Single and Binary Adsorption of Food Dyes on Chitosan/Activated Carbon Hydrogels

The removal of dye contaminants from water is an important issue and different adsorbents have been developed for this purpose. Here, chitosan hydrogel, scaffold‐chitosan hydrogel, and scaffold‐chitosan hydrogel with activated carbon were developed and used in the adsorption of food blue 2 and food red 17, from single and binary aqueous systems. The adsorbents presented good mechanical properties, high efficiency, high adsorption capacity, and fast kinetics for single and binary systems. Chitosan hydrogel presented excellent reusability capacity and can be reused for five cycles. The use of these hydrogels enables the application of adsorbent materials with three‐dimensional frameworks for dye adsorption in single or binary systems.     

Effects of moisture absorption on mechanical and viscoelastic properties in liquid thermoplastic resin/carbon fiber composites

This article investigated the effect of moisture on the tensile strength and in‐plane shear of laminated composites. For this, the results of a composite system based on a new thermoplastic Elium® 150 resin were compared to a traditional epoxy resin result. Both composites were fabricated via VARTM using a 0/90° plain weave carbon fiber fabric. For the non‐conditioned specimens, the thermoplastic composites presented 30% more tensile resistance in comparison to epoxy composites. For conditioned specimens, this difference was 14%. These results were related to plasticization, which tends to favor the polymer softening providing a greater matrix plastic deformation, promoting a ductile fracture of the composite. On the other hand, the in‐plane shear properties were 30% higher for the thermosetting laminates for both conditions. In this case, moisture may have favored the formation of surface cracks and weakened the fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion. Additional analysis based on design of experiments has shown that the Elium® 150 resin significantly affects all responses and presented in fact a better behavior in comparison to Epoxy resin. While the conditioning effects have featured a statistically noticeable contribution to the tensile strength, the presence of the moisture did not provide a significant enhancement to the in‐plane shear strength. Besides that, the unknown fractographic aspects of the fracture surfaces of both composites were used as a complementary tool for the mechanical characterization. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:2185–2194, 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Solar powered net zero energy houses for southern Europe: Feasibility study

This study explores the feasibility of solar Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) systems for a typical single family home in the mild southern European climate zone. Using dynamic thermal simulation of two representative detached house geometries, solar collector systems are sized in order to meet all annual energy needs. The impact of variations in building envelope, occupant behavior and domestic appliance efficiency on final energy demand and solar NZEB system size is analyzed. After sizing a set of solar thermal (ST) and photovoltaic (PV) solar systems, an analysis was performed to identify the best system configuration from a financial and environmental perspective. The cost and performance of the NZEB system shows low sensitivity to the size of the ST system, whenever solar hot water is used to its maximum. The introduction in the analysis of a micro-generation government incentive scheme shows great potential for financially attractive NZEB homes in this climate zone.     

Sequence diversity, predicted two-dimensional protein structure, and epitope mapping of neisserial Opa proteins

The sequence diversity of 45 Opa outer membrane proteins from Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria sicca, and Neisseria flava indicates that horizontal genetic exchange of opa alleles has been rare between these species. A two-dimensional structural model containing four surface-exposed loops was constructed based on rules derived from porin crystal structure and on conservation of sequence homology within transmembrane beta-strands. The minimal continuous epitopes recognized by 23 monoclonal antibodies were mapped to loops 2 and 3. Some of these epitopes are localized on the bacterial cell surface, in support of the model.     

Edible table (bio)spread containing potentially probiotic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species

A prototype of a reduced fat (60% w/w) edible table biospread, with an added viable, nongrowing, mixed-strain and potentially probiotic culture was developed. Conventional commercial aqueous-phase ingredient and reduced fat spread processing technologies were modified to achieve acceptable strain viability ( ≥   10⁵ cfu/mL) during scraped-surface heat exchange emulsion processing and biospread shelf life. The modifications consisted of:

• 1

   spilt-stream pasteurization of the aqueous and lipid phases (thereby obviating the need for in-line pasteurization of the water-in-oil emulsion during processing);

       

Doppler-rate estimation for burst digital transmission

We propose a new algorithm for Doppler rate estimation in burst-mode phase shift keying (PSK) transmissions. This issue may arise in mobile radio links when the received signal experiences significant time-varying Doppler distortion, as in low-earth-orbit satellite systems. The algorithm is based on the transmission of a training sequence and has a feedforward structure that is easy to implement in digital form. Its estimation accuracy is close to the Cramer-Rao bound even at SNR values as low as 0 dB. Comparisons with earlier methods are discussed     

Frequency estimation for the downlink of the UMTS-TDD component

We propose a carrier frequency recovery scheme for the downlink of the time-division duplex (TDD) component of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The frequency estimator exploits the midamble of the common control channel and takes into account that the frequency offset allowed in the UMTS-TDD is small compared to the chip rate. Simulations are used to assess the accuracy of the proposed scheme assuming diversity reception and a frequency selective channel. It is found that good performance can be achieved with a limited computational load.     

Olive mill wastewater treatment: an experimental study.

Olive oil production, one of the main agro-industries in Mediterranean countries, generates significant amounts of olive mill wastewaters (OMWs), which represent a serious environmental problem, because of their high organic load, the acidic pH and the presence of recalcitrant and toxic substances such as phenolic and lipidic compounds (up to several grams per litre). In Italy, traditional disposal on the soil is the most common way to discharge OMWs. This work is aimed at investigating the efficiency and feasibility of AOPs and biological processes for OMW treatment. Trials have been carried out on wastewaters taken from one of the largest three-phase mills of Italy, located in Quarrata (Tuscany), as well as on synthetic solutions. Ozone and Fenton's reagents applied both on OMWs and on phenolic synthetic solutions guaranteed polyphenol removal efficiency up to 95%. Aerobic biological treatment was performed in a batch reactor filled with raw OMWs (pH = 4.5, T = 30 degrees C) without biomass inoculum. A biomass rich of fungi, developed after about 30 days, was able to biodegrade phenolic compounds reaching a removal efficiency of 70%. Pretreatment of OMWs by means of oxidation increased their biological treatability.     

Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals Predominant Alterations in Lipid Metabolism Following Light Exposure in Broccoli Sprouts

The consumption of vegetables belonging to the family Brassicaceae (e.g., broccoli and cauliflower) is linked to a reduced incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The molecular composition of such plants is strongly affected by growing conditions. Here we developed an unbiased metabolomics approach to investigate the effect of light and dark exposure on the metabolome of broccoli sprouts and we applied such an approach to provide a bird’s-eye view of the overall metabolic response after light exposure. Broccoli seeds were germinated and grown hydroponically for five days in total darkness or with a light/dark photoperiod (16 h light/8 h dark cycle). We used an ultra-performance liquid-chromatography system coupled to an ion-mobility, time-of-flight mass spectrometer to profile the large array of metabolites present in the sprouts. Differences at the metabolite level between groups were analyzed using multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component analysis and correlation analysis. Altered metabolites were identified by searching publicly available and in-house databases. Metabolite pathway analyses were used to support the identification of subtle but significant changes among groups of related metabolites that may have gone unnoticed with conventional approaches. Besides the chlorophyll pathway, light exposure activated the biosynthesis and metabolism of sterol lipids, prenol lipids, and polyunsaturated lipids, which are essential for the photosynthetic machinery. Our results also revealed that light exposure increased the levels of polyketides, including flavonoids, and oxylipins, which play essential roles in the plant’s developmental processes and defense mechanism against herbivores. This study highlights the significant contribution of light exposure to the ultimate metabolic phenotype, which might affect the cellular physiology and nutritional value of broccoli sprouts. Furthermore, this study highlights the potential of an unbiased omics approach for the comprehensive study of the metabolism.