Quantitative image analysis of polyhydroxyalkanoates inclusions from microbial mixed cultures under different SBR operation strategies

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) produced from mixed microbial cultures (MMC), regarded as potential substitutes of petrochemical plastics, can be found as intracellular granules in various microorganisms under limited nutrient conditions and excess of carbon source. PHA is traditionally quantified by laborious and time-consuming chromatography analysis, and a simpler and faster method to assess PHA contents from MMC, such as quantitative image analysis (QIA), is of great interest. The main purpose of the present work was to upgrade a previously developed QIA methodology (Mesquita et al., 2013a, 2015) for MMC intracellular PHA contents quantification, increase the studied intracellular PHA concentration range and extend to different sequencing batch reactor (SBR) operation strategies. Therefore, the operation of a new aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) SBR allowed further extending the studied operating conditions, dataset, and range of the MMC intracellular PHA contents from the previously reported anaerobic/aerobic cycle SBR. Nile Blue A (NBA) staining was employed for epifluorescence microscope visualization and image acquisition, further fed to a custom developed QIA. Data from each of the feast and famine cycles of both SBR were individually processed using chemometrics analysis, obtaining the correspondent partial least squares (PLS) models. The PHA concentrations determined from PLS models were further plotted against the results obtained in the standard chromatographic method. For both SBR the predicted ability was higher at the end of the feast stage than for the famine stage. Indeed, an independent feast and famine QIA data treatment was found to be fundamental to obtain the best prediction abilities. Furthermore, a promising overall correlation (R2 of 0.83) could be found combining the overall QIA data regarding the PHA prediction up to a concentration of 1785.1 mgL-1 (37.3 wt%). Thus, the results confirm that the presented QIA methodology can be seen as promising for estimating higher intracellular PHA concentrations for a larger reactors operation systems and further extending the prediction range of previous studies.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fundunder the scope ofNorte2020 - ProgramaOperacional Regional do Norte.The authors also acknowledge the financial support to Cristiano S. Leal (PTDC/EBB-EBI/103147/2008, FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER009704) and Daniela P. Mesquita through the FCT postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/82558/2011).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trasplante de hígado: estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas con pacientes que esperan por la cirugía

O objetivo deste estudo é descrever os resultados de aprendizagem da experiência de implementação de estratégias de ensino com os pacientes que serão submetidos a transplante de fígado. Uma delas é a entrega de um manual de orientação aos pacientes que entram no programa, com posterior aplicação de questionário relacionado ao conteúdo do manual. Analisou-se 13 pacientes em lista de espera para transplante de fígado, todos ocupando as primeiras posições no cadastro técnico. Em relação às respostas obtidas dos questionários aplicados, a média de acertos foi de 80,6%, sendo que apenas um paciente acertou todas as questões. Durante a correção e esclarecimento das dúvidas, concluiu-se que a leitura do manual de orientação e a aplicação do questionário proporcionam esclarecimento melhor dos pacientes e de seus familiares em relação aos aspectos mais importantes da cirurgia. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: This study aims to describe the learning results of the implementation of teaching strategies involving patients who will be submitted to liver transplantation. One of these strategies is to give the patients a manual with orientations and the subsequent application of a questionnaire related to the content of the manual. Authors analyzed 13 patients who were waiting for liver transplantation. With respect to the answers regarding the questionnaire, an average of 83.8% of correct responses was given and only one patient got all the questions right. During the correction and the time to clarify their doubts, authors concluded that the opportunity of reading the manual and applying the questionnaire allowed patients and families to get a better understanding about the surgery's most important aspects _________________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN: Este estudio tiene como objetivo describir la experiencia de implementación de estrategias de enseñanza con pacientes que van a ser sometidos al trasplante de hígado. Una de ellas es la entrega de un manual de orientación a los pacientes que empiezan el programa, con la posterior aplicación de un cuestionario relacionado al contenido del manual. Fueron analizados 13 pacientes que estaban aguardando el trasplante de hígado, ocupando las primeras posiciones en el registro técnico. Con relación a las respuestas obtenidas de los cuestionarios aplicados, el promedio de respuestas correctas fue del 83.8%, siendo que solamente un paciente tuvo todas las respuestas correctas. Durante la revisión de las respuestas y aclaración de las dudas, los autores concluyeron que la lectura del manual de orientación y la aplicación del cuestionario proporcionan una aclaración a los pacientes y sus familiares con respecto a los aspectos más importantes de la cirugí

Exploiting solar visible-range observations by inversion techniques: from flows in the solar subsurface to a flaring atmosphere

Observations of the Sun in the visible spectral range belong to standard measurements obtained by instruments both on the ground and in the space. Nowadays, both nearly continuous full-disc observations with medium resolution and dedicated campaigns of high spatial, spectral and/or temporal resolution constitute a holy grail for studies that can capture (both) the long- and short-term changes in the dynamics and energetics of the solar atmosphere. Observations of photospheric spectral lines allow us to estimate not only the intensity at small regions, but also various derived data products, such as the Doppler velocity and/or the components of the magnetic field vector. We show that these measurements contain not only direct information about the dynamics of solar plasmas at the surface of the Sun but also imprints of regions below and above it. Here, we discuss two examples: First, the local time-distance helioseismology as a tool for plasma dynamic diagnostics in the near subsurface and second, the determination of the solar atmosphere structure during flares. The methodology in both cases involves the technique of inverse modelling.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in the book "Reviews in Frontiers of Modern Astrophysics: From Space Debris to Cosmology" (eds Kabath, Jones and Skarka; publisher Springer Nature) funded by the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant "Per Aspera Ad Astra Simul" 2017-1-CZ01-KA203-03556