Screening for biological activities with application in aquaculture in halophytes from the Algarve coastline

Infectious diseases often hamper the production of aquatic organisms in aquaculture systems, causing economical losses, environmental problems and consumer safety issues. The conventional way aquaculture producers had to control pathogens was by means of synthetic antibiotics and chemicals. This procedure had consequences in the emergence of more resilient pathogens, drug contamination of seafood products and local ecosystems. To avoid the repercussions of antibiotic use, vaccination has greatly replaced human drugs in western fish farms. However there is still massive unregulated antibiotic use in third world fish farms, so less expensive therapeutic alternatives for drugs are desperately needed. An alternative way to achieve disease control in aquaculture is by using natural bioactive organic compounds with antibiotic, antioxidant and/or immunostimulant properties. Such diverse biomolecules occur in bacteria, algae, fungi, higher plants and other organisms. Fatty acids, nucleotides, monosaccharides, polysaccharides, peptides, polyphenols and terpenoids, are examples of these substances. One promising source of bioactive compounds are salt tolerant plants. Halophytes have more molecular resources and defence mechanisms, when compared with other tracheophytes, to deal with the oxidative stresses of their habitat. Many halophytes have been used as a traditional food and medical supply, especially by African and Asian cultures. This scientific work evaluated the antibiotic, antioxidant, immunostimulant and metal chelating properties of Atriplex halimus L., Arthrocnemum macrostachyum Moric., Carpobrotus edulis L., Juncus acutus L. and Plantago coronopus L., from the Algarve coast. The antibiotic properties were tested against Listonella anguillarum, Photobacterium damselae piscicida and Vibrio fischeri. The immunostimulant properties were tested with cytochrome c and Griess assays on Sparus aurata head-kidney phagocytes. J. acutus ether extract inhibited the growth of P. damselae piscicida. A. macrostachyum, A. halimus, C. edulis, Juncus acutus and P. coronopus displayed antioxidant, copper chelating and iron chelating properties. These plants show potential as sources of bioactive compounds with application in aquaculture and in other fields.

Antioxidant activities of eight Algerian plant extracts and two essential oils

Total phenol, hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, flavone/flavonol and flavanones/dihydroflavonol contents of hydro-alcoholic extracts, obtained by sonication, from the aerial parts of Artemisia campestris L., Anthemis arvensis L., Haloxylon scoparium Pomel, Juniperus phoenicea L., Arbutus unedo L., Cytisus monspessulanus L., Thymus algeriensis Boiss et Reut, Zizyphus lotus L (Desf.) collected in Djebel Amour (Sahara Atlas, Algeria) were quantified by spectrophotometric methods. The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from Artemisia campestris L. and Juniperus phoenicea I aerial parts were also evaluated by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antioxidant activity of the extracts and essential oils was assessed measuring the capacity for preventing lipid peroxidation using two lipidic substrates (egg yolk and liposomes), the capacity for scavenging DPPH, ABTS, superoxide anion radicals, hydroxyl radicals and peroxyl radicals. Anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by measuring the capacity for inhibiting lipoxygenase. Reducing power and chelating capacity were also assayed. The results showed different amounts of total phenols depending on the method used: A. campestris extract had the highest levels of total phenols when the measurement was made at lambda = 280 nm, whereas H. scoparium and A. unedo extracts showed the highest levels of total phenols with Folin-Ciocalteau. C. monspessulanus had the highest levels of flavones/flavonols and flavanones/dihydroflavonols. The essential oils of A. campestris and J. phoenicea were mainly constituted by alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and sabinene; and a-pinene, respectively. The methods used for assaying the capacity for preventing lipid peroxidation revealed to be inadequate for extracts due to the great interferences detected. The essential oils were more active than the generality of extracts for scavenging peroxyl radicals and for inhibiting lipoxygenase, whereas A. unedo extract was the most active for scavenging ABTS, DPPH, superoxide anion radicals and it also had the best reducing capacity. In a general way, the great majority of the antioxidant activities correlated well with the phenol content although such correlation was not so clear with the flavonoid content. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Poetry With People With Dementia: An Evaluation of a Two Year Project Engaging in Poetry Activities With Older People in Residential and Nursing Homes.

This paper is a summary of an evaluation of the first two years of a three year poetry project for older people with dementia. The project was set up with a poet in residence who mentored six poets to deliver poetry activities to older people and those with dementia in residential and care homes in Herefordshire. The project was developed and run by the Courtyards Hereford. The evaluation was undertake through the use of questionnaires that were given to staff and carers undertaking training workshops and the poets, staff and carers in the homes who facilitated the activities and finally by the residents who took part in the project. The main findings were that participants that responded to the questionnaire for staff and carers it had increased confidence and assisted them in gaining more knowledge about the residents, whilst for residents it had a number of positive effects including enhanced communication, increased self-esteem and enhanced self-worth whilst making them feel less isolated.

Enhancing Student Learning Experiences in Sport Psychology Modules Using Practical Activities

The University of Worcester states in its most recent strategic plan (2013 – 2018) a set of enduring values that guide and direct the activities of the institution. The first listed, and perhaps the most important value is the striving to be “an outstanding university at which to be a student”. This is further supplemented by values such as “to inspire our students to reach their full potential through excellent, innovative teaching, scholarship and research” (University of Worcester 2013: p.4). One of the many ways in which the institution strives to provide this outstanding educational experience is through regular engagement, both formal and informal, with students at a number of points in each semester. Regular experiences of collating formal and informal feedback has led to the identification of a common theme amongst Higher National Diploma (HND) students in the Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences (ISES), where they consistently request ‘more practicals’. The ISES modules however are designed to incorporate a high degree of interaction, practical activities and tasks. This is especially important for those studying at HND level as research suggests differences in learning preferences exist when compared to undergraduate students, the former preferring a more tactile style of learning (Peters et al. 2008). Using an introductory Sport Psychology HND module as an example, practical activities and tasks are fully embedded in the taught sessions to enable contextual links to be made between the learning outcomes and their subsequent use. Examples of these include: a. interviewing athletes to produce a performance profile (Butler & Hardy 1992); b. completing psychometric instruments such as the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) to measure competitive anxiety in sport (Martens et al. 1990) and demonstrate data collection and construct measurement; c. performing relaxation interventions on the students to demonstrate how specific techniques (in this instance, decreasing somatic anxiety) might work in practice; d. demonstrating how observational learning facilitates skill acquisition by creating experimental conditions that the students participate in, in teaching a new skill. Nevertheless owing to the students' previously stated on-going requests for more practical activities, it became evident that assumptions about what students consider an effective means of experiential or active learning in the context of sport-related disciplines of study needed to be investigated. This is where the opportunity to undertake an action research project arose, this being a practical method commonly employed in pedagogical enquiry to aid reflection on teaching and assessment practice for the purposes of working towards continuous improvement.

Activities of an aqueous plant extract against Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV 2): role in virus replication and progeny yield

Tese de mestrado, Biologia Molecular e Genética, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015

The personality attributes and leisure activities of the internet users: a Taiwanese case study

This study aims to examine the relationship between the personality attributes of Internet users and their leisure activities. A questionnaire survey was undertaken which revealed that most Internet users are single males aged between 21-30 belonging to the lower income groups, employed in information technology or related fields. The personality attributes of the sample showed a tendency towards a mixed locus control category. The survey indicated that the preferred leisure activities of this population group are reading, collecting and computer-based activities. However, ‘movement’ and collecting were the only leisure activities to show a significant correlation with the users’ personality attributes.

Facilitating student engagement and collaboration in a large postgraduate course using wiki-based activities

This paper investigates the impact of wiki-based activities on student participation and collaborative learning in a large postgraduate international management course. The wiki was used in this study as a facilitator for engagement and collaboration rather than a means of online discussions. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, we find strong evidence that the use of the wiki facilitated student engagement and collaboration, both inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, student learning had significantly improved as a result of the enhanced learning environment.

The Interactions between clients and providers of services related to marketing activities

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the business interactions involved in the purchase of services related to marketing activities. We build on the literature about business services classifications and the interaction between clients and providers of business services. An empirical study is conducted by means of a survey questionnaire. Data were collected from a sample of 80 buying firms of services related to marketing activities who agreed to cooperate and represent medium and large Portuguese’s firms. The results show that the buying of services related to marketing activities involves both the client and the provider in the interaction process. This paper contributes to understanding the interaction process of buying services related to marketing activities in terms of the parties involved, product/service exchange, financial and information exchange. Providers of services related to marketing activities can expect stable and preferred relationships if they can offer a good price and quality of service, meet the agreed deadlines and respond quickly to client orders. On the client’s side, the relevance, the characteristics and the wide diversity of services related to marketing activities requires a good understanding and management of the interaction portfolio with providers.

Odin: a service for gamification of learning activities

Existing gamification services have features that preclude their use by e-learning tools. Odin is a gamification service that mimics the API of state-of-the-art services without these limitations. This paper describes Odin, its role in an e-learning system architecture requiring gamification, and details its implementation. The validation of Odin involved the creation of a small e-learning game, integrated in a Learning Management System (LMS) using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification.

Exploring the bioavailability of (poly)phenols from berries and their potential activities in humans

(Poly)phenols are the most widely distributed secondary metabolites, in plants, and, therefore, are regular constituents of human food products. The regular ingestion of (poly)phenol-containing foods has been associated with a reduced risk of acquiring chronic diseases and many studies are currently trying to corroborate this theory. However, the precise contribution of (poly)phenols to disease prevention is still unknown.(...)