Advenus

Advenus is a graphic design project that explores the challenges and barriers that international students encounter in the United States while seeking employment. For many international students, the U.S. promises freedom, safety, and equality attained through hard work. Despite the value and knowledge that international students can offer to the U.S. economy, government policies regarding immigration make starting a new life here a challenge. For most individuals, it starts – or ends – with a lottery system. Advenus provides resources in digital and print formats, like a website and posters, to help international students navigate the immigration process, understand the different types of visas, answer specific questions, and prepare for job applications, with the goal of overcoming obstacles that come up during the process. Advenus (Latin for foreign) will also become a platform to share stories of those who have gone through the process - a vehicle for immigrant voices

Robust bootstrap: an alternative to bootstrapping robust estimators

There is a vast literature on robust estimators, but in some situations it is still not easy to make inferences, such as confidence regions and hypothesis testing. This is mainly due to the following facts. On one hand, in most situations, it is difficult to derive the exact distribution of the estimator. On the other one, even if its asymptotic behaviour is known, in many cases, the convergence to the limiting distribution may be rather slow, so bootstrap methods are preferable since they often give better small sample results. However, resampling methods have several disadvantages including the propagation of anomalous data all along the new samples. In this paper, we discuss the problems arising in the bootstrap when outlying observations are present. We argue that it is preferable to use a robust bootstrap rather than to bootstrap robust estimators and we discuss a robust bootstrap method, the Influence Function Bootstrap denoted IFB. We illustrate the performance of the IFB intervals in the univariate location case and in the logistic regression model. We derive some asymptotic properties of the IFB. Finally, we introduce a generalization of the Influence Function Bootstrap in order to improve the IFB behaviour.Fil: Amado, Conceicao. Universidade de Lisboa; PortugalFil: Bianco, Ana Maria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Cálculo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Boente Boente, Graciela Lina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santalo". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santalo"; ArgentinaFil: Pires, Ana M.. Universidade de Lisboa; Portuga

Separation of azeotropic mixtures using protic ionic liquids as extraction solvents

IF/00190/2014; IF/00210/2014; PTDC/EQU-EQU/29737/2017; PTDC/QEQ-FTT/3289/2014; IF/00210/2014/CP1244/CT0003; UID/QUI/50006/2019; POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007265; University of Pamplona, Internal Project 2-2017.The aim of this work is to evaluate the separation of hydrocarbons (hexane and heptane) from their azeotropic mixtures with ethanol using protic ionic liquid (PIL) as extraction solvents. With this goal in mind, PILs were synthesized and their thermal and physical characterization were carried out. Experimental determination of the phase equilibrium for the ternary systems hydrocarbons + ethanol + PIL at 298.15 K and 101.2 kPa were also carried out in order to evaluate the feasibility of this application. The solute distribution ratio and the selectivity were also determined to compare the solvent capacity of these PILs. The NRTL equation was used to correlate the experimental data. Furthermore, this paper provides a comparison of the solvent capacity of these PILs with different extraction solvents (ionic liquids (ILs), ILs mixtures and deep eutectic solvents) available in the literature. Then, a critical review for the separation of these azeotropic mixtures was carried out using the extraction processes data obtained through the simulation using a conventional software.preprintpublishe

Protein Electrophoresis in Saliva Study

The following sections will give an overview about the use of electrophoresis in saliva studies. Methodological issues and the major advantages and limitations for the use of this technique in human and animal saliva studies will be presented. We will finish the chapter by presenting alternatives to electrophoresis for the study of salivary proteome

Análise comparativa dos ficocolóides produzidos por algas carragenófitas usadas industrialmente e algas carragenófitas portuguesas

As Carragenanas (E-407) constituem um dos principais aditivos usados pela indústria alimentar, como agentes gelificantes, emulsionantes, estabilizantes e espessantes. São ingredientes naturais, usados há várias décadas na área alimentar e são considerados como seguros, tendo obtido a classificação GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe). Neste trabalho foram analisadas a percentagem de peso seco e a composição química (por FTIR e FT-Raman) das carragenanas produzidas pelas carragenófitas (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) oriundas de diversos países: Kappaphycus alvarezzi (Tanzânia, Indonésia, Filipinas); Kappaphycus striatum (Madagáscar); Eucheuma denticulatum (Tanzânia, Filipinas e Madagáscar); Betaphycus gelatinum (Filipinas); e Sarcothalia crispata (Chile). Para comparação foram também analisadas algas carragenófitas da costa portuguesa (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta): Chondrus crispus, Mastocarpus stellatus; Gigartina pistillata; Chondracanthus teedei var. lusitanicus; Chondracanthus acicularis; Calliblepharis jubata; Gymnogongrus crenulatus; e Ahnfeltiopsis devoniensis. Os principais resultados a reter são: a maior percentagem de peso seco em carragenanas foi obtida a partir das algas carragenófitas Kappaphycus alvarezzi (Filipinas), com 84.4% e Gigartina pistillata (Praia do Norte, Viana do Castelo), com 65.4%. Relativamente à natureza dos ficocolóides produzidos pelas carragenófitas estudadas, as nossas análises espectroscópicas permitiram determinar a presença de um leque diversificado de carragenanas: carragenana iota pura; carragenana kappa quase pura; uma série de carragenanas híbridas kappa-iota, com diferentes rácios iota/kappa; carragenanas kappa-beta, xi-tetha e xi-lambda

VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY (FTIR-ATR AND FT-RAMAN) - A Rapid and Useful Tool for Phycocolloid Analysis

The wide industrial application of phycocolloids (e.g. alginates, agar and carrageenans) is based on their particular properties to form gels in aqueous solution. Recently, new spectroscopic techniques have provided more accurate identification of the natural composition of the polysaccharides produced by these seaweeds. With the combination of two spectroscopic techniques (FTIR-ATR and FT-Raman) it is possible to identify the principal seaweed colloids in ground seaweed samples as in extracted material. Since the seaweed samples receive the minimum of handling and treatment (e.g. they are simply dried and ground), the composition determined represents, as accurately as possible, the native composition of the phycocolloids

Conformational insights and vibrational study of a promising anticancer agent: the role of the ligand in Pd(ii)–amine complexes

This study reports the first complete vibrational analysis of a dinuclear polyamine-based compound displaying antitumour properties.</p

In-vitro bioaccessibility of beta-carotene in lipidic systems

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Interactions of vanadates with carbohydrates in aqueous solutions

The interaction between the vanadate ion (VO3-, i.e. vanadium (V)) and the carbohydrates sucrose, glucose and fructose has been studied in aqueous solutions (pH [approximate]6, 298.15 K) using measurements of diffusion coefficients, electrical conductivity, Raman and multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. With sucrose and glucose, indications of hydrolysis of the anion in the absence of the sugars came from a decrease in the diffusion coefficient with increasing concentration. Significant effects on the diffusion coefficients were observed in the presence of sucrose and glucose, suggesting interactions between the carbohydrates and vanadate ion. Support for this came from electrical conductivity measurements, where there were indications of formation of oligomeric species. These were found to depend on the carbohydrate used: confirmation of oligomer formation came from Raman spectroscopy, where it was possible to identify these species, and see their dependence on the particular carbohydrate used. Information on the interactions between the carbohydrates glucose or sucrose and vanadate came from 51V and 1H NMR spectroscopy, where the dominant species appeared to be a 2:2 complex with glucose, possessing trigonal bipyramidal centres, whereas with sucrose it is suggested that octahedral species are formed. Studies with fructose were complicated by competing oxidation of this carbohydrate and reduction of vanadium (V).http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TGS-4CTN53R-3/1/7da9099617b4eef5113ec0db3254629

High prevalence of malnutrition in Internal Medicine wards - a multicentre ANUMEDI study

Background Disease-related malnutrition is a significant problem in hospitalized patients, with high prevalence rates depending on the studied population. Internal Medicine wards are the backbone of the hospital setting. However, prevalence and determinants of malnutrition in these patients remain unclear. We aimed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in Internal Medicine wards and to identify and characterize malnourished patients. Methods A cross-sectional observational multicentre study was performed in Internal Medicine wards of 24 Portuguese hospitals during 2017. Demographics, hospital admissions during the previous year, type of admission, primary diagnosis, Charlson comorbidity index, and education level were registered. Malnutrition at admission was assessed using Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). Demographic characteristics were compared between well-nourished and malnourished patients. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify determinants of malnutrition. Results 729 participants were included (mean age 74 years, 51% male). Main reason for admission was respiratory disease (32%). Mean Charlson comorbidity index was 5.8 ± 2.8. Prevalence of malnutrition was 73% (56% moderate/suspected malnutrition and 17% severe malnutrition), and 54% had a critical need for multidisciplinary intervention (PG-SGA score ≥9). No education (odds ratio [OR] 1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16–3.04), hospital admissions during previous year (OR 1.53, 95%CI: 1.05–2.26), and multiple comorbidities (OR 1.22, 95%CI: 1.14–1.32) significantly increased the odds of being malnourished. Conclusions Prevalence of malnutrition in the Internal Medicine population is very high, with the majority of patients having critical need for multidisciplinary intervention. Low education level, admissions during previous year, and multiple comorbidities increase the odds of being malnourished.N/