DuPont (Spain)

BACKGROUND: The impact of unmet eye care needs in sub-Saharan Africa is compounded by barriers to accessing eye care, limited engagement with communities, a shortage of appropriately skilled health personnel, and inadequate support from health systems. The renewed focus on primary health care has led to support for greater integration of eye health into national health systems. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate available evidence of integration of eye health into primary health care in sub-Saharan Africa from a health systems strengthening perspective. METHODS: A scoping review method was used to gather and assess information from published literature, reviews, WHO policy documents and examples of eye and health care interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings were compiled using a health systems strengthening framework. RESULTS: Limited information is available about eye health from a health systems strengthening approach. Particular components of the health systems framework lacking evidence are service delivery, equipment and supplies, financing, leadership and governance. There is some information to support interventions to strengthen human resources at all levels, partnerships and community participation; but little evidence showing their successful application to improve quality of care and access to comprehensive eye health services at the primary health level, and referral to other levels for specialist eye care. CONCLUSION: Evidence of integration of eye health into primary health care is currently weak, particularly when applying a health systems framework. A realignment of eye health in the primary health care agenda will require context specific planning and a holistic approach, with careful attention to each of the health system components and to the public health system as a whole. Documentation and evaluation of existing projects are required, as are pilot projects of systematic approaches to interventions and application of best practices. Multi-national research may provide guidance about how to scale up eye health interventions that are integrated into primary health systems.

Essential oils (EO) and short-chain fatty acids have potential antimicrobial activity in broilers. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a specific blend of EO and a combination of this blend of EO with sodium-butyrate on growth performance and Salmonella colonization in broilers. A total of 480 one-day-old male broilers were distributed into 5 treatments (8 pens per treatment and 12 birds per pen) and reared during 42 d in experimental conditions. Dietary treatments consisted of the addition of different doses of EO (0 mg/kg, control; 50 mg/kg, EO50 and 100 mg/kg, EO100) or a combination of EO with 1 g/kg of sodium-butyrate (B; EO50 + B, EOB50 and EO100 + B, EOB100) to a basal diet. All birds were orally infected with 10(8) cfu of Salmonella Enteritidis on d 7 of study. Individual BW and feed intake per pen were measured at arrival and on a weekly basis. The prevalence and enumeration of Salmonella in feces was determined per treatment at 72 h postinfection and on d 23 and 37 of study. At slaughter, cecal content and liver samples from 16 birds per treatment were cultured for Salmonella and cecal pH was measured. No differences were observed on growth performance among treatments. All fecal samples analyzed were positive for Salmonella from d 10 to the end of the rearing period. At slaughter, Salmonella contamination (positive samples) in cecum was lower in birds fed EOB50 compared with the other treatments (P < 0.05), whereas birds fed the control diet showed the highest colonization rates. The pH of the cecal content was not different among treatments. Thus, EO or its combination with sodium-butyrate did not affect growth performance. However, a clear effectiveness of these products was observed in Salmonella control, especially when low doses of EO were combined with sodium-butyrate (EOB50).

The learning objectives of this chapter are the following:

Invasive species can reach high abundances and dominate native environments. One of the most impressive examples of ecological invasions is the spread of the African subspecies of the honey bee throughout the Americas, starting from its introduction in a single locality in Brazil. The invasive honey bee is expected to more negatively impact bee community abundance and diversity than native dominant species, but this has not been tested previously. We developed a comprehensive and systematic bee sampling scheme, using a protocol deploying 11,520 pan traps across regions and crops for three years in Brazil. We found that invasive honey bees are now the single most dominant bee species. Such dominance has not only negative consequences for abundance and species richness of native bees but also for overall bee abundance (i.e., strong "numerical" effects of honey bees). Contrary to expectations, honey bees did not have stronger negative impacts than other native bees achieving similar levels of dominance (i.e., lack of negative "identity" effects of honey bees). These effects were markedly consistent across crop species, seasons and years, and were independent from land-use effects. Dominance could be a proxy of bee community degradation and more generally of the severity of ecological invasions.

Reactor technology for maleic anhydride continues its evolution. New processes achieve higher yields with lower investment by operating in a net reducing environment where the oxygen concentration is lower than that required stoichiometrically to react all of the butane. In this paper, we examined a wide range of operating conditions to quantify the effect of a reducing environment on maleic anhydride selectivity, byproduct acid productivity, and reaction rates. The experiments were carried out with a vanadium phosphorus oxide catalyst in a fluidized-bed reactor and a novel feed gas manifold. Oxygen, carbon monoxide, butane, and acid concentrations were measured online at a frequency of about 1 Hz. Acetic and acrylic acids were the predominant byproduct acids, but fumaric, methacrylic, and phthalic acids were also detected. Under reducing conditions, carbon adsorbed on the catalyst surface, byproduct acid yields increased, and both the selectivity and reaction rates decreased. A redox kinetic model was developed to account for the experimental observations and included both V 5+ and V 4+ oxidation states and a “V C4 ” complex, which represented carbon adsorption.

The adult body size of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), varies in natural conditions. Body size is an important fitness indicator in the Mediterranean fruit fly; larger individuals are more competitive at mating and have a greater dispersion capacity and fertility. Both temperature during larval development and host fruit quality have been cited as possible causes for this variation. We studied the influence of host fruit and temperature during larval development on adult body size (wing area) in the laboratory, and determined body size variation in field populations of the Mediterannean fruit fly in eastern Spain. Field flies measured had two origins: 1) flies periodically collected throughout the year in field traps from 32 citrus groves, during the period 2003-2007; and 2) flies evolved from different fruit species collected between June and December in 2003 and 2004. In the lab, wing area of male and female adults varied significantly with temperature during larval development, being larger at the lowest temperature. Adult size also was significantly different depending on the host fruit in which larvae developed. The size of the flies captured at the field, either from traps or from fruits, varied seasonally showing a gradual pattern of change along the year. The largest individuals were obtained during winter and early spring and the smallest during late summer. In field conditions, the size of the adult Mediterannean fruit fly seems apparently more related with air temperature than with host fruit. The implications of this adult size pattern on the biology of C. capitata and on the application of the sterile insect technique are discussed.

Abstract The reaction kinetics of the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene over a V/MgO catalyst were studied. Both propane and propene oxidation kinetics were measured independently to quantify the rates of the parallel and consecutive reactions to propene and carbon oxides. Specific experiments to evaluate reaction products effects showed that water inhibited reaction rates but co‐feeding CO 2 or propene had no measurable effect on selectivity or conversion. Kinetic data generated under integral reactor conditions and over an inert membrane reactor have also been used to estimate the kinetic parameters. Selectivity decreased as the oxygen partial pressure increased; however, propene yield was relatively insensitive to oxygen concentration. A dual site Mars‐van Krevelen model characterizes the reaction kinetics well. The role of lattice oxygen was established by alternating pulses of propane and oxygen. This redox model is able to predict the experimental tendencies observed in the three types of reactor studied.

Abstract A novel reactor concept is proposed for partial oxidation reactions that combines membrane and fluid bed reactor technology in a single vessel. Air fluidizes the shell side in which both membrane tubes — charged with catalyst — and cooling coils are immersed. Oxygen transport through the membrane wall is controlled by pressure drop. Model simulations, based on the kinetics for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene, show improved performance compared to conventional fixed bed technology. The controlled oxygen addition along the axis improves propene selectivity and broadens the operating range with respect to hydrocarbon and oxygen feed rates.

The agriculture and livestock industry generate waste used in anaerobic digestion to produce biogas containing methane (CH4), useful in the generation of electricity and heat. However, although biogas is mainly composed of CH4 (~65%) and CO2 (~34%), among the 1% of other compounds present is hydrogen sulphide (H2S) which deteriorates engines and power generation fuel cells that use biogas, generating a foul smell and contaminating the environment. As a solution to this, anoxic biofiltration, specifically with biotrickling filters (BTFs), stands out in terms of the elimination of H2S as it is cost-effective, efficient, and more environmentally friendly than chemical solutions. Research on the topic is uneven in terms of presenting performance markers, underestimating many microbiological indicators. Research from the last decade was analyzed (2010–2020), demonstrating that only 56% of the reviewed publications did not report microbiological analysis related to sulphur oxidising bacteria (SOB), the most important microbial group in desulphurisation BTFs. This exposes fundamental deficiencies within this type of research and difficulties in comparing performance between research works. In this review, traditional and microbiological performance markers of anoxic biofiltration to remove H2S are described. Additionally, an analysis to assess the efficiency of anoxic BTFs for biogas desulphurisation is proposed in order to have a complete and uniform assessment for research in this field.

The learning objectives of this chapter are the following:

Poly(m-phenylenediamineisophthyl)amide (MPD-I) is a polymer that is particularly well suited for the manufacture of filters, due to its high chemical and thermal resistance as well as processability characteristics. The degradation of this polymer was studied, both as fibers and as a filter cloth, in a proprietary laboratory degradation chamber and in an industrial environment. The results were fitted to a kinetic model describing the degradation as a combination of thermal scission, oxidation, and hydrolysis. The model fits well with the experimental results, and the laboratory induced degradation adequately simulates the conditions in which polymers are used industrially. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 19: 120–131, 2000

Abstract Ants play important ecological roles, such as predation on other arthropods, seed dispersal, and soil structure maintenance. In citrus agroecosystems, ants are considered a secondary pest. The damage they cause is indirect through the disruption of the biological control of pests, especially honeydew producers. In integrated pest management programs, adequate and precise sampling methods are required to accurately determine the need for chemical ant control to minimize the economic and environmental costs of unnecessary chemical treatments and to reduce the risk of crop loss by pests. In Mediterranean citrus groves, eight ant species that differed in abundance and frequency have been found foraging on citrus trees: L asius grandis F orel, P heidole pallidula ( N ylander), P lagiolepis pygmaea ( L atreille), F ormica gerardi B ondroit, F ormica rufibarbis F abricius, C amponotus sylvaticus ( O livier), L inepithema humile ( M ayr), and T apinoma erraticum ( L atreille) (all H ymenoptera: F ormicidae). The trunk was selected as the most efficient sampling unit to establish the monitoring method. Aggregation indices on the trunk of these species were calculated, and enumerative and binomial sampling methods were developed for the most frequent species, L . grandis and P h. pallidula . Ant species differed in spatial distributions within citrus orchards, and required different sample sizes to estimate population abundance. The minimum sample size required, taking into account the maximum average abundance found – 44.1 L . humile , 17.3 L . grandis , and 3.5 P h. pallidula per trunk per min –, would be 28, 25, and 54 trees, respectively.

Abstract Poly( m ‐phenylenediamineisophthal)amide (MPD‐I) and poly( p ‐phenylenediamineterephthal)amide (PPD‐T) are among the most important high‐tech polymers. The degradation of three MPD‐I fibers with different molecular weight distributions and a PPD‐T fiber was studied in a proprietary laboratory degradation chamber. The results were fitted satisfactorily to a kinetic model describing the degradation as a combination of thermal scission, oxidation, and hydrolysis. PPD‐T degradation is slower than that of MPD‐I, and MPD‐I resistance to degradation increases as polydispersity decreases. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 22: 15–21, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/adv.10031

AIM: To determine the population incidence of intracerebral haemorrhage and its preventable incidence, associated risk factors and prognosis of death and disability. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We examined a sample of 240 consecutive patients with a first episode of intracerebral haemorrhage between 1st April 2006 and 30th June 2015. The main variables are: NIHSS scale, comorbidity, pharmacological information, Barthel index, Rankin scale, time within therapeutic window, prognosis and destination on hospital discharge. The 'unnecessarily premature and sanitarily avoidable mortality' (MIPSE) classification was applied to define the cases as 'preventable incidence'. RESULTS: The rate of population incidence of haemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease was 23.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants/year; an exponential increase occurred from the age of 55 years in males and 75 years in females. The rate ratio was 0.682. The preventable incidence would account for 66.6% of all the cases in those under 75 years of age and 22.7% in those aged 75 or over. The chances of survival and functional autonomy were significantly lower in females, and age, anticoagulant treatment, the presence of polymedication and treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants were factors that were independent of the prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of haemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease does not appear to be modified within the period, but just the opposite occurs with the factors associated according to sex and age. According to the MIPSE classification, the preventability of haemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease could be as high as 36%.

ABSTRACT Seawater brine recovery is a promising technology to recover valuable compounds out of seawater reverse osmosis brine and produce drinking water from seawater. Brine recovery enables the recuperation of natural resources from seawater through a sustainable process aligned with United Nations sustainability development goals and the transition into a circular economy. To get these compounds, different steps need to be performed. The first one involves separating divalent compounds from monovalent ones. This is achieved using selective nanofiltration membranes. The subsequent phase of the process requires the production of potable water, followed by the concentration and dewatering of the residual monovalent brine. FilmTec™ SWBR-100 and FilmTec™ SWBR-150 are two types of nanofiltration selective membranes explicitly designed to segregate divalent and monova-lent compounds. This allows the isolated divalent compounds to be recovered as valuable magnesium salts, following further concentration. At a later stage in the process, the monovalent permeate stream produced by FilmTec™ SWBR-100 or FilmTec™ SWBR-150 undergoes additional concentration enhancement with the aid of FilmTec™ SWBR-200. This membrane enables the recovery of Na and Cl monovalents, even when dealing with high total dissolved solids. This research study aims to evaluate the functionality of these three membranes and highlights the benefits that nanofiltration and seawater reverse osmosis elements bring to the separation process. The membranes were tested under typical operating conditions of a brine recovery process. The experimentation was conducted at the Global Water Technology Center in Tarragona. The trials showed that FilmTec™ SWBR-100 delivers the highest divalent rejection rate while FilmTec™ SWBR-150 performs well and saves some energy. Moreover, experimentation demonstrated that FilmTec™ SWBR-200 provides satisfactory monovalent concentration levels with lower energy consumption.

Background: Bridging the gap between different phenomena, mechanisms and levels of description, different design methods can converge in a unitary way of formulation. This protocol consolidates the analogy and parallelism in the description of any unit operation of separation, as is the particular case of sedimentation. This holistic framework is compatible and complementary with other methodologies handled at length, and tries to contribute to the integration of some imaginative and useful - but marginal, heuristic or rustic- procedures for the design of settlers and thickeners, within well founded and unified methodology. Objective: Classical models for hindered sedimentation allow solid flux in the direction of the gravity field to be formulated by analogy to changes obeying a potential, such as molecular transfer in the direction of the gradient and chemical transformation throughout the reaction coordinate. This article justifies the fundamentals of such a suggestive generalized analogy through the definition of the time of the sedimentation unit (TSU), the effective surface area of a sedimentation unit (ASU) and the number of sedimentation units (NSU), as elements of a sizing equation. Methods: This article also introduces the generalization of the model ab initio: Analogy is a well known and efficient tool, not only in the interpretation of events with academic or coaching purposes, but also in the generalized modelling, prospective, innovation, analysis and synthesis of technological processes. Chemical Engineering protocols for the basic dimensioning of Unit Operations driven by potentials (momentum, heat and mass transfer chemical reaction) are founded in macroscopic balances of mass and energy. Results: These balances, emphatically called “design equations”, result from the integration of mechanistic differential formulations at the microscopic level of description (“equations of variation”). In its turn, these equations include phenomenological terms that may be formulated in corpuscular terms in the field of Chemical Physics. The design equation correlates requirements in equipment (e.g. any practical forms of size and residence or elapsed time for an efficient interaction) to the objectives of the operation (e.g. variations in mass or energy contents of a confined or fluent system). This formulation allows the identification of different contributions: intrinsic terms (related to mechanistic kinetics of the phenomena) and circumstantial terms (related to conditions and variables of operation). Conclusion: In fact, this model suggests that temporal or spatial dimensions of the equipment may be assumed to depend irrespectively on two design contributions: the entity of a representative “unit of operation (or process)” - illustrated by a descriptor of this dimension- and the “number of (these) units” needed to achieve the separating or transformative objectives of the operation.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTDERIVATIVES OF ANTHRAQUINONE. ALIPHATIC THIO-ETHERS, DITHIO-ETHERS, AND THIO-ETHER SULFONIC ACIDS.E. Emmet Reid, Colin M. Mackall, and George E. MillerCite this: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1921, 43, 9, 2104–2117Publication Date (Print):September 1, 1921Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 September 1921https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja01442a016https://doi.org/10.1021/ja01442a016research-articleACS PublicationsRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views150Altmetric-Citations2LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose Get e-Alerts

Seasonal trends and the parasitoid complex of Chinese wax scale (Ceroplastes sinensis) was studied from July 2010 to February 2013. Six commercial citrus groves located in northeastern Spain were sampled fortnightly. Chinese wax scale completed a single annual generation. Egg oviposition started in May and continued until mid-July. Egg hatching began in mid-June, and in the first quarter of August, the maximum percentage of hatched eggs was reached. In the same groves, the parasitoid species of C. sinensis were determined together with their seasonal trends, relative abundance and occurrence on C. sinensis. Four hymenoptera were found parasitizing C. sinensis, mainly on third instars and females: Coccophagus ceroplastae (Aphelinidae), Metaphycus helvolus (Encyrtidae), Scutellista caerulea (Pteromalidae) and Aprostocetus ceroplastae (Eulophidae). The most abundant species was A. ceroplastae, corresponding to 54% of the parasitoids emerged. Coccophagus ceroplastae and M. helvolus represented 19%, whereas S. caerulea comprised 8% of the total. This study is the first published record of C. ceroplastae in Spain and the first record of M. helvolus on C. sinensis in Spain. Concerning the economical thresholds normally used, sampling plans developed for the management of C. sinensis in citrus groves should target population densities of around 12-20% of invaded twigs, equivalent to 0.2-0.5 females per twig. The sample size necessary to achieve the desired integrated pest management precision is 90-160 twigs per grove for the enumerative plan and about 160-245 twigs per grove for the binomial plan.

An assessment of the error associated with conventional pesticide residue analysis has been conducted based on computer simulations and inter-laboratory residue analysis. Computational simulations were conducted based on (i) typical performance and regulatory acceptance criteria of analytical methods, and (ii) field residue distributions. In addition, field samples with incurred residues were sent to different private laboratories and the results compared. The relative difference in pesticide residues obtained when samples from the same field or produce lot are analyzed at separate laboratories was used to quantify the uncertainty associated with residue analyses performed using common analytical technology, and methods that are in compliance with current regulatory requirements. The study showed that differences of > 100% are common and should be expected when samples from the same crop are analyzed at different laboratories. The results also suggest that the error within residue measurements can be particularly detrimental when a result is reported near the maximum residue limit (MRL).

ABSTRACT Water scarcity is one key challenge mankind is facing. Seawater reverse osmosis desalination is a promising technology to solve it. However, further innovation which needs to go beyond product specifications is needed to decrease the total cost of water while at the same time, improving sustainability footprint. This paper describes a breakthrough step-change in innovation within the desalination industry: transitioning from wet-tested seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) elements to dry-tested SWRO elements. This new concept has been achieved by DuPont thanks to a cumulation of significant breakthrough in reverse osmosis technology: continuous advancements in membrane chemistry, automated precision manufacturing, single source manufacturing, a robust quality control, and enhancements in testing methods. Dry SWRO elements offer significant advantages over wet elements, given the requirement to monitor and eventually replace preservation solutions for wet membranes. Dry membranes enable longer storage times, lower labor costs and easier long-term warehouse planning. Dry membranes are safer to install due to a 4 kg weight reduction and are easier to handle. From the sustainability point of view, the dry-test SW concept also brings plenty of benefits: (1) Reduces fresh-water consumption as no wet testing is required; (2) Eliminates wastewater generated during wet testing; (3) Significantly reduces energy consumption by skipping wet testing; and (4) the lower membrane weight will significantly decrease the environmental footprint of dry elements, reducing by up to 20% the CO 2 generation during transportation. In a large desalination installation supplied with dry SWRO elements, the greenhouse gas emissions reduction equals those generated by a passenger vehicle driving more than 500,000 km. Additionally, dry SWRO elements offer the same water productivity and permeate quality as wet elements.