1,179 research outputs found
“What makes beverages products valuable to customers in the portuguese context”
The value perceived by customers remains a fundamental theme to be understood by a company. Due to its subjectivity and the possibility of, by understanding the perceived value, achieving a competitive advantage over competitors, it is a topic that is more than important and interesting to research.
Considering this context, it was sought to investigate the perceived value of products where consumption is fast and constant and the market behaves competitively. Therefore, this thesis is focused on beverages in the Portuguese market, where it was desired to understand, through a qualitative approach, the opinions of the customers related to this type of product.
With the purpose of understanding what makes beverages valuable to customers in Portugal, the findings of this thesis result from a systematic and continuous research process with the attribution of objectives and questions to reach reasoned and considerable conclusions for the investigated topic
Large-scale distribution of microbial and viral populations in the South Atlantic Ocean
Viruses are abundant, diverse and dynamic compo-nents of the marine environments and play a signi?-cant role in the ocean biogeochemical cycles. Toassess potential variations in the relation betweenviruses and microbes in different geographic regionsand depths, viral and microbial abundance and pro-duction were determined throughout the watercolumn along a latitudinal transect in the South Atlan-tic Ocean. Path analysis was used to examine therelationships between several abiotic and bioticparameters and the different microbial and viral popu-lations distinguished by ?ow cytometry.The depth-integrated contribution of microbial andviral abundance to the total microbial and viralbiomass differed signi?cantly among the differentprovinces. Additionally, the virus-to-microbe ratioincreased with depth and decreased laterally towardsthe more productive regions. Our data revealed thatthe abundance of phytoplankton and microbes is themain controlling factor of the viral populations in theeuphotic and mesopelagic layers, whereas in thebathypelagic realm, viral abundance was only weaklyrelated to the biotic and abiotic variables. The relativecontribution of the three viral populations distin-guished by ?ow cytometry showed a clear geographi-cal pattern throughout the water column, suggestingthat these populations are composed of distinct tax
Avaliação da adoção de cultivares de soja com base na opinião de produtores do DF e entorno.
bitstream/item/83409/1/Bolpd-309.pdf; bitstream/item/83601/1/bolpd-309.pd
Taurine: an energy "drink" for deep sea microbes
Presentación oralThe wide use of –omics approaches has led to the discovery of novel metabolic pathways in uncultivated marine bacteria. For example, metagenomic and –proteomic studies revealed that taurine might be an important substrate for heterotrophic marine bacteria. Taurine, an organic acid, is widely produced by marine metazoans and some phytoplankton albeit its concentration and turnover in the ocean has not been determined yet. In this study, we determined the role of taurine as carbon and energy source throughout the water column of the open North Atlantic from the epipelagic to the bathypelagic realm. Bulk uptake and respiration of taurine were measured and microautoradiography was combined with catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization to evaluate taurine uptake by specific phylogenetic groups. A shift between the dominant use of taurine as a carbon source from the epi- and mesopelagic (about 40% of taurine respired) to the bathypelagic (76% respired) realm was observed. Taken together, our results indicate that taurine is effectively used by marine prokaryotes, especially in the mesopelagic environment where zooplankton, a potential source for taurine, reside during the day
A transição para uma Economia em baixo carbono: O setor dos transportes e a transição para a mobilidade elétrica
Microbes mediating the sulfur cycle in the Atlantic Ocean and their link to chemolithoautotrophy
Only about 10%–30% of the organic matter produced in the epipelagic layers reaches the dark ocean. Under these limiting conditions, reduced inorganic substrates might be used as an energy source to fuel prokaryotic chemoautotrophic and/or mixotrophic activity. The aprA gene encodes the alpha subunit of the adenosine-5′-phosphosulfate (APS) reductase, present in sulfate-reducing (SRP) and sulfur-oxidizing prokaryotes (SOP). The sulfur-oxidizing pathway can be coupled to inorganic carbon fixation via the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle. The abundances of aprA and cbbM, encoding RuBisCO form II (the key CO2 fixing enzyme), were determined over the entire water column along a latitudinal transect in the Atlantic from 64°N to 50°S covering six oceanic provinces. The abundance of aprA and cbbM genes significantly increased with depth reaching the highest abundances in meso- and upper bathypelagic layers. The contribution of cells containing these genes also increased from mesotrophic towards oligotrophic provinces, suggesting that under nutrient limiting conditions alternative energy sources are advantageous. However, the aprA/cbbM ratios indicated that only a fraction of the SOP is associated with inorganic carbon fixation. The aprA harbouring prokaryotic community was dominated by Pelagibacterales in surface and mesopelagic waters, while Candidatus Thioglobus, Chromatiales and the Deltaproteobacterium_SCGC dominated the bathypelagic realm. Noticeably, the contribution of the SRP to the prokaryotic community harbouring aprA gene was low, suggesting a major utilization of inorganic sulfur compounds either as an energy source (occasionally coupled with inorganic carbon fixation) or in biosynthesis pathways.En prensa5,84
The Need for a Specific Risk Prediction System in Native Valve Infective Endocarditis Surgery
The need for a specific risk score system for infective endocarditis (IE) surgery has been previously claimed. In a single-center pilot study, preliminary to future multicentric development and validation, bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression) analysis of early postoperative mortality predictors in 440 native valve IE patients were performed. Mathematical procedures assigned scores to the independent predictors emerged (AUC of the ROC curve: 0.88). Overall mortality was 9.1%. Six predictors were identified and assigned scores, including age (5–13 points), renal failure (5), NYHA class IV (9), critical preoperative state (11), lack of preoperative attainment of blood culture negativity (5), perivalvular involvement (5). Four risk classes were drawn ranging from “very low risk” (≤5 points, mean predicted mortality 1%), and to “very high risk” (≥20 points, 43% mortality). IE-specific risk stratification models are both needed, as disease-specific factors (e.g., cultures, abscess), beside the generic ones (e.g., age, renal impairment) affect mortality, and feasible
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