Caracterización de germoplasma de topinambur (Helianthus tuberosus L.) por aptitud agronómica e industrial

El topinambur pertenece a la familia de las Asteráceas, es una especie originaria de América del Norte, de la que fundamentalmente se aprovechan sus tubérculos; tiene gran potencial como alimento, materia prima para productos industriales y producción de biocombustibles. En Argentina no hay cultivares de topinambur registrados. Sin embargo hay documentación y testimonios del ingreso de distintas variedades al país a principios del siglo XX. El objetivo de esta tesis fue caracterizar el germoplasma de topinambur que se cultiva, a pequeña escala, en distintas regiones de la Argentina. Se formó una colección de trabajo con introducciones provenientes de 5 provincias del país (Río Negro, Chubut, Buenos Aires, Mendoza y Córdoba), y se condujeron ensayos experimentales en dos ambientes de la provincia de Mendoza. Se evaluaron caracteres morfológicos (altura de plantas, dimensiones y ángulo de inserción de hojas, tamaño de tubérculos), fenológicos (emergencia, inicio, fin y duración de floración, senescencia del cultivo) y rendimiento. Se detectaron diferencias morfológicas que permitieron agrupar a las introducciones en dos grupos, correspondiendo uno a introducciones de tubérculos rojos y el otro a introducciones de tubérculos blancos. Se valoró la aptitud hortícola de las introducciones mediante evaluación sensorial; se realizó una prueba de preferencia y percepción de distintos aspectos de la hortaliza (color, olor, sabor y textura), consumida cruda. El nivel de aceptación general de la hortaliza fue bueno. Se evaluó el potencial industrial (obtención de inulina y producción de etanol). Se determinó por HPLC el contenido de inulina de cada introducción, que varió de 18.07 a 22.95 % y se estimó el potencial para producir etanol a partir de los hidratos de carbono fermentables de los tubérculos, que llegó a 4.934 litros por ha, aunque sin diferencias entre introducciones.

Quantitative micrograph, HPLC and FTIR profiles of Melissa officinalis and Nepeta cataria (Lamiaceae) from Argentina

Melissa officinalis L., so called "Melissa" or "Toronjil", is a perennial aromatic herb, whose leaves are used in traditional medicine as a carminative, digestive and sedative, both in simple as in mixtures. Meanwhile, Nepeta cataria L., commonly called "Cat mint" or "Toronjil", with some similar properties, often replacing M. officinalis in the market, although their chemical composition is not completely matched, and contains an iridoid potentially toxic (nepetalactone). It is therefore necessary to establish diacritic parameters to differentiate these species, both at crude drug level, mixtures and extracts. Samples from various sources in Argentina were studied and documental specimens are preserved in the Herbarium UNSL. Anatomical sections were analyzed, and quantitative micrographic parameters were obtained, together with HPLC and FTIR spectra from methanolic and aqueous lyophilized extracts. Significant differences were detected in the prevailing smell foliage, morphology of leaves and inflorescences, trichomata type, palisade ratio, veinlet termination number, rosmarinic acid concentration (with distinctive HPLC profiles), and the CO/CH relationships obtained by FTIR from the extracts, that together allow adequate differentiation of both drugs, even when they were ground or powdered.

Air Mines. Urban Space Station

Air Mines The sky over the city's port was the color of a faulty screen, only partly lit up. As the silhouette of nearby buildings became darker, but more clearly visible against the fading blur-filter of a background, the realization came about how persistent a change had been taking place. Slowly, old wooden water reservoirs and rattling HVAC systems stopped being the only inhabitants of roofs. Slightly trembling, milkish jellyfish-translucent air volumes had joined the show in multiples. A few years ago artists and architects seized upon the death of buildings as their life-saving media. Equipped with constructive atlases and instruments they started disemboweling their subjects, poking about their systems, dumping out on the street the battered ugliness of their embarrassing bits and pieces, so rightly hidden by facades and height from everyday view. But, would you believe it? Even ?old ladies?, investment bankers or small children failed to get upset. Of course, old ladies are not what they used to be. It was old ladies themselves that made it happen after years of fights with the town hall, imaginative proposals and factual arguments. An industry with little financial gains but lots of welcome externalities was not, in fact, the ground for investment bankers. But they too had to admit that having otherwise stately buildings make fine particulate pencils with their facades was not the worse that could happen. Yes, making soot pencils had been found an interesting and visible end product of the endeavor, a sort of mining the air for vintage writing tools one can actually touch. The new view from the street did not seem as solid or dignified as that of old, and they hated that the market for Fine Particulates Extraction (FPE, read efpee) had to be applied on a matrix of blocks and streets that prevented undue concentration of the best or worse solutions. It had to be an evenly distributed city policy in order for the city to apply for cleaning casino money. Once the first prototypes had been deployed in buildings siding Garden Avenue or Bulwark Street even fast movers appreciated the sidekick of flower and plant smell dripping down the Urban Space Stations (USS, read use; USSs, read uses) as air and walls cooled off for a few hours after sunset. Enough. It was all nice to remember, but it was now time to go up and start the lightweight afternoon maintenance of their USS. Coop discussions had taken place all through the planning and continued through the construction phase as to how maintenance was going to be organized. Fasters had voted for a pro, pay a small amount and let them use it for rent and produce. In the end some neighbors decided they were slow enough to take care and it was now the turn. Regret came periodically, sometimes a week before, and lasted until work actually started. But lately it had been replaced by anxiety when it needed to be passed over to the next caretaker. It did not look their shift was good enough and couldn?t wait to fix it. Today small preparations needed to be made for a class visit next day from a nearby cook school. They were frequenters. It had not been easy, but it shouldn?t have been that hard. In the end, even the easiest things are hard if they involve a city, buildings and neighbors. On the face of the data, the technicalities and the way final designs had been worked out for adaptation to the different settings, the decision of where to go was self evident, but organization issues and the ever-growing politics of taste in a city of already-gentrified-rodents almost put the project in the frozen orbit of timeless beautiful future possibilities. This is how it was. A series of designs by XClinic and OSS had made it possible to adapt to different building structures, leave in most cases the roof untouched and adapted a new technology of flexing fiberglass tubes that dissipated wind pressure in smooth bending.......

O CORPO COMO UM TEXTO VIVO A Festa e a Dança no Candomblé

Este trabalho é um estudo sobre o papel e a construção do corpo, a partir dos rituais públicos do candomblé. Durante esses rituais, dei-me conta de que o corpo, para essa cultura ágrafa, assumia o papel de um texto, no qual se podiam ler, por meio dos gestos e da dança, as histórias e os valores desse grupo social. Todo esse processo só é possível porque a noção de pessoa no candomblé é pensada como um todo, resultado de todas as partes do corpo, diferentemente da noção disjuntiva presente no ocidente. Todos os sentidos do corpo: olfato, tato, visão, audição e paladar, são onsiderados centros de força, e o processo de iniciação coloca em equilíbrio esses centros. Do mesmo modo que a pessoa é múltipla e construída ao longo do processo iniciático, o corpo manifesta suas múltiplas forças e é construído esteticamente, tornando um texto para ser lido pela sociedade. Dessa forma, o corpo se constrói, nos rituais do candomblé, graças à aprendizagem de valores sociais, culturais e religiosos, que se dá por meio da oralidade, dos atos, gestos e da experiência vivida no quotidiano do terreiro. Nos rituais públicos, através da dança de transe, o iniciado mostrará ao grupo seu estágio espiritual, a visão de mundo do grupo e o ethos de seu povo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Casa de Candomblé Ilé Dara Àse Òsun Eyin, comandada pelo Pai Cido de Òsun Eyin, durante os anos de 2001, 2002 e 2003.(AU)

O CORPO COMO UM TEXTO VIVO A Festa e a Dança no Candomblé

Este trabalho é um estudo sobre o papel e a construção do corpo, a partir dos rituais públicos do candomblé. Durante esses rituais, dei-me conta de que o corpo, para essa cultura ágrafa, assumia o papel de um texto, no qual se podiam ler, por meio dos gestos e da dança, as histórias e os valores desse grupo social. Todo esse processo só é possível porque a noção de pessoa no candomblé é pensada como um todo, resultado de todas as partes do corpo, diferentemente da noção disjuntiva presente no ocidente. Todos os sentidos do corpo: olfato, tato, visão, audição e paladar, são onsiderados centros de força, e o processo de iniciação coloca em equilíbrio esses centros. Do mesmo modo que a pessoa é múltipla e construída ao longo do processo iniciático, o corpo manifesta suas múltiplas forças e é construído esteticamente, tornando um texto para ser lido pela sociedade. Dessa forma, o corpo se constrói, nos rituais do candomblé, graças à aprendizagem de valores sociais, culturais e religiosos, que se dá por meio da oralidade, dos atos, gestos e da experiência vivida no quotidiano do terreiro. Nos rituais públicos, através da dança de transe, o iniciado mostrará ao grupo seu estágio espiritual, a visão de mundo do grupo e o ethos de seu povo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Casa de Candomblé Ilé Dara Àse Òsun Eyin, comandada pelo Pai Cido de Òsun Eyin, durante os anos de 2001, 2002 e 2003.(AU)

COMUNICAÇÃO NO PONTO-DE-VENDA: ASPECTOS SENSORIAIS NA AMBIENTAÇÃO DAS MEGALIVRARIAS

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar e discutir a ambientação como elemento de comunicação aplicado ao ponto-de-venda livraria e observar e analisar como as atuais lojas se adaptaram a uma realidade de mercado, que visa envolver o cliente em uma experiência prazerosa, tendo em vista a concorrência do comércio virtual e a crescente venda de livros em supermercados. Pretende-se, neste trabalho, compreender a utilização dos diversos elementos sensoriais que envolvem: tato, olfato, paladar, visão e audição no ponto-de-venda físico. O objeto de estudo é a Livraria Cultura do Conjunto Nacional, sua relevância ocorre pelo fato da livraria ser a maior loja em metros quadrados do país. Por tratar-se de um fenômeno contemporâneo inserido no contexto da vida real, a metodologia utilizada é o Estudo de Caso Único e os procedimentos metodológicos são observação direta do consumidor no ponto-de-venda, pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas com freqüentadores da loja e com profissionais do setor. Pode-se concluir que as características hedônicas do consumidor contemporâneo que busca experiências prazerosas associada a sinergia da comunicação integrada de marketing favorecem para os resultados positivos apresentados pela livraria.(AU)

COMUNICAÇÃO NO PONTO-DE-VENDA: ASPECTOS SENSORIAIS NA AMBIENTAÇÃO DAS MEGALIVRARIAS

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar e discutir a ambientação como elemento de comunicação aplicado ao ponto-de-venda livraria e observar e analisar como as atuais lojas se adaptaram a uma realidade de mercado, que visa envolver o cliente em uma experiência prazerosa, tendo em vista a concorrência do comércio virtual e a crescente venda de livros em supermercados. Pretende-se, neste trabalho, compreender a utilização dos diversos elementos sensoriais que envolvem: tato, olfato, paladar, visão e audição no ponto-de-venda físico. O objeto de estudo é a Livraria Cultura do Conjunto Nacional, sua relevância ocorre pelo fato da livraria ser a maior loja em metros quadrados do país. Por tratar-se de um fenômeno contemporâneo inserido no contexto da vida real, a metodologia utilizada é o Estudo de Caso Único e os procedimentos metodológicos são observação direta do consumidor no ponto-de-venda, pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas com freqüentadores da loja e com profissionais do setor. Pode-se concluir que as características hedônicas do consumidor contemporâneo que busca experiências prazerosas associada a sinergia da comunicação integrada de marketing favorecem para os resultados positivos apresentados pela livraria.(AU)

Molecular mechanisms underlying differential odor responses of a mouse olfactory receptor

The prevailing paradigm for G protein-coupled receptors is that each receptor is narrowly tuned to its ligand and closely related agonists. An outstanding problem is whether this paradigm applies to olfactory receptor (ORs), which is the largest gene family in the genome, in which each of 1,000 different G protein-coupled receptors is believed to interact with a range of different odor molecules from the many thousands that comprise “odor space.” Insights into how these interactions occur are essential for understanding the sense of smell. Key questions are: (i) Is there a binding pocket? (ii) Which amino acid residues in the binding pocket contribute to peak affinities? (iii) How do affinities change with changes in agonist structure? To approach these questions, we have combined single-cell PCR results [Malnic, B., Hirono, J., Sato, T. & Buck, L. B. (1999) Cell 96, 713–723] and well-established molecular dynamics methods to model the structure of a specific OR (OR S25) and its interactions with 24 odor compounds. This receptor structure not only points to a likely odor-binding site but also independently predicts the two compounds that experimentally best activate OR S25. The results provide a mechanistic model for olfactory transduction at the molecular level and show how the basic G protein-coupled receptor template is adapted for encoding the enormous odor space. This combined approach can significantly enhance the identification of ligands for the many members of the OR family and also may shed light on other protein families that exhibit broad specificities, such as chemokine receptors and P450 oxidases.

An impairment in sniffing contributes to the olfactory impairment in Parkinson's disease

Although the presence of an olfactory impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been recognized for 25 years, its cause remains unclear. Here we suggest a contributing factor to this impairment, namely, that PD impairs active sniffing of odorants. We tested 10 men and 10 women with clinically typical PD, and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy controls, in four olfactory tasks: (i) the University of Pennsylvania smell identification test; (ii and iii) detection threshold tests for the odorants vanillin and propionic acid; and (iv) a two-alternative forced-choice detection paradigm during which sniff parameters (airflow peak rate, mean rate, volume, and duration) were recorded with a pneomatotachograph-coupled spirometer. An additional experiment tested the effect of intentionally increasing sniff vigor on olfactory performance in 20 additional patients. PD patients were significantly impaired in olfactory identification (P < 0.0001) and detection (P < 0.007). As predicted, PD patients were also significantly impaired at sniffing, demonstrating significantly reduced sniff airflow rate (P < 0.01) and volume (P < 0.002). Furthermore, a patient's ability to sniff predicted his or her performance on olfactory tasks, i.e., the more poorly patients sniffed, the worse their performance on olfaction tests (P < 0.009). Finally, increasing sniff vigor improved olfactory performance in those patients whose baseline performance had been poorest (P < 0.05). These findings implicate a sniffing impairment as a component of the olfactory impairment in PD and further depict sniffing as an important component of human olfaction.

Paradoxical association between smoking and olfactory identification in psychosis versus controls

Objective: Deficits in olfactory identification have been demonstrated in patients with schizophrenia. This study examined the interaction between smoking and olfactory identification in patients with psychotic disorders versus well controls. Method: Olfactory identification was assessed in three groups of subjects using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Sixteen patients with affective psychoses, 22 patients with nonaffective psychoses, and 21 well controls were tested. Results: There was a significant interaction between diagnostic classification (patient or control) and smoking. Patients who were smokers scored higher on the UPSIT than non-smokers, while controls who were smokers scored lower than non-smokers. Conclusions: Smoking may have a 'normalising' effect on olfactory identification in some patients with psychosis. Further studies are needed to examine the relationship between psychosis, olfactory identification and the effects of nicotine.

Australian norms for a quantitative olfactory function test

Quantitative olfactory assessment is often neglected in clinical practice, although olfactory loss can assist diagnosis and leads to significant morbidity. The aim of this study was to develop normative data for the Australian population for the 'Sniffin' Sticks', an internationally established olfactory function test. As in other populations, Australian females performed better than males and both lost olfactory function with age. From the normative data, criterion test scores for males and females were established for clinical classifications ('normosmic', 'hyposmic', and 'anosmic'). These clinical classifications were assessed in Parkinson's patients: 81.1 % were anosmic or severely hyposmic and only 7.7% were normosmic. A new term ('prebyosmia') is introduced to describe age-related loss of olfactory capacity of unknown aetiology. With these norms, the Sniffin' Sticks can be used in the Australian population to compare an individual's olfactory function against the population of others of similar age and sex and to identify olfactory dysfunction. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments

Research on sensory processing or the way animals see, hear, smell, taste, feel and electrically and magnetically sense their environment has advanced a great deal over the last fifteen years. This book discusses the most important themes that have emerged from recent research and provides a summary of likely future directions. The book starts with two sections on the detection of sensory signals over long and short ranges by aquatic animals, covering the topics of navigation, communication, and finding food and other localized sources. The next section, the co-evolution of signal and sense, deals with how animals decide whether the source is prey, predator or mate by utilizing receptors that have evolved to take full advantage of the acoustical properties of the signal. Organisms living in the deep-sea environment have also received a lot of recent attention, so the next section deals with visual adaptations to limited light environments where sunlight is replaced by bioluminescence and the visual system has undergone changes to optimize light capture and sensitivity. The last section on central co-ordination of sensory systems covers how signals are processed and filtered for use by the animal. This book will be essential reading for all researchers and graduate students interested in sensory systems.

O CORPO COMO UM TEXTO VIVO A Festa e a Dança no Candomblé

Este trabalho é um estudo sobre o papel e a construção do corpo, a partir dos rituais públicos do candomblé. Durante esses rituais, dei-me conta de que o corpo, para essa cultura ágrafa, assumia o papel de um texto, no qual se podiam ler, por meio dos gestos e da dança, as histórias e os valores desse grupo social. Todo esse processo só é possível porque a noção de pessoa no candomblé é pensada como um todo, resultado de todas as partes do corpo, diferentemente da noção disjuntiva presente no ocidente. Todos os sentidos do corpo: olfato, tato, visão, audição e paladar, são onsiderados centros de força, e o processo de iniciação coloca em equilíbrio esses centros. Do mesmo modo que a pessoa é múltipla e construída ao longo do processo iniciático, o corpo manifesta suas múltiplas forças e é construído esteticamente, tornando um texto para ser lido pela sociedade. Dessa forma, o corpo se constrói, nos rituais do candomblé, graças à aprendizagem de valores sociais, culturais e religiosos, que se dá por meio da oralidade, dos atos, gestos e da experiência vivida no quotidiano do terreiro. Nos rituais públicos, através da dança de transe, o iniciado mostrará ao grupo seu estágio espiritual, a visão de mundo do grupo e o ethos de seu povo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Casa de Candomblé Ilé Dara Àse Òsun Eyin, comandada pelo Pai Cido de Òsun Eyin, durante os anos de 2001, 2002 e 2003.(AU)

COMUNICAÇÃO NO PONTO-DE-VENDA: ASPECTOS SENSORIAIS NA AMBIENTAÇÃO DAS MEGALIVRARIAS

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar e discutir a ambientação como elemento de comunicação aplicado ao ponto-de-venda livraria e observar e analisar como as atuais lojas se adaptaram a uma realidade de mercado, que visa envolver o cliente em uma experiência prazerosa, tendo em vista a concorrência do comércio virtual e a crescente venda de livros em supermercados. Pretende-se, neste trabalho, compreender a utilização dos diversos elementos sensoriais que envolvem: tato, olfato, paladar, visão e audição no ponto-de-venda físico. O objeto de estudo é a Livraria Cultura do Conjunto Nacional, sua relevância ocorre pelo fato da livraria ser a maior loja em metros quadrados do país. Por tratar-se de um fenômeno contemporâneo inserido no contexto da vida real, a metodologia utilizada é o Estudo de Caso Único e os procedimentos metodológicos são observação direta do consumidor no ponto-de-venda, pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas com freqüentadores da loja e com profissionais do setor. Pode-se concluir que as características hedônicas do consumidor contemporâneo que busca experiências prazerosas associada a sinergia da comunicação integrada de marketing favorecem para os resultados positivos apresentados pela livraria.(AU)

Odour pollution problems within the district of the Wrekin council

This thesis is concerned with various aspects of Air Pollution due to smell, the impact it has on communities exposed to it, the means by which it may be controlled and the manner in which a local authority may investigate the problems it causes. The approach is a practical one drawing on examples occurring within a Local Authority's experience and for that reason the research is anecdotal and is not a comprehensive treatise on the full range of options available. Odour Pollution is not yet a well organised discipline and might be considered esoteric as it is necessary to incorporate elements of science and the humanities. It has been necessary to range widely across a number of aspects of the subject so that discussion is often restricted but many references have been included to enable a reader to pursue a particular point in greater depth. In a `fuzzy' subject there is often a yawning gap separating theory and practice, thus case studies have been used to illustrate the interplay of various disciplines in resolution of a problem. The essence of any science is observation and measurement. Observation has been made of the spread of odour pollution through a community and also of relevant meterological data so that a mathematical model could be constructed and its predictions checked. It has been used to explore the results of some options for odour control. Measurements of odour perception and human behaviour seldom have the precision and accuracy of the physical sciences. However methods of social research enabled individual perception of odour pollution to be quantified and an insight gained into reaction of a community exposed to it. Odours have four attributes that can be measured and together provide a complete description of its perception. No objective techniques of measurement have yet been developed but in this thesis simple, structured procedures of subjective assessment have been improvised and their use enabled the functioning of the components of an odour control system to be assessed. Such data enabled the action of the system to be communicated using terms that are understood by a non specialist audience.