The finite-volume method in computational rheology

The finite volume method (FVM) is widely used in traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and many commercial CFD codes are based on this technique which is typically less demanding in computational resources than finite element methods (FEM). However, for historical reasons, a large number of Computational Rheology codes are based on FEM. There is no clear reason why the FVM should not be as successful as finite element based techniques in Computational Rheology and its applications, such as polymer processing or, more recently, microfluidic systems using complex fluids. This chapter describes the major advances on this topic since its inception in the early 1990’s, and is organized as follows. In the next section, a review of the major contributions to computational rheology using finite volume techniques is carried out, followed by a detailed explanation of the methodology developed by the authors. This section includes recent developments and methodologies related to the description of the viscoelastic constitutive equations used to alleviate the high-Weissenberg number problem, such as the log-conformation formulation and the recent kernel-conformation technique. At the end, results of numerical calculations are presented for the well-known benchmark flow in a 4:1 planar contraction to ascertain the quality of the predictions by this method

On The Equivalence Between Some Systems Of Non-classical Logic

[No abstract available]2526872Loparic, A., Da Costa, C.A., Paraconsistency, paracompleteness and induction (1986) Logique et Analyse, 113, pp. 73-80Boscaino, E.G., (1992) Os calculos paraconsistentes P1, , e2, Master's Thesis, Pontificia Catolica, Sao Paulo, BrazilSette, A.M., On the propositional calculus p1 (1973) Mathematica Japonicae, 18, p. 3Sette, A.M., Carnielli, W.A., Maximal weakly-intuistionistic logics (1995) Studia Logica, 55, pp. 181-20

Helix vs. Sheet Formation in a Small Peptide

Segments with the amino acid sequence EKAYLRT appear in natural occurring proteins both in $\alpha$-helices and $\beta$-sheets. For this reason, we have use this peptide to study how secondary structure formation in proteins depends on the local environment. Our data rely on multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations where the interactions among all atoms are taken into account. Results in gas phase are compared with that in an implicit solvent. We find that both in gas phase and solvated EKAYLRT forms an $\alpha$-helix when not interacting with other molecules. However, in the vicinity of a $\beta$-strand, the peptide forms a $\beta$-strand. Because of this change in secondary structure our peptide may provide a simple model for the $\alpha \to \beta$ transition that is supposedly related to the outbreak of Prion diseases and similar illnesses.Comment: to appear in Physical Review

Estudo Português de Hipercolesterolemia Familiar

A Hipercolesterolemia Familiar (FH) é uma doença autossómica dominante que se caracteriza, a nível clínico, por níveis elevados de colesterol LDL, levando ao aparecimento prematuro de doenças cardiovasculares (DCV). A nível genético esta doença caracteriza-se, principalmente, por mutações em três genes: LDLR, APOB e PCSK9. Estima-se que em Portugal existam cerca de 20 000 doentes com FH. A identificação clínica de FH é possível mas apenas o estudo molecular confirma a presença da doença. O Estudo Português de Hipercolesterolemia Familiar (EPFH) tem como objectivo principal identificar a causa genética da dislipidémia em doentes com diagnóstico clínico de FH. O EPHF recebeu desde 1999, para realização do estudo molecular, 486 casos-index com diagnóstico clínico de FH e 858 familiares. O estudo molecular é realizado em 3 fases. Fase I: Identificação de mutações nos genes APOB e LDLR. Fase II: Pesquisa de grandes rearranjos no gene LDLR por MLPA. Fase III: Pesquisa de mutações no gene PCSK9. A pesquisa de mutações nos genes APOB e PCSK9 é realizada por amplificação dos fragmentos a estudar e sequenciação directa. No gene LDLR os 18 exões são amplificados dos 18 exôes por PCR e analisados por DHPLC e sequenciação. Até à data foram identificados um total de 504 doentes com um defeito genético num dos três genes estudados: 3 doentes com mutação no gene PCSK9, 12 doentes com mutação no gene APOB e 438 doentes com mutação no gene LDLR (7 dos quais em homozigotia ou heterozigotia composta). No gene LDLR foram encontradas 89 mutações diferentes, que incluem 43 mutações missense,17 delecções/inserções, 6 nonsense, 12 mutações de splicing, 4 grandes delecções e 2 no promotor e 1no codão stop. As mutações mais comuns na população portuguesa são: p.A431T (11%), p.D224N (6,9%) e p.R406W (6,2%). Foram efectuados funcionais em algumas mutações de splicing e comprovou-se a sua patogeneicidade em 6 alterações (c.-135C>G; c.-190+4insTG; c.313+6T>C; c.818-2A>G; c.2389G>T (V776L); c.2547+1G>A). Foram também efectuados estudos funcionais para 5 alterações missense não descritas anteriormente (p.V429L, p.W490R, p.S648P, p.P685S e p.V859M), verificou-se que apenas a alteração p.V859M não é patogenica. No gene APOB foi identificada a mutação mais comum (p.Arg3527Gln) e também a mutação p.Tyr3560Cys. No gene PCSK9 foi encontrada uma única alteração, p.Asp374His. A FH esta sub-diagnosticada no nosso País, esforços têm de ser conduzidos para identificar estes doentes, ainda em idade jovem, de modo a que seja evitado o aparecimento da DCV prematura, e no caso mais extremo a morte prematura como observado em algumas famílias. O diagnóstico e aconselhamento genético da FH é importante para a correcta percepção e prevenção do risco familiar de DCV. O estudo molecular fundamenta a instituição de terapêutica farmacológica adequada e a adopção de um estilo de vida saudável reduzindo substancialmente o risco cardiovascular. Nas crianças e adolescentes o diagnóstico genético é ainda mais importante, uma vez que se sabe que o risco cardiovascular é elevado, mas evitável, se medidas preventivas forem colocadas em prática. O futuro passa pela prevenção em vez da resolução tardia das complicações cardiovasculares inerentes a esta patologia

Injury risks for fitness instructors: a review of key factors

The labour risks control is an occupational health concern. Fitness participants have been increasing in the last years (Lindwall, 2004). Clients’ demand and the increase in classes number take the fitness instructors (FI) to a higher injuries exposure due to high workload. It is possible to observe several variations in aerobic dance, cycling, pilates, strength training, flexibility and balance. The main differences are in the cardiovascular intensities and the low to high impact dance (Van Mechelen, Hlobil & Kemper, 1992). The FI are exposed to high volumes of classes and injuries risks due to the high number of students and classes (Couto et al., 2016). As far as our understanding goes, FI are 50% more prone to injuries incidence in comparison to students. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess by a bibliographic research the health and injuries risk in FI. This is a bibliographic review made in PUBMED, Google Scholar, SCIELO and Web of Science. The used keywords were “fitness instructors injuries”, “fitness professor’s injuries”, and “fitness instructor’s risks”. From an analysis of 23 papers, ten were chosen considering title and abstract. After a full integral analysis, only five papers were selected for revision. The others did not aimed to analyse the injuries and the health risks for FI. The selected papers approached the injuries and health risk factors for FI. There is a positive and significant correlation between the formation levels and injuries incidence prevention in FI and students (Malek, Nalbone, Berger & Coburn, 2002). FI with higher classification prevent higher frequency of injuries events. The injuries prevalence was superior in FI than in students (72.4 – 75.9% and 22.8 – 43.3% respectively) (Mutoh, Sawai, Takanashi & Skurko, 1998; Francis, Francis & Welshons-Smith, 1985). The injuries were general inflammations, muscle strains or sprains and stress fractures by overuse (Rothenberger, Chang & Cable, 1988). The FI are more exposed to injuries than students are (0.17 injuries/100h vs 0.15/100h of practice, respectively) and about 77% of the injuries were in the lower limbs (Garrick, Gillien & Whiteside, 1986). There is a lack of research in FI injuries risk of factors. However, FI seem to have a higher exposure to injuries in comparison to students. The high workload seem to be determinant to the incidence of overuse injuries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exopolysaccharides enriched in rare suggars: bacterial sources, production and applications

Mini ReviewMicrobial extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), produced by a wide range of bacteria, are high molecular weight biopolymers, presenting an extreme diversity in terms of chemical structure and composition. They may be used in many applications, depending on their chemical and physical properties. A rather unexplored aspect is the presence of rare sugars in the composition of some EPS. Rare sugars, such as rhamnose or fucose, may provide EPS with additional biological properties compared to those composed of more common sugar monomers. This review gives a brief overview of these specific EPS and their producing bacteria. Cultivation conditions are summarized, demonstrating their impact on the EPS composition, together with downstream processing. Finally, their use in different areas, including cosmetics, food products, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical applications, are discussedinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Food Value Of Mealworm Grown On Acrocomia Aculeata Pulp Flour

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Insects have played an important role as human food throughout history, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A good example of edible insects is the mealworm, Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae), which are eaten in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. This species is easily bred in captivity, requiring simple management. The bocaiuva (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd) is an abundant palm tree found in the Brazilian Cerrado, providing fruits with high nutritional value. The aim of this work was to determine the chemical composition of T. molitor grown in different artificial diets with bocaiuva pulp flour. The nutritional composition, fatty acid composition, antioxidant activity, trypsin activity and anti-nutritional factors of larvae were analyzed. The results showed that mealworms grown on artificial diet with bocaiuva are a good source of protein (44.83%) and lipid (40.45%), with significant levels of unsaturated fatty acids (65.99%), antioxidant activity (4.5 uM Trolox/g of oil extracted from larvae) and absence of anti-nutritional factors. This study indicates a new source of biomass for growing mealworms and shows that it is possible to breed mealworms in artificial diet with bocaiuva flour without compromising the nutritional quality of the larvae. © 2016 Alves et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.113CAPES, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Genetic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia: the importance of functional analysis of potential splice-site mutations

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) results from defective low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) activity, mainly due to LDLR gene defects. Of the many different LDLR mutations found in patients with FH, about 6% of single base substitutions are located near or within introns, and are predicted to result in exon skipping, retention of an intron, or activation of cryptic sites during mRNA splicing. This paper reports on the Portuguese FH Study, which found 10 such mutations, 6 of them novel. For the mutations that have not been described before or those whose effect on function have not been analysed, their effect on splicing was investigated, using reverse transcriptase PCR analysis of LDLR mRNA from freshly isolated blood mononuclear cells. Two of these variants (c.313+6 T-->C, c.2389G-->T (p.V776L)) caused exon skipping, and one caused retention of an intron (c.1359-5C-->G), whereas two others (c.2140+5 G-->A and c.1061-8T-->C) had no apparent effect. Any effect of c.1185G-->C (p.V374V) on splicing could not be determined because it was on an allele with a promoter mutation (-42C-->G) that was probably not transcribed. Variants in four patients lost to follow-up could not be tested experimentally, but they almost certainly affect splicing because they disrupt the invariant AG or GT in acceptor (c.818-2A-->G) or donor (c.1060+1G-->A, c.1845+1delG and c.2547+1G-->A) spice sites. These findings emphasise that care must be taken before reporting the presence or absence of a splice-site mutation in the LDLR gene for diagnostic purposes. The study also shows that relatively simple, quick and inexpensive RNA assays can evaluate putative splicing mutations that are not always predictable by available software, thereby reducing genetic misdiagnosis of patients with FH

Diagnóstico molecular de hipercolesterolemia familiar: uma ferramenta importante para a estratificação do risco cardiovascular

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is associated with an increased risk of premature coronary heart disease. Molecular identification of these patients can reduce the burden of mortality from cardiovascular disorders simply by the correct identification of the disease early in life, followed by counseling and appropriate lifestyle modifications, and therapeutic measures when required. Recent studies show that, in Portugal, this disease is severely under-diagnosed. After more than 10 years of research through the Portuguese FH Study, it is now possible to translate the original research results into clinical application. AIMS: The main aims of the present work were to determine whether clinical characterization is sufficient to identify these individuals at high risk of developing CHD and to evaluate the clinical applicability of molecular diagnosis for FH. METHODS: All patients described in this study were recruited for the Portuguese FH Study. The diagnostic criteria used to select the index patients were adapted from the Simon Broome Heart Research Trust. To analyze the usefulness of the molecular diagnosis, graphs of total and LDL cholesterol values by age were constructed for 622 possible FH patients. The lipid profile of patients genetically identified as having FH, before and under medication, were analyzed to assess whether these patients were receiving appropriate treatment. The data are shown separately for children and adults and for female and male propositi (index cases and hypercholesterolemic relatives), both with and without a detectable mutation in the LDLR gene. RESULTS: The Portuguese FH Study has already genetically identified 404 individuals (171 index patients and 233 relatives) among more than one thousand individuals sent for study. A total of 78 different mutations in the LDLR gene were found in 171 index patients, 2 different mutations were found in the apoB gene of 4 patients and 2 patients had a unique PCSK9 mutation. Statistical analysis revealed that there are significant differences between total cholesterol (p < 0.001) and apoB (p = 0.026) values in the group of children (male and female) with and without a mutation in LDLR. For female children LDL values were also significantly different (p < 0.001) between subgroups but for male children this difference did not reach statistical significance. In adult women there is a statistically significant difference for total cholesterol (p = 0.049), LDL cholesterol (p = 0.031) and apoB (p = 0.003) values in the subgroups with and without a LDLR mutation. In adult males there is a statistical difference for total cholesterol (p = 0.002). LDL cholesterol (p = 0.003) and apoB (p = 0.0023) in subgroups with and without an LDLR mutation. Nevertheless there was considerable dispersion of values and individually it is not possible to distinguish between patients with and without a mutation in the LDLR gene, based only on lipid profile. CONCLUSIONS: By analysis of the clinical data of 696 possible FH patients, the present report shows evidence that clinical characterization is not sufficient to distinguish between patients with genetic or environmental dyslipidemia, and so molecular diagnosis is useful in clinical practice, allowing correct identification of FH patients and their relatives, and the early implementation of therapeutic measures to reduce the elevated cardiovascular risk of these patients. In general, molecular diagnosis of FH is feasible and could be obtained in 1-2 months if the technology is available. In Portugal the test will be offered to the population by our Institute at a cost of about 500 euros, like many other genetic tests or exams such as nuclear magnetic resonance

A global action agenda for turning the tide on fatty liver disease

Background and Aims: Fatty liver disease is a major public health threat due to its very high prevalence and related morbidity and mortality. Focused and dedicated interventions are urgently needed to target disease prevention, treatment, and care. Approach and Results: We developed an aligned, prioritized action agenda for the global fatty liver disease community of practice. Following a Delphi methodology over 2 rounds, a large panel (R1 n = 344, R2 n = 288) reviewed the action priorities using Qualtrics XM, indicating agreement using a 4-point Likert-scale and providing written feedback. Priorities were revised between rounds, and in R2, panelists also ranked the priorities within 6 domains: epidemiology, treatment and care, models of care, education and awareness, patient and community perspectives, and leadership and public health policy. The consensus fatty liver disease action agenda encompasses 29 priorities. In R2, the mean percentage of “agree” responses was 82.4%, with all individual priorities having at least a super-majority of agreement (> 66.7% “agree”). The highest-ranked action priorities included collaboration between liver specialists and primary care doctors on early diagnosis, action to address the needs of people living with multiple morbidities, and the incorporation of fatty liver disease into relevant non-communicable disease strategies and guidance. Conclusions: This consensus-driven multidisciplinary fatty liver disease action agenda developed by care providers, clinical researchers, and public health and policy experts provides a path to reduce fatty liver disease prevalence and improve health outcomes. To implement this agenda, concerted efforts will be needed at the global, regional, and national levels