Relationship between the column density distribution and evolutionary class of molecular clouds as viewed by ATLASGAL

We present the first study of the relationship between the column density distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5 kpc, identified from the ATLASGAL 870 micron data. We define three evolutionary classes within this sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar objects, and clouds associated with HII regions. We find that the N(H2) probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and HII regions exhibit a power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts of dense gas across all evolutionary classes.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (25th June 15) 23 pages, 12 figures. Additional appendix figures will appear in the journal version of this pape

Uptake of uranium by lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in natural uranium contaminated soils in order to assess chemical risk for consumers

Uranium mining activity in Cunha Baixa (Portugal) village has left a legacy of polluted soils and irrigation water. A controlled field experiment was conducted with lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in an agricultural area nearby the abandoned mine in order to evaluate uranium uptake and distribution in roots and leaves as well as ascertain levels of uranium intake by the local inhabitants from plant consuming. Two soils with different average uranium content (38 and 106 mg/kg) were irrigated with non-contaminated and uranium contaminated water (100 μg/l). A non-contaminated soil irrigated with local tap water (<1 μg/l uranium) was also used as a control. Uranium in lettuce tissues was positively correlated with soil uranium content, but non-significant differences were obtained from contaminated soils irrigated with different water quality. Uranium in plants (dry weight) growing in contaminated soils ranged from 0.95 to 6 mg/kg in roots and 0.32 to 2.6 mg/kg in leaves. Lettuce bioconcentration is more related to available uranium species in water than to its uranium concentration. Translocated uranium to lettuce leaves corresponds to 30% of the uranium uptake whatever the soil or irrigation water quality. A maximum uranium daily intake of 0.06 to 0.12 μg/kg bodyweight day was estimated for an adult assuming 30 to 60 g/day of lettuce is consumed. Although this value accounts for only 10% to 20% of the recommended Tolerable Daily Intake for ingested uranium, it still provides an additional source of the element in the local inhabitants’ die

A tale of many players

The nervous system is an amazing adaptation that allows animals to react to (and act on) their perception of the environment. One extremely important feature of an organism is the capacity to learn new actions upon exposure to new contexts, situations or necessities. When an action begins to be learned, the behaviour is highly dependent on the expected value of the outcome associated with it. However, with repetition, the execution of an action can become less dependent on the value of its consequences, and progress to a habit. Habitual behaviour is, in general, characterized by the relative independence from the outcome, and seen instead as a stimulus-response association. Several studies have pinpointed that these two behavioural modes depend on dissociable circuits in the brain, with dorsomedial striatum and basolateral amygdala involved in goal-directed actions, and dorsolateral striatum involved in habits. Nevertheless, little is known about their interaction during action learning, or how the system balances both modes during the behaviour output. Furthermore, dopamine, which is an important neuromodulator, has also been associated with this process. Accordingly, dopamine depletion in dorsolateral striatum leads to increased sensitivity to changes in the value of the outcome

Molecular Cloud Structure at Galactic Scales

Molecular clouds are the sites were stars are born and they play a crucial role in galactic evolution. Despite their main role on star formation and galaxy evolution, physics of molecular clouds are still poorly understood. Particularly, the processes controlling the formation, structure, and evolution of molecular clouds are still a matter of debate and so are the processes that regulate their star–forming activity. Previous to the beginning of this thesis, observational studies of molecular cloud structure and accurate measurements of star–forming activity in molecular clouds existed only for the Solar neighborhood, proving a very limited range of Galactic environments. Extending these studies to larger distances is crucial. This thesis is dedicated to provide the observational assets needed to obtain a Galactic picture of the processes involved in the molecular cloud structure and star– formation. We present the first systematic study of molecular cloud structure and evolution including molecular clouds in nearby spiral arms. We present a census of filamentary–shaped molecular clouds that are thought to be connected to the spiral Galactic structure. Finally, we also develop a new technique that improves the quality of the existing observational data to obtain more accurate observational assets, crucial in the study of molecular cloud structure

Balance-bot

Research on inverted pendulum has gained momentum over the last decade on a number of robotic laboratories over the world; due to its unstable proprieties is a good example for control engineers to verify a control theory. To verify that the pendulum can balance we can make some simulations using a closed-loop controller method such as the linear quadratic regulator or the proportional–integral–derivative method. Also the idea of robotic teleoperation is gaining ground. Controlling a robot at a distance and doing that precisely. However, designing the tool to takes the best benefit of the human skills while keeping the error minimal is interesting, and due to the fact that the inverted pendulum is an unstable system it makes a compelling test case for exploring dynamic teleoperation. Therefore this thesis focuses on the construction of a two-wheel inverted pendulum robot, which sensor we can use to do that, how they must be integrated in the system and how we can use a human to control an inverted pendulum. The inverted pendulum robot developed employs technology like sensors, actuators and controllers. This Master thesis starts by presenting an introduction to inverted pendulums and some information about related areas such as control theory. It continues by describing related work in this area. Then we describe the mathematical model of a two-wheel inverted pendulum and a simulation made in Matlab. We also focus in the construction of this type of robot and its working theory. Because this is a mobile robot we address the theme of the teleoperation and finally this thesis finishes with a general conclusion and ideas of future work.Orientador: Ian Oakle

The SourceData-NLP dataset: integrating curation into scientific publishing for training large language models

Introduction: The scientific publishing landscape is expanding rapidly, creating challenges for researchers to stay up-to-date with the evolution of the literature. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has emerged as a potent approach to automating knowledge extraction from this vast amount of publications and preprints. Tasks such as Named-Entity Recognition (NER) and Named-Entity Linking (NEL), in conjunction with context-dependent semantic interpretation, offer promising and complementary approaches to extracting structured information and revealing key concepts. Results: We present the SourceData-NLP dataset produced through the routine curation of papers during the publication process. A unique feature of this dataset is its emphasis on the annotation of bioentities in figure legends. We annotate eight classes of biomedical entities (small molecules, gene products, subcellular components, cell lines, cell types, tissues, organisms, and diseases), their role in the experimental design, and the nature of the experimental method as an additional class. SourceData-NLP contains more than 620,000 annotated biomedical entities, curated from 18,689 figures in 3,223 papers in molecular and cell biology. We illustrate the dataset's usefulness by assessing BioLinkBERT and PubmedBERT, two transformers-based models, fine-tuned on the SourceData-NLP dataset for NER. We also introduce a novel context-dependent semantic task that infers whether an entity is the target of a controlled intervention or the object of measurement. Conclusions: SourceData-NLP's scale highlights the value of integrating curation into publishing. Models trained with SourceData-NLP will furthermore enable the development of tools able to extract causal hypotheses from the literature and assemble them into knowledge graphs

Otimização de protocolos abreviados em estudos de ressonância magnética no carcinoma da próstata: revisão sistemática

Mestrado em Radiações Aplicados às Tecnologias da SaúdeO cancro da próstata é o segundo tumor em incidência e mortalidade de entre as neoplasias malignas masculinas. Para uma adequada programação terapêutica é fundamental a caracterização e distinção entre os tumores confinados à próstata e os que assumem extensão prostática. A Ressonância Magnética é um exame de primeira linha no estudo da patologia prostática. Os clínicos prescritores têm demostrado dificuldades de acesso a este tipo de exames devido a diferentes condicionantes, nomeadamente listas de espera elevadas, as condições financeiras dos utentes, protocolos demorados e dispendiosos condicionando assim, o diagnóstico e naturalmente a terapêutica em tempo útil. Este estudo tem como objetivo principal, analisar, a partir da literatura, os protocolos de Ressonância Magnética da próstata abreviada aplicados ao carcinoma da próstata. O estudo é de carácter descritivo, secundário, de recuperação e análise critica da literatura. A estratégia de pesquisa foi desenvolvida no sentido de encontrar os potenciais artigos relevantes num conjunto de fontes, como: as bases de dados bibliográficas de biomedicina; bases de registos de ensaios clínicos randomizados e quase randomizados; repositórios científicos e sites agregados de bases bibliográficas. Após uma pesquisa em diferentes bases de dados e aplicados os critérios de inclusão, 17 estudos, orientados pela metodologia PRISMA foram selecionados para esta revisão sistemática. O estudo foi registado na PROSPERO e a ferramenta QUADAS-2 foi utilizada para avaliar a qualidade dos estudos incluídos. Reduzir os protocolos de Ressonância Magnética Multiparamétrica da próstata pode resolver vários desafios práticos atuais, como o desconforto e condições físicas dos pacientes. No entanto se o protocolo de Ressonância Magnética Biparamétrica fosse padronizado, aumentaria o número de exames realizados numa única sessão e abrangeria um maior número de pacientes.ABSTRACT - Prostate cancer is the second tumor in incidence and mortality among male malignancies. For adequate therapeutic planning, it is essential to characterize and distinguish between tumors confined to the prostate and those that assume prostatic extension. Magnetic resonance imaging is a first-line exam in the study of prostatic pathology. Prescribing clinicians have shown difficulties in accessing this type of exam due to different constraints, namely long waiting lists, the financial conditions of users, and time-consuming and expensive protocols, thus conditioning the diagnosis and naturally the therapy in good time. The main objective of this study is to analyze, from the literature, the protocols of abbreviated Prostate Magnetic Resonance applied to prostate carcinoma. The study is of a descriptive, secondary nature, recovery, and critical analysis of the literature. The search strategy was developed to find potentially relevant articles in a set of sources, such as: biomedicine bibliographic databases; databases of randomized and quasi-randomized clinical trials; scientific repositories, and aggregate sites of bibliographic bases. After searching different databases and applying the inclusion criteria, 17 studies guided by the PRISMA methodology were selected for this systematic review. The study was registered in PROSPERO and the QUADAS-2 tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Reducing Prostate Multiparameter Magnetic Resonance protocols can solve several current practical challenges, such as discomfort and physical conditions of patients. However, if the Biparametric MRI protocol were standardized, the number of exams performed in a single session would increase and it would cover a larger number of patients.N/