Dwellings and sustainability in Riviera Maya: the overflows of tourism

Access to urban land of the tourist 1cities 2towns of the Mexican Caribbean demonstrates an 1unequal 2unfair and fragmented configuration where social housing embodies responses that, with uncertain degree of sustainability, reproduces inequitable conditions on the exercise of the right to the town. This study presents the results of the recognition of this particular production of residential borders in localities of Quintana Roo, Mexico: Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Tulúm, by taking into account not only the physical materialization and urban configuration but also its social value. These dwellings involve comprehensive recognition that is based on the hypothesis that all manifestations of urban precariousness imply an unsustainable expression in its configuration: as can be observed in the Mayan coastal habitat.El acceso al suelo urbano en las ciudades turísticas del Caribe mexicano evidencia una configuración desigual y fragmentaria, donde la vivienda social materializa respuestas que, con diverso grado de sostenibilidad, reproduce condiciones inequitativas en el ejercicio del derecho a la ciudad. El trabajo se centra en la presentación de los resultados del reconocimiento de esa particular producción de bordes residenciales en localidades de Quintana Roo, México: Cozumel, Playa del Carmen y Tulúm, atendiendo tanto a su materialización física y configuración urbana cuanto a su valoración social. Estas manifestaciones habitacionales implican un reconocimiento integral, que parte de la hipótesis de que toda manifestación de precariedad urbana lleva implícita una expresión de insustentabilidad en su configuración, hecho que resulta evidenciado en el hábitat costero maya

Identification of Illicit Conservation Treatments in Fresh Fish by Micro-Raman Spectroscopy and Chemometric Methods

In the field of food control for fresh products, the identification of foods subjected to illicit conservation treatments to extend their shelf life is fundamental. Fresh fish products are particularly subjected to this type of fraud due to their high commercial value and the fact that they often have to be transported over a long distance, keeping their organoleptic characteristics unaltered. Treatments of this type involve, e.g., the bleaching of the meat and/or the momentary abatement of the microbial load, while the degradation process continues. It is therefore important to find rapid methods that allow the identification of illicit treatments. The study presented here was performed on 24 sea bass samples divided into four groups: 12 controls (stored on ice in the fridge for 3 or 24 h), and 12 treated with a Cafodos-like solution for 3 or 24 h. Muscle and skin samples were then characterized using micro-Raman spectroscopy. The data were pre-processed by smoothing and taking the first derivative and then PLS-DA models were built to identify short- and long- term effects on the fish's muscle and skin. All the models provided the perfect classification of the samples both in fitting and cross-validation and an analysis of the bands responsible for the effects was also reported. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time Raman spectroscopy has been applied for the identification of a Cafodos-like illicit treatment, focusing on both fish muscle and skin evaluation. The procedure could pave the way for a future application directly on the market through the use of a portable device

Effect of the αs1-casein genotype and its interaction with diet degradability on milk production, milk quality, metabolic and endocrinal response of Girgentana goats

We studied interaction between diet degradability and genotype at CSN1S1 locus in lactating goats.•We evaluated productive, metabolic and hormonal response of goats at different αs1-casein genotype.•Little effect of diet degradability and interaction with genotype on production and quality.•Higher milk yield, casein percentage and lower urea in goats with strong alleles at CSN1S1 locus.•Higher tyroid hormones in goats with strong alleles

Il concetto di ordinamento tra 'commandement' e 'arrangement' nella sociologia di Auguste Comte

Sociologia e antiformalismo nell'Ordinamento giuridico di Santi Roman

Open Science for a shared and collaborative knowledge

The conventional model of “Scholarly communication”, based on the publication in "tall access" journals and by preference in high-Impact Factor journals, has distorted over time, if not betrayed, its original vocation, that is to "communicate" science. The year 1665 is often cited, being the year of birth of the Journal des Sçavans in France and of Philosophical Transactions in England, published by Henry Oldenburg to present advances in scientific research to members of the Royal Society. It is the founding date of the first scientific journals and marks the starting point of the privileged circuit for sharing scientific knowledge and encouraging the so-called "Great Conversation" of science. This debate among scientists should be the true essence and the raison d’être of Scholarly Communication. Since then, unfortunately, academic publishing has turned into a real business, "the most profitable obsolete technology in history", dominated by the "Big Five", a cartel of the five publishing groups (Reed Elsevier, Wiley- Blackwell, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Sage) which rank in the highest positions in the international scientific publishing market, both in terms of profit margins (38% of Reed Elsevier's net profit), and the number of articles published every year, with a price spiral in subscription costs that peaked at 402% for the period 1986-2011. Economic barriers are only one of the obstacles that restrict access to research findings. Paradoxically, although huge economic investments are made by the institutions to enable the academic community to do research, much of the scientific literature is actually inaccessible. Jon Tennant remarks: "we spend 1/3 of the total global research budget (£59/175bn) in publishing and communicating results that 99% of people cannot access"

Congenital myopathies: Clinical phenotypes and new diagnostic tools

Congenital myopathies are a group of genetic muscle disorders characterized clinically by hypotonia and weakness, usually from birth, and a static or slowly progressive clinical course. Historically, congenital myopathies have been classified on the basis of major morphological features seen on muscle biopsy. However, different genes have now been identified as associated with the various phenotypic and histological expressions of these disorders, and in recent years, because of their unexpectedly wide genetic and clinical heterogeneity, next-generation sequencing has increasingly been used for their diagnosis. We reviewed clinical and genetic forms of congenital myopathy and defined possible strategies to improve cost-effectiveness in histological and imaging diagnosis

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference