Perfil lipídico da carne vermelha e doença cardiovascular

Trabalho complementar (Trabalho de Investigação) realizado no âmbito da Unidade Curricular Estágio da Licenciatura em Ciências da Nutrição da Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e Alimentação da Universidade do Porto, sob orientação de Dr. Fernando Pichel (Hospital de Santo António do Porto)Resumo da tese: As doenças cardiovasculares (DCV) são a principal causa de morte, por doenças não transmissíveis, matando mais que os tumores e as doenças respiratórias crónicas. Tratando-se de uma doença tão relevante, que em Portugal é responsável por 37% das mortes anuais, existe um conjunto de medidas criadas para intervir sobre os principais fatores de risco: a tensão arterial elevada, a obesidade, a hiperglicemia e a hiperlipidemia. Algumas destas medidas focam-se na mudança do estilo de vida, nomeadamente na alteração de certos hábitos alimentares como o consumo de carne, especialmente, de carne vermelha. Este alimento é considerado como uma fonte de ácidos gordos saturados (AGS) e colesterol, componentes que intervêm na aterogénese, uma doença que contribui para as DCV. No entanto, o perfil de saturação dos ácidos gordos da carne vermelha varia de acordo com um conjunto de fatores extrínsecos e intrínsecos ao animal que a criginou. A análise da literatura mais recente revela duas conclusões opostas: a mata-análise de Micha et al. 2012 conclui que não há associação entre o consumo de carne vermelha e a mortalidade por DCV, enquanto que 2 estudos coorte prospetivos concluem que existe uma associação positiva. Quanto à relação entre os ácidos gordos e o risco de DCV há estudos que afirmam não existir uma associação entre o consumo de AGS e a DCV. Os ácidos gordos monoinsaturados também não estão associados com a doença cardiovascular, estando apenas os ácidos gordos polinsaturados associados à redução do risco de DCV.Thesis abstract: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death for non-communicable diseases, Killing more than tumors and chronic respiratory diseases. Having such impact, and being responsible for 37% of Portuguese deaths annually, there are a set of measures designed to intervence on the main risk factors: high blood pressure, obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. Some of these measures focus on changing lifestyle, particularly in changing food habits and consumption of meat, especially red meat. This food is considered a source of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and cholesterol, components involved in atherogenesis, a disease which contribute to Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). However, the saturation profile of red meats fatty acids changes according to a set of extrinsic and intrinsic factors related to the animal. The analysis of recent literature reveals two opposite conclusions: the meta-analysis of Micha et al., 2010 concludes that there is no association between red meat consumption and mortality from CVD, while two prospective cohorts conclude that there is a positive association. As for the relationship between fatty acids and CVD risk, there are studies concluding that there is no association between the consumption of SFA and CVD. Also monounsaturated fatty acids are not associated with cardiovascular disease being polyunsaturated fatty acids the ones associated with the reduction of such risk

Implementação de sistemas SAP em empresas de serviços públicos

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão de SistemasA utilização de sistemas Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) para organizar a informação relevante de uma organização é cada vez mais frequente. Com este documento pretende-se explorar o percurso profissional na implementação de sistemas ERP, mais precisamente na implementação de sistemas SAP para empresas de serviços públicos, ou seja implementação de sistemas SAP IS-U. Apesar do foco principal do presente documento se prender com a descrição de experiência profissional na área de tecnologias de informação (TI), não podia deixar de contextualizar a mesma. Dessa forma é apresentada a metodologia Accelerated SAP (ASAP), utilizada na implementação de sistemas SAP. É ainda exposta brevemente a metodologia Rational Unified Process (RUP), dado ser comum a sua utilização em ambiente académico para a explicação de implementações de sistemas ERP. Dessa forma o leitor poderá estabelecer a comparação entre a metodologia RUP e a metodologia ASAP. Adicionalmente é contextualizado o mercado de implementações de sistemas ERP, através da análise comparativa da posição de mercado de vários sistemas ERP. É efetuada uma análise mais crítica entre os sistemas SAP, Oracle e Microsoft.The usage of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to organize the relevant information of an organization is increasingly common. This document intends to explore the career in the implementation of ERP systems, specifically the implementation of SAP IS-U systems, which is used for utilities companies. Although the principal focus of this document is to describe the professional experience in information technology (IT), this experience had to be contextualized. Therefore the methodology Accelerated SAP (ASAP), used in SAP systems implementations, is explained. Once the usage of Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology is very common in academic environment to explain ERP systems implementations, RUP methodology is also briefly explained. This way, the reader can establish a comparison between RUP and ASAP methodologies. Additionally ERP market is contextualized by market position analysis of different ERP systems. The big market ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are compared more in detail

Food Packaging Trends for the Refrigerator

Issue of study: Consumers interact with primary food packaging and the refrigerator on a daily basis, although the interaction and impact food packaging has on the design of refrigerators is not clear. The Swedish home appliances company Electrolux, manufacturer’s refrigerators with the consumer needs in mind. The food packaging market is diversified in terms of formats, dimensions, functions and materials. Thus, anticipating the potential changes might help Electrolux to improve even further. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the primary packaging trends of chilled and frozen foods in order to analyse how they might impact the design and development of future refrigerators. Method: A qualitative research was conducted; primary data was collected with resource to an exploratory method of in-depth semi-structured interviews of packaging professionals and to an online observation of four food categories in Sweden and in the United Kingdom; secondary data was collected by literature research. The methods resulted in inductive and deductive inferencing respectively, therefore in this study, results and discussion lead to an abductive reasoning, with conclusions generated from the collected data. Conclusions: Convenience is one of the most important drivers of packaging changes. Other trends are sustainability, health and safety, although incorporation of technology and package / product personalization are likely to grow in importance. Primary food packaging will likely become more environmental friendly, with the use of bioplastics in detriment of glass in formats such as flexible pouches. The future will potentially have both smaller and bulkier packages, as well as portion control and multipacks. In the next five to ten years, the future of packaging will not likely be focused on the older population, new formats, incorporation of radio frequency identification, edible packaging and nanotechnology. Currently, differences between the English and the Swedish market are noticeable mostly in the type of materials used, formats and number of products available. In the future, the refrigerator development is likely to respond to personalization by exploring a new feature: detachable compartments

Relationship between the stability and surface tension of the tear film

FCT, QREN and FEDER/COMPETE through CFUM

Evaluation of optical properties of different types of contact lenses

The main objective of this work was to attain a deeper knowledge of contact lenses (CL) optical properties and to understand the influence of CL power on other properties which can affect the optical performance and compromise the ocular physiology.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), QREN/FSE/COMPETE

Evidence of portuguese stock market abnormal returns

According to the stock market efficiency theory, it is not possible to consistently beat the market. However, technical analysis is more and more spread as an efficient way to achieve abnormal returns. In fact there is evidence that momentum investing strategies provide abnormal returns in different stock markets, Jegadeesh, N. and Titman, S. (1993), George, T. and Hwang, C. (2004) and Du, D. (2009). In this work we study if like other markets, the Portuguese stock market also allows to obtain abnormal returns, using a strategy that consists in picking stocks according to their past performance. Our work confirms the results of Soares, J. and Serra, A. (2005) and Pereira, P. (2009), showing that an investor can get abnormal returns investing in momentum portfolios. The Portuguese stock market evidences momentum returns in short term, exhibiting reversal in long term

La concesión de crédito comercial y el financiamiento de los clientes: evidencia en las empresas portuguesas

Este estudo pretende analisar a concessão de crédito comercial das empresas portuguesas como meio de financiamento dos seus clientes, recorrendo à metodologia de dados em painel,contribuindo assim para a escassa evidência empírica sobre os motivos da concessão de crédito comercial e a sua utilidade no financiamento dos respetivos clientes, assunto que se torna particularmente interessante no contexto atual, de dificuldades de obtenção de crédito bancário. De um modo geral, as empresas de grande dimensão e com maior acesso ao mercado de capitais funcionam como financiadoras dos clientes que apresentam maiores dificuldades no acesso ao financiamento institucional, corroborando a hipótese da vantagem das empresas não financeiras. Adicionalmente, estas empresas utilizam o crédito comercial como um meio legal de discriminação de preços. Finalmente, encontrámos evidência de que as empresas, independentemente da sua dimensão, podem reduzir os custos de transação através da utilização do crédito comercial.This study examines the trade credit of Portuguese firms as a means of financing their customers, using a panel data sample. It contributes to the scarce of empirical studies on the reasons for the granting of trade credit, and its usefulness in the financing of their costumers, being particularly interesting in the current context of financing difficulties. Globally, the results indicate that large companies with greater access to capital markets concede trade credit to customers who have greater difficulties in access to institutional funding, supporting the hypothesis of the advantage of non-financial companies. Additionally, these companies use trade credit as a legal means of price discrimination. Finally, we found evidence that firms, regardless of their size, can reduce transaction costs through the use of trade credit.Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la actividad crediticia de las empresas portuguesas como medio de financiación de sus clientes, utilizando la metodología de datos de panel, lo que contribuye a la evidencia empírica escasa sobre los motivos de la concesión de crédito comercial y su utilidad en la financiación de los respectivos clientes, siempre se vuelve particularmente interesante en el contexto actual, las dificultades para obtener créditos bancarios. En general, las empresas más grandes, con mayor acceso a los mercados de capitales funcio nan como proveedores de fondos de los clientes que tienen mayores dificultades en el acceso a la financiación institucional, apoyando la hipótesis de la ventaja de las empresas no financieras. Además, estas empresas utilizan el crédito comercial como medio legal de discriminación de precios. Por último, encontramos evidencia de que las empresas, independientemente de su tamaño, puede reducir los costos de transacción a través del uso del crédito comercial

Vesicle-micelle transition in aqueous mixtures of the cationic dioctadecyldimethylammonium and octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactants

The vesicle-micelle transition in aqueous mixtures of dioctadecyldimethylammonium and octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DODAB and C18TAB) cationic surfactants, having respectively double and single chain, was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), steady state fluorescence, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and surface tension. The experiments performed at constant up to 1.0 mM total surfactant concentration reveal that these homologue surfactants mix together to form either mixed vesicles and/or micelles, or both of these structures in equilibrium, depending on the relative amount of the surfactants. The main transition melting temperature Tm of the mixed DODAB-C18TAB vesicles is larger than that for the neat DODAB in water owing to the incorporation of C18TAB in the vesicle bilayer, however, little amount of C18TAB having a minor effect on the Tm of DODAB. The surface tension decreases sigmoidally with C18TAB concentration and the inflection point lies around xDODAB ≈ 0.4, indicating the onset of micelle formation owing to saturation of DODAB vesicles by C18TAB molecules and formation of vesicle structures. At low C18TAB concentrations When xDODAB > 0.5 C18TAB molecules are mainly solubilized by the vesicles bilayers, while at high C18TAB concentrations but when xDODAB < 0.25 micelles are dominant. Fluorescence data of the Nile Red probe incorporated in the system at different surfactant molar fractions indicate the formation of micelle and vesicle structures. These structures have apparent hydrodynamic radius RH of about 180 and 500-800 nm, respectively, as obtained by DLS measurements.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Inhibition of S. epidermidis adhesion to hydrogel contact lenses by anionic and nonionic surfactants

In this study the adhesion of S. epidermidis to the 4 FDA groups of hydrogel CL uncoated and coated with ½ CMC of an anionic (sodium cholate) and a non-ionic surfactant (octylglucoside) was assessed. The results revealed that cell adhesion to CL was highly dependent on surface hydrophobicity. Concerning the effect of surfactants, the non-ionic one was more effective in inhibiting microbial adhesion than the ionic surfactant. Octylglucoside promoted an inhibition in the extent of bacterial adhesion of about 62%, while sodium cholate caused a decrease in the number of cells adhered of about 43%. The effect of a commercial multipurpose care solution containing 1% of poloxamine was compared and the results indicate that adhesion inhibition was greater when 0.33% of octylglucoside was used. Octylglucoside is a natural surfactant, non-toxic, harmless to the eye, and due to its high efficiency in inhibiting microbial adhesion, as proved in this work, is recommended to be incorporated in CL care solutions