White wine continuous protein stabilisation: industrial viablity

Las proteínas térmicamente inestables que están presentes en uvas, jugos de uva y vinos podrían llegar a ser insolubles y precipitar causando la formación de turbidez o precipitados indeseables en vinos blancos después del embotellado durante el almacenamiento.La turbidez proteica en vinos blancos es evitada tradicionalmente, mediante la adición de bentonita, aunque esta técnica presenta algunas desventajas tales como efectos negativos sobre las propiedades sensoriales del vino debido principalmente a la remoción de componentes aromáticos o gustativos y por la merma de vino, debido al gran aumento de volumen y poder de sedimentación de la bentonita. Además, el recurso humano, los tiempos de proceso y la descarga de residuos al ambiente sigue siendo una inmensa preocupación, debido a los significativos costos asociados a la salud y seguridad laboral, y así como también las responsabilidades y obligaciones legales de la industria en material de impacto ambiental. Es estimado que los costos del uso de la bentonita en la industria del vino a nivel mundial son del orden de los 300-500 millones de dólares por año. Por lo tanto es necesario el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías alternativas a la bentonita que sean económicamente viables y que mantengan la calidad del vino, así como también la generación de un menor impacto ambiental. No obstante, nuevas técnicas exitosas a nivel industrial aun no han sido desarrolladas, por que afectan la calidad del vino o porque su aplicación no es viable económicamente bajo normales condiciones de operación de producción de vino. Por lo tanto, es muy atractivo investigar la viabilidad de nuevas prácticas que tengan un menor impacto sobre el ambiente y sean económicamente viables.Por esa razón la principal motivación de nuestra investigación ha sido estudiar la viabilidad industrial de una tecnología alternativa al uso de la bentonita, la cual permita remover proteínas inestables de los vinos blancos usando zirconia como material adsorbente. Además, nosotros nos hemos concentrado en el desarrollo de un proceso continuo que permita conseguir vinos estables proteicamente sin afectar sus propiedades fisicoquímicas y sensoriales, probando diferentes técnicas de regeneración del material adsorbente. Primeramente nosotros hemos estudiado la estructura, morfología y propiedades superficiales de la zirconia, así como también su capacidad de adsorción para remover proteínas inestables de vinos blancos, aplicando tratamientos regenerativos químicos y térmicos. Después hemos comparado las propiedades fisicoquímicas y sensoriales de un vino blanco estabilizado proteicamente mediante zirconia y bentonita.Además, nosotros hemos desarrollado un proceso híbrido integrando un proceso de adsorción en columna y un proceso de microfiltración tangencial de vino, para conocer los efectos de este nuevo proceso sobre el ensuciamiento de la membrana y la estabilidad proteica del vino.Por otro lado, nosotros también hemos aplicado un nuevo proceso de estabilización proteica de vino base para cava, comparando los resultados con el método tradicional usando bentonita como agente estabilizante y observando los efectos de ambos tratamientos sobre la calidad de la espuma y las fracciones proteicas del vino. Finalmente, hemos aplicado el nuevo proceso de estabilización proteica a escala industrial, empacando zirconia sobre una columna fija y realizando el proceso mediante sistema continuo y discontinuo.Los resultados demuestran que la zirconia puede ser regenerada química o térmicamente, que sus propiedades físicas, morfológicas y químicas no son alteradas y que incluso su capacidad de adsorción proteica podría ser aumentada probablemente producto de la adsorción de algunos componentes o centros activos derivados de las proteínas del vino. A través del proceso híbrido ha sido posible conseguir vinos estables proteicamente y aumentar la densidad de flujo del permeado durante la microfiltración del vino. De hecho, hemos observado que la reducción de proteínas mediante la adsorción en columna usando zirconia también ocurre durante la microfiltración tangencial, por lo tanto ambos procesos pueden actuar conjuntamente en la reducción y estabilización proteica.Por otro lado, comparando las propiedades fisicoquímicas y sensoriales de vinos blancos estabilizados proteicamente mediante zirconia y bentonita, podemos afirmar que los mejores resultados son conseguidos usando zirconia como agente estabilizante.La estabilización proteica de vinos blancos en continuo también puede ser útil para estabilizar vinos base para cava, ya que comparando la calidad de la espuma de un vino base para cava tratado con zirconia y bentonita, los resultados demuestran que la calidad de la espuma de aquellos vinos bases es mejor usando zirconia, ya que la adicción de bentonita produce considerables efectos negativos sobe la calidad de la espuma.Finalmente, los resultados obtenidos a escala industrial, muestran que es viable la estabilización proteica de vinos blancos usando zirconia como material adsorbente ya sea mediante un sistema continuo o discontinuo sin afectar la calidad del vino inicial.Heat-unstable soluble proteins in grapes, grape juices and wines may become insoluble and precipitate causing the formation of undesirable hazes or deposits in white wines after bottling and during storage. Proteins are commonly prevented from forming hazes with bentonite, though this technique does have drawbacks: for example, the sensory properties of the wine are affected adversely because flavour compounds are removed and wine volume is lost as lees because of the swell and settling of the bentonite. In addition, the handling and disposal of spent bentonite continues to be a concern, because it involves high labour input and the associated costs, occupational health and safety issues, and the wine industry's environmental responsibilities and legislative requirements. It is estimated that the cost of bentonite fining to the wine industry worldwide is in the order of US$300-500 m per annum. Alternative fining technologies to bentonite, which are economically viable and maintain wine quality, are currently being sought. However, no successful techniques have been developed to date: all the attempts so far have either affected the quality of the wine or not been economically viable under standard winemaking conditions. Therefore, research on the implementation of new practices that have a less negative impact on the environment and are economically viable is particularly challenging.For this reason the aim of this thesis was to study the industrial viability of an alternative technology to bentonite fining which enables unstable proteins to be removed from white wines using zirconia as the adsorbent material. We also attempted to develop a continuous process, which stabilizes wine protein without having any negative effects on the physicochemical and sensory properties of the wine. Likewise we tried to make the process have a lower environmental impact by testing various regenerative treatments of the adsorbent material.First we studied the structure, morphology and surface properties of the zirconia and its capacity to remove unstable proteins from white wine versus thermal and chemical regeneration treatments. Subsequently we compared the physicochemical and sensory properties of a white wine fined by zirconia and bentonite. To further our understanding of the effect on membrane fouling and wine protein stability, we developed a hybrid process consisting of in-column adsorption with crossflow microfiltration. We also applied this new method to stabilize the base sparkling wine and compared the results with the conventional method of using bentonite as the fining agent to see the effects of the treatments on the foam quality and protein fractions. Finally, we applied the new method on an industrial scale by packing zirconia into a fixed bed column and by using the batch and continuous systems.The results show that the zirconia can be regenerated by thermal and chemical treatments, and that its physical, morphological and chemical properties are not altered. In fact its protein adsorption capacity can increase probably because some compounds or active centres derived from wine proteins are absorbed.The hybrid process was used to increase the permeate flux during crossflow microfiltration and stabilize wine proteins. We observed that proteins were reduced when the zirconia column adsorption was used during the crossflow microfiltration. Therefore both processes may act together.By comparing the physicochemical and sensory analyses of white wine proteins stabilized by zirconia and bentonite, we found that results were best when zirconia was used.The continuous protein stabilization of white wines by zirconia may also be useful for stabilizing proteins in base sparkling wines. Treating base sparkling wines with zirconia definitely gives better foam quality than with bentonite. Finally the results obtained in our industrial scale experiment showed that white wine continuous protein stabilization with zirconia as the adsorbent material is not only viable in both the continuous and batch systems, it also leaves the quality of the wine unchanged

Numerical modelling of railway ballast behaviour using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and spherical particles

In the last two decades there has been a great development of high-speed train lines. This advance has led to more demanding loads in railway infrastructures and the appearance of a new problem called ballast flight that happens when some stones rise when the train passes. For these reasons, the development of an application that allows the numerical modelling of the ballast superstructure under different stresses can be very useful, as it will enable design optimization. The DEM is being considered an effective and powerful method for the calculation of engineering problems with granular and discontinuous materials. Railroad ballast layer consists of discrete aggregate particles, so that DEM is one of the most suitable ways to simulate the behavior of particulate ballast material. However, the computational cost of contact calculation between irregular particles is high and limits the calculation capability. From the point of view of micro-scale analysis, it is essential to represent the exact geometry of the particle. On the other hand, if the interest lies in the behavior of the granular material as a whole, the geometry is not a determining factor. Besides that, setting up a simulation of granular material taking care of the exact geometry of each particle will not be efficient. Current work presents the methodology followed to achieve accurate results in the calculation of railway ballast behaviour using DEM and spherical particles. The use of spherical particles reduces the computational cost and makes the simulation set up efficient. Validation results for the calculation of the lateral resistance force against a sleeper moving inside a ballast bed are presented. Regarding ballast flight problem, some high speed ballast collision calculations have also been performed

Advances in the modelling of railway ballast using the Discrete Element Method (DEM)

The development of high-speed train lines has increased significantly during the last decades leading to more demanding loads in railway infrastructures. Most of these infrastructures were constructed using railway ballast, whose main roles are resisting to vertical and horizontal loads and facing climate action. Moreover, new challenges are arising in the railway industry, such as the development of high-speed train lines in locations with extreme weather. For these reasons, the implementation of a numerical code able to represent ballast behaviour, including its interaction with other structures, has become very attractive. Among a wide range of numerical methods, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) was found to be effective for the calculation of engineering problems with granular materials. This approach considers the discontinuous nature of these materials and has proven to be a very useful tool to obtain complete qualitative information on calculations of groups of particles. The code used in this work is developed within DEMPack, a specific software tool for modelling physical problems using the DEM. The computer program is adapted to meet the needs for representing the behaviour of railway ballast

Geometric representation of railway ballast using the Discrete Element Method (DEM)

The development of high-speed train lines has increased during the last twenty years, leading to more demanding loads in railway infrastructures. For these reasons, the implementation of a numerical tool for the calculation of railway ballast behaviour has been found useful, as it will enables design optimization. Regarding the numerical method, the DEM is considered effective and powerful for the calculation of engineering problems with granular and discontinuous materials. Due to the fact that railroad ballast layer consists of discrete aggregate particles, the DEM is considered suitable for the simulation of particulate ballast material. However, the computational cost of contact calculation between irregular particles is high and limits the calculation capability. From the point of view of micro-scale analysis, it is essential to represent the exact geometry of the particle. On the other hand, if the interest lies in the behaviour of the granular material as a whole, the geometry is not a determining factor. Besides that, setting up a simulation of granular material taking care of the exact geometry of each particle will not be efficient. Current work presents different geometrical approaches for the representition of ballast stones: spheric particles with rolling friction, sphere clusters, polyhedrons and superquadrics; showing their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, some simulation results, using spheric particles and sphere clusters, are displayed in order to evaluate the convenience or not of using more accurate and computational demanding geometries in each case

Shape characterization of railway ballast stones for discrete element calculations

Railway ballast is a layer of granular material that resists to vertical and horizontal loads, produced by the passing train over the rail. The calculation of this kind of complex geomechanic problems has been traditionally addressed using refined constitutive models, based in continuum assumptions. Although these models may be suitable in the evaluation of the critical state of soils, or in the calculation of bulk material masses flowing, they are not appropriate to represent the local discontinuities of granular materials, which induce special features such as anisotropy or instabilities. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is an alternative approach that considers the discontinuous nature of granular materials, which has proven to be a very useful tool to obtain complete qualitative information on calculations of groups of particles. However, the computational cost of contact evaluation between Discrete Elements (DEs) is high and limits the calculation capability. In this regard, it should be noted that particle shape greatly affects contact calculation computational cost, being spherical DEs the less computational demanding type of particles. From the point of view of micro-scale analysis, it is essential to represent the exact geometry of the grains. By contrast, if the interest lies in the behaviour of the granular material as a whole, particles geometry is not a determining factor. Therefore, for efficiency purposes, a trade-off between particle shape accuracy and computational cost needs to be achieved. In this work, different approaches to represent ballast stones are assessed: spheres with rolling friction, sphere clusters, polyhedrons and superquadrics. The first two were chosen for further analysis. Rolling friction allows avoiding excessive rotation when irregular shaped materials are simulated as spherical particles. This work presents a new insight for its application called the Bounded Rolling Friction model. Regarding sphere clusters, there is a key point in the friction between elements. As they reproduce irregular particles using clumps of spheres rigidly joined, the cavities between those spheres introduce interlocks that increase friction. To overcome this drawback, a new contact model is proposed. Finally, results of the application of both approaches are displayed, and conclusions are drawn as regards the convenience of using more accurate and computational demanding geometries

Análisis del efecto Inhibitorio de Clorhexidina 0.12% y Peróxido de Hidrógeno 3% sobre las bacterias presentes en los cepillos dentales utilizados por Estudiantes de V Año de la Carrera de Odontología de la UNAN-Managua en el primer semestre del año 2017

Los cepillos dentales han sido usados para control de la higiene oral desde tiempos inmemoriales, estudios han mostrado que varios microorganismos pueden crecer en los cepillos de dientes después de su uso. Para controlar la contaminación de los cepillos dentales se han empleado diferentes métodos de descontaminación entre ellos la clorhexidina y el peróxido de hidrogeno. El objetivo del presente estudio, fue comparar los efectos inhibitorios de la clorhexidina al 0.12% y el peróxido de hidrogeno al 3% en el control de bacterias presentes en cepillos dentales utilizados por estudiantes de V año de la carrera de odontología de la UNAN-Managua. Para este estudio fueron seleccionados 30 estudiantes de 5to año la carrera de odontología de la UNAN-Managua, 15 de ellos tuvieron un almacenamiento libre de los cepillos dentales y los otros 15 utilizaron medio de almacenamiento (capuchón). Después de haber transcurrido 30 días se procedió a la recolección de los cepillos de dientes para la posterior inoculación de bacterias encontradas en dichos cepillos según medio de almacenamiento en los laboratorios de Microbiología de la UNAN-Managua. Se llegó a la conclusión de que ambas soluciones disminuyen la carga bacteriana en los cepillos dentales, sin embargo al comparar las soluciones desinfectantes, el peróxido de hidrogeno al 3% y la clorhexidina al 0.12%, no se encontraron datos estadísticamente significativos (P=0.59). Palabras Clave: Clorhexidina, Peróxido de Hidrogeno, Cepillos dentales, microorganismo

Full-scale numerical calculation of ballasted tracks with the Discrete Element Method

Rail transport, both for people and goods, is becoming increasingly significant all over the world, which is reflected in the great growth of conventional and high-speed train lines. Most of these infrastructures are built with railway ballast, a granular material whose main functions are to resist vertical and horizontal loads and to face climatic actions. The growing popularity of these infrastructures has led to the development of numerical models to evaluate their performance. Among a wide range of numerical methods, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) was found to be effective for evaluating the performance of granular materials. This approach considers their discontinuous nature and has proven to be a useful tool to determine the dynamic behaviour of groups of particles. Moreover, the DEM is also used to compute the behaviour of continuum materials. In this work, rails and bearing plates are characterised in the calculations using this methodology, called the bonded DEM. It is a modification of the classical DEM which assumes that bonds exist between particles, resisting their separation. The code used is developed within DEMPack, a specific software tool for modelling physical problems using the DEM. Currently, DEMPack allows the use of two different types of geometry: spheres with rolling friction and clusters of spheres. A previous analysis showed that spheres are more effective for studying the macroscopic behaviour of the ballast layer, while clusters are necessary for small-scale tests involving highly compacted particles since their results are greatly influenced by particles and contacts distribution. After calibrating the code, full-scale tests were performed applying the load of a high-speed train on a railway track section in different situations. Considering the amount of material (about 260,000 particles) and that the aim is to evaluate the deflection of the rails, the calculations are carried out using spheres. The numerical results correctly capture the effect on the deflection of the rails. It can be concluded that the DEM increases the possibilities for analysing innovative solutions since real case-scenarios can be studied with enough accuracy and feasible time

Urban Water pricing and private interests' lobbying in small rural communities

It is difficult for small municipalities to ensure their urban water cycle complies with the principle of cost recovery established in the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. Unlike more populous municipalities, small municipalities face higher average production costs. However, at least in Spain, the price of water is, on average, lower in small municipalities. We question whether the low price of water in rural areas is due, at least in part, to people linked to agriculture, i.e., do farmers constitute a special interest group that hinders increases in the price of water? The main hypothesis was tested with data taken from Torre-Cardela, a municipality in southern Spain with close to 800 inhabitants. In the research, a contingent valuation analysis was carried out to analyze respondents' willingness to pay in the event of a hypothetical increase in the price of water to help cover the service costs. Contrary to expectations, the study yields no evidence that the agricultural population is more resistant to price rises than the rest of the citizens surveyed. In fact, results show that people involved in the agricultural sector would be willing to accept a hypothetical increase in water tariffs in between 15% and 25% over the current tariff, while for the rest of the population this same increase would be lower (in between 9% and 20%)

Combining synthetic and observed data to enhance machine learning model performance for streamflow prediction

Machine learning (ML) models have been shown to be valuable tools employed for streamflow prediction, reporting considerable accuracy and demonstrating their potential to be part of early warning systems to mitigate flood impacts. However, one of the main drawbacks of these models is the low precision of high streamflow values and extrapolation, which are precisely the ones related to floods. Moreover, the great majority of these models are evaluated considering all the data to be equally relevant, regardless of the imbalanced nature of the streamflow records, where the proportion of high values is small but the most important. Consequently, this study tackles these issues by adding synthetic data to the observed training set of a regression-enhanced random forest model to increase the number of high streamflow values and introduce extrapolated cases. The synthetic data are generated with the physically based model Iber for synthetic precipitations of different return periods. To contrast the results, this model is compared to a model only fed with observed data. The performance evaluation is primarily focused on high streamflow values using scalar errors, graphically based errors and errors by event, taking into account precision, over- and underestimation, and cost-sensitivity analysis. The results show a considerable improvement in the performance of the model trained with the combination of observed and synthetic data with respect to the observed-data model regarding high streamflow values, where the root mean squared error and percentage bias decrease by 23.1% and 38.7%, respectively, for streamflow values larger than three years of return period. The utility of the model increases by 10.5%. The results suggest that the addition of synthetic precipitation events to existing records might lead to further improvements in the models.This work was funded by the Grants PID2021-122661OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”, TED2021-129969B-C33 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”, CEX2018-000797-S funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033, and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Impact of pharmaceutical care for asthma patients on health‐related outcomes: An umbrella review

Recent systematic reviews suggest that pharmacists' interventions in asthma patients have a positive impact on health-related outcomes. Nevertheless, the association is not well established, and the role of clinical pharmacists is poorly represented. The aim of this overview of systematic reviews is to identify published systematic reviews assessing the impact of pharmacists' interventions on health-related outcomes measured in asthma patients. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were searched from inception to December 2022. Systematic reviews of all study designs and settings were included. Methodological quality was assessed using AMSTAR 2. Two investigators performed study selection, quality assessment and data collection independently. Nine systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality was rated as high in one, low in two, and critically low in six. Reviews included 51 primary studies reporting mainly quality of life, asthma control, lung capacity, and therapeutic adherence. Only four studies were carried out in a hospital setting and only two reviews stated the inclusion of severe asthma patients. The quality of the systematic reviews was generally low, and this was the major limitation of this overview of systematic reviews. However, solid evidence supports that pharmaceutical care improves health-related outcomes in asthma patients. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses literature search and study selection flowchart.imag