Description of a strain from an atypical population of Aspergillus parasiticus that produces aflatoxins B only, and the impact of temperature on fungal growth and mycotoxin production

In this study, an atypical strain of Aspergillus parasiticus is described. This strain, reported from Portuguese almonds, was named Aspergillus parasiticus B strain. The strain is herein characterised at the morphological and physiological levels, and compared with the typical A. parasiticus strain and other similar species in section Flavi. Previously published morphological and molecular data support that the B strain is very closely related to the A. parasiticus type strain. However, while A. parasiticus typically produces aflatoxins B and G, B strain produces aflatoxins B only. Furthermore, this atypical strain showed to differ from the typical strain in the fact that higher growth (colony diameter) and strain. This strain can become a major food safety concern in colder regions where the typical A. parasiticus strains are not well adapted.NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000028PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/201

Incidence and diversity of the fungal genera Aspergillus and Penicillium in Portuguese almonds and chestnuts

Almonds (Prunus dulcis (Miller) D.A. Webb) and European (sweet) chestnuts (Castanea sativa Miller) are of great economic and social impact in Mediterranean countries, and in some areas they constitute the main income of rural populations. Despite all efforts to control fungal contamination, toxigenic fungi are ubiquitous in nature and occur regularly in worldwide food supplies, and these nuts are no exception. This work aimed to provide knowledge on the general mycobiota of Portuguese almonds and chestnuts, and its evolution from field to the end of storage. For this matter, 45 field chestnut samples and 36 almond samples (30 field samples and six storage samples) were collected in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal. All fungi belonging to genus Aspergillus were isolated and identified to the section level. Fungi representative of other genera were identified to the genus level. In the field, chestnuts were mainly contaminated with the genera Fusarium, Cladosporium, Alternaria and Penicillium, and the genus Aspergillus was only rarely found, whereas almonds were more contaminated with Aspergillus. In almonds, Aspergillus incidence increased significantly from field to the end of storage, but diversity decreased, with potentially toxigenic isolates belonging to sections Flavi and Nigri becoming more significant and widespread throughout storage. These fungi were determined to be moderately associated, which can be indicative of mycotoxin co-contamination problems if adequate storage conditions are not secured.P. Rodrigues was supported by grants SFRH/BD/28332/2006 from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT), and SFRH/PROTEC/49555/2009 from FCT and Polytechnic Institute of Braganca, Portugal

Indivíduo e pessoa na experiência da saúde e da doença The notions of the person and the individual in the experience of health and illness

Revisão de uma linha de pesquisa no campo das ciências sociais em saúde no Brasil que se centra na hipótese metodológica de uma diferença cultural fundamental entre os modelos relacionais de "pessoa" e o modelo do "indivíduo" ocidental moderno (pensado como livre, autônomo e igual). Essa diferença cultural é de particular importância na caracterização das formas diferenciais de experiência da saúde e da doença entre as classes populares das sociedades nacionais modernas e os segmentos portadores dos saberes biomédicos eruditos, dominantes e oficiais. Estes últimos têm um compromisso originário com algumas características da ideologia do individualismo, tais como o universalismo/racionalismo e o cientificismo/fisicalismo. As representações, práticas e instituições dela dependentes ocupam um espaço de oposição à forma integrada, relacional, holista, como são pensadas e experimentadas as "doenças" (ou, como prefiro, as "perturbações físico-morais") mesmo nos segmentos "individualizados", quanto mais nos segmentos regidos por representações hierárquicas, relacionais, de "pessoa". Apresentam-se os fundamentos antropológicos dessa perspectiva analítica e as diferentes dimensões da produção acadêmica a ela associada, em comparação com as de outras tendências do campo.<br>This is a review of a research line present in Brazilian social science studies about health and illness, characterized by a methodological emphasis in the cultural distinction between relational models of the "person" and the modern Western model of the "individual" (conceived as free, autonomous and equal). That distinction is particularly important for the perception of different forms of the experience of health and illness, mostly between working classes in modern national societies and the social segments responsible for biomedical knowledge, as a learned, dominant or official ideology. This knowledge is fundamentally related to the ideology of individualism, in its universalistic/rationalistic and physicalist/scientificist guises. The complex set of representations, practices and institutions derived from it are systematically opposed to the integrated, embedded and relational condition of the experience of illness (or of "physical-moral disturbances", as I prefer) mostly within those groups where hierarchical, relational, models of the "person" prevail. I evoke the anthropological grounds for this perspective of analysis and describe some of the aspects of the academic production related to it, in comparison with other tendencies in the field