Improvement of Biomethane Production from Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) through Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) Pretreatment

The organic fraction resulting from the separate collection of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is an abundant residue exploitable for biofuel production. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the most attractive technologies for the treatment of organic wastes thanks to the generation of biogas with a high methane content. However, because of its complex composition, the direct digestion of OFMSW can be less effective. To overcome these difficulties, many pretreatments are under development. In this work, the efficacy of alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) oxidation was assessed for the first time as a pretreatment of OFMSW to enhance its anaerobic biodegradability. In this regard, many AHP batch tests were executed at pH 9 and by changing the peroxide dosages up to 1 gH2O2/gCOD, under room temperature and pressure conditions. Afterwards, biomethane potential tests (BMP) were conducted to evaluate the performance of anaerobic digestion both on raw and pretreated OFMSW. The pretreatment tests demonstrated that AHP induces only a weak reduction in the organic load, reaching a maximum COD removal of about 28%. On the other hand, notable productions of volatile fatty acids (VFA) were found. In fact, by applying a peroxide dose of just 0.025 gH2O2/gCOD, there was a doubling in VFA concentration, which increased by five times with the highest H2O2 amount. These results indicate that AHP mainly causes the conversion of complex organic substrates into easily degradable compounds. This conversion made it possible to achieve much better performance during the BMP tests conducted with the pretreated waste compared to that carried out on fresh OFMSW. Indeed, a low methane production of just 37.06 mLCH4/gTS was detected on raw OFMSW. The cumulated CH4 production in the pretreated samples increased in response to the increase in H2O2 dosage applied during AHP. Maximum specific productions of about 463.7 mLCH4/gTS and 0.31 LCH4/gCODremoved were calculated on mixtures subjected to AHP. On these samples, the satisfactory evolution of AD was confirmed by the process parameters calculated by modeling the cumulated CH4 curves through a new proposed formulation of the Gompertz equation

Transport Phenomena and Shrinkage Modeling During Convective Drying of Vegetables

Abstract: The aim of the present work is the formulation of a theoretical model describing the transport phenomena involved in food drying process. The attention has been focused on the simultaneous transfer of momentum, heat and mass occurring in a convective drier where hot dry air flows, in turbulent conditions, around the food sample. Shrinkage, as well as all the transport phenomena occurring in both air and food domains, have been described. The proposed model does not rely on the specification of interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients and, therefore, represents a general tool capable of describing the behavior of real driers over a wide range of process and fluiddynamic conditions. The system of non-linear unsteady-state partial differential equations modelling the process has been solved by means of the Finite Elements Method coupled to the ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) procedure that, by a proper modification of integration domain, accounts for shrinkage effects. In order to describe shrinkage phenomenon, the abovementioned transport equations have been coupled with a structural mechanics analysis performed on the food sample

Translation and adaptation of the Diabetes Distress Scale - DDS in Brazilian culture

OBJECTIVE: To translate and adapt the Diabetes Distress Scale for the Brazilian culture. METHODS: The process followed international standards for adaptation of an instrument: translation, back translation and evaluation by a panel of judges, and pretest. RESULTS: The stages of translation and back translation were performed successfully, and the evaluation of the synthesis version by the expert panel resulted in modification of items, ensuring the equivalence between the original and translated versions. During the pretest, there were reformulations of some items, making them clearer and easier to understand. CONCLUSION: The Brazilian version of the Diabetes Distress Scale received satisfactory results with respect to the process of translation and cultural adaptation.OBJETIVO: Traduzir e adaptar o Diabetes Distress Scale para a cultura brasileira. MÉTODOS: o processo seguiu as normas internacionais para adaptação de um instrumento: tradução, retrotradução e avaliação por um grupo de juízes e pré-teste. RESULTADOS: as etapas de tradução e retrotradução foram realizadas com sucesso, e a avaliação da versão síntese pelo comitê de juízes resultou em alteração de itens, assegurando as equivalências entre a versão original e a traduzida. Durante o pré-teste, foram realizadas reformulações de alguns itens, tornando-os mais claros e de fácil compreensão. CONCLUSÃO: a versão brasileira do Diabetes Distress Scale encontrou resultados satisfatórios em relação ao processo de tradução e adaptação cultural.OBJETIVO: Traducir y adaptar la Diabetes Distress Scale para la cultura brasilera. MÉTODOS: el proceso siguió las normas internacionales para la adaptación de un instrumento: traducción, retrotraducción y evaluación por un grupo de jueces y pre test. RESULTADOS: Las etapas de traducción y retrotraducción fueron realizadas con éxito, y la evaluación de la versión síntesis por el comité de jueces dio como resultado la alteración de items, asegurando las equivalencias entre la version original y la traducida. Durante el pre test, fueron realizadas reformulaciones de algunos items, volviéndose más claros y de fácil comprensión. CONCLUSIÓN: la versión brasilera de la Diabetes Distress Scale encontró resultados satisfactorios en relación al proceso de traducción y adaptación cultural.762767Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Analysis of fragmented piezometric levels records: the ARTE (Antecedent Recharge Temporal Effectiveness) approach

In contrast to climatic data, piezometric records are often fragmented both in time and space continuity, despite their crucial importance in groundwater studies. This work presents a new method for analysis of groundwater level vs. recharge processes relation from fragmented piezometric data, called Antecedent Recharge Temporal Effectiveness (ARTE). The ARTE method was tested on 5 year-long (2016-2020) water table level datasets measured by three automatic piezometers located in the Lucca plain (Tuscany, Italy). For each piezometric level time series, measurements were extracted every 30, 60, and 120 days, and randomly, obtaining fragmented records inlcuding less than 3% of the complete time series. As for recharge processes of the monitored aquifer, rainfall and riverbed infiltration were selected. Hence, daily rainfall and daily mean river stage time series were acquired from different automatic raingauges and hydrometers respectively. The relationship between these recharge processes and the variation of the piezometric level from the artificially fragmented datasets were evaluated with the ARTE method. The ARTE method was potentially able to identify maximum correlation time intervals, for which the recharge processes are most likely to influence the groundwater level. Based on the analysis conducted on the fragmented piezometric datasets, the reconstruction of each piezometric time series was attempted for the study period. The simulated daily groundwater level records have RMSE values between 0.21 m and 0.73 m and NRMSE values between 0.08 and 0.16, which are satisfactory results when compared with other more complex simulation procedures, in which the training datasets are increasingly larger

Molecular and Physiological Properties of Indigenous Strains of Oenococcus oeni Selected from Nero di Troia Wine (Apulia, Italy)

: The characterization of Oenococcus oeni strains isolated from Nero di Troia wine (Apulia, Italy) sampled in two distinct production areas was carried out. The two indigenous populations, consisting of 95 and 97 isolates, displayed high genetic diversity when analyzed by amplified fragments length polymorphisms (AFLP). Based on the UPGMA dendrogram obtained by AFLP analysis, the two populations displayed similar genotypes that grouped in the same clusters with a high level of similarity (>95%). One genotype was found in only one of the two areas. Representative strains of each cluster were analyzed for their enzymatic activities (esterase, β-glucosidase, and protease), assayed in whole cells, and tested for their metabolic properties (consumption of L-malic acid, citric acid, acetaldehyde, and arginine) and growth parameters. Significant differences among strains, including the reference strain ATCC BAA-1163, were observed for all of these properties. Principal component analysis evidenced phenotypic differences among strains, and well separated some of them belonging to different genotypes. Strains exhibiting the best performances in most of these traits could be further investigated in order to select possible candidates as malolactic starters for Nero di Troia wine. This study provided insights on the population structure of O. oeni of a local winemaking area useful to the understanding of the regional diversity of this bacterium, an issue not yet completely resolve

Seria o Doodle um gênero textual? um ensaio à luz da análise do discurso crítica e da linguística textual

Este artigo investiga a marca interativa da Google como estratégia de comunicação. O objetivo é analisar texto e contexto e os elementos estruturais da versão modificada do logotipo da Google denominados doodle, considerando-o como gênero textual. Esta pesquisa ancora-se teoricamente na concepção linguística da Análise de Discurso Crítica (ADC), na abordagem de Fairclough (2001); e na de Hasan (2005) em que foram abordados os conceitos de Configuração Contextual e Estrutura Potencial do Gênero. Este trabalho também se utiliza da perspectiva do conceito de hipertextos e os suportes para construção da coerência no hipertexto, segundo Storrer (2003). Para reflexão teórica, foram analisados os elementos linguísticos e as estratégias jogáveis de gamificação utilizada pela Google dentro do contexto de fusão de signos verbais e não verbais. Para pesquisa, foram selecionados três doodles da Google. Observou-se, na elaboração dos doodles, que a Google utiliza de polidez e intertextualidade para que esse novo gênero seja bem recebido nos países em que circulam

Artificial Intelligence-Based Optimization of Industrial Membrane Processes

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) is gaining acceptance for modern control systems in various applications in daily life including the Chemical process industry. Above all, application of AI is increasing in the field of membrane-based treatment where it shows great potential until now. Membrane separations are generally recognized as energy-efficient processes. In particular, membrane desalination, forward osmosis, energy generation, and biomass treatment have shown substantial potential in modern industries, such as wastewater treatment, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and natural products. All these industries consume more than 20% of total energy consumption in the world. Moreover, the laboratory research outcomes illuminate the way to better membrane design and development, including advanced process control and optimization. The membrane processes with existing technologies for a sustainable environment could be integrated with the AI model. This review summarizes several membrane-based water treatment designs and plant performances where artificial intelligence is being used to minimize waste generation and lead to cleaner production

Bioplastic from Renewable Biomass: A Facile Solution for a Greener Environment

AbstractEnvironmental pollutions are increasing day by day due to more plastic application. The plastic material is going in our food chain as well as the environment employing microplastic and other plastic-based contaminants. From this point, bio-based plastic research is taking attention for a sustainable and greener environment with a lower footprint on the environment. This evaluation should be made considering the whole life cycle assessment of the proposed technologies to make a whole range of biomaterials. Bio-based and biodegradable bioplastics can have similar features as conventional plastics while providing extra returns because of their low carbon footprint as long as additional features in waste management, like composting. Interest in competitive biodegradable materials is growing to limit environmental pollution and waste management problems. Bioplastics are defined as plastics deriving from biological sources and formed from renewable feedstocks or by a variation of microbes, owing to the ability to reduce the environmental effect. The research and development in this field of bio-renewable resources can seriously lead to the adoption of a low-carbon economy in medical, packaging, structural and automotive engineering, just to mention a few. This review aims to give a clear insight into the research, application opportunities, sourcing and sustainability, and environmental footprint of bioplastics production and various applications. Bioplastics are manufactured from polysaccharides, mainly starch-based, proteins, and other alternative carbon sources, such as algae or even wastewater treatment byproducts. The most known bioplastic today is thermoplastic starch, mainly as a result of enzymatic bioreactions. In this work, the main applications of bioplastics are accounted. One of them being food applications, where bioplastics seem to meet the food industry concerns about many the packaging-related issues and appear to play an important part for the whole food industry sustainability, helping to maintain high-quality standards throughout the whole production and transport steps, translating into cleaner and smarter delivery chains and waste management. High perspectives resides in agricultural and medical applications, while the number of fields of applications grows constantly, for example, structural engineering and electrical applications. As an example, bio-composites, even from vegetable oil sources, have been developed as fibers with biodegradable features and are constantly under research

The Systems Engineering Approach as a Modelling Paradigm of the Agri-food Supply-chain

The agri-food supply-chain represents a complex System-of-System (SoS), because it crosses different other sectors and involves many different actors. The System Engineering (SE) approach helps to identify boundaries as a line of demarcation between the system itself and its greater context, including the operating environment, without neglecting any aspect. Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) was used, due to its capacity to realise more readable and compact documentation than other models. It uses System Modeling Language (SysML) to construct a structure, the behaviours, the requirements and the constraints of the system. The modelling method developed to design and implement a model is based on one of the main purposes of the agri-food SoS: the need of tracking and tracing useful information to realize a traceable and sustainable system. Agri-food supply-chain SoS was analysed through an iterative procedure model – developed in Papyrus open-source – that has the system requirements as the centre. The requirement diagram is composed of: consumer requirements, business requirements, legislation requirements and environmental requirements. The typical structure of the requirement package in SysML has inherent the parent-child relationship and responds in an appropriate manner to the system traceability. Papyrus can directly validate the designed model, without complex simulations, especially in the case of a high level of abstraction, which would be missing some implementation parameters necessary for the simulation of the technical phase. This type of validation allowed to check better and faster what has been developed through project simulations. This work presents the main results of the SE approach applied to the agri-food supply-chain. It represents a starting point for the choice of the technical traceability solution

Instrumentos relacionados ao diabetes mellitus adaptados e validados para a cultura brasileira

Trata-se de um estudo de revisão integrativa, cujo objetivo foi buscar evidências disponíveis na literatura sobre os instrumentos e escalas relacionados ao diabetes mellitus adaptados e validados para a cultura brasileira. Após busca nas bases eletrônicas BDENF, SciELO, LILACS, foram incluídos sete instrumentos que atenderam aos critérios de inclusão: Diabetes Mellitus Knowledge (DKN-A); Diabetes Mellitus Attitude (ATT-19); Diabetes Quality of Life Measure (DQOL-Brasil); Diabetes Quality of Life for Youths (DQOLY-Brasil); Diabetes 39 (D-39); Insulin Management Diabetes Self-efficacy (IMDSES); Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID) e Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Questionnaire (QAD). Os resultados permitiram traçar uma comparação entre os instrumentos disponíveis, além de conhecer as limitações quanto ao processo de validação e aplicação clínica. Espera-se que esse estudo possa contribuir para uma maior divulgação dos instrumentos relacionados ao diabetes mellitus disponíveis para a cultura brasileira, e oferecer subsídios para a sua utilização em pesquisa ou assistência de enfermagem. Descritores: Diabetes Mellitus; Qualidade de vida; Estudos de validação; Tradução (processo)