Additions to the Azorean lichen flora.

Ongoing lichenological research in the Azores yielded records of 38 new species for the lichen flora of the Archipelago: Agonimia papillata (O. Eriksson) Diederich & Aptroot, Amandinea lecideina (Mayrh. & Poelt) Scheid. & Mayrh., Arthonia ilicinella Nyl., Arthonia muscigena Th. Fr., Arthonia stellaris Kremp., Bacidia canariensis Erichsen, Buellia dives (Th. Fr.) Th. Fr., Caloplaca canariensis (Follman & Poelt) Breuss, Cliostomum flavidulum Hafellner & Kalb, Collema crispum (Huds.) Weber ex Wigg., Dimelaena radiata (Tuck.) Hale & W. Culb., Lecania hutchinsiae (Nyl.) A.L. Sm., Lecanora cenisia Ach., Lecanora hagenii (Ach.) Ach., Lecanora leprosa Fée, Lecanora orosthea (Ach.) Ach., Lecanora pulicaris (Pers.) Ach., Lecanora strobilina (Spreng.) Kieffer, Leptogium teretiusculum (Flörke) Arnold, Ochrolechia androgyna (Hoffm.) Arnold, Opegrapha calcarea Sm., Opegrapha herbarum Mont., Opegrapha multipuncta Coppins & P. James, Opegrapha niveoatra (Borr.) J.R. Laundon, Opegrapha prosodea Ach., Opegrapha varia Pers., Parmelinopsis minarum (Vainio) Elix & Hale, Pertusaria amarescens Nyl., Pertusaria lactea (L.) Arnold, Phaeographis smithii (Leight.) de Lesd., Phlyctis argena (Spreng.) Flot., Placidium squamulosum (Ach.) Breuss, Pyrrhospora quernea (Dicks.) Körb., Pyxine subcinerea Stirt., Ramalina lusitanica H. Magn., Rinod, Thelidium pyrenophorum (Ach.) Mudd, Verrucaria hydrela Ach. and Waynea adscendens V.J. Rico. The species Agonimia papillata, Caloplaca canariensis, Lecanora leprosa, and Pyxine subcinerea do not occur in continental Europe. The first species is also reported here from La Palma (Canary Islands)

Applicability of a Three-Layer Model for the Dynamic Analysis of Ballasted Railway Tracks

In this paper, the three-layer model of ballasted railway track with discrete supports is analyzed to access its applicability. The model is referred as the discrete support model and abbreviated by DSM. For calibration, a 3D finite element (FE) model is created and validated by experiments. Formulas available in the literature are analyzed and new formulas for identifying parameters of the DSM are derived and validated over the range of typical track properties. These formulas are determined by fitting the results of the DSM to the 3D FE model using metaheuristic optimization. In addition, the range of applicability of the DSM is established. The new formulas are presented as a simple computational engineering tool, allowing one to calculate all the data needed for the DSM by adopting the geometrical and basic mechanical properties of the track. It is demonstrated that the currently available formulas have to be adapted to include inertial effects of the dynamically activated part of the foundation and that the contribution of the shear stiffness, being determined by ballast and foundation properties, is essential. Based on this conclusion, all similar models that neglect the shear resistance of the model and inertial properties of the foundation are unable to reproduce the deflection shape of the rail in a general way.publishersversionpublishe

Shacc: a functional prototyper for a component calculus

For individual study onlyOver the last decade component-based software development arose as a promising paradigm to deal with the ever increasing complexity in software design, evolution and reuse. Shacc is a prototyping tool for component-based systems in which components are modelled coinductively as generalized Mealy machines. The prototype is built as a Haskell library endowed with a graphical user interface developed in Swing.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Overview of stimuli-responsive mesoporous organosilica nanocarriers for drug delivery

The application of nanomaterials is regarded nowadays as a highly promising approach for overcoming the limitations of the currently available cancer treatments, contributing for the creation of more effective, precise, and safer therapies. In the last years, organosilica nanoparticles arisen as alternatives to the most common mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The organosilica nanoparticles combine the advantages of the mesoporous silica, such as structural stability and mesoporous structure, with the increased biocompatibility and biodegradability of organic materials. Therefore, the variety of organic bridges that can be incorporated into the silica matrix allowed the development of new and exciting compositions, properties, and functions for improving the therapeutic effectiveness of the anticancer nanomedicines. In this review, the strategies that have been explored to create stimuli-responsive organosilica-based drug delivery systems are highlighted, describing the practical approaches and mechanisms controlling the drug release. Additionally, the organosilica nanoparticles surface modifications aimed for increasing the blood circulation time and the tumor targeting are also described.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deep Learning-based Compressed Domain Multimedia for Man and Machine: A Taxonomy and Application to Point Cloud Classification

In the current golden age of multimedia, human visualization is no longer the single main target, with the final consumer often being a machine which performs some processing or computer vision tasks. In both cases, deep learning plays a undamental role in extracting features from the multimedia representation data, usually producing a compressed representation referred to as latent representation. The increasing development and adoption of deep learning-based solutions in a wide area of multimedia applications have opened an exciting new vision where a common compressed multimedia representation is used for both man and machine. The main benefits of this vision are two-fold: i) improved performance for the computer vision tasks, since the effects of coding artifacts are mitigated; and ii) reduced computational complexity, since prior decoding is not required. This paper proposes the first taxonomy for designing compressed domain computer vision solutions driven by the architecture and weights compatibility with an available spatio-temporal computer vision processor. The potential of the proposed taxonomy is demonstrated for the specific case of point cloud classification by designing novel compressed domain processors using the JPEG Pleno Point Cloud Coding standard under development and adaptations of the PointGrid classifier. Experimental results show that the designed compressed domain point cloud classification solutions can significantly outperform the spatial-temporal domain classification benchmarks when applied to the decompressed data, containing coding artifacts, and even surpass their performance when applied to the original uncompressed data

Deep Learning-Based Compressed Domain Multimedia for Man and Machine: A Taxonomy and Application to Point Cloud Classification

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Additions to the lichen flora found on Cryptomeria japonica D. Don, in the Azores.

Twenty-nine lichens species were reported in samples from Azorean Cryptomeria japonica forests. One species, Ramalina peruviana Ach., is newly recorded for the Macaronesian Region. On Cryptomeria japonica, seven new lichen records were found for the Azores: Parmotrema bangii (Vain.) Hale, Pyrrospora quernea (Dickson) Körber, Pyxine subcinerea Stirt., Ramalina implectens Nyl., Ramalina peruviana Ach., Usnea dasaea Stirton and Usnea esperantiana P. Clerc.The species Ramalina peruviana Ach., is rare within the Macaronesian Region

Cell‐Derived Vesicles for Nanoparticles' Coating: Biomimetic Approaches for Enhanced Blood Circulation and Cancer Therapy

Cancer nanomedicines are designed to encapsulate different therapeuticagents, prevent their premature release, and deliver them specifically tocancer cells, due to their ability to preferentially accumulate in tumor tissue.However, after intravenous administration, nanoparticles immediatelyinteract with biological components that facilitate their recognition by theimmune system, being rapidly removed from circulation. Reports show thatless than 1% of the administered nanoparticles effectively reach the tumorsite. This suboptimal pharmacokinetic profile is pointed out as one of themain factors for the nanoparticles’ suboptimal therapeutic effectiveness andpoor translation to the clinic. Therefore, an extended blood circulation timemay be crucial to increase the nanoparticles’ chances of being accumulated inthe tumor and promote a site-specific delivery of therapeutic agents. For thatpurpose, the understanding of the forces that govern the nanoparticles’interaction with biological components and the impact of the physicochemicalproperties on the in vivo fate will allow the development of novel and moreeffective nanomedicines. Therefore, in this review, the nano–bio interactionsare summarized. Moreover, the application of cell-derived vesicles forextending the blood circulation time and tumor accumulation is reviewed,focusing on the advantages and shortcomings of each cell source.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Zigzag graphene nanoribbon edge reconstruction with stone-wales defects

In this paper, we study zigzag graphene nanoribbons with edges reconstructed with Stone-Wales defects, by means of an empirical (first-neighbor) tight-binding method, with parameters determined by ab initio calculations of very narrow ribbons. We explore the characteristics of the electronic band structure with a focus on the nature of edge states. Edge reconstruction allows the appearance of a new type of edge states. They are dispersive, with nonzero amplitudes in both sublattices; furthermore, the amplitudes have two components that decrease with different decay lengths with the distance from the edge; at the Dirac points one of these lengths diverges, whereas the other remains finite, of the order of the lattice parameter. We trace this curious effect to the doubling of the unit cell along the edge, brought about by the edge reconstruction. In the presence of a magnetic field, the zero-energy Landau level is no longer degenerate with edge states as in the case of the pristine zigzag ribbon.Fundacao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) SFRH/BD/44456/2008.FEDER - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPET

Wearable gait analysis LAB as a biomarker of Parkinson’s disease motor stages and quality of life: a preliminary study

Bradykinetic, shuffling and shorter steps are prototypical signs of gait in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and important indicators of Quality of Life (QoL). Advances in wearable technologies enabled their use to objectively evaluate these gait fluctuations complementing the subjective categorical clinical scales usually used by clinicians. This paper aims to study the ability of a wearable gait analysis lab, developed by our team, to serve as a biomarker of PD motor stages and an indicator of patients’ QoL. We accomplished experimental tests which involved repeated measurements of walking trials from a crosssection study with eighteen PD patients and thirteen healthy subjects. We measured gait spatiotemporal parameters and cross these data with commonly PD-scales to assess motor symptoms (UPDRS-III) and quantify patients’ QoL (PDQ39). Patients presented a bradykinetic gait with shorter steps, variability and asymmetry in spatiotemporal parameters. These prototypical signs were also observed along the disease progression considering UPDRS-III and PDQ39 levels. Positive outcomes demonstrated the feasibility and applicability of our objective wearable sensorbased gait analysis in PD to measure typical parkinsonian gait and a (bio)marker of PD motor stages and patients’ quality of life level.This work was supported in part by the FEDER Funds through the COMPETE 2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI) and P2020 with the Reference Project SmartOs Grant POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039868, and by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020, and under the reference scholarship grant SFRH/BD/136569/2018