Pyrolysis of End-Of-Life Tires: Moving from a Pilot Prototype to a Semi-Industrial Plant Using Auger Technology.

This work, carried out within the framework of the BlackCycle project, demonstrates the robustness of an auger reactor for the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires (ELTs) to be considered within the seventh level of technology readiness (TRL-7). For this purpose, the resulting pyrolysis products are compared with those obtained from a pilot scale facility ranging within the fifth technology readiness level (TRL-5). Using the same type of ELTs, tire trucks (TTs), operating conditions used at the TRL-5 plant are attempted to mimic those expected at a semi-industrial plant: tailored temperature profile (450, 550, and 775 °C) and residence time for vapors (30 s) and solids (15 min).

Effects of 700 and 3500 MHz 5G radiofrequency exposure on developing zebrafish embryos.

Telecommunications industries are rapidly deploying the fifth generation (5G) spectrum and there is public concern about the safety and health impacts of this type of Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR), in part because of the lack of comparable scientific evidence. In this study we have used a validated commercially available setting producing a uniform field to expose zebrafish embryos (ZFe) to unmodulated 700 and 3500 MHz frequencies. We have combined a battery of toxicity, developmental and behavioral assays to further explore potential RFR effects.

The Complex Proteolipidic Behavior of the SARS-CoV-2 Envelope Protein Channel: Weak Selectivity and Heterogeneous Oligomerization.

The envelope (E) protein is a small polypeptide that can form ion channels in coronaviruses. In SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent that caused the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and its predecessor SARS-CoV-1, E protein is found in the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC), where virion budding takes place. Several reports claim that E protein promotes the formation of "cation-selective channels".

Engineering a Point-of-Care Paper-Microfluidic Electrochemical Device Applied to the Multiplexed Quantitative Detection of Biomarkers in Sputum.

Health initiatives worldwide demand affordable point-of-care devices to aid in the reduction of morbidity and mortality rates of high-incidence infectious and noncommunicable diseases. However, the production of robust and reliable easy-to-use diagnostic platforms showing the ability to quantitatively measure several biomarkers in physiological fluids and that could in turn be decentralized to reach any relevant environment remains a challenge. Here, we show the particular combination of paper-microfluidic technology, electrochemical transduction, and magnetic nanoparticle-based immunoassay approaches to produce a unique, compact, and easily deployable multiplex device to simultaneously measure interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor-α, and myeloperoxidase biomarkers in sputum, developed with the aim of facilitating the timely detection of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Growth patterns and outcomes of growth hormone therapy in patients with acrodysostosis.

Introduction: Severe short stature is a feature of acrodysostosis, but data on growth are sparse. Treatment with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) is used in some centers to increase final height, but no studies have been published so far. Our objective was to conduct a multicenter, retrospective, cohort study to investigate growth in individuals with both types of acrodysostosis, treated with rhGH or not; we used the new nomenclature to describe acrodysostosis, as this disease belongs to the large group of inactivating PTH/PTHrP signaling disorders (iPPSD); acrodysostosis refers to iPPSD4 (acrodysostosis type 1 due to PRKAR1A mutations) and iPPSD5 (acrodysostosis type 2, due to PDE4D mutations).

Stress Detection Using Frequency Spectrum Analysis of Wrist-Measured Electrodermal Activity.

The article deals with the detection of stress using the electrodermal activity (EDA) signal measured at the wrist. We present an approach for feature extraction from EDA. The approach uses frequency spectrum analysis in multiple frequency bands.

Establishing the lower bacterial concentration threshold for different optical counting techniques.

This work compares several physical and optical techniques used in fundamental research and industrial applications to detect bacteria in water. Optical techniques such as, UV-absorbance spectroscopy, laser particle counting, turbidimetry and Z-Sizer light scattering, and a direct observational physical technique, the plate count method, were compared when measuring the concentration of E.coli in tenfold dilution from a stock solution.

The role of temperature profile during the pyrolysis of end-of-life-tyres in an industrially relevant conditions auger plant.

Pyrolysis is a chemical recycling process of interest as a means to achieve a sustainable circular economy for end-of-life tyres (ELTs). In the pyrolysis process, ELTs are converted into tyre pyrolysis gas (TPG), tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO) and raw recovered carbon black (RRCB). This work investigates for the first time the effect of different temperature profiles by using a single-auger pyrolysis reactor in an industrially relevant scale (TRL-5).

Compact Microfluidic Platform with LED Light-Actuated Valves for Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Automation.

Lab-on-a-chip devices incorporating valves and pumps can perform complex assays involving multiple reagents. However, the instruments used to drive these chips are complex and bulky. In this article, a new wax valve design that uses light from a light emitting diode (LED) for both opening and closing is reported.

Neuroprotective Effect of IND1316, an Indole-Based AMPK Activator, in Animal Models of Huntington Disease.

Aggregation of mutant huntingtin, because of an expanded polyglutamine track, underlies the cause of neurodegeneration in Huntington disease (HD). However, it remains unclear how some alterations at the cellular level lead to specific structural changes in HD brains. In this context, the neuroprotective effect of the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) appears to be a determinant factor in several neurodegenerative diseases, including HD.

Streaming cascade-based speech translation leveraged by a direct segmentation model.

The cascade approach to Speech Translation (ST) is based on a pipeline that concatenates an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system followed by a Machine Translation (MT) system. Nowadays, state-of-the-art ST systems are populated with deep neural networks that are conceived to work in an offline setup in which the audio input to be translated is fully available in advance. However, a streaming setup defines a completely different picture, in which an unbounded audio input gradually becomes available and at the same time the translation needs to be generated under real-time constraints.

Multiplexed Immunosensor Based on the Amperometric Transduction for Monitoring of Marine Pollutants in Sea Water.

Environmental pollutants vigilance is one of the main problems that the aquaculture industry has to face with the objective to ensure the quality of their products and prevent entrance in the food chain that finally may arrive to the consumer. Contaminants such as hormones, antibiotics or biocides are especially relevant due to their toxicity, pharmacological effect or hormonal activity that can be considered harmful for the final consumer. The contaminants can be detected in the environment where the food is growing, and their concentration can be found (i.

Development of Novel Magneto-Biosensor for Sulfapyridine Detection.

In this work, we report the development of a highly sensitive biosensor for sulfapyridine detection based on an integrated bio micro-electromechanical system (Bio-MEMS) containing four gold working electrodes (WEs), a platinum counter electrode (CE), and a reference electrode (RE). Firstly, the cleaned WEs were modified with 4-aminophenylacetic acid (CMA). Then, (5-[4-(amino)phenylsulfonamide]-5-oxopentanoic acid (SA2BSA) was immobilized onto the transducers surface by carbodiimide chemistry.

Prediction of patient evolution in terms of Clinical Risk Groups form routinely collected data using machine learning.

Chronicity is a problem that is affecting quality of life and increasing healthcare costs worldwide. Predictive tools can help mitigate these effects by encouraging the patients' and healthcare system's proactivity. This research work uses supervised learning techniques to build a predictive model of the healthcare status of a chronic patient, using Clinical Risk Groups (CRGs) as a measure of chronicity and prescription and diagnosis data as predictors.

Development and validation of a multianalyte immunoassay for the quantification of environmental pollutants in seawater samples from the Catalonia coastal area.

Five different enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been developed and applied for the detection of five representatives of important families of chemical pollutants in seawater: Irgarol 1051® (triazine biocide), sulfapyridine and chloramphenicol (antibiotics), 17β-estradiol (hormone), and domoic acid (algae toxin). The assays were validated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) showing good correlation between both immunochemical and chemical techniques. A process of extraction and clean-up was added prior to the analysis based on solid-phase extraction (SPE).

Metformin treatment reduces motor and neuropsychiatric phenotypes in the zQ175 mouse model of Huntington disease.

Huntington disease is a neurodegenerative condition for which there is no cure to date. Activation of AMP-activated protein kinase has previously been shown to be beneficial in in vitro and in vivo models of Huntington's disease. Moreover, a recent cross-sectional study demonstrated that treatment with metformin, a well-known activator of this enzyme, is associated with better cognitive scores in patients with this disease.

Light-induced mechanisms for nanocarrier's cargo release.

Nanomaterials have been the focus of attention in several fields, including biomedicine, electronics, or catalysis, mainly due to the novel properties of the materials at the nanoscale. In the field of diagnosis, nanomaterials have been contemplated as an opportunity to improve sensitivity and time of response, therefore, facilitating early treatment and monitoring of the disease. For therapeutic applications, new drug delivery nanosystems aiming to provide enhanced efficiency have been proposed often addressing selective or controlled delivery of therapeutic agents to particular cells to maximize treatment efficacy minimizing adverse effects.

First data of Neandertal bird and carnivore exploitation in the Cantabrian Region (Axlor; Barandiaran excavations; Dima, Biscay, Northern Iberian Peninsula).

Neandertals were top predators who basically relied on middle- to large-sized ungulates for dietary purposes, but there is growing evidence that supports their consumption of plants, leporids, tortoises, marine resources, carnivores and birds. The Iberian Peninsula has provided the most abundant record of bird exploitation for meat in Europe, starting in the Middle Pleistocene. However, the bird and carnivore exploitation record was hitherto limited to the Mediterranean area of the Iberian Peninsula.

Immunoassay and amperometric biosensor approaches for the detection of deltamethrin in seawater.

The study of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and an amperometric biosensor for the detection of the pyrethroid deltamethrin in seawater is reported. The preparation of specific polyclonal antibodies is addressed using two immunizing haptens based on deltamethrin and cypermethrin compounds, with a spacer arm placed at the cyano residue in the pyrethroid structure. Different conjugates based on bovine serum albumin and aminodextran are prepared depending on the lipophilic profile of the competitor haptens studied.

Fluorescent microarray for multiplexed quantification of environmental contaminants in seawater samples.

The development of a fluorescent multiplexed microarray platform able to detect and quantify a wide variety of pollutants in seawater is reported. The microarray platform has been manufactured by spotting 6 different bioconjugate competitors and it uses a cocktail of 6 monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies raised against important families of chemical pollutants such as triazine biocide (i.e.

Improved virus inactivation using a hot bubble column evaporator (HBCE).

An improved hot bubble column evaporator (HBCE) was used to study virus inactivation rates using hot bubble-virus interactions in two different conditions: (1) using the bubble coalescence inhibition phenomenon of monovalent electrolytes and (2) with reducing the electrostatic repulsive forces between virus and bubble, by the addition of divalent electrolytes. It is shown that the continuous flow of (dry) air, even at 150-250 °C, only heats the aqueous solution in the bubble column to about 45°-55 °C and it was also established that viruses are not significantly affected by even long term exposure to this solution temperature, as confirmed separately from water bath experiments. Hence, the effects observed appeared to be caused entirely by collisions between the hot air bubbles and the virus organisms.

Electrospun poly(hydroxybutyrate) scaffolds promote engraftment of human skin equivalents via macrophage M2 polarization and angiogenesis.

Human dermo-epidermal skin equivalents (DE) comprising in vitro expanded autologous keratinocytes and fibroblasts are a good option for massive burn treatment. However, the lengthy expansion time required to obtain sufficient surface to cover an extensive burn together with the challenging surgical procedure limits their clinical use. The integration of DE and biodegradable scaffolds has been proposed in an effort to enhance their mechanical properties.

A Two-Stage Combining Classifier Model for the Development of Adaptive Dialog Systems.

This paper proposes a statistical framework to develop user-adapted spoken dialog systems. The proposed framework integrates two main models. The first model is used to predict the user's intention during the dialog.

Predicting Protein Relationships to Human Pathways through a Relational Learning Approach Based on Simple Sequence Features.

Unlabelled: Biological pathways are important elements of systems biology and in the past decade, an increasing number of pathway databases have been set up to document the growing understanding of complex cellular processes. Although more genome-sequence data are becoming available, a large fraction of it remains functionally uncharacterized. Thus, it is important to be able to predict the mapping of poorly annotated proteins to original pathway models.

Influence of subcutaneous administration of rapid-acting insulin in the quality of (18)F-FDG PET/CT studies.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a protocol for normalizing blood glucose levels in diabetic patients by subcutaneously administering rapid-acting insulin before administering (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) without hindering the quality of PET/computed tomography (CT) studies.

Materials And Methods: The study included 120 patients, who were divided into four groups: Group I: This group comprised 30 diabetic patients with blood glucose levels lower than 160 mg/dl at the time of arrival at our center; in these patients, (18)F-FDG was injected without prior administration of subcutaneous rapid-acting insulin. Group II: This group comprised 30 diabetic patients with blood glucose levels ranging from 168 to 260 mg/dl; in these patients, subcutaneous rapid-acting insulin was administered and then (18)F-FDG was injected when blood glucose levels dropped below 160 mg/dl (30-115 min).