Linkages of dietary patterns, international trade and land use: the case of olive oil in the European Union

Within only two decades olive oil developed from a niche product which could hardly be found in food stores outside the producing regions towards an integrated component in the diets of industrial countries. This paper discusses the impacts of the promotion of the “healthy Mediterranean diet” on land use and agro-ecosystems in the producing countries. It examines the dynamics of olive oil production, trade and consumption in the EU15 in the period 1972 to 2003 and the links between dietary patterns, trade and land use. It analyses the underlying socio-economic driving forces behind the increasing spatial disconnect between production and consumption of olive oil in the EU15 and in particular in Spain, the world largest producer during the last three decades. In the observed period olive oil consumption increased 16 fold in the non-producing EU15 countries. In the geographically limited producing regions like Spain, the 5 fold increase in export production was associated with the rapid industrialization of olive production, the conversion of vast Mediterranean landscapes to olive monocultures and a range of environmental pressures. High amounts of subsidies of the European Common Agricultural Policy and feedback loops within production and consumption systems were driving the transformation of the olive oil system. Our analysis indicates the process of change was not immediately driven by increases in demand for olive oil in non-producing countries, but rather by the institutional setting of the European Union and by concerted political interventions.

Entorns col•laboratius virtuals asíncrons basats en Web i enfocats en la gestió del coneixement = Web-based Asynchronous Collaborative Environments Focused on Knowledge Management

Report for the scientific sojourn at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, from september 2007 until july 2008. Communities of Learning Practice is an innovative paradigm focused on providing appropriate technological support to both formal and especially informal learning groups who are chiefly formed by non-technical people and who lack of the necessary resources to acquire such systems. Typically, students who are often separated by geography and/or time have the need to meet each other after classes in small study groups to carry out specific learning activities assigned during the formal learning process. However, the lack of suitable and available groupware applications makes it difficult for these groups of learners to collaborate and achieve their specific learning goals. In addition, the lack of democratic decision-making mechanisms is a main handicap to substitute the central authority of knowledge presented in formal learning.

Oftalmòleg 1.0

Oftalmòleg 1.0 és un programari concebut per gestionar la consulta d'un centre oftalmològic, cobreix tota l'operativa del centre des del punt de vista del recepcionista, de l'oftalmòleg i com a novetat, del pacient.

Compression-based Image Registration

Image registration is an important component of image analysis used to align two or more images. In this paper, we present a new framework for image registration based on compression. The basic idea underlying our approach is the conjecture that two images are correctly registered when we can maximally compress one image given the information in the other. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we show that the image registration process can be dealt with from the perspective of a compression problem. Second, we demonstrate that the similarity metric, introduced by Li et al., performs well in image registration. Two different versions of the similarity metric have been used: the Kolmogorov version, computed using standard real-world compressors, and the Shannon version, calculated from an estimation of the entropy rate of the images

Tenda Virtual orientada a compres per escaneig amb el telèfon mòbil

CMS (Sistema Gestor de Continguts) és una tecnologia en ple auge que permet implantar solucions web d'una manera senzilla, econòmica i amb un fàcil manteniment per part dels usuaris que en fan ús. Aquest projecte és un estudi que pretén analitzar i escollir el millor CMS dirigit a comerç electrònic d'entre el ventall existent actualment al mercat, creant un document que serveixi de referent o guia a qualsevol persona interessada en implantar un sistema d'aquestes característiques. A més, es centrarà a la programació d'un component instal·lable pel CMS escollit que permeti introduir-nos a la creació d'extensions i ens formi en l'àmbit de la programació web. Aquest component el podrem afegir al CMS i permetrà realitzar compres escanejant codis amb el telèfon mòbil.

Clathrin Assembly Lymphoid Myeloid Leukemia (CALM) Protein: Localization in Endocytic-coated Pits, Interactions with Clathrin, and the Impact of Overexpression on Clathrin-mediated Traffic

The clathrin assembly lymphoid myeloid leukemia (CALM) gene encodes a putative homologue of the clathrin assembly synaptic protein AP180. Hence the biochemical properties, the subcellular localization, and the role in endocytosis of a CALM protein were studied. In vitro binding and coimmunoprecipitation demonstrated that the clathrin heavy chain is the major binding partner of CALM. The bulk of cellular CALM was associated with the membrane fractions of the cell and localized to clathrin-coated areas of the plasma membrane. In the membrane fraction, CALM was present at near stoichiometric amounts relative to clathrin. To perform structure-function analysis of CALM, we engineered chimeric fusion proteins of CALM and its fragments with the green fluorescent protein (GFP). GFP-CALM was targeted to the plasma membrane-coated pits and also found colocalized with clathrin in the Golgi area. High levels of expression of GFP-CALM or its fragments with clathrin-binding activity inhibited the endocytosis of transferrin and epidermal growth factor receptors and altered the steady-state distribution of the mannose-6-phosphate receptor in the cell. In addition, GFP-CALM overexpression caused the loss of clathrin accumulation in the trans-Golgi network area, whereas the localization of the clathrin adaptor protein complex 1 in the trans-Golgi network remained unaffected. The ability of the GFP-tagged fragments of CALM to affect clathrin-mediated processes correlated with the targeting of the fragments to clathrin-coated areas and their clathrin-binding capacities. Clathrin-CALM interaction seems to be regulated by multiple contact interfaces. The C-terminal part of CALM binds clathrin heavy chain, although the full-length protein exhibited maximal ability for interaction. Altogether, the data suggest that CALM is an important component of coated pit internalization machinery, possibly involved in the regulation of clathrin recruitment to the membrane and/or the formation of the coated pit.

Stability of a nonequilibrium steady-state interface

We study the interfacial modes of a driven diffusive model under suitable nonequilibrium conditions leading to possible instability. The external field parallel to the interface, which sets up a steady-state parallel flux, enhances the growth or decay rates of the interfacial modes. More dramatically, asymmetry in the model can introduce an oscillatory component into the interfacial dispersion relation. In certain circumstances, the applied field behaves as a singular perturbation.

Scientific evidence on the usefulness of intraarticular hyaluronic acid injection in the management of temporomandibular dysfunction

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is found in high concentrations in cartilage and synovial fluid, and is an important component of the extracellular matrixes- exerting joint lubrication and buffering actions thanks to its viscoelastic properties. The present study examines the scientific evidence found in the current literature on the usefulness of the intraarticular injection of HA in patients with temporomandibular dysfunction. A literature search was made up until May 2008 in the following databases: PubMed / MEDLINE. Of the articles found in the literature, the present review included 18 relevant studies on the application of HA in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The quality, level of evidence and strength of recommendation of the articles was evaluated based on the"Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy" criteria. It is concluded that type A level of recommendation exists in favor of the intraarticular injection of HA in dysfunction of the TMJ. However, further studies are needed to establish the true therapeutic effects and to identify the best dosing regimen.

Beneficial effects of word final stress in segmenting a new language: evidence from ERPs

Background: How do listeners manage to recognize words in an unfamiliar language? The physical continuity of the signal, in which real silent pauses between words are lacking, makes it a difficult task. However, there are multiple cues that can be exploited to localize word boundaries and to segment the acoustic signal. In the present study, word-stress was manipulated with statistical information and placed in different syllables within trisyllabic nonsense words to explore the result of the combination of the cues in an online word segmentation task. Results: The behavioral results showed that words were segmented better when stress was placed on the final syllables than when it was placed on the middle or first syllable. The electrophysiological results showed an increase in the amplitude of the P2 component, which seemed to be sensitive to word-stress and its location within words. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that listeners can integrate specific prosodic and distributional cues when segmenting speech. An ERP component related to word-stress cues was identified: stressed syllables elicited larger amplitudes in the P2 component than unstressed ones.

CLIL FAQ’s: Orientacions per a introduir l’anglès a l’aula universitària

“CLIL FAQs: Orientacions per a introduir l’anglès a l’aula universitària” és una publicació oberta dirigida als docents que assumeixen el repte d’introduir una llengua estrangera a l’aula. Es tracta d’un recull d’orientacions sorgides de la pràctica d’un equip interdisciplinari de professors de la Facultat de Ciències de l’Educació de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona en el marc d’un projecte de Millora de la Qualitat Docent (Ref. 2010MQD00132). La publicació exposa una sèrie de preguntes o FAQs (Frequent Asked Questions) que creiem que tot docent CLIL es podria fer abans d’introduir l’anglès a l’aula. El grup de docents implicats en el projecte, després de dissenyar coordinadament una sèrie d’activitats en anglès i d’implantar-les a les seves respectives assignatures, ha elaborat aquest llistat de FAQs que miren de respondre amb reflexions, suggeriments d’acció, estratègies didàctiques, exemples i recursos sorgits de la pròpia experiència. En aquest article situem el projecte en el context català, presentem com es va dur a terme i us expliquem què podeu trobar en la publicació que se’n deriva. A mode de conclusió oferim algunes reflexions del grup sobre el treball en equip interdisciplinari, la introducció del multilingüisme a l’aula, els contextos CLIL i la resposta dels alumnes.

Feedback-related Brain Potential Activity Complies with Basic Assumptions of Associative Learning Theory

Feedback-related negativity (FRN) is an ERP component that distinguishes positive from negative feedback. FRN has been hypothesized to be the product of an error signal that may be used to adjust future behavior. In addition, associative learning models assume that the trial-to-trial learning of cueoutcome mappings involves the minimization of an error term. This study evaluated whether FRN is a possible electrophysiological correlate of this error term in a predictive learning task where human subjects were asked to learn different cueoutcome relationships. Specifically, we evaluated the sensitivity of the FRN to the course of learning when different stimuli interact or compete to become a predictor of certain outcomes. Importantly, some of these cues were blocked by more informative or predictive cues (i.e., the blocking effect). Interestingly, the present results show that both learning and blocking affect the amplitude of the FRN component. Furthermore, independent analyses of positive and negative feedback event-related signals showed that the learning effect was restricted to the ERP component elicited by positive feedback. The blocking test showed differences in the FRN magnitude between a predictive and a blocked cue. Overall, the present results show that ERPs that are related to feedback processing correspond to the main predictions of associative learning models. ■

¿Crisis de la cultura? = Crisis of the culture?

Culture has several meanings: civilization, creation, knowledge, life… We analyze how each one suffers the so-called crisis of culture. Civilization lives the crisis as «liquidity», according to Bauman’s diagnosis, with significant negative impact on education. The creation and enjoyment of cultural products, such as museums, suffer its crisis as fragility resulting from the civilization crisis, notably in the form of consumerist banality or pure entertainment. Culture as knowledge and as life is analyzed under the joint notion «humanistic culture». This, which in turn is creation, knowledge and life has its specific corruption in the elitist knowledge, merely theoretical. The hallmark of genuine humanism contains an essential component, the dimension of ethical and political commitment. The crisis in the humanistic studies, noted by Nussbaum, threats the values of humanistic culture; in particular is a political risk, because democracy is a system that needs to sustain and improve the values of humanistic culture. In the background, and beyond the differences between the cultural meanings, there is a unique cultural crisis, a crisis of ethics and politics at a time