Agricultura urbana, condición para el desarrollo sostenible y la mejora del paisaje

Este artículo resulta de investigaciones en torno al “enverdecimiento” de las ciudades y las oportunidades de la agricultura urbana para la alimentación de una población en constante aumento que no trabaja la tierra. También es fruto de actividades de mejora de ambientes urbanos realizadas con la Escuela de Ingenieros Agrónomos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. A través de casos de agricultura urbana, entendiendo por ella el conjunto de prácticas para la producción de alimentos y plantas ornamentales dentro de las ciudades y en sus entornos, se analizan alternativas para la recuperación de espacios construidos e incremento de la calidad de vida de la población. Todo ello se traduce, además, en creación de riqueza y mejora del paisaje urbano, siempre desde criterios de sostenibilidad que favorecen el desarrollo local desde la Cumbre de la Tierra de Río de 1992 y la Conferencia sobre Desarrollo Sostenible Río+20 de 2013.

A Long and Winding Road to Employment?: Disabled young people in Northern Ireland making the transition to adulthood

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project that explores the experiences and aspirations of disabled young people in Northern Ireland as they make and deal with the transition to adulthood. The study involved young people with disabilities (n=76) in four areas of Northern Ireland, ensuring a geographical spread, an urban/rural mix and representation of both communities. Young people with learning disabilities were included as well as those with physical and/or sensory impairments. This paper focuses on those who were completing job training or work placements and examines the role of such schemes in assisting young people’s transition to adulthood. The research found that many young people had positive experiences of work placement and job training and that social interaction was important to them. Few young people, however, had made the actual transition from work placement or training to ‘real’ employment.

Resting energy expenditure in non-ventilated, non-sedated patients recovering from serious traumatic brain injury: Comparison of prediction equations with indirect calorimetry values

Background & aims: Little is known about energy requirements in brain injured (TBI) patients, despite evidence suggesting adequate nutritional support can improve clinical outcomes. The study aim was to compare predicted energy requirements with measured resting energy expenditure (REE) values, in patients recovering from TBI.

Methods: Indirect calorimetry (IC) was used to measure REE in 45 patients with TBI. Predicted energy requirements were determined using FAO/WHO/UNU and Harris–Benedict (HB) equations. Bland– Altman and regression analysis were used for analysis.

Results: One-hundred and sixty-seven successful measurements were recorded in patients with TBI. At an individual level, both equations predicted REE poorly. The mean of the differences of standardised areas of measured REE and FAO/WHO/UNU was near zero (9 kcal) but the variation in both directions was substantial (range 591 to þ573 kcal). Similarly, the differences of areas of measured REE and HB demonstrated a mean of 1.9 kcal and range 568 to þ571 kcal. Glasgow coma score, patient status, weight and body temperature were signi?cant predictors of measured REE (p < 0.001; R²⁼ 0.47).

Conclusions: Clinical equations are poor predictors of measured REE in patients with TBI. The variability in REE is substantial. Clinicians should be aware of the limitations of prediction equations when estimating energy requirements in TBI patients.

Common variants at the MHC locus and at chromosome 16q24.1 predispose to Barrett's esophagus

Barrett's esophagus is an increasingly common disease that is strongly associated with reflux of stomach acid and usually a hiatus hernia, and it strongly predisposes to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), a tumor with a very poor prognosis. We report the first genome-wide association study on Barrett's esophagus, comprising 1,852 UK cases and 5,172 UK controls in the discovery stage and 5,986 cases and 12,825 controls in the replication stage. Variants at two loci were associated with disease risk: chromosome 6p21, rs9257809 (P(combined) = 4.09 × 10(-9); odds ratio (OR) = 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) =1.13-1.28), within the major histocompatibility complex locus, and chromosome 16q24, rs9936833 (P(combined) = 2.74 × 10(-10); OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.10-1.19), for which the closest protein-coding gene is FOXF1, which is implicated in esophageal development and structure. We found evidence that many common variants of small effect contribute to genetic susceptibility to Barrett's esophagus and that SNP alleles predisposing to obesity also increase risk for Barrett's esophagus.

Consensus statements for management of Barrett's dysplasia and early-stage esophageal adenocarcinoma, based on a Delphi process

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) is increasingly common among patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE). We aimed to provide consensus recommendations based on the medical literature that clinicians could use to manage patients with BE and low-grade dysplasia, high-grade dysplasia (HGD), or early-stage EA.

Optimising sorting and washing of home-grown maize to reduce fumonisin contamination under laboratory-controlled conditions

Subsistence farming communities with low socio-economic status reliant on a mono cereal maize diet are exposed to fumonisin levels that exceed the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of 2 mu g kg(-1) body weight day(-1) recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. In the rural Centane magisterial district, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, it is customary during food preparation to sort visibly infected maize kernels from good maize kernels and to wash the good kernels prior to cooking. However, this customary practice seems not to sufficiently reduce the fumonisin levels. This is the first study to optimise the reduction of fumonisin mycotoxins in home-grown maize based on customary methods of a rural population, under laboratory-controlled conditions. Maize obtained from subsistence farmers was analysed for the major naturally occurring fumonisins (FB1, FB2 and FB3) by fluorescence HPLC. Large variations were observed in the unsorted and the experimental maize batches attributable to the non-homogeneous distribution of fumonisin contamination in maize kernels. Optimised hand-sorting of maize kernels by removing the visibly infected/damaged kernels (fumonisins, 53.7 +/- 15.0 mg kg(-1), 2.5% by weight) reduced the mean fumonisins from 2.32 +/- 1.16 mg kg(-1) to 0.68 +/- 0.42 mg kg(-1). Hand washing of the sorted good maize kernels for a period of 10 min at 25 degrees C resulted in optimal reduction with no additional improvement for wash periods up to 15 h. The laboratory optimised sorting reduced the fumonisins by 71 +/- 18% and an additional 13 +/- 12% with the 10 min wash. Based on these results and on local practices and practicalities the protocol that would be recommended to subsistence farmers consists of the removal of the infected/damaged kernels from the maize followed by a 10 min ambient temperature water wash. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arsenic in groundwater and its influence on exposure risks through traditionally cooked rice in Prey Vêng Province, Cambodia

Arsenic (As) contamination of communal tubewells in Prey Vêng, Cambodia, has been observed since 2000. Many of these wells exceed the WHO As in drinking water standard of 10 µg/L by a factor of 100. The aim of this study was to assess how cooking water source impacts dietary As intake in a rural community in Prey Vêng. This aim was fulfilled by (1) using geostatistical analysis techniques to examine the extent of As contaminated groundwater in Prey Vêng and identify a suitable study site, (2) conducting an on-site study in two villages to measure As content in cooked rice prepared with water collected from tubewells and locally harvested rainwater, and (3) determining the dietary intake of As from consuming this rice. Geostatistical analysis indicated that high risk tubewells (>50 µg As/L) are concentrated along the Mekong River's east bank. Participants using high risk tubewells are consuming up to 24 times more inorganic As daily than recommended by the previous FAO/WHO provisional tolerable daily intake value (2.1 µg/kgBW/day). However, As content in rice cooked in rainwater was significantly reduced, therefore, it is considered to be a safer and more sustainable option for this region.

An arsenic-contaminated field trial to assess the uptake and translocation of arsenic by genotypes of rice

Compared to other cereals, rice has particular strong As accumulation. Therefore, it is very important to understand As uptake and translocation among different genotypes. A field study in Chenzhou city, Hunan province of China, was employed to evaluate the effect of arsenic-contaminated soil on uptake and distribution in 34 genotypes of rice (including unpolished rice, husk, shoot, and root). The soil As concentrations ranged from 52.49 to 83.86 mg kg-1, with mean As concentration 64.44 mg kg-1. The mean As concentrations in rice plant tissues were different among the 34 rice genotypes. The highest As concentrations were accumulated in rice root (196.27-385.98 mg kg-1 dry weight), while the lowest was in unpolished rice (0.31-0.52 mg kg-1 dry weight). The distribution of As in rice tissue and paddy soil are as follows root » soil > shoot > husk > unpolished rice. The ranges of concentrations of inorganic As in all of unpolished rice were from 0.26 to 0.52 mg kg-1 dry weight. In particular, the percentage of inorganic As in the total As was more than 67 %, indicating that the inorganic As was the predominant species in unpolished rice. The daily dietary intakes of inorganic As in unpolished rice ranged from 0.10 to 0.21 mg for an adult, and from 0.075 to 0.15 mg for a child. Comparison with tolerable daily intakes established by FAO/WHO, inorganic As in most of unpolished rice samples exceeded the recommended intake values. The 34 genotypes of rice were classified into four clusters using a criteria value of rescaled distance between 5 and 10. Among the 34 genotypes, the genotypes II you 416 (II416) with the lowest enrichment of As and the lowest daily dietary intakes of inorganic As could be selected as the main cultivar in As-contaminated field.

Direct Photodetachment of F‾ by mid-infrared few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses

The recent adiabatic saddle-point approach of Shearer et al. [ Phys. Rev. A 84 033409 (2011)] is extended to multiphoton detachment of negative ions with outer p-state electrons. This theory is applied to investigate the strong-field photodetachment dynamics of F- ions exposed to few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses, without taking into account the rescattering mechanism. Numerical calculations are considered for mid-infrared laser wavelengths of 1300 and 1800 nm at laser intensities of 7.7 × 1012, 1.1 × 1013, and 1.3 × 1013 W/cm2. Two-dimensional momenta saddle-point spectra exhibit a distinct distribution in the shape of a “smile” in the complex-time plane. Electron momentum distribution maps of direct electrons are investigated. These produce a distinct pattern of above-threshold detachment (ATD) concentric rings due to constructive and destructive quantum interference of electrons detached from their parent ions. Probability detachment distributions presented, capturing the influence of saturation effects that are found to become more significant with increasing laser intensity at a fixed wavelength. ATD photoangular distributions as functions of laser intensity and wavelength near channel closings are also investigated and found to be sensitive to initial-state symmetry. Nonmonotonic structures observed in the ejected photoelectron energy spectra are attributed to interference effects from coherent electronic wave packets. Additionally the profiles of all the photoelectron emission spectra show strong dependence on the carrier-envelope phase, indicating that it is a reliable parameter for characterizing the wave form of the pulse.

14C as a tool to trace terrestrial carbon in a complex lake system: implications for food-web structure and carbon cycling

Globally lakes bury and remineralise significant quantities of terrestrial C, and the associated flux of terrestrial C strongly influences their functioning. Changing deposition chemistry, land use and climate induced impacts on hydrology will affect soil biogeochemistry and terrestrial C export¹ and hence lake ecology with potential feedbacks for regional and global C cycling. C and nitrogen stable isotope analysis (SIA) has identified the terrestrial subsidy of freshwater food webs. The approach relies on different ¹³C fractionation in aquatic and terrestrial primary producers, but also that inorganic C demands of aquatic primary producers are partly met by ¹³C depleted C from respiration of terrestrial C, and ‘old’ C derived from weathering of catchment geology. SIA thus fails to differentiate between the contributions of old and recently fixed terrestrial C. Natural abundance ¹⁴C can be used as an additional biomarker to untangle riverine food webs² where aquatic and terrestrial δ ¹³C overlap, but may also be valuable for examining the age and origin of C in the lake. Primary production in lakes is based on dissolved inorganic C (DIC). DIC in alkaline lakes is partially derived from weathering of carbonaceous bedrock, a proportion of which is¹⁴C-free. The low ¹⁴C activity yields an artificial age offset leading samples to appear hundreds to thousands of years older than their actual age. As such, ¹⁴C can be used to identify the proportion of autochthonous C in the food-web. With terrestrial C inputs likely to increase, the origin and utilisation of ‘fossil’ or ‘recent’ allochthonous C in the food-web can also be determined. Stable isotopes and 14C were measured for biota, particulate organic matter (POM), DIC and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, a humic alkaline lake. Temporal and spatial variation was evident in DIC, DOC and POM C isotopes with implications for the fluctuation in terrestrial export processes. Ramped pyrolysis of lake surface sediment indicates the burial of two C components. ¹⁴C activity (507 ± 30 BP) of sediment combusted at 400˚C was consistent with algal values and younger than bulk sediment values (1097 ± 30 BP). The sample was subsequently combusted at 850˚C, yielding 14C values (1471 ± 30 BP) older than the bulk sediment age, suggesting that fossil terrestrial carbon is also buried in the sediment. Stable isotopes in the food web indicate that terrestrial organic C is also utilised by lake organisms. High winter δ ¹⁵N values in calanoid zooplankton (δ ¹⁵N = 24%¸) relative to phytoplankton and POM (δ ¹⁵N = 6h and 12h respectively) may reflect several microbial trophic levels between terrestrial C and calanoids. Furthermore winter calanoid 14C ages are consistent with DOC from an inflowing river (75 ± 24 BP), not phytoplankton (367 ± 70 BP). Summer calanoid δ ^13C, δ ¹⁵N and ¹⁴C (345 ± 80 BP) indicate greater reliance on phytoplankton.

¹ Monteith, D.T et al., (2007) Dissolved organic carbon trends resulting from changes in atmospheric deposition chemistry. Nature, 450:537-535

² Caraco, N., et al.,(2010) Millennial-aged organic carbon subsidies to a modern river food web. Ecology,91: 2385-2393.

Aquatic invasive alien species – top issues for their management. Outcomes from the IFI/EIFAAC conference “Freshwater Invasives – Networking for Strategy”

In November 2014, a new EU Regulation to address Invasive Alien Species (IAS) and protect biodiversity was published. This entered into force across the EU in January 2015. The aim of the Regulation is to ‘prevent the introduction of, control or eradicate alien species which threaten ecosystems, habitats or species’. In an effort to provide focus to the Regulation prior to its publishing and to identify the major issues relating to Invasive Alien Species in Europe, the views of invasive species experts from around the world were sought. These were consolidated at an international conference (Freshwater Invasives - Networking for Strategy (FINS)) that was held in Ireland in April 2013. A major outcome from this meeting of experts was the production of the Top 20 IAS issues that relate primarily to freshwater habitats but are also directly relevant to marine and terrestrial ecosystems. This list will support policy makers throughout the EU as preparations are made to implement this important piece of legislation. A further outcome from the conference was the formation of an expert IAS Advisory Group to support EIFAAC in its work on invasive species

Relação escola/família:de que modo o educador pode proporcionar atividades que envolvam a família?

Relatório de estágio apresentado para a obtenção do grau de Mestre na Especialidade Profissional de Educação Pré-escolar. Orientador: Professor Ramiro Marques

Estudio de Factibilidad para la creación de una empresa dedicada a la Producción y Comercialización de Yogur de Uvilla bajo en Calorias, ubicada e el Cantón Cayambe con Mercado objetivo la Ciudad de Quito

En el mundo, las empresas y países que han incursionado en la industria láctea se han especializado en la elaboración de algún producto específico. Dentro de los principales productos derivados de leche podemos mencionar: leche fluida o fresca, leche en polvo, quesos y otros productos lácteos. Según la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) la producción mundial de leche entera en el 2008 alcanzó un volumen de 693,2 millones de toneladas equivalentes en leche, lo que representa un crecimiento de 2,5% respecto al 2007.1

Mitochondrial dysfunction in fatty acid β-oxidation disorders

Mitochondria are central organelles for cell survival with particular relevance in energy production and signalling, being mitochondrial fatty acid β–oxidation (FAO) one of the metabolic pathways harboured in this organelle. FAO disorders (FAOD) are among the most well studied inborn errors of metabolism, mainly due to their impact in health. Nevertheless, some questions remain unsolved, as their prevalence in certain European regions and how pathophysiological determinants combine towards the phenotype. Analysis of data from newborn screening programs from Portugal and Spain allowed the estimation of the birth prevalence of FAOD revealing that this group of disorders presents in Iberia (and particularly in Portugal) one of the highest European birth prevalence, mainly due to the high birth prevalence of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. These results highlight the impact of this group of genetic disorders in this European region. The characterization of mitochondrial proteome, from patients fibroblasts with FAOD, namely multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) and long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (LCHADD), provided a global perspective of the mitochondrial proteome plasticity in these disorders and highlights the main molecular pathways involved in their pathogenesis. Severe MADD forms show an overexpression of chaperones, antioxidant enzymes (MnSOD), and apoptotic proteins. An overexpression of glycolytic enzymes, which reflects cellular adaptation to energy deficiency due to FAO blockage, was also observed. When LCHADD fibroblasts were analysed a metabolic switching to glycolysis was also observed with overexpression of apoptotic proteins and modulation of the antioxidant defence system. Severe LCHADD present increased ROS alongside with up regulation of MnSOD while moderate forms have lower ROS and down-regulation of MnSOD. This probably reflects the role of MnSOD in buffering cellular ROS, maintain them at levels that allow cells to avoid damage and start a cellular response towards survival. When ROS levels are very high cells have to overexpress MnSOD for detoxifying proposes. When severe forms of MADD were compared to moderate forms no major differences were noticed, most probably because ROS levels in moderate MADD are high enough to trigger a response similar to that observed in severe forms. Our data highlights, for the first time, the differences in the modulation of antioxidant defence among FAOD spectrum. Overall, the data reveals the main pathways modulated in FAOD and the importance of ROS levels and antioxidant defence system modulation for disease severity. These results highlight the complex interaction between phenotypic determinants in FAOD that include genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. The development of future better treatment approaches is dependent on the knowledge on how all these determinants interact towards phenotype.!