To reduce dependence on fossil fuels in Brazil, biodiesel production has grown in recent years, resulting a large surplus of glycerol, which is obtained as a byproduct. Therefore, it is essential to ...seek new applications so that glycerol can be more efficiently used and add value to the biodiesel production chain. Based on this scenario, this work aims to carry out a technical-economic feasibility analysis regarding the process of transforming glycerol into propylene by hydrogenolysis and the subsequent polymerization of this product into atactic homopolymer polypropylene. To fulfill this objective, computer simulations of these processes were performed in Aspen Plus v8.8, with the support of information available in the literature. Glycerol hydrogenolysis showed high production costs when compared to other propylene production routes. The polymerization process proved to be economically viable, but its integration with the hydrogenolysis process generated polypropylene with an uncompetitive price compared to the price found in the market. The main problems for the viability of this route were identified as the large excess of hydrogen necessary for the hydrogenolysis reaction and the high costs of glycerol and effluent disposal.
Sugarcane is currently the primary raw material for ethanol production in Brazil. However, in recent years, corn has become an exportable commodity in the country, and many projects have emerged for ...ethanol production from this feedstock. The assessment of the market demand for ethanol in Brazil in the coming years indicates a deficit in domestic production. Thus, strategic planning is essential to guide future industry investments and ensures competitiveness and development in this segment. In this work, process simulation is used to compare sugarcane and corn ethanol production technologies in terms of their material and energy demands, and to measure the potential impact of the corn entrance in the current Brazilian market. It was shown that ethanol from corn can have a cost 5% lower than 1G ethanol and 17% lower than 1G2G ethanol from sugarcane. If 50% of the additional demand for ethanol is supplied from corn, a potential reduction of up to 5% can be expected in the biofuel average price, depending on the corn price. One corn ethanol plant could supply almost the same amount of biofuel than two or three sugarcane ethanol plants, and adaption of existing mills to flex processing plants is indicated as a viable alternative.
A comparative environmental impact analysis of the soybean biodiesel production by two different technologies was done in this study. The production routes evaluated were the alkali-catalyzed ...(catalyst: sodium hydroxide) methylic transesterification and the enzyme-catalyzed (catalyst: lipase) ethylic transesterification. In an early work, simulations of the biodiesel production processes with the software Aspen HYSYS, from AspenTech Inc., were carried out. Now, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the entire biodiesel production chain is done. The inventories related to each production subsystem were developed based on the mass and energy balances obtained from the simulations and on literature information. The results clearly indicated the best environmental performance of ethanol over methanol and of the enzymatic technology over the traditional alkaline technology, but also demonstrated some bottlenecks that should be attacked in a seek for more sustainable solutions.
Fabry disease is an X-linked monogenic disorder caused by mutations in the GLA gene. Recent data suggest that stroke in young adults may be associated with Fabry disease. We aimed to ascertain the ...prevalence of this disorder among young adult patients with stroke in Portugal by GLA genotyping.
During 1 year, all patients aged 18 to 55 years with first-ever stroke, who were admitted into any of 12 neurology hospital departments in Portugal, were prospectively enrolled (n=625). Ischemic stroke was classified according to Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment criteria. Alpha-galactosidase activity was further assayed in all patients with GLA mutations.
Four hundred ninety-three patients (mean age, 45.4 years; 61% male) underwent genetic analyses: 364 with ischemic stroke, 89 with intracerebral hemorrhage, 26 with subarachnoid hemorrhage, and 14 with cerebral venous thrombosis. Twelve patients had missense GLA mutations: 9 with ischemic stroke (p.R118C: n=4; p.D313Y: n=5), including 5 patients with an identified cause of stroke (cardiac embolism: n=2; small vessel disease: n=2; other cause: n=1), 2 with intracerebral hemorrhage (p.R118C: n=1; p.D313Y: n=1), and one with cerebral venous thrombosis (p.R118C: n=1). Leukocyte alpha-galactosidase activity was subnormal in the hemizygous males and subnormal or low-normal in the heterozygous females. Estimated prevalence of missense GLA mutations was 2.4% (95% CI, 1.3% to 4.1%).
Despite a low diagnostic yield, screening for GLA mutations should probably be considered in different types of stroke. Restricting investigation to patients with cryptogenic stroke may underestimate the true prevalence of Fabry disease in young patients with stroke.
Currently, there is no established guidance on how to process and evaluate resected lung cancer specimens after neoadjuvant therapy in the setting of clinical trials and clinical practice. There is ...also a lack of precise definitions on the degree of pathologic response, including major pathologic response or complete pathologic response. For other cancers such as osteosarcoma and colorectal, breast, and esophageal carcinomas, there have been multiple studies investigating pathologic assessment of the effects of neoadjuvant therapy, including some detailed recommendations on how to handle these specimens. A comprehensive mapping approach to gross and histologic processing of osteosarcomas after induction therapy has been used for over 40 years.
The purpose of this article is to outline detailed recommendations on how to process lung cancer resection specimens and to define pathologic response, including major pathologic response or complete pathologic response after neoadjuvant therapy. A standardized approach is recommended to assess the percentages of (1) viable tumor, (2) necrosis, and (3) stroma (including inflammation and fibrosis) with a total adding up to 100%. This is recommended for all systemic therapies, including chemotherapy, chemoradiation, molecular-targeted therapy, immunotherapy, or any future novel therapies yet to be discovered, whether administered alone or in combination. Specific issues may differ for certain therapies such as immunotherapy, but the grossing process should be similar, and the histologic evaluation should contain these basic elements. Standard pathologic response assessment should allow for comparisons between different therapies and correlations with disease-free survival and overall survival in ongoing and future trials. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer has an effort to collect such data from existing and future clinical trials. These recommendations are intended as guidance for clinical trials, although it is hoped they can be viewed as suggestion for good clinical practice outside of clinical trials, to improve consistency of pathologic assessment of treatment response.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a commonly occurring chronic skin disease with high heritability. Apart from filaggrin (FLG), the genes influencing atopic dermatitis are largely unknown. We conducted a ...genome-wide association meta-analysis of 5,606 affected individuals and 20,565 controls from 16 population-based cohorts and then examined the ten most strongly associated new susceptibility loci in an additional 5,419 affected individuals and 19,833 controls from 14 studies. Three SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the discovery and replication cohorts combined, including rs479844 upstream of OVOL1 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.88, P = 1.1 × 10(-13)) and rs2164983 near ACTL9 (OR = 1.16, P = 7.1 × 10(-9)), both of which are near genes that have been implicated in epidermal proliferation and differentiation, as well as rs2897442 in KIF3A within the cytokine cluster at 5q31.1 (OR = 1.11, P = 3.8 × 10(-8)). We also replicated association with the FLG locus and with two recently identified association signals at 11q13.5 (rs7927894; P = 0.008) and 20q13.33 (rs6010620; P = 0.002). Our results underline the importance of both epidermal barrier function and immune dysregulation in atopic dermatitis pathogenesis.
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•Acetylene fatty acids 1–4 were isolated from flowers of Porcelia macrocarpa.•Compounds 1–3 displayed activity against T. cruzi and reduced cytotoxicity.•Compound 1 alters plasma ...membrane permeability and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Porcelia macrocarpa (Warm.) R. E. Fries (Annonaceae) is an endemic plant in Brazil where its tasty pulp has been eaten fresh. The hexane extract from its flowers was subjected to chromatographic procedures to afford four acetylene derivatives identified as octadec-9-ynoic (stearolic acid – 1), (11E)-octadec-11-en-9-ynoic (santalbic acid – 2), 8-hydroxyoctadec-9,11-diynoic (3) and 8-hydroxyoctadec-17-en-9,11-diynoic (isanolic acid – 4) acids by NMR and HRESIMS. Among tested compounds against trypomastigote forms of T. cruzi, octadec-9-ynoic acid (1) displayed higher potential with IC50 = 27.6 µM and a selectivity index (SI) higher than 7. Compounds 2 and 3 showed IC50 of approximately 60 µM while compound 4 was inactive. The lethal action of the compound 1 was investigated using spectrofluorometric techniques to detect ROS content, plasma membrane permeability and plasma membrane potential by flow cytometry. Compound 1 showed no alteration in the production of ROS of treated trypomastigotes and no alteration of the plasma membrane permeability was observed as detected by the fluorescent probe SYTOX-green after 120 min of incubation. However, by using the potential-sensitive fluorescent probe DiSBAC2(3), compound 1 caused depolarization of the plasma membrane potential when compared to untreated parasites. Our results demonstrated the anti-T. cruzi effects of compounds 1–3 isolated from flowers of P. macrocarpa and indicated that the lethal effect of compound 1 in T. cruzi could be associated to the plasma membrane disturbance of the parasite.
Currently there is no established guidance on how to process and evaluate resected lung cancer specimens following neoadjuvant therapy in the setting of clinical trials and clinical practice. There ...is also a lack of precise definitions on the degree of pathologic response, including major pathologic response (MPR) or complete pathologic response (CPR). In other cancers such as osteosarcoma, colorectal, breast and esophageal carcinomas, there have been multiple studies investigating pathologic assessment of the effects of neoadjuvant therapy including some detailed recommendations on how to handle these specimens. A comprehensive mapping approach to gross and histologic processing of osteosarcomas following induction therapy has been used for over 40 years.
The purpose of this article is to outline detailed recommendations on how to process lung cancer resection specimens and to define pathologic response including MPR and CPR following neoadjuvant therapy. A standardized approach is recommended to assess the percentages of: 1) viable tumor, 2) necrosis and 3) stroma (including inflammation and fibrosis) with a total adding up to 100%. This is recommended for all systemic therapies including chemotherapy, chemoradiation, molecular targeted therapy, immunotherapy or any future novel therapies yet to be discovered whether administered alone or in combination. Specific issues may differ for certain therapies such as immunotherapy, but the grossing process should be similar and the histologic evaluation should contain these basic elements. Standard pathologic response assessment should allow for comparisons between different therapies and correlations with disease free survival and overall survival in ongoing and future trials. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has an effort to collect such data from existing and future clinical trials. These recommendations are intended as guidance for clinical trials, although it is hoped they can be viewed as suggestion for good clinical practice outside of clinical trials, to improve consistency of pathologic assessment of treatment response.
Introduction The aim of this preliminary study was to analyze the results of en-masse incisor and canine retraction with temporary skeletal anchorage devices (TSADs) as the exclusive source of ...anchorage. Methods A retrospective clinical investigation supported by preliminary case reports was performed comparing pretreatment cephalometric radiographs with those taken after en-masse retraction of the 6 anterior teeth. The sample consisted of 17 nongrowing patients with an average age of 24.4 ± 3.71 years. The average retraction period was 13.94 ± 5.37 months. No brackets or bands were placed on the posterior dentition during retraction. A total of 34 TSADs were used as the only source of anchorage. Thirty sand-blasted, large-grit, and acid-etched C-implants and 4 miniplates with tubes were used. These TSADs were designed to withstand heavy and dynamic retraction forces applied to the maxillary anterior dentition, thereby eliminating the need for bonded or banded anchor teeth. The cephalometric radiographs were analyzed for differences between pretreatment and postretraction variables that included skeletal, dental, and soft-tissue relationships. Results Significant incisor and canine retraction was achieved in all patients. During the retraction period, the posterior teeth showed a tendency for extrusion and mesial tipping. Conclusions En-masse retraction of the 6 anterior teeth can be accomplished by using TSADs as the only source of anchorage. Maximum anchorage was achieved without appliances in the posterior dentition.
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