Percorrer por data de Publicação, começado por "2013-05"
A mostrar 1 - 10 de 55
Resultados por página
Opções de ordenação
- Pilot Project on the Implementation of FoodEx2 as part of the SSD for the Portuguese Electronic Transmission of Chemical Occurrence Data to EFSA - PT experiencePublication . Oliveira, Luisa; Ravasco, Francisco; Lopes, Ana
- Assessment of Digestion Methods to Assist Mineral Analysis of Purple Corn, Quinoa, Amaranth and Buckwheat by ICP-OESPublication . Nascimento, Ana Cláudia; Santiago, Susana; Santos, Mariana; Coelho, Inês; Gueifão, Sandra; Castanheira, Isabel; Samman, Norma; Calhau, Maria AntóniaPurple corn (Zea mays L.), quinoa (Chenopodium Quinoa) and amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) are a cereal and pseudocereals of Andean origin, largely consumed in North of Argentina. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a pseudocereal with an important role in food diets around the world, especially in Asia and Eastern Europe. They gained increasing attention of scientific community, specially due to their high nutritional value and health benefits. Mineral concentrations in cereals and pseudocereals can differ with genotype, type of soil, fertilizer application, region’s mineral composition and treatments applied, that can even cause the loss of some minerals. Analytical values must be obtained by applying high quality criteria, such as criteria on sample handling, appropriate sample preparation and subsequent analytical method and, an effective internal and external quality control program. Inductively Couple Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry – ICP-OES is a high specific technique which allows a rapid and simultaneous multi-elemental analysis of several elements, in a numerous and wide scale of sample matrices, with good detection limits. A previous sample decomposition through its dissolution is required which can be undertaken by different methods, namely microwave digestion, dry-ashing, wet digestion. The destruction of organic matter is a slow step of overall analytical process largely dependent on the content of major components. The purpose of this work was to compare the performances of microwave and dry-ashing digestion procedures, including the optimization of microwave conditions to assist ICP-OES analysis. The optimized digestion method was applied on determination, of copper, manganese, iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium contents in purple corn, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat and rice. Samples were dry ashed within platinum capsules in a furnace at 470 ºC during 40 h and microwave digested using a closed-vessel system digestion with a mixture of concentrated acid nitric, hydrogen peroxide and deionised water. The accuracy of analytical procedure was verified by analyzing a NIST 1548a reference material. Mineral profiles of purple corn, pseudocereals and rice were compared. Copper ranged from 0.07 mg/100g (rice) to 0.59 mg/100g (quinoa), manganese ranged from 0.64 mg/100g (purple corn) to 1.73 mg/100g (quinoa), iron ranged from 0.2 mg/100g (rice) to 8.8 mg/100g (amaranth), zinc ranged from 1 mg/100g (rice) to 5.1 mg/100g (amaranth), magnesium ranged from 27 mg/100g (rice) to 211 mg/100g (amaranth), calcium ranged from < 10 mg/100g (rice) to 154 mg/100g (amaranth), phosphorus ranged from 105 mg/100g (rice) to 480 mg/100g (amaranth), potassium ranged from 90 mg/100g (rice) to 587 mg/100g (quinoa). By comparing purple corn and pseudocereals with rice, pseudocereals presented the highest mineral content as expected. Also, for almost all minerals, purple corn showed higher mineral amounts than rice. These results showed that purple corn and pseudocereals understudy can be added to diets, with already known improved nutritional benefits. Statistically there was no evidence that the two different digestion methods applied have influenced final results, as P value was considered to be not significant (P > 0.05). However, microwave digestion enabled a more effective control of contamination or losses than dry-ashing, with less time consuming dispended.
- Prevalência da violência contra as pessoas idosas: uma revisão crítica da literaturaPublication . Santos, Ana João; Nicolau, Rita; Fernandes, Ana Alexandre; Gil, Ana PaulaOs estudos de prevalência sobre a violência contra as pessoas idosas, em contexto familiar, desenvolvidos nas três últimas décadas, especialmente na Europa e países anglo-saxónicos, não são suficientemente esclarecedores, por insuficiências na definição dos modelos teóricos e nos conceitos operatórios. Neste artigo de revisão sistemática da literatura identifica-se a diversidade de definições e desenhos de investigação, com impacto inevitável nas variações das estimativas. Também a perceção da opinião pública europeia sobre o problema colide com os baixos valores estimados. Procurar-se-á refletir sobre as razões subjacentes a essas representações e refletir criticamente sobre as estimativas dos estudos de prevalência de base populacional.
- Contribuição para o controlo da infeção nosocomial de Candida parapsilosis por tipagem com marcadores de DNA microssatélitePublication . Sabino, R.; Sampaio, P.; Viegas, C.; Veríssimo, C.; Pais, C.Fungal infections constitute a relevant problem in hospitals from all over the world. Their easy transmission through the air, water, or by direct or indirect contact with contaminated persons, surfaces or objects lead to an increasing preoccupation with those infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Regarding the enormous importance of Candida parapsilosis as agent of bloodstream infections and hospital outbreaks, the presented work aimed to contribute to the development of new molecular tools able to answer to epidemiological questions related with infections by this species and their application in favor of patient safety
- Do ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. constitute a burden to birds?Publication . Norte, A.; Lobato, D.; Braga, E.; Antonini, Y.; Lacorte, G.; Gonçalves, M.; Lopes de Carvalho, I.; Gern, L.; Núncio, M.; Ramos, J.Ticks consume resources from their hosts shaping their life-history traits and are vectors of many zoonotic pathogens. Several studies have focused on the health effects of blood sucking ectoparasites on avian hosts, but there is limited information on the effects of ticks on adult and sub-adult birds, which may actively avoid ticks and are likely to present low infestation intensities. We evaluated the effects of the presence of feeding ticks and intensity of infestation on health variables of avian hosts. We also evaluated whether these variables were affected by tick infection by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) and by the presence of Borrelia infection on the birds’ skin. Presence of parasite association among ticks, haemosporidea and Borrelia within the bird-host was also tested. We found that infestation by ticks significantly increased heterophyl/lymphocyte ratio in Turdus merula suggesting increased stress. This was especially evident at high infestation intensities when a significant decrease in body mass and body condition (body mass corrected for size) was also observed. Erithacus rubecula infested with more than ten larvae tended to have lower haematocrit and blood haemoglobin. Plasma globulin concentration in T.merula tended to be affected by the presence of attached ticks and their infection with Borrelia, but this depended on the age of the bird. No association was detected among ticks, haemosporidea and Borrelia infection. We showed that ticks have detrimental effects on their avian hosts even under natural infestation conditions and that confirmed Borrelia reservoir hosts may also present symptoms of infection, though these may be subtle.
- Relatório da Avaliação das Necessidades de Informação Microbiológica de AlimentosPublication . Viegas, Silvia; Brazão, Roberto; Oliveira, LuísaO relatório tem como objetivo reportar os resultados mais relevantes da aplicação do questionário de avaliação das necessidades de informação microbiológica de alimentos, dos vários intervenientes da cadeia alimentar, de modo a que o trabalho e a informação gerada pelo PortFIR possam ir, o mais possível, de encontro às suas necessidades. Este trabalho insere-se nos referenciais do Grupo de Trabalho dos Utilizadores (GTU) do Programa PortFIR.
- Applying virtual crossmatch approach in portuguese kidney transplantsPublication . Lima, Bruno A.; Mendes, Miguel; Alves, HelenaPresence of donor specific antibodies anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is generally a contra-indication for transplantation and nowadays the identification of these antibodies are part of most pre-transplantation evaluations. In Portugal, the implemented protocol for the registration and maintenance of the active list for kidney transplant includes a complement-dependent cytotoxity (CDC) panel-reactive antibody (PRA) screening method, and Luminex technology for detecting and characterizing HLA alloantibodies. Under the current Portuguese kidney allocation system from deceased donors, implemented in August 2007, deceased donor kidneys are primarily allocated via ABO identical and time on dialysis with extra points to hyperimmunized patients, namely PRA CDC>50%. Additional risk for the candidate or transplant organ can be represented by a proposed calculated PRA (cPRA) based upon unacceptable HLA antigens detected by Luminex to which the patient has been sensitized. These unacceptable HLA antigens used to generate cPRA represents a ‘virtual’ crossmatch (XM). Sensitized patients are less likely to be matched with a suitable donor organ. Even after clearing the hurdle of procuring a living donor, it is still possible that this is not sufficient due to the likelihood of having a XM-positive. In these cases and in the presence of incompatible blood type between recipients and their intended living donors, kidney paired donation (KPD) can provide an answer by facilitating exchanges between willing donors’ kidneys. A national Portuguese KPD program, when realized, may prevent the current loss of a significant number of suitable living donors and reduce waiting list time for a deceased donor. An upgrade of a suggested point system in a Portuguese KPD program will be the use of cPRA instead of the values of PRA CDC. In Portugal, the virtual XM approach simply represents the optimization of an existing technique.
- Molecular Genetics of AutismPublication . Moura Vicente, Astrid
- A review of the progress on implementing WHO recommendations on the marketing of foods to children in Southern EuropePublication . Rito, Ana; McGale, L.; Graça, P.; Breda, J.
- Relatório de Atividades 2012Publication . Instituto Nacional de Saude Doutor Ricardo Jorge, IP; Almeida, GlóriaO relatório de Atividades de 2012, à semelhança do realizado em 2011, possui duas versões: a presente versão impressa que inclui as iniciativas de maior relevo desenvolvidas durante o ano de 2012, e uma versão em ebook. A versão em ebook encontra-se disponível no site do INSA, e inclui a informação de gestão, a evolução da atividade técnico-científica do INSA desde 2007, e a atividade das unidades de suporte técnico.