Emulsion formation and stabilization by biomolecules: the leading role of cellulose

Emulsion stabilization by native cellulose has been mainly hampered because of its insolubility in water. Chemical modification is normally needed to obtain water-soluble cellulose derivatives. These modified celluloses have been widely used for a range of applications by the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutic, paint and construction industries. In most cases, the modified celluloses are used as rheology modifiers (thickeners) or as emulsifying agents. In the last decade, the structural features of cellulose have been revisited, with particular focus on its structural anisotropy (amphiphilicity) and the molecular interactions leading to its resistance to dissolution. The amphiphilic behavior of native cellulose is evidenced by its capacity to adsorb at the interface between oil and aqueous solvent solutions, thus being capable of stabilizing emulsions. In this overview, the fundamentals of emulsion formation and stabilization by biomolecules are briefly revisited before different aspects around the emerging role of cellulose as emulsion stabilizer are addressed in detail. Particular focus is given to systems stabilized by native cellulose, either molecularly-dissolved or not (Pickering-like effect).Financially support by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT, via the projects PTDC/AGR-TEC/4814/2014, PTDC/ASP-SIL/30619/2017 and researcher grant IF/01005/2014. RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB and PERFORM, a competence platform in Formulation Science at RISE, are acknowledged for additional financing. This research has been supported by Treesearch.se.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Business incubators as a technological infrastructure for supporting small innovative firms’ activities

In recent years, the subject of technological infrastructures has commanded increasing interest from several socio-economic and political segments, including policy-makers, development agents, entrepreneurs, academic and research communities. The focus of industrial and innovation policies has been gradually shifting away from the exclusive or dominant use of direct instruments of support to other more indirect forms of assistance. In order to improve the competitive environment of firms, huge amounts of money have been pouring into the building and reinforcing of technological infrastructures. Among the infrastructures that have been stimulated, business incubators seem to be a possible policy tool aiming at the constant increment of firms’ competitiveness and economic development, through the promotion of technology-based entrepreneurship, diversification of productive activities and the generation and diffusion of innovation in the economy. Incubators have been implemented all over the world, putting together several social actors and their different sets of purposes and objectives. As a consequence, they have also generated a high level of political and economic expectations in relation to their performance. This paper aims to contextualise and systematise the available information and knowledge on incubators as a technological infrastructure and policy tool, providing background information for the whole set of papers of this Special Issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management on ‘Business incubators and SMEs: policy and determinants for their success’.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Static critical behavior of the ferromagnetic transition in LaMnO3.14 manganite

The ferromagnetic phase transition in LaMnO3.14 is investigated by measuring the dc magnetization as a function of magnetic field and temperature. Modified Arrott plot and Kouvel Fisher analysis yield estimates for the critical exponents beta, and gama, with values between that predicted for the Heisenberg model and mean field theory. At low fields we found an anomalous small value of beta, indicating that the critical behavior is influenced by the range of magnetic fields used.Comment: Presented at ICM 2000 conference. Accepted for publication at J. Magn. Magn. Mate

Bifurcation Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Piecewise Smooth Discontinuous Maps

In recent years the theory of border collision bifurcations has been developed for piecewise smooth maps that are continuous across the border, and has been successfully applied to explain nonsmooth bifurcation phenomena in physical systems. However, many switching dynamical systems have been found to yield two-dimensional piecewise smooth maps that are discontinuous across the border. The theory for understanding the bifurcation phenomena in such systems is not available yet. In this paper we present the first approach to the problem of analysing and classifying the bifurcation phenomena in two-dimensional discontinuous maps, based on a piecewise linear approximation in the neighborhood of the border. We explain the bifurcations occurring in the static VAR compensator used in electrical power systems, using the theory developed in this paper. This theory may be applied similarly to other systems that yield two-dimensional discontinuous maps

Identification of Structural Variation in Chimpanzees Using Optical Mapping and Nanopore Sequencing.

Recent efforts to comprehensively characterize great ape genetic diversity using short-read sequencing and single-nucleotide variants have led to important discoveries related to selection within species, demographic history, and lineage-specific traits. Structural variants (SVs), including deletions and inversions, comprise a larger proportion of genetic differences between and within species, making them an important yet understudied source of trait divergence. Here, we used a combination of long-read and -range sequencing approaches to characterize the structural variant landscape of two additional Pan troglodytes verus individuals, one of whom carries 13% admixture from Pan troglodytes troglodytes. We performed optical mapping of both individuals followed by nanopore sequencing of one individual. Filtering for larger variants (>10 kbp) and combined with genotyping of SVs using short-read data from the Great Ape Genome Project, we identified 425 deletions and 59 inversions, of which 88 and 36, respectively, were novel. Compared with gene expression in humans, we found a significant enrichment of chimpanzee genes with differential expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines and induced pluripotent stem cells, both within deletions and near inversion breakpoints. We examined chromatin-conformation maps from human and chimpanzee using these same cell types and observed alterations in genomic interactions at SV breakpoints. Finally, we focused on 56 genes impacted by SVs in >90% of chimpanzees and absent in humans and gorillas, which may contribute to chimpanzee-specific features. Sequencing a greater set of individuals from diverse subspecies will be critical to establish the complete landscape of genetic variation in chimpanzees

La causa parasitaria de la "seca" de los Quercus

La “Seca” de los Quercus es una enfermedad compleja que, en la península Ibérica, afecta principalmente a encinas y alcornoques, tanto a árboles agrupados como dispersos. La causa parasitaria más importante que contribuye al desarrollo de esta enfermedad es la actuación del hongo Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands. Este parásito primario habitante del suelo se detectó en España a finales de los años 80, estando en la actualidad muy presente en las comunidades autónomas de: Andalucía, Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura y Madrid. En este artículo se explica de forma compresible los caracteres morfológicos del agente parasitario, su actividad como agente patógeno causal de la enfermedad y su dinámica (reproducción, conservación y dispersión).___________________________________The “Seca” (oak decline disease) of the Quercus trees is a complex disease that in the Iberian peninsula attack the holm oak and corck oak both in clusters and dispersed trees. The parasite cause more important that contributes to develop of these disease is the activity of the fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands. This pathogen is a primary parasite soil habitant and was detected in Spain at the end the 80’s. Current this pathogen is present in the Autonomic Comunities of Andalusian, , Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura and Madrid. In the text is indicate in understandable way the morpholgical characters of the parasite agent, its pathogen activity as well as its dynamic (reproduction, conservation and dispersion)

Self-titration by experienced e-cigarette users: blood nicotine delivery and subjective effects (Study Data)

This is a UK laboratory study of twelve experienced e-cigarette users (11 males; 1 female; note the female participant’s data was removed from all analyses in the published paper) to understand the effects of e-liquid nicotine concentration on puffing patterns, plasma nicotine levels and subjective effects. All participants completed two vaping sessions under low (6 mg/mL) and high (24 mg/mL) nicotine e-liquid concentrations in two separate (counterbalanced) sessions at the University of East London (UEL). The data include puffing patterns (puff number, puff duration, volume of e-liquid consumed), plasma nicotine levels, craving and withdrawal symptoms after 10, 30 and 60 minutes of ad libitum vaping and self-reported positive and negative effects at 60 minutes

Critical behavior in a cross-situational lexicon learning scenario

The associationist account for early word-learning is based on the co-occurrence between objects and words. Here we examine the performance of a simple associative learning algorithm for acquiring the referents of words in a cross-situational scenario affected by noise produced by out-of-context words. We find a critical value of the noise parameter $\gamma_c$ above which learning is impossible. We use finite-size scaling to show that the sharpness of the transition persists across a region of order $\tau^{-1/2}$ about $\gamma_c$, where $\tau$ is the number of learning trials, as well as to obtain the learning error (scaling function) in the critical region. In addition, we show that the distribution of durations of periods when the learning error is zero is a power law with exponent -3/2 at the critical point