Notoriedade dos produtos tradicionais de origem animal (DOP e IGP) do Alentejo

O presente trabalho visa conhecer o nível de notoriedade dos produtos tradicionais de origem animal (DOP e IGP) do Alentejo no mercado consumidor. Este objectivo foi alcançado através da realização de revisão bibliográfica com recurso às fontes secundárias disponíveis e de fontes primárias, nomeadamente de um questionário de avaliação da notoriedade dos produtos tradicionais (DOP e IGP) de origem animal do Alentejo expressamente desenvolvido para o efeito. A informação obtida permitiu caracterizar a oferta dos produtos tradicionais de origem animal do Alentejo, em termos quantitativos, qualitativos e diversidade, enquadrar teoricamente o tema da notoriedade no contexto do comportamento do consumidor e do marketing agro-alimentar e identificar os procedimentos metodológicos a serem utilizados e delineamento do trabalho de investigação. A análise dos dados recolhidos por inquérito, tratados com recurso a software e técnicas estatísticas descritivas, permitiram retirar conclusões relevantes, tais como a baixa notoriedade dos produtos DOP e IGP, o produto com mais notoriedade, Top-of-Mind, a Carnalentejana, entre outros. Foram identificados tanto nas fontes primárias como nas secundárias aspectos em comum: uma baixíssima notoriedade dos produtos certificados e uma preocupação e necessidade em haver mais acções de divulgação destes produtos. Dos 33 produtos certificados de origem animal do Alentejo, apuraram-se que apenas 26 se encontram a ser comercializados e em que muitos casos os agrupamentos remetem para os produtores a responsabilidade da promoção dos produtos. Foram ainda identificados tópicos para futuras pesquisas e para acções de marketing tendentes a melhorar a notoriedade dos produtos tradicionais de origem animal do Alentejo no mercado. ABSTRACT; The present work aims to know the level of renown of the traditional products of animal origin (DOP and IGP) of the Alentejo in the consumer market. This objective was reached through the realization of bibliographical revision with resource to the available secondary fountains and of primary fountains, namely of a questionnaire of evaluation of the renown of the traditional products (DOP and IGP) of animal origin of the Alentejo definitely developed for the effect. The obtained information allowed to characterize the offer of the traditional products of animal origin of the Alentejo, in quantitative, qualitative terms and diversity, to fit theoretically the subject of the renown in the context of the behavior of the consumer and of the food-rough marketing and to identify the methodological proceedings being used and delineation of the work of investigation. The analysis of the data gathered by inquiry, treated with resource the software and descriptive statistical techniques, allowed there withdrew relevant conclusions, such as the low renown of the products DOP and IGP, the product with more renown, Top-of-Mind, was the Carnalentejana, between others. Aspects were identified so much in the primary fountains how in secondary in common: a low renown of the certified products and a preoccupation and necessity in having more actions of spread/promotion of these products. Of 33 products made sure of animal origin of the Alentejo, they perfected that you punish 26 they are being marketed and in what many cases the groupings send for the producers the responsibility of the promotion of the products. Topics were still identified for future inquiries and for tending actions of marketing to improve the renown of the traditional products of animal origin of the Alentejo in the market.

Interacción planta-animal en el contexto de sistemas productivos desarrollados en distintos ambientes ecológicos

El estudio de los factores que rigen los patrones espaciales de la distribución del pastoreo de los herbívoros domésticos es fundamental en la ecología y el manejo de los recursos naturales. Aunque los productores y profesionales realizan ajustes anuales o estacionales de la carga animal para influir en la preferencia animal por determinados ambientes de pastoreo y alcanzar un uso eficiente del recurso forrajero, el manejo de la distribución del ganado continúa siendo un gran desafío. La heterogeneidad de los ambientes de pastoreo tiene dimensión tanto espacial como temporal, lo cual impone desafíos en el entendimiento de los factores que influyen en las decisiones de selección de hábitat por parte del ganado. En esta contribución comenzamos revisando los modelos conceptuales actuales del comportamiento del ganado a grandes escalas. Luego, presentamos algunos resultados de estudios conducidos en diferentes ecosistemas contrastantes de Argentina y New Mexico (EEUU). Estos estudios desarrollados usando animales con y sin collares GPS contribuyen a mejorar gradualmente las decisiones de manejo de los pastizales. Finalmente, hacemos unas consideraciones breves relacionadas con el manejo del ganado en Ecuador que pueden contribuir a mejorar la sustentabilidad de los sistemas de producción ganaderos.

Nutrición animal en sistemas tropicales: uso de residuos agrícolas en la producción animal

El aumento mundial en la demanda de alimentos, especialmente proteína, plantea la necesidad de aplicar estrategias más eficientes y sostenibles de alimentación animal. La capacidad de los rumiantes de utilizar eficientemente la fibra hace posible aprovechar subproductos y residuos agrícolas provenientes de cultivos tropicales como la palma aceitera, banano y mango, los cuales también aportan energía y proteína. Al respecto, Cuenca et al. (2015) mencionan que la harina de almendra de palma posee un valor aproximado de 14.8% de proteína cruda y 8.9% de grasa. Por su parte, Silva et al. (2014) reportan que el uso de harina integral de mango reduce las emisiones de gas y aumenta el contenido de grasa en la leche de cabras Saanen, aunque concentraciones crecientes disminuyen linealmente el volumen de producción. En cuanto a la digestibilidad de estos productos, DiLorenzo et al. (datos no publicados) mencionan que la cascara y fruto maduro del banano presentan una alta digestibilidad in vitro de la materia orgánica (90.45%), superior a la de otros productos del banano, kikuyo y palmiste. Un alimento menos tradicional, el ensilado de pez diablo (EPD) fue incluido en diferentes niveles por Tejeda-Arroyo et al. (2015), en dietas de corderos en crecimiento, obteniendo ganancias de peso de 211.5 g/día (18% EPD) y conversión alimenticia de 6.6 y 6.4 kilogramo de alimento por kilogramo de ganancia de peso (27% EPD y 9% EPD). Se requiere avanzar en la investigación del potencial nutritivo de estos y otros alimentos no tradicionales, así como de las técnicas adecuadas para su mejor utilización, almacenamiento y transporte. El uso de estos subproductos podría reducir los costos de producción y contribuir a disminuir el impacto ambiental de las actividades agrícolas y ganaderas.

THE MIDDLE-DNIESTER CULTURAL CONTACT AREA OF EARLY METAL AGE SOCIETIES. THE FRONTIER OF PONTIC AND BALTIC DRAINAGE BASINS IN THE 4TH/3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM BC.

The paper discusses the taxonomy and autogenesis of the cycle of early ‘barrow cultures’ developed by the local communities of the middle Dniester Area or, in a broader comparative context, the north-western Black Sea Coast, in the 4th/3rd-2nd millennium BC . The purpose of the study is to conduct an analytical and conceptual entry point to the research questions of the dniester Contact area, specifically the contacts between autochthonous ‘late Eneolithic’ communities (Yamnaya, Catacomb and Babyno cultures) and incoming communities from the Baltic basin . The discussion of these cultures continues in other papers presented in this volume of Baltic-Pontic Studies.

Development of a novel platform for high-throughput gene design and artificial gene synthesis to produce large libraries of recombinant venom peptides for drug discovery

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências Veterinárias na Especialidade de Ciências Biológicas e Biomédicas

Crystallization, preliminary X-ray analysis and molecular-replacement solution of haemoglobin-II from the fish matrinxa (Brycon cephalus)

Haemoglobins constitute a set of proteins with interesting structural and functional properties, especially when the two large animal groups reptiles and fishes are focused on. Here, the crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of haemoglobin-II from the South American fish matrinxa (Brycon cephalus) is reported. X-ray diffraction data have been collected to 3.0 Angstrom resolution using synchrotron radiation (LNLS). Crystals were determined to belong to space group P2(1) and preliminary structural analysis revealed the presence of two tetramers in the asymmetric unit. The structure was determined using the standard molecular-replacement technique.

Molecular survey and genetic characterization of tick-borne pathogens in dogs in metropolitan Recife (north-eastern Brazil).

To identify DNA of the main tick-borne pathogens in dogs from Recife (Brazil), polymerase chain reactions were carried out on blood samples of dogs treated at the Veterinary Hospital of the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco from March 2007 to June 2008. The detection of DNA was performed using specific primers. Amplicons were analyzed through electrophoresis and sequencing. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using the UPGMA method, revealing that the sequences were closely related to those of strains from other geographic regions. Among the 205 blood samples analyzed, 48.78% was positive for Anaplasma platys; 38.04% was positive for Ehrlichia canis; 7.31% was positive for Babesia canis vogeli; and 0.49% was positive for Hepatozoon canis and Mycoplasma haemocanis. Coinfection of two or three pathogens was found in 23.9% (49/205) of the dogs. The subspecies B. canis vogeli was identified. Infection by H. canis and M. haemocanis is reported for the first time in dogs in the state of Pernambuco (Brazil). The data indicate that the main tick-borne pathogens in dogs in this region are E. canis and/or A. platys, followed by B. canis vogeli.

Monitoring of Mediterranean marine benthic biodiversity through novel, standardized, and integrated approaches

Marine healthy ecosystems support life on Earth and human well-being thanks to their biodiversity, which is proven to decline mainly due to anthropogenic stressors. Monitoring how marine biodiversity changes trough space and time is needed to properly define and enroll effective actions towards habitat conservation and preservation. This is particularly needed in those areas that are very rich in species compared to their low surface extension and are characterized by strong anthropic pressures, such as the Mediterranean Sea. Subtidal rocky benthic Mediterranean habitats have a complex structural architecture, hosting a panoply of tiny organisms (cryptofauna) that inhabit crevices and caves, but that are still unknown. Different artificial standardized sampling structures (SSS) and methods have been developed and employed to characterize the cryptofauna, allowing for data replicability and comparability across regions. Organisms growing on these artificial structures can be identified coupling morphological taxonomy and DNA barcoding and metabarcoding. The metabarcoding allows for the identification of organisms in a bulk sample without morphological analysis, and it is based on comparing the genetic similarities of the assessed organisms with barcoding sequences present in online barcoding repositories. Nevertheless, barcoded species nowadays represent only a small portion of known species, and barcoding reference databases are not always curated and updated on a regular basis. In this Thesis I used an integrative approach to characterize benthic marine biodiversity, specifically coupling morphological and molecular techniques with the employment of SSS. Moreover, I upgraded the actual status of COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) barcoding of marine metazoans, and I built a customized COI barcoding reference database for metabarcoding studies on temperate biogenic reefs. This work implemented the knowledge about diversity of Mediterranean marine communities, laying the groundworks for monitoring marine and environmental changes that will occur in the next future as consequences of anthropic and climate threats.

Concepts and methods for efficient decentralized learning in federated settings

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have revolutionized a wide range of applications beyond traditional machine learning and artificial intelligence fields, e.g., computer vision, healthcare, natural language processing and others. At the same time, edge devices have become central in our society, generating an unprecedented amount of data which could be used to train data-hungry models such as DNNs. However, the potentially sensitive or confidential nature of gathered data poses privacy concerns when storing and processing them in centralized locations. To this purpose, decentralized learning decouples model training from the need of directly accessing raw data, by alternating on-device training and periodic communications. The ability of distilling knowledge from decentralized data, however, comes at the cost of facing more challenging learning settings, such as coping with heterogeneous hardware and network connectivity, statistical diversity of data, and ensuring verifiable privacy guarantees. This Thesis proposes an extensive overview of decentralized learning literature, including a novel taxonomy and a detailed description of the most relevant system-level contributions in the related literature for privacy, communication efficiency, data and system heterogeneity, and poisoning defense. Next, this Thesis presents the design of an original solution to tackle communication efficiency and system heterogeneity, and empirically evaluates it on federated settings. For communication efficiency, an original method, specifically designed for Convolutional Neural Networks, is also described and evaluated against the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, this Thesis provides an in-depth review of recently proposed methods to tackle the performance degradation introduced by data heterogeneity, followed by empirical evaluations on challenging data distributions, highlighting strengths and possible weaknesses of the considered solutions. Finally, this Thesis presents a novel perspective on the usage of Knowledge Distillation as a mean for optimizing decentralized learning systems in settings characterized by data heterogeneity or system heterogeneity. Our vision on relevant future research directions close the manuscript.

Artisanal food productions of animal origin: exploring food safety in the age of Whole Genome Sequencing

The artisanal food chain is enriched by a wide diversity of local food productions with delightful organoleptic characteristics and valuable nutritional properties. Despite their increasing worldwide popularity and appeal, several food safety challenges are addressed in artisanal facilities context suffering from less standardized processing conditions. In such scenario, recent advances in molecular typing and genomic surveillance (e.g., Whole Genome Sequencing [WGS]) represent an unprecedent solution capable of inferring sources of contamination as well as contributing to food safety along the artisanal food continuum. The overall objective of this PhD thesis was to explore potential microbial hazards among different artisanal food productions of animal origins (dairy and meat-derived) typical of the food culture and heritage landscape belonging to Mediterranean countries. Three different studies were then carried out, specifically focussing on: 1) compare the seasonal variability of microbiological quality and potential occurrence of microbial hazards in two batches of Italian artisanal fermented dairy and meat productions; 2) Investigate genetic relationships as well as virulome and resistome of foodborne pathogens isolated within dairy and meat-derived productions located in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Morocco; 3) investigate the population structure, virulome, resistome and mobilome of Klebsiella spp. isolates collected from study 1, including an extended range of public sequences.

Innovative microbiome-based system for the improvement of productivity, safety and sustainability of mussels farming

Northwestern Adriatic Sea Mediterranean mussels are exposed to fluctuating environmental parameters and to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Today is well known that mussels can be defined as holobiont, even if remains a lot to elucidate about how an organism and its microbial component response to environmental stress. This PhD dissertation aims to investigate microbiome possible adaptive patters exploiting the organism physiology response to stress, using the NGS sequencing method. The experimental approach consisted of two phases to first determine (i) the microbiome at a tissue scale level, (ii) the microbiome and physiological response to natural and anthropogenic stress environment and the chemical assessment of the microecosystem the Northwestern Adriatic Sea Mediterranean Mussel lives in. Results revealed firstly a robust microbiome well differentiated from seawater microecosystem, with compositional variations at the organ level. Thanks to those findings, digestive gland, the organ in which digestive and detoxification processes allow animal to tolerate and accumulate xenobiotics of natural and anthropogenic origin, was the selected tissue for the second phase of the project. The second phase of the project evaluated the putative physiological variations and the compositional changes in microbiome of digestive gland. I then manage to assess microbiome region trends across the north Adriatic, with each sampling site well differentiated from the others. Finally, a chemical method able to a powerful tool for the analytical detection of the major pollutants in mussels were validated. These first results may provide baseline information for future studies approaches of seasonal and region trends of microbiota profiles and physiological responses in terms of metabolism.

Neural Machine Translation in the Field of Law. Analysis and Evaluation against Human Reference of NMT Raw Outputs of an Atto Costitutivo of S.r.l. from Italian into German.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining ever more ground in every sphere of human life, to the point that it is now even used to pass sentences in courts. The use of AI in the field of Law is however deemed quite controversial, as it could provide more objectivity yet entail an abuse of power as well, given that bias in algorithms behind AI may cause lack of accuracy. As a product of AI, machine translation is being increasingly used in the field of Law too in order to translate laws, judgements, contracts, etc. between different languages and different legal systems. In the legal setting of Company Law, accuracy of the content and suitability of terminology play a crucial role within a translation task, as any addition or omission of content or mistranslation of terms could entail legal consequences for companies. The purpose of the present study is to first assess which neural machine translation system between DeepL and ModernMT produces a more suitable translation from Italian into German of the atto costitutivo of an Italian s.r.l. in terms of accuracy of the content and correctness of terminology, and then to assess which translation proves to be closer to a human reference translation. In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, two human and automatic evaluations are carried out based on the MQM taxonomy and the BLEU metric. Results of both evaluations show an overall better performance delivered by ModernMT in terms of content accuracy, suitability of terminology, and closeness to a human translation. As emerged from the MQM-based evaluation, its accuracy and terminology errors account for just 8.43% (as opposed to DeepL’s 9.22%), while it obtains an overall BLEU score of 29.14 (against DeepL’s 27.02). The overall performances however show that machines still face barriers in overcoming semantic complexity, tackling polysemy, and choosing domain-specific terminology, which suggests that the discrepancy with human translation may still be remarkable.

The Sperm Of Hexagenia (pseudeatonica) Albivitta Walker (ephemeroptera: Fossoriae: Ephemeridae)

This study describes the sperm morphology of the mayfly Hexagenia (Pseudeatonica) albivitta (Ephemeroptera). Its spermatozoon measures approximately 30 μm of which 9 μm corresponds to the head. The head is composed of an approximately round acrosomal vesicle and a cylindrical nucleus. The nucleus has two concavities, one in the anterior tip, where the acrosomal vesicle is inserted and a deeper one at its base, where the flagellum components are inserted. The flagellum is composed of an axoneme, a mitochondrion and a dense rod adjacent to the mitochondrion. A centriolar adjunct is also observed surrounding the axoneme in the initial portion of the flagellum and extends along the flagellum for at least 2 μm, surrounding the axoneme in a half-moon shape. The axoneme is the longest component of the flagellum, and it follows the 9+9+0 pattern, with no central pair of microtubules. At the posterior region of the flagellum, the mitochondrion has a dumb-bell shape in cross sections that, together with the rectangular mitochondrial-associated rod, is responsible for the flattened shape of the flagellum. An internal membrane is observed surrounding both mitochondrion and its associated structure.

Efeito do número da passagem e do gênero das células doadoras de núcleo no desenvolvimento de bovinos produzidos por transferência nuclear

Objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar o efeito do número da passagem e do sexo das células doadoras de núcleo no desenvolvimento embrionário e fetal após transferência nuclear. Para isso, oócitos bovinos foram maturados, enucleados e reconstruídos com células somáticas de animal adulto. Após a fusão e ativação química, os zigotos reconstituídos foram cultivados em Charles Rosenkranz 2 (CR2) com monocamada de células da granulosa a 38,8ºC em atmosfera umidificada a 5% de CO2 em ar, durante sete dias, e transferidos para receptoras sincronizadas. As taxas de clivagem e desenvolvimento a blastocisto de embriões reconstruídos com células cultivadas por tempo maior foram inferiores às obtidas com os demais tempos de cultivo. Além disso, os blastocistos produzidos não resultaram no desenvolvimento de uma gestação a termo. Embora a taxa de clivagem em embriões fêmeas tenha sido maior, o número de embriões que atingiram o estádio de blastocisto foi maior nos embriões machos. No período gestacional, fêmeas apresentaram maior taxa de aborto entre 90 e 120 dias de gestação. Esses resultados indicam que células doadoras de núcleos cultivados por longos períodos dificultam a produção de blastocistos e aumentam as chances de perdas durante a gestação. Embriões clonados machos têm maior competência para se desenvolver a blastocisto e resultam em menor taxa de perda gestacional.

Effects of ascorbic acid supplementation in ileum myenteric neurons of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

The exacerbation of the oxidative stress and of the polyol pathway which impair damage myenteric plexus are metabolic characteristics of diabetes. The ascorbic acid (AA) is an antioxidant and an aldose reductase inhibitor, which may act as neuroprotector. The effects of AA supplementation on the density and cellular body profile area (CP) of myenteric neurons in STZ-induced diabetes in rats were assessed. Four groups with five animals each were formed: normoglycemic (C); diabetic (D); AA-treated diabetic (DS) and AA-treated normoglycemic (CS). Dosagen of 50mg of AA were given, three times a week, for each animal (group DS and CS). Ninety days later and after euthanasia, the ileum was collected and processed for the NADPH-diaphorase technique. There were no differences (P>0.05) in the neuronal density among the groups. The CP area was lower (P<0.05) in the DS and CS groups, with a higher incidence of neurons with a CP area exceeding 200µm² for groups C and D. The AA had no influence on the neuronal density in the ileum but had a neuroprotective effect, preventing the increase in the CP area and allowing a higher number of neurons with a CP area with less than 200µm².