Adult and continuing education in Cyprus

The volume offers a current stock-take of central areas of adult education in Cyprus. Maria Gravani and Alexandra Ioannidou have compiled large amounts of data and information on institutions, financing, offers, participation, personnel, quality assurance and certification. The authors furthermore take into account the political, geopolitical and cultural context which influences developments in adult education, as well as the economic situation of the island state Cyprus. This book offers a great starting point and good orientation for getting to know the Cypriotic system for adult and vocational further education.Der Band liefert eine aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme zu zentralen Bereichen der Weiterbildung in Zypern. Maria Gravani und Alexandra Ioannidou haben vielfältige Daten und Informationen zu Institutionen, Finanzierung, Angeboten, Teilnahme, Personal, Qualitätssicherung und der Zertifizierung zusammengestellt. Darüber hinaus berücksichtigen die Autorinnen auch den politischen, geopolitischen und kulturellen Kontext, der die Entwicklungen im Bereich der Erwachsenenbildung mitprägt, sowie die wirtschaftliche Situation der Insel Zypern. Dieses Buch vermittelt einen schnellen Einstieg sowie eine gute Orientierung über das System der Erwachsenen- bzw. Weiterbildung in Zyper

Adult and Continuing Education in Cyprus

The volume offers a current stock-take of central areas of adult education in Cyprus. Maria Gravani and Alexandra Ioannidou have compiled large amounts of data and information on institutions, financing, offers, participation, personnel, quality assurance and certification. The authors furthermore take into account the political, geopolitical and cultural context which influences developments in adult education, as well as the economic situation of the island state Cyprus. This book offers a great starting point and good orientation for getting to know the Cypriotic system for adult and vocational further education

Similarities and Differences between Vegetarians and Vegans in Motives for Meat-free and Plant-based Diets

Plant-based diets are quickly gaining popularity for their benefits to animal welfare, the environment, and public health. Compared to meat-eaters, meat-abstainers such as vegetarians and vegans are especially motivated by animal rights and the environment. However, little is known about the motivational and psychological factors that distinguish vegetarians from vegans, and what prevents vegetarians to shift towards a fully plant-based diet. In a sample of vegans (n = 335) and vegetarians (n = 182), we investigated a) motives for reducing or quitting meat consumption and b) motives for reducing or quitting animal product (dairy and egg products) consumption, as well as moral psychological and social-contextual factors that may explain potential differences. Results demonstrate that vegetarians and vegans tend to be similar in their motives to abstain from meat consumption and are most strongly motivated by animal rights. However, vegetarians are less motivated by health, environmental, and especially animal rights for dairy/egg reduction compared to meat reduction and compared to vegans. Lower moral concern for animals, stronger beliefs in human supremacy over animals, and heightened veganism threat among vegetarians (vs. vegans) partly explained why vegetarians were less strongly motivated by animal rights for dairy/egg reduction. Human supremacy beliefs also explained differences between vegetarians and vegans in health and environmental motives for dairy/egg reduction. Furthermore, vegetarians reported significantly less social support for plant-based diets and perceived more practical barriers to plant-based diets than vegans. These findings reveal meaningful differences in the motivational and psychological profiles of vegetarians and vegans and highlight the value of distinguishing between motives for meat-free diets and motives for plant-based diets

Higher Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) Intake Is Associated with Poorer Overall Dietary Quality Compared to Lower UPF Intake: Results from a Pilot Study

From Crossref proceedings articles via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: epub 2023-11-14, issued 2023-11-14Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedDepartment of Dietetics, Metropolitan College in Collaboration with Queen Margaret University, 10672 Athens, Greecepubpu

Attributional and consequential life cycle perspectives of second-generation polylactic acid: The benefits of integrating a recycling strategy

The climate crisis calls for a shift from petrochemicals to bio-based products to reduce environmental consequences. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most widely used biopolymers, due to its mechanical properties and renewable origin, to produce bio-based compostable plastic for food packaging. The objective of this study is to determine the environmental feasibility of a second-generation PLA production based on wheat straw; and the role of a chemical recycling plant on the environmental performance of a bioproduct at an early design stage. A holistic assessment was performed through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology considering both attributional and consequential perspectives, through a cradle-to-grave approach. The attributional LCA results show that lactic acid production was the main contributor due to the wheat straw pre-treatment and downstream separation and purification (DSP) processes. The integration of a recycling plant leads to a significant reduction of burdens, ranging from 1.38 to 0.44 kg CO2eq in the Global Warming category. Furthermore, consequential LCA results shows that the increased demand for substitute products for activities such as feeding, fertilisation and energy generation and the indirect emissions from land use change related to the conversion of land for the cultivation of raw materials are relevant factors in the environmental effects associated with the possible implementation of straw-based bioPLA production systemThis research is supported by the project Enhancing diversity in Mediterranean cereal farming systems (CerealMed), funded by PRIMA Programme and FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation– Spanish National Research Agency (PCI2020-111978) and the project Transition to sustainable agri-food sector bundling life cycle assessment and ecosystem services approaches (ALISE), funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (TED2021-130309B–I00). Rebolledo-Leiva R., Moreira, M.T., González-García, S. belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C-2021/37) and to the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS Research Center, ED431E 2018/01)S

Pursuing single or combined wheat straw based poly(butylene succinate) production routes: A life cycle approach of first- and second-generation feedstocks

The depletion of fossil resources and the climate change crisis call for an urgent shift to production pathways based on renewable and low-carbon sources. In addition, plastic pollution worldwide motivates the identification of new sources for their bio-based counterparts, which have an increasing demand. This research aims to evaluate the environmental feasibility of different cereal-based feedstocks for the production of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), which is obtained from the polymerisation of succinic acid (SA) and 1,4 butanediol (BDO) monomers. The baseline scenario analysed corresponds to the use of wheat straw as a source of the fermentable sugars. Furthermore, five other cereal-based production routes combining first-generation (1G) feedstocks such as wheat and maize grain, and second-generation (2G) feedstocks, such as sorghum, barley straw, and maize stover, combined with wheat straw, were evaluated. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used to identify the main hotspots of these valorisation routes at the early stage of the biorefinery design, considering all the burden categories provided by the ReCiPe impact method. The results showed that the straw-based PBS profile reached a Global Warming Potential of 3.43 kg CO2eq, whereas a range value from 2.34 to 7.27 kg CO2eq was estimated when wheat straw is combined with sorghum and barley straw, respectively. The pre-treatment stage represents a substantial impact on the strategy considered to produce fermentable sugars, particularly, for barley straw. Therefore, improvements are still required to reduce the energy demand and increase the sugar yieldThis research is supported by the project Enhancing diversity in Mediterranean cereal farming systems (CerealMed), funded by PRIMA Programme and FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation– Spanish National Research Agency (PCI2020-111978) and the project Transition to sustainable agri-food sector bundling life cycle assessment and ecosystem services approaches (ALISE), funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (TED2021-130309B-I00). R.R.L., M.T.M., S.G.G. belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C-2021/37) and to the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS Research Center, ED431E 2018/01)S

Total remission of severe immune thrombocytopenia after short term treatment with romiplostim

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in adults is an acquired chronic immune-mediated disorder defined by isolated thrombocytopenia. In recent years, an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of ITP has been achieved and it is now accepted that the disorder is due to increased platelet destruction and decreased platelet production from megakary-ocytes. Thrombopoietin (TPO)-receptor agonists (romiplostim and eltrombopag) are new therapeutic modalities in the treatment of ITP. Here we describe a case of an elderly patient with severe ITP who presented complete remission after short-term use of romiplostim (only 3 weekly doses). This finding is quite interesting as the TPO-receptor agonists are, so far, believed to rarely lead to off-treatment sustained remission. The common notion of long-term use of romiplostim could be reexamined in future studies. Furthermore, the short term treatment with romiplostim may reduce the cost and the risk of side effects