The State of the Great Central Valley -- Community Well-Being

Part of a series that provides various quality of life indicators for California's Central Valley. Includes data on citizenship, community and organizational participation, democratic participation by ethnic and racial groups, and youth engagement

Integrating anaerobic digestion and slow pyrolysis improves the product portfolio of a cocoa waste biorefinery

The integration of conversion processes with anaerobic digestion is key to increase value from agricultural waste, like cocoa pod husks, generated in developing countries. The production of one metric ton of cocoa beans generates some 15 metric tonnes of organic waste that is today underutilized. This waste can be converted into added value products by anaerobic digestion, converting part of the cocoa pods to biogas while releasing nutrients, and pyrolysis. Here, we compared different scenarios for anaerobic digestion/slow pyrolysis integration in terms of product portfolio (i.e., biogas, pyrolysis liquids, biochar and pyrolysis gases), energy balance and potential for chemicals production. Slow pyrolysis was performed at 350 degrees C and 500 degrees C on raw cocoa pod husks, as well as on digestates obtained from mono-digestion of cocoa pod husks and co-digestion with cow manure. Anaerobic digestion resulted in 20 to 25 wt% of biogas for mono and co-digestion, respectively. Direct pyrolysis of cocoa pod husks mainly resulted in biochar with a maximum yield of 48 wt%. Anaerobic digestion induced compositional changes in the resulting biochar, pyrolysis liquids and evolved gases after pyrolysis. Pyrolysis of mono-digestatee.g., resulted in a more energy-dense organic phase, rich in valuable phenolics while poorer in light oxygenates that hold a modest value. Our comparison shows that co-digestion/slow pyrolysis at 500 degrees C and mono-digestion/slow pyrolysis at 350 degrees C both present high-potential biorefinery schemes. They can be self-sustaining in terms of energy, while resulting in high quality biochar for nutrient recycling and/or energy recovery, and/or phenolics-rich pyrolysis liquids for further upgrading into biorefinery intermediates

The State of the Great Central Valley -- Education and Youth Preparedness

Part of a series that provides various quality of life indicators for California's Central Valley. Focuses on family and home life, economic stability, youth health, and education. Includes pregnancy rates, and graduation rates

Development and validation of vulnerable and enabling indices for hiv viral suppression among people with hiv enrolled in the ryan white program

Background: Numerous factors impact HIV care, often requiring consideration of indices to prevent collinearity when using statistical modeling. Using the Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations, we developed vulnerable and enabling indices for people living with HIV (PLWH). Methods: We used Ryan White Program (RWP) data and principal component analysis to develop general and gender-and racial/ethnic-specific indices. We assessed internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha), convergent validity (correlation coefficient), and predictive utility (logistic regression) with non-viral suppression. Results: Three general factors accounting for 79.2% of indicators’ variability surfaced: mental health, drug use, and socioeconomic status (Cronbach’s alpha 0.68). Among the overall RWP population, indices showed convergent validity and predictive utility. Using gender-or racial/ethnic-specific indices did not improve psychometric performance. Discussion: General mental health, drug use, and socioeconomic indices using administrative data showed acceptable reliability, validity, and utility for non-viral suppression in an overall PLWH population and in gender-and racial/ethnic-stratified populations. These general indices may be used with similar validity and utility across gender and racial/ethnic diverse populations

Typology of sheep farmers benefited by the Program for the Improvement of indigenous Production and Productivity

Objective: To identify the typology and describe the sheep farmers benefited by the Programa para el Mejoramiento de la Producción y Productividad Indígena (PROIN: Program for the Improvement of Indigenous Production and Productivity) of the Instituto Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas (INPI: National Institute for Indigenous Peoples), in Campeche. Design/Methodology/Approach: One-hundred ninety-nine sheep farmers registered as beneficiaries in the Program were interviewed. They belonged to 27 sheep farms (SF), located in seven municipalities. A questionnaire including socioeconomic and technical questions and 15 quantitative and qualitative variables was conducted. Variables were correlated and a principal components analysis was carried out to define types of farms. The variables that explained the highest variability in the data set were number of sheep, number of sheep sold per year, annual income from sheep sales, productive purpose of the sheep farming, and feeding system. These variables were then used to perform a cluster analysis in order to identify and cluster the sheep farms. Results: Three groups of farmers were identified: Conventional (C, 74%) with 70 sheep and annual sales for $10,109.00; Transitional (T, 15$36,680.00; and those in business (B, 11%) with 142 sheep and annual sales for $48,443.00. All the producers (100%) carry out extensive grazing. The breeds used by C and T are Pelibuey × Black Belly (78%), while B uses Pelibuey × Kathadin (21.7%). Study Limitations/Implications: Implemented support strategies must differentiate according to the type of farm. Findings/Conclusions: Three types of sheep farmers were identified: Conventional, Transitional, and Enterprise. Farmer types were differentiated by the number of sheep, sales, income, sheep production system, and feeding system they use

Potential use of near-infrared spectroscopy to predict fatty acid profile of meat from different european autochthonous pig breeds

Autochthonous pig breeds provide products of differentiated quality, among which quality control is difficult to perform and insufficient for current market requirements. The present research evaluates the predictive ability of near?infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, combined with chemometric methods as a rapid and affordable tool to assure traceability and quality control. Thus, NIR technology was assessed for intact and minced muscle Longissimus thoracis et lumborum samples collected from 12 European autochthonous pig breeds for the quantification of lipid content and fatty acid composition. Different tests were performed using different numbers of samples for calibration and validation. The best predictive ability was found using minced presentation and set with 80% of the samples for the calibration and the remaining 20% for the external validation test for the following traits: lipid content and saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which attained both the highest determination coefficients (0.89, 0.61, and 0.65, respectively) and the lowest root mean square errors in external validation (0.62, 1.82, and 1.36, respectively). Lower predictive ability was observed for intact muscles. These results could contribute to improve the management of autochthonous breeds and to ensure quality of their products by traditional meat industry chains.FE1B-06B2-126F | Jos? Pedro Pinto de Ara?joN/

Influence of radiation and TiO2 concentration on the hydroxyl radicals generation in a photocatalytic LED reactor. Application to dodecylbenzenesulfonate degradation

One of the main issues associated to the development of photocatalysis is the lack of adequate indexes that allow the comparison of the results obtained in different experimental setup designs. The hydroxyl radicals (o OH) generation rate is a key factor to determine the overall oxidation rate. In this work, using a Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) reactor aimed to maximize light ef?ciency and minimize energy consumption, the o OH generated have been determined as a function of the radiation and catalyst concentration following an indirect method based on the reaction between o OH and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to produce formaldehyde. Finally, the methodology has been applied to analyze the degradation kinetics of the anionic surfactant dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBS), frequently used in shampoo formulations and detergents for washing machines. We propose a method based on the indirect determination of o OH radicals generation rate that allows the assessment and comparison of the kinetics of photocatalytic oxidation of pollutants.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and from FEDER funds (projects CTM2012-33917 and CTQ2012-31639) are gratefully acknowledged