A preliminary palynological characterization of Spanish thyme honeys

Pollen was analysed in 25 thyme honey samples from Spain. The honey samples were provided by professional beekeepers, and pollen was obtained by centrifugation. A minimum of 8% of Thymus sp. pollen is considered sufficient to typify a honey as unifloral when considering pollen grains from anemophilous and nectarless plants. The quantitative analysis showed that nectar is the main honey source in the samples studied. The qualitative analysis of the samples revealed the presence of 53 taxa belonging to 27 families. The Spanish thyme honeys of the studied region are characterized by their medium to high numbers of grains of pollen (NGP; mean = 155 000) and their medium to high content of honeydew indicator elements (HDE; mean = 8300). Genista type (present in 100% of the samples), Echium plantagineum and Reseda luteola (90%), Eucalyptus type (80%), Calendula type and Olea europaea (75%), and Cistus monspeliensis (70%) may be mentioned among the characteristic accompanying species of this honey type

Palynological and geographical characterization of avocado honeys in Spain

The present work refers to the pollen analysis of 12 avocado honey samples from Spain. The samples were directly provided by the beekeepers, all professionals. The quantitative analysis showed that nectar is the main honey source in the samples studied, and that most honeys have a medium presence of botanical elements (BE); one sample belong to Class I of Maurizio, seven to Class II and four belong to Class III. The qualitative analysis of the samples showed the presence of 56 taxa belonging to 36 families. The Spanish avocado honeys are characterised by their medium content in pollen grains (NPG; x̄ = 117000) and their low honeydew indicator elements content (HDE; x̄ = 6340). Echium plantagineum gr. and Genista f. (present in 90% of the samples), and Eucalyptus f., Olea europaea L., Mentha aquatica gr. and Reseda luteola gr. (present in 80% of the samples), could be mentioned among the characteristic accompanying species of this honey type. The avocado honeys from the Iberian Peninsula and from the Canary Islands can be differentiated by the presence of Asphalthium bituminosum Medic., Cardiospermum grandiflorum Sw., Phoenix canariensis Hort. ex Chabaud and Tropaeolum majus L. in the latter

Structured organic frameworks as endocrine disruptor adsorbents suitable for Fenton regeneration and reuse

New porous materials, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), have been actively investigated due to their environmental applications. In this study, four of such structured materials, namely Fe3O4 @COF, MIL-53(Al), MIL-53(Al)-F127 and NH2-MIL-101(Fe) were synthetized. These materials have been tested for the first time for the adsorption in aqueous media of two endocrine disruptor pollutants, bisphenol A (BPA) and prednisolone (PDN). The adsorbents were characterized by the analysis of the point of zero charge (PZC), the functional groups (FTIR) and their physic-chemical structure (N2-isotherms, SEM, XRD and XPS). MIL-53-Al provided the highest uptake of both BPA (177.78 mg g− 1) and PDN (280.70 mg g− 1) even when using a real wastewater matrix. Additionally, this MOF resulted to be a so-called catalytic-adsorbent, maintaining an appropriate adsorbent capacity after five regenerations cycles via Fenton-like process, causing only 20% and 5% adsorption detriment for BPA and PDN, respectively. This avoids spent adsorbent disposal issues and make this new kind of adsorbent to have the potential to be used in real environmental application scenarios.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2020-113667GB-I00Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PDC2021-121394-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481D-2023/015Universidade de Vigo/CISU

Pesticide abatement using environmentally friendly nano zero valent particles as photo-Fenton catalyst

Nano-zero valent iron particles (NZVI) have been used for the pesticide pirimicarb degradation under simulated solar radiation. These particles have been synthesized by extracts from agro-industrial residues, namely vineyard and blueberry pruning, black tea and algae, so they can be labelled as “green-NZVI”. The physico-chemical properties of these green-NZVI were compared to those of NZVI synthesized with NaBH4. The usage of agroindustrial residues as reducing agent not only provided better performant NZVI but also evade the usage of harmful reagents. Indeed, this process is not only within circular economy, and environmentally friendly, but also defeats the degradation performance of the widely reported photo-Fenton process with Fe2+ catalyst. 96.5 % pirimicarb degradation was achieved under simulated solar radiation within 15 min with 0.08 mM H2O2 and 0.16 mM NZVI synthesized with black tea extract. Further, the developed process was optimized in terms of reagents concentration and natural antioxidant extract used for NZVI synthesis, which demonstrated a strong effect on pirimicarb degradation due to the differences on natural phenolic compounds present on them. The pirimicarb degradation pathway was analysed, confirming the successful pesticide degradation. In terms of H2O2 concentration, it can be reduced by its sequential addition in time. Under optimal conditions, even real effluents can be successfully degraded.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PDC2021-121394-I00Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PCI2022-132941Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDB/50006/2020Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDP/50006/2020Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481D-2023/015Universidade de Vigo/CISU

Tuning graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER)

Nowadays, energy conversion and storage technologies are essential research topics due to the necessity of more sustainable processes. Specifically, water splitting is highly affected by slow kinetics and limited knowledge of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This work envisages the preparation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) electrocatalysts for efficient OER by a facile one-pot method. The impact of the preparation temperature (450–650 ◦C) of g-C3N4 was assessed for the first time on water splitting processes and explained by different characterisation techniques. The unique crystal structure, surface chemistry, and electronic properties of the material prepared at 550 ◦C lead to a remarkable OER efficiency, with an overpotential of 355 mV at 10 mA cm− 2 and a Tafel slope of 46.8 mV dec− 1. Interestingly, three major differences were observed when comparing the material prepared at 550 ◦C with those obtained at other temperatures: the reduced structural distortion, the superior composition in oxygen and the presence of terminal functional groups. Also, compared to other metalfree g-C3N4 electrocatalysts reported in the literature, we achieved lower Tafel slope values without additional post-treatments or co-catalysts. Hence, for the first time a metal-free catalyst defeats benchmark IrO2. The prepared electrodes were stable for up to 45 h, even when increasing the applied current density to 100 mA cm− 2 for 15 h. Thus, this work provides a simple route for the fabrication of highly-efficient and long-lasting electrocatalysts for a remarkable OER performance.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2020-113667 GB-I00Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDB/50020/2020Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDP/50020/2020Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481D-2023/015Universidade de Vigo/CISU

De la “lección magistral” al Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) "personalizado" a las características del alumnado de Ciencias de la Salud

En el presente Proyecto llevamos a cabo la implantación del Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) en el aula universitaria utilizando la asignatura de Microbiología del Grado en Farmacia, en Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos, y en Óptica y Optometría. En cada uno de dichos Grados se comparó esta metodología con la tradicional clase magistral y además se adaptó el ABP en los tres Grados, según la idiosincrasia del alumnado en cada uno de ellos, constituyendo lo que llamamos ABP “personalizado”

Imipenem heteroresistance but not tolerance in Haemophilus influenzae during chronic lung infection associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Antibiotic resistance is a major Public Health challenge worldwide. Mechanisms other than resistance are described as contributors to therapeutic failure. These include heteroresistance and tolerance, which escape the standardized procedures used for antibiotic treatment decision-making as they do not involve changes in minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). Haemophilus influenzae causes chronic respiratory infection and is associated with exacerbations suffered by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Although resistance to imipenem is rare in this bacterial species, heteroresistance has been reported, and antibiotic tolerance cannot be excluded. Moreover, development of antibiotic heteroresistance or tolerance during within-host H. influenzae pathoadaptive evolution is currently unknown. In this study, we assessed imipenem resistance, heteroresistance and tolerance in a previously sequenced longitudinal collection of H. influenzae COPD respiratory isolates. The use of Etest, disc diffusion, population analysis profiling, tolerance disc (TD)-test methods, and susceptibility breakpoint criteria when available, showed a significant proportion of imipenem heteroresistance with differences in terms of degree among strains, absence of imipenem tolerance, and no specific trends among serial and clonally related strains could be established. Analysis of allelic variation in the ftsI, acrA, acrB, and acrR genes rendered a panel of polymorphisms only found in heteroresistant strains, but gene expression and genome-wide analyses did not show clear genetic traits linked to heteroresistance. In summary, a significant proportion of imipenem heteroresistance was observed among H. influenzae strains isolated from COPD respiratory samples over time. These data should be useful for making more accurate clinical recommendations to COPD patients

Biological differences between in vitro produced bovine embryos and parthenotes

Parthenotes may represent an alternate ethical source of stem cells, once biological differences between parthenotes and embryos can be understood. In this study, we analyzed development, trophectoderm (TE) differentiation, apoptosis/necrosis, and ploidy in parthenotes and in vitro produced bovine embryos. Subsequently, using real-time PCR, we analyzed the expression of genes expected to underlie the observed differences at the blastocyst stage. In vitro matured oocytes were either fertilized or activated with ionomycin C6-DMAP and cultured in simple medium. Parthenotes showed enhanced blastocyst development and diploidy and reduced TE cell counts. Apoptotic and necrotic indexes did not vary, but parthenotes evidenced a higher relative proportion of apoptotic cells between inner cell mass and TE. The pluripotence-related POU5F1 and the methylation DNMT3A genes were downregulated in parthenotes. Among pregnancy recognition genes, TP-1 was upregulated in parthenotes, while PGRMC1 and PLAC8 did not change. Expression of p66shc and BAX/BCL2 ratio were higher, and p53 lower, in parthenotes. Among metabolism genes, SLC2A1 was downregulated, while AKR1B1, PTGS2, H6PD, and TXN were upregulated in parthenotes, and SLC2A5 did not differ. Among genes involved in compaction/blastulation, GJA1 was downregulated in parthenotes, but no differences were detected within ATP1A1 and CDH1.Within parthenotes, the expression levels of SLC2A1, TP-1, and H6PD, and possibly AKR1B1, resemble patterns described in female embryos. The pro-apoptotic profile is more pronounced in parthenotes than in embryos, which may differ in their way to channel apoptotic stimuli, through p66shc and p53 respectively, and in their mechanisms to control pluripotency and de novo methylation

Imago. Sensory diversity project

Imago. Proyecto de diversidad sensorial se ha centrado en el estudio y la accesibilidad de las imágenes artísticas desde la perspectiva y experiencia de personas con diversidad sensorial. Nuestro punto de partida quedaba así fijado por la idea de que las personas con diversidad sensorial nos ofrecen una apertura para el estudio ampliado de las imágenes en función de la facultad de imaginar. Se trataba, pues, de elaborar un material audiovisual adecuado que prestase atención a la amplitud sensorial, esto es, sinestésica, de la imagen. Con tal planteamiento, este proyecto se proponía desarrollar tanto una dimensión teórica como una práctica para el estudio de las imágenes. De una parte se trataba de trabajar a partir de autores (artistas y teóricos) de distintas épocas que permitieran un acercamiento a la concepción ampliada de las imágenes desde perspectivas integradoras. De otra, se trataba de realizar una serie de videos en colaboración con personas con diversidad sensorial que nos permitieran un estudio crítico de las posibilidades de este formato en Internet.Depto. de Historia del ArteFac. de Geografía e HistoriaFALSEsubmitte

Visor de escenarios de cambio climático de adapteCCa: consulta interactiva y acceso a escenarios-PNACC 2017

Ponencia presentada en: XI Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Cartagena entre el 17 y el 19 de octubre de 2018.[ES]Las proyecciones regionales de cambio climático son una información básica para realizar estudios de impacto y adaptación en distintos sectores socio-económicos. La recopilación y producción de estas proyecciones a nivel nacional es una tarea básica del Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PNACC), a través de Escenarios-PNACC. La primera versión (2012) se basó en la información del IPCCAR4 y en dos acciones estratégicas nacionales (ESCENA y ESTCENA). Recientemente, se ha llevado a cabo una actualización de estos escenarios regionales a partir de IPCC-AR5 y de los proyectos CORDEX y VALUE (con la participación de AEMET y CSIC-UC), que proporciona series diarias en rejilla y puntuales de distintas variables e índices para múltiples escenarios y modelos. En este trabajo se presenta la actualización Escenarios-PNACC 2017, así como el visor de escenarios de cambio climático desarrollado en el marco de la plataforma AdapteCCa para facilitar a los usuarios el análisis interactivo y el acceso a esta información (http://escenarios.adaptecca.es).[EN]Regional projections of climate change are key information to carry out impact and adaptation studies in different socio-economic sectors. The compilation and production of these projections at the national level is a basic task of the National Plan of Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC), through Escenarios-PNACC. The first version (2012) was based on IPCC-AR3 information and two national strategic actions (ESCENA and ESTCENA). Recently, an update of these regional scenarios has been carried out from IPCC-AR5 and from the CORDEX and VALUE projects (with the participation of AEMET and CSIC-UC), providing daily gridded and point series of different variables and indices for multiple scenarios and models. This paper describes the update Escenarios-PNACC 2017, as well as the "viewer of climate change scenarios" developed within the framework of the AdapteCCa platform to provide users with interactive analysis and access to this information (http://escenarios.adaptecca.es)