Viabilidad de los distintos sistemas de producción en porcino Ibérico

publishedTomo I . Sección: Sistemas Ganaderos-Economía y Gestión. Sesión: Economía I. Ponencia nº 1

Antiglycative effect of fruit and vegetable seed extracts: Inhibition of AGE formation and carbonyl-trapping abilities

BACKGROUND: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are the final products derived from the non-enzymatic glycation process. AGEs are involved in the development of several health complications associated with diabetes and aging. Searching for anti- AGE extracts is necessary to mitigate the effects of age-related pathologies. RESULTS: The antioxidant and antiglycative activities of eight aqueous extracts of fruit and vegetable seeds were evaluated. All seed extracts (3.6 mg mL-1) exhibited anti-AGE activity in protein-glucose assay, ranging from 20 to 92% inhibition compared with aminoguanidine (4.87 mmol L-1). Green pepper extract exerted the highest anti-AGE activity. However, peach and pomegranate extracts exhibited the highest anti-AGE activity in protein-methylglyoxal assay, ranging from 0 to 79% inhibition. Hazelnut, almond and sesame extracts were not effective when methylglyoxal was the promoter. Apricot and peach extracts appeared to inhibit the formation of AGEs through their capacity for direct trapping of 1,2-dicarbonyls (IC50=0.14 mg mL-1). No relationship between antioxidant and phenolic compound content and antiglycative activity was found. Therefore other hydrophilic constituents in addition to phenolic acids must be involved in the antiglycative activity of the extracts. CONCLUSION: Aqueous extracts of fruits and vegetables can be considered in the prevention of glycation-associated complications of age-related pathologies. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.Peer Reviewe

Proposta d'un model relacional entre el capital humà i la qualitat de servei. Una aplicació al sector bancari andorrà

En l’actualitat, en un entorn tan global, dinàmic i competitiu, és imprescindible que les organitzacions que vulguin perdurar s’esforcin per satisfer les necessitats d’uns clients cada vegada més exigents, la qual cosa es traduirà en un increment dels resultats empresarials. En aquest context, la qualitat representa un aspecte clau en l’èxit de les organitzacions competitives i sostenibles en el temps, i amb el creixement del sector de serveis a les economies desenvolupades, la qualitat de servei ha anat adquirint cada cop més importància en les organitzacions. Tot i que la qualitat de servei és un constructe que depèn de diversos factors, la importància de l’actitud i del comportament dels empleats en aquest tipus d’organitzacions -en les quals el personal interacciona directament amb el client en la prestació del servei-, és una realitat àmpliament consensuada. Així mateix, els experts coincideixen a identificar el capital humà d’una empresa com el seu actiu més important i a entendre’l com una font d’avantatges competitius. Per tant, el capital humà esdevé un element distintiu de la qualitat de servei que lliuren les organitzacions i alhora, es considera el recurs més valuós en el desenvolupament de l’activitat empresarial, com a element del seu capital intel·lectual. D’acord amb aquestes consideracions anteriors, aquest treball de recerca que es presenta vol construir escales de mesura, tant del capital humà com de la qualitat de servei vinculada al comportament dels empleats, així com determinar de quina manera el capital humà influeix en la qualitat de servei que ofereixen les empreses, a través de la creació d’un model de relació entre ambdós constructes. A partir d’una revisió exhaustiva de la literatura, s’han identificat els treballs principals que s’han desenvolupat en l’àmbit de la qualitat de servei, del capital humà, així com pel que fa a la relació entre el capital humà i la qualitat de servei, els quals han permès proposar les hipòtesis del treball. Atesa la importància de la qualitat de servei en el sector bancari, així com la rellevància d’aquest sector en el Principat d’Andorra -el qual representa un pilar fonamental en l’economia del país-, la part empírica d’aquesta investigació s’ha dut a terme en el sector bancari andorrà. Amb l’objectiu de desenvolupar la part empírica d’aquesta recerca, i per tal d’assolir els objectius plantejats i de contrastar les hipòtesis formulades, sobre la base de la revisió bibliogràfica s’ha elaborat un qüestionari que s’ha fet arribar a tots els empleats i directius del sector bancari del país. Després de l’anàlisi dels resultats trobats a partir d’un model d’equacions estructurals, s’ha pogut constatar que el compromís, les competències, la motivació i la flexibilitat són els atributs més representatius del capital humà i en conseqüència, els que més influeixen en la qualitat de servei que lliuren les organitzacions bancàries andorranes. Es preveu que les conclusions d’aquest treball de recerca permetin millorar la qualitat de servei que ofereixen les organitzacions en general i les del sector bancari andorrà en particular, mitjançant una gestió eficient del seu equip de persones.Nowadays, in such a global, dynamic and competitive setting, it is critical for those organizations that want to thrive to make every effort to meet the needs of their increasingly demanding clients, a fact that will bring about an increase in business results. In this context, quality represents a key element in the success of competitive and sustainable organizations withstanding the test of time, and, with the growth of the service industry within developed economies, service quality has been gradually gaining more importance in this type of organizations. Despite the fact that quality service constitutes a construct that depends on a variety of factors, the relevance of the attitude and performance of the employees of this type of organizations, in which the personnel interact in a direct manner with the client in the provision of a service, is a reality widely agreed upon. In the same way, experts coincide in identifying an enterprise’s human capital as its most outstanding asset and in understanding it as a source of competitive advantages. Therefore, human capital represents a distinctive element of the quality of the service provided by organizations and, at the same time, it is considered the most valuable resource in the development of business endeavours, as a substantial constituent of its intellectual capital. In accordance with these previous considerations, the herein submitted research project aims to build measurement scales, not only in terms of human capital but also with regards to the service quality linked to employees’ performance, as well as to determine up to what extent human capital has an effect on the service quality provided by companies, through the creation of a model of relationship between both constructs. From an exhaustive revision of the relevant scientific literature, the main works developed in the realms of service quality, human capital and the connections established between both concepts have been identified, hence facilitating the proposal of our working hypothesis. Bearing in mind, on one hand, the significance of service quality within the banking sector, and on the other hand, the relevance of this sector as an integral part of the Principality of Andorra, an essential pillar for the country ́s economy, the empirical research for this project has been carried out within this particular sector. With the aims of developing the empirical part of this research, achieving the proposed objectives and contrasting the formulated hypotheses, a questionnaire was designed on the basis of the scientific literature review and it was sent to all the executives and employees of the country ́s banking sector. After analysing the obtained results through the implementation of a structural equation modeling technique, commitment, competences, motivation and flexibility can be confirmed as the most representative attributes of human capital, and, consequently, the ones that influence the most the service quality provided by Andorran banking organizations. It is expected that the conclusions drawn from this research work will contribute to the improvement of the service quality offered by organizations, in general, and by those pertaining to the Andorran banking sector, in particular, through an efficient management of their team personnel

Principales factores económicos y de estructura en explotaciones de vacuno ecológico en dehesas de Badajoz

publishedTomo I . Sección: Sistemas Ganaderos-Economía y Gestión. Sesión: Economía I. Ponencia nº 1

Determinación de la función de beneficio en explotaciones ovinas de carne de Extremadura mediante regresión por mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLRS)

publishedTomo I . Sección: Sistemas Ganaderos-Economía y Gestión. Sesión: Economía I. Ponencia nº 1

Boosting precision crop protection towards agriculture 5.0 via machine learning and emerging technologies: A contextual review

Crop protection is a key activity for the sustainability and feasibility of agriculture in a current context of climate change, which is causing the destabilization of agricultural practices and an increase in the incidence of current or invasive pests, and a growing world population that requires guaranteeing the food supply chain and ensuring food security. In view of these events, this article provides a contextual review in six sections on the role of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and other emerging technologies to solve current and future challenges of crop protection. Over time, crop protection has progressed from a primitive agriculture 1.0 (Ag1.0) through various technological developments to reach a level of maturity closelyin line with Ag5.0 (section 1), which is characterized by successfully leveraging ML capacity and modern agricultural devices and machines that perceive, analyze and actuate following the main stages of precision crop protection (section 2). Section 3 presents a taxonomy of ML algorithms that support the development and implementation of precision crop protection, while section 4 analyses the scientific impact of ML on the basis of an extensive bibliometric study of >120 algorithms, outlining the most widely used ML and deep learning (DL) techniques currently applied in relevant case studies on the detection and control of crop diseases, weeds and plagues. Section 5 describes 39 emerging technologies in the fields of smart sensors and other advanced hardware devices, telecommunications, proximal and remote sensing, and AI-based robotics that will foreseeably lead the next generation of perception-based, decision-making and actuation systems for digitized, smart and real-time crop protection in a realistic Ag5.0. Finally, section 6 highlights the main conclusions and final remarks

Determination of carboximetillysine in toasted and baked foods

La carboximetillisina (CML) es un indicador de etapas avanzadas de la reacción de Maillard. Su formación en los alimentos dependerá directamente de la composición de los mismos, pero también de la temperatura y tiempo de calentamiento al que se ven sometidos durante el procesado. Concretamente, se ve favorecida cuando el tratamiento térmico es más severo, de ahí que esté presente en alimentos tostados u horneados como los productos de panadería o bollería. En el presente trabajo se analizó el contenido de CML en 9 tipos de alimentos: pan integral, pan de molde tostado a diferentes tiempos, colines, torta de inés rosales, palmera, caracola, suizo y medianoche y galleta integral más o menos horneadas. La determinación de CML se realizó mediante cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas, previa reducción, hidrólisis y derivatización. Los valores de CML determinados en las muestras del estudio oscilaron entre 1,38 mg/100 g muestra (palitos no integrales) y 10,4 mg/100 g de muestra (galleta más tostada). El pan de molde mostró un incremento en el contenido de CML paralelo al tiempo de tostado, pasando de 6,31 mg/100 g sin tostar, a 6,44 mg/100g con 1 minuto de tostado y a 8,95 mg/100 g con 6 minutos de tostado. En conclusión, es importante conocer la cantidad de CML que contiene un alimento, para controlar su ingesta, especialmente en los sometidos a tostado u horneado, ya que, como se ha comprobado en este estudio, el contenido de CML incrementa paralelamente al tratamiento térmico.Carboximetillysine (CML) is an indicator of advanced stages of Maillard reaction. Its formation in foods depends on their composition but, moreover, on temperature and time of thermal treatment whom they are submitted during processed. Particularly, it is favored when thermal treatment is more severe, with the result that it is present in toasted or baked foods such as bakery products. In the present study, CML content in 9 different foods was analyzed: integral bread, sliced bread which was toasted at different times, breadsticks, “inés rosales” cake, heart-shaped pastry, flaky pastry, bun with sugar and bun and integral biscuit more or less baked. Determination of CML was carried out by GCMS, after reduction, hydrolysis and derivatization. CML values in studied samples ranged from 1.38 mg/100 g of sample (no integral breadsticks) to 10.4 mg/100 g of sample (more toasted biscuit). In sliced bread a relationship between CML content and time of toasting was observed, increasing from 6.31 mg/100 g without toasting to 6.44 mg/100 g with 1 min and to 8.95 mg/100 g with 6 min of toasting. In conclusion, it is important to know CML content in foods in order to control its intake, especially in toasted or baked foods since, as it has been tested in this study, CML content is related to the thermal treatment.Este trabajo ha sido realizado bajos los proyectos de investigación AGL 2006 12656/ALI, financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología y P06 CTS 1900, financiado por la Junta de Andalucía

Double-blind validation of alternative wild bee identification techniques: DNA metabarcoding and in vivo determination in the field

Over the past few decades, several investigations around the globe have reported alarming declines in the abundance and diversity of bee species. The success of effective conservation strategies targeting these important pollinators relies heavily on accurate biodiversity assessments. The shortage of taxonomic experts and the escalation of the ongoing biodiversity crisis call for the development of alternative identification tools to implement efficient monitoring programs. The validation of such techniques is crucial to ensure that they provide results comparable to those of traditional morphotaxonomy. Here we performed two double-blind experiments to evaluate the accuracy of a pair of new techniques used for wild bee identification: DNA metabarcoding and in vivo identification in the field. The methods were tested on sets of wild bees from Germany and their results compared against evaluations done by panels of bee experts using traditional morphotaxonomy. On average the congruency of species identification between metabarcoding and morphotaxonomy was 88.98% across samples (N = 10), while in vivo identification and morphotaxonomy were 91.81% congruent (N = 7) for bees considered feasible for in vivo identification in the field. Traditional morphotaxonomy showed similar congruencies when compared to itself: 93.65% in the metabarcoding study and 92.96% in the in vivo study. Overall, these results support both new methods as viable alternatives to traditional microscopy-based assessment, with neither method being error-free. Metabarcoding provides a suitable option to analyze large numbers of specimens in the absence of highly trained taxonomic experts, while in vivo identification is recommended for repeated long-term monitoring, and when working in areas where the sampling of individuals could threaten local populations of endangered wild bee species. Further research is still needed to explore the potential of both techniques for conservation management and wildlife monitoring, as well as to overcome their current limitations as taxonomic tools

Determinants of Depressive Symptoms in People Living with HIV : Findings from a Population-Based Study with a Gender Perspective

Altres ajuts: Fundació La Marató de TV3 (239/C/2018)Depressive symptoms are common among people living with HIV (PLWH). The aim of this study was to identify the determinants of depressive symptoms in PLWH in Spain. A total of 1060 PLWH participated in this cross-sectional study and completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The odds ratios for the presence of depressive symptoms were analyzed in a multivariable logistic regression model, including sociodemographic data, comorbidities, health-related behaviors, and social-environment-related variables. We found an overall prevalence of depressive symptoms of 21.42%; by subgroup, namely men, women, and transgender persons, prevalence was 18.13%, 32.81%, and 37.14%, respectively. Moreover, social isolation (OR = 1.05 [CI, 1.02-1.08]) and poor physical and mental quality of life (OR = 1.06 [CI, 1.02-1.09] and OR = 1.13 [CI, 1.09-1.17], respectively) were associated with depressive symptoms. As protective factors, we identified serodisclosure to more people (vs. none; OR = 0.39 [CI, 0.17-0.87]), satisfaction with social roles (OR = 0.86 [CI, 0.79-0.94]), better cognitive function (OR = 0.92 [CI, 0.89-0.95]), and sexualized drug use once in a lifetime (OR = 0.52 [CI, 0.29-0.93]). This study showed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in PLWH, especially among women and transgender people. The association between psychosocial variables and depressive symptoms highlights the multidimensionality of the problem and identifies areas for intervention. This study found that the management of mental health issues is an area that needs to be improved and tailored to specific groups, with the aim of enhancing the well-being of PLWH