Impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak on mental health and psychiatric drug use among portuguese pharmacy professionals

The COVID-19 outbreak was considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 [1]. This outbreak has raised public health problems, bringing with it several implications both on physical and psychological level, in particular for health professionals on the front line of the pandemic, for the greater risk of infection [2,3]. In this sense, it is pertinent to evaluate how the COVID-19 outbreak had implications on the mental health and in the consumption of psychotropic drugs in Portugal, and among pharmacy professionals.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Entropic Upper Bound on Gravitational Binding Energy

We prove that the gravitational binding energy {\Omega} of a self gravitating system described by a mass density distribution {\rho}(x) admits an upper bound B[{\rho}(x)] given by a simple function of an appropriate, non-additive Tsallis' power-law entropic functional Sq evaluated on the density {\rho}. The density distributions that saturate the entropic bound have the form of isotropic q-Gaussian distributions. These maximizer distributions correspond to the Plummer density profile, well known in astrophysics. A heuristic scaling argument is advanced suggesting that the entropic bound B[{\rho}(x)] is unique, in the sense that it is unlikely that exhaustive entropic upper bounds not based on the alluded Sq entropic measure exit. The present findings provide a new link between the physics of self gravitating systems, on the one hand, and the statistical formalism associated with non-additive, power-law entropic measures, on the other hand

The impact of oligomeric anions on the speciation of protic ionic liquids

The synthesis of protic ionic liquids based in carboxylate anions, too often admitted as being straightforward, is actually challenging and must be carefully addressed. This review discusses the importance of oligomeric anions, in particular those based on carboxylates, in the behavior and nature of protic ionic liquids. There is strong evidence in the literature that the synthesis, and subsequent purification, of protic ionic liquids involving carboxylic acids, leads to structures in the liquid phase with an acid:base proportion different from the expected 1:1 stoichiometry. The formation of the oligomeric anions, mostly dependent on the proton transfer from the Brønsted acid to the Brønsted base, may lead to a higher ionicity that suggests the formation of true ionic liquids. It is here stressed the relevance of deepening the understanding of the interactions between the species and the speciation of the liquid phase, combining experimental and theoretical approaches to establish foundations for insightful advances in the area.This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020 , CIMO-Mountain Research Center, UIDB/00690/2020 , and CIQUP, University of Porto (Projects: PEstUID/QUI/00081/2013 ) financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) /MCTES. This work was also developed within the scope of the Indo- Portuguese Program for Cooperation in Science & Technology DST/INT/Portugal/P-01/2017 , financed by FCT and the Government of India. P.J.C. acknowledge FCT for his contract under the Investigator FCT 2015 contract number IF/00758/2015 .info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sustainable engineering labs - A Portuguese perspective

Strategies to reduce emissions responsible for greenhouse effect, and contributing to economy decarbonisation, should focus on using renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency both at production, distribution and consumption (equipment efficiency), sustainable mobility, urban renewal and rehabilitation and behavioural changes. Considering that man spend a significant part of their lives inside buildings that represent a significant share of energy consumption, buildings turn out to be an attractive area to invest efforts, aiming to improve efficiency, as recommended in the European Commission reports. However, despite the goals outlined in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, there are difficulties in the projection of new buildings that can be classified as nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). These include legal and financial obstacles, as insufficient formation of professionals (such as architects, engineers and consultants) able to tackle the challenges. This paper aims to point strategies that can contribute to the creation of a nearly zero energy laboratory in a university environment, that works as a tool for raising awareness about nZEB while improving the future engineering professionals’ skills towards team work and knowledge sharing – a living lab.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Size matters: fishing less and yielding more in smaller-scale fisheries

Several factors influence catches and the sustainability of fisheries, and such factors might be different depending on the scale on which fisheries work. We investigated the existence of possible subdivisions within small-scale fisheries (SSF) themselves, regarding their economic performance and relative social and environmental impacts to understand which categories of these two types of fleets are best positioned to support sustainability. By doing so, we investigated if it is a good strategy for SSF to aim to grow towards larger scales. We obtained economic and ecological data from landing samplings and information on technological efficiency of this fleet, using a northeastern Brazilian state as a case study. We defined a cut-off point to separate the SSF into two categories of boats, according to their size and gear. We compared their cpue and the factors affecting it within each category; we also compared economic (number of boats, number of landings, jobs, gears, catch, travel time and total time of the fishery, revenues, costs, profits, revenue per unit of effort, and profit per unit of effort) and ecological factors (vulnerability of species caught) between the two categories. We found that small boats spent less time fishing and employed comparatively more people per landed value and catch. The cpue and profits of small boats were also higher. Both large and small boats exploit species with the same overall vulnerability. Therefore, being smaller, even within the SSF category, seems to be a more advantageous social and economic strategy for guaranteeing higher catches and more employment opportunities per catch. These findings need to be taken into account when defining new policies, such as the distribution of subsidies that support or not the sustainable use of fishery resources

Selecting Critical Properties of Terpenes and Terpenoids through Group-Contribution Methods and Equations of State

The knowledge of critical properties is fundamental in engineering process calculations for the estimation of thermodynamic properties and phase equilibria. A literature survey shows a large number of methods for predicting critical properties of different classes of compounds, but no previous study is available to evaluate their suitability for terpenes and terpenoids. In this work, the critical properties of terpenes and terpenoids were first estimated using the group-contribution methods of Joback, Constantinou and Gani, and Wilson and Jasperson. These were then used to calculate densities and vapor pressure through the equations of state Peng-Robinson (PR) and Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) and then compared with the experimental values. On other hand, density and vapor pressure experimental data were used to estimate the critical properties directly by the same equations of state (EoSs), allowing a comparison between the two estimation procedures. For this purpose densities for 17 pure terpenes and terpenoids were here measured at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range (278.15 to 368.15) K. Using the first approach, the best combination is the Joback's method with the Peng-Robinson EoS, despite the high relative deviations found for vapor pressure calculations and difficulties to predict density at low temperatures. Following the second approach, the set of critical properties and acentric factors estimated are able to adequately correlate the experimental data. Both equatio ns show a similar capability to correlate the data with SRK EoS presenting a global %ARD of 3.16 and 0.62 for vapor pressure and density, respectively; while the PR EoS presented 3.61 and 0.66, for the same properties, both giving critical properties estimates also closer to those calculated by the Joback method, which is the recommended group-contribution method for this type of compounds.This work was developed in the scope of the projects POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007679-CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013), POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 006984−Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM both funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through COMPETE2020, Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI), and by national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia). This work is also a result of project “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 ERDF. M.A.R.M. acknowledges FCT for her Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/87084/ 2012) and COST for the STSM Grant from COST action CM1206. P. J. Carvalho also acknowledges FCT for a contract under the Investigador FCT 2015, Contract No. IF/00758/ 2015. A.M.P. acknowledges Infochem-KBC for his Ph.D. grant. The software Multiflash from Infochem-KBC was applied in some of the calculationsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Instanton interactions in dense-matter QCD

A Coulomb gas representation of dense-matter QCD is derived from a dual transformation of the low-energy effective Lagrangian. The point-like charges Q=+1,-1 of the gas are identified with the instantons and anti-instantons of such topological charges. An instanton repels another instanton with the same force as it attracts an anti-instanton, in contrast to the semiclassical interaction.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex (a typo fixed

Selection and characterization of non-ideal ionic liquids mixtures to be used in CO

Due to the costs involved, the capture of CO2 in post-combustion is not currently seen as economically viable. Aiming at changing the perception of post-combustion CO2 from a costly and non-profitable process to a valuable commodity and fostering the development of the next-generation of technologies, novel solvents and their mixtures have been investigated. In this work, mixtures of non-volatile ionic liquids were screened by COSMO-RS aiming to find mixtures with positive excess volumes that could present an increased CO2 capture by physical sorption. The most promising mixtures identified by COSMO-RS, [C4C1im][DMP] or [C4C1im][NTf2] þ carboxylate-based protic ILs were characterized through the measurement of their thermophysical properties, namely density and viscosity. Both properties were measured for pure ILs and their binary mixtures at different temperatures and compositions. The temperature dependence of density of pure ILs was described using the Gardas and Coutinho model while viscosity was accurately described using the Vogel Tammann Fulcher equation. The Redlich-Kister equation was used to predict the excess molar volumes and the non-ideality of the mixtures’ viscosity was assessed using the Grunberg and Nissan mixing law. The excess molar volumes for mixtures containing [C4C1im][DMP] show large positive values all over the range of compositions and temperatures, making them good candidates for CO2 capture. To the best of our knowledge, the excess molar volumes obtained in this work were the highest reported so far. COSMO-RS was able to correctly predict the trend of the experimental excess molar volumes for these mixtures. Regarding viscosity, mixtures of [C4C1im] [DMP] with the carboxylate-based protic ILs led to the desired viscosity decrease compared to the pure aprotic IL, and large deviations from ideality were observed. The mixing of ILs is thus an efficient way to fine-tune the properties, in this case decreasing the viscosity while increasing the sorption capacity.This work is a result of the Indo-Portuguese Program for Cooperation in Science & Technology DST/INT/Portugal/P-01/2017, financed by FCT and the Government of India. This work was also developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020, and CIMOMountain Research Center, UIDB/00690/2020, both financed by national funds through the FCT, MEC and when appropriate cofinanced by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. MARM acknowledges the project “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). P.J.C. acknowledges FCT for his contract under the Investigator FCT 2015 contract number IF/00758/2015.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio