Pectic Oligosaccharides and Other Emerging Prebiotics

A prebiotic is a selectively fermented ingredient that results in specific changes in the composition and/or activity of the gastrointestinal microbiota, thus conferring benefit(s) upon host health. The most widely accepted prebiotics are lactulose, inulin, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), and the human milk oligosaccharides (HMO). However, there is a growing list of potential prebiotics although the evidence for these, especially in humans, is not as well established as for FOS and GOS. Some of them are already commercialized but others such as polydextrose (PDX), pectic oligosaccharides (POS), bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS), polysaccharides derived from algae and sugar alcohols are still in the early stages of development. This chapter summarizes the scientific literature regarding the manufacture and the evaluation of the properties of this group “emerging prebiotics”

Selection of non-financial sustainability indicators as key elements for multi-criteria analysis of hotel chains

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGNowadays, online information provided by corporate websites has a great impact on the hotel industry performance. According to existing studies, it is very likely that customers' and investors' decisions may change after consulting these portals. The environmental commitment of hotel companies is usually demonstrated to stakeholders by obtaining environmental quality certifications and eco-labels issued by specialised entities in compliance with certain requirements. However, the question of how to use the sustainable indicators that are usually scattered on the web or in company reports is a problemthat requires further research. The main objective of this study is to develop a robust and reliable model to assess the sustainability of hotel chains based on the information gathered from their websites and corporate reports. A literature review is carried out and specialists are consulted to determine the critical factors that affect hotel sustainability. Once the criteria based on nonfinancial indicators have been chosen, they are organised in a hierarchy according to their orientation. To achieve the objective of the study, a hybrid model is proposed that includes two multi-criteria decision-making approaches, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)method. AHP is used to weight the criteria, and the ranking of the alternatives is provided through TOPSIS. Subsequently, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the critical indicators. Finally, a numerical example is carried out with a case study of the largest Spanish hotel chains to illustrate the function and applicability of the proposed method. With the results obtained, it has been possible to establish a ranking or selection of hotel chains for the case study, since the hybrid AHP-TOPSIS method provides reliable and robust results for any qualitative or quantitative evaluation criterion, which is of great interest for the different actors involved.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. GRC-202

On the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD): evolution of magnetron sputtering processes for industrial applications

Advanced coatings play an important role in a wide range of industrial applications. These coatings are commonly used in machining tools due to their high hardness and wear resistance, but also can be applied in jewellery and decorative purposes. Deposition techniques have seen a strong evolution as result of the directly related devices, control evolution and software. Several variants have been developed around the main techniques: arc evaporation and sputtering. The coatings produced present significant differences in their characteristics, namely in terms of structure, mechanical properties and surface morphology. Depending on the substrate material and application, the deposition process needs to be properly selected, providing the particular characteristics requested. This paper intends to do a critical review of the evolution of the advanced coatings deposition process, mainly focused on the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) process, particularly in the Magnetron Sputtering technique, which is able to produce smooth surfaces, using lower temperatures, presenting excellent mechanical and tribological properties and having very good adhesion to the main materials used as substrate.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UID/EMS/0615/2016LAETA/CETRIB/INEGI Research Center-FLAD – Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento | Ref. 116/201

Vapour–liquid interfacial properties of square-well chains from density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulation

The statistical associating fluid theory for attractive potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR) density functional theory (DFT) developed by [Gloor et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2004, 121, 12740–12759] is used to predict the interfacial behaviour of molecules modelled as fully-flexible square-well chains formed from tangentially-bonded monomers of diameter s and potential range l = 1.5s. Four different model systems, comprising 4, 8, 12, and 16 monomers per molecule, are considered. In addition to that, we also compute a number of interfacial properties of molecular chains from direct simulation of the vapour–liquid interface. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapour– liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the wandering interface (WIM) method, a technique based on the thermodynamic definition of surface tension. Apart from surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, vapour pressures, and critical temperature and density, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapour–liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the surface tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. The interfacial thickness and surface tension appear to exhibit an asymptotic limiting behaviour for long chains. A similar behaviour is also observed for the coexistence densities and critical properties. Agreement between theory and simulation results indicates that SAFT-VR DFT is only able to predict qualitatively the interfacial properties of the model. Our results are also compared with simulation data taken from the literature, including the vapour–liquid coexistence densities, vapour pressures, and surface tension.Francisco José Martínez-Ruiz, Felipe J. Blas and A.Ignacio Moreno-Ventas Bravo acknowledge Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain for financial support from project FIS2013-49620-C2-1-P, co financed with EU Feder funds. We also acknowledge financial support from project number FIS2015-71749-REDT ‘‘Red de Simulación Molecular’’, Acciones de Dinamización Redes de Excelencia del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Additional support from Universidad de Huelva and Junta de Andalucía is also acknowledged

La evolución de los valores sociales en Galicia

[Resumen] En el presente libro se recogen los hallazgos obtenidos de los datos de tres oleadas de encuestas realizadas en Galicia los años 1995, 2001 y 2008. El resultado final es la descripcion y representacion de una Galicia que, alejada de los estereotipos y topicos de siempre, no escapa al impacto de la globalizacion, cuyos efectos se hacen sentir en aspectos clave de su sistema de valores como son la moral, la religion, la politica, la economia y la familia

Impacto social de la contaminación acústica de las infraestructuras lineales en España

[Resumen] La contaminacion acustica forma parte importante del problema mas general de la contaminacion medioambiental en la misma medida que lo es la polucion del aire que respiramos o de los alimentos que ingerimos. Sin embargo el ruido no ha recibido en nuestro pais una atencion similar a los temas medioambientales clasicos. El presente libro pretende cubrir esta laguna ofreciendo al lector un estudio riguroso de la contaminacion acustica producida por las grandes obras de infraestructuras viarias en España. En este sentido es un estudio pionero, enmarcado en un ambicioso proyecto de investigacion de I+D+I y que esperamos sea util no solo a los estudiosos y especialistas del tema, sino tambien a todas aquellas personas y asociaciones que estan convencidas de que el ruido, pasado un determinado umbral, atenta a nuestra calidad de vida. La obra, basada en datos de encuesta, analiza la problematica del impacto social del ruido, abordando temas tan variados como su medicion, el impacto social subjetivo en la poblacion entrevistada, la valoracion economica del ruido y las actitudes y reacciones del publico a la contaminacion acustica de las infraestructuras lineales

Vapor-liquid interfacial properties of rigid-linear Lennard-Jones chains

We have obtained the interfacial properties of short rigid-linear chains formed from tangentially bonded Lennard-Jones monomeric units from direct simulation of the vapour-liquid interface. The full long-range tails of the potential are accounted for by means of an improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janecek [J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 6264–6269 (2006)] proposed recently by MacDowell and Blas [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 074705 (2009)] valid for spherical as well as for rigid and flexible molecular systems. Three different model systems comprising of 3, 4, and 5 monomers per molecule are considered. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapor-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the test-area method. In addition to the sur- face tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length and rigidity on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapor-liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the sur- face tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. The surface tension has been scaled by critical properties and represented as a function of the difference between coexistence densities relative to the critical density.The authors would like to acknowledge helpful discus- sions with F. J. Martínez-Ruiz, E. de Miguel, C. Vega, and A. Galindo. This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN, Spain) through Grant Nos. FIS2010- 14866 (F.J.B.), FIS2009-07923 (J.M.M. and M.M.P.) and FIS2010-22047-C05-05 (L.G.M.D.). J.M.M. also acknowledges Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación for the FPU Grant with reference AP2007-02172. Further financial support from Proyecto de Excelencia from Junta de Andalucía (Grant No. P07-FQM02884), Consellería de Educacion e Ordenacion Universitaria (Xunta de Galicia), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Grant No. MODELICO-P2009/EPS-1691), and Universidad de Huelva are also acknowledged

Microalgal biomass quantification from the non-invasive technique of image processing through red-green-blue (RGB) analysis

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGContinuous monitoring of biomass concentration in microalgae cultures is essential and one of the most important parameters to measure in this field. This study aims at digital image processing in RGB and greyscale models, being a simple and low-cost method for cell estimation. Images obtained from different photobioreactors with wastewater and at different conditions for the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris were analyzed. The results suggested that this technique is very effective under controlled lighting conditions, in contrast to photobioreactors placed outdoors and of different design, presenting a lower linearity. The accuracy of the method could be improved with a high-quality charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The development of efficient methods to assess biomass concentration is an important and necessary step towards large-scale microalgae cultivation. The colour analysis technique has a great potential to meet the needs of monitoring cultures in a cost-effective and automated way using simple and cheap instruments