What makes a citrus farmer go 'organic'? Empirical evidence from Spanish citrus farming

Organic farming is increasing its share of total world food output and receiving growing support from policymakers concerned with agricultural sustainability issues. This paper studies the characteristics of citrus farmers in the Spanish region of Valencia that affect their probability of becoming organic farmers. A fair understanding of these characteristics may help policymakers improve the design of agricultural policies aimed at supporting organic citrus practices. As regards the methodology, a probit model is estimated with information from a sample of conventional and organic citrus farmers obtained from a survey designed for a larger research project aimed at analysing Valencian citrus farming. Our main finding is that university education and agricultural professional training both increase the probability of becoming an organic farmer. Conversely, older farmers, farmers selling their production to foreign markets and those with larger farms and/or managing family farms are less likely to adopt organic citrus farming. The main policy implication is that, in order to support organic citrus production, more attention needs to be paid to improving farmers' technical training and education

Síndrome doloroso del trocánter mayor.Resultados a corto plazo con el tratamiento artroscópico

Objetivo : Evaluar los resultados clínicos de la cirugía artroscópica de cadera en el tratamiento del síndrome doloroso del trocánter mayor tras fracaso del tratamiento conservador. Material y Método : Estudio prospectivo de 15 pacientes tratados mediante cirugía artroscópica de cadera por síndrome doloroso del trocánter mayor. Para valoracion clínica se utilizó la escala modificada de Harris. Resultados : La edad media de los pacien - tes fue de 53,2 años. Se detectó rotura del glúteo medio en el 73,3% de los casos. El seguimiento medio de los pacientes fue de 16,3 meses. La puntuación media de la escala modificada de Harris pasó de 55,4 puntos preope - ratoriamente a 83,8 puntos al final del seguimiento. Discusión : La artroscopia de cadera ha permitido la mejoría clínica de los pacientes con síndrome doloroso del trocánter mayor que no responde al tratamiento conservador. Un mayor seguimiento de los pacientes es preciso para confirmar la estabilidad de los resultados obtenidosObjective: Evaluate the outcomes of hip arthroscopy as a treatment for greater throcanter pain syndrome after conservative treatment failed. Material and methods: Prospective study with 15 patients under - going hip arthroscopy for greater trochanter pain syndrome. Modified Harris Hip Score scale was used for clini - cal assessment. Results: The mean age of patients was 53.2 years. Gluteus medium tears was detected in 73.3%. The average follow-up was 16.3 months. The mean modified Harris Hip score increased from 55.4 points preop to 83.8 points postoperative. Discusion: Hip arthroscopy resulted in improvement in hip functional outcome in patients with greater trochanter pain syndrome after conservative treatment failed. Further follow-up is essential to confirm the stability of the clinical outcome

INTEGRAL long-term monitoring of the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient XTE J1739-302

In the past few years, a new class of High Mass X-Ray Binaries (HMXRB) has been claimed to exist, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXT). These are X-ray binary systems with a compact companion orbiting a supergiant star which show very short and bright outbursts in a series of activity periods overimposed on longer quiescent periods. Only very recently the first attempts to model the behaviour of these sources have been published, some of them within the framework of accretion from clumpy stellar winds.Our goal is to analyze the properties of XTE J1739-302/IGR J17391-3021 within the context of the clumpy structure of the supergiant wind. We have used INTEGRAL and RXTE/PCA observations in order to obtain broad band (1-200 keV) spectra and light curves of XTE J1739-302 and investigate its X-ray spectrum and temporal variability. We have found that XTE J1739-302 follows a much more complex behaviour than expected. Far from presenting a regular variability pattern, XTE J1739-302 shows periods of high, intermediate, and low flaring activity.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on liver cancer management (CERO-19)

Background & Aims: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems and it may have heavily impacted patients with liver cancer (LC). Herein, we evaluated whether the schedule of LC screening or procedures has been interrupted or delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An international survey evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice and clinical trials from March 2020 to June 2020, as the first phase of a multicentre, international, and observational project. The focus was on patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, cared for around the world during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave. Results: Ninety-one centres expressed interest to participate and 76 were included in the analysis, from Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and Africa (73.7%,17.1%, 5.3%, 2.6%, and 1.3% per continent, respectively). Eighty-seven percent of the centres modified their clinical practice: 40.8% the diagnostic procedures, 80.9% the screening programme, 50% cancelled curative and/or palliative treatments for LC, and 41.7% modified the liver transplantation programme. Forty-five out of 69 (65.2%) centres in which clinical trials were running modified their treatments in that setting, but 58.1% were able to recruit new patients. The phone call service was modified in 51.4% of centres which had this service before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 19/37). Conclusions: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on the routine care of patients with liver cancer. Modifications in screening, diagnostic, and treatment algorithms may have significantly impaired the outcome of patients. Ongoing data collection and future analyses will report the benefits and disadvantages of the strategies imple mented, aiding future decision-making

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in chemically disordered FePd-FeV(100) alloy thin films

We find that the use of V(100) buffer layers on MgO(001) substrates for the epitaxy of FePd binary alloys yields to the formation at intermediate and high deposition temperatures of a FePd¿FeV mixed phase due to strong V diffusion accompanied by a loss of layer continuity and strong increase of its mosaic spread. Contrary to what is usually found in this kind of systems, these mixed phase structures exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) which is not correlated with the presence of chemical order, almost totally absent in all the fabricated structures, even at deposition temperatures where it is usually obtained with other buffer layers. Thus the observed PMA can be ascribed to the V interdiffusion and the formation of a FeV alloy, being the global sample saturation magnetization also reduced

Photo(geno)toxicity changes associated with hydroxylation of the aromatic chromophores during diclofenac metabolism

[EN] Diclofenac (DCF) can cause adverse reactions such as gastrointestinal, renal and cardiovascular disorders; therefore, topical administration may be an attractive alternative to the management of local pain in order to avoid these side effects. However, previous studies have shown that DCF, in combination with sunlight, displays capability to induce photosensitivity disorders. In humans, DCF is biotransformed into hydroxylated metabolites at positions 4¿ and 5 (4¿OH-DCF and 5OH-DCF), and this chemical change produces non negligible alterations of the drug chromophore, resulting in a significant modification of its light-absorbing properties. In the present work, 5OH-DCF exhibited higher photo(geno)toxic potential than the parent drug, as shown by several in vitro assays (3T3 NRU phototoxicity, DNA ssb gel electrophoresis and COMET), whereas 4¿OH-DCF did not display significant photo(geno)toxicity. This could be associated, at least partially with their more efficient UV-light absorption by 5OH-DCF metabolite and with a higher photoreactivity. Interestingly, most of the cellular DNA damage photosensitized by DCF and 5OH-DCF was repaired by the cells after several hours, although this effect was not complete in the case of 5OH-DCF.This work was supported by the Carlos III Institute of Health (Grants: RD16/0006/0030, PI16/01877), by the MINECO (Grants: CTQ2013-47872, CTQ2016-78875), and by the Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo 2017/075).García -Laínez, G.; Ana M Marínez-Reig; Limones Herrero, D.; Jiménez Molero, MC.; Miranda Alonso, MÁ.; Andreu Ros, MI. (2018). Photo(geno)toxicity changes associated with hydroxylation of the aromatic chromophores during diclofenac metabolism. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. 341:51-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taap.2018.01.005S515534

Plasmonic antenna hybrids for active control in the near and midinfrared

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la Spanish Conference on Nanophotonics (Conferencia Española de Nanofotónica-CEN), celebrada en Donostia-San Sebastián (España) del 3 al 5 de octubre de 2018.Hybrid platforms combining metallic plasmonic nanoantennas (NAs) and materials with interesting properties as phase-change or spintronics offer excellent technological opportunities for active plasmonics, as they can provide large changes in their optical response. In this talk I will demostrate first how gold NAs grown on vanadium dioxie (VO2), characterized by a reversible insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) at around 68ºC, can improve the performance of this material by providing an efficient enhancement mechanism for both the optically induced excitation and readout. Using picosecond laser pulses a highly localized phase transition is driven in nanoscale regions around the NAs. These antennas-VO2 hybrid solutions provide a conceptual framework to merge field localization and phase transition enabling nanoscale optical memory functionalities. In the second part I will show how the combination of Au microantenna arrays with a Ni81Fe19/Au multilayer supports provide metamaterial platforms with new functionalities. In this case, the plasmon resonance sustained by the NAs alliate with the GMR and MRE effects of the multilayer to allow low magnetic-field controlled modulation in the mid-infrared, where light modulation is very challenging. This approach establishes a roadmap for spintronically-controlled devices in the whole mid-IR to THz band.Peer Reviewe

Investigación e innovación educativa en espiritualidad y cuidados de enfermería

La presente memoria recoge los resultados del estudio “Integración de los cuidados espirituales en estudiantes de enfermería: una propuesta de intervención educativa” llevado a cabo por personal docente e investigador integrante de la Red de innovación educativa en espiritualidad y cuidados de enfermería. La Red se constituyó a principios del curso académico 2015-16 en el marco del Programa Redes impulsado por el Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Alicante. La Red planteó un doble objetivo, por un lado, mejorar la percepción del estudiante de enfermería sobre el cuidado espiritual y, por otro, valorar sus recursos y competencias para detectar, explorar y atender las necesidades espirituales del paciente. La metodología de trabajo se fundamentó en la participación activa en red del personal docente e investigador de las asignaturas vinculadas. Se diseñó y aplicó una actividad docente (grupo de discusión y cuestionamiento abierto) sobre la atención espiritual en la práctica de enfermería utilizando una muestra disponible de 185 estudiantes matriculados en las asignaturas vinculadas al proyecto. La efectividad de la actividad docente se valoró mediante un cuestionario autoadministrado de 25 ítems. Los resultados encontrados han puesto de manifiesto un cambio positivo y significativo en los conocimientos y actitudes de los estudiantes participantes en el estudio como resultado de la intervención educativa en espiritualidad

Integración de los cuidados espirituales en estudiantes de enfermería: una propuesta de intervención educativa

Pese a la evidencia empírica que documenta que la atención espiritual es un elemento indispensable en los cuidados de enfermería, encontramos poca investigación sobre la formación de los profesionales en este campo. Los propios profesionales sanitarios reconocen un gran desconocimiento de la dimensión espiritual y señalan la necesidad de una formación específica. En respuesta a esta demanda el presente estudio persigue un doble objetivo, por un lado, mejorar la percepción del personal de enfermería sobre el cuidado espiritual y, por otro, dotar de recursos y competencias para detectar, explorar y atender las necesidades espirituales del paciente. Para ello, en una primera fase, se ha diseñado y aplicado una actividad docente (grupo de discusión y cuestionamiento abierto) sobre la atención espiritual en la práctica de enfermería utilizando una muestra disponible de estudiantes matriculados en las dos asignaturas vinculadas al proyecto. En una segunda fase se ha valorado la eficacia de la intervención educativa mediante un cuestionario autoadministrado. Los resultados esperables pondrán de manifiesto un cambio positivo en los estudiantes participantes en el estudio en relación a los conocimientos y competencias sobre el cuidado espiritual ante diferentes situaciones de salud

White Paper 5: Brain, Mind & Behaviour

© CSICThe study of the brain will tell us what makes us humans and how our social behavior generates. Increasing our understanding of how the brain functions and interacts with the ecosystem to interpret the world will not only help to find effective means to treat and/or cure neurological and psychiatric disorders but will also change our vision on questions pertaining to philosophy and humanities and transform other fields such as economy and law. Neurosciences research at the CSIC is already valuable and should be intensified mainly focused on the eight major challenges described in this volume