Relationships between nutrient composition of flowers and fruit quality in orange trees grown in calcareous soil

To determine if flower nutrient composition can be used to predict fruit quality, a field experiment was conducted over three seasons (1996-1999) in a commercial orange orchard (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck cv. 'Valencia Late', budded on Troyer citrange rootstock) established on a calcareous soil in southern Portugal. Flowers were collected from 20 trees during full bloom in April and their nutrient composition determined, and fruits were harvested the following March and their quality evaluated. Patterns of covariation in flower nutrient concentrations and in fruit quality variables were evaluated by principal component analysis. Regression models relating fruit quality variables to flower nutrient composition were developed by stepwise selection procedures. The predictive power of the regression models was evaluated with an independent data set. Nutrient composition of flowers at full bloom could be used to predict the fruit quality variables fresh fruit mass and maturation index in the following year. Magnesium, Ca and Zn concentrations measured in flowers were related to fruit fresh mass estimations and N, P, Mg and Fe concentrations were related to fruit maturation index. We also established reference values for the nutrient composition of flowers based on measurements made in trees that produced large (> 76 mm in diameter) fruit.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of an inherited cerebellar malformation in the Eurasier breed dog

Missbildungen des Kleinhirns können durch die Einwirkung von Noxen in den verschiedenen Entwicklungsstadien des Kleinhirns oder genetisch bedingt sein. Genetisch bedingte Kleinhirndegenerationen wurden häufig beim Hund beschrieben. Diese zeigen sich mit progressive Ataxie und Kleinhirnatrophie. Es gibt in der Literatur jedoch nur wenige gesicherte Hinweise auf das Vorkommen einer erblichen Kleinhirnmissbildung beim Hund. Das Ziel dieser Studie war daher, den klinischen Phänotyp und die Befunde der bildgebenden Diagnostik einer potentiell vererbten Kleinhirnmissbildung beim Eurasier im Detail zu beschreiben. Klinische Befunde, Videoaufzeichnungen des Gangs und die Befunde der bildgebenden Diagnostik mit CT und MR von 32 Eurasiern mit neurologischen Symptomen wurden retrospektiv und prospektiv erhoben. Bei 14 Hunden wurde eine uniforme Kleinhirnmissbildung nachgewiesen, die durch Fehlen der kaudalen Anteile des cerebellären Vemis und der kaudalen Anteile der Kleinhirnhemisphären sowie groβe retrocerebelläre Flüssigkeitsansammlungen charakterisiert war. Die Diagnose basierte auf den Befunden im MR (n = 8), CT (n = 3) und histopathologischen Befunden (n = 3). Zusätzlich fiel eine erhebliche Variabilität in der Gröβe der hinteren Schädelgrube sowie bei einigen Hunden auch Hydrocephalus und eine unterschiedliche Ausprägung des Corpus callosum auf. Klinisch zeigten die betroffenen Hunde eine nicht-progressive cerebelläre Ataxie, die sich erstmals zeigte wenn die Welpen zu laufen begannen. Der Grad der Ataxie variierte von mildem Schwanken des Rumpfes, milder Dysmetrie, Dysequilibrium und Ataxie der Hintergliedmaßen bis zu hochgradiger cerebellärer Ataxie mit episodischem Fallen oder Rollen. Andere klinische Symptome waren Nystagmus, persistierend fehlende Drohreaktion eines Auges oder beider Augen bei Hunden, die älter als 10-12 Wochen waren, Kopftremor und epileptische Anfälle, die erstmalig in einem Alter von 5 Monaten bis zu 4 Jahren auftraten. Folgeuntersuchungen zeigten eine deutliche Verbesserung der cerebellären Ataxie. Detaillierte Untersuchungen der Pedigrees und die eindeutige Erfassung des Phänotyps von Geschwistern und Eltern betroffener Hunde aus mehreren Würfen auf der Basis von MR Untersuchungen wiesen auf das Vorliegen einer autosomal rezessiv vererbte Kleinhirnmissbildung hin. Zusammenfassend wurde in dieser Arbeit eine autosomal rezessiv vererbte Kleinhirnhypoplasie bei der Hunderasse Eurasier nachgewiesen, die auch einzelne Aspekte einer Dandy-Walker Malformation aufwies.Cerebellar malformations result from insults during embryogenesis or are inherited. Inherited cerebellar abiotrophies are frequently recognized in dogs and usually result in progressive ataxia. Evidence for inherited cerebellar hypoplasia is rare in the veterinary literature. Therefore the aim of this study was to describe the clinical and neuroimaging phenotype of a potentially inherited cerebellar malformation in Eurasier dogs. Clinical and imaging data of 32 Eurasier dogs with neurological signs were collected retrospectively and prospectively. An uniform cerebellar malformation characterized by absence of the caudal parts of the cerebellar vermis and the caudal parts of the cerebellar hemispheres in association with large retrocerebellar fluid accumulations was identified in 14 closely related purebred Eurasier dogs. Diagnosis was based on MRI (n = 8), CT (n = 3), or post-mortem examination (n = 3). A wide variation in caudal fossa size as well as hydrocephalus and thinning of the corpus callosum were observed in some dogs. Clinically the dogs showed non-progressive cerebellar ataxia, which was observed for the first time when the puppies began to walk. Variable degrees of ataxia were observed, varying from mild truncal sway, mild dysmetria, dysequilibrium and pelvic limb ataxia to severe cerebellar ataxia with episodic falling or rolling. Other clinical signs observed in some dogs were nystagmus, an absence of the bilateral or unilateral menace reaction beyond 10-12 weeks of age, head tremors and epileptic seizures with an age of onset between 5 months and 4 years of age. Follow-up examinations showed a pronounced improvement of the cerebellar ataxia in adult dogs. Detailed pedigree analyses, which included confirmation of the phenotype by MRI of littermates and parents of multiple litters suggested an autosomal recessive inheritance. In conclusion, the neuroimaging phenotype observed in the Eurasier breed dogs is characterized by an autosomal recessive inherited inferior cerebellar hypoplasia with some resemblance to a Dandy-Walker-like malformation

Specification and implementation of a data warehousing system for the ATLAS' distributed data management system

Estágio realizado na ATLAS Distributed Computing Group e orientado por Markus ElsingTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Pfizer equity report

The goal of thi spaper was to find the intrinsic value of Pfizer($PFE).In order to achieve this, an analysis was made of its business units and the Pharmaceutical Industry as a whole. Our valuation model, based on forecasted values, got us a share price of$69.28, which allows us to understand how fundamentally undepreciated is the current stock price

Human capital and innovation:the importance of the optimal organizational task structure

Management literature has identified high-skilled human capital as a crucial dimension of innovation processes at the firm level. In this study, we introduce an alternative view of human capital based on the tasks that firms’ workers perform. We propose a measure of cognitive analytical and interpersonal tasks: the degree of abstractism. We argue that the level of abstractism of a firm has an effect on a firm's propensity to innovate and on its product innovation performance. We hypothesize that while the degree of abstractism has a linear positive relationship with the propensity to innovate, the relationship between abstractism and product innovation performance follows an inverted u-shaped relationship. We find partial support to our hypotheses using data from more than six thousand Portuguese firms. We discuss how these results change our understanding of the relationship between human capital and innovation at the firm level

Coopetition and product innovation performance:The role of internal knowledge sharing mechanisms and formal knowledge protection mechanisms

Coopetition is an important new product development strategy; yet, studies addressing the impact of collaboration with competitors on product innovation performance provide mixed evidence. Conducting Tobit analyses on a sample of 627 manufacturing firms that responded to the fifth wave of the Flemish Community Innovation Survey, we find that the innovation performance implications of competitor collaboration depend on fine-grained intra-organizational design characteristics. In particular, our results show that competitor collaboration has a significant positive impact on product innovation performance only when internal knowledge sharing mechanisms and formal knowledge protection mechanisms are present. These findings contribute to the emerging contingency perspective on coopetition and provide specific recommendations to managers that are involved in coopetitive endeavors

Ties that matter:The impact of alliance partner knowledge recombination novelty on knowledge utilization in R&D alliances

Whereas extant alliance research tends to consider the knowledge pool of partner firms as a set of independent components, we highlight that alliance partners' components are interconnected. In particular, we introduce the concept of alliance partner knowledge recombination novelty - i.e., the extent to which an alliance partner has created component ties that no other firm within the industry has created - and hypothesize that it has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the focal firm's utilization of the alliance partner's knowledge. We also expect this relationship to be moderated by the focal firm's own knowledge recombination novelty. Analyzing 313 R&D alliance dyads of 70 firms in the fuel cell industry, we find support for the hypothesized inverted U-shaped relationship between an alliance partner's knowledge recombination novelty and the focal firm's knowledge utilization from the alliance partner. However, we do not find support for a moderation effect of the focal firm's knowledge recombination novelty. Based on these findings, we demonstrate the importance of framing alliance partner knowledge pools as sets of interconnected components, where alliance partners' history of knowledge recombination shapes the focal firm's knowledge utilization rates

Pork Barrel or Barrel of Gold? Examining the performance implications of earmarking in public R&D grants

Scholars tend to assume that publicly funded R&D projects, which are competitively selected, outperform pro- jects, which receive funding through a political selection process. In this paper, we empirically explore this assumption, examining the outcomes of 321 R&D projects that were funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program. Between 2003 and 2011, projects in this program could not only receive funding by means of a competitive selection process, but also by being earmarked by a U.S. member of Congress. We find that, whereas earmarked projects receive considerably lower peer review evaluation scores than non-earmarked projects, they do not consistently underperform in terms of the productivity, spillovers, and novelty of research- and science-based outcomes. Post-hoc analyses provide indications that this misalignment is driven by the existence of a bias of peer reviewers toward earmarked projects. Jointly, our findings challenge the dominant assumption that competitively selected projects always outperform politically selected ones in the setting of public R&D grants. In this way, we provide academics and policy makers with a richer perspective on the ad- vantages and liabilities of earmarks

Portugal e Brasil: partilha e despatrialização da música

Este artigo descreve os processos através se consolidaram circuitos de diálogo entre Portugal e Brasil através da música, desde o passado colonial até ao presente, neste caso centrado no diálogo entre músicos do universo da música popular. Inclui uma componente escrita pelo cantautor português Sérgio Godinho

Interacção e perfis de comportamentos das crianças, pais e enfermeiros durante a vacinação pediátrica

Tese de doutoramento, Psicologia (Psicologia da Saúde), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2012A vacinação é um procedimento doloroso administrado a todas as crianças em idade pré-escolar, durante o qual as crianças tendem a manifestar perturbação comportamental. O Modelo Proximal-Distal do Confronto e da Perturbação da Criança durante Procedimentos Médicos Dolorosos (Blount, Bunke & Zaff, 1999) explica que as variáveis distais e proximais se relacionam entre si de forma a aumentar ou diminuir a probabilidade da criança manifestar perturbação comportamental ou confronto. Este estudo centra-se nas variáveis proximais, ou seja, nos comportamentos durante o procedimento, tendo como objectivo geral contribuir para o estudo das interacções entre adultos e crianças portuguesas, durante a vacinação pediátrica. Utilizámos uma adaptação do instrumento de observação CAMPIS (Child-Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale - Revised e Short-Form; Blount et al., 1997; Blount, Bunke, Cohen & Forbes, 2001) que permite classificar os comportamentos de todos os participantes. Observaram-se duzentos e vinte crianças (4-6 anos) vacinadas em Centro de Saúde por vinte e três enfermeiros, e os acompanhantes da criança. Os comportamentos dos participantes foram filmados, codificados e avaliados através do CAMPIS. O tratamento de dados incluiu a análise de variáveis e suas associações, o agrupamento de participantes (clusters) e o tratamento qualitativo de significações dos enfermeiros. Os comportamentos dos pais e dos enfermeiros permitiram explicar 57% e 41% da variância de perturbação comportamental da criança. A maior parte dos participantes pertence ao cluster “Pouco Actuante”. Outros clusters dos adultos diferenciam-se em “Promotores de Confronto Activo”, “Promotores de Confronto Passivo” e “Securizantes”. Clusters menos numerosos distinguem pais “Críticos” e enfermeiros “Securizantes com Promoção de Confronto”. As crianças caracterizam-se como “Confrontantes”, “Resistentes” e “Comportamentalmente Perturbadas”. Os enfermeiros atribuem a perturbação da criança a factores intrínsecos, extrínsecos e contextuais à vacinação e a sua própria ansiedade a factores extrínsecos. Os resultados evidenciam a associação dos comportamentos dos adultos durante a vacinação e a perturbação/confronto da criança. As associações entre os clusters dos adultos e das crianças corroboram o sentido dessas associações. As significações dos enfermeiros fornecem pistas complementares para um programa de formação profissional mais eficaz.Immunization is a painful procedure applied to all preschool children, during which children typically display distress. The Proximal-Distal Model of Children’s Coping and Distress During Acute Painful Medical Procedures (Blount, Bunke & Zaff, 1999) explains that proximal and distal variables seem to relate with each other in order to increase or decrease the likelihood of children displaying distress or coping. This study focuses on the proximal variables, i.e., behaviours occurring during the procedure, with the purpose of studying Portuguese adults and children’s interactions during paediatric immunization. We adapted the Child-Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale (CAMPIS - Revised and Short-Form; Blount et al., 1997; Blount, Bunke, Cohen & Forbes, 2001) an observation instrument that allows the classification of all participants’ behaviours. Two hundred and twenty preschool children immunized by twenty-three nurses, and their parents, were observed in the health department. Videotapes of the procedures were scored using CAMPIS. Data processing included the analysis of variables and their associations, the clustering of participants and the qualitative analysis of the nurses’ meanings. Parents and nurses’ behaviours explained 57% and 41% of the child’s distress variance. The majority of the participants belong to the cluster “Reduced Activity”. Other adults’ clusters differentiate between “Active Coping Promoters”, “Passive Coping Promoters” and “Reassuring”. Less numerous clusters identified “Critical” parents and “Coping Promoters with Reassuring” nurses. Children were characterized as being “Coping Users”, “Resistant” and “Behaviourally Disturbed”. Nurses attributed the child’s distress during immunization to intrinsic, extrinsic and contextual factors and their own anxiety to extrinsic factors. Results show the association between adults’ behaviours during immunization and the children’s distress and coping. Clusters associations between adults and children corroborate the direction of these associations. Nurses’ meanings bring some complementary clues for a more effective professional training.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT