Eggshell waste as catalyst: A review Laca, Amanda; Laca, Adriana; Díaz, Mario
Journal of environmental management,
07/2017, Letnik:
197
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Agricultural wastes are some of the most emerging problems in food industries because of their disposal cost. However, it is also an opportunity for the bioeconomy society if new uses for these ...residual materials can be found. Eggshells, considered a hazardous waste by UE regulations, are discarded, amounting hundreds of thousands of tonnes worldwide. This egg processing waste is a valuable source material, which can be used in different fields such as fodder or fertilizer production. Additionally, this residue offers interesting characteristics to be used in other applications, like its employment as an environment-friendly catalyst. In the present review we provide a global view of eggshell waste uses as catalyst in different processes. According to reviewed researching works, a huge variety of added value products can be obtained by using this catalyst which emphasised the interest of further investigations in order to widen the possible uses of this cheap green catalyst.
•Eggshell is produced at large amounts by egg processing industries.•This waste can be successfully employed as an environment-friendly catalyst.•A huge variety of added value products can be obtained by using this catalyst.•A global view of eggshell waste uses as catalyst in different processes is provided.
Life-history theory predicts that current behaviour affects future reproduction, implying that animals should optimise their escape strategies to reflect fitness costs and benefits of premature ...escape. Both costs and benefits of escape may change temporally with important consequences for the evolution of escape strategies. Moreover, escape strategies of species may differ according to their positions on slow-fast pace of life gradients. We studied risk-taking in long-distance migratory animals, waders (Charadriiformes), during the annual cycle, i.e., breeding in Europe, stopover in the Middle East and wintering in tropical Africa. Phylogenetically informed comparative analyses revealed that risk-taking (measured as flight initiation distance, FID) changed significantly over the year, being lowest during breeding and peaking at stopover sites. Similarly, relationships between risk-taking and life-history traits changed among stages of the annual cycle. While risk-taking significantly decreased with increasing body mass during breeding, risk-taking-body mass relationship became marginally significant in winter and disappeared during migration. The positive trend of risk-taking along slow-fast pace of life gradient measured as adult survival was only found during breeding. The season-dependent relationships between risk-taking and life history traits suggest that migrating animals respond to fluctuating environments by adopting behavioural plasticity.
CuO and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized at room-temperature following a novel, direct, high-yield (>91%) and green method based on a mechanically activated metathesis reaction. The CuO-NPs ...exhibited a rod-like shape with average length and diameter of 22 and 6 nm, respectively, while the ZnO-NPs showed spherical-like morphology and mean diameter of 15 nm, as determined by TEM. The antimicrobial properties of the NPs and commercially available micrometric counterparts were evaluated by the micro dilutions method to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations against reference strains from ATCC microorganisms, which were representative of the main groups of bacteria related to human infections, such as E. coli, S. aureus, E. faecalis and P. aeruginosa. The CuO and ZnO-NPs showed better antibacterial properties (500 μg/mL) in comparison with the commercial micrometric particles (1000 μg/mL). The analysis of the synergism between both NPs and ampicillin showed a decrease of their concentrations against all the microorganisms studied, with the ZnO-NPs showing better synergism activity than CuO-NPs, whereas the combination of the antibiotic with ZnO-NPs showed a six-fold decrease against all the microorganisms studied except to P. aeruginosa. The FIC index was calculated with both NPs and ampicillin to each bacterium. In most cases, the effect was partial synergism, and an additive effect was achieved when those combinations were evaluated against P. aeruginosa. The cell viability tests showed that the CuO and ZnO-NPs synthesized and mixed with the antibiotic are biocompatible in effective doses (<25 μg/mL). The NPs used in this study, prepared by a green innovative synthesis, and their combination with a basic antibiotic showed interesting results, suggesting the possibility of one alternative to biological applications.
Flight initiation distance (FID), the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential (human) predator, is a tool for understanding predator–prey interactions. Among the ...factors affecting FID, tests of effects of group size (i.e., number of potential prey) on FID have yielded contrasting results. Group size or flock size could either affect FID negatively (i.e., the dilution effect caused by the presence of many individuals) or positively (i.e., increased vigilance due to more eyes scanning for predators). These effects may be associated with gregarious species, because such species should be better adapted to exploiting information from other individuals in the group than nongregarious species. Sociality may explain why earlier findings on group size versus FID have yielded different conclusions. Here, we analyzed how flock size affected bird FID in eight European countries. A phylogenetic generalized least square regression model was used to investigate changes in escape behavior of bird species in relation to number of individuals in the flock, starting distance, diet, latitude, and type of habitat. Flock size of different bird species influenced how species responded to perceived threats. We found that gregarious birds reacted to a potential predator earlier (longer FID) when aggregated in large flocks. These results support a higher vigilance arising from many eyes scanning in birds, suggesting that sociality may be a key factor in the evolution of antipredator behavior both in urban and rural areas. Finally, future studies comparing FID must pay explicit attention to the number of individuals in flocks of gregarious species.
Flight initiation distance (FID) is considered a proxy of antipredator behavior. We investigated intraspecific patterns of FID in relation to flock size in gregarious birds. A strong positive relationship between FID and flock size was found.
Physics has historically been a goal and as a media to reach out for other educational skills. Unfortunately, in Mexico preschool teachers lack tools to develop science in their little students. To ...help in this situation, we propose the use of "Einstein Box," a set of toys where the kids can select and play with, then teachers explain the general physics concepts involved in the working of the toys. The results for the kids are amazing because they not only learn about basic physics, furthermore, mathematical thinking, social skills and verbal abilities, all around physics concepts.
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease where the altered regulation in angiogenesis, inflammation, and proliferation of keratinocytes are the possible causes of the disease, and the ...transcription factor “hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha” (HIF-1α) is involved in the homeostasis of these three biological phenomena. In this review, the role of HIF-1α in the cross talk between the cytokines and cells of the immunological system involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis is discussed.
•This is the first study to address nonattendance in PWE in Latin America.•Psychiatric comorbidities were associated with non-attendance in PWE.•Referral of PWE to psychiatric consult to treat ...comorbidities is advisable.•Measures to improve attendance of PWE to appointments should be enhanced.
In patients with epilepsy, regular follow-up is vital for adequate seizure control, antiseizure drugs’ (ASDs) side effects, psychiatric comorbidities, and planning for epilepsy surgery. Non-attendance creates barriers to adequate patient care, inefficient allocation of resources, loss of income, and unnecessary emergency department visits due to lack of seizure control. This study aimed to determine the causes and sociodemographic characteristics of the non-attendant population at the Epilepsy Clinic.
A prospective and observational study was carried out on patients treated at the Epilepsy Clinic of the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery (NINN) in Mexico from August 2015 to June 2016. A phone interview was made with all those patients who did not attend the epilepsy consultation. This call incorporated ad hoc questions to meet the objectives of this study.
During the study period, 1299 patients had an appointment at the epilepsy clinic, where 233 (17.9%) patients missed their consultation, 123 (52.8%) were male, mean age was 35.9 ± 14.42 years. The most frequent cause of non-attendance was forgetfulness of the appointment in 62 patients (26.6%). Two patients died; no patient was reported to have experienced SUDEP. Non-attendant patients showed statistically significant overall prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities (41.6%), particularly depression, anxiety, and interictal psychosis.
Information on non-attendance at various specialist consultations is scarce, and to our knowledge, this is the first study to address non-attendance in patients with epilepsy in Latin America. Improving hospital protocols to reduce non-attendance can increase patient adherence to follow-up, ultimately improving the quality of care in the epilepsy clinic.
Serious intraocular toxicity cases have been reported worldwide after the use of different perfluorocarbon liquids. The current study reports for the first-time the clinical pictures of cases of ...acute intraocular toxicity caused by MEROCTANE, a perfluoro-octane commercialized by a Turkish company and distributed in many countries. A series of 18 cases from Chile and Spain was retrospectively analysed. To evaluate the impurity profile, a suspicious MEROCTANE sample (lot OCT.01.2013) was analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry and compared with a non-suspicious sample of the same commercial perfluoro-octane (lot OCT 722011). Cytotoxicity was tested following a direct-contact method, taking into consideration the high volatility and hydrophobicity of perfluoro-octane and following the ISO 10993 guideline. Cytotoxicity test showed clear cytotoxic effects of the analysed batch (less than 9% of cell viability). Moreover, chemical analysis demonstrated the presence of many contaminants, some highly toxic (acids and alcohols). Perfluorocarbon liquids are useful tools for intraocular surgery but companies and Agencies of Medical Devices must implement measures that guarantee the safety of these products based on both chemical and cytotoxicity analysis for every batch. Medical staff should be encouraged to report any suspected case to their respective National Agencies.
Europe is an urbanized continent characterized by a long history of human-wildlife interactions. This study aimed to assess the effects of specific elements of urbanization and urban pollution on ...complementary avian diversity metrics, to provide new insights on the conservation of urban birds.
Our study recorded 133 bird species at 1624 point counts uniformly distributed in seventeen different European cities. Our results thus covered a large spatial scale, confirming both effects of geographical and local attributes of the cities on avian diversity. However, we found contrasting effects for the different diversity components analyzed. Overall, taxonomic diversity (bird species richness), phylogenetic diversity and relatedness were significantly and negatively associated with latitude, while functional dispersion of communities showed no association whatsoever. At the local level (within the city), we found that urban greenery (grass, bush, and trees) is positively correlated with the number of breeding bird species, while the building cover showed a detrimental effect. Functional dispersion was the less affected diversity metric, while grass and trees and water (rivers or urban streams) positively affected the phylogenetic diversity of avian communities. Finally, the phylogenetic relatedness of species increased with all the main indicators of urbanization (building surface, floors, pedestrian's density and level of light pollution) and was only mitigated by the presence of bushes.
We argue that maintaining adequate levels of avian diversity within the urban settlements can help to increase the potential resilience of urban ecosystems exposed to the stress provoked by rapid and continuous changes. We listed some characteristics of the cities providing positive and negative effects on each facet of urban avian diversity.
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•Four measures of avian diversity were estimated in bird communities of European cities.•Taxonomic and phylogenetic avian diversity were negatively associated with latitude.•Urban greenery increased avian taxonomic diversity, while building decreased it.•Grass, trees, and water positively affected phylogenetic diversity of avian communities.•Phylogenetic relatedness increased with urbanization and was only mitigated by bushes.
Brucellosis, also known as "undulant fever" is a zoonotic disease caused by
, which is a facultative intracellular bacterium. Despite efforts to eradicate this disease, infection in uncontrolled ...domestic animals persists in several countries and therefore transmission to humans is common.
evasion of the innate immune system depends on its ability to evade the mechanisms of intracellular death in phagocytic cells. The BvrR-BvrS two-component system allows the bacterium to detect adverse conditions in the environment. The BvrS protein has been associated with genes of virulence factors, metabolism, and membrane transport. In this study, we predicted the DNA sequence recognized by BvrR with Gibbs Recursive Sampling and identified the three-dimensional structure of BvrR using I-TASSER suite, and the interaction mechanism between BvrR and DNA with Protein-DNA docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Based on the Gibbs recursive Sampling analysis, we found the motif AAHTGC (H represents A, C, and T nucleotides) as a possible sequence recognized by BvrR. The docking and EMD simulation results showed that C-terminal effector domain of BvrR protein is likely to interact with AAHTGC sequence. In conclusion, we predicted the structure, recognition motif, and interaction of BvrR with DNA.
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