Microbial spoilage and quality of marinated dark, firm, dry meat

Estudi elaborat a partir d’una estada al Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark entre els mesos de Març a Juny del 2006. S’ha investigat l’efecte dels envasats amb atmosferes modificades (MAP), així com la marinació amb vi tint, sobre l’evolució de la contaminació bacteriològica de carns fosques, dures i seques (DFD). Les carns DFD es troben a les canals d’animals que, abans del sacrifici, han estat exposades a activitats musculars prolongades o estrès. Les carns DFD impliquen importants pèrdues econòmiques degut a la contaminació bacteriològica i als problemes tecnològics relacionats amb la alta capacitat de retenció d’aigua. A més a més, és crític per la indústria investigar la diversitat de la contaminació bacteriana, identificar les espècies bacterianes i controlar-les. Però és difícil degut a la inhabilitat per detectar algunes bactèries en medis coneguts, les interaccions entre elles, la complexitat dels tipus de contaminació com són aigua, terra, femtes i l’ambient. La Polymerasa chain reaction- Denaturating Electrophoresis Gel (PCR-DGEE ) pot sobrepassar aquests problemes reflectint la diversitat microbial i les espècies bacterianes. Els resultants han indicat que la varietat bacteriana de la carn incrementava amb els dies d’envasat independentment del mètode d’envasat, però decreixia significativament amb el tractament de marinació amb vi tint. La DGEE ha mostrat diferències en les espècies trobades, indicant canvis en la contaminació bacteriana i les seves característiques en la carn DFD sota els diferents tractaments. Tot i que la marinació és una bona alternativa i solució a la comercialització de carn DFD , estudis de seqüenciació són necessaris per identificar les diferents tipus de bactèries.

Alleviating abiotic and biotic soil constraints by combining Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi with banana and plantain micropropagation systems

The objectives of Participant 4 were: - Establishment and maintenance of a representative collection of AM fungal species in vivo on trap plant cultures. - Study of the effects of early mycorrhizal inoculation in the growth and health of in vitro plantlets and their subsequent behaviour in the nursery. - Effect of the mycorrhization of in vitro produced bananas and plantains on plant growth and health, under biotic stress conditions (nematode and fungi)

II Workshop on the use of Computed Tomography (CT) in pig carcass classification. Other CT applications: live animals and meat technology, 16-17th April 2009, Monells (Girona), Spain

Es va realitzar el II Workshop en Tomografia Computeritzada (TC) a Monells. El primer dia es va dedicar íntegrament a la utilització del TC en temes de classificació de canals porcines, i el segon dia es va obrir a altres aplicacions del TC, ja sigui en animals vius o en diferents aspectes de qualitat de la carn o els productes carnis. Al workshop hi van assistir 45 persones de 12 països de la UE. The II workshop on the use of Computed Tomography (CT) in pig carcass classification. Other CT applications: live animals and meat technology was held in Monells. The first day it was dedicated to the use of CT in pig carcass classification. The segond day it was open to otehr CT applications, in live animals or in meat and meat products quality. There were 45 assistants of 12 EU countries.

Desenvolupament d'una aplicació amb Microsoft.NET per a la gestió d'una protectora d'animals

La memòria de projecte de final de carrera objecte d'aquest document, sintetitza lasolució realitzada d'un portal Web per a la gestió d'una protectora d'animals amb la finalitat de fomentar i facilitar als usuaris, l'adopció d'animals abandonats.El portal Web té com a principals objectius, oferir una interfície gràfica fàcil de ferservir i intuïtiva en la interacció, per tal que tot tipus d'usuaris d'Internet senserestriccions de coneixements puguin gaudir amb comoditat del lloc. El resultat s'haobtingut fent ús de tecnologies basades amb la plataforma .NET de Microsoft com Visual Studio 2010 pel que fa al desenvolupament, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) pel que fa a l'actualització asíncrona dels continguts de les pàgines, i Microsoft SQL Server com a motor de la base de dades.

Aplicació web per a la gestió d'una protectora d'animals

Desenvolupament d'una aplicació web per a la gestió d'una protectora d'animals.

Pàgina Web gestió protectora d'animals

Aplicació Web amb ASP visual studio 2010 i Visual C# , Microsoft SQL Server i AJAX.

Diversity of the bacterial community in the surface soil of a pear orchard based on 16S rRNA gene analysis

A cultivation-independent approach based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified partial small subunit rRNA genes was used to characterize bacterial populations in the surface soil of a commercial pear orchard consisting of different pear cultivars during two consecutive growing seasons. Pyrus communis L. cvs Blanquilla, Conference, and Williams are among the most widely cultivated cultivars in Europe and account for the majority of pear production in Northeastern Spain. To assess the heterogeneity of the community structure in response to environmental variables and tree phenology, bacterial populations were examined using PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) followed by cluster analysis of the 16S ribosomal DNA profiles by means of the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means. Similarity analysis of the band patterns failed to identify characteristic fingerprints associated with the pear cultivars. Both environmentally and biologically based principal-component analyses showed that the microbial communities changed significantly throughout the year depending on temperature and, to a lesser extent, on tree phenology and rainfall. Prominent DGGE bands were excised and sequenced to gain insight into the identities of the predominant bacterial populations. Most DGGE band sequences were related to bacterial phyla, such as Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Gemmatimonadetes, previously associated with typical agronomic crop environments

Sobre la facticitat de la consideració moral dels animals no humans

Aquest treball s'enquadra en l'àmbit del que s'anomena bioètica animal i es desenvolupa al voltant de la consideració moral dels animals no humans a partir d'un tractament interdisciplinari que implica l'encontre de disciplines tan diverses com filosofia, història, psicologia o estudis de gènere, entre d'altres.

Gene transfer into the airway epithelium of animals by targeting the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor.

Genes of interest can be targeted specifically to respiratory epithelial cells in intact animals with high efficiency by exploiting the receptor-mediated endocytosis of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor. A DNA carrier, consisting of the Fab portion of polyclonal antibodies raised against rat secretory component covalently linked to poly-L-lysine, was used to introduce plasmids containing different reporter genes into airway epithelial cells in vivo. We observed significant levels of luciferase enzyme activity in protein extracts from the liver and lung, achieving maximum values of 13,795 +/- 4,431 and 346,954 +/- 199,120 integrated light units (ILU) per milligram of protein extract, respectively. No luciferase activity was detected in spleen or heart, which do not express the receptor. Transfections using complexes consisting of an irrelevant plasmid (pCMV lacZ) bound to the bona fide carrier or the expression plasmid (pGEMluc) bound to a carrier based on an irrelevant Fab fragment resulted in background levels of luciferase activity in all tissues examined. Thus, only tissues that contain cells bearing the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor are transfected, and transfection cannot be attributed to the nonspecific uptake of an irrelevant carrier-DNA complex. Specific mRNA from the luciferase gene was also detected in the lungs of transfected animals. To determine which cells in the lungs are transfected by this method, DNA complexes were prepared containing expression plasmids with genes encoding the bacterial beta-galactosidase or the human interleukin 2 receptor. Expression of these genes was localized to the surface epithelium of the airways and the submucosal glands, and not the bronchioles and alveoli. Receptor-mediated endocytosis can be used to introduce functional genes into the respiratory epithelium of rats, and may be a useful technique for gene therapy targeting the lung.

Ophiolite-related ultramafic rocks (Serpentinites) in the Caribbean region: a review of their occurrence, composition, origin, emplacements and Ni-Laterite soil formation

Ultramafic rocks, mainly serpentinized peridotites of mantle origin, are mostly associated with the ophiolites of Mesozoic age that occur in belts along three of the margins of the Caribbean plate. The most extensive exposures are in Cuba. The ultramafic-mafic association (ophiolites) were formed and emplaced in several different tectonic environments. Mineralogical studies of the ultramafic rocks and the chemistry of the associated mafic rocks indicate that most of the ultramafic-mafic associations in both the northern and southern margins of the plate were formed in arc-related environments. There is little mantle peridotite exposed in the ophiolitic associations of the west coast of Central America, in the south Caribbean in Curacao and in the Andean belts in Colombia. In these occurrences the chemistry and age of the mafic rocks indicates that this association is mainly part of the 89 Ma Caribbean plateau province. The age of the mantle peridotites and associated ophiolites is probably mainly late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous. Emplacement of the ophiolites possibly began in the Early Cretaceous in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, but most emplacement took place in the Late Cretaceous to Eocene (e.g. Cuba). Along the northern South America plate margin, in the Caribbean mountain belt, emplacement was by major thrusting and probably was not completed until the Oligocene or even the early Miocene. Caribbean mantle peridotites, before serpentinization, were mainly harzburgites, but dunites and lherzolites are also present. In detail, the mineralogical and chemical composition varies even within one ultramafic body, reflecting melting processes and peridotite/melt interaction in the upper mantle. At least for the northern Caribbean, uplift (postemplacement tectonics) exposed the ultramafic massifs as a land surface to effective laterization in the beginning of the Miocene. Tectonic factors, determining the uplift, exposing the peridotites to weathering varied. In the northern Caribbean, in Guatemala, Jamaica, and Hispaniola, uplift occurred as a result of transpresional movement along pre-existing major faults. In Cuba, uplift occurred on a regional scale, determined by isostatic adjustment. In the south Caribbean, uplift of the Cordillera de la Costa and Serrania del Interior exposing the peridotites, also appears to be related to strike-slip movement along the El Pilar fault system. In the Caribbean, Ni-laterite deposits are currently being mined in the central Dominican Republic, eastern Cuba, northern Venezuela and northwest Colombia. Although apparently formed over ultramafic rocks of similar composition and under similar climatic conditions, the composition of the lateritic soils varies. Factors that probably determined these differences in laterite composition are geomorphology, topography, drainage and tectonics. According to the mineralogy of principal ore-bearing phases, Dominican Ni-laterite deposits are classified as the hydrous silicate-type. The main Ni-bearing minerals are hydrated Mg-Ni silicates (serpentine and ¿garnierite¿) occurring deeper in the profile (saprolite horizon). In contrast, in the deposits of eastern Cuba, the Ni and Cooccurs mainly in the limonite zone composed of Fe hydroxides and oxides as the dominant mineralogy in the upper part of the profile, and are classified as the oxide-type.

Correlation between species composition and soil properties in the pastures of Plana de Vic (Catalonia, Spain)

The correlation between the species composition of pasture communities and soil properties in Plana de Vic has been studied using two multivariate methods, Correspondence Analysis (CA) for the vegetation data and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for the soil data. To analyse the pastures, we took 144 vegetation relevés (comprising 201 species) that have been classified into 10 phytocoenological communities elsewhere. Most of these communities are almost entirely built up by perennials, ranging from xerophilous, clearly Mediterranean, to mesophilous, related to medium-European pastures, but a few occurring in shallow soils are dominated by therophytes. As for the soil properties, we analysed texture, pH, depth, bulk density, organic matter, C/N ratio and the carbonates content of 25 samples, correspondingto representative relevés of the communities studied.

Inclusion of soil erosion impacts in life cycle assessment on a global scale: application to energy crops in Spain

Purpose: Despite the fundamental role of ecosystem goods and services in sustaining human activities, there is no harmonized and internationally agreed method for including them in life cycle assessment (LCA). The main goal of this study was to develop a globally applicable and spatially resolved method for assessing land-use impacts on the erosion regulation ecosystem service.Methods: Soil erosion depends much on location. Thus, unlike conventional LCA, the endpoint method was regionalized at the grid-cell level (5 arc-minutes, approximately 10×10 km2) to reflect the spatial conditions of the site. Spatially explicit characterization factors were not further aggregated at broader spatial scales. Results and discussion: Life cycle inventory data of topsoil and topsoil organic carbon (SOC) losses were interpreted at the endpoint level in terms of the ultimate damage to soil resources and ecosystem quality. Human health damages were excluded from the assessment. The method was tested on a case study of five three-year agricultural rotations, two of them with energy crops, grown in several locations in Spain. A large variation in soil and SOC losses was recorded in the inventory step, depending on climatic and edaphic conditions. The importance of using a spatially explicit model and characterization factors is shown in the case study.Conclusions and outlook: The regionalized assessment takes into account the differences in soil erosion-related environmental impacts caused by the great variability of soils. Taking this regionalized framework as the starting point, further research should focus on testing the applicability of the method trough the complete life cycle of a product and on determining an appropriate spatial scale at which to aggregate characterization factors, in order to deal with data gaps on location of processes, especially in the background system. Additional research should also focus on improving reliability of the method by quantifying and, insofar as it is possible, reducing uncertainty.

Anàlisi dels coneixements intuïtius i del canvi conceptual en infants de parvulari, sobre els animals que viuen el seu entorn

En aquest projecte es reflexiona sobre l’ensenyament de les ciències al parvulari i com els infants aprenent conceptes relacionats amb el regne animal. La ciència escolar classifica la gran diversitat d’espècies que formen aquest regne en dos grans blocs, els vertebrats i els invertebrats, però en els patrons que ens ofereixen els animals per descobrir a ull nu aquestes particularitats són molt complexes d’observar. La visió que tenen els infants de parvulari sobre els animals del seu entorn sovint és molt allunyada de la realitat i els alumnes es creen concepcions alternatives per entendre els animals que observen. En l’estudi es realitza un recull de dades, a l’inici i el final d’una unitat didàctica, analitzant les representacions i les diferents formes de classificació dels animals de l’entorn que utilitzen els infants. Les conclusions són una reflexió sobre el perquè d’aquests coneixements alternatius i la manera de com aconseguir un canvi conceptual.

The effect of pesticides and alien invesive species on soil biota and litter decomposition rates in a Mediterrean-climate ecosystem of Western Australia

Ecosystems are complex systems and changing one of their components can alter their whole functioning. Decomposition and biodiversity are two factors that play a role in this stability, and it is vital to study how these two factors are interrelated and how other factors, whether of human origin or not, can affect them. This study has tested different hypotheses regarding the effects of pesticides and invasive species on the biodiversity of the soil fauna and litter decomposition rate. Decomposition was measured using the litterbags technique. Our results indicate that pesticides had a negative effect on decomposition whereas invasive species increased decomposition rate. At the same time, the diversity of the soil biota was unaffected by either factor. These results allow us to better understand the response of important ecosystem functions to human‐induced alterations, in order to mitigate harmful effects or restore them wherever necessary.