Vidros fosfatos funcionais para absorção de hidrogénio : preparação e caracterização

Mestrado em Engenharia FísicaOs vidros fosfatos têm potencial para atuar como catalisadores na dissociação de vapor de água em hidrogénio e oxigénio, possibilitando a adsorção de hidrogénio na sua superfície. A adição dos óxidos de nióbio e de sódio na sua composição, provoca uma despolimerização das ligações P-O-P características da rede dos vidros fosfatos, aumentando assim o número de oxigénios não ponte disponíveis para formar ligações O-H. A inclusão do óxido de tungsténio nestes sistemas vítreos, promove a oxidação dos átomos de hidrogénio em H+, que são absorvidos ao formarem ligações com os oxigénios não ponte. No presente trabalho, foram preparados vidros com as composições [ ( ) ] ( ) e (com A=Li, Na e K), através do método de fusão. Os vidros preparados foram tratados termicamente num forno a ar, a temperaturas de 500 °C, 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C e 1000 °C durante 4 horas com base nos resultados da análise térmica diferencial. A análise estrutural dos vidros obtidos foi realizada através das técnicas de difração de raios-X, espectroscopia de Raman, e pela determinação da densidade das amostras. Este estudo foi complementado pela observação da morfologia dos vidros pela técnica de microscopia eletrónica de varrimento. A análise da condutividade dc ( ), condutividade ac ( ) e propriedades dielétricas dos vidros (na gama de frequências 100- 1MHz), foi realizada em função da temperatura na gama 200-370 K e relacionada com a microestrutura das amostras.Phosphate glasses have potential to act as catalyst to dissociate water vapor into hydrogen and oxygen, and thus be able to capture hydrogen in its surface. The addition of sodium and niobium oxides to the glass composition, contributes to the depolymerization of the P-O-P chains increasing the number of non-bridging oxygen in the glass structure, whereas the tungsten plays a major role in the ability of dissociate and form hydrogen protons to bound with the non-bridging oxygen, and thus form OH groups. In the present work, glasses with a composition of [( ) ] ( ) and where A=Li, Na and K were prepared by the melt-quenching method. The as-prepared glasses were heat-treated in air, at 500 °C, 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C and 1000 °C for 4 hours based on the results from differential thermal analysis. The structure of these glasses was analyzed in function of the molar ratio between barium and strontium oxides. Structural studies were conducted by X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and density measurements, whereas the bulk and fracture morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. dc ( ), ac ( ) conductivity and dielectric spectroscopy (100-1MHz) measurements were performed in function of the temperature (200-370 K) and related with their microstructure

Building anonymised database samples

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaIn this work we propose Anonym Database Sampler (ADS), a flexible and modular system capable of extracting an anonymised, consistent and representative sample from a relational database. ADS was envisioned for use in testing and development environments. To this end, a sample specification input is requested from the user, that is used by ADS’s sampling engine to perform a stratified random sample. Afterwards a First-choice hill climbing algorithm is applied to the sample, optimising the selected data towards the specified requisites. Finally, if some restrictions are still to be met, tuples and/or keys modifications are performed, ensuring that the final sample fully complies with the initial sample specification. While having a representative and sound database that developers can use in these environments can be a great advantage, we assume that this representativeness does not need to comply with a truly statistical representativity, which would be much harder to obtain. Thereby, ADS samples are not appropriate for any kind of statistical data analysis. After the sample being successfully extracted, due to the sensitivity of the data contained in most organisation databases, a data anonymisation step is performed. The sampled data is consistently enciphered and masked, preventing data privacy breaches that could occur by delivering to developers a database containing some real operational data

Potenciais interações de drogas em pacientes de terapia antirretroviral: uma revisão integrativa: Potential drug interactions in antiretroviral therapy patients: an integrative review

Possíveis interações medicamentosas devem ser levadas em consideração ao selecionar um regime antirretroviral. Uma revisão detalhada dos medicamentos concomitantes pode ajudar na criação de um regime que minimize as interações indesejáveis. O potencial para interações medicamentosas deve ser avaliado quando qualquer novo medicamento (incluindo agentes de venda livre) é adicionado a um regime antirretroviral existente. A maioria das interações medicamentosas com medicamentos antirretroviral é mediada por inibição ou indução do metabolismo hepático de medicamentos. Este estudo trata-se de uma revisão integrativa, cujo objetivo foi compreender as possíveis interações de drogas em pacientes com infecção pelo HIV em processo de terapia antirretroviral. Após análise dos dados, concluiu-se que há riscos reais de interações medicamentosas a partir do uso de 5 ou mais medicamentos, por um tempo superior a seis anos. Os principais riscos apontados nesse sentido foram interferência na resposta terapêutica, aumento de reações adversas toxidade nos sistemas cardiovascular e nervoso central e dificuldades para detecção de resistência do HIV aos medicamentos antirretrovirais

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Post-intervention Status in Patients With Refractory Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab During REGAIN and Its Open-Label Extension

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether eculizumab helps patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) achieve the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) post-intervention status of minimal manifestations (MM), we assessed patients' status throughout REGAIN (Safety and Efficacy of Eculizumab in AChR+ Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis) and its open-label extension. METHODS: Patients who completed the REGAIN randomized controlled trial and continued into the open-label extension were included in this tertiary endpoint analysis. Patients were assessed for the MGFA post-intervention status of improved, unchanged, worse, MM, and pharmacologic remission at defined time points during REGAIN and through week 130 of the open-label study. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients completed REGAIN and continued into the open-label study (eculizumab/eculizumab: 56; placebo/eculizumab: 61). At week 26 of REGAIN, more eculizumab-treated patients than placebo-treated patients achieved a status of improved (60.7% vs 41.7%) or MM (25.0% vs 13.3%; common OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.1-4.5). After 130 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 88.0% of patients achieved improved status and 57.3% of patients achieved MM status. The safety profile of eculizumab was consistent with its known profile and no new safety signals were detected. CONCLUSION: Eculizumab led to rapid and sustained achievement of MM in patients with AChR+ refractory gMG. These findings support the use of eculizumab in this previously difficult-to-treat patient population. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: REGAIN, NCT01997229; REGAIN open-label extension, NCT02301624. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that, after 26 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 25.0% of adults with AChR+ refractory gMG achieved MM, compared with 13.3% who received placebo

Minimal Symptom Expression' in Patients With Acetylcholine Receptor Antibody-Positive Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab

The efficacy and tolerability of eculizumab were assessed in REGAIN, a 26-week, phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), and its open-label extension

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others