•    Using secondary sludge from industrial water treatment, researcher César Huiliñir, professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, developed a new mathematical method for the biodrying process that proposes to reuse this sludge as biofuel. This technology proposal is supported by a Fondecyt Initiation Project.

After three years of work using secondary sludge from industrial water treatment, researcher César Huiliñir, professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, developed a new mathematical model for the biodrying process that proposes to reuse these residues.

The proposal is one of the results of his Fondecyt Initiation Project (11121160), “Development of a new dynamic model for batch biodrying process of dewatered sewage sludge”.

According to the researcher, the sludge disposed of by industries has 80% of water, i.e., for every kilo of sewage sludge, an amount of 800 grams of water is lost. Besides, companies have to pay for removing this waste to prevent accumulation of residues and potential odours in their facilities. For this reason, finding an alternative solution may reduce costs.

“We bet that, if we reduce the amount of water of secondary sludge, it can be fed as fuel into boilers. That is why companies like paper mills can be benefited: if this works, it will allow them to reduce removal costs. We could use that sludge, burn it, and change it into a new type of biofuel, as it has already been done in Holland and Canada, where there are specific examples of mills that have implemented similar systems,” he said.

For this purpose, professor Huiliñir and his research team proposed a mathematical model- very easy to implement- that enable a more flexible system to better predict the moisture loss in the system. Up to now, there was not literature on this factor that could effectively enhance this operation.

Results of the study

Professor Huiliñir said that another contribution of this study was the background information they were able to collect on kinetics of volatile solid residues degradation. There was not any information about this in the literature of the area.

“With this (information), we will able to know how much energy is used in the process. The higher the solids consumption, the higher the energy released to dry the sludge. This will allow predicting behaviours and evaluating without having to experiment,” he said.

He could also analyze the amount of water and energy required to remove the water content through the different stages of this degradation process. “In the study, we built an experimental design in which we established how some conditions affect the dewatering operation and how much of energy that allows water evaporation comes from the chemical reaction in the process,” he added.

In order to develop this alternative model, they worked with sludge from paper mills. Now, they are working with water treatment sludge from a slaughterhouse and a meat packing plant.

Finally, professor Huiliñir highlighted the role played by undergraduate and graduate students, who were in charge of the laboratory work to test this model. “The students’ contribution was essential. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to develop this project and get these results,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• With a project that involves the use of ICTs in early teacher training, professors at the Department of Education Juan Silva and Paloma Miranda, won the first place in the international contest of the Education Sector Fund, in the "Digital Inclusion” Mode. 

Juan Silva and Paloma Miranda, both professors at the Department of Education, were awarded an international research grant by the Government of Uruguay for a project that involves the use of ICTs in early teacher training.

Professor Silva is Director of the Center for Research and Innovation in Education and ICT (CIIET, in Spanish) of Universidad de Santiago, and professor Miranda is Head of the Primary Education program at this same university.

The contest was organized by the National Agency for Research and Innovation of the National Commission for Innovation, Science and Technology (Conicyt, in Spanish) of Uruguay.

International contest

This was an international call for proposals and 34 projects were presented, but only 12 were selected for funding. The proposal of professors Silva and Miranda won the first place.

The team is made up of the two Chilean professors and Uruguayan and Spanish researchers and experts.

The project was designed to meet the need of developing digital skills, both to teach and to learn using ICTs, during early teacher training, so that future teachers are able to successfully include ICTs in their professional activities.

The development of these skills should be constantly evaluated to make improvements and promote institutional policies in this matter.

Objectives

The objective of the project is to compare the level of performance on digital skills - for teaching and learning- of final-year students at early teacher training programs in higher education institutions in Uruguay and Chile, and generate recommendations to enhance the inclusion of ICTs in this stage of training. The results will be shared with other countries of the region.

Particularly in Latin America, empirical studies on the subject are scarce. There is evidence of public policies for the inclusion of ICTs in early teacher training and examples of good practices, i.e., if policies and their orientations are defined, and what the institutions are doing in this regard.

Besides, there are proposals for models and standards and studies on how students perceive the inclusion of ICTs in early teacher training, considering the technology available, the use of technologies by students and teachers, among others.

However, in spite of the above, there is not any study that reports on the level of performance on digital skills of students at teacher training programs. 

(Photo)

The project involves the use of ICTs in early teacher training

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Bernardo Morales Muñoz, director of the Laboratory of Neuroscience of Universidad de Santiago, is leading a project that seeks to reverse the effects of this type of disorder and enhance the memory and learning process. The chemical derives from the alkaloid sauroine synthesized by Huperzia saururus and it would allow to combat disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by cellular aging and neuronal death. This has led scientists to study different possibilities to reverse or reduce their effects on patients. One of these studies is being conducted at the Laboratory of Neuroscience of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, as Dr Bernardo Morales Muñoz explains.

A research group is working on a chemical compound that helps to enhance the memory and learning process, which therapeutic use would reverse the effects of neurodegenerative diseases. “For example, in the case of Alzheimer’s, when there are little neurons left, this compound could activate them and counteract the memory loss,” Dr Morales says.

The compound is derived from sauroine, an alkaloid synthesized by Huperzia saururus, a plant popularly known as cola de quirquincho that grows in the Andes, in Argentina. Its benefits could be applied to other disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

Side effects and environmental considerations

The study is part of a joint project with Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, where they started modifying the compound chemically. “In Argentina, an excellent research group chose us to continue with the following research stage because we have specialized in memory and learning,” he says.

One of the main problems in the process to develop drugs is that large amounts of raw material are required, having an impact on the environment. “The idea is to isolate the compounds, understand them and be able to modify them chemically in order to enhance their effects. Then, we should be able to synthesize them, leaving behind the environmental concerns.”

Another aspect that should be considered is that people prefer more natural drugs, because they think that artificial drugs can have more serious side effects in comparison to drugs derived from natural compounds.

National and international patents

In Chile, Universidad de Santiago de Chile has already filed a patent request to protect the rights and future commercialization of the product. “We pretend to file patent requests abroad too, particularly in England, where some companies have shown interest in the project,” Dr Morales explains.

Although Dr Morales recognizes that more tests are required, the study has progressed well. “There are mouse models of Alzheimer, so the next step is to test the compound in them,” and then, the compound will be tested in human beings. The researchers think that they will produce an oral drug, as it would be more comfortable to use.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Patricio Flores, PhD in Biotechnology, and Yu-Wen Tang, student at the Master´s program in Technology Management- Major in Biotechnology, both from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, were awarded a grant to develop a strategy for marketing an enzyme that has multiple benefits for diagnosing diseases.

As a result of the work they did for a doctoral dissertation and after being granted funds through the “Go To Market, de la Idea al Mercado” Contest organized by Corfo (the Chilean Economic Development Agency), the researchers will get trained in Silicon Valley, in the context of the third stage of the project “Developing a strategy for marketing a highly stable glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) enzyme.”

The project, which was developed under the guidance of Dr. Jenny Blamey, associate professor at Universidad de Santiago, proposes replacing the bovine GLDH enzyme with one from an Antarctic extremophilic microorganism (capable of resisting extreme conditions of temperature, pH, pressure, salinity, among others), which does not have the deficiencies of its predecessor. Its most common application is in the area of clinical laboratories where it is used for diagnosing hepatic and renal diseases

According to researcher Patricio Flores, “having discovered this new enzyme, glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), improves the half-life of five different types of diagnostic kits, as its thermal stability is higher than the one of the enzyme used today.” The academic stresses that “what is most important is that it also solves the problem of low half-life of the “old” diagnostic kits, preventing from discarding expired kits that have not been used, improving result reliability, lowering costs, reducing losses for companies and enabling a stock available to give a quick answer to market requirements.”

“The new enzyme is much more stable. It can be stored at room temperature, keeping more than 85% of its activity for 50 days. On the other hand, the bovine enzyme completely loses its activity under the same conditions,” Dr. Flores explains, regarding the results of this project that involves Universidad de Santiago and Fundación Científica y Cultural Biocencia.

Go To Market

“Go To Market, de la Idea al Mercado” is an initiative that seeks to identify research studies conducted at universities, technological centers and Chilean companies that have generated technologies that could potentially benefit the global market.

“The application process for the Corfo’s Go to Market Contest coincided with the last steps to finish my doctoral dissertation in which I developed the product prototype, that is to say, the GLDH enzyme from an Antarctic thermophilic microorganism,” Dr, Flores says.

At present, the project is at its third stage, which involves getting training at the Standford Research Institute (SRI), scheduling meetings with investors and interested clients and developing a marketing strategy to position the product in the market. These will be the activities that the two researchers will have while they stay in USA.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In order to develop more tolerable therapies, a research team at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile studies the use of biodegradable nanoparticles to increase the Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) circulation time in the body to combat cancer.

In order to develop more tolerable therapies, a research team at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile studies the use of biodegradable nanoparticles to increase the Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) circulation time in the body to combat cancer.

The study is led by Dr Patricia Díaz, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology and is being developed in the context of the 2016 Fondecyt Post Doc Project (3160837) "Uso de nanopartículas con circulación prolongada para la administración de ATP en tratamientos anticancerígenos." Dr Díaz and her team will test new nanotechnology-based applications to deliver cancer-fighting drugs into the body.

She explains that any drug delivered in the body for therapeutic purposes requires a circulation time to play its therapeutic role.

Some molecules, like ATP, are quickly degraded, so high constant drug doses are required to be therapeutically effective and this is not beneficial for patients.

“As drugs are encapsulated in nanoparticles, the enzymes that metabolize them cannot bind to them. This is why they are protected against degradation. Consequently, drugs’ half-life is increased, prolonging its therapeutic efficacy,” she explains. 

Improved treatments

The advantage of using ATP as a cancer-fighting drug is that it has minor side effects if compared to other drugs. But ATP degrades very quickly when it is recognized by the enzymes in the body. Therefore, different drug administration methods are required, like the use of nanoparticles with biodegradable and biocompatible properties.

“For this reason, we want to encapsulate ATP into biocompatible nanoparticles to increase its half-life. We will also use other strategies to make them invisible to the immune system, so that they can circulate longer. The idea is to prevent them from binding to the cell and to avoid extracellular release of ATP. In this way, we expect to have a higher amount of drug available in the body for a prolonged anti-cancer effect,” she explains.

According to Dr Díaz, the main objective of the study is to test the effectiveness of ATP-carrying nanoparticles in cancer treatment. “I expect to demonstrate that nanoparticle-encapsulated drugs increase their bioavailability when compared with conventional administration methods. Besides, we also expect to analyze the potential synergistic effect of administrating ATP in combination with other drugs frequently used in cancer treatment.”

“This synergistic effect could destroy a higher number of cancer cells, benefiting patients with advanced cancer,” she adds.

Another advantage of this type of treatment is that, as it allows a sustained release of drugs in time, patients could receive the treatment once a week or every two or more weeks, depending on the drug encapsulation capacity and its circulation time,” she concludes. 

Dr Juan Pablo García-Huidobro, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, is also participating in the study, which is being conducted at the Pharmacology Laboratory.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• With a space of 2,755 m², the five-floored building will be home to the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center and the Soft Matter Center. The cost of the building construction amounted to about CLP 5,000 million.

In a context in which Chile only invests 0.39 of its GDP in research, the President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, highlighted the importance of this new space that will contribute to research and development in the country.

“This is one of the state-of-the arts buildings in Chile with regard to university research and it is an incentive for new researchers to continue innovating in key areas for the development of Chile,” he said. He added that Universidad de Santiago de Chile is a leader in technology transfer.

Senator Guido Girardi, who heads the Challenges for the Future. Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of the Upper House, valued the work done by public universities.

“These universities take charge of basic sciences on their own. Particularly, Universidad de Santiago has had the wisdom to connect basic sciences to the problems of the country and to generate innovation to solve these problems,” he said.

A few months ago, Dr Girardi visited the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Cedenna, in Spanish) where he met with professionals in this significant research field. After the opening ceremony he congratulated the university on the new facilities.

The centers

Representatives of the centers that will occupy the new facilities expressed their satisfaction with the architectural configuration of the building that facilitates research development.

Dr Francisco Melo, Head of the Soft Matter Center that gathers together scientists in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering, said that the new space will offer endless opportunities for a better science development and for positioning the university at an international level.

For her part, Dr Dora Altbir, Head of the Cedenna, said that the possibility of bringing together scientists from different fields will allow a more active collaboration than the one that the university has now.

Eugenio Spencer Ossa, Head of the Aquaculture Biotechnology Center (CBA, in Spanish) said that the new building will allow to further scientific research and contribute to improve domestic industrial production, like salmon farming.

Architecture

The Rector Eduardo Morales Santos Research Building, with a total surface of 2,755.15 m², is located in the central campus of the university. Its design is a geometric reinterpretation of the heritage buildings of the institution designed by the architects Héctor Valdés, Fernando Castillo Velasco, Carlos García Huidobro and Carlos Bresciani and built between 1957 and 1967. The building’s name is a tribute to the first democratically-elected university president after the dictatorship.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The project led by Dr Silvia Matiacevich, professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Technological Faculty, seeks to renew food industry by developing a compound with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties to prolong shelf life of dairy products. The project is funded through a Fondecyt Regular project 2016.

Nowadays, fresh, healthy and natural food consumption has increased, particularly, the intake of dairy products. According to the Chilean Bureau for Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA; in Spanish), in 2013 the intake per capita was 146.5 liter, a national record in the country. 

However, these products require additives for their preservation that are not always natural and that do not allow a balanced and healthy diet.

In this context, Dr Silvia Matiacevich, professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Technological Faculty; Dr Rubén Bustos, professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, and students at both units formed an interdisciplinary research team that will work on the study “Prolonged release of natural active compounds for improving shelf life of a dairy food matrix: Effect of structure obtained by different encapsulation process”. The project is funded by a Fondecyt Regular project (1160463) and it seeks to find a new active compound to preserve dairy products by means of nanotechnology. 

“We want to develop a new active ingredient with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties for dairy foods, in such a way that the compound has a prolonged release during storage, extending the product’s shelf life,” Dr Matiacevich says.

With this in mind, the researchers intend to study how the structure generated in this active ingredient- a powder developed through two different techniques- modifies its prolonged release in time in a real matrix,” she adds.

Food innovation and collaborative work

The objective of the study is to evaluate the effect of the structure obtained through “different encapsulation processes in prolonged release during storage of an encapsulated active agent,” in order to prolong the shelf life of a milk-based food matrix.

“By using encapsulation processes it is possible to obtain nanometric-sized particles, so the principles of nanotechnology are involved in this development,” favoring the compound prolonged release,” Dr Rubén Bustos, co-researcher of this study, says.

Food innovation research has increased worldwide. In Latin America, there are several research groups. For example, there are centers in Argentina, Colombia and Brazil, which professionals will collaborate in this project.

According to Dr Matiacevich, the main contribution of this study lies in that they will work directly with foods, so the study will not only provide basic knowledge but it will be applied to a real matrix.

For his part, Dr Bustos stresses the importance of their work with nanotechnology by saying: “At some point, microencapsulated ingredients were the greatest breakthrough, but now we will work with nanoencapsulated compounds, with much smaller and innovative structures.”

For the research team, the most important fact in relation to this project is that it involves the collaborative work of two departments of two different faculties of Universidad de Santiago de Chile. They also value the support of the Vice Presidency of Research, Development and Innovation, and the collaborative work with national and foreign universities. 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Daniel Serafini and Dr Álvaro San Martín, both professors at the Department of Physics, have developed an innovative solution that allows to store energy as hydrogen. One of the advantages of this technology is that it is not intermittent as current non-conventional energy sources (NCES), like solar and wind energy. This project is a contribution of Universidad de Santiago de Chile to the energy industry.

An innovative technology to store energy as hydrogen is being developed by Dr Daniel Serafini and Dr Álvaro San Martín, both professors at the Department of Physics of Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

According to Dr Serafini, one of the advantages of this technology is that it is not intermittent as current non-conventional energy sources (NCES), like solar and wind energy.

Hydrogen is generated during off-peak periods via water electrolysis. Then, depending on the needs, electric power is generated using the hydrogen stored in an electrochemical device called fuel cell. This system is very efficient and is environmentally friendly, because hydrogen combustion only generates water vapour, free of greenhouse gases and particulate matter.

Storing energy as hydrogen is a better solution in comparison to lithium batteries. “We compete with lithium batteries and they are much more expensive and heavier and they have technological problems regarding their size, i.e., at equal size, they have a more reduced capacity,” Dr Serafini says.

According to the expert, with current battery technology, lithium reserves in the world “are enough to cover only 40% of the cars in the Unites States.”

It is also worth to mention that this solution is particularly attractive to settlements in remote areas that do not receive power supply from the interconnected grid system.

The researchers implemented a demonstration module at the Minera San Pedro mining camp, in Til Til (at the north of the Metropolitan Region), where the pilot project has been working since mid-2015.

The CLP150 million project has been funded by the Innova Chile program of the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CLP132 million) and Minera San Pedro.

Greater involvement of the private sector

For his part, Dr San Martín stresses that the project has been well received by the Government and that now, a greater involvement of the private sector is required. “In developed countries, different public and private programs to develop hydrogen technologies have been funded with millions of dollars for a long time,” he says.

State-run bodies in Chile have already recognized the importance of hydrogen in the future for a clean non-polluting public transport. Both researchers agree that this is an essential starting point. 

Target market

One of the benefits of implementing this type of technology in Chile is that we have enormous ENCS resources of all kinds (solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and tidal power), but they are intermittent, so the use of hydrogen would be highly convenient. 

The researchers say that this project “is not targeted at large companies for now, but remote places, like small settlements or fishing villages away from interconnected grid systems, little mine sites and road construction zones, etc.”

They expect to fully implement the project by mid-2016. Although they acknowledge that it is necessary to make this technology more price competitive, they say that costs have significantly fallen in recent times due to the huge development of fuel cell vehicles.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr Erick Saavedra Flores, researcher at the Department of Civil Works Engineering of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, is studying new mathematical techniques to computer simulate the performance of wood at extreme ranges of deformation, cracking and ductile processes and its possible progressive collapse.

Wooden structures in a seismic country like Chile require constant inspection to check on its resistance in case of critical events such as earthquakes.

Dr Erick Saavedra Flores, researcher at the Department of Civil Works Engineering of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, is studying new mathematical techniques to computer simulate the performance of wood at extreme ranges of deformation, cracking and ductile processes and, eventually, in a progressive collapse.

Dr Saavedra explains that failures in wooden structures are divided into two groups: brittle and ductile failures. Both will determine the time before wood collapses. “Usually, structures fail abruptly, without previous notice. This type of failure is classified as ‘brittle’. However, at a local level, close to metal joints or fittings, wood fails in a “ductile” manner, i.e., it fails gradually in time. This latter type of failure is very common in very high buildings made of wood,” he says.

With the resources provided by a Fondecyt Regular project, Dr Saavedra will present a new model based on a mathematical technique called “homogenization”, which seeks to detect cracking and irreversible deformation processes at different spatial scales.

Worldwide efforts

“Achieving this goal will be a big challenge, because we require to extend the existing theory to incorporate the damage factor, i.e., degradation, loss of material stiffness and cracks into the multi-scale mechanical response of the material. In the past few years, big efforts have been made worldwide; however, predicting the mechanical performance of materials in this context remains to be a problem without a solution that is fully accepted by the scientific community,” he says.

He explains that he intends to incorporate this new material model to the advanced analysis of large-scale structures, because the big challenge posed by this goal is to computer simulate the progressive collapse of structures during seismic events.

In this regard, modeling this problem is extremely difficult as it involves extreme deformation processes, the interaction of elements that fall during the collapse process and their consequent fragmentation.

The project also considers experimental testing to validate the numerical predictions obtained during the study. Running these tests will be possible with the acquisition of a vibrating table for the Department of Civil Works Engineering.

As a final result of this study, the researcher expects to have material advanced models able to capture extreme deformation processes that allow to calculate ductility measures.

“I believe that the major impact my project may have is in the area of design and construction of buildings and large-scale structures. In the case of wood, particularly, it is possible to promote the use of radiata pine to construct tall buildings if we have a more precise knowledge of its performance during failures or eventual structural collapse,” Dr Saavedra explains. 

The study will be conducted in the context of the Fondecyt Regular project 2016 (1160691), “Advanced Modelling of Ductility and Damage in Mass Timber Structures by Computational Homogenization.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• With the funding of a Fondecyt Postdoctoral Project 2016, Dr Baptiste Darbois, professor at the Faculty of Science of Universidad de Santiago, will be able to accurately determine how lizards move in granular soils in order to produce results that allow to create a robot able to move easily in different types of soil.

With the funding of a Fondecyt Postdoctoral Project 2016, Dr Baptiste Darbois, professor at the Faculty of Science of Universidad de Santiago, will be able to accurately determine how lizards move in granular soils in order to produce results that allow to create a robot able to move easily in different types of soil. This would mean a significant contribution to robotics.

Based on previous research that found that once lizards dive in the sand, they move by wriggling their bodies and not by using their legs, Dr Darbois will study the interaction between a vibrating elastic structure and the granular environment.

The Fondecyt Postdoctoral project (3160167) is called “Locomoción ondulatoria de nadadores suaves dentro de los medios granulares.”

Experimental challenge

The experimental challenge of the study is to control the movement of grains and the forces they undergo when lizards move. This would help to establish guidelines for developing robots able to adapt themselves to different environments. The way of moving of different animals has inspired engineers in this field.

“We expect the compression produced by lizards’ undulating movements in the desert’s sub-surface to help us to develop efficient robots by incorporating this mechanism,” Dr Darbois explained.

Likewise, professor Darbois intends to develop, in the long term, a robot based on the best features lizards show when moving in a granular environment.

“Through this project, we expect to define the optimal conditions: the dimensions, elasticity, frequency and amplitude of vibrations to move forward in waves through a granular environment,” the researcher said.

The relationship between lizards and the development of robots is not odd; on the contrary, it can benefit technological development and improve people´s quality of life. For example, it can be used in critical situations.

“With regard to its applications, developing robots able to efficiently move in granular environments could help to detect anti-personnel mines in the deserts and find people trapped under avalanches,” Dr Darbois concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras