Introduction: a post-pandemic new context for food studies teaching methods

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, several technological tools were already being used in the educational environment of the food area. Digital technologies occurred in a more dynamic way in the research sector, while in the teaching-learning system, it happened with a little more prudence, either due to insufficient infrastructure or poor familiarity with such technological resources. As a consequence of adopted sanitary measures, social isolation implied a very fast implementation of the digital transformation in the educational environment to avoid disruption and minimize the impact on learning processes. The new configuration brought challenges to educators and students and also promoted the development of capabilities and skills necessary to explore a range of new tools. The promotion of theoretical and practical knowledge in an integrated, dynamic, sustainable, responsible, and flexible way requires a reflection between traditional and new teaching methods. This session will discuss the barriers and established strategies to access learning platforms, communication tools, methodology for assessment, virtual classes, and others. It is important to assure the excellence and front position of leadership of education for the food area and support public policies in making decisions that will define the future of food studies in production, processing, and consumption.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tourism sector competitiveness in Portugal: applying Porter's Diamond

The tourism sector has stood out for its enormous capacity for growth on a global scale and holding a relevant role both as a tool for the competitiveness and as a driver of regional development. This profile stems not only from its multiplier effects but also the opportunities susceptible to identification within the scope of offsetting regional disparities in growth and prosperity. The objective of this research project consists of evaluating the competitiveness of the regional areas and directorates of tourism in Portugal with the methodology applied requiring the input of primary data (a sample of 446 companies), through a questionnaire aimed at companies displaying the activities characteristic of the World Tourism Organisation satellite account. Through the application of Porter’s Diamond Model, we arrived at a conceptual model through recourse to the Partial Least Square – Path Modelling technique with the objective of analysing the relationships unfolding among the determinant variables to competitiveness in the tourism sector. Despite the results returned proving clear, we also verify that encapsulating competitiveness proves no easy task given how Portugal reports regions with simultaneously very varied and very specific characteristics.O sector do turismo destaca-se pela enorme capacidade de crescimento a nível mundial, desempenhando um papel relevante tanto como ferramenta para a competitividade como enquanto motor do desenvolvimento regional. Este perfil decorre não apenas dos seus efeitos multiplicadores, mas também das oportunidades suscetíveis de identificação no âmbito da compensação das disparidades regionais no crescimento e prosperidade. O objetivo desta investigação consiste em avaliar a competitividade das áreas regionais e direções do turismo em Portugal. Utilizamos dados primários (uma amostra de 446 empresas), através de um questionário destinado a empresas que exibem as atividades características da conta satélite da Organização Mundial de Turismo. Através da aplicação do Modelo de Diamante de Porter, alcançamos um modelo conceitual através do recurso à técnica de Partial Least Square – Path Modelling com o objetivo de analisar as relações que se desdobram entre as variáveis determinantes para a competitividade no setor de turismo. Apesar de os resultados retornados serem claros, verificamos também que o encapsulamento da competitividade não se revela uma tarefa fácil, dado o fato de Portugal englobar regiões com características simultaneamente muito variadas e muito específicas

Functional Outcome of Endovascular Treatment in Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke With Large Vessel Occlusion: Mothership Versus Drip-and-Ship Model in a Portuguese Urban Region

Introduction Endovascular treatment (EVT) with mechanical thrombectomy and acute carotid stenting has become an integral part of the treatment of acute ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion. Despite being included in the most recent stroke guidelines, only comprehensive centers can offer EVT and thus patients frequently need to be transferred from primary hospitals. We aimed to assess which pre-hospital model of care - direct admission to a comprehensive stroke center (mothership) or transfer to a comprehensive stroke center after the first admission to the nearest hospital (drip-and-ship) - had the most benefit in stroke patients in a Portuguese urban region. Methods We selected patients admitted to a comprehensive stroke center who underwent EVTs between January 2018 and December 2020, in Lisbon, Portugal. We used data from the Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke (SITS) International registry on stroke severity, previous modified Rankin Scale (mRS), time from symptom onset to the first admission, time from symptom onset to the procedure, and mRS three months post stroke. We defined an unfavorable outcome as having an mRS >2 at three months post stroke. For patients with previous mRS >2, an unfavorable outcome was defined as any increase in mRS at three months post stroke. Results We analyzed the data of 1154 patients, of which 407 were admitted through a mothership approach and 747 through a drip-and-ship approach. Both groups were similar regarding sociodemographic characteristics, stroke risk factors, previous disability, and stroke severity. Median onset-to-door time was higher (126 vs 110 minutes, p-value=0.002) but onset-to-procedure time was lower (199 vs 339 minutes, p-value<0.001) in the mothership group. The mothership group had a higher proportion of patients with mRS <3 at three months post stroke than the drip-and-ship group (41.3% vs 34.9%, p-value=0.035). Mortality was similar in both groups. A multivariate logistic regression model confirmed a lower probability of unfavorable outcomes with the mothership approach (OR = 0.677, 95% CI 0.514-0.892, p-value=0.006). Surprisingly, onset-to-procedure time did not have an impact on functional outcomes. Conclusion Our findings show that the mothership model results in better functional outcomes for patients with acute ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion. Further studies are needed to better define patient selection for this strategy and the impact of a mothership model in comprehensive stroke centers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bibliotecas públicas, exclusão social e o fim da esfera pública

Esta comunicação apresenta e discute os fundamentos teóricos essenciais das bibliotecas públicas no que diz respeito à definição e real prossecução dos seus papéis sociais, explorando a utilização do conceito de capital social. Analisa igualmente de um modo crítico a sua real - ou desejada - intervenção enquanto instrumento de inclusão social e na luta ativa contra a exclusão social, bem como a conceção de biblioteca pública enquanto elemento constitutivo da esfera pública, detetando uma tendência ou um perigo do enfraquecimento progressivo desta. Esta discussão é feita com base numa revisão da literatura com origem nos países do eixo latino-americano (incluindo Portugal, Espanha, França e a América Latina em geral), anglo-saxónico e escandinavo, depois de uma secção que faz a apresentação de uma série de dados com o propósito de traçar uma caracterização de Portugal em termos socioeconómicos, concluindo pela existência e mesmo o agravamento de diversos fatores de exclusão e desigualdade social, logo de grandes assimetrias no acesso, não só aos bens materiais como à cultura e à educação. Conclui-se que a biblioteca pública pode desempenhar e tem efetivamente desempenhado, nos últimos anos, em diversas partes do mundo, importantes papéis sociais, contribuindo para aumentar o capital social das comunidades, para a inclusão e na luta contra a exclusão social. As bibliotecas são um elemento importante da esfera pública, mas todas estas funções ou atributos são muitas vezes resultado de iniciativas locais e/ou de profissionais individualmente, faltando geralmente políticas, orientações nacionais, e muitas vezes recursos para o cumprimento destes papéis. A tudo isto acresce a crescente perda de importância da esfera pública, com um grande desinvestimento nas funções sociais do Estado. É neste contexto que os profissionais podem ser decisivos na defesa e reafirmação dos valores e do impacto social das bibliotecas públicas

Desidratação osmótica de pêssego com calda açucarada e calda à base de mel.

Comunicação da qual só está disponível o resumo.A desidratação é um processo que consiste na eliminação de água de um produto por evaporação. Com o aumento da produção e sazonalidade de diversos frutos a produção de fruta desidratada pode ser uma alternativa para escoamento dos excedentes. Os produtos alimentares podem ser desidratados por processos baseados na vaporização, sublimação, remoção de água por solventes ou na adição de agentes osmóticos. Nos últimos anos, a desidratação de alimentos tem sido objeto de vários estudos no sentido de produzir alimentos desidratados, que conservem ou melhorem as características sensoriais e valor nutricional, garantindo um custo adequado. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar os parâmetros de qualidade de rodelas de pêssego submetidas a desidratação osmótica utilizando dois tipos de caldas. Numa fase inicial foram realizados vários ensaios a fim de selecionar um programa de secagem adequado, que não proporcionasse alteração significativa da cor da fruta (determinado por colorímetro no sistema CIELAB), fosse adequado do ponto de vista microbiológico e tivesse a preferência dos provadores na avaliação sensorial. O programa de secagem selecionado tem a duração de 12 horas: 30 min até atingir a temperatura de 520C; 10,5 horas à temperatura de 520C; 1 hora para estabilização. De seguida foram testadas 4 caldas: calda açucarada com três concentrações diferentes de frutose (C1: 365 g/L, C2: 490 g/L e C3: 735 g/L) e uma calda à base de mel (diluição de 1:1 m/v); para desidratação osmótica seguida de secagem. Este programa de secagem teve a duração de 10 horas. Para estas 4 amostras foi efetuada uma prova de ordenação tendo a amostra C3 (735 g/L de frutose) obtido a maior pontuação. Para as amostras selecionadas de secagem simples e secagem com pré-tratamento de desidratação osmótica foram efetuadas as seguintes determinações: humidade (PT.LFQ.0135-Método interno); gordura (AOAC 2003.06); proteína (PT.LFQ.0105-Método interno); cinzas (AOAC 934.03); hidratos de carbono (cálculo); valor energético (cálculo); sódio (ICP-OES); sal (cálculo); glucose; frutose; sacarose; maltose; lactose (PT.LFQ.0129-Método interno). Os resultados demonstraram que o produto com pré-tratamento, embora mais apreciados pelos provadores apresenta um teor de açúcares (frutose) superior, inerente ao tratamento e um teor de humidade, gordura e proteína inferior. É de referir, no entanto, que este trabalho deve ser continuado de modo a aferir as melhores condições para a secagem após a desidratação osmótica (especialmente para a calda de mel) dado que os provadores gostaram do sabor da amostra tratada com mel mas pontuaram pior devido à elevada gomosidade que apresentava.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Physicochemical characterization of psyllium fiber

Psyllium is the common name used for several members of the plant genus Plantago, whose seeds are commercially used for mucilage production. Owing to its considerable fiber amount it has been used as dietary fiber supplement. Psyllium has a strong gelling ability, even at low temperature, enabling its use as a gelling agent in the food industry. This work is part of a project to developing jellies enriched with fiber, honey and propolis, aiming to increase these products intake, with evident health benefits. The chemical characterization of psyllium was performed, with the following results (in dry matter): total ash 2.5%, fat content 3.4% and total protein 1.4%. After qualitative acid hydrolysis polymeric sugars were quantified (in dry matter): glucan 7.3%, xylan 61.1% and arabinan 22.9%. This means that total fiber content is about 90%, being soluble fiber predominant, and allows classifying psyllium hemicellulose as an arabinoxylan. Psyllium functional properties were evaluated by water-binding capacity and swelling determination: 27.1 g/g and 36.9 ml/g, respectively. These properties are important in the food industry, but under certain circumstances may limit the food type that can be enriched with this fiber. An important part of the research consisted on the characterization of gels viscoelastic behavior and texture, which were prepared with different psyllium particle dimension (raw and ground) and concentration (2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0%). The Response Surface Methodology was used to study the effect of process conditions (time and temperature) on texture and color characteristics of gels. Texture properties of gels were evaluated by Texture Profile Analysis. Gels dynamic behaviour was studied by a sequence of oscillatory measurements of temperature, time and frequency sweeps. Psyllium gelling properties were improved with the reduction of the fiber particle dimension. Gels revealed potential viscoelastic properties that might be interesting in the industrial purpose of honey jelly production

Daily Egg Production Estimates for the Atlantic Iberian Sardine in 2020, (ICES areas 9a and 8c).

The spawning stock biomass (SSB) of the Atlantic Iberian sardine (stock pil.27.8c9a, ICES divisions 8c and 9a) has been estimated using the Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) since the late 90s. The surveys and analyses are internationally coordinated in the framework of ICES-WGACEGG where IEO (Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Spain) and IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal) are represented. Every three years the two institutes conduct a coordinated survey covering the Iberian shores. The Portuguese campaign surveys the waters from the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar to the border of Portugal and Galicia (ICES area 9a), while the Spanish survey monitors the northern area of the stock from the border, at river Minho, to the south of the Armorican shelf in French waters (ICES areas 9a North and 8c). The DEPM surveys comprise ichthyoplankton, fish and hydrographic sampling. Plankton samples are collected, along a grid of parallel transects perpendicular to the coast, for spawning area estimation and daily egg production calculation. Concurrently, fishing hauls are carried out for estimation of daily fecundity (sex ratio, female weight, batch fecundity and spawning fraction) for the mature sardines in the population. This working document provides a description of the Portuguese survey, including the laboratory analyses and estimation procedures used to obtain the egg and adults parameters for the 2020 DEPM

Using Waste Recycled PET for AC Production for Pesticides Removals from Aqueous Solutions

Over the last decades the literature has shown the possibility of producing activated carbons (AC) from a wide variety of raw materials and to use them as one of the most environment-friendly solutions for waste disposal. Additionally it has been shown that the adsorption of pollutants from different media by AC is one of the most efficient techniques for remediating or solving this type of problem. In this context, the presence of pesticides in water can cause serious problems in the environment and to human health; their removal from wastewaters is a crucial concern. The work presented here focuses these two problematic areas (solid waste reduction and wastewater treatment). The main idea was to develop low cost and efficiently adsorbent materials for hazardous compounds removal from aquatic media, to level admitted in drinking water

Analysis of the profile of volatile organic compounds in Chlorella vulgaris

It is known that the incorporation of microalgae into foodstuffs enables to modify the overall flavor leading to desirable or undesirable organoleptic properties. Nevertheless, few were the studies conducted focusing on the analysis of the profile of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by microalgae, which are the main compounds responsible for the aroma perception. The aim of this study was to analyze the VOCs profile of Chlorella vulgaris powder by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Different techniques were used for the extraction of the VOCs, prior to the chromatographic analysis: 1) solid-phase microextraction (SPME), and 2) ultrasound-assisted liquid extraction (UALE) using five different solvents. For the SPME analysis, 0.5 g of C. vulgaris was exposed to a divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) fiber and was desorbed for 5 min into GC-MS. For the UALE, 2 g of sample was placed in five different solvents for extraction (chloroform, dichloromethane, hexane, ethyl acetate and acetone). For both SPME and UALE the GC-MS analysis was performed on Stabilwax (SW) and RXI-5 columns. The results showed very different profiles of VOCs between columns and techniques of extractions. In the analysis with the SW column no compounds were detected in acetone, hexane and ethyl acetate and only a few were present with the chloroform (39 VOCs) and dichloromethane (15 VOCs) extraction when compared to SPME (75 VOCs). In the RXI-5 analysis, a reduced number of compounds was identified when comparing with SW in SPME (39 and 75 VOCs, respectively), and in UALE, ethyl acetate was the only solvent with any retention of VOCs that could be detected with this column, having chloroform, dichloromethane, acetone and hexane, 10, 10, 5, and 8 VOCs respectively. In SPME, the main chemical classes of identified VOCs were, alcohols and hydrocarbons. In UALLE, the VOCs profile was more balanced with alcohols, aldehydes, carboxy group, ketones and hydrocarbons. Only with hexane it was possible to find aromatic groups. Compounds such as hexanal, tetradecane, and 3-methylbutanal were found in SPME as reported in literature, although 3-methylbutanal was only present for SW. In conclusion, SPME run in a SW column showed more VOCs retention and seems to be more appropriate to enable aroma prediction in C. vulgaris-based foodstuff.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - 2021.05734.BDinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio