Conceptualization of rice with low glycemic index: perspectives from the major european consumers

Rice and cereal consumption has become a concern for consumers due to usually high glycaemic indexes (GI), which is a critical issue for a balanced and healthy diet. Therefore, the development of new products with low GI is an important target of the industry, particularly in countries with high consumption. This study assesses consumers’ perceptions about “rice” and “rice with low GI” and evaluates the effect of consumers’ rice consumption profiles through the application of a free word association technique in a structured self-administered electronic questionnaire with 256 Portuguese consumers (the European market with the highest per capita consumption of rice by far). The frequency of rice consumption was evaluated, and the consumption profile was determined through a hierarchical cluster analysis, with 9% identified as daily consumers. The response words were categorized by the triangulation technique, and the association between the word categories and dimensions, sociodemographic characteristics, and consumption profile were determined. Respondents most frequently associated “rice” with rice dishes, its sensory attributes, and nutrition, highlighting the satisfaction of nutritional and hedonic needs. Consumers revealed positive expectations in relation to the functionality of “rice with low GI”. The consumers’ rice consumption profiles, sex, age, and educational levels influenced their perception towards “rice“ and “rice with low GI”. This study provides important insights for the industry to develop a consumer-oriented, low GI rice product.: This research was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through D. Cabral’s Doctoral grant no. SFRH/BD/146895/2019, as well as the project Arroz BIG—Development of rice products with low glycaemic index (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-017931), funded by COMPETE2020, Portugal2020, Norte2020, and FEDER-European Regional Development Funds. This work was also supported by national funds from the FCT through the research unit GreenUPorto (UIDB/05748/2020 and UIDP/05748/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

2º Relatório de Progresso (Janeiro a junho 2019): projeto COOPERMINHO

Enquanto membro integrado do GreenUPorto, colaborou em estudo técnico de consultoria para a Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Cerveira, relativo à valorização da região do Rio Minho por parte dos consumidores nacionais, tendo participado no seguinte relatório: 2º Relatório de Progresso (Janeiro a junho 2019).N/

1º Relatório de Progresso (Setembro a Dezembro, 2018): projeto COOPERMINHO

Enquanto membro integrado do GreenUPorto, colaborou em estudo técnico de consultoria para a Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Cerveira, relativo à valorização de produtos da pesca do rio Minho por parte dos consumidores nacionais, tendo participado na feitura do seguinte relatório: 1º Relatório de Progresso (setembro a dezembro, 2018)N/

3º Relatório de Progresso (Julho 2019 a junho 2020): projeto COOPERMINHO

Enquanto membro integrado do GreenUPorto, colaborou em estudo técnico de consultoria para a Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Cerveira, relativo à valorização da região do Rio Minho por parte dos consumidores nacionais, tendo participado no seguinte relatório: 3º Relatório de Progresso (Julho 2019 a junho 2020).N/

4º Relatório de Progresso (Julho 2020 a março 2021): projeto COOPERMINHO

Enquanto membro integrado do GreenUPorto, colaborou em estudo técnico de consultoria para a Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Cerveira, relativo à valorização da região do Rio Minho por parte dos consumidores nacionais, tendo participado no seguinte relatório: 4º Relatório de Progresso (Julho 2020 a março 2021).N/

Does hypoxia or different rates of re-oxygenation after hypoxia induce an oxidative stress response in Cyphocharax abramoides (Kner 1858), a Characid fish of the Rio Negro?

We examined whether oxidative damage and antioxidant responses are more likely to occur during hypoxia or re-oxygenation in hypoxia-tolerant fish, and whether there is an influence of the rate of re-oxygenation. An hypoxia/re-oxygenation experiment using wild-caught Cyphocharax abramoides (Rio Negro, Brazil), was designed to answer these questions. Lipid peroxidation (MDA), a measure of oxidative damage, and antioxidant activities (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radicals (ACAP)), were measured in brain, gill and liver tissues after normoxia, 3-h hypoxia (2.7 kPa), and 3-h hypoxia followed by 1-h or 3-h re-oxygenation, implemented either immediately or slowly (3.0 kPa·h−1). Critical oxygen tension of routine oxygen consumption rate (Pcrit) (4.1 kPa) and the PO2 at loss of equilibrium (LOE) (1.7 kPa) were determined to set the experimental hypoxia exposure. The Regulation Index, a measure of oxyregulation with declining PO2, was 0.32. Oxidative damage occurred during hypoxia: no additional damage was observed during re-oxygenation. Tissues responded differentially. GPx and MDA rose in the brain and gills, and SOD (and likely GPx) in the liver during hypoxia. Antioxidants increased further at LOE. Rate of oxygen increase during re-oxygenation did not affect antioxidant responses. In brain and gills, GPx and MDA decreased or recovered after 1-h re-oxygenation. In liver, SOD remained high and GPx increased. In summary, C. abramoides incurred oxidative damage during hypoxic exposure with no additional damage inflicted during re-oxygenation: the rate of re-oxygenation was inconsequential. Literature data support conclusion of greater damage during hypoxia than during re-oxygenation in hypoxia-tolerant fish. © 2018 Elsevier Inc