On the Frontiers of Finance: Scaling Up Investment in Sustainable Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries

Outlines the economic, social, and environmental benefits of investing in sustainable small and medium enterprises; the lending practices of financial intermediaries; and barriers. Includes case summaries and recommendations for sectoral growth

Supervisión de la degradación de ovoproducto mediante diodos emisores de luz

La extrema sensibilidad de los ovoproductos al deterioro microbiano hace necesaria la aplicación de un tratamiento térmico que asegure su inocuidad. El hecho de que el tratamiento térmico no asegure la completa erradicación de la flora microbiana junto con la falta de mantenimiento de la cadena de frío a lo largo de la distribución y/o conservación del mismo limita y acorta la vida útil del producto. La degradación microbiana del ovoproducto afecta a ciertas propiedades físicas del mismo cuya alteración puede ser objeto de supervisión mediante técnicas ópticas siendo el objetivo de este trabajo la realización de un estudio preliminar para la supervisión de la degradación de ovoproducto mediante LED con el objeto de hacer una propuesta de implantación en laboratorios de calidad en la industria. Los resultados muestran que en clara líquida pasteurizada el aumento del contenido microbiano a lo largo del tiempo de almacenamiento se correlaciona (con valores de hasta r = 0.97) con el incremento en el nivel de intensidad lumínica detectado en las muestras. En la yema a partir de niveles altos de concentración de microorganismos los fenómenos de turbidez y gelificación se identifican con una disminución en los valores de los parámetros ópticos considerados

Supervision of ovoproducts spoilage with red led light

Heat-treatment of ovoproducts is often required to ensure microbial safety. However, it has been shown that in most microbial species slow heating, or heat shocks may induce a higher heat resistance, that means that it is not possible to remove the microbial flora completely. These microorganisms produce on ovoproducts spoilage especially when the cold chain is broken along the transportation and/or storage. As a result, the life span for the product is shortened. The microbial activity inside the product causes changes in several physical properties, which can be supervised using optical methods. The aim of this work is to monitor the sigmoid behaviour underlying the ovoproduct evolution and spoilage by means of red LED light. For two commercial types of liquid and pasteurized egg white, storage at 9ºC, an average correlation of r=0.94 has been found between microorganism growth and images mean grey level of LED light passing though the sample. The results show that it is possible to develop very simple predictive models taking into account only one optical parameter corresponding to a single LED

Ovoproductos

La extrema sensibilidad de los ovoproductos al deterioro microbiano hace necesaria la aplicacion de un tratamiento termico que asegure su inocuidad. El hecho de que el tratamiento termico no asegure la completa erradicacion de la flora microbiana junto con la falta de mantenimiento de la cadena de fn'o a lo largo de la distribucion y/o conservacion del mismo limita y acorta la vida util del producto. La degradacion microbiana del ovoproducto afecta a ciertas propiedades ffsicas del mismo cuya alteration puede ser objeto de supervision mediante tecnicas opticas siendo el objetivo de este trabajo la realization de un estudio preliminar para la supervision de la degradacion de ovoproducto mediante LED con el objeto de hacer una propuesta de implantation en laboratories de calidad en la industria. Los resultados muestran que en clara liquida pasteurizada el aumento del contenido microbiano a lo largo del tiempo de almacenamiento se correlaciona (con valores de hasta r = 0.97) con el incremento en el nivel de intensidad luminica detectado en las muestras, siendo posible establecer modelos sencillos de prediction de la carga microbiana a traves de este para metro optico y empleando la information correspondiente a un unico LED. - Heat-treatment of ovoproducts is often required to ensure microbial safety. However, it has been shown that in most microbial species slow heating, or heat shocks may induce a higher heat resistance, that means that it is not possible to remove the microbial flora completely. These microorganisms produce ovoproducts spoilage especially when the cold chain is broken along the transport and/or storage. As result, the useful life for the product is shorten. The microbial activity in the product changes several physical properties which can be supervised using optical methods, so the goal of this work is to carry out a prospective study for the supervision of ovoproduct spoilage with scatter red LED light. For liquid and pasteurizated white egg it has been found a correlation (r=0.97) between microorganism growth and grey level of LED light passing thought out the sample

Caracterización Avanzada de Tanques de Fermentación de Café mediante una Red Multidistribuida de Sensores RFID

La fermentación de las bayas de café se considera una et apa crítica en el procesado del café debido a su impacto en la calidad final del producto. La temperatura es una de las principales variables de control que puede ser utilizada para predecir el final del proceso, teniendo en cuenta que varios autores indican que el control de esta etapa es fundamental para evitar la mala calidad de la be bida final. En la práctica, la fermentación es el paso \ud menos controlado del proceso, haciendo que los beneficiaderos operen lejos de sus condiciones óptimas en términos de costes de operación (es decir, elevados consumos de energía y agua) y de calidad del producto final. El objetivo de este trabajo es caracterizar los gradientes de temperatura que se dan en los tanques de fermentación mediante una red multi-distribuida de sensores autónomos, inalámbricos y de bajo coste (registradores de temperatura del tipo RFID, identificadores de radiofrecuencia semipasivos modelo TurboTag®).Para ello se utilizan dos metodologías: la interpolación espacial en coordenadas polares y los diagramas de espacio de fase. Se supervisaron dos fermentaciones reales de café, en El Cauca (Colombia), mediante sensores sumergidos directamente en la masa en fermentación. Los fermentadores eran tanques de plástico cubiertos, uno de ellos colocado en el interior de un almacén, permaneciendo el otro a la intemperie. El rango de variación máximo de temperatura en los tanques fue de 4,5ºC. La interpolación espacial mostró, incluso en el fermentador bajo las condiciones menos desfavorables en el interior del almacén, un gradiente radial de temperatura instantáneo de 0,1 °C/cm desde el centro hasta el perímetro del tanque y un gradiente vertical de temperatura de 0,25 °C/cm para sensores con coordenadas polares iguales. La combinación de ambas metodologías permitió la identificación consistente de los puntos calientes y fríos de ambas fermentaciones

Advanced characterization of a coffee fermenting tank by multi-distributed wireless sensors: spatial interpolation and phase diagrams.

In coffee processing the fermentation stage is considered one of the critical operations by its impact on the final quality of the product. However, the level of control of the fermentation process on each farm is often not adequate; the use of sensorics for controlling coffee fermentation is not common. The objective of this work is to characterize the fermentation temperature in a fermentation tank by applying spatial interpolation and a new methodology of data analysis based on phase space diagrams of temperature data, collected by means of multi-distributed, low cost and autonomous wireless sensors. A real coffee fermentation was supervised in the Cauca region (Colombia) with a network of 24 semi-passive TurboTag RFID temperature loggers with vacuum plastic cover, submerged directly in the fermenting mass. Temporal evolution and spatial distribution of temperature is described in terms of the phase diagram areas which characterizes the cyclic behaviour of temperature and highlights the significant heterogeneity of thermal conditions at different locations in the tank where the average temperature of the fermentation was 21.2 °C, although there were temperature ranges of 4.6°C, and average spatial standard deviation of ±1.21ºC. In the upper part of the tank we found high heterogeneity of temperatures, the higher temperatures and therefore the higher fermentation rates. While at the bottom, it has been computed an area in the phase diagram practically half of the area occupied by the sensors of the upper tank, therefore this location showed higher temperature homogeneit

The P2 phage old gene: sequence, transcription and translational control

The old (overcoming lysogenization defect) gene product of bacteriophage P2 kills Escherichia coli recB and recC mutants and interferes with phage [lambda] growth [ Sironi et al., Virology 46 (1971) 387-396 ; Lindahl et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 66 (1970) 587-594]. Specialized transducing [lambda] phages, which lack the recombination region, can be selected by plating [lambda] stocks on E. coli that carry the old gene on a prophage or plasmid [Finkel et al., Gene 46 (1986) 65-69]. Deletion and sequence analyses indicate that the old-encoded protein has an Mr of 65 373 and that its transcription is leftward. Primer extension analyses locate the transcription start point near the right end of the virion DNA. A bacterial mutant, named pin3 and able to suppress the effects of the old gene, has been isolated [Ghisotti et al., J. Virol. 48 (1983) 616-626]. In a pin3 mutant strain, carrying the old gene on a prophage or plasmid, the amount of old transcript is greatly reduced. The effect of the pin3 mutation is abolished by the wild-type allele of argU, an arginine tRNA that reads the rare Arg codons AGA and AGG, which are used for eight of the 14 Arg codons in the old gene. Thus the pin3 allele probably stalls translation of the old mRNA, causing this mRNA to be degraded. Isoelectric focusing and electrophoretic analysis identify the old gene product as a basic protein of approx. 65 kDa.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27631/1/0000007.pd

Valorization of lignin side-streams into polyols and rigid polyurethane foams—a contribution to the pulp and paper industry biorefinery

Valorization of industrial low-value side-streams are of great interest, contributing to boosts in the circular economy. In this context, lignin side-streams of the pulp and paper industry were oxypropylated to produce biobased polyols and tested in the synthesis of rigid polyurethane (RPU) foams. E. globulus lignins, namely a lignin isolated from an industrial Kraft black liquor and depolymerized lignins obtained as by-products of an oxidation process, were used. RPU foams, synthesized with 100% lignin-based polyols and using a 1.1 NCO/OH ratio, were characterized concerning apparent density, morphology, thermal conductivity, thermal stability, and heat release rate (HRR). Foams containing the lignin-based polyols presented densities varying from 44.7 to 112.2 kg/m3 and thermal conductivity in the range of 37.2–49.0 mW/mK. For the reference foam (sample produced with 100% wt. Daltofoam TP 32015 polyol), values of 70.9 kg/m3 and 41.1 mW/mK were obtained, respectively. The achieved results point out the viability of using the generated lignin-based polyols at 100% content in RPU foams, mainly when depolymerized lignins are used. Moreover, fire retardancy was favored when the lignin-based polyols were introduced. The proposed strategies can contribute to establishing the integrated pulp and paper biorefinery concept where material synthesis (polyols and RPU foams) can be combined with chemical production (vanillin and syringaldehyde).Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Program PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020), and to UIDB/50020/2020 of the Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM—funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); national funding by FCT, PI, through the institutional scientific employment program contract for Isabel P. Fernandes. This work was carried out under the Project No. 33969 Bioblocks—Design of biobased products from renewable lignocellulosic sources as precursors for the bioindustry of chemical synthesis and biomaterials—financed by FEDER through the Operational Program for Competitiveness Factors (POFC) and QREN. To COST Action LignoCOST (CA17128) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prospective of Innovative Technologies for Quality Supervision and Classification of Roasted Coffee Beans

Color sorting is the major procedure employed for establish roast degree of coffee beans. However, color-based procedures have been proven to be ineffective, since coffee beans roasted to different degrees can present the same average readings in light reflectance measurements with significant quality variations. Besides to color, other major changes in beans are volume (swell), mass, form, bean pop and density. Eight samples of arabica coffee from Colombia and Guatemala have been roasted under slightly different conditions of time and temperature in order to obtain the same color classification. Sample analysis of data from nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry show differences between samples in T1 and T2 parameters at cellular and subcellular level, and image analysis carried out on X-ray μCT leading to microestruture images corroborate differences in porosity and fissures presence among them, proving the potentiality of these technological solutions for sensing the microstructure of coffee to provide tools to enhance the roasting process