Synthesis of the bicyclo-(5,5,0)-dodecane system

The bicycle-(5, 5, 0)-dodecane system consists of two fused seven membered rings. (I) The numbers five, five and zero are arrived at by the fact that counting the number of carbon atoms from one bridgehead carbon to the other yields five, five and zero by the three possible routes. This system can exist in several states of unsaturation. One such state has been given the name heptalene. (II) The object of this project is to propose a new synthesis of the bicycle-(5, 5, 0)-dodecane system

Diatoms synthesize sterols by inclusion of animal and fungal genes in the plant pathway

Diatoms are ubiquitous microalgae that have developed remarkable metabolic plasticity and gene diversification. Here we report the first elucidation of the complete biosynthesis of sterols in the lineage. The study has been carried out on the bloom-forming species Skeletonema marinoi and Cyclotella cryptica that synthesise an ensemble of sterols with chemotypes of animals (cholesterol and desmosterol), plants (dihydrobrassicasterol and 24-methylene cholesterol), algae (fucosterol) and marine invertebrates (clionasterol). In both species, sterols derive from mevalonate through cyclization of squalene to cycloartenol by cycloartenol synthase. The pathway anticipates synthesis of cholesterol by enzymes of the phytosterol route in plants, as recently reported in Solanaceae. Major divergences stem from reduction of Δ24(28) and Δ24(25) double bonds which, in diatoms, are apparently dependent on sterol reductases of fungi, algae and animals. Phylogenetic comparison revealed a good level of similarity between the sterol biosynthetic genes of S. marinoi and C. cryptica with those in the genomes of the other diatoms sequenced so far

Implementing a respirometry-based model into BioWin software to simulate wastewater treatment plant operations

The management of wastewater treatment plants to comply with new strict effluent criteria is a great concern: the activated sludge modeling, when supported by an accurate calibration process, could be an essential tool for this purpose. In the present paper, three WWTPs were characterized in order to support their up-grade. Influent characteristics and activated sludge performances were studied by application of respirometry. Plant operations were simulated by BioWin software (EnviroSim Associates Ltd., Canada). The goodness of the simulation, checked by the calculation of the average relative deviation between measured and simulated data, demonstrated that the model was able to predict the plant performances

Sanitization efficacy in minimal processing of 'Pera' orange

A sanificação é uma das operações mais importantes em processamento mínimo. Objetivou-se, neste trabalho, determinar em qual etapa do processamento mínimo de laranja, a sanificação é mais eficaz. Os frutos foram selecionados quanto à coloração da casca e tamanho e resfriados a 6ºC por 12h. Em seguida foram submetidos aos seguintes tratamentos: a) sanificação antes do descascamento; b) antes e após o descascamento; c) após o descascamento; d) sem sanificação (controle). O princípio ativo do sanificante utilizado foi Dicloro S. Triazinatriona Sódica. A sanificação antes do descascamento constou de imersão dos frutos em água, com 200 mg.L ¹ de cloro por 10 minutos, e a sanificação após o descascamento constou de imersão dos frutos em água com 50 mgL-1 de cloro por três minutos, seguido de enxagüe em água potável. O descascamento foi realizado através de tratamento hidrotérmico (imersão das laranjas em água a 50ºC por aproximadamente oito minutos). Posteriormente as laranjas foram descascadas manualmente e armazenadas a 6ºC por seis dias. Os níveis de contaminação tanto por fungos como por bactérias foram baixos, atingindo no máximo 4 x 10² UFC.g-1. Não foram detectados coliformes nem Salmonella em nenhuma amostra dos tratamentos. Embora todas as contagens microbianas tenham sido baixas em todos os tratamentos, naqueles nos quais se utilizou sanificação foram encontradas as menores contaminações, mostrando a eficácia da sanificação. Com base nestes resultados recomenda-se a sanificação antes do descascamento, após a operação de lavagem dos frutos para garantir a qualidade microbiológica.Sanitization is one of the most important procedures in minimal processing. This work aimed to determine the stage of the process in which sanitizing is more effective in orange. Fruits were selected according to size and skin color and stored at 6ºC for 12h. Then, the following sanitization treatments were used: a) before peeling; b) before and after peeling; c) after peeling; d) no sanitization (control). The sanitizer active ingredient was Dichloro-S-Ttriazinetrione. For sanitization before peeling, fruits were immersed in water plus 200 mg.L ¹ chlorine for 10 minutes, while for sanitization after peeling, fruits were immersed in water plus 50 mg.L ¹ chlorine for 3 minutes, followed by rinsing in drinking water. Peeling was done by hydrothermic treatment (immersion of fruits in water at 50ºC for 8 minutes approximately). After that, fruits were manually peeled and stored at 6ºC for 6 days. Contamination levels by fungi and bacteria were low, reaching a maximum of 4 x 10² CFU.g-1. Coliforms or Salmonella were not found in any samples in treatments. Although microbial counts were low in all treatments, those using sanitization showed the lowest contamination levels, showing the sanitization efficacy. Based on the results, sanitization before peeling, after washing of fruits, is recommend in order to assure the microbiological quality of fruits

Crowdsourced Reconstruction of Cellular Networks to Serve Outdoor Positioning: Modeling, Validation and Analysis

Positioning via outdoor fingerprinting, which exploits the radio signals emitted by cellular towers, is fundamental in many applications. In most cases, the localization performance is affected by the availability of information about the emitters, such as their coverage. While several projects aim at collecting cellular network data via crowdsourcing observations, none focuses on information about the structure of the networks, which is paramount to correctly model their topology. The difficulty of such a modeling is exacerbated by the inherent differences among cellular technologies, the strong spatio-temporal nature of positioning, and the continuously evolving configuration of the networks. In this paper, we first show how to synthesize a detailed conceptual schema of cellular networks on the basis of the signal fingerprints collected by devices. We turned it into a logical one, and we exploited that to build a relational spatio-temporal database capable of supporting a crowdsourced collection of data. Next, we populated the database with heterogeneous cellular observations originating from multiple sources. In addition, we illustrate how the developed system allows us to properly deal with the evolution of the network configuration, e.g., by detecting cell renaming phenomena and by making it possible to correct inconsistent measurements coming from mobile devices, fostering positioning tasks. Finally, we provide a wide range of basic, spatial, and temporal analyses about the arrangement of the cellular network and its evolution over time, demonstrating how the developed system can be used to reconstruct and maintain a deep knowledge of the cellular network, possibly starting from crowdsourced information only

Electron Spin Resonance dosimetry using organic compounds (alanine and ammonium tartrate) for mixed neutron-gamma fields

Alongside with the development of Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT) and the use of thermal neutrons for radiotherapeutic purposes, many efforts have been devoted to the characterization of the beam in order to optimize therapy procedures. Reliable dose measurements should be able to determine the various (neutrons and photonic) components of the mixed beam usually employed for therapy. This paper studies the effect of additives such as boric and gadolinium nuclei on the sensitivity of neutron organic (alanine and ammonium tartrate) dosimeters analyzed through Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) technique (Marrale, 2014). These dosimeters were exposed to a mixed (neutron-gamma) field mainly composed of thermal neutrons. The choice of 10B and 64Gd as nuclei additives is due to their very high capture cross section for thermal neutrons. Also, after the nuclear reaction with thermal neutrons are emitted particles, which in turn release their energy in the vicinity of the reaction site (Marrale, 2008). The irradiation with mixed field (neutron-gamma) were performed within the thermal column of the TRIGA reactor, University of Pavia. Dosimeters readout was performed through the Electron Spin Resonance spectrometer Bruker ECS106 located at the Laboratory of Dosimetry ESR / TL of the Department of Physics and Chemistry - University of Palermo. We found that the addition of Gadolinium allows to largely increase the sensitivity of the dosimeters for thermal neutrons. In particular, a low concentration (5% by weight) of gadolinium oxide leads to an improvement of the sensitivity of neutrons more than 10 times. In addition, for this low content of gadolinium the photon tissue equivalence is not heavily reduced. This experimental analyses are compared with computational analyses carried out by means of Monte Carlo simulations performed with the MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) transport code. A good agreement was observed for alanine dosimeters