Economy and Environmental Problems in the Mexican Coastal States

A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) for environmental and economic variables was performed for 17 Mexican coastal states. The ordination method allowed us to identify three groups, namely hydroelectric energy generation (I), pollution (II) and harbours (III), which were associated to different human activities. Furthermore, CCA is efficient to help us generate hypotheses for future research. It is therefore advised that CCA should be used for routine analyses into economics.Coastal States of Mexico, Canonical Correspondence Analysis, Diversity Index, Economic Development, Environmental Variables.

Diseño y divulgación del plan de emergencias respecto a sustancias químicas en la Escuela de Química de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

En el presente documento se encuentra el diseño de un protocolo de seguridad química para la escuela de Química de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, para ello se partió de un análisis exhaustivo de las condiciones iniciales en relación a las instalaciones, procedimientos, equipos y protocolos referentes a la manipulación, transporte, almacenamiento y disposición final de sustancias químicas al interior de la escuela, para esto fue necesario detectar las amenazas a las cuales está expuesto el personal de la escuela por lo cual se diseñó una encuesta virtual para todo el personal de la misma, obteniendo así la información estadística necesaria para ponderar las amenazas, relacionando la frecuencia y los efectos que estas pueden llegar a tener sobre el personal, con base en los resultados obtenidos, se diseñó un protocolo de seguridad enfocado a mitigar las amenazas detectadas y brindar una herramienta práctica y fácil de entender para el personal que requiera información acerca de qué hacer frente a las diferentes situaciones de riesgo con que se puede enfrentar cualquier persona al interior de la escuela

Effect of the mixing ratio on the composting of OFMSW digestate: assessment of compost quality

This study presents the results obtained in compostability tests of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) digestate. The final aim was to obtain mature compost without phytotoxic effects. For the evaluation of the composting process, a novel parameter describing the performance of the composting process, the relative heat generation standardized with the initial volatile solid content (RHGVS(0)), was defined and evaluated at laboratory-scale. From these laboratory-scale test, the optimum operational conditions were obtained, a mixing ratio (v/v) of 1:1:0 (bulking agent:digestate:co-substrate) and with 15% of mature compost as inoculum. Subsequently, these optimum operational conditions were applied in the active phase of the composting pilot-scale reactor. The active composting stage took 7 days, subsequently a curing phase of 60 days was carried out at ambient conditions. After 30 days of curing, the mature compost showed a specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) of 0.14 mg O-2/g VS center dot h, a germination index (GI) of 99.63% and a low volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration (41.3 AcH mg/kg(dm)), being indicative of the good compost stability and maturity of the compost. The very good quality of the final compost obtained indicated that the RHGVS(0) accurately describes the performance of the composting process

Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of two-phase olive-mill waste and cattle manure: Optimization of semi-continuous process

Anaerobic co-digestion of organic wastes is an effective technology for the management of two or more substrates with different characteristics. In this context, the main objective of this work was the optimization of biogas production for the treatment of a mixture of two-phase olive-mill waste (2POMW) and cattle manure (CM) (60:40 w/w) at mesophilic temperature range (35 degrees C). The effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the performance and stability of the digestion process was studied. A decreasing series of HRTs in the range of 40-12 days was analyzed. The corresponding organic loading rates (OLR) were in the range 2.01-6.07 gVS/L(R)middotd. Pseudo steady-state operation of the reactor was established for HRTs between 40 and 15 days. For 15-days HRT, the maximum values of methane productivity (0.94 LCH4/L(R)middotd) and specific methane yield (0.52 LCH4/gVS(removed)) were obtained while total acidity (measured as acetic acid) in the effluent were < 150 mg/L, verifying process stability. In addition, the removal efficiencies of volatile solids (VS) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were 38 and 67 %, respectively. At 12-days HRT, decreases in methane production and organic matter removal efficiencies were observed, with values of 27 and 47 % for VS and DOC removal, respectively. Therefore, 12-days HRT was considered as inadequate for the anaerobic co-digestion of 2POMW and CM because a clear increase in volatile fatty acids was observed at the end of this period, leading to process destabilization and a decrease in biogas production

Valorización energética de la biomasa : aplicación en industrias del sector agroalimentario

La utilización de la biomasa proveniente del sector agroalimentario como una fuente de energía renovable es de gran interés en la actualidad. Ésta puede generar energía, a través de procesos tanto termoquímicos como bioquímicos, susceptible de utilizarse en forma de calor, energía mecánica o electricidad, y en diferentes estados de agregación: sólida, líquida o gas. La Digestión Anaerobia de vertidos de destilerías vínicas es un ejemplo idóneo de los procesos bioquímicos de conversión de la biomasa para obtener energía, ya que la vinaza se genera en el propio proceso de obtención del alcohol etílico (destilación de vinos y subproductos de la vinificación) producido por fermentación de una disolución azucarada y el metano se genera en la digestión anaerobia del residuo de la destilación. En este trabajo se estudia el funcionamiento y operación de diferentes tecnologías anaerobias susceptibles de ser utilizadas para la degradación de vertidos de destilerías vínicas (vinazas de vino) en condiciones anaerobias termofílicas (55°C), estableciéndose una comparación entre procesos con biomasa en suspensión y sistemas con biomasa adherida de tipo filtro anaerobio. En este último caso, además, se comparan diferentes tipos de materiales soportes y se analiza el efecto de la tasa de recirculación sobre el proceso.____________________________________Nowadays, the use of food industry biomass as a resource of renewable energy is a very interesting management alternative. Biomass can be converted to energy via thermal, biochemical and mechanical processes. This energy can be used like heat, mechanic o electric energies, and in different aggregation states (solid, liquid or gaseous). Anaerobic digestion of wine distilleries wastewater (vinasses) is a suitable example of biochemical conversion process of biomass to obtain energy. Vinasses are generated in the obtaining of ethylic alcohol on wine and wine-subproducts distillation process. This alcohol is previously generated in the biological fermentation of sugars from must. Subsequently, the biogas, mainly methane, can be obtained from anaerobic digestion of the residue of alcohol distillation, the vinasses. This work presents the main operational conditions of different anaerobic technologies used for anaerobic digestion of wine distilleries wastewater (vinasses) in the thermophilic range of temperature (55ºC). This study makes the comparison between technologies that used suspended biomass and fixed-film biorreactors (anaerobic filters). In the anaerobic filter technology there is a comparison between different support media and different recirculation rate regimes and its influence in the process

Bio-Energy Generation from Synthetic Winery Wastewaters

In Spain, thewinery industry exerts a great influence on the national economy. Proportional to the scale of production, a significant volume of waste is generated, estimated at 2 million tons per year. In this work, a laboratory-scale reactor was used to study the feasibility of the energetic valorization of winery e uents into hydrogen by means of dark fermentation and its subsequent conversion into electrical energy using fuel cells. First, winery wastewater was characterized, identifying and determining the concentration of the main organic substrates contained within it. To achieve this, a syntheticwinery effluentwas prepared according to the composition of thewinerywastewater studied. This e uent was fermented anaerobically at 26 C and pH = 5.0 to produce hydrogen. The acidogenic fermentation generated a gas e uent composed of CO2 and H2, with the percentage of hydrogen being about 55% and the hydrogen yield being about 1.5 L of hydrogen at standard conditions per liter of wastewater fermented. A gas e uent with the same composition was fed into a fuel cell and the electrical current generated was monitored, obtaining a power generation of 1W h L1 of winery wastewater. These results indicate that it is feasible to transform winery wastewater into electricity by means of acidogenic fermentation and the subsequent oxidation of the bio-hydrogen generated in a fuel cell

Magnetically tunable composites exhibiting a pseudo plasmonic resonance

Resumen del trabajo presentado al 10th International ETOPIM (Electrical, Transport, and Optical Properties of Inhomogeneous Media), celebrado en jerusalem (Israel) del 21 al 26 de junio de 2015.Peer Reviewe

Alu retrotransposons promote differentiation of human carcinoma cells through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor

Cell differentiation is a central process in development and in cancer growth and dissemination. OCT4 (POU5F1) and NANOG are essential for cell stemness and pluripotency; yet, the mechanisms that regulate their expression remain largely unknown. Repetitive elements account for almost half of the Human Genome; still, their role in gene regulation is poorly understood. Here, we show that the dioxin receptor (AHR) leads to differentiation of human carcinoma cells through the transcriptional upregulation of Alu retrotransposons, whose RNA transcripts can repress pluripotency genes. Despite the genome-wide presence of Alu elements, we provide evidences that those located at the NANOG and OCT4 promoters bind AHR, are transcribed by RNA polymerase-III and repress NANOG and OCT4 in differentiated cells. OCT4 and NANOG repression likely involves processing of Alu-derived transcripts through the miRNA machinery involving the Microprocessor and RISC. Consistently, stable AHR knockdown led to basal undifferentiation, impaired Alus transcription and blockade of OCT4 and NANOG repression. We suggest that transcripts produced from AHR-regulated Alu retrotransposons may control the expression of stemness genes OCT4 and NANOG during differentiation of carcinoma cells. The control of discrete Alu elements by specific transcription factors may have a dynamic role in genome regulation under physiological and diseased conditions.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [BFU2011- 22678, SAF2014-51813-R to P.M.F-S.]; Junta de Extremadura [GR10008, GR15008]; Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer (RTICC); Carlos III Institute; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [RD12/0036/0032]; FPI Fellowship from the Junta de Extremadura (to A.M.H.); Marie Curie IRG project (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG: SOMATIC LINE-1, in part to A.M.); CICE-FEDER-P09-CTS-4980, CICE-FEDERP12- CTS-2256, Plan Nacional de I+D+I 2008–2011 and 2013–2016 (FIS-FEDER-PI11/01489, FIS-FEDERPI14/ 02152), PCIN-2014-115-ERA-NET NEURON II (to J.L.G.P.); European Research Council [ERC-Consolidator ERC-STG-2012-233764]; International Early Career Scientist grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute [IECS-55007420]; European Union FEDER program. Funding for open access charge: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [BFU2011-22678, SAF2014-51813-R to P.M.F-S.]

Start-up of the mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of two-phase olive-mill waste and cattle manure using volatile fatty acids as process control parameter

In this work, the start-up and stabilization stages of mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of 2POMW and CM in a semi-continuously fed stirred tank reactor (SSTR) were analyzed. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were monitored and used as the main control parameter for the start-up and stabilization stages, as well as to evaluate the potential inhibition episodes. The results showed that accumulation of propionic acid was the key factor in the inhibition of the methanogenic phase, leading to process imbalance. To avoid the problems associated with inhibition by high VFA concentrations, several reinoculations were performed using a suitable inoculum adapted to VFA degradation. The start-up phase was carried out in batch conditions for 97 days, reaching a final concentration of propionic acid of 12.77 mg/L. From that moment, the reactor was fed in a semi-continuous mode with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 40 days. A total period of 140 days was required to achieve a stable performance of the reactor with a methane productivity of 0.34 LCH4/LRd

Numerical simulation of nonlinear consolidation problems by models based on the network method

The nonlinear consolidation problem in saturated soils, for any type of constitutive depen- dences of the hydraulic permeability and the void ratio on the effective pressure, has been numerically simulated by the network method. Three different network models, based on logarithmic and/or potential constitutive dependences, called the Davis and Raymond, Juárez-Badillo and Cornetti and Battaglio models, as well as a fourth one with dependences in tabulated form, are solved. In addition, new network models that delete the two restric- tive hypotheses assumed by these authors are presented. These hypotheses are the influ- ence of the void ratio changes in the term of contraction of the governing equation and the influence of the thickness change of the volume element as consolidation progresses. Only a few rules based on elementary theory of circuits are required for the design of the models, whose solution is reliable with relatively small grids and computational times. Af- ter verifying the results of the network method with the solutions of the classic authors, the extended models have been used to address a real case of consolidation