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Anthocyanins (ACNs) are promising health-enhancing phenolic compounds. We focus on ACN animal tissue bioavailability to provide an evidentiary link between tissue ACNs and their associated health properties. We performed a systematic review of electronic libraries; 279 results were retrieved, and 13 publications met inclusion criteria. Extracted information included animal model employed, administration route, doses, analysis method, and ACN concentration values in tissues. Total ACN concentrations were detected in mice kidney (2.17 × 105 pmol/g), liver (1.73 × 105 pmol/g), heart (3.6 × 103 pmol/g), and lung (1.16 × 105 pmol/g); and in pig brain (6.08 × 103 pmol/g). ACNs showed a predominance of parent ACNs in long-term experiments versus an ACN metabolite predominance in short-term experiments. ACNs detected in animal tissues, such as cyanidin-3-glucoside, suggest it may have an important role in human health. This information could be useful to determine proper ACN-intake biomarkers in biological samples in futures studies.

This article develops a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness and spatial coverage of public transport in tourist cities. The proposed methodology is applied and validated in Cambrils municipality, in the central part of the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, a coastal destination characterised by the concentration of tourism flows during summer. The application of GIS spatial analysis tools allows for the development of a system of territorial indicators that spatially correlate the public transport network and the distribution of the population. The main novelty of our work is that this analysis not only includes the registered resident population, but also incorporates the population that temporarily inhabits the municipality (tourists). The results of the study firstly permit the detection of unequal spatial accessibility and coverage in terms of public transport in the municipality, with significant differences between central neighbourhoods and peripheral urban areas of lower population density. Secondly, they allow observation of how the degree of public transport coverage differs significantly in areas with a higher concentration of tourist accommodation establishments.

This paper analyses the viability of Brassica napus as an energy crop cultivated for producing biodiesel in southern Europe. The proposed methodology assessment combines physical variables such as grain production and agroclimate conditions with environmental analysis (LCA) in order to determine the Mediterranean agroclimates areas that could be cultivated for non-food purposes. The results obtained in a local production and distribution scenario (25 km) demonstrate that the biodiesel systems analysed have a better energy balance than diesel. Biodiesel obtained a net energy benefit of 16.25 MJ kg (1) of biodiesel or 35.10 MJ kg(-1) of biodiesel when the avoided impacts from coproducts (glycerine and rapemeal) are considered in comparison with conventional diesel. In terms of environmental performance, the biodiesel system also has less impact compared with diesel in three categories Abiotic Depletion (AD), Photochemical Oxidation (PO) and Global Warming Potential (GWP). The estimated impact reduction in the GWP category when is compared with diesel reached a minimum of 1.76 kg CO2 eq. per kg of biodiesel when emissions of the use phase are included. The paper also demonstrates that agroclimates called e, b and d that ensure grain productions higher than 2000 kg ha (-1) the biodiesel commercialization from B. napus energy crop is suitable in environmental terms for an energy local and regional production and distribution strategy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pesticides help to control weeds, pests, and diseases contributing, therefore, to food availability. However, pesticide fractions not reaching the intended target may have adverse effects on the environment and the field ecosystems. Modeling pesticide emissions and the link with characterizing associated impacts is currently one of the main challenges in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of agricultural systems. To address this challenge, this study takes advantage of the latest recommendations for pesticide emission inventory and impact assessment and frames a suitable interface for those LCA stages and the related mass distribution of pesticide avoiding a temporal overlapping. Here, freshwater ecotoxicity impacts of the production of feed crops (maize, grass, winter wheat, spring barley, rapeseed, and peas) in Denmark were evaluated during a 3-year period, testing the effects of inventory modeling and the recent updates of the characterization method (USEtox). Potential freshwater ecotoxicity impacts were calculated in two functional units reflecting crop impact profiles per ha and extent of cultivation, respectively. Ecotoxicity impacts decreased over the period, mainly because of the reduction of insecticides use (e.g., cypermethrin). Three different emission modeling scenarios were tested; they differ on the underlining assumptions and data requirements. The main aspects influencing impact results are the interface between inventory estimates and impact assessment, and the consideration of intermedia processes, such as crop growth development and pesticide application method. Impact scores for AS2 were higher than RS and AS1, but the differences in the crops ranking was less apparent. On the other hand, the influence on the estimation of impacts for individual Als was co

Demographic change in Europe has resulted in an aging population, which presents new challenges for implementing and managing long-term care (LTC) systems. One solution aims to increase the efficiency of LTC by using digital technologies. This article focuses on professionals' opinions of the use of digital technologies in the administration of Spain's long-term care law (Law 39/2006, December 14, LAPAD). This qualitative research is part of SoCaTel, an H2020 project on the co-creation of LTC services in Europe. Ten focus groups were held with health professionals, care-taking relatives, and care workers, and six semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with care recipients in Catalonia, Spain. This article presents the data collected from professionals. Professionals reacted positively to the use of digital technologies, in contrast to some previous studies that highlight professionals' strong resistance to digitalization. Professionals saw digitalization as a way to speed up and simplify administrative processes. However, they also identified serious obstacles to efficient digitalization.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of medical conditions that increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Numerous studies have shown that inflammation is directly involved in the onset of metabolic syndrome and related pathologies. In this study, in silico techniques were applied to a natural products database containing molecules isolated from mushrooms from the Catalan forests to predict molecules that can act as human nuclear-factor κβ kinase 2 (IKK-2) inhibitors. IKK-2 is the main component responsible for activating the nuclear-factor κβ transcription factor (NF-κβ). One of these predicted molecules was o-orsellinaldehyde, a molecule present in the mushroom Grifola frondosa. This study shows that o-orsellinaldehyde presents anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic properties by acting as IKK-2 inhibitor. Additionally, we suggest that the anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic properties of Grifola frondosa mushroom could partially be explained by the presence of o-orsellinaldehyde on its composition.

The enteroendocrine system coordinates gastrointestinal (GI) tract functionality and the whole organism. However, the scarcity of enteroendocrine cells and their scattered distribution make them difficult to study. Here, we glued segments of the GI wall of pigs to a silicon tube, keeping the apical and the basolateral sides separate. The fact that there was less than 1% of 70-kDa fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran on the basolateral side proved that the gluing was efficient. Since the lactate dehydrogenase leakage at basolateral side was lower than 0.1% (1.40 ± 0.17 nKatals) it proved that the tissue was viable. The intestinal barrier function was maintained as it is in segments mounted in Ussing chambers (the amount of Lucifer Yellow crossing it, was similar between them; respectively, % LY, 0.48 ± 0.13; 0.52 ± 0.09; p > 0.05). Finally, apical treatments with two different extract produced differential basolateral enterohormone secretions (basolateral PYY secretion vs control; animal extract, 0.35 ± 0.16; plant extract, 2.5 ± 0.74; p < 0.05). In conclusion, we report an ex vivo system called "Ap-to-Bas" for assaying vectorial transepithelial processes that makes it possible to work with several samples at the same time. It is an optimal device for enterohormone studies in the intestine.

Pesticides are applied to agricultural fields to optimise crop yield and their global use is substantial. Their consideration in life cycle assessment (LCA) is affected by important inconsistencies between the emission inventory and impact assessment phases of LCA. A clear definition of the delineation between the product system model (life cycle inventory-LCI, technosphere) and the natural environment (life cycle impact assessment-LCIA, ecosphere) is missing and could be established via consensus building. A workshop held in 2013 in Glasgow, UK, had the goal of establishing consensus and creating clear guidelines in the following topics: (1) boundary between emission inventory and impact characterisation model, (2) spatial dimensions and the time periods assumed for the application of substances to open agricultural fields or in greenhouses and (3) emissions to the natural environment and their potential impacts. More than 30 specialists in agrifood LCI, LCIA, risk assessment and ecotoxicology, representing industry, government and academia from 15 countries and four continents, met to discuss and reach consensus. The resulting guidelines target LCA practitioners, data (base) and characterisation method developers, and decision makers. The focus was on defining a clear interface between LCI and LCIA, capable of supporting any goal and scope requirements while avoiding double counting or exclusion of important emission flows/impacts. Consensus was reached accordingly on distinct sets of recommendations for LCI and LCIA, respectively, recommending, for example, that buffer zones should be considered as part of the crop production system and the change in yield be considered. While the spatial dimensions of the field were not fixed, the temporal boundary between dynamic LCI fate modelling and steady-state LCIA fate modelling needs to be defined. For pesticide application, the inventory should report pesticide identification, crop, mass applied per active ingredient, application method or formulation type, presence of buffer zones, location/country, application time before harvest and crop growth stage during application, adherence with Good Agricultural Practice, and whether the field is considered part of the technosphere or the ecosphere. Additionally, emission fractions to environmental media on-field and off-field should be reported. For LCIA, the directly concerned impact categories and a list of relevant fate and exposure processes were identified. Next steps were identified: (1) establishing default emission fractions to environmental media for integration into LCI databases and (2) interaction among impact model developers to extend current methods with new elements/processes mentioned in the recommendations.