Effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide fertilization on biomass and secondary metabolites of some plant species with pharmacological interes under greenhouse conditions

RESUMEN El aumento del CO2 atmosférico debido al cambio global y/o a las prácticas hortícolas promueve efectos directos sobre crecimiento vegetal y el desarrollo. Estas respuestas pueden ocurrir en ecosistemas naturales, pero también se pueden utilizar para aumentar la producción de algunas plantas y de algunos compuestos secundarios. El actual trabajo intenta estudiar los efectos del enriquecimiento atmosférico del CO2 bajo condiciones de invernadero en el crecimiento y la concentración y la composición de metabolitos secundarios de Taxus bacatta, Hypericum perforatum y Echinacea purpurea en condiciones ambientales mediterráneas. La fertilización del CO2 muestra perspectivas interesantes para la mejorara y aplicabilidad de técnicas hortícolas para aumentar productividad de plantas medicinales, a pesar de diferencias claras entre la especie. En general esta técnica promueve aumentos importantes y significativos en producción primaria y, en algunos casos, también en compuestos secundarios. Esto tiene una gran importancia hortícola porque la productividad a nivel de cosecha total aumenta, directamente porque se aumenta la concentración e indirectamente porque se aumenta la biomasa. SUMMARY The increase of atmospheric CO2 due to global change and/or horticultural practices promotes direct effects on plant growth and development. These responses may occur in natural ecosystems, but also can be used to increase the production of some plants and some secondary compounds. Present work tries to study the effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment under greenhouse conditions on growth and in the concentration and composition of secondary metabolites of Taxus bacatta, Hypericum perforatum and Echinacea purpurea under Mediterranean environmental conditions. CO2 fertilization shows interesting perspectives to increase and improve horticultural techniques in order to increase plant medicinal productivity, in spite of clear differences among the species. In general this technique promotes important and significant increases in primary productivity and, in some cases, also in secondary compounds. This has a great horticultural relevance because the total productivity of this kind of products increase at crop level, directly because concentration is increased and /or indirectly because biomass is increased. RESUM L'augment del CO2 atmosfèric a causa del canvi global i/o a les pràctiques hortícoles promou efectes directes sobre creixement vegetal i el desenvolupament. Aquestes respostes poden ocórrer en ecosistemes naturals, però també es poden utilitzar per a augmentar la producció d'algunes plantes i d'alguns compostos secundaris. L'actual treball intenta estudiar els efectes de l'enriquiment atmosfèric del CO2 sota condicions d'hivernacle en el creixement i la concentració i la composició de metabòlits secundaris de Taxus bacatta, Hypericum perforatum i Echinacea purpurea en condicions ambientals mediterrànies. La fertilització del CO2 mostra perspectives interessants per a la millora i aplicabilitat de tècniques hortícoles per a augmentar productivitat de plantes medicinals, a pesar de diferències clares entre l'espècie. En general aquesta tècnica promou augments importants i significatius en producció primària i, en alguns casos, també en compostos secundaris. Això té una gran importància hortícola perquè la productivitat a nivell de collita total augmenta, directament perquè s'augmenta la concentració i indirectament perquè s'augmenta la biomassa.

An experience beyond continuous assessment activities: virtual tour to the medieval medicinal plant garden of the Pedralbes monastery

[eng] The group of teaching innovation in the area of Botany (GIBAF), University of Barcelona (UB), is raised each year to design new accreditation activities under continuous evaluation framework. We present the experience carried out during the academic year 2008-09 in the course of Pharmaceutical Botany. The aim has been to involve students for a semester in the authorship of a tutored project immediately useful and of easy permanence, beyond its assessment proving usefulness. The Medicinal Plants Garden of the Monastery of Pedralbes has been used as a resource and a collaboration agreement has been signed between the UB faculty and the Institute of Culture of Barcelona. The students have developed the work using the Moodle platform CampusvirtualUB into five stages which included preparation of files by students that have been modified in some steps following the various feedbacks from teachers. At the beginning of the activity, students were provided with a complete schedule of activities, the schedule for its implementation, and a total of 18 forced-use library resources. Finally, through Google sites, a website has been implemented, allowing for a virtual tour of the garden, documenting by referenced literature 50 medicinal plants for their nomenclature, botanical description, distribution, uses historical, current and future) and toxicity. The result of the activity was presented at a public ceremony in the Monastery of Pedralbes and is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/jardimedievalpedralbes/ [spa] El grupo de innovación docente integrado por profesores del área de Botánica (GIBAF) de la Universidad de Barcelona (UB) se plantea cada curso el diseño de nuevas actividades acreditativas en el marco de la evaluación continuada. Se presenta la experiencia llevada a cabo durante el curso 2008-09 en la asignatura Botánica Farmacéutica. El objetivo ha sido implicar durante un semestre a los estudiantes en la autoría de un proyecto tutorizado de inmediata utilidad y clara perdurabilidad, más allá de su utilidad acreditativa. Como recurso se ha utilizado el Jardín de Plantas Medicinales del Monasterio de Pedralbes y se ha firmado un convenio de colaboración docente entre la UB y el Instituto de Cultura de Barcelona. Los estudiantes han realizado el trabajo utilizando la plataforma Moodle del Campus virtual de la UB en cinco etapas que han incluido la confección de unas fichas que se han ido modificando en función de las diversas retroacciones de los profesores. Al inicio de la actividad, se facilitó a los estudiantes el cronograma completo de la actividad, la pauta para su realización, así como un total de 18 recursos bibliográficos de uso obligado. Finalmente, a través de GoogleSites, se ha realizado una web que permite realizar un paseo virtual por el jardín, documentando de forma referenciada para las 50 plantas medicinales su nomenclatura, descripción botánica, distribución, usos (históricos, actuales y futuros) y toxicidad. El resultado de la actividad fue presentado en un acto público en el Monasterio de Pedralbes y puede consultarse en: http://sites.google.com/site/jardimedievalpedralbes/

Invoking a cartesian product structure on social states: new resolutions of Sen's and Gibbard's impossibility theorems

The purpose of this article is to introduce a Cartesian product structure into the social choice theoretical framework and to examine if new possibility results to Gibbard's and Sen's paradoxes can be developed thanks to it. We believe that a Cartesian product structure is a pertinent way to describe individual rights in the social choice theory since it discriminates the personal features comprised in each social state. First we define some conceptual and formal tools related to the Cartesian product structure. We then apply these notions to Gibbard's paradox and to Sen's impossibility of a Paretian liberal. Finally we compare the advantages of our approach to other solutions proposed in the literature for both impossibility theorems.

Interactions between product and labour market reforms

Labour market reforms face very often opposition from the employed workers, because it normally reduces their wages. Also product market regulations are regularly biased towards too much benefitting the firms. As a result there remain many frictions in both the labour and product markets that hinder an optimal functioning of the economy. These issues have recently received a lot of attention in the economics literature and scholars have been looking for politically viable reforms in both markets. However, despite its potential importance, there has been done virtually no research on the interaction between reforms in product and labour markets. We find that when combining reforms, the opposition for reforms decreases considerably. This is because there exist complementarities and the gains in total welfare can be more evenly distributed over the interest groups. Moreover, the interaction of reforms offers a way out for the so-called 'sclerosis' effect.

Multi-product firms and product variety

The goal of this paper is to study the role of multi-product firms in the market provision of product variety. The analysis is conducted using the spokes model of non-localized competition proposed by Chen and Riordan (2007). Firstly, we show that multi-product firms are at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis single-product firms and can only emerge if economies of scope are sufficiently strong. Secondly, under duopoly product variety may be higher or lower with respect to both the first best and the monopolistically competitive equilibrium. However, within a relevant range of parameter values duopolists drastically restrict their product range in order to relax price competition, and as a result product variety is far below the efficient level.

Avaluació del risc ambiental de productes farmacèutics en l'àmbit català

S’ha dut a terme una Avaluació del Risc Ambiental dels productes farmacèutics més consumits en l’àmbit català treballant sobre un model de planta de tractament d’aigües residuals determinat. La Concentració ambiental estimada (PEC) pel medi aquàtic s’ha calculat a partir de dades fisicoquímiques dels fàrmacs tenint en compte una sèrie d’hipòtesis i suposicions prèvies. La Concentració estimada de no-efecte (PNEC) s’ha estimat mitjançant dades d’ecotoxicitat extretes de l’ECOSAR. Es considera que hi ha afecció al medi quan la relació PEC/PNEC excedeix d’1; en aquest estudi s’ha obtingut que l’Ibuprofèn, el Diclofenac i l’Atorvastatina superen aquest valor suposant, per tant, un risc per al medi ambient. D’aquesta manera es mostra que l’eliminació dels fàrmacs durant el procés de la depuració de les aigües residuals no resulta totalment eficient.

Estudi de la degradació anaeròbia de tres contaminants emergents: àcid clofíbric, carbamazepina i ibuprofè

En el present estudi s’ha fet un seguiment baromètric de la producció de biogàs de tres compostos farmacèutics mitjançant tests de degradació anaeròbia. El llot del digestor anaerobi de l’estació depuradora d’aigües residuals (EDAR) de Granollers s’ha emprat com a inòcul. En un primer experiment, s’ha fet l’estudi de l’etapa metanogènica, amb metanol com a substrat i les concentracions de 5, 10 i 20 mg·L-1 d’àcid clofíbric (CLOFI, regulador lípid), ibuprofè (IBU, anti-inflamatori) i carbamazepina (CARBA, antiepilèptic/analgèsic). En un segon experiment, s’ha estudiat l’etapa acetogènica, amb àcid propiònic com a substrat i amb concentracions de 20 i 100 mg·L-1 dels mateixos fàrmacs. Per una banda, en el primer experiment, no s’ha observat degradació dels fàrmacs i cap d’ells presenta toxicitat pel llot anaerobi. CARBA i IBU s’adsorbeixen majoritàriament a la fase sòlida. Per altra banda, en l’etapa acetogènica ni CARBA ni IBU s’han degradat i tampoc presenten toxicitat en cap de les concentracions provades. Com en el cas anterior, la majoria d’aquests fàrmacs queda adsorbit en el llot. En canvi, CLOFI es degrada en 100 mg·L-1 de concentració donant com a producte intermedi un metabòlit.

Development of specific ITS markers for plant DNA identification within herbivorous insects

DNA based techniques have proved to be very useful methods to study trophic relationships 17 between pests and their natural enemies. However, most predators are best defined as omnivores, 18 and the identification of plant-specific DNA should also allow the identification of the plant 19 species the predators have been feeding on. In this study, a PCR approach based on the 20 development of specific primers was developed as a self-marking technique to detect plant DNA 21 within the gut of one heteropteran omnivorous predator (Macrolophus pygmaeus) and two 22 lepidopteran pest species (Helicoverpa armigera and Tuta absoluta). Specific tomato primers 23 were designed from the ITS 1-2 region, which allowed the amplification of a tomato DNA 24 fragment of 332 bp within the three insect species tested in all cases (100% of detection at t = 0) 25 and did not detect DNA of other plants nor of the starved insects. Plant DNA half-lives at 25ºC 26 ranged from 5.8h, to 27.7h and 28.7h within M. pygmaeus, H. armigera and T. absoluta, 27 respectively. Tomato DNA detection within field collected M. pygmaeus suggests dietary mixing 28 in this omnivorous predator and showed a higher detection of tomato DNA in females and 29 nymphs than males. This study provides a useful tool to detect and to identify plant food sources 30 of arthropods and to evaluate crop colonization from surrounding vegetation in conservation 31 biological control programs.

A functional equation related to the product in a quadratic number field

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt."

Product differentiation, competitive pressure and the effects of innovation on the success and survivability of firms in oligopoly markets

In a recent paper Tishler and Milstein (2009) fi…nd that increased competition may increase aggregate R&D spending while market output decreases. Therefore, they obtain the surprising result that R&D spending is excessive when competition becomes intense. Their result is based on the standard linear demand function for differentiated products introduced by Bowley (1924) where decreased product differentiation is interpreted as more competitive pressure. In this paper I show that at an aggregate level this interpretation is problematic because equilibrium effects are dominated by a demand reduction effect. A slight modifi…cation of the standard demand function eliminates this effect. For the Tishler and Milstein (2009) setting it is shown that then increased competition increases both R&D spending and aggregate market output. Therefore, at least for consumers, more intense competition increases welfare. Journal of Economic Literature Classi…fication Numbers: D43, L1, O3. Keywords: Oligopoly markets, Product differentiation, Competitive pressure.

Profitability, uncertainty and multi-product firm product proliferation: The Spanish car industry

This article studies how product introduction decisions relate to profitability and uncertainty in the context of multi-product firms and product differentiation. These two features, common to many modern industries, have not received much attention in the literature as compared to the classical problem of firm entry, even if the determinants of firm and product entry are quite different. The theoretical predictions about the sign of the impact of uncertainty on product entry are not conclusive. Therefore, an econometric model relating firms’ product introduction decisions with profitability and profit uncertainty is proposed. Firm’s estimated profits are obtained from a structural model of product demand and supply, and uncertainty is proxied by profits’ variance. The empirical analysis is carried out using data on the Spanish car industry for the period 1990-2000. The results show a positive relationship between product introduction and profitability, and a negative one with respect to profit variability. Interestingly, the degree of uncertainty appears to be a driving force of entry stronger than profitability, suggesting that the product proliferation process in the Spanish car market may have been mainly a consequence of lower uncertainty rather than the result of having a more profitable market. Keywords: Product introduction, entry, uncertainty, multiproduct firms, automobile JEL codes: L11, L13

Dynamic product diversity

The goal of this paper is to study the frequency of new product introductions in monopoly markets where demand is subject to transitory saturation. We focus on those types of goods for which consumers purchase at most one unit of each variety, but repeat purchases in the same product category. The model considers infinitely-lived, forward-looking consumers and firms. We show that the share of potential surplus that a monopolist is able to appropriate increases with the frequency of introduction of new products and the intensity of transitory saturation. If the latter is sufficiently strong then the rate of introduction of new products is higher than socially desirable (excessive dynamic product diversity.)

Recommender System Based on Consumer Product Reviews

Consumer reviews, opinions and shared experiences in the use of a product is a powerful source of information about consumer preferences that can be used in recommender systems. Despite the importance and value of such information, there is no comprehensive mechanism that formalizes the opinions selection and retrieval process and the utilization of retrieved opinions due to the difficulty of extracting information from text data. In this paper, a new recommender system that is built on consumer product reviews is proposed. A prioritizing mechanism is developed for the system. The proposed approach is illustrated using the case study of a recommender system for digital cameras

Projecte de cultiu ecològic de planta aromàtica i medicinal i avantprojecte d'assecador a la finca de Mas Teulera, al municipi de Lladó, l'Alt Empordà

El projecte estudia la producció ecològica de planta aromàtica i medicinal com a alternativa a la producció de cereals en una de les parcel·les de Mas Teulera, situada al terme municipal de Lladó, a l’Alt Empordà, per millorar la rendibilitat econòmica de la finca. Es proposa la rotació de cultius de planta aromàtica i medicinal més adequada tenint en compte la seva adaptació en el medi, la sortida comercial més interessant i la compatibilitat del seu procés productiu amb les característiques tècniques de l’explotació. Es realitza a més, un avantprojecte sobre la transformació de la collita per a conèixer les característiques del procés d’assecat de les plantes necessari per obtenir un producte de qualitat i amb el format adequat per a la seva comercialització