Medición inalámbrica de concentración de oxígeno para productos vitivinícolas

This paper presents a wireless system for measuring the oxygen concentration suitable for bottled wine. The architecture system is based on wireless powering and inductive telemetry data communication eases the information about wine quality via an oxygen sensor inside the bottle. A high level of oxygen show salow quality of bottled wine. A bad sealing process and corks defects increase the oxygen concentration. The proposed system was validated using adiscrete component implementation available on local market. The given architecture was designed in to a ASIC future application. The prototype use a commercial Alphasense A2O2 oxygen sensor, the implemented system shows ahigh linea rresponse with a correlation coefficient of 0.999.En este trabajo se presenta un sistema inalambrico que permite medir la con-centracion de ox geno aplicable para el vino embotellado. El sistema esta basado en alimentacion por medio de telemetr a inductiva, a traves de un sen-sor al interior de la botella que mide la concentracion de ox geno y entrega la informacion medida de manera inalambrica. Posibles niveles altos de con-centracion de ox geno determinan fugas en el corcho, lo que representa mala calidad del proceso de embotellamiento y por ende perdida de las propiedades de la calidad del vino. El sistema propuesto fue validado utilizando una im-plementacion de componentes discretos por la facilidad y disponibilidad en el mercado local, pero las topolog as estudiadas buscan a futuro una posible implementacion a nivel de circuito integrado de aplicacion espec ca (ASIC). El sensor utilizado para el montaje del prototipo es un sensor de ox geno comercial referencia O2A2 de Alphasense. La respuesta en condiciones de funcionamiento es lineal con un coe ciente de correlacion de 0.999

Encapsulación de lacasa en alginato: comparación entre extrusión asistida y no asistida para producción a gran escala

ResumenSe estudió el efecto de la extrusión asistida y no asistida para la producción a gran escala sobre el tamaño, forma y desempeño bioquímico de capsulas de lacasa-alginato. Las capsulas se formularon usando una concentración de alginato al 1.0% y 3.0% (m/v) y se prepararon por un método de extrusión-goteo. Los resultados mostraron que la técnica de extrusión afecta el tamaño de las capsulas y su distribución de tamaño, pero no afecta su forma. La caracterización bioquímica mostro un comportamiento similar entre ambos métodos de extrusión. Sin embargo, las capsulas no asistidas presentaron mayor variabilidad en su actividad enzimática y menor estabilidad en el tiempo. Los resultados muestran que con el método de extrusión, material particulado altamente homogéneo mejora bioprocesos facilitando el control de etapas de temperatura y pH, por lo tanto, un método asistido presenta varias ventajas para la producción de material particulado de lacasa en grandes cantidades. AbstractThe effect of assisted and not-assisted extrusion for large scale production on size, shape and biochemical performance of the laccase-alginate beads was studied. The alginate beads were formulated using 1.0% and 3.0% (w/v) alginate concentrations and were prepared by an extrusion-dripping method. Results showed that the extruding technique affects the beads size and size distribution but not the beads shape. The biochemical characterization showed a similar performance for both extruding methods. However, not-assisted beads presented higher enzymatic activity variability and lower stability in time. Results shown that in extrusion method, bioprocesses are improved by highly homogeneous particulate material easing temperature or pH controlled steps, then, an assisted method presents several benefits for producing laccase particulate material at large quantities

Detection of Pathogens Using Microfluidics and Biosensors

Point-of-care devices technology are a promising way towards the recognition of pathogens in early-stage diagnosis, which is critical for the success of inexpensive treatments as opposed to the high costs of managing the disease. The integration of immunoassays with read out circuitry allows the implementation of diagnostic devices for their use by untrained personnel, without compromising reliability. In the following chapter, three different biosensors based on lab-on-a-chip (LoC) and microfluidic technologies were designed, assembled and tested for pathogen diagnosis. The devices allowed the effective detection of the human papilloma virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Chagas parasite in shorter times and with smaller sample volumes than those required by current clinical diagnosis techniques. All devices were benchmarked against commercial techniques in terms of cost and time requirement per test

Magnetite Nanoparticles Functionalized with RNases against Intracellular Infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Altres ajuts: Fundació La Marató de TV3/20180310Current treatments against bacterial infections have severe limitations, mainly due to the emergence of resistance to conventional antibiotics. In the specific case of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, they have shown a number of resistance mechanisms to counter most antibiotics. Human secretory RNases from the RNase A superfamily are proteins involved in a wide variety of biological functions, including antimicrobial activity. The objective of this work was to explore the intracellular antimicrobial action of an RNase 3/1 hybrid protein that combines RNase 1 high catalytic and RNase 3 bactericidal activities. To achieve this, we immobilized the RNase 3/1 hybrid on Polyetheramine (PEA)-modified magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs). The obtained nanobioconjugates were tested in macrophage-derived THP-1 cells infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. The obtained results show high antimicrobial activity of the functionalized hybrid protein (MNP-RNase 3/1) against the intracellular growth of P. aeruginosa of the functionalized hybrid protein. Moreover, the immobilization of RNase 3/1 enhances its antimicrobial and cell-penetrating activities without generating any significant cell damage. Considering the observed antibacterial activity, the immobilization of the RNase A superfamily and derived proteins represents an innovative approach for the development of new strategies using nanoparticles to deliver antimicrobials that counteract P. aeruginosa intracellular infection

Micromixers for Wastewater Treatment and Their Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

The use of micromixers and catalytically active nanocomposites can be an attractive alternative for the treatment of wastewaters from the textile industry, due to their high activity, low consumption of such nanocomposites, short reaction times and the possibility to work under continuous operation. In this study, 6 different designs of micromixers were modeled and evaluated for the treatment of wastewaters. Velocity profiles, pressure drops, and flows were analyzed and compared for the different devices under the same mixing conditions. In addition, Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to determine their performance in terms of environmental impact. Considering the high environmental impact of water sources contaminated by dyes from the textile industry, it becomes critically important to determine when the proposed micromixers are a suitable alternative for their remediation. The LCA and operational efficiency studies results shown here provide a route for the design of novel wastewater treatment systems by coupling low-cost and high-performance micromixers

Breaking the clean room barrier: exploring low-cost alternatives for microfluidic devices

Microfluidics is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses both science and engineering, which aims to design and fabricate devices capable of manipulating extremely low volumes of fluids on a microscale level. The central objective of microfluidics is to provide high precision and accuracy while using minimal reagents and equipment. The benefits of this approach include greater control over experimental conditions, faster analysis, and improved experimental reproducibility. Microfluidic devices, also known as labs-on-a-chip (LOCs), have emerged as potential instruments for optimizing operations and decreasing costs in various of industries, including pharmaceutical, medical, food, and cosmetics. However, the high price of conventional prototypes for LOCs devices, generated in clean room facilities, has increased the demand for inexpensive alternatives. Polymers, paper, and hydrogels are some of the materials that can be utilized to create the inexpensive microfluidic devices covered in this article. In addition, we highlighted different manufacturing techniques, such as soft lithography, laser plotting, and 3D printing, that are suitable for creating LOCs. The selection of materials and fabrication techniques will depend on the specific requirements and applications of each individual LOC. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the numerous alternatives for the development of low-cost LOCs to service industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, and biomedicine

Pandemia e Impacto en los procesos de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación I+D+i

Sin duda alguna uno de los eventos más trascendentales que han sucedidoen este siglo es la pandemia provocada por el virus SARS-COV-2, impactando fuertemente en todos los aspectos sociales y económicosa nivel mundial, incluyendo el avance de la ciencia y la tecnología

Fabrication of an Amperometric Flow-Injection Microfluidic Biosensor Based on Laccase for In Situ Determination of Phenolic Compounds

We aim to develop an in situ microfluidic biosensor based on laccase from Trametes pubescens with flow-injection and amperometry as the transducer method. The enzyme was directly immobilized by potential step chronoamperometry, and the immobilization was studied using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The electrode response by amperometry was probed using ABTS and syringaldazine. A shift of interfacial electron transfer resistance and the electron transfer rate constant from 18.1 kΩ to 3.9 MΩ and 4.6 × 10−2 cm s−1 to 2.1 × 10−4 cm s−1, respectively, evidenced that laccase was immobilized on the electrode by the proposed method. We established the optimum operating conditions of temperature (55°C), pH (4.5), injection flow rate (200 µL min−1), and applied potential (0.4 V). Finally, the microfluidic biosensor showed better lower limit of detection (0.149 µM) and sensitivity (0.2341 nA µM−1) for ABTS than previous laccase-based biosensors and the in situ operation capacity

Novel Magnetic Polymeric Filters with Laccase-Based Nanoparticles for Improving Congo Red Decolorization in Bioreactors

In this work, five different magnetic biofilters, containing magnetic nanoparticles (142 nm), immobilized laccase on nanoparticles (190 nm) and permanent magnetic elements, such as neodymium magnets and metallic meshes, were designed, manufactured and tested. The five types of filters were compared by measuring the decolorization of Congo Red dye inside bioreactors, the half-life of the filters and the amount of magnetic nanoparticle and enzyme lost during multiple cycles of operation. Filters containing laccase immobilized on magnetite (Laccase-magnetite), permanent magnets and metallic mesh presented the highest Congo Red decolorization (27%) and the largest half-life among all types of filters (seven cycles). The overall dye decolorization efficiencies were 5%, 13%, 17%, 23%, and 27% for the paper filter, paper filter with magnetite, paper filter with Laccase-magnetite, paper filter with Laccase-magnetite with magnets and paper filter with Laccase-magnetite with magnets and metallic mesh, respectively. Although the highest losses of magnetite occurred when using the filters containing magnets (57 mg), the use of permanent magnetic elements in the filters increased the half-life of the filter three-fold compared to the filters without enzymatic properties and two-fold compared to the filters with Laccase-magnetite. Results indicate that the novel use of permanent magnetic elements improved the nanoparticle retention in the filters and promoted the mass transfer between the dye and the biocatalyst to enhance wastewater treatment

Regional Evaluation of Fungal Pathogen Incidence in Colombian Cocoa Crops

The production of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) in Colombia has a significant environmental and socioeconomic importance as a promissory crop in the post-conflict process. The department of Norte de Santander has cocoa crops that are dramatically affected by fungal pathogens causing important losses during harvest and post-harvest. Therefore, the current study focused on the determination of the incidence of diseases caused by phytopathogenic fungi in cocoa crops, and the identification of primary phytopathogenic fungi found in biological material from different farms of the region. The study was conducted in four municipalities of the department, by sampling fruits infected with frosty pod rot (FPR) and black pod rot (BPR) that presented in situ incidence ranging from 0.37 to 21.58% and from 1.75 to 35.59%, respectively. The studied hybrid materials, together with clone TSH 65, were found to be the most susceptible, while the remaining clones were more tolerant, especially CCN 51, IMC 67, and ICS95. Fifteen strains were isolated using in vitro assays and then morphologically characterized both in solid media and by microscopy. Nine of them corresponded to the pathogen Moniliophthora roreri, and other six to Phytophthora palmivora. The isolated agents showed in vitro morphological variability, as well as the ability to adapt to different environments when growing in situ