Home Composting : A Review of Scientific Advances †

Composting has been demonstrated to be a sustainable technology for treating organic wastes. The process is based on the microbial decomposition of organic matter under aerobic conditions to obtain compost: An organic amendment that can be safely used in agriculture and other applications. Among the composted wastes, the organic fraction of municipal waste is commonly used. In this sense, the interest in composting at home or community scale is exponentially growing in recent years, as it permits the self-management of waste and obtaining a product that can be used by the own producer. However, some questions about the quality of the obtained compost or the environmental impact of home composting are in an early stage of this development. In this review, the main points related to home composting are analyzed in detail according to the current scientific knowledge. Among them: (i) The performance of the process, especially in the temperature reached and the fact that if home compost is sanitized, (ii) the quality of home composting, especially in terms of maturity and stability, (iii) the main environmental impacts of home composting, that is, gaseous emissions and (iv) the main trends related to community composting, a step forward from home composting, to make this alternative attractive for municipal organic waste management. The main advantages and possible drawbacks of home composting are also highlighted

Valorization of Posidonia oceanica biomass: Role on germination of cucumber and tomato seeds

Biostimulants are organic compounds from plant sources such as botanical extracts and bioactive substances that promote plant growth, enhance photosynthesis and increase crop quality. The accumulation of detached Posidonia oceanica leaves on coasts of the Mediterranean Sea results in economic problems, due to the rejection of the tourists who frequent the beaches in the summer months. However, it is a plant with high content of secondary metabolites that can be used in sustainable agriculture. In this study we investigated the physicochemical characterization of Posidonia oceanica extracts with three different solutions and their application in tomato and cucumber seeds germination. The results showed that the aqueous extract of Posidonia oceanica had a high concentration of macro and micronutrients, as well as secondary metabolites with bioactive activity. The aqueous extract had a beneficial effect on both leaf and root growth on tomato seeds, specifically, an increase of 76% for the relative root growth and 73% for the germination index was obtained with respect to the control using the sample with the intermediate dilution (POe0.5). In addition, the extracts did not show toxicity to either germination or growth of the tomato plant. As for cucumber seed germination, the improvement was less significant and did result in a phytotoxic effect on both germination and plant growth. The most diluted extract had better results on seed germination. Therefore, the application of aqueous extracts of Posidonia oceanica were suitable to be appropriate for tomato germination and in turn contribute to eliminate the lots of Posidonia oceanica remains recovered in summer months in Mediterranean beaches.This study was funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Spain (CGL2016-79054-R)

Enhancing Salt Stress Tolerance in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) through Silicon Application in Roots

Soil salinization poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity, necessitating innovative agronomic strategies to mitigate its impact. This study focuses on improving salt stress resistance in tomato plants through the application of silicon (Si) in roots. A greenhouse experiment was carried out under normal conditions (control, and 1 and 4 mM Si) and under salinity stress (salt control, and 1 and 4 mM Si). Various parameters were analyzed in leaves and roots. Under normal conditions, tomato plants grown in non-saline conditions exhibited some toxicity when exposed to Na2SiO3. As for the experiments under salt stress conditions, Si mitigated oxidative damage, preserving root cell membrane integrity. The concentration of malondialdehyde was reduced by 69.5%, that of proline was reduced by 56.4% and there was a 57.6% decrease in catalase activity for tomato plants treated with 1 mM Si under salt stress. Furthermore, Fe uptake and distribution, under salt conditions, increased from 91 to 123 mg kg−1, the same concentration as that obtained for the normal control. In all cases, the lower dose produced better results under normal conditions than the 4 mM dose. In summary, this research provides a potential application of Si in non-fertigated crop systems through a radicular pathway

The use of respiration indices in the composting process : a review

Respiration is directly related to the metabolic activity of a microbial population. Micro-organisms respire at higher rates in the presence of large amounts of bioavailable organic matter while respiration rate is slower if this type of material is scarce. In the composting process respiration activity has become an important parameter for the determination of the stability of compost. It is also used for the monitoring of the composting process and it is considered an important factor for the estimation of the maturity of the material. A wide range of respirometric protocols has been reported based either on CO₂ production, O₂ uptake or release of heat. The most common methods are those based on O₂ uptake. Respirometric assays are affected by a number of parameters including temperature, humidity, and both incubation and pre-incubation conditions. Results from respirometries are generally expressed as 'respiration indices', most of them with their own units and basis. In consequence, some confusion exists when referring and comparing respiration indices. This is particularly important because current and future legislations define and measure the biological stability of waste on the basis of respiration activity of the material. This paper discusses and compares most common respiration indices currently used

Dehydrogenase activity as a method for monitoring the composting process

Dehydrogenase enzymatic activity was determined to monitor the biological activity in a composting process of organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Dehydrogenase activity is proposed as a method to describe the biological activity of the thermophilic and mesophilic stages of composting. The maximum dehydrogenase activity was detected at the end of the thermophilic stage of composting, with values within 0.5-0.7 mg g dry matter−1 h−1. Also, dehydrogenase activity can be correlated to static respiration index during the maturation mesophilic stage

Fibromyalgia detection based on eeg connectivity patterns

Objective: The identification of a complementary test to confirm the diagnosis of FM. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) is based on clinical features, but there is still no consensus, so patients and clinicians might benefit from such a test. Recent findings showed that pain lies in neuronal bases (pain matrices) and, in the long term, chronic pain modifies the activity and dynamics of brain structures. Our hypothesis is that patients with FM present lower levels of brain activity and therefore less connectivity than controls. Methods: We registered the resting state EEG of 23 patients with FM and compared them with 23 control subjects’ resting state recordings from the PhysioBank database. We measured frequency, amplitude, and functional connectivity, and conducted source localization (sLORETA). ROC analysis was performed on the resulting data. Results: We found significant differences in brain bioelectrical activity at rest in all analyzed bands between patients and controls, except for Delta. Subsequent source analysis provided connectivity values that depicted a distinct profile, with high discriminative capacity (between 91.3–100%) between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients with FM show a distinct neurophysiological pattern that fits with the clinical features of the disease.CN was funded through a Francisco Tomás y Valiente research fellowship (MIAS—UAM). This work is framed in the research project entitled “Criminal Law and Human Behaviour” (RTI2018- 097838-B-I00) granted by the Spain Ministry for Science, Innovation, and Universities of Spain (PI: Prof. Eduardo Demetrio Crespo). LSSR was funded by Boston Scientifi

The generational digital gap within dual vocational education and training teachers

In our current society, Digital Competence is an essential and basic competence for teachers. The students need trained teachers who know how to use Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and develop them into pedagogy. However, some of them do not know how. This phenomena is called “The generational digital divide”, which occurs when teachers do not have sufficient digital or technological skills or do not adapt to them. This article aims to determine whether the age of teachers has an influence on their knowledge about Information and Communication Technologies. The objective is to detect if there really exists a digital gap between generations, specifically in Dual Vocational Education Training, a kind of education which has been growing in the recent years. To do so, a study with a quantitative and descriptive method has been carried out, with the participation of 1.568 teachers of this training modality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. The data were extracted by means of a questionnaire to measure the level of digital teaching competence in Dual Vocational Education and Training schools. The results showed that the level of digital competence shown was medium to low across all dimensions. With regard to the age factor, only the problem-solving dimension was found to be age-dependent.This study has been financed by the "Study and analysis of technological resources and innovation in teacher training in the field of Higher Education and its applicability to the development of the Santander Region (Colombia)", in the Framework Cooperation Agreement for the strengthening of research and education, signed between the Corporacion Escuela Tecnologica del Oriente, the Secretariat of Education of Santander and the AREA (HUM/672) Research Group of the University of Granada. Code: ISPRS-2017-7202. Period: 2017 to 2021

dSreg: a Bayesian model to integrate changes in splicing and RNA-binding protein activity

MOTIVATION: Alternative splicing (AS) is an important mechanism in the generation of transcript diversity across mammals. AS patterns are dynamically regulated during development and in response to environmental changes. Defects or perturbations in its regulation may lead to cancer or neurological disorders, among other pathological conditions. The regulatory mechanisms controlling AS in a given biological context are typically inferred using a two-step framework: differential AS analysis followed by enrichment methods. These strategies require setting rather arbitrary thresholds and are prone to error propagation along the analysis. RESULTS: To overcome these limitations, we propose dSreg, a Bayesian model that integrates RNA-seq with data from regulatory features, e.g. binding sites of RNA-binding proteins. dSreg identifies the key underlying regulators controlling AS changes and quantifies their activity while simultaneously estimating the changes in exon inclusion rates. dSreg increased both the sensitivity and the specificity of the identified AS changes in simulated data, even at low read coverage. dSreg also showed improved performance when analyzing a collection of knock-down RNA-binding proteins' experiments from ENCODE, as opposed to traditional enrichment methods, such as over-representation analysis and gene set enrichment analysis. dSreg opens the possibility to integrate a large amount of readily available RNA-seq datasets at low coverage for AS analysis and allows more cost-effective RNA-seq experiments. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: dSreg was implemented in python using stan and is freely available to the community at https://bitbucket.org/cmartiga/dsreg. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.This work was supported by grants from the European Union [CardioNeTITN-289600, CardioNext-608027]; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [SAF2015-65722-R, SAF2012-31451]; the Instituto de salud Carlos III (ISCIII) [CPII14/00027, RD012/0042/0066]; the Madrid Regional Government [2010-BMD-2321 “Fibroteam”]. The study also received support from the Plan Estatal de I+D+I 2013-2016 – European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) “A way of making Europe”, Spain. The CNIC is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the Pro-CNIC Foundation and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (MEIC award SEV-2015-0505).S

Implementation of Six Sigma in a Manufacturing Process: A Case Study

This paper presents a Six Sigma project conducted at a semiconductor company dedicated to the manufacture of circuit cartridges for inkjet printers. They are tested electrically in the final stage of the process measuring electrical characteristics to accept or reject them. Electrical failures accounted for about 50% of all defects. Therefore, it is crucial to establish the main problems, causes and actions to reduce the level of defects. With the implementation of Six Sigma, it was possible to determine the key factors, identify the optimum levels or tolerances and improvement opportunities. The major factors that were found through a design of experiments 3 factors and 2 levels were: abrasive pressure (90-95 psi), height of the tool (0.06-0.05) and cycle time (7000-8000 msec.). The improvement was a reduction in the electrical failures of around 50%. The results showed that with proper application of this methodology, and support for the team and staff of the organization, a positive impact on the quality and other features critical to customer satisfaction can be achieve