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It is estimated that between 20 and 30% of the total food produced in Europe is wasted, generating associated costs of 143 billion euros per year. These wastes include the non-eaten fraction and food chain by-products, including fish and poultry processing by-products, chitinous bioresources, agricultural, dairy, bakery, winery, and brewery by-products. Many of these wastes are rich in nutrients, even so, their high content in humidity and variability and due fundamentally to the nonexistence of an integral and efficient recovery activity causes their elimination without valorization.

This paper examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in expanding the Venezuelan oil industry in the 1990s, the drivers leading to the expropriations the following decade, and the obstacles to attracting new investments afterward. We argue that operational control by private companies, an attractive fiscal regime, and investor protection clauses were crucial elements in fostering the expansion of the oil industry after the oil opening in the 1990s. However, a successful investment cycle adding production and reserves, combined with an oil price boom, provided strong incentives for the government to increase taxes and expropriate projects. Weak institutions, policy instability, and the lack of credible property rights for the sector generated high “above ground risks” inhibiting FDI during the oil boom, despite the massive resource base and the substantial number of deals signed. FDI underperformance contributed to the decline of the Venezuelan oil industry, even before the imposition of U.S. sanctions. Using project-level data, and industry indicators, we document how volatile fiscal terms, changes in contract governance, discretionary policies, poor operating conditions, and the lack of investor protection, explain the failure to attract FDI.

Objective There has been a great interest in knowing the factors associated with progression of aortic stenosis to try to slow down this evolution. Methods We studied 283 patients with chronic ischemic heart disease recording a broad number of clinical, therapeutic and analytical variables including inflammation and mineral metabolism biomarkers. We analyzed if any of these factors is a determinant of progression to aortic stenosis, defined as an increase in maximum flow speed across the aortic valve of at least 0.5 m/s. Results 20 patients (7%) progressed to aortic stenosis in 72.4 months of follow-up. Among the patients who developed aortic stenosis, a greater age, greater percentage of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), lower treatment with beta-blockers, estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), total cholesterol, LDL, High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP), high-sensitivity troponin, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide and galectin 3 were found. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that plasma levels of Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) [OR: 0.668 per every increase in 100.000 μg/ml CI (0.457–0.977); p=0.038], HS-CRP [OR: 1.034 per every increase in 1 mg/dl CI (1.005–1.063); p=0.022], dyslipidemia [OR: 4.622 CI (1.285–16.618); p=0.019], PAD [OR: 9.453 CI (1.703–52.452); p=0.010], and eGFR [OR: 0.962 CI (0.939–0.986); p=0.002], remained a parameter with the ability to independently predict the progression of aortic stenosis Conclusions In patients with chronic ischemic heart disease, low PCSK9 and high HS-CRP plasmatic levels, low eFGR, PAD and dyslipidemia were independent predictors of progression of aortic stenosis. More studies are needed to investigate the relationships between the progression of aortic stenosis PCSK9 and inflammation.

Submerged fermentation (SmF) is an attractive biotechnological option for waste treatment, generating fungal bioprotein from food industry by-products. Using different Rhizopus sp. strains as fermentation agents, this paper describes a global strategy to identify interactions between cultivation parameters (pH 4.75–7.75, 7.5–82.5 g/l glucose, 0.75–3.75 g/l nitrogen, incubation time up to 5 days) for valorization of food industry by-products. Selected parameters and/or their interactions are critical for most of the proposed resulting values, giving the opportunity to optimize the process depending on the objective and making an “in silico” pre-evaluation of the process conditions. SmF of orange molasses leads to a high biomass and protein yield (11.9 g biomass/l and 4.0 g protein/l), with 43.1 ± 0.1% of essential amino acids and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of almost 50%. Experiments with cheese whey result in 76.3 ± 1.1% of glucose consumption and a biomass production of 5.6 ± 2.2 g/l with 48.9 ± 5.1% of essential amino acids. SmF of orange molasses and cheese whey could contribute to promoting a sustainable feed industry while reducing by-product treatment.

The use of fungal cultures in modern cuisine can provide a broad number of new textures, flavors and tastes from unexpected substrates; such as fruits, vegetables and nuts. The presented research describes how Rhyzopus oryzae , a fungi used in Asian culture to produce traditional recipes, results in fruits, vegetables and grains with unique sensorial properties. Throughout the paper, different examples of these novelty uses are presented showing different examples of prototypes those have been successfully incorporated into our menus, their production procedures and their sensorial evaluations.

Fish larvae in aquaculture have high mortality rates due to pathogenic bacteria, especially the Vibrio species, and ineffective prophylactic strategies. Vaccination is not feasible in larvae and antibiotics have reduced efficacy against multidrug resistant bacteria. A novel approach to controlling Vibrio infections in aquaculture is needed. The potential of phage therapy to combat vibriosis in fish larvae production has not yet been examined. We describe the isolation and characterization of two bacteriophages capable of infecting pathogenic Vibrio and their application to prevent bacterial infection in fish larvae. Two groups of zebrafish larvae were infected with V. anguillarum (∼106 CFU mL-1) and one was later treated with a phage lysate (∼108 PFU mL-1). A third group was only added with phages. A fourth group received neither bacteria nor phages (fish control). Larvae mortality, after 72 h, in the infected and treated group was similar to normal levels and significantly lower than that of the infected but not treated group, indicating that phage treatment was effective. Thus, directly supplying phages to the culture water could be an effective and inexpensive approach toward reducing the negative impact of vibriosis in larviculture.