Experimental tests on commercial Sweet Product Residue (SPR) as a suitable feed for anaerobic bioenergy (H+CH) production.

Food stores can find themselves in the position of having to dispose of different types of products, such as snacks, confectionery, prepackaged food, drinks and others, Sweet Product Residue (SPR), which presents a great opportunity to produce energy through Anaerobic Digestion (AD), due to its high sugar, carbohidrate and fat contents. In order to valorise SPR, this paper takes into consideration the all necessary treatments; owing the fact that the refuses are constitute by an organic part and packaging (plastic, paper and their combinations), a pretreatment able to remove the latter is necessary. SPR refuse was initially subjected to novel pretreatment approach: extrusion at 200atm to remove the packaging, and a Basic Pre-treatment (BP) then tested through a Two-Stage AD (TSAD) process, for H and CH productions.

Impact of prior systemic corticosteroid use in patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia.

Background And Objective: Limited information is available regarding the impact of prior outpatient use of systemic corticosteroids (SCS) in patients subsequently developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We investigate the effects of prior SCS on severity of illness, microbiology and clinical outcomes for patients hospitalized with CAP.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of subjects with CAP (according to International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition codes) was conducted over a 3-year period at two tertiary teaching hospitals.

Posttraumatic growth and social support in individuals with infertility.

Background: While research on the psychological experiences of infertility has focused almost exclusively on the negative aspects, clinical experience with individuals and couples facing infertility has demonstrated that personal gain can also arise from the struggle involved. This study examined whether individuals who struggle with infertility report posttraumatic growth (PTG), and if perceived availability of and satisfaction with social support are associated with such growth. Other correlates of PTG are reported as well.

On-line generation and hydrolysis of methyl borate for the spectrophotometric determination of boron in soil and plants with azomethine-H.

A continuous-flow system for boron determination in soils and plants with spectrophotometric detection using the azometihine-H-boron complex method was developed. In order to avoid the interferences of concomitants present in samples and to increase the sensitivity, the element was separated on-line from the matrix by methyl borate generation. For this purpose, a concentrated sulfuric acid sample solution was combined with methanol in 1:3 ratio which produce enough heating for the esterification reaction without external source.