Interactions between protein fining agents and proanthocyanidins

A comparative fining trial was conducted in a laboratory scale to study the influence of protein fining agents on proanthocyanidins, colour and browning potential of white wine. The monomeric flavanols were significantly depleted by casein, and gelatine with low molecular weight (MW) distribution, and isinglass obtained from fish swim bladder (MW > 94.0, containing some bands in the range 94.0–43.0 and at 20.1 kDa). However, the other gelatines and isinglass with a MW polydispersion below 20.1 kDa did not interact significantly (P < 0.05) with these compounds. In contrast, the oligomeric compounds were not decreased by swim bladder isinglass. It was also observed that neither of the isinglasses decreased the polymeric flavanols significantly (P < 0.05). Although casein and potassium caseinate had similar MW distributions and isoelectric points, potassium caseinate decreased the polymeric flavanols, whereas casein did decrease monomeric, oligomeric and polymeric flavanols significantly (P < 0.05). The degree of polymerisation of polymeric proanthocyanidins that remained in the fined wine decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after addition of protein fining agents except when potassium caseinate was used. Casein, potassium caseinate and swim bladder isinglass induced a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in wine colour (A420nm), a decrease in browning potential and a decrease in turbidit

An innovative platform for territorial marketing and location benchmarking

When looking for locations to install their production or business units, entrepreneurs undertake a well established decision process that starts with the very first option to invest in a specific country and finishes with a final decision over a commonly named “short list”. In order to support investors looking for investment locations in Portugal across the decision process mentioned before, an internet platform was developed and deployed worldwide as a result of a development partnership between the University of Minho and Innovation Point S.A., a technological start-up. The platform, named where-to-invest-in-portugal.com and often classified as a territorial marketing & analysis platform, includes an extensive set of resources to support potential investors. Among them, the so-called Investor_DSS channel is a multicriteria Decision Support System intended to model the geographical screening and find the best ranked set of locations (municipalities) for a particular location exercise. Other channels include fact sheets and databases for Business Space Offers and Business Opportunities. A special channel is dedicated to the Mayors, a space where they may address an invitation for direct investment in their Municipalities. This paper describes the architecture of the platform and some of the relevant developments related to

Effect of solvent-dependent viscoelastic properties of chitosan membranes on the permeation of 2-phenylethanol

The viscoelastic behaviour of chitosan was followed by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) while the sample was immersed in gradient compositions of water/ethanol mixtures. The swelling equilibrium of chitosan membranes, both crosslinked with genipin or not, increased linearly with the water content. Increasing the water content, it was simultaneously observed a peak in the loss factor (around 25 vol.%) and a reduction of the storage modulus, which was attributed to the a-relaxation of chitosan. This was the first time that the glass transition dynamics in a polymer was monitored in immersion conditions where the composition of the plasticizer in the bath is changed in a controlled way. The water content at which tan d presented a maximum increased with both increasing frequency and increasing crosslinking density. The permeability decreased steadily with the ethanol content, reaching very low values around the glass transition. Therefore we hypothesize that conformational mobility of the polymeric chains may play an important role in the diffusion properties of molecules trough polymeric matrices.This work was partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through funds from the POCTI and/or FEDER programmes and through the scholarship SFRH/BPD/34545/2007 granted to Ricardo M.P. da Silva. This work was carried out under the scope of the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283) and also partially supported by the EU funded projects HIPPOCRATES (STREP - NMP3-CT-2003-505758) and PROTEUS (INTERREG III A - SP1.P151/03). The technical assistance of Ana Pinheiro in the execution of the DMA experiments is also acknowledged

REDES SOCIAIS COMO FERRAMENTA DE COMUNICAÇÃO INSTITUCIONAL

Os softwares web conhecidos como redes sociais virtuais funcionam como mediadores sociais que favorecem a criação de redes de relacionamentos através de espaços onde o usuário pode juntar pessoas do seu círculo de relacionamentos, conhecer outras que compartilhem os mesmos interesses e discutir temas variados, construindo diferentes elos entre os “eus” privado e públic

Cabernet Sauvignon in tropical semi-arid climate (Pernambuco - Brasil): adaptation of some clones and their affinity to different rootstocks.

Resumo

First record of Anastrepha pseudanomala Norrbom (Diptera: Tephritidae) and its host in Brazil

Anastrepha pseudanomala Norrbom was reared in fruits of Couma utilis (Apocynaceae), and also collected in McPhail traps in Ferreira Gomes county, State of Amapá, Brazil.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Mechanical pruning and soil organic amendments in vineyards of Syrah: effects on grape composition

Aim: The interaction of mechanized pruning systems and soil organic amendment can increase vine productivity. However, since the increase in p roductivity may affect grape composition, this study aimed to understand the effects of the interaction between these two practices. Methods and materials: Two field trials were implemented in Shiraz vineyards in two different wine regions. Mechanical hedge pruning was compared with hand spur pruning and four different organic amendments were tested: biochar, municipal solid waste compost, cattle manure and sewage sludge. Results: Mechanical pruning reduced the total soluble solids (TSS) and pH of the grapes, but had no effects on the other variables. Organic amendments also reduced TSS, especially sewage sludge, and tended to reduce total anthocyanins and total phenols. The effect of the interaction between both factors on grape composition was never significant. A negative relationship between yield and TSS was observed, while titratable acidity had no relationship with yield. Total anthocyanins were also negatively related to yield. A positive relation between TSS and total anthocyanins was also observed. Conclusions: The results show that the combination of mechanical pruning and soil organic amendment is a powerful tool for increasing productivity, but it has some effects on grape composition. Significance and impact of study: The reduction in some fruit composition variables showed that, while mechanical pruning does not significantly affect grape composition, the choice of type and amount of organic amendment will depend on the destination of the grapesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inhalation of bacterial cellulose nanofibrils triggers an inflammatory response and changes lung tissue morphology of mice

In view of the growing industrial use of Bacterial cellulose (BC), and taking into account that it might become airborne and be inhaled after industrial processing, assessing its potential pulmonary toxic effects assumes high relevance. In this work, the murine model was used to assess the effects of exposure to respirable BC nanofibrils (nBC), obtained by disintegration of BC produced by Komagataeibacter hansenii. Murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) were treated with different doses of nBC (0.02 and 0.2 mg/mL, respectively 1 and 10 g of fibrils) in absence or presence of 0.2% Carboxymethyl Cellulose (nBCMC). Furthermore, mice were instilled intratracheally with nBC or nBCMC at different concentrations and at different time-points and analyzed up to 6 months after treatments. Microcrystaline Avicel-plus® CM 2159, a plant-derived cellulose, was used for comparison. Markers of cellular damage (lactate dehydrogenase release and total protein) and oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxidase, reduced glutathione, lipid peroxidation and glutathione peroxidase activity) as well presence of inflammatory cells were evaluated in brochoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids. Histological analysis of lungs, heart and liver tissues was also performed. BAL analysis showed that exposure to nBCMC or CMC did not induce major alterations in the assessed markers of cell damage, oxidative stress or inflammatory cell numbers in BAL fluid over time, even following cumulative treatments. Avicel-plus® CM 2159 significantly increased LDH release, detected 3 months after 4 weekly administrations. However, histological results revealed a chronic inflammatory response and tissue alterations, being hypertrophy of pulmonary arteries (observed 3 months after nBCMC treatment) of particular concern. These histological alterations remained after 6 months in animals treated with nBC, possibly due to foreign body reaction and the organisms inability to remove the fibers. Overall, despite being a safe and biocompatible biomaterial, BC-derived nanofibrils inhalation may lead to lung pathology and pose significant health risks.The authors acknowledge Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the project under the bilateral program FCT/CAPES: Bacterial Cellulose: a platform for the development of bionanoproducts for funding this research. This work was also financially supported by: European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI - Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958, National Funds by FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy - LEPABE funded by FEDER, funds through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) - and by national funds through FCT. Rui Gil da Costa is supported by grant nº SFRH/BPD/85462/2012 from FCT, financed by the Portuguese Government and the Social European Fund. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) also under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Taxonomic bias in amphibian research : Are researchers responding to conservation need?

Amphibians are very diverse, widely distributed, and the most endangered class of vertebrates. As with other taxa, effective conservation of amphibians needs to be supported by detailed scientific knowledge. However, species rich and broadly distributed taxa are typically characterized by high variability in research effort. Our objective was therefore to understand which factors (ecological and cultural) have led some amphibian species to be more researched than others. We used two proxies of research effort: i) the total number of articles on Web of Science (WoS) that mention the scientific name (or synonyms) of each species, and; ii) the number of conservation science articles on WoS that mention the scientific name (or synonyms) of each species. These measures were used as dependent variables in zero hurdle regression models with the aim of identifying the most important factors driving species-level knowledge production. Well researched species (generally, and for conservation) tend to have a longer history of scientific research, come from countries with high scientific capacity, have large body size, and to be present in man-made habitats. Endangered species tend to be less researched, generally and for conservation, possibly because they are often more difficult to study: many endangered amphibians are restricted to small, fragmented and remote habitats in countries with low scientific capacity. We conclude with a discussion of how taxonomic biases in research effort on amphibians can be addressed given the limited funds available for conservation research.Peer reviewe

Spatio-Temporal Vegetation Pixel Classification by Using Convolutional Networks

Plant phenology studies rely on long-term monitoring of life cycles of plants. High-resolution unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and near-surface technologies have been used for plant monitoring, demanding the creation of methods capable of locating, and identifying plant species through time and space. However, this is a challenging task given the high volume of data, the constant data missing from temporal dataset, the heterogeneity of temporal profiles, the variety of plant visual patterns, and the unclear definition of individuals' boundaries in plant communities. In this letter, we propose a novel method, suitable for phenological monitoring, based on convolutional networks (ConvNets) to perform spatio-temporal vegetation pixel classification on high-resolution images. We conducted a systematic evaluation using high-resolution vegetation image datasets associated with the Brazilian Cerrado biome. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective, overcoming other spatio-temporal pixel-classification strategies