Creative Project-based learning to boost technology innovation

This paper shows the results of the application of a project-based learning methodology that blended flipped classroom and face-to-face sessions, along with creativity and lateral thinking techniques, to integrate the expected concepts and procedures of technology innovation and boost entrepreneurship among students of Master?s degree in chemical engineering. The constructive alignment between the expected learning outcomes and skills with the proposed activities and assessment methods was decisive in the design of the methodology, which tractor activity was the creation of an innovation project. The use of techniques of creativity promoted lateral thinking and originality in the definition of projects. Active methodologies provoked team engagement and collaborative learning, enhanced participation and stimulated intrinsic motivation. The grades obtained by all groups in their projects, given by external evaluators, were relevant, thus pointing out the quality and impact of their proposals. There was a general satisfaction on students, with special emphasis of the transcendence at a professional level, thus showing the potential of this methodology to boost entrepreneurship in technology innovation

Fouling characterisation in PVDF membrane contactors for dissolved methane recovery from anaerobic effluents: effect of surface organofluorosilanisation

Characterisation of the fouling attached to PVDF membranes treating an anaerobic effluent for dissolved CH4 recovery was carried out. A commercial flat-sheet PVDF membrane and a PVDF functionalised by grafting of organofluorosilanes (mPVDF) that increased its hydrophobicity were subjected to a continuous flux of an anaerobic reactor effluent in long-term operation tests (> 800 h). The fouling cakes were studied by the membrane autopsy after these tests, combining a staining technique, FTIR, and FESEM-EDX, and the fouling extraction with water and NaOH solutions. Both organic and inorganic fouling were observed, and the main foulants were proteins, polysaccharides, and different calcium and phosphate salts. Also, a significant amount of live cells was detected on the fouling cake (especially on the non-modified PVDF). Although the fouling cake composition was quite heterogeneous, a stratification was observed, with the inorganic fouling mainly in the bulk centre of the cake and the organic fouling mainly located in the lower and upper surfaces of the cake. The mPVDF suffered a more severe fouling, likely owing to a stronger hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction with the foulants. Irreversible fouling remained on both membranes after the extraction, although a higher irreversible fouling was detected in the mPVDF; however, a complete polysaccharide removal was observed. Regarding the operation performance, PVDF showed a lower stability and suffered a severe degradation, resulting in a lower thickness and perforations. Finally, the decrease in the methane recovery performance of both membranes was associated with the fouling depositions

Demethanization of aqueous anaerobic effluents using a polydimethylsiloxane membrane module: Mass transfer, fouling and feasibility

The performance, fouling and feasibility of a polydimethylsiloxane hollow fibre membrane module for in situ methane degasification from the effluent of an Expanded Granular Sludge Bed anaerobic reactor has been investigated. Experiments at different operational conditions were carried out (liquid flow, sweep gas flow and vacuum pressure) with maximum removal efficiency (77%) at lowest flow-rate (0.4 L h-1), highest vacuum gauge pressure (-800 mbar) and liquid flowing in lumen side. Mass transport analysis denoted a considerably higher methane transfer than that predicted (attributed to liquid over- saturation). An enhancement factor for liquid phase has been proposed to correlate the experimental results. Long-term experiments were also performed in order to determine the possible influence of fouling on the module performance, and it showed that relatively frequent cleaning with water might be carried out to ensure preservation of the membrane efficiency. Characterization of water quality before and after membrane module was carried out to elucidate fouling causes. Energy balance analysis evidenced that energy production exceeded the system energy requirements. A substantial reduction of CO2 equivalent emissions showed the positive environmental impact of this technology

Biotrickling filter modeling for styrene abatement. Part 1: Model development, calibration and validation on an industrial scale

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Tratamiento digital de señales. Problemas y ejercicios resueltos

El documento es un libro de problemas y ejercicios de Tratamiento Digital de Señales. Este libro publicado por Prentice-Hall en 2003, se ofrece actualmente como recurso de acceso abierto tras su descatalogación. En él se ofrecen ejemplos de problemas y ejercicios resueltos de Tratamiento Digital de Señales, a los que previamente se introduce la base teórica suficiente como para seguir el desarrollo del texto. El contenido es el siguiente: Señales y sistemas en tiempo discreto; Análisis frecuencial de señales y sistemas; Transformada z; Realización de sistemas en tiempo discreto; Efectos de longitud de palabra finita; Diseño de filtros digitales; Sistemas adaptativos.That document is a book of problems and exercices of Digital Signal Processing. This book was published in 2003 by Prentice-Hall, and is now offered as an Open Acces resource after gotten out of catalog. It shows the resolution of problems and exercices of Digital Signal Processing, with a previous theoric introduction, enough to follow the text. The contents are: Discrete signals and systems; Frequencial analysis of signals and systems; Z Transform; Discrete-time systems implementation; Finite word-lenth effects; Digital filters design; Adaptative systems

Assessing the green transition priorities of SMEs: A large scale web mining approach

[EN] Company websites are a rich source of data that exhibit the activities, intentions, and strategies of the respective companies. Aggregating that information at a sector, company size, and country level has the potential to reveal the underlying behavior of the different units. This paper presents a pilot study in which a sample of more than 32,000 companies from Germany, France, Italy, and Spain has been analyzed to assess their evolution in the sustainability transition over the last 15 years.Doménech I De Soria, J.; Vicente, M.; Martínez Cabanes, H.; De Pedraza García, P. (2022). Assessing the green transition priorities of SMEs: A large scale web mining approach. En 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 278-278. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/18976027827

Comparison of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation and separate hydrolysis and fermentation processes for butanol production from rice straw

Rice straw (RS) is one of the lignocellulosic wastes with the highest global production. The main objective of this study was to maximise the butanol production by Clostridium beijerinckii DSM 6422 from RS pretreated by microwave-assisted hydrothermolysis. Two different fermentation strategies were compared: separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF, two-step process) and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF, one-step process). In parallel, the variables that significantly affected the butanol production were screened by using fractional factorial designs. Butanol concentration and productivity at 48 h were, respectively, 8% and 173% higher in SSF than in SHF. A one-step process was more efficient than a two-step process, especially considering the time savings derived from much higher productivity. From these results, SSF was further optimised by response surface methodology with central composite design over the key factors on the butanol production at 48 h: initial pH, enzyme loading and yeast extract concentration. The optimum point yielded a butanol productivity of 0.114 g L-1h−1, with a butanol-biomass ratio of 51 g kg−1 of raw RS (ABE-biomass ratio of 77.0 g kg−1 of raw RS). The parameter with the greatest effect was enzyme loading, with an optimal value of 13.5 FPU g-dw-1. This study showed that microwave-processed RS has great potential as a substrate for the butanol production from ABE fermentation when combining process stages by SSF

Performance and feasibility of biotrickling filtration in the control of styrene industrial air emissions

The performance and feasibility of a pilot unit of biotrickling filter (BTF) for the treatment of industrial emissions polluted by styrene was investigated for one year at a fiber reinforced plastic industrial site. The pilot unit was packed with a structured material with a volume of 0.6 m3. Monitoring results have shown successful treatment of the industrial styrene emissions working at empty bed residence times (EBRT) between 31 and 66 s. The best performance was obtained after 300 days when a more stable biofilm had been developed, obtaining the highest elimination capacity of 18.8 g m−3 h−1 (removal efficiency of 75.6%) working at 31 s of EBRT. In addition, a photocatalytic reactor was evaluated as pretreatment of the biological process, but results have shown very low capacity for improving the BTF performance due to catalyst deactivation. The economic feasibility of the BTF was evaluated. The total direct cost, excluding capital recovery, of the biotrickling filter technology was estimated in 0.71 year−1 per Nm3 h−1 of treated air whereas 2.27 year−1 per Nm3 h−1 was obtained for the regenerative catalytic oxidizer equipped with a zeolite pre-concentrator. Results show that this technology is economically and environmentally competitive in comparison with thermal treatment

Evolution of Bacterial Community in a Full-scale Biotrickling Filter by Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (FISH)

The performance of a full-scale biotrickling system for the treatment of exhaust gases from two different paint sources at a furniture facility, was investigated applying Fluorescense in situ hybridization (FISH). This technique allowed the detection of major bacteria groups and, therefore, helped in understanding complex microbial communities. The results indicated that Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Deltaproteobacteria were more predominant than Firmicutes and Actiniobacterias. In addition, a variation in the composition of the bacterial community throughout the time of operation and with the paint source was observed. Betaproteobacteria showed similar relative abundance in all analyzed days. However, Gammaproteobacteria, relevant group in the degradation of VOCs, fluctuated with operational changes and the relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria decreased when the composition of pollutants of the emission source was changed

BDNF as a potential mediator between childhood BPA exposure and behavioral function in adolescent boys from the INMA-Granada cohort

This research would not have been achieved without the selfless col-laboration of the INMA-Granada boys and families who took part in the study. Vicente Mustieles, Alicia Olivas-Martinez and Shereen Cynthia D'Cruz were under contract within the HBM4EU project. Additionally, we acknowledge the Biomedical Research Networking Center-CIBER de Epidemiologia y Salud Publica (CIBERESP) , and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (FIS-PI16/01820, FIS-PI16/01858, FIS-PI17/01526, and FIS-PI20/01568) . The authors also thank the ISCIII and "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" (ISCIII/FEDER) for the Miguel Servet Type I Program granted to C. Freire (grant no. MS16/00085) , the Sara Borrell postdoctoral research contract granted to F. Vela-Soria (grant no. CD17/00212) , and the Spanish Ministry of Education for the predoctoral fellowships (FPU) granted to A. Rodriguez-Carrillo (FPU 16/03011) and to I. Reina-Perez (FPU 17/01848) . Dr. JP Arrebola is under contract within the Ramon y Cajal Program (RYC-2016-20155, from Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain) . The authors also ac-knowledge the contribution of the Pediatric Unit of San Cecilio University Hospital of Granada (recruitment and clinical evaluation) , Marina Molina (field work and biospecimen processing) , Raquel Quesada and Beatriz Suarez (chemical exposure data) and Mario Murcia (data curation) , as well as the Human Genotyping Laboratory at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, CeGen-PRB3, which is sup-ported by grant no. PT17/0019, of the PE I + D + i 2013-2016, funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and ERDF. This article will be part of the doctoral thesis developed by Andrea Rodriguez-Carrillo in the context of the "Clinical Medicine and Public Health Program" of the University of Granada (Spain) .This study was supported in part by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program HBM4EU [Grant Agreement No. 733032], Biomedical Research Networking Center-CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) [Grant no. CP16/00085 and FIS-PI17/01526]. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA.Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure has been linked to altered behavior in children. Within the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU), an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) network was constructed supporting the mechanistic link between BPA exposure and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Objective: To test this toxicologically-based hypothesis in the prospective INMA-Granada birth cohort (Spain). Methods: BPA concentrations were quantified by LC-MS/MS in spot urine samples from boys aged 9-11 years, normalized by creatinine and log-2 transformed. At adolescence (15-17 years), blood and urine specimens were collected, and serum and urinary BDNF protein levels were measured using immunoassays. DNA methylation levels at 6 CpGs in Exon IV of the BDNF gene were also assessed in peripheral blood using bisulfite-pyrosequencing. Adolescent's behavior was parent-rated using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6-18) in 148 boys. Adjusted linear regression and mediation models were fit. Results: Childhood urinary BPA concentrations were longitudinally and positively associated with thought problems (beta = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.02, 1.49) and somatic complaints (beta = 0.80; 95% CI: -0.16, 1.75) at adolescence. BPA concentrations were positively associated with BDNF DNA methylation at CpG6 (beta = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.36) and mean CpG methylation (beta = 0.10; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.18), but not with total serum or urinary BDNF protein levels. When independent variables were categorized in tertiles, positive dose-response associations were observed between BPA-thought problems (p-trend = 0.08), BPA-CpG6 (p-trend <_ 0.01), and CpG6-thought problems (p-trend <_ 0.01). A significant mediated effect by CpG6 DNA methylation was observed (beta = 0.23; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.57), accounting for up to 34% of the BPA-thought problems association. Conclusions: In line with toxicological studies, BPA exposure was longitudinally associated with increased BDNF DNA methylation, supporting the biological plausibility of BPA-behavior relationships previously described in the epidemiological literature. Given its novelty and preliminary nature, this effect biomarker approach should be replicated in larger birth cohorts.Instituto de Salud Carlos III"Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" (ISCIII/FEDER) MS16/00085Sara Borrell postdoctoral research contract grant CD17/00212Spanish Government FPU 16/03011- FPU 17/01848Ramon y Cajal Program (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain) RYC-2016-20155Human Genotyping Laboratory at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, CeGen-PRB3 PT17/0019Instituto de Salud Carlos III European CommissionEuropean Commissio