| 1. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 2. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(författare)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 3. |
- Bundschuh, Jochen, et al.
(författare)
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Arsenic removal from groundwater of the Chaco-Pampean Plain (Argentina) using natural geological materials as adsorbents
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Part A. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1093-4529 .- 1532-4117. ; 46:11, s. 1297-1310
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Use of natural geological materials for arsenic (As) removal is an emerging solution at a household level for poor people in remote rural settlements, especially when the materials are locally available and can be collected by the local population. Their low or zero cost makes these materials very attractive compared with synthetic or commercial materials. Sometimes, this may be the only option to provide safe water to very poor settlements. Their suitability for As removal from water is mainly due to adsorption, co-precipitation and ion exchange processes involving Fe- and Al-rich minerals and clay minerals present in the soils or sediments. In the present study, various clay-rich soils from the Santiago del Estero province (SDE, NW Argentina) and, for comparison, a laterite from the Misiones province have been tested as adsorbents for As in shallow naturally contaminated groundwaters of the Rio Dulce alluvial aquifer in SDE. Batch adsorption experiments showed higher As(V) removal for the Misiones laterite sample (99 %) as compared with the soils from SDE (40-53 %), which can be related to lower contents of water-soluble and oxalate extractable Al and Fe in the last samples. These results suggest the application of the Misiones laterite soil as an alternative for As removal. However, high transportation costs from Misiones to SDE can be an economical restriction for the low-income population of SDE.
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| 4. |
- Das, Oisik, et al.
(författare)
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The Effect of Carbon Black on the Properties of Plasticised Wheat Gluten Biopolymer
- 2020
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Ingår i: Molecules. - : MDPI. - 1431-5157 .- 1420-3049. ; 25:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wheat gluten biopolymers generally become excessively rigid when processed without plasticisers, while the use of plasticisers, on the other hand, can deteriorate their mechanical properties. As such, this study investigated the effect of carbon black (CB) as a filler into glycerol-plasticised gluten to prepare gluten/CB biocomposites in order to eliminate the aforementioned drawback. Thus, biocomposites were manufactured using compression moulding followed by the determination of their mechanical, morphological, and chemical properties. The filler content of 4 wt% was found to be optimal for achieving increased tensile strength by 24%, and tensile modulus by 268% along with the toughness retention based on energy at break when compared with those of glycerol-plasticised gluten. When reaching the filler content up to 6 wt%, the tensile properties were found to be worsened, which can be ascribed to excessive agglomeration of carbon black at the high content levels within gluten matrices. Based on infrared spectroscopy, the results demonstrate an increased amount of β-sheets, suggesting the formation of more aggregated protein networks induced by increasing the filler contents. However, the addition of fillers did not improve fire and water resistance in such bionanocomposites owing to the high blend ratio of plasticiser to gluten.
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| 5. |
- Rezzadori, Katia, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of dense CO2 on polymeric reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes and permeation of mixtures of macauba oil (Acrocomia aculeata) and CO2
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 481, s. 195-206
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The performance of four commercial membranes upon subcritical and supercritical CO2 treatments have been characterised by different methods. The membranes were treated up to 8 h in static process, using two different conditions (18 MPa/313.15 K - supercritical and 8 MPa/293.15 K - subcritical). The possible changes in membrane characteristics were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle and surface free energy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Membrane performance was also evaluated by measuring CO2 flux ancl macauba oil retention factors. Changes in membrane roughness ancl in contact angles were observed for all membranes after sub and supercritical CO2 treatments. Moreover, the surface free energy and the polar component showed a decrease after CO2 exposure, confirming an increase in surface hydrophobicity of membranes detected from contact angle results. This empowerment of hydrophobicity is associated mainly with the CO2-polymer interaction. Other intra and interchain effects should not affect the thermal stability leaving TGA results unchanged after CO2 exposure. ORAK and NP030 membranes showed high macauba oil retentions; 95% and 85%, respectively in supercritical condition. This latter revealed to cause important changes in the membranes due to the higher solubility of CO2 in polymeric matrix at this condition. However, the selectivity was not changed and it is possible to use commercial polymeric membranes in supercritical systems for CO2 regeneration and partial fatty acid fractioning.
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