Ciudad Inteligente (Smart City), Gandía. Propuestas para un plan de actuación en el sector turístico

El concepto de ciudad inteligente todavía no es muy conocido, nació en la década de los 90, pero hoy en día acoge más importancia gracias a los rápidos avances tecnológicos. Mediante este estudio exploratorio se pretende avanzar un paso más hacia lo que supone convertir la ciudad de Gandía en una ciudad inteligente o, como es más conocido, en smart city dentro del sector turístico. Después de haber estudiado a fondo el concepto, la situación turística actual de Gandía, las ventajas que supone para el turismo convertirse en ciudad inteligente, la importancia de las nuevas tecnologías dentro de una smart city y haber estudiado el caso de SmartSantander como claro ejemplo de ciudad inteligente, Gandía necesita la aplicación del modelo de ciudad inteligente. La ciudad intenta seguir los pasos para llegar a ser una smart city mediante algunos proyectos que realiza, pero todavía puede avanzar más. No es imposible que, a largo plazo, Gandía mejore como ciudad y como destino turístico convirtiéndose en una de las ciudades inteligentes españolasThe smart city concept is not well-known yet; it was born in the 90s, but nowadays it’s more important due to rapid technological advances. Through this exploratory study it’s to try to advance a step more to the meaning of convert Gandia into a smart city within the tourism sector. After having thoroughly studied the concept, the current tourism situation of Gandia, the advantages for tourism to become smart city, the importance of new technology in a smart city and having studied the SmartSantander case as a clear example of smart city, Gandia needs enforcing the smart city model. The city tries to follow the steps to become a smart city through some projects carried out, but it can still advance more. It’s not impossible that, in the long term, Gandia improves as a city and as a tourist destination becoming one of Spain’s smart cities.Avellana Doménech, E. (2014). Ciudad Inteligente (Smart City), Gandía. Propuestas para un plan de actuación en el sector turístico. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/46870Archivo delegad

Definition and usage of food safety margins for verifying compliance of food safety objectives

[EN] Over the last decade, risk analysis has gradually been introduced as a tool to make decisions about food safety policies. In this framework, the ALOP (Appropriate Level of Protection) concept, which can be seen as a statement of the degree of public protection that should be attained in a country, was introduced. In addition, FSO (Food Safety Objectives) was introduced to provide a link between the ALOP and target points/goals in the supply chain. Historically, ALOP and FSO decisions have been based on the ALARA (As Low As reasonably Achievable) approach. Since an ALARA approach is based on the status of current technology, it is likely that the ALOP is attainable, provided a substantial portion of the industry complies with technological requirements or adopt “best practices” that will achieve the FSO. Food managers must control and government agencies must enforce and monitor the fulfilment of FSO. Once FSO has been established and adopted by the food industry, a major concern is to evaluate the results of the implementation of FSO in order to verify compliance. This paper introduces the concept of food safety margin (FSM) and its formulation based on classical and probabilistic approaches, which are intended to be used as a tool to measure the degree of compliance with FSO. For a better understanding of how food safety margins perform, FSM are estimated for Listeria monocytogenes in three different products, (semi-soft cheese, heat treated meat and cold smoked salmon). The results obtained, adopting both classical and probabilistic approaches, are discussed.Doménech Antich, EM.; Martorell Alsina, SS. (2016). Definition and usage of food safety margins for verifying compliance of food safety objectives. Food Control. 59:669-674. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.05.042S6696745

Formulation and application of the probability of exceedance metric for risk characterization of non-threshold chemical hazards in food

[EN] The aim of this work is to present the rationale, formulation, and application of the probability of exceedance (POE) as a metric capable of characterizing public health risks due to exposure to non-threshold chemical hazards in food. One of the main advantages of this metric is that it complements the information provided by the MOE and supports risk managers in decision-making, especially when the distribution of the estimated intake is positively biased. For a better understanding of its benefits, MOE and POE values were calculated in relation to the exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) and lead (Pb) in the diet of the Australian, Chinese, European, Japanese and American adult populations. The findings showed that similar MOE values, and therefore similar levels of concern, can have differences in POE results of up to several orders of magnitude, suggesting that more effective risk management measures should be prioritised.Doménech Antich, EM.; Martorell Alsina, SS. (2021). Formulation and application of the probability of exceedance metric for risk characterization of non-threshold chemical hazards in food. Food Control. 124:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.107910S1812

Assessment of safety margins of exposure to non-genotoxic chemical substances in food

[EN] The concept of Food Safety Margin (FSM) was introduced in microbiological risk analysis as an alternative approach to risk characterization within the informed-risk decision-making process. Its aim was to verify compliance with food safety objectives by assessing the effects of uncertainties. This paper describes the fundamentals and develop a new formulation of safety margins to verify compliance with food safety goals in relation to exposure to non-genotoxic chemical hazards. Both classical and probabilistic metrics were used to compare a given exposure to an estimated daily intake (EDI) with a given safety goal, the acceptable daily intake (ADI). The safety margins of these metrics were assessed in the exposure of peaches to organophosphorus pesticides. The pesticides considered were Azinphos-methyl, Chlorpyrifos, Diazinon, Dimethoate, Methamidophos, Parathion-methyl and Phosmet. The concentrations were obtained from the USDA pesticide database. The study period included the 11 years in which peaches were analysed from 1994 to 2014. The results show the importance of using the effect of uncertainty instead of mean values for risk characterization and that not only safety margins increased during this period but also that uncertainty was reduced. In general, large safety margins were observed in the period studied and few situations were found in which exposure was outside the safety limits. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Doménech Antich, EM.; Martorell Alsina, SS. (2017). Assessment of safety margins of exposure to non-genotoxic chemical substances in food. Food Control. 79:1-9. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2017.03.018S197

Human Biomonitoring of food contaminants in Spanish children: Design, sampling and lessons learned

[EN] Human Biomonitoring (HBM) studies are highly useful for evaluating population exposure to environmental contaminants and are being carried out in increasing numbers all over the world. The use of HBM in the field of food safety, in a risk assessment context, presents a growing interest as more health-based guidance values (HBGV) in biological matrices are derived, and can be used in a complementary way to the external exposure approaches such as total diet studies or surveillance programmes. The aims of the present work are: i) to describe the methodological framework of the BIOVAL study, a cross-sectional HBM program carried out by the Health Department of the Regional Government of Valencia (Spain), that is linked to the food safety official control, and is focused on children from 6 to 11 years of age ii) to explain and discuss the pre-analytical results iii) to report and discuss on lessons learned from its design and implementation. The study population included 666 children from whom urine and hair were taken in order to analyse different biomarkers of exposure to food pollutants.Pérez-Torres, R.; Doménech Antich, EM.; Coscollà, C.; Yusà, V. (2017). Human Biomonitoring of food contaminants in Spanish children: Design, sampling and lessons learned. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. 220(8):1242-1251. doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.07.006S12421251220

Examining strategies behind universities’ technology transfer portfolio: how different patterns of resource consumption can lead to similar technology transfer profiles

Purpose – This research analyses how different patterns of production factors consumption of Spanish universities lead to specific technology transfer (TT) profiles (outcomes). Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a resource-based view perspective (RBV), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to analyse the relationship between different combinations of resources—human resources, financial resources and support services—and various portfolios of TT outcomes—intellectual or industrial property agreements, spin-offs and TT income. Findings – Results indicate that there is no unique formula of resource consumption that leads to a specific portfolio of TT outcomes. These results seem to reflect the characteristics and competences added by universities, along with the characteristics of their socioeconomic context. From a RVB perspective, this indicates that the considered resources are substitutable. Practical implications – The effectiveness of university policies is expected to vary by university, e.g. depending on the type of resources that is most relevant in the university’s production process. To develop competitive advantages Spanish public universities must resort to internal intangible resources or specific and inimitable combinations of the available resources. Social implications – Since Spanish universities are heterogeneous and display different TT portfolios they address the needs of different users. Originality/value – Previous studies have failed to acknowledge the heterogeneity among universities. To perform our analysis we employed QCA, an innovative methodology in the higher education sector that enables us to purposefully acknowledge institutional diversity (in both resources and results). This allows us to indirectly take into account the capabilities of universities using a more holistic approach to evaluate their competitiveness.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Implementation and effectiveness of the HACCP and pre-requisites in food establishments

[EN] The aim of this paper was to identify the most important weaknesses in the implementation and effectiveness of the pre-requisites and HACCP found in food establishments. To cover these objectives, official control audits of the manuals and their implementation in 1350 small and 66 medium size organizations: restaurants, hotels and cafeterias in one area of the Valencian region (Spain) were carried out from 2007 to 2010. The microbiological quality of 1054 ready-to-consume dishes was also evaluated as an indicator of the effectiveness of the control at Critical Control Points. The results showed that the main deficiencies in the implementation of the pre-requisites and HACCP were found in conditions and structural design followed by hygiene & cleaning. Moreover, the analysis of Listeria monocytogenes in dishes at the time of consumption shows that 99.6% were of good microbiological quality. This indicates that in relation to this hazard, the implementation of safety management systems in the majority of the food establishments was effective. These results demonstrate the crucial role played by official control to ensure the welfare of consumers and how it facilitates continuous improvement in the safety management of these businesses. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.Doménech Antich, EM.; Amorós, J.; Pérez Gonzalvo, M.; Escriche Roberto, MI. (2011). Implementation and effectiveness of the HACCP and pre-requisites in food establishments. Food Control. 22(8):1419-1423. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2011.03.001S1419142322

Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli isolated in newborn chickens and effect of amoxicillin treatment during its growth

[EN] The use of antimicrobials in food animals is the major determinant for the propagation of resistant bacteria in the animal reservoir. However, other factors also play a part in particular vertical spread between the generations has been suggested to be an important transmission pathway. The objective of this paper was to determine the resistance patterns of Escherichia coli isolated from newly hatched chickens as well as to study the antibiotic pressure effect when amoxicillin was administered during their growing period. With this aim, meconium from 22 day-old Ross chickens was analyzed. In addition, during their growth period, amoxicillin treatments at days 7, 21 and 35 were carried out. Results showed a high number of E. coli resistant strains isolated from one day chickens, being the highest rates for beta-lactams group, followed by quinolone and tetracyclines. After treatment with amoxicillin, the highest percentage of resistances were detected for this antibiotic compared to the others analysed with significant differences in resistance percentages between control and treated broilers detected in relation to ampicillin, cephalothin, streptomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. Differences in resistances to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid between control and treated animals were not observed and lack of resistance for amikacin and ceftriaxone. These results suggest the possibility of vertical transmission of resistant strains to newly hatched chickens from parenteral flocks, and seem to indicate that the treatment with amoxicillin increased the resistances of E. coli to other antibiotics.Jiménez Belenguer, AI.; Doménech Antich, EM.; Fenollar-Penadés, A.; Ferrús Pérez, MA.; Villagrá, A. (2016). Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli isolated in newborn chickens and effect of amoxicillin treatment during its growth. Avian Pathology. 45(4):501-507. doi:10.1080/03079457.2016.1168515S50150745