3,134 publications from this institution
The world population is expected to reach almost 10,000 million in 2050, which entails the need to focus on sustainability and its three pillars: the economy, the environment, and society. Within this context, it is necessary to use our resources efficiently; for instance, we will need to produce much more food using less land and while polluting less to optimize the production of biomass from diversified resources, along with its subsequent conversion, fractionation, and processing. To achieve this, new approaches and processes, with special emphasis from a biotechnological perspective, may need to be implemented to move towards a circular model that will confer environmental sustainability. Global projections of food losses constitute an abundant pool of complex carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and functional compounds. Hence, the deployment of food waste streams as raw materials will encompass the formulation of added-value products that will be ideally reintroduced in the food supply chain to close the loop. Therefore, the analysis and optimization of any food and bioproduct process, as well as the development of innovative and emerging food and by-product processing methods, are important as a necessity for the sustainable transition to a bioeconomy era. The valorization, bioprocessing, and biorefining of food-industry-based streams, the role of industrial microorganisms, the isolation of high-added-value compounds, applications of the resulting bio-based chemicals in food manufacturing, novel food formulations, economic policies for food waste management, along with sustainability or techno-economic assessment of processing methods constitute subject areas that need to be addressed. More specifically, bioprocess design to valorize food-industry waste and by-product streams should be initiated by characterizing the composition of the onset raw material with the aim of identifying the target end-products, whereas the generation of multiple high-added-value products is a prerequisite for cost-effective processes to establish economic sustainability. On top of that, the feasibility of innovative processes could be sustained by encompassing food applications, driven by the constantly emerging consumers’ demand for functional foods and beverages with enhanced nutritional value. Equally, a growing awareness for bio-based and natural food components is being developed, thereby imposing challenges on the substitution of chemically derived ingredients with their natural counterparts.
Abstract A rapid sample treatment procedure for the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) determination of anabolic steroids in human urine has been developed. The new procedure makes use of ultrasonic energy to reduce reaction times and increase the overall sensitivity. The following variables affecting the performance of the ultrasonic treatment were optimised: (i) time, (ii) device, (iii) frequency, and (iv) temperature. It was found that, under an ultrasonic field, the hydrolysis of conjugated steroids with β‐glucuronidase from Escherichia coli K12 was possible with a treatment time of 10 min. The accuracy and precision of the ultrasonic method were found to be in agreement with those achieved with the conventional thermal conductivity procedure (Student's t‐test; p = 0.05, n = 10). After the enzymatic hydrolysis, the derivatisation of the target compounds with trimethylsilyl (TMS) reagent, methyl‐ N ‐trimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide (MSTFA)/NH 4 I/dithioerythritol (DTE) (1000:2:4, v/w/w), was also accelerated using ultrasonic energy. In order to test the applicability of the use of ultrasonic energy in the acceleration of the derivatisation reaction with TMS, the classic method of thermal conductivity was applied for comparative purposes to a pool of 35 androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS) and/or their metabolites. The results demonstrated that after 3 min of sonication in a Sonoreactor device (50% amplitude), 19 of the 35 compounds studied showed similar reaction yield to those obtained with the classic procedure requiring 30 min (Student's t‐test; p = 0.05, n = 5); 13 increased to higher silylation yields; and for the steroids 1‐testosterone, danazol and etiocholanolone‐D5, the same results were obtained using a sonication time of 5 min. The overall applicability of the ultrasonic‐based sample treatment method is shown by the analysis of five urine samples. The results are similar to those achieved by the routine procedure. The new method is fast, robust, and allows high sample throughput. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An ion chromatographic (IC) method for the determination of six organic acids and three inorganic anions in Bayer liquors was proposed. Formic, acetic, propionic, oxalic, succinic, glutaric acid, F−, Cl−, and SO 4 2− were separated and determined within 33 min. For the first time, repeatability, reproducibility, and recoveries for the determination of these acids in Bayer liquors were estimated. The analytes were removed from a Bayer liquor by using an ion-exchange resin column. The chromatographic separation was achieved with only one IonPac AS11-HC column thermostated at 30°C. Organic acids and inorganic anions were detected with a suppressed conductance detector. The precision results showed that the relative standard deviations of the repeatability and reproducibility were <2.94 and <1.37%, respectively. The accuracy of the method was confirmed with an average recovery ranging between 86.3 and 105.6%. Under optimum conditions the detection limits ranged from 0.008 to 0.053 mg/L.
The genetic management of small populations, irrespective of the objective pursued, it is conditioned by their census. Actually the distinction between conservation and selection programmes tends to vanish because in both types of programmes attention should be paid to the increase of inbreeding and to the maintenance or improvement of some traits of interest. To maintain genetic diversity the criterion to follow is to maximize the effective population size. For this purpose several simple rules have been developed during the last decades although there exist also a sophisticated solution, probably optimal. For selection programmes there are also simple rules and an optimal solution although now the desired genetic progress should be included. The design of optimal mating systems, although it presents more problems from a theoretical point of view, it has also a reasonable practical solution.
Abstract — — Studies based on casual blood pressure measurements concluded that both age and parity have significant effects on blood pressure during pregnancy. We have tested these results on clinically healthy normotensive women who were systematically studied by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring during their pregnancies. We analyzed 1254 blood pressure series sampled for 48 consecutive hours every 4 weeks from the first obstetric visit (usually within the first trimester of pregnancy) until delivery in 205 normotensive pregnant women. Data were divided for comparative analysis by parity (nulliparous versus multiparous), age (≤25, 26 to 30, 31 to 35, and ≥36 years), and trimester of gestation. Circadian parameters established by population multiple-component analysis were compared between groups with a nonparametric test. Effects of age and parity on blood pressure were also tested by ANOVA. A highly statistically significant circadian pattern described by a model that includes components with periods of 24 and 12 hours is demonstrated for systolic and diastolic blood pressure for all groups of pregnant women in all trimesters (always P <0.001). There was no significant difference in 24-hour mean among groups divided by parity at any age or stage of pregnancy (always P >0.160). A trend of increasing blood pressure with age was found for diastolic but not systolic blood pressure. Although statistically significant, differences in the 24-hour mean of diastolic blood pressure among groups divided by age were always <1.5 mm Hg. Data obtained from systematic ambulatory monitoring in normotensive pregnant women indicate the lack of differences in blood pressure according to parity. The small, although significant, increase in diastolic blood pressure with age may have little influence in the proper identification of women with gestational hypertension. Reference thresholds for blood pressure to be used in the early identification of hypertensive complications in pregnancy could thus be developed as a function of rest-activity cycle and gestational age, independent of parity or maternal age.
Although the majority of the organisms use the same genetic code to translate DNA, several variants have been described in a wide range of organisms, both in nuclear and organellar systems, many of them corresponding to metazoan mitochondria. These variants are usually found by comparative sequence analyses, either conducted manually or with the computer. Basically, when a particular codon in a query-species is linked to positions for which a specific amino acid is consistently found in other species, then that particular codon is expected to translate as that specific amino acid. Importantly, and despite the simplicity of this approach, there are no available tools to help predicting the genetic code of an organism. We present here GenDecoder, a web server for the characterization and prediction of mitochondrial genetic codes in animals. The analysis of automatic predictions for 681 metazoans aimed us to study some properties of the comparative method, in particular, the relationship among sequence conservation, taxonomic sampling and reliability of assignments. Overall, the method is highly precise (99%), although highly divergent organisms such as platyhelminths are more problematic. The GenDecoder web server is freely available from http://darwin.uvigo.es/software/gendecoder.html.
The surface plasmon resonance of small metal particles is highly sensitive to the refractive index of the surrounding medium. However, for particles dispersed on a glass surface in a polymer matrix, the effective refractive index is ill-defined. The effects of the substrate and solvent refractive indices on the surface plasmon resonance of individual gold nanoparticles (prisms and decahedra) have therefore been investigated by dark field microscopy. It is found that for any given substrate, e.g., glass or quartz, the surface plasmon band red-shifts when the solvent refractive index is increased as expected. However the sensitivity is reduced from that observed in a homogeneous medium, and the effect of the supporting polymer matrix is found to be of great importance. The effective refractive index dispersion relationship follows an equation of the form neff = (1 − α)nsub + αnmed where the value of α was found to vary from 0.10 to 0.65 depending on whether the particles are embedded in a polymer matrix or deposited directly onto the substrate.
A novel HIV-1 complex circulating recombinant form (CRF18_cpx) has been identified that is circulating in Cuba and Central Africa.
Heart disease is an important cause of death worldwide, and surgery is an important means to treat heart disease. With the progress of science and technology, the success rate of cardiac surgery has increased significantly, but intraoperative complications are still a problem that needs attention. As a serious complication, intraoperative acquired pressure injury will not only prolong the hospital stay, but also increase the psychological burden and medical cost of patients. Patients undergoing surgery for heart disease are more vulnerable to the development of IAPI, as long term postural fixation and tissue compression during operation. Therefore, timely identification and assessment of high-risk patients is critical to developing an effective care plan. The aim of this paper is to review the recent research progress on the risk factors and assessment tools of intraoperative pressure injury in patients with heart disease, in order to provide guidance for the prevention of intraoperative pressure injury in patients with heart disease. (心脏疾病是导致全球死亡的重要原因, 而手术是治疗心脏疾病的重要手段。随着科学技术的进步, 心脏手术的成功率显著提高, 然而术中并发症仍然是需要重视的问题。术中获得性压力性损伤(IAPI)作为一种严重的并发症, 不仅会延长住院时间, 还会增加患者的心理负担和医疗费用。心脏疾病手术患者是发生IAPI的高风险人群, 术中长期的体位固定和手术操作过程中的组织受压, 均可能导致IAPI的发生。IAPI是评估手术患者护理服务质量的重要指标, 及时识别和评估高风险患者对于制定有效的护理计划至关重要。本研究综述近年来关于心脏疾病患者IAPI风险因素及评估工具的研究进展, 以期为预防心脏疾病患者IAPI提供指导。)
