Can heart tissue fatty acid profile be used as a tool to discriminate sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus, L.) populations in several Portuguese river basins?

This study proposes to evaluate the use of heart tissue fatty acid signature and multivariate analysis of fatty acid profile as a possible discriminating tool for sea lamprey P. marinus populations sampled in Portuguese river basins. Local fisherman collected adult sea lampreys in eight Portuguese river basins (Minho, Lima, Cávado, Douro, Vouga, Mondego, Tagus and Guadiana) at the beginning of their spawning migration. Heart total lipid extraction was obtained by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and FAMEs were prepared by transesterification with methanol-boron trifluoride and analysed by GC. FAMEs were identified by comparison of their retention times with known standards chromatographed in identical gas chromatography conditions. The fatty acid profile of the heart tissue varied among the individuals of the different river basins. In order to identify which fatty acid contributed most to the differences between river basins heart tissue, MDA was employed. The MDA proved to be statistically significant and the overall corrected classification rate estimated from cross-validation procedure was 86.2%. Although in the case of the individuals of Tagus and Guadiana 100% and 94.7 % of subjects were correctly classified, respectively, there are always a few individuals of the other 5 watersheds that have characteristics identical to those observed in these two river basins.The results are discussed in terms of fatty acid origin and hypothesis concerning the migratory behavior that could lead to these results. The fatty acid profile of heart is considered more stable than other organs, but it still exhibits some variability. This study seems to point out the potential for fatty acid compositions to discriminate sea lampreys from Portuguese river basins, which are probably related with environmental variables that they may have been exposed during early stages of their life cycle

Perfil nutricional lipídico de achigã proveniente de várias albufeiras do Alentejo

A importância da pesca recreativa de águas interiores aumentou significativamente nos últimos 20 anos em território nacional, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento de diversas áreas rurais localizadas perto dos principais pesqueiros. Apesar de atualmente possuir uma menor relevância quando comparada com a pesca profissional realizada em ambientes marinhos ou estuarinos, a pesca em águas interiores possui também um elevado interesse económico e gastronómico, envolvendo um grande número de participantes. Em Portugal, os locais de maior preferência para a pesca recreativa e/ou desportiva são as albufeiras. Todavia este tipo de ecossistema apresenta particularidades, nomeadamente as localizadas nas zonas mediterrânicas como é o caso do Alentejo, sendo de destacar as baixas concentrações de oxigénio associadas à eutrofização na época estival (Almeida et al., 2017). O achigã (Micropterus salmoides Lacépède, 1802) é uma das espécies mais procuradas pelos pescadores recreativos em todo o mundo. Em Portugal, e sobretudo no Alentejo, esta espécie não-indígena continua a ser muito consumida pelos pescadores, sendo que em algumas regiões é mesmo descrita como um importante produto gastronómico e cultural. Todavia, não existe qualquer informação sobre o perfil nutricional da sua parte edível. A sustentabilidade dos recursos naturais, aliada à qualidade do pescado, são desafios que preocupam a sociedade atual e para o qual os consumidores exigem resposta

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

Testing data types implementations from algebraic specifications

Algebraic specifications of data types provide a natural basis for testing data types implementations. In this framework, the conformance relation is based on the satisfaction of axioms. This makes it possible to formally state the fundamental concepts of testing: exhaustive test set, testability hypotheses, oracle. Various criteria for selecting finite test sets have been proposed. They depend on the form of the axioms, and on the possibilities of observation of the implementation under test. This last point is related to the well-known oracle problem. As the main interest of algebraic specifications is data type abstraction, testing a concrete implementation raises the issue of the gap between the abstract description and the concrete representation. The observational semantics of algebraic specifications bring solutions on the basis of the so-called observable contexts. After a description of testing methods based on algebraic specifications, the chapter gives a brief presentation of some tools and case studies, and presents some applications to other formal methods involving datatypes