News
Dr. Nora Expósito, an eminent expert of this topic, has attended Tarragona Ràdio, where she participated in a round table together with Jordi Oliva, founder of Good Karma Project, and Maria Ballesteros, member of Surfrider, to talk about this problem.
The Erasmus + Project “DISCERN-A customised Digital Space to Foster Circular Economy Entrepreneurship with SMEs” has released the latest edition. Remember that you can access all the project results through our Platform: https://discern.erasmus.site/platform/. As our project comes to a close, we reflect on the seventh newsletter the incredible journey we've had in strengthening the quality of start-uppers, young entrepreneurs, and VET providers. DISCERN has been dedicated to enhancing professional development by improving circular economy entrepreneurship competences and providing valuable opportunities to validate these skills. We invite you to read it in Spanish or English by clicking on this news.
Elena Sánchez Resino, PhD student at TecnATox, presented the preliminary results of the statistical analyses developed during her stay at LABoratoire d'Étude des Résidus et Contaminants dans les Aliments (LABERCA), Nantes. The research meeting was held on 15 December in the French laboratory. In the presented analysis, samples of blood, semen and urine samples from the LED-FERTYL cohort were used, with the main purpose to study the association between exogenous organic compounds identified in those matrices and seminal quality parameters.
The PhD thesis was supervised by Dr. Nora Expósito, Dr. Joaquim Rovira and Dr. Jordi Sierra, and developed within the Doctoral program of Nanoscience, Materials and Chemical Engineering at URV.
Afterwards, Lara's PhD thesis was awarded with an 'Excellent Cum Laude' grade.
On December 14th, Ana González Ruiz, PhD student at TecnATox, presented her work titled “Exploring EDC Exposure in Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia: A Case-Control Study” at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) Young Researchers' Day 2023 (YRD2023).
This opportunity allowed Ana to share her research findings and connect with fellow researchers at IDAEA. Additionally, as part of the event, a workshop on vector design and scientific graphic design for graphical abstracts and figures was conducted by Mikel Rodríguez (Mikel Graphic Science), which we are sure will be of great application in her upcoming projects.
The Erasmus + Project “DISCERN-A customised Digital Space to Foster Circular Economy Entrepreneurship with SMEs” has released the sixth newsletter. In this issue we are thrilled to unveil the third project result from the DISCERN Project: The CE Coach. We invite you to read it in Spanish or English by clicking on this news.
In recent decades, there has been a significant decline in the quality of semen among healthy men, correlating with an increase in male infertility rates. The evidence points towards a connection with lifestyle habits and current environmental pollution. Now, in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA) of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), TecnATox researchers have developed an innovative method to directly detect organic contaminants in sperm. The study has been led by Dr. Pablo Gago-Ferrero, and it involved the participation of Elena Sánchez-Resino, PhD student of TecnATox, and Dr. Montse Marquès.
Published in Environmental Science & Technology, the study involved semen samples from 10 men and revealed the presence of plastic additives such as phthalates or bisphenols. These substances pose potential risks to human health, along with chemical additives added to tires, industrial perfluoroalkylated compounds or surfactants, among others.
This evidence underscores the need for stricter legislation regarding the marketing and use of these compounds. Such measures are essential to safeguard the health of the population.
Prof Aïda Valls, who recently received the DonaTIC 2023 Award, was also invited to the Round Table "Amb Veu de Dona", an event organized by SER Tarragona to make Tarragona women visible who are leaders in different fields.
Port of Tarragona was the scene of several debates in which women from different economical sectors participated, who for more than two hours talked about inequality, wage gap, the lack of female references and the need to promote global policies to reverse certain realities.
The presence of women in the industrial sector is only 28%. This was the starting point of the first round table, which co-chaired Prof. Aïda Valls together with Mercè Puig, general secretary of CCOO Tarragona, and Anna Navarro, head of strategy, quality and innovation at Port of Tarragona. They talked about the sorority, the empowerment to be on the front line or the incentives and workshops held in schools to encourage scientific and technological vocations.
Generalitat de Catalunya awarded Prof. Aïda Valls, director of the ITAKA research group and researcher of TecnATox, with the DonaTIC2023 Award in the academic/researcher category. Prof. Valls is one of the seven women distinguished in the different categories among the 86 presented candidates.
DonaTIC2023 awards recognize the talent of women in the professional, business and academic world of new technologies and the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, humanities and mathematics) disciplines. These leaders offer contemporary references to girls and girls in order to encourage them to dedicate themselves to these areas and to assume leadership positions.
More information about the event can be found at https://diaridigital.urv.cat/aida-valls-premi-dona-tic-2023/.
Dr. Joaquim Rovira has been invited by the Association of Dietitians-Nutritionists of Catalonia (CoDiNutCat) as a speaker of a conference about the consumption of microplastics and health effects. The conference will take place at November 25 (9 h) in the framework of the XI Meeting of the CoDiNutCat held in BCIN, Badalona Centre Internacional de Negocis, Badalona (Barcelona).
