Participation of students in the project Valorbio: A case study to accelerate the implementation of sustainability principles in the curriculum

Purpose – The present work describes the case of the Valorbio research project, in which students of different high-level programs were involved in the experimental work and in the dissemination of results in collaboration with the research team. Design/methodology/approach – The inclusion in higher education curricula of content related to the sustainable development should be a preferred mechanism for the dissemination of good practices of sustainability. Another equally important way to achieve this is to involve students in research projects that seek solutions to the societal challenges related to sustainable growth. The Valorbio project aims to meet the needs for treating and reusing wastewater and solid waste. Its main goal was the development of modular systems for wastewater treatment based on constructed wetlands,exploring the possibility of the treatment systems being composed of solid waste and by-products from significant industrial sectors. Findings – The students’ contributionto the research workwas relevant, and simultaneously allowedthem to acquire skills on sustainable development. Additionally, the students contributed to the dissemination of the results. The Valorbio project can thus be considered a successful application of the concept of project-based learning,as a way to include sustainability issues content in the higher education curricula. Originality/value – The applied experimental work had an original approach regarding the equipment design, the waste materials valuation, as well as the integration of waste treatment processes in the circular economy paradigm.This paper is the first reported project-based learning experience involving students of short-cycle technical-professional programs in partnership with first and second-level students and a research team.The Valorbio project was partially supported by COMPETE2020 under the grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-23314, and by the consortia partners: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre and the company PALSER – Bionergia e Paletes, Lda. The authors acknowledge the collaboration of the students of the Technical-Professional program in Environmental Quality, Bachelor program in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Master program in Chemical Technology, held at Instituto Politécnico de Tomar. Special thanks to the students André Farinha, Ana Batista, Carolina Masseno, Carolina Parra, Joel Nunes and Luís Santos. The authors also acknowledge the Lab.IPT support, particularly, Alcino Serras, Carlos Ferreira, Isabel Silva and Vitor Gaspar, and the research fellows Ana Alves and Nuno Graça.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Using landscape history to predict biodiversity patterns in fragmented landscapes

Landscape ecology plays a vital role in understanding the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity, but it is not a predictive discipline, lacking theoretical models that quantitatively predict biodiversity patterns from first principles. Here, we draw heavily on ideas from phylogenetics to fill this gap, basing our approach on the insight that habitat fragments have a shared history. We develop a landscape ‘terrageny’, which represents the historical spatial separation of habitat fragments in the same way that a phylogeny represents evolutionary divergence among species. Combining a random sampling model with a terrageny generates numerical predictions about the expected proportion of species shared between any two fragments, the locations of locally endemic species, and the number of species that have been driven locally extinct. The model predicts that community similarity declines with terragenetic distance, and that local endemics are more likely to be found in terragenetically distinctive fragments than in large fragments. We derive equations to quantify the variance around predictions, and show that ignoring the spatial structure of fragmented landscapes leads to over-estimates of local extinction rates at the landscape scale. We argue that ignoring the shared history of habitat fragments limits our ability to understand biodiversity changes in human-modified landscape

Hepatitis A virus in urban sewage from two Mediterranean countries.

Molecular methods for the detection and typing of hepatitis A virus (HAV) strains in sewage were applied to determine its distribution in Cairo and Barcelona. The study revealed the occurrence of different patterns of hepatitis A endemicity in each city. The circulating strains characterized, whether in Cairo or Barcelona, were genotype IB. The effects of a child vaccination programme and the increase in the immigrant population on the overall hepatitis A occurrence in Barcelona were evaluated. While vaccination contributed to a significant decrease in the number of clinical cases, the huge recent immigration flow has probably been responsible for the re-emergence of the disease in the last year of study, in the form of small outbreaks among the non-vaccinated population

Subarcsecond radio continuum mapping in and around the spiral galaxy NGC 3351 using MERLIN

We report subarcsecond-scale radio continuum observations of a field of 35 × 22 arcmin2 centred in NGC 3351 obtained with the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN). We found 23 radio sources in this field, six of which are projected within the D25 isophote of the galaxy and three are located inside the central 100 arcsec in radius. Two of these three are significantly extended, while the third one is relatively compact. This one is the only source with a previously detected counterpart at other wavelengths and could constitute the radio counterpart of a young supernova remnant (SNR). The other two are probably related to jets from a background active galactic nucleus. We are not able to detect individual supernovae (SNe) or SNRs in the central region (r < 600 pc) of the galaxy. This could imply that the ionizing populations of the circumnuclear star-forming regions are too young (less than a few Myr) to host SNe. Also, the diffusion length of the relativistic electrons in the interstellar medium associated with the SN from previous events of star formation seems to be larger than our maximum resolution of 50 pc in radius. Detecting the thermal bremsstrahlung emission from the circumnuclear H II regions probably requires deeper observations.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Integral field spectroscopy of HII region complexes: The outer disc of NGC-6946

Integral field spectroscopy obtained with the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer Fiber Package (PPak) and the 3.5-m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory has been used to study an outer H ii region complex in the well-studied galaxy NGC-6946. This technique provides detailed maps of the region in different emission lines, yielding spatially resolved information about the physical properties of the gas. The configuration was chosen to cover the whole spectrum from 3600 up to 10-000-Å, allowing the measurement of the near-infrared [S-iii] lines. We selected four luminous knots to perform a detailed integrated spectroscopic analysis of these structures and of the whole PPak field of view (FOV). For all the knots the electron density has been found to be very similar and below 100 cm-3. The [O-iii] electron temperature was measured in knots A, B, C and in the integrated PPak field, and was found to be around 8000 K. The temperatures of [O-ii] and [S-iii] were estimated in the four cases. The elemental abundances computed from the 'direct method' are typical of high-metallicity disc H-ii regions, with a mean value of 12+log(O/H) = 8.65, comparable to what has been found in this galaxy by other authors for regions at similar galactocentric distance. Therefore a remarkable abundance uniformity is found despite the different excitations found throughout the nebula. However, due to the quality of the data, the electron temperatures and metallicities obtained have associated errors comparable to the typical dispersion found in empirical calibrations.Wolf-Rayet (WR) features have been detected in three of the knots, leading to a derived total number of WR stars of 125, 22 and 5 for knots A, C and B, respectively. The ratios of the numbers of WR to O stars are consistent with the prediction of Starburst99 for individual bursts with an age about 4-Myr. Knot D, with no WR features, shows weak Hα emission, low excitation and the lowest Hβ equivalent width, all of which points to a more evolved state.The integrated spectrum of the whole PPak FOV shows high excitation and a relatively evolved age that does not correspond to the individual knot evolutionary stages. Some effects associated with the loss of spatial resolution are also evidenced by the higher ionizing temperature that is deduced from the η' parameter measured in the integrated PPak spectrum with respect to that of the individual knots.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

The long-lived Type IIn SN 2015da: Infrared echoes and strong interaction within an extended massive shell star star star

In this paper we report the results of the first similar to four years of spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the Type IIn supernova SN 2015da (also known as PSN J13522411+3941286, or iPTF16tu). The supernova exploded in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5337 in a relatively highly extinguished environment. The transient showed prominent narrow Balmer lines in emission at all times and a slow rise to maximum in all bands. In addition, early observations performed by amateur astronomers give a very well-constrained explosion epoch. The observables are consistent with continuous interaction between the supernova ejecta and a dense and extended H-rich circumstellar medium. The presence of such an extended and dense medium is difficult to reconcile with standard stellar evolution models, since the metallicity at the position of SN 2015da seems to be slightly subsolar. Interaction is likely the mechanism powering the light curve, as confirmed by the analysis of the pseudo bolometric light curve, which gives a total radiated energy greater than or similar to 10(51) erg. Modeling the light curve in the context of a supernova shock breakout through a dense circumstellar medium allowed us to infer the mass of the prexisting gas to be similar or equal to 8 M-circle dot, with an extreme mass-loss rate for the progenitor star similar or equal to 0.6 M-circle dot yr(-1), suggesting that most of the circumstellar gas was produced during multiple eruptive events. Near- and mid-infrared observations reveal a fluxexcess in these domains, similar to those observed in SN 2010jl and other interacting transients, likely due to preexisting radiatively heated dust surrounding the supernova. By modeling the infrared excess, we infer a mass greater than or similar to 0.4 x 10(-3) M-circle dot for the dustSpanish MICINN gran

Mining threats in high‐level biodiversity conservation policies

Amid a global infrastructure boom, there is increasing recognition of the ecological impacts of the extraction and consumption of construction minerals, mainly processed as concrete, including significant and expanding threats to global biodiversity. We investigated how high‐level national and international biodiversity conservation policies address mining threats, with a special focus on construction minerals. We conducted a review and quantified the degree to which threats from mining these minerals are addressed in biodiversity goals and targets under the 2011–2020 and post‐2020 biodiversity strategies, national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and the assessments of the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Mining appeared rarely in national targets but more frequently in national strategies. Yet, in most countries, it was superficially addressed. Coverage of aggregates mining was greater than coverage of limestone mining. We outline 8 key components, tailored for a wide range of actors, to effectively mainstream biodiversity conservation into the extractive, infrastructure, and construction sectors. Actions include improving reporting and monitoring systems, enhancing the evidence base around mining impacts on biodiversity, and modifying the behavior of financial agents and businesses. Implementing these measures could pave the way for a more sustainable approach to construction mineral use and safeguard biodiversity

Exosomes as Hedgehog carriers in cytoneme-mediated transport and secretion

The Hedgehog signalling pathway is crucial for development, adult stem cell maintenance, cell migration and axon guidance in a wide range of organisms. During development, the Hh morphogen directs tissue patterning according to a concentration gradient. Lipid modifications on Hh are needed to achieve graded distribution, leading to debate about how Hh is transported to target cells despite being membrane-tethered. Cytonemes in the region of Hh signalling have been shown to be essential for gradient formation, but the carrier of the morphogen is yet to be defined. Here we show that Hh and its co-receptor Ihog are in exovesicles transported via cytonemes. These exovesicles present protein markers and other features of exosomes. Moreover, the cell machinery for exosome formation is necessary for normal Hh secretion and graded signalling. We propose Hh transport via exosomes along cytonemes as a significant mechanism for the restricted distribution of a lipid-modified morphogen.PostprintPeer reviewe

Franchisors' disclosure duty: market transparency and franchisee protection

The franchisee is usually the most vulnerable part of the franchise relationship, and should therefore receive greater protection from the legal framework. In this regard, the franchisor's pre-contractual disclosure duty has evolved in its legal status. Whereas its original purpose was to ensure transparency in the market, it now serves to protect the franchisee. In this paper, we compare the franchisor's obligations established by the legal framework in Spain with those set out in the Model Law drawn up by The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law.Lapiedra-Alcami, R.; Reig Fabado, I.; Rueda Armengot, C. (2014). Franchisors' disclosure duty: market transparency and franchisee protection. Service Industries Journal. 34(9-10):788-795. doi:10.1080/02642069.2014.905917S788795349-10Chaudey, M., & Fadairo, M. (2010). Contractual design and networks performance: empirical evidence from franchising. Applied Economics, 42(4), 529-533. doi:10.1080/00036840701704428Collins, H. (2008). Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law: Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) Interim Outline Edition, prepared by the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the Research group on EC Private Law (Acquis group) by Christian von Bar, Eric Clive, Hans Schulte-Nöcke (eds). Modern Law Review, 71(5), 840-844. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00718.xPeris-Ortiz, M., Peris Bonet, F. J., & Rueda-Armengot, C. (2011). Vertical integration in production and services: development in transaction cost economics. Service Business, 5(1), 87-97. doi:10.1007/s11628-011-0103-0Perryman, A. A., & Combs, J. G. (2011). Who should own it? An agency-based explanation for multi-outlet ownership and co-location in plural form franchising. Strategic Management Journal, 33(4), 368-386. doi:10.1002/smj.1947Rondan-Cataluña, F. J., Navarro-Garcia, A., Diez-De Castro, E. C., & Rodriguez-Rad, C. J. (2012). Reasons for the expansion in franchising: is it all said? The Service Industries Journal, 32(6), 861-882. doi:10.1080/02642069.2010.550041Shane, S. (2001). Organizational Incentives and Organizational Mortality. Organization Science, 12(2), 136-160. doi:10.1287/orsc.12.2.136.10108Vázquez, L. (2008). Complementarities between franchise contract duration and multi-unit propensity in franchise systems. The Service Industries Journal, 28(8), 1093-1105. doi:10.1080/0264206080218794

Spatial and temporal dimensions of landscape fragmentation across the Brazilian Amazon

The Brazilian Amazon in the past decades has been suffering severe landscape alteration, mainly due to anthropogenic activities, such as road building and land clearing for agriculture. Using a high-resolution time series of land cover maps (classified as mature forest, non-forest, secondary forest) spanning from 1984 through 2011, and four uncorrelated fragmentation metrics (edge density, clumpiness index, area-weighted mean patch size and shape index), we examined the temporal and spatial dynamics of forest fragmentation in three study areas across the Brazilian Amazon (Manaus, Santarém and Machadinho d’Oeste), inside and outside conservation units. Moreover, we compared the impacts on the landscape of: (1) different land uses (e.g. cattle ranching, crop production), (2) occupation processes (spontaneous vs. planned settlements) and (3) implementation of conservation units. By 2010/2011, municipalities located along the Arc of Deforestation had more than 55% of the remaining mature forest strictly confined to conservation units. Further, the planned settlement showed a higher rate of forest loss, a more persistent increase in deforested areas and a higher relative incidence of deforestation inside conservation units. Distinct agricultural activities did not lead to significantly different landscape structures; the accessibility of the municipality showed greater influence in the degree of degradation of the landscapes. Even with a high proportion of the landscapes covered by conservation units, which showed a strong inhibitory effect on forest fragmentation, we show that dynamic agriculturally driven economic activities, in municipalities with extensive road development, led to more regularly shaped, heavily fragmented landscapes, with higher densities of forest edge