Levantamento das patologias e monitorização do arco-cruzeiro da Igreja da Misericórdia de Aveiro

O estado de conservação das construções tradicionais motiva para um crescente interesse na recuperação e manutenção deste património. Antes de mais, é importante obter uma visão geral da evolução temporal das construções permitindo assim a caracterização dos diversos aspectos estruturais e construtivos. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objectivo de estudar as patologias associadas à nave principal da Igreja da Misericórdia de Aveiro e em particular as patologias associadas ao arco-cruzeiro que se encontra no interior desta, com o intuito de se estabelecer a melhor estratégia de monitorização a aplicar para controlo da evolução dos danos estruturais observados. Como resultado desta análise das patologias, foi proposto e implementado um plano de monitorização do arco-cruzeiro, com um sistema de instrumentação que permite monitorizar a evolução das deformações de forma não intrusiva, garantindo a reversibilidade e a eventual futura extensão do sistema de instrumentação. Foi ainda desenvolvido um modelo numérico em elementos finitos para interpretação das causas dos danos estruturais observados

Estratégia de monitorização de monumentos: caso de estudo: Arco-Cruzeiro da Igreja da Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Aveiro

O estado de conservação das construções tradicionais motiva para um crescente interesse na recuperação e manutenção do património construído. Antes de mais, é importante obter uma visão geral da evolução temporal das construções permitindo assim a caracterização dos diversos aspectos estruturais e construtivos. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objectivo de estudar as patologias associadas à nave principal da Igreja da Misericórdia de Aveiro e em particular as patologias associadas ao Arco-Cruzeiro que se encontra no interior desta, com o intuito de se estabelecer a melhor estratégia de monitorização dos danos estruturais a aplicar. Como resultado desta análise foi proposto e implementado um plano de monitorização, com o desenvolvimento de meios de instrumentação, que permitem monitorizar o comportamento estrutural do arco, de forma não intrusiva, garantindo a reversibilidade e a eventual futura extensão da instrumentação. Foi ainda desenvolvido um modelo numérico que serviu de apoio à interpretação dos danos estruturais encontrados

IPC02-27145 A TIME SERIES APPROACH FOR PIPE NETWORK SIMULATION

ABSTRACT We applied time series predicting tools for the simulation of the temporal behavior of large pipeline networks submitted to timely changing inputs. The inputs may consist of a set of specified flow rates at client or supply nodes, while the outputs are another set of nodal pressures and internal flow rates. According to the topology, size, age and history of the network, the continuous generation of phenomenological dynamic simulations may be impossible, imprecise or numerically expensive, demanding thus alternative approaches. Our methodology is particularly oriented to this kind of demand. From recorded network past data covering relevant history of inputs and selected outputs, ARX-MIMO predictors are built with identification methods and launched for continuous estimation of the network outputs one time step ahead. Results are precise enough for engineering, training and monitoring applications

Structural health monitoring of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia Church in Aveiro

This paper presents a reduced visual impact structural health monitoring system, based on fibre Bragg gratings. This sensing network was developed for the church of Santa Casa da Misericordia of Aveiro and comprises 19 displacement sensors and 5 temperature sensors. All the sensors were custom made, according to the monitoring points’ characteristics. The results obtained over the first year of monitoring are presente

The cdh1 c.1901c>t variant: A founder variant in the portuguese population with severe impact in mrna splicing

Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) caused by CDH1 variants predisposes to early-onset diffuse gastric (DGC) and lobular breast cancer (LBC). In Northern Portugal, the unusually high number of HDGC cases in unrelated families carrying the c.1901C>T variant (formerly known as p.A634V) suggested this as a CDH1-founder variant. We aimed to demonstrate that c.1901C>T is a bona fide truncating variant inducing cryptic splicing, to calculate the timing of a potential founder effect, and to characterize tumour spectrum and age of onset in carrying families. The impact in splicing was proven by using carriers’ RNA for PCR-cloning sequencing and allelic expression imbalance analysis with SNaPshot. Carriers and noncarriers were haplotyped for 12 polymorphic markers, and the decay of haplotype sharing (DHS) method was used to estimate the time to the most common ancestor of c.1901C>T. Clinical information from 58 carriers was collected and analysed. We validated the cryptic splice site within CDH1-exon 12, which was preferred over the canonical one in 100% of sequenced clones. Cryptic splicing induced an out-of-frame 37bp deletion in exon 12, premature truncation (p.Ala634ProfsTer7), and consequently RNA mediated decay. The haplotypes carrying the c.1901C>T variant were found to share a common ancestral estimated at 490 years (95% Confidence Interval 445–10,900). Among 58 carriers (27 males (M)–31 females (F); 13–83 years), DGC occurred in 11 (18.9%; 4M–7F; average age 33 ± 12) and LBC in 6 females (19.4%; average age 50 ± 8). Herein, we demonstrated that the c.1901C>T variant is a loss-of-function splice-site variant that underlies the first CDH1-founder effect in Portugal. Knowledge on this founder effect will drive genetic testing of this specific variant in HDGC families in this geographical region and allow intrafamilial penetrance analysis and better estimation of variant-associated tumour risks, disease age of onset, and spectrum.This research and its authors were funded by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvi-mento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the project “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274) and LEGOH (PTDC/BTM-TEC/6706/2020). This work was also financed by the projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000003 (DOCnet)—supported by Norte Portugal Regional Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)—project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016390 (CancelStem) and PTDC/BTM-TEC/30164/2017 (3DChroMe), funded by ERDF, POCI, and FCT

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000

Hydrogen peroxide production regulates the mitochondrial function in insulin resistant muscle cells: Effect of catalase overexpression

AbstractThe mitochondrial redox state plays a central role in the link between mitochondrial overloading and insulin resistance. However, the mechanism by which the ROS induce insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells is not completely understood. We examined the association between mitochondrial function and H2O2 production in insulin resistant cells. Our hypothesis is that the low mitochondrial oxygen consumption leads to elevated ROS production by a mechanism associated with reduced PGC1α transcription and low content of phosphorylated CREB. The cells were transfected with either the encoded sequence for catalase overexpression or the specific siRNA for catalase inhibition. After transfection, myotubes were incubated with palmitic acid (500μM) and the insulin response, as well as mitochondrial function and fatty acid metabolism, was determined. The low mitochondrial oxygen consumption led to elevated ROS production by a mechanism associated with β-oxidation of fatty acids. Rotenone was observed to reduce the ratio of ROS production. The elevated H2O2 production markedly decreased the PGC1α transcription, an effect that was accompanied by a reduced phosphorylation of Akt and CREB. The catalase transfection prevented the reduction in the phosphorylated level of Akt and upregulated the levels of phosphorylated CREB. The mitochondrial function was elevated and H2O2 production reduced, thus increasing the insulin sensitivity. The catalase overexpression improved mitochondrial respiration protecting the cells from fatty acid-induced, insulin resistance. This effect indicates that control of hydrogen peroxide production regulates the mitochondrial respiration preventing the insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells by a mechanism associated with CREB phosphorylation and β-oxidation of fatty acids

Exposure of Phosphatidylserine on Leishmania amazonensis Isolates Is Associated with Diffuse Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and Parasite Infectivity

Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) is a rare clinical manifestation of leishmaniasis, characterized by an inefficient parasite-specific cellular response and heavily parasitized macrophages. In Brazil, Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis is the main species involved in DCL cases. In the experimental model, recognition of phosphatidylserine (PS) molecules exposed on the surface of amastigotes forms of L. amazonensis inhibits the inflammatory response of infected macrophages as a strategy to evade the host immune surveillance. In this study, we examined whether PS exposure on L. amazonensis isolates from DCL patients operated as a parasite pathogenic factor and as a putative suppression mechanism of immune response during the infection. Peritoneal macrophages from F1 mice (BALB/c×C57BL/6) were infected with different L. amazonensis isolates from patients with localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (LCL) or DCL. DCL isolates showed higher PS exposure than their counterparts from LCL patients. In addition, PS exposure was positively correlated with clinical parameters of the human infection (number of lesions and time of disease) and with characteristics of the experimental infection (macrophage infection and anti-inflammatory cytokine induction). Furthermore, parasites isolated from DCL patients displayed an increased area in parasitophorous vacuoles (PV) when compared to those isolated from LCL patients. Thus, this study shows for the first time that a parasite factor (exposed PS) might be associated with parasite survival/persistence in macrophages and lesion exacerbation during the course of DCL, providing new insights regarding pathogenic mechanism in this rare chronic disease