Caracterização de leite utilizando técnicas de ultra-som e redes neurais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Produção de celulases fúngicas por fermentação em estado sólido e submersa utilizando biomassa lignocelulósica

Pós-graduação em Microbiologia - IBILCE

Celulose em dietas para leitões recém-desmamados

Pós-graduação em Zootecnia - FCAV

Caracterização quantitativa e qualitativa dos resíduos em sistemas de produção de ovos: compostagem e biodigestão anaeróbia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A ICOMI no Amapá: meio século de exploração mineral

O artigo analisa a história de meio século de exploração do minério de manganês na Serra do Navio, Amapá, Brasil, na segunda metade do século XX, pela Indústria e Comércio de Minérios S.A. (ICOMI). Aponta que houve limitada internalização do valor adicionado pela mineração. Indica que a bibliografia existente acerca das repercussões dessa atividade para o desenvolvimento regional não é satisfatória. Finaliza apontando que há uma agenda de pesquisa em aberto no que se refere à analise dos arranjos institucionais que bloquearam ou limitaram o enraizamento social do desenvolvimento na região a partir da valorização do minerio de manganês.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified screen-printed electrodes for cisplatin detection

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Desenvolvimento de um embutido cárneo fermentado, com teores reduzidos de gordura e sais de cura, através da utilização de culturas probióticas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Disponibilidade de "açúcares de adição" no Brasil: distribuição, fontes alimentares e tendência temporal

OBJETIVOS: Estimar o consumo de "açúcar de adição" pela população brasileira, nos estratos regionais e socioeconômicos, destacando suas principais fontes alimentares e verificar a tendência do seu consumo nas últimas décadas. MÉTODOS: Contou-se com informações das Pesquisas de Orçamentos Familiares a partir da década de 80 sobre o tipo e a quantidade de alimentos e bebidas adquiridos pelas famílias brasileiras. Os indicadores analisados foram: % das calorias de açúcar no total calórico da dieta e % calórico das frações de açúcar de mesa e de açúcar adicionado aos alimentos pela indústria/kcal açúcar da dieta. RESULTADOS: Em 2002/03, 16,7% das calorias totais eram provenientes de "açúcar de adição" e sua participação mostrou-se elevada em todos os estratos regionais e de renda. A razão açúcar de mesa/açúcar adicionado pela indústria se inverte com o aumento da renda. A participação do açúcar de mesa nos últimos 15 anos foi reduzida, enquanto a contribuição do açúcar adicionado aos alimentos dobrou, especialmente por meio do consumo de refrigerantes e biscoitos. CONCLUSÕES: O consumo de açúcar no Brasil excede largamente a recomendação da OMS e verificou-se importante alteração nas fontes de consumo.

Functional components and lipid quality assessment in vegetable foods: analytical and technological approaches

Lipids are important components that contribute very significantly to nutritional and technological quality of foods because they are the least stable macro-components in foods, due to high susceptibility to oxidation. When rancidity take place, it makes food unhealthy and unacceptable for consumers. Thus, the presence of antioxidants, naturally present of added to foods, is required to enhance shelf life of foods. Moreover, antioxidant like phenolic compounds play an important role in human health enhancing the functionality of foods. The aim of this PhD project was the study of lipid quality and lipid oxidation in different vegetable foods focusing on analytical and technological aspects in order to figure out the effects of lipid composition and bioactive compounds (phenolic compounds, omega-3 fatty acids and dietary fiber) addition on their shelf life. In addition, bioavailability and antioxidant effects of phenolic compounds in human and animals, respectively, were evaluated after consumption of vegetable foods. The first section of the work was focused on the evaluation of lipid quality impact on technological behaviour of vegetable foods. Because of that, cocoa butter with different melting point were evaluated by chromatographic techniques (GC, TLC) and the sample with the higher melting point showed the presence of fatty acids, triglycerides, 2-monoglycerides and FT-IR profile different from genuine cocoa butter, meaning an adding of foreign fat (lauric-fat) not allowed by the law. Looking at lipid quality of other vegetable foods, an accelerated shelf life test (OXITEST®), was used to evaluate of lipid stability to oxidation in tarallini snacks made up using different lipid matrices (sunflower oil, extravirgin olive oil and a blend of extravirgin olive oil and lard). The results showed a good ability of OXITEST® to discriminate between lipid unsaturation and different cooking times, without any samples fat extraction. In the second section, the role of bioactive compounds on cereal based food shelf life was studied in different bakeries by GC, spectrophotometric methods and capillary electrophoresis. It was examined the relationships between phenolic compounds, added with flour, and lipid oxidation of tarallini and frollini. Both products showed an increase in lipid oxidation during storage and antioxidant effects on lipid oxidation were not as expected. Furthermore, the influence of enrichment in polyunsaturated fatty acids on lipid oxidation of pasta was evaluated. The results proved that LC n-3 PUFA were not significantly implicated in the onset of oxidation in spaghetti stored under daylight and accelerated oxidation in a laboratory heater. The importance of phenolic compounds as antioxidant in humans and rats was also studied, by HPLC/MS in the latter section. For this purpose, apigenin and apigenin glycosides excretion was investigated in six women’s urine in a 24 hours study. After a single dose of steamed artichokes, both aglicone and glucuronide metabolites were recovered in 24 h urine. Moreover, the effect of whole grain durum wheat bread and whole grain Kamut® khorasan bread in rats were evaluated. Both cereals were good sources of antioxidants but Kamut® bread fed animals had a better response to stress than wheat durum fed, especially when a sourdough bread was supplied.

Pratiche del possibile: i Participatory Guarantee Systems e le scelte d'acquisto del consumatore brasiliano

Negli ultimi anni, parallelamente all’espansione del settore biologico, si è assistito a un crescente interesse per i modelli alternativi di garanzia dell’integrità e della genuinità dei prodotti biologici. Gruppi di piccoli agricoltori di tutto il mondo hanno iniziato a sviluppare approcci alternativi per affrontare i problemi connessi alla certificazione di terza parte. Queste pratiche sono note come Sistemi di Garanzia Partecipativa (PGS). Tali modelli: (i) si basano sugli standard di certificazione biologica dell’IFOAM, (ii) riguardano il complesso dei produttori di una comunità rurale, (iii) comportano l’inclusione di una grande varietà di attori e (iv) hanno lo scopo di ridurre al minimo burocrazia e costi semplificando le procedure di verifica e incorporando un elemento di educazione ambientale e sociale sia per i produttori sia per i consumatori. Gli obiettivi di questo lavoro di ricerca: • descrivere il funzionamento dei sistemi di garanzia partecipativa; • indicare i vantaggi della loro adozione nei Paesi in via di sviluppo e non; • illustrare il caso della Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia (Brasile); • offrire uno spunto di riflessione che riguarda il consumatore e la relativa fiducia nel modello PGS. L’impianto teorico fa riferimento alla Teoria delle Convenzioni. Sulla base del quadro teorico è stato costruito un questionario per i consumatori con lo scopo di testare l’appropriatezza delle ipotesi teoriche. I risultati finali riguardano la stima del livello di conoscenza attuale, la fiducia e la volontà d’acquisto dei prodotti PGS da parte dei consumatori nelle aree considerate. Sulla base di questa ricerca sarà possibile adattare ed esportare il modello empirico in altri paesi che presentano economie diverse per cercare di comprendere il potenziale campo di applicazione dei sistemi di garanzia partecipativa.

Understanding Recent Developments in the Turkish Labor Market: Empirical Essays with a Gender Focus

This dissertation comprises three essays on the Turkish labor market. The first essay characterizes the distinctive characteristics of the Turkish labor market with the aim of understanding the factors lying behind its long-standing poor performance relative to its European counterparts. The analysis is based on a cross-country comparison among selected European Union countries. Among all the indicators of labor market flexibility, non-wage cost rigidities are regarded as one of the most important factors in slowing down employment creation in Turkey. The second essay focuses on an employment subsidy policy which introduces a reduction in non-wage costs through social security premium incentives granted to women and young men. Exploiting a difference-in-difference-in differences strategy, I evaluate the effectiveness of this policy in creating employment for the target group. The results, net of the recent crisis effect, suggest that the policy accounts for a 1.4% to 1.6% increase in the probability of being hired for women aged 30 to 34 above men of the same age group in the periods shortly after the announcement of the policy. In the third essay of the dissertation, I analyze the labor supply response of married women to their husbands' job losses (AWE). I empirically test the hypothesis of added worker effect for the global economic crisis of 2008 by relying on the Turkey context. Identification is achieved by exploiting the exogenous variation in the output of male-dominated sectors hard-hit by the crisis and the gender-segmentation that characterizes the Turkish labor market. Findings based on the instrumental variable approach suggest that the added worker effect explains up to 64% of the observed increase in female labor force participation in Turkey. The size of the effect depends on how long it takes for wives to adjust their labor supply to their husbands' job losses.

Analisi statica equivalente per strutture dotate di smorzatori viscosi

L’installazione di smorzatori viscosi sulle strutture permette di dissipare l’energia che il sisma trasmette, senza provocare danni o rotture degli elementi strutturali principali. Questi dispositivi sono stati l'oggetto di numerosi lavori di ricerca dal 1980 fino ad oggi e l'efficacia nel mitigare gli effetti dell’azione sismica su strutture edilizie è stata ampiamente dimostrata. La maggior parte delle teorie scientifiche per la progettazione e l'ottimizzazione degli smorzatori si basano sofisticati algoritmi, portando talvolta a complessi procedure. L'applicazione di tali algoritmi richiede spesso competenze computazionali e di tempo eccessive. Il fine della tesi è quello di proporre un metodo pratico, cioè diretto e immediato per aiutare gli ingegneri per effettuare analisi sismiche su strutture intelaiate dotate di smorzatori viscosi e di dimensionare tali dispositivi. Tale metodo è stato l’oggetto del lavoro di ricerca scientifica trattato nell’articolo: “Equivalent Static Analyses of framed structures with added viscous dampers” di Palermo et al., 2015. Si riesce così ad estendere così il concetto di analisi statica equivalente anche per strutture dotate di smorzatori viscosi, definendo in maniera intuitiva sia le configurazioni di idealizzazione della strutture durante il sisma sia l’ idealizzazione dell’effetto del sisma sulla struttura. In questi anni di lavoro di ricerca, sono stati proposti vari metodi per il dimensionamento degli smorzatori viscosi. Tra questi, il prof. Ing. Silvestri (Silvestri et al., 2010) ha proposto un approccio progettuale diretto, chiamato "five step procedure” che mira a guidare l'ingegnere professionista, dalla scelta del target di prestazioni alle identificazioni della caratteristiche meccaniche di smorzatori viscosi trovabili in commercio. La procedura originale (Silvestri et al., 2010, Silvestri et al., 2011, Palermo et al., 2013), anche se per lo più basata su espressioni analitiche, richiede ancora lo sviluppo di analisi numeriche Time-History di modelli FEM, al fine di valutare le forze massime negli smorzatori aggiunti. Verrà spiegato e proposto un metodo semplificato (“Direct five step procedure for the dimensioning of added viscous dampers” Palermo et al., 2015) che consente ottenere direttamente, tramite una semplice formula, le forze massime degli smorzatori (spesso un parametro chiave della valutazione del costo degli smorzatori), senza eseguire simulazioni numeriche. Infine, si è applicato il metodo semplificato proposto di analisi statica equivalente per strutture equipaggiate di smorzatori viscosi ad un edificio reale.

Ezrin/moesin in motile Walker 256 carcinosarcoma cells: signal-dependent relocalization and role in migration

Rat Walker 256 carcinosarcoma cells spontaneously develop front-tail polarity and migrate in the absence of added stimuli. Constitutive activation of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI 3-kinase), Rac, Rho and Rho kinase are essential for these processes. Ezrin and moesin are putative targets of these signaling pathways leading to spontaneous migration. To test this hypothesis, we used specific siRNA probes that resulted in a downregulation of ezrin and moesin by about 70% and in a similar reduction in the fraction of migrating cells. Spontaneous polarization however was not affected, indicating a more subtle role of ezrin and moesin in migration. We provide furthermore evidence that endogenous ezrin and moesin colocalize with F-actin at the contracted tail of polarized cells, similar to ectopically expressed green fluorescent protein-tagged ezrin. Our results suggest that myosin light chain and ezrin are markers of front and tail, respectively, even in the absence of morphological polarization. We further show that endogenous ezrin and moesin are phosphorylated and that activities of PI-3 kinase, Rho and Rac, but not of Rho-kinase, are required for this C-terminal phosphorylation. Activation of protein kinase C in contrast suppressed phosphorylation of ezrin and moesin. Inhibition of ezrin phosphorylation prevented its membrane association.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, e-selectin and C-reactive protein levels in response to 4-week very-high-fructose or -glucose diets.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES High intake of added sweeteners is considered to have a causal role in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic disorders. Especially, high-fructose intake is regarded as potentially harmful to cardiometabolic health. It may cause not only weight gain but also low-grade inflammation, which represents an independent risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In particular, fructose has been suggested to induce plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) expression in the liver and to increase circulating inflammatory cytokines. We therefore aimed to investigate, whether high-fructose diet has an impact on PAI-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), e-selectin and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations in healthy humans. SUBJECTS/METHODS We studied 20 participants (12 males and 8 females) of the TUebingen FRuctose Or Glucose study. This is an exploratory, parallel, prospective, randomized, single-blinded, outpatient, hypercaloric, intervention study. The participants had a mean age of 30.9 ± 2.1 years and a mean body mass index of 26.0 ± 0.5 kg/m(2) and they received 150 g of either fructose or glucose per day for 4 weeks.Results:There were neither significant changes of PAI-1, MCP-1, e-selectin and CRP after fructose (n=10) and glucose (n=10) intervention nor treatment effects (all P>0.2). Moreover, we did not observe longitudinal associations of the inflammatory parameters with triglycerides, liver fat, visceral fat and body weight in the fructose group. CONCLUSIONS Temporary high-fructose intake does not seem to cause inflammation in apparently healthy people in this secondary analysis of a small feeding trial.