Lithium urinary levels and suicide mortality rate in Portugal

Resumo de Poster apresentado no Congresso Internacional "As Métricas, a Comunicação Científica e a Inovação Pedagógica", Porto, 7 e 8 de abril de 2022Introduction: Suicide is a major public health problem, estimated to be the cause of death of more than 700.000 people a year worldwide. Lithium is not considered an essential physiological element. However, a high dietary intake of lithium has been associated with beneficial effects, particular, a decrease in the suicide rate, possibly due to lithium having a known therapeutic role in bipolar disorder [1]. Objectives: To assess the existing scientific evidence on the relation between lithium levels in drinking water and the suicide rate in distinct world regions. Methods: An exhaustive literature search on the topic was carried out on PubMed, between January and February 2022. Results: In the majority of the published studies, the suicide mortality rate was shown to be inversely related to lithium levels in drinking water. However, this relation was not observed in some studies, including in Portugal. Additionally, it seems that a minimum concentration of 30 μg/L is the threshold from which such relation is observed [2,3,4,5]. Conclusions: An inverse relation has been demonstrated between the lithium concentration in drinking water and the suicide mortality rate. Portugal presented itself as one of the exceptions. The main limitation of these studies (ecological studies) is that they assume a correlation between the concentration of lithium in drinking water and the intake of lithium. However, other sources may be important. The determination of urinary lithium levels could represent an advance in addressing the issue of the possible protective effect of lithium concerning the tendency to suicide, by allowing a more realistic determination of lithium intake by the general population.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Interoperability and Standards: The Way for Innovative Design in Networked Working Environments

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityIn today’s networked economy, strategic business partnerships and outsourcing has become the dominant paradigm where companies focus on core competencies and skills, as creative design, manufacturing, or selling. However, achieving seamless interoperability is an ongoing challenge these networks are facing, due to their distributed and heterogeneous nature. Part of the solution relies on adoption of standards for design and product data representation, but for sectors predominantly characterized by SMEs, such as the furniture sector, implementations need to be tailored to reduce costs. This paper recommends a set of best practices for the fast adoption of the ISO funStep standard modules and presents a framework that enables the usage of visualization data as a way to reduce costs in manufacturing and electronic catalogue design.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

DIAGNOSING DEATH BY DROWNING THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF BLOOD MARKERS BY INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

Investigation of bodies recovered out of water is a complex but frequent medico-legal task. The key problem is if the victim died due to drowning or by the means of other cause and placed in water. At the moment, the diagnosis of drowning is based on some unspecific findings during autopsy (lung distension and the presence of froth in upper airways and lungs) and the results of laboratory tests. Our project aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the determination by ICP-MS of trace elements (TE) in blood of the cardiac cavities of corpses found in aquatic environment as a tool to increase the certainty of the diagnostic of death by drowning. Blood samples were collected from 18 cadavers found in water, from 2006-2008, in Oporto area. The advantage of ICP-MS compared to other instrumental analytical techniques is clear and it proved to be useful. It allowed us to perform a multielemental analysis of blood, and the results highlight the importance of this kind of approach, compared to previous studies where we are dependent on the results of a single TE

Metals transfer from tobacco to cigarette smoke: Evidences in smokers’ lung tissue

Tobacco use kills millions of people every year around the world. The current level of 11 metals in tobacco was determined and their transfer rate to cigarette smoke was calculated as the difference between the total metal content in cigarettes and the amount present in its ashes. The metals content was also determined in the lung tissue of smokers and non-smokers in order to evaluate the marks that smoking leaves in this tissue. Metals content in tobacco ranged from less than 1μg/g (Co, Cd, Pb, As and Tl) to several hundreds of μg/g (Al, Mn and Ba). The highest transfer rate from tobacco to cigarette smoke was found for Tl (85-92%) and Cd (81-90%), followed by Pb (46-60%) and As (33-44%). Significantly higher levels of As, Cd and Pb were found in the lung tissue of smokers compared to non-smokers, showing that smoking results in an increase of these metals in the lungs and that they contribute to the carcinogenic potential of cigarette smoke. This study presents important data on current metals content in tobacco and its transference to cigarette smoke and provides evidence of their accumulation in smokers' lung tissue.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trace Elements as Contaminants and Nutrients

Knowledge about trace elements has evolved remarkably in recent decades, both in terms of their metabolism and their functions. Acting mainly as cofactors of enzymatic systems, several trace elements play an essential role in numerous physiological processes in the human organism, from cell metabolism to the immune response and gene expression, among others. On the other hand, it is also well known that excessive exposure to trace elements can be highly harmful and even fatal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An SDN-based Overlay Networking Solution for Transparent Multi-homed Vehicular Communications

This dissertation consists in the design and development of an Overlay Network for vehicular applications using the SDN paradigm, capable of supporting seamless handover and load balancing between multiple Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) networks, and also seamless handover of users' terminals between different vehicle zones, such as train carriages. The main contributions of this work are threefold: 1) the overlay SDN-based network architecture designed for vehicular applications such as trains, contemplating the support for multiple V2I operators and multiple gateways per vehicle (e.g., one per carriage); 2) the SDN orchestration component that implements the handover (performed by a User Terminal) from one carriage to another, without Internet connection interruption; and 3) the SDN orchestration component that implements the load-balancing of traffic over multiple V2I links that connect each carriage to the Internet, optimizing the utilization of available network resources and resulting QoS. All the features related to these contributions were implemented in a centralized SDN controller, which has a holistic view of the overlay network, which orchestrates the network hardware on-board of the vehicles. A Proof-of-Concept of the overlay network and the developed components was implemented using Virtual Machines emulating: the network elements of two carriages; the user terminals; a centralized orchestrator; an Internet gateway; and multiple V2I connections representing different operators. Different functional and performance tests were executed, targeting each component, which allowed to successfully validate each contribution

Development of fast methods for the detection of patulin producing fungi

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia BiológicaMicotoxinas são metabolitos fúngicos secundários que podem ser tóxicos para humanos, animais e plantas. Algumas das micotoxinas mais observadas são ocratoxina A (OTA), aflatoxinas, fumonisinas e patulina (PAT), que representam uma preocupação para a saúde humana e pecuária. Membros dos três géneros de fungos: Aspergillus, Fusarium e Penicillium são os principais produtores de micotoxinas, sendo Penicillium expansum o principal produtor de PAT. As culturas podem ser infetadas antes ou depois da colheita, resultando na contaminação da cadeia alimentar. Existem alguns efeitos adversos das micotoxinas para a saúde, como a toxicidade aguda, resultando na deterioração das funções hepáticas ou renais e imunodeficiência. Deste modo, o potencial das micotoxinas em prejudicar a saúde através da exposição às mesmas, conduziu ao desenvolvimento de métodos que detetam fungos produtores de micotoxinas. Os métodos tradicionais são baseados em técnicas de cultura que consomem muito tempo e que requerem grandes quantidades de meios e reagentes. Devido a estas limitações, há um interesse crescente em métodos mais rápidos e sensíveis para a deteção dos principais contaminantes dos alimentos. Neste sentido, técnicas moleculares de DNA têm sido utilizadas como um método alternativo devido ao menor tempo de análise e maior sensibilidade. Alguns exemplos são a Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase (PCR), o PCR em Tempo Real (qPCR) e a Amplificação da Polimerase de Recombinação (RPA). A RPA é uma técnica de amplificação isotérmica que apresenta grandes vantagens como a sensibilidade, o baixo custo de operação, temperatura baixa constante e não requer instrumentos complexos. Uma forma de detetar os produtos de amplificação da reação de RPA são as Fitas de Fluxo Lateral (LFS) – dispositivos simples para a deteção de analitos onde os resultados podem ser observados diretamente a olho nu dentro de 5 a 15 minutos. O analito de interesse é capaz de se mover por ação capilar através das várias secções da fita, onde estão ligadas moléculas que podem interagir com o analito. Na presente tese foi desenvolvida uma combinação do método RPA com o LFS para a deteção a olho nu de fungos produtores de PAT, utilizando um conjunto de primers e uma sonda que têm como alvo o gene isoepoxydon dehydrogenase (idh). Esta combinação foi bem-sucedida para todas as estirpes de P. expansum.Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites that can be toxic to humans, animals and plants. Some of the most commonly observed mycotoxins are ochratoxin A (OTA), aflatoxins, fumonisins and patulin (PAT), which present a concern to human health and livestock. Members of three fungal genera: Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium are the mainly producers of mycotoxins, where Penicillium expansum is the main producer of PAT. Crops can be infected before or after harvesting, resulting in contamination in the food chain. There are some adverse health effects of mycotoxins, such as acute toxicity, resulting in deterioration of the liver or kidney function and immunodeficiency. Thereby, the potential of mycotoxins to cause harm health through exposure has led to the development of methods that detect mycotoxins producing fungi. Traditional methods are culture-based techniques which are time consuming and require huge amounts of media and reagents. Because of these limitations, there is an increasing interest in faster and more sensitive methods for the detection of major food contaminants. In these sense, DNA molecular techniques have been used as an alternative method owing to their lower analysis time and higher sensitivity. Some examples are Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Real-time PCR (qPCR) and Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA). RPA is an isothermal amplification technique that has great advantages such as its sensitivity, its operation low cost, constant low temperature and it does not require complex instruments. A way to detect the amplification products of the RPA reactions is the Lateral Flow Strips (LFS) – simple devices for the detection of analytes where the results can be directly observable by naked-eye within 5 to 15 minutes. The analyte of interest is able to move by capillary action through the various sections of the strip, where attached molecules can interact with the analyte. In the present thesis it was developed a combination of the RPA method with the LFS for the naked-eye detection of PAT producing molds, using a set of primers and probe that target the isoepoxydon dehydrogenase (idh) gene. This combination was successful for all the P. expansum strains