Kinetic study of the catalytic cracking of waste motor oil using biomass-derived heterogeneous catalysts.

Herein, biochar from biomass residues is demonstrated as active materials for the catalytic cracking of waste motor oil into diesel-like fuels. Above all, alkali-treated rice husk biochar showed great activity with a 250% increase in the kinetic constant compared to the thermal cracking. It also showed better activity than synthetic materials, as previously reported. Moreover, much lower activation energy (185.77to293.48kJmol) for the cracking process was also obtained. According to materials characterization, the catalytic activity was more related to the nature of the biochar's surface than its specific surface area. Finally, liquid products complied with all the physical properties defined by international standards for diesel-like fuels, with the presence of hydrocarbons chains between C10-C27 similar to the ones obtained in commercial diesel.

Marital Processes Linking Gender Role Attitudes and Marital Satisfaction Among Mexican-Origin Couples: Application of an Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model.

Informed by dyadic approaches and culturally informed, ecological perspectives of marriage, we applied an actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) in a sample of 120 Mexican-origin couples to examine (a) the associations linking Mexican immigrant husbands' and wives' gender role attitudes to marital satisfaction directly and indirectly through marital processes (i.e., warmth and negativity) and (b) whether the associations between spouses' gender role attitudes and marital processes were moderated by wives' employment. Although previous research has identified spouses' gender role attitudes as potential predictors of spouses' marital satisfaction, no study has examined these links in a dyadic model that elucidates how gender role attitudes may operate through processes to shape marital satisfaction and conditions under which associations may differ. We found that when spouses reported less sex-typed attitudes, their partners reported feeling more connected to them and more satisfied with the marriage, regardless of whether wives were employed. Our results suggest that marital satisfaction was highest for those Mexican-origin couples in which marital partners were less sex-typed in their attitudes about marital roles to the extent that partners' attitudinal role flexibility promoted spouses' feelings of warmth and connection to their partner.

Sobre la base de enfoques diádicos y perspectivas de matrimonio ecológicas y culturalmente fundamentadas, aplicamos un modelo de mediación e interdependencia actor-pareja en una muestra de 120 parejas de origen mexicano para examinar (a) las asociaciones que conectan las actitudes hacia los roles de género de los esposos y las esposas inmigrantes mexicanos con la satisfacción conyugal directamente e indirectamente mediante procesos conyugales (p. ej.: calidez y negatividad) y (b) si las asociaciones entre las actitudes hacia los roles de género de los cónyuges y los procesos conyugales estuvieron moderados por el empleo de las esposas. Aunque en investigaciones anteriores se han reconocido las actitudes hacia los roles de género de los cónyuges como posibles predictores de su satisfacción conyugal, ningún estudio ha analizado estas conexiones en un modelo diádico que aclare cómo las actitudes hacia los roles de género pueden funcionar mediante procesos para determinar la satisfacción conyugal y las condiciones en las cuales las asociaciones pueden diferir. Descubrimos que cuando los cónyuges informaron menos actitudes consideradas adecuadas para cada género, sus parejas informaron sentirse más conectadas con ellos y más satisfechas con el matrimonio, independientemente de si las esposas estaban empleadas o no. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la satisfacción conyugal fue mayor para las parejas de origen mexicano en las cuales los cónyuges tuvieron actitudes menos típicas de cada género con respecto a los roles conyugales hasta el punto de que la flexibilidad actitudinal hacia los roles de los integrantes de la pareja fomentó sentimientos de calidez y conexión con su pareja.

Economic pressure, cultural adaptation stress, and marital quality among Mexican-origin couples.

Based on data from a sample of 120 first-generation Mexican immigrant couples collected at the start of the Great Recession in the United States, this study tested an actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) in which spouses' perceptions of stress related to economic pressure and cultural adaptation were linked to their own and their partners' reports of marital satisfaction through spouses' depressive symptoms and marital negativity. As hypothesized, results supported indirect links between economic and cultural adaptation stressors and spouses' marital negativity and satisfaction: (1) contextual stress was associated with depressive symptoms, (2) depressive symptoms were positively associated with marital negativity for both husbands and wives and negatively associated with marital satisfaction for wives only, and (3) marital negativity was inversely associated with marital satisfaction for both spouses. Two partner effects emerged: (a) husbands' depressive symptoms were positively associated with wives' reports of marital negativity and (b) husbands' marital negativity was inversely related to wives' marital satisfaction. From these findings, we can infer that the psychological distress that arises for Mexican-origin spouses as they respond to the challenges of making ends meet during difficult economic times while they simultaneously navigate adapting to life in a new country is evidenced in their marital quality. Specifically, this study found that contextual stress external to the marital relationship was transmitted via spouses' psychological distress and negative marital exchanges to spouses' marital satisfaction. Wives' marital satisfaction was shown to be uniquely vulnerable to their own and their husbands' depressive symptoms and marital negativity.