Solid Waste Management as an instrument of sustainability in protestant denominations

Nowadays, there is a worldwide concern about issues related to the environment and one of the biggest environmental problems caused are generated by inadequate solid waste management and the lack of society\u27s involvement. The present work deals with the management in Protestant Christian religious institutions, which are also producers of solid waste and, therefore, deserve to be studied scientifically, in order to answer the following guiding question: Solid waste management in Protestant Christian institutions in the city of Manaus asserts itself as an effective instrument for the concept of sustainability? The main purpose objective of this work is to evaluate how Protestant Christian religious institutions act in the management of solid waste, identifying if such these institutions do any kind of management of this generated waste, in order to monitor how it is done using quality management tools, methodology and analysis of the results achieved. The applied methodology will be descriptive, through observation, registration, analysis and correlation of the object or facts under study, however, without manipulating them. With the information collected from selected churches in all areas of the city, in equal quantity and, through a practical formulary and checklist based on Brazil’s the National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS), it will be possible to build a DMAIC framework and sequentially apply the GUT tool, to notes on of the most urgent problems. The results of these notes will be put into the PDCA cycle for improvement planning and, finally, the 5W2H will be used to propose improvements, which will facilitate observation, data collection and analysis of the information obtained. The survey results showed a great possibility of these Christian communities to serve as environmental schools, and that if it would be carried out, could bring a real mass awareness of society, thanks to its enormous scope

Collaborative virtual community to share class plans for STEAM education

This research presents an international community of practice for teachers using the VISIR remote lab. Throughout the research, it was necessary to study about communities of practice and their potential use in remote laboratories; identify practices with collaborative potential in the institutions and with the participating teachers; develop the necessary technological environment to support the proposed community of practice; validate the proposal with four institutions (four countries - Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Argentina) to evaluate the proposed model. The motivation for developing this research came from the history of the Remote Experimentation Laboratory (REXLAB) with the project VISIR+: Educational Modules for Electric and Electronic Circuits Theory and Practice following an Enquiry based Teaching and Learning Methodology supported by VISIR+”. The VISIR + project is an international cooperation project with the participation of 21 Ibero-American partner institutions between October 2015 and April 2018. The platform, called Labs4STEAM, was developed using Dokuwiki, an open source wiki software that contains a large number of plugins. From the data collection it was possible to receive a mostly positive feedback, but several improvement opportunities were pointed out, which will be performed soon. Thus, from the developed platform one can plan future work, taking into account the results obtained and experience and partnerships with the VISIR + project

Nutritional composition of raw and fried big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) from Trasimeno lake

The aim of this research was to investigate the nutritional composition of raw and fried big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) from Trasimeno Lake. Four hundred big-scale sand smelts were caught with nets and analysed immediately. We created a total of 20 batches with 20 whole fish in each batch. Ten batches were analysed as raw samples, while the other 10 batches were analysed after being fried in sunflower oil at a temperature of 190 °C for 3 min (deep fat frying). The pH, proximate composition, fatty acid profile, oxidative stability and nutritional indexes of both groups were assessed. As expected, cooking strongly influenced the characteristics of the meat, mainly in terms of lipids, which were seven times greater in the fried product due to the oil. Frying also affected the fatty acid profile of the meat because oil absorption caused a significant increase in oleic and linoleic acids. Furthermore, we found a slight reduction in long chain n-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids). Frying increased oxidative processes and decreased the nutritional value of sand smelt. The obtained results can be considered preliminary because the effects of the fishing season and different physiological phases of sand smelt require further analytical confirmation.Highlights The aim of the research was to investigate the nutritional composition of raw and fried big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) from Trasimeno Lake. The fried big-scale sand smelt had a meat lipids content 7-times greater than the control, due to the oil adsorbition. Frying increased oxidative processes and decreased the nutritional value of big-scale sand smelt

Forensic Diagnosis of Freshwater or Saltwater Drowning Using the Marker Aquaporin 5: An Immunohistochemical Study

Background and Objectives: Aquaporins are a family of water channel proteins. In this study, the renal and intrapulmonary expression of aquaporin-5 (AQP5) was examined in forensic autopsy cases to evaluate it as a drowning marker and to differentiate between freshwater drowning and saltwater drowning. Materials and Methods: Cases were classified into three groups: freshwater drowning (FWD), saltwater drowning (SWD), and controls (CTR). Samples were obtained from forensic autopsies at less than 72 h postmortem (15 FWD cases, 15 SWD cases, and 17 other cases) and were subjected to histological and immunohistochemical investigations. Results: In FWD group, intrapulmonary AQP5 expression was significantly suppressed compared with SWD and CTR; there was no significant difference in AQP5 expression among the other two groups. The same differences in expression were also observed in the kidney. Conclusions: These observations suggest that AQP5 expression in alveolar cells was suppressed by hypotonic water to prevent hemodilution. Moreover, it is possible to hypothesize that in the kidney, with the appearance of hypo-osmotic plasma, AQP5 is hypo-expressed, as a vital reaction, to regulate the renal reabsorption of water. In conclusion, the analysis of renal and intrapulmonary AQP5 expression would be forensically useful for differentiation between FWD and SWD, or between FWD and death due to other causes

Effect of turmeric powder (Curcuma longa L.) and ascorbic acid on physical characteristics and oxidative status of fresh and stored rabbit burgers

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Curcuma longa powder and ascorbic acid on some quality traits of rabbit burgers. The burgers (burgers control with no additives; burgerswith 3.5 g of turmeric powder/100 g meat; burgers with 0.1 g of ascorbic acid/100 g meat) were analyzed at Days 0 and 7 for pH, color, drip loss, cooking loss, fatty acid profile, TBARS, antioxidant capacity (ABTS, DPPH and FRAP) and microbial growth. The addition of turmeric powder modified the meat color, produced an antioxidant capacity similar to ascorbic acid and determined a lower cooking loss than other formulations. Turmeric powder might be considered as a useful natural antioxidant, increasing the quality and extending the shelf life of rabbit burgers

From land to glass. An integrated approach for quality and traceability assessment of top Italian wines

The wine sector in Italy is a significant contributor to the country's economy. Furthermore, Italy is renowned for producing some of the world's most excellent wines. For these reasons, the wine industry is susceptible to frauds, such as reporting false origin claims in labels. In this context, this paper aims to provide traceability and quality tool to recognise wines from different Italian regions, i.e. Calabria, Piemonte, Sicily and Veneto, from selected winemakers that reach the Top 10% in almost three international rankings. The multi-elemental analysis of soil and wine samples by ICP-MS and their chemometric treatments have identified Ni, Cs, Li, Ca, Ba, Pb, Rb, Sb, Fe and U as the most informative variables to reach optimal classification of samples. The analytical data have been used to develop an original managerial framework to leverage Pareto's Principle for effective brand-land management in the top wine segment