Effects of salt and temperature on proteolysis during ripening of Iberian ham

Fifty-five hams from Iberian pigs were processed using two different dry-curing techniques, traditional and modern. Salt content, non-protein nitrogen and its fractions (peptide, amino acid and volatile basic nitrogen) from Biceps femoris muscles were quantified. The existence of an overlapping effect of both temperature and salt content on the general non-protein nitrogen production was observed. The most intense proteolytic breakdown took place when higher temperatures were reached during the drying stage. The difference in salt concentration seems to contribute to generating different quantities in the non-protein nitrogen fractions. The inclusion at the end of the cellar stage of a stuffing period would permit increasing the accumulation of free amino acid in high salted hams.     

Role of Orai3 in the Pathophysiology of Cancer

The mammalian exclusive Orai3 channel participates in the generation and/or modulation of two independent Ca²⁺ currents, the store-operated current, I_crac, involving functional interactions between the stromal interaction molecules (STIM), STIM1/STIM2, and Orai1/Orai2/Orai3, as well as the store-independent arachidonic acid (AA) (or leukotriene C4)-regulated current I_arc, which involves Orai1, Orai3 and STIM1. Overexpression of functional Orai3 has been described in different neoplastic cells and cancer tissue samples as compared to non-tumor cells or normal adjacent tissue. In these cells, Orai3 exhibits a cell-specific relevance in Ca²⁺ influx. In estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells store-operated Ca²⁺ entry (SOCE) is strongly dependent on Orai3 expression while in colorectal cancer and pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells Orai3 predominantly modulates SOCE. On the other hand, in prostate cancer cells Orai3 expression has been associated with the formation of Orai1/Orai3 heteromeric channels regulated by AA and reduction in SOCE, thus leading to enhanced proliferation. Orai3 overexpression is associated with supporting several cancer hallmarks, including cell cycle progression, proliferation, migration, and apoptosis resistance. This review summarizes the current knowledge concerning the functional role of Orai3 in the pathogenesis of cancer.     

Analysis of a sequential production of electricity,ice and drying of agricultural products by cascading geothermal energy

In this paper, it is presented an analysis for the sequential production of electricity, ice and drying of agricultural products, by the concept of cascade for medium and low temperature geothermal energy. To carry out the analysis, a set of practical assumptions for the integration of technologies operated by cascade method for geothermal energy were defined. The geothermal cascade is composed of three thermal levels, each one operating under different temperatures in decreasing form. Additionally, the thermal cascade is composed at the first level by an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for electricity production. In the second thermal level, by an absorption refrigeration cycle for ice production, and in the third level includes a dehydrator for drying of agricultural products. The agricultural products considered for dehydration are: avocado, green chile and tomato. Once the main assumptions were set, five integration alternatives and five different modes of operation of the system were proposed. The alternatives have different features for the activation of the first thermal level of the cascade, different nominal capacities of electricity production, cold, and quantity of product to be dehydrated. Subsequently, a technical-economic analysis is carried out to obtain the performance and energy characteristics of the different thermal levels of the cascade, different modes of operation, carbon dioxide emissions, cost estimations and indicators of economic viability. The results indicate that the dehydration process improves drastically the economic profits of all alternatives, especially for dehydration of tomato, achieving simple payback periods of around one year, overall energy efficiency of up to 17.84% and greenhouse emissions reduction of 537.7 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Concerning the modes of operation, it was determined that the one based on only-electricity production is not desirable due to the worst energy and economic performance.     

New text comparison between CO2 and other supercritical working fluids (ethane,Xe, CH4 and N2) in line- focusing solar power plants coupled to supercritical Brayton power cycles

This study is focused on comparing four supercritical fluids: Ethane, Xenon, Methane and Nitrogen, as possible alternative to supercritical Carbon Dioxide (s-CO₂) in Brayton power cycles coupled to line- focusing solar power plants with Solar Salt (60% NaNO₃; 40% KNO₃) as heat transfer fluid. The Simple Brayton cycle with heat recuperation and reheating is the configuration selected in this paper, providing a balance of plant design with reduced number of equipment and cost. The gross plant efficiency is calculated fixing the recuperator conductance (UA) for different Turbine Inlet Temperatures (TIT), confirming the maximum plant gross efficiency is related with the minimum allowable recuperator pinch point temperature. The reheating pressure and compressor inlet temperature are optimized with the mathematical algorithms SUBPLEX, UOBYQA and NEWOUA. According to the REFPROP database ranges of applicability, the maximum TIT limits are established for the supercritical fluids (N₂ TIT = 550 °C, CO₂ TIT = 550 °C, C₂H₆ TIT = 400 °C, Xe TIT = 450 °C and CH₄ TIT = 350 °C). The reference scenario considered for calculating the thermosolar plant energy balances and simulations is the wet-cooling system with a Compressor Inlet Temperature (CIT = 32 °C). The gross efficiency results with the wet-cooling system are: N₂ (45.8%), CO₂ (44.37%), C₂H₆ (40.74%), Xe (39.88%), CH₄ (32.15%). The plant efficiency is also translated into solar field effective aperture area and estimated cost, for a fixed power output. For optimizing the solar collector aperture area and cost, the Primary Heat Exchanger (PHX) and the ReHeating Heat Exchanger (RHX) capacity ratio (C_R) are fixed (C_R = 1). The dry-cooling system scenario (CIT = 47 °C) is alto estimated: N₂ (43.34%), CO₂ (42.42%), C₂H₆ (37.34%), Xe (37.26%), CH₄ (29.53%).For predicting the recuperator heat exchanger dimensions for a fixed conductance (UA), the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) is calculated with the Dittus–Boelter correlation and compared with the CO₂ as reference. The C₂H₆, and CH₄ have relative higher HTC in relation with CO₂. Also is calculated the recuperator pressure drop. The C₂H₆, CH₄ and N₂ pressure drop is lower in comparison with the CO₂ for the same operating conditions.The energy efficiency in solar power station coupled to Brayton cycle is very constrained by the ambient temperature variation, impacting directly in the dry-cooling system performance. For this reason a Compressor Inlet Temperature (CIT) sensing analysis is carried out ranging from 32 °C to 57 °C, and also varying TIT from 400 °C to 550 °C. A sensing analysis is also developed varying the Turbine Inlet Pressure (TIP) from 200 bar to 375 bar. The CO₂ improves the plant efficiency when increasing the TIP from 250 bar to 350 bar, however the rest of fluids (Ethane, Methane, Nitrogen and Xenon) nearly not suffered any impact in the plant efficiency when increasing the TIP.     

Studies on the alcoholysis of some seed oils

The effects of time and temperature on the alcoholysis of rubber seed, melon seed, linseed, and soyabean oils have been studied. The following temperatures were investigated: 200, 220, 245, and 260°C. Litharge (PbO) was used as the alcoholysis catalyst. The optimum alcoholysis temperature was found to be 245 ± 2 °C for each of the oils. At lower alcoholysis temperatures (<245°C), there is the preferential alcoholysis of seed oils derived from unsaturated acid; and the general alcoholysis rates were found to be in the following order: linseed oil ≈ rubber seed oil ≥ soyabean oil ≈ melon seed oil. The alcohol‐solubility of the oils is generally observed to begin at 42–45% conversion of oils to monoglycerides. The α‐monoglyceride contents of the alcoholysis mixtures of rubber seed and linseed oils were generally similar at methanol tolerance, and higher than those of melon seed and soyabean oils. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 1826–1832, 2000     

QFT design of multi‐loop nonlinear control systems

In control practice, one of the fundamental limitations of feedback is given by the sensor noise effect. This problem is still more important in uncertain nonlinear control systems. This work extends the previous multi‐loop QFT technique, specifically designed to accommodate bandwidth limitation, to the nonlinear case. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neugebauer and Demichel: Dependence and independence in n‐screen superpositions for colour printing

The Neugebauer equations and the Demichel equations on which they are based are one of the basic tools for modeling colour printing systems that use the halftoning technique. However, these equations implicitly assume that the colour ink distributions in the screen superposition are statistically independent. We show that this condition is not satisfied in the conventional screen superposition used for colour printing, and we discuss the consequences of this fact. Furthermore, we give a precise criterion that determines, for any number of superposed regular screens, in which cases the Demichel (and hence the Neugebauer) equations are satisfied, and in which cases they fail: The Demichel equations fail in all cases where the screen superposition is singular, and they are satisfied in all nonsingular screen superpositions. We illustrate our results with several examples of both cases. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 25, 267–277, 2000     

The orchestration of Machine Learning frameworks with data streams and GPU acceleration in Kafka-ML: A deep-learning performance comparative

Machine Learning (ML) applications need large volumes of data to train their models so that they can make high-quality predictions. Given digital revolution enablers such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industry 4.0, this information is generated in large quantities in terms of continuous data streams and not in terms of static datasets as it is the case with most AI (Artificial Intelligence) frameworks. Kafka-ML is a novel open-source framework that allows the complete management of ML/AI pipelines through data streams. In this article, we present new features for the Kafka-ML framework, such as the support for the well-known ML/AI framework PyTorch, as well as for GPU acceleration at different points along the pipeline. This pipeline will be described by taking a real Industry 4.0 use case in the Petrochemical Industry. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation with state-of-the-art deep learning models will be carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the platform.     

Familial study of patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

Rendu-Osler-Weber's disease or Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HTT) is an autosomal dominant hereditary clinical entity characterized by the presence of telangiectasias on skin, mucous membranes and internal organs. The incidence of hepatic, pulmonary or cerebral complications justifies an early diagnostic. A familiar study of patients previously diagnosed of HTT in our hospital was made, establishing a protocol for the identification of asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic cases. Fourteen patients were studied: 6 with a previous diagnostic, and 8 familiar contacts. Penetrance was of 85%. Epistaxis (80%) and telangiectasias on skin were the most frequent clinical findings. The visceral lesions found were gastrointestinal (28%), hepatic (15%), urological (15%) and pulmonary (7%). All patients were included in an hepatitis B virus vaccination program. It was also made a morphological study with Werhoeff's staining of the elastic layer, that allowed to distinguish both arterial and venous alterations.