Microalgae hydrolysates as functional ingredients

Microalgae have been used in food and cosmetic industries due to their richness in compounds with high biological value, such as proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals [1]. Several microalgae contain high protein content, similar to other common protein sources such as meat and soybean [1], making them a promising source of bioactive peptides. Bioactive peptides are inert inside proteins but can show several interesting properties when isolated [2]. Antioxidant, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging are some properties that can be found described in bioactive peptides. Bioactive peptides may be more easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract than the intact protein, which allied with their potential bioactivities make them interesting for the development of functional foods, with health benefits for the consumer. Hypertension is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is involved in blood pressure regulation, thus inhibiting it can help to control high blood pressure. Thus, this research aimed to produce water soluble hydrolysates rich in proteins and bioactive peptides, with antioxidant and anti-hypertensive potential, from the five microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oceanica, Tetraselmis sp., Scenedesmus obliquus and Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The five microalgae species were submitted to an enzymatic hydrolysis (one of the most described methods for producing bioactive peptides) with a cellulase and a subtilisin protease, using previously optimized methods. Prior to the enzymatic hydrolysis, C. vulgaris was submitted to an acid hydrolysis, using a weak and food-grade acid. The anti-hypertensive potential was evaluated by the hydrolysate’s ability of inhibiting ACE. Previous studies [3] showed that C. vulgaris and S. obliquus hydrolysates stood out with the higher antioxidant potential. All the hydrolysates demonstrated anti-hypertensive potential by showing an IC50 lower than 500 μg protein/mL for ACE inhibition (Table 1). Thus, production of peptide hydrolysates from microalgae may represent an interesting approach for the development of sustainable, natural functional ingredients to be used to prevent hypertension on the consumers by incorporating it in food matrices.In conclusion, the enzymatic hydrolysis of microalgae allowed to produce hydrolysates with antioxidant and anti-hypertensive potential. Further studies should be done to confirm the anti-hypertensive ability after the gastrointestinal digestion of the hydrolysates. If the bioactivity is maintained, these hydrolysates may be incorporated in food matrices as functional ingredients, contributing to the development of functional foods with antioxidant and anti-hypertensive benefits for the consumers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementação de Sistemas de Gestão Ambiental no setor Agroalimentar: Caso Dawn Foods

A proteção do ambiente e a utilização racional dos recursos naturais têm assumido um papel cada vez mais relevante na gestão das organizações, fruto da crescente consciencialização das fragilidades do ambiente que nos rodeia e da consequente pressão mediática e das partes interessadas. O setor industrial afeta o meio local significativamente, no caso das indústrias alimentares, as principais questões ambientais estão associadas às atividades de processamento de alimentos que incluem o elevado consumo de água, descarga de efluentes com elevada carga orgânica e consumo de energia. Na presente dissertação pretendeu-se desenvolver uma metodologia, de apoio à implementação de sistemas de gestão ambiental através da análise das declarações ambientais de nove organizações do setor agroalimentar. Esta metodologia pretende reestruturar a política ambiental, efetuar a fase do planeamento, analisar os indicadores de desempenho ambiental, identificar objetivos e metas através de um programa de gestão ambiental como também efetuar recomendações aplicáveis à Dawn Foods Portugal S.A. (doravante Dawn Foods), através dos propostos por empresas do setor agroalimentar. Foi efetuada uma comparação da evolução temporal dos indicadores de desempenho ambiental (consumo de água, energia, biodiversidade e resíduos) produzidos pela Dawn Foods ao longo do tempo, como também do setor de pastelaria e panificação (declarações ambientais), em que se verificaram as metas e objetivos de gestão possíveis para a Dawn Foods. No que diz respeito às metas e objetivos de gestão, foi efetuado uma reunião com as Diretoras de Qualidade & Ambiente da empresa para aferir a sensibilidade sobre oportunidades de redução de resíduos produzidos nos processos e daí estimar uma percentagem de redução ou meta de redução plausível, e apurar também oportunidades de redução nos consumos de energia e água. De uma forma geral, verificou-se que a empresa produz uma elevada quantidade de resíduos não perigosos, que correspondem essencialmente às embalagens. No caso do consumo de água, o seu aumento decorreu devido a fugas significativas e de difícil deteção. Em relação ao consumo de energia por tonelada de produto acabado, este diminuiu ao longo do período analisado, existindo uma tendência de redução e melhoria contínua. Os resultados permitem concluir que a aplicação de uma abordagem setorial de implementação de SGA nas empresas do setor traz vantagens em termos de eficiência dos processos e adaptação das metodologias que suportam o cumprimento dos requisitos desses sistemas, pelo que são apresentadas recomendações para a disseminação do modelo proposto nas empresas do setor agroalimentar com base no caso de estudo analisado

GPs’ strategies in exploring the preschool child’s wellbeing in the paediatric consultation

Background: Although General Practitioners (GPs) are uniquely placed to identify children with emotional, social, and behavioural problems, they succeed in identifying only a small number of them. The aim of this article is to explore the strategies, methods, and tools employed by GPs in the assessment of the preschool child’s emotional, mental, social, and behavioural health. We look at how GPs address parental care of the child in general and in situations where GPs have a particular awareness of the child. Method: Twenty-eight Danish GPs were purposively selected to take part in a qualitative study which combined focus-group discussions, observation of child consultations, and individual interviews with GPs. Results: Analysis of the data suggests that GPs have developed a set of methods, and strategies to assess the preschool child and parental care of the child. They look beyond paying narrow attention to the physical health of the child and they have expanded their practice to include the relations and interactions in the consultation room. The physical examination of the child continues to play a central role in doctor-child communication. Conclusion: The participating GPs’ strategies helped them to assess the wellbeing of the preschool child but they often find it difficult to share their impressions with parents

[Discussões e encaminhamentos].

Organizado por Olivardo Facó, Embrapa Caprinos; Edgard Cavalcanti Pimenta Filho, Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Roberto Germano Costa, Universidade Federal da Paraíba; e José Domingues Fontenele Neto, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido

The Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in superclusters of galaxies using gasdynamical simulations: the case of Corona Borealis

[Abridged] We study the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect associated with superclusters of galaxies using the MareNostrum Universe SPH simulation. We consider superclusters similar to the Corona Borealis Supercluster (CrB-SC). This paper is motivated by the detection at 33GHz of a strong temperature decrement in the CMB towards the core of this supercluster. Multifrequency observations with VSA and MITO suggest the existence of a thermal SZ effect component in the spectrum of this cold spot, which would account for roughly 25% of the total observed decrement. We identify nine regions containing superclusters similar to CrB-SC, obtain the associated SZ maps and calculate the probability of finding such SZ signals arising from hot gas within the supercluster. Our results show that WHIM produces a thermal SZ effect much smaller than the observed value. Neither can summing the contribution of small clusters and galaxy groups in the region explain the amplitude of the SZ signal. When we take into account the actual posterior distribution from the observations, the probability that WHIM can cause a thermal SZ signal like the one observed is <1%, rising up to a 3.2% when the contribution of small clusters and galaxy groups is included. If the simulations provide a suitable description of the gas physics, then we conclude that the thermal SZ component of the CrB spot most probably arises from an unknown galaxy cluster along the line of sight. The simulations also show that the kinetic SZ signal associated with the supercluster cannot provide an explanation for the remaining 75% of the observed cold spot in CrB.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 14 pages, 9 figure

Evidence for the h_b(1P) meson in the decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P)

Using a sample of 122 million Upsilon(3S) events recorded with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at SLAC, we search for the $h_b(1P)$ spin-singlet partner of the P-wave chi_{bJ}(1P) states in the sequential decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P), h_b(1P) --> gamma eta_b(1S). We observe an excess of events above background in the distribution of the recoil mass against the pi0 at mass 9902 +/- 4(stat.) +/- 2(syst.) MeV/c^2. The width of the observed signal is consistent with experimental resolution, and its significance is 3.1sigma, including systematic uncertainties. We obtain the value (4.3 +/- 1.1(stat.) +/- 0.9(syst.)) x 10^{-4} for the product branching fraction BF(Upsilon(3S)-->pi0 h_b) x BF(h_b-->gamma eta_b).Comment: 8 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30