Which marketing condition makes organic products more accessible? A case study in Brazil.

Abstract: Concern over health and environmental and social problems generated by the production of conventional agricultural products, promotes expansion of the organic market. At the same time, it is necessary to understand how and under which conditions the market valorises local production, strengthening organic family farming. This study analyses the commercialisation of organic food production in Vitoria (Brazil), evaluating the diversity and prices of these products in different marketing channels, such as supermarkets, grocery stores and organic farmers markets. It also compares the price of organic products with conventional products in these establishments. The results demonstrated that organic farmers markets had the greatest product diversity, in addition tobetter prices. It concluded that this channel valorises organic family production, helping to empower producers and promoting access to healthy food for local consumers, meeting the goals of Organic 3.0

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Role and importance of polymorphisms with respect to DNA methylation for the expression of CYP2E1 enzyme

Different individuals possess slightly different genetic information and show genetically-determined differences in several enzyme activities due to genetic variability. Following an integrated approach,we studied the polymorphisms andmethylation of sites contained in the 5′ flanking region of themetabolizing enzyme CYP2E1 in correlation to its expression in both tumor and non-neoplastic liver cell lines, since to date little is known about the influence of these (epi)genetic elements in basal conditions and under induction by the specific inductor and a demethylating agent. In treated cells, reduced DNA methylation, assessed both at genomic and gene level, was not consistently associatedwith the increase of enzyme expression. Interestingly, the Rsa/Pst haplotype differentially influenced CYP2E1 enzyme expression. In addition, regarding the Variable Number of Tandem Repeats polymorphism, cells with A4/A4 genotype showed a greater expression inhibition (ranging from 20% to 30%) compared with others carrying the A2/A2 one, while those cells bringing A2/A3 genotype showed an increase of expression (of 25%, about). Finally, we demonstrated for the first time that the A2 and A3 CYP2E1 alleles play a more important role in the expression of the enzyme, compared with other (epi)genetic factors, since they are binding sites for trans-acting proteins

Visualizing climate change impact with ubiquitous spatial technologies

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Amyloid‐beta induces different expression pattern of tissue transglutaminase and its isoforms on olfactory ensheathing cells: Modulatory effect of indicaxanthin

Herein, we assessed the effect of full native peptide of amyloid‐beta (Aβ) (1‐42) and its fragments (25‐35 and 35‐25) on tissue transglutaminase (TG2) and its isoforms (TG2‐Long and TG2‐ Short) expression levels on olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs). Vimentin and glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) were also studied. The effect of the pre‐treatment with indicaxanthin from Opuntia ficus‐indica fruit on TG2 expression levels and its isoforms, cell viability, total reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide anion (O2−), and apoptotic pathway activation was assessed. The levels of Nestin and cyclin D1 were also evaluated. Our findings highlight that OECs exposure to Aβ(1‐ 42) and its fragments induced an increase in TG2 expression levels and a different expression pattern of its isoforms. Indicaxanthin pre‐treatment reduced TG2 overexpression, modulating the expression of TG2 isoforms. It reduced total ROS and O2− production, GFAP and Vimentin levels, inhibiting apoptotic pathway activation. It also induced an increase in the Nestin and cyclin D1 expression levels. Our data demonstrated that indicaxanthin pre‐treatment stimulated OECs self-renewal through the reparative activity played by TG2. They also suggest that Aβ might modify TG2 conformation in OECs and that indicaxanthin pre‐treatment might modulate TG2 conformation, stimulating neural regeneration in Alzheimer’s disease

Arsenite sorption and co-precipitation with calcite

Sorption of As(III) by calcite was investigated as a function of As(III) concentration, time and pH. The sorption isotherm, i.e. the log As(III) vs. log [As(OH)3 degrees / Assat] plot is S-shaped and has been modelled on an extended version of the surface precipitation model. At low concentrations, As(OH)3 degrees is adsorbed by complexation to surface Ca surface sites, as previously described by the X-ray standing wave technique. The inflexion point of the isotherm, where As(OH)3 degrees is limited by the amount of surface sites (ST), yields 6 sites nm-2 in good agreement with crystallographic data. Beyond this value, the amount of sorbed arsenic increases linearly with solution concentration, up to the saturation of arsenic with respect to the precipitation of CaHAsO3(s). The solid solutions formed in this concentration range were examined by X-ray and neutron diffraction. The doped calcite lattice parameters increase with arsenic content while c/a ratio remains constant. Our results made on bulk calcite on the atomic displacement of As atoms along [0001] direction extend those published by Cheng et al., (1999) on calcite surface. This study provides a molecular-level explanation for why As(III) is trapped by calcite in industrial treatments.Comment: 9 page