Proizvodnja pektinaza, aktivnih pri niskim temperaturama, pomoću psihrotolerantnih mikroorganizama

In winemaking, low temperatures are favourable for the production and retention of flavour and colour components, requiring the use of cold-active enzymes. For this reason, \u27psychrotolerant\u27 microorganisms have been isolated and selected based on their ability to produce pectinolytic enzymes with satisfactory activity at low temperatures. Different mature grape varieties with designation of origin were sampled from the region of San Rafael (Mendoza, Argentina), and pectinolytic bacterial, fungal and yeast strains were isolated. The pectinolytic activity was measured by cup-plate assay, quantification of released reducing sugars and viscosity reduction of pectin solution. Two bacteria (Bacillus sp. SC-G and SC-H) and two yeast strains were selected for their good pectinase activity at low temperatures. Among them, the strain with the highest activity, Bacillus sp. SC-H, was selected. According to their 16S rRNA profiles, Bacillus sp. SC-G and SC-H can be classified as members of Bacillus subtilis. Among the assayed techniques, the rotary evaporation was found to be the most appropriate to obtain enzymatic extracts with highest activity. The optimal conditions for the enzymatic activity were 30 °C and pH=5.0 for the concentrated extract, and 45 °C and pH=6.0 for the filtered supernatant. The concentrated extract presented good activity at 3 °C, confirming that it was a cold-active enzyme. Natural extraction and enzymatic preparation were used to extract pigments and polyphenols from Malbec grapes. Better results were obtained for the enzymatic extract with regard to index, shade, CIELab coordinates, CIELab colour differences and polyphenols (measured using Folin-Ciocalteu).Da bi se dobili što boji okus i boja vina, u vinarstvu se primjenjuju enzimi aktivni pri niskim temperaturama. Izolirani su psihrotolerantni mikroorganizmi sposobni da sintetiziraju pektinolitičke enzime aktivne pri niskim temperaturama. Zrelo grožđe različitih sorata s oznakom podrijetla prikupljeno je s područja San Rafael (Mendoz, Argentina), pa su izolirani pektinolitički sojevi bakterija, kvasaca i plijesni. Njihova je učinkovitost ispitana utvrđivanjem aktivnosti pektinaze na agaru (tzv. „cup-plate assay“), određivanjem udjela reducirajućih šećera što nastaju djelovanjem enzima i praćenjem smanjenja viskoznosti otopine pektina. Odabrana su dva soja bakterija (Bacillus sp. SC-G i SC-H) i dva soja kvasaca što luče pektinaze aktivne pri niskim temperaturama. Najveću aktivnost imao je soj Bacillus sp. SC-H. Određivanjem profila 16S rRNA utvrđeno je da su obje bakterije sojevi Bacillus subtilis. Najučinkovitiji enzimski ekstrakti dobiveni su u rotacijskom isparivaču. Optimalni uvjeti za aktivnost enzima bili su: 30 ºC i pH=5,0 za koncentrirani ekstrakt, te 45 ºC i pH=6,0 za filtrirani supernatant. Koncentrirani je ekstrakt imao dobru aktivnost i pri 3 °C, što potvrđuje njegovu učinkovitost pri niskim temperaturama. Prirodnom i enzimskom ekstrakcijom iz grožđa sorte Malbec izdvojeni su pigmenti i polifenoli. Enzimska je ekstrakcija bila učinkovitija, što potvrđuju indeks boje, CIELab koordinate, razlika boje prema CIELab sustavu i udjel polifenola određen Folin-Ciocalteu metodom

Scientific design of skylights

This paper intends to present a critical reality in contemporary design, the astonishing coexistence of buildings in which daylighting has been carefully considered and simulated, and others in which this issue is treated with haphazard design gestures. Although initial simulation models in the daylighting field were very much distanced from the actual practicing architect, this is no longer the case in our opinion, and also, it is a fact, that the role of apertures in all the relevant thermal exchanges that occur in buildings has been thoroughly recognized. However, many types of designs or even bioclimatic designs do not consider lighting simulations from the beginning of the design-process, and they are presented as correct if only the thermal balance meets, even at the risk of later energy waste in lighting devices and visual or physical discomfort

A State‐of‐the‐Art Review of Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Pollution

Indigenous peoples (IPs) worldwide are confronted by the increasing threat of pollution. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature (n = 686 studies), we present the current state of knowledge on: 1) the exposure and vulnerability of IPs to pollution; 2) the environmental, health, and cultural impacts of pollution upon IPs; and 3) IPs' contributions to prevent, control, limit, and abate pollution from local to global scales. Indigenous peoples experience large burdens of environmental pollution linked to the expansion of commodity frontiers and industrial development, including agricultural, mining, and extractive industries, as well as urban growth, waste dumping, and infrastructure and energy development. Nevertheless, IPs are contributing to limit pollution in different ways, including through environmental monitoring and global policy advocacy, as well as through local resistance toward polluting activities. This work adds to growing evidence of the breadth and depth of environmental injustices faced by IPs worldwide, and we conclude by highlighting the need to increase IPs' engagement in environmental decision‐making regarding pollution control. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:324–341. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)Peer reviewe

A framework for integrating sustainability estimation with concepts of rules of building measurement

BIM promises improvement in project delivery efficiencies such as reduction in costs and errors and timely completion. Benefits are also expected in sustainable construction aspect with research efforts being extended to sustainable design and assessment. These efforts are still been explored for the purposes of unifying quantification methodologies, the standardisation of system boundaries, terms of references and sustainability measures. Embodied energy and CO2 are two common measures that have been widely used in the construction sector. Although a number calculation system exists, they are not useful to the iterations that occur at the early stages of the project life cycle. At the procurement stage, professionals often rely on schedules and bill of quantities with no reference to sustainability credentials. It is therefore important to integrate sustainability measure with concepts in standard measurement methods. As such, we propose a framework to integrate sustainability credential with the concepts in rule of building measurement. We conclude that this framework can be applicable to any rule of building measurement and it is implementable in a computer programmable environment

Independence in CLP Languages

Studying independence of goals has proven very useful in the context of logic programming. In particular, it has provided a formal basis for powerful automatic parallelization tools, since independence ensures that two goals may be evaluated in parallel while preserving correctness and eciency. We extend the concept of independence to constraint logic programs (CLP) and prove that it also ensures the correctness and eciency of the parallel evaluation of independent goals. Independence for CLP languages is more complex than for logic programming as search space preservation is necessary but no longer sucient for ensuring correctness and eciency. Two additional issues arise. The rst is that the cost of constraint solving may depend upon the order constraints are encountered. The second is the need to handle dynamic scheduling. We clarify these issues by proposing various types of search independence and constraint solver independence, and show how they can be combined to allow dierent optimizations, from parallelism to intelligent backtracking. Sucient conditions for independence which can be evaluated \a priori" at run-time are also proposed. Our study also yields new insights into independence in logic programming languages. In particular, we show that search space preservation is not only a sucient but also a necessary condition for ensuring correctness and eciency of parallel execution

Correlation between magnetic and crystal structural sublattices in palladium-doped FeRh alloys: Analysis of the metamagnetic phase transition driving forces

FeRh alloys doped with the third element exhibit a change in the lattice and magnetic subsystems, which are manifested in antiferromagnetic- ferromagnetic (AFM-FM) first-order phase transition temperature, the shrinkage of the temperate hysteresis under transition, and the reduction of the saturation magnetization. All aforementioned parameters are crucial for practical applications. To control them it is quite important to determine the driving forces of the metamagnetic transition and its origins. In this manuscript ab initio calculations and experimental studies results are presented, which demonstrate the correlation between the structural and magnetic properties of the Fe50Rh50−xPdx alloys. The qualitative analysis of the metamagnetic phase transition driving forces in palladium-doped FeRh alloys was performed to determine their contribution to the evolution of magnetic and lattice subsystems. In addition, the impact of the impurities phases together with its magnetic behavior on the AFM-FM phase transition was considered.Fil: Komlev, Aleksei S.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Karpenkov, Dmitriy Y.. National University of Science and Technology; Rusia. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Gimaev, Radel R.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Chirkova, Alisa. Institute for Materials Science; AlemaniaFil: Akiyama, Ayaka. Hirosaki University; JapónFil: Miyanaga, Takafumi. Hirosaki University; JapónFil: Hupalo, Marcio Ferreira. Universidade Estadual do Ponta Grossa; BrasilFil: Aguiar, D.J.M.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Carvalho, Alexandre Magnus G.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Jiménez, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Cabeza, Gabriela Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Zverev, Vladimir I.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; RusiaFil: Perov, Nikolai S.. Lomonosov Moscow State University; Rusi

Allylic Oxidation of Alkenes Catalyzed by a Copper−Aluminum Mixed Oxide

A strategy for the allylic oxidation of cyclic alkenes with a copper−aluminum mixed oxide as catalyst is presented. The reaction involves the treatment of an alkene with a carboxylic acid employing tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the oxidant. In all cases, the corresponding allylic esters are obtained. When L-proline is employed, the allylic alcohol or ketone is obtained. The oxidation of cyclohexene and valencene has been optimized by design of experiments (DoE) statistical methodology

Caracterización ecológica del área marina del banco de Galicia

Se integra información hidrográfica, geomorfológica, sedimentológica, biológica, sobre hábitats marinos y pesquera, para establecer las bases ecológicas necesarias para la protección y conservación del banco de GaliciaEl banco de Galicia es un monte submarino profundo situado a 180 km de la costa gallega, con una cima situada entre los 650 y los 1.500 m de profundidad y rodeado de zonas abisales de más de 4.000 m de profundidad. El relieve de las montañas submarinas interactúa con la circulación oceánica modificando las condiciones de oligotrofismo imperantes en el mar profundo. El cambio de dirección de las corrientes marinas, al chocar con el banco, produce las llamadas columnas de Taylor que tienen como consecuencia giros sobre la cima y finalmente un enriquecimiento de las aguas que bañan el banco, lo que influye, a través de la cadena trófica, en las especies de cetáceos, aves y tortugas. Estas condiciones, junto al aislamiento de estos bancos, convierten a estos bancos en puntos calientes de biodiversidad. Esta teoría se ha visto corroborada por los estudios realizados en el proyecto INDEMARES, basados en dos campañas de investigación, dónde se ha encontrado una elevada biodiversidad y la presencia de hábitats vulnerables. El banco de Galicia está bañado por tres capas diferentes: la masa de agua central del Atlántico nordeste europeo (East North Atlantic Central Water: ENACW), por debajo de las aguas superficiales y hasta los 500-600 m; la masa de agua mediterránea (Mediterranean Outflow Water: MOW) y la masa de agua del Labrador (Labrador Sea Water: LSW), que es la capa más profunda. En cuanto al tipo de fondo, se encuentra roca en el área del flanco oriental y hacia el sureste y en los montes adyacentes como el Rucabado, distinguiendo claramente dos tipos en cuanto a la pendiente, correspondiendo con la roca plana de la cima y la roca en pendiente del borde del banco y paredes. En la cima se encuentran fondos de arenas medias, de reflectividad media y baja según el espesor de sedimento, y arenas finas en los fondos sedimentaruios de los flancos, a profundidades mayores de 1.500. En el banco se han identificado hasta el momento 793 especies, con taxones que superan las 100 especies como son moluscos, peces (con especial énfasis en los elasmobranquios), crustáceos y cnidarios. Este inventario incluye especies nuevas para la ciencia, primeras citas para aguas españolas y europeas y especies de gran interés científico y biogeográfico. Este último punto se explica por la situación del Banco entre regiones biogeográficas conectadas por corrientes y masas de agua. El estudio de las conexiones tróficas entre este elevado número de especies ha mostrado el reforzamiento de las rutas bentopelágicas (gambas y macrozooplancton) frente a las dietas epi- y endobentónicas más habituales en otros fondos equivalentes. Mediante técnicas de muestreo extractivas (arrastres, dragas) y de vídeo, y su proyección sobre la interpretación geomorfológica realizada a partir de la sonda multihaz, se ha obtenido una estimación de la distribución de los hábitats bentónicos del banco. Los hábitats identificados en fondos sedimentarios son 1) arenas medias con ofiuras Ophiacantidae y Flabellum chunii, 2) arenas medias con arrecife de corales profundos de Lophelia pertusa y/o Madrepora oculata, y 3) arenas finas con holoturias elasipódidas (Benthogone rosea). En fondos rocosos se han caracterizado los hábitats de 4) roca batial sin pendiente con gorgonias y corales negros, 5) roca batial de talud con comunidades de corales y esponjas, 6) roca batial de talud con corales blancos, bambú y negros, gorgonias y esponjas, 7) arrecife de corales profundos de Lophelia pertusa y/o Madrepora oculata y 8) roca con nódulos manganésicos. El único tipo de hábitat de la DH descrito en la zona es el 1.170 (arrecifes). Sólo se han incluido en la Directiva Hábitats como 1.170 aquellos que presentaban una densidad y diversidad suficientes para cumplir la definición de “arrecifes”. De los hábitats descritos en el banco (ver características ecológicas y biológicas más arriba) solo se han incluido en el 1.170 los arrecifes de corales blancos situados en las arenas medias de la cima del banco, los arrecifes de corales blancos de aguas frías de las especies Lophelia pertusa y Madrepora oculata sobre la roca de la cima del monte Rucabado, las comunidades de roca batial de talud de la ladera sur del banco constituidas por colonias de corales blancos de aguas frías de las especies Lophelia pertusa y Madrepora oculata, y una fauna acompañante muy diversa de escleractinias solitarias, corales bambú, corales negros, gorgonias y esponjas de gran porte, y el resto de zonas de roca batial de talud con comunidades de corales y esponjas. Muchos de los hábitats pueden ser incluidos en los listados de hábitat vulnerables de OSPAR, en los tipos jardines de coral, agregaciones de esponjas de profundidad, arrecifes de Lophelia y montículos carbonatados. En cuanto a las especies de interés para la protección, de las citadas en el banco, el delfín mular (Tursiops truncatus) y la tortuga boba (Caretta caretta) son las únicas especies que figuran en el Anexo II de la Directiva de Hábitats. Sin embargo, muchas epecies de elasmobranquis y algunos peces óseos son consideradas vulnerables, amenazadas o en declive según los criterios definidos por OSPAR y la lista roja de especies amenazadas de IUCN. Algunas de están protegidas por el reglamento europeo 1262/2012 que regula la pesca de especies profundas. La lejanía del banco respecto a los principales focos de presión y la ausencia casi total de presión pesquera hace que el grado de conservación sea muy alto, pudiéndose hablar de un ecosistema prácticamente prístino. Las recomendaciones para la gestión de esta zona van encaminadas a garantizar esta calidad ambiental actual.Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Comisión Europea Programa LIFE+, Fundación Biodiversida

Bladder cancer index: cross-cultural adaptation into Spanish and psychometric evaluation

BACKGROUND: The Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) is so far the only instrument applicable across all bladder cancer patients, independent of tumor infiltration or treatment applied. We developed a Spanish version of the BCI, and assessed its acceptability and metric properties. METHODS: For the adaptation into Spanish we used the forward and back-translation method, expert panels, and cognitive debriefing patient interviews. For the assessment of metric properties we used data from 197 bladder cancer patients from a multi-center prospective study. The Spanish BCI and the SF-36 Health Survey were self-administered before and 12 months after treatment. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed through the multi-trait multi-method matrix. The magnitude of change was quantified by effect sizes to assess responsiveness. RESULTS: Reliability coefficients ranged 0.75-0.97. The validity analysis confirmed moderate associations between the BCI function and bother subscales for urinary (r = 0.61) and bowel (r = 0.53) domains; conceptual independence among all BCI domains (r ≤ 0.3); and low correlation coefficients with the SF-36 scores, ranging 0.14-0.48. Among patients reporting global improvement at follow-up, pre-post treatment changes were statistically significant for the urinary domain and urinary bother subscale, with effect sizes of 0.38 and 0.53. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish BCI is well accepted, reliable, valid, responsive, and similar in performance compared to the original instrument. These findings support its use, both in Spanish and international studies, as a valuable and comprehensive tool for assessing quality of life across a wide range of bladder cancer patients

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection