151 research outputs found
Sustainability evaluation of a Portuguese âterroirâ wine
The challenges of sustainability are transversal to all human activities, and the wine sector has its own role to play in the march for a more sustainable development. The proper definition of the most adequate measures and/or policies must be based on an objective and quantitative evaluation of the sustainability of a product or process. In this work the sustainability of a âterroirâ wine is assessed taking into account its life cycle and using the following indicators: carbon and water footprint, material intensity, solid waste generated, worker turnover rate, investment in H&S training and EBITDA. All indicators are expressed per functional unit of 0.75âL of wine. The evaluation used data from the company complemented with data/information from the literature or life cycle inventory databases. To account for climatic variability, data from three consecutive years was used. Average values of 3.51âkgCO2eq and 481.4âL per functional unit were obtained for the carbon and water footprint respectively, both values within the range of values reported in the literature.To Sogrape Vinhos, S.A. for funding Project PP-IJUP2014-SOGRAPE. To FCT, for funding project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003, research grants IF/01093/2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015, and Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology - CIETI, UID/EQU/00305/2013. Financial support of POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy - LEPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Influence of dietary Chlorella vulgaris and carbohydrate-active enzymes on growth performance, meat quality and lipid composition of broiler chickens
Article in pressHerein, we investigated the effect of
Chlorella vulgaris as ingredient (10% of incorporation) in
broiler diets, supplemented or not with 2 formulations of
Carbohydrate-Active enZymes (CAZymes; Rovabio
Excel AP and a mixture of recombinant CAZymes,
composed by an exo-b-glucosaminidase, an alginate
lyase, a peptidoglycan N-acetylmuramic acid deacetylase
and a lysozyme), on growth performance, meat quality,
fatty acid composition, oxidative stability, and sensory
traits. One hundred twenty 1-day-old Ross 308 male birds
were randomly assigned to one of the 4 experimental diets
(n 5 30): corn-soybean mealâbasal diet (control), basal
diet with 10% C. vulgaris (CV), CV supplemented with
0.005% of a commercialCAZymecocktail (Rovabio Excel
AP), (CV1R), and CV supplemented with 0.01% of a 4-
CAZyme mixture previously selected (CV 1 M) during
the experimental period lasted from day 21 to day 35.
Body weight gain and feed conversion rate of broilers were
not affected by C. vulgaris but digesta viscosity increased more than 2-fold (P , 0.001) relative to the control. In
addition, neither cooking loss, shear force, juiciness, flavor
nor off-flavor was impaired by dietary treatments
(P.0.05). By contrast, the dietary C. vulgaris increased
tenderness, yellowness (b*) and total carotenoids in
breast and thigh meats. However, no additional protective
effect against lipid oxidation was observed in meat
with the inclusion of microalga. Chlorella vulgaris, independently
of CAZymes, had a minor impact on meat fatty
acid composition but improved the proportion of some
beneficial fatty acids. In summary, our data indicate a
slight improvement of broiler meat quality and lipid
nutritional value, without impairment of broilersâ growth
performance, thus supporting the usefulness of this
microalga in poultry diets, up to this high level of incorporation.
By contrast, the selected CAZyme mixtures
used do not significantly improve the release of microalga
nutrients in poultry diets, through the disruption of
microalga cell wall, which warrants further researchinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Metastable behavior for bootstrap percolation on regular trees
We examine bootstrap percolation on a regular (b+1)-ary tree with initial law
given by Bernoulli(p). The sites are updated according to the usual rule: a
vacant site becomes occupied if it has at least theta occupied neighbors,
occupied sites remain occupied forever. It is known that, when b>theta>1, the
limiting density q=q(p) of occupied sites exhibits a jump at some
p_t=p_t(b,theta) in (0,1) from q_t:=q(p_t)p_t. We
investigate the metastable behavior associated with this transition.
Explicitly, we pick p=p_t+h with h>0 and show that, as h decreases to 0, the
system lingers around the "critical" state for time order h^{-1/2} and then
passes to fully occupied state in time O(1). The law of the entire
configuration observed when the occupation density is q in (q_t,1) converges,
as h tends to 0, to a well-defined measure.Comment: 10 pages, version to appear in J. Statist. Phy
Sustainability evaluation of a Portuguese âterroirâ wine
The challenges of sustainability are transversal to all human activities, and the wine sector has its own role to play in the march for a more sustainable development. The proper definition of the most adequate measures and/or policies must be based on an objective and quantitative evaluation of the sustainability of a product or process. In this work the sustainability of a âterroirâ wine is assessed taking into account its life cycle and using the following indicators: carbon and water footprint, material intensity, solid waste generated, worker turnover rate, investment in H&S training and EBITDA. All indicators are expressed per functional unit of 0.75âL of wine. The evaluation used data from the company complemented with data/information from the literature or life cycle inventory databases. To account for climatic variability, data from three consecutive years was used. Average values of 3.51âkgCO2eq and 481.4âL per functional unit were obtained for the carbon and water footprint respectively, both values within the range of values reported in the literature
Historical separation and present-day structure of common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) populations in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
The common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) is an epipelagic, mid-trophic level, highly migratory species distributed throughout the
worldâs tropical and subtropical oceans in waters greater than 20C. Life-history variables, migratory behaviour, and genetic markers have
been used to define major stocks in the central Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Here, we used the mitochondrial DNA gene NADH
subunit 1 (688 bp) to test for differences between population groups. A total of 103 haplotypes were detected among 203 fish. Gene diversities in samples were large and similar among populations (mean h ÂŒ 0.932; range 0.894â0.987), but nucleotide diversities varied widely among
samples (range p ÂŒ 0.004â0.034) and appear to reflect population histories. Principal component analysis revealed two large populations
groups, and the analysis of molecular variation and pairwise values of UST resolved population structure within these groups. Populations in
the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean showed the largest amounts of divergence from one another (UCT Œ 0.331). Adult movement and
biophysical barriers to larval dispersal may explain contemporary differences between stocks, but the divergent populations in the Mediterranean Sea are likely due to isolations by cold temperature barriers during Pleistocene glaciations. The geographically large stock
groupings require international cooperation in the harvest management and conservation of local dolphinfish populations
Random walks and polymers in the presence of quenched disorder
After a general introduction to the field, we describe some recent results
concerning disorder effects on both `random walk models', where the random walk
is a dynamical process generated by local transition rules, and on `polymer
models', where each random walk trajectory representing the configuration of a
polymer chain is associated to a global Boltzmann weight. For random walk
models, we explain, on the specific examples of the Sinai model and of the trap
model, how disorder induces anomalous diffusion, aging behaviours and Golosov
localization, and how these properties can be understood via a strong disorder
renormalization approach. For polymer models, we discuss the critical
properties of various delocalization transitions involving random polymers. We
first summarize some recent progresses in the general theory of random critical
points : thermodynamic observables are not self-averaging at criticality
whenever disorder is relevant, and this lack of self-averaging is directly
related to the probability distribution of pseudo-critical temperatures
over the ensemble of samples of size . We describe the
results of this analysis for the bidimensional wetting and for the
Poland-Scheraga model of DNA denaturation.Comment: 17 pages, Conference Proceedings "Mathematics and Physics", I.H.E.S.,
France, November 200
Tomato yield and potassium concentrations in soil and in plant petioles as affected by potassium fertirrigation
Poda apical, densidade de plantas e cobertura plĂĄstica do solo na produtividade do tomateiro em cultivo protegido
Impact of dietary incorporation of Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) and exogenous enzymes on broiler performance, carcass traits and meat quality
This study assessed the effect of Spirulina
(Arthrospira platensis), individually and in combination
with exogenous enzymes, on growth
performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of broiler
chickens. One hundred and twenty Ross 308 male
chickens were allocated into 40 battery brooders, with 3
birds per cage, and fed ad libitum a corn-based diet
during the first 21 D of the trial. The experimental period
lasted from day 21 to 35, during which birds were fed 4
different diets: a corn-soybean basal diet, taken as the
control group, a basal diet containing 15% Spirulina
(MA), a basal diet containing 15% Spirulina plus 0.005%
Rovabio Excel AP (MAR), and a basal diet containing
15% Spirulina plus 0.01% lysozyme (MAL). Body weight
gain (P , 0.001) and feed conversion rate (P , 0.001)
were improved in control chickens, when compared with
those fed with Spirulina. In addition, Spirulina increased
the length of duodenum plus jejunum in relation to the
other treatment (P , 0.01). Chickens on the MAL diet showed a considerable increase in digesta viscosity
(P , 0.05) compared with the control group. Breast and
thigh meats from chickens fed with Spirulina, with or
without the addition of exogenous enzymes, had higher
values of yellowness (b*) (P , 0.001), total carotenoids
(P , 0.001), and saturated fatty acids (P , 0.001),
whereas n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (P , 0.01) and
a-tocopherol (P , 0.001) decreased, when compared
with the control. In conclusion, the incorporation of 15%
Spirulina in broiler diets, individually or combined with
exogenous enzymes, reduced birdsâ performance through
a higher digesta viscosity, which is likely associated with
the gelation of microalga indigestible proteins. In addition,
cell wall of Spirulina was successfully broken by the
addition of lysozyme, but not by Rovabio Excel AP.
Therefore, we anticipate that the combination of lysozyme
with an exogenous specific peptidase could improve
the digestibility of proteins from this microalga and
avoid their detrimental gelationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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