Sustainability of an economy from the water‑energy‑food nexus perspective

In this paper we study the usefulness of the water-energy-food nexus in assessing the sustainability of an economy. All economic activity depends on its surrounding physical environment, and especially on the interconnection between these three essential resources. As a result, the nexus is a useful tool for detecting the economic risk of resource scarcity, optimising investments or resource use, and assessing the effects of economic policies or shocks such as climate change. The nexus approach is also useful for guiding policies towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We show that both the objective of each study and the scale on which it is conducted are factors worth considering when choosing the most suitable research methodology. We detected important challenges relating to the heterogeneity of the methods, scales and variables used, and therefore necessary measures nare suggested in order to homogenise the studies for their comparability and/or integration, both horizontally and vertically, or over time.PAIDI (Andalusian Plan for Research, Development and Innovation) research groupSEJ-054: SWEEP (Studies on Wellbeing, Environment and Economic Policy

Aquaculture production optimisation in multicage farms subject to commercial and operational constraints

The new advances in production methods have led to an increase in aquaculture production to the extent that the industry can now aid traditional fishing in meeting the growing global demand for fish within the context of the depletion of fisheries' resources. In this new context, market competition has increased and the complexity of managing industrial-scale production processes involving biological systems is still a growing problem. This has also led, in many cases, to a lack of management capacity that increases when it comes to setting long-term strategic plans. This study presents a methodology that aims to help aquaculture managers in decision making. It integrates a multi-criteria model and a Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) technique in order to provide a production strategy that optimises the value of multiple objectives at a fish farm with multiple cages, batches, feeding alternatives and products. This multi-criteria approach takes into account not only the effect of biological performance on economic profitability, but also the effect on environmental sustainability and aspects of product quality. In addition, it enables consideration of new operational and commercial constraints, such as the maximum volume of fish harvested per week, based on labour and marketing constraints, or the minimum necessary volume of fish harvested on specific dates to comply with commercial agreements. Results obtained demonstrate the utility of this novel approach to decision-making optimisation in aquaculture both when establishing overall strategic planning and when adopting new ways of producing.info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/727315/EU/Mediterranean Aquaculture Integrated Development/MedAID

Sobre las Obligationes de Robert Fland. Antiqua et nova responsio.

Sin resume

Circular magnetization processes in CoFeNi electroplated wires

Circular magnetization processes in electroplated wires is an important topic having straight connection with sensor applications of these soft magnetic materials. In present work the longitudinal and circular hysteresis loops were measured and corresponding magnetization processes were studied in Cu(98)Be(2)/Co(16)Fe(20)Ni(64) wires. The longitudinal hysteresis loops, M(z)-H(z), were measured by inductive technique in a frequency range of 10 to 70 Hz. The circular magnetization curves (M(phi)-H(phi)) were measured for frequencies of 50 and 100 kHz in the H(phi) field up to 1500A/m for different values of the axial external field of 0 to 500 A/m. The longitudinal and circular magnetization curves are comparatively analyzed.García Miquel, ÁH.; García Chocano, VM.; Kurlyandskaya, G. (2009). Circular magnetization processes in CoFeNi electroplated wires. Solid State Phenomena. 152:341-344. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.152-153.341S34134415

The activation of the Sox2 RR2 pluripotency transcriptional reporter in human breast cancer cell lines is dynamic and labels cells with higher tumorigenic potential

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).-- et al.The striking similarity displayed at the mechanistic level between tumorigenesis and the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells and the fact that genes and pathways relevant for embryonic development are reactivated during tumor progression highlights the link between pluripotency and cancer. Based on these observations, we tested whether it is possible to use a pluripotency-associated transcriptional reporter, whose activation is driven by the SRR2 enhancer from the Sox2 gene promoter (named S4+ reporter), to isolate cancer stem cells (CSCs) from breast cancer cell lines. The S4+ pluripotency transcriptional reporter allows the isolation of cells with enhanced tumorigenic potential and its activation was switched on and offin the cell lines studied, reflecting a plastic cellular process. Microarray analysis comparing the populations in which the reporter construct is active versus inactive showed that positive cells expressed higher mRNA levels of cytokines (IL-8, IL-6, TNF) and genes (such as ATF3, SNAI2, and KLF6) previously related with the CSC phenotype in breast cancer.This work is supported by grants from Obra Social Kutxa, Gobierno Vasco (Saiotek program and Consejería de Educación PI2010-25), and Instituto de Salud Carlos III Acción Estratégica en Salud (PI2010-01035). Work in Atanasio Pandiella lab is supported by the MINECO (BFU2012-39151).Peer Reviewe

Environmental engagement of costumer in the tourism industry

This article contributes to a better understanding of tourists’ environmental concerns, assuming that distance from the place of residence is relevant. The analysis is conducted for EU-27 countries, combining micro-data, correspond to the Flash Eurobarometer 281 drawn from the European Commission and macro-data from different international sources. Since the environmental attitudes may vary across different cultures and societies, the individuals should be nested into countries. Therefore, it is inappropriate to analyze data using traditional regression analysis. Mixed model specifically may take into account such hierarchical data structure considering simultaneously individual and contextual variables. A general finding from the estimates indicated that significant variance exists within and among nations in the level of environmental support. This finding is congruent with the necessity of simultaneously assessing the effect of individual and country levels variables on environmental support across the European countries. Additionally, this paper demonstrates that people who are actively involved in protecting the environment at home do not maintain this type of behavior when they go on vacation, which may have negative environmental consequences on destinations, albeit involuntarily. The environmental concerns of tourists when travelling domestically were around 15% higher than those travelling abroad. Additionally, the random slope variance regarding destination choice parameter is statistically significant, which allows us to explore the underpinning behind the heterogeneous pattern across countries. Our results can be of great importance to minimize the negative environmental impacts when traveling, and represents an interesting starting point to reduce the environmentally unsustainable behaviors in the tourist field

In-plane omnidirectional magnetic field sensor based on Giant Magneto Impedance (GMI)

[EN] In this work the design and characterization of an omnidirectional in-plane magnetic field sensor are presented. The sensor is based on the Giant Magneto Impedance (GMI) effect in glass-coated amorphous microwires of composition (Fe6Co94)(72.5)Si12.5B15. For the first time, a circular loop made with a microwire is used for giving omnidirectional response. In order to estimate the GMI response of the circular loop we have used a theoretical model of GMI, determining the GMI response as the sum of longitudinal sections with different angles of incidence. As a consequence of the circular loop, the GMI ratio of the sensor is reduced to 15% instead of 100% for the axial GMI response of a microwire. The sensor response has been experimentally verified and the GMI response of the circular loop has been studied as function of the magnetic field, driven current, and frequency. First, we have measured the GMI response of a longitudinal microwire for different angles of incidence, covering the full range between the tangential and perpendicular directions to the microwire axis. Then, using these results, we have experimentally verified the decomposition of a microwire with circular shape as longitudinal segments with different angles of incidence. Finally, we have designed a signal conditioning circuit for the omnidirectional magnetic field sensor. The response of the sensor has been studied as a function of the amplitude of the incident magnetic field. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Hector Garcia-Miquel is grateful to the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the concession of a sabbatical year to have a research stay at the Cavendish Laboratory, and also want to express his gratitude to the Govern de la Generalitat Valenciana for financial support for this research stay at the Cavendish laboratory.S24925544