Evaluation of strategies for second generation bioethanol production from fast growing biomass Paulownia within a biorefinery scheme

Fast-growing and short-rotation biomass is identified as glucan-rich feedstock to be used for bioenergy purposes. For the first time to our knowledge, fast growing biomass (Paulownia tomentosa) was evaluated for bioethanol production in a biorefinery scheme. For that, Paulownia wood was subjected to autohydrolysis pretreatment under severity (S0) conditions in the range of 3.315.16. The effect of this treatment on its fractionation was evaluated by means of hemicelluloses solubilization as hemicellulosederived compounds in liquid phase and enzymatic hydrolysis of glucan (remained in the solid phase) into glucose. A xylose and xylooligosaccharides concentration of 17.5 g/L was obtained at S0 = 3.99 which corresponds to complete xylan solubilization. On the other hand, glucose yield of enzymatic hydrolysis increased up to reach 99% at S0 = 4.82. In addition, separate and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation assays (SHF and SSF) of autohydrolyzed Paulownia were compared for ethanol production. An increase of 47% in ethanol concentration was obtained by SHF in comparison with results achieved by SSF for Paulownia treated at S0 = 4.19. In SSF, Paulownia was successfully converted into ethanol (52.7 g/L which corresponded to 80% of ethanol yield) operating at 20% solid loadings and S0 = 4.72. Energy analysis of results obtained in this work showed that 83% of energy respect to raw material can be recovered considering the ethanol and the combustion of residual lignin. This work provides a feasible process for bioethanol production using fast growing specie which could enrich the feedstock needs for biofuels sector.This work was supported by the ‘‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” of Spain [research project reference CTQ2012- 3085: ‘‘Development of processes for integral benefit of fastgrowing biomass through bioethanol and chemicals production”, partially funded with the FEDER funds of the EU]. Aloia Romaní is grateful to Xunta de Galicia for her fellowship (Plan I2C, 2014)

Valorization of eucalyptus wood by glycerol-organosolv pretreatment within the biorefinery concept: an integrated and intensified approach

The efficient utilization of lignocellulosic biomass and the reduction of production cost are mandatory to attain a cost-effective lignocellulose-to-ethanol process. The selection of suitable pretreatment that allows an effective fractionation of biomass and the use of pretreated material at high-solid loadings on saccharification and fermentation (SSF) processes are considered promising strategies for that purpose. Eucalyptus globulus wood was fractionated by organosolv process at 200 C for 69 min using 56% of glycerol-water. A 99% of cellulose remained in pretreated biomass and 65% of lignin was solubilized. Precipitated lignin was characterized for chemical composition and thermal behavior, showing similar features to commercial lignin. In order to produce lignocellulosic ethanol at high-gravity, a full factory design was carried to assess the liquid to solid ratio (3e9 g/g) and enzyme to solid ratio (8e16 FPU/g) on SSF of delignified Eucalyptus. High ethanol concentration (94 g/L) corresponding to 77% of conversion at 16FPU/g and LSR ¼ 3 g/g using an industrial and thermotolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain was successfully produced from pretreated biomass. Process integration of a suitable pretreatment, which allows for whole biomass valorization, with intensified saccharification-fermentation stages was shown to be feasible strategy for the co-production of high ethanol titers, oligosaccharides and lignin paving the way for cost-effective Eucalyptus biorefinery.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684). The authors also thank the FCT for finacial support under the scope of the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462). AR was supported by Postdoctoral Fellowship PlanI2C/2014 funded by Xunta of Galicia (Spain

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine pediatric vaccination in Brazil

BACKGROUND COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health services, including vaccination demand. We describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine pediatric vaccination in Brazil. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of all vaccine doses provided to children aged 0-6 years from January 2019 to December 2020. We obtained data stratified by age group (0 to 2 years and >2 to 6 years) and Brazilian region. Difference-in-difference (DiD) analyses were performed to compare vaccine uptake in the pre-pandemic (January-February), stay-at-home (March-June), and reopening (July-December) periods. RESULTS The number of vaccine doses administered declined in the stay-at-home period. For children aged 0 to 2 years, the highest reductions were recorded in the North (-25.3%), Northeast (-16.8%) and Central-West (-10.2%) regions. For children aged >2 to 6 years, the highest decline was observed in the North (DiD = -27.2%) and South (DiD = -14.0%) regions. The number of vaccine doses administered in the reopening period has slightly increased in all regions. CONCLUSIONS Vaccination decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the number of doses recovered in part during the reopening phase, additional strategies, such as increased public awareness and vaccination booster campaigns are required

Object recognition results.

<p>Confusion matrix showing the accuracy when objects are learnt from a different operator for the Nails & Screws (left) and the Labeling & Packaging (right) tasks.</p

Industrially motivated test workflows.

<p>From left to right: Nails & Screws, Labeling & Packaging, Ball valve.</p

Effects of magnetic disturbances.

<p>The plot illustrates the deviation between the 3D wrist position estimates resulting from the magnetometer based and the wrist detection based approach. The data corresponds to the right wrist position estimated in a disturbance-free environment (Labeling & Packaging) and in a disturbed environment (Nails & Screws) for exemplary data sequences.</p

Workflow learning and online monitoring and assistance system.

<p>The left side of the diagram shows the pipeline for workflow learning. The right side shows the online monitoring and assistance system with the real-time interfaces between the building blocks. Here, the rounded rectangles mark the hardware components. BSN and low-level processing components feed into both learning and online monitoring.</p

Images of the live monitoring system.

<p>Images of the live monitoring system.</p

Predicted atomic events vs. ground-truth for the <i>leave-one-subject-out</i> evaluation of the Labeling & Packaging dataset.

<p>Each figure represents the predictions of the atomic events in sequences belonging to the left-out subject (left to right, top to bottom: subject 1,2,3,4). The bottom bars show the ground truth and the top bars show the prediction. The vertical lines separate two consecutive workflow sequences. Different colors indicate different atomic events.</p

Object recognition and tracking for Labeling & Packaging.

<p>Two frames showing ground truth bounding boxes and corresponding output of the method projected onto 2D images for the Labeling & Packaging dataset. Matching colors indicate correct identities. In the bottom right, the tape dispenser was not ground truth labeled (false-positive), and the pen not recognized resulting in a false negative.</p