Selected Properties of Bio-Based Layered Hybrid Composites with Biopolymer Blends for Structural Applications.

In this study, layered composites were produced with different biopolymer adhesive layers, including biopolymer polylactic acid (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and biopolymer blends of PLA + polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) (75:25 w/w ratio) with the addition of 25, 50% microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and 3% triethyl Citrate (TEC) for these blends, which acted as binders and co-created the five layers in the elaborated composites. Modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), internal bonding strength (IB), density profile, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were obtained. The results showed that among the composites in which two pure biopolymers were used, PLA obtained the best results, while among the produced blends, PLA + PHB, PLA + PHB + 25MCC, and PLA + PHB + 25MCC + 3TEC performed best. The mechanical properties of the composites decreased with increases in the MCC content in blends. Therefore, adding 3% TEC improved the properties of composites made of PLA + PHB + MCC blends.

Recent Advances on the Development of Protein-Based Adhesives for Wood Composite Materials-A Review.

The industrial market depends intensely on wood-based composites for buildings, furniture, and construction, involving significant developments in wood glues since 80% of wood-based products use adhesives. Although biobased glues have been used for many years, notably proteins, they were replaced by synthetic ones at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly due to their better moisture resistance. Currently, most wood adhesives are based on petroleum-derived products, especially formaldehyde resins commonly used in the particleboard industry due to their high adhesive performance. However, formaldehyde has been subjected to strong regulation, and projections aim for further restrictions within wood-based panels from the European market, due to its harmful emissions. From this perspective, concerns about environmental footprint and the toxicity of these formulations have prompted researchers to re-investigate the utilization of biobased materials to formulate safer alternatives. In this regard, proteins have sparked a new and growing interest in the potential development of industrial adhesives for wood due to their advantages, such as lower toxicity, renewable sourcing, and reduced environmental footprint. This work presents the recent developments in the use of proteins to formulate new wood adhesives. Herein, it includes the historical development of wood adhesives, adhesion mechanism, and the current hotspots and recent progress of potential proteinaceous feedstock resources for adhesive preparation.

Evaluation of Functional Features of Lignocellulosic Particle Composites Containing Biopolymer Binders.

In this research, the assessment of the impact of natural biopolymer binders on selected mechanical and physical properties of lignocellulosic composites manufactured with different resination (12%, 15%, 20%). Different mechanical and physical properties were determined: modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, internal bonding strength, thickness swelling, water absorption, contact angle, and density profile. Moreover, thermal properties such as thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry were studied for the polymers. The results showed significant improvement of characterized features of the composites produced using biopolymers. However, the rise of the properties was visible when the binder content raised from 12% to 15%. Further increase of biopolymer binder did not imply a considerable change. The most promising biopolymer within the tested ones seems to be polycaprolactone (PCL).

Upcycling and Recycling Potential of Selected Lignocellulosic Waste Biomass.

This research aimed to confirm the ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by novel composite production using plantation waste on the example of lignocellulosic particles of black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliott) and raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.). Furthermore, to characterize the particles produced by re-milled particleboards made of the above-mentioned alternative raw materials in the light of further recycling. As part of the research, particleboards from wooden black chokeberry and raspberry were produced in laboratory conditions, and select mechanical and physical properties were examined. In addition, the characterization of raw materials (particles) on the different processing stages was determined, and the fraction share and shape of particles after re-milling of the produced panels was provided. The tests confirmed the possibility of producing particleboards from the raw materials used; however, in the case of boards with raspberry lignocellulose particles, their share cannot exceed 50% so as to comply with the European standards regarding bending strength criterion. In addition, the further utilization of chips made of re-milled panels can be limited due to the significantly different shape and fraction share of achieved particles.

Understanding the effects of copolymerized cellulose nanofibers and diatomite nanocomposite on blend chitosan films.

Chitosan films lack various important physicochemical properties and need to be supplemented with reinforcing agents to bridge the gap. Herein, we have produced chitosan composite films supplemented with copolymerized (with polyacrylonitrile monomers) cellulose nanofibers and diatomite nanocomposite at different concentrations. The incorporation of CNFs and diatomite enhanced the physicochemical properties of the films. The mechanical characteristics and hydrophobicity of the films were observed to be improved after incorporating the copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite at different concentrations (CNFs: 1%, 2% and 5%; diatomite: 10% and 30%). The antioxidant activity gradually increased with an increasing concentration (1-5% and 10-30%) of copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite in the chitosan matrix. Moreover, the water solubility decreased from 30% for chitosan control film (CH-0) to 21.06% for films containing 30% diatomite and 5% CNFs (CNFs-D30-5). The scanning electron micrographs showed an overall uniform distribution of copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite in the chitosan matrix with punctual agglomerations.

Assessment of Bleached and Unbleached Nanofibers from Pistachio Shells for Nanopaper Making.

Cellulose and lignocellulose nanofibrils were extracted from pistachio shells utilizing environmentally friendly pulping and totally chlorine-free bleaching. The extracted nanofibers were used to elaborate nanopaper, a continuous film made by gravimetric entanglement of the nanofibers and hot-pressed to enhance intramolecular bonding. The elaborated nanopapers were analyzed through their mechanical, optical, and surface properties to evaluate the influence of non-cellulosic macromolecules on the final properties of the nanopaper. Results have shown that the presence of lignin augmented the viscoelastic properties of the nanopapers by ≈25% compared with fully bleached nanopaper; moreover, the hydrophobicity of the lignocellulose nanopaper was achieved, as the surface free energy was diminished from 62.65 to 32.45 mNm-1 with an almost non-polar component and a water contact angle of 93.52°. On the other hand, the presence of lignin had an apparent visual effect on the color of the nanopapers, with a ΔE of 51.33 and a ΔL of -44.91, meaning a substantial darkening of the film. However, in terms of ultraviolet transmittance, the presence of lignin resulted in a practically nonexistent transmission in the UV spectra, with low transmittance in the visible wavelengths. In general, the presence of lignin resulted in the enhancement of selected properties which are desirable for packaging materials, which makes pistachio shell nano-lignocellulose an attractive option for this field.

Influence of Adding Offcuts and Trims with a Recycling Approach on the Properties of High-Density Fibrous Composites.

The sizeable global production of wood-based products requires new sources of raw material, but also creates large quantities of wastes or composites that do not comply with requirements. In this study, the influence of different shares of recovered high-density fiberboards (HDF-r), reversed into the production, on industrial HDF properties, has been examined. HDF-r may be a suitable partial substitute for raw pinewood for industrial HDF production. Although most of the mechanical properties, as well as thickness swelling and water absorption, had a linear decrease with the increase in the share of HDF-r share, the elaborated boards met most of the commercial requirements (EN 622-5). The property that did not meet the requirements was the internal bond strength for panels with 10% of HDF-r. The presented results show that, after some adjustments, it should be possible to produce HDF boards with up to 10% of recycled HDF being able to meet all commercial requirements.

Enhancement of UV absorbance and mechanical properties of chitosan films by the incorporation of solvolytically fractionated lignins.

In this work, an effective sequential organic solvent extraction of kraft and organosolv lignins was carried out to separate lignin into more homogeneous fractions with specific properties. The selected solvents were ethyl acetate, ethanol, methanol, and acetone in that order. Fractions were analysed in terms of their yield, molecular weight, S/G ratio, and phenolic hydroxyl groups content. The incorporation of lignin fractions into the chitosan was aimed to increase the UV absorbance and the mechanical resistance of the chitosan films, which would provide good properties for applications in the packaging field. Films were analysed in terms of UV-vis absorption spectra, tensile strength, as well as colour changes. Results showed a significant increase in the absorbance of UV-A and UV-B with the addition of lignin fractions, mechanical properties showed an increase in the ultimate tensile strength in case of kraft fractions, while organosolv fractions do not affect tensile strength significantly.

Formulation of Multifunctional Materials Based on the Reaction of Glyoxalated Lignins and a Nanoclay/Nanosilicate.

Two organosolv lignins from different origins, namely, almond shells and maritime pine, were modified by using a nanoclay and nanosilicate. Prior to modification, they were activated via glyoxalation to enhance the reactivity of the lignins and thus ease the introduction of the nanoparticles into their structure. The lignins were characterized by several techniques (Fourier transformed infrared, high-performance size exclusion chromatography, 1H NMR, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis) before and after modification to elucidate the main chemical and structural changes. The reaction with glyoxal proved to increase the amount of hydroxyl groups and methylene bridges. This tendency was more pronounced, as the percentage of glyoxal was incremented. On the other side, the addition of the nanoclay and nanosilicate particles improved the thermal stability of the lignins compared to that of the original unmodified ones. This trend was more evident for the lignin derived from maritime pine, which displayed better results regarding the thermal stability, indicating a more effective combination of the nanoparticles in the lignin structure during the modification process.

Biocomposites with increased dielectric constant based on chitosan and nitrile-modified cellulose nanocrystals.

The motivation of the present work was the preparation of bio-based thin film nanocomposites with improved dielectric properties using modified nanocellulose and chitosan, both materials known to derive from industrial waste. Cyanoethylation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) was achieved through a "green" method for the first time. Then, modified CNCs were incorporated into a chitosan (Chi) matrix, obtaining a homogeneous and flexible material with higher dielectric constant due to the high dipole moment of the nitrile functional group. The value of dielectric constant rises with the content of modified CNCs, from a value of 5.5 for pure chitosan at 25 °C and 1 kHz up to a value of 8.5 for the nanocomposite with 50 wt% at the same conditions. These bio-based nanocomposites show an improvement in their dielectric properties compared to pure chitosan and chitosan/unmodified CNC nanocomposites (for which dielectric constant decreases up to 4.5 at 25 °C and 1 kHz) and can be considered for high-temperature applications. Characterization of cyanoethylated cellulose nanocrystals (CN-CNC) and nanocomposites was carried out by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (ATR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and solid-state NMR and broad band dielectric spectroscopy (BDS). Tensile tests were developed for mechanical characterization.

Dataset on cellulose nanoparticles from blue agave bagasse and blue agave leaves.

These data and analyses support the research article "Production of cellulose nanoparticles from blue agave waste treated with environmentally friendly processes" Robles et al. [1]. The data and analyses presented here include fitted curves for selected carbons of the 13C CP-MAS NMR analysis; SEM images of the raw and bleached fibers, graphics with chemical composition and visual images of the fibers throughout the process.

Production of cellulose nanoparticles from blue agave waste treated with environmentally friendly processes.

Tequila elaboration leaves two main byproducts that are undervalued (bagasse and leaves). Organosolv pulping and Total Chlorine Free bleaching were integrated to obtain cellulose fibers from agricultural waste which consisted of blue agave bagasse and leaf fibers; together they represent a green process which valorizes biomass waste. The obtained celluloses were characterized by FT-IR, colorimetry, and SEM and their extraction yields were evaluated. These celluloses were used to produce cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibers. First, an acid hydrolysis was performed in a sonication bath to induce cavitation during the reaction to produce cellulose nanocrystals. Then a high-pressure homogenization was selected to produce cellulose nanofibers. These nanocelluloses were characterized by powder XRD, Nanosizer, zeta potential, NMR, and electronic microscopy. Results showed that cellulose from organosolv pulps bleached with TCF bleaching is suitable for nanocellulose production. Moreover, the use of a new step to separate cellulose nanocrystals resulted in yields almost doubling traditional yields, while the rest of the properties remained within the expected.

Overlooked Threats to Respondent Driven Sampling Estimators: Peer Recruitment Reality, Degree Measures, and Random Selection Assumption.

Intensive sociometric network data were collected from a typical respondent driven sample (RDS) of 528 people who inject drugs residing in Hartford, Connecticut in 2012-2013. This rich dataset enabled us to analyze a large number of unobserved network nodes and ties for the purpose of assessing common assumptions underlying RDS estimators. Results show that several assumptions central to RDS estimators, such as random selection, enrollment probability proportional to degree, and recruitment occurring over recruiter's network ties, were violated. These problems stem from an overly simplistic conceptualization of peer recruitment processes and dynamics. We found nearly half of participants were recruited via coupon redistribution on the street. Non-uniform patterns occurred in multiple recruitment stages related to both recruiter behavior (choosing and reaching alters, passing coupons, etc.) and recruit behavior (accepting/rejecting coupons, failing to enter study, passing coupons to others). Some factors associated with these patterns were also associated with HIV risk.

Expression of enamel proteins in rough endoplasmic reticulum and golgi complex in human dental germs / Expresión de proteínas del esmalte en retículo endoplásmico rugoso y complexo golgiensis en gérmenes dentales humanos

Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the body. The organic matrix configuration is provided by the main proteins amelogenin, ameloblastin and enamelysin (MMP20), an enzyme that helps to shape the matrix. The aim of this study was to determine by histochemistry the expression of amelogenin and enamelysin through the rough endoplasmic reticulum in the late stages of amelogenesis, and its expression in the Complexus golgiensis (Golgi complex / Golgi apparatus) in the early stages in human fetuses. In early stages a colocalization of both proteins inside the Golgi apparatus was found, being more evident the relationship between Golgi and amelogenin (99.92 %). In the late stage, a colocalization of both proteins and rugged endoplasmic reticulum was found. With enamelysin being more evident in relation with rough endoplasmic reticulum (99.95 %). Our findings demonstrated the presence of amelogenin and enamelysin in odontoblast and ameloblast. However, the presence of these two proteins in odontoblast remains unknown.

El esmalte dental es el tejido más duro del cuerpo. La configuración de la matriz orgánica es proporcionada por las proteínas principales amelogenina, ameloblastina y enamelisina (MMP20), una enzima que ayuda a dar forma a la matriz. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar mediante histoquímica la expresión de amelogenina y enamelisina a través del retículo endoplasmático rugoso en las últimas etapas de la amelogénesis , y su expresión en el Complexo golgiensis en las primeras etapas de formación en fetos humanos. En las primeras etapas se observó colocalización de ambas proteínas en el interior del Complexo golgiensis, siendo más evidente la relación entre Golgi y amelogenina (99,92 %). En la última etapa, se identificó una colocalización de ambas proteínas y retículo endoplásmico rugoso. Resulto más evidente la enamelisina en relación con el retículo endoplasmático rugoso (99,95 %). Nuestros resultados demostraron la presencia de amelogenina y enamelisina en odontoblastos y ameloblastos, sin embargo se desconoce la presencia de estas dos proteínas en odontoblastos.

Self-bonded composite films based on cellulose nanofibers and chitin nanocrystals as antifungal materials.

Cellulose nanofibers and chitin nanocrystals, two main components of agricultural and aquacultural by-products, were obtained from blue agave and yellow squat lobster industrial residues. Cellulose nanofibers were obtained using high pressure homogenization, while chitin nanocrystals were obtained by hydrolysis in acid medium. Cellulose nanofibers and chitin nanocrystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy and Infrared spectroscopy. Self-bonded composite films with different composition were fabricated by hot pressing and their properties were evaluated. Antifungal activity of chitin nanocrystals was studied using a Cellometer(®) cell count device, mechanical properties at tension were measured with a universal testing machine, water vapor permeability was evaluated with a thermohygrometer and surface tension with sessile drop contact angle method. The addition of chitin nanocrystals reduced slightly the mechanical properties of the composite. Presence of chitin nanocrystals influenced the growth of Aspergillus sp fungus in the surface of the composites as expected.

Cellulose Nanocrystal Membranes as Excipients for Drug Delivery Systems.

In this work, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were obtained from flax fibers by an acid hydrolysis assisted by sonochemistry in order to reduce reaction times. The cavitation inducted during hydrolysis resulted in CNC with uniform shapes, and thus further pretreatments into the cellulose are not required. The obtained CNC exhibited a homogeneous morphology and high crystallinity, as well as typical values for surface charge. Additionally, CNC membranes were developed from CNC solution to evaluation as a drug delivery system by the incorporation of a model drug. The drug delivery studies were carried out using chlorhexidine (CHX) as a drug and the antimicrobial efficiency of the CNC membrane loaded with CHX was examined against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus). The release of CHX from the CNC membranes is determined by UV-Vis. The obtaining methodology of the membranes proved to be simple, and these early studies showed a potential use in antibiotic drug delivery systems due to the release kinetics and the satisfactory antimicrobial activity.

Factors associated with fatal occupational accidents among Mexican workers: a national analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors associated with fatal occupational injuries in Mexico in 2012 among workers affiliated with the Mexican Social Security Institute. METHODS: Analysis of secondary data using information from the National Occupational Risk Information System, with the consequence of the occupational injury (fatal versus non-fatal) as the response variable. The analysis included 406,222 non-fatal and 1,140 fatal injuries from 2012. The factors associated with the lethality of the injury were identified using a logistic regression model with the Firth approach. RESULTS: Being male (OR=5.86; CI95%: 4.22-8.14), age (OR=1.04; CI95%: 1.03-1.06), employed in the position for 1 to 10 years (versus less than 1 year) (OR=1.37; CI95%: 1.15-1.63), working as a facilities or machine operator or assembler (OR: 3.28; CI95%: 2.12- 5.07) and being a worker without qualifications (OR=1.96; CI95%: 1.18-3.24) (versus an office worker) were associated with fatality in the event of an injury. Additionally, companies classified as maximum risk (OR=1.90; CI 95%: 1.38-2.62), workplace conditions (OR=7.15; CI95%: 3.63-14.10) and factors related to the work environment (OR=9.18; CI95%:4.36-19.33) were identified as risk factors for fatality in the event of an occupational injury. CONCLUSIONS: Fatality in the event of an occupational injury is associated with factors related to sociodemographics (age, sex and occupation), the work environment and workplace conditions. Worker protection policies should be created for groups with a higher risk of fatal occupational injuries in Mexico.

Changing drug users' risk environments: peer health advocates as multi-level community change agents.

Peer delivered, social oriented HIV prevention intervention designs are increasingly popular for addressing broader contexts of health risk beyond a focus on individual factors. Such interventions have the potential to affect multiple social levels of risk and change, including at the individual, network, and community levels, and reflect social ecological principles of interaction across social levels over time. The iterative and feedback dynamic generated by this multi-level effect increases the likelihood for sustained health improvement initiated by those trained to deliver the peer intervention. The Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP), conducted with heroin and cocaine/crack users in Hartford, Connecticut, exemplified this intervention design and illustrated the multi-level effect on drug users' risk and harm reduction at the individual level, the social network level, and the larger community level. Implications of the RAP program for designing effective prevention programs and for analyzing long-term change to reduce HIV transmission among high-risk groups are discussed from this ecological and multi-level intervention perspective.