Avaliação da evolução da maturação do pêssego cv. 'Sensation' em ambiente doméstico para otimizar o seu consumo.

Portugal regista forte tradição de consumo de frutos frescos e existem fortes indicações dos benefícios do consumo de fruta para a saúde. Apesar disso, o consumo de fruta na restauração é baixo o que poderá estar associado não só à facilidade de consumo de sobremesas, geralmente preferida pelos consumidores, mas também ao facto de não se valorizarem os frutos da época e da região nos menus. No caso dos pêssegos, a indevida maturação reflete-se na qualidade, pois tratando-se de frutos sensíveis ao manuseamento, têm de ser colhidos com uma dureza elevada, entre 7 kg.0,5 cm-2 e 5 kg.0,5 cm-2, permitindo o manuseamento inerente à pós-colheita. Mas, a maturação de consumo (ready to eat) prossupõe uma dureza mais baixa, entre 3 kg.0,5 cm-2 e 1 kg.0,5 cm-2. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a evolução da qualidade dos pêssegos em ambiente doméstico. Utilizou-se a cv. ‘Sensation’ e colheram-se, no mesmo dia, frutos correspondentes a diferentes graus de maturação de acordo com o aspeto visual. Posteriormente, constituíram-se 3 lotes de 60 frutos, nomeadamente, lote de maturação ideal (dureza 6,7 kg.0,5 cm-2), lote de maturação intermédia (7,5 kg.0,5 cm-2) e lote considerado muito verde (7,8 kg.0,5 cm-2). Cada lote foi repartido em 6 sub-lotes de 10 frutos semelhantes entre si, sendo o primeiro analisado na data de colheita e os restantes analisados após 2, 4, 6, 9 e 11 dias. No dia da colheita foi avaliada a cor e peso inicial de todos os frutos constituintes dos sub-lotes. Para cada sub-lote, após o período correspondente, foi reavaliado peso e a cor de cada fruto e determinada a dureza, TSS e acidez. Em ambiente doméstico a dureza ideal de consumo atingiu-se no final de 3 a 4 dias para o lote de maturação ideal, após 5 a 6 dias para o lote intermédio e após 8 a 9 dias para o lote de maturação muito verde.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSES FOR KOREAN STUDENTS

Korean students and Brazilian professors in a foreign language classroom are bound for many culture shocks as the learning cultures and teaching cultures of each country differ in their cores. Teachers expect students to assume a protagonist role in their learning process and students expect teachers to be the primary source of the knowledge they hope to obtain. As both agents of the teaching-learning situation believe their counterpart is at fault when not assuming a primary role, unmet expectations give room to frustration. To avoid students from drifting further apart in the necessary relationship with teachers, some strategies need to be developed. In this study, I found that assigning well planned and clarified projects with a preparation-presentation-debate structure helps bringing foreign teachers and Korean students classroom cultures to a gathering point where expectations can finally meet

A brief review of fatigue design criteria on offshore wind turbine support structures

In this paper, a brief review of the main fatigue design criteria and some advanced fatigue approaches applied to offshore structures (e.g. offshore wind turbines) are presented. It is extremely important to understand the fatigue phenomenon and how it affects structures since offshore structures are constantly submitted to cyclic loading and corrosive attacks that aggravate the problem. All the influencing factors and approaches used during the design phase are also discussed

Normal incidence sound insulation provided by Sonic Crystal Acoustic Screens made from rigid scatterers - assessment of different simulation methods

[EN] Sonic crystal acoustic screens have been in progressive research and development in the last two decades as a technical solution for mitigating traffic noise. Their behaviour is quite different from that observed in classical barriers, with the latter being based on physically blocking the direct sound propagation path (only allowing diffracted noise to reach sensible receivers), and sonic crystals providing attenuation efficiency based on the creation of "band-gaps" at specific frequency ranges, due to the Bragg's interference phenomenon. The distinct physical mechanisms of these two types of noise barriers complicates the use of classical simplified or even numerical models developed for traditional barriers to simulate and predict the attenuation performance of a sonic crystal, and alternative methods become thus required. In the acoustics scientific literature, several authors have proposed estimation and simulation methods based on different numerical tools to predict the sound insulation provided by these new noise abatement solutions. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of some of these methods, with emphasis on the assessment of their accuracy versus memory usage in order to determine which one is the most suitable for optimization methodologies in the design of new devices with improved acoustic performance.M.P.P.T is grateful for the support of pre-doctoral Grant by the "Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades. Agencia Estatal de Investigacion" of Spain through reference no. DI-15-08100. This work has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Spain, under grant RTI2018-096904-B-I00. This work was developed within the scope of the project with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033691 - HLS -Hybrid Log Shield, supported by FEDER funds, through Portugal-2020 (PT2020) Programme, within the scope of SII&DT System, and by POCI Programme. This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020.Peiró-Torres, M.; Ferri García, M.; Godinho, LM.; Amado-Mendes, P.; Vea-Folch, FJ.; Redondo, J. (2021). Normal incidence sound insulation provided by Sonic Crystal Acoustic Screens made from rigid scatterers - assessment of different simulation methods. Acta Acustica. 5:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2021021110

Spirometry And Volumetric Capnography In Lung Function Assessment Of Obese And Normal-weight Individuals Without Asthma

To analyze and compare lung function of obese and healthy, normal-weight children and adolescents, without asthma, through spirometry and volumetric capnography. Methods: Cross-sectional study including 77 subjects (38 obese) aged 5-17 years. All subjects underwent spirometry and volumetric capnography. The evaluations were repeated in obese subjects after the use of a bronchodilator. Results: At the spirometry assessment, obese individuals, when compared with the control group, showed lower values of forced expiratory volume in the first second by forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) and expiratory flows at 75% and between 25 and 75% of the FVC (p <0.05). Volumetric capnography showed that obese individuals had a higher volume of produced carbon dioxide and alveolar tidal volume (p <0.05). Additionally, the associations between dead space volume and tidal volume, as well as phase-3 slope normalized by tidal volume, were lower in healthy subjects (p <0.05). These data suggest that obesity does not alter ventilation homogeneity, but flow homogeneity. After subdividing the groups by age, a greater difference in lung function was observed in obese and healthy individuals aged >11 years (p <0.05). Conclusion: Even without the diagnosis of asthma by clinical criteria and without response to bronchodilator use, obese individuals showed lower FEV1/FVC values and forced expiratory flow, indicating the presence of an obstructive process. Volumetric capnography showed that obese individuals had higher alveolar tidal volume, with no alterations in ventilation homogeneity, suggesting flow alterations, without affecting lung volumes. © 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria

Effects of dietary curcumin in growth performance, oxidative status and gut morphometry and function of gilthead seabream postlarvae

An imbalance in the production and detoxification of reactive oxygen species and other oxidants can disrupt a l l types of cellular compounds, and lead to a state of oxidative stress. Preventing this state is essential to improve growth and health in animal production. Therefore, the aim of this work was to assess i f the dieta r y supple-mentation of curcumin cou l d improve the antioxidant status and intestine structu r e and functionalit y of gilthead seabream postlarvae, with the global objective of improving fish growth performance and robustness. Two experimental diets supplemented with different doses of curcumin (LOW and HIGH diets), and a commercial diet were fed to quadruplicate groups of postlarvae, for 20 days. At the end of the feeding trial fish fed the supple-mented diets significantly improved their antioxidant status compared to CTRL fed fish. LOW and HIGH fed fish presented lower protein oxidative damage (P 0.05). In conclusion, dieta r y curcumin supplementation was able to enhance gilthead seabream postlarvae robustness through a modulation of the oxidative status, increasing total antioxidant capacity and decreasing protein oxidative damage. This data pro-vide evidence that curcumin can be a suitable feed additive to promote heath status and robustness of fish at early stages of development, therefore contributing for the development and sustainabilit y of marine fish hatchery production.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Parâmetros De Qualidade Físico-químicos E Avaliação Da Atividade Antioxidante De Folhas De Plectranthus Barbatus Andr. (lamiaceae) Submetidas A Diferentes Processos De Secagem

This paper describes the physicochemical composition, the evaluation of the antioxidant activity by free DPPH radicals using the scavenging method, the determination of flavonoids and total phenolic compounds of ethanol, acetone and aqueous extracts of the medicinal plant Plectranthus barbatus Andr. (Lamiaceae), dehydrated in solar dryer and circulation oven at 60 °C. Water activity rates for two drying methods were below the minimum necessary for growth and toxin production of important food pathogens. Physicochemical results showed that both processes were effective in the dehydration of P. barbatus. The results demonstrated that the acetone (over) and ethanol (over and solar dryer) extracts showed the highest content of total phenols. The ethanol extract (over) showed the highest amount of flavonoids and better antioxidant activity (75.71 ± 10.57 µg L-1). © 2016, Instituto de Biociencias. All rights reserved.181485

Modified Brans-Dicke theory of gravity from five-dimensional vacuum

We investigate, in the context of five-dimensional (5D) Brans-Dicke theory of gravity, the idea that macroscopic matter configurations can be generated from pure vacuum in five dimensions, an approach first proposed in the framework of general relativity. We show that the 5D Brans-Dicke vacuum equations when reduced to four dimensions lead to a modified version of Brans-Dicke theory in four dimensions (4D). As an application of the formalism, we obtain two five-dimensional extensions of four-dimensional O'Hanlon and Tupper vacuum solution and show that they lead two different cosmological scenarios in 4D.Comment: 9 page

Preclinical validation of a new hybrid molecule loaded in liposomes for melanoma management

The aggressiveness of melanoma and lack of effective therapies incite the discovery of novel strategies. Recently, a new dual acting hybrid molecule (HM), combining a triazene and a ʟ-tyrosine analogue, was synthesized. HM was designed to specifically be activated by tyrosinase, the enzyme involved in melanin biosynthesis and overexpressed in melanoma. HM displayed remarkable superior antiproliferative activity towards various cancer cell lines compared with temozolomide (TMZ), a triazene drug in clinical use, that acts through DNA alkylation. In B16-F10 cells, HM induced a cell cycle arrest at phase G0/G1 with a 2.8-fold decrease in cell proliferation index. Also, compared to control cells, HM led to a concentration-dependent reduction in tyrosinase activity and increase in caspase 3/7 activity. To maximize the therapeutic performance of HM in vivo, its incorporation in long blood circulating liposomes, containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) at their surface, was performed for passively targeting tumour sites. HM liposomes (LIP HM) exhibited high stability in biological fluids. Preclinical studies demonstrated its safety for systemic administration and in a subcutaneous murine melanoma model, significantly reduced tumour progression. In a metastatic murine melanoma model, a superior antitumour effect was also observed for mice receiving LIP HM, with markedly reduction of lung metastases compared to positive control group (TMZ). Biodistribution studies using 111In-labelled LIP HM demonstrated its ability for passively targeting tumour sites, thus correlating with the high therapeutic effect observed in the two experimental murine melanoma models. Overall, our proposed nanotherapeutic strategy was validated as an effective and safe alternative against melanoma.</p