Productivity, Digital Footprint and Sustainability in the Textile and Clothing Industry

[EN] In recent years, there has been a shift from the linear economic model on which the textile and clothing industry is based to a more sustainable model. However, to date, limited research on the relationship between sustainability commitment and firm productivity has focused on the textile and clothing industry. This study addresses this gap and aims to explore whether the digital footprint of small and medium-sized textile companies in terms of their sustainable performance is related to their productivity. To this end, the paper proposes an innovative model to monitor the companies’ commitment to sustainable issues by analyzing online data retrieved from their corporate websites. This information is merged with balance sheet data to examine the impact of sustainability practices, capital and human capital on productivity. The estimated firm’s total factor productivity is explained as a function of the sustainability digital footprint measures and additional control variables for a sample of 315 textile firms located in the region of Comunidad Valenciana, Spain.This work was partially funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 under grant PID2019-107765RB-I00.Domenech, J.; Garcia-Bernabeu, A.; Diaz-Garcia, P. (2023). Productivity, Digital Footprint and Sustainability in the Textile and Clothing Industry. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 319-326. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2023.2023.1644631932

Quantitative disentanglement of nanocrystalline phases in cement pastes by synchrotron ptychographic X-ray tomography

Mortars and concretes are ubiquitous materials with very complex hierarchical microstructures. To fully understand their main properties and to decrease their CO2 footprint, a sound description of their spatially resolved mineralogy is necessary. Developing this knowledge is very challenging as about half of the volume of hydrated cement is a nanocrystalline component, calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel. Furthermore, other poorly crystalline phases (e.g. iron siliceous hydrogarnet or silica oxide) may coexist, which are even more difficult to characterize. Traditional spatially resolved techniques such as electron microscopy involve complex sample preparation steps that often lead to artefacts (e.g. dehydration and microstructural changes). Here, synchrotron ptychographic tomography has been used to obtain spatially resolved information on three unaltered representative samples: neat Portland paste, Portland–calcite and Portland–fly-ash blend pastes with a spatial resolution below 100 nm in samples with a volume of up to 5 x 104 mm3. For the neat Portland paste, the ptychotomographic study gave densities of 2.11 and 2.52 g cm -3 and a content of 41.1 and 6.4 vol% for nanocrystalline C-S-H gel and poorly crystalline iron siliceous hydrogarnet, respectively. Furthermore, the spatially resolved volumetric mass-density information has allowed characterization of inner-product and outer-product C-S-H gels. The average density of the inner-product C-S-H is smaller than that of the outer product and its variability is larger. Full characterization of the pastes, including segmentation of the different components, is reported and the contents are compared with the results obtained by thermodynamic modelling.This work has been supported by MINECO through BIA2014-57658 and BIA2017-82391-R research grants, which are cofunded by FEDER. Instrumentation development was supported by SNF (R’EQUIP, No. 145056,‘OMNY’) and the Competence Centre for Materials Science and Technology (CCMX) of the ETH-Board, Switzerland

Geographies of Pain: The Mexican Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and the Configuration of Spaces of Victimhood

Since 2006, Mexico has been embedded in a severe humanitarian and social crisis brought about by Calderon's drug war security strategy. On March 2011, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), a social movement of victims was created in reaction to the growing death toll of drug related violence, the increase in human rights violations and the perception of a systematic effort by the government to belittle social costs of the war by manipulating the official narrative. Through protest marches, the MPJD articulated spaces of shared victimhood and set the path for victims' pain to be collectivized and politicized. This thesis illustrates how the spatial aspects of the official narrative of the drug war are countered by the emotional geographies constructed by the MPJD. These spaces of pain allowed for distinct emotional geographies that capture media attention to motivate collective action setting the foundations for reconstructing the social pact.Master of Art

Workaholism and work-family interaction among emergency and critical care nurses

Objectives: Investigating the prevalence of workaholism as well as the relationship between work-family interaction among emergency and critical care nurses. Research methodology/design: A quantitative cross-sectional study. Setting: A total of 219 nurses took part in the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10) and the Survey WorkHome Interaction Nijmegen (SWING), which included socio–demographic and occupational question. Data was gathered in Spain between June and September 2019. Results: Workaholism was found to be prevalent in 28.3% of the participants. In all four categories, workaholism was statistically connected to work-home interaction, with workaholics having higher means than nonworkaholics. Perceived work stress was related to workaholism (p =.036). In the Work Excessively dimension, female nurses had significantly higher mean scores (M = 2.26) than their male counterparts (M = 1,88). In addition, in the Negative Work-Home Interaction (M = 2.04), the global mean scores were higher than in the Negative Home-Work Interaction (M = 1.34), indicating conflict and a negative impact of work on the family. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated the necessity of taking into account demands and resources from both the work and home domains since it has been shown that both have an impact on one other. Furthermore, given the vital responsibilities that emergency and critical care nurses play in the health care system, our findings suggest that occupational health treatments should be used to identify those working profiles that are particularly at risk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inclusion of traditional Colombian music in singing majors in higher conservatories of Bogota: Teaching experiences

Singing learning in Colombian Higher Education is centred on teaching European repertoire. However, the need to include traditional music in the curriculum arose some years ago. This study aims to understand the teachers' experience including traditional Colombian repertoire into their classrooms. The sample included four universities in Bogota and 13 singing teachers. This ethnographic study gathered data by using a semi-structured interview Data was analysed following the qualitative method. In this paper, the teachers' challenges and concerns are presented. Also, the differences between the teaching method used for European and traditional music, as well as the vocal impact of learning the traditional music technique are introduced. It is discussed the positive perception of teachers regarding the inclusion of traditional music, understanding music as a tool to promote and recognise the country's cultural background.La enseñanza del canto en las universidades generalmente está centrada en la educación de la lírica europea. Sin embargo, desde hace unos años, se comienza a observar la presencia de las músicas tradicionales cantadas en las aulas de canto. En este estudio se ha observado la experiencia de los docentes de canto de las universidades de Bogotá que incluyen el estudio de las músicas tradicionales en su currículo educativo. A través de una entrevista etnográfica semi-estructurada y analizando los datos de forma cualitativa, se presentan los retos e inquietudes de 13 docentes de estas universidades frente a esta inclusión, las diferencias en la enseñanza que encuentran con la música europea y el impacto tanto a nivel músico-vocal como a nivel sociocultural. Se concluye que la percepción de los docentes es ampliamente positiva, entendiendo la música como una herramienta para el reconocimiento de la propia cultura del país

Effect of Chitosan Edible Coating on the Biochemical and Physical Characteristics of Carp Fillet (Cyprinus carpio) Stored at −18ºC.

The effect of an edible coating (EC) with 1.5% chitosan as an additive, on common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fillet, was determined evaluating the biochemical, physicochemical, textural, microbiological, and nutritional characteristics periodically during its hydroperoxides content (HPC) (0.8324 nM hydroperoxides/mg of protein versus 0.5540 nM/mg with regard to the EC sample), as well as protein carbonyl content (PCC) (0.5860 nM versus 0.4743 nM of reactive carbonyl groups/mg of protein of noncoated material), keeping properties for a longer period of time, and a lower protein solubility (7.8 mg of supernatant protein/mg of total microbialgrowth,thecountwas2.2×10 CFU/gofsampleinmesophilesversus4.7×10 intheECsample.Theresultsindicatethat the use of EC added with chitosan maintains the quality of the product regarding lipid and protein oxidation until fourth month of storage, maintaining moisture content without variation for at least 3 months, and inhibits microbial growth up to 2 logarithmic units, during five months of frozen storage

Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography analysis of cement pastes

Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography provides 3D electron mass density and attenuationcoefficient distributions of unaltered cement pastes with an isotropic resolution below 100 nm. Thisimaging technique allows quantitatively distinguishing between different components with very similarabsorption contrast.Samples were measured at the cSAXS beamline: i) a neat Portland Cement (PC); ii) a PC-CC blend:80 wt% of PC and 20 wt% of CaCO3, and iii) a PC-FA blend: 70 wt% of PC and 30 wt% of fly ash. Themain aim of this study is to have a better insight of the microstructure of theamorphous/nanocrystalline gels with submicrometer spatial resolution. It is worth noting that it ispossible to determine the gel mass density and water content within the attained 3D resolution (about100 nm). Here, we focused on the spatial distribution of the different components and in the variation of theelectron density values which are very related to the mass density values. Special attention is paid tothe density values of the amorphous (or nanocrystalline) components. The electron and mass densityvalues of the C-S-H gel for three pastes are thoroughly analyzed. The density values range from 2.05-2.10 g·cm-3 for high density C-S-H gel for neat PC and PC-CC pastes to 1.80 g.cm-3 for low densityC-S-H gel in PC-FA paste. The density value of poorly crystalline iron-siliceous hydrogarnetcomponent, d=2.52 g·cm-3, has also been determined.A summary of our ongoing research focused on the analyses of cement pastes by synchrotron PXCTis reported and discussedBIA2014-57658-C2-1-R and BIA2017-82391-R, which is co-funded by FEDER. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Musgos cultivados, indicadores ambientales de contaminación atmosférica

La contaminación atmosférica se ha asociado a diversas enfermedades respiratorias y cardiovasculares (Pan et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2015). Es por ello que hoy en día la calidad del aire es un tema de gran interés, tanto en el aspecto ambiental como de salud (Zarazúa et al., 2013). Sin embargo, el monitoreo convencional de los contaminantes atmosféricos no siempre es posible debido a los costos generados por la adquisición y mantenimiento de los equipos tecnológicos necesarios (Ares et al., 2012; Barandovski et al.,2015). Para contrarrestar esta situación, se tiene como alternativa el uso de organismo biológicos como biomonitores de los contaminantes (Malizia et al., 2012; Salo, 2014;Stankovic et al., 2014).Los musgos han demostrado ser muy útiles como bioindicadores de la contaminación del aire. El presente trabajo representa una alternativa a los tipos de monitoreo tradicionales (pasivo y activo), ya que propone evitar la extracción del musgo nativo de los sitios de monitoreo; en su lugar plantea el cultivo in vitro del musgo y su posterior exposición en los sitios de monitoreo. El protocolo incluye la identificación de la especie, obtención del esporofito con la cápsula cerrada, la esterilización de la cápsula de esporas con una solución de NaClO. Posteriormente la cápsula se rompe y se liberan las esporas en agua estéril, para ser dispersadas en medio BCD para su cultivo. La incubación de las esporas ocurre a temperatura e intensidad de luz controlada, condiciones que se mantienen constantes hasta que la planta produce gametofitos. Por este método se asegura la obtención de musgo no contaminado para su posterior exposición a la contaminación atmosférica. El biomonitoreo resulta ser un método relativamente económico y fácil de implementar, por lo que es una alternativa viable para ser desarrollada en lugares en donde no se cuente con la infraestructura para monitorear la calidad del aire.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México - CONACY

Life-long spontaneous exercise does not prolong lifespan but improves health span in mice

BackgroundLife expectancy at birth in the first world has increased from 35 years at the beginning of the 20th century to more than 80 years now. The increase in life expectancy has resulted in an increase in age-related diseases and larger numbers of frail and dependent people. The aim of our study was to determine whether life-long spontaneous aerobic exercise affects lifespan and healthspan in mice.ResultsMale C57Bl/6J mice, individually caged, were randomly assigned to one of two groups: sedentary (n = 72) or spontaneous wheel-runners (n = 72). We evaluated longevity and several health parameters including grip strength, motor coordination, exercise capacity (VO2max) and skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis. We also measured the cortical levels of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin associated with brain plasticity. In addition, we measured systemic oxidative stress (malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl plasma levels) and the expression and activity of two genes involved in antioxidant defense in the liver (that is, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD)). Genes that encode antioxidant enzymes are considered longevity genes because their over-expression may modulate lifespan. Aging was associated with an increase in oxidative stress biomarkers and in the activity of the antioxidant enzymes, GPx and Mn-SOD, in the liver in mice. Life-long spontaneous exercise did not prolong longevity but prevented several signs of frailty (that is, decrease in strength, endurance and motor coordination). This improvement was accompanied by a significant increase in the mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and in the cortical BDNF levels.ConclusionLife-long spontaneous exercise does not prolong lifespan but improves healthspan in mice. Exercise is an intervention that delays age-associated frailty, enhances function and can be translated into the clinic