Clays from Vila Nova da Rainha (Portugal): Appraisal of their relevant properties in order to be used in construction ceramics

The clay deposit of Vila Nova da Rainha (VNR) is included in the lithostratigraphic forma tion named “Argilas de Tomar”, and is located at the lower section of the Tert iary Tagus’ river basin. Clay from one quarry is being extracted for the production of construction ceramics. In this work the firing transformations undergone by VNR cl ays containing quartz, alkaline feldspar, iron oxy-hydroxides, and clay minerals have been studied. Ca rbonates have not been identified in thes e raw materials. The clay layers can be subdivided in three groups based upon composition and ceramic properties. The first group, VNR0, is represented by smectite-kaolinite sandy-silty clay, the second group (VNR1 and VNR2) corresponds to illite-kaolinite bearing clay and the third group (VNR3 and VNR4) is represented by illite-smectite silty clay. The firing process involves the formation of hematite and mu llite both influencing the technical properties of the fired products. With regards to the ceramic properties assessed at 1100 ºC the first group showed the lowest total shrinkage value (7.35 %) the highest water absorption value (12.2 %) and the lo west mechanical bending strength value (12.0 MPa); the same properties assessed in the second group provi ded the highest firing shrinkage values (7.0-5.0 %), the lowest values of water absorption (0.1-0.2 %) and relatively high mechanical bending strength values (47.8-48.0 MPa); the third group showed firing shrinkage values within the range 3.5-4.2 %, water absorption values within the range 1.4-4.5 %, and the highest mechanical bending strength values (49.2-52.0 MPa). The results of the ceramic properties being appraised indicate that the raw materials being studied are suitable for the production of high-quality construction ceramics, such as brick, roof tile and rustic floor tile.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Incidental Diagnosis of Bladder Cancer in a 17-year-old Patient

AbstractBladder cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer among males and the ninth most common cause of cancer death. Bladder cancer can occur at any age. This paper reports the incidental diagnosis of bladder cancer in a 17-year-old female patient. Data on bladder cancer at this age are uncommon in the literature

A modular reactor to simulate biofilm development in orthopedic materials

Surfaces of medical implants are generally designed to encourage soft- and/or hard-tissue adherence, eventually leading to tissue- or osseo-integration. Unfortunately, this feature may also encourage bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation. To understand the mechanisms of bone tissue infection associated with contaminated biomaterials, a detailed understanding of bacterial adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation on biomaterial surfaces is needed. In this study, a continuous-flow modular reactor composed of several modular units placed in parallel was designed to evaluate the activity of circulating bacterial suspensions and thus their predilection for biofilm formation during 72 h of incubation. Hydroxyapatite discs were placed in each modular unit and then removed at fixed times to quantify biofilm accumulation. Biofilm formation on each replicate of material, unchanged in structure, morphology, or cell density, was reproducibly observed. The modular reactor therefore proved to be a useful tool for following mature biofilm formation on different surfaces and under conditions similar to those prevailing near human-bone implants. [Int Microbiol 2013; 16(3):191-198]Keywords: orthopedic materials · orthopedic conditions · modular reactors · continuous flow · biomaterials · biofilm formatio

Exploring glycoside hydrolases and accessory proteins from wood decay fungi to enhance sugarcane bagasse saccharification

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) and accessory proteins are key components for efficient and cost-effective enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides in modern, biochemically based biorefineries. Currently, commercialized GHs and accessory proteins are produced by ascomycetes. However, the role of wood decay basidiomycetes proteins in biomass saccharification has not been extensively pursued. Wood decay fungi degrade polysaccharides in highly lignified tissues in natural environments, and are a promising enzyme source for improving enzymatic cocktails that are designed for in vitro lignocellulose conversion.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud GHs and accessory proteins were produced by representative brown- and white-rot fungi, Laetiporus sulphureus and Pleurotus ostreatus, respectively. Concentrated protein extracts were then used to amend commercial enzymatic cocktails for saccharification of alkaline-sulfite pretreated sugarcane bagasse. The main enzymatic activities found in the wood decay fungal protein extracts were attributed to endoglucanases, xylanases and β-glucosidases. Cellobiohydrolase (CBH) activities in the L. sulphureus and P. ostreatus extracts were low and nonexistent, respectively. The initial glucan conversion rates were boosted when the wood decay fungal proteins were used to replace half of the enzymes from the commercial cocktails. L. sulphureus proteins increased the glucan conversion levels, with values above those observed for the full load of commercial enzymes. Wood decay fungal proteins also enhanced the xylan conversion efficiency due to their high xylanase activities. Proteomic studies revealed 104 and 45 different proteins in the P. ostreatus and L. sulphureus extracts, respectively. The enhancement of the saccharification of alkaline-pretreated substrates by the modified enzymatic cocktails was attributed to the following protein families: GH5- and GH45-endoglucanases, GH3-β-glucosidases, and GH10-xylanases.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud The extracellular proteins produced by wood decay fungi provide useful tools to improve commercial enzyme cocktails that are currently used for the saccharification of alkaline-pretreated lignocellulosic substrates. The relevant proteins encompass multiple glycoside hydrolase families, including the GH5- and GH45-endoglucanases, GH3-β-glucosidases, and GH10-xylanases.The authors thank J.M. Silva and J.C. Tavares for technical assistance. This work\ud was supported by FAPESP (contract numbers 08/56256-5 and 2014/06923-6),\ud CNPq (contract numbers 442333/2014-5; 310186/2014-5 and 140796/2013-\ud 4), and CAPES. We gratefully acknowledge the provision of time on the MAS\ud and NGS facilities (LNBio and CTBE, respectively) at the National Center for\ud Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM).\ud The work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de\ud São Paulo (FAPESP), contract numbers 08/56256-5 and 2014/06923-6, and by\ud Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq), contract numbers 442333/2014-5;\ud 310186/2014-5, 140796/2013-4

Modeling Disease Vector Occurrence when Detection Is Imperfect: Infestation of Amazonian Palm Trees by Triatomine Bugs at Three Spatial Scales

Blood-sucking bugs of the genus Rhodnius are major vectors of Chagas disease. Control and surveillance of Chagas disease transmission critically depend on ascertaining whether households and nearby ecotopes (such as palm trees) are infested by these vectors. However, no bug detection technique works perfectly. Because more sensitive methods are more costly, vector searches face a trade-off between technical prowess and sample size. We compromise by using relatively inexpensive sampling techniques that can be applied multiple times to a large number of palms. With these replicated results, we estimate the probability of failing to detect bugs in a palm that is actually infested. We incorporate this information into our analyses to derive an unbiased estimate of palm infestation, and find it to be about 50% – twice the observed proportion of infested palms. We are then able to model the effects of regional, landscape, and local environmental variables on palm infestation. Individual palm attributes contribute overwhelmingly more than landscape or regional covariates to explaining infestation, suggesting that palm tree management can help mitigate risk locally. Our results illustrate how explicitly accounting for vector, pathogen, or host detection failures can substantially improve epidemiological parameter estimation when perfect detection techniques are unavailable