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On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), Wageningen Food Safety Research analyses samples of agricultural products of animal origin for dioxins, PCBs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs). This includes meat, milk, eggs and fish.The samples are taken at the primary production or processing stage (e.g. in slaughterhouses or raw milk collection services). For dioxin-like compounds, 350 samples are first screened with the DR CALUX® method. Samples giving a signal indicating a level above the lowest action level are regarded as suspected. These samples are further examined using GC/HRMS as confirmatory method. Concerning fish, shellfish and crustaceans, approx. 25 samples are collected at sea by research vessels, at the fish auction, or from whole-sale traders (farmed fish).

The mucus covers the fish's body, working as a protective barrier. Besides physical protection, mucus provides molecules that protect the fish from pathogens damaging 1,2. These include antimicrobial peptides secreted in the mucus, which play an essential role in defense against microbial pathogens since these belong to the innate immune system2,3. In this study, two adult Halobatrachus didactylus individuals were captured from the wild in Sesimbra. Then, mucus collection was performed by scraping the dorsal-lateral body of the fish with a sponge. Our objective was the identification of new peptides with bioactive potential in mucus samples by chromatography analysis. Size exclusion highperformance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC) analysis performed on mucus samples from the two individuals revealed a similar profile with an intense highlight peak which resulted in a distribution of about 775 Dalton. With interest in that peak, the two mucus samples were pooled for fractionation by SEC. The resulting fraction was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) to identify the most probable peptide sequences. Identification from databases did not provide reliable results, indicating a lack of information on the matrix analyzed. We resorted to de novo sequencing with good results using PEAKS Studio software. Five identified peptides were selected according to their bioactivities predicted in silico. Furthermore, the five identified peptides were synthesized, and the molecular size was validated by SE-HPLC analysis. Overall, this chromatographic approach enabled the identification of promising peptides, which bioactivities will be evaluated in vitro in future work.

O processo de internacionalização tornou-se inevitável com a globalização e a maior integração das diversas economias. O acesso a mercados externos permite encontrar novas oportunidades de negócio, todavia exige uma maior capacidade de resposta das empresas. A internacionalização das empresas, principalmente das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs), tem um papel importante no desenvolvimento económico de qualquer país, e quando implementado com sucesso, tende a proporcionar grandes níveis de prosperidade económica e social, a exemplo do Japão e da Alemanha. A indústria conserveira é das mais antigas em Portugal, tem empresas em actividade com mais de 160 anos de existência e, desde a sua oriegm, orientadas para a exportação. Atualmente, laboram 22 empresas de conservas de peixe, 18 no Continente e 4 na Região Autónoma dos Açores, demonstrando uma enorme resiliência às alterações dos mercados internacionais, (ANICP, 2020). O presente relatório visa descrever o meu estágio curricular realizado na Associação Nacional dos Industriais de Conservas de Peixe, que se focou, quase exclusivamente, na temática da internacionalização. O estágio teve como objetivo o auxilio nas tarefas de secretariado, marketing e conteúdo digital e, principalmente, estudar as oportunidades e desafios da expansão internacional das conservas de peixe para o mercado dos Emirados Árabes Unidos. Assim, este relatório tem uma dupla vertente, descrever as tarefas realizadas ao longo do meu estágio, mas inclui também as componentes conceptuais e técnicas do estudo de internacionalização realizado, no âmbito de uma pesquisa analítica, para avaliar as potencialidades e enunciar os desafios que se colocam às empresas do sector, na abordagem ao mercado dos Emirados Árabes Unidos. O objetivo serve que a informação tratada permita aos industriais de conservas de peixe definir uma estratégia bem-sucedida na abordagem àquele exigente mercado do Médio Oriente. The process of internationalization has become inevitable with globalization and the greater integration of different economies. Access to foreign markets makes it possible to find new business opportunities, however it requires greater responsiveness from companies. The internationalization of companies, mainly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), plays an important role in the economic development of any country, and when successfully implemented, tends to provide great levels of economic and social prosperity, as in Japan and Germany. The canning industry is one of the oldest in Portugal, it has companies in activity with more than 160 years of existence, since its origin, oriented towards exportation. There are currently 22 canned fish companies in operation, 18 on the mainland and 4 in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, demonstrating enormous resilience to changes in international markets, (ANICP, 2020). This report aims to describe my curricular internship at the Associação Nacional dos Industriais de Conservas de Peixe, which focused almost exclusively on the theme of internationalization. The internship aimed to help with secretarial, marketing, and digital content tasks and, mainly, to study the opportunities and challenges of the international expansion of canned fish to the United Arab Emirates market. Thus, this report has a double aspect, describing the tasks carried out during my internship, but also includes the conceptual and technical components of the internationalization study carried out, within the scope of an analytical research, to assess the potential and enunciate the challenges that arise. companies in the sector in approaching the United Arab Emirates market. The objective is that the processed information will allow fish canning industry to define a successful strategy in approaching that demanding Middle Eastern market.

We combine consistently dated benthic carbon isotopic records distributed over the entire Atlantic Ocean with numerical simulations performed by a glacial configuration of the Norwegian Earth System Model with active ocean biogeochemistry, in order to interpret the observed Cibicides δ13C changes at the stadial-interstadial transition corresponding to the end of Heinrich Stadial 4 (HS4) in terms of ocean circulation and remineralization changes. We show that the marked increase in Cibicides δ13C observed at the end of HS4 between ~2000 and 4200 m in the Atlantic can be explained by changes in nutrient concentrations as simulated by the model in response to the halting of freshwater input in the high latitude glacial North Atlantic. Our model results show that this Cibicides δ13C signal is associated with changes in the ratio of southern-sourced (SSW) versus northern-sourced (NSW) water masses at the core sites, whereby SSW is replaced by NSW as a consequence of the resumption of deep water formation in the northern North Atlantic and Nordic Seas after the freshwater input is halted. Our results further suggest that the contribution of ocean circulation changes to this signal increases from ~40 % at 2000 m to ~80 % at 4000 m. Below ~4200 m, the model shows little ocean circulation change but an increase in remineralization across the transition marking the end of HS4. The simulated lower remineralization during stadials than interstadials is particularly pronounced in deep subantarctic sites, in agreement with the decrease in the export production of carbon to the deep Southern Ocean during stadials found in previous studies.

Triple threat processes and/or other forcings can lead to changes in the ocean happening fast and abruptly. These changes, referred to as “tipping points”, are critical thresholds in a marine system that, when exceeded, can lead to a significant change in the state of the system, which often can be irreversible. This leaflet has been prepared mainly (but not only) for high school pupils with the financial support of Norges forskningsråd (Research Council of Norway) (309382).

Tropospheric ozone (O3) concentrations depend on a combination of hemispheric, regional, and local-scale processes. Estimates of how much O3 is produced locally vs. transported from further afield are essential in air quality management and regulatory policies. Here, a tagged-ozone mechanism within the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to quantify the contributions to surface O3 in the UK from anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from inside and outside the UK during May–August 2015. The contribution of the different source regions to three regulatory O3 metrics is also examined. It is shown that model simulations predict the concentration and spatial distribution of surface O3 with a domain-wide mean bias of −3.7 ppbv. Anthropogenic NOx emissions from the UK and Europe account for 13 % and 16 %, respectively, of the monthly mean surface O3 in the UK, as the majority (71 %) of O3 originates from the hemispheric background. Hemispheric O3 contributes the most to concentrations in the north and the west of the UK with peaks in May, whereas European and UK contributions are most significant in the east, south-east, and London, i.e. the UK's most populated areas, intensifying towards June and July. Moreover, O3 from European sources is generally transported to the UK rather than produced in situ. It is demonstrated that more stringent emission controls over continental Europe, particularly in western Europe, would be necessary to improve the health-related metric MDA8 O3 above 50 and 60 ppbv. Emission controls over larger areas, such as the Northern Hemisphere, are instead required to lessen the impacts on ecosystems as quantified by the AOT40 metric.

The primary aim of this expedition was to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution, the ecology and physiology, as well as competition of co-occurring gadoid species (Atlantic cod, Polar cod, haddock) in the communities of Arctic and Atlantic influence around Svalbard. We sampled the benthic and pelagic communities (including plankton) on the shallow shelf regions of Svalbard to estimate the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems to obtain a picture of the entire system structure and function for a long-term monitoring program of the ‘Atlantification’ of the Svalbard region. We assessed the potential impact of changes in trophic interaction (predator-prey relations) of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), Polar cod (Boreogadus saida), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) and decapod crabs on the productivity and stability of benthic and pelagic communities in Arctic ecosystems, into which their distribution ranges now extend due to ocean warming. In addition to a stock assessment and distribution analysis of gadoid fish and decapod crabs, we aimed to obtain specimens of these species in the Atlantic and polar waters around Svalbard, which were transported alive back to Germany. Laboratory experiments under scenarios of climate change at the Alfred Wegener Institute then provided (and still provide) further insight into capacities for adaptation, performance and interaction of selected species of the Arctic ecosystem around Svalbard. The results will on the one hand be used in an international Norwegian-German project and the pan-Arctic data management system (Piepenburg et al. 2011), on the other hand they will flow into fisheries modelling at the University of Hamburg, the Thuenen Institute and socio-economic modelling approaches that build on the German ocean acidification project BIOACID (www.bioacid.de).