Risk-conscious optimization model to support bioenergy investment in the Brazilian sugarcane industry

The past decades have seen a diversification of the sugarcane industry with the emergence of new technology to produce bioenergy from by-product and waste process streams. Given Brazil’s ambitious goal of reducing green-house gas emissions by over 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, it is of paramount importance to develop reliable decision-making systems in order to stimulate investment in these low-carbon technologies. This paper seeks to develop a more accurate optimization model to inform risk-conscious investment decisions for bioenergy generation capacity in sugarcane mills. The main objective is for the model to enable a better understanding of how Brazilian government policies, such as the electricity price in the regulated market, may impact these investments, by taking into account the uncertainty in sugar, ethanol and spot electricity markets and the interdependency between production and investment decisions in terms of saleable product mix. The proposed methodology combines portfolio optimization theory with superstructure process modeling and it relies on simple surrogates derived from a detailed sugarcane plant simulator to retain computational tractability and enable scenario analysis. The case study of an existing sugarcane plant is used to demonstrate the methodology and illustrate how the model can assist decision-makers. In all of the scenarios assessed, the model recommends investment in extra bioelectricity capacity via the anaerobic digestion of vinasse but advises against investment in second-generation ethanol production via the hydrolysis of surplus bagasse. Furthermore, the decision to upgrade the cogeneration system with a condensation turbine is highly sensitive to the electricity price practiced in the regulated market, capacity constraints on the sugar-ethanol mix, and the accepted level of risk. Another key insight drawn from the case study is that recent market conditions have favored a production focused on the sugar business, making it challenging for policy-makers to create attractive scenarios for biofuels. Long-term electricity contracting appears to be the main hedging strategy for de-risking other products and investments in the sugarcane business, provided it is priced adequately

A Importância das Histórias Infantis na Educação Pré-Escolar e no Desenvolvimento Emocional e Social em Crianças: Estudo Piloto e Análise Exploratória em Crianças dos 4 aos 6 anos

A literatura refere que a educação na primeira infância baseada em histórias infantis surge como um agente importante, que atua na promoção do desenvolvimento psicossocial das crianças, ajudando-as a desenvolverem as suas competências sociais e emocionais. Dada a relevância do tema, o objetivo principal deste estudo é a compreensão do desenvolvimento emocional e social de crianças em idade pré-escolar, analisando se uma intervenção baseada em histórias emocionais contribui para o aumento do autoconceito e reconhecimento de emoções por crianças de idade pré-escolar. A amostra deste estudo é constituída por 173 crianças, 93 rapazes e 80 raparigas, com idades compreendidas entre os 4 e os 6 anos. Esta investigação está integrada no âmbito do Programa Gerações e os dados foram recolhidos em jardins-de-infância da rede pública e um da rede privada. Utilizaram-se histórias infantis, a Escala de Autoperceção de Competência e Aceitação Social para Crianças (EAPCASC) e a Escala de Avaliação do Conhecimento Emocional (EACE). Os resultados principais indicam que a competência cognitiva é mais percecionada pelas crianças, que também reconhecem mais facilmente a emoção contente. No que respeita à emoção normal são os rapazes que a reconhecem com mais frequência, enquanto a emoção assustada é mais reconhecida pelas crianças mais velhas. A perceção de aceitação pelos pares apresenta uma correlação positiva com a emoção contente, bem como uma correlação negativa com a emoção zangada. Existe igualmente uma associação positiva entre a emoção triste e a emoção contente, uma correlação negativa entre a emoção triste e a emoção zangada, e igualmente uma correlação negativa entre a emoção triste e a emoção normal. Verifica-se que em nenhuma das emoções houve uma interação significativa entre o grupo (ter ou não intervenção) e o tempo (entre o pré-teste e o pós-teste), o que significa que a intervenção efetuada com o Programa Gerações não provocou mudanças significativas, quando comparada à não intervenção, na capacidade de reconhecimento emocional das crianças. Todavia, acredita-se que se deve valorizar a intervenção precoce nas crianças e suas famílias, nomeadamente através das histórias infantis, de forma a melhorar a saúde e reduzir comportamentos de risco. / The literature refers that education in infancy based on children's stories arises as an important agent, that acts to promote the psychosocial development of children, helping them to develop their social and emotional skills. Given the relevance of the theme, the principal objective of this study is to understand the emotional and social development of children of preschool age, analyzing whether an intervention based on emotional stories contributes to the rise in selfconcept and emotion recognition by children preschool. The sample this study is constituted of 173 children, 93 boys and 80 girls, aged between 4 and 6 years. This investigation is integrated within the Generations Program and the data were collected in gardens-of-childhood the public network and the private network. They used children's stories, The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (EAPCASC) and the Scale of Emotional Knowledge (EACE). The main results indicate that cognitive competence is more perceived by the children, who also recognize more easily the happy emotion. With regard to normal emotion are the boys that recognize more frequently, while the scared emotion is more recognized by older children. The perception of peer acceptance have a positive correlation with happy emotion, as well as a negative correlation with the angry emotion. There is also a positive association between sad emotion and happy emotion, a negative correlation between the sad emotion and angry emotion, and also a negative correlation between the sad emotion and normal emotion. It is verified that none of emotions there was a significant interaction between group (have or not intervention) and time (between pre-test and post-test), which means the intervention performed with the Generation Program caused no significant changes, compared to no intervention, in emotional recognition capacity of children. However, it is believed that one should value the early intervention in children and their families, namely through children's stories, of the form to improve health and reduce risk behaviors

T-Cell Memory Responses Elicited by Yellow Fever Vaccine are Targeted to Overlapping Epitopes Containing Multiple HLA-I and -II Binding Motifs

The yellow fever vaccines (YF-17D-204 and 17DD) are considered to be among the safest vaccines and the presence of neutralizing antibodies is correlated with protection, although other immune effector mechanisms are known to be involved. T-cell responses are known to play an important role modulating antibody production and the killing of infected cells. However, little is known about the repertoire of T-cell responses elicited by the YF-17DD vaccine in humans. In this report, a library of 653 partially overlapping 15-mer peptides covering the envelope (Env) and nonstructural (NS) proteins 1 to 5 of the vaccine was utilized to perform a comprehensive analysis of the virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. The T-cell responses were screened ex-vivo by IFN-γ ELISPOT assays using blood samples from 220 YF-17DD vaccinees collected two months to four years after immunization. Each peptide was tested in 75 to 208 separate individuals of the cohort. The screening identified sixteen immunodominant antigens that elicited activation of circulating memory T-cells in 10% to 33% of the individuals. Biochemical in-vitro binding assays and immunogenetic and immunogenicity studies indicated that each of the sixteen immunogenic 15-mer peptides contained two or more partially overlapping epitopes that could bind with high affinity to molecules of different HLAs. The prevalence of the immunogenicity of a peptide in the cohort was correlated with the diversity of HLA-II alleles that they could bind. These findings suggest that overlapping of HLA binding motifs within a peptide enhances its T-cell immunogenicity and the prevalence of the response in the population. In summary, the results suggests that in addition to factors of the innate immunity, "promiscuous" T-cell antigens might contribute to the high efficacy of the yellow fever vaccines. © 2013 de Melo et al

Syzygium jambolanum treatment improves survival in lethal sepsis induced in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The leaves and the fruits from <it>Syzygium jambolanum </it>DC.(Myrtaceae), a plant known in Brazil as sweet olive or 'jambolão', have been used by native people to treat infectious diseases, diabetes, and stomachache. Since the bactericidal activity of <it>S. jambolanum </it>has been confirmed <it>in vitro</it>, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the prophylactic treatment with <it>S. jambolanum </it>on the <it>in vivo </it>polymicrobial infection induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) in mice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>C57Bl/6 mice were treated by the subcutaneous route with a hydroalcoholic extract from fresh leaves of <it>S. jambolanum </it>(HCE). After 6 h, a bacterial infection was induced in the peritoneum using the lethal CLP model. The mice were killed 12 h after the CLP induction to evaluate the cellular influx and local and systemic inflammatory mediators' production. Some animals were maintained alive to evaluate the survival rate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prophylactic HCE treatment increased the mice survival, the neutrophil migration to infectious site, the spreading ability and the hydrogen peroxide release, but decreased the serum TNF and nitrite. Despite the increased migration and activation of peritoneal cells the HCE treatment did not decrease the number of CFU. The HCE treatment induced a significant decrease on the bone marrow cells number but did not alter the cell number of the spleen and lymph node.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that the treatment with <it>S. jambolanum </it>has a potent prophylactic anti-septic effect that is not associated to a direct microbicidal effect but it is associated to a recruitment of activated neutrophils to the infectious site and to a diminished systemic inflammatory response.</p

Genetic parameters for body weight, carcass chemical composition and yield in a broiler-layer cross developed for QTL mapping

The objective of this study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic correlations of body weight at 6 weeks of age (BW6), as well as final carcass yield, and moisture, protein, fat and ash contents, using data from 3,422 F2 chickens originated from reciprocal cross between a broiler and a layer line. Variance components were estimated by the REML method, using animal models for evaluating random additive genetic and fixed contemporary group (sex, hatch and genetic group) effects. The heritability estimates (h2) for BW6, carcass yield and percentage of carcass moisture were 0.31 ± 0.07, 0.20 ± 0.05 and 0.33 ± 0.07, respectively. The h2 for the percentages of protein, fat and ash on a dry matter basis were 0.48 ± 0.09, 0.55 ± 0.10 and 0.36 ± 0.08, respectively. BW6 had a positive genetic correlation with fat percentage in the carcass, but a negative one with protein and ash contents. Carcass yield, thus, appears to have only low genetic association with carcass composition traits. The genetic correlations observed between traits, measured on a dry matter basis, indicated that selection for carcass protein content may favor higher ash content and a lower percentage of carcass fat

Oxidative stress in hepatitis C infected end-stage renal disease subjects

BACKGROUND: Both uremia and hepatitis C infection is associated with increased oxidative stress. In the present study, we aimed to find out whether hepatitis C infection has any impact on oxidative stress in hemodialysis subjects. METHODS: Sixteen hepatitis C (+) hemodialysis subjects, 24 hepatitis C negative hemodialysis subjects and 24 healthy subjects were included. Total antioxidant capacity, total peroxide level and oxidative stress index were determined in all subjects. RESULTS: Total antioxidant capacity was significantly higher in controls than hemodialysis subjects with or without hepatitis C infection (all p < 0.05/3), while total peroxide level and oxidative stress index were significantly lower (all p < 0.05/3). Hepatitis C (-) hemodialysis subjects had higher total antioxidant capacity compared to hepatitis C (+) hemodialysis subjects (all p < 0.05/3). Total peroxide level and oxidative stress index was comparable between hemodialysis subjects with or without hepatitis C infection (p > 0.05/3). CONCLUSION: Oxidative stress is increased in both hepatitis C (+) and hepatitis C (-) hemodialysis subjects. However, hepatitis C infection seems to not cause any additional increase in oxidative stress in hemodialysis subjects and it may be partly due to protective effect of dialysis treatment on hepatitis C infection