606 research outputs found
The Green New Deal and Evolution of Institutional Environments for Multifunctionality: the case of Certified Organic Agriculture in Brazil and China
The Global Green New Deal (GGND) aim to green the global economy across a range of sectors including agriculture, to pursue future prosperity and job creation, while at the same time addressing social and environmental challenges. Taking its point of departure in some of the institutional changes envisioned in GGND publications, the paper proceeds to present results of the authors’ current research, within a research programme on institutional dimensions of the current globalization of certified organic agriculture. Case study results from Brazil and China are used to illustrate how institutional environments for organic agriculture differ between nations and to provide a basis for discussing the potential of organic certification to transform global agriculture towards higher overall levels of sustainability. The paper concludes linking the institutional analysis of the GGND and the findings of the presented cases to a broader analysis and discussion on the state of art of institutional environments for multifunctional agriculture
Business Incubator and Economic Development
This chapter aims to (i) understand the functioning and importance of incubators in supporting the creation of new business and local economic development, as they help locally engage young entrepreneurs and thus retain expertise, for example, in regions farthest from large urban centers, (ii) realize the importance of incubators and science parks in the development of start-ups, (iii) understand the role of education in promoting entrepreneurship, and (iv) understand the competitive environment as it becomes more complex and dynamic, as there are opportunities to serve customers who are dissatisfied; thus the threats that large companies experience offer small business opportunities
Patrón de reconocimiento de bellotas procedentes de diferentes especies Quercus basado en el contenido de aceite y en el perfil de ácidos grasos
The aim of this study was (i) to characterize different species of Quercus genus and (ii) to discriminate among them on the basis of the content and fatty acid composition of the oil in their fruits and/or their morphological aspects via pattern recognition techniques (Principal Component Analysis, PCA, Cluster Analysis, CA, and Discriminant Analysis, DA). Quercus rotundifolia Lam., Quercus suber L. and Quercus pyrenaica Willd., grown in the same stand in the centre of Portugal, were investigated. When oil content and respective fatty acid composition were used to characterize samples, well-separated groups corresponding to each of the species were observed by PCA and confirmed by CA and DA. The ‘‘width’’ and ‘‘length’’ of acorns exhibited a low discriminant power. Acorns from Q. rotundifolia showed the highest average oil content followed by Q. suber and Q. pyrenaica acorns (9.1, 5.2 and 3.8%, respectively). Fatty acid profiles of Q. rotundifolia and Q. suber oils are similar to olive oil while the oil from Q. pyrenaica acorns is more unsaturated.El objetivo de este estudio fué (i) la caracterización de diferentes especies del género Quercus y (ii) la clasificación de las mismas en base al contenido y composición de ácidos grasos del aceite de sus frutos y/o en sus caracteres morfológicos, via técnicas de patrón de reconocimiento (Análisis de Componentes Principales, ACP, Análisis de Cluster, AC, y Análisis Discriminante, AD). Se han estudiado Quercus rotundifolia Lam., Quercus suber L. y Quercus pyrenaica Willd., pertenecientes a la misma zona del centro de Portugal. Al emplear el contenido de aceite y sus respectivas composiciones de ácidos grasos para caracterizar a las muestras, el ACP reveló grupos bien separados correspondientes a cada especie, los cuales, a su vez, se confirmarón con el AC y el AD. El ‘‘ancho’’ y ‘‘longitud’’ de las bellotas exhibieron un poder discriminante bajo. Las bellotas de Q. rotundifolia mostraron el contenido más elevado de aceite, seguidas de las de Q. suber y Q. pyrenaica (9.1, 5.2 y 3.8%, respectivamente). Los perfiles de ácidos grasos de los aceites de Q. rotundifolia y Q. suber son similares al del aceite de oliva, mientras que el aceite de las bellotas de Q.pyrenaica es más insaturado
A Fuzzy Logic Model to Enhance Quality Management on R&D Units
Nowadays, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), are becoming even more competitive, with the public ones, facing at the same time a greater restriction on public funding. Therefore, HEIs, have to be more effective and more efficient as well, on pursuing their own goals, which includes Research and Development (R&D) units as well. Such demands can be achieved, by enhancing R&D’s global performance. Therefore, the use of a framework such as European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), can bring value to an organization with the characteristics of a R&D unit. This work presents a new integrated method based on EFQM model, by using Fuzzy Logic, to enhance the organizations’ overall performance. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated by a case study in a R&D unit, where an initial performance evaluation takes place, by using RADAR’s Logic approach. The proposed method, based on Fuzzy Logic, is then applied, followed by the identification of the strength points as well as the improvement areas, according to the EFQM framework. Then, the improvement actions with high priority are determined, followed by the correspondent action measures.
Keywords: Quality management, Fuzzy logic, EFQ
Composição E Diversidade De Anuros Na Restinga Do MunicÃpio De Conde, Litoral Norte Do Estado Da Bahia, Nordeste Do Brasil
The Conde municipality is located in the northern coast of the state of Bahia (NC), northeastern Brazil, and is part of the Atlantic Tropical domain. The anuran fauna of the northern portion of the NC is still poorly known if compared to the southern portion. The Restinga is one of the predominant environments of the coastal plains of the NC and it is characterized essentially by presenting sandy soil covered by herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. The objective of this study was to determine the anuran species composition and diversity for the Restinga of the Conde municipality. Sampling was carried out at night by active search over four periods of five consecutive days each, two over the ‘main rainy season’ and two in a ‘lesser rainy season’, using 14 sample units (SUs) and five extra sample plots (EPs). We calculated dominance and species diversity using the Berger-Parker and Shannon-Wiener H’ indices, respectively. We used accumulation curves and the Jackknife 1 estimator to estimate anuran species richness, considering only the data obtained from the SUs. We recorded 713 anuran specimens distributed within 33 species, 13 genera and five families (Bufonidae, Craugastoridae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae and Microhylidae). The Hylidae and Leptodactylidae families had the highest species richness. Considering only the SUs (Jackknife 1 estimator in brackets), we recorded 28 species in the study area (33.9 ± 2.3), 13 in Shrubby Vegetation Zones-SVZ (20.8 ± 2.9) and 25 in Freshwater Wetland Zones-FWZ (28.9 ± 1.9). The abundance and species diversity of the FWZ (n = 638 specimens; H’= 2.4) were higher than those recorded for the SVZ (n = 52 specimens; H’ = 1.9). The SVZ and FWZ showed distinct dominant species, wherein Pristimantis paulodutrai was the dominant species in SVZ and Scinax fuscomarginatus in FWZ. The Restinga of the Conde municipality stands out as the one with the highest anuran species richness already recorded considering only SVZ and FWZ. Moreover, its anuran species composition represented 55% of the anuran species known for the NC and included taxa common to three different morphoclimatic domains (Tropical Atlantic, Cerrado and Caatinga). © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16
As masterclasses internacionais em fÃsica de partÃculas em Portugal
Todos os anos, desde 2005, institutos de investigação e universidades de todo o mundo convidam estudantes do ensino secundário a experimentar a linha da frente da investigação fundamental. São as Masterclasses Internacionais em FÃsica de PartÃculas, um programa do International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) que oferece aos estudantes a oportunidade de serem cientistas por um dia, analisando dados reais recolhidos no acelerador LHC (Large Hadron Collider) do CERN, o Centro Europeu de FÃsica de PartÃculas.
Em 2015, participaram nas Masterclasses estudantes de 42 paÃses, recebidos em 210 universidades e laboratórios. A participação de paÃses de todo o mundo reflete a internacionalização das colaborações em FÃsica de PartÃculas. Os estudantes vivenciam este aspeto na videoconferência com que terminam o seu dia de pesquisa,
apresentando os resultados aos participantes de outros paÃses, com a moderação de cientistas no CERN.
Portugal participa desde a primeira edição, com a colaboração do LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e FÃsica Experimental de PartÃculas, promotor nacional da atividade, e o apoio da Agência Ciência Viva. Em 2014, cerca de dois mil estudantes e centena e meia de professores participaram nas Masterclasses organizadas em 13 instituições do ensino superior um pouco por todo o PaÃs: de Faro a Braga e de Bragança a Ponta Delgada, passando por Beja, Évora, Lisboa,
Covilhã, Coimbra, Aveiro, Porto e Vila Real. Foi ainda prestado apoio à realização das Masterclasses na Universidade de São Tomé e PrÃncipe.
A dimensão e o sucesso das Masterclasses em Portugal não são a regra na generalidade dos paÃses europeus, tendo-se notado um crescimento acentuado desde o inicio da realização de Escola de FÃsica no CERN para professores em lÃngua portuguesa. Nos últimos anos, verifica-se que cerca de 20% dos participantes nas Masterclasses são portugueses.
Além da aquisição de conhecimentos ou da perceçâo do fascÃnio da investigação fundamental, aspetos como a cooperação internacional na ciência, a comunicação entre cientistas de diferentes lÃnguas e culturas, ou a estreita relação de interdependência entre ciência fundamental e tecnologia, que o CERN tão bem representa, são aprendizagens a valorizar. Neste contexto, importa hoje sobretudo refletir sobre as formas de maximizar o ganho para todos os participantes
Evaluation of Arenaria montana L. hydroethanolic extract as a chemopreventive food ingredient: A case study focusing a dairy product (yogurt)
Natural ingredients are valuable options to be exploited in the design of innovative food formulations with health benefits. Therefore, it was evaluated the potential use of Arenaria montana L. hydroethanolic extract (rich in apigenin derivatives) as a chemopreventive agent in functional foods. Apigenin is recognized as inhibiting VEGFR-2, which is the key receptor involved in angiogenesis. The obtained extract was also able to inhibit the VEGFR-2 phosphorylation through an enzymatic assay (IC 50 = ~63 µg/mL). Thereafter, free and microencapsulated forms were incorporated in yogurt. The obtained products maintained the nutritional value along the tested 3 days of storage, as also free sugars and fatty acids profiles, in comparison with the control samples. Nevertheless, the VEGFR-2 phosphorylation inhibition was not exhibited as intended. Even this behavior for the microencapsulated forms can be attributed to the protecting effect of the alginate matrix, further studies are required in order to better understand the shown performance.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER for CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013) financial support. To POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984 (LA LSRE-LCM) funded by ERDF through POCI-COMPETE2020 and FCT. To NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000006, funded by NORTE 2020, under PT2020 through ERDF. L. Barros, R.C. Calhelha and J.C.M. Barreira acknowledge the FCT for their post-doctoral grants (SFRH/BPD/107855/2015, SFRH/BPD/68344/2010 and SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, respectively). The authors also thank Ana Maria Carvalho for providing Arenaria montana L. samples.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Genuine Correlations of Like-Sign Particles in Hadronic Z0 Decays
Correlations among hadrons with the same electric charge produced in Z0
decays are studied using the high statistics data collected from 1991 through
1995 with the OPAL detector at LEP. Normalized factorial cumulants up to fourth
order are used to measure genuine particle correlations as a function of the
size of phase space domains in rapidity, azimuthal angle and transverse
momentum. Both all-charge and like-sign particle combinations show strong
positive genuine correlations. One-dimensional cumulants initially increase
rapidly with decreasing size of the phase space cells but saturate quickly. In
contrast, cumulants in two- and three-dimensional domains continue to increase.
The strong rise of the cumulants for all-charge multiplets is increasingly
driven by that of like-sign multiplets. This points to the likely influence of
Bose-Einstein correlations. Some of the recently proposed algorithms to
simulate Bose-Einstein effects, implemented in the Monte Carlo model PYTHIA,
are found to reproduce reasonably well the measured second- and higher-order
correlations between particles with the same charge as well as those in
all-charge particle multiplets.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Measurement of the B0 Lifetime and Oscillation Frequency using B0->D*+l-v decays
The lifetime and oscillation frequency of the B0 meson has been measured
using B0->D*+l-v decays recorded on the Z0 peak with the OPAL detector at LEP.
The D*+ -> D0pi+ decays were reconstructed using an inclusive technique and the
production flavour of the B0 mesons was determined using a combination of tags
from the rest of the event. The results t_B0 = 1.541 +- 0.028 +- 0.023 ps, Dm_d
= 0.497 +- 0.024 +- 0.025 ps-1 were obtained, where in each case the first
error is statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
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