Farmhouse interior restoration in bioconstruction

[EN] The presented project deals with the interior design in bioconstruction of a family home, being a third part of the surface of an agricultural farmhouse named “Ca l'Amell”, in the municipality of Premiá de Mar, in Barcelona. Founded in 1848, it is classified as a cultural asset of local interest by the Catalog of the Environmental and Historical Architectural Heritage. The purchase of the entire farmhouse has been carried out by three families through a “micro co-housing” process: they split the cost of the purchase of the entire property and then divided it into three independent units.The object of this work is the interior design of one of the 3 housing (U3), that has been carried out by recovering traditional construction techniques and materials, respecting the original character of the vernacular architecture of the agricultural farmhouses in the area. To achieve this objective the project is based on using natural and highly breathable materials (instead of synthetics) like hydraulic lime plasters, clay plasters, silicate mineral paints, recycled cotton fiber as internal walls insulation, natural waxes. Construction solutions and finishes respond to the need to control the excess of indoor relative humidity and the transfer coefficient in exterior walls, achieving a comfortable environment and taking advantage of the great qualities of the thermal mass inertia of the old vernacular constructions. At the same time, the aim was to use non-synthetic materials with a content of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)as low as possible. In the interior design project, aspects of habitat psychology have been considered too (study of color tones appropriate to the image of the farm and in accordance with the nature of the environments) responding to the need to maintain the interior warmth of the original construction.Li Puma Sforazzini, V. (2022). Farmhouse interior restoration in bioconstruction. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 863-870. https://doi.org/10.4995/HERITAGE2022.2022.1568986387

A novel microfluidic approach for extremely fast and efficient photochemical transformations in fluoropolymer microcapillary films

The unique optical properties of the fluoropolymer microcapillary film (MCF) material combined with the extremely fast photoinactivation of Herpes HSV-1 virus, and photodegradation of indigo carmine, diclofenac and benzoylecgonine in the MCF array photoreactor, demonstrate a new, flexible and inexpensive platform for rapid photochemical transformations, high-throughput process analytics and photochemical synthesis

Nanostructred catalysts for photo-oxidation of endocrine disrupting chemicals

Removal of four Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) Estrone (E1), 17-β-estradiol (E2), Estriol (E3) and 17-α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) were investigated using UV oxidation and combined with Nafion/iron catalyst. Immobilization of iron on the perfluorosulfonic polymer, Nafion® has been investigated as a carrier for the oxidation of pollutants by hydroxyl radicals (heterogenous photo-Fenton mechanism). However, the low surface area of Nafion, less than 0.2 m2/g, usually results in low pollutant degradation rates. Sol-gel technology was used to produce a high surface area poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) modified Nafion/silica composite suitable for catalysis of the photo-Fenton reaction without significant leaching of iron. The incorporation of Nafion into silica greatly increases the accessibility of Nafion/iron loaded active site. PDMS reinforces the structure of silica and maintains the transparency of the composite, which is essential for efficient Photo-Fenton reactions. These composites were utilized for the decomposition of estrogens which are Estrone (E1), 17-β-estradiol (E2), Estriol (E3) and 17-α-ethynylestradiol (EE2). In consequence, it is clear that the composite effectively catalyses the photo-Fenton reaction to remove estrone. The presence of iron through the use of the catalyst leads to rapid degradation of the estrone compared to just H2O2and UV light alone. It was found that the addition of only 8.5 mg/L H2O2produced more than conversion of estrogens within 60 min

Conservación del Venado de las Pampas (Ozotoceros bezoarticus leucogaster) en los bajos submeridionales de Santa Fe, Argentina: un índice para monitorear factores de amenaza y su implementación en el período 1998-2009

La población santafesina de Ozotoceros bezoarticus, es la más pequeña y amenazada de Argentina. Su estado crítico requiere de un monitoreo continuo, y de acciones efectivas de conservación que sean direccionadas con el mejor criterio posible. En este trabajo se propone un índice de amenazas (IA) para un monitoreo periódico, siendo éste de fácil empleo, tanto para la toma de información a campo como para su análisis en gabinete y su interpretación. Se seleccionaron 8 amenazas directas o factores que las favorecen, y el área de distribución actual fue grillada con 29 celdas de 25 km2. Cada celda posee su propio IA, indicando finalmente qué celda está más afectada por factores de amenaza que otras. Se implementó el IA usando información de los años 1998, 2003 y 2009. Se encontró un aumento de celdas con IAs altos o muy altos entre períodos analizados. Respecto a la distribución de celdas con diferente nivel priorizado de IA, se observó que las principales áreas que presentan mayores presiones para la especie resultan las periferias, lindando a las rutas provinciales. Contrastando los IAs y la distribución recientemente de O. bezoarticus, se indica como prioridad: a) disminuir presiones en cuatro celdas (19, 20, 21 y 22) a fin de evitar una probable fragmentación de la población por presiones antropogénicas; b) trabajar sobre las celdas con Medio y Bajo IA (principalmente las celdas 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16 y 17) a fin de que no se incrementen presiones a la especie; y c) trabajar en la erradicación de Sus scrofa en las celdas 7, 10, 11, 12, 17, 22, 26 y 27.Fil: Pautasso, Andrés. Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales “Florentino Ameghino”; ArgentinaFil: Raimondi, Vanina Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Li Puma, María Cecilia. Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrallo Sustentable de la Nación; Argentin

Photo inactivation of virus particles in microfluidic capillary systems.

It has long been established that UVC light is a very effective method for inactivating pathogens in a fluid, yet the application of UVC irradiation to modern biotechnological processes is limited by the intrinsic short penetration distance of UVC light in optically dense protein solutions. This experimental and numerical study establishes that irradiating a fluid flowing continuously in a microfluidic capillary system, in which the diameter of the capillary is tuned to the depth of penetration of UVC light, uniquely treats the whole volume of the fluid to UVC light, resulting in fast and effective inactivation of pathogens, with particular focus to virus particles. This was demonstrated by inactivating human herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1, a large enveloped virus) on a dense 10% fetal calf serum solution in a range of fluoropolymer capillary systems, including a 0.75 mm and 1.50 mm internal diameter capillaries and a high-throughput MicroCapillary Film with mean hydraulic diameter of 206 μm. Up to 99.96% of HSV-1 virus particles were effectively inactivated with a mean exposure time of up to 10 s, with undetectable collateral damage to solution proteins. The kinetics of virus inactivation matched well the results from a new mathematical model that considers the parabolic flow profile in the capillaries, and showed the methodology is fully predictable and scalable and avoids both the side effect of UVC light to proteins and the dilution of the fluid in current tubular UVC inactivation systems. This is expected to speed up the industrial adoption of non-invasive UVC virus inactivation in clinical biotechnology and biomanufacturing of therapeutic molecules. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1481-1492. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/bit.25912/full

Herpes Simplex Virus type-1 infection induces synaptic dysfunction in cultured cortical neurons via GSK-3 activation and intraneuronal amyloid-β protein accumulation

Increasing evidence suggests that recurrent Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection spreading to the CNS is a risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) but the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated yet. Here we demonstrate that in cultured mouse cortical neurons HSV-1 induced Ca 2+ -dependent activation of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3. This event was critical for the HSV-1-dependent phosphorylation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) at Thr668 and the following intraneuronal accumulation of amyloid-β protein (Aβ). HSV-1-infected neurons also exhibited: i) significantly reduced expression of the presynaptic proteins synapsin-1 and synaptophysin; ii) depressed synaptic transmission. These effects depended on GSK-3 activation and intraneuronal accumulation of Aβ. In fact, either the selective GSK-3 inhibitor, SB216763, or a specific antibody recognizing Aβ (4G8) significantly counteracted the effects induced by HSV-1 at the synaptic level. Moreover, in neurons derived from APP KO mice and infected with HSV-1 Aβ accumulation was not found and synaptic protein expression was only slightly reduced when compared to wild-type infected neurons. These data further support our contention that HSV-1 infections spreading to the CNS may contribute to AD phenotype

Structural inequalities emerging from a large wire transfers network

We aim to explore the connections between structural network inequalities and bank’s customer spending behaviours, within an entire national ecosystem made of natural persons (i.e., an individual human being) and legal entities (i.e., private or public organisations), different business sectors, and supply chains that span distinct geographical regions. We focus on Italy, that is among the wealthiest nations in the world, and also an example of a complex economic system. In particular, we had access to a large subset of anonymised and GDPR-compliant wire transfer data recorded from Jan 2016 to Dec 2017 by Intesa Sanpaolo, a leading banking group in the Eurozone, and the most important one in Italy.Intesa Sanpaolo wire transfers network exhibits a strong heavy-tailed behaviour and a giant component that grows continuously around the same core of the 1% highest degree nodes, and it also shows a general disassortative pattern, even if some ranges of degrees’ values stand out from the trend. Structural heterogeneity is explored further by means of a bow-tie analysis, that shows clearly that the majority of relevant, in terms of transferred amount, transactions is settled between a smaller set of nodes that are associated to legal entities and that mostly belong to the strongly connected component. This observation brings to a more comprehensive inspection of differences between Italian regions and business sectors, that could support the detection and the understanding of the interplay between supply chains.Our results suggest that there is a general flow of money that seems to stream down from higher degree legal entities to lower degree natural persons, crossing Italian regions and connecting different business sectors, and that is finally redistributed through expenses sharing within families and smaller communities. We also describe a reference dataset and an empirical contribution to the study on financial networks, focusing on finer-grained information concerned about spending behaviour through wire transfers

Intensification of ozonation processes in a novel, compact, multi-orifice oscillatory baffled column

A novel approach for the intensification of ozonation of water and wastewater is presented using a highly efficient and compact Multi-Orifice Oscillatory Baffled Column (MOBC) ozonation contactor. The MOBC uniquely yielded full (i.e. 100%) use of the ozone supplied with a very short (2.25 min) liquid contact time under continuous operation and reducing the need of further gas-liquid contacting equipment downstream from the MOBC. The increased performance of the MOBC ozonation reactor was benchmarked against a bubble column (BC) design and resulted in 20% increase on the rate of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-HBA) degradation, 75% increase in the rate of mineralization of p-HBA per mole of ozone consumed, and 3.2-fold increase in the rate of mineralization of p-HBA per mole of ozone supplied. This results from the very small size of bubbles (few hundreds of microns) and enhanced gas-liquid mass transfer and hold-up generated in the presence of small fluid pulsations and orifice baffles

Modeling the photocatalytic mineralization in water of commercial formulation of estrogens 17-β estradiol (E2) and nomegestrol acetate in contraceptive pills in a solar powered compound parabolic collector

Endocrine disruptors in water are contaminants of emerging concern due to the potential risks they pose to the environment and to the aquatic ecosystems. In this study, a solar photocatalytic treatment process in a pilot-scale compound parabolic collector (CPC) was used to remove commercial estradiol formulations (17-β estradiol and nomegestrol acetate) from water. Photolysis alone degraded up to 50% of estradiol and removed 11% of the total organic carbon (TOC). In contrast, solar photocatalysis degraded up to 57% of estrogens and the TOC removal was 31%, with 0.6 g/L of catalyst load (TiO2 Aeroxide P-25) and 213.6 ppm of TOC as initial concentration of the commercial estradiols formulation. The adsorption of estrogens over the catalyst was insignificant and was modeled by the Langmuir isotherm. The TOC removal via photocatalysis in the photoreactor was modeled considering the reactor fluid-dynamics, the radiation field, the estrogens mass balance, and a modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate law, that was expressed in terms of the rate of photon adsorption. The optimum removal of the estrogens and TOC was achieved at a catalyst concentration of 0.4 g/L in 29 mm diameter tubular CPC reactors which approached the optimum catalyst concentration and optical thickness determined from the modeling of the absorption of solar radiation in the CPC, by the six-flux absorption-scattering model (SFM)

Electricity generation and bivalent copper reduction as a function of operation time and cathode electrode material in microbial fuel cells

The performance of carbon rod (CR), titanium sheet (TS), stainless steel woven mesh (SSM) and copper sheet (CS) cathode materials are investigated in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for simultaneous electricity generation and Cu(II) reduction, in multiple batch cycle operations. After 12 cycles, the MFC with CR exhibits 55% reduction in the maximum power density and 76% increase in Cu(II) removal. In contrast, the TS and SSM cathodes at cycle 12 show maximum power densities of 1.7 (TS) and 3.4 (SSM) times, and Cu(II) removal of 1.2 (TS) and 1.3 (SSM) times higher than those observed during the first cycle. Diffusional resistance in the TS and SSM cathodes is found to appreciably decrease over time due to the copper deposition. In contrast to CR, TS and SSM, the cathode made with CS is heavily corroded in the first cycle, exhibiting significant reduction in both the maximum power density and Cu(II) removal at cycle 2, after which the performance stabilizes. These results demonstrate that the initial deposition of copper on the cathodes of MFCs is crucial for efficient and continuous Cu(II) reduction and electricity generation over prolonged time. This effect is closely associated with the nature of the cathode material. Among the materials examined, the SSM is the most effective and inexpensive cathode for practical use in MFCs