A rare manifestation of neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopaenia

Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopaenia (NAIT) results from a fetomaternal incompatibility with maternal sensitisation against a fetal human platelet antigen (HPA) and antibodies transfer to the fetal circulation, leading to platelet destruction. The clinical presentation is variable and isolated intraocular haemorrhage is rare. We present the case of a male newborn, with intrauterine growth restriction, born at 29 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. He presented proptosis of the left eye, hyphaema and elevated intraocular pressure, with no other signs of haemorrhage. Severe thrombocytopaenia was found (27×10(9)/L). Perinatal infection and maternal thrombocytopaenia were excluded. Positive anti-HPA-1a and antihuman leucocyte antigen class I alloantibodies were found in the mother. Platelet crossmatch between the father's platelets and mother's plasma was positive. Platelet transfusions and intravenous immunoglobulin were given with favourable response. This case highlights an unusual presentation of NAIT, which should be suspected in the presence of severe thrombocytopaenia in the first 24-72 h of life

A case study of ergonomics encompassing white-collar workers: anthropometry, furniture dimensions, working posture and musculoskeletal disorders

Regardless of their specific business, white collar workers have some factors in common: they work seated without moving for a long time, they use certain arm and hand muscles excessively, and they tend to keep a poor body posture. The resulting Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) produce discomfort, and even pain. This study aimed at an ergonomic assessment of white collars of a Portuguese company – to identify the most critical points in old furniture designs and working posture habits. An evaluation was done in the administrative department using a random sample; the anthropometric and furniture measurements were taken and compared. The RULA method was used to evaluate the risk arising from adoption of a poor posture at the workplace. The results obtained show a prevalence of symptoms of MSDs. The furniture is oversized in most cases. Adoption of a poor posture at the workplace requires a short-term intervention. There is a significant association between MSDs and wrong-dimensioned furniture, besides habit to adopt wrong postures. This company (as many other SME’s) must change the old style office furniture by one with dimensions matching workers’ anthropometry, and provide training on best practices to maintain good posture at workinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Litter Decomposition of Xaraes-Grass Pasture Subjected to Different Post-Grazing Residuals

Since fertilizers are used less extensively on Xaraes-grass (Brachiaria brizantha) pastures in Brazil because of costs, the main route of nitrogen (N) supply to plants is through nutrient recycling via litter decomposition. One of the strategies used to maintain the supply of N is to manage the pasture correctly by keeping it under grazing pressure so that the amount of recycled nutrients in the residue is sufficient to meet the pasture requirements (Jantalia et al.2006). Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate different residual leaf area indices (RLAI) and determine which one provides the best restoration of pasture leaf area index and nutrient cycling

Dynamic Structure and Subsurface Oxygen Formation of a Working Copper Catalyst under Methanol Steam Reforming Conditions: An in Situ Time-Resolved Spectroscopic Study

"This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Catalysis, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.8b05042."[EN] The dynamic behavior of a CuO/ZnO/Ga2O3 catalyst under methanol steam reforming (MSR) reaction conditions promoted by a high dispersion of the copper nanoparticles and defect sites of a nonstoichiometric ZnGa2O4 spinel phase has been observed, where structural changes taking place in the initial state of the reaction determine the final state of the catalyst in stationary reaction conditions. Mass spectrometry (MS) studies under transient conditions coupled to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have shown copper oxidation to Cu+ in the initial state of the reaction (TOS = 4 min), followed by a fast reduction of the outer shell to Cu-0, while keeping dissolved oxygen species in the inner layers of the nanoparticle. The presence of this subsurface oxygen impairs a positive charge to the uppermost surface copper species, that is, Cu delta+, which undoubtedly plays an important role on the MSR catalytic activity. The detection of these features, unperceived by conventional spectroscopic and catalytic studies, has only been possible by combining synchrotron NAP-XPS studies with transient studies performed in a low volume catalytic reactor connected to MS and linked with Raman and laboratory scale XPS studies.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under Grant Agreement No. [303476]. Part of this work was financially supported by the following projects: (i) Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI) and by national funds, through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia; (ii) NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005 - LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION, supported by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); and (iii) the Spanish Government-MINECO through "Severo Ochoa" Excellence Programme (SEV-2016-0683). D.R. thanks European Research Council project SYNCATMATCH (671093). J.C. thanks the Spanish Government (MINECO) for a "Severo Ochoa" grant (BES-2015-075748). The NAP-XPS experiments were performed at the NAPP branch of the CIRCE beamline at the ALBA Synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff.Ruano-Sánchez, D.; Cored-Bandrés, J.; Azenha, C.; Pérez-Dieste, V.; Mendes, A.; Mateos-Pedrero, C.; Concepción Heydorn, P. (2019). Dynamic Structure and Subsurface Oxygen Formation of a Working Copper Catalyst under Methanol Steam Reforming Conditions: An in Situ Time-Resolved Spectroscopic Study. ACS Catalysis. 9(4):2922-2930. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.8b05042S292229309

Peptidylprolyl isomerase C (Ppic) regulates invariant Natural Killer T cell (iNKT) differentiation in mice

© 2021 The Authors. European Journal of Immunology published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase C (Ppic) is expressed in several bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic progenitors and in T-cell precursors. Since the expression profile of Ppic in the hematoimmune system was suggestive that it could play a role in hematopoiesis and/or T lymphocyte differentiation, we sought to test that hypothesis in vivo. Specifically, we generated a Ppic-deficient mouse model by targeting the endogenous locus by CRISPR/Cas9 and tested the requirement of Ppic in hematopoiesis. Several immune cell lineages covering BM progenitors, lymphocyte precursors, as well as mature cells at the periphery were analyzed. While most lineages were unaffected, invariant NKT (iNKT) cells were reduced in percentage and absolute cell numbers in the Ppic-deficient thymus. This affected the most mature stages in the thymus, S2 and S3, and the phenotype was maintained at the periphery. Additionally, immature transitional T1 and T2 B lymphocytes were increased in the Ppic-deficient spleen, but the phenotype was lost in mature B lymphocytes. In sum, our data show that Ppic is dispensable for myeloid cells, platelets, erythrocytes, αβ, and γδ T lymphocytes in vivo in the steady state, while being involved in B- and iNKT cell differentiation.This work was supported by the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Portuguese National Research Council (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [FCT]) Grant PTDC/BIA-BID/30925/2017 to VCM, that also supports the salary of RSP. VCM is supported by an individual contract awarded by FCT (CEECIND/03106/2018). CVR is a PhD student of the IGC Integrative Biology and Biomedicine (IBB) PhD Program and supported by an individual FCT PhD Fellowship ref. PD/BD/139190/2018. This work had the support of the research infrastructures Congento LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022170 and PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122, both cofinanced by FCT and Lisboa2020, under PORTUGAL2020 agreement (European Regional Development Fund).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PDMS based hybrid sol-gel materials for sensing applications in alkaline environments: synthesis and characterization

Nowadays, concrete degradation is a major problem in the civil engineering field. Concrete carbonation, one of the main sources of structures’ degradation, causes concrete’s pH to decrease; hence, enabling the necessary conditions for corrosion reinforcement. An accurate, non-destructive sensor able to monitor the pH decrease resistant to concrete conditions is envisaged by many researchers. Optical fibre sensors (OFS) are generally used for concrete applications due to their high sensitivity and resistance to external interferences. Organic-inorganic hybrid (OIH) films, for potential functionalization of OFS to be applied in concrete structures, were developed. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based sol-gel materials were synthesized by the formation of an amino alcohol precursor followed by hydrolysis and condensation. Different ratios between PDMS and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (3-APTES) were studied. The synthesized OIH films were characterized by Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–Vis spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The OIH films were doped with phenolphthalein (Phph), a pH indicator, and were characterized by UV–Vis and EIS. FTIR characterization showed that the reaction between both precursors, the hydrolysis and the condensation reactions occurred successfully. UV–Vis characterization confirmed the presence of Phph embedded in the OIH matrices. Dielectric and thermal properties of the materials showed promising properties for application in contact with a high alkaline environment.This research was funded by the Program Budget COMPETE—Operational Program Competitiveness and Internationalization—COMPETE 2020, and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program (its FEDER component), and by the budget of FCT Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P, grant number POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031220

Numerical benchmark campaign of cost action tu1404 – microstructural modelling

This paper presents the results of the numerical benchmark campaign on modelling of hydration and microstructure development of cementitious materials. This numerical benchmark was performed in the scope of COST Action TU1404 “Towards the next generation of standards for service life of cement-based materials and structures”. Seven modelling groups took part in the campaign applying different models for prediction of mechanical properties (elastic moduli or compressive strength) in cement pastes and mortars. The simulations were based on published experimental data. The experimental data (both input and results used for validation) were open to the participants. The purpose of the benchmark campaign was to identify the needs of different models in terms of input experimental data, verify predictive potential of the models and finally to provide reference cases for new models in the future. The results of the benchmark show that a relatively high scatter in the predictions can arise between different models, in particular at early ages (e.g. elastic Young’s modulus predicted at 1 d in the range 6-20 GPa), while it reduces at later age, providing relatively good agreement with experimental data. Even though the input data was based on a single experimental dataset, the large differences between the results of the different models were found to be caused by distinct assumed properties for the individual phases at the microstructural level, mainly because of the scatter in the nanoindentation-derived properties of the C-S-H phase.</jats:p