1,336 research outputs found
Die potensiële waarde van gesinsrituele vir betekenisgewing deur kinders
The potential value of family rituals in children’s processes of meaning making This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study that explored family rituals as potential asset in children’s processes of giving meaning. As such, the purpose of the study was firstly to identify the dimensions of family rituals in one family that participated; and secondly, to explore potential ways in which the participation in family rituals could influence children’s processes of meaning making. The study was embedded in the interpretivist paradigm, rested on an instrumental case study design, and deployed educational psychological assessment, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, visual data, observation and field notes as data collection and documentation methods. Two Afrikaans-speaking primary school children (a brother and sister) and their parents were purposefully selected as participants. During the study, the five basic dimensions of family rituals (structure, meaning, persistence and commitment, adaptability and gender relations) could be identified in the rituals practised by the participating family. In addition, six other dimensions were prominent, namely task completion, communication, roles, affective management, affective involvement and behaviour management. Based on the positive effect of family rituals on the meanings given by the participating children it is concluded that family rituals may serve as an asset within the family context and as such be employed during family intervention initiatives
Electronic Excitation Of H2 By Electron Impact Using Soft Norm-conserving Pseudopotentials
We calculate electronic excitation cross sections for the b 3∑u + a 3∑g + c 3∏u, and d 3∏u states of H2 by electron impact. Our results were obtained with the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials and real potentials at the two-channel level of approximation. Pseudo-H atoms are used to generate H2 molecules with almost the same low-energy spectrum as the real molecules. We show that the dynamics of the electronic excitation process of the pseudomolecules by electron impact is very similar to the real case. Our results support the idea that pseudopotentials can be used to obtain reliable molecular electronic excitation cross sections by low-energy electron impact, confirming the expectations of previous studies with CH2O and HBr.54654355437Takatsuka, K., McKoy, V., (1981) Phys. Rev. A, 24, p. 2473(1984) Phys. Rev. A, 30, p. 1734Bettega, M.H.F., Ferreira, L.G., Lima, M.A.P., (1993) Phys. Rev. A, 47, p. 1111Natalense, A.P.P., Bettega, M.H.F., Ferreira, L.G., Lima, M.A.P., (1995) Phys. Rev. A, 52, pp. R1Bettega, M.H.F., Natalense, A.P.P., Lima, M.A.P., Ferreira, L.G., (1995) J. Chem. Phys., 103, p. 10566Rescigno, T.N., McCurdy, C.W., (1996) J. Chem. Phys., 104, p. 120Rescigno, T.N., (1996) J. Chem. Phys., 104, p. 125Hamann, D.R., Schlüter, M., Chiang, C., (1979) Phys. Rev. Lett., 43, p. 1494Christiansen, P.A., Lee, Y.S., Pitzer, K.S., (1979) J. Chem. Phys., 71, p. 4445Topp, W.C., Hopfield, J.J., (1973) Phys. Rev. B, 7, p. 1295Bachelet, G.B., Hamann, D.R., Schlüter, M., (1982) Phys. Rev. B, 26, p. 4199Bettega, M.H.F., Natalense, A.P.P., Lima, M.A.P., Ferreira, L.G., (1996) Int. J. Quantum Chem., 60, p. 821Goddard III, W.A., Hunt, W.J., (1974) Chem. Phys. Lett., 24, p. 464Kolos, W., Wolniewicz, L., (1965) J. Chem. Phys., 43, p. 2429Kolos, W., Wolniewicz, L., (1968) J. Chem. Phys., 48, p. 3672Browne, J.C., (1964) J. Chem. Phys., 40, p. 43Lee, M.T., Machado, L.E., Brescansin, L.M., Meneses, G.D., (1991) J. Phys. B, 24, p. 509Lima, M.A.P., Gibson, T.L., McKoy, V., Huo, W.M., (1988) Phys. Rev. A, 38, p. 4527. , and references cited therei
Development of molecular biology techniques for the detection of genetically modified organisms in maize food products
In the last years, the increase in the cultivated area of genetically modified (GM) maize has become a reality. GA21, MON810 and MON 863 maize crops are some of the authorized maize events for food and feed under the European Union (EU) regulations. These crops of transgenic maize bring profit towards the conventional ones, as they confer resistence to some plagues and/or herbices. Concerning the raise of production and consumption of foodstuffs derived from genetically modified organisms (GMO), the EU has established new demand levels, including the labeling requirements when the product has GMO in proportion higher than 0.9% (Regulation (EC) Nº. 1829/2003)
Vaccinium myrtillus L. Fruits as a novel source of Phenolic compounds with health benefits and industrial applications – a review
Consumers’ demand for healthier foods with functional properties has had a clear influence on the food
industry and in this sense, they have been attaching natural sources of bioactive ingredients into food products.
Vaccinium myrtillus L. (bilberry) is known to be a functional food, presenting its fruits in the form of a small dark
blueberry. This coloration is due to its high content in anthocyanin, being also associated with bilberries’ beneficial
health effects. In the bilberry industry, there is a very high annual loss of this fruit due to the less aesthetic
shape or appearance, in which they cannot be considered suitable for sale and are therefore disposed of as biological
waste. Therefore, it is of great importance to valorize this fruit and this review aimed to completely characterize
the fruits of V. myrtillus in order to comprehend the relationship between their consumption and the beneficial
effects regarding consumer’s health. Thus, this review provides a description of the nutritional and bioactive
compounds present in bilberry fruits, followed by their beneficial health effects. An overview of the natural pigments
present in these fruits was also explored, focusing particularly in the anthocyanins composition, which
represents the most widely studied class of bioactive compounds of V. myrtillus fruits. Finally, industrial applications
of these fruits and by-products, as an efficient approach to the production of value-added products with
economical and environmental impact, were also discussed.
In general, V. myrtillus is a rich source of micronutrients and phytochemical compounds, such as organic acids,
sugars, vitamins, fibers and phenolic compounds (anthocyanin and non-anthocyanin compounds), with nutritional
and functional properties, that justify the growing interest in these berries, not only for food applications, but also
in the pharmaceutical industry.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme
PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and
T.C.S.P. Pires grant (SFRH/BD/129551/2017). L. Barros would
like to thank the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional
scientific employment program-contract. To the project
AllNat for the contract of C. Caleja (Project AllNat POCI-01-0145-
FEDER-030463). The authors are also grateful to FEDER-Interreg
España-Portugal programme for financial support through the project
0377_Iberphenol_6_E. The GIP-USAL is financially supported
by the Spanish Government through the project AGL2015-64522-
C2-2-R.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Biochemical composition of different onion landraces from Greece
Onion (Allium cepa L.), an important vegetable crop, is widely cosumed not only for culinary but also for medicinal purposes due to its various biological properties, which are linked to the bioactive substances it contains.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020); national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract for A.F. and L.B. Contractsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Chemical composition and bioactive properties of the wild edible plant Raphanus raphanistrum L.
Recently, there has been an interest regarding the consumption of wild edible plants in modern diets. However,
there is still scarce information about several wild vegetables traditionally consumed. Therefore, this work aims
on documenting the nutritional and chemical composition of wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum L.), as well as
its bioactive potential. Results showed that wild radish is a potential source of beneficial compounds, including
vitamin E, polyunsaturated fatty acid (particularly α-linolenic acid) and different phenolic compounds, in which
fourteen phenolics were identified, with kaempferol-3,7-O-di-rhamnoside being the most abundant. The
bioactive potential was exploited using hydroethanolic and decoction extracts. Both proved to inhibit several
Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and revealed antioxidant activity, while cytotoxicity against nontumor
cell was not observed. In general, results evidence the interest in recovering the use of this wild vegetable
as part of a varied diet, which can bring several health benefits.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Extracts from Vaccinium myrtillus L. fruits as a source of natural colorants: chemical characterization and incorporation in yogurts
The food industry is always seeking innovative approaches to maintain consumers’ interest and increase
their awareness towards the healthiness of diets. Therefore, much interest has been given to natural food
additives, namely colourants. In this work, a bilberry extract was primarily characterized in terms of anthocyanin
compounds by UPLC-DAD-ESI/MSn, and its colouring capacity was further compared with a synthetic
anthocyanin colourant (E163) in different yogurt formulations. The prepared samples were evaluated
in different periods (0 and 7 days) for nutritional profile, individual fatty acids, soluble sugars and
external colour to determine the effects of each additive. Overall, the major anthocyanin compounds in
bilberry were malvidin glycoside and delphinidin glycoside derivatives. With regard to the prepared
yogurts, all samples maintained the nutritional profile, individual fatty acids and soluble sugars, independent
of storage time. Nonetheless, bilberry extracts showed lower colouring capacity when compared to
that of E163, despite the higher stability of bilberry extract throughout the storage time, when compared
to that of E163. Furthermore, another advantage of this natural extract is that it has potential bioactive
properties that can be conferred to foods, due to their high content of bioactive compounds, such as
anthocyanins.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through
national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and T.
C.S.P. Pires (SFRH/BD/129551/2017) grant. National funding by
FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment
program-contract for M.I. Dias and L. Barros contracts, and
through the individual scientific employment program-contract
for J. Barreira contract. This work is funded by the
European Structural and Investment Funds (FEEI) through the
Regional Operational Program North 2020, within the scope
of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-023289: DeCodE and
project Mobilizador ValorNatural®. M. Carocho also thanks
the project ValorNatural for his research contract. The
authors are also grateful to FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal
programme for financial support through the project
0377_Iberphenol_6_E. The GIP-USAL is financially supported
by the Spanish Government through the project AGL2015-
64522-C2-2-R.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Phenolic compounds profile, nutritional compounds and bioactive properties of Lycium barbarum L.: A comparative study with stems and fruits
The increasing awareness of the possible health benefits of berry fruits (Lycium barbarum L.) has led to a higher
consumption of this type of food products. One of the many examples are the fruits from Lycium genus, traditionally
used due to their beneficial properties and health benefits associated with liver, kidney, eyesight, immune
system, circulation and longevity disorders. In the present study fruits and stems of Lycium barbarum L.
(goji) were characterized in terms of nutritional profile, sugars, organic acids, fatty acids and tocopherols.
Furthermore, a phenolic characterization of their hydromethanolic extracts was performed and correlated with
bioactive properties such as antioxidant, hepatotoxic and antibacterial activities. Stems presented higher values
of energy, MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids), tocopherols and flavonols. Stems also showed greater antioxidant
and antibacterial (against Gram-negative bacteria) activities. Otherwise, fruits revealed higher contents
of sugars, PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) and hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, and greater activity against
Gram-positive bacteria. This is an innovative study that shows the high potential of goji stems and fruits as
sources of bioactive compounds, which could be used in nutraceutical formulations, or incorporated into food
products with functional properties. Furthermore, the use of stems could bring industrial sustainability as a
valuable by-product, which has been scarcely reported.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for
financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013), T.C.S.P. Pires
(SFRH/BD/129551/2017) grant and L. Barros contract. The GIP-USAL
is financially supported by the Spanish Government through the project
AGL2015-64522-C2-2-R. The authors are grateful to FEDER-Interreg
España-Portugal programme for financial support through the project
0377_Iberphenol_6_E.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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