Bioremediation and biovalorisation of olive-mill wastes

Olive-mill wastes are produced by the industry of olive oil production, which is a very important economic activity, particularly for Spain, Italy and Greece, leading to a large environmental problem of current concern in the Mediterranean basin. There is as yet no accepted treatment method for all the wastes generated during olive oil production, mainly due to technical and economical limitations but also the scattered nature of olive mills across the Mediterranean basin. The production of virgin olive oil is expanding worldwide, which will lead to even larger amounts of olive-mill waste, unless new treatment and valorisation technologies are devised. These are encouraged by the trend of current environmental policies, which favour protocols that include valorisation of the waste. This makes biological treatments of particular interest. Thus, research into different biodegradation options for olive-mill wastes and the development of new bioremediation technologies and/or strategies, as well as the valorisation of microbial biotechnology, are all currently needed. This review, whilst presenting a general overview, focus critically on the most significant recent advances in the various types of biological treatments, the bioremediation technology most commonly applied and the valorisation options, which together will form the pillar for future developments within this fiel

Brownian motion in en external field revisited

In many interesting physical examples, the partition function is divergent, as first pointed out in 1924 by Fermi (for the hydrogen-atom case). Thus, the usualtoolbox of statistical mechanics becomes unavailable, notwithstanding the well known fact that the pertinent system may appear to be in a thermal steady state.We tackle and overcome these difficulties here by appeal to firmly established but not too well known mathematical recipes and obtain finite values for a typical divergent partitionfunction, that of a Brownian particle in an external field. This allows not only for calculating thermodynamic observables of interest, but for also instantiating other kind of statistical mechanics´ novelties.Fil: Plastino, Angelo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Rocca, Mario Carlos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Monteoliva, D.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Hernando, A.. Kido Dynamics S. A.; Suiz

Quantum effects after decoherence in a quenched phase transition

We study a quantum mechanical toy model that mimics some features of a quenched phase transition. Both by virtue of a time-dependent Hamiltonian or by changing the temperature of the bath we are able to show that even after classicalization has been reached, the system may display quantum behaviour again. We explain this behaviour in terms of simple non-linear analysis and estimate relevant time scales that match the results of numerical simulations of the master-equation. This opens new possibilities both in the study of quantum effects in non-equilibrium phase transitions and in general time-dependent problems where quantum effects may be relevant even after decoherence has been completed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, revtex, important revisions made. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Potencial Biofarmacéutico de los residuos de la industria oleícola

El tratamiento de los residuos de la industria oleícola plantea serios problemas, especialmente en el area mediterránea.En este trabajo se revisa la posibilidad de utilización y aprovechamiento de los mencionados residuos con finesterapéuticos.Una alternativa consiste en aprovechar el potencial farmacéutico de los polifenoles, por su utilidad como antioxidantesy como antimicrobianos. Se hace referencia a otro tipo de compuestos como el acido maslínico.Otra posibilidad se basa en la obtención de biopolímeros tipo polihidroxialcanoatos (PHAs) y exopolisacáridos deorigen microbiano (EPS), a partir del alpechin y alpeorujo.Los polyhidroxy-alcanoatos (PHAs), pueden ser aplicados como envase de productos farmacéuticos, por su interéscomo mecanismo de liberación controlada de determinados principios activos (microcapsulas); o por su utilidad eningenieria tisular.Los EPSs, pueden aplicarse con éxito desde la elaboración de fórmulas farmacéuticas, a su utilidad como moduladoresde la respuesta biológica. Se destaca, en este apartado, los resultados obtenidos con un nuevo EPS, descubierto pornuestro grupo de investigación

Algunas consideraciones sobre la medida de la actividad colinesterasa eritrocitaria humana por la técnica del pH-START

Se presenta el resultado de un control de calidad intralaboratorio aplicado a la determinación de la actividad colinesterasa eritrocitaria humana por la técnica del pH-stat. Se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de realizar este tipo de controles, sobre todo cuando se utiliza la actividad colinesterasa como indicador de contaminación por plaguicidas organofosforados, lo que requiere el análisis continuado de un elevado número de muestras. Igualmente se estudia la influencia del tiempo de medida en la actividad colinesterasa y se confirma la concentración óptima de sustrato.It has been presented an intralaboratory quality control result to the determination of the human erytrocytes cholinesterase activity by the pH-stat technique. It indicated the necessity of carryng out these controls mainly when the cholinesterase activity is used as indicator of the organophosphorus plaguicides polution, what requires the continued analysis of a high samples number. It has similarly been studied the influence of measure time in the cholinesterase activity and the best concentration of substrate is confirme

Algunas consideraciones sobre la medida de la actividad colinesterasa eritrocitaria humana por la técnica del pH-START

It has been presented an intralaboratory quality control result to the determination of the human erytrocytes cholinesterase activity by the pH-stat technique. It indicated the necessity of carryng out these controls mainly when the cholinesterase activity is used as indicator of the organophosphorus plaguicides polution, what requires the continued analysis of a high samples number. It has similarly been studied the influence of measure time in the cholinesterase activity and the best concentration of substrate is confirmed.Se presenta el resultado de un control de calidad intralaboratorio aplicado a la determinación de la actividad colinesterasa eritrocitaria humana por la técnica del pH-stat. Se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de realizar este tipo de controles, sobre todo cuando se utiliza la actividad colinesterasa como indicador de contaminación por plaguicidas organofosforados, lo que requiere el análisis continuado de un elevado número de muestras. Igualmente se estudia la influencia del tiempo de medida en la actividad colinesterasa y se confirma la concentración óptima de sustrato

Temperatura de color correlacionada de la luz natural: análisis dinámico en espacios interiores

Currently daylight studies are focused on visual amenity. This new trend arises from the need of professionals and researchers to define indicators of daylight quality. One such indicator is the correlated color temperature (CCT). In this paper, the influence of windows orientation and shading systems in color perception of the environment (CCT) is discussed. To achieve this goal a dynamic (spatial and temporal) characterization methodology of daylight source CCT is proposed. The analysis was performed on a scale model of an indoor space, under clear sky conditions. Results showed the importance of the window orientation in the indoor CCT of daylight, obtaining variations of up to 50 %. It is also noted that shading device cause changes in indoor configurations and sensations. Also here the impact of shading systems and glass on the TCC of natural light entering a space was analyzedActualmente los estudios de la iluminación natural focalizan en la amabilidad visual del espacio. Esta nueva tendencia surge de la necesidad de profesionales e investigadores de definir indicadores de la calidad de la iluminación natural. Uno de ellos es la temperatura de color correlacionada (TCC). En este trabajo, se propone analizar la influencia de la orientación de las ventanas y sus sistemas de sombreado en la percepción de color del ambiente (TCC). Para ello se propone una metodología de caracterización dinámica (espacial y temporal) de la TCC de la fuente luz natural. El análisis se desarrolló en un modelo a escala de un espacio interior, bajo condiciones de cielo claro. Los resultados han evidenciado la importancia de la orientación de la ventana en la TCC de un espacio, obteniendo variaciones de hasta el 50 %. De manera complementaria, se detecta la capacidad de modificar la TCC de los ambientes interiores que poseen las superficies vidriadas y los dispositivos de control solar

Nonadiabatic geometric phase induced by a counterpart of the Stark shift

We analyse the geometric phase due to the Stark shift in a system composed of a bosonic field, driven by time-dependent linear amplification, interacting dispersively with a two-level (fermionic) system. We show that a geometric phase factor in the joint state of the system, which depends on the fermionic state (resulting form the Stark shift), is introduced by the amplification process. A clear geometrical interpretation of this phenomenon is provided. We also show how to measure this effect in an interferometric experiment and to generate geometric "Schrodinger cat"-like states. Finally, considering the currently available technology, we discuss a feasible scheme to control and measure such geometric phases in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics

Geometric Phases, Symmetries of Dynamical Invariants, and Exact Solution of the Schr\"odinger Equation

We introduce the notion of the geometrically equivalent quantum systems (GEQS) as quantum systems that lead to the same geometric phases for a given complete set of initial state vectors. We give a characterization of the GEQS. These systems have a common dynamical invariant, and their Hamiltonians and evolution operators are related by symmetry transformations of the invariant. If the invariant is $T$-periodic, the corresponding class of GEQS includes a system with a $T$-periodic Hamiltonian. We apply our general results to study the classes of GEQS that include a system with a cranked Hamiltonian $H(t)=e^{-iKt}H_0e^{iKt}$. We show that the cranking operator $K$ also belongs to this class. Hence, in spite of the fact that it is time-independent, it leads to nontrivial cyclic evolutions and geometric phases. Our analysis allows for an explicit construction of a complete set of nonstationary cyclic states of any time-independent simple harmonic oscillator. The period of these cyclic states is half the characteristic period of the oscillator.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Phys.