Eco-design and sustainability in packaging: a survey

According to “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” of the United Nations, there are seventeen goals essential for the World Sustainable Development. One of these goals has direct implication for the industrial sector – ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. In a world where globalization is more and more present, packaging emerges as a link between all points around the world, allowing transporting and commercializing products on a global level, from producers to consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to study how the packaging industry is adapting itself to the increasing demands of the markets, while complying with the global environmental requirements and sustainable goals established by international organizations. Accordingly, this paper aims to analyse precisely this industry, intending to understand how the theme of Ecodesign and sustainability are faced by packaging manufacturers, and what are the key-factors associated to the success of their implementation in the companies. Characterization of the industry is also presented, defining how companies should organize and prepare themselves in order to have a diminishing environmental impact, a raw-materials sustainability policy and consider environmental aspects through the packaging’s life cycle – Eco-design.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Increased microbial activity and nitrogen mineralization coupled to changes in microbial community structure in the rhizosphere of Bt corn

The interactions between plant roots and soil microorganisms are essential for the function and stability of ecosystems, primary agricultural production and plant health. Despite the importance of soil microbes the response of these microbes to large-scale cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops is still poorly understood. This study evaluated the potential impact of two lines of transgenic Bt maize on rhizosphere microorganisms. A time-course field experiment was conducted over a period of two years in two fields in Guadalajara (Spain) with monthly sampling from April to September. Rhizosphere soil was collected from transgenic (TG) and unmodified (WT) maize plants from each field and sampling time for the analysis of several important functional and structural soil quality parameters. Total microbial activity, as determined by H3-Thymidine and C14-Leucine incorporation, was found to be higher in the rhizospheres of the transgenic plants. Similarly, differences in potential ammonification and nitrification were observed in the second year of the study. In contrast, bacterial and fungal microbial catabolic abilities, as determined by Biolog ECO and FF plate analyses, respectively, were more influenced by sampling time than the transgenic nature of the plants. Microbial community structure was also studied by bacterial and phylum-specific PCR-DGGE and PCR cloning approaches. In general, differences were again more pronounced between sampling times, as opposed to between TG versus WT plants, although marked differences were observed within the Betaproteobacteria between plant lines. For the first time it describes the presence of Iamiaceae family in soil, specifically to TG plant rhizosphere. To summarize, the study showed that some important properties of rhizopshere microbes may be impacted by Bt maize cultivation and highlighted the fact that such potential effects need to be viewed within the context of seasonal and spatial variability. \ua9 2013 Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Improving reading achievements of struggling learners

In The Netherlands, the percentage of struggling readers in the 1st year of formal reading instruction is about 25%. This problem inspired us to develop the Reading Acceleration Programme. To evaluate the effectiveness of this programme, a quasi-experiment is carried out. The teachers in the experimental group have been trained to improve their core instruction, to broaden their instruction for struggling learners, and to implement special measures for pupils who do not respond sufficiently to these interventions. A significant difference was found on the post-tests for measuring reading of single words and reading whole sentences, after correcting for pre-test, age, intelligence, socioeconomic status, and ethnic minority. Furthermore, the programme turned out to reduce the percentage of struggling readers in the experimental group from over 28% to less than 6%. In the follow-up study, the overall effects remained to a moderate degree