Recommendation of energy ffficiency indexes for the coffee sector in Honduras using multivariate statistics

The objectives of this study were to define and determine the energy efficiency indexes that should be considered to measure and analyze the energy performance in enterprises engaged in processing green coffee for export. The investigation arose through a case study on a coffee processing plant in Honduras. The purpose of this work was fulfilled under the recommendations set forth in ISO 50001:2011, which were used as references. In addition, determine the energy structure of the company target of study, establishing the strategy to obtain daily records of the energy situation of the company and under a four-step process: energy structure of the company, daily registry of consumption, indicators of energy performance, and potential evaluations for improvement. With the observed results for more than 100 days, a model of high-quality was found with a coefficient of determination of 0.88, which helped to find and define different energy performance indicators

Identification of autoimmune disorders and immunodeficiencies by neuroepidemiological evaluation of the measles, mumps and rubella antibody index

Introducción: El esquema nacional de vacunación cubano presenta coberturas superiores al 99 % que incluye la vacuna contra parotiditis, rubéola y sarampión. Así, cuando existe un proceso neuroinflamatorio se produce una amplia síntesis intratecal de anticuerpos antiparotiditis, antirubéola y antisarampión, que permite realizar evaluaciones neuroepidemiológicas de las campañas de vacunación y el sesgo de casos extremos, desde el punto de vista inmunológico. Objetivos: Correlacionar el índice de anticuerpos antirubéola, antiparotiditis y antisarampión con procesos autoinmunes asociados y en la identificación de posibles pacientes con inmunodeficiencias en la muestra estudiada. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio aplicado y descriptivo de corte transversal en 42 niños evaluados en los servicios de cuerpo de guardia de los hospitales pediátricos de La Habana del 2015 al 2018. La muestra fue dividida según los tres intervalos del índice de anticuerpos (menor o igual a 0,6; de 0,6 a 1,5 y mayor o igual a 1,5). Se procedió a detectar en los segmentos extremos pacientes con posible autoinmunidad (mayor o igual a 1,5) e inmunodeficiencia (se tomó el intervalo inferior a una desviación estándar). Resultados: En el grupo con índice de anticuerpos mayor o igual a 1,5, el 75 % fue positivo a la reacción MRZ, indicativo de una enfermedad autoinmune activa. En el grupo con índice de anticuerpos menor o igual a 0,6 preponderó una clínica con prevalencia de enfermedades tumorales e infecciosas asociadas a un alto índice de hospitalización, test de inmunodeficiencia positivo y bajos niveles de IgG en suero. Conclusiones: Es posible identificar pacientes pediátricos con desórdenes autoinmunes y sospecha de inmunodeficiencias, a partir de la estrategia de la evaluación neuroepidemiológica de los índices de anticuerpos antiparotiditis, antirubéola y antisarampión.Introduction: The Cuban national vaccination scheme has a coverage of more than 99% of the population, and includes the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Therefore, in the presence of a neuroinflammatory process, a broad intrathecal synthesis of measles, mumps and rubella antibodies takes place which makes it possible to conduct neuroepidemiological evaluations of the vaccination campaigns and the bias of extreme cases, from an immunological perspective. Objectives: Correlate the measles, mumps and rubella antibody index with associated autoimmune processes and in the identification of patients with possible immunodeficiencies in the study sample. Methods: An applied cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted of 42 children attending the emergency services of Havana children's hospitals in the period 2015-2018. The sample was divided according to the three antibody index intervals: smaller than or equal to 0.6, from 0.6 to 1.5, and greater than or equal to 1.5. Extreme segments were examined to detect patients with possible autoimmunity (greater than or equal to 1.5) and immunodeficiency (the interval below a standard deviation was taken as reference). Results: 75% of the group with an antibody index greater than or equal to 1.5 was positive to the MRZ reaction, indicative of an active autoimmune disease. In the group with an antibody index lower than or equal to 0.6, the prevailing clinical status showed a prevalence of tumoral and infectious diseases associated to a high hospitalization index, a positive immunodeficiency test and low serum IgG levels. Conclusions: It is possible to identify pediatric patients with autoimmune disorders and suspicion of immunodeficiencies applying the strategy of neuroepidemiological evaluation of the measles, mumps and rubella antibody indices.Fil: Cruz Quevedo, Mileydis. Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de la Habana.; Cuba. Centro Nacional de Biopreparados; CubaFil: Castillo González, William. Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de la Habana.; Cuba. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentina. Laboratorio Central de Líquido Cefalorraquídeo; CubaFil: Anderson Cruz, Charles Nelson. Instituto Superior Tecnológico José Chiriboga Grijalva; EcuadorFil: Dorta Contreras, Alberto Juan. Laboratorio Central de Líquido Cefalorraquídeo; Cuba. Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de la Habana.; Cub

Estimating π binding energy of N-Heterocyclic carbenes: The role of polarization

International audienceIn this work, the tuneability of the π acceptor or donor properties of a set of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with a wide spectrum of electronic characteristics is established by means of density functional theory and energy decomposition analysis (EDA) tools. Even though the main orbital interaction contribution to the NHC coordination is the σ donation, a significant contribution of the π interactions to the bond is observed. By means of carefully selected coordination sites, different contributions to the π interactions could be identified and isolated. It includes not only the well known back donation and donation interactions, but also the intrafragment polarization, which has not been considered in previous studies. This can be obtained through the use of the extended transition state method for EDA combined with the natural orbitals for chemical valence and the constrained space orbital variation analysis. The contributions vary with the position of the heteroatoms and the presence of exocyclic substituents; the donation/backdonation π interactions between NHC and the coordination site can range between 2 and 61% of the total π orbital interactions, while the rest is owed to intrafragment polarization. Our results do not only contribute to the understanding of the electronic structure of NHC-based complexes, giving ways to improve their catalytic properties, but also provide comprehension on the modelization methods used to study their donor–acceptor interactions

Local and global environmental effects on galaxies and active galactic nuclei

We study the properties of SDSS galaxies with and without AGN detection as a function of the local and global environment measured via the local density, the mass of the galaxy host group (parameterised by the group luminosity) and distance to massive clusters. Our results can be divided in two main subjects, the environments of galaxies and their relation to the assembly of their host haloes, and the environments of AGN. (i) For the full SDSS sample, we find indications that the local galaxy density is the most efficient parameter to separate galaxy populations, but we also find that galaxies at fixed local density show some remaining variation of their properties as a function of the distance to the nearest cluster of galaxies (in a range of 0 to 10 cluster virial radii). These differences seem to become less significant if the galaxy samples are additionally constrained to be hosted by groups of similar total luminosity. (ii) In AGN host galaxies, the morphology-density relation is much less noticeable when compared to the behaviour of the full SDSS sample. In order to interpret this result we analyse control samples constructed using galaxies with no detected AGN activity with matching distributions of redshifts, stellar masses, r-band luminosities, g-r colours, concentrations, local densities, host group luminosities, and fractions of central and satellite galaxies. The control samples also show a similar small dependence on the local density indicating an influence from the AGN selection, but their colours are slightly bluer compared to the AGN hosts regardless of local density. Furthermore, even when the local density is held fixed at intermediate or high values, and the distance to the closest cluster of galaxies is allowed to vary, AGN control galaxies away from clusters tend to be bluer than the AGN hosts. (ABRIDGED)Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS, in pres

Insights into the catalytic activity of [Pd(NHC)(cin)Cl] (NHC = IPr, IPrCl, IPrBr) complexes in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction

The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Commission (EC) for funding through the seventh framework program SYNFLOW, the European Research Council (ERC) (Advanced Investigator Award “FUNCAT” to S. P. N.), The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and AstraZeneca (Studentship to C. M. Z.).The influence of C4,5-halogenation on palladium N-heterocyclic carbene complexes and their activity in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction have been investigated. Two [Pd(NHC)(cin)Cl] complexes bearing IPrCl and IPrBr ligands were synthesized. After determining electronic and steric properties of these ligands, their properties were compared to those of [Pd(IPr)(cin)Cl]. The three palladium complexes were studied using DFT calculations to delineate their behaviour in the activation step leading to the putative 12-electron active catalyst. Experimentally, their catalytic activity in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction involving a wide range of coupling partners (30 entries) at low catalyst loading was studied.PostprintPeer reviewe

The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in July 2014. It pursues three core programs: APOGEE-2,MaNGA, and eBOSS. In addition, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: TDSS and SPIDERS. This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13), which contains new data, reanalysis of existing data sets and, like all SDSS data releases, is inclusive of previously released data. DR13 makes publicly available 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA,the first data released from this survey. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing SEQUELS. In addition to targeting galaxies and quasars, SEQUELS also targeted variability-selected objects from TDSS and X-ray selected objects from SPIDERS. DR13 includes new reductions ofthe SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification. DR13 releases new reductions of the APOGEE-1data from SDSS-III, with abundances of elements not previously included and improved stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. For the SDSS imaging data, DR13 provides new, more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Several value-added catalogs are being released in tandem with DR13, in particular target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS, and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE.This paper describes the location and format of the data now publicly available, as well as providing references to the important technical papers that describe the targeting, observing, and data reduction. The SDSS website, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials and examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned ~6-year operations of SDSS-IV.PostprintPeer reviewe