Quinoa Stalks Glucuronoarabinoxylan : Biorefinery,xylooligosaccharides production and potential applications

Quinoa stalks were used as a source of hemicellulose for XOs production and further as prebiotic source for probiotic bacteria. Three methods for extraction of hemicellulose were used, of which alkaline extraction (NaOH [0.5 M]) was the optimum method. This methodology allowed the establishment of a sequential extraction platform, including saponins obtention via PHWE, hemicellulose via alkaline extraction and cellulose via acid purification. Maximum yields of 15.4, 120 and 296 mg/g raw material of saponins, hemicellulose and cellulose yield were obtained, respectively. Saponins and hemicellulose extractions were dependent on PHWE conditions used, while cellulose extraction was not dependent on conditions in previous steps and resulted in purest fraction. The purified hemicellulose fraction consisted of glucuronoarabinoxylan (GAX) (HPAEC-PAD, FT-IR) with an estimated Mw of 1758 ± 31 kDa (SEC). The xylopyranosyl backbone was linked via β-(1,4) bonds, and substituted with 4-O-Methyl glucuronosyl and arabinofuranosyl residues. The later was linked as oligomers via α-(1-5) or as monomers α-(1-3) or α-(1-2) to the xylose skeleton (NMR). The monosaccharides composition of the GAX included xylose, glucuronic acid, arabinose and galactose in a molar ratio of 114:23:5:1, respectively. The GAX purified from quinoa stalks was treated by two methodologies to produce XOs: an enzymatic method (using xylanases) and a dilute acid method using H2SO4 [0.25 M]. In the enzymatic method, in house produced thermostable endoxylanases from GH10 (from R. marinus and B. halodurans) and the commercial GH11 PENTOPAN® , were used. The maximum yield of linear XOs obtained from the hydrolysis of GAX was 1.217 g XOs/100 g of GAX. Dilute acid treatment resulted in a maximum yield of 0.564 g XOs/100 g GAX. However, the DP in dilute acid treatment was more widely distributed, ranging from xylobiose to xylohexaose compared to the enzymatic method. B. adolescentis ATCC15703 and Weissella sp. strain 92 were cultivated using XOs from quinoa stalks GAX as carbon source. After 48 hours of cultivation, B. adolescentis grew to a maximum OD600 of 0.326, producing the followig amounts of SCFA and lactate (g/L): Acetate (1.243); lactate (1.013); propionate (0.812); formate (0.179) and; butyrate (0.124). Weissella sp. 92 grew to an OD600 of 0.626, producing Acetate (0.379 g/L) and lactate (0.259 g/L). The consumption of XOs by Weissella sp. 92 was mainly consuming monosaccharides (xylose and arabinose), and XOs: xylobiose, xylotriose and xylotetraose, while B. adolescentis was able to consume all linear XOs at different ratios, and was, moreover, able to consume substituted XOs (according to HPAEC-PAD). A draft genome sequencing of Clostridium boliviense strain E-1 was made, and a number of genes encoding hemicellulose-active enzymes were identified. Two enzymes were fully characterized; one two domain GH43-like endo-β-xylanase (CbE1Xyn43, MW 52.9 kDa) and one bifunctional acetyl esterase/endo-β-xylanase (CbE1Est1XynX, MW 44.2 kDa), also consisting of two domains (one carbohydrate esterase and one potential glycoside hydrolase). Both enzymes were thermostable and most active at neutral pH. Both enzymes also were active on birchwood glucuronoxylan, wheat bran arabinoxylan and quinoa stalks GAX. No xylosidase activity was determined. CbE1Xyn43 kinetic parameters was determined to Kcat (1.587 min-1) and Km (0.126 mM) using p-nitrophenyl xylobioside (pNPX2) as substrate. For CbE1Est1XynX the Kcat (6.645 min-1) and Km (0.233mM) was determined using pNPX2 and, using p-nitrophenyl acetate (pNPAc) Kcat was 243.363 min-1 and Km 2.25 mM. Despite the sequence similarity of CbE1Xyn43 to enzymes in GH43, the conserved catalytic residues of GH43 could not be identified, making classification of the enzyme difficult. In conclusion, the potential of quinoa stalks as a raw material for valorization has been demonstrated (separating saponins, GAX and cellulose) for further biorefinery applications. GAX in particular, resulted in successfully XOs production by enzymatic and acid methodologies for prebiotic usage. Also additional xylanases were explored, and were demonstrated as potential tools to diversify and increase linear and substituted XOs production from different material

Measurement of Impact Forces on Teeth and Jaw when Wearing Sports Mouth Guards

The objective of this project is to accurately measure the forces the teeth and jaw experience when subjected to impact. For this purpose piezoelectric technology (PVDF), which converts voltage to force and vice versa can be used to measure forces applied to teeth. A PVDF cable is calibrated and used for measuring force along with a control measuring device (PCB Piezotronics). The method involves wrapping the PVDF cable around a 3D home-printed, customized denture. The cable was chosen due to the fact that it allows for adequate fit between mouth guard and denture. Two masses, a baseball and 2 lbs - 3D printed projectile, were dropped from a height of 1m onto the denture with and without mouth guard. Results showed a significant force absorption by the mouth guard (more than 50% of initial impact force). After several trials, (n=10 for each group, baseball with and without mouthguard, as well as 2lbs), it was found that the impact shock absorption by the mouth guard ranged between 60-70%. Figure 1 shows the values at which the denture was impacted, with and without a mouth guard for baseball and 2 lbm cylinder. Finally, FEA Analysis was also used to show the regional stress and strain along the denture.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1201/thumbnail.jp

Automated Smell Detection and Recommendation in Natural Language Requirements

Requirement specifications are typically written in natural language (NL) due to its usability across multiple domains and understandability by all stakeholders. However, unstructured NL is prone to quality problems (e.g., ambiguity) when writing requirements, which can result in project failures. To address this issue, we present a tool, named Paska, that takes as input any NL requirements, automatically detects quality problems as smells in the requirements, and offers recommendations to improve their quality. Our approach relies on natural language processing (NLP) techniques and a state-of-the-art controlled natural language (CNL) for requirements (Rimay), to detect smells and suggest recommendations using patterns defined in Rimay to improve requirement quality. We evaluated Paska through an industrial case study in the financial domain involving 13 systems and 2725 annotated requirements. The results show that our tool is accurate in detecting smells (89% precision and recall) and suggesting appropriate Rimay pattern recommendations (96% precision and 94% recall)

Roads and cars in Bolivia: changes, trends and correspondences in the recent past

Este artículo explora la relación que han tenido los caminos y los automóviles en el caso boliviano en el pasado reciente. Partiendo de una caracterización general de los niveles y tendencias de la inversión pública en infraestructura de caminos, de la extensión de la red vial así como de los niveles de acceso al automóvil de parte de los hogares bolivianos, se indagan las dimensiones en que existen correspondencias en términos de las tendencias o de los niveles de acceso y disponibilidad de ambos. También se identifican las dimensiones en las que parecen existir contradicciones. Por un lado, se observa que existe una tendencia a una creciente proporción de hogares con automóviles, lo cual condice con el modelo de transición de la movilidad de Zelinsky que supone una mayor movilidad cuanto más “desarrollada” sea una sociedad. Por otro lado, se identifica un patrón de provisión de caminos que parece estar básicamente determinado por la política pública. El ámbito político-institucional y el de la infraestructura interactúan desencadenando una serie de procesos de reajuste en contextos tan diversos como el económico, cultural y social que van condicionando los procesos de desarrollo económico y social en Bolivia. This paper explores relationships between roads and vehicles in the Bolivian context during the last couple of decades. Based on a broad depiction of levels and tendencies of: a) public investment in transport networks and b) the extent of those road networks as well as the access to automobiles of Bolivian households, this paper aims to identify correspondences and/or contradictions between: expansion of road networks, vehicle’s availability and public investment. The study confirms that road networks are increasing significantly and this is happening in correspondence with the increase in vehicles’ access. These tendencies support the mobility transition model developed by Zelinsky, which assumes that more development implies greater mobility. However, there also seems to be a contradiction between the already mentioned tendencies and the patterns of public investment. Finally, it is possible to verify that interactions between political, institutional context and infrastructural contexts have considerable impacts on economic, social and cultural processes, which in turn affect development dynamics in Bolivia.

Tinkuna

Treballs Finals de Grau de Belles Arts. Facultat de Belles Arts. Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2019-2020, Tutor: Marin Peinado, Eva[spa] Tinkuna surge por la necesidad de preservar y difundir la cultura boliviana a través del Tinku, una danza folklórica de dicho país. En base al estudio de prácticas decoloniales, migración e integración cultural, el proyecto presenta una narración autobiográfi ca relacionada con mi cultura natal: la cultura boliviana; producida entorno a la sociedad de acogida, tras migrar hacia la comunidad catalana/española a una edad temprana. La exposición consiste en una instalación formada por diversas piezas artísticas multidisciplinarias entre las cuales se encuentran el dibujo, la pintura, el vídeo, la danza y la performance. Conjuntamente, estas piezas invitan al espectador a generar una participación e integración cultural activa con la obra. Tinkuna es un término quechua que signifi ca “encuentro”, este encuentro cultural pretende brindar al espectador una incipiente introducción a una de las costumbres practicadas desde antes de la época colonial, el Tinku.[eng] Tinkuna arises from the need to preserve and spread Bolivian culture through the Tinku which is a folklorical dance of this country. Based on the study of decolonial practices, migration and cultural integration, this project presents an autobiographical narration related with my native culture: the bolivian culture; produced on the society that served as a host after migrating to the spanish/catalan community at an early age. This exhibition is an installation of some multidisciplinary artistic pieces about drawing, painting, video, dance and performance. All of these works invite the spectator to generate an active role and also help the cultural integration with it. Tinkuna is a Quechua term that means “clash”, this cultural confrontation tries to give to the public a brief introduction to one of the many practiced costumes since before the colonial period, the Tinku

Model-based Specification and Analysis of Natural Language Requirements in the Financial Domain

Software requirements form an important part of the software development process. In many software projects conducted by companies in the financial sector, analysts specify software requirements using a combination of models and natural language (NL). Neither models nor NL requirements provide a complete picture of the information in the software system, and NL is highly prone to quality issues, such as vagueness, ambiguity, and incompleteness. Poorly written requirements are difficult to communicate and reduce the opportunity to process requirements automatically, particularly the automation of tedious and error-prone tasks, such as deriving acceptance criteria (AC). AC are conditions that a system must meet to be consistent with its requirements and be accepted by its stakeholders. AC are derived by developers and testers from requirement models. To obtain a precise AC, it is necessary to reconcile the information content in NL requirements and the requirement models. In collaboration with an industrial partner from the financial domain, we first systematically developed and evaluated a controlled natural language (CNL) named Rimay to help analysts write functional requirements. We then proposed an approach that detects common syntactic and semantic errors in NL requirements. Our approach suggests Rimay patterns to fix errors and convert NL requirements into Rimay requirements. Based on our results, we propose a semiautomated approach that reconciles the content in the NL requirements with that in the requirement models. Our approach helps modelers enrich their models with information extracted from NL requirements. Finally, an existing test-specification derivation technique was applied to the enriched model to generate AC. The first contribution of this dissertation is a qualitative methodology that can be used to systematically define a CNL for specifying functional requirements. This methodology was used to create Rimay, a CNL grammar, to specify functional requirements. This CNL was derived after an extensive qualitative analysis of a large number of industrial requirements and by following a systematic process using lexical resources. An empirical evaluation of our CNL (Rimay) in a realistic setting through an industrial case study demonstrated that 88% of the requirements used in our empirical evaluation were successfully rephrased using Rimay. The second contribution of this dissertation is an automated approach that detects syntactic and semantic errors in unstructured NL requirements. We refer to these errors as smells. To this end, we first proposed a set of 10 common smells found in the NL requirements of financial applications. We then derived a set of 10 Rimay patterns as a suggestion to fix the smells. Finally, we developed an automatic approach that analyzes the syntax and semantics of NL requirements to detect any present smells and then suggests a Rimay pattern to fix the smell. We evaluated our approach using an industrial case study that obtained promising results for detecting smells in NL requirements (precision 88%) and for suggesting Rimay patterns (precision 89%). The last contribution of this dissertation was prompted by the observation that a reconciliation of the information content in the NL requirements and the associated models is necessary to obtain precise AC. To achieve this, we define a set of 13 information extraction rules that automatically extract AC-related information from NL requirements written in Rimay. Next, we propose a systematic method that generates recommendations for model enrichment based on the information extracted from the 13 extraction rules. Using a real case study from the financial domain, we evaluated the usefulness of the AC-related model enrichments recommended by our approach. The domain experts found that 89% of the recommended enrichments were relevant to AC, but absent from the original model (precision of 89%)

Evaluacion comparativa de cuatro abonos verdes y estimacion de su capacidad de fijacion de carbono en dos comunidades del municipio Morochata - Bolivia

En las comunidades Tuini y Wallata del municipio de Morochata, se identificaron problemas tales como el descenso de la fertilidad, erosion del suelo, usoinadecuado de agroqui'micos, falta de rentabilidad economica y emigration. Eneste contexto de degradation de suelos, los abonos verdes son considerados unamedida eficiente para la recuperation de suelos al brindar cobertura vegetal ymateria organica de facil descomposicion. En vista de esto, para contribuir a larecuperation de los suelos degradados, se propuso la introduction y evaluacioncomparativa de cuatro especies de leguminosas como abonos verdes en las doscomunidades y la estimacion teorica de su capacidad de incrementar el contenidode materia organica a traves de la fijacion de carbono. La especie que mejor secomporto fue Vicia villosa dasycarpa. En la comunidad Tuini se obtuvo 10,3 t ha_1de materia seca de vicia, y en la comunidad Wallata se obtuvo 11,1 t ha~1. Por elcontrario el rendimiento mas bajo se obtuvo con Pisum sativum en la comunidadTuini (4,2 t ha-1) y V. faba en la comunidad Wallata (3,3 t ha En cuanto a lahumificacion, se estimo un incremento de humus de alrededor de 0,05 % por anoen ambas comunidades

Recording of multiple lake-marsh paleoenvironments during the middle Holocene in the Quebrada del Toro, NW Argentina

Registro de múltiples episodios lacustre-palustres durante el Holoceno medio en la Quebrada del Toro,En el noroeste argentino durante el Cuaternario se desarrollaron sistemas lacustres asociados con 38 deslizamientos, avalanchas de roca y desarrollo de grandes abanicos aluviales, generados por la 39 actividad tectónica andina, los cambios climáticos y/o lluvias extraordinarias. En la localidad de El 40 Candado, tramo inferior de la Quebrada del Toro (provincia de Salta, Argentina), se reconocen 41 afloramientos pelíticos que son interpretados en base a sus características sedimentológicas y 42 paleontológicas como acumulaciones lacustres-palustres someras. Estos depósitos se habrían producido 43 a partir de la instalación de un ambiente lacustre-palustre como consecuencia del desarrollo de un gran 44 abanico aluvial que obstruyó al río Toro. La sedimentación ocurrió durante el Holoceno medio de 45 acuerdo con la datación de gasterópodos y materia orgánica que arrojaron edades entre 8-4.8 ka. Según 46 los restos paleobotánicos y palinológicos así como los atributos sedimentológicos, la acumulación 47 ocurrió en ambientes lacustre-palustre temporarios, somero bajo condiciones húmedas que habría 48 alternado con las condiciones paleoclimáticas áridas y secas que caracterizaron al Holoceno medio de 49 esta región de los Andes Centrales.Quaternary lake systems have developed in many Andean intermontane valleys in northwestern 20 Argentina in association with landslides, rock avalanches, and the development of large alluvial fans, 21 caused either by tectonics, climate change, and/or increased rainfall. At the El Candado location, in the 22 narrow, southern sector of the Quebrada del Toro (Salta Province, Argentina), fine-grained sedimentary 23 deposits are recognized, which, based on their sedimentological and paleontological characteristics, are 24 interpreted as the sedimentary infill of shallow lakes-marshes that were generated by the development 25 of large alluvial fans that dammed the Río Toro. Based on AMS 14 C dating of gastropod shells and 26 organic matter (ca. 8-4.8 ka), this region experienced multiple lacustrine-marsh paleoenvironments 27 during the middle Holocene. Pollen analysis and paleobotanical investigations of these deposits suggest 28 that the accumulation of the lake sediments occurred under relatively humid conditions that alternated 29 with semi-arid periods as is typical for the Andean Holocene.Fil: Veizaga Saavedra, Juan Gonzalo. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, María Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Martinez, Olga Gladys. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA; ArgentinaFil: Pingel, Heiko. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: de Francesco, Claudio German. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin

Diseño orientado a la optimización en envolventes laminares de flexión activa

En la Materialidad Digital, como estado actual del diseño arquitectónico, el enfoque de diseño orientado a la optimización de los recursos (materiales y energéticos) y la instrumentalización de la flexión activa introducen un nuevo nivel de integración en diseño arquitectónico. La necesaria especificación del comportamiento material revindica las históricas técnicas del form-finding como antecedente metodológico para la exploración material. La experimentación empírico-analítica, con modelos físicos para la concepción lógica de la forma compleja, se amplifica con la implementación del cálculo numérico computacional y sus posibilidades de simulación y evaluación digital. El objetivo de la presentación es: analizar casos de estudio que verifiquen las ventajas estructurales que pueden ser generadas mediante la flexión elástica activa en envolventes laminares; sobre la base de las estrategias formales e investigación en diseño integral; y construir una mirada crítica sobre el avance de los procesos computacionales en la materialidad arquitectónica. El supuesto subyacente es que, en los procesos integrales las decisiones en relación a la forma revisan simultáneamente atributos geométricos, estructurales y materiales. Dicho marco incluye procesos de modelado, análisis y fabricación. Se identifican los métodos que presentan potencial para repensar el diseño y avanzan en rigurosidad y precisión técnica a la vez que constituyen nuevos procedimientos y formas de abordaje para la materialidad arquitectónica.