Bibliografia comentada sobre el sector informal urbano

Les 468 références commentées de cette bibliographie de textes et de documents existants en Equateur sur la question des petites activités économiques urbaines sont présentées en 2 parties. La première (361 références) répertorie des documents qui ont été édités en Equateur ou qui traitent de l'Equateur, la deuxième inclue des références sur l'Amérique latine et d'autres pay

Assessing soil contamination and temporal trends of heavy metal contents in greenhouses on semiarid land

Information about the behavior and temporal evolution of heavy metals in agricultural soils is limited, particularly about greenhouse soils on semiarid lands, indeed it nonexistent. Western Almería (Southern Spain) is a semiarid land where some 30,000 ha are occupied by greenhouses with high productivity. As these greenhouses are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of this area, they should be maintained and well conserved. However, there are indications that long‐term intensive agriculture with considerable agrochemicals use can deteriorate soil quality, which in turn, would reduce productivity and food quality. This study was conducted to investigate soil contamination and the temporal trends of heavy metal concentrations in greenhouse soils of western Almería. Contamination level, availability, and sources of metals were evaluated by the extractable fraction percentage, by indices zinc equivalent, geoaccumulation, enrichment factor and pollution load, and by a correlation analysis between soil properties and metal contents. The results showed that the total contents of Cd, Cu, Ni, and Pb, and the available concentration of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn, were significantly higher than background levels. Temporal patterns indicated that these elements accumulate in greenhouse soils. After more than 20 years of intensive agriculture, the available concentration of elements, and contamination, had clearly increased

El proyecto GLOSARIO-SEA. Traducción y adapatación del glosario de la Clay Minerals Society (CMS)

El proyecto de realización de un glosario relacionado con las arcillas se planteó como objetivo de la Sociedad Española de Arcillas (SEA) durante su reunión en Madrid en 2016. Para el proyecto se propuso como coordinador al profesor Manuel Pozo, miembro del “Nomenclature Committee” de la CMS en 2014-2017. Por la magnitud del glosario, fue necesaria la creación de un grupo de trabajo constituido, en 2019, por miembros de la SEA, para llevar a cabo la tarea de traducción y adaptación al español del documento original en inglés. El equipo de trabajo estaba formado por los firmantes de este trabajo. La traducción y adaptación se ha realizado de la versión en inglés del glosario de la Clay Minerals Society (2018) dentro del denominado “The Clay Minerals Society Glossary for Clay Science Project”, cuyos objetivos y restricciones son las siguientes: (1) La inclusión de términos sobre la arcilla. Las definiciones se refieren a términos que se utilizan en la ciencia de la arcilla no apartándose de las definiciones de la ciencia básica, como se haría en química y física. 2) Evitar las definiciones provisionales o tentativas, incluyéndose solo los términos bien definidos. (3) No son objetos de debate las definiciones establecidas por los Comités de Nomenclatura de la Asociación Internacional de Mineralogía (IMA), la CMS y la Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de las Arcillas (AIPEA), o cualquier otro organismo internacional. (4) En general, los nombres de programas informáticos y otros nombres similares no forman parte del glosario. Tras seis envíos para la traducción de términos y tres revisiones del manuscrito se ha conseguido finalizar la versión en español del glosario, que se ha enriquecido con la adición de una selección de imágenes de campo y de microscopía óptica y electrónica. El resultado actual es un documento con 491 entradas referidas a términos relacionados con las arcillas y minerales de la arcilla.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Are firms that contribute to sustainable development valued by investors?

Artigo em revista científica internacional com arbitragem científicaSustainability reporting contributes to making sustainable development a higher priority for companies, increases the social responsibility of their managers, and reinforces the credibility and trust of their stakeholders. However, prior research about the value relevance of sustainability disclosure for financial stakeholders provides inconclusive results. In this context, the aim of our research is to analyse whether sustainability disclosure provides relevant information and incremental value for investors in the European setting where this practice has been steadily increasing in the period 2001–2013. Our overall results support the belief that conducting business in accordance with ethical norms is value relevant for European investors. However, our results also reveal that there is no homogeneity among markets, even for the periods before and after the global financial crisis. These findings could have several implications for internal and external stakeholders such as managers, shareholders, and policymakers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pathogenic Bacillus anthracis in the progressive gene losses and gains in adaptive evolution

Background: Sequence mutations represent a driving force of adaptive evolution in bacterial pathogens. It is especially evident in reductive genome evolution where bacteria underwent lifestyles shifting from a free-living to a strictly intracellular or host-depending life. It resulted in loss of function mutations and/or the acquisition of virulence gene clusters. Bacillus anthracis shares a common soil bacterial ancestor with its closely related bacillus species but is the only obligate, causative agent of inhalation anthrax within the genus Bacillus. The anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis experienced the similar lifestyle changes. We thus hypothesized that the bacterial pathogen would follow a compatible evolution path. Results: In this study, a cluster-based evolution scheme was devised to analyze genes that are gained by or lost from B. anthracis. The study detected gene losses/gains at two separate evolutionary stages. The stage I is when B. anthracis and its sister species within the Bacillus cereus group diverged from other species in genus Bacillus. The stage II is when B. anthracis differentiated from its two closest relatives: B. cereus and B. thuringiensis. Many genes gained at these stages are homologues of known pathogenic factors such those for internalin, B. anthracis-specific toxins and large groups of surface proteins and lipoproteins. Conclusion: The analysis presented here allowed us to portray a progressive evolutionary process during the lifestyle shift of B. anthracis, thus providing new insights into how B. anthracis had evolved and bore a promise of finding drug and vaccine targets for this strategically important pathogen

The Role of the Institutional Framework in the Relationship between Earnings Management and Corporate Social Performance

This study examines the influence of the institutional framework of European countries: more specifically coordinated market economies and liberal market economies on the earnings management and corporate social performance nexus. Employing econometric models impervious to endogeneity, our results show that socially responsible firms (particularly those with high governance scores) in coordinated market economies engage in earnings management. These findings suggest that in countries in which institutional settings enable implicit undertakings of corporate social responsibility in firm policies, firm practices ostensibly related to corporate social performance may serve purposes other than meeting stakeholders’ ethical expectations and those of society at large

Transient P2X7 Receptor Antagonism Produces Lasting Reductions in Spontaneous Seizures and Gliosis in Experimental Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Neuroinflammation is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis and maintenance of temporal lobe epilepsy, but the underlying cell and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. The P2X7 receptor is an ionotropic receptor predominantly expressed on the surface of microglia, although neuronal expression has also been reported. The receptor is activated by the release of ATP from intracellular sources that occurs during neurodegeneration, leading to microglial activation and inflammasome-mediated interleukin 1β release that contributes to neuroinflammation. Using a reporter mouse in which green fluorescent protein is induced in response to the transcription of P2rx7, we show that expression of the receptor is selectively increased in CA1 pyramidal and dentate granule neurons, as well as in microglia in mice that developed epilepsy after intra-amygdala kainic acid-induced status epilepticus. P2X7 receptor levels were increased in hippocampal subfields in the mice and in resected hippocampus from patients with pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy. Cells transcribing P2rx7 in hippocampal slices from epileptic mice displayed enhanced agonist-evoked P2X7 receptor currents, and synaptosomes from these animals showed increased P2X7 receptor levels and altered calcium responses. A 5 d treatment of epileptic mice with systemic injections of the centrally available, potent, and specific P2X7 receptor antagonist JNJ-47965567 (30 mg/kg) significantly reduced spontaneous seizures during continuous video-EEG monitoring that persisted beyond the time of drug presence in the brain. Hippocampal sections from JNJ-47965567-treated animals obtained >5 d after treatment ceased displayed strongly reduced microgliosis and astrogliosis. The present study suggests that targeting the P2X7 receptor has anticonvulsant and possibly disease-modifying effects in experimental epilepsy. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common and drug-resistant form of epilepsy in adults. Neuroinflammation is implicated as a pathomechanism, but the upstream mechanisms driving gliosis and how important this is for seizures remain unclear. In our study, we show that the ATP-gated P2X7 receptor is upregulated in experimental epilepsy and resected hippocampus from epilepsy patients. Targeting the receptor with a new centrally available antagonist, JNJ-47965567, suppressed epileptic seizures well beyond the time of treatment and reduced underlying gliosis in the hippocampus. The findings suggest a potential disease-modifying treatment for epilepsy based on targeting the P2X7 receptor.</p