1,018 research outputs found

    Characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from production lines of fresh and cold-smoked fish

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    Aims: The aims of this study were to characterize strains of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from cold-smoking fish plants to establish possible routes of contamination through the processing chain. Methods and Results: Listeria monocytogenes from fresh fish suppliers, raw materials, factory sites and finished products isolated in Portugal (162 isolates) and England (28 isolates) were characterized by serotyping, phage typing, tetracycline, cadmium and arsenic resistance, and plasmid profiling. On the basis of serotyping and phage typing, the isolates were categorized into eight groups. Although cultures within some of the groups could be further differentiated on the basis of plasmid profiling and cadmium and arsenite typing, consideration of all typing data predominantly clustered together isolates from a single location. L. monocytogenes strains: from fresh salmon suppliers were not found in the processing lines; from fresh salmon from different locations differed; and from the water where salmon trout were farmed differed from those isolated from the fish samples. Significance and Impact of the Study: No clear source or route of contamination in the cold-smoked processing chain could be established; however, these results highlight the complexity in tracking this bacterium through food chains

    Influência do Índice de Massa Corporal e da Dieta na Fisiopatologia da Acne Vulgaris

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    Acne vulgar é uma patologia multifatorial que afeta principalmente adolescentes e jovens adultos e que se pode manifestar como lesões inflamatórias ou não inflamatórias. Esta doença acarreta morbilidade significativa, tanto física como psicológica. Está cientificamente comprovada a importância de diversos fatores, tanto genéticos como ambientais, na sua patogénese, tendo sido descritas nomeadamente associações com a dieta ocidental, índice de massa corporal excessivo e a resistência à insulina. Neste artigo é efetuada revisão da atual literatura relativa à acne vulgar, com enfoque na fisiopatologia e influência destes fatores na sua desregulação. O melhor conhecimento da fisiopatologia da acne e a avaliação crítica do papel da dieta, bem como da obesidade e da desregulação do sistema endócrino, podem contribuir para uma abordagem mais científica dos fatores exógenos que contribuem no início e agravamento desta interessante e frequente patologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Representing Terrain With Mathematical Operators

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    This work describes a mathematical representation of terrain data consisting of a novel operation, the “drill”. It facilitates the representation of legal terrains, capturing the richness of the physics of the terrain’s generation by digging channels in the surface. Given our current reliance on digital map data, hand-held devices, and GPS navigation systems, the accuracy and compactness of terrain data representations are becoming increasingly important. Representing a terrain as a series of operations that can procedurally regenerate the terrains allows for compact representation that retains more information than height fields, TINs, and other popular representations. Our model relies on the hydrography information extracted from the terrain, and so drainage information is retained during encoding. To determine the shape of the drill along each channel in the channel network, a cross section of the channel is extracted, and a quadratic polynomial is fit to it. We extract the drill representation from a mountainous dataset, using a series of parameters (including size and area of influence of the drill, as well as the density of the hydrography data), and present the accuracy calculated using a series of metrics. We demonstrate that the drill operator provides a viable and accurate terrain representation that captures both the terrain shape and the richness of its generation

    Responsible innovation and political accountability: genetically modified mosquitoes in Brazil

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    This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.In this paper, we analyse the introduction of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Brazil and use this case to probe the notion of Responsible Innovation and its applicability to the development of new public health biotechnologies in the global South. OX513A, a strain of GM Aedes aegypti mosquitoes developed by the British firm Oxitec, has been used experimentally in Brazil since 2009, when it was imported into the country as a promising new tool in the fight against dengue. We discuss the regulatory history of OX513A in Brazil, as well as the forms of ‘community engagement’ that have accompanied the release of transgenic mosquitoes. We argue that the conduct of a scientific research project is only part of a broader effort to localise insect biotechnology in Brazil, an effort that has enjoyed very visible support from political authorities across the country. We conclude by arguing that if the framework of Responsible Innovation is to have purchase on this sort of transnational and multifaceted innovation trajectory, it has to include at its centre a strong notion of political accountability.Research by Javier Lezaun was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme [grant number 263447: BioProperty]. Research by Sarah Hartley was supported by the Leverhulme Trust ‘Making Science Public’ programme [grant number RP2011-SP-013]

    A model based on Heisenberg’s theory for the eddy diffusivity in decaying turbulence applied to the residual layer

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    The problemof the theoretical derivation of a parameterization for the eddy diffusivity in decaying turbulence is addressed. This derivation makes use of the dynamical equation for the energy spectrum density and the classical statistical diffusion theory. The starting point is Heisenberg’s elementary decaying turbulence theory. The main assumption is related to the identification of a frequency, lying in the inertial subrange, characterizing the inertial energy transfer among eddies of different size. The resulting eddy diffusivity parameterization is then applied to the decay of convective turbulence in the residual layer. Besides the intrinsic scientific interest, this topic has relevance for mesoscale transport and diffusion simulations. The resulting expression for the eddy diffusivity cannot be solved analytically. For this reason an algebraic approximated formulation, giving nearly the same results as the exact expression, is also proposed

    Production of annual ryegrass with different doses of nitrogen fertilization in topdressing.

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    Made available in DSpace on 2019-12-30T18:10:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SeminaCiAgMittelmannProduction.pdf: 363245 bytes, checksum: 39152185b5b3d0a8133d04e3c3e2af64 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019bitstream/item/207926/1/SeminaCiAg-Mittelmann-Production.pd

    Internova e-learning platform in an entrepreneurial context

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    Currently, there is still an opposition of teachers to the implementation of new technologies in an educational context. Although several studies point out the relevance of the use of information and communication technologies in pedagogical practices, providing educational contexts more focused on learning practices and fostering more active and autonomous professionals. In this context, this article emphasizes the purpose of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), as well as virtual learning environments, in the higher education system, to support the teaching-learning processes. In this article, a state of the art was carried out, in order to demonstrate some advantages of the teaching-learning process, the teacher's and student behaviour profiles and its role in relation to the use of new technologies. The objective of this study was to analyse the impact of using a digital platform on the teaching-learning process in an educational context. An e-learning digital platform, INTERNOVA, developed within the scope of the INTERNOVAMARKET-FOOD project (0437_internovamarket-food_1_E - Internovamarket accelerator program to increase the competitiveness of the food sector in Galicia-Northern), within the curricular unit of Food Safety and Certification of the Master in Food Engineering's curriculum. In order to assess the impact of the training course on the students' learning outcomes, a survey was applied to master's students and Food Engineering research fellows (participants). The same survey was applied before the training and after it in order to compare both results. At the end of each training course, another survey was addressed to all the participants asking about the organization, quality and the easiness of the platform. The results obtained show that the students had no difficulties in using the platform, having revealed that they would like to continue using it more frequently. The data obtained are an evidence of the participants' learning improvement and their involvement in the learning process through the INTERNOVA platform. With this work, it can be concluded that the ICT applied to a curricular program can be a very important support in the teaching-learning process. In this context, it is important to recommend well-designed curricular programs so that teachers can improve their teaching practices, enhancing students' digital skills, and thus contributing to the development of more active and autonomous professionals. © Proceedings of the 14th IADIS International Conference e-Learning 2020, EL 2020 - Part of the 14th Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, MCCSIS 2020. All rights reserved.This work was supported by INTERREG V-A Espanha-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020 (0437_INTERNOVAMARKET-FOOD_1_E) under the development of the project entitled “INTERNOVAMARKET-FOOD – Programa acelerador para aumentar a competitividade do sector alimentar da Galiza-Norte de Portugal”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Componentes não-integrantes da carcaça de bovinos de três grupos genéticos terminados em confinamento ou pastejo rotacionado com suplementação.

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    Foram avaliados os componentes não-integrantes da carcaça de bovinos castrados (novilhos) Brahman, Brangus e Hereford terminados em confinamento ou pastejo com suplementação (capim-mombaça). Os animais foram abatidos com espessura de gordura subcutânea superior a 4mm. A dieta do confinamento foi formulada com 60% de volumoso e 40% de concentrado, com 13% PB e 62% NDT. O capim mombaça apresentou 7% de PB e 56%NDT e o suplemento apresentou 24% PB e 76% NDT. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado, com arranjo fatorial 3x2 (três grupos genéticos e dois sistemas de terminação) e as médias foram comparadas pelo teste de Tukey ajustado. Foram observadas diferenças significativas para o peso de abate (PA) e peso do corpo vazio (PCV) favorável aos animais mantidos em pastejo com suplementação (444,03 vs 416,50kg para PA e 409,68 vs 375,24kg para PCV), entretanto não houve diferença significativa entre os sistemas de terminação para o rendimento de corpo vazio (RCV). O menor percentual de órgãos vitais foi apresentado pela raça Brahman independente do sistema de terminação utilizado (2,19%). A mesma tendência foi observada para o trato digestivo com um percentual de participação de 3,77% PCV do Brahman vs 4,87% e 4,48% PCV do Hereford e Brangus, respectivamente. Os novilhos Brahman apresentaram menores pesos de coração, pulmão e baço que os Hereford e Brangus. Os animais terminados em pastejo apresentaram maiores pesos de abomaso, pulmão e rins que os terminados em confinamento, 0,47 vs 0,35% PCV; 0,77 vs 0,71% PCV e 0,77 vs 0,71% PCV, respectivamente

    Towards a natural classification : the taxonomy and evolution of Xanthorrhoea

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    The ability to increase the filler content of paper without significantly sacrificing its mechanical strength is of high interest for papermakers. In this work, three samples of ground calcium carbonate (GCC), differing in size and in brightness, modified with silica via the sol-gel method, were used as fillers in papermaking. Handsheets were produced using a eucalyptus kraft pulp furnish and with a filler amount near 20%. It was found that not only were the strength properties of the handsheets produced with the modified GCCs always significantly better than those obtained with the unmodified GCCs (e.g., the tensile index exhibited improvements of 16 to 20%), but bulk also was increased (by 7 to 13%). Some decreases in the light scattering and opacity values were noted when using the modified GCC, but the brightness was roughly the same. The enhanced fiber-to-filler bonding may be attributed to the hydrogen bonding between the cellulosic fibers and the hydroxyl groups of the silica coating the calcium carbonate particles
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