Questõesde PUC - PR sobre Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension

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Scientists invent silk food wrap that's biodegradable and could replace plastic cling film

Bananas and strawberries kept at room temperature for more than a week did not go off after they were coated with a near-invisible film made from silk

                                                                                                                        Ian Johnston

 Scientists have invented a cling film-like food wrap made from silk that can preserve fruit for more than a week, as a natural, biodegradable alternative to plastic.

International concern has been growing about plastic waste, particularly the amount that gets into the sea. One estimate is that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans.

Doctors have also warned that containers made from certain kinds of plastic could be harmful to health.

Now a team of biomedical engineers at Tufts University in the US have developed a technique that enables food to be coated with an almost invisible layer of fibroin, a protein found in silk, which helps make it one of nature's toughest materials.

The lead researcher, Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto, told The Independent that the world should probably move "towards processes that are more efficient and more naturally derived" and develop materials that "are closer to the things that surround us, rather than having more man-made, processed materials ... for the general well-being of our planet".

"It's a wise way of thinking about how we manage the resources of our planet, to maybe use renewable systems as opposed to non-renewable systems," he said.

"The pervasiveness of plastic and all the inorganic chemicals that leach out, albeit at very slow rates, can affect us in many ways."

When asked what the chances were that silk-derived products would replace plastics, Professor Omenetto said: "That's our dream."

However he said the use of plastic was widespread and "incredibly cost effective" so it might take some time to convince people to change.

The same team previously made a silk cup that could be used, at least once, for coffee as a possible replacement for plasticlined cardboard cups.

In a paper in the journal Scientific Reports, they described how strawberries and bananas could be preserved for a week or more.

The fruit is coated by dipping it in a liquid containing a tiny amount of fibroin, but the wrap could also be applied with a spray. The silk is produced naturally by worms of moths.

Strawberries left for seven days at room temperature became discoloured and went soft, but those coated with the silk protein stayed juicy and firm.

Available in: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/silk-plastic-cling-film-food-wrap-marine-pollution-food-fruit-vegetables-tufts-universityfiorenzo-a7017401.html. Access on: May 2016.

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Improving with age? How city design is adapting to older populations 

There is no denying it: like it or not we are all getting older. According to the UN World Population Prospects report, the global population of older people is growing at an unprecedented rate. By 2050, for the first time in human history, there will be more over-65s than children under 15. The number of people over 100 will increase by 1,000%. And as by then 70% of the world’s population will likely live in cites, this will present huge challenges, and cities will need to adapt. “Small innovations can make a difference,” Recalcati adds. “Older people are less likely to drive, favouring public transport and walking. The average person over 65 manages a walking speed of 3km/hour. At 80 that goes down to 2km/hour, compared with the average for a working age person of 4.8km/hour. Reducing the distance between transport stops, shops, benches, trees for shade, public toilets and improving pavements and allowing more time to cross the road all encourage older people to go out.” In the UK, the government has just announced the building of 10 new towns designed to address ageing and health issues such as obesity. As well as encouraging more active lifestyles, the designs could include wider pavements, few trip hazards and moving LCD signs, making the streets easier to navigate for people with dementia and other age-related conditions. London-based charity Living Streets has also been working alongside communities carrying out street audits with older residents to see what improvements could be made, as well as campaigning at a strategic level to influence positive legislative and infrastructure changes. Their project Time to Cross campaigned to increase pedestrian crossing times which resulted in Transport for London (TfL) agreeing to a review. www.thegardian.com/cities/2016/ap/25/improving-with-age-how-city-design-is-adapting-to-older-populations.  

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Amazon keeps expanding its empire 

Elizabeth Weise  

Amazon has doubled the number of air freight cargo planes it is leasing, a further build out of its internal delivery system.  

Atlas Air Worldwide on Thursday said it had signed an agreement with the Seattle internet retailer to operate 20 Boeing 767 for the company for ten years. 

Operations under the agreements are expected to begin in the second half of 2016 and ramp up to full service through 2018, Atlas said. 

In addition, Amazon will acquire as much as 20% of Atlas. 

The planes will be used to move packages between Amazon’s fulfillment centers, which package goods, to its sortation centers, which sort them into local delivery pallets that can be taken to the Post Office for bulk delivery, the company said.

The planes will also be used by Amazon to move goods between its fulfillment centers across the country to other centers where they are needed for one- and two-day delivery, as no one Amazon center can stock the 20 million items Amazon typically has available for two-day delivery.  

The deal isn't surprising, said John Haber, CEO of Spend Management Experts, a supply chain management consulting firm. 

“This is just the most recent step in Amazon building out a massive logistics network designed to move more of their transportation and distribution under their direct control," he said. 

Available in:<http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/05/06/amazon-further-builds-out-air-freight-network/84035574/> . Access on: May 2016

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Read the text and choose the CORRECT option. 

Portable devices

Buddy, can you spare a watt?

Trading power could free users from dead-battery tyranny  

ONE of the most annoying features of smartphones is that they run out of power just when you need it most. After a day of e-mailing, streaming music, downloading podcasts, watching cat videos and snapping selfies, a device can easily be left without enough charge to make an emergency call. What would help, reckons Paul Worgan of the University of Bristol, in England, is to give portable devices the ability to share some of their power.  

Mr Worgan and his colleagues have come up with a wireless-charging system which they call PowerShake. To use it someone holds a phone with an expiring battery against another device—a phone, or even a smartwatch or a fitness band—and this initiates a power transfer from one to the other. Some 12 seconds of contact provides enough juice to make a one-minute telephone call. One minute of contact would allow, say, a four minute music video to be watched. The researchers will present their idea to CHI2016, a conference on computer-human interaction, in San Jose, California, in May. 

Available in:<http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21697800-trading-power-could-free-users-dead-batterytyranny-buddy-can-you-spare>. Access on: may 2016. 

                                    Will we ever grow replacement hands?

There is a pressing need. A shortage of availableorgans means many die on waiting lists and those thatget an organ must spend a lifetime onimmunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection.

The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells togrow new body parts avoids the whole issue ofrejection as well as waiting for a donor.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute forRegenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest BaptistMedical Center in North Carolina, US, has madebreakthroughs in building bladders and urethras.

He breaks tissue-building into four levels ofcomplexity.

• Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell.

• Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit. • Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

• Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.

"We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex," Dr Atala told the BBC.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16679010 June 2012.

                                    Will we ever grow replacement hands?

There is a pressing need. A shortage of availableorgans means many die on waiting lists and those thatget an organ must spend a lifetime onimmunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection.

The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells togrow new body parts avoids the whole issue ofrejection as well as waiting for a donor.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute forRegenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest BaptistMedical Center in North Carolina, US, has madebreakthroughs in building bladders and urethras.

He breaks tissue-building into four levels ofcomplexity.

• Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell.

• Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit. • Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

• Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.

"We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex," Dr Atala told the BBC.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16679010 June 2012.

                                    Will we ever grow replacement hands?

There is a pressing need. A shortage of availableorgans means many die on waiting lists and those thatget an organ must spend a lifetime onimmunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection.

The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells togrow new body parts avoids the whole issue ofrejection as well as waiting for a donor.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute forRegenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest BaptistMedical Center in North Carolina, US, has madebreakthroughs in building bladders and urethras.

He breaks tissue-building into four levels ofcomplexity.

• Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell.

• Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit. • Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

• Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.

"We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex," Dr Atala told the BBC.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16679010 June 2012.