Measurement of total estrone content in foods. Application to dairy products.

Estrone is a powerful growth-inducing hormone that is present in milk, mainly in the form of fatty acid esters, at concentrations that promote growth in experimental animals. We present here a method useful for the measurement of this natural hormone in foods and applied it to several common dairy products. Samples were frozen, finely powdered, and lyophilized then extracted with trichloromethane/methanol; the dry extract was saponified with potassium hydroxide. The free estrone evolved was extracted with ethyl acetate and was used for the estimation of total estrone content through radioimmunoassay. Application of the method to dairy products showed high relative levels of total estrone (essentially acyl-estrone) in milk, in the range of 1 ¿M, which were halved in skimmed milk. Free estrone levels were much lower, in the nanomolar range. A large proportion of estrone esters was present in all other dairy products, fairly correlated with their fat content. The amount of estrone carried by milk is well within the range, where its intake may exert a physiological response in the sucklings for which it is provided. These growth-inducing and energy expenditure-lowering effects may affect humans ingesting significant amounts of dairy products.

Use of palm-oil by-products in chicken and rabbit feeds: effect on the fatty acid and tocol composition of meat, liver and plasma

This study was undertaken in the framework of a larger European project dealing with the characterization of fat co- and by-products from the food chain, available for feed uses. In this study, we compare the effects, on the fatty acid (FA) and tocol composition of chicken and rabbit tissues, of the addition to feeds of a palm fatty acid distillate, very low in trans fatty acids (TFA), and two levels of the corresponding hydrogenated by-product, containing intermediate and high levels of TFA. Thus, the experimental design included three treatments, formulated for each species, containing the three levels of TFA defined above. Obviously, due to the use of hydrogenated fats, the levels of saturated fatty acids (SFA) show clear differences between the three dietary treatments. The results show that diets high in TFA (76 g/kg fat) compared with those low in TFA (4.4 g/kg fat) led to a lower content of tocopherols and tocotrienols in tissues, although these differences were not always statistically significant, and show a different pattern for rabbit and chicken. The TFA content in meat, liver and plasma increased from low-to-high TFA feeds in both chicken and rabbit. However, the transfer ratios from feed were not proportional to the TFA levels in feeds, reflecting certain differences according to the animal species. Moreover, feeds containing fats higher in TFA induced significant changes in tissue SFA, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids composition, but different patterns can be described for chicken and rabbit and for each type of tissue.

Inter-firm labor mobility and knowledge diffusion: a theoretical approach

[cat] Analitzem una economia amb dues característiques principals: la mobilitat dels treballadors implica transferència de coneixement i la productivitat de l’empresa augmenta amb l’intercanvi de coneixement. Cada empresa desenvolupa un tipus de coneixement que serà trasmès a la resta de la indústria mitjançant la mobilitat de treballadors. Estudiem dues estructures de mercat laboral i utilitzant un anàlisi comparatiu derivem les implicacions del model. Els resultats revelen com la mobilitat de treballadors depèn en la varietat i nivell del coneixement, la presència de costos de mobilitat, les institucions, la capacitat d’absorvir coneixement per part de les empreses i la mida de la indústria. Els resultats no depenen de l’estructura del mercat laboral.

Getting to know about health and safety related to products used in painting, drawing and printmakin

Practicing art is not a high risk activity. This statement, along with the creative, expressive and intangible aims of this activity, as well as the lack of information, promotion of safety awareness and training of thepeople in charge of art studios, may have pushed the implications of practicing art as regards health, safety and environment into the background. Faced with this prospect, a comprehensive study of the facilities and the activities carried out in art studios becomes necessary. The study concerns experimental activities involving Health and Safety risks for both the artists and the teachers and students, especially those carried out in the studios located in educational institutions.

The construction process of pedagogical knowledge among nursing professors

Didactic knowledge about contents is constructed through an idiosyncratic synthesis between knowledge about the subject area, students' general pedagogical knowledge and the teacher's biography. This study aimed to understand the construction process and the sources of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, as well as to analyze its manifestations and variations in interactive teaching by teachers whom the students considered competent. Data collection involved teachers from an undergraduate nursing program in the South of Brazil, through non-participant observation and semistructured interviews. Data analysis was submitted to the constant comparison method. The results disclose the need for initial education to cover pedagogical aspects for nurses; to assume permanent education as fundamental in view of the complexity of contents and teaching; to use mentoring/monitoring and the value learning with experienced teachers with a view to the development of quality teaching.

Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political practices, diffractions and collective knowledge.

In the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematizing social science research methodology in order to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have basically remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying 'feminist activist research'. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.

Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political practices, diffractions and collective knowledge.

In the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematizing social science research methodology in order to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have basically remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying 'feminist activist research'. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.

Science in Western Islam. The circulation of knowledge in Mediterranean region

La Mediterrània ha estat gresol de la circulació d¿idees i persones des de fa mil·lennis. Durant l¿edat mitjana, però, el moviment més rellevant va ser, tal vegada, el que es va produirentre l¿Orient (Maixriq) i l¿Occident (Magrib) islàmics. Els viatges d¿estudis, íntimament units a les prescripcions religioses,varen convertir els científics musulmans en membres especialment actius en la difusió dels coneixements i dels avenços ques¿anaven adquirint a la capital de l¿imperi, Bagdad. Lluny de ser mers «transportistes» de la ciència, el nivell cultural assolit durantl'edat d'or abbassí els va convertir en un dels clímaxs intel·lectuals de la història. Al principi, tot i restar en un discret segonpla, els científics del nord d¿Àfrica i, especialment, els científicsd'al-Andalus varen tenir un paper essencial en la transmissióde la ciència oriental cap a una Europa que en va recollir el testimoni.Per això l¿aportació de la cultura araboislàmica és un esglaó sense el qual és impossible entendre la ciència posterior.Els camps conreats foren diversos: medicina, agronomia,òptica... però l¿àmbit que presidí la ciència fou, sens dubte,l¿astronomia (relacionada, al seu torn, amb les matemàtiques i la geografia). Els noms dels astrònoms més rellevants (desd¿al-Khwarizmi fins a Azarquiel) i les fites que varen assolir justifiquen que fossin coneguts per un públic ampli. Malgrat tot, continuen essent uns grans desconeguts.

A fully validated method for the determination of arsenic species in rice and infant cereal products

A full validation of inorganic arsenic (iAs), methylarsonic acid (MA), and dimethyl arsinic acid (DMA) in several types of rice and rice-based infant cereals is reported. The analytical method was developed and validated in two laboratories. The extraction of the As species was performed using nitric acid 0.2 % and hydrogen peroxide 1 %, and the coupled system liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LCICP-MS) was used for speciation measurements. Detection limit (DL), quantification limit, linearity, precision, trueness, accuracy, selectivity, as well as expanded uncertainty for iAs, MA, and DMA were established. The certified reference materials (CRMs) (NMIJ 7503a, NCS ZC73008, NIST SRM 1568a) were used to check the accuracy. The method was shown to be satisfactory in two proficiency tests (PTs). The broad applicability of the method is shown from the results of analysis of 29 samples including several types of rice, rice products, and infant cereal products. Total As ranged from 40.1 to 323.7 μg As kg1. From the speciation results, iAs was predominant, and DMA was detected in some samples while MA was not detected in any sample.

A knowledge based signal processing approach to tonic identification in indian classical music

In this paper, we describe several techniques for detecting tonic pitch value in Indian classical music. In Indian music, the raga is the basic melodic framework and it is built on the tonic. Tonic detection is therefore fundamental for any melodic analysis in Indian classical music. This workexplores detection of tonic by processing the pitch histograms of Indian classic music. Processing of pitch histograms using group delay functions and its ability to amplify certain traits of Indian music in the pitch histogram, is discussed. Three different strategies to detect tonic, namely, the concert method, the template matching and segmented histogram method are proposed. The concert method exploits the fact that the tonic is constant over a piece/concert.templatematchingmethod and segmented histogrammethodsuse the properties: (i) the tonic is always present in the background, (ii) some notes are less inflected and dominant, to detect the tonic of individual pieces. All the three methods yield good results for Carnatic music (90−100% accuracy), while for Hindustanimusic, the templatemethod works best, provided the v¯adi samv¯adi notes for a given piece are known (85%).

Enhanced Botrytis cinerea resistance of Arabidopsis plants grown in compost may be explained by increased expression of defense-related genes, as revealed by microarray analysis

Composts are the products obtained after the aerobic degradation of different types of organic matter waste and can be used as substrates or substrate/soil amendments for plant cultivation. There is a small but increasing number of reports that suggest that foliar diseases may be reduced when using compost, rather than standard substrates, as growing medium. The purpose of this study was to examine the gene expression alteration produced by the compost to gain knowledge of the mechanisms involved in compost-induced systemic resistance. A compost from olive marc and olive tree leaves was able to induce resistance against Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis, unlike the standard substrate, perlite. Microarray analyses revealed that 178 genes were differently expressed, with a fold change cut-off of 1, of which 155 were up-regulated and 23 were down-regulated in compost-grown, as against perlite-grown plants. A functional enrichment study of up-regulated genes revealed that 38 Gene Ontology terms were significantly enriched. Response to stress, biotic stimulus, other organism, bacterium, fungus, chemical and abiotic stimulus, SA and ABA stimulus, oxidative stress, water, temperature and cold were significantly enriched, as were immune and defense responses, systemic acquired resistance, secondary metabolic process and oxireductase activity. Interestingly, PR1 expression, which was equally enhanced by growing the plants in compost and by B. cinerea inoculation, was further boosted in compost-grown pathogen-inoculated plants. Compost triggered a plant response that shares similarities with both systemic acquired resistance and ABA-dependent/independent abiotic stress responses.

High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry applied to the identification of new metabolites and transformation products of quinolones in chicken muscle tissues

The aim of this work was the identification of new metabolites and transformation products (TPs) in chicken muscle from Enrofloxacin (ENR), Ciprofloxacin (CIP), Difloxacin (DIF) and Sarafloxacin (SAR), which are antibiotics that belong to the fluoroquinolones family. The stability of ENR, CIP, DIF and SAR standard solutions versus pH degradation process (from pH 1.5 to 8.0, simulating the pH since the drug is administered until its excretion) and freeze-thawing (F/T) cycles was tested. In addition, chicken muscle samples from medicated animals with ENR were analyzed in order to identify new metabolites and TPs. The identification of the different metabolites and TPs was accomplished by comparison of mass spectral data from samples and blanks, using liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight (LC-QqToF) and Multiple Mass Defect Filter (MMDF) technique as a pre-filter to remove most of the background noise and endogenous components. Confirmation and structure elucidation was performed by liquid chromatography coupled to linear ion trap quadrupole Orbitrap (LC-LTQ-Orbitrap), due to its mass accuracy and MS/MS capacity for elemental composition determination. As a result, 21 TPs from ENR, 6 TPs from CIP, 14 TPs from DIF and 12 TPs from SAR were identified due to the pH shock and F/T cycles. On the other hand, 14 metabolites were identified from the medicated chicken muscle samples. Formation of CIP and SAR, from ENR and DIF, respectively, and the formation of desethylene-quinolone were the most remarkable identified compounds.

Viticulture under climate change : understanding vulnerability and adaptive capacity of wineries and growers. A case study in El Penedès region, Catalonia

Climate change may pose challenges and opportunities to viticulture, and much research has focused in studying the likely impacts on grapes and wine production in different regions worldwide. This study assesses the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the viticulture sector under changing climate conditions, based on a case study in El Penedès region, Catalonia. Farm assets, livelihood strategies, farmer-market interactions and climate changes perceptions are analysed through semi-structured interviews with different types of wineries and growers. Both types of actors are equally exposed to biophysical stressors but unevenly affected by socioeconomic changes. While wineries are vulnerable because of the current economic crisis and the lack of diversification of their work, which may affect their income or production, growers are mainly affected by the low prices of their products and the lack of fix contracts. These socioeconomic stressors strongly condition their capacity to adapt to climate change, meaning that growers prioritize their immediate income problems, rather than future socioeconomic or climate threats. Therefore, growers undertake reactive adaptation to climate changing conditions, mainly based on ancient knowledge, whilst wineries combine both reactive and anticipatory adaptation practices. These circumstances should be addressed in order to allow better anticipatory adaptation to be implemented, thus avoiding future climate threats.