Biotech Innovation in Europe's Food and Drink Processing Industry: Promise, Barriers and Exploitation

Early optimism about the potential of biotechnology to contribute to "the production of food with improved quality and nutritional content" (ACOST, 1990) has waned in the face of consumer resistance to the use of genetically modified organisms in food. The European food and drink sector has not abandoned biotechnology, however, but it is being very selective in its use. Some of the current applications of biotechnology were not recognized in early predictions about the application of biotechnology to the food and drink sector.

To rank or to classify? Annotating stress for reliable PTSD profiling

In this paper we profile the stress responses of patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to individual events in the game-based PTSD stress inoculation and exposure virtual environment StartleMart. Thirteen veterans suffering from PTSD play the game while we record their skin conductance. Game logs are used to identify individual events, and continuous decomposition analysis is applied to the skin conductance signals to derive event-related stress responses. The extracted skin conductance features from this analysis are used to profile each individual player in terms of stress response. We observe a large degree of variation across the 13 veterans which further validates the idiosyncratic nature of PTSD physiological manifestations. Further to game data and skin conductance signals we ask PTSD patients to indicate the most stressful event experienced (class-based annotation) and also compare the stress level of all events in a pairwise preference manner (rankbased annotation).We compare the two annotation stress schemes by correlating the self-reports to individual event-based stress manifestations. The self-reports collected through class-based annotation exhibit no correlation to physiological responses, whereas, the pairwise preferences yield significant correlations to all skin conductance features extracted via continuous decomposition analysis. The core findings of the paper suggest that reporting of stress preferences across events yields more reliable data that capture aspects of the stress experienced and that features extracted from skin conductance via continuous decomposition analysis offer appropriate predictors of stress manifestation across PTSD patients.This research was supported by the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation and by the EU funded FP7 ICT iLearnRW project (project no: 318803). We thank the PTSD patients who chose to support our research with their participation.peer-reviewe

HRA*: Hybrid randomized path planning for complex 3D environments

Trabajo presentado al IROS celebrado en Tokyo del 3 al 7 de noviembre de 2013.We propose HRA*, a new randomized path planner for complex 3D environments. The method is a modified A* algorithm that uses a hybrid node expansion technique that combines a random exploration of the action space meeting vehicle kinematic constraints with a cost to goal metric that considers only kinematically feasible paths to the goal. The method includes also a series of heuristics to accelerate the search time. These include a cost penalty near obstacles, and a filter to prevent revisiting configurations. The performance of the method is compared against A*, RRT and RRT* in a series of challenging 3D outdoor datasets. HRA* is shown to outperform all of them in computation time, and delivering shorter paths than A* and RRT.This work has been partially supported by the Mexican Council of Science and Technology with a PhD Scholarship to Ernesto Teniente, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under project DPI-2011-27510 and by the EU project ARCAS FP7-287617.Peer Reviewe

Understanding the development of teaching and learning resources: A review

This paper is a literature review of research concerned with the production of learning resources in higher education (HE). It forms part of a larger research project in progress

Bioreactor design for enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass under the biorefinery concept

The dependence on non-renewable resources, particularly fossil fuels, has awaken a growing interest in research of sustainable alternative energy sources, such as bioethanol. The production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials comprises three main stages, starting with a pretreatment, followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis step where fermentable sugars are obtained for the final fermentation process. Enzymatic hydrolysis represents an essential step in the bioethanol production, however there are some limitations in it that hinders the process to be economically feasible. Different strategies have been studied to overcome these limitations, including the enzyme recycling and the utilization of high solids concentrations. Several investigations have been carried out in different bioreactor configurations with the aim to obtain higher yields of glucose in the enzymatic hydrolysis stage; however, the commonest are Stirred Tank Bioreactors (STBR) and Membrane Bioreactors (MBR). In general, the key criteria for a bioreactor design include adequate mass transfer, low shear stress, and efficient mixing that allows the appropriated interaction between the substrate and the enzyme. Therefore, this review will address the main aspects to be considered for a bioreactor design, as well as, the operational conditions, some characteristics and mode of operating strategies of the two main bioreactors used in the enzymatic hydrolysis stage. Moreover, two types of pneumatically agitated bioreactors, namely bubble column and gas-lift bioreactors, are discussed as promising alternatives to develop enzymatic saccharification due to their low energy consumption compared with STBR.This work was financial supported by the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico – Mexican Science and Technology Council (SEPCONACYT) with the Basic Science Project-2015-01 (Ref. 254808), and the Energy Sustainability Fund 2014-05 (CONACYT-SENER), Mexican Centre for Innovation in Bioenergy (Cemie-Bio), and Cluster of Bioalcohols (Ref. 249564). The author Marcela Pino also thanks the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Mexico) for her Master Fellowship support (grant number: 611312/452636).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Seven recommendations to make your invasive alien species data more useful

Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardized and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and this obstructs efficient retrieval, combination, and use of these kinds of information for research and policy-making. Standardization and interoperability are particularly important as many alien species related research and policy activities require pooling data. We describe seven ways that data on alien species can be made more accessible and useful, based on the results of a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) workshop: (1) Create data management plans; (2) Increase interoperability of information sources; (3) Document data through metadata; (4) Format data using existing standards; (5) Adopt controlled vocabularies; (6) Increase data availability; and (7) Ensure long-term data preservation. We identify four properties specific and integral to alien species data (species status, introduction pathway, degree of establishment, and impact mechanism) that are either missing from existing data standards or lack a recommended controlled vocabulary. Improved access to accurate, real-time and historical data will repay the long-term investment in data management infrastructure, by providing more accurate, timely and realistic assessments and analyses. If we improve core biodiversity data standards by developing their relevance to alien species, it will allow the automation of common activities regarding data processing in support of environmental policy. Furthermore, we call for considerable effort to maintain, update, standardize, archive, and aggregate datasets, to ensure proper valorization of alien species data and information before they become obsolete or lost

Parasitized mates increase infection risk for partners

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mangroves and Their Response to a Heavy Metal Polluted Wetland in the North Coast of Puerto Rico

Peninsula La Esperanza is part of the San Juan Bay Estuary and located in the north coast of Puerto Rico. Mangroves are the predominant type of vegetation; that can exhibit diverse external and internal mechanisms allowing them to tolerate and to act as phytoremediators of heavy metals (HM) in surrounding soils. This study was focused in three mangrove species that can be found in La Esperanza: Rhizophora mangle (RM), Laguncularia racemosa (LR) and Avicennia germinans (AG). Arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) were selected to be identified, measure concentrations in sediments, in green (GL) and senescent (SL) leaves, and study phytoremediation potential as a mitigation alternative calculating bioconcentration afctors (BCFs) and retranslocation percents (RT%). For this, Peninsula La Esperanza was divided in three main research sites. Our results show a significant difference among all heavy metals and their distribution in each site. Moreover, the mangrove species, A. germinans, showed lower RT% for Hg in all three sites, which could be considered the best species for phytoextraction of this heavy metal. The results suggest that the three species have a synergistic effect in the way they manage the heavy metal in surrounding polluted soils, although each species have a different capacity to manage each heavy metal

The Retrenchment Hypothesis and the Extension of the Franchise in England and Wales

Does an extension of the voting franchise increase public spending or can it be a source of retrenchment? We study this question in the context of public spending on health-related urban amenities in a panel of 75 municipal boroughs in England and Wales in 1868, 1871 and 1886. We \u85nd evidence of a U-shaped relationship between spending on urban amenities and the extension of the local voting franchise. We argue that this retrenchment e¤ect arose because middle class taxpayers were unwilling to pay the cost of poor sanitation and the urban elites, elected on a narrow franchise, were instrumental for sanitary improvements. Our model of taxpayer democracy suggests that the retrenchment e¤ect is related to enfranchisement of the middle class through nation-wide reforms