A Pathway to Energy and Food Security with Biodiesel

The simultaneous rise in commodity prices and the global production of biofuels, between 2007 and 2008, strengthened discussions, which persist currently, about the competition of land use between biofuel production and food production. The objective of this paper is to compare and evaluate the arguments from both sides. The methodology used was an analysis of the relevant and comprehensive reports and manuscripts on the topic, comparing them to the available data from international organizations and agencies. Biodiesel received special attention in this analysis. The conclusion is that hunger and poverty problems are due to structural and historical roots and they do not have a cause-effect relationship with biodiesel production. In fact, the production of biodiesel, under specific regulatory and production conditions, can be a driver of economic development improving energy security and promoting social inclusion in poor countries, which still have land available for agriculture

Caracterização do arco longitudinal plantar de crianças obesas por meio de índices da impressão plantar

OBJETIVO: descrever o desenvolvimento do arco longitudinal medial (ALM) do pé de crianças obesas e verificar a concordância entre 5 índices da impressão plantar que caracterizam este arco. MÉTODOS: 156 crianças obesas, ambos os sexos, idade entre 4 e 10 anos, pertencentes a escolas pública e privada da cidade de São Paulo, Brasil. As crianças classificadas como obesas foram selecionadas entre 1535 crianças estudantes de cinco escolas, com idade entre 4 e 10 anos. Em seguida foram coletadas as impressões plantares de cada criança e calculados índices que caracterizaram o ALM: índice de Cavanagh e Rodgers - CR, índice de Staheli - IS1 e IS2, índice de Chipaux-Smirak ICS e ângulo alfa de Clarke - AA. RESULTADOS: CR, IS e ICS mostraram que a grande alteração na forma do ALM ocorre na transição dos 8 para os 9 anos e o AA mostra dois momentos, passagem dos 6 para os 7 anos e dos 8 para os 9 anos. De uma maneira geral, a classificação IS1 foi a mais discrepante para classificar o ALM nessas crianças e o CR a mais constante. CONCLUSÕES: Observou-se que o ALM se forma mais tardiamente em crianças obesas (8 para 9 anos) em relação às crianças não obesas (5 para 6 anos). Quanto aos índices, houve semelhança na descrição do desenvolvimento do ALM entre CR, ICS e AA, sendo que o IS merece maior cuidado e restrição em seu uso.OBJECTIVES: To describe the development of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) ofthe foot of obese children and verify the concordance between 5 footprint indexes whichcharacterize such arch. METHODS: 156 obese children, both genders, between 4 and 10 yearsold, belonging to both public and private schools of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The childrenwere classified as obese according to Cole et al (2000) and selected among 1535 studentsbetween 4 and 10 years old from 5 different schools. Afterwards, the footprints of each obesechild were collected and then the indexes that characterize the MLA were calculated: Cavanaghand Rodgers index - CR, Staheli index - IS1 and IS2, Chipaux-Smirak index - ICS, andfootprint angle - AA. RESULTS: CR, IS and ICS showed that a remarkable change in the MLAshape takes place in the transition from 8 to 9 years of age and the AA showed two transitionranges, from 6 to 7 and from 8 to 9 years of age. Generally speaking, the largest discrepancywas noticed in the IS1 classification when evaluating the MLA for those children and the CRone proved to be the most stable. CONCLUSION: It was observed that the MLA is formed later inobese children (8 to 9 years of age) comparing to non-obese children (5 to 6 years of age).Regarding the indexes, there was a similarity in the description of the MLA developmentbetween CR, ICS and AA. The IS needs more caution and its use should be restricted

Cytokeratin expression in corneal dystrophies

PURPOSE: To identify an immunohistochemical pattern of epithelial markers in granular, lattice and Avellino corneal dystrophies. METHODS: Twenty-two corneal buttons, diagnosed as lattice (17), Avellino (4) and granular (1) underwent immunohistochemical studies of cytokeratins (CKs) on pa- raffin-embedded sections (group I). Monoclonal antibodies for pan-CK (AE1/AE3) and CKs 3/12, 5/6, 8, 18 and 19 were used. Twenty-two normal corneas were used as the control (group II). RESULTS: Six lattice and 2 Avellino cases of group I stained positively with anti-CK 3/12 in corneal epithelium and areas of corneal stroma deposits. One of these cases of lattice was positive for anti-pan-CK (AE1/AE3) also in the epithelium and areas of corneal stroma deposits with a similar pattern. None of the controls (group II) revealed any staining in corneal stroma. All disease and control cases (groups I and II) revealed positive staining in corneal epithelium. CONCLUSION: AE1/AE3 and CK 3/12 anti-CK positive markers in the stromal deposits of lattice and Avellino dystrophies may suggest an epithelial genesis of the disease

Molecular Genetic Variability Of Commercial And Wild Accessions Of Passion Fruit (passiflora Spp.) Targeting Ex Situ Conservation And Breeding.

Passiflora species are distributed throughout Latin America, and Brazil and Colombia serve as the centers of diversity for this genus. We performed cross-species amplification to evaluate 109 microsatellite loci in 14 Passiflora species and estimated the diversity and genetic structure of Passiflora cincinnata, Passiflora setaceae and Passiflora edulis. A total of 127 accessions, including 85 accessions of P. edulis, a commercial species, and 42 accessions of 13 wild species, were examined. The cross-species amplification was effective for obtaining microsatellite loci (average cross-amplification of 70%). The average number of alleles per locus (five) was relatively low, and the average diversity ranged from 0.52 in P. cincinnata to 0.32 in P. setacea. The Bayesian analyses indicated that the P. cincinnata and P. setacea accessions were distributed into two groups, and the P. edulis accessions were distributed into five groups. Private alleles were identified, and suggestions for core collections are presented. Further collections are necessary, and the information generated may be useful for breeding and conservation.1522933-5

Numerical optimization of a microchannel geometry for nanofluid flow and heat dissipation assessment

In this study, a numerical approach was carried out to analyze the effects of different geometries of microchannel heat sinks on the forced convective heat transfer in single-phase flow. The simulations were performed using the commercially available software COMSOLMultiphysics 5.6® (Burlington, MA, USA) and its results were compared with those obtained from experimental tests performed in microchannel heat sinks of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Distilled water was used as the working fluid under the laminar fluid flow regime, with a maximum Reynolds number of 293. Three sets of geometries were investigated: rectangular, triangular and circular. The different configurations were characterized based on the flow orientation, type of collector and number of parallel channels. The main results show that the rectangular shaped collector was the one that led to a greater uniformity in the distribution of the heat transfer in the microchannels. Similar results were also obtained for the circular shape. For the triangular geometry, however, a disturbance in the jet impingement was observed, leading to the least uniformity. The increase in the number of channels also enhanced the uniformity of the flow distribution and, consequently, improved the heat transfer performance, which must be considered to optimize new microchannel heat sink designs. The achieved optimized design for a heat sink, with microchannels for nanofluid flow and a higher heat dissipation rate, comprised a rectangular collector with eight microchannels and vertical placement of the inlet and outlet.This work has been funded by Portuguese national funds of FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) through base funding from the following research units: UIDB/00532/2020 (Transport Phenomena Research Center-CEFT), UIDB/04077/2020 (MEtRICs) and UIDP/04436/2020. The authors are also grateful for the funding of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia-FCT through the projectsLISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-030171/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171 (PTDC/EMESIS/30171/2017), funded by COMPETE2020, NORTE2020, PORTUGAL2020, and FEDER. The authors also acknowledge FCT for partially financing the research under the framework of the project JICAM/0003/2017. Finally, I. Gonçalves acknowledges FCT for supporting her PhD fellowship, ref.: 2020.08646.B

Ionic liquid-mediated recovery of carotenoids from the bactris gasipaes fruit waste and their application in food-packaging chitosan films

In this work, a process for the extraction and purification of carotenoids from the fruit Bactris gasipaes was developed. Ethanolic and aqueous solutions of ionic liquids (ILs) and surfactants were evaluated on the extraction of these pigments. Thus, we developed an optimized sustainable downstream process mediated by the best solvent with further isolation of the carotenoids and the recyclability of the IL used. The process was characterized not only in terms of efficiency but also regarding its environmental impact. The recyclability of the solvents as well as the high efficiency (maximum yield of extraction of carotenoids = 88.7 ± 0.9 μgcarotenoids·gdried biomass–1) and the low environmental impact of the integrated process developed in this work were demonstrated. In the end, in order to incorporate functional activity for an alternative food-packaging material, carotenoids were successfully applied on the preparation of chitosan-based films with excellent results regarding their mechanical parameters and antioxidant activity.publishe

Pool boiling of nanofluids on biphilic surfaces: An experimental and numerical study

This study addresses the combination of customized surface modification with the use of nanofluids, to infer on its potential to enhance pool-boiling heat transfer. Hydrophilic surfaces patterned with superhydrophobic regions were developed and used as surface interfaces with different nanofluids (water with gold, silver, aluminum and alumina nanoparticles), in order to evaluate the effect of the nature and concentration of the nanoparticles in bubble dynamics and consequently in heat transfer processes. The main qualitative and quantitative analysis was based on extensive post-processing of synchronized high-speed and thermographic images. To study the nucleation of a single bubble in pool boiling condition, a numerical model was also implemented. The results show an evident benefit of using biphilic patterns with well-established distances between the superhydrophobic regions. This can be observed in the resulting plot of the dissipated heat flux for a biphilic pattern with seven superhydrophobic spots, δ = 1/d and an imposed heat flux of 2132 w/m2. In this case, the dissipated heat flux is almost constant (except in the instant t* ≈ 0.9 when it reaches a peak of 2400 W/m2), whilst when using only a single superhydrophobic spot, where the heat flux dissipation reaches the maximum shortly after the detachment of the bubble, dropping continuously until a new necking phase starts. The biphilic patterns also allow a controlled bubble coalescence, which promotes fluid convection at the hydrophilic spacing between the superhydrophobic regions, which clearly contributes to cool down the surface. This effect is noticeable in the case of employing the Ag 1 wt% nanofluid, with an imposed heat flux of 2132 W/m2, where the coalescence of the drops promotes a surface cooling, identified by a temperature drop of 0.7 °C in the hydrophilic areas. Those areas have an average temperature of 101.8 °C, whilst the average temperature of the superhydrophobic spots at coalescence time is of 102.9 °C. For low concentrations as the ones used in this work, the effect of the nanofluids was observed to play a minor role. This can be observed on the slight discrepancy of the heat dissipation decay that occurred in the necking stage of the bubbles for nanofluids with the same kind of nanoparticles and different concentration. For the Au 0.1 wt% nanofluid, a heat dissipation decay of 350 W/m2 was reported, whilst for the Au 0.5 wt% nanofluid, the same decay was only of 280 W/m2. The results of the numerical model concerning velocity fields indicated a sudden acceleration at the bubble detachment, as can be qualitatively analyzed in the thermographic images obtained in this work. Additionally, the temperature fields of the analyzed region present the same tendency as the experimental results.This work was funded by Portuguese national funds of FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) through the base funding from the following research units: UIDB/00532/2020 (Transport Phenomena Research Center, CEFT), UIDB/04077/2020 (MEtRICs) and UIDP/04436/2020. The authors are also grateful for the funding of FCT through the projects LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-030171/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171 (PTDC/EME-SIS/30171/2017), funded by COMPETE2020, NORTE2020, PORTUGAL2020 and FEDER. The authors also acknowledge FCT for partially financing the research under the framework of the project UTAP-EXPL/CTE/0064/2017, financiado no ambito do Projeto 5665-Parcerias Internacionais de Ciencia e Tecnologia, UT Austin Programme. Mr Pedro Pontes also acknowledgesFCT for his fellowship ref. SFRH/BD/149286/2019

Effects of different types of verbal encouragement on ankle force and muscle activity

The aim of this study is to investigate (i) the effect of live and recorded verbal encouragement on muscle activity and ankle force; (ii) the effect of communication/extroversion on the variables; (iii) the reliability intra and inter examiners of the variables. Twenty healthy-youngers were assessed by surface electromyography of tibialis anterior and ankle flexion force by an ergometer twice, with one week apart. No difference was found between ankle force (p = 0.373) and root mean square values (RMS) (p = 0.207) for any of the conditions assessed on day 1 nor between examiners 1 and 2 for both live and recorded conditions in RMS (p = 0.207) and force (p = 0.373). Between the 1st and 7th days, there were no differences for any of the conditions on RMS (main effect “Day” p = 0.261, “condition” p = 0.568, interaction p = 0.936) or force (main effect“Day” p = 0.889, “condition” p = 0.781, interaction p = 0.961). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for the ankle force were, for without verbal encouragement (ICC2, k = 0.880), live verbal encouragement of examiner 1 (ICC2, k = 0.870), and recorded verbal encouragement of examiner 1 (ICC2, k = 0.920). RMS without verbal encouragement condition (ICC2, k = 0.860), live verbal encouragement of examiner 1 (ICC2, k = 0.930) and recorded verbal encouragement of examiner 1 (ICC2, k = 0.920). Reproducibility between the two examiner’s live encouragements for ankle force (ICC3, k = 0.981) and RMS (ICC3, k = 0.920). There was no effect of the presence or type of the augmented feedback in RMS and ankle force. We conclude that verbal encouragement does not influence ankle torque or muscle activity and there is good to excellent intra and inter rater reliability for subjects’ performance regardless of verbal encouragement modality. In addition, we observed that psychological traits Communication and Emotional stability does not affect the subjects’ strength performance at the ankle

Prime Focus Spectrograph - Subaru's future -

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) of the Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts (SuMIRe) project has been endorsed by Japanese community as one of the main future instruments of the Subaru 8.2-meter telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph targets cosmology with galaxy surveys, Galactic archaeology, and studies of galaxy/AGN evolution. Taking advantage of Subaru's wide field of view, which is further extended with the recently completed Wide Field Corrector, PFS will enable us to carry out multi-fiber spectroscopy of 2400 targets within 1.3 degree diameter. A microlens is attached at each fiber entrance for F-ratio transformation into a larger one so that difficulties of spectrograph design are eased. Fibers are accurately placed onto target positions by positioners, each of which consists of two stages of piezo-electric rotary motors, through iterations by using back-illuminated fiber position measurements with a wide-field metrology camera. Fibers then carry light to a set of four identical fast-Schmidt spectrographs with three color arms each: the wavelength ranges from 0.38 {\mu}m to 1.3 {\mu}m will be simultaneously observed with an average resolving power of 3000. Before and during the era of extremely large telescopes, PFS will provide the unique capability of obtaining spectra of 2400 cosmological/astrophysical targets simultaneously with an 8-10 meter class telescope. The PFS collaboration, led by IPMU, consists of USP/LNA in Brazil, Caltech/JPL, Princeton, & JHU in USA, LAM in France, ASIAA in Taiwan, and NAOJ/Subaru.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, Ian S. McLean, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Hideki Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 8446 (2012)