El futur de la genètica en l'alimentació

The future of genetics in foods.Applying genetics to food goes back to the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry. Currently, two new genetic technologies, genetic engineering and genomics, are a major breakthrough in basic and applied studies on food and nutrition. However, their globalization is hindered by the lack of knowledge many citizens have about the use of these techniques. Far from seeing them as tools able to solve the problematic future of nutrition, they believe they are a danger, putting our lives, ecosystems and economic independence at risk. What truth is there in all this? This article will discuss the impact these new genetic technologies have onnutrition

Los transgénicos en la alimentación

Contrariamente a lo que mucha gente piensa, emplear genética en la alimentación y la nutrición no es nuevo. Desde hace 12000 años, en los albores de la agricultura y la ganadería, el hombre, ha mejorado las razas de animales de granja y las variedades vegetales comestibles utilizando técnicas genéticas (García Olmedo, 2009). Comenzó domesticando estos organismos y acabó mejorándolos mediante el empleo de genética (Reichholf, 2009). Para ello utilizó varias técnicas. De entre todas ellas las más utilizadas han sido la hibridación, conocida como cruce sexual, y la aparición de mutantes espontáneos, también llamada variabilidad natural

Transgénicos, nutrigenética y nutrigenómica en alimentación

L'article explica l'abast dels termes relatius a la biotecnologia alimentària, i va dirigit als consumidors interessats a comprendre les noves àrees del coneixement sobre els aliments i als professionals del sector que volen estar al dia de les noves tecnologies i de les orientacions que cal seguir en un futur proper.This article explains the range of the different terms related to food biotechnology. It is addressed to consumers interested in understanding new areas of knowledge with regard to food and to professionals of this sector who want to be up-to-date in the new technologies and the directions that will be followed in the upcoming future

Daniel Ramón Vidal: "Als científics, se'ns veu com a freaks"

Daniel Ramon és director científic i conseller delegat de l'empresa biotecnològica Biópolis S.L., i també conseller delegat en una altra, Lifesequencing S.L., dedicada a la seqüenciació genòmica massiva, dues iniciatives empresarials situades al Parc Científic de la Universitat de València. Però abans d'estar en la primera línia empresarial, Ramón va fer carrera acadèmica com a catedràtic de Tecnologia dels Aliments de la Universitat de València, on prèviament s'havia llicenciat i doctorat en Ciències Biològiques. Ha exercit també de professor d'investigació a l'Institut d'Agroquímica i Tecnologia d'Aliments (IATA). Aquest científic, d'itinerari professional singular, és, a més, membre del Comitè Científic de l'Agència Espanyola de Seguretat Alimentària i Nutrició, i del Consell Rector del Consell Superior d'Investigacions Científiques. El seu treball Els gens que mengem, publicat el 1997, que va rebre el premi europeu de divulgació científica Estudi General, és un assaig sobre la biotecnologia dels aliments. El 2007, el Ministeri de Ciència li va atorgar el Premi Nacional d'Investigació Juan de la Cierva

Effect of renewable energy-generation technologies on electricity prices

The integration of renewable-generation technologies in the energy mix is crucial for the achievement of the goals settled regarding technological development, environmental sustainability, energy dependence and security of supply. Favourable regulatory frameworks have been established in Spain during the last decades with the aim of encouraging the investment in renewable technologies. But, and moreover, further benefits are said to be achieved with high penetration rates of renewables into the electric markets. There is evidence supporting the fact that electricity prices are cheapened because of the participation of renewable generation plants in the Day-ahead Market of electricity. Thus, the aim of this thesis has been devoted to study the implications renewable generation has on the prices of electricity and their respective impact on its sustainability. Simulations of the auction process carried out at the 2017 Daily Market of electricity were performed for two different scenarios regarding the energy mix: one such as that of 2017 and other identical to this, but with no renewable generation. The results obtained confirmed the fact that renewables undersell electricity prices. For year 2017, the presence of renewable generation units in the Day-ahead Market of electricity cheapened final electricity prices by 7,5%. This is due to the fact that renewable generation units sell their energy at quasi-zero prices, as a result of their low opportunity costs compared with fuel-based generation technologies. However, the savings generated by this cheapening of prices could not cover all the regulated costs associated to the specific remuneration provided to renewable technologies. Still, it must not be forgotten that year 2017 in Spain was extraordinarily bad regarding renewable generation, due to the poor production of hydraulic power stations, resulting from the severe droughts that took place during that year. These results were compared with those published by APPA, an association of firms operating in the renewables sector, and several conclusions were drawn. The results of the simulations performed in this thesis under Simple Bidding conditions converged almost totally with those published in the report (97% similarity in prices and 100% in savings). Therefore, it was concluded that there was enough evidence to believe the figures published by APPA , regarding the prices cheapening and savings generated by renewables, might have been computed under Simple Bidding conditions. These figures sized the prices reduction in the Day-ahead Market at 16,4% while the actual computed cheapening under Complex Conditions was of 12,1%. As additional implementations, it would be interesting to extend the study period to the last ten years, so that trends regarding the cheapening of electricity prices due to renewables integration can be drafted and analysed. This way, further implications of renewables integration on the system’s costs and prospects could be outlined.Ingeniería de la Energí

Improvements in CO2 Booster Architectures with Different Economizer Arrangements.

CO2 transcritical booster architectures are widely analyzed to be applied in centralized commercial refrigeration plants in consonance with the irrevocable phase-out of HFCs. Most of these analyses show the limitations of CO2 cycles in terms of energy e ciency, especially in warm countries. From the literature, several improvements have been proposed to raise the booster e ciency in high ambient temperatures. The use of economizers is an interesting technique to reduce the temperature after the gas cooler and to improve the energy e ciency of transcritical CO2 cycles. The economizer cools down the high pressure’s line of CO2 by evaporating the same refrigerant extracted from another point of the facility. Depending on the extraction point, some configurations are possible. In this work, di erent booster architectures with economizers have been analyzed and compared. From the results, the combination of the economizer with the additional compressor allows obtaining energy savings of up to 8.5% in warm countries and up to 4% in cold countries with regard to the flash-by-pass arrangement and reduce the volumetric displacement required of the MT compressors by up to 37%

Experimental determination of the optimum working conditions of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration plant with integrated mechanical subcooling

Subcooling methods for transcritical CO2 plants are being studied in order to improve their behavior. Among them, the Integrated Mechanical Subcooling system is one of the most promising owing that performs with high efficiency and it is a total-CO2 system. This work presents the experimental determination of the optimum working conditions of a transcritical CO2 plant working with an integrated mechanical subcooling system. The plant was tested at different pressure and subcooling conditions in order to optimize the COP of the plant and determine the optimal conditions for three ambient temperatures 25.0 °C, 30.4 °C and 35.1 °C and evaporation levels between −15.6 °C and −4.1 °C. Optimum operating conditions were determined and two correlations are proposed to determine the optimal pressure and subcooling as function the gas-cooler outlet temperature and the evaporation level

A modo de presentación. La Renta Básica: ¿Una propuesta justa, razonable y posible?

The initiative of a basic income for Spanish citizens is gaining momentum in the public opinion. It has even entered in the agendas of decision-makers. A Parliamentary Sub-Commission has recently been created for that purpose in Spain. A presentation of the proposal on the basic income by the President of the Basic Income Network of Spain and the Direction of RIPP is firstly offered. Secondly, a series of experts, from diverse political orientations and ideologies, are interviewed. They are questioned about an array of arguments against and in favor of this initiative, its theoretical precedents and the possibilitiesof its legal recognition.La iniciativa de una renta básica para los ciudadanos está calando en la opinión pública e incluso la agenda de los políticos. En España se ha creado al efecto recientemente una Subcomisión en el Parlamento. Tras la presentación de propuesta de la renta básica por el presidente de la Red Renta Básica de España y la dirección de RIPP, se entrevista a varios expertos en el tema, de diversas tendencias e ideologías, preguntándoles por los argumentos favorables y contrarios a la iniciativa, los precedentes teóricos y las posibilidades de su reconocimiento jurídico

Del Panamericanismo al ALCA : implicaciones para la UE y España

Una de las características más destacadas de la actual dinámica económica es el importante proceso de integración y convergencia económica que se está desarrollando a nivel mundial. Este fenómeno, que implica la supresión de las barreras arancelarias, un mayor número de acuerdos y, en definitiva, el incremento del volumen de transacciones internacionales, también ha afectado al continente Latinoamericano. El Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA), destaca como un proyecto de la máxima importancia para conseguir estos objetivos para la región. El presente artículo analiza las implicaciones que dicho proyecto supone para la Unión Europea y, en particular, para España, país con mayor presencia inversora en el continente