Uncertainty Analysis of Carbon Ablation in the VKI Plasmatron

International audienc

EFFECT OF THE MATURITY STAGE ON THE POSTHARVEST BEHAVIOR OF CAPE GOOSEBERRY (Physalis peruviana L.) FRUITS STORED

Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.), a species belonging to the Solanaceae family, has fruits appreciated for their flavor and functional and medicinal properties. Fruit maturity at the time of harvest is one of the most important factors determining the behavior and postharvest quality. In order to determine the effect of maturity stage on postharvest behavior of cape gooseberry, fruits from ecotype Colombia were harvested at four maturity stages, S1 (25 % yellow and 75 % green fruit with green calyx), S2 (50 % yellow and 50 % orange with yellow-green calyx), S3 (100 % orange fruit and 100 % yellow calyx) and S4 (100 % orange dry fruit with brown calyx). Fruits were stored without calyx at room temperature (18 \ub0C and 60 % RH) for 15 days. We found that as maturity increased, the values ??of ethylene production, weight loss, color index, total soluble solids and maturity ratio were higher, while firmness and titratable acidity were lower. However, fruits harvested at S1 had the lowest postharvest quality, since they showed the largest weight loss, lowest firmness and uneven coloration. Therefore, it is not beneficial to harvest fruits at this maturity state. It is advisable to harvest cape gooseberry fruits at S2 and S3 maturity stages because of the good postharvest behavior they show, while fruits at S4 stage should be harvested for immediate consumption only. Additional key words: Shelf-life, skin color RESUMEN Efecto del estado de madurez sobre el comportamiento poscosecha de frutos de uchuva (Physalis peruviana L.) almacenados a temperatura ambiente La uchuva (Physalis peruviana L.), especie perteneciente a la familia Solanaceae, posee frutos que son apetecidos por su sabor as\ued como por sus propiedades funcionales y medicinales. La madurez del fruto en el momento de la cosecha es uno de los factores m\ue1s importantes que determina el comportamiento y la calidad poscosecha. Con el objetivo de determinar el efecto del estado de madurez sobre el comportamiento poscosecha, se cosecharon frutos de uchuva ecotipo Colombia en cuatro grados de madurez, S1 (fruto 25 % amarillo, 75 % verde y c\ue1liz verde), S2 (fruto 50 % amarillo, 50 % naranja y c\ue1liz verde amarillento), S3 (fruto 100 % naranja y c\ue1liz 100 % amarillo) y S4 (fruto 100 % naranja y c\ue1liz seco de color caf\ue9). Los frutos fueron almacenados sin c\ue1liz a temperatura ambiente (18 \ub0C y 60 % HR) durante 15 d\uedas. Se encontr\uf3 que a medida que el estado de madurez fue m\ue1s avanzado, los valores de producci\uf3n de etileno, p\ue9rdida de peso, \uedndice de color, s\uf3lidos solubles totales y relaci\uf3n de madurez fueron mayores, mientras que la firmeza y la acidez titulable fueron menores; sin embargo, los frutos S1 tuvieron menor calidad poscosecha porque presentaron la mayor p\ue9rdida de peso, menor firmeza y una coloraci\uf3n irregular, por lo que no es favorable cosechar los frutos en este estado de madurez. Es recomendable cosechar los frutos de uchuva en los estados S2 o S3 porque presentan un buen comportamiento poscosecha, mientras que los frutos S4 se deben cosechar s\uf3lo para consumo inmediato. Palabras clave adicionales: Color de la epidermis, vida \ufatil <br

Conservación del fruto de banano bocadillo (Musa AA Simmonds) con la aplicación de permanganato de potasio (KMnO4)

El banano bocadillo es considerado uno de los productos hortofrutícolas promisorios exportables de Colombia, no obstante, es un producto altamente perecedero, por lo anterior es necesaria la evaluación de tecnologías de bajo costo que aumenten la conservación de estos frutos. El permanganato de potasio (KMnO4) ha mostrado ser una herramienta eficaz en la conservación de diferentes frutos debido a que oxida al etileno. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto del KMnO4 en la conservación de frutos de banano bocadillo, para lo cual se utilizó un diseño en bloques completos al azar con arreglo factorial de 3 × 3 + 1, donde los bloques correspondieron a los tipos de arcillas (montmorillonita, caolinita, vermiculita y zeolita), el primer factor consistió en las dosis de KMnO4 (0,5%, 1,0% y 1,5% con base en el peso fresco de los frutos) y el segundo factor fueron las dosis de arcilla (0,5%, 1,0% y 1,5%) usada como carrier del KMnO4, más un testigo absoluto, los frutos fueron almacenados durante 16 días a temperatura ambiente y periódicamente se midió el índice de color (IC), sólidos solubles totales (SST), pérdida de peso, firmeza, acidez total titulable (ATT) y relación de madurez (RM). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la mezcla de 1% de arcilla + 1,5% de KMnO4 favoreció la conservación de bananito, debido a que presentó menor IC (-0,64), menores SST (12,08 °Brix), mayor firmeza (70,65 N) y menor RM (83,67). Por lo tanto, existe un efecto favorable en la conservación de los frutos de bananito cuando el KMnO4 se encuentra en mayor proporción con respecto a su carrier. Palabras clave adicionales: arcillas, maduración, poscosecha, oxidación de etileno

Conservación del fruto de banano bocadillo (Musa AA Simmonds) con la aplicación de permanganato de potasio (KMnO)

El banano bocadillo es considerado uno de los productos hortofrutícolas promisorios exportables de Colombia, no obstante, es un producto altamente perecedero, por lo anterior es necesaria la evaluación de tecnologías de bajo costo que aumenten la conservación de estos frutos. El permanganato de potasio (KMnO4 ) ha mostrado ser una herramienta eficaz en la conservación de diferentes frutos debido a que oxida al etileno. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto del KMnO4 en la conservación de frutos de banano bocadillo, para lo cual se utilizó un diseño en bloques completos al azar con arreglo factorial de 3 × 3 + 1, donde los bloques correspondieron a los tipos de arcillas (montmorillonita, caolinita, vermiculita y zeolita), el primer factor consistió en las dosis de KMnO4 (0,5%; 1,0% y 1,5% con base en el peso fresco de los frutos) y el segundo factor fueron las dosis de arcilla (0,5%; 1,0% y 1,5%) usada como carrier del KMnO4 , más un testigo absoluto, los frutos fueron almacenados durante 16 días a temperatura ambiente y periódicamente se midió el índice de color (IC), sólidos solubles totales (SST), pérdida de peso, firmeza, acidez total titulable (ATT) y relación de madurez (RM). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la mezcla de 1% de arcilla + 1,5% de KMnO4 favoreció la conservación de bananito, debido a que presentó menor IC (-0,64); menores SST (12,08 °Brix), mayor firmeza (70,65 N) y menor RM (83,67). Por lo tanto, existe un efecto favorable en la conservación de los frutos de bananito cuando el KMnO4 se encuentra en mayor proporción con respecto a su carrier.Banano- Musa acuminata - Musa paradisiac

Nutrient History Affects the Response and Resilience of the Tropical Seagrass Halophila stipulacea to Further Enrichment in Its Native Habitat

Eutrophication is one of the main threats to seagrass meadows, but there is limited knowledge on the interactive effects of nutrients under a changing climate, particularly for tropical seagrass species. This study aimed to detect the onset of stress in the tropical seagrass, Halophila stipulacea, by investigating the effect of in situ nutrient addition during an unusually warm summer over a 6-month period. We measured a suite of different morphological and biochemical community metrics and individual plant traits from two different sites with contrasting levels of eutrophication history before and after in situ fertilization in the Gulf of Aqaba. Nutrient stress combined with summer temperatures that surpassed the threshold for optimal growth negatively affected seagrass plants from South Beach (SB), an oligotrophic marine protected area, while H. stipulacea populations from North Beach (NB), a eutrophic and anthropogenically impacted area, benefited from the additional nutrient input. Lower aboveground (AG) and belowground (BG) biomass, reduced Leaf Area Index (LAI), smaller internodal distances, high sexual reproductive effort and the increasing occurrence of apical shoots in seagrasses from SB sites indicated that the plants were under stress and not growing under optimal conditions. Moreover, AG and BG biomass and internodal distances decreased further with the addition of fertilizer in SB sites. Results presented here highlight the fact that H. stipulacea is one of the most tolerant and plastic seagrass species. Our study further demonstrates that the effects of fertilization differ significantly between meadows that are growing exposed to different levels of anthropogenic pressures. Thus, the meadow’s “history” affects it resilience and response to further stress. Our results suggest that monitoring efforts on H. stipulacea populations in its native range should focus especially on carbohydrate reserves in leaves and rhizomes, LAI, internodal length and percentage of apical shoots as suitable warning indicators for nutrient stress in this seagrass species to minimize future impacts on these valuable ecosystems

A Comparison of Machine Learning Methods for Cross-Domain Few-Shot Learning

We present an empirical evaluation of machine learning algorithms in cross-domain few-shot learning based on a fixed pre-trained feature extractor. Experiments were performed in five target domains (CropDisease, EuroSAT, Food101, ISIC and ChestX) and using two feature extractors: a ResNet10 model trained on a subset of ImageNet known as miniImageNet and a ResNet152 model trained on the ILSVRC 2012 subset of ImageNet. Commonly used machine learning algorithms including logistic regression, support vector machines, random forests, nearest neighbour classification, naïve Bayes, and linear and quadratic discriminant analysis were evaluated on the extracted feature vectors. We also evaluated classification accuracy when subjecting the feature vectors to normalisation using p-norms. Algorithms originally developed for the classification of gene expression data—the nearest shrunken centroid algorithm and LDA ensembles obtained with random projections—were also included in the experiments, in addition to a cosine similarity classifier that has recently proved popular in few-shot learning. The results enable us to identify algorithms, normalisation methods and pre-trained feature extractors that perform well in cross-domain few-shot learning. We show that the cosine similarity classifier and ℓ² -regularised 1-vs-rest logistic regression are generally the best-performing algorithms. We also show that algorithms such as LDA yield consistently higher accuracy when applied to ℓ² -normalised feature vectors. In addition, all classifiers generally perform better when extracting feature vectors using the ResNet152 model instead of the ResNet10 model

Unusually Warm Summer Temperatures Exacerbate Population and Plant Level Response of Posidonia oceanica to Anthropogenic Nutrient Stress

Posidonia oceanica is a key foundation species in the Mediterranean providing valuable ecosystem services. However, this species is particularly vulnerable towards high coastal nutrient inputs and the rising frequency of intense summer heat waves, but their combined effect in situ has received little attention so far. Here, we investigated the effects of in situ nutrient addition during an unusually warm summer over a 4-month period, comparing different morphological, physiological and biochemical population metrics of seagrass meadows growing in protected areas (Ischia) with meadows already exposed to significant anthropogenic pressure (Baia – Gulf of Pozzuoli). Our study highlights that the effects of warmer than usual summer temperatures on the population level of seagrass meadows can be exacerbated if the plants are already exposed to higher anthropogenic pressures. Morphological and population level indicators mainly changed over time, possibly impacted by season and the warmer temperatures, and displayed more pronounced reductions in seagrasses from impacted sites. The additional nutrient supply had even more deleterious effects, as shown by a decrease in approximately 67% in cover in fertilized plots at high impacted sites and 33% at low impacted sites. Moreover, while rhizome starch concentration showed a seasonal increase in plants from low impacted sites it displayed a trend of a 27% decrease in fertilized plots of the high impacted sites. Epiphyte biomass was approximately four-fold higher on leaves of plants growing in impacted sites and even doubled with the additional nutrient input. Predicting and anticipating stress in P. oceanica is of crucial importance for conservation and management efforts, given the limited colonizing and reproductive ability and extremely slow growth of this ecosystem engineer. Our results suggest that monitoring efforts should focus especially on leaf area index (LAI), carbohydrate concentrations in the rhizomes, and epiphyte cover on leaves as indicators of the onset of stress in Posidonia oceanica, which can be used by decision makers to take appropriate measures before damage to the ecosystem becomes irreversible, minimize future human interference and strengthen the resilience of these important ecosystems

Ankle-brachial index as a predictor of coronary disease events in elderly patients submitted to coronary angiography

OBJECTIVES: To correlate the importance of the ankle-brachial index in terms of cardiovascular morbimortality and the extent of coronary arterial disease amongst elderly patients without clinical manifestations of lower limb peripheral arterial disease.METHODS: We analyzed prospective data from 100 patients over 65 years of age with coronary arterial disease, as confirmed by coronary angiography, and with over 70% stenosis of at least one sub-epicardial coronary artery. We measured the ankle-brachial index immediately after coronary angiography, and a value of <0.9 was used to diagnose peripheral arterial disease.RESULTS: the patients' average age was 77.4 years. the most prevalent risk factor was hypertension (96%), and the median late follow-up appointment was 28.9 months. the ankle-brachial index was <0.9 in 47% of the patients, and a low index was more prevalent in patients with multiarterial coronary disease compared to patients with uniarterial disease in the same group. Using a bivariate analysis, only an ankle-brachial index of,0.9 was a strong predictive factor for cardiovascular events, thereby increasing all-cause deaths and fatal and non-fatal acute myocardial infarctions two-to three-fold.CONCLUSION: in elderly patients with documented coronary disease, a low ankle-brachial index (<0.9) was associated with the severity and extent of coronary arterial disease, and in late follow-up appointments, a low index was correlated with an increase in the occurrence of major cardiovascular events.Univ Fed Estado São Paulo, Dept Cardiol, São Paulo, BrazilHosp Israelita Albert Einstein, Dept Cardiol, São Paulo, BrazilDuke Univ, Sch Med, Dept Med, Durham, NC 27706 USAUniv Fed Estado São Paulo, Dept Cardiol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Identification of glucose transporters in Aspergillus nidulans

o characterize the mechanisms involved in glucose transport, in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, we have identified four glucose transporter encoding genes hxtB-E. We evaluated the ability of hxtB-E to functionally complement the Saccharomyces cerevisiae EBY.VW4000 strain that is unable to grow on glucose, fructose, mannose or galactose as single carbon source. In S. cerevisiae HxtB-E were targeted to the plasma membrane. The expression of HxtB, HxtC and HxtE was able to restore growth on glucose, fructose, mannose or galactose, indicating that these transporters accept multiple sugars as a substrate through an energy dependent process. A tenfold excess of unlabeled maltose, galactose, fructose, and mannose were able to inhibit glucose uptake to different levels (50 to 80 %) in these s. cerevisiae complemented strains. Moreover, experiments with cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), strongly suggest that hxtB, -C, and –E mediate glucose transport via active proton symport. The A. nidulans ΔhxtB, ΔhxtC or ΔhxtE null mutants showed ~2.5-fold reduction in the affinity for glucose, while ΔhxtB and -C also showed a 2-fold reduction in the capacity for glucose uptake. The ΔhxtD mutant had a 7.8-fold reduction in affinity, but a 3-fold increase in the capacity for glucose uptake. However, only the ΔhxtB mutant strain showed a detectable decreased rate of glucose consumption at low concentrations and an increased resistance to 2-deoxyglucose.The authors would like to thank the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico, Brazil for financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript