Environmental Product Declarations: exploring their evolution and the factors affecting their demand in Europe

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study conducted with the aim of analysing the evolution of the use of Environmental Declarations as environmental communication tool in Europe. Previous research has been done in this field focused on analysing differences among Environmental Declaration Programmes, comparison of Product Category Rules and Environmental Declarations for specific product categories, etc. However, the knowledge of the factors affecting their demand from a company perspective is a key aspect for the Environmental Declaration Programmes managers, since it would allow them to orientate future strategies for increasing their implementation. After analysing the evolution of Product Category Rules and Environmental Product Declarations developed in the International EPD® Programme, a survey was designed and distributed to companies that currently had Environmental Product Declarations in that programme. The collected information was related to: factors that led the company to choose the International EPD® Programme as an environmental communication tool, communication channels through which companies came to know about the programme, the target public of the Environmental Product Declarations, whether or not companies intend to renew the current Environmental Product Declarations and the reasons for not doing so if that is the case, etc. Communicating objective information and improvement of the corporate identity of the company have been identified as the main factors for adopting International EPD® Programme as environmental communication tool. On the contrary, the main weakness identified is the lack of knowledge about EPD programmes in general, by consumers.Ibáñez-Forés, V.; Pacheco-Blanco, B.; Capuz-Rizo, SF.; Bovea, M. (2016). Environmental Product Declarations: exploring their evolution and the factors affecting their demand in Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production. (116):157-169. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.12.078S15716911

Numerical study and experimental validation of the water films and the detachment of drops on drift eliminators

Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health hazards. Generation and control of drift depends mostly on the drift eliminator, a device installed in mechanical cooling towers to prevent the escape of droplets (drift). These eliminators induce a rapid alternation of direction changes, and then the droplets cannot follow the path lines of the airflow within the channels of the eliminator and impact on the plates of it, falling back to the cooling tower ground. This paper focuses on the numerical study of a type of drift eliminator, validated by experimental tests. Three main aspects are considered: the water film formed on the plates of drift eliminators, the size of water droplets detached from this film and the condition of the detachment of these droplets. Good agreement is obtained between numerical and experimental results. The study shows that the behavior of water droplets is very influenced by the air velocity inside the cooling tower.This research is sponsored by the Spanish Government (Projects ENE2010-21679-C02-01 and -02), as well as by the Seneca-Agency for Science and Technology of the Region of Murcia, Spain (Project 15184/PI/10)

Hybrid model using logit and nonparametric methods for predicting micro-entity failure

Following the calls from literature on bankruptcy, a parsimonious hybrid bankruptcy model is developed in this paper by combining parametric and non-parametric approaches.To this end, the variables with the highest predictive power to detect bankruptcy are selected using logistic regression (LR). Subsequently, alternative non-parametric methods (Multilayer Perceptron, Rough Set, and Classification-Regression Trees) are applied, in turn, to firms classified as either “bankrupt” or “not bankrupt”. Our findings show that hybrid models, particularly those combining LR and Multilayer Perceptron, offer better accuracy performance and interpretability and converge faster than each method implemented in isolation. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that the introduction of non-financial and macroeconomic variables complement financial ratios for bankruptcy predictio

Evaluation of lasting effects of heat stress on sperm profile and oxidative status of ram semen and epididymal sperm

Higher temperatures lead to an increase of testicular metabolism that results in spermatic damage. Oxidative stress is the main factor responsible for testicular damage caused by heat stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate lasting effects of heat stress on ejaculated sperm and immediate or long-term effects of heat stress on epididymal sperm. We observed decrease in motility and mass motility of ejaculated sperm, as well as an increase in the percentages of sperm showing major and minor defects, damaged plasma and acrosome membranes, and a decrease in the percentage of sperm with high mitochondrial membrane potential in the treated group until one spermatic cycle. An increased enzymatic activity of glutathione peroxidase and an increase of stressed cells were observed in ejaculated sperm of the treated group. A decrease in the percentage of epididymal sperm with high mitochondrial membrane potential was observed in the treated group. However, when comparing immediate and long-term effects, we observed an increase in the percentage of sperm with low mitochondrial membrane potential. In conclusion, testicular heat stress induced oxidative stress that led to rescuable alterations after one spermatic cycle in ejaculated sperm and also after 30 days in epididymal sperm

Desarrollo de la técnica de FICTION como nueva herramienta para el diagnóstico precoz de cáncer de pulmón

El cáncer de pulmón es una de las causas de muerte más frecuentes en el mundo occidental. La supervivencia global de los pacientes no supera el 15% a los 5 años, debido principalmente a que la mayor parte de los casos se diagnostican en estadios avanzados. Además de la prevención primaria, mediante la reducción del consumo de tabaco, son necesarias nuevas tecnologías para el diagnóstico precoz de la enfermedad. Estudios recientes han demostrado que el TAC helicoidal del tórax es efectivo en la detección de nódulos pulmonares malignos en estadios precoces. En la actualidad se está valorando su eficacia en series amplias de pacientes de alto riesgo. Recientemente se ha desarrollado una nueva técnica de citogenética molecular, el FICTION (Fluorescence Immunophenotyping and Interphase Cytogenetics as a Tool for the Investigation of Neoplasms). Esta técnica permite el análisis simultáneo de marcadores inmunofenotípicos y alteraciones genéticas presentes en las células tumorales. El objetivo de nuestro proyecto es su puesta a punto para el estudio de muestras de esputo y lavado broncoalveolar de pacientes con cáncer de pulmón. El fin último es estudiar la posibilidad de que esta técnica pueda ser utilizada, junto con el TAC helicoidal, en programas de detección precoz de cáncer de pulmón, para pacientes de alto riesgo. En este trabajo presentamos una revisión de la contribución de las distintas técnicas de citogenética al estudio del cáncer de pulmón y la metodología de trabajo que vamos a llevar a cabo en nuestro proyecto

Solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas (SPPT). Still an unsolved enigma

Solid pseudo-papillary tumor (SPPT) is a rare cystic tumor of the pancreas (1-3% of exocrine tumors of the pancreas) which shows an “enigmatic” behavior on the clinical and molecular pattern. A retrospective analysis of the citological studies and resected specimens of pancreatic cystic tumors from May 1996 to February 2010 was carried out. Three cases of SPPT were found, which are the objective of this study. The diagnosis was established upon occasional finding in the abdominal CT, in spite of sizing between 3 and 6 cm of diameter. In the three cases the preoperative diagnosis was confirmed by citology and specific immunohistochemical staining. Cases 2 and 3 showed strong immunoreactivity for Beta-Catenina and E-Cadherina staining. Radical resection (R0) was carried out in the three cases. A young male –21 years of age (case 1)- who had duodenal infiltration and two lymph nodes metastases died of hepatic and peritoneal recurrence 20 months following surgery. The other two cases are free of disease. The current review of the literature reports roughly 800 cases since the first report in 1959, and shows the enigmatic character of this tumor regarding the cellular origin, molecular pathways, prognostic factors and clinical behavior

Identification of importin (IPO-8) as the most accurate reference gene for the clinicopathological analysis of lung specimens

Abstract Background: The accurate normalization of differentially expressed genes in lung cancer is essential for the identification of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers by real time RT-PCR and microarrays. Although classical "housekeeping" genes, such as GAPDH, HPRT1, and beta-actin have been widely used in the past, their accuracy as reference genes for lung tissues has not been proven. Results: We have conducted a thorough analysis of a panel of 16 candidate reference genes for lung specimens and lung cell lines. Gene expression was measured by quantitative real time RTPCR and expression stability was analyzed with the softwares GeNorm and NormFinder, mean of |ΔCt| (= |Ct Normal-Ct tumor|) ± SEM, and correlation coefficients among genes. Systematic comparison between candidates led us to the identification of a subset of suitable reference genes for clinical samples: IPO8, ACTB, POLR2A, 18S, and PPIA. Further analysis showed that IPO8 had a very low mean of |ΔCt| (0.70 ± 0.09), with no statistically significant differences between normal and malignant samples and with excellent expression stability. Conclusion: Our data show that IPO8 is the most accurate reference gene for clinical lung specimens. In addition, we demonstrate that the commonly used genes GAPDH and HPRT1 are inappropriate to normalize data derived from lung biopsies, although they are suitable as reference genes for lung cell lines. We thus propose IPO8 as a novel reference gene for lung cancer samples

Edelfosine lipid nanosystems overcome drug resistance in leukemic cell lines

Although current therapies have improved leukemia survival rates, adverse drug effects and relapse are frequent. Encapsulation of edelfosine (ET) in lipid nanoparticles (LN) improves its oral bioavailability and decreases its toxicity. Here we evaluated the efficacy of ET-LN in myeloid leukemia cell lines. Drug-loaded LN were as effective as free ET in sensitive leukemia cell lines. Moreover, the encapsulated drug overcame the resistance of the K562 cell line to the drug. LN containing ET might be used as a promising drug delivery system in leukemia due to their capacity to overcome the in vivo pitfalls of the free drug and their efficacy in vitro in leukemia cell lines