Impact of inbreeding on growth and development of young open-pollinated progeny of Eucalyptus globulus

The use of open-pollinated seeds from seed orchards is a common strategy for the deployment of genetically improved eucalypts, including Eucalyptus globulus, an important pulpwood tree in many temperate climate areas. However, seed quality can be affected by the rate of selfing and to a lesser extent by contamination from pollen outside the orchard. Inbreeding between related parents and especially from self-crosses is known to cause diminished growth and developmental abnormalities in the resulting progeny. This study looks at the magnitude and variation in selfing and the impact in inbreeding depression across several E. globulus families collected over the years in a seed orchard. The effects on growth and development of outcrossed and selfed progeny were studied across five progeny trials, after pedigree reconstruction of the open pollinated progeny based on SSR genotyping. An additive genetic mixed linear model was fitted to the data to evaluate the impact of inbreeding on height growth. The results showed a significant inbreeding depression, with a height growth reduction of 15% in selfed progeny, when compared with crosses from unrelated parents. These inbreeding depression values varied among families, ranging between 7% and 24%, evidencing the importance of genetic background. Contamination rates were on average 10% suggesting long distance pollen dispersal was present. A small number of abnormal phenotypes (less than 10%) was observed in the field. This was associated with specific, unrelated, crosses and not to high inbreeding rates such as found among selfed progeny. The relevance of these results for orchard management and parent selection is discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mechanism for zirconium oxide atomic layer deposition using bis(methylcyclopentadienyl)methoxymethyl zirconium

The mechanism for zirconium oxide atomic layer deposition using bis(methylcyclopentadienyl)methoxymethyl zirconium and H(2)O was examined using ab initio calculations of hydrolysis energies to predict the order of ligand loss. These predictions were tested using in situ mass spectrometric measurements which revealed that the methyl ligand, and 65% of the methylcyclopentadienyl ligands are lost during the zirconium precursor adsorption. The remaining 35% of the methylcyclopentadienyl ligands and the methoxy ligand are lost during the subsequent H(2)O exposure. These measurements agree very well with the predictions, demonstrating that thermodynamic calculations are a simple and accurate predictor for the reactivities of these compounds. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics. (DOI: 10.1063/1.2824814

Impact of inoculum size on mead aroma compounds formation by wine strains of S. cerevisiae

Mead is a traditional drink, containing 8-18% (v/v) of ethanol, which results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. It has been reported that mead fermentation is a time-consuming process, and an important objective of mead makers is to reduce the fermentation time without decreasing the quality of the end product. A significant time can be saved in the fermentation process by increasing the pitching rate, i.e., the amount of suspended yeast cells added to a batch fermenter. However, an increase in the inoculum size could also have deleterious side effects on the flavour profile of the final beverage. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the inoculum size of two commercial winemaking strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Lalvin QA23 and Lalvin ICV D47) on the mead volatile aromatic compound production. Honey must was prepared according to the recipe developed by our team, supplemented with potassium tartrate, pH adjusted to 3.7 with malic acid and the nitrogen concentration adjusted to 267 mg/L with diammonium phosphate. The appropriate amounts of inoculum were pitched into the honey-must to obtain five different pitching rates. Mead produced was analysed for major volatile compounds by GC-FID and for minor volatile compounds by GC-MS. A total of twenty-seven fermentative aroma compounds including alcohols, esters, volatile phenols, volatile fatty acids and carbonyl compounds were identified and quantified in meads. It was observed quantitative differences in aroma profiles, confirming the contribution of both yeast strain and inoculum size on the sensory characteristics of meads. Of the twenty-seven volatile compounds quantified, fourteen could contribute to mead aroma and flavour because their concentrations rose above their respective thresholds. In general, the formation of these compounds was particularly pronounced at low pitching rates. The esters ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate and isoamyl acetate were the most powerful odorants detected in all meads. In addition to this quantitative analysis of the impact of strain selection and inoculum size on mead aroma, a complementary sensorial evaluation of the meads would yield further useful information for mead producers

Effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells immobilisation on mead production

Mead is a traditional alcoholic beverage obtained by the fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. In this work the potential of application of immobilised yeast cells on single-layer Ca-alginate or double-layer alginateechitosan for mead production was assessed for the first time. The meads produced either with entrapped or free cells were evaluated in terms of quality and aroma profile. The immobilisation procedure had no adverse effect on cell viability, since minor differences were found in fermentation kinetics among the strains and immobilisation systems. The double-layer alginate-chitosan had no advantage compared with the single-layer Ca-alginate, as the number of free cells in the medium, resulting from cell leakage, was similar. Although meads obtained with entrapped yeast cells presented less ethanol and glycerol and more acetic acid, it exhibited larger amounts of volatile compounds. Immobilised cells produced meads with more compounds with fruity characteristics, such as ethyl octanoate and ethyl hexanoate; however the concentrations of undesirable compounds in such meads were also higher. The effect of immobilisation on the aroma profile was important, but the strain contribution was also of major importance. Thus, the sensory analysis of final product gives an important insight on the overall quality.The research presented in this paper was partially funded by the Fundacdo para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, (FCT) and by PTDC projects (contracts PTDC/AGR-ALI/68284/2006). A.P.P. is a recipient of a Ph.D. grant from the FCT (SFRH/BD/45820/2008)

Effect of nitrogen supplementation on yeast fermentation performance and mead quality

Mead is a traditional drink, containing X-1 X% (v/v) of ethanol, which results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. However, when it is produced in a homemade way mead producers find several problems, namely, the lack of uniformity in the final products low or premature fermentations arrest, and the production of "off-flavours" by the yeasts. These problems could be due to several factors, including lack of essential nutrients such as a deficiency in available nitrogen. Additionally , it has been reported that mead fermentation is a time-consuming process, often taking several months to complete. depending on the type of honey, yeast strain anti honey-must composition. Since mead production is a time-consuming process. to make its production viable it is necessary to reduce the fermentation time while producing an end product of quality. Thus. the aim of this study was to evaluate I he effect of nitrogen addition 10 honey-must on two active dry wine yeasts (ADWY) fermentation performance, as well as on the mead composition and volatile aroma compounds production

Volatile composition and sensory properties of mead

Mead is a traditional beverage that results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. Although the process of mead production has been optimized in recent years, studies focused on its sensory properties are still scarce. Therefore, the aim of this work was to analyse the sensory ttributes of mead produced with free or immobilized cells of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains QA23 and ICV D47, and to establish potential correlations with its olatile composition. In the volatile composition of mead, the effect of yeast condition was more important than the strain. In respect to sensory analysis, the most pleasant aroma descriptors were correlated with mead obtained with free yeast cells, independently of the strain. Both sensory analysis and volatile composition indicates that the most pleasant mead was produced by free yeast cells. Although this study has provided a significant contribution, further research on the sensory quality of mead is still needed.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/45820/2008). This research was partially supported through the PTDC project (PTDC/AGR-ALI/68284/2006) awarded by the FCT. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norteinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Initial Solution Heuristic for Portfolio Optimization of Electricity Markets Participation

Meta-heuristic search methods are used to find near optimal global solutions for difficult optimization problems. These meta-heuristic processes usually require some kind of knowledge to overcome the local optimum locations. One way to achieve diversification is to start the search procedure from a solution already obtained through another method. Since this solution is already validated the algorithm will converge easily to a greater global solution. In this work, several well-known meta-heuristics are used to solve the problem of electricity markets participation portfolio optimization. Their search performance is compared to the performance of a proposed hybrid method (ad-hoc heuristic to generate the initial solution, which is combined with the search method). The addressed problem is the portfolio optimization for energy markets participation, where there are different markets where it is possible to negotiate. In this way the result will be the optimal allocation of electricity in the different markets in order to obtain the maximum return quantified through the objective function.This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641794 (project DREAM-GO) and from FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and from National Funds through FCT under the project UID/EEA/00760/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modulation of Sn concentration in ZnO nanorod array: intensification on the conductivity and humidity sensing properties

Tin (Sn)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays (TZO) were synthesized onto aluminum-doped ZnO-coated glass substrate via a facile sonicated sol–gel immersion method for humidity sensor applications. These nanorod arrays were grown at different Sn concentrations ranging from 0.6 to 3 at.%. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the deposited TZO arrays exhibited a wurtzite structure. The stress/strain condition of the ZnO film metamorphosed from tensile strain/compressive stress to compressive strain/tensile stress when the Sn concentrations increased. Results indicated that 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO, which has the lowest tensile stress of 0.14 GPa, generated the highest conductivity of 1.31 S cm− 1. In addition, 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO possessed superior sensitivity to a humidity of 3.36. These results revealed that the optimum performance of a humidity-sensing device can be obtained mainly by controlling the amount of extrinsic element in a ZnO film

The human resources management contribution to social responsibility and environmental sustainability: explorations from Ibero-America

[EN] In this paper we aim to advance the discussion on HRM¿s quest to create value around social responsibility and environmental sustainability. We explore the perceptions reported by Human Resource managers in three Ibero-American countries (Spain, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica). We focus on the hospitality sector, one of particular relevancy for these countries and with significant sustainability challenges. Relying on in-depth interviews in twenty-eight organizations and a mixed-methods approach, we examine HR managers¿ underlying notions around social and environmental issues, stakeholder collaboration, HRM practices, roles and internal organization. Analysis of the interviews suggests varying views on those dimensions, as well as identifies Active and Advanced firms, the latter showing more commitment to sustainability (as part of the organizational culture), usage of HRM practices and engagement with multiple stakeholders. From this empirical exploration and relying on current sustainability developments, we contribute to the literature by outlining an externally-oriented model (centred on corporate priorities, communities¿ flourishing and ecosystems¿ resilience) aiming to advance HRM¿s engagement with sustainability-driven agendas.Alcaraz, JM.; Susaeta-Erburu, L.; Suárez-Ruz, ME.; Colón, C.; Gutierrez, I.; Cunha, R.; Leguizamon, F.... (2017). The human resources management contribution to social responsibility and environmental sustainability: explorations from Ibero-America. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1350732