Factors associated with walking, moderate and vigorous physical activities in adolescents

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between a set of variables (adolescents' gender, age, economic level, nutritional status, and fathers' educational level) and physical activity practices. The sample consisted of 578 students from a public school, aged between 11 and 16 years. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, version 8, short form) was applied in order to measure their physical activity practices. Chi-square, independent t test and one-way ANOVA were implemented. Thirteen percent of adolescents were physically inactive and no significant difference was found between gender (p > .05). Compared to boys, girls spent more time in walking (p = .019) and vigorous activities (p = .017). Adolescents aged 14-16 years spent more time in walking compared with those aged 11-12 years (p = .026) and 13-year-olds (p = .006). There was a positive association between economic level and time spent in moderate physical activity (p = .034)

Completely monotone outer approximations of lower probabilities on finite possibility spaces

Drawing inferences from general lower probabilities on finite possibility spaces usually involves solving linear programming problems. For some applications this may be too computationally demanding. Some special classes of lower probabilities allow for using computationally less demanding techniques. One such class is formed by the completely monotone lower probabilities, for which inferences can be drawn efficiently once their Möbius transform has been calculated. One option is therefore to draw approximate inferences by using a completely monotone approximation to a general lower probability; this must be an outer approximation to avoid drawing inferences that are not implied by the approximated lower probability. In this paper, we discuss existing and new algorithms for performing this approximation, discuss their relative strengths and weaknesses, and illustrate how each one works and performs

Solid-liquid phase equilibrium of trans-cinnamic acid, p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid in water and organic solvents: Experimental and modelling studies

The solubility of the trans isomers of cinnamic acid, p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid was measured in water and seven organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, 2-butanone, ethyl acetate and acetonitrile), at 298.2 K and 313.2 K, using the analytical shake-flask technique. The melting temperatures and enthalpies of the solutes were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, while solute solid structures were identified by powder and single X-ray diffraction. The NRTL-SAC model was applied to calculate the solubility of trans-cinnamic acid and trans-ferulic acid in pure solvents. For trans-p-coumaric acid, the NRTL-SAC was combined with the Reference Solvent Approach, as the solute melting properties could not be determined. The global average relative deviations (ARD) were 32% and 41%, in the correlation and prediction stages, respectively. The Abraham solvation model was also applied. The global ARD were 20% for correlation and 29% for predictions, which can be considered very satisfactory results for these semi-predictive models.This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/ 50011/2020, and CIMO-Mountain Research Center, UIDB/00690/ 2020, both financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology/MCTES. We also acknowledge the support of the projects “AIProcMat@N2020 - Advanced Industrial Processes and Materials for a Sustainable Northern Region of Portugal 2020”, with the reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 000006, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); and project AllNat - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030463, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (COMPETE2020-POCI) and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal). S. M. Vilas-Boas thanks the financial support provided by FCT PhD grant (SFRH/BD/138149/ 2018).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New families of Jacobsthal and Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers

In this paper we present new families of sequences that generalize the Jacobsthal and the Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers and establish some identities. We also give a generating function for a particular case of the sequences presented

New families of Jacobsthal and Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers

In this paper we present new families of sequences that generalize the Jacobsthal and the Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers and establish some identities. We also give a generating function for a particular case of the sequences presented

Potential alternative feed sources for ruminant feeding from the biodiesel production chain by-products

This study aimed to evaluate the chemical composition, fractionation of nitrogen compounds and carbohydrates, digestibility parameters, gas production kinetics and ruminal fermentation of fruit seed cakes. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three fruit seed cakes (treatments) and four replications. The cakes were made of seeds of custard apple (Annona squamosa), soursop (Annona muricata) and passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), which were collected in a biodiesel plant. The passion fruit seed cake presented the highest content of dry matter, neutral detergent fibre crude protein (NDFcp), acid detergent fibre (ADF), lignin and total carbohydrates (P<0.05). The custard apple seed cake presented high proportions of crude protein, condensed tannins and digestible energy (P<0.05). The soursop seed cake presented higher values for ether extract and total digestible nutrients (P<0.05). For potential degradability, the authors detected a difference between the custard apple, soursop and passion fruit seed cakes. The total volume of gases was higher for custard apple and soursop seed cakes. Custard apple seed cake presented higher proportions of in vitro degradation parameters (P<0.05). Thus this cake could provide greater nutrient levels when supplied in ruminant diets, followed by soursop seed cake and passion fruit seed cake. Keywords: alternative food, by-products, ruminant feeding, seed cake, semi-ari

Safer by design strategies

Throughout the EU funded FP7 project GUIDENano, we are trying to control and monitor the evolution of nano-enable products during their lifecycle. Small alterations of the nanoparticle (NP) state may have critical consequences on the NP behaviour and performance. For this reason it is important to highlight the importance of an extensive and proper characterization to define the NP physico-chemical characteristics under several environmental conditions. Furthermore, this characterization is necessary to ensure that obtained results are reproducible and allow understanding the behaviour of the NP on biological systems. In this paper different strategies reported in the literature regarding the safety-by-design concept are summarized. Several strategies from the synthetic point of view that help us to modulate the main factors which determine the safety of nanomaterials are proposed

Characterization of mutant met100lys of cytochrome c-550 from thibacillus-versutus with Lysine-histidine heme ligation

Macromolecular Biochemistr

Entanglement transformation at absorbing and amplifying four-port devices

Dielectric four-port devices play an important role in optical quantum information processing. Since for causality reasons the permittivity is a complex function of frequency, dielectrics are typical examples of noisy quantum channels, which cannot preserve quantum coherence. To study the effects of quantum decoherence, we start from the quantized electromagnetic field in an arbitrary Kramers--Kronig dielectric of given complex permittivity and construct the transformation relating the output quantum state to the input quantum state, without placing restrictions on the frequency. We apply the formalism to some typical examples in quantum communication. In particular we show that for entangled qubits the Bell-basis states $|\Psi^\pm>$ are more robust against decoherence than the states $|\Phi^\pm>$.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 10 eps figures, minor corrections in Appendi