The inclusion of the microalga Scenedesmus sp. in diets for rainbow trout, Onchorhynchus mykiss, juveniles

A nutritional study was conducted to evaluate the inclusion of the green microalga Scenedesmus sp. at 5% (SCE-5) as an alternative fishmeal ingredient. This microalga was tested with four replicates during 45 days using isolipidic (18%), isoproteic (48%), and isoenergetic (1.9 MJ kg−1) diets. Fish fed Scenedesmus sp. showed similar growth and feed efficiency parameters as the control group. Regarding the digestive function, the SCE-5 diet enhanced the activity of alkaline pancreatic proteases, whereas it did not affect that of intestinal enzymes involved in nutrient absorption. No histological alterations were found in fish fed the SCE-5 diet, although a higher density of goblet cells in the anterior intestine and changes in gut microbiome diversity were found in this group, which collectively suggests positive effects of this green microalga on the intestine. Dietary Scenedesmus sp. improved the fillet’s nutritional quality in terms of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels, although it also increased its yellowish color. The overall results of this study showed that Scenedesmus sp. is a safe ingredient for compound feeds in rainbow trout when considering fish growth performance, animal condition, and health parameters, although it substantially affected the color of the fillet that may potentially affect consumers’ preferences.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O projeto de construção da barragem de Mphanda Nkuwa em Moçambique: o papel da comunicação social e a perceção de risco sísmico pelas populações

1º Simpósio Luso-Brasileiro sobre Modelos e Práticas de Sustentabilidade, realizado na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, 1de 1-12 de julho de 2016.Neste trabalho analisa-se, numa perspetiva de sustentabilidade, a polémica gerada com o projeto de construção da barragem de Mphanda Nkuwa no rio Zambeze, em Moçambique. Considerado como um dos rios mais importantes do continente africano, possui já várias barragens no seu curso, entre elas a barragem de Cahora Bassa. A região onde a nova barragem será construída enquadra-se no sistema de falhas associado ao rifte da África Oriental, o qual atravessa o lago Niassa e se prolonga pelo vale do rio Shire, que por sua vez se liga ao rio Zambeze. A ocorrência, em 2006, de um sismo de magnitude 7 com epicentro em Chipungabera (Manica), chamou a atenção para o facto de existirem em Moçambique regiões onde o risco sísmico é mais elevado, entre elas a zona onde está prevista a construção da barragem. No debate que este projeto tem vindo a gerar os argumentos relativos à sismologia têm sido particularmente valorizados, não só com referência à atividade sísmica natural como também a uma possível atividade sísmica induzida pelo enchimento do reservatório. Assim, no presente estudo pretende-se conhecer a perceção de risco sísmico de uma amostra de indivíduos que habitam nesta região e, ao mesmo tempo, analisar o modo como este debate tem vindo a público nos órgãos de comunicação social, nomeadamente em jornais públicos e privados, assim como newsletters de organizações não governamentais ou outros documentos com circulação na Internet. Para o efeito foi definido um grupo de categorias prévias que serviram de base à construção do guião de uma entrevista aplicada a uma amostra de 7 indivíduos. Os resultados evidenciaram a necessidade de ter em consideração o enquadramento cultural na análise a que procedemos. A existência de alguns tremores de terra de maior magnitude, durante o período de análise (2000 a 2015), assim como a discussão relativa ao próprio cálculo do risco sísmico, expresso nos estudos de impacto ambiental, é um dos aspetos mais centrais e condicionares do debate.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementation of GIS technologies for planning the valorisation of agricultural waste: the TANGO-Circular Project

The volume of waste produced by agricultural activities is constantly rising, due to the continuous increase of crop and livestock production, aimed to cover the nutritional needs of the accreting population of the Planet. According to recent estimations, the total amount of waste produced in the whole EU by the agricultural sector during the period 2010-2016, has been around 18.4 billion tons, which represents an average of 2.6 billion tons/year. This number is slightly exceeding the amount of waste from all other sectors combined. This enormous mass of waste has a significant environmental impact, which needs suitable solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture, while increasing the economic income for farmers. A promising way to reduce agricultural waste, passes through the valorization of agricultural co-products, by-products and residues, as well as other non-organic materials - such as plastics, widely used in crop cultivation and animal production - after the end of their working life. In order to involve farmers to play an active role on this issue, contributing to transform what they currently consider as a “waste” into a new “resource”, under the perspective of a circular economy and for a more sustainable agriculture, the Project TANGO-Circular has been financed by the EU Erasmus+ Programme. Aim of this Project is to train farmers and other agricultural stakeholders to be involved in finding viable solutions to exploit unusable remains of crops or animal farms, so as to enhance their financial input, while simultaneously contribute to reducing the environmental impact of their agro-livestock activities. With the aim to plan the valorization of agricultural waste, under the TANGO-Circular Project, a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been implemented through an open-access software (Q-GIS). This GIS has been structured into a first part dedicated to the quantification of agricultural waste flows – both organic, coming from agroindustrial activities, and not-organic, such as plastics - and a second part, focused on the spatial distribution of these flows in the study area of the project partners. Through GIS, the areas with high density of agricultural waste have been pointed out, and the suitable location of potential collection centres has been proposed. The maps that have been produced, as well as the GIS database, are always updatable tools, useful also for monitoring and optimizing the sorting and collection of agricultural waste from the farms, their suitable treatments and transport to the collection centers or recycling stations. The implemented GIS methodology has revealed very useful to support farmers and their associations, as well as all public bodies interested to govern the agricultural waste flows, to individuate possible solutions designed for the valorization of these flows, in the perspective of a circular economy. The sustainability and economic, territorial, environmental and social convenience of each form of valorization designed have been investigated, and criticalities associated with each phase of the process and consequent implementation of appropriate solutions to each problem have been addressed. Finally, further possible solutions, aimed at an increasingly better valorization of these flows, have been proposed as well

Identificação de Problemas e Propostas para Melhoria

authorsversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Fungal diversity notes 929–1035: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungi

This article is the ninth in the series of Fungal Diversity Notes, where 107 taxa distributed in three phyla, nine classes, 31 orders and 57 families are described and illustrated. Taxa described in the present study include 12 new genera, 74 new species, three new combinations, two reference specimens, a re-circumscription of the epitype, and 15 records of sexualasexual morph connections, new hosts and new geographical distributions. Twelve new genera comprise Brunneofusispora, Brunneomurispora, Liua, Lonicericola, Neoeutypella, Paratrimmatostroma, Parazalerion, Proliferophorum, Pseudoastrosphaeriellopsis, Septomelanconiella, Velebitea and Vicosamyces. Seventy-four new species are Agaricus memnonius, A. langensis, Aleurodiscus patagonicus, Amanita flavoalba, A. subtropicana, Amphisphaeria mangrovei, Baorangia major, Bartalinia kunmingensis, Brunneofusispora sinensis, Brunneomurispora lonicerae, Capronia camelliaeyunnanensis, Clavulina thindii, Coniochaeta simbalensis, Conlarium thailandense, Coprinus trigonosporus, Liua muriformis, Cyphellophora filicis, Cytospora ulmicola, Dacrymyces invisibilis, Dictyocheirospora metroxylonis, Distoseptispora thysanolaenae, Emericellopsis koreana, Galiicola baoshanensis, Hygrocybe lucida, Hypoxylon teeravasati, Hyweljonesia indica, Keissleriella caraganae, Lactarius olivaceopallidus, Lactifluus midnapurensis, Lembosia brigadeirensis, Leptosphaeria urticae, Lonicericola hyaloseptispora, Lophiotrema mucilaginosis, Marasmiellus bicoloripes, Marasmius indojasminodorus, Micropeltis phetchaburiensis, Mucor orantomantidis, Murilentithecium lonicerae, Neobambusicola brunnea, Neoeutypella baoshanensis, Neoroussoella heveae, Neosetophoma lonicerae, Ophiobolus malleolus, Parabambusicola thysanolaenae, Paratrimmatostroma kunmingensis, Parazalerion indica, Penicillium dokdoense, Peroneutypa mangrovei, Phaeosphaeria cycadis, Phanerochaete australosanguinea, Plectosphaerella kunmingensis, Plenodomus artemisiae, P. lijiangensis, Proliferophorum thailandicum, Pseudoastrosphaeriellopsis kaveriana, Pseudohelicomyces menglunicus, Pseudoplagiostoma mangiferae, Robillarda mangiferae, Roussoella elaeicola, Russula choptae, R. uttarakhandia, Septomelanconiella thailandica, Spencermartinsia acericola, Sphaerellopsis isthmospora, Thozetella lithocarpi, Trechispora echinospora, Tremellochaete atlantica, Trichoderma koreanum, T. pinicola, T. rugulosum, Velebitea chrysotexta, Vicosamyces venturisporus, Wojnowiciella kunmingensis and Zopfiella indica. Three new combinations are Baorangia rufomaculata, Lanmaoa pallidorosea and Wojnowiciella rosicola. The reference specimens of Canalisporium kenyense and Tamsiniella labiosa are designated. The epitype of Sarcopeziza sicula is re-circumscribed based on cyto- and histochemical analyses. The sexual-asexual morph connection of Plenodomus sinensis is reported from ferns and Cirsium for the first time. In addition, the new host records and country records are Amanita altipes, A. melleialba, Amarenomyces dactylidis, Chaetosphaeria panamensis, Coniella vitis, Coprinopsis kubickae, Dothiorella sarmentorum, Leptobacillium leptobactrum var. calidus, Muyocopron lithocarpi, Neoroussoella solani, Periconia cortaderiae, Phragmocamarosporium hederae, Sphaerellopsis paraphysata and Sphaeropsis eucalypticola

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fungal Planet description sheets : 320–370

Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from Malaysia: Castanediella eucalypti from Eucalyptus pellita, Codinaea acacia from Acacia mangium, Emarcea eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana, Myrtapenidiella eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus pellita, Pilidiella eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana and Strelitziana malaysiana from Acacia mangium. Furthermore, Stachybotrys sansevieriicola is described from Sansevieria ehrenbergii (Tanzania), Phacidium grevilleae from Grevillea robusta (Uganda), Graphium jumulu from Adansonia gregorii and Ophiostoma eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus marginata (Australia), Pleurophoma ossicola from bone and Plectosphaerella populi from Populus nigra (Germany), Colletotrichum neosansevieriae from Sansevieria trifasciata, Elsinoë othonnae from Othonna quinquedentata and Zeloasperisporium cliviae (Zeloasperisporiaceae fam. nov.) from Clivia sp. (South Africa), Neodevriesia pakbiae, Phaeophleospora hymenocallidis and Phaeophleospora hymenocallidicola on leaves of a fern (Thailand), Melanconium elaeidicola from Elaeis guineensis (Indonesia), Hormonema viticola from Vitis vinifera (Canary Islands), Chlorophyllum pseudoglobossum from a grassland (India), Triadelphia disseminata from an immunocompromised patient (Saudi Arabia), Colletotrichum abscissum from Citrus (Brazil), Polyschema sclerotigenum and Phialemonium limoniforme from human patients (USA), Cadophora vitícola from Vitis vinifera (Spain), Entoloma flavovelutinum and Bolbitius aurantiorugosus from soil (Vietnam), Rhizopogon granuloflavus from soil (Cape Verde Islands), Tulasnella eremophila from Euphorbia officinarum subsp. echinus (Morocco), Verrucostoma martinicensis from Danaea elliptica (French West Indies), Metschnikowia colchici from Colchicum autumnale (Bulgaria), Thelebolus microcarpus from soil (Argentina) and Ceratocystis adelpha from Theobroma cacao (Ecuador). Myrmecridium iridis (Myrmecridiales ord. nov., Myrmecridiaceae fam. nov.) is also described from Iris sp. (The Netherlands). Novel genera include (Ascomycetes): Budhanggurabania from Cynodon dactylon (Australia), Soloacrosporiella, Xenocamarosporium, Neostrelitziana and Castanediella from Acacia mangium and Sabahriopsis from Eucalyptus brassiana (Malaysia), Readerielliopsis from basidiomata of Fuscoporia wahlbergii (French Guyana), Neoplatysporoides from Aloe ferox (Tanzania), Wojnowiciella, Chrysofolia and Neoeriomycopsis from Eucalyptus (Colombia), Neophaeomoniella from Eucalyptus globulus (USA), Pseudophaeomoniella from Olea europaea (Italy), Paraphaeomoniella from Encephalartos altensteinii, Aequabiliella, Celerioriella and Minutiella from Prunus (South Africa). Tephrocybella (Basidiomycetes) represents a novel genus from wood (Italy). Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.Alina V. Alexandrova was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project N 14-50-00029). Ekaterina F. Malysheva, Olga V. Morozova, Alexander E. Kovalenko and Eugene S. Popov acknowledge financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 13-04-00838a and 15-04-04645a). Margarita Dueñas, María P. Martín and M. Teresa Telleria acknowledge financial support from the Plan Nacional I+D+I projects No. CGL2009-07231 and CGL2012-3559. Cony Decock gratefully acknowledges the financial support received from the FNRS / FRFC (convention FRFC 2.4544.10), the CNRS-French Guiana and the Nouragues staff, which enabled fieldwork in French Guiana, and the Belgian State – Belgian Federal Science Policy through the BCCMTM research programme.http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/pimjam201