Condicions de treball al món, alternatives de canvi : organització dels treballadors i comerç just. 'Condiciones de trabajo en el mundo, alternativas de cambio : organización de los trabajadores y comercio justo'.

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Alimentacions alternatives. 'Alimentaciones alternativas'.

Resumen en catalán del autor

From cowpost to antibiotics : discovering vaccines and medicines.

Para que los estudiantes desarrollen habilidades en la lectura de textos de no ficción. En esta colección se exponen los avances, inventos y descubrimientos de la ciencia , y cómo un descubrimiento o la invención de una persona puede dar lugar a una serie de descubrimientos hechos por los demás, e incluso una cadena de descubrimientos científicos. En este título se relata la historia de la medicina desde los antiguos remedios herbales hasta las vacunas contra la gripe moderna. Tiene relación cronológica de descubrimientos, unas breves biografías de los científicos clave en sus respectivos campos, glosario y bibliografía.

El turisme a la Garrotxa: noves alternatives

La comarca de la Garrotxa, per la seva configuració física i natural, presenta unes característiques idònies per a les noves tendències turístiques. Contràriament al turisme tradicional de sol i platja, la tendència se centra, cada vegada mes, a buscar llocs tranquils, desmassificats i que ofereixin un marc ambiental poc degradat i d'elevat interès paisatgístic. Davant d’això, la Garrotxa ofereix un espai idoni per al desenvolupament d'aquest turisme, que, en última instancia, el que busca és gaudir del medi natural

Enhanced phytoextraction: In search of EDTA alternatives

Enhanced phytoextraction proposes the use of soil amendments to increase the heavy-metal content of above-ground harvestable plant tissues. This study compares the effect of synthetic aminopolycarboxylic acids [ethylenediamine tetraacetatic acid (EDTA), nitriloacetic acid (NTA), and diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA)] with a number of biodegradable, low-molecular weight, organic acids (citric acid, ascorbic acid, oxalic acid, salicylic acid, and NH4 acetate) as potential soil amendments for enhancing phytoextraction of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Ni) by Zea mays. The treatments in this study were applied at a dose of 2 mmol/kg(-1) 1 d before sowing. To compare possible effects between presow and postgermination treatments, a second smaller experiment was conducted in which EDTA, citric acid, and NH4 acetate were added 10 d after germination as opposed to 1 d before sowing. The soil used in this screening was a moderately contaminated topsoil derived from a dredged sediment disposal site. This site has been in an oxidized state for more than 8 years before being used in this research. The high carbonate, high organic matter, and high clay content characteristic to this type of sediment are thought to suppress heavy-metal phytoavailability. Both EDTA and DTPA resulted in increased levels of heavy metals in the above-ground biomass. However, the observed increases in uptake were not as large as reported in the literature. Neither the NTA nor organic acid treatments had any significant effect on uptake when applied prior to sowing. This was attributed to the rapid mineralization of these substances and the relatively low doses applied. The generally low extraction observed in this experiment restricts the use of phytoextraction as an effective remediation alternative under the current conditions, with regard to amendments used, applied dose (2 mmol/kg(-1) soil), application time (presow), plant species (Zea mays), and sediment (calcareous clayey soil) under study.

What do patients want to know about their medicines, and what do doctors want to tell them?: a comparative study

A two phase study is reported. In the first phase, we asked a number of doctors to rate a list of information categories (identified by Berry, Gillie and Banbury 1995) in terms of how important they felt it was for the items to be included in an explanation to a patient about a drug prescription. In the second phase, we presented a large sample of people with a scenario about visiting their doctor and being prescribed medication, together with an explanation about the prescription which was said to be provided by the doctor. Four different explanations were compared, which were either based on what people in our earlier study wanted to know about drug prescriptions or on what the doctors thought it was important lo tell them. We also manipulated whether or not the explanations conveyed negative information (e.g. about the possible side effects of the medication). The results showed that people 'preferred' the explanations based on what the participants in the earlier study wanted to know about their medicines, rather than those based on what the doctors thought they should be told. They also 'preferred' the explanations that did not convey negative information, rather than those that did convey some negative information. In addition, the inclusion of negative information affected ratings of likely compliance with the prescribed medication.