Sugar cane

This paper presents the results of the application of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method, or Georadar, in outlining a zone of contamination due to solid residues at the waste burial site of Rio Claro in the state of São Paulo, SE Brazil. A total of eight GPR profiles with 50-and 100-MHz antennae were surveyed. Six profiles were located within the landfill site and the remaining two were outside. The main objective of the GPR survey was to evaluate the side extension of contamination. A Vertical Electric Sounding (VES) survey was performed at four points within the site in order to investigate the vertical extent of the contamination plume and to define the bottom of the landfill. Two additional VESs were done outside the landfill with the purpose of determining the top of the ground water table and the geoelectric stratigraphy of the background. From the interpretation of the GPR profiles, it was possible to locate the top of the contamination plume and to infer that it was migrating laterally beyond the limits of the waste disposal site. This was observed along the profile situated close to the highway SP-127, which was about 20 m from the limit of the site. The signature of the contaminant appears as a discontinuous reflector that is believed to be a shallow ground water table. The discontinuity is marked by a shadow zone, which is characteristic of conductive contaminant residues. The contamination did not move far enough to reach a sugar cane plantation located at approximately 100 m from the border of the site. In the regions free from contamination, the ground water table was mapped at approximately 10 m of depth, and it was characterized by a strong and continuous reflector. The radar signal penetrated deep enough and enabled the identification of a second reflector at approximately 14 m deep, interpreted as the contact between the Rio Claro and the Corumbataí formations. The contact is marked by the presence of gravel characterized by ferruginous concretes, which cause the strong amplitude reflection in the GPR profile. Within the landfill site, the quantitative interpretation of the VES results showed the contamination zone. The base of the landfill varies between 11 and 15 m deep. Outside the landfill site, the VES results showed no indication of contamination and allowed the determination of the top of the ground water table and the contact between the Rio Claro and the Corumbataí formations. The results of GPR and VES showed a good agreement and the integrated interpretations were supported by local geology and information from several boreholes, about 17 m depth, on average. The bottom of the landfill reaches a maximum of 14.5 m depth. D

In 1996 and 1997, infestation by the spotted borer, Chilo sacchariphagus, in the most commonly cultivated sugar cane varieties in Mauritius was assessed in the different climatic regions. Compared to surveys conducted in 1964, 1965, 1984 and 1985 fields with higher levels of infestations were recorded. The highest infestations were in the subhumid non -irrigated zone in 1996 and in the humid non-irrigated zone in 1997. Data showed that a particular variety reacts differently to borers in different climatic regions and plant canes tend to be more susceptible than ratoons. There appears to be a relationship between percent canes bored and percent internodes bored.

By employing sugar as a social metaphor, whether in narrative foreground or as backdrop, Caribbean writers confronted the oppressive histories and dark human institutions that arose together with the region’s sugar economy.  This proto-metaphor of sugar appealed to the legacy of a generational psychology as much as it did to a contemporary public conscience over the social travail that the industry generated.

Since 1997, the agricultural leases on Native land, issued under the 1976 Agricultural and Landlord Tenants Act (ALTA), began to expire. The sugar industry is the main commodity export earner for Fiji, directly contributing about 22% of the national GDP and supporting over 25% of the country's active labor force. Fiji exports 80% of its sugar production, earning on average of $250-300 million in foreign exchange annually. Several options have been suggested, including: non-renewal of leases, with the land reverting to Fijian owners; renewal of ALTA but with land rents pegged to the gross value of production instead of the unimproved capital value; sharecropping and contract wage arrangements; and abolishment of lease arrangement under ALTA with leases to be issued under an institutional arrangement guided by the Native Lands Trust Act (NLTA). The land tenure system adopted will have a significant impact not only on the efficiency of the sugar cane sector but also on Fiji's...

RESUMO: A conservação da cana-de-açúcar na forma de silagem vem se destacando nos últimos anos em razão dos benefícios na operacionalidade. No entanto, quando ensilada sem aditivos a cana apresenta fermentação alcoólica com perda no valor nutritivo, resultante da atividade de leveduras. Considerando a hipótese que o uso da cal na ensilagem da cana pode inibir o desenvol- vimento das

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Australians were possessed by two obsessions – the fear of the ›yellow peril‹ and the desire for a white society. The fear of the ›yellow peril‹ found expression in science and politics as well as in innumerable invasion novels which depicted the swamping of the European outpost in the Pacific by Asiatic hordes. The programme of a white society was reasoned scientifically and found political supporters not least in the labour movement. Moreover, it found expression in a medium which was even more popular than pulp fiction: consumer racism which propagated the consumption of ›white sugar‹. ›White sugar‹ was a very special commodity: refined white and produced white, it comprised white labourers, dearer sweetness, protection from the world market, and gaining of intra-continental acceptance through subsidies. Certainly there were countless points of contact between colour discrimination and thinking in terms of whiteness. In the context of the European diggers’ rebellions on the goldfields, the workers’ strikes against the replacement of white with Chinese labour and clashes with Aborigines on the colonial frontier, the whites’ anger was given vent to. But these were largely isolated incidents involving concrete problems and select societal groups. Invasion novels and sugar consumption, on the other hand, aimed at the whole society. The problem to turn the empty north, considered ›terra nullius‹, into a breeding ground for whiteness and, thus, into a bulwark against the ›yellow peril‹ was considered problematic, however. This was due to the utilization interest of the agrarian capital as well as the phantasies of degeneration of race sciences. While the latter were not sure whether whites would altogether proof to be able to successfully settle in the tropics, the former were mainly interested in the exploitation of cheap labour. This paper will look into the ways in which the campaigns to consume white-produced Australian sugar and the genre of invasion novels accomplished to subsume lobbies of adverse interests in the joint pursuit of white Australia.

Background, aim and scope After China and India, Thailand is considered another emerging market for fuel ethanol in Asia. At present, ethanol in the country is mainly a fermentation/distillery product of cane molasses, although cassava and cane juice are considered other potential raw materials for the fuel. This study aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of substituting conventional gasoline (CG) with molasses-based gasohol in Thailand.

Choosing appropriate practices and policies for biofuel production requires an understanding of how soils, climate, farm types, infrastructure, markets, and social organisation affect the establishment and performance of these crops. This book highlights land-use dynamics, cultivation practices related to conversion, and wider impacts. It explores how biofuel production chain development is steered by emerging technologies and management practices and how both can be infl uenced by effective policies designed to encourage sustainable biofuel production. Also, the book highlights major biofuel production chains including: • Cane cultivation in Brazil • Corn ethanol in the USA • Wheat and rapeseed in Europe • Oil palm in the Far East • Cane in Asia and Africa • SRC and other lignocellulosic crops In each case, the development, cropping systems, and impacts are discussed; additionally , system dynamics are shown and lessons are drawn for the way things could or should change. Biofuel Cropping Systems is a vital resource for all those who want to understand the way biofuels are produced and how they impact other elements of land use and especially how improvements can be made. It is a handbook for students, biofuel producers, researchers, and policymakers in energy and agriculture. J.W.A. Langeveld holds an MS in tropical agronomy. After a career of 20 years of research in public institutions, he founded a private company for research on sustainable biomass (Biomass Research) in 2008. He is an expert on land use and cropping systems analysis. His major focus is on sustainable biomass production and its utili-sation in biofuels and biobased materials. John Dixon is Principal Adviser-Research Programmes, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. He has over 30 years of developing country experience with agricultural research and development, including cropping systems, economics and natural resource management with the CGIAR system and the FAO UN. Herman van Keulen was trained as a soil scientist and production ecologist at Wagenin-gen University. During his career, Herman was recognized internationally as a giant in his fi eld. His knowledge of crop production around the world was encyclopaedic and his readiness to share his wisdom was a constant support for many around him. Sadly, Herman passed away before the publication of the book. He will be missed dearly by his wife and two sons, and also by his former colleagues and numerous ex-students.

Agroindustrial and forestry residues, which are by-products of key industrial and economical activities, stand out as potential raw materials for the production of renewable fuels, chemicals and energy. The use of wastes is advantageous as their availability is not hindered by a requirement for arable land for the production of food and feed. In addition, waste utilization prevents its accumulation, which is of great environmental concern due to its potential for contamination of rivers and underground water. In Brazil, the agroindustry of corn (13767400 ha), sugarcane (7080920 ha), rice (2890930 ha), cassava (1894460 ha), wheat (1853220 ha), citrus (930591 ha), coconut (283205 ha), and grass (140000 ha) collectively occupies an area of 28840726 ha (FAOSTAT, http://www. faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor) and generates 597 million tons of residue per year. By itself, this scale of operation calls for new solutions aiming for the appropriate utilization of these valuable resources. However, innovative dealings must be environmentally and economically acceptable and, most importantly, have social meaning. Indeed, great social benefits could draw from novel yearround activities as alternatives for the typical seasonal jobs in agroindustry. Considering the production of biomass ethanol, the abundance of feedstock near the site of processing must be taken into account, as low-density biomass involves significant handling and transportation costs. Within this context, the crushed stalk of sugar cane (bagasse) and straw are obvious choices, although bagasse is often burned for the production of steam (heat) and power/electricity in sugar-ethanol mills and important amounts of straw are needed to keep the soil nutrients balance. Other agricultural by-products of importance in Brazil, such as corn straw, wheat straw, rice straw and rice hulls, grass and forestry materials and residues from citrus, coconut and cassava processing, also deserve attention as local feedstock for the development of new and profitable activities. As each type of feedstock demands the development of tailor-made technology, the diversity of the aforementioned raw materials could allow for new solutions for the production of chemicals, fuels and energy in accordance with the local availability of these materials.

lnorganic constituents of ash in biomass fuels are responsible for equipment failure and operating difficulties in thermochemical energy conversion facilities. Alkali metals, in the presence of chlorine and sulfur, are the leading contributors to this problem. Banagrass, a herbaceous species being considered for use as a dedicated energy crop, contains high levels of potassium and chlorine. Some inorganic elements are water soluble and the opportunity exists to remove them by mechanical dewatering and 16aching as part of the feedstock preparation process. Laboratory-scale equipment, representative of processes employed in the commercial extraction of sugar from cane, was used to prepare banagrass fuel treatments that included two degrees of comminution (coarse and fine) and two dew atering schemes (mechanical dewatering only, and a multi-step process consisting of initial mechanical dewatering followed by a water rinse and second dewatering). The treatment that included fine comminution and multi-step dewatering resulted in a fuel with substantial reductions in ash (45%), K (90%), CI (98%), S (55%), Na (68%), P (72%) and Mg (68%). The coarse comminution and multi-step dewatering scheme also resulted in reductions, but generally with 10-20% more of the initial constituent mass retained in the fuel. These two treatments produced fuels containing 0.11 and 0.23 kg (Na,_O + K_,O) GJ ~, respectively, with corresponding ash fusion temperature estimates of 1250 and 1075~C. By comparison, bagasse, the fibrous by-product of sugar cane, contains 0.06 kg (Na20 + K20) GJ ~ and has an estimated ash fusion temperature of roughly 1500c'C. Banagrass subjected to the most severe treatment, fine comminution with multi-step dewatering, should produce a boiler fuel with characteristics similar to those of bagasse.

A more accurate, less time-consuming, and nonpolluting spectroscopic method than the currently used HPLC or polarimetric methods is proposed for the routine quantitative determination of sucrose in complex biological samples. Opaque raw sugar cane juices representative of a sugar cane harvest are analyzed by Fourier transformed mid-infrared attenuated total reflectance, and the spectral data are processed by principal component analysis (PCA) and principal component regression (PCR). The most suitable region for the measurement of sucrose was found to be the 1250-800 cm -1 region. The spectroscopic representation of the first axis as assessed by PCA in this spectral region featured characteristic absorption bands of sucrose. By PCR on the spectral data from a calibration set, a prediction equation was established to predict sucrose content in unknown samples. Good overall predictions were obtained. The values of the predicted sucrose concentration were more accurate (bias ) 0.041 g/100 mL) than those obtained by direct polarimetry (bias ) -0.163 g/100 mL). The method is validated on a panel of 1267 samples representative of a sugar cane harvest.

The waste by-products of the sugar-cane industry, bagasse (b), pressmud (p) and trash (t) have been subjected to bioinoculation followed by vermicomposting to shorten stabilization time and improve product quality. Press-mud alone and in combination with other by-products of sugar processing industries was pre-decomposed for 30 days by inoculation with combination of Pleurotus sajorcaju, Trichoderma viridae, Aspergillus niger and Pseudomonas striatum. This treatment was followed by vermicomposting for 40 days with the native earthworm, Drawida willsi. The combination of both treatments reduced the overall time required for composting to 20 days and accelerated the degradation process of waste by-products of sugar processing industry, thereby producing a nutrient-enriched compost product useful for sustaining high crop yield, minimizing soil depletion and value added disposal of waste materials.

The linkage of the Caribbean and the United States in the international sugar economy has been long noted, specifically in connection with trade, technology and ownership. Yet the management aspect has been overlooked. This article attempts to redress this historical lacuna by analyzing the development of the Louisiana-Caribbean connection following the introduction of the central factory in that southern state and in the Hispanic and British Caribbean. As we will see, Louisiana-born and trained managerial, technical and skilled personnel, known as "sugar tramps," played key roles in the development of the Caribbean sugar industry until their substitution by locals well into the twentieth century. 1 The largest sugar factories were located in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The South Porto Rico Sugar Company of New Jersey (SPRSCO/NJ), one of the most enterprising and innovative U.S. corporations in the region, will be used as a case study. Historical Context During the second half of the nineteenth century, sugar self-sufficiency by the United States seemed an attainable goal to government officials, sugar planters, and scientists. 2 During the Civil War, to counter the scarce cane sugar and molasses coming from the South, the Department of Agriculture started experiments with sugar beets. In 1876, a Louisiana cane planter wrote: "it is beyond a doubt that the United States could produce all the sugar needed for their consumption." 3 Dr. Harvey W. Wiley (1844-1930), appointed chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture in 1883 and a staunch believer in sugar self-sufficiency, pursued a three-pronged policy of promoting sugar production on the U.S. mainland, specifically sugar cane in Louisiana, sugar beet in the West, and 1

Ordinary Portland Cement is recognized as a major construction material throughout the world. Researchers all over the world today are focusing on ways of utilizing either industrial or agricultural waste, as a source of raw materials for industry. This waste utilization would not only be economical, but may also result in foreign exchange earnings and environmental pollution. wastes, such as blast furnace slag, fly ash and silica fume are being used as supplementary cement replacement materials. A few studies have been carried out on the ashes obtained directly from the industries to study pozzolanic activity and their suitability as binders, partially replacing cement. This project analyses the effect of SCBA in concrete by partial replacement of cement at the ratio of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by weight by using magnesium sulphate solution. The bagasse is an important by-product of the sugar cane industry and most of it is used to produce steam and electricity in a co-generation plant at the ethanol plant.. This experimental study examines the compressive strength of concrete. The main ingredients used are Portland cement, SCBA, river sand, coarse aggregate and water. After mixing, concrete specimens were casted and subsequently all test specimens were cured in water at 7 days, 28days, 56days, 90days, and 180days.

In this paper the estimation of biodiversity is developed by deriving an estimator of an index. It is considered as a parameter and should be estimated when a simple random sample of plots is selected. Its variances is obtained. Pest dynamics is studied using a Data Mining tool. We used data generated by a large study on the behavior of a sugar cane pest, in order to evaluate the accuracy of the estimators and determine characteristics of the pest dynamics.

Puccinia horiana is the causal agent of chrysanthemum white rust or Japanese rust. This microcyclic autoecious rust has a quarantine status and can cause major damage in the commercial production of Chrysanthemum x morifolium. Given the international and often trans-continental production of planting material and cut flowers of chrysanthemum and the decreasing availability of registered fungicides in specific regions, breeding for resistance against P. horiana will gain importance and will need to involve the appropriate resistance genes for the pathotypes that may be present. As pathotypes have not been well characterized in this system, the main objective was to build an international collection of isolates and screen these on a large collection of cultivars to identify different pathotypes. Using a robust and high throughput bioassay, we tested 36 selected cultivars with 22 individual single-pustule isolates of P. horiana. The isolates originated from three different continents over 4 different collection years and included some isolates from cultivars previously reported as resistant. In most cases the bioassays resulted in a clear scoring of interaction phenotypes as susceptible or resistant, while in several cases consistent intermediate phenotypes were found, often on specific cultivars. Twenty-four of the cultivars gave a differential interaction phenotype profile. All isolates produced a unique profile, infecting a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 19 differential cultivars. Based on the Person analysis of these profiles, this pathosystem contains at least seven resistance genes (and seven avirulence genes), demonstrating the highly complex race structure in this pathosystem.

Cachaça was aged for 6 months in small casks of oak and eight different Brazilian woods (amarelo, amendoim, balsamo, jatoba, louro, pau d'arco, pau d'oleo, and pereiro) in order to determine total phenols, UVvisible spectra differences, and sensorial acceptance. Also used were 200-l casks of oak and pereiro for aging cachaça for 4 years to characterize sensorial descriptors and acceptance. The results suggest that amendoim and pereiro followed by jatobµ are good candidates to replace oak in the construction of cachaça aging casks. It was also observed that when using oak casks as a standard the major changes in the sensory properties occurred in the first 21 months of aging. The principal components analysis of UV-visible absorption spectra of the same beverage stored in casks made of different woods allowed identification of the wood in which the beverage had been aged.

The aim of this study is to make an evaluation of the possibilities of ethanol production increase through the introduction of bagasse hydrolysis process in conventional distilleries, considering the limiting situation of bagasse use: it is the major by-product in sugar and ethanol production and is burnt in boilers to satisfy the steam and power requirements of the process. Simulations in ASPEN PLUS® software were performed, in order to evaluate the mass and energy balances, for the integrated process, considering the pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse by steam explosion. The cogeneration system was also modelled and integrated with the ethanol production process. It consists of a steam cycle with backpressure steam turbines and
parameters of live steam of 67 bar and 480°C. In all the cases studied it was considered that the steam flow used in the system was just that necessary to fulfil the process thermal needs, so, it was assumed that the surplus of bagasse was used to produce ethanol. The use of sugarcane trash was considered in order to accomplish the energetic needs of the overall process as well as lignin cake, which is a hydrolysis process residue. Several cases were evaluated, which include: the conventional ethanol production plant without hydrolysis (Case I), the conventional plant joint with hydrolysis process without thermal integration considering different solid contents in the hydrolysis reactor (Cases II, III and IV), and the conventional plant joint with the hydrolysis process considering thermal integration through Pinch method (Case V). The results shown a modest ethanol production increase of 9.7% for the situation without thermal integration and low solid content in the hydrolysis reactor, on the other hand, the case where thermal integration was applied presented an ethanol production increase of 17.4%.

Keywords:
Ethanol, sugarcane, enzymatic hydrolysis, thermal integration.

This work aims to evaluate the co-firing of gas derived from biomass and natural gas in combined cycles. It is suggested that co-firing can solve some of the initial technological problems associated with the gas turbines of BIG-GT (Biomass Integrated Gasification/Gas Turbine) plants. De-rating is the simplest strategy that allows continuous gas turbine operation with low calorific value fuels, but it also reduces cycle power and efficiency. The proposed biomass gas is derived from sugar-cane residues and has a lower heating value of around to 6 MJ/Nm 3 . Modeling results show that if the natural gas content is higher than 35-50% (energy basis) no de-rating will be necessary. At these proportions, the efficiency of electricity generation is not substantially reduced vis-à-vis the reference case. Another important outcome of the modeling is that the peak in power that occurs for natural gas contents slightly higher than 50% in energy basis. Another advantage of co-firing is that it will entail only small hardware modifications to the gas turbines. A comparison is made between the co-firing strategy and the improvements likely to arise from retrofitting gas turbines for LCV fuels. 

O sistema de colheita mecanizada pode buscar melhorias no processo utilizando ferramentas de qualidade e auxiliar na redução de perdas, aos danos à soqueira e aumentar a longevidade do canavial. O objetivo deste trabalho foi detectar o controle efetivo da variabilidade das perdas e danos à soqueira, bem como identificar se estas estão dentro dos padrões aceitáveis. Para tanto, foram amostrados 40 pontos em dois períodos de colheita, diurna e noturna, em malhas retangulares (55 x 45 m) para determinação das perdas visíveis (rebolos repicados e estilhaçados, pedaço fixo e solto, toco e estilhaço), utilizando-se armações de 10 m 2 . Foram mensurados a altura de corte e os danos na soqueira (sem danos, danos parciais e fragmentados). A estatística utilizada foi descritiva para as variáveis perdas de cana-de-açúcar no período diurno (D) e noturno (N), além da análise de variância, utilizando-se o teste F a 5% de probabilidade e o teste de Tukey para comparação de médias e a utilização de controle estatístico de processo por meio de cartas de controle de processo. Não houve diferença quanto a danos na soqueira. No processo de colheita, as perdas por rebolo repicado e estilhaçado foram consideradas estáveis (sob controle), assim como as perdas por toco, enquanto as perdas por pedaço fixo e solto, estilhaço e cana-inteira ficaram fora de controle. A altura de corte e as perdas totais foram maiores durante a colheita noturna. As cartas foram eficientes para a avaliação de controle do processo de colheita diurno e noturno.

This short essay provides the facts on the commonest addiction in the modern world: SUGAR. Its history shows how the English used this almost irresistable additive to launch their fortunes as the world's greatest contributor to global addiction, long before they started pushing opium on the Chinese Empire. It is not surprising to realize that sugar is the most addictive additive in the modern diet: almost impossible to avoid, even though its harmful effects are now well known, in spite of the deliberate obfuscation of the sugar and food industries. This essay discusses the history, biochemistry and negative health effects of sugar, so that readers can make informed choices. It is hoped that this short paper brings most of the relevant facts together on this important additive to help readers improve their own health. Sugar as the most popular form of carbohydrate links into the series of papers on the biology of life-systems written in the last two years.

The extraneous matter is defined in the sugar industry as plant material, other than sugar cane stalks, rich in sucrose, in association with mineral matter consisting soil particles and stones. The extraneous matter reduces the levels of sucrose and interferes with the sugarcane factory processing. The level of extraneous matter depends on the cutting system and sugarcane variety. This study elucidates the impact of extraneous matter on the level of sucrose losses from sugar cane harvested under conventional harvesting systems (manual harvesting) and mechanical harvesting at Manuelita Sugar Mill (Colombia) using the sugarcane variety CC 85-92.

This book traces the changing meanings of free trade over the past century through three sugar treaties and their concomitant institutions. The 1902 Brussels Convention is an example of how free trade buttressed the British Empire. The 1937 International Sugar Agreement is a story of how a group of Cubans renegotiated their state's colonial relationship with the US through free trade doctrine and the League of Nations. And the study of the 1977 International Sugar Agreement maps the world of international trade law through a plethora of institutions such as the ITO, UNCTAD, GATT and international commodity agreements – all against the backdrop of competing Third World agendas. Through a legal study of free trade ideas, interests and institutions, this book highlights how the line between the state and market, domestic and international, and public and private is always a matter of contest.

Dirt collected with sugarcane is processed and separated from the juice in the sugar factory by filtration equipment for return to the cane fields. New technologies over the past decade have enabled performance improvements to be obtained for this key unit operation. Filter mud product still contains a reasonable amount of sugar and the transportation of high moisture mud product has considerable cost. Australia's traditional approach has been to use Rotary Vacuum Filters for processing and separating mud and other impurities from juice, but in recent years there has been interest in reducing sugar losses and transportation costs through utilisation of new technologies such as Horizontal Bed Filters, Vacuum Belt Press Filters, Membrane Press Filters and Centrifuges. Increasingly, these alternative equipment are being installed in new factories. This chapter describes the general principles of mud filtration theory and mud conditioning followed by a detailed description and review of the various filtration technologies and analysis of the relative merits associated with the equipment.

We reported the physical chemical characterization of a new series of native dextran (B110-1-2). The chemical structure of the polymer was characterized by IR, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy and compared with that of a commercial native dextran B512-F obtained from Sigma Company. Molecular weights of the product and different commercial dextran fractions of Leuconostoc mesenteroides from 43000 to 170000 average molecular weight (M(w)) were established by the analysis of intrinsic viscosity in aqueous solutions and compared with those obtained by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The critical overlap concentration around 9g/L was obtained. No interactions of powder mixtures with different commercial excipients (lactose, cetyl alcohol, HPMC) and drugs (propranolol hydrochloride, acetyl salicyclic acid, isosorbide dinitrate, lobenzarit disodium, and nifedipine) were demonstrated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Tablets obtained by direct compression showed good physical-mechanical and technological properties. Dextran B110-1-2 has similar physical chemical properties as commercial Sigma B512-F. Water uptake, erosion and dissolution profile studies for dextran tablets established that glucose polymer with molecular weight M(w) > or = 2x10(6) is suitable for the development of controlled release solid dosage forms (soluble drugs). Fraction of dextran (M(w) 40000-170000) could be more useful for immediate release tablets.

This is an update of Frank Blackburn’s comprehensive
book Sugar-cane, which was published by
Longman in 1984. I was asked to act as the editor in
April 1998, and undertook the task of approaching
several possible collaborators for producing this
edition. By the beginning of the following year I
was fortunate enough to have selected a team to
write about the topics on which they are the recognised
authorities in the world’s sugarcane agroindustry.
The list of authors is as follows:

The frontiers of Portuguese America were in movement throughout the colonial period, as occurred in Minas Gerais. However, after the revolution of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue in 1791 and the consequent increase in sugar prices in international markets, there was an intense migratory flow to the colony’s unoccupied, uninhabited regions. It was in this historical framework that Campinas, countryside of São Paulo, witnessed its free population increase by more than five times in addition to the slave population being increased by ten times. Thus, this article aims to investigate the migration of sugar producers to Campinas and to understand how the origins of these individuals explain the formation of this sugar production complex. In this sense, there was a considerable migration of descendants of the colonial elite, especially those born in Itu and Minas Gerais..

...Resumo: As áreas limítrofes da América Portuguesa estiveram em movimento durante toda a colônia, como ocorrido no processo de corrida ao ouro das Minas Gerais. Contudo, após a revolução de escravos em Saint-Domingue, em 1791, e o consequente aumento nos preços do açúcar nos mercados internacionais, houve um fluxo migratório intenso para regiões, até então, ermas da colônia. Foi nesse quadro histórico que Campinas, interior de São Paulo, viu sua população livre aumentar mais de cinco vezes e a escrava, dez. O presente artigo objetiva investigar a migração dos produtores de açúcar para Campinas e compreender de quais maneiras as origens desses indivíduos explicam a formação desse complexo açucareiro. Nesse sentido, encontrou-se uma migração considerável de filhos da elite colonial, especialmente nascidos em Itu e Minas Gerais.

En el siglo XIX la economía de Puerto Rico atravesó por dos fases inversas. Creció mucho más que en épocas previas fruto de reformas que fomentaron el establecimiento de la plantación esclavista, pero esto ocurrió a la vez que se prohibía la trata en el Caribe inglés (1808) y empezaba un proceso que acabó con la abolición en 1845 y elevó el precio de los esclavos. A tal circunstancia se unieron cambios en la política colonial. España carecía de mercado para la producción agraria de sus Antillas, por lo que articuló un sistema que permitía el libre comercio y extraía renta de él por medios fiscales. Mientras conservó su imperio americano, las islas fueron receptoras netas de capital, financiadas por un situado enviado desde México, que se gastaba en prover al Ejército y en obras de defensa y revertía positivamente en la oferta interna, que además se incentivó con exenciones a la exportación. Al comenzar las independencias hispanoamericanas el situado desapareció pero las reformas prosiguieron. Sin embargo, cuando aquéllas acabaron, varió esta política debido sobre todo a que el progreso de la economía cubana permitía aumentar su aportación al erario metropolitano; el efecto para la boricua fue un estancamiento ya que la plantación no había logrado un desarrollo suficiente para dejar de depender de tales medidas y pagar a un precio mayor los esclavos. 135

Alcohols have been used as a fuel for engines since 19th century. Among the various alcohols, ethanol is known as the most suited renewable, bio-based and ecofriendly fuel for spark-ignition (SI) engines. The most attractive properties of ethanol as an SI engine fuel are that it can be produced from renewable energy sources such as sugar, cane, cassava, many types of waste biomass materials, corn and barley. In addition, ethanol has higher evaporation heat, octane number and flammability temperature therefore it has positive influence on engine performance and reduces exhaust emissions. In this study, the effects of unleaded gasoline (E0) and unleaded gasoline-ethanol blends (E50 and E85) on engine performance and pollutant emissions were investigated experimentally in a single cylinder four-stroke spark-ignition engine at two compression ratios (10:1 and 11:1). The engine speed was changed from 1500 to 5000 rpm at wide open throttle (WOT). The results of the engine test showed that ethanol addition to unleaded gasoline increase the engine torque, power and fuel consumption and reduce carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. It was also found that ethanol-gasoline blends allow increasing compression ratio (CR) without knock occurrence.

Com o objetivo de conhecer a composição química e os requisitos de qualidade da cachaça produzida na Região Noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, foram analisadas 27 amostras de cachaça, produzidas e comercializadas em 18 municípios pertencentes às microrregiões Ijuí, Cruz Alta, Santa Rosa e Três Passos, que integram o Noroeste do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, e compararam-se os valores encontrados com aqueles estabelecidos pela Legislação. Para as análises estatísticas, aplicaram-se os testes de ANOVA e Tukey. As amostras avaliadas apresentaram valores médios de teor alcoólico, acidez, álcoois superiores, aldeídos, ésteres e metanol dentro do que estabelece a Legislação. Entretanto os valores de intervalo de concentração para estes mesmos parâmetros revelaram amostras fora do estipulado por Lei, indicando falta de conhecimento tecnológico de produção por parte de alguns dos produtores. Sugere-se a ampliação do presente estudo, com a finalidade de se investigar outros aspectos tecnológicos, tendo em vista a otimização dos processos de fabricação e a melhoria da qualidade da bebida. Palavras-chave: cachaça, qualidade, composição química, destilados.

A brief introduction to the history and political economy of sugar "Sugar has always been central to industry and empire, and has transformed global economic history. Slave driven sugar mills of the seventeenth century were one of the earliest factories. But the history of sugar predates these modern developments. It is a history that witnesses the transformation of an unassuming plant into a global commodity. For most of its existence, sugar in the human diet was a luxury that came in the form of sucrose extracted from sugar cane.

Purpose -The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has established that vinegar is a liquid only obtained by fermentation. Although in Pakistan mostly synthetic vinegar is marketed, production of vinegar through fermentation at industrial level is also carried out. However, vinegar produced by this method tends to be of inferior quality due to uncontrolled conditions. In industry a mixed culture of Acetobacter is used for the production of acetic acid but no attention is given towards its proper maintenance and culture is contaminated with other kinds of microorganisms and still no work has been done along these lines in Pakistan. There is a need to develop pure vinegar cultures for vinegar production so that the use of synthetic vinegar may be avoided as it is prohibited in most countries. Keeping in view all of these points, the present work was conducted to isolate a pure culture of Acetobacter aceti, the maintenance of this culture and finally its utilization in fermentation for vinegar production. Design/methodology/approach -In this study efforts were made to isolate vinegar culture (Acetobacter aceti ) from sugar cane juice, rotten apples, flowers, wine, canal water and vinegar as a primary source for Acetobacter by continuous sub-culturing on standard medium glucose, yeast extract and calcium carbonate (GYC). The culture was identified on the basis of colony characteristics and morphology. It was finally confirmed by different biochemical/enzymatic tests and further specified by nutritional and temperature requirements for the growth. The isolated strain was later used for the production of vinegar through fermentation. Findings -Among canal water, crushed apples, sugar cane juice, alcohol, vinegar and flowers, the alcohol and vinegar were found to be the most suitable sources for isolation of Acetobacter spp. The colonies of purified culture were found to be pale to off-white, circular, raised, convex, smooth and not .3 mm in diameter with morphology of Gram-ve, ellipsoidal, rods, squat bacilli, roundish, single, in pairs and in chains. The isolated and identified spp. gave excellent results for the production of vinegar and this vinegar was more acceptable rather than commercially available fermented vinegar. Practical implication -At industrial level good quality vinegar can be produced by using pure culture of Acetobacter aceti for acetic acid fermentation. Originality/value -The research carried out is one of an original type as no work has been done in Pakistan previously. Further, for the accuracy of the results, all the practices were carried out in triplicates.