Diversidade de fungos micorrízicos arbusculares em áreas revegetadas após a mineração de bauxita.

A contribuição da diversidade dos FMAs para manutenção da diversidade e funcionalidade de ecossistemas naturais tem sido pouco estudada. Neste trabalho objetivou-se avaliar a diversidade de FMAs em áreas revegetadas em diferentes momentos. Com base na morfologia de esporos 13 espécies distintas foram encontradas, com predomínio de espécies dos gêneros Glomus e Acaulospora. Glomus macrocarpum foi a espécies mais freqüente e abundante e as parcelas das áreas revegetadas nos anos de 1985A1, 1998A1, 2002-1, 2002A1, 2004FP e 2006-1 apresentaram os maiores valores do índice de diversidade Shannon. Não foi observada relação entre o tempo de revegtação e a diversidade de FMAs

Evaluating the in vitro potential of natural extracts to protect lipids from oxidative damage

Lipid peroxidation is a chemical reaction known to have negative impacts on living organisms’ health and on consumer products’ quality and safety. Therefore, it has been the subject of extensive scientific research concerning the possibilities to reduce it, both in vivo and in nonliving organic matrices. It can be started by a variety of oxidants, by both ROS-dependent and -independent pathways, all of them reviewed in this document. Another feature of this reaction is the capacity of lipid peroxyl radicals to react with the non-oxidized lipids, propagating the reaction even in the absence of an external trigger. Due to these specificities of lipid peroxidation, regular antioxidant strategies—although being helpful in controlling oxidative triggers—are not tailored to tackle this challenge. Thus, more suited antioxidant compounds or technologies are required and sought after by researchers, either in the fields of medicine and physiology, or in product development and biotechnology. Despite the existence of several laboratory procedures associated with the study of lipid peroxidation, a methodology to perform bioprospecting of natural products to prevent lipid peroxidation (a Lipid Peroxidation Inhibitory Potential assay, LPIP) is not yet well established. In this review, a critical look into the possibility of testing the capacity of natural products to inhibit lipid peroxidation is presented. In vitro systems used to peroxidize a lipid sample are also reviewed on the basis of lipid substrate origin, and, for each of them, procedural insights, oxidation initiation strategies, and lipid peroxidation extent monitoring are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in revegetated areas after bauxite mining.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligatory biotrophs that have a symbiotic evolutionary relationship with about 80% of all terrestrial plant species. The fungus mainly supplies water and nutrients to the plant and receives photoassimilates. The AMF diversity affects both the competition among species and floristic composition of an area. Fluctuations in the population of this group of microorganisms can cause fluctuations in plant populations above ground. In this work, the AMF community profile in areas with different ages of revegetation was evaluated by morphological identification of spores and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) techniques. We found 12 AMF species and dominance of the species Glomus macrocarpum determined by spore density. Since the richness level observed in each plot was low and there was predominance of one species of AMF, it can be concluded that these areas still present a high degree of disturbance. It was possible to detect complex band profiles by DGGE analyses for the two plant species studied, Visnia latifolia and Cecropia hololeuca. No relationship between AMF diversity and revegetation time was observed in these areas

Zoneamento para a cultura do algodão no Nordeste. II. Algodão herbaceo.

bitstream/item/33388/1/ZONEMAMENTO-PARA.pd

Context acquisition in auditory emotional recognition studies

This paper describes an environment to assess auditory emotional recognition based on a mobile application. The primary aim of this work is to provide a valuable instrument that can be used both in research and clinical settings, responding to the strong need of validated measures of emotional processing, especially in Portugal. The secondary aim is to acquire and study the participants' interaction behavior with the technological device (e.g. touch patterns, touch intensity), in search for a relationship with medical conditions, cognitive impairments, auditory emotional recognition capacities or socio-demographic indicators. This will establish the basis for the prediction of such aspects as a function of an individual's interaction with technological devices, potentially providing new diagnostic tools.This work has been supported by FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/ CEC/00319/2013 and Grant PTDC/MHN-PCN/3606/2012. The work of Davide Carneiro is supported by a post-doctoral Grant by FCT (SFRH/BPD/109070/2015). The work of Ana P. Pinheiro is supported by FCT Investigator Grant IF/00334/2012 funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio