Olive ripening and harvest time in portuguese cultivars of “Beira Interior“ region

Portuguese growers of “Beira Interior”, an inland region in the centre of Portugal, start harvesting olives only in late November or December and finish in January and sometimes February. Studies on olive ripening carried out in different groves showed that, in general, oil content (% d.w.) stabilises during November and ripening index rises regularly throughout the sampling period. However, there were some differences among cultivars. The results suggest that harvest can begin from mid- -October to the 1st fortnight of November, according to location, for ‘Galega’, in the 1st fortnight of December for ‘Bical’, in the 1st fortnight of November for ‘Carrasquinha‘ and in the 2nd fortnight of November for ‘Cornicabra’, therefore harvest time should begin long before the traditional time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Oil content of three olive cultivars (Olea europaea L.) in Beira Baixa (Portugal)

The three main cultivars of Olea europaea L. at Beira Baixa are Galega vulgar, Bical and Cordovil de Castelo Branco. Humidity and oil content, by NMR, for the monovariety olive pastes were studied for two years, 1998/99 and 1999/2000.The results showed that Galega vulgar had significantly lower oil content when compared with Bical and Cordovil de Castelo Branco; but Bical and Cordovil de Castelo Branco did not differ significantly from each other concerning this parameter.The humidity values observed for the three cultivars are significantly different: Cordovil presents similar values during the three harvests while Galega vulgar and Bical showed their maximum values at the second harvest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Composição esterólica e em ácidos gordos de azeites monovarietais provenientes das regiões de Elvas, Castelo Branco e Santarém

Comunicação apresentada no III Simpósio Nacional de Olivicultura que decorreu em Castelo Branco, na Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, de 29 a 31 de Outubro de 2003.Neste trabalho apresenta-se um estudo efectuado em cinco azeites monovarietais (Olea europaea ‘Cordovil De Castelo Branco’, ‘Cobrançosa’, ‘Conserva De Elvas’, ‘Galega Vulgar’ e ‘Picual’). O estudo reporta-se a três campanhas consecutivas (2000/03) e o material experimental provém de olivais situados em três regiões portuguesas, nomeadamente Elvas, Castelo Branco e Santarém. Os azeites foram extraídos em equipamento Oliomio e as análises foram: ácidos gordos, esteróis e álcoois triterpénicos (eritrodiol + uvaol). Dos resultados obtidos, o azeite ‘Cordovil De Castelo Branco’ destaca-se pelos seus teores elevados em eritrodiol + uvaol nas três regiões em estudo. Por seu turno, o teor de ácido oleico do azeite ‘Galega Vulgar’ permite distinguir cada uma das regiões, enquanto no azeite ‘Cobrançosa’ o teor em esteróis totais distingue as três regiões

Evolução do teor de esteróis e alcoóis triterpénicos no envelhecimento de azeites monovarietais e loteados de seis cultivares no Norte Alentejano

Comunicação apresentada no III Simpósio Nacional de Olivicultura que decorreu em Castelo Branco, na Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, de 29 a 31 de Outubro de 2003.A legislação europeia limita os teores de alguns esteróis no azeite virgem: valores máximos de colesterol, de brassicasterol, de campesterol, de estigmasterol e de ∆7-estigmastenol; e valores mínimos do β-sitosterol aparente e do total de esteróis. O presente trabalho mostra o efeito de um ano de envelhecimento – em frascos de vidro âmbar a 25 °C – nos teores destes esteróis em azeites monovarietais e loteados de seis cultivares no Norte Alentejano, da campanha de 2001/02. O envelhecimento foi geralmente acompanhado pelo aumento dos teores de β-sitosterol aparente, de ∆5-avenasterol e de esteróis totais e pela diminuição dos teores de campesterol e de estigmasterol

Azeites da ‘Galega Vulgar’ - efeito do loteamento e do armazenamento

Comunicação apresentada no III Simpósio Nacional de Olivicultura que decorreu em Castelo Branco, na Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, de 29 a 31 de Outubro de 2003.O presente trabalho aborda: o efeito do loteamento de azeites ‘Galega’ com azeites ‘Azeiteira’, ‘Arbequina’, ‘Carrasquenha’, ‘Cobrançosa’ e ‘Picual’; e o efeito do tempo de armazenamento em parâmetros analíticos determinantes na sua qualidade. São investigados: a acidez, o índice de peróxido, as absorvâncias no UV, o sabor amargo (K225), a estabilidade oxidativa (RANCIMAT), a composição em ácidos gordos e o teor em polifenóis totais. Durante o armazenamento, verifica-se que a estabilidade oxidativa e o sabor amargo decresceram inicialmente de forma acentuada, tendendo a estabilizar posteriormente. Dada a impossibilidade legal de introduzir a ‘Picual’ na Denominação de Origem Protegida “Azeites do Norte Alentejano”, o lote ‘Galega’/’Cobrançosa’ revelou-se como o mais interessante para a DOP: trata-se do lote mais estável e mais frutado, sem ser, contudo, excessivamente amargo

Identification of Schistosoma mansoni microRNAs

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a class of single-stranded RNAs which play a crucial role in regulating development and controlling gene expression by targeting mRNAs and triggering either translation repression or messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation. miRNAs are widespread in eukaryotes and to date over 14,000 miRNAs have been identified by computational and experimental approaches. Several miRNAs are highly conserved across species. In Schistosoma, the full set of miRNAs and their expression patterns during development remain poorly understood. Here we report on the development and implementation of a homology-based detection strategy to search for miRNA genes in Schistosoma mansoni. In addition, we report results on the experimental detection of miRNAs by means of cDNA cloning and sequencing of size-fractionated RNA samples. Results: Homology search using the high-throughput pipeline was performed with all known miRNAs in miRBase. A total of 6,211 mature miRNAs were used as reference sequences and 110 unique S. mansoni sequences were returned by BLASTn analysis. The existing mature miRNAs that produced these hits are reported, as well as the locations of the homologous sequences in the S. mansoni genome. All BLAST hits aligned with at least 95% of the miRNA sequence, resulting in alignment lengths of 19-24 nt. Following several filtering steps, 15 potential miRNA candidates were identified using this approach. By sequencing small RNA cDNA libraries from adult worm pairs, we identified 211 novel miRNA candidates in the S. mansoni genome. Northern blot analysis was used to detect the expression of the 30 most frequent sequenced miRNAs and to compare the expression level of these miRNAs between the lung stage schistosomula and adult worm stages. Expression of 11 novel miRNAs was confirmed by northern blot analysis and some presented a stage-regulated expression pattern. Three miRNAs previously identified from S. japonicum were also present in S. mansoni. Conclusion: Evidence for the presence of miRNAs in S. mansoni is presented. The number of miRNAs detected by homology-based computational methods in S. mansoni is limited due to the lack of close relatives in the miRNA repository. In spite of this, the computational approach described here can likely be applied to the identification of pre-miRNA hairpins in other organisms. Construction and analysis of a small RNA library led to the experimental identification of 14 novel miRNAs from S. mansoni through a combination of molecular cloning, DNA sequencing and expression studies. Our results significantly expand the set of known miRNAs in multicellular parasites and provide a basis for understanding the structural and functional evolution of miRNAs in these metazoan parasites

Reliability assessment of shallow foundations on undrained soils considering soil spatial variability

Structural design using partial safety factors aims at achieving an homogeneous safety level in geotechnical design without the use of more complex reliability analysis. In this work, the different Design Approaches proposed by Eurocode 7 for shallow foundations resting on the surface of undrained soils are compared in terms of the resulting reliability indices. The influence of both centered and eccentric loads, as well as homogeneous and heterogeneous isotropic and anisotropic distributions for the variability of soil properties were investigated in the reliability analysis. A finite element implementation of the upper bound theorem of limit analysis is combined with Latin Hypercube sampling to compute the probabilistic response of shallow foundations. Considering realistic probabilistic distributions for both permanent and live loads, First Order Reliability Method is used to calculate the reliability index of such structures designed according to the different Design Approaches present in Eurocode 7. The results obtained show that the Eurocode 7 leads to satisfactory reliability indices, but that significant differences between Design Approaches exist

Taking things public: a contribution to address human dimensions of environmental change

This paper addresses the question of environmental change in Amazônia, by looking at the experiences of the large-scale biosphere–atmosphere (LBA) experiment in the Amazon, and three other enterprises—the extractive reserves, the Pilot Programme to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest (PPG7) and ecological-economic zoning—that address questions of sustainable development in the region. The LBA experience shows how the integration with the social sciences can be critical for science to explore its own outcomes for society, while the other programmes expose environmental change as a problem with too many intersections within society, so the outcomes of any initiative depends on placing it before a complex, tense and wide arena

Nutritional Evaluation Of Children With Chronic Cholestatic Disease

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)To evaluate the nutritional status of children with persistent cholestasis and to compare the anthropometric indices between children with and without liver cirrhosis and children with and without jaundice. Methods Children with persistent cholestasis, i.e. increased direct bilirrubin or changes in the canalicular enzyme gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), were included. The anthropometric measures were weight (W), height or length (H), arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold thickness (TST), arm muscle circumference (AMC), and body mass index (BMI). Results Ninety-one children with cholestasis, with current median age of 12 months, were evaluated. W/age (A) and H/A indices below -2 Z-scores were observed in 33% and 30.8% of patients, respectively. Concerning the W/H index and BMI, only 12% and 16% of patients, respectively, were below -2 Z-scores. Regarding AC, 43.8% of 89 evaluated patients had some depletion. Observing the TST, 64% of patients had depletion, and 71.1% of the 45 evaluated patients had some degree of depletion regarding the ACM index. Conclusion Evaluation using weight in patients with chronic liver diseases may overestimate the nutritional status due to visceromegaly, subclinical edema, or ascites. Indices that correlate weight and height, such as W/H and BMI, may also not show depletion because of the chronic condition in which there are depletion of both weight and height. TST, AC, and ACM are parameters that better estimate nutritional status and should be part of the management of patients with liver diseases and cholestasis. © 2015 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria.922197205CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq