114 research outputs found

    Reports of Brazilian federal meat inspection system in swine slaughterhouses.

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    Abstract In the last decades the pig production improvement had impacted on zoonotic profile attributed to pork. This fact has created a need to modernize the meat inspection system traditionally applied, driving the focus to risks that really threaten food safety nowadays. This modernization is a trend in meat producer countries and European Union is ahead in this process. In this way, Brazil is assessing the new systems and building an own proposal which has been conducted under a national project linked by many coordinated actions. The first step of this work is to analyze the data of current inspection system. Then, the aim of this study is to evaluate the carcasses and viscera disposition reported by Brazilian Federal Meat Inspection. The analyzed database encompasses the reports of 114 slaughterhouses recorded from 2012 to 2014 into SIGSIF platform. The results were summarized by descriptive statistics on tables and figures using the SAS software. It was possible to show that the major ?post mortem? causes of carcass/viscera trimming or condemnation were resulted from production diseases, as adherences (3.72%), pleurisy (0.85%), abscess (0.58%) and pneumonia (0.20%). Likewise for industrial process problems, as carcass contamination by evisceration leaking (1.8%) and traumatic lesions (1.57%). Zoonosis injuries condemnations were reported in very low frequency in a few slaughterhouses, usually once. Among the total of organs and carcass inspected, cysticercosis was registered in just 0.00092% in 25 slaughterhouses, endocarditis in 0.00193% (23 slaughterhouses), erysipelas in 0.0045% (38 slaughterhouses), sarcosporidiosis in 0.00051% (17 slaughterhouses) and tuberculosis in 0.000046% (12 slaughterhouses). Thus, the current meat inspection system is prepared to detect zoonosis that no longer occur or happen in very low frequency. In the other hand, the traditional ante and post mortem inspection methodologies are not able to detect the main current foodborne pathogens globally distributed as Salmonella.SafePork 2017

    Recent environmental changes in the area of La Maddalena Harbour (Sardinia, Italy): data from mollusks and benthic foraminifera

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    Mollusks and benthic foraminifera are reliable tools to paleo-environmental reconstructions because they commonly occur in most marine habitats and are sensitive to major and short-lived changes of environmental drivers, induced by both natural and anthropogenic events. Their community structure provides useful information about the characteristics of their habitat and some species are sensitive to specific environmental controls. Features such as changes in species composition and community, or variation in test morphology provide evidence of fluctuation of several environmental factors. Therefore, both mollusks and benthic foraminifera can be used as an efficient method for identifying the history and ecological trajectory of marine ecosystems. This study focuses on the macro- (mollusks) and micropaleontological (benthic foraminifera) study of a 3 m long sediment core collected in the former military arsenal of the La Maddalena harbor (N Sardinia, Italy), at a depth of 15 m. The core site is located on the S-E coast of La Maddalena island, that underwent a complex history of human occupation along with natural environmental evolution and human-derived pressures. We aimed to reconstruct the main environmental changes recorded in the fossil benthic communities along the core, and to propose the most likely factors that caused these changes. Both mollusks and benthic foraminifera have been picked from the core, identified at genus/species level and counted. Ecological indications for each species have been extracted from literature. Univariate and multivariate statistics have been applied to highlight the community dynamics. More than 90 species of benthic foraminifera have been identified, and 101 mollusk species (846 specimens). The foraminifera diversity indices show a general reduction from the first 50 cm downcore. This slight decline is accompanied by changes in foraminiferal assemblages. The results concerning changes in foraminiferal species composition, their abundance and biodiversity, supported by statistical analyses (cluster analysis), allowed identification of three major foraminiferal associations corresponding to different marine coastal settings. The same results have been obtained by using mollusks and their ecological significance in the framework of benthic marine bionomics. Species are related to infralittoral vegetated bottom such as Posidonia meadows (HP) or photophilous algae through the core, but with variation in percentage of abundance, and HP species decreases from the bottom to the top, whereas species related to muddy bottom follow the opposite trend (coastal detritic mud, deep mud). This testifies that the area underwent a progressive reduction of Posidonia meadows and light-loving algae with a shift toward muddy bottoms, possibly related to the effect of the intensive renovation works of the harbor area. Moreover, radiocarbon dating obtained from Cerithium specimens indicated that the sedimentation rate increases in the upper portion of the core, according to the ecological signal reconstructed by the analysis of the mollusk assemblage

    Diversity and dynamics of seaweed associated microbial communities inhabiting the lagoon of venice

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    Seaweeds are a group of essential photosynthetic organisms that harbor a rich diversity of associated microbial communities with substantial functions related to host health and defense. Environmental and anthropogenic stressors may disrupt the microbial communities and their metabolic activity, leading to host physiological alterations that negatively affect seaweeds’ performance and survival. Here, the bacterial communities associated with one of the most common seaweed, Ulva laetevirens Areshough, were sampled over a year at three sites of the lagoon of Venice affected by different environmental and anthropogenic stressors. Bacterial communities were characterized through Illumina sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA genes. The study demonstrated that the seaweed associated bacterial communities at sites impacted by environmental stressors were host-specific and differed significantly from the less affected site. Furthermore, these communities were significantly distinct from those of the surrounding seawater. The bacterial communities’ composition was significantly correlated with environmental parameters (nutrient concentrations, dissolved oxygen saturation, and pH) across sites. This study showed that several more abundant bacteria on U. laetevirens at stressed sites belonged to taxa related to the host response to the stressors. Overall, environmental parameters and anthropogenic stressors were shown to substantially affect seaweed associated bacterial communities, which reflect the host response to environmental variations

    The effect of hunger state on hypothalamic functional connectivity in response to food cues

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    ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank Lisette Charbonnier for her relentless efforts in setting up the study at all three sites and collecting the Dutch data. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. FUNDING INFORMATION This work was financially supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) for research, technological development, and demonstration under grant agreement 266408 (Full4Health, www.full4health.eu). Furthermore, the study was supported in parts by a grant (01GI0925) from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    ARTICULAR PAIN IS CORRELATED WITH ULTRASOUND POWER DOPPLER FINDINGS?

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    Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Div Rheumatol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Div Radiol, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Politecn Marche, Div Rheumatol, Jesi, ItalyUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Div Rheumatol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Div Radiol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

    Free-living Physical Activity and Executive Function : A Multi-Study Analysis of Age Groups and Times of Day

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    Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank all participants (and parents) for taking part in the studies. Additionally, we want to thank Merle Reuter and Ulrike Schwarz for their help in data collection and preparation of the AttentionGO project. We also thank the student assistants for their support in data collection in all studies. Further, we thank Patrick E. Shrout for his expert advice and valuable feedback on the first draft of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    Environmental restoration by aquatic angiosperm transplants in transitional water systems: The Venice Lagoon as a case study

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    The paper reports the results obtained after 4 years of aquatic angiosperm transplants in areas of the Venice Lagoon (North Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean) where meadows almost disappeared due to eutrophication, pollution and overexploitation of clam resources. The project LIFE12 NAT/IT/000331-SeResto, funded by the European Union, allowed to recolonize the Habitat 1150* (coastal lagoons) in the northernmost part of the lagoon, by extensive manual transplants of small sods or single rhizomes of Zostera marina, Zostera noltei, Ruppia cirrhosa and, in some stations also of Cymodocea nodosa. Over the 4 years of the project more than 75,000 rhizomes were transplanted in 35 stations with the support of local stakeholders (fishermen, hunters and sport clubs). Plants took root in 32 stations forming extensive meadows on a surface of approx. 10 km2 even if some failures were recorded in areas affected by outflows of freshwater rich in nutrients and suspended particulate matter. The rapid recovery of the ecological status of the involved areas was the result of this meadow restoration, which was in compliance with Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC) objectives. Moreover, the monitoring of environmental parameters in the water column and in surface sediments allowed to identify the best conditions for successful transplants. Small, widespread interventions and the participation of local stakeholders in the environmental recovery, make this action economically cheap and easily transposable in other similar environments

    Geomorphology and sedimentology of Porto Pino, SW Sardinia, Western Mediterranean

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    This paper presents a detailed (1:4000) geomorphological, sedimentological and ecological map of a Mediterranean microtidal wave-dominated beach system and adjacent inner shelf. This map is an innovative cartographic product that integrates a range of processes of present and past timeframes. It is part of a larger cartography on the coastal geomorphology of Sardinia (Italy) aiming to facilitate coastal management practices and future scientific research. The study area is located in SW Sardinia (Italy), and focuses on Porto Pino beach, an important tourist destination of semi-pristine nature, facing environmental pressures common to many coastal Mediterranean settings. In this context, the main human impact on coastal dune habitats is described and a full environmental characterization of the beach system is presented

    Seagrass can mitigate negative ocean acidification effects on calcifying algae

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    The ultimate effect that ocean acidification (OA) and warming will have on the physiology of calcifying algae is still largely uncertain. Responses depend on the complex interactions between seawater chemistry, global/local stressors and species-specific physiologies. There is a significant gap regarding the effect that metabolic interactions between coexisting species may have on local seawater chemistry and the concurrent effect of OA. Here, we manipulated CO2 and temperature to evaluate the physiological responses of two common photoautotrophs from shallow tropical marine coastal ecosystems in Brazil: the calcifying alga Halimeda cuneata, and the seagrass Halodule wrightii. We tested whether or not seagrass presence can influence the calcification rate of a widespread and abundant species of Halimeda under OA and warming. Our results demonstrate that under elevated CO2, the high photosynthetic rates of H. wrightii contribute to raise H. cuneata calcification more than two-fold and thus we suggest that H. cuneata populations coexisting with H. wrightii may have a higher resilience to OA conditions. This conclusion supports the more general hypothesis that, in coastal and shallow reef environments, the metabolic interactions between calcifying and non-calcifying organisms are instrumental in providing refuge against OA effects and increasing the resilience of the more OA-susceptible species.E.B. would like to thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoas de Nível Superior (CAPES) for Masters funding. Funding for this project came from the Synergism grant (CNPq 407365/2013-3). We extend our thanks to the Brazil-based Projeto Coral Vivo and its sponsor PetroBras Ambiental for providing the Marine Mesocosm structure and experimental assistance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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