Role of ODL on sharing pilot plant resources among European Food Engineering Universities

The new means of communication in the last decade opened new learning opportunities that include the so called distance learning or opened distance learning. These are being more and more used by educational institutions at all levels. The EU Thematic Network ISEKI_Food (Integrating Safety and Environmental Knowledge Into Food Studies towards European Sustainable Development), through working group 5, in charge of Practical/Laboratorial teaching at Pilot Plant scale, developed some work in order to assess the current situation in the institutions that teach food engineering and food science in Europe. A questionnaire was developed and sent to several institutions to know if e-learning was being already used to teach topics such as unit operations and food processing and if virtual experiments were being developed thinking of those to whom the real presence in the pilot plant laboratory to attend practical classes is too difficult. The results showed that European universities are far from being familiar with ODL/DL. At least in what concerns food studies, it seems that the first steps are being taken just now with the objective of reaching other possible markets or to follow the new technologies, being only 27%, the ones who already feel the demand

Impacto económico do padrão alimentar de um grupo de séniores portugueses : conhecer para promover o bem-estar.

Comunicação da qual só está disponível o resumo.O presente trabalho pretendeu avaliar e caracterizar o estado nutricional, o padrão alimentar e custos com a alimentação de um grupo de seniores. Conjuntamente realizou-se uma intervenção de curta duração para promover hábitos alimentares saudáveis e motivar para a adoção dos mesmos. O estudo desenvolvido na Universidade Sénior Albicastrense de março a junho de 2015 envolveu um grupo de idosos com uma amostra total de 30 idosos: 27 mulheres e 3 homens, com idades entre os 62 e os 83 anos. A avaliação nutricional foi efetuada através do Índice de Massa Corporal (IMC), utilizando a relação entre o peso e a altura e do perímetro da cintura. Para a avaliação do padrão alimentar utilizou-se um registo das 24 horas anteriores e realizou-se uma análise económica através dos custos com a alimentação. Os resultados obtidos sobre o estado nutricional indicaram que 56,7% da amostra se encontrava na categoria de normoponderal e 43,3% apresentava sobrepeso. Para a associação entre o perímetro da cintura e o risco de complicações metabólicas e cardiovasculares, 53,3% dos idosos apresentavam um risco elevado de desenvolver doenças metabólicas e cardiovasculares e 40,0% apresentavam um risco muito elevado. O registo das 24 horas anteriores permitiu verificar que o grupo mais consumido, representado pela carne, atingia um consumo médio de 4,7 porções por dia. Todos os outros grupos tinham um consumo inferior ao recomendado pela Roda dos Alimentos. Os participantes gastavam em média, €3,18 por dia com a sua alimentação, sendo que os maiores gastos provinham da carne, pescado e ovos, seguidos pelos gastos com o café. Apesar de 20 idosos reportarem ter produção própria de alimentos como hortícolas, fruta ou ambos, o consumo destes alimentos encontrava-se abaixo do recomendado. O cálculo do custo de um plano alimentar equilibrado para esta faixa etária corresponde a €3,80 por pessoa por dia. Os gastos médios com a alimentação eram inferiores para quem tinha produção própria (€2,52/pessoa/dia), no entanto quando se comparou com os gastos médios de quem não tinha produção própria, esse valor foi de €4,50 por pessoa por dia. A motivação para a adoção de hábitos alimentares saudáveis foi realizada através de sessões de sensibilização para a prática de uma alimentação saudável e completadas com sessões de esclarecimento individuais. Este estudo mostrou que o padrão alimentar dos idosos não corresponde a uma alimentação equilibrada para esta faixa etária. O consumo adequado de fruta e hortícolas não depende dos idosos terem produção própria, havendo em muitos casos, um desperdício de recursos. Para os participantes que não têm produção própria, os custos alimentares foram superiores, quando comparados com os custos de uma dieta saudável. Além disso, o grupo estudado não mostrou qualquer interesse na análise dos seus custos alimentares, o que dá indicações de que não associam a prática de uma alimentação saudável com menores gastos alimentares. Como conclusão, é de extrema importância continuarem a ser desenvolvidas ações de sensibilização para promover uma alimentação e estilos de vida saudáveis, relacionando saúde, menores gastos alimentares, o bem-estar e a qualidade de vida.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

BP Reduction, Kidney Function Decline, and Cardiovascular Events in Patients without CKD.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), intensive systolic BP treatment (target <120 mm Hg) was associated with fewer cardiovascular events and higher incidence of kidney function decline compared with standard treatment (target <140 mm Hg). We evaluated the association between mean arterial pressure reduction, kidney function decline, and cardiovascular events in patients without CKD. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We categorized patients in the intensive treatment group of the SPRINT according to mean arterial pressure reduction throughout follow-up: <20, 20 to <40, and ≥40 mm Hg. We defined the primary outcome as kidney function decline (≥30% reduction in eGFR to <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 on two consecutive determinations at 3-month intervals), and we defined the secondary outcome as cardiovascular events. In a propensity score analysis, patients in each mean arterial pressure reduction category from the intensive treatment group were matched with patients from the standard treatment group to calculate the number needed to treat regarding cardiovascular events and the number needed to harm regarding kidney function decline. RESULTS: In the intensive treatment group, 1138 (34%) patients attained mean arterial pressure reduction <20 mm Hg, 1857 (56%) attained 20 to <40 mm Hg, and 309 (9%) attained ≥40 mm Hg. Adjusted hazard ratios for kidney function decline were 2.10 (95% confidence interval, 1.22 to 3.59) for mean arterial pressure reduction between 20 and 40 mm Hg and 6.22 (95% confidence interval, 2.75 to 14.08) for mean arterial pressure reduction ≥40 mm Hg. In propensity score analysis, mean arterial pressure reduction <20 mm Hg presented a number needed to treat of 44 and a number needed to harm of 65, reduction between 20 and <40 mm Hg presented a number needed to treat of 42 and a number needed to harm of 35, and reduction ≥40 mm Hg presented a number needed to treat of 95 and a number needed to harm of 16. CONCLUSIONS: In the intensive treatment group of SPRINT, larger declines in mean arterial pressure were associated with higher incidence of kidney function decline. Intensive treatment seemed to be less favorable when a larger reduction in mean arterial pressure was needed to attain the BP target.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Measurement of Secondary Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies with Two Years of South Pole Telescope Observations

We present the first three-frequency South Pole Telescope (SPT) cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra. The band powers presented here cover angular scales 2000 < ℓ < 9400 in frequency bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. At these frequencies and angular scales, a combination of the primary CMB anisotropy, thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effects, radio galaxies, and cosmic infrared background (CIB) contributes to the signal. We combine Planck/HFI and SPT data at 220 GHz to constrain the amplitude and shape of the CIB power spectrum and find strong evidence for nonlinear clustering. We explore the SZ results using a variety of cosmological models for the CMB and CIB anisotropies and find them to be robust with one exception: allowing for spatial correlations between the thermal SZ effect and CIB significantly degrades the SZ constraints. Neglecting this potential correlation, we find the thermal SZ power at 150 GHz and ℓ = 3000 to be 3.65 ± 0.69 μK^2, and set an upper limit on the kinetic SZ power to be less than 2.8 μK^2 at 95% confidence. When a correlation between the thermal SZ and CIB is allowed, we constrain a linear combination of thermal and kinetic SZ power: D^(tSZ)_(3000) + 0.5D^(kSZ)_(3000) = 4.60 ± 0.63 μK^2, consistent with earlier measurements. We use the measured thermal SZ power and an analytic, thermal SZ model calibrated with simulations to determine σ_8 = 0.807 ± 0.016. Modeling uncertainties involving the astrophysics of the intracluster medium rather than the statistical uncertainty in the measured band powers are the dominant source of uncertainty on σ_8. We also place an upper limit on the kinetic SZ power produced by patchy reionization; a companion paper uses these limits to constrain the reionization history of the universe

Nutritional status, breakfast habits and fruit and vegetables consumption among children in a preschool at Fundão city

Comunicação oral apresentada no Ist World Congress of Children and Youth Health Behaviors / 4th National Congress on Health Education que decorreu em Viseu‑Portugal, de 23 a25 May 2013, da qual só está disponível um resumo.This paper presents the nutritional status of 3‑5 years old children in a public preschool from Fundão and describes the breakfast (BF), fruit and vegetables (F&V) habits consumption

Self-Similarity of Friction Laws

The change of the friction law from a mesoscopic level to a macroscopic level is studied in the spring-block models introduced by Burridge-Knopoff. We find that the Coulomb law is always scale invariant. Other proposed scaling laws are only invariant under certain conditions.}Comment: Plain TEX. Figures not include

Stability of cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) nectar during storage

A shelf-life study on cupua¸cu nectar (Theobroma grandiflorum) was carried out in two parts. Part I studied the microbial stability of the regular nectar (batch R) and the same nectar fortified with synthetic ascorbic acid (AA) (batch F), pasteurized at 90 ◦C for 3 min and hot filled in glass bottles. Total Plate Count (TPC), yeast and molds as well as pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity and hidroxymethylfurfural (HMF) were followed along 43 storage days at 4, 25 and 35 ◦C. At the end of the storage period neither TPC nor molds or yeast had recovered the initial loads observed before pasteurization, for both R and F batches. Right after pasteurization, acidity increased slightly, pH decreased from 3.52 to 3.3, and TSS increased from 18.7 to 19.0 ◦Brix, with all stabilizing afterwards. Part II evaluated ascorbic (AA) and dehydroascorbic (DHAA) acids’ stabilization in the two batches, R and F, and dissolved oxygen (DO) was monitored. Both batches were stored at the same temperatures as in Part I for two months. For batch R, the AA degradation results followed a reversible first order reaction (EaAA(R) =-34±6 kJ/mol, k AA(R)25◦C =0.006±0.003 days−1 , C0AA(R)=0.92±0.01 and C ∞AA(R)= 0.43±0.19). For the (F) nectar, the experimental data fitted a first order model well (EaAA(F )=30±17 kJ/mol, k AA(F )25◦C =0.0016±0.0004 days−1 ). DO was modeled as a fractional conversion model (EaDO= 67±17 kJ/mol, kDO25◦C = 1.94±0.94 days−1 , C0DO=0.97±0.03 and C ∞DO= 0.55±0.01). For both nectars, storage at environmental temperatures was preferred (AA retention above 80%) to refrigeration, due to the slower rate of diffusion of DO at lower temperatures