Use of a new milk-clotting protease from Thermomucor indicae-seudaticae N31 as coagulant and changes during ripening of Prato cheese

Prato cheeses were manufactured using coagulant from Thermomucor indicae-seudaticae N31 or a commercial coagulant. Cheeses were characterised using the following analysis: yield; fat; acidity; moisture; ash; salt; pH; total nitrogen; total protein; NS-pH 4.6/NT*100; NS-TCA 12%/NT*100; casein electrophoresis; and RP-HPLC. The results were statistically analysed and revealed that the proteolytic indices were not significantly different throughout the 60 days of ripening of cheeses made with either coagulant. Even though there were some quantitative differences in the peptide profile of cheeses, the enzyme from T. indicae-seudaticae N31 was used in the production of good quality Prato cheese without having to change the established technological parameters of the process.     

Development of an Educational Environment for Simulating Multistatic UWB Radars for Locating an Intruder Inside Indoor Environment

This work describes a educational tool developed in Java language for simulating a multi-static radar. This radar is used to identify the presence of an intruder inside a residence. In order to obtain high resolution, the radar operates with ultra-wideband pulses (Gaussian monocycle), which have maximum spectral amplitude at 1 GHz and half power bandwidth of approximately 1 GHz. For the estimation of the intruder's position, the optimization technique particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed. The simulator allows that the users define the parameters to be used by the radar and obtain the estimation of the intruder's position. Besides that, the software automatically generates animations of the wave propagation inside the residence, graphics of the signal at the receiving points and a final report with all the information related to the simulations.     

Forest fires in Portugal: how they happen and why they happen

Forest fires are recurrent phenomena in Southern European countries, due to the nature of Mediterranean forest and climatic characteristics. In Portugal, however, in the recent years, forest fires have become a public calamity and are now endangering the sustainability of the forest itself, as well as several derived economic activities. This paper reviews the past and current situation of forest fires in Portugal, analyses its main causes and consequences and derives recommendations to overcome this problem.     

Critical Success Factors for New Product Development in Biotechnology Companies

The development of new products has become increasingly critical for the competitiveness of companies, due to increased diversity and variety of products, the reduction of product life cycles, and, primarily, globalization of markets. Thus, the identification and prioritization of critical success factors for developing new products is important, particularly for the high degree of risk and uncertainty involved. The main objective of this article is the identification and prioritization of critical success factors in new product development projects in biotechnology companies in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research method used was a survey questionnaire, which was sent to a sample of 31 biotechnology companies in Minas Gerais state. The principal findings of this research are that interpersonal skills/relationships of the project leader and technical skills are the most critical factors for successful new product development in this industry. The implications for the biotechnology industry in general, as well as for those responsible for managing new product development, are discussed.     

Hot-erosion of nano-bonded refractory castables for petrochemical industries

Cold-erosion tests are usually applied for refractory castable evaluation in petrochemical industries, mainly for materials used in cyclones and risers of fluidized catalytic cracking units (FCCU). Due to the fact that in the operation, the refractory material is subjected to high temperature, at first, hot-erosion tests could be more representative. Erosion wear has a great influence on the FCCU refractory working life and the lost income associated with a production halt can reach values close to US$500,000 per day. These aspects are strong enough to justify hot-erosion resistance characterization. The test viability, which could result in selecting better material for the application, was evaluated using commercial products and nano-bonded castables from 200 up to 815 °C. At this temperature range, a significant difference between the cold and hot-erosion loss was not observed. Therefore, it indicates that the cold-erosion test is suitable and sufficient for selecting refractory castables for FCCU applications. The cold-erosion test also presented a higher data correlation with the splitting tensile strength and the hot modulus of rupture. Regarding the different evaluated materials, the nano-bonded castables showed a higher erosion resistance and were less susceptible to the temperature effect than the calcium aluminate cement bonded commercial products.     

Anticoagulant, Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of Heterofucans from the Seaweed Dictyopteris delicatula

In the present study, six families of sulfated polysaccharides were obtained from seaweed Dictyopteris delicatula by proteolytic digestion, followed by acetone fractionation and molecular sieving on Sephadex G-100. Chemical analyses demonstrated that all polysaccharides contain heterofucans composed mainly of fucose, xylose, glucose, galactose, uronic acid, and sulfate. The fucans F0.5v and F0.7v at 1.0 mg/mL showed high ferric chelating activity (～45%), whereas fucans F1.3v (0.5 mg/mL) showed considerable reducing power, about 53.2% of the activity of vitamin C. The fucan F1.5v presented the most prominent anticoagulant activity. The best antiproliferative activity was found with fucans F1.3v and F0.7v. However, F1.3v activity was much higher than F0.7v inhibiting almost 100% of HeLa cell proliferation. These fucans have been selected for further studies on structural characterization as well as in vivo experiments, which are already in progress.     

ISO 9001 certification in the American Continent: a statistical analysis and modelling

The ISO 9001 standard is considered as an effective tool to support a quality management system (QMS). A steady growth in the number of ISO 9001 issued certificates is observed worldwide, confirming the interest of companies in this approach. However, information regarding this behaviour over time in the American Continent is scarce. This paper presents a set of qualitative and quantitative analyses related to the ISO 9001 certification (globally and at the country level of the Americas), the use of this standard in countries that were part of the ISO Survey 2011 and modelling the ISO 9001 certification for American countries, in order to characterise through mathematical models, the evolution of the certification process and to identify factors that influence the ISO 9001 issued certificates in the various countries analysed. Based on the work developed, a positive relationship was found between the number of issued certificates in each country per 1000 inhabitants and the indicators of economic development (Gross National Income Per Capita). It is determined that the total reserves of a country is an economic variable that directly affects the number of issued certificates, a finding not observed in other forecasting models.     

New insights into the functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with aniline derivatives

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were functionalized with a variety of chemical groups by reaction of p-substituted anilines (R–Ph–NH₂) in the presence and absence of isopentyl nitrite used for the in situ generation of diazonium species. All materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetry and infrared spectroscopy.In the presence of isopentyl nitrite, the extent of functionalization was high and nearly independent on the amount of isopentyl nitrite and on the aniline substituents (R = F, Cl, I, NH₂, NO₂, OH, COOH, COOEt and Et). Unexpectedly, the functionalization of MWCNT with anilines bearing electron withdrawing groups was also observed in the absence of isopentyl nitrite. In the case of OH–Ph–NH₂, the reaction leads to MWCNT with the highest degree of functionalization and this can be considered as a new and efficient methodology for CNT functionalization with phenol groups. The overall reaction mechanism is discussed for both reaction conditions: confirmation of a radical chain mechanism was obtained for the reaction performed in the presence of isopentyl nitrite, while the formation of stabilized dipolar intermediate species seems to be involved in the absence of isopentyl nitrite. The materials with the highest degree of functionalization showed very good dispersions in acetonitrile even after 1 month.     

Improvement on Sliding Wear Behavior of Al/Cast Iron Tribopair by CNT's Reinforcement of an Al Alloy

The results presented in this work show the wear characterization of Al-Si matrix composites reinforced by multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) under dry reciprocating sliding conditions against a grey cast iron (GCI) The wear resistance is investigated as a function of the carbon nanotube (CNT) content that varied from 2 to 6 wt%. The results demonstrated that the CNT content plays a relevant role in the wear behavior by substantially reducing the wear loss of Al-Si CNT composites. Further, it reduces the wear loss of the grey cast iron counterface. A physical model able to explain the improved behavior in both mating materials is depicted from experimental results.