*2.2. Methods*

Determination of the water temperature was carried out with the thermometry method in accordance with the SM 2550 B standard [4]. The temperature of water for human consumption was measured during the sampling with an immersion thermometer or with a Hach HQ40d oximeter. To determine water turbidity, a turbidity-testing method in accordance with the HRN EN ISO 70271:2016 standard [5] was used, using a Hach 2100P turbidimeter. Potentiometry is a method used to determine the pH value, in accordance with the HRN ISO 10523:2009 standard [6]. It is based on the measurement of the potential difference of the electrochemical cell using a Mettler Toledo MP220 pH meter. To determine the concentration of iron in water samples, a spectrophotometric method with phenanthroline in accordance with the HRN ISO 6332:2001 standard was used with a HACH DR5000 spectrophotometer [7]. Ammonia concentration in water samples was determined spectrophotometrically with salicylate in accordance with HRN ISO 71501:1998 [8]. The method with 1 N HCl acid was used to determine the nitrate concentration in the samples in accordance with the standard SM 4500NO3B [9]. The nitrite concentration in the samples was determined with sulfanilic acid, in accordance with norm M 221/E [9]. The spectrophotometric method with 1-(2-pyridylazo)2-naphthol was used to determine the concentration of manganese in water samples. Chloride concentration in water samples was determined spectrometrically by the ferrocyanide method, in accordance with the SM 4500CL E standard [9]. Determination of potassium permanganate consumption was carried out using the permanganate index in accordance with the HRN EN ISO 8467:2001 standard [10]. To determine the electrical conductivity in water, a conductometric method was used, in accordance with the HRN EN 27888:2008 standard, using a Mettler Toledo MC226 conductometer [11]. Measurement of free (residual) chlorine was performed directly at the point of consumption in the water sample using the Pocket Colorimeter II colorimeter [2]. The total number of coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli in drinking water samples was determined by membrane filtration methods for water with low background bacterial flora according to HRN EN ISO 93081:2014 [12]. Determination of the number of enterococci in drinking water samples was conducted using a method of membrane filtration according to HRN EN ISO 78992:2000 [12]. The number of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in drinking water samples was determined by the method of membrane filtration according to HRN EN ISO 16 266:2008 [12].

### **3. Results and Discussion**

According to the ordinance [12], the health parameters of water for human consumption (microbiological, chemical), indicators (chemical, microbiological) and parameters of radioactive substances are precisely prescribed. The ordinance specifies the parameters of groups A and B in the monitoring of water for human consumption. The purpose of monitoring water for human consumption on parameters of group A is to obtain basic data on the physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters of conformity of water for hu-

man consumption and data on the efficiency of processing water for human consumption, especially disinfection. In contrast to the monitoring of water for human consumption on the parameters of group A, the purpose of this is to obtain all the data on the parameters of the conformity check of water for human consumption, additionally with the parameters of radioactive substances. In the case of a deviation of the indicator parameter from the maximum-allowed concentration, it is necessary for an assessment of the impact of the parameter on human health to be carried out by a competent institute for public health and to take all necessary measures. In Tables 1 and 2, the physical and chemical indicators of the water samples are presented.

**Table 2.** Chemical indicators of samples.

The pH values of the studied samples were in the interval from 7.40 to 7.74. It can be concluded that all the pH values of the analyzed samples are within the limits prescribed by the ordinance, i.e., within the interval of pH values from 6.5 to 9.5 [12]. Water temperature is closely related to the temperature of the environment and depends on the temperature of the soil that surrounds it, the inflow of hot and cold underground water, and the season. The limit value for the drinking water temperature prescribed by the ordinance is 25 ◦C, while the most optimal is 15 ◦C. As can be seen from the results, the temperature values of all analyzed samples were below the limited value of 25 ◦C. If the temperatures are higher, some microorganisms may develop, while low temperatures slow down the flocculation

and coagulation processes. Furthermore, water with lower temperature values contains little dissolved gas and has a bad taste. Free residual chlorine is excess chlorine after disinfection, and the free chlorine concentration was measured at the sampling site. The limit value for free chlorine concentration in drinking water is prescribed by the ordinance and is 0.5 mg Cl2/L. As can be seen from Table 1, all values were below the limit value. Turbidity can be determined in all water that does not contain large particles and coarse sediment that settles quickly. The highest turbidity value was obtained in sample VT-8 (0.76 NTU), while the lowest value was in sample VT-5 (0.31 NTU). Meteorological conditions can affect water turbidity, i.e., turbidity increases with the amount of precipitation [13]. Electrical conductivity is an indicator of the conduction of an electric current in a liquid, and it depends on the temperature of the water, the concentration of ions, the type of ions presents in the water, and the mobility of the ions. It is evident from the results that the values were in accordance with the ordinance, i.e., they were below the limit value (2500 μS/cm) [2]. In Table 2, the results of the chemical indicators of water quality are presented. Ammonia is an indicator of the possible presence of microorganisms, animal, and fecal waste, has a characteristic smell and is corrosive to certain materials. Characterization of the studied groundwater samples was carried out in the reductive conditions of the aquifer, where the concentration of free natural ammonia is relatively high [13]. The results of ammonia concentrations in the samples were below the value of the calibration curve, i.e., a negative value, and it can be concluded that the concentration of ammonia in the samples was negligible or that ammonia was not present in the samples at all.

Characterization of the studied samples was carried out to find any elevated contents of dissolved iron, manganese, fossil ammonia and accompanying constituents [13]. An increase in the concentration of iron in water can occur when the pH value and water temperature increase causing changes in the color and smell of the water [14]. The values of iron concentration in the analyzed samples were below the limit value determined by the ordinance (200 μg/L) [2]. Manganese (Mn) is an essential element for the human body in small quantities, and its deficiency manifests itself in slowed growth and development and shortens life span because it participates in the reproductive processes. Comparing the results of the Mn concentration with the limit value of 50 μg/L, it was evident that all values were in accordance with the ordinance [2]. An increased concentration of Mn, as well as iron, occurs due to an increase in the temperature and pH value of the water [15]. Natural water contains a certain concentration of chlorides, and the most common forms are NaCl, CaCl2 and MgCl2. Most drinking water contains 10 to 30 mg of chloride per liter of water, while water with more than 250 mg/L of chlorine in the form of chloride has a salty taste and is not recommended for drinking. High concentrations of chloride in water can occur due to changes in the pH value of water and can affect the development of corrosion in distribution systems [16]. From the results shown in Table 2, it is evident that all the values of the analyzed samples were below the limit value (250 mg/L). Nitrites occur naturally as part of the nitrogen cycle, and in water can be evidence of fresh fecal pollution. They can be found in wastewater, storm sewers of cities and agricultural areas. Table 2 shows that the measured nitrite concentrations in the analyzed samples were 0.0 mg NO2−/L, that is, nitrites were not present in the samples. Increased concentrations of nitrates in water can occur in places where fertilizers are used, during the rotting of plant and animal remains, in industrial waste and wastewater from sludge landfills. The measured values of nitrate concentrations in the analyzed samples are shown in Table 2. The highest values were obtained in samples VT-2, VT-4 and VT-7 (1.73 mg NO3−/L), while the lowest value was obtained in sample VT-10 (1.51 mg NO3−/L), but all values were below the limit value which is 50 mg NO3−/L. The most important representatives of fecal coliform bacteria are Escherichia coli and fecal streptococci (enterococci). The key factors for the growth and reproduction of Escherichia coli in water are the water temperature and the increased amount of nutrients and organic substances in the water [17]. In all studied samples, Escherichia coli as well as Enterococcus were not present, that is, all values were 0 cfu/100 mL. Enterococci are the most suitable group of bacteria for assessing the

hygienic quality of water because their numbers correlate with the presence of numerous pathogenic bacteria, total coliform bacteria, and enteroviruses. The presence of enterococci is an indicator of fecal contamination. Increased water temperature and nutrients and organic substances promote the development and reproduction of enterococci in water. The presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is related to openings in the water supply system (e.g., taps). Increased water temperature, changes in pH value, nutrients and organic substances in the water and a failure to maintain the distribution system encourage the development and reproduction of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. If the analysis results are in the range of 110 cfu/100 mL, it is necessary to assess the risk of using such water. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was not detected in the analyzed samples.


**Author details**

Daniella Insuela1 , Diego Coutinho1 , Marco Martins1 , Maximiliano Ferrero1 and Vinicius Carvalho1,2\*

1 Laboratory of Inflammation, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2 National Institute of Science and Technology on Neuroimmunomodulation (INCT-NIM), Brazil

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


*3.1.3 Flexural strength*

Flexural strength is defined as a material's resistance to distortion on the application of load, while flexural modulus measures the capacity of the test sample to bend. Flexural strength represents the amount of force necessary to break a test sample with a specific diameter.

**Figure 1.** *Stress vs. strain curve of a typical PE.*


**7. Discussion**

**2.** Some are afraid of losing power.

148 Environmental Change and Sustainability

new traditions, adjusted to the natural conditions.

group psychology.

**6.** Psychological denial.

**4.** We are reluctant to think in a long-term perspective.

Power attains many forms. Wealth often creates power, and rich persons, companies or nations may depend on continued plundering of nature and natural resources. Dictators may suppress

Nordic settlements on Greenland existed for 450 years, but collapsed during the 15th century. Diamond assumes that the traditional Norwegian lifestyle, which they maintained, led to overgrazing and erosion. They had contact with eskimo people, but were not willing to consider harvesting from the sea, which would have been more sustainable on Greenland. Also, English traditional husbandry in Australia on vulnerable soils, with little forest and limited precipitation, has created several problems: overgrazing, erosion, lack of freshwater, and loss of forests and biodiversity. Diamond suggests that a sustainable Australia has to create

While a farmer may be eager to leave his farm in an improved condition to his children, both politicians and private persons may evolve a mental obstacle about thinking too far ahead. Politicians may be more eager to be renominated than to grasp challenges demanding longsighted thinking, and individuals may be more or less self-centered. Economic activity may be highly focused on short-term produce, and investments may easily be moved from one

History illustrates several cases where people have been seduced by charismatic, but danger‐ ous leaders. It may be a demanding task to maintain independent, critical thinking amidst a mentally brainwashed and emotionally heated public. Clever nazi-propaganda in the 1930's made Hitler's crimes against humanity possible. Even a handful of good advisers may give bad advice as a result of unfortunate group psychology. Stressful circumstances and the need for mutual support and approval may lead to suppression of doubts and critical thinking, resulting in a dangerous decision. One example from the book is president Kennedy's advisers during the Bay of Pigs crisis. Later, Kennedy was careful to let his advisers think critically and independently before the group concluded. The movie "Twelve Angry Men" demonstrated how one critically thinking person, presenting his doubt, was able to break an unfavourable

Man has a psychological ability to suppress, often subconsciously, the inconvenient. For instance, people who live just below a dangerous dam may claim that they do not fear a catastrophe. They suppress thinking about it. However, persons living further down the

watershed dare to worry, and actively try to reduce the danger.

environmental hostile activity to another, with great total economic success.

**5.** Critical, individual thinking may be paralysed by group psychology.

**3.** We are unwilling to change traditions, even if they are environmentally unfriendly.

democratic movements and even commit genocide to avoid losing power.

This review illustrates how sustainable thinking depends on fruitful concepts and wellfounded attitudes. We have also stressed the value of powerful rhetoric: It matters how you communicate about environmental problems. On our way towards a sustainable future, concepts, attitudes and rhetoric represent important weapons against "Business as usual". However, these weapons must have the necessary quality.


**6. Industrial Implementation**

As previously mentioned, many papers in the literature have confirmed the e fficacy of HS-RT to extend, in terms of food safety and quality, the shelf-life of not only fruit juices, but also a wide variety of food products. Despite this, HS-RT has not yet been introduced in the industry, probably due to the lack of equipment specially designed for it.

Figure 1 presents a simplified description of how hyperbaric storage could be implemented in a juice factory. Once the juice has been obtained, it would be pumped in tanks and pressurized. Then, the pressurized tanks would be sealed with a valve to avoid pressure release and moved to a warehouse. Here, the pressurized juice would be stored at room temperature until distribution. Depending on the customer demands, distribution could be performed either under pressure or the tanks could be decompressed prior to transport.

**Figure 1.** Ideal implementation of hyperbaric storage in a fruit juice factory.

It is clear from Figure 1 that the main components needed in a HS-RT installation are simple: a hydraulic pump and a set of pressure tanks. As pressures employed in HS-RT are quite moderate, the hydraulic pump should not be a problem, but the pressure tanks could present one as currently, tanks do not exist that have been specifically designed for food storage under pressure. Obviously, the feasibility of the logistics management at an industrial scale will depend on the size and weight of these tanks. They must be moved from the pressurization point to the warehouse and then transported to their final destination. Too large or too heavy tanks would make these displacements unviable.

The tank size and weight depend on several factors such as the tank material, the tank shape, the amount of product to store, and the storage pressure (the higher the storage pressure, the thicker the tank wall). Taking into account that typical forklifts can easily move loads up to 3000 kg, Bermejo-Prada, Colmant, Otero, and Guignon [58] deemed pressure tanks larger than 2 m and heavier than 2000 kg (mass of the vessel filled with product) would be di fficult to handle inside an industrial facility. They considered cylindrical stainless steel (15-5 PH) tanks, with a fixed diameter/length ratio (0.66), and calculated a domain of viable designs for variable product masses and storage pressures. For a storage pressure of 25 MPa, the largest viable tank should have a length of 1.6 m, a diameter of 1.1 m, and could store 1040 kg of strawberry juice. This volume is much larger than the standard juice batches sold in the industry that usually do not exceed 200 kg. For this mass of juice, the maximal storage pressure for which the tank design would be viable would be 157 MPa. This pressure level is considerably larger than those needed for fruit juice preservation, which are usually between 50 and 100 MPa. Therefore, the construction and handling of pressure tanks appropriate for hyperbaric storage is perfectly viable.

However, logistics management is not the only consideration needed to assess the feasibility of its industrial implementation. The cost of hyperbaric storage is also an important factor to take into account. When calculating the storage cost, the amortization cost of the initial investment, the maintenance cost, and the electricity consumption throughout the storage period must be considered. Taking all of these factors into account, Bermejo-Prada, Colmant, Otero, and Guignon [58] estimated that, today, the HS-RT cost would be considerably higher than that of conventional refrigeration. Even though the electrical consumption in HS-RT is almost negligible, the initial cost of the HS-RT equipment is high and this is, without any doubt, the limiting factor for the implementation of this technology in the food industry. However, it is important to note that the high price of high-pressure equipment has not been an impediment for the successful industrial implantation of conventional high-pressure processing, and thanks to the increasing demand, a decreasing trend in the cost of high-pressure equipment has been observed from 1996 to now. In contrast, the growing tendency of electricity prices could increase the refrigeration cost in the following years and contribute to making this technology less competitive from an economic point of view.

#### **7. Environmental Impact of Hyperbaric Storage**

The environmental impact of hyperbaric storage can be roughly estimated by calculating its carbon footprint (CF), that is, the overall emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases associated with it. To do so, the equivalent CO2 emissions associated with both the production of the high-pressure vessel material (direct emissions) and the energy consumption during operation (indirect emissions) must be considered. In this way, Bermejo-Prada, Colmant, Otero, and Guignon [58] estimated that the total CF associated with the storage of 1 kg of strawberry juice at 25 MPa for 15 days was 0.0042 kg CO2·kg−1 juice. They showed that the HS-RT emissions associated with the vessel material corresponded to almost 100% of the emissions while those derived from the electricity consumption during storage were almost negligible (Figure 2). In contrast, in conventional refrigeration, the total CF was 0.1085 kg CO2·kg−1 juice, that is, 26 times higher than that of HS-RT and the consumed electricity and refrigerant leakage amounted to almost 95% of the CO2 total emissions.

Cold facilities are huge consumers of energy and represent about 50% of the total energy consumption in the food industry [5]. Moreover, refrigerants are an important source of GHG emissions and some of them also split and release ozone destructive chlorine atoms. Therefore, HS-RT could represent an important breakthrough for food preservation in terms of refrigerant elimination, energy saving, and environmental protection. Thus, the above results prove that both the needlessness of refrigeration facilities and the extremely low energy requirements (only during compression of the product) represent a real environmental benefit as they contribute to greatly diminish the HS-RT carbon footprint. This is especially important today when global energy savings are demanded in the food industry to fight against climate change.

**Figure 2.** Contribution of different sources to CO2 emissions in conventional refrigeration and hyperbaric storage at room temperature.


**4. Well-based 3D modeling using geostatistics and artificial intelligence: propagating the surface drilling derived logs across the reservoir volume**

 In Sections 2 and 3, it is shown how the rock mechanical properties, pore pressure and stresses are extracted along the lateral section of the wellbore and are used as reference properties to engineer the completion to improve the overall efficiency. In this section, these properties are propagated in 3D space to accurately characterize the reservoir, so that these inputs can be fed into the hydraulic fracturing design and reservoir simulation workflows explained in the subsequent sections. The large number of wells drilled in unconventional assets combined with the estimation of critical logs at all the wells from surface drilling data provides the opportunity to propagate the well information into a 3D reservoir model. Since many companies do not have seismic on their acreage or for budgetary reasons do not plan to license the existing seismic, these multiple logs derived at all of the wells allow the construction of reliable 3D reservoir models. These 3D models could be estimated in a stratigraphic framework over a large area that encompasses many wells. In such cases, geostatistics could be used to estimate the distribution of gamma ray, porosity, Young's Modulus, Poisson's ratio and shear modulus. However, the pore pressure, minimum stresses and natural fracture are more complex continuous properties that need to be estimated with neural networks [8, 9] and other artificial intelligence tools able to capture the complex geology that control their variability.

 One major reason for propagating these rock properties in 3D is to provide that information to a 3D planar hydraulic fracturing simulator as well as to geomechanical software. To achieve this goal, all the wells are used together in a large reservoir grid to create the 3D models from which smaller well grids (**Figure 4A**) will be extracted around a well or a pad. With this approach, all the available well data will be used to improve the 3D distribution of the key properties needed for the 3D

#### **Figure 4.**

*(A) A large stratigraphic 3D geocellular grid is built from all the available wells to propagate 3D reservoir models. A smaller, higher resolution grid is extracted around the well that provides to the 3D planar hydraulic fracturing simulator: (B) Young's Modulus, (C) Poisson's ratio, and (D) unconfined compressive strength (UCS). (E) A cross section in the well grid of the minimum stress and (F) Poisson's ratio honoring the lateral and vertical variability captured by the 3D models."*

planar hydraulic fracturing simulator. The other benefit of these derived 3D models is the estimation of the stress gradients resulting from the interaction between regional stresses and the three sources of stress perturbation created by the local geology: (1) variable geomechanical properties, (2) pore pressure and (3) natural fractures all available from the extrapolation in 3D of the logs derived from surface drilling data. Because of their importance in estimating these stress gradients, the modeling of the natural fractures requires some particular attention.


**4.2.2 Effect of artefacts on specific surface area and pore size distribution**

Specific surface area of the wool fibre web sample was analysed as a function of threshold value and noise level, see the results in Fig. 15. The specific surface area of the geometry thresholded by the forest fire method had a value of 0.175 m-1. The value of specific surface area of the sample geometry decreased as a function of increasing threshold value and increased as a function of increasing noise level. According to Eq. (3), when a sample geometry has a high specific surface area, it has a small permeability value. This could also be seen from the results in Fig. 15 and in Figs 13a and 14a.

Pore size distribution of the wool fibre web sample geometry was analysed as a function of threshold value, see the results in Fig. 16a. When compared to the experimental permeability results, the optimal threshold value was found to be between 20 and 30, see Fig. 13a. The results in Fig. 16a clearly show that with the threshold values of 20 or 30 the pore size distribution differs highly from the pore size distribution of the geometry that was segmented using the forest fire method. These results support the interpretation related to the permeability values obtained using the geometries segmented by conventional grey value -based thresholding. Combination of too high specific surface area and too thin fibres (high porosity) resulted to the permeability values very close to the experimental results. These interpretations were found to be similar for the packaging board and for the sand stone samples also.

Pore size distribution as a function of noise level for the wool fibre web sample is presented in Fig. 16b. The effect of added noise was found to be not as high as for the hexagonal array of cylinders, see Fig. 7. For noise level of 2 %, the mode value of the distribution was approximately a half of the mode value of the noise free geometry.

The Effect of Tomography Imaging Artefacts on

Structural Analysis and Numerical Permeability Simulations 487

Fig. 16. (a)

(b) Fig. 16. Normalized pore size distribution for the wool fibre web sample as a function of

Approximate factors of how certain levels of noise and edge roughness effect on permeability value, mode value of pore size distribution and specific surface area of the hexagonal array of cylinders are summarised in Table 1. According to the results, even a small amount (0.01 % of sample volume) of noise in the void space has a drastic influence on the permeability values. The noise level of few percent caused magnitudes decrease in the permeability values. Increase in the amount of noise increases the specific surface area of the simulation geometry and thus decreases the permeability value. Also the pore size

pore size with different threshold values (a) and with different noise levels (b).

**5. Conclusions**

Fig. 15. Specific surface area of the wool fibre web sample as a function of threshold value (a) and noise level (b).

Fig. 15. (a)

(b) Fig. 15. Specific surface area of the wool fibre web sample as a function of threshold value

(a) and noise level (b).

Fig. 16. Normalized pore size distribution for the wool fibre web sample as a function of pore size with different threshold values (a) and with different noise levels (b).


PLA-*g*-Cellulosic Derivatives

Cellulose fibers derived from renewable biomass have attracted interest as microscale reinforcements in composite materials. Natural fibers have many advantages—low density, low cost, renewability, biodegradability—that make them excellent candidates for the design of biodegradable materials. They can advantageously replace mineral reinforcements in PLA matrices [3,4]. However, a poor compatibility between the fiber and the polymer matrix leads to materials with poor performances. In particular, nanocelluloses, due to their polar surfaces, are difficult to uniformly disperse in a non-polar medium. The consequences of this poor interfacial compatibility between polymer and filler are poor properties of the final blend. The compatibilization of PLA/cellulosic derivatives blends to improve many of the blends' properties, especially mechanical properties, while maintaining a natural source, are the most widely described in the literature [24,25]. Because PLA-*g*-MA acts as a reactive compatibilizer, a PLA-*g*-cellulose copolymer is formed as a result of the reaction between the anhydride of PLA-*g*-MA, and alcohol functions of the cellulosic derivative (Figure 6) [21]. The presence of a very low percentage of PLA-*g*-MA (<1%) in the original blend significantly improved the properties of the blend [24]. Tensile strength, tensile modulus and strain at break were increased by 55.3%, 15.45% and 30.4%, respectively, over neat PLA by adding 5 wt.% of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), and by 169.2%, 36.3% and 139.1%, respectively, by adding 5% of PLA-*g*-MA to the blend PLA/CNF.

**Figure 6.** Reaction scheme for the grafting of a cellulosic fiber on PLA-*g*-MA (from González-López et al. [21], copyright Taylor and Francis, reproduced with permission).

Many cellulosic derivatives were introduced into PLA matrices in the presence of PLA-*g*-MA to improve the mechanical properties of blends such as Luffa [26], flax [27], coffee grounds [28], wood flour or rice husk [29,30], sisal fibers [31], straw [32], bamboo fiber [33], cassava starch [34,35], starch [36], and lemongrass fiber [37]. For example, the use of PLA-*g*-MA in a PLA/cassava starch blend has a significant impact on elongation at break but not on Young's modulus or tensile strength. However, it was noted that PLA-*g*-MA with a higher proportion of grafted MA (0.52 wt.%) had a lower molecular weight and higher dispersity value, showing some degradation of the polymer backbone [34,38].

Many other properties are improved in PLA-*g*-MA compatible blends, such as morphological, rheological, thermal, tensile and moisture sorption properties as well as thermal degradation [39–41]. For example, Figure 7 shows SEM micrographs of PLA/TPS (thermoplastic starch) blends (70/30 *w*/*w*) without (Figure 7a) and with two parts per hundred rubber (phr) PLA-*g*-MA (Figure 7b), highlighting the compatibilization of the blend of PLA-*g*-starch formed in situ.

**Figure 7.** SEM micrographs of PLA/TPS blends (70/30 *w*/*w*) (**a**) without and (**b**) with 2 phr PLA-*g*-MA (adapted from Moghaddam et al. [39], copyright Springer Science, reproduced with permission).

To obtain a PLA-*g*-starch copolymer, another method is to react maleic anhydride with starch to obtain a maleated thermoplastic starch (MTPS), which is then mixed with PLA in the presence of Luperox 101 (2,5-bis(tert-butylperoxy)-2,5-dimethylhexane) in a Brabender at 180 ◦C for 5 min. The reaction scheme is shown in Figure 8 [42].

Direct grafting of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) on PLA, without the addition of PLA*g*-MA, is also described, following the reaction scheme of Figure 9 [43]. could his DCP was sprayed onto PLA beads, and the DCP-coated PLA pellets were mixed with CNC and extruded in a twin-screw extruder at 180 ◦C at 50 rpm for 5 min. The effective grafting of CNC onto PLA was identified by SEC, FTIR and NMR, but NMR showed a very low proportion of CNC in the copolymer. Some mechanical and structural properties were significantly impacted (increased Young modulus, decreased elongation, increased crystallinity).

**Figure 8.** Reaction scheme of the MTPS formation and coupling to PLA (from Wootthikanokkhan et al. [42], copyright Wiley-VCH GmbH. Reproduced with permission).

**Figure 9.** Reaction scheme for the synthesis of PLA-*g*-CNC (from Dhar et al. [43], copyright Elsevier, reproduced with permission).

PLA-*g*-Natural Rubber (PLA-*g*-NR)

Among the drawbacks of PLA materials, we can also highlight their fragility. Natural rubbers (NR), on the other hand, are highly flexible, environmentally friendly and derived from a renewable resource. They are good toughness agents due to their high molecular weight and very low glass transition temperature. However, due to the non-polarity of NRs, PLA/NR blends are immiscible and not compatible. To improve the interfacial interaction between PLA and NR, the reactive compatibilizer PLA-*g*-MA is used to form a graft copolymer PLA-*g*-NR [44,45]. Typically, the compatibilized blend is made in a twin screw extruder at a temperature between 160 and 180 ◦C and a screw speed of around 30 rpm. With the addition of PLA-*g*-MA, the mechanical properties of the material were significantly improved. It was found that a 3% PLA-*g*-MA was the best compatibilizer composition to achieve the best performance of the material [44]. The reverse reaction of a maleic anhydride on NR (NR-MA), followed by reaction on PLA in a radical medium, was also performed with similar results regarding mechanical properties [46,47]. However, in this case, the proposed mechanism does not involve a reaction on the PLA backbone but only the alcohol chain end, which reacts on the backbone of NR-MA (Figure 10).

**Figure 10.** Proposed mechanism for the grafting of NR-MA on PLA (from Thepthawat et al. [47], copyright Wiley-VCH GmbH. Reproduced with permission).


**3. Context**

CGIE is in Nuevo León, Mexico, a state traditionally characterized by industrialization. In 2004, Nuevo León started a process to attract and create technology-based companies. These programs were developed by the local state government to constitute the Monterrey International City of Knowledge (MICK) in 2008, the main propositions of this model being [1]:

• Provide the necessary resources through funds for innovation, as well as funds for seed capital to help form new companies.

The project sought to attract research centers and technology companies to achieve the vision of the model, for which the Research and Technological Innovation Park (PIIT) was created. The purposes of the PIIT were to integrate research and innovation to encourage a culture of innovation in the inhabitants, and increase the attraction of capital and the formation of high-tech industries [33]. CGIE is in this park as part of the effort to create ties among academia, industry, and government. The objective of the center is to develop educational programs that promote the commercialization of science and technology, taking advantage of the experience of the IC2 Institute to improve the economic development of the region [34].

Currently, the long-term model proposed by the Government of Nuevo León continues, with the extension of the Strategic Program in Science, Technology, and Innovation [35]. This program defines policies and actions to ensure that science and technology contribute to economic and social development. According to this report, despite current efforts, science and technology must be further developed in the state. This program is aligned with the National Development Plan, which seeks to achieve the national goals of quality education and prosperous Mexico, along with the Sustainable Development Goals concerning people and prosperity [35].

For this program, the State of Nuevo León has launched the Nuevo León 4.0 initiative, which seeks to position the city of Monterrey as "Monterrey, International City of Advanced Manufacturing and the Knowledge Economy." Therefore, the objectives defined by the PECTI 2016–2021 to promote scientific, technological, and innovation development are related to the work of CGIE. These goals are to strengthen the capacity to create and attract technology-based companies, develop leadership training programs in entrepreneurship based on innovation, promote scaling and marketing programs for new products and services, develop a network of experts to advise innovators, support the training of talent, and create international collaboration networks, among others.

The following is a description of the CGIE program and the elements that favor the achievement of the mentioned objectives. Subsequently, the answers stated by the former students are analyzed through the impact of the master's degree on supporting the development of science, technology, sustainability, and innovation as generators to achieve economic and social growth.

#### *Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MCCT)*

CGIE imparts the MCCT in the city of Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico. It aims to develop skills in students that allow them to transform a technology-based product or service into a business [36]. With this program, the participant, whether an entrepreneur, researcher, academic, or technology manager, is expected to understand the process of technology transfer and value creation and develop a new business.

This master's degree program promotes students to accomplish, from the first day of classes, a real project of technology transfer following the concept of *Think and Do*. Students select a project from a technology portfolio and evaluate its marketing potential through the methodologies of the master's degree. The student team then develops a business model and commercialization roadmap to propose a viable business [36].

The program runs for a year and comprises 12 subjects, of which two are taught every two months, with a duration of 32 hours each, and a final project under the model of a Capstone Project. Also, an initial session is used to make the groups that develop the projects. During the program, students must generate a technology commercialization project with a practical approach. The subjects that form the study program are [37]:

• *Converting technology to wealth:* using the Quicklook methodology to evaluate the potential of the technology to be commercialized and defining a contextual framework to bring the technology to a market.

CGIE participates in initiatives such as *Cleantech Challenge Mexico,* which is an economic development program to promote the generation and implementation of clean technology in Mexico, which trains researchers to explore the market potential of the technologies they develop [38]. And *NoBI* (Bi-National Innovation Nodes), with initiatives as sustainable building materials, biodegradable products, solar cells, and products for the detection of diseases such as diabetes, among others [39].CGIE´s function is to support the organizers to achieve the integration of programs to support entrepreneurship for the generation, commercialization, and financing of technological solutions to environmental problems [38].

Besides this, the projects prepared by CGIE former students have been recognized as factors of change for Mexico, promoting social and economic development. For instance, some projects are for:

Currently, the concept of sustainability has expanded, and educational institutions have an interest in developing sustainable behaviors [43]. In this sense, the projects developed by alumni have allowed users to propose solutions to social problems while favoring the innovation promoted by these initiatives at the same time.

### **4. Research Methods**

The present research follows a qualitative case study methodology [44] that seeks to describe the impact of the MCCT taught by the CGIE in Mexico on the development of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology transfer by the former students of the program. The case was selected to highlight the importance of this type of training for the development of competencies that promote competitiveness and innovation, especially in Latin American countries [8]. This methodology was selected because a case study allows enquiring into a particular case with the intent to understand a specific issue [45]. Also, the problem is best understood through an in-depth analysis of the data collected by the instrument to generate categories and subcategories of analysis based on the case study [46].

#### *4.1. Participants*

The study population is the 250 former students of the MCCT of CGIE. The sample consists of 109 people who completed a survey and were consulted about the impact of the MCCT for training in the commercialization and development of new technology-based companies.

#### *4.2. Instrument*

A survey prepared and conducted by Dr. David Gibson of the IC2 of The University of Texas at Austin from April to June 2018 collected the information. The survey is used due to the number of former students, and their geographical location in different parts of the country, this survey allowed receiving a significant amount of responses. On the other hand, according to the research design, which follows a case method that defines categories and subcategories of analysis, the data collected through open-ended questions gave extensive information about people's thought.

The instrument consists of 35 questions (Appendix A), of which the first ten correspond to the alumni's personal information, such as name, graduation year of the Master's degree, gender, age, address, other studies, and current work. There are six Likert-type questions in which the participants are asked to provide, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = Nothing, 2 = Very little, 3 = Somewhat, 4 = Much, 5 = Very Much), their opinion on aspects related to the contribution of the Master's degree to their professional career, the relation of their current position with entrepreneurship, help from mentoring, and relationships generated in the Master's degree with their professional opportunities.

Additionally, 15 open-ended questions were included to deepen information about the experiences and learning of the alumni once they had completed the Master's degree program. For example, how has the Master's degree affected professional and business development? What was the focus of the project proposed during the Master's degree? What were the biggest challenges for the launch of that project? Have you participated in other ventures or technological transfer events related or unrelated to the Master's degree? What was the origin of the business idea? What is the size of the company? Also, what is the most significant benefit obtained? According to the qualitative research approach, the data collected from open-ended questions were taken for deeper analysis of the opinions of the participants, to answer the research question.

#### *4.3. Analysis of Results*

To analyze the answers of the survey, they were identified as ideas or concepts to define subcategories of analysis [45]. The review was done in the MAXQDA 12 software, to codify the answers expressed by the students and review the subcategories that emerged from the data. The categories and subcategories of analysis are in Table 1.

**Table 1.** Categories and subcategories of analysis.

#### **5. Results**

This section presents the results of the survey answered by 109 former students of the MCCT, the description of the sociodemographic data of the participants, and the match between the identified categories and subcategories of analysis.

#### *5.1. Sociodemographic Data of the Participants*

The group of people who answered the survey consisted of 72 men and 37 women. The average age was 42 years old, and 63% of the respondents said they had completed other postgraduate courses besides the MCCT. As for their positions before entering the MCCT program, 20% were researchers, 35% were professors and employees from universities, 20% were managers and directors in national and multinational enterprises, and 25% were entrepreneurs. Of the interviewees, 7% said they had become entrepreneurs after the Master´s degree. At the time of conducting the study, 58% had changed their activity, 7% indicating that they were entrepreneurs and that they were not entrepreneurs before the master´s program. Thirty-seven percent lived in Nuevo León and the rest in different states of Mexico. Finally, 60% of participants said they had participated in technology transfer events before or during the launch of a company.

#### *5.2. Categories*

This section presents each category found in the opinions of the former students from the Master´s program.

#### 5.2.1. Types of Projects

During the Master´s program, students develop a commercialization project, bringing what is taught into practice by the students accompanied by the guidance of the teachers. To maintain confidentiality in the survey, answers regarding the developed ideas in the program are described in general terms. In this case, the types of projects developed were mostly oriented towards technology-based companies with new ideas and technology transfer, or companies already developed and implementing new methodologies.

*Product innovation*: some of the projects were the development of clean technologies, such as solar panels, the creation of biodegradable products, and environmental protection. Others included technologies for the food sector, agricultural, social, health, energy, electronics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, education, different types of software, and consulting.

*Process innovation*: In addition to innovation in products, there was also innovation in the process of methodologies, manufacturing, licensing, and marketing of new or existed products. Some of the students reported having satisfactory results: "the business focus of our project was to grow a company with a new branch within the business, which until now has been excellent since the owner of this technology continues to grow in the number of clients" (I30). However, some of the students could not apply the idea because of a lack of support from the company where it was going to be implemented, or because other colleagues did not continue with the initiative: "carry out an internal project to develop new technology. The project was proposed to the company, but there was no financial support for its execution (the company was where a teammate worked)" (I64).

*Through the MCCT, I did not have the opportunity to focus on my business proposal. However, I had the opportunity to glimpse the route of the process that I had to implement the business opportunity in various technologies developed as a researcher.* (I35)

#### 5.2.2. Challenges Faced

*Definition of the target market*: Among the difficulties in developing their ideas into practice, interviewees considered market definition and determining the price of the product or service to be challenges: "The limited market and the difficulty of identifying a niche with business potential, in addition to an expensive product" (I7); "the challenges were to find the size of the market, since the software was already in use" (I93).

*Viability of the product*: Students found problems in evaluating the feasibility of the products, little possibility of commercialization, lack of information about the technology, outdated information, and not identifying that there were other more advanced technologies.

*Legal aspects:* Other difficulties, such as defining strategies and lack of distribution channels, as well as legal aspects, especially in the field of medicine, information, intellectual property, registrations, and patents were mentioned as follows: "create a business model acceptable to the market and with adequate profitability, as well as diversify technology applications. Another complicated task was decision-making regarding negotiating the licenses" (I29). "That companies are afraid to try new things, are not very identified with innovation and technology, and many companies do not see the need to go hand in hand with these concepts" (I27).

*To understand the technology and the degree of development of the same, to be able to decide if it was or not ready to be commercialized, besides the valuation of the same one. On the other hand, the treatment related to intellectual property, due to the zeal of the researcher who was not willing to discuss the possibilities with the team.* (I53)

*Economic resources*: Economic aspects were also mentioned, such as having few resources or difficulty finding seed capital.

5.2.3. Impact of the Master's Degree on Professional and Business Development

*Application in the current job*: the impact on professional development was noticed, as: "much of the acquired knowledge has helped me perform better in my new position in the organization, understanding situations in a better way" (I53), "I collaborate with a work team at a national level, working on the science and technology commercialization model, as well as the regulation for linking and innovation activities I am a recurrent guest at workshops and competitions for innovation and

entrepreneurship" (I54); "thanks to the fact that I studied the MCCT, I could be in charge of different areas related to entrepreneurship in my work, and from there my professional growth began" (I66). As can be noted from the responses provided, students could apply the knowledge learned in the courses to their daily lives.

*Improve knowledge:* the interviewees said they obtained learning, such as knowledge about technological development and innovation, the commercialization of created products, intellectual property, patents, and utility models. As they mentioned: "I learned how to complement the process of research and generation of knowledge with the commercialization of the products generated" (I83), "it has helped me a lot concerning my professional development, teamwork, strategy, product, models, technology, patents, legal, and relationships. I feel that it is the side that I needed to develop" (I3).

*Vision change*: participants expressed that in the Master's degree, they were given a new perspective to look for solutions to the problems, as well as to use the knowledge to generate valuable products for the market: "this Master's degree opens your vision about the needs of the environment and helps you to understand that everything can be achieved by carrying out a good implementation plan. I apply it a lot, looking for new things and new solutions to what is presented day by day" (I30), "with the vision developed after acquiring the knowledge, I have a different perspective on addressing different problems and visualizing solutions" (I26). This change of vision and the knowledge acquired also moved former students to improve teaching practices and to teach others to develop businesses with these methodologies.

*Improve teaching practices*: some participants are applying their knowledge to promote entrepreneurship with their students, using them in courses they develop to generate projects based on technology and innovation, which allows them to extend the scope of the content seen in the Master's degree to other contexts.

*I continue reading books related to the topics examined in the MCCT, and I have incorporated some practices of teachers in my classes. Interest in science, technology, transfer of knowledge and technology, intellectual property, risk analysis, marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship, were not of my interest and now they are. I force myself to continue participating in projects where these issues take place.* (I54)

*Creation of new companies*: after the Master's degree, the former students had carried out several ventures, such as software development companies, food products, technological developments, technology transfer offices, educational services, recruitment of personnel, public transport, intra-enterprise projects, family businesses, consulting, and other ongoing projects. As was mentioned by the entrepreneurs: "I am currently starting a technology-based venture and I have applied the knowledge of MCCT at all times"(I27), "the position I currently hold and my area of academic performance are highly related to the momentum in the creation of technology-based companies, technology transfer, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Currently, one of the academic programs has a specialty in Technological Innovation" (I42).

#### 5.2.4. Origin of the Business Idea and Initial Capital

*Market and customer needs:* Typical responses were that the developed idea responded to a market need and customer demands, and this was recognized thanks to observation: "from the observation and analysis of my day-to-day work, as well as the identification of a need to be able to monitor performance efficiently in order to make quick decisions in a very demanding food product development environment" (I3), "of the ideas that arose when we were looking for the project and seeing an unmet need in the market" (I15), "we generated it by noticing the need of clients located in Nuevo León" (I21).

*Share experiences with others*: also, the origin of the business idea was thanks to the opinions of colleagues in the Master's degree, or other ideas that they were developing in their companies and had decided to continue as a study project. For example, one of the interviewees commented: "it was not my technology; we transferred technology from universities in other countries" (I7).

*Professional and personal experiences*: these experiences helped them to determine which products or services to offer to the market. As they commented: "the idea came when I was working as a professor at a university" (I8), "it was circumstantial when we enrolled our first-born in a school" (I5). Sharing experiences was also a reason for the conception of business ideas. Interviewees mentioned that this originated from talks, in the courses, about reviewing opportunities with other colleagues from the industry or sector. In the end, the entrepreneur is the person who has the idea and develops it.

*Initial capital:* In this category, the primary sources of business ideas were responding to market needs, to the requirements of clients, from sharing with others and from their personal and professional experiences. Most of the resources came from their funds, the government and private initiative, or a combination of these. They also came from partners, angel investors, family, and friends.

#### 5.2.5. Benefits of the MCCT Program

*Knowledge about technology transfer*: the interviewees stated that the main benefit obtained from the program was having learned how to bring ideas to the market through knowledge of the methodologies learned in the Master's degree: "learn how to create a strategy, how a business works, how the teams interact in order to create a successful launch, and develop my inspirational, persuasive leadership skills and bring others with me" (I15).

*Networking*: another valuable element was networking, which allowed them to share the ideas generated with colleagues and professors, as well as to associate the acquired knowledge with real experiences of entrepreneurship, expanding their vision. In this sense, one of the interviewees stated: "improves the vision of the scope and potential (that we still have to do), of the real transfer processes and the path towards the foundation and growth of technology-based companies, and definitely, the colleagues and staff" (I23), "as I commented, it changed the way of seeing things and of being conformist, in the way I work and in my entrepreneurial activities" (I29).

*Application to practical cases*: the acquired knowledge is highly valuable for application to their environments, as mentioned by former students: "the knowledge, methodologies, and successful practices of how to do technology transfer. I am working to promote new internal policies and procedures and the culture of the rest of the company's staff" (I22); "definitely specialized knowledge in various areas associated with the creation of projects and businesses based on knowledge, but just as important is the collaboration network that was formed in our cohort" (I35).

*The greatest benefit that I have obtained has been the learning, knowledge, and implementation of successful methodologies to research towards the development of innovative products that have a social and economic impact. I believe that this will only be achieved if you can work in synergy with the main actors in the whole value chain in which even the MCCT'S companions have a presence and collaborate with them e*ff*ectively following appropriate guidelines of the organization, communication, and legal aspects.* (I53)

As interviewees indicated, the networking and the interaction with colleagues and professors were of great value.

*Impact of the teaching sta*ff*:* respondents mentioned that the transmitted experiences helped to improve the way of making decisions, and they learned from teachers how to analyze market opportunities, how to develop skills for their projects, and the importance of teamwork. Participants stated the transfer of knowledge of methodologies taught in classes to their current activities. Methods such as Quicklook, use of simulators, marketing, intellectual property, interview techniques, persuasion, and decision trees have been applied after the courses.

As comments, they expressed that: "the methodologies of the teaching process of all the teachers of the MCCT is different and of very good quality; I have used the best of each one to bring to the practice to my daily professional activities"(I52), "here are many examples, but to name one of them was the Intellectual Property class, where the professor showed great experience and knowledge in that area that moved me to learn more about it and now is one of my favorite topics" (I59). "I have been able to apply knowledge and experiences in activities of a different nature that are part of my functions, from applying the methodology of risk analysis to soft skills such as writing a persuasive proposal" (I86).

Finally, as a reflection of the application of these methodologies and knowledge, the interviewees think that Mexico should continue towards the development of technologies, considering that in the field of technology transfer, innovation is incipient and scarce in this country:

*The practices and methodologies are very successful. I thought it would be very easy to apply them in Mexico, but experience has shown me that although there is more talk about technology transfer, a generalized culture of innovation and entrepreneurship is needed, mainly between research centers and industry.* (I28)

#### **6. Discussion**

The development of human capital is essential to enable innovative processes to impact the economy of a country. This influence is possible if education promotes the generation of ideas and ventures [15]. Several studies have criticized higher education institutions for not preparing students with the necessary innovation skills, since traditional forms of teaching such as reading, evaluating through memory, and working individually rather disfavor them [18,19].

Methodologies in the MCCT allow the advancement of technology-based entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills in students. Thanks to the search for value propositions in the use of technologies, entrepreneurs find applications that solve problems. In this case, the student becomes a relevant actor in contributing to the solution of environmental issues and collaborates in economic development [25].

The teaching–learning processes of the MCCT contain meta-innovations and elements of active learning, thanks to the use of the *Think and Do* methodology, participation in interdisciplinary collaborative projects, and with the support of expert teachers [20].

The learning has an impact on the entrepreneur that is recognized by the surveyed students, especially in a change of vision where they use what they learned in the context in which they work. Also, as Lehto and Penttilä [24] state, meta-innovation processes allow participants to develop capacities to participate in an increasingly globalized world. The international collaboration of professors from The University of Texas at Austin exposes Mexican students to other experiences and prepares them for internationalization.

When analyzing the context, the objectives of the Master's degree are aligned with the State Development Plan of Nuevo León [35], especially in its work to strengthen the creation of companies based on technology, the development of programs for creating these companies, the formation of entrepreneurial talent, and internationalization. Requiring the students to create new companies also prepares them for the challenges that arise when putting ideas into practice. Students recognize the difficulty of satisfying the needs of customers and the market, little information about the use of technology, and, in some cases, the challenge in obtaining resources. Therefore, it is suggested to continue with the virtuous circle of entrepreneurship by increasing the link with other actors of the innovation ecosystem, as recommended by Maroufkhani et al. [31].

The importance of these findings is that they allow for identifying good practices in the role of higher education to create synergies among actors of the innovation ecosystem [9,10]. Also, it contributes to the discussion of the functions of a university in a transnational context, considering that the Latin American region may benefit from these initiatives of integration with universities that have developed the theme of entrepreneurship and innovation for a long time [4]. Finally, understanding dynamic factors and roles will empower actors to generate innovation and sustainable practices [38].

#### **7. Conclusions**

This study shows that the State of Nuevo León in Mexico has the necessary conditions for the development of companies based on science and technology. The long-term development plans with a clear vision, the required infrastructure for their achievement, and the participation of actors of the innovation ecosystem, are favorable conditions to achieve the goals that lead to the economic development of the state and the country. However, according to the results shown by the PECTI 2016–2021, it is still necessary to improve to reach the expected levels of development and innovation. Therefore, the role of the CGIE through the MCCT and the activities it develops can help to achieve them.

In the presented analysis, it was possible to determine that the students developed innovation and entrepreneurship skills. Also, they applied what they learned to their business ideas, in other companies and training processes for other entrepreneurs. Besides this, they were able to create a network with colleagues and teachers that allowed them to improve and implement their ideas.

Regarding the question of how higher education institutions can affect the development of entrepreneurship and innovation, the analyzed case study shows that the methodologies evolved in the MCCT allowed students to develop skills for innovation, technology transfer, the creation of new companies, the commercialization of new ideas, and entrepreneurial abilities. The application of these methodologies has favored the emergence of sustainable initiatives within the students' projects. Moreover, they have allowed the generation of companies that help other entrepreneurs to develop solutions to environmental and social problems.

As the primary concern, the former students pointed out that there is limited development in the field of technology transfer and commercialization in Mexico, a problem faced by other Latin American countries.

The role of CGIE is fundamental for improving these results through the training of human capital in innovation, and the development of ideas to solve these types of problems through new technologies. So, linking with other academic institutions and industry can increase the impact of the specialists trained at the center. For the local government, it is also an opportunity to learn more about these entrepreneurship training programs to apply them in a larger population, implementing more business ideas. For industries, they can also give ideas to the students. Learners can develop solutions they need, and businesses can collaborate with the employment of these professionals.

Other countries in Latin America can emulate good practices presented in this case study. Although some students are from the same geographical area, there are also learners from different states of the country. In this circumstance, training can improve the results of the impact and economic growth at the state, the country, and regional levels.

For future studies, it is suggested to analyze in quantitative terms the value of the companies created in the Master's degree and the contribution of these companies to the state and country Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is also recommended to investigate success stories for knowing in more detail about the applied practices of the MCCT and the social problems solved by these companies. Another suggestion would be to examine the actions of other participants of the innovation ecosystem in Nuevo León, such as accelerators, research centers, and technology parks, and their results for economic development.

Finally, continue analyzing the role of education for entrepreneurship and innovation, and its implementation through projects applied to the solution of real problems that result in high-impact technology companies, with the dissemination of good practices such as those presented in this case study. At a conference held in the city of Dallas, Texas in 1997, George Kozmetsky, founder of the IC2 Institute, gave his vision of the impact of technology in the 21st century and of the transformation towards a knowledge society:

*Business leadership has the ability to manage the value-added chain, the technology chain, and knowledge innovation chains, simultaneously. The knowledge innovation chain is "the creation, evolution, exchange, and application of new ideas into marketable goods and services for the excellence*

*of an enterprise, the vitality of a nation's economy, and the advancement of society as a whole. It is the velocity of change. In short, the knowledge society breaks the old 1990s MBA. Enterprise creation and innovation is an emerging competitive digital technology-based economy realizing the value of interdependencies rather than close-kept intellectual property assets of the last twenty-five years*. [47] (p. 21)

All these elements are still valid for the formation of human capital and entrepreneurial talent, an essential component to impact the economic and social development of the region.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.P.C. and C.R.S.; methodology, M.P.C. and M.G.G.Z.; validation, M.P.C., C.R.S. and M.G.G.Z.; software M.P.C.; writing—original draft preparation, M.P.C.; writing—review and editing, C.R.S. and M.G.G.Z.; supervision, C.R.S. and M.G.G.Z.

**Funding:** The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Writing Lab, TecLabs, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, in the production of this work.

**Acknowledgments:** We acknowledge the Center for Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship of The University of Texas at Austin for its support in our research. We also are grateful to the peer reviewers' valuable comments, which has helped us to improve the paper.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.


**4. Conclusions**

For MoMA's 2021 exhibition, *Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start*, the possibility arose for reviving *Man-Eater with Pennants*, a forgotten sculpture by the artist. The sculpture had been repainted several times early in its history; however, after its last exhibition in 1969–1970, extensive paint loss and rusting, due to outdoor exposure, were not addressed. As part of planning the restoration treatment for *Man-Eater*, cross sections and samples were taken for further analysis by Raman spectroscopy, SEM-EDS, and XRF to determine the pigments present and aid in the identification of the artist's original color choices. The original paint layers were identified as the ones closest to an aluminum anti-corrosive layer or those penetrated by drastic rusting of the metal. Through these analyses, we can establish an early primary palette for Calder: a darker blue based on Prussian blue, a brown-red based on P.R. 6, and a lemon yellow based on a sulfate-containing chrome yellow. Among the many layers of overpaint, the ones last applied can be dated to no later than the 1970's due to the presence of the Nd3+ rich titanium white, which seems plausible considering that the work has not been exhibited since 1970. Analysis of the associated maquette confirmed the later painting date as described in internal records based on the presence of the Nd3+ rich titanium white as a completely different palette consisting of ultramarine blue, a chrome yellow, and the yellowish-red P.R. 4 in combination with molybdate orange. Considering that the maquette was painted between 1959 and 1969 and does not appear to have been repainted since, the colors do not match those of the original paints in *Man-Eater*. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis of his early primary palette in the literature and presents a unique path forward for other treatments of works of Calder from this period held at other institutions and private collections worldwide.

As part of the treatment undertaken by Monumenta Art Conservation and Finishing LLC, the aged paint layers and surface rust were removed before applying an anti-corrosion primer, followed by epoxy paint base coats. The analysis of *Man-Eater* and the maquette helped determine the tonality of yellow, blue, and red used in the restoration campaign. Additionally, it was important to note the presence of toxic pigments, such as red lead, from a safety perspective. Most significantly, understanding the differences in pigment composition between the maquette and final sculpture prevented the use of inaccurate colors, as was done in other instances in the past [14]. The final color coats were applied by spray and brush. Now, half a century after its last exhibition, *Man-Eater with Pennants* is newly conserved and installed, ready to delight and charm visitors to MoMA's sculpture garden.

**Author Contributions:** A.H. carried out some sampling in addition to Raman Spectroscopy, μ-FTIR, SEM-EDS, microscopy, XRF data interpretation, and drafting this manuscript. M.R. carried out sampling for cross sections in addition to XRF. spectroscopy and digital microscopy. L.Z. carried out art historical research, mined MoMA's internal records, and drafted sections of the manuscript. A.M. carried out XRF interpretation and revisions of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data available on request.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors are grateful to our partners in the restoration of *Man-Eater with Pennants*: Cara Manes, Associate Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, Abigail Mack and Ellen Rand at Monumenta Art Conservation and Finishing LLC, and Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation, New York. We are also grateful for instrumental access by the Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Finally, this project was possible with generous support from the Bank of America.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The opinions: findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Museum of Modern Art. The authors declare no competing financial interest.


**2.2 Products**

152 Renewable Energy – Trends and Applications

used. At concentrations of up to 5 vol % (B5) in conventional diesel fuel, the mixture will meet the ASTM D975 diesel fuel specification and can be used in any application as if it was pure petroleum diesel; for home heating oil, B5 will meet the D396 home heating oil specification (Biodiesel Handling and Use Guide, 2009). At concentrations of 6% to 20%, biodiesel blends can be used in many applications that use diesel fuel with minor or no modifications to the equipment. B20 is the most commonly used biodiesel blend in the United States because it provides a good balance between material compatibility, cold weather operability, performance, emission benefits, and costs (Biodiesel Handling and Use Guide, 2009). Equipment that can use B20 includes compression-ignition (CI) engines, fuel oil and heating oil boilers, and turbines. The analysis, fuel quality, and production monitoring of biodiesel have been discussed in more details in previous studies (Knothe, 2005, Mittelbach and Remschmidt, 2004, Knothe, 2001, Mittelbach, 1996 and Komers et al.,

Biodiesel is produced from plant oils (soybean oil, cotton seed oil, canola oil), recycled cooking greases or oils (e.g., yellow grease), or animal fats (beef tallow, pork lard). Biodiesel is the result of a chemical reaction process on oils or fats called transesterification. A simple diagram of the transesterification process is shown in Figure 1. Vegetable oil, animal fats or waste oil react with alcohol in the presence of catalysts to form Biodiesel and Glycerin. Glycerin is a co-product of the biodiesel process. There are three distinct types of transesterification process: (1) Base catalyzed transesterification of the oil, (2) Direct acid catalyzed transesterification of the oil, and (3) conversion of the oil to its fatty acids and then to biodiesel. For the direct acid catalyzed transesterification of the oil, the transesterification process is catalyzed by bronsted acids, preferably by sulfonic and sulfuric acids. These catalysts give very high yields in alkylesters, but the reactions are slow, requiring, typically, temperatures above 100 °C and more than 3 h to reach complete conversion. The base-catalyzed transesterification of vegetable oils proceeds faster than the acid-catalyzed reaction and the alkaline catalysts are less corrosives than acidic compounds. From these three basic route to biodiesel production the base catalyzed transesterification of the oil present many advantages. First the base catalyzed transesterification has high conversion efficiency. With this process around 98 percent of all the reactants will effectively mix to produce biodiesel. This chemical reaction is also efficient at low temperature and low pressure. This is great advantages because it means that no heavy pressure unit or heating unit would be required. Furthermore this transesterification lead to a direct conversion and does not need any

Two reactants are present during the chemical reaction. The first one is the triglycerides from the vegetable oil and the second is the alcohol. Triglycerides can have different alkyl groups as biodiesel can be made out of different kind of straight vegetable oil or waste vegetable oil. Two different kind of alcohol can be used: methanol or ethanol. These two alcohols are used in particular for this chemical reaction because there is very little space

intermediate compounds to achieved biodiesel production.

between triglycerides atoms for the alcohol to react with.

1998).

**2. Biodiesel basics**

**2.1 Reactants**

From this chemical reaction there are two main products: Glycerol also named glycerin and methyl or ethyl ester which is Biodiesel. Glycerin is denser than biodiesel and would consequently stay under it.

The equation below will resume the reaction:

$$\text{Vegetable oil} + \text{alcohol} \cdot \text{---} \blackrightarrow \text{glycine} + \text{Biodiesel} \tag{1}$$

If we consider the concentrations:

80% Vegetable Oil + 20% Alcohol ----- 90% Biodiesel + 10% Glycerin (2)


**6. Conclusions**

The detailed CFE-CC model of a WRIM was implemented in real-time on an entry-level DRTS of OPAL-RT with a time step of 6 μs. This model considers the machine's particular geometry and winding configuration can be changed easily using a simple matrix transformation. Any number of search coils can be added to the model, as well as faults such as broken bar and eccentricity. Comparisons with real-time measurements have shown that the CFE-CC model is accurate and computationally efficient. This work paves the way to new real-time monitoring techniques for electrical machines using the CFE-CC model alongside others in a digital twin. However, the machine studied in this work has only seven circuits. Including more electrical circuits in the CFE-CC model results in more computations at each time step and more memory requirement for lookup tables. Future works include studying the feasibility of real-time execution of the CFE-CC model for large synchronous machines comprising many electrical circuits.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.B.; methodology, S.B.; software, S.B.; validation, S.B.; formal analysis, S.B., P.V. and J.C.; investigation, S.B.; resources, S.B.; data curation, S.B.; writing—original draft preparation, S.B.; writing—review and editing, S.B., P.V. and J.C.; supervision, P.V.; project administration, P.V. and J.C.; funding acquisition, P.V. and J.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank OPAL-RT for their support in this work.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.


**9. Treatment**

With a little-known entity with few studies, this treatment is not protocolized [15] (**Table 5**). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), sulfasalazine, systemic corticosteroids, colchicine, methotrexate, and antibiotics such as tetracyclines have been used with varying results.

NSAIDs and analgesics are used as a symptomatic treatment of disease. There is no NSAID that has shown to be more effective than other. Almost all patients receive NSAIDs, obtaining a good result, but due to recurrence, loss of efficacy, or progression of disease, it is necessary to establish other treatments.

As we have said before, it is believed that this disease might have an infectious origin, mainly *Propionibacterium acnes*, so several antibiotics have been used, although they have not been proved to be really effective. Tetracyclines have been shown to be effective in controlling severe forms of acne [16].

Immunosuppressants, such as sulfasalazine or methotrexate, have been used in cases resistant to NSAIDs [17] and antibiotics, and although they have shown improvement in some patients, results have not been conclusive, and there are studies in this regard.

The use of bisphosphonates has been described as effective, although the majority of cases in which it has been used have been endovenous. Bisphosphonates are synthetic analogs of pyrophosphate; their function is to inhibit bone resorption by altering the function and metabolism of osteoclasts. Due to these properties, they have been used in treatment of primary and secondary osteoporosis, Paget's disease, bone metastasis, and disorders of bone metabolism [18].

Pamidronate and zoledronic acid have been used. Pamidronate has been used at a dose of 60 mg/day IV in a single dose, during a very short cycle of days in a row or repeating the dose several months later [19]. In most cases an improvement in pain and in the evolution of

**Table 5.** SAPHO syndrome treatment.

the disease was found. This is due to an action on bone remodeling that interferes with the production of proinflammatory cytokines.

Zoledronic acid is the most potent bisphosphonate and is usually used in hypercalcemias of tumoral origin. It has been used at a dose of 4 mg IV in a single dose with repetition at 6 months if there was no improvement [20], obtaining good results (decrease in pain and regression of disease).

In the treatment with biological therapy, anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) drugs have been used with promising results.

Although NSAIDs usually control pain and inflammation, it is often necessary to use diseasemodifying drugs to improve symptoms. In this regard, it seems that IV bisphosphonates have been the most effective, but the dose and interval have not been unified.

Biological therapy also seems to show effectiveness [21]. More trials with these drugs would be needed to test their effectiveness against this disease and protocol the number of doses, the amount, and the interval between them.