbonates is also presented, which points to the potentiality of considering borates as chemical analogues of the carbonate mineral family.This study was supported by the Spanish government MEC under Grant Nos.: MAT2010-21270-C04-01/03/04 and CTQ2009-14596-C02-01, by MALTA Consolider Ingenio 2010 Project (CSD2007-00045), by Generalitat Valenciana (GVA-ACOMP-2013-1012), and by the Vicerrectorado de Investigacion y Desarrollo of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV2011-0914 PAID-05-11 and UPV2011-0966 PAID-06-11). We thank ALBA and Diamond synchrotrons for providing beamtime for the XRD experiments. A.M. and P.R-H. acknowledge computing time provided by Red Espanola de Supercomputacion (RES) and MALTA-Cluster. J.A.S. and B.G.-D. acknowledge Juan de la Cierva fellowship and FPI programs for financial support. We are gratefully indebted to Dr. Capponi and Dr. Diehl for supplying us single crystals of AlBO3 and FeBO3, respectively.Santamaría Pérez, D.; Gomis Hilario, O.; Sans, JÁ.; Ortiz, HM.; Vegas, Á.; Errandonea, D.; Ruiz-Fuertes, J.... (2014). Compressibility systematics of calcite-type borates : An experimental and theoretical structural study on ABO3 (A = Al, Sc, Fe and In). Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 118(8):4354-4361. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp4124259S43544361118

Lattice dynamics study of HgGa2Se4 at high pressures

We report on Raman scattering measurements in mercury digallium selenide (HgGa2Se4) up to 25 GPa. We also performed, for the low-pressure defect-chalcopyrite structure, lattice-dynamics ab initio calculations at high pressures which agree with experiments. Measurements evidence that the semiconductor HgGa2Se4 exhibits a pressure-induced phase transition above 19 GPa to a previously undetected structure. This transition is followed by a transformation to a Raman-inactive phase above 23.4 GPa. On downstroke from 25 GPa until 2.5 GPa, a broad Raman spectrum was observed, which has been attributed to a fourth phase, and whose pressure dependence was followed during a second upstroke. Candidate structures for the three phases detected under compression are proposed. Finally, we also report and discuss the decomposition of the sample by laser heating at pressures close to 19 GPa. As possible products of decomposition, we have identified at least the formation of trigonal selenium nanoclusters and cinnabar-type HgSe.This study was supported by the Spanish government MEC under Grant No. MAT2010-21270-004-01/03/04, by MALTA Consolider Ingenio 2010 project (CSD2007-00045), by Generalitat Valenciana through project GVA-ACOMP-2013-012, and by the Vicerrectorado de Investigacion y Desarrollo of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV2011-0966 and UPV2011-0914). E.P.-G., J.L.-S., A.M., and P.R.-H. acknowledge computing time provided by Red Espanola de Super-computacion (RES) and MALTA-Cluster.Vilaplana Cerda, RI.; Gomis Hilario, O.; Manjón Herrera, FJ.; Ortiz, HM.; Pérez González, E.; López Solano, J.; Rodríguez Hernández, P.... (2013). Lattice dynamics study of HgGa2Se4 at high pressures. Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 117(30):15773-15781. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp402493rS15773157811173