Suchergebnisse

(https://politikon.es)El artículo de "El consenso de la inmersión lingüística: realidad o mito" (Garvía y San-tana 2018), publicado por Politikon (https://politikon.es/2018/02/06/el-consenso-de-la-inmersion-linguistica-realidad-o-mito/) constituye una interesante aportación alconocimiento de las política lingüísticas educativas. Su lectura despierta sin embargouna serie de reflexiones que entendemos vale la pena compartir.

La reciente publicación, por parte de la Fundación Europea Sociedad y Educación, del estudio Efectos de la inmersión lingüística sobre el alumnado castellanoparlante en Cataluña, elaborado por los profesores de Economía de la Universitat de Barcelona Jorge Calero y Álvaro Choi (véase el resumen del mismo en Politikon), ha causado cierto revuelo mediático y político. En este trabajo, basado en los datos de la oleada 2015 del estudio PISA de la OCDE, los autores intentan dilucidar si los alumnos de lengua familiar castellana educados en Cataluña ven perjudicado su rendimiento académico como consecuencia del diseño del modelo lingüístico escolar vigente. Se trata de una pregunta no sólo legítima sino de obligada indagación en la evaluación de políticas públicas en cualquier sociedad democrática y, por lo tanto, su análisis no puede dejar de ser bienvenido.

Los trabajos que contiene este libro forman parte de la fase inicial de un proyecto sobre "escogencia tecnológica y empleo" que desde 1973 adelanta el grupo de Desarrollo Tecnológico de la Universidad de los Andes, conformado por profesores de las facultades de Ingeniería y Administración. El interés por los problemas de la tecnología en el desarrollo y subdesarrollo ha sido creciente en América Latina en los últimos años. El papel de la ciencia y la tecnología en el desarrollo, la dependencia tecnológica, los problemas asociados con la transferencia internacional de tecnología, entre otros, son temas que en la última década han cobrado vigencia en el medio económico y político latinoamericano y que analiza este libro en sus diferentes capítulos. ; The works contained in this book are part of the initial phase of a project on "technological choice and employment" carried out since 1973 by the Technological Development group of the Universidad de los Andes, made up of professors from the Engineering and Administration faculties. Interest in the problems of technology in development and underdevelopment has been growing in Latin America in recent years. The role of science and technology in development, technological dependence, the problems associated with the international transfer of technology, among others, are issues that in the last decade have gained validity in the Latin American economic and political environment and that analyzes this book in its different chapters.

Herein we hypothesise the positive effects of kojibiose (KJ), a prebiotic disaccharide, selected for reducing hepatic expression of inflammatory markers in vivo that could modulate the severity of saturated arachidic acid (ARa)-induced liver dysfunction in hyperglycaemic rats. Animals were fed daily (20 d) with ARa (0.3 mg) together or not with KJ (22 mg approximately 0.5 %, w/w diet). Glucose, total TAG and cholesterol contents and the phospholipid profile were determined in serum samples. Liver sections were collected for the expression (mRNA) of enzymes and innate biomarkers, and intrahepatic macrophage and T-cell populations were analysed by flow cytometry. ARa administration increased the proportion of liver to body weight that was associated with an increased (by 11 %) intrahepatic macrophage population. These effects were ameliorated when feeding with KJ, which also normalised the plasmatic levels of TAG and N-acyl-phosphatidylethenolamine in response to tissue damage. These results indicate that daily supplementation of KJ significantly improves the severity of ARa-induced hepatic alterations. ; M. H. thanks MICINN for his 'Ramón y Cajal' contract. This work was supported by grants AGL2011-25169, AGL2011-27884 and Consolider Fun-C-Food CSD2007-00063 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN, Spain). M. D.-M. is supported by the High Research Council of the Spanish Government (CSIC) through JAE-Pre Programme, co-funded by European Social Fund (ESF). ; Peer Reviewed

Recent literature on no-till is reviewed with particular emphasis on research on commercial uptake and environmental concerns in northern, western and south-western Europe. Increased interest in no-till, and minimum or reduced tillage, results from changes in the economic circumstances of crop production, the opportunity to increase the area of more profitable autumn-sown crops and increased concern about environmental damage associated with soil inversion by ploughing. Highly contrasting soil and climate types within and between these regions exert a strong influence on the success of no-till. While no-till may often result in crop yields which equal or exceed those obtained after ploughing, modest reductions in yield may be tolerated if production costs are lower than with ploughing. The relative costs of fuel and herbicides have changed appreciably in recent years making no-till more attractive commercially. While effective weed control is an essential aspect of no-till, current herbicide technology may not yet fully achieve this. In northern regions no-till usually allows earlier drilling of winter-sown crops but will give lower soil temperature and higher moisture content in spring, causing delayed drilling of spring-sown crops. No-till soils have greater bulk density and bearing capacity than ploughed soils with a pronounced vertical orientation of macroporosity allowing penetration of roots and water, especially in view of the increased population of deep-burrowing earthworms. Particular care must be taken with no-till to minimise soil damage at harvest and to ensure the even distribution of crop residues prior to drilling. Reduced erosion and runoff after adoption of no-till are widely observed and are of particular importance in southwestern Europe. No-till reduces losses of phosphorus in runoff and, in some cases, reduces the loss of nitrate through leaching. Emissions of greenhouse gases CO2 and N2O from no-till soils are highly variable and depend on complex interactions of soil properties. Emission of CO2 from fuel during machinery usage is always appreciably reduced with no-till. Increased soil organic carbon in surface layers of no-till soils is widely found but may not be associated with increased carbon sequestration throughout the profile. The evaluation of the relative carbon balance for no-till and ploughing depends upon complex inter-relationships between soil and climate factors which are as yet poorly understood. Adoption of no-till could be encouraged by government financial assistance in recognition of environmental benefits, although future restrictions on the use of herbicides may be a deterrent. Opportunities for further research on no-till are outlined. 2 2

Recent literature on no-till is reviewed with particular emphasis on research on commercial uptake and environmental concerns in northern, western and south-western Europe. Increased interest in no-till, and minimum or reduced tillage, results from changes in the economic circumstances of crop production, the opportunity to increase the area of more profitable autumn-sown crops and increased concern about environmental damage associated with soil inversion by ploughing. Highly contrasting soil and climate types within and between these regions exert a strong influence on the success of no-till. While no-till may often result in crop yields which equal or exceed those obtained after ploughing, modest reductions in yield may be tolerated if production costs are lower than with ploughing. The relative costs of fuel and herbicides have changed appreciably in recent years making no-till more attractive commercially. While effective weed control is an essential aspect of no-till, current herbicide technology may not yet fully achieve this. In northern regions no-till usually allows earlier drilling of winter-sown crops but will give lower soil temperature and higher moisture content in spring, causing delayed drilling of spring-sown crops. Notill soils have greater bulk density and bearing capacity than ploughed soils with a pronounced vertical orientation of macroporosity allowing penetration of roots and water, especially in view of the increased population of deep-burrowing earthworms. Particular care must be taken with no-till to minimise soil damage at harvest and to ensure the even distribution of crop residues prior to drilling. Reduced erosion and runoff after adoption of no-till are widely observed and are of particular importance in southwestern Europe. No-till reduces losses of phosphorus in runoff and, in some cases, reduces the loss of nitrate through leaching. Emissions of greenhouse gases CO2 and N2O from no-till soils are highly variable and depend on complex interactions of soil properties. Emission of CO2 from fuel during machinery usage is always appreciably reduced with no-till. Increased soil organic carbon in surface layers of no-till soils is widely found but may not be associated with increased carbon sequestration throughout the profile. The evaluation of the relative carbon balance for no-till and ploughing depends upon complex inter-relationships between soil and climate factors which are as yet poorly understood. Adoption of no-till could be encouraged by government financial assistance in recognition of environmental benefits, although future restrictions on the use of herbicides may be a deterrent. Opportunities for further research on no-till are outlined. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Background] Food waste management is a key issue to global food security and friendly environmental governance. Worldwide, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted along the food supply chain, primary production and food processing representing the most significant loses. Therefore, the need to achieve zero waste production schemes is becoming a priority to meet Sustainable Development Goals. Increasing evidence points towards vegetable food waste as a rich source of a wide array of carbohydrate structures and fibres providing the opportunity to identify and develop alternative approaches to valorize agro-food waste. ; [Scope and approach] This review describes the valorization of vegetable waste and by-products via production of (novel) substrates targeted to gut microbiota modulation, emphasizing the importance of raw materials and structural-functional properties of carbohydrates. Furthermore, we propose a novel framework for the rational selection of vegetable sources with potential prebiotic activity, based on machine learning and other computational tools applied to available literature and public database information. ; [Key findings and conclusions] Integration of the body of knowledge within the field of vegetable food waste valorization, from different perspectives, allows a rational selection of carbohydrate-based substrates with promising prebiotic activities. By exploring the interactions among dietary fibre and gut microbial ecosystems using computational tools fed with structural, functional and genomic data, we can identify substrates with potential to selectively stimulate gut commensals, in agreement with experimental evidence. Our approach establishes a new framework that can be extended to a wide range of commensal microbes and carbohydrate structures. ; The work in our research groups was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 818368 (MASTER), and the grants RTI 2018-095021-J-I00 (funded by (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), AGL 2017-84614-C2-1-R and AGL 2016-78311-R (funded by (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE). Carlos Sabater acknowledges his Postdoctoral research contract funded by the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias (ISPA) and Postdoctoral research contract Juan de la Cierva-Formación from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJC 2019-042125-I). ; Peer reviewed