Influence of the sampling device on somatic cell count variation in cow milk samples (by official recording)

The objective of this study was to investigate the variability in cow's milk somatic cell counts (SCC) depending on the type of milk meter used by dairy farms for official milk recording The study was performed in 2011 and 2012 in the major cattle area of Spain. In total, 137,846 lactations of Holstein-Friesian cows were analysed at 1,912 farms. A generalised least squares regression model was used for data analysis. The model showed that the milk meter had a substantial effect on the SCC for individual milk samples obtained for official milk recording. The results suggested an overestimation of the SCC in milk samples from farms that had electronic devices in comparison with farms that used portable devices and underestimation when volumetric meters are used. A weak positive correlation was observed between the SCC and the percentage of fat in individual milk samples. The results underline the importance of considering this variable when using SCC data from milk recording in the dairy herd improvement program or in quality milk programs.Peer reviewe

Sustainability performance assessment with intuitionistic fuzzy composite metrics and its application to the motor industry

The performance assessment of companies in terms of sustainability requires to find a balance between multiple and possibly conflicting criteria. We here rely on composite metrics to rank a set of companies within an industry considering environmental, social and corporate governance criteria. To this end, we connect intuitionistic fuzzy sets and composite programming to propose novel composite metrics. These metrics allow to integrate important environmental, social and governance principles with the gradual membership functions of fuzzy set theory. The main result of this paper is a sustainability assessment method to rank companies within a given industry. In addition to consider multiple objectives, this method integrates two important social principles such as maximum utility and fairness. A real-world example is provided to describe the application of our sustainability assessment method within the motor industry. A further contribution of this paper is a multicriteria generalization of the concept of magnitude of a fuzzy number

Conectividad ecológica en parques naturales de montaña mediterránea. Revisión normativa y propuesta metodológica

La comunicación tiene como objetivo exponer las posibilidades que para la aplicación del principio de conectividad ecológica presenta la Ley 42/2007 de 13 de diciembre del Patrimonio Natural y la Biodiversidad en el contexto de los parques naturales y espacios de la Red Natura 2000 localizados en la montaña media mediterránea. Para ello, se parte del alcance de éstos y de su relación con sus áreas de influencia socieconómica (desarticulación de la relación ager-saltus); se analiza el tratamiento de que es objeto la conectividad en dicha ley; se propone la aplicación del análisis de los usos del suelo como instrumento para: a) identificar cartográficamente los usos del suelo que facilitan dicha conectividad; b) fortalecer los beneficios para la población de las áreas de influencia mediante la consideración de los servicios ecosistémicos; c) proponer unas figuras de gestión similares a la de los parques regionales franceses, por considerarlos más afines a las características socioterritoriales de estas áreas de montaña mediterránea.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Interacción de aislados de Bacillus cereus responsables de toxoinfecciones alimentarias con la filosfera

Bacillus cereus es un grupo heterogéneo de bacterias Gram-positivas que incluyen cepas patógenas responsables de contaminaciones en la industria alimentaria y médica, así como intoxicaciones alimentarias. Dependiendo de los síntomas asociados a la intoxicación, las cepas patógenas de B. cereus pueden clasificarse en enterotoxigénicas y eméticas, existiendo también cepas ambientales con actividad de biocontrol. Además, esta bacteria forma biopelículas, lo que puede contribuir a una eficiente colonización de superficies incluidas las de plantas, un aspecto poco estudiado del ciclo de vida de B. cereus. En este trabajo se seleccionaron 10 aislados clínicos y ambientales de B. cereus, debido a las diferencias en su capacidad para formar biopelículas in vitro. Para estudiar la ecología de estas cepas, se inocularon hojas de plantas de melón y pepino con suspensiones de 108 ufc/ml de cada cepa. La dinámica de población demostró que prácticamente todos los aislados persistían en las hojas a niveles de 103 ufc/g de hoja, aunque no parecía existir un patrón asociado al origen del aislamiento. Sin embargo, pudimos observar tres cinéticas de esporulación diferentes: esporulación temprana de la población, esporulación tardía y prácticamente ausencia de esporulación. El seguimiento de la distribución espacial de las bacterias mediante microscopía electrónica de barrido mostró la existencia de colonias formadas por varias capas de células unidas entre sí por una especie de matriz, sugerente de biopelículas bacterianas. Nuestros resultados prevén la capacidad de cepas patógenas de humanos de B. cereus de vivir en la filosfera de plantas como lo haría una cepa de origen ambiental, usando para ello la formación de biopelículas, la esporulación o una combinación de ambas estrategias. Si bien, las hojas de las plantas ensayadas no entrarían en la cadena alimenticia del hombre, si representarían un reservorio importante desde donde podrían pasar a los frutos que se consumen.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Inverse Malthusianism and Recycling Economics: The Case of the Textile Industry

[EN] The current use of natural resources in the textile industry leads us to introduce a new economic concept called inverse Malthusianism describing a context in which population grows linearly and resource consumption grows exponentially. Inverse Malthusianism implies an exponential increase in environmental impact that recycling may contribute to reduce. Our main goal is to extend the analysis of materials selection under the principle of equimarginality proposed by Jevons. As a first result, we show the particular circumstances under which policies excluding recycled supplies are never optimal. We also aim to overcome the difficulties of reducing environmental aspects to monetary units. To this end, we propose a multicriteria approach to solve the conventional-recycled materials dilemma considering not only economic but also environmental criteria. Then, we allow producers to enrich their decision-making process with relevant information about the environmental impact of materials selection. Although we use examples of the textile industry to illustrate our results, most of the insights in this paper can be extended to other industries.Salas-Molina, F.; Pla Santamaría, D.; Vercher-Ferrandiz, ML.; Reig-Mullor, J. (2020). Inverse Malthusianism and Recycling Economics: The Case of the Textile Industry. Sustainability. 12(14):1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145861S1201214Chapagain, A. K., Hoekstra, A. Y., Savenije, H. H. G., & Gautam, R. (2006). The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries. Ecological Economics, 60(1), 186-203. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.11.027Esteve-Turrillas, F. A., & de la Guardia, M. (2017). Environmental impact of Recover cotton in textile industry. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 116, 107-115. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.09.034McInerney, J. (1976). THE SIMPLE ANALYTICS OF NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 27(1), 31-52. doi:10.1111/j.1477-9552.1976.tb00964.xRomero, C. (2012). Short communication. Economics of natural resources: in search of a unified theoretical framework. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 10(1), 29. doi:10.5424/sjar/2012101-329-11Sandin, G., & Peters, G. M. (2018). Environmental impact of textile reuse and recycling – A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 184, 353-365. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.266Leal Filho, W., Ellams, D., Han, S., Tyler, D., Boiten, V. J., Paço, A., … Balogun, A.-L. (2019). A review of the socio-economic advantages of textile recycling. Journal of Cleaner Production, 218, 10-20. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.210Hotelling, H. (1931). The Economics of Exhaustible Resources. Journal of Political Economy, 39(2), 137-175. doi:10.1086/254195Solow, R. M. (1974). Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources. The Review of Economic Studies, 41, 29. doi:10.2307/2296370Thampapillai, D. J. (1985). Trade-offs for conflicting social objectives in the extraction of finite energy resources. International Journal of Energy Research, 9(2), 179-192. doi:10.1002/er.4440090209Stahel, W. R. (2016). The circular economy. Nature, 531(7595), 435-438. doi:10.1038/531435aGeissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm? Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 757-768. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048Ayres, R. U. (1997). Metals recycling: economic and environmental implications. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 21(3), 145-173. doi:10.1016/s0921-3449(97)00033-5Ljungberg, L. Y. (2007). Materials selection and design for development of sustainable products. Materials & Design, 28(2), 466-479. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2005.09.006Garcia-Bernabeu, A., Hilario-Caballero, A., Pla-Santamaria, D., & Salas-Molina, F. (2020). A Process Oriented MCDM Approach to Construct a Circular Economy Composite Index. Sustainability, 12(2), 618. doi:10.3390/su12020618Scott, A. D. (1953). Notes on User Cost. The Economic Journal, 63(250), 368. doi:10.2307/2227129Romero, C. (1997). Multicriteria decision analysis and environmental economics: An approximation. European Journal of Operational Research, 96(1), 81-89. doi:10.1016/s0377-2217(96)00118-xLaitala, K., Klepp, I., & Henry, B. (2018). Does Use Matter? Comparison of Environmental Impacts of Clothing Based on Fiber Type. Sustainability, 10(7), 2524. doi:10.3390/su10072524Materials Sustainability Indexhttps://msi.higg.orgAlcott, B. (2005). Jevons’ paradox. Ecological Economics, 54(1), 9-21. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.03.020Roy, J. (2000). The rebound effect: some empirical evidence from India. Energy Policy, 28(6-7), 433-438. doi:10.1016/s0301-4215(00)00027-6Cambra‐Fierro, J., & Ruiz‐Benitez, R. (2009). Advantages of intermodal logistics platforms: insights from a Spanish platform. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 14(6), 418-421. doi:10.1108/1359854091099518

Un modelo tridimensional de producción de icebergs: experimentos numéricos en el glaciar Johnsons, Isla Livingston, Antártida

Las leyes de producci´on de icebergs m´as usuales son: 1) la que considera que la tasa de producci´on de icebergs depende linealmente de la profundidad de agua en el frente glaciar, seg´un una ley obtenida mediante ajustes a observaciones de campo; y 2) aqu´ella en la que el criterio de producci´on de icebergs viene dado por la altura del glaciar sobre el nivel de flotaci´on. El principal problema de la primera es que las relaciones emp´ıricas var´ıan ampliamente de un glaciar a otro, y tambi´en var´ıan con el tiempo, lo que no las hace adecuadas para modelos evolutivos de glaciares, mientras que la mayor desventaja de la segunda es que su aplicaci´on queda restringida a glaciares con frente no flotante. El nuevo criterio de producci´on de icebergs propuesto recientemente por Benn et al. [2] considera que el mecanismo primario de la producci´on de icebergs es la propagaci´on vertical de las grietas superficiales desarrolladas cerca del frente como consecuencia del r´egimen de tensiones extensivas. Este criterio permite el desarrollo de lenguas glaciares flotantes y puede ser utilizado en modelos evolutivos de din´amica glaciar. Sus principales limitaciones son su car´acter bidimensional y la excesiva simplicidad de los modelos din´amicos empleados. Hemos desarrollado una extensi´on tridimensional de este criterio que resuelve el sistema de Stokes completo de la din´amica glaciar, superando as´ı las dos limitaciones mencionadas. Hemos aplicado este modelo al glaciar Johnsons, en Isla Livingston (Ant´artida), mostrando los resultados que, si consideramos la presencia de un cierto volumen de agua de fusi´on en las grietas, las predicciones del modelo se ajustan bastante bien a las observaciones. No obstante, se requieren mejoras en la ley de deslizamiento del glaciar sobre su lech

Interest groups and environmental pressure

The pressure exerted by interest groups is one of the main reasons that have led organizations to introduce Environmental Management Systems. Research provides evidence on the existing relationship between Stakeholders´ pressure and their influence on business environmental management. The aim of this paper is to analyze 142 Spanish business centres, holders of ISO 14000 and /or EMAS certificates, in order to empirically probe the relationship between different kind of stakeholders and environmental management. We found a significant and positive relationship between stakeholders and environmental management within organizations. Additionally, the analysis clarified the individual influence of stakeholders (normative, organizational and social) on different aspects of environmental management. According to our analysis, this influence varies depending on each type of stakeholder.Environmental Management, EMS, Stakeholders

Use of Eye Tracking as an Innovative Instructional Method in Surgical Human Anatomy

Tobii glasses can record corneal infrared light reflection to track pupil position and to map gaze focusing in the video recording. Eye tracking has been proposed for use in training and coaching as a visually guided control interface. The aim of our study was to test the potential use of these glasses in various situations: explanations of anatomical structures on tablet-type electronic devices, explanations of anatomical models and dissected cadavers, and during the prosection thereof. An additional aim of the study was to test the use of the glasses during laparoscopies performed on Thiel-embalmed cadavers (that allows pneu- moinsufflation and exact reproduction of the laparoscopic surgical technique). The device was also tried out in actual surgery (both laparoscopy and open surgery)

Three-dimensional modelling of calving processes on Johnsons Glacier, Livingston Island, Antarctica.

Iceberg calving is an important mass loss mechanism from ice shelves and tidewater glaciers for many mid and high-latitude glaciers and ice caps, yet the process is not well represented in prognostic models of ice dynamics. Benn and others (2007) proposed a calving criterion appropriate for both grounded and floating glacier tongues or ice shelves. This criterion assumes that the calving is triggered by the downward propagation of transverse surface crevasses, near the calving front, as a result of the extensional stress regime. The crevasse depth is calculated following Nye (1957), assuming that the base of a field of closely spaced crevasses lies at a depth where the longitudinal tensile strain rate tending to open the crevasse equals the creep closure resulting from the ice overburden pressure