Obtención de derivados catiónicos a partir de pastas Kraft de pino

El objetivo fundamental es el desarrollo de productos que contaminan menos que los usados actualmente, para sustituir los reactivos químicos que se emplean durante el proceso de producción, en la industria papelera. Para ello se utiliza la reacción secuencial de mercerización-cationización de fibras celulósicas de la pasta de pino. El empleo de éstos biopolímeros es una alternativa interesante al uso de agentes químicos por ser un recurso renovable (Biswas et al., 2010; López et al., 2000). La principal ventaja es el empleo de fibras cationizadas que pueden obtenerse a partir de materia prima presente en fábrica, sustituyendo a los agentes químicos durante el proceso, minimizando costes e impacto medioambiental. Se realizaron una serie de ensayos utilizando el equipo “Mütek DFR-05 Drainage Freeness Retention”. El  Mütek DFR-05  simula las condiciones de retención y drenaje imperante en una maquina de papel  inmediatamente antes y durante la formación de la hoja de papel, permitiendo una valoración sistemática de las influencias químicas así como de los posibles cambios en dichas influencias que puedan resultar de la variabilidad de carga. Los ensayos de retención se realizaron siguiendo la norma TAPPI  T261-94. La retención se estudio sobre suspensiones formadas por pasta kraft de pino y está mezclada con una pequeña cantidad de la pasta obtenida de nuestros ensayos. Con el objeto de simular las cargas minerales presentes en las suspensiones papeleras se añadió en todos los ensayos realizados una cantidad de carga mineral más usada en la fabricación de papel. En los resultados se apreció que el grado de retención mayor, se obtienía cuando la velocidad de refino se encuentra dentro del intervalo que previamente se definió como óptimo. Como conclusiones se pude proponer un nuevo procedimiento de cationización de pasta Kraft de pino, por reacción de ésta con distintos grados de refino con 3 cloro-2-hidroxipropil trimetil amonio en medio alcalino, a presión y temperatura controladas, en la que se alcanzan grados de sustitución de uno. La  adición de pasta cationizada como agente de retención, permite alcanzar retenciones próximas al 90%, que superan las alcanzadas en procesos industriales utilizando poliacrilamidas como agente de retención. La pasta cationizada queda totalmente en la hoja, sin producir contaminación en las aguas drenadas

The role of patient safety incident reporting systems in Home Hospitalization

Introduction: The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the current hospitalbased electronic patient safety incident reporting system (IRS) in the improvement of patient safety in home hospitalization (HH). Materials and Methods: Out of 6381 patient safety reports voluntarily presented by healthcare professionals in a tertiary hospital in Barcelona between 2016 and 2019, all those related to HH were analyzed. They were characterized by incident type,description, risk and year, the ways to get notified, patient's age, and the results of the analysis. Moreover, falls were classified depending on circumstances. Results: Based on the results, 68 HH incident reports were related to the following factors: use of medication (n=2), procedures (1), patient's behavior (n=1), and falls (n=64). Regarding the damage degree, the incidents were reported as extreme risk (n=1), high (n=8), moderate (n=27), low (29), and very low risk (n=3). The majority of patients involved in the incidents were more than 60 years old. Out of the reported falls, 8 cases were categorized as high risk, and 32 cases reported health consequences. Moreover, 19 falls from height, 31 cases of falling while sitting or lying, and 30 incidents classified as unknown were identified. Conclusion: Patient safety is a matter of great concern, especially in HH but with some differential features. The IRS can play a peculiar role in minimizing patient safety risks and promoting a safety culture. The results of the present study pointed to some frequent risks and suggested improving opportunities in HH. Nonetheless, further studies are needed to design tailored patient safety interventions in HH, as well as a tailored IRS adapted to this growing settin

Gray cast iron for sugar mills trash plates

Improved materials are required for increasing the durability of sugar mills trash plates, considering their mechanical properties. The aim of this work was to obtain a gray cast iron, slightly alloyed with chromium, to raise the combined wear resistance. The gray alloy cast was proposed with 0,5% Cr and 0,1% Sn, with a high level of perlite, and the performance of its properties was compared with the other experimental alloys. Finally, it is demonstrated that the values of hardness and combined strength of the proposed alloy are adequate and guarantee an acceptable machinating, which makes this alloy an advantageous material in comparison with those currently used

Temperature-mediated biosynthesis of the phytotoxin phaseolotoxin by Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola depends on the autoregulated expression of the phtABC genes

Abstract Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola produces phaseolotoxin in a temperature dependent manner, being optimally synthesized between 18˚C and 20˚C, while no detectable amounts are present above 28˚C. The Pht cluster, involved in the biosynthesis of phaseolotoxin, contains 23 genes that are organized in five transcriptional units. The function of most of the genes from the Pht cluster is still unknown and little information about the regulatory circuitry leading to expression of these genes has been reported. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the participation of pht genes in the regulation of the operons coded into the Pht cluster. We conducted Northern blot, uidA fusions and reverse transcription-PCR assays of pht genes in several mutants unable to produce phaseolotoxin. This allowed us to determine that, in P. syringae pv. phaseolicola NPS3121, genes phtABC are essential to prevent their own expression at 28˚C, a temperature at which no detectable amounts of the toxin are present. We obtained evidence that the phtABC genes also participate in the regulation of the phtD, phtM and phtL operons. According to our results, we propose that PhtABC and other Pht product activities could be involved in the synthesis of the sulfodiaminophosphinyl moiety of phaseolotoxin, which indirectly could be involved in the transcriptional regulation of the phtA operon

Specific Gene Loci of Clinical Pseudomonas putida Isolates

Pseudomonas putida are ubiquitous inhabitants of soils and clinical isolates of this species have been seldom described. Clinical isolates show significant variability in their ability to cause damage to hosts because some of them are able to modulate the host’s immune response. In the current study, comparisons between the genomes of different clinical and environmental strains of P. putida were done to identify genetic clusters shared by clinical isolates that are not present in environmental isolates. We show that in clinical strains specific genes are mostly present on transposons, and that this set of genes exhibit high identity with genes found in pathogens and opportunistic pathogens. The set of genes prevalent in P. putida clinical isolates, and absent in environmental isolates, are related with survival under oxidative stress conditions, resistance against biocides, amino acid metabolism and toxin/antitoxin (TA) systems. This set of functions have influence in colonization and survival within human tissues, since they avoid host immune response or enhance stress resistance. An in depth bioinformatic analysis was also carried out to identify genetic clusters that are exclusive to each of the clinical isolates and that correlate with phenotypical differences between them, a secretion system type III-like was found in one of these clinical strains, a determinant of pathogenicity in Gram-negative bacteria.Work in the authors’ laboratories was supported by ERANET Pathogenomics programme through the ADHERS project (Ref: BIO2008-04419-E) and Fondos FEDER from the European Union through project BIO2010-17227 of the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity of Spain. Bio-Iliberis R&D provided supportPeer reviewe

Las necesidades formativas docentes de los profesores universitarios

En este artículo pretendemos analizar las necesidades formativas docentes de los profesores noveles universitarios y de los profesores en general de las Universidades de Sevilla y Huelva. No resulta extraño decir que la titulación universitaria se ocupa fundamentalmente de preparar a los alumnos para desempeñar tareas en el mundo profesional de la empresa más que para desempeñar tareas en la institución universitaria. Debido a ello, los profesionales que deciden continuar en la vida universitaria encuentran verdaderos problemas a la hora de comenzar su actividad profesional como docentes, detectándose, por tanto, determinadas necesidades formativas en lo que se refiere fundamentalmente a la utilización de estrategias docentes que mejorarían su incorporación al mundo de la docencia universitaria. Estos profesores reclaman formación y asesoramiento pedagógico y didáctico para la mejora de su tarea docente, es decir, propuestas formativas adecuadas al desempeño de su papel como profesionales de la educación superior.In this article we try to analyze educational formative necessities and of the professors' beginner university students advice and of the professors in general at the Universities of Seville and Huelva. The university titulación is in charge of fundamentally of preparing the students to carry out tasks in the professional world of the company more than to carry out tasks in the university institution. Professionals that decide to continue in the university life find true problems when beginning their professional activity as educational, being detected, therefore, certain formative necessities in what refers base to the use of educational strategies that you/they would improve their incorporation to the world of the university docencia. These professors claim formation and pedagogic and didactic advice for the improvement of their educational task, that is to say, appropriate formative proposals to the acting of their paper like professionals of the superior education. The society of the knowledge and of the information in the one that we meet demand every time with more peak the formation of the different professionals that you/they carry out different tasks in the society. A deep concern exists for the formation, what bears, in general, every time a bigger number of formation programs depending on the formative necessities that the professionals present, as well as different forms of consenting to them, mainly the denominated programs and-learning and on-line. In this article the results and conclusions of the necessities of the beginner professors' of University educational formation are exposed. It is necessary to highlight that the publications that have taken place in the last times point out that the university professors, the same as other professionals, require for their improvement as other partners' educational supports and other colleagues' specific advice with more experience professional, as well as certain didactic formation. In this sense, the formation programs for professors contribute to the improvement of the educational quality, and therefore, educational, of the university institutions, helping this way to the professors to carry out, the same as in other professions, their list like educational

Exposición de aparatos de medida de los laboratorios de Física

Memoria ID-0227. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2014-2015

Expression of the gene for resistance to phaseolotoxin (argK) depends on the activity of genes phtABC in Pseudomonas syringae pv. Phaseolicola

Incluye material complementarioThe bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola produces phaseolotoxin in a temperature dependent manner, being optimally produced between 18 degrees C and 20 degrees C, while no detectable amounts are present above 28 degrees C. Phaseolotoxin is an effective inhibitor of ornithine carbamoyltransferase (OCTase) activity from plant, mammalian and bacterial sources and causes a phenotypic requirement for arginine. To protect the cell from its own toxin, P. syringae pv. phaseolicola synthesizes a phaseolotoxin-resistant OCTase (ROCT). The ROCT is the product of the argK gene and is synthesized only under conditions leading to phaseolotoxin synthesis. The argK gene is included in a chromosomal fragment named Pht cluster, which contains genes involved in the synthesis of phaseolotoxin. The aim of the present work was to investigate the possible involvement of other genes included in the Pht cluster in the regulation of gene argK. We conducted transcriptional analyses of argK in several mutants unable to produce phaseolotoxin, transcriptional fusions and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, which allowed us to determine that genes phtABC, located within the Pht cluster, participate in the transcriptional repression of gene argK at temperatures not permissive for phaseolotoxin biosynthesis. This repression is mediated by a protein present in both toxigenic and nontoxigenic strains of P. syringae and in E. coli, and requires the coordinated participation of phtA, phtB and phtC products in order to carry out an efficient argK repression.This work was funded by grants from CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología; http://www.conacyt.mx), research grant SEP-2006-C01-49958/24089 to AAM and SA (Postdoctoral scholarship), and from the Spanish Plan Nacional I+D+I grant AGL2008-55311-CO2-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; http://micinn.es/), co financed by FEDER, to JM