Qualidade sensorial da carne de cordeiros Morada Nova com ou sem suplementação, abatidos em diferentes idades.

Resumo: Objetivou-se caracterizar a carne de cordeiros Morada Nova abatidos em diferentes idades e submetidos ou não a suplementação. Foram utilizados 32 cordeiros, machos, não castrados, abatidos aos 60, 78, 106 e 134 dias, com grupo de 8 cordeiros em cada abate, num esquema fatorial 4x2. Avaliaram-se os parâmetros de dureza, suculência, sabor, cor, aroma e aceitação global, para tanto foi utilizado um painel treinado com 13 pessoas. A suplementação não modificou as características sensoriais, enquanto a idade ao abate não altera dureza, suculência e aceitação global. O sabor é intensificado com o aumento da idade de abate e a cor diminui com o aumento da idade, mas só foi diferente mesmo aos 60 e 134 dias, os outros são iguais. O aroma aos 60 dias é menos intenso que o restante. [Sensory quality of meat from lambs Morada Nova with or without supplementation, slaughtered in different ages]. Abstract: bjective of characterizing the meat from lambs Morada Nova slaughtered in different ages and submitted or no supplementation. We used 32 uncastrated males, lambs slaughtered at 60, 78, 106 and 134 days, with a group of 8 lambs in each slaughter, a factorial 4 x 2. We evaluated the parameters of hardness, juiciness, taste, colour, aroma and global acceptance, for both used a trained panel with 13 people. No supplementation modified sensory characteristics, while the age at slaughter does not change hardness, juiciness and global acceptance. The flavor is intensified with increasing age of slaughter and the color decreases with increasing age, but was only really different to 60 and 134 days, others are equal. The aroma to 60 days is less intense than the rest

Levantamento fitossociológico em área de vegetação secundária no município de Igarapé-Açu/PA.

O estudo foi realizado no município de Igarapé-Açu em capoeira de 5 anos localizada na em propriedade de um agricultor familiar e teve como objetivo fazer um levantamento fitossociológico para conhecer a disposição e espécies que ocorrem na área. O levantamento foi realizado no mês de setembro de 2016, em uma área de capoeira de 5 anos de idade e extensão de 100 m x 200 m. Ao longo da área foi traçada uma linha mediana dividindo a área total, após isso foram montadas 10 subparcelas de 10 m x 10 m. O inventário foi realizado de forma sistemática, inventariando todos os indivíduos com DAP≥2 cm. As famílias que mais foram representativas foram Fabaceae (9), Myrtaceae (4) e Lecythidaceae (4), sendo a primeira família mencionada a mais abundante, correspondendo a 13,72% das espécies totais inventariadas. Quanto a frequência relativa as espécies Annona exucca, Banara guianensis, Connarus perrottetii, Inga heterophylla, Lacistema pubescens, Myrcia sylvatica e Vismia guianensis apresentaram valores altos, indicando que estão bem distribuída horizontalmente ao longo do povoamento amostrado. O levantamento feito na área foi suficiente para o reconhecimento das espécies presentes e da estrutura da vegetação, uma vez que foram amostradas espécies representativas da região

Metabolic Signatures of Lung Cancer in Biofluids: NMR-Based Metabonomics of Blood Plasma

In this work, the variations in the metabolic profile of blood plasma from lung cancer patients and healthy controls were investigated through NMR-based metabonomics, to assess the potential of this approach for lung cancer screening and diagnosis. PLS-DA modeling of CPMG spectra from plasma, subjected to Monte Carlo Cross Validation, allowed cancer patients to be discriminated from controls with sensitivity and specificity levels of about 90%. Relatively lower HDL and higher VLDL + LDL in the patients' plasma, together with increased lactate and pyruvate and decreased levels of glucose, citrate, formate, acetate, several amino acids (alanine, glutamine, histidine, tyrosine, valine), and methanol, could be detected. These changes were found to be present at initial disease stages and could be related to known cancer biochemical hallmarks, such as enhanced glycolysis, glutaminolysis, and gluconeogenesis, together with suppressed Krebs cycle and reduced lipid catabolism, thus supporting the hypothesis of a systemic metabolic signature for lung cancer. Despite the possible confounding influence of age, smoking habits, and other uncontrolled factors, these results indicate that NMR-based metabonomics of blood plasma can be useful as a screening tool to identify suspicious cases for subsequent, more specific radiological tests, thus contributing to improved disease management.ERDF - Competitive Factors Thematic Operational ProgrammeFCT/PTDC/ QUI/68017/2006FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007439SFRH/BD/ 63430/2009National UNESCO Committee - L'Oréal Medals of Honor for Women in Science 200Portuguese National NMR Network - RNRM

Energy-efficient precoding in multicell networks with full-duplex base stations

© 2017, The Author(s). This paper considers multi-input multi-output (MIMO) multicell networks, where the base stations (BSs) are full-duplex transceivers, while uplink and downlink users are equipped with multiple antennas and operate in a half-duplex mode. The problem of interest is to design linear precoders for BSs and users to optimize the network’s energy efficiency. Given that the energy efficiency objective is not a ratio of concave and convex functions, the commonly used Dinkelbach-type algorithms are not applicable. We develop a low-complexity path-following algorithm that only invokes one simple convex quadratic program at each iteration, which converges at least to the local optimum. Numerical results demonstrate the performance advantage of our proposed algorithm in terms of energy efficiency

Contrasting prefrontal cortex contributions to episodic memory dysfunction in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and alzheimer's disease

Recent evidence has questioned the integrity of episodic memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), where recall performance is impaired to the same extent as in Alzheimer's disease (AD). While these deficits appear to be mediated by divergent patterns of brain atrophy, there is evidence to suggest that certain prefrontal regions are implicated across both patient groups. In this study we sought to further elucidate the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventromedial (VMPFC) prefrontal contributions to episodic memory impairment in bvFTD and AD. Performance on episodic memory tasks and neuropsychological measures typically tapping into either DLPFC or VMPFC functions was assessed in 22 bvFTD, 32 AD patients and 35 age- and education-matched controls. Behaviourally, patient groups did not differ on measures of episodic memory recall or DLPFC-mediated executive functions. BvFTD patients were significantly more impaired on measures of VMPFC-mediated executive functions. Composite measures of the recall, DLPFC and VMPFC task scores were covaried against the T1 MRI scans of all participants to identify regions of atrophy correlating with performance on these tasks. Imaging analysis showed that impaired recall performance is associated with divergent patterns of PFC atrophy in bvFTD and AD. Whereas in bvFTD, PFC atrophy covariates for recall encompassed both DLPFC and VMPFC regions, only the DLPFC was implicated in AD. Our results suggest that episodic memory deficits in bvFTD and AD are underpinned by divergent prefrontal mechanisms. Moreover, we argue that these differences are not adequately captured by existing neuropsychological measures

Structural and Luminescence Properties of Silica-Based Hybrids Containing New Silylated-Diketonato Europium(III) Complex

A new betadiketonate ligand displaying a trimethoxysilyl group as grafting function and a diketone moiety as complexing site (TTA-Si = 4,4,4-trifluoro-2-(3-trimethoxysilyl)propyl)-1-3-butanedione (C4H3S)COCH[(CH2)3Si(OCH3)3]COCF3) and its highly luminescent europium(III) complex [Eu(TTA-Si)3] have been synthesized and fully characterized. Luminescent silica-based hybrids have been prepared as well with this new complex grafted on the surface of dense silica nanoparticles (28 (+/-3 nm) or on mesoporous silica particles. The covalent bonding of Eu(TTA-Si)3 inside the core of uniform silica nanoparticles (40 (+/- 5 nm) was also achieved. Luminescence properties are discussed in relation to the europium chemical environment involved in each of the three hybrids. The general methodology proposed allowed high grafting ratios and overcame chelate release and tendency to agglomeration, and it could be applied to any silica matrix (in the core or at the surface, nanosized or not, dense or mesoporous) and therefore numerous applications such as luminescent markers and luminophors could be foreseen

Uncovering the nutritional landscape of food

Recent progresses in data-driven analysis methods, including network-based approaches, are revolutionizing many classical disciplines. These techniques can also be applied to food and nutrition, which must be studied to design healthy diets. Using nutritional information from over 1,000 raw foods, we systematically evaluated the nutrient composition of each food in regards to satisfying daily nutritional requirements. The nutrient balance of a food was quantified herein as nutritional fitness, using the food's frequency of occurrence in nutritionally adequate food combinations. Nutritional fitness offers prioritization of recommendable foods within a global network of foods, in which foods are connected based on the similarities of their nutrient compositions. We identified a number of key nutrients, such as choline and alpha-linolenic acid, whose levels in foods can critically affect the foods' nutritional fitness. Analogously, pairs of nutrients can have the same effect. In fact, two nutrients can impact the nutritional fitness synergistically, although the individual nutrients alone may not. This result, involving the tendency among nutrients to show correlations in their abundances across foods, implies a hidden layer of complexity when exploring for foods whose balance of nutrients within pairs holistically helps meet nutritional requirements. Interestingly, foods with high nutritional fitness successfully maintain this nutrient balance. This effect expands our scope to a diverse repertoire of nutrient-nutrient correlations, integrated under a common network framework that yields unexpected yet coherent associations between nutrients. Our nutrient-profiling approach combined with a network-based analysis provides a more unbiased, global view of the relationships between foods and nutrients, and can be extended towards nutritional policies, food marketing, and personalized nutrition.Comment: Supplementary material is available at the journal websit