Effect of Immersion Time in Osmosis and Ultrasound on Papaya Cell Structure during Dehydration

The effect of ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration applied at atmospheric pressure for different lengths of time on papaya tissue structure was evaluated. Ultrasound induced the loss of cellular adhesion, formation of large cell interspaces, and light rupture of the cell walls. The changes in the tissue structure caused by ultrasound application increased sugar loss, water loss, and effective water diffusivity. Ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration induced a gradual distortion in the shape of the cells, loss of cellular adhesion, and the formation of large channels caused by rupture of the cell walls. The changes caused by the application of osmotic dehydration resulted in high water loss and sugar gain.     

Extracellular Vesicles as a Therapeutic Tool for Kidney Disease: Current Advances and Perspectives

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been described as important mediators of cell communication, regulating several physiological processes, including tissue recovery and regeneration. In the kidneys, EVs derived from stem cells have been shown to support tissue recovery in diverse disease models and have been considered an interesting alternative to cell therapy. For this purpose, however, several challenges remain to be overcome, such as the requirement of a high number of EVs for human therapy and the need for optimization of techniques for their isolation and characterization. Moreover, the kidney’s complexity and the pathological process to be treated require that EVs present a heterogeneous group of molecules to be delivered. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in the use of EVs as a therapeutic tool for kidney diseases. Moreover, we give an overview of the new technologies applied to improve EVs’ efficacy, such as novel methods of EV production and isolation by means of bioreactors and microfluidics, bioengineering the EV content and the use of alternative cell sources, including kidney organoids, to support their transfer to clinical applications.     

AC impedance and state-of-charge analysis of alkaline zinc/manganese dioxide primary cells

Alternating current impedance data of alkaline Zn/MnO₂ cells were analysed in view of identification of suitable parameters, which depend on the state-of-charge (SOC) of the cells. The impedance of a slightly discharged cell was found to possess impedance considerably lesser than that of an undischarged cell. The data in the form of Nyquist plot contained an inductance part at very high frequencies, a capacitive semicircle at high frequencies and a diffusion linear spike at low frequencies. The low frequency linear spike gradually transformed into a capacitive semicircle with the decrease of SOC of the cell, which was attributed to the nature of the reactions at the Zn anode. Of several impedance parameters that were examined, equivalent series capacitance (C _s) was found to have a strong dependence on SOC of the alkaline Zn/MnO₂ cells. There was a continuous change in a partially discharged cell during its ageing, which was reflected by transformation of low frequency data into a clear semicircle.     

Legumes seeds protein isolates in the production of ascorbic acid microparticles

This study evaluated the use of pea (Pisum sativum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) protein isolates (PPI and CPI) in the microencapsulation of ascorbic acid (AA), by spray drying. PPI and CPI were used pure or mixed with maltodextrin (M) as wall materials of AA. The process yield was improved from 66% to 86% by the addition of M (CPI/M and PPI/M); also, AA particles yield was 79%. The AA retention from the drying process was higher in PPI/M (69%) than in CPI/M (66%), and this was attributed to PPI proteolysis profile, demonstrated by the SDS–PAGE electrophoresis. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that AA particles were similarly spherical and shriveled. Mean particle sizes of PPI/M/AA and CPI/M/AA were 7 and 8 μm, respectively. This study showed the exploration of protein isolates from legumes in the development of a microparticulate system containing AA with great potential for use in human health.     

Smart Collaborative Mobile System for Taking Care of Disabled and Elderly People

Official statistics data show that in many countries the population is aging. In addition, there are several illnesses and disabilities that also affect a small sector of the population. In recent years, researchers and medical foundations are working in order to develop systems based on new technologies and enhance the quality of life of them. One of the cheapest ways is to take advantage of the features provided by the smartphones. Nowadays, the development of reduced size smartphones, but with high processing capacity, has increased dramatically. We can take profit of the sensors placed in smartphones in order to monitor disabled and elderly people. In this paper, we propose a smart collaborative system based on the sensors embedded in mobile devices, which permit us to monitor the status of a person based on what is happening in the environment, but comparing and taking decisions based on what is happening to its neighbors. The proposed protocol for the mobile ad hoc network and the smart system algorithm are described in detail. We provide some measurements showing the decisions taken for several common cases and we also show the performance of our proposal when there is a medium size group of disabled or elderly people. Our proposal can also be applied to take care of children in several situations.     

Combined evaluation of nitrocellulose-based propellants: toxicity,performance, and erosivity

ABSTRACT

New formulations of nitrocellulose-based propellants were evaluated aiming less-toxicity-and-less-erosivity. Three original ingredients of M-14 propellant – dinitrotoluene, dibutyl phthalate, and diphenylamine – were replaced. The new formulations, with ballistic performances similar to M-14, were based on ethylcentralite, akardite-II, RDX, diethylene glycol dinitrate, triethylene glycol dinitrate, and acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC). The toxicities of the crude ingredients were analyzed. The H₂ content in the combustion products was a key point in the analysis. The best results were found to the compositions based on ATBC and akardite-II only. The work can be used to guide future works related to new formulations of propellants.     

Production of renewable hydrogen from aqueous-phase reforming of glycerol over Pt catalysts supported on different oxides

Aqueous-phase reforming of oxygenated hydrocarbons for hydrogen production presents several advantages as feed molecules can be easily found in a wide range of biomass, there is no need for its vaporization and the process allows thorough exploitation of the environmental benefits of using hydrogen as an energy carrier. The use of glycerol in particular is motivated due to its availability as a consequence of increasing biodiesel production worldwide. In this contribution, the performance of Pt-based catalysts supported on different oxides (Al₂O₃, ZrO₂, MgO and CeO₂) is studied on glycerol reforming. All catalysts led to a hydrogen-rich gas phase. However, a good potential activity with high production of hydrogen and low concentration of undesired hydrocarbons was accomplished over the catalysts supported on MgO and ZrO₂. The high electron donating character of such oxides indicates the influence of the nature of the support in catalytic performance for glycerol reforming.     

Optimization of passive vibration isolators mechanical characteristics

The contribution of optimization has been essential to the more recent developments in design of new mechanical structures and materials. The objective of this work is to apply the models of material and structural optimization to the design of passive vibration isolators. A computational tool to identify the optimal viscoelastic characteristics of a nonlinear one-dimensional isolator was developed. The cost functional involves the minimization of a weighted average of the maximum transient and steady state response amplitudes for a set of predefined dynamic loads. The optimal isolator behaviour is obtained by a simulated annealing method. The solutions obtained are analyzed and discussed concerning their dependence on the applied forces and objective function selection. The results obtained can facilitate the design of elastomeric materials with improved behaviour in terms of dynamic stiffness for passive vibration control.     

The stochastic nature of predator-prey cycles

We study by numerical simulations the time correlation function of a stochastic lattice model describing the dynamics of coexistence of two interacting biological species that present time cycles in the number of species individuals. Its asymptotic behavior is shown to decrease in time as a sinusoidal exponential function from which we extract the dominant eigenvalue of the evolution operator related to the stochastic dynamics showing that it is complex with the imaginary part being the frequency of the population cycles. The transition from the oscillatory to the nonoscillatory behavior occurs when the asymptotic behavior of the time correlation function becomes a pure exponential, that is, when the real part of the complex eigenvalue equals a real eigenvalue. We also show that the amplitude of the undamped oscillations increases with the square root of the area of the habitat as ordinary random fluctuations.