Margarine products quality monitoring using reflectance UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy

Margarine is a term that can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. Due to the great diversity of the raw material, margarine end-product quality characteristics are expected to be highly diversified. This article proposes the use of reflectance UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy to monitor the margarine end-product quality properties. The main effort in this work was the development of a fast monitoring procedure to assess the quality of the manufactured margarines. 
The study was performed on two margarine products: regular margarine (less than 80% fat) and reduced-fat margarine (less than 60% fat). The nine product samples were collected during the production line normal operating conditions on different days. The samples had the surface cleaned in order to remove any sign of oxidized material. Then, spectra were collected by a reflectance probe normal to the sample surface. The samples temperature was recorded (10.0± 2.0ºC) and the probe-sample distance was kept constant for all the samples. The integration time was set to 40s for the collection of the five UV/VIS spectra per samples; the three VIS/NIR spectra per sample were collected using a 10s integration time.
The data analysis was performed on each product and for each spectral range independently. The spectra were normalized by its maximum intensity and the corrected for using a robust multiplicative scatter correction algorithm. A principal component analysis was performed to the pre-process spectra and the multivariate statistical process control limits were determined with bootstrap for each product/spectral range.
Results show that UV-VIS-SWNIR reflectance spectroscopy provides a quick and fast assessment of these products characteristics and thus it can be used as an indication of the overall product variability

Macroeconomic effects of fiscal consolidations in a DSGE model for the Euro Area: does composition matter?

We develop a new-Keynesian DSGE model with an extended fiscal policy block to assess the conditions for expansionary fiscal consolidations. In addition to several taxes, we consider public employment expenditures and government spending, which may have different degrees of productivity. We calibrate the model for the Euro Area and use it to simulate alternative fiscal consolidations with changes in the budget composition. Among the main conclusions we find that: (i) if conducted with a cut in weaklyproductive spending and a symmetric increase in highly-productive spending, fiscal consolidations have expansionary effects on investment and output; (ii) if consolidation is pursued through a pure reduction in weaklyproductive public employment, the effects on output decrease with the degree of labor market competition and turn out to be positive under perfect competition.fiscal policy, fiscal consolidation, new-Keynesian DSGE model

International Trade v. International Property Lawyers: Globalization and the Brazilian Legal Profession

This work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the globalizing Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers who once were leaders in opening the Brazilian economy and were key players in cross-border transactions are now losing ground to their peers with an expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is in shambles. Generally speaking, Brazilian legal education has, overall, become degraded and provincial. Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP-lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to the United States, international trade lawyers are exposed to an education and a set of best practices that stress not just domestic, Brazilian law, but laws from different jurisdictions. That international trade lawyers in Brazil are now ‘global lawyers,’ enables them to deal more effectively with their country’s expanding economy, and it supports the argument that globalization matters for both today’s law students and the legal profession

International Trade v. Intellectual Property Lawyers:Globalization and the Brazilian Legal Profession

In the context of globalization, this work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers, who played important roles in opening the Brazilian economy and who were key players in cross-border transactions, are now losing ground to their peers with respect to expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is problematic. Generally, Brazilian legal education has become degraded and provincial. Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to the United States, international trade lawyers are exposed to an education and a set of best practices that stress not just domestic law from one or another country, but laws from different jurisdictions. International trade lawyers in Brazil are now “global lawyers,” which enables them to deal more effectively with their country’s expanding economy, and it supports the argument that globalization matters for both today’s law students and the legal profession

Antioxidants of natural plant origins: from sources to food industry applications

ReviewIn recent years, great interest has been focused on using natural antioxidants in food products, due to studies indicating possible adverse effects that may be related to the consumption of synthetic antioxidants. A variety of plant materials are known to be natural sources of antioxidants, such as herbs, spices, seeds, fruits and vegetables. The interest in these natural components is not only due to their biological value, but also to their economic impact, as most of them may be extracted from food by-products and under-exploited plant species. This article provides an overview of current knowledge on natural antioxidants: their sources, extraction methods and stabilization processes. In addition, recent studies on their applications in the food industry are also addressed; namely, as preservatives in different food products and in active films for packaging purposes and edible coatingsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nos enredos da liderança: o que eu quero é que vivam felizes

O professor, pelo seu posicionamento no universo relacional dos alunos, pelo exemplo modelar que evidencia, pelo tempo e dedicação que entrega aos seus discentes, entre outras razões, é, para os alunos, e em muitas circunstâncias, um líder. O jovem, que necessita, para viver o presente e encarar com optimismo o futuro, de independência, autoconfiança, adaptabilidade, auto-disciplina e forte sentido dos seus valores, pode encontrar no professor a pessoa ideal para permitir e incentivar o desenvolvimento destas competências e atitudes

A qualidade da criatividade como mais valia para a educação

Qualidade é uma palavra extremamente usada em muitos dos discursos políticos, empresariais e educativos. Corre, por isso, o risco de perder o seu amplo significado. Filósofos, desde o tempo de Platão e Aristóteles, interessaram-se pelo debate acerca da definição de qualidade - ou de excelência - e perceberam o quão difícil é chegar a uma noção objectiva e universal. "A complexidade e ambivalência do conceito de qualidade revela-se na sua convivência com os termos de eficácia e de excelência; sinónimos, por vezes, traduzindo uma certa gradação entre eles" (Sanches, 1997). Situado numa encruzilhada de perspectivas, torna-se "bastante difícil definir tal conceito. Para alguns representa algo de utópico; finalidade desejável, sim, mas inatingível. Para outros não é possível nem necessário defini-la. Quando existe, ela é visível, imprime marca original" (Sanches, 1997), detecta-se, prova-se, sabemos o que ela é.

O Desenvolvimento Pessoal e o Ambiente Físico - Notas Singelas de/para uma Breve Reflexão.

O desenvolvimento pessoal de cada um passa, como lapidarmente escreve Almada-Negreiros, por um trabalho de artista na compreensão e materialização permanentes da nossa própria essência como pessoas. Ser relacional e social por natureza, o homem tem "tendência a percepcionar aquilo que é congruente com o seu pré-existente conceito de eu" (Silva e Cardodo, 1993) e, depois, este vai determinar tudo o que o rodeia (tudo é visto, ouvido, avaliado e compreendido em função dessa marca própria). Mas essa percepção das realidades tem, aquando do estabelecimento de relações na cena social, que ser confrontada com a reciprocidade, com a assimetria e com a relação dialéctica

Riding the wave of credit: Are longer expansions really a bad omen?

Some studies argue that credit booms that end up in banking crises are usually longer than those that end without creating havoc. However, they do not test this hypothesis empirically. This paper employs a duration model to assess the relationship between the length of credit booms and their outcome. The empirical analysis shows that credit expansions that end in banking crisis are indeed more prone to last longer than those that end softly. Furthermore, differences in length patterns are found to start in the build-up phase, extending to the unwinding phase of credit cycles.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT