Activation of waste tire char upon cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie801764xActivation of waste tire char upon cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption permits a controlled development of porosity versus burnoff using air as feed gas for the activation process. A slow but monotonical increase of BET surface area is obtained from cycle to cycle. Initially the process led to the development of mesoporosity without generating micropores and then the micropore volume is increased whereas a decrease of narrow mesopore (20-80 nm) volume is observed, probably as a consequence of mesopore widening. Although the S BET reaches relatively low values (below 250 m2/g) even after 15 cycles, this surface development is associated with low burnoff values (around 22% for indicated BET surface area) and corresponds in an important percentage (up to about 50%) to external (nonmicropore) area. Temperatures around 210 and 550 °C for chemisorption and desorption, respectively, have been found as optimum for the purpose of preparing granular mesoporous carbons which can be interesting candidates as catalytic supports for liquid phase applicationsThe authors greatly appreciate financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CTQ2006-13512

Revolutionizing Pharmaceuticals: Generative Artificial Intelligence as a bibliographic assistant

[EN]Artificial Generative Intelligence (AGI) has exploded into biomedical and pharmaceutical research, fundamentally transforming the way scientists approach literature review, experiment design, and reagent and antibody selection. This article explores how IAG, supported by advanced machine learning and natural language processing models, has revolutionized these processes. The IAG streamlines literature review, extracting relevant information, identifying emerging patterns and trends in the scientific literature, and generating innovative hypotheses. It also acts as an advanced search tool, allowing researchers to quickly access accurate information in an ocean of data. A prominent example of this application is BenchSci, a platform that uses the IAG to recommend reagents and antibodies based on real experimental data and scientific literature. This integration of IAG into experimental design promises to accelerate research, reduce costs, and improve the precision of experiments. Together, the IAG is presented as a catalyst for discoveries in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, offering unprecedented potential to advance the understanding and treatment of diseases, and improve decision-making in the industry

Ozone as oxidation agent in cyclic activation of biochar

Granular activated carbons were produced from grape seed biochar by cyclic activation with ozone. In each cycle, char was first oxidized by exposure to ozone and then subjected to high temperature in inert atmosphere to desorb oxygen groups formed. The study assessed the influence of operating conditions in the development of porosity, from a starting biochar with narrow microporosity (SBET: 47 m2 g− 1, SDA: 505 m2g− 1) prepared by flash pyrolysis of grape seed at 800 °C. The variables studied were the number of cycles applied and the oxidation and desorption temperatures (250–275 and 850–950 °C, respectively). High oxidation temperatures led to higher burn-off, which was also found to increase with the number of activation cycles. The burn-off needed to achieve a high surface area was lower than in conventional physical activation. After 7–9 activation cycles, activated carbons with SBET higher than 1200 m2 g− 1 and SDA above 1500 m2 g− 1 were obtained. The use of ozone resulted in mainly microporous activated carbons (0.37–0.52 cm3 g− 1) with very low contribution of mesopores (< 0.04–0.07 cm3 g− 1). The mean micropore size increased with the number of activation cycles due to pore widening, while mesopore mean size decreased along the cycles. The activated carbons showed a unique granular morphology with a hollow core and a porous shell, which is maintained even after 10 activation cyclesThe authors greatly appreciatefinancial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CTQ2012-32821

Granular mesoporous activated carbons from waste tires by cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption

This document is the accepted manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ie201499hActivation upon cyclic oxygen chemisorption-desorption has proved to be an efficient way to develop porosity at low burn off from waste tires char. In this work the influence of particle size, desorption temperature, and the number of cycles is studied. Highest values of burnoff and specific surface area (S BET) are obtained for the largest particle diameter (3 mm average) and at intermediate desorption temperature (650 °C). In these conditions S BET values around 500 m 2/g can be achieved at burn-offs of about 30%, and close to 600 m 2/g at around 45% burnoff, with a mean pore size of 10 nm and a micropore volume close to 0.08 cm 3/g. Although the surface area is moderate, the low burnoff and high S BET/burnoff ratio achieved make it possible to maintain initial granular morphology of the particles even after 20 cycles of activationWe greatly appreciate finantial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia through the project CTQ2009-0998

Porous structure and morphology of granular chars from flash and conventional pyrolysis of grape seeds

This work studies the influence of the operating conditions used in the pyrolysis of grape seeds on the morphology and textural properties of the chars resulting. Flash and conventional (283Kmin-1 heating rate) pyrolysis have been used within a wide range of temperature (300-1000°C). The effect of a pretreatment for oil extraction has also been studied. The porous structure of the chars was characterized by adsorption of N2 at 77K, Ar at 77K and 87K, and CO2 at 273K and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. All the materials prepared revealed an essentially microporous structure, with a poor or even negligible contribution of mesopores. Increasing pyrolysis temperature led to higher specific surface areas and lower pore size. The highest specific surface area values occurred within 700-800°C, reaching up to 500m2g-1 with pore sizes in the 0.4-1.1nm range. No significant morphological changes were observed upon carbonization so that the resulting chars were granular materials of similar size than the starting grape seeds. The hollow core structure of the chars, with most of the material allocated at the periphery of the granules can help to overcome the mass transfer limitations of most common (solid or massive) granular activated carbons. The chars showed a good mechanical strength during attrition tests. These chars can be potential candidates for the preparation of granular carbons molecular sieve or activated carbons raw materialsThe authors greatly appreciate financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CTQ2009-09983

How Agent-based modeling can help to foster sustainability projects

[Abstract] The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations require relevant social changes that sometimes involve the development of innovative projects that cause rejection and confrontation. Agent-Based Models (ABM) are powerful tools to represent the behavior of systems, and they have become valuable for the social sciences as they can simulate the behavior of a society under different conditions. Superblocks are innovative city projects that reorganize urban space and minimize private motorized transport. In this paper, we present an ABM that simulates the implantation of superblocks in two Spanish cities: Vitoria-Gasteiz and Barcelona. The interest of this model is to provide policymakers with relevant scientific information that can be used to support their planning and decision-making processes by running possible alternative policy scenarios. This paper presents the details of the designed model and the simulation of different policy scenarios to increase the acceptability rates of citizens about the project, demonstrating how the model takes into account local differences and its usefulness for those political leaders from other cities interested in implementing this type of project.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C2018/34Xunta de Galicia; ED431G2019/01The work on this document has been supported by Horizon 2020 of the European Commission SMARTEES project (grant agreement no. 7639). We also wish to acknowledge the funding received from the Xunta de Galicia, together with the ERDF funds of the European Union, through its grants to research groups (Grant no. ED431C 2018/34) and CITIC, as a Research Center of the University System of Galicia (Grant no. ED431G 2019/01

Inteligencia Artificial Generativa en Farmacología: Revolucionando la Interacción Fármaco-Proteína

[ES]En la era moderna de la medicina, la inteligencia artificial (IA) está desempeñando un papel cada vez más prominente en la farmacología. Este artículo destaca la influencia transformadora de la IA generativa en el estudio y optimización de interacciones fármacoproteína. A través del análisis detallado de modelos como las Redes Generativas Adversariales (GANs) y los Transformers, se ilustra cómo la IA puede predecir y refinar las interacciones entre medicamentos y proteínas, llevando a terapias más eficientes y seguras. Además, se discute la capacidad de la IA generativa para prever interacciones cruzadas entre fármacos, reduciendo así el potencial de efectos secundarios y complicaciones relacionadas con la polifarmacia. La conclusión subraya la sinergia entre la investigación farmacológica tradicional y la IA, delineando un futuro optimista para el diseño y optimización de medicamentos en la medicina del siglo XXI

Revolucionando la farmacéutica: aplicaciones y potencial de la Inteligencia Artificial Generativa en el descubrimiento de medicamentos

[ES]La inteligencia artificial (IA) ha emergido como una herramienta transformadora en la industria farmacéutica, revolucionando el proceso tradicional de descubrimiento y desarrollo de medicamentos. Mediante técnicas generativas avanzadas, como las Redes Generativas Adversariales (GANs) y los Autocodificadores Variacionales (VAEs), se ha potenciado la exploración y diseño de moléculas terapéuticas novedosas y viables. Adicionalmente, la IA facilita la optimización de estas moléculas garantizando propiedades deseables y acelera la identificación de objetivos terapéuticos a través del análisis profundo de conjuntos de datos biomédicos y genómicos. Uno de los avances más significativos ha sido el repurposing de medicamentos, donde la IA desbloquea el potencial oculto de fármacos conocidos para nuevas indicaciones terapéuticas. Este artículo revisa el impacto y las aplicaciones de la IA generativa en la industria farmacéutica, subrayando cómo esta tecnología promete acelerar la entrega de soluciones terapéuticas más efectivas y seguras

Biomass-Derived Microporous Carbon Materials with an Open Structure of Cross-Linked Sub-microfibers with Enhanced Adsorption Characteristics

This document is the accepted manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in Energy and Fuels, © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.6b02112Moringa oleifera seed shells exhibit a unique structure of cross-linked sub-microfibers (0.5-1.5 μm diameter) with a well-connected macroporous network. Controlled pyrolysis (500-800 °C) and cyclic activation of the precursor provided a porous carbon material with a structure that minimizes mass-transfer constraints. Under both slow (10 °C/min-1) and flash pyrolysis, the structure was preserved, while a significant microporosity was developed. By flash pyrolysis (700-800 °C), a material with enhanced characteristics for potential application as a molecular sieve (SDA = 450-470 m2 g-1, and SBET = 5 m2 g-1) was obtained. Cyclic activation of carbonized shells, consisting of an oxygen chemisorption stage (180 °C) followed by a desorption stage in an inert atmosphere (450-900 °C), resulted in a controlled development of microporosity upon successive activation cycles. After 10 activation cycles, respective SDA and SBET values of 1172 and 761 m2 g-1 were obtained. Higher development of the surface area and a wider distribution of micropores was observed when the desorption stage was carried out at 900 °C. The development of the surface area was achieved at low burnoff (22-33%), thus preserving the structure of the material. Thanks to its unique structure, the material obtained exhibited enhanced characteristics for gas sorption as a result of diminished mass-transfer limitations, assessed through the kinetics of carbon dioxide adsorption runs at ambient conditionsThe authors greatly appreciate financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2012-32821

Implementation of a mindfulness-based crisis intervention for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak in a public general hospital in Madrid, Spain

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak is having an impact on the well-being of healthcare workers. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown effectiveness in reducing stress and fostering resilience and recovery in healthcare workers. There are no studies examining the feasibility of brief mindfulness-based interventions during the COVID-19 outbreak. Materials and Methods: This is an exploratory study with a post intervention assessment. We describe an on-site brief mindfulness intervention and evaluate its helpfulness, safety, and feasibility. Results: One thousand out of 7,000 (14%) healthcare workers from La Paz University Hospital in Madrid (Spain) participated in at least one session. One hundred and fifty out of 1,000 (15%) participants filled out a self-report questionnaire evaluating the helpfulness of the intervention for on-site stress reduction. Ninety two subjects (61%) participated in more than one session. Most of the participants were women (80%) with a mean age of 38.6 years. Almost half of the sample were nurses (46%). Sessions were perceived as being helpful with a mean rating of 8.4 on a scale from 0 to 10. Only 3 people (2%) reported a minor adverse effect (increased anxiety or dizziness). Discussion: Our data supports the utility, safety and feasibility of an on-site, brief mindfulness-based intervention designed to reduce stress for frontline health workers during a crisis. There is a need to continue testing this type of interventions, and to integrate emotion regulation strategies as an essential part of health workers' general training. Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT04555005