« Back Research staff from the URV’s Department of Chemical Engineering and the INCAPTO coffee brand are working together on a project involving sustainability circular economy and biomass transformation the research aims to convert coffee grounds into bioplastics and other composite materials Funded by two calls for grants from the Catalan Government’s University and Research Grant Management Agency (AGAUR) the project is part of a doctoral thesis by Vaibhav Andhalkar supervised by researchers Magda Constantí and Francesc Medina who also head the research group Tecnio AMIC (Environmental and Industrial Applications of Catalysis) “At a time when decarbonisation is a global priority it is very important to try to make products with added value from biomass one of the main sources of green energy on the planet,” says Medina speaking specifically about coffee grounds the numbers prove it: approximately 9.5 million tons of coffee are consumed worldwide every year Since 650 kilograms of sludge are generated for each ton 6.2 million tons of sludge are produced annually “this organic waste is rich in lignocellulosic material and when it is subject to a physicochemical treatment it releases sugars that are transformed into bioplastics through the action of microorganisms” Francesc Medina explains that the diversity and potential of coffee make it “an exceptionally interesting material for the research and development of new sustainable products” says that the company is proud “to be part of this major project alongside the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and to find a second life for all the waste created by the coffee industry.” And Magda Constantí recalls that “the use of biomass waste is an alternative to the consumption of fossil fuels and focuses on the circular economy” the company’s aim is for the resulting material to be used to manufacture components for its coffee machines or other disposable materials It is a project in which the URV remains committed to research into biomass and bioplastics Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Google Maps 977 29 79 75 Help us improve this site This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Bioresource TechnologyCitation Excerpt :This pretreatment can promote the dissolution of hemicellulose for improving the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis Hydrothermal pretreatment of walnut shells was reported by Richard et al The solid residue was washed twice with water All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. A study with the participation of Constantí Stefanescu researcher at CREAF and the Granollers Natural Science Museum has revealed that the migratory painted lady butterfly makes a trip which is even more difficult than previously thought While it was already known that the butterfly travels from Europe to Morocco chemical analyses have shown that it can even go as far as the Sahel in the process crossing the enormous Sahara Desert.  and even the famous Sahara Desert: it is Vanessa cardui An article published on October 5th in the journal Biology Letters has demonstrated that these lepidopterans (a term referring to the taxonomical order that includes moths and butterflies) are capable of making a very difficult migration While one part of the population flies from Europe to Morocco another can go as far as the Sahara in search of warmer temperatures in order to reproduce This discovery was made thanks to the participation of researchers from the University of Western Ontario in Canada who analyzed isotopes (chemical elements of particular characteristics) in butterflies from Europe and a number of subtropical African countries Painted lady butterflies from Europe and the Sahara are found in Morocco Until now it was thought that the butterfly Vanessa cardui made a journey from Europe to Morocco in order to find optimal conditions to reproduce and then die. If this distance was not already impressive enough, the new study has now shown another surprising aspect of this amazing migration. when temperatures in Europe begin to decline Vanessa cardui flies to the Maghreb region where it will leave its descendants in an environment which assures their survival some populations of the butterfly decide to continue the adventure and cross the Sahara Desert to the Sahel but once the caterpillars have transformed into adults the dry season arrives and this is a very difficult period for survival they must fly northwards to Morocco where temperatures are more stable and humidity is greater they join the young of the other butterflies that had stayed in Morocco and it is at this moment that ecologists are able to find massive concentrations of this butterfly Isotopes allow the study of the voyages of butterflies Stable isotopes are special varieties of a given chemical element in which the nucleus has a different number of neutrons than normal Many specialists use stable isotopes for studying migratory movements of animals such as was the case in this study with Vanessa cardui In this international study which had the participation of CREAF researchers isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium were introduced into the caterpillars of the painted lady butterfly Once the caterpillar had transformed into a butterfly and made its voyage it was marked by this special chemical element and the researchers were able to follow its route they were able to know the origin of specific individuals and for the first time they were able to demonstrate that not all of them came from Europe (2016). Long-distance autumn migration across the Sahara by painted lady butterflies: exploiting resource pulses in the tropical savannah. Biology Letters Campus de Bellaterra (UAB) Edifici C 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès View map Tel: +34 93 5811312 Fax: +34 93 5814151 contacte@creaf.uab.cat Web developed thanks to the help: CEX2023-001340-S Web development by Omitsis Consulting A Vista teenager who admitted killing a man and seriously injuring another in a gang clash in a public park was sentenced to more than 24 years in California state prison yesterday Cristian Constanti Garcia turned 17 last February and has been held in custody in lieu of $2 million bail since November of 2012 that a confrontation between two groups at Brengle Terrace Park in Vista resulted in two men with stab wounds arrived at nearby Tri-City Medical Center that night “The two victims had been brought to the hospital in a vehicle which drove away after dropping them off,” according to a sheriff’s statement Canseco did not; both men were from Oceanside Garcia was 15 years old when he was charged with murder He recently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter and admitted gang allegations and personally using a knife who also stated that Garcia had a prior “juvenile record.” Prosecutor Cal Logan read a statement from an aunt of Antonio Canseco “We will never get our Tony back” and “Justice needs to be served.” There were nine tearful family members in court for the sentencing The judge ordered Garcia to pay $5000 to the victim’s restitution board to compensate Canseco’s family for funeral expenses Judge Carlos Armour remarked on “another senseless loss of life” before he ordered the young man to begin serving his sentence of 24 years and 8 months in the Department of Juvenile Justice and then he is to be transferred to state prison The judge noted that Garcia has 630 days of “custody credits” so far One of the great mysteries of the butterfly world has been solved by high-tech radar and 10,000 members of the public who have tracked the butterfly on its epic autumn journey from the Arctic Circle to west Africa For years, the arrival of painted ladies in Britain was thought to be an evolutionary dead-end. These colourful summer visitors would produce offspring that were believed to die in the autumn because our winters were too cold for the butterfly to survive. Unlike other migrants such as the red admiral which are regularly seen crossing the English Channel there were almost no records of painted ladies making the reverse trip south to warmer climes A new study using a radar station in Hampshire and 60,000 sightings logged by volunteers in Britain and in 66 other countries and islands across Europe has discovered the painted lady does successfully return to warmer climes but flies at such high altitudes that it is not usually spotted which can detect flying objects as small as an aphid at heights of up to 1.2km found that painted ladies fly at an average altitude of more than 500m on their southbound odyssey and can reach 30mph – twice their normal flying speed – by choosing to migrate when the wind is favourable A wet winter in Morocco caused huge numbers of caterpillars to thrive on unusually lush vegetation and painted ladies swarmed north through Europe breaching the Arctic Circle in northern Norway The new study estimates that 11 million arrived in Britain and 29 million of their offspring departed southwards – to France and Spain – at the end of the summer adult painted ladies are constantly on the move to find optimum breeding conditions after which their offspring take up the migratory baton Up to six generations make the 9,000-mile (14,480km) round trip from Africa to northern Europe and back again each year "Once thought to be blindly led, at the mercy of the wind, into an evolutionary dead end in the lethal British winter, this amazing combination of mass-participation citizen science and cutting edge technology has shown painted ladies to be sophisticated travellers." According to Fox, the study data showed painted ladies chose to fly at times and at altitudes when the winds would be in their favour. Previous studies have shown that new generations of painted ladies know to fly southwards in the autumn and north in the spring because of shortening or lengthening days. Authorities have unveiled plans for the redevelopment of the Fira Montjuïc area of Barcelona, including three large architectural projects for different pavilions all in the framework of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1929 International Exposition in the Catalan capital.  The project will see the Fira Montjuïc congress halls and surrounding areas be completely redeveloped, including the creation of a new neighbourhood which Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni called Nou Poble Sec, which will feature 500 rent-controlled homes. The works will be undertaken in two distinct phases, the first leading up to the centenary of the 1929 event that so fundamentally changed the city of Barcelona through its many construction and development projects, and another that will see development continue between 2029 and 2035. Works will start at the end of this year with construction beginning in early 2026. While the first buildings of the Fira complex are being redeveloped, until 2029, Pavilions 1, 2, and 8 will still be able to be used for large-scale events as they currently are. Then upon completion, the others will be in use once more until construction concludes in 2035.   The planned budget for the works is €255 million, of which €215 million will be destined to the construction of the new pavilions Palau Multifuncional and Palau de Congressos, and €40 million will go to the works on Palau del Vestit.  The new designs aim to respect the original architecture of Josep Puig i Cadafalch while at the same time creating new spaces, including a Plaça de Carles Buïgas featuring a 6,670m2 garden-patio, an exhibition space spanning 3,132m2, an auditorium with capacity for 2,025 people, as well as many other multifunctional spaces and meeting rooms.   The Palau Multifuncional, which will be built where the current Palau de Congressos de Barcelona and Palau 4 are located, will be formed by one large two-story building that will feature a total of 20,500m2 of exhibition space and will be designed to accommodate all types of different events.  On Monday morning at a press conference in the Mies van der Rohe pavilion, right by the spaces that will be redeveloped, Collboni was joined by the president of the Fira Barcelona, Pau Relat, Director General of the Fira, Constantí Serrallonga, the head architect of the Barcelona city council, Maria Buhigas, Catalonia’s Economy Minister Alícia Romero, and the Spanish Industry and Tourism minister Jordi Hereu in explaining the new plans.  The projects also stand out for their sustainability, as the new buildings will be more energy-efficient through solar panel systems, as well as having a water tank to collect rainwater.  Get the day's biggest stories right to your phone Academic Excellence ScholarshipsNYS Department of EducationConstance Jeanne Bouchard Elizabeth Lydia Tarvin DeFustoShannon Leigh DohertyNina H Merel Scheidell Memorial ScholarshipGrace Ann PettusCataract Engine & Hose C Clarence Fraser Memorial ScholarshipJacob T Lippert Memorial ScholarshipsLuke William Gordon Darcy R McDowellCatholic 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Honor Isabella Montmarquet Walsh Golf Team AwardsThe Walsh Golf Team FundCassidy J LucasValerie Jayne LucasNew York State Comptroller Student Achievement AwardCara Anne PetrizzoKelsey Sony ReiversOCIAA Scholar Athlete Awards Brendan M within the framework of the services and tools that provides exclusively to its members has successfully delivered a 3-day introductory training program to the Cyprus Human Resource Management Association (CyHRMA) and its over a 1000 members on the Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace The training took place online and was successfully completed with the participation of various members of the CyHRMA from multiple companies from the private and public sector tourism and industry companies and organisations The training covered important aspects of the subject best practices and case studies of the D&I in the Cypriot workplace The training is offered for free to all the members of the Diversity Charter Cyprus and is accompanied by additional info packs practical guides and tools for an effective introduction of the D&I management in the workplaces of Cyprus Find out more at Diversity Charter Cyprus (EU Official Representative Center for Social Innovation) or contact us at panayiota.constanti@csicy.com (Ms We chat to the managing director of Bali Villas Group The challenge for the industry is… Continuing to keep up pace with the significant advances with technology The things I like about my job… That my job doesn’t feel like a job – its my passion and exactly what I want to be doing And the frustrations are… Finding the balance of running my own business and spending time with my family If I didn’t work in travel I would be… A vet My proudest moment was… My most recent proudest moment was when my youngest started Kindy and watching him be so brave The naughtiest thing I ever did was… I’ll refrain from this one I try to relax by… Leaving the city and driving down the coast The last time I feared for my life was… Riding a scooter in Bali in traffic I always try to avoid… Negative people I really wish I had… More time The best advice I’ve ever received was… If you are going to do something I don’t understand why people… Are cruel to animals My greatest weakness is… Coffee And my greatest strength is… Finding a positive in any negative If I was prime minister I would… Definitely quit If I won $1 million on the lottery I would… Buy a beach house in Byron If I could be someone else for one day I would be a… Richard Branson I’ve always wanted to travel to… Tahiti and Mauritius My favourite holiday was… Maldives and Greek islands The Local Europe ABVästmannagatan 43113 25 StockholmSweden this wasn't an anti-terror operation: they were raiding marijuana plantations -- which are increasingly run by gangs with serious weaponry this wealthy northeastern region of Spain has in recent years morphed from being a transit route for drugs to becoming a notorious European production hub guns are becoming increasingly visible and instances of armed violence are on the rise which lies 100 kilometres (60 miles) down the coast from Barcelona police burst into seven homes that had been taken over by squatters READ ALSO: Barcelona starts to wage war on its cannabis clubs they found 2,000 marijuana plants growing under powerful lights in rooms equipped with large fans "We're fighting to stop this whole area from turning into a mini narco-state," said Tarragona police chief Inspector Ramon Franques referring to police efforts across the region Regional police say there has been a worrying rise in gun violence brought on by the growing presence of drug gangs "The trafficking and cultivation of marijuana is worrying but mostly because of the associated increase in violence," explained Carlos Otamendi head of criminal investigations at the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police gun violence exploded into the public eye when a man pulled out a weapon and shot dead two people during an argument on the outskirts of the northern city of Girona Initial indications suggest the argument was not drug-related but the alleged perpetrator -- who is still at large -- belonged to a gang involved in marijuana trafficking In a separate incident around the same time while breaking up a group that had smuggled hashish into the region by boat "Gang violence didn't start now with drug trafficking nor with the establishment of organised crime networks smuggling marijuana But this use of military-grade weapons is new," said Gerardo Cavero of the anti-trafficking arm of the Barcelona prosecutor's office READ ALSO: What you need to know about cannabis clubs in Spain cannabis is the most widely-consumed illegal substance in Europe 69 percent of all cannabis resin seizures across the EU was in Spain along with 47 percent of weed and 81 per cent of cannabis plants The findings highlighted Spain's "significant role" as both a transit country for cannabis and a production area READ ALSO: What's the law on cannabis in Spain? Spanish police seized more than 36,700 kilogrammes of marijuana from Catalonia alone And there are a growing number of gangs in the region who are "setting up plantations and then distributing the plants across Europe," the office of Spain's public prosecutor said in its latest national report For those running these lucrative operations which are also prevalent in the southern Andalusia region "If there is one thing that characterises organised crime in respect to drug trafficking armed attacks in marijuana plantations rose by 78 percent while the related number of deaths in such incidents rose to five Four more were linked to the booming hash trade But with a murder rate lower than the European average the Catalan authorities insist that the region is "safe" with levels of criminality far lower than in other parts of the world respondents were asked to identify issues which caused them concern and only 7 percent spoke of personal safety "I don't want to say we're getting used to it but it's a type of violence that is becoming more normalised," said journalist Fatima Llambrich Please log in here to leave a comment The President of the National Technical Chamber (ETEK) emphasized the need to institutionalize more modern methods of detecting illegal activities and enforcing law and order His statement came in response to a revealing article published in the Sunday Kathimerini newspaper which exposed the demolition of stone buildings in Akamas were not traditional livestock buildings but instead appeared to be holiday homes "It is not an honor for anyone to expect journalists to identify illegalities and then be informed that a legal procedure has been initiated with no immediate results." Highlighting the importance of collaboration he called upon local authorities to join forces in addressing the interventions taking place in Akamas "The Akama area can be easily inspected on a weekly basis Competent authorities should be responsible for this task and there should be no excuse for understaffing electronic surveillance methods are available for effective supervision," he added The president's remarks shed light on the need for more efficient and technologically advanced measures to detect and address illegal activities in Akamas By implementing modern detection methods and strengthening cooperation among relevant authorities it is hoped that the preservation and enforcement of law and order in the area will be significantly improved The war between Israel and Palestine has ‘spilled over’ to Cyprus Take a drive along any Cypriot highway and you’re confronted with billboard images of Israeli women and children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on 7 October On that day over 200 Israelis were kidnapped and taken hostage into Gaza The billboards show photos of innocent civilians smiling and posing during happier times they are held underground whilst a horrific relentless bombardment and invasion led by Israel in retaliation to annihilate Hamas is underway meters above their heads It’s against international law to hold innocent civilians hostage International law dictates that prisoners of war a title usually reserved for captured soldiers They need to be well looked after and their injuries tended to And with the recent news of two hostages found dead by the IDF in Gaza father or guardian would tolerate a child’s suffering How dare one assume we tolerate this evil and in turn allude that our kids would be next One particular billboard has ruffled feathers and caused upset in Cyprus Picturing dozens of innocent children held hostage On the intention of the billboard we all agree it’s to garner support for the release of the hostages safely There’s no decent human among us who wouldn’t support this Each and every hostage needs to be released immediately is the assumption of tolerance for this act of kidnapping and holding them hostage Who would tolerate inflicting horror and fear on a child And that includes not just Israeli child hostages but Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank Afghanistan and across all corners of our planet after more than 40 days of indiscriminate bombings said to be targeting Hamas terrorists That’s half a percent of the total population under 18 years old It would be like 2,220 children killed within six weeks in Cyprus or 1.1 million across the EU Thousands more Gazan children are missing or injured Hundreds of thousands are living in squalor UN agencies and the wider international community are pleading for urgent humanitarian aid and a ceasefire there are calls for a pause to the invasion and bombing to allow humanitarian aid to flow and for innocent civilians to find safe shelter communities torn apart and enraged victims are all fodder for radicalization We expect internationally legitimized States to act within the confines of international and humanitarian law We don’t tolerate a single child being kidnapped left untreated with injuries and illnesses barred from security and shelter or bombed *Costa Constanti is a Political and Social Analyst Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.