Efecto tóxico de un herbicida frecuente en Galicia sobre una microalga dulceacuícola

Los herbicidas son uno de los compuestos químicos de origen antrópico con mayor impacto en los ecosistemas dulceacuícolas. Por ello, los estudios de ecotoxicidad de los herbicidas son fundamentales de cara a proteger y conservar estos ecosistemas. En este trabajo se estudió el efecto tóxico del glifosato sobre la microalga dulceacuícola Scenedesmus quadricauda. La toxicidad del glifosato se evaluó mediante el estudio del crecimiento durante un periodo de hasta 144 horas, no encontrándose diferencias significativas (p < 0’1) entre los controles sin glifosato y los tratamientos con herbicida (10, 20 y 40 mg L-1). También se observó una importante alteración de la estructura de las células. El contenido en pigmentos mostró una importante reducción a nivel de clorofila a con concentraciones de 40 mg L-1 de glifosato, mientras que el contenido celular de proteínas se vio estimulado a concentraciones de 20 mg L-1 de glifosato. Mediante el protocolo utilizado para determinar la actividad celular se observó una inhibición de dicha actividad; sin embargo, mediante microscopía de epifluorescencia se observó que las células expuestas a cualquiera de las concentraciones del herbicida ensayadas permanecen activas. Por último se estudió la posible influencia de un cambio ambiental, como es el aumento de la temperatura, sobre la toxicidad del glifosato, observándose una mayor sensibilidad de las células de S. quadricauda ante el glifosato.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.CIE). Bioloxía. Curso 2013/201

Development of "Ulva" (Ulvales, Chlorophyta) cultures as a biofilter in IMTA systems

[Resumen] La aplicación de sistemas en recirculación de agua (RAS) con biofiltros de macroalgas del género Ulva es una interesante opción de futuro, especialmente en cultivos de peces, debido a los numerosos beneficios que suponen: reducen el impacto ambiental, mejoran la eficiencia de los cultivos, diversifican la producción y mejoran los beneficios económicos. Por ello, este trabajo tiene como objetivo realizar un estudio comparado de los requerimientos de cultivo y calidad de la biomasa obtenida de cuatro especies de Ulva para determinar su uso potencial en sistemas de AMTI en recirculación. Las especies estudiadas fueron Ulva ohnoi, U. fasciata, U. australis y U. rigida. Los resultados mostraron grandes diferencias a nivel morfológico, composición química, tasa de crecimiento y eficiencia en la utilización de la luz entre las especies. Se concluyó que: las especies de Ulva utilizadas presentan tasas de crecimiento comprendidas entre el 10 y 20 % día-1 y un alto contenido proteico y otros nutrientes esenciales, U. ohnoi es la especie que presenta un mayor potencial para su aplicación como biofiltro en sistemas de AMTI en recirculación, la distancia filogenética de las especies no está en absoluto correlacionada con su comportamiento en cultivo o composición química y estudios futuros deberán determinar el efecto que puedan tener tanto la fase del ciclo como las condiciones de cultivo o el estado fisiológico sobre la tasas de crecimiento y sus oscilaciones en estas y otras especies del género Ulva.Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.CIE). Acuicultura. Curso 2015/201

Ulva ohnoi (Ulvales, Chlorophyta) como potencial biofiltro en sistemas de AMTI-RAS: Influencia del pH, reserva alcalina y concentraciones de N y P en su cultivo

En el presente trabajo se estudia la influencia de las variaciones de pH, reserva alcalina, concentraciones de nitrógeno y fósforo en el crecimiento en cultivo de Ulva ohnoi con el fin de optimizar su integración en sistemas de AMTI-RASPostprint (published version

Palliative care coverage across European National Health Systems: proposal of a synthetic indicator

Background: The coverage of palliative care (PC) may be understood as a country’s capacity to offer prevention and relief from serious health-related suffering in relation to an existing need. The aim of this study is to estimate European countries´ coverage capacities. Method: Secondary analysis of three indicators, including the number of specialized services (SSPC), integration capacity scores (ICS) and the PC needs. By means of a K-medians clustering supervised algorithm, three coverage profiles were obtained: (1) Advanced: countries with high ICS and SSPC, and low PC needs; (2) Limited: countries with low ICS and SSPC, and low PC needs; and (3) Low: countries with low ICS and SSPC and high PC needs. Results: On average, the ratio of specialized services per population was 0.79 per 100,000 inhabitants, the average ICS was 19.62 and the average number of deceased patients with SHS per 100,000 inhabitants was 5.69. Twenty countries (41%) reached an advanced coverage profile. Nine countries (18%) demonstrated a limited coverage profile; and 20 countries (41%) fell under a low-coverage capacity. Conclusion: The level of palliative care coverage across Europe shows that 59% of European countries have either limited or very low availability of PC resources as regards their palliative care needs

Application of choice models in tourism recommender systems

Choice models (CM) are proposed in the field of tourism recommender systems (TRS)with the aim of providing algorithms with both a theoretical understanding of tour-ist's motivations and a certain degree of transparency. The goal of this work is toovercome some of the limitations of current state-of-art algorithms used in TRSs byproviding: (1) accurate preferences, which are learnt from user choices rather thanfrom ratings, and (2) interpretable coefficients, which are achieved by means of theset of estimated parameters of CM. The study was carried out with a gastronomicdata set generated in an ecological experiment in the tourism domain. The perfor-mance of CM has been compared with a set of baseline algorithms (rating-based andensembles) by using two evaluation metrics: precision and DCG. The CM out-performed the baseline algorithms when the size of the choice set was limited. Thefindings suggest that CM may provide an optimal trade-off between theoreticalsoundness, interpretability and performance in the field of TRSThis research was sponsored by EMALCSA/Coruña Smart City under grant CSC-14-13, the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain under grant TIN2014-56633-C3-1-R, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain under grant MTM2013-41383P, the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (accreditation 2016-2019, ED431G/08), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)S

Trends analysis of specialized palliative care services in 51 countries of the WHO European region in the last 14 years

Background: Service provision is a key domain to assess national-level palliative care development. Three editions of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Atlas of Palliative Care monitored the changes in service provision across Europe since 2005. Aim: To study European trends of specialized service provision at home care teams, hospital support teams, and inpatient palliative care services between 2005 and 2019. Design: Secondary analysis was conducted drawing from databases on the number of specialized services in 2005, 2012, and 2019. Ratios of services per 100,000 inhabitants and increase rates on number of services for three periods were calculated. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses were conducted to determine significant changes and chi-square to identify countries accounting for the variance. Income-level and sub-regional ANOVA analysis were undertaken. Setting: 51 countries. Results: Forty-two countries (82%) increased the number of specialized services between 2005 and 2019 with changes for home care teams (104% increase-rate), inpatient services (82%), and hospital support teams (48%). High-income countries showed significant increase in all types of services (p < 0.001), while low-to-middle-income countries showed significant increase only for inpatient services. Central–Eastern European countries showed significant improvement in home care teams and inpatient services, while Western countries showed significant improvement in hospital support and home care teams. Home care was the most prominent service in Western Europe. Conclusion: Specialized service provision increased throughout Europe, yet ratios per 100,000 inhabitants fell below the EAPC recommendations. Western Europe ratios’ achieved half of the suggested services, while Central–Eastern countries achieved only a fourth. High-income countries and Western European countries account for the major increase. Central–Eastern Europe and low-to-middle-income countries reported little increase on specialized service provision

Mapping pediatric palliative care development in the WHO-European Region: children living in low-middle income countries are less likely to access it

Context: Approximately 170,000 children in need of palliative care die every year in Europe without access to it. This field remains an evolving specialty with unexplored development. Objectives: To conduct the first regional assessment of pediatric palliative care (PPC) development and provision using data from the European Association for Palliative Care atlas of palliative care 2019. Methods: Two surveys were conducted. The first one included a single question regarding PPC service provision and was addressed by European Association for Palliative Care atlas informants. The second one included 10 specific indicators derived from an open-ended interview and rating process; a specific network of informants was enabled and used as respondents. Data were analyzed and presented in the map of the figure. Results: Data on PPC service provision were gathered from 51 of 54 (94%) European countries. Additional data were collected in 34 of 54 (62%) countries. A total of 680 PPC services were identified including 133 hospices, 385 home care services, and 162 hospital services. Nineteen countries had specific standards and norms for the provision of PPC. Twenty-two countries had a national association, and 14 countries offered education for either pediatric doctors or nurses. In seven countries, specific neonatal palliative care referral services were identified. Conclusion: PPC provision is flourishing across the region; however, development is less accentuated in low-to-middle-income countries. Efforts need to be devoted to the conceptualization and definition of the models of care used to respond to the unmet need of PPC in Europe. The question whether specialized services are required or not should be further explored. Strategies to regulate and cover patients in need should be adapted to each national health system

Additional indicators to assess palliative care development

This is a short compilation of Health Indicators Assessing the Level of Palliative Care Development at the International Level. These are additional indicators to another published book: Brief Manual on Health Indicators Monitoring Global Palliative Care Development (http://hdl.handle.net/10171/56523)