The use of the FTIR as a tool to discriminate flavored oils

Olive oil is one of the most consumed vegetable oils in the world and its production has increased in recentyears.The market has been betting on new ways of consuming olive oils, such as flavored oils.However, flavored oils can suffer several frauds, such as the addition of other vegetable oils.Thus, it is necessary to develop fast, low-cost and non-invasive analytical techniques that allow the identification of the flavoring agent, as well as discriminating non-flavoredoilsfrom flavored oils. In this context, techniques based on spectroscopy have gained great importance for allowing a fast and non-destructive analysis using a small volume of oil, as is the case of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT,Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and to Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry - LAQV (UIDB/50006/2020). Nuno Rodrigues thanks to National funding by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy-chemometric approach as a non-destructive olive cultivar tool for discriminating Portuguese monovarietal olive oils

Four Portuguese monovarietal olive oils (cvs. Cobrançosa, Madural, Santulhana and Verdeal Transmontana) were evaluated, totalizing 24 independent samples. Olive cultivar significantly influenced (P values lt 0.05, one-way ANOVA) the oils’ physicochemical and sensory attributes, fulfilling all oils the legal thresholds for extra-virgin classification. Oils from cv. Verdeal Transmontana had the highest oxidative stability (16.9 ± 1.0 h), whereas cvs. Cobrançosa and Santulhana oils have the highest total phenols content (204 ± 30 and 177 ± 33 mg GAE/kg, respectively). Concerning the sensory attributes, only cv. Santulhana oils fitted fruity greenly oils type, presenting, in general, significantly higher olfactory and gustatory intensities (P values lt 0.05, one-way ANOVA), with a higher number of perceived sensory attributes (e.g., herbaceous sensations), compared to the other monovarietal oils. Free acidity, peroxide value, extinction coefficients, total phenols and oxidative stability allowed the unsupervised differentiation (principal component analysis, PCA) of the four monovarietal oils, and in a less extent, the sensory data. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy-chemometric procedure was developed based on raw or transformed forms of the recorded spectra. Raw, 1st and 2nd derivative spectra allowed the unsupervised (PCA) and supervised (linear discriminant analysis, LDA) identification of the olive cultivar of the studied oils. In fact, FTIR-LDA models, based on the raw transmittance or on their 1st or 2nd derivatives, recorded at 5, 4 or 3 selected wavenumbers, respectively, allowed to correctly classify all oils (sensitivities greater than 99 ± 7% for the repeated K-fold-CV internal validation). Therefore, FTIR spectroscopy could be used as a fast, reliable, environmentally friendly and non-destructive olive cultivar-classification tool for monovarietal oils.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and Project “Green- Health—Digital strategies in biological assets to improve well-being and promote green health” (Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Nuno Rodrigues and Isabel P. Fernandes thank to National funding by FCT— Foundation for Science and Technology, Pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Utilização do nariz eletrónico como ferramenta para discriminação de azeites aromatizados

A aromatização de azeites, pela adição de especiarias, plantas aromáticas ou frutos, é uma prática comum com vista à melhoria das características e propriedades sensoriais, indo ao encontro das espectativas de alguns consumidores. Contudo, esta prática pode promover fraudes, mascarando defeitos organoléticos ou até a utilização de misturas com azeites de categorias comerciais inferioresinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Application of the FTIR technique as a non‐invasive tool to discriminate Portuguese olive oils with protected designation of origin

Three Portuguese olive oils with PDO (‘Azeite do Alentejo Interior’, ‘Azeites da Beira Interior’ and ‘Azeite de Trás-os-Montes’) were studied considering their physicochemical quality, antioxidant capacity, oxidative stability, total phenols content, gustatory sensory sensations and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. All oils fulfilled the legal thresholds of EVOOs and the PDO's specifications. Olive oils from ‘Azeite da Beira Interior’ and ‘Azeite de Trás-os-Montes’ showed greater total phenols contents and antioxidant capacities, while ‘Azeites da Beira Interior′ presented higher oxidative stabilities. Linear discriminant models were developed using FTIR spectra (transmittance and the 1st and 2nd derivatives), allowing the correct identification of the oils’ PDO (100 % sensitivity and specificity, repeated K-fold-CV). This study also revealed that multiple linear regression models, based on FTIR transmittance data, could predict the sweet, bitter, and pungent intensities of the PDO oils (R2≥0.979±0.016; RMSE≤0.26±0.05, repeated K-fold-CV). This demonstrates the potential of using FTIR as a non-destructive technique for authenticating oils with PDO.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and to the Associate Laboratory SusTEC (LA/ P/0007/2020). The authors are also grateful to the “Project OLIVE4ALL – Olive Heritage for Sustainable Development: Raising Community Awareness of Living Heritage” (ref. JPICH/ 0001/2020), financed by FCT (Portugal). Nuno Rodrigues thanks the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., for the National funding through the institutional program contract for scientific employment. Sandra Lamas also acknowledges the Ph.D. research grant (2022.10070.BD) provided by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tributação de Rendimentos Empresariais, Criação de Valor, Evasão Fiscal – Uma Visão Geral / Corporate Income Taxation, Value Creation, Tax Evasion - An Overview

A evolução mundial das economias bem como as recorrentes e crescentes necessidades de financiamento dos Estados vão levando o legislador a procurar cada vez mais adaptar a forma de suprir essas necessidades.Pretendemos primeiramente de forma global apresentar o estado atual dos principais impostos sobre os rendimentos das empresas portuguesas, bem como uma visão geral e teórica da sua agregação, na ótica de carga fiscal efetiva, expondo o conceito da Curva de Laffer (Laffer, 2004).Será também exposta a relevância da problemática da economia paralela e evasão fiscal, como uma abordagem global das suas implicações, medidas de combate e da relação com a evolução da carga fiscal.Perspetivaremos ainda uma hipotética alteração da base de incidência da tributação dos rendimentos empresariais, sendo por ora o resultado gerado, ainda que após ser sujeito a algumas correções, para em lugar deste, tributar efetivamente a criação empresarial de valor

A utilização de espectroscopia no infravermelho por transformada de Fourier (FTIR) na caracterização de azeites da cv . Galega vulgar provenientes de diferentes regiões

A ‘Galega vulgar’, é uma cultivar de oliveira autóctone portuguesa, com uma distribuição de norte a sul do território nacional, fazendo parte integrante de cinco das seis Denominações de Origem Protegida (DOP) para azeite. A região geográfica de origem, onde a oliveira cresceu e se desenvolveu pode ter influência na composição físico-química e caraterísticas dos azeitesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Surveillance of active human cytomegalovirus infection in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HLA sibling identical donor): search for optimal cutoff value by real-time PCR

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection still causes significant morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Therefore, it is extremely important to diagnosis and monitor active CMV infection in HSCT patients, defining the CMV DNA levels of virus replication that warrant intervention with antiviral agents in order to accurately prevent CMV disease and further related complications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>During the first 150 days after allogeneic HSTC, thirty patients were monitored weekly for active CMV infection by <it>pp65 </it>antigenemia, nested-PCR and real-time PCR assays. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot analysis was performed to determine a threshold value of the CMV DNA load by real-time PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using ROC curves, the optimal cutoff value by real-time PCR was 418.4 copies/10⁴PBL (sensitivity, 71.4%; specificity, 89.7%). Twenty seven (90%) of the 30 analyzed patients had active CMV infection and two (6.7%) developed CMV disease. Eleven (40.7%) of these 27 patients had acute GVHD, 18 (66.7%) had opportunistic infection, 5 (18.5%) had chronic rejection and 11 (40.7%) died - one died of CMV disease associated with GVHD and bacterial infection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The low incidence of CMV disease in HSCT recipients in our study attests to the efficacy of CMV surveillance based on clinical routine assay. The quantification of CMV DNA load using real-time PCR appears to be applicable to the clinical practice and an optimal cutoff value for guiding timely preemptive therapy should be clinically validated in future studies.</p

Evaluation of a Fotonovela to Increase Depression Knowledge and Reduce Stigma Among Hispanic Adults

Fotonovelas—small booklets that portray a dramatic story using photographs and captions— represent a powerful health education tool for low-literacy and ethnic minority audiences. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a depression fotonovela in increasing depression knowledge, decreasing stigma, increasing self-efficacy to recognize depression, and increasing intentions to seek treatment, relative to a text pamphlet. Hispanic adults attending a community adult school (N = 157, 47.5 % female, mean age = 35.8 years, 84 % immigrants, 63 % with less than high school education) were randomly assigned to read the fotonovela or a low-literacy text pamphlet about depression. They completed surveys before reading the material, immediately after reading the material, and 1 month later. The fotonovela and text pamphlet both produced significant improvements in depression knowledge and self-efficacy to identify depression, but the fotonovela produced significantly larger reductions in antidepressant stigma and mental health care stigma. The fotonovela also was more likely to be passed on to family or friends after the study, potentially increasing its reach throughout the community. Results indicate that fotonovelas can be useful for improving health literacy among underserved populations, which could reduce health disparities

Site Fidelity in Space Use by Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Animal home ranges may vary little in their size and location in the short term but nevertheless show more variability in the long term. We evaluated the degree of site fidelity of two groups of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) over a 10- and 13-year period, respectively, in the northeastern Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. We used the Local Convex Hull method to estimate yearly home ranges and core areas (defined as the 60% probability contour) for the two groups. Home ranges varied from 7.7 to 49.6 ha and core areas varied from 3.1 to 9.2 ha. We evaluated the degree of site fidelity by quantifying the number of years in which different areas were used as either home ranges or core areas. Large tracts were used only as home ranges and only for a few years, whereas small areas were used as either core area or home range for the duration of the study. The sum of the yearly core areas coincided partially with the yearly home ranges, indicating that home ranges contain areas used intermittently. Home ranges, and especially core areas, contained a higher proportion of mature forest than the larger study site as a whole. Across years and only in one group, the size of core areas was positively correlated with the proportion of adult males in the group, while the size of home ranges was positively correlated with both the proportion of males and the number of tree species included in the diet. Our findings suggest that spider monkey home ranges are the result of a combination of long-term site fidelity and year-to-year use variation to enable exploration of new resources

Cigarette smoke induces miR-132 in Th17 cells that enhance osteoclastogenesis in inflammatory arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by joint destruction and severe morbidity. Cigarette smoking (CS) can exacerbate the incidence and severity of RA. Although Th17 cells and the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) have been implicated, the mechanism by which CS induces RA development remains unclear. Here, using transcriptomic analysis, we show that microRNA-132 is specifically induced in Th17 cells in the presence of either AhR agonist or CS-enriched medium. miRNA-132 thus induced is packaged into extracellular vesicles produced by Th17 and acts as a proinflammatory mediator increasing osteoclastogenesis through the down-regulation of COX2. In vivo, articular knockdown of miR-132 in murine arthritis models reduces the number of osteoclasts in the joints. Clinically, RA patients express higher levels of miR-132 than do healthy individuals. This increase is further elevated by cigarette smoking. Together, these results reveal a hitherto unrecognized mechanism by which CS could exacerbate RA and further advance understanding of the impact of environmental factors on the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases