Do aviamento as cooperativas de beneficiamento: inovações sociais em sistemas de produção com castanha-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa bonpl) no estado do Amapá.

Este estudo caracteriza o extrativismo da castanha-do-brasil (Bertholletia excelsa bonpl), sua estrutura e comercialização e relações sociais na Região Sul do Amapá. este processo experimenta rápidas transformações a partir da metade da década de 1990, e, com essas mudanças diferentes representações sociais ao extrativismo são construídas, fato que no futuro implicará em novos arranjos envolvendo as agriculturas e a conservação ambiental. Para entender este processo e construir soluções tecnológicas para contribuir na manutenção dessa harmonia, a Embrapa Amapá desenvolveu no período de 2008/2010, processos de inovações técnicas e sociais nesse sistema, usando a metodologia de pesquisa participativa, envolvendo 22 comunidades locais e 151 famílias da RESEX Rio Cajarí, RDS Iratapuru e PAE Maracá. Os resultados demonstram a necessidade de investimentos em infraestrutura e capacitação das cooperativas locais, para que de fato assuman as funções de comando e coordenação da modernização dessas relações, dentre outras, influenciando na harmonização desse tipo de extrativismo com as agriculturas, contribuindo assim com a melhoria na qualidade de vida associada com a preservação ambiental de comunidades locais do Sul do Amapá.

Comunidades y agentes del estado en la construcción de formas cotidianas de negociación: Costa Rica, 1850-1914

ResumenEl artículo es un análisis de la construcción del poder en el mundo predominantemente rural del Valle Central, fundamentado en la interacción entre los agentes del Estado y las comunidades campesinas. Propone develar una dimensión de las prácticas hegemónicas en la organización del trabajo colectivo para el desarrollo de la infraestructura requerida por el proceso de mercantilización de la economía. El poder directriz de los agentes del Estado es afirmado, disputado y negociado por comunidades campesinas, cruzadas por diferencias y conflictos económicos y regionales. Puntos de encuentro y fractura entre las comunidades se integran a las construcciones discursivas que, sutil o abiertamente, enfrentan las políticas públicas.AbstractThis article constitutes an analysis of the construction of power, in a predominantly rural world of the Central Valley of Costa Rica, based on the interaction between government agents and rural communities. It intends to unveil a dimension of hegemonic practices in the organization of collective work for the development of infrastructure required for the process of commercialization of the economy. The steering power of the government agents is acknowledged, debated on, and negotiated by the peasant communities, intersected by economic and regional differences and conflicts. Points of coincidence and fracture between communities are woven into the discursive constructions facing public policies, whether in a subtle or open manner. 

Investigating genetic diversity in sapucaia using inter simple sequence repeat markers.

Sapucaia is a tree species originating from the Brazilian Amazon and is widely distributed in Brazil, especially in the mid-north region (Piauí and Maranhão states). Its seeds are rich in calories and proteins, and possess great potential for commercialization. Little is known about the genetic variability in the germplasm of most Lecythis species.

Analytical characteristics and discrimination of Brazilian commercial grape juice, nectar, and beverage.

The production and commercialization of Brazilian grape juice is increasing annually, mainly due to its typicality, quality, and nutritional value. The present research was carried out in view of the great significance of Brazilian grape juice for the grape and wine industry. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to assess its composition as well as the discrimination between grape juice and other beverages. Twenty four samples of whole, sweetened, and reprocessed grape juices, grape nectar, and grape beverage were evaluated. Classical variables were analyzed by means of physicochemical methods; tartaric and malic acids, by HPLC; methanol, by gas chromatography; minerals, by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. These products were discriminated by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results show that whole and sweetened grape juices were discriminated from other grape products because they featured higher values of total soluble solids, tartaric and malic acids, most minerals, phenolic compounds, and K/Na ratio, whereas grape nectar and grape beverage presented higher values of ºBrix/titratable acidity ratio. Reprocessed juice was discriminated due to its higher concentrations of Li and Na and lower hue.

Excited state energy surfaces of flexible emitters for thermally activated delayed fluorescence

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) technology has matured over recent years, reaching the commercialization level and being used in various applications. The required efficiency can be achieved by transforming triplet excitons into singlet states via Reverse InterSystem Crossing (RISC), which a general mechanism called thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). Two prototypical molecules in the field, 2CzBN and 4CzBN, Carbazole Benzonitrile (donor-acceptor) derivatives, possess similar energy gap between singlet and triplet (∆EST, a key parameter in the RISC rate), but different TADF performance. In this sense, other parameter must be considered to explain these different behaviors. In this work, we theoretically investigate 2CzBN and 4CzBN and address the problem of how flexible donor-acceptor (D-A) or donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) molecular architectures affect the nature of excited state, and the oscillator strength. Furthermore, we analyze the RISC rates as a function of the conformation of the carbazole side groups, considering the S0, S1, T1 and T2 states. The oscillator strength of 4CzBN is higher than of 2CzBN, which, in turn, is almost vanishing, resulting in only 4CzBN being a TADF active molecule. We also note the presence of a second triplet state T2 lower in energy than S1, and that the reorganization energies, associated to the RISC processes involving T1 and T2, are both important factor in differentiating the rates in 2CzBN and 4CzBN. However, the 4CzBN RISC rate from T2 to S1 is surprisingly high with respect to the one from T1 to S1, although, according to EL-Sayed rules, since T2 (CT/LE) is more similar to S1 (CT) than in 2CzBN (LE, CT), this transition should be less favored. These insights are important to understand the photophysics of the TADF process and to design novel TADF emitters based on the benzo-carbazole architecture.

Development of a porcine lactation model for the evaluation of mammary transfer of exogenous molecules - A contribution from the conception project

Around 5 million women give birth each year in Europe and, while breastfeeding, the majority of them may need to take medications, either occasionally or continuously. Unfortunately, there is often scarce evidence of trustworthy information about how a specific molecule might affect the physiology of lactation. This is the reason that brought a European public-private partnership to fund the development of a reliable platform to provide women and health-care professionals a helpful instrument to reduce uncertainty about the effects of medication used during breastfeeding. On April 1st 2019, the ConcePTION project (Grant Agreement n°821520) started to develop such envisaged platform. The 3rd Work Package was in charge of the validation of in vitro, in vivo and in silico lactation models. Between the numerous species currently used in preclinical studies, pigs’ similarities with humans’ anatomy, physiology and genomics make them extremely useful as translational models, when proper veterinary expertise is applied. The ASA team from the University of Bologna, went first to characterize the translational lactation model using the swine species, chosen upon literature review. The aim of this work was to lay the foundations of a porcine lactation model that could be suitable for application within pharmaceutical tests, to study drug transfer through milk prior approval and commercialization. The obtained results highlighted both strengths and critical points of the study design, allowing a significant improvement in the knowledge of pharmacokinetic physiology in lactating mammals. Lastly, this project allowed the assessment of microbial changes in gut resident bacteria of newborns through an innovative in vitro colonic model. Indeed, even if there were no evident adverse effects determined by drug residues in milk, possible alterations in the delicate microbial ecology of newborns’ gastrointestinal tract was considered pivotal, giving its possible impact on the individual health and growth.

Optoelectronic investigation of defects in hybrid metal halide perovskites

The growing demand for flexible and low-cost electronics has driven research towards the study of novel semiconducting materials to replace traditional semiconductors like silicon and germanium, which are limited by mechanical rigidity and high production cost. Some of the most promising semiconductors in this sense are metal halide perovskites (MHPs), which combine low-cost fabrication and solution processability with exceptional optoelectronic properties like high absorption coefficient, long charge carrier lifetime, and high mobility. These properties, combined with an impressive effort by many research groups around the world, have enabled the fabrication of solar cells with record-breaking efficiencies, and photodetectors with better performance than commercial ones. However, MHP devices are still affected by issues that are hindering their commercialization, such as degradation under humidity and illumination, ion migration, electronic defects, and limited resistance to mechanical stress. The aim of this thesis work is the experimental characterization of these phenomena. We investigated the effects of several factors, such as X-ray irradiation, exposure to environmental gases, and atmosphere during synthesis, on the optoelectronic properties of MHP single crystals. We achieved this by means of optical spectroscopy, electrical measurements, and chemical analyses. We identified the cause of mechanical delamination in MHP/silicon tandem solar cells by atomic force microscopy measurements. We characterized electronic defects and ion migration in MHP single crystals by applying for the first time the photo-induced current transient spectroscopy technique to this class of materials. This research allowed to gain insight into both intrinsic defects, like ion migration and electron trapping, and extrinsic defects, induced by X-ray irradiation, mechanical stress, and exposure to humidity. This research paves the way to the development of methods that heal and passivate these defects, enabling improved performance and stability of MHP optoelectronic devices.