The rock carvings of Bouça da Cova da Moura (Ardegães, Maia, Northern Portugal) in the context of Late Prehistory in the Leça basin

Este texto pretende dar a conhecer o conjunto de gravuras rupestres da Bouça da Cova da Moura. A análise efetuada ao conjunto de signos permitiu denotar, a presença de composições gráficas pertencentes à tradição artística que se convencionou denominar de arte atlântica, representações de cariz mais esquemático e motivos de época histórica. Na envolvência dos afloramentos gravados descobriram-se monumentos megalíticos, áreas de dispersão de materiais cerâmicos datáveis do Calcolítico, uma ocupação da Idade do Bronze, além de materiais dispersos deste período genérico, relevantes para a análise da biografia deste lugar numa pequena escala de análise. A inserção deste locus numa escala mais ampla de análise, ou seja, os Montes do Leandro, pequeno contraforte da serra do Bougado, permite admitir que este complexo de gravuras rupestres faria parte de um vasto território de ampla significação simbólica durante a Pré-história Recente. Neste sentido as diferentes materialidades seriam, resultado de um processo aditivo que resulta da frequência do planalto, da sua da reutilização e reinterpretação, num templo cíclico.The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the rock art assemblage at Bouça da Cova da Moura in its local and regional contexts. The site is located in Ardegães, parish of Águas Santas, municipality of Maia, district of Porto, in north-western Portugal. Fieldwork carried out in the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, resulted in the discovery of new carved surfaces in the place where the well-known ‘pedra partida de Ardegães’ had been found; it was not only possible to unveil aspects related to its topographical context but also to discover other materialities which are spatially related to the rock carvings. Stylistic analysis undertaken to the set of carvings allow us to consider that we are beyond an assemblage which is partly constituted of rock art compositions belonging to the prehistoric art tradition conventionally called atlantic art, there is one schematic human figure and other motifs that belong to historical periods. In the vicinities of the carved outcrops there are megalithic monuments dated to the Neolithic, scatters of pottery fragments probably dated to the Copper Age, evidence for a Bronze Age occupation site, as well as clusters of surface finds from the same period. Overall, the field data recovered so far is extremely relevant for the analysis of the biography of this place at a small scale of analysis. The integration of this locus in a wider spatial scale, i.e. in the plateau that cuts across the territory in the north-south direction linking it to the Bougado hills, allow us to admit that this rock art complex would be part of a vast territory of symbolic significance in Late Prehistory. Thus, the distinct archaeological remains may be the materialisation of the importance of this geomorphological unit in the cognitive map and ideological universe of the prehistoric communities who dwelled, over a long period of time, along the middle basin of the River Neiva. These different materialities would result from a process of addition in the occupation of the plateau, of its reuse and reinterpretation in a cyclical time.Este texto insere-se no projeto Bronze Age Landscapes in the west of Iberian Peninsula / Paisagens da Idade do Bronze no ocidente peninsular (SFRH/BSAB/ 986/10) apoiado e financiado pela FCT no âmbito de uma Bolsa de Licença Sabática.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

HEALTHCARE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS IN PAEDIATRIC AND NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNITS: IMPACT OF UNDERLYING RISK FACTORS AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE ON 30-DAY CASE-FATALITY

Objectives. Our aims were (i) to describe trends in the epidemiology of Healthcare-associated Infections (HAIs) in paediatric/neonatal ICUs and (ii) to evaluate risk factors and impact of Multidrug-Resistance (MDR) in children admitted to ICUs. Design. Multicentre, retrospective, cohort study with a nested case-control study conducted between January 2010 and December 2014. Setting. Three tertiary-care paediatric hospitals in Italy and Brazil with a total of 97 ICU beds. Patients. Inclusion criteria were (i) admission to ICU during the study period (ii) age at onset <18 years and (iii) microbiologically-confirmed HAI. Results. 538 HAIs in 454 children were included. 93.3% of patients had comorbidities. Bloodstream infections (BSIs) were the leading pattern (45.4%). The cumulative incidence of HAI was 3.6/100 ICU-admission and the crude 30-day fatality rate was 5.7/1,000-admission. The most frequently isolated pathogens were Enterobacteriaceae, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.44% of isolates were MDR. Two multivariate logistic regressions were performed. Factors independently associated with an MDR -HAI were Country, previous antibiotics, transplantation, major surgery, and colonisation by an MDR strain. Factors independently associated with 30-day case-fatality were Country, previous transplantation, fungal infection, BSI, LRTI, and infection caused by MDR strains. Conclusions. Infection control and prevention should be a primary focus to limit the spread of MDR strains and improve the outcome of hospitalised patients. Targeted surveillance programmes collecting neonatal and paediatric HAI/BSI data and outcomes would allow global benchmarking between centres. The next step is to identify simple methods to monitor key HAIs and integrate these into affordable intervention programmes

The Mass-Metallicity relation explored with CALIFA: I. Is there a dependence on the star formation rate?

We present the results on the study of the global and local M-Z relation based on the first data available from the CALIFA survey (150 galaxies). This survey provides integral field spectroscopy of the complete optical extent of each galaxy (up to 2-3 effective radii), with enough resolution to separate individual HII regions and/or aggregations. Nearly $\sim$3000 individual HII regions have been detected. The spectra cover the wavelength range between [OII]3727 and [SII]6731, with a sufficient signal-to-noise to derive the oxygen abundance and star-formation rate associated with each region. In addition, we have computed the integrated and spatially resolved stellar masses (and surface densities), based on SDSS photometric data. We explore the relations between the stellar mass, oxygen abundance and star-formation rate using this dataset. We derive a tight relation between the integrated stellar mass and the gas-phase abundance, with a dispersion smaller than the one already reported in the literature ($\sigma_{\Delta{\rm log(O/H)}}=$0.07 dex). Indeed, this dispersion is only slightly larger than the typical error derived for our oxygen abundances. However, we do not find any secondary relation with the star-formation rate, other than the one induced due to the primary relation of this quantity with the stellar mass. We confirm the result using the $\sim$3000 individual HII regions, for the corresponding local relations. Our results agree with the scenario in which gas recycling in galaxies, both locally and globally, is much faster than other typical timescales, like that of gas accretion by inflow and/or metal loss due to outflows. In essence, late-type/disk dominated galaxies seem to be in a quasi-steady situation, with a behavior similar to the one expected from an instantaneous recycling/closed-box model.Comment: 19 Pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A

CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: I. Survey presentation

We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction.We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy.We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of $\sim600$ galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005< z <0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK Integral Field Unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of \sim1.3\sq\arcmin', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 {\AA}, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R\sim850 and R\sim1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.Comment: 32 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Endogenously-expressed NH2-terminus of circumsporozoite protein interferes with sporozoite invasion of mosquito salivary glands

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud The circumsporozoite protein is the most abundant polypeptide expressed by sporozoites, the malaria parasite stage capable of infecting humans. Sporozoite invasion of mosquito salivary glands prior to transmission is likely mediated by a receptor/ligand-like interaction of the parasites with the target tissues, and the amino (NH2)-terminal portion of CSP is involved in this interaction but not the TSR region on the carboxyl (C)-terminus. Peptides based on the NH2-terminal domain could compete with the parasites for the salivary gland receptors and thus inhibit penetration.\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud Peptides based on the NH2-terminus and TSR domains of the CSP from avian or human malaria parasites, Plasmodium gallinaceum and Plasmodium falciparum, respectively, were expressed endogenously in mosquito haemolymph using a transient (Sindbis virus-mediated) or stable (piggyBac-mediated transgenesis) system.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Transient endogenous expression of partial NH2-terminus peptide from P. falciparum CSP in P. gallinaceum-infected Aedes aegypti resulted in a reduced number of sporozoites in the salivary glands. When a transgenic approach was used to express a partial CSP NH2-terminal domain from P. gallinaceum the number of sporozoites in the salivary glands did not show a difference when compared to controls. However, a significant difference could be observed when mosquitoes with a lower infection were analysed. The same result could not be observed with mosquitoes endogenously expressing peptides based on the TSR domain from either P. gallinaceum or P. falciparum.\ud \ud \ud \ud Conclusion\ud These results support the conclusion that CSP partial NH2-terminal domain can be endogenously expressed to promote a competition for the receptor used by sporozoites to invade salivary glands, and they could be used to block this interaction and reduce parasite transmission. The same effect cannot be obtained with peptides based on the TSR domain.We thank Neuza Saraiva Fernandes and Ediane Saraiva Fernandes for technical\ud assistance and Alexandre Santos de Moura for sample sequencing. This work\ud was supported by FAPESP (Process#04/00889-9 and#00/12138-7). AAJ was\ud supported in part by an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infec‑\ud tious Diseases (USA) (R37AI029746)

Revealing New Mouse Epicardial Cell Markers through Transcriptomics

The epicardium has key functions during myocardial development, by contributing to the formation of coronary endothelial and smooth muscle cells, cardiac fibroblasts, and potentially cardiomyocytes. The epicardium plays a morphogenetic role by emitting signals to promote and maintain cardiomyocyte proliferation. In a regenerative context, the adult epicardium might comprise a progenitor cell population that can be induced to contribute to cardiac repair. Although some genes involved in epicardial function have been identified, a detailed molecular profile of epicardial gene expression has not been available.Using laser capture microscopy, we isolated the epicardial layer from the adult murine heart before or after cardiac infarction in wildtype mice and mice expressing a transgenic IGF-1 propeptide (mIGF-1) that enhances cardiac repair, and analyzed the transcription profile using DNA microarrays.Expression of epithelial genes such as basonuclin, dermokine, and glycoprotein M6A are highly enriched in the epicardial layer, which maintains expression of selected embryonic genes involved in epicardial development in mIGF-1 transgenic hearts. After myocardial infarct, a subset of differentially expressed genes are down-regulated in the epicardium representing an epicardium-specific signature that responds to injury.This study presents the description of the murine epicardial transcriptome obtained from snap frozen tissues, providing essential information for further analysis of this important cardiac cell layer

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161

Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity, characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions. However, when a $|\Delta \eta|$ gap is placed to suppress such correlations, the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of $v_{2}\{4\}$ to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find $v_{2}\{4\} \simeq v_{2}\{6\}\neq 0$ which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian function for the $v_{2}$ distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping multiplicities, when a $|\Delta\eta| > 1.4$ gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87

Amyloid-PET imaging predicts functional decline in clinically normal individuals

Background: There is good evidence that elevated amyloid-β (Aβ) positron emission tomography (PET) signal is associated with cognitive decline in clinically normal (CN) individuals. However, it is less well established whether there is an association between the Aβ burden and decline in daily living activities in this population. Moreover, Aβ-PET Centiloids (CL) thresholds that can optimally predict functional decline have not yet been established. // Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses over a mean three-year timeframe were performed on the European amyloid-PET imaging AMYPAD-PNHS dataset that phenotypes 1260 individuals, including 1032 CN individuals and 228 participants with questionable functional impairment. Amyloid-PET was assessed continuously on the Centiloid (CL) scale and using Aβ groups (CL  50 = Aβ+). Functional abilities were longitudinally assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating (Global-CDR, CDR-SOB) and the Amsterdam Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (A-IADL-Q). The Global-CDR was available for the 1260 participants at baseline, while baseline CDR-SOB and A-IADL-Q scores and longitudinal functional data were available for different subsamples that had similar characteristics to those of the entire sample. // Results: Participants included 765 Aβ- (61%, Mdnage = 66.0, IQRage = 61.0–71.0; 59% women), 301 Aβ± (24%; Mdnage = 69.0, IQRage = 64.0–75.0; 53% women) and 194 Aβ+ individuals (15%, Mdnage = 73.0, IQRage = 68.0–78.0; 53% women). Cross-sectionally, CL values were associated with CDR outcomes. Longitudinally, baseline CL values predicted prospective changes in the CDR-SOB (bCL*Time = 0.001/CL/year, 95% CI [0.0005,0.0024], p = .003) and A-IADL-Q (bCL*Time = -0.010/CL/year, 95% CI [-0.016,-0.004], p = .002) scores in initially CN participants. Increased clinical progression (Global-CDR > 0) was mainly observed in Aβ+ CN individuals (HRAβ+ vs Aβ- = 2.55, 95% CI [1.16,5.60], p = .020). Optimal thresholds for predicting decline were found at 41 CL using the CDR-SOB (bAβ+ vs Aβ- = 0.137/year, 95% CI [0.069,0.206], p < .001) and 28 CL using the A-IADL-Q (bAβ+ vs Aβ- = -0.693/year, 95% CI [-1.179,-0.208], p = .005). // Conclusions: Amyloid-PET quantification supports the identification of CN individuals at risk of functional decline. // Trial registration: The AMYPAD PNHS is registered at www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu with the EudraCT Number: 2018-002277-22