Photodegradation studies on C. I. reactive red 158

Dye-containing wastewater generated from textile industries is a major source of environmental pollution. Azo dyes, which are the largest group of coloring agents, are widely used in industry. Advanced Oxidative Processes are very promising for effluent treatment mainly due to their high efficiency and simplicity of operation. Our group became interested on photocatalytic methods (included in the AOP’s), using TiO2, for degradation of dyes, started with simpler structures and continued with commercial dyes. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has proven to be the most effective and suitable catalyst for photocatalytic reaction due to its low cost economical, chemical stability, and insolubility. In this paper, the effects of UV light irradiation in the presence of TiO2 particles at various pH’s (3, 6, 8 and 10) on the photodegradation of an azo dye, Reactive Red 158, were investigated. The photocatalytic degradation was carried out either in aqueous solutions or in a synthetically prepared dyebath effluent, under UV irradiation, in the presence of Degussa P25 TiO2 as the catalyst. Reactive dyes of the pyrimidinyl type partly hydrolyse during dyeing in basic medium; RR 158 was hydrolysed and this solution was also irradiated. The fastest degradation was obtained with an acid solution (14 minutes, 95.53% loss of colour), but the hydrolysed dye took longer to be decolourised

Thermal and acoustic performance of interlocking compressed earth blocks masonry

The earth construction is an ancient building technique that, with the emergence of new materials and technologies, has received less attention during the last decades. Nevertheless, the new concerns in terms of environmental protection and sustainable construction have recently led to its revalorization. The masonry construction with interlocking compressed earth blocks (ICEB) is one of the earth construction techniques that features several advantages and has received the most developments in the last years. This type of masonry is currently being used worldwide, especially in developing countries, although the suspicions about its performance remain very wide. Another problem is the lack of standards and documents that can support designers in projects development. This research aims to contribute in this direction, creating bases to help designers in their work and contribute to the knowledge about this type of construction. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the standard requirements related to the comfort inside the building, namely at the thermal and acoustic level. So, the knowledge of the thermal and acoustic performance of the ICEB masonry is essential to define and optimize the constructive solutions at the design stage. Experimental studies were carried out in order to characterize these properties. The results are presented and discussed. It is expected that the results obtained serve as design support for this type of construction.FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETEFCT – Foundation for Science and Technology- project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00763

Repeated stressors in adulthood increase the rate of biological ageing

Background Individuals of the same age can differ substantially in the degree to which they have accumulated tissue damage, akin to bodily wear and tear, from past experiences. This accumulated tissue damage reflects the individual’s biological age and may better predict physiological and behavioural performance than the individual‘s chronological age. However, at present it remains unclear how to reliably assess biological age in individual wild vertebrates. Methods We exposed hand-raised adult Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula) to a combination of repeated immune and disturbance stressors for over one year to determine the effects of chronic stress on potential biomarkers of biological ageing including telomere shortening, oxidative stress load, and glucocorticoid hormones. We also assessed general measures of individual condition including body mass and locomotor activity. Results By the end of the experiment, stress-exposed birds showed greater decreases in telomere lengths. Stress-exposed birds also maintained higher circulating levels of oxidative damage compared with control birds. Other potential biomarkers such as concentrations of antioxidants and glucocorticoid hormone traits showed greater resilience and did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Conclusions The current data demonstrate that repeated exposure to experimental stressors affects the rate of biological ageing in adult Eurasian blackbirds. Both telomeres and oxidative damage were affected by repeated stress exposure and thus can serve as blood-derived biomarkers of biological ageing.</p

Iron and aluminium production wastes as exclusive components of alkali activated binders—towards a sustainable alternative

The sustainability of resources is becoming a worldwide concern, including construction and building materials, especially with the alarming increase rate in global population. Alternative solutions to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) as a concrete binder are being studied, namely the so-called alkali-activated cements (AAC). These are less harmful to the environment, as lower CO2 emissions are associated with their fabrication, and their mechanical properties can be similar to those of the OPC. The aim of developing alkali-activated materials (AAM) is the maximization of the incorporated recycled materials, which minimises the CO2 emissions and cost, while also achieving acceptable properties for construction applications. Therefore, various efforts are being made to produce sustainable construction materials based on different sources and raw materials. Recently, significant attention has been raised from the by-products of the steelmaking industry, mostly due to their widespread availability. In this paper, ladle slag (LS) resulting from steelmaking operations was studied as the main precursor to produce AAC, combined with phosphating bath sludge—or phosphate sludge (PS)—and aluminium anodising sludge (AS), two by-products of the surface treatment of metals, in replacement rates of 10 and 20 wt.%. The precursors were activated by two different alkaline solutions: a combination of commercial sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate (COM), and a disposed solution from the cleaning of aluminium extrusion steel dies (CLE). This study assesses the influence of these by-products from the steelmaking industry (PS, AS and CLE) on the performance of the alkali-activated LS, and specifically on its fresh and hardened state properties, including rheology, heat of hydration, compressive strength and microstructure and mineralogy (X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy and Fourier transform infra-red. The results showed that the CLE had no negative impact on the strength of the AAM incorporating PS or/and AS, while increasing the strength of the LS alone by 2×. Additionally, regardless of the precursor combination, the use of a commercial activator (COM) led to more fluid pastes, compared with the CLE.This research has been financed by Geo-Design—Artifacts for hotels and urban furniture incorporating waste project, n.◦ NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-017501, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through NORTE 2020 (North Regional Operational Program 2014/2020). The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and FEDER, for the funding through the PID2019-111464RB-100 project

Implantación, certificación e integración de sistemas de gestión en la minería española

La competitividad de los productos depende de dos elementos clave: su precio y su calidad. Hasta hace relativamente poco tiempo, el precio era considerado la variable de mayor peso, y en ocasiones la única a tener en cuenta en la decisión de compra. Por ello, la principal preocupación de las empresas estribaba en producir grandes cantidades de producto a bajo coste, sin casi dar importancia a la calidad. Sin embargo, el escenario en el que las organizaciones operan ha cambiado drásticamente. Por ello, en un entorno económico marcado por la globalización y la integración económica de los mercados, la calidad se presenta como una condición sine qua non no sólo para competir sino para la propia supervivencia empresarial. En otras palabras, la calidad ha pasado de ser una opción por la que apostaban sólo las empresas más dinámicas, a convertirse en una necesidad para cualquier organización que pretenda ser competitiva. Sin embargo, esta cualidad, la calidad, ha de estar presente no sólo en el producto y/o servicio ofertado, sino en todas y cada una de las operaciones que posibilitan su elaboración y/o prestación, y por tanto en la propia gestión empresarial. La implantación de sistemas de gestión de calidad, medio ambiente y seguridad y salud laboral ha pasado de ser una opción a convertirse en una prioridad para muchas organizaciones. Buena prueba de ello es el incesante incremento del número de certificaciones de dichos sistemas en todos los sectores de actividad. De entre ellos, nos centramos en la situación del sector de la minería e industrias extractivas por sus peculiares características: contaminantes y asociadas a elevadas tasa de siniestralidad. Al objeto de poder determinar hasta qué punto la implantación de los estándares de gestión ISO 14001 y OHSAS 18001, realmente tiene un carácter voluntario o si, por el contrario, se halla condicionada por la rigurosa legislación que, en materia medioambiental y de prevención de riesgos laborales, regula el desarrollo de la actividad minera en nuestro país, se realizó un estudio empírico entre las empresas mineras españolas que cuentan con uno o varios sistemas de gestión certificados. Asimismo, y dada la compatibilidad entre las normas ISO 9001, 14001 y OHSAS 18001, se analiza la situación de la integración de sistemas en el sector minero español.Product competitiveness depends on two key elements: price and quality. Not so long ago, the price was considered the only variable to bear in mind when making decisions about purchase. Because of this the principal worry of companies was to produce products in large quantities at low cost, without giving too much importance to quality. Nevertheless, the scene in which the companies operate has changed drastically. That is the reason why in a business environment marked by globalization and the economic integration of the markets, the quality appears as a condition sine qua non not only to compete but for company survival. In other words, the quality has passed from being an option that only the most dynamic companies were betting on, to a necessity for any organization that tries to be competitive. Nevertheless, the quality has to be present not only in the product and/or service offered, but also in each and every part of the process of production and therefore in the every management of the business. The implementation of quality, environment and occupational health and safety management systems has become a priority for many organizations. The increasing number of companies in all economic sectors seeking to attain certification of these management systems is clear evidence of this phenomenon. We analyse the situation of quarrying and mineral extraction industries because they belong to a sector with particular characteristics, such as high levels of pollution and accident rates. In order to be able to determine to what extent the implementation of the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards really has a voluntary character, or, on the contrary, it is a result of the rigorous legislation that regulates the development of mining activities in our country, an empirical study was conducted among the Spanish mining companies that possess one o more certified management systems. Likewise, and given the existing compatibility among the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards, we analyze the integration of management systems in the Spanish mining sector

Geodesign, eco-brutalist artefacts for architecture, tourism and urbanism

Geodesign project is a co-promotion project funded by the Portugal 2020 program with the aim of developing new architectural products, integrating industrial waste and by-products generated by Portuguese companies, namely in the fields of steel, smelting, power stations, metallurgy and glassmaking. The partners of the project are W2V, SA, dedicated to waste management activities, Providência Design, dedicated to product design, the CVR technology center and the Portuguese universities of Minho and Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. Fly ash from thermoelectric plants, aluminum anodizing sludge and glass polishing dusts, among others, offer different plastic and chromatic qualities. When chemically integrated in the form of geopolymers or calcium-based materials, they exhibit different physical qualities of mechanical strength and aging. Taking into account their physical qualities and, consequently, the diversity of chromatic, textural and economical results, several functional products for wall covering, sound barriers and exterior furniture with expressive aesthetic impact were designed. Exploring the plastic qualities of a new brutalist, recyclable and sustainable aesthetic, a generation of artifacts was born that presents competitive advantages in the range of products for hotel, tourist architecture and urban planning in general. It will be the design of this brutalist aesthetic that, communicating sustainability, will be the factor of evidence to motivate the circularity of the economy and social inversion of the unsustainability of industrial consumption. The project provides for the technological test of development of new materials containing residues, their small-scale manufacturing and pre-industrial validation, after evaluating their economic and environmental impacts.W2V, SA; Francisco M. Providência, Lda; Geodesigninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Boreholes plans optimization methodology combining geostatistical simulation and simulated annealing

Nowadays, the prospection plans have the difficult task of ensuring a more complete and rich characterization of the rock mass for the purpose of optimizing costs and increasing safety in geotechnical projects. Currently, boreholes location and depth are mainly defined based on experience and know-how of professionals, as such, it is user-dependent. Hence, there is a lack of methodologies to help the decision-makers in defining the optimal location of boreholes (with relevant information). Therefore, this paper presents a methodology based on the use of geostatistical conditional simulation allied to a stochastic global optimization algorithm (Simulated Annealing) to develop optimized boreholes plans comparing a uni-objective and a multi-criteria optimization approaches. In this work, the optimized location is considered the one that minimizes uncertainty translated by either the average local variance or the average width of 95% probability intervals of simulated values at unsampled locations. This methodology was applied using preliminary information obtained from previously executed boreholes using as variable the empirical rock mass classification system, Rock Mass Rating, in a Chilean deposit.This research is inserted in LNEC project named P2I-RockGeoStat and was partially funded by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal) in the scope of project PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013, included in ISISE project UID/ECl/04029/2013 as well as the PhD grant SFRH/BD/89627/2012, and by the Chilean Commission for Scientific and Technological Research, through Project CONICYT PIA Anillo ACT1407.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Borehole plan optimization in rock masses using geostatistical simulation

The economical and safety aspects related with geotechnical engineering, in detail with prospecting works, are significant and increasingly complex. Therefore, optimizing costs that simultaneously guarantee the quantity and quality of information to characterize the rock mass are, nowadays, one of the most important factors in underground works. The borehole plans, normally defined using the knowhow of a professional, imply large costs in the geotechnical industry, thus this paper presents a new methodology allowing the optimization of such plans. This methodology allies geostatistical techniques (turning bands simulation to model rock mass properties like the Rock Mass Rating or RMR) with a stochastic global optimization algorithm, Simulated Annealing (SA). It relies on sparse information about RMR and randomly generates new points that intend to represent possible locations for additional boreholes. Furthermore, SA is adapted to perform the optimization of a set of points with different depth coordinates in order to represent the reality of the mechanical boreholes, where the information is obtained along the hole. Considering the number of additional boreholes to drill, SA finds a global solution minimizing an objective function, which aims at quantifying the uncertainty on RMR at locations without information. An application to a gold mine deposit located in Chile is finally presented in order to illustrate and validate the methodology.Agência de Desenvolvimento Económico do Chile através do projeto Innova Chile-CORFO 11IDL2-10630Comissão Científica e Tecnológica de Investigação chilena através dos projetos CONICYT / FONDECYT / REGULAR / N°1130085 e CONICYT PIA Anillo ACT 1407P2I-RockGeoStat do LNE

Contactless resolution of inflammatory signals in tailored macrophage-based cell therapeutics

In recent years, nanotechnology-based microRNA (miR) therapeutic platforms have shown great promise for immunotherapy and tissue regeneration, despite the unmet challenge of achieving efficient and safe delivery of miRs. The transport of miRs offers precision and regulatory value for a myriad of biological processes and pathways, including the control of macrophage (MÏ ) functions and, consequently, the inflammatory cascades MÏ are involved in. Thus, enforcement of MÏ can boost the regenerative process and provide new solutions for diverse chronic pathologies. In this study, we sought to develop a magnetically guided transporter to deliver an miR-155 antagonist to M1-primed MÏ . Furthermore, we determined its modulatory effect in reprogramming MÏ from inflammatory to pro-regenerative phenotypes, with the aim of tissue healing and regenerative medicine approaches. This strategy combines contactless and high-precision control of MÏ , anticipating new functional miR carriers for targeted strategies controlled by extracorporeal action. The magnetoplexes SPION@PEI-miR were efficiently delivered into MÏ without compromising cell viability and successfully induced miR-mediated gene silencing by enhancing the expression of anti-inflammatory markers (IL4 and IL10) and the production of M2Ï -related markers (CD206 and IL4). Given its multimodal features, SPION@PEI-miR represents a simple, safe, and nonviral theranostic platform that enables imaging, tracking, and miR delivery with modulatory effects on immune cells.This research was funded by the European Research Council, Consolidator Grant MagTendon, grant number 772817 and by the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, scholarship number SFRD/BD/144816/2019

Prediction of rockburst based on experimental systems and artificial intelligence techniques

Rockburst is characterized by a violent explosion of a certain block causing a sudden rupture in the rock and is quite common in deep tunnels. It is critical to understand the phenomenon of rockburst, focusing on the patterns of occurrence so these events can be avoided andor managed saving costs and possibly lives. The failure mechanism of rockburst needs to be better understood. Laboratory experiments are one of the ways. A description of a system developed at the State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering (SKLGDUE) of Beijing is described. Also, several cases of rockburst that occurred around the world were collected, stored in a database and analyzed. The analysis of the collected cases allowed one to build influence diagrams, listing the factors that interact and influence the occurrence of rockburst, as well as the relations between them. Data Mining (DM) techniques were also applied to the database cases in order to determine and conclude on relations between parameters that influence the occurrence of rockburst during underground construction. A risk analysis methodology was developed based on the use of Bayesian Networks and applied to the existing information of the database and some numerical applications were performed. Conclusions were established.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT