Effect on compressive and flexural strength of agave fiber reinforced adobes

Adobe bricks, formed from raw clay, are used as construction materials since ancient times. Their main drawback is a low flexural and compressive strength. Agave bagasse is a waste material from the Mezcal production process. Angustifolia haw agave bagasse fiber was added to improve the properties of adobes. Adobe bricks were made with agave fibers ranging from 10 to 25 mm length and 0.25 to 1% concentration. At 1% concentration of agave, 25 mm long, the compressive and flexural strength are improved by 33% and 7.01%, fulfilling the requirements of Mexican construction regulation norm N-CMT-2-01-001/02 class C.     

Tara gum–bovine sodium caseinate acid gels: Stabilisation of W/W emulsions

Microstructural, rheological, and textural behaviour of tara gum–bovine sodium caseinate aqueous mixtures and their acid gels were evaluated. Acid gels with different microstructures and texture were obtained. These results can be related to a competition between the protein acid gelation process and the segregative phase separation. Depending on the concentration ratio of both biopolymers, a continuous protein gel network or a water‐in‐water emulsion stabilised by acid gelation was observed. These findings may be used to address the development of new food‐grade gels with different textures and also for the obtention of protein microgels to encapsulate hydrophilic compounds.     

Competition between textural transitions and pressure effects on the viscosity of thermotropic liquid-crystal polymers

Steady measurements in capillary and slit dies and transient experiments in a cone-plate system are presented for two thermotropic copolyesters, X7G® and Vectra A950, and a thermotropic copolyesteramide, Vectra B950. The wide shear rate range covered, from 10⁻² to 10⁴ s⁻¹, allows us to observe the three regions defined by Onogi and Asada (1). However, the copolyesters on one hand, and the copolyesteramide on the other, show different rheological behavior that can be summarized as follows: For X7G® and Vectra A950: i. higher viscosities in slit than in capillary die flow; ii. upward-concave pressure profiles in slit die flow; iii. overshoot peaks in transient experiments at a shear strain γ_M = 2. For Vectra B950: i. lower viscosities in slit than in capillary die flows; ii. linear or slightly convex pressure profiles in slit die flow; iii. overshoot peaks in transient experiments at a shear strain of γ_M = 180. These seemingly contradictory results are explained by the competition between the texture changes along the flow (a transition from a worm texture to a flow-aligned region) and the pressure effect on viscosity.     

Toward “E-Ring-Free” Lamellarin Analogues: Synthesis and Preliminary Biological Evaluation

Since the discovery of anticancer properties of a naturally occurring hexacyclic marine alkaloid Lamellarin D, the attempts have been made to prepare its synthetic analogues and elucidate the effects of each structural component on their activity profile. While F-ring-free, A-ring-free and B-ring-open lamellarins are known, E-ring-free analogues have never been investigated. In this work, we developed a facile and straightforward synthetic method toward E-ring-free lamellarin analogues based on the [3+2]-cycloaddition. For the first time, we prepared several pentacyclic lamellarin analogues without E-ring in their structure and assessed their cytotoxicity in a panel of cancer cell lines in comparison with several hexacyclic lamellarins. E-ring-free lamellarins were devoid of cytotoxicity due to their poor solubility in cellular environment.     

Removal of Sulfate and Metals from Wastewater of a Mining Enterprise by a Dual Sorbent System: A Case Study

This paper presents the results of wastewater treatment at a mining enterprise developing a complex ore deposit in the Murmansk region, Russia. The main pollutants are sulfate, manganese, and strontium. For this complex wastewater treatment, a two-stage scheme was proposed and tested using two sorbents (at a pH of 6): an aminated peat biosorbent to remove sulfate and a commercial sorbent based on the mineral brucite to remove metals. Optimal conditions were established for purifying the wastewater of sulfate and manganese and strontium ions to the level of maximum available concentrations in water bodies for fishery purposes.