Potential Applications of Cucurbit[n]urils Inclusion Complexes in Photodynamic Therapy

Cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n]s) have emerged as potential candidates for drug delivery in several areas due to their strong binding interactions and low toxicity. More recently, their benefits for a type of cancer treatment termed Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) have been recognized. The outcomes of this therapy rely on better drug delivery strategies and improving overall photoactivity of the drugs, which is where CB[n]s could have a strong impact. The effects of these molecular containers on photoactivity are discussed and new interesting work is highlighted.     

Biofuels in Spain: Market penetration analysis and competitiveness in the automotive fuel market

For several years the European Union (E.U.) has been promoting the use of biofuels due to their potential benefits such as the reduction of dependence on foreign energy imports (the raw materials can be produced within the E.U.), the more stable fossil fuel prices (they can replace fossil fuels on the market), the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction (biofuels’ raw materials fix CO₂ from the atmosphere) and the fact that they can represent an additional source of income for the primary sector (biofuels’ raw materials are vegetables that can be grown and harvested).Despite the public aids (direct and indirect), biofuels are not competitive with fossil fuels at present, but it is possible that in the future the environment conditions change and biofuels might become competitive. It is difficult to assess whether this will happen or not, but it is possible to make an assessment of a future situation.This article presents two analyses with one objective: to determine if biofuels might become competitive in the future. The first analysis examines the dependencies of two quotations which have a strong relationship with fuels: the crude oil quotation and the CO₂ bond quotation. The analysis of these relationships may help to forecast the future competitiveness of biofuels. For instance, biofuels’ future competitiveness will be higher if their raw material costs are not related to crude oil quotations or if they are related in a negative way (the higher the crude oil quotations the lower the raw material biofuels’ cost). The second analysis focuses on the market penetration of biofuels in the Spanish market. There are data related to biofuels monthly consumption in Spain since 2007 and it is possible to know if biofuels are gaining market quota since then.     

Multitemporal thermal analysis to detect moisture on a building façade

It is well known that the content of water does affect materials behaviour and may cause important damages to buildings, including structural deterioration. Thermography is a non-intrusive imaging technique that allows the inspection of different materials based on their surface temperatures. Within an appropriate thermal analysis, moisture and other structural damages can be detected. The present research work deals with multitemporal thermal analysis to detect moisture on buildings, as well as other alterations. Two different approaches are tested to determine the effectiveness on the moisture surveys, one simple based on image differences, and another more sophisticated based on principal components analysis (PCA). The results are tested at the front door of the Arenberg Castle (Leuven, Belgium). Some moisture maps are derived and used to determine the reliability of either the computation of image differences or the PCA to carry out semi-automatically moisture surveys on architectural façades. The latter method is proven to be superior when using thermal imagery acquired at different times.     

Sustainability metrics for eco-technologies assessment, Part II. Life cycle analysis

This work presents a sustainability analysis of CO₂ reuse to produce dimethyl carbonate (DMC) via ethylene oxide (ROUTE A) and via urea methanolysis (ROUTE B). Two different technologies are considered in ROUTE A: reaction followed by separation and reactive distillation. Life cycle analyses of the ROUTES are presented employing sustainability analysis performed in HYSYS process simulator, along with WAR Algorithm. Process economical optimization is performed to maximize the processes profitability. A sustainability function, defined as a 2D indicator involving both economical and environmental aspects, is calculated for the optimized processes. Additional sustainability indexes are evaluated: material index, energy index, and ecoefficiency. The results, under both economical and environmental aspects, show that ROUTE A is the most sustainable. The study also points to the relevance of the frontier set between the domains cradle-to-gate and gate-to-gate in assessing process sustainability during LCA.     

Determination of Materials Selection Performance Indices Through the Combination of Numerical Modeling and Optimization Methods

After translation, the first stages traditionally involved in the materials selection are filtration and classification, which require formulation of criteria (constraints or objectives) deduced from information written in the set of material requirements. These criteria, which are representative of the behavior of the material and the studied structure, must be formulated analytically in order to be used during selection stage. However, for complex behavior, analytical processing of models is no longer possible and it can be replaced by a combination of numerical resolution methods and an optimization method which make it possible to obtain approximate formal expressions of the criteria. In this paper, a complete selection method is proposed. The method is applied to the constraints as well as the objectives, in order to carry out the filtration and classification stages at the same time. The study of the thermomechanical behavior of a machine tool frame has been used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.     

Influence of water type and maturation time on the properties of kaolinite–saponite peloids

We studied the effects of maturation time and water type on the properties of peloids. The peloids were prepared artificially by mixing the same amount of solid phase of kaolin and bentonite (9:1, m:m) with hypersaline mineral water (sodium potassium chloride water) from a spring in La Malahá (Granada, Spain) and bidistilled water (oligometallic water). The liquid/solid ratio was 2:1, m:m, with periodic manual homogenization and maturation time of one to three months. The water content of the peloids was maintained constant during the entire period of maturation.The peloid properties considered were the composition of the liquid phase, the thermal behaviour, the amount of defects in the structure of the main minerals present in the solid phase (kaolinite and saponite) and the ultramicroscopic fabric of the material, determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image analysis (IA). To date, the latter aspect has been very little studied.The composition of the liquid phases changed with maturation time. Most of the parameters measured showed a tendency to increase with increasing maturation time, as a consequence of releasing ions from the clay minerals into the liquid phase. Thus, the bidistilled water became mineral water. The initial differences between the two waters employed in the mixture were maintained in the liquid phases.The investigation of the thermal behaviour of the peloid revealed that the decrease in temperature followed, with time, a fitted logarithmic curve where R² > 0.9. The maximum change occurred in the first stage, later cooling being slower. A statistic relationship was found between the cooling kinetic and pore size and the size of the particle aggregates measured by SEM-IA. The peloids cooled more rapidly with increasing maturation time, as in the case of saline water.Both the Hinckley index of kaolinite and Integral Breadth index of saponite changed with the maturation time of the peloid. At the end of the maturation process similar values were reached regardless of the water employed.The main effect of maturation time was the increase in the size of the particle aggregates, the formation of a fabric with a more reticular morphology, and the increase in the area occupied by the pores in the SEM micrographs.     

A comparison of loop closing techniques in monocular SLAM

Loop closure detection systems for monocular SLAM come in three broad categories: (i) map-to-map, (ii) image-to-image and (iii) image-to-map. In this paper, we have chosen an implementation of each and performed experiments allowing the three approaches to be compared. The sequences used include both indoor and outdoor environments and single and multiple loop trajectories.