Presencia de aminas biógenas en los alimentos. Diseño de un laboratorio para su detección y uso en el control de la calidad alimentaria.

Universidad de Oviedo Las aminas biógenas (AB) se definen como bases nitrogenadas de bajo peso molecular que poseen actividad biológica. En determinados alimentos, estos compuestos se originan principalmente por la descarboxilación de algunos aminoácidos debido a la actividad descarboxilasa de ciertos microorganimos y se degradan o excretan formando parte normal del metabolismo de plantas, animales y humanos. Poseen importantes funciones fisiológicas como la regulación de la temperatura corporal, la actividad cerebral, la respuesta inmune o el crecimiento y la diferenciación celular. Las AB más importantes son la histamina, la tiramina, la putrescina y cadaverina. De éstas, la histamina posee la mayor actividad biológica. Están presentes en un amplio rango de alimentos, pudiendo alcanzar altas concentraciones, especialmente en ciertos tipos de quesos. Tras la ingesta, en las personas sanas se produce una detoxificación rápida a través de las monoamino oxidasas y las diamino oxidasas en los enterocitos. Sin embargo, cuando concentraciones altas de AB son consumidas o cuando las personas tienen reducida su capacidad de detoxificación, puede provocar intoxicaciones que desencadenen procesos toxicológicos como náuseas, dolores de cabeza, taquicardia, etc. Aunque todavía no existe una legislación que regule el contenido de AB en alimentos fermentados, se recomienda reducir su presencia en los mismos. Por esta razón, el diseño de un laboratorio que permita la rápida detección y cuantificación tanto de AB como de sus microorganismos productores es necesario. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se proponen como herramientas para la detección de AB en alimentos, la PCR cuantitativa a tiempo real y la cromatografía líquida de ultra alta presión (UHPLC).Peer Reviewe

La estrategia de comunicación de Qatar y la resolución del conflicto diplomático en el Golfo

On the 5th of June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced the rupture of diplomatic relations and the closure of borders with Qatar in response to its alleged support for terrorist activities destabilising the region. In order to revert the situation, 13 demands were made, which Qatar refuses to meet. Qatar was isolated within the Gulf Cooperation Council and its international image was damaged, particularly after the Trump Administration backed the blockade. In these trying circumstances, Qatar has managed to resist by developing a public diplomacy that integrates the analogue and digital environments in which communications play a vital role. Qatar has protested its innocence before regional and international public opinion, and it has denounced the anti-Qatar campaign and fake news stories that flooded social media, particularly Twitter, before and during the first months of the crisis. It has developed a communication strategy showing its willingness to open dialogue, respect for international bodies where it defended its cause, together with diplomatic activities reinforcing its positions before very diverse actors such as the United States, international bodies, Kuwait and Turkey. Qatar used this strategy to transform its online influence into offline diplomatic influence until it succeeded in getting Kuwait to act as mediator, with the support of the United States, in order to put an end to the blockade, which was the top goal of its foreign policy

The influence of television stories on narrative abilities in children

This research explores the narrative abilities demonstrated by children aged between 8 and 12 in the production of television stories. The results reveal that not all television stories viewed by children foster the informal education process. One type of story, termed narrativizing, enables children to produce coherent stories which clearly articulate the causal, temporal and motivational relations, as well as the means-end structures, the proximal relations of the intrigue and the distal relations of the plot. Other television stories, denarrativizing stories, tend to induce disarrangements and incoherence at all structural levels of the stories produced by children. This in turn hampers the development of their narrative abilities, which are necessary to the correct development of narrative thought. These results indicate the need to exercise social control over this latter type of fictional television narrative, to which children are exposed throughout their development within the framework of informal education.University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), EHU 13/65 Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), GIU 15/14 Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), UFI 11/04 MINECO. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, BES-2015-071923 Fondo Social Europeo, BES-2015-07192

Regional devolopment and solidarity in Spain: the relationship between the E.C. and the internal solidarity funds.

This paper will analyse the importance that the Regional Solidarity Funds have acquired in the financial systems of those Autonomous Communities able to benefit from them, and the influence that these Funds have had in their development. In addition, the special role that Structural Funds have had in order to bring the Autonomous Communities’ development in line with the average level of the European Member States will be referred to. Then, the different EC tools that are connected with regional development will be described and analysed; next, the Spanish regions that have benefited from these tools since Spain joined the European Union in 1986 will be studied. The Internal Solidarity Funds and their relationship with the EC Structural Funds will also be analysed. The effects of these mechanisms will be examined from three different points of view. First of all, the impact of these resources on the regional financial system will be considered; secondly, the coordination between the EC Structural Funds and the Internal Solidarity Funds, and the impact of this relationship will be analysed; and finally, whether or not these mechanisms are efficient enough to achieve the aim of regional unity will be determined, and their influence in different areas of production will also be observed. Key words: Fiscal Federalism, Spanish Autonomous Communities, Structural Funds, Inter-regional Solidarity. JEL Codes: H7, H77.

The MOOC phenomenon: the current situation and an alternative business model

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a recent phenomenon that has achieved great media impact in the world of e-learning since the most prestigious US universities, and subsequently many others, became involved in them. In the last ten years changes that have occurred since the emergence of the Web 2.0, with the development of Open Social Learning (OSL) and the rise of OpenCourseWare (OER), leading to the MOOC phenomenon. Initially, and as part of this OER movement, MOOC began with the intention of providing open knowledge to people, with the understanding that it should be an asset to humanity (UNESCO 2012). In this paper we present a descriptive overview of the MOOC movement from its beginnings to the different business models being proposed

Levantar el burka: las mujeres afganas y su realidad a través de la pantalla

Análisis histórico, social, religioso y cultural de la realidad de las mujeres afganas más allá del reconocido símbolo identitario del burka, levantándolo y observando la verdadera cara de las mujeres que hay bajo él a través de diferentes fuentes y utilizando el cine como herramienta de conocimiento en discursos y situaciones. Tres películas sirven a este objetivo: A las cinco de la tarde, el filme de Samira Makhmalbaf en el que una mujer afgana intenta por todos los medios lograr su espacio en la política del país; Kandahar, de Mosen Makhmalbaf, donde podemos ver en qué condiciones acceden las mujeres a la salud o conocer la diáspora femenina afgana; y Buda explotó por vergüenza, de la pequeña de la familia, Hana, en la que, a través de una fábula, una niña hace lo imposible por asistir a la escuela.This project carries out a historical, social, religious and cultural analysis of the Afghan women’s reality beyond the universally recognized symbol of the burka, aiming to lift it and see the true faces of the women hidden behind, using different sources and especially the cinema as a key tool to understand discourses and situations. With that objective in mind, three films are the focus of attention: At Five in the Afternoon (Panj e asr) by Samira Makhmalbaf, a film in which an Afghan woman tries her best to get her own space into the political field of her country; Kandahar by Mosen Makhmalbaf Where we see the conditions under which women’s health is treated or discover the female diaspora; and Buddha collapsed out of shame (Buda as sharm forurikht) by Hana Makhmalbaf ―the youngest member of the family― a fable in which a girl tries by all means to attend school

Analysis of the alignment of Spanish Master’s programs to US National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework

II Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en Ciberseguridad, Granada, 15-17 de junio de 2016Building an adequate cybersecurity workforce is an strategic goal of main international stakeholders. Addressing this task passes through adapting graduate and undergraduate curricula so they are aligned to professional and research needs. In this work we present the preliminary results of analyzing the alignment of 25 Spanish cybersecurity Master’s programs to the cyber roles specified in the US National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. Our results suggest that there is no significant alignment between both data sets.This work was supported by the MINECO grant TIN2013-46469-R (SPINY: Security and Privacy in the Internet of You) and by the CAM grant S2013/ICE-3095 (CIBERDINE: Cybersecurity: data, information and risk)

Does diversity in top management teams contribute to organizational performance? The response of IBEX 35 companies

This study contributes to the spread of theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding the Upper Echelons Theory, considering the training and demographic diversity in the Top Management Team (TMT) as a singular characteristic of each company, in our case those belonging to the IBEX35 index. Taking into account the skills of the members, a greater financial performance is expected. Once we obtained the statistical results, we concluded that the inclusion of women in the TMT increased Net Sales and EBITDA. Features such as age, training and nationality are also examined in this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The financial performance of an innovative megaproject

The financial structure of megaprojects, known in the literature as project finance, is characterized by the creation of a legally independent project company financed with a concentrated equity ownership and a high level of non-recourse debt. Research in this field may yield new ideas and theories about the existing theoretical framework on capital structure, stakeholder management and risk management. A case-study is analyzed in this paper: the financial performance of the first metro line in Seville (Spain). In spite of previous cost overruns in the construction stage, the present operation stage is considered successful from the point of view of social and financial profitability, whereby the risks have been theoretically transferred to stakeholders, as defined by Value for Money considerations. The objective of this study involves: first to determine whether this megaproject meets the expectations for which it was created in terms of hope of return of the shareholders, and the expectations of the economic and financial feasibility under a change of subsidy policies; and secondly to determine whether the conditions remain for not including the investment as public debt. This issue is crucial in a budgetary constraint context for the planning of future metro lines. By taking this first experience into account, this article also provides information for potential participants in the projects of the new metro lines, which are currently in the planning stage