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Background: Present the relevance of the study and highlights the key points of literature overview. Purpose: As of May 25, 2018, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has become mandatory for all organizations, public or private, that handle personal data of European citizens, regardless of their physical location. Higher education institutions (HEIs), namely public universities, are no exception to this requirement and, as in many other organizations, many HEIs begin the process of implementing the GDPR without meeting the minimum conditions necessary for implementation. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to present a model to determine the level of readiness of HEIs regarding the implementation of the GDPR. Study design/methodology/approach: With the objective of designing a new artefact as a readiness model for the implementation of the GDPR, this study follows Design Science Research as an approach to be used to build the readiness model, based on a set of 16 critical success factors (CSFs) previously determined. Findings/conclusions: A readiness model was designed, based on a set of 16 CSFs related to the implementation of GDPR in HEIs. Limitations/future research: This is a new area of study that needs further development, namely through the practical application of the model, allowing the improvement of the measurement levels of the different CSFs. Practical implications: The determined readiness model allows HEIs to realize a priori if they have the necessary conditions for the implementation of the GDPR, giving useful indications of the organizational dimensions and the CSFs that compose them where better performance is necessary to ensure a successful implementation. Originality/Value: As far as we know, this is the first model of readiness based on CSFs related to the implementation of GDPR in HEIs, being therefore a first contribution to the development of this area.

Since the last decade of the last century, it is known that many old grapevine varieties are descendants of other varieties through natural crossing. Portugal has an important program for the conservation of representative samples of intra-varietal variability of all autochthonous varieties, managed by the Portuguese Association for Grapevine Diversity (PORVID), which makes looking for genotypes with dubious identification an important activity from a perspective of its valorisation. This communication presents the results of the molecular analysis of 5,000 samples (accessions) from the PORVID’s collection, using nine microsatellite loci currently recommended by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) for genetic grapevine identification. The results obtained confirmed the molecular identity of 4,220 samples corresponding to 214 varieties present in the official list of Portuguese varieties. In 780 samples, 95 profiles with a plural number of accessions revealed not to be listed in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) database, corresponding to possible varieties either descendent from natural crossing from at least one known parental variety, or from undetermined origin. Furthermore, the need for a comprehensive strategy aimed at uncovering other hidden varieties is discussed to prevent their imminent loss, deepen understanding of their origin, and add economic value and sustainability to the vine and wine sector.

N-allylanilines are important compounds that are used to access several bioactive compounds containing indole and dihydroindole nucleus. However, their preparation through allylation can lead to the undesirable N,N-diallyl byproduct. In this work, the N-allylation of 4-chloroaniline was studied. In order to accelerate the process and maximize the monoallylated:diallylated ratio, we reported two full factorial studies to transpose the conventional synthetic procedure to an ultrasound (US) methodology. The evaluated factors were temperature, quantity of reagents (allyl bromide and K2CO3), reaction time, and methodology (conventional or US). The results showed that US did not change the monoallylated:diallylated ratio, but significantly improved the reaction rate, giving increased average monoallylated and total yields of 11.4% and 18.1%, respectively (p

The mahogany shoot borer, Hypsipyla grandella, is one of the most economically important Neotropical forest pest insects because it attacks valuable timber of the Meliaceae. Despite detailed information on the life cycle of H. grandella, factors influencing attack by the shoot borer are not well known. Electroantannogram studies of borer antennae indicate that both female and male moths elicited significant antennal responses to essential oil of the terminal shoots, mature and senescent leaves, in three concentrations, Himachalene, germacrene D, germacrene A, cadina-l,4-diene, hexadecanoic acid, and ethyl hexadecanoate appeared in all essential oils from Swietenia macrophylla. Germacrene-D and γ-himachalane were also present in the active essential oil of Cedrela odorata and Toona ciliata. These findings suggest that these compounds play a role in attracting H. grandella to oviposit on the leaves of these plants. The GC-EAD of essential oil from S. macrophylla mature leaves to female H. grandella antennae led to the identification of β-caryophyllene as the main constituent responsible for the antennae response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast amounts of data generated by scientific research pose enormous challenges for capturing, managing and processing this data. Many trials have been made in different projects (such as HNSciCloud and OCRE), but today, commercial cloud services do not yet play a major role in the production computing environments of the publicly funded research sector in Europe. Funded by the Next Generation Internet programme (NGI-Atlantic) from the EC, in partnership with the University California San Diego (UCSD), CERN is piloting the use of CloudBank in Europe. CloudBank has been developed by the UCSD, University of Washington and University of California, Berkeley with NSF grant support, to provide a set of managed services simplifying access to public cloud for research and education, via a cloud procurement partnership with Strategic Blue, a financial broker SME, specialised in cost management and optimisation. The European NGI experiment is provisioning cloud services from multiple vendors and deploying a series of use-cases in the domain of Machine Learning and HPCaaS, contributing to the scientific programme of the Large Hadron Collider. The main objective is to address technical, financial and legal challenges to determine whether CloudBank can be successfully used by Europe’s research community as part of its global research activity.

Over the last decades, several data preservation efforts have been undertaken by the HEP community, as experiments are not repeatable and consequently their data considered unique. ARCHIVER is a European Commission (EC) co-funded Horizon 2020 pre-commercial procurement project procuring R&D combining multiple ICT technologies including data-intensive scalability, network, service interoperability and business models, in a hybrid cloud environment. The results will provide the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) with archival and preservation services covering the full research lifecycle. The services are co-designed in partnership with four research organisations (CERN, DESY, EMBL-EBI and PIC/IFAE) deploying use cases from Astrophysics, HEP, Life Sciences and Photon-Neutron Sciences creating an innovation ecosystem for specialist data archiving and preservation companies willing to introduce new services capable of supporting the expanding needs of research. The HEP use cases being deployed include the CERN Opendata portal, preserving a second copy of the completed BaBar experiment and the CERN Digital Memory digitising CERN’s multimedia archive of the 20th century. In parallel, ARCHIVER has established an Early Adopter programme whereby additional use cases can be incorporated at each of the project phases thereby expanding services to multiple research domains and countries.

With the increasing number of Machine and Deep Learning applications in High Energy Physics, easy access to dedicated infrastructure represents a requirement for fast and efficient R&D. This work explores different types of cloud services to train a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) in a parallel environment, using Tensorflow data parallel strategy. More specifically, we parallelize the training process on multiple GPUs and Google Tensor Processing Units (TPU) and we compare two algorithms: the TensorFlow built-in logic and a custom loop, optimised to have higher control of the elements assigned to each GPU worker or TPU core. The quality of the generated data is compared to Monte Carlo simulation. Linear speed-up of the training process is obtained, while retaining most of the performance in terms of physics results. Additionally, we benchmark the aforementioned approaches, at scale, over multiple GPU nodes, deploying the training process on different public cloud providers, seeking for overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The combination of data science, cloud deployment options and associated economics allows to burst out heterogeneously, exploring the full potential of cloud-based services.

GaN is a wide bandgap semiconductor which is expected to withstand high radiation doses. Consequently, it is considered a promising material for new generation particle detectors in radiation related applications. We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization under proton irradiation of single microwire sensors based on a back-to-back Schottky contact configuration. The microwires are grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and processed into sensors by using optical lithography on dispersed wires. We investigate the impact of the contacts and the semiconductor bulk on the ion beam induced current (IBIC) by irradiating specific areas of the sensor and simultaneously measuring the change in conductivity. We observed that the contribution of the excess charge carriers generated in the depletion regions formed at the contact interfaces is of low influence when compared to the excess charge carriers generated in the microwire bulk.

The economical and contractual aspects linked to the production use of commercial cloud services are often overlooked in research environments in Europe, preventing researchers from reaping the full benefits of these services. Since 2016, CERN, in collaboration with leading European research institutes, has launched several projects to address this problem. The preparation and execution phases of these projects have revealed key lessons in procuring commercial cloud resources for research environments in Europe. These lessons can help shape the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) [1].

Helix Nebula Science Cloud (HNSciCloud) has developed a hybrid cloud platform that links together commercial cloud service providers and research organizations’ in-house IT resources via the GEANT network. The platform offers data management capabilities with transparent data access where applications can be deployed with no modifications on both sides of the hybrid cloud and with compute services accessible via eduGAIN [1] and ELIXIR [2] federated identity and access management systems. In addition, it provides support services, account management facilities, full documentation and training. The cloud services are being tested by a group of 10 research organisations from across Europe [3], against the needs of use-cases from seven ESFRI infrastructures [4]. The capacity procured by ten research organisations from the commercial cloud service providers to support these use-cases during 2018 exceeds twenty thousand cores and two petabytes of storage with a network bandwidth of 40Gbps. All the services are based on open source implementations that do not require licenses in order to be deployed on the in-house IT resources of research organisations connected to the hybrid platform. An early adopter scheme has been put in place so that more research organisations can connect to the platform and procure additional capacity to support their research programmes.

The present study aims at understanding the changes in the channel conveyance and in the turbulent flow structure due to the presence of both submerged vegetation in the floodplains and riparian vegetation. An experimental campaign was carried out comprising uniform compound channels flows (i) without any kind of vegetation, (ii) with synthetic grass in the floodplains, (iii) with synthetic grass in the floodplains and rods in the interface between main channel and the floodplain and (iv) with synthetic grass in the floodplains and artificial shrubs in the interface between main channel and the floodplain. For comparison, the water depth in all flow cases was kept constant. Accurate acoustic Doppler velocimetry was used to evaluate the 3d velocity field and the turbulence structures characteristics.

The achievements coming from genome analysis depend greatly on the quality of computational and processing methods. Tools for functional mRNA profiling and for gene information integration have become essential to this task. We have developed GeneBrowser as a novel approach that combines the advantages of mRNA profiling tools, at genome-scale experiments, with the features provided by data integration systems. For a given set of genes, GeneBrowser integrates bibliography information with functional annotations, using Gene Ontology, Entrez Gene, KEGG Orthology and KEGG Pathways. The result is a comprehensive and easy to use web application that helps researchers to extract knowledge from large data sets and to speed up the discovery process.

Siphoneugena Berg (Myrtaceae) is a small eugenioid genus segregated from Eugenia by Berg. The phytochemical survey of Siphoneugena densiflora was carried out in order to find secondary metabolites which may be considered as chemotaxonomic characters and help to distinguish between the two genera. Five novel hydrolysable tannins were isolated from the methanolic extract of root bark and were characterized as ellagic acid 4-O-alpha-L-2"-O- and its isomer 4-O-alpha-L-3"-O-acetylrhamnopyranoside, siphoneugenin, that supports a new aglycone with a dibenzo-1,4-dioxin structure, 3,4'-di-O-methylellagic acid 4-O-beta-D-6"-O- and 4-O-beta-D-3",6"-diacetylglucopyranoside, accompanied by ellagic acid 4-O-alpha-L-4"-O-acetylrhamnopyranoside, eschweilenol C, sitosterol, daucosterol, rhamnose, casuarinin, castalagin, ellagic, gallic and syringic acids. From methanolic extract of leaves, in addition to the well known compounds quercetin, quercitrin, guiajaverin, reynoutrin, chebuloside II, terminolic, madecassic and asiatic acids, lupeol, alpha- and beta-amyrin, a new pentacyclic triterpene was isolated and named as beta-D-glucopyranosyl-2alpha,3beta,6beta-trihydroxyolean-12-en-28-ate. Structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical evidence, along with the comparison of the data reported in the literature.

Nine limonoids were isolated from Carapa guianensis and Cedrela fissilis. Among them, 1,2-dihydro-3beta-hydroxy-7-deacetoxy-7-oxogedunin is a new compound. Moreover, the assignments of some chemical shifts of xyloccensin k have been corrected and ¹H NMR data of 7-deacetylgedunin have been assigned for the first time. These isolated limonoids were assayed on Atta sexdens rubropilosa workers showing moderate insecticidal activities.

Eucalyptus is frequently attacked by the Brazilian eucalyptus brown looper, Thyrinteina arnobia. This caterpillar is regarded as the main lepidopterous pest of Eucalyptus and yet no practical and environmentally acceptable method of control currently exists. Electroantennographic techniques (EAG) have never before been used to detect semiochemicals that affect the behavior of T. arnobia. Thus, in this work, the ability of T. arnobia males and females to detect volatile essential oils of seven Eucalyptus species was investigated by EAG. We demonstrated that T. arnobia antennal olfactory system clearly showed differential sensitivity to several compounds, by coupled gas chromatography-electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD). Twenty-eight compounds were identified that elicited responses in T. arnobia, indicating that GC-EAD analysis may well be a useful means of screening active plant extracts for compounds that contribute to the observed behavior of this defoliator. The results also suggest that this species uses several volatile cues to find its host.

The subterranean termite Heterotermes tenuis (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a pest of great importance for the Brazilian economy as it causes serious damages in commercial reforestations of Eucalyptus spp. and sugarcane cultures. (3Z,6Z,8E)-Dodecatrien-1-ol has been identified as a pheromone of some species of subterranean termites. The objective of this research was to synthesize (3Z,6Z,8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol and determine by electroantennographic (EAG) bioassays the selectivity and sensitivity of H. tenius antennae to its whole worker extract and to the synthetic triene alcohol.

Trattinnickia burserifolia has yielded the known ursanes, alpha-amyrenone, alpha-amyrin, 3-epi-alpha-amyrin, 3alpha,16beta-dihydroxyurs-12-ene, the oleananes beta-amyrenone, beta-amyrin, 3-epi-beta-amyrin, 3alpha,16beta-dihydroxyolean-12-ene, the tirucallane acids 3alpha-hydroxytirucall-8,24-dien-21-oic, 3alpha-hydroxytirucall-7,24-dien-21-oic and 3-oxotirucall-8,24-dien-21-oic, the dammaranes dammarenediol-II and 3alpha,20(S)-dihydroxydammar-24-ene. Besides it was isolated the new monoterpene 2(S*)-phenylacetoxy-4(R*)-p-mentha-1(7),5-diene and, the new triterpenes 3beta-phenylacetoxyurs-12-ene, 3beta-phenylacetoxyolean-12-ene and 3beta,16beta,11alpha-trihydroxyurs-12-ene. The triterpenes from T. burserifolia, T. rhoifolia and Dacryodes were analyzed in mixture. Their 13C NMR spectra showed that the major triterpenes were in T. burserifolia alpha-amyrin and beta-amyrin; in T. rhoifolia alpha-amyrin, beta-amyrin, 3-epi-alpha-amyrin, 3-epi-beta-amyrin, and lupenone; in T. rhoifolia alpha-amyrin, beta-amyrin, 3-epi-alpha-amyrin, 3-epi-beta-amyrin, 3alpha-hydroxytirucall-8,24-dien-21-oic acid and 3alpha-hydroxytirucall-7,24-dien-21-oic acid; in D. hopkinsii alpha-amyrin, beta-amyrin, lupeol, tirucallol, sitosterol and stigmasterol. Aspects of chemosystematic of the tribe Protieae are discussed.

Our taxonomic interest in the Neoraputia stimulated an investigation of N. paraensis searching for alkaloids. Fractions were monitored by ¹H NMR and ESI-MS/MS and only those which showed features of anthranilate alkaloids and flavonoids absent in the previous investigations were examined. Stems afforded the alkaloids flindersine, skimmianine, 8-methoxyflindersine and dictamnine; leaves yielded 3',4',7,8-tetramethoxy-5,6-(2",2"-dimethylpyrano)-flavone, 3',4',5,7,8-pentamethoxyflavone, 5-hydroxy-3',4',6,7-tetramethoxyflavone, 3',4'-methylenedioxy-5,6,7-trimethoxyflavone and 5-hydroxy-3',4'-methylenedioxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavone. The alkaloids have remained undiscovered for 10 years. A number of flavonoids isolated from N. paraensis, N. magnifica, Murraya paniculata, Citrus sinensis graft (Rutaceae), Lonchocarpus montanus (Leguminosae) were evaluated for their ability to inhibit the enzymatic activity of the protein glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from Trypanosoma cruzi. Highly oxygenated flavones and isoflavone were the most actives.

In this communication we have evaluated the toxic properties of methanol extracts from flowers, peduncles, leaves, petioles and stem bark of Dimorphandra mollis to Apis mellifera workers. Astilbin (5,7,3',4'-tetrahydroxy--2,3-dihydroflavonol-3-beta-O-rhamnoside) has been isolated from peduncles and flowers of this plant in large amounts. Astilbin presented insecticidal activity against confined bees. The results suggest that astilbin reduces the average survival of treated bees.

The methanol extract of stems of Trichilia claussenii yielded three new sesquiterpenoids: 14-hydroxyelemol, germacra-10(14)-en-9,11,15-triol and germacra-3,10(14)-dien-9,11-diol-4-carbaldehyde. Two known sesquiterpenoids beta-eudesmol, cryptomeridiol and the triterpenoid 22,25-dihydroxy-9beta,19-cyclolanost-23-en-3-one were also isolated. The dichloromethane extract from the leaves of T. lepidota afforded a mixture of hydrocarbons (C29H60, C31H64 and C33H68), a mixture of the sesquiterpenes caryophyllene and humulene epoxides, spathulenol, and a series of sterols: 24-methylene-12b-hydroxycholesterol, 24-methyl-12beta-hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one, 24-methylene-12beta-hydroxycholest-5-ene-3-palmitate; a mixture of 24-methylenecholesterol, campesterol, stigmasterol and beta-sitosterol; besides alpha-tocoferol and phytol. From the methanol extract it was isolated N-methyl-4-hydroxyproline. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic analysis.

Phytochemical survey of stems and leaves extracts of the South Brazilian endemic plant Raulinoa echinata Cowan, Rutaceae, led to the isolation of known furoquinoline alkaloids: the widespread skimmianine; kokusaginine, maculine, flindersiamine, and also quinolone derivatives: 1-methyl-2-n-nonyl-4-quinolone, 2-n-nonyl-4-quinolone and 1-methyl-2-phenyl-4-quinolone. These alkaloids showed antifungal activity against Leucoagaricus gongylophorus; the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants (Atta sexdens). They were inactive or displayed weak inhibitory activity when assayed in vitro against trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi. In this paper, the isolation, structure elucidation and bioactivity results of these compounds are reported together with the X-ray structure of flindersiamine.

Two new benzoic acid esters of triterpene alcohols [lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid 3alpha,7beta-dibenzoate and 3alpha-hydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid 7beta-benzoate] were isolated from the stem bark of Picramnia teapensis Tul. The structures of these compounds were established on the basis of spectral analyses. Other known compounds, beta-sitosterol, estigmasterol, lupeol and epilupeol, were identified in mixture by GC-MS. The triterpene esters have not shown in-vitro inhibitory effect on the growth of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Fisher), referred also as Leucocoprinus gongylophorus (Heim), syn Rozites gongylophora (Möller), the symbiotic fungus cultivated by the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens L.

Foi conduzido um experimento, com 100 dias duração, utilizando-se 288 alevinos de pacu, distribuídos em 36 caixas de cimento amianto com volume de 100 litros, para avaliar a substituição da farinha de peixe por farelo de soja e os níveis protéicos nas dietas. Durante o período experimental, a temperatura média da água permaneceu em 28ºC e os demais parâmetros limnológicos (oxigênio dissolvido, pH, alcalinidade e condutividade) apresentaram-se dentro dos níveis adequados para o desenvolvimento desta espécie. O delineamento experimental foi de blocos casualizados, em que foram avaliados nove tratamentos em esquema fatorial 3 x 3, três níveis de proteína bruta (22, 26 e 30%) e três níveis de substituição da farinha de peixe pelo farelo de soja (0, 50 e 100%). O nível de 26% de proteína bruta foi mais adequado. A farinha de peixe pode ser substituída parcial ou totalmente pelo farelo de soja, sem influir no ganho de peso, na conversão alimentar, na taxa de crescimento específico e na taxa de eficiência protéica dos alevinos. A substituição das fontes protéicas também não influenciou a composição corporal dos peixes, a eficiência de retenção de nitrogênio, o nitrogênio corporal, a gordura corporal e o nitrogênio e a gordura no ganho de peso.

The essential oils of Toona ciliata, Cedrela odorata and C. fissilis have been analysed by GC-MS. Cedrela contains the main sesquiterpenes formed from the cis- and trans-farnesyl pyrophosphate. In contrast, Toona tend to produce mainly sesquiterpenes formed from the trans-precursor. These results show that the affiliation of Toona in the tribe Cedreleae together with Cedrela is still rather problematic. Mean electroantennogram responses (EAGs) to the essential oils from T. ciliata and C. odorata, in Hypsipyla grandella females were significantly greater than those obtained for males, suggesting that females would use attractant odours messages from the host-plant (genera of Swietenioideae) as search strategy behaviour for habitat location and oviposition.

The C25-quassinoids 20(R)- and 20(S)-simarolide were isolated from Simaba cuneata, Simaroubaceae. The structures of these two compounds were characterized by spectral data, including 1D and 2D NMR spectra which were also used for the complete assignment of the carbon and hydrogen atom chemical shifts.