Airborne PM Impact on Health, Overview of Variables, and Key Factors to Decision Making in Air Quality

This chapter intends to contribute to the understanding of the multiple aspects related to particulate matter (PM) in an air urban environment, in particular, regarding its impact on human health. A general overview of variables and key factors is presented to identify, relate, and understand the diverse and multidisciplinary variables that contribute to PM concentration in urban environments associated with health impacts. This relation is difficult to quantify, given the numerous variables that are interlinked due to the multidisciplinary aspects involved. Our aim is to identify the main multidisciplinary aspects, namely, meteorology, urban geometry, buildings, roads and footpaths, road traffic, industries, air concentration measurements, and health. The main strategic aspects for decision making related to airborne PM impact on health are also discussed

How are the portuguese coping with the mandatory confinement by COVID-19?: association between mental health and coping strategies

INTRODUCTION: The global COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on human behaviour and wellbeing. However, researchers have not yet considered how coping responses to stress related to COVID-19 could influence mental health. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the mental health status of Portuguese during the national lockdown; examine how study participants cope with stress during the national lockdown; and assess the association between coping and mental health status. METHODS: We cross sectionally analysed data from a convenience sample of 430 adults living in Portugal. Mental health was measured using the five-item Mental Health Inventory. Coping strategies were assessed using the Brief COPE. We examine the univariate associations between mental health status and coping responses. We performed a multiple hierarchical regression analysis controlling for sex and age, to test the predictive importance of coping responses on mental health status. RESULTS: Participants’ mental health was lower than the cut-off point for poor mental health (p<.001). The use of instrumental support, emotional support, self-blame, venting, denial, behavioral disengagement, and substance use were positively significantly associated with mental health, while active coping, positive reframing, acceptance, and humor were negatively significantly associated with mental health. The multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that sex and age accounted for 6% of the variance of mental health. Coping strategies accounted for an additional and statistically significant 30% of the variance of mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide support for the impact of the coping strategies on mental health. We encourage future research on the present topic

Synthesis and characterization of novel diazenes bearing pyrrole, thiophene and thiazole heterocycles as efficient photochromic and nonlinear optical (NLO) materials

Two series of novel thermally stable second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) and photochromic chromophores have been designed and synthesized. The two series of compounds were based on different combinations of donor groups (pyrrole or thienylpyrrole) which act simultaneously as Π-conjugated bridges, together with diazoaryl or diazothiazolyl as acceptor moieties. Their photochromic and electrochemical behavior were characterized, while hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) was employed to evaluate their second-order nonlinear optical properties. The results of these studies have been critically analyzed together with two other related compounds reported earlier from our laboratories in which the thienylpyrrole system was used as the donor group keeping the functionalized diazoaryl as acceptor moiety. The measured molecular first hyperpolarizabilities and the observed photochromic behavior showed strong variations for the different donor systems used (pyrrole or thienylpyrrole) and were also sensitive to the acceptor strength of the diazenehetero(aryl) moiety. The thienylpyrrole based compounds endowed with extended Π-conjugated bridges and stronger donor auxiliary effects in comparison to the pyrrole compounds, when coupled to the stronger acceptor diazo(hetero)aryl groups gave rise to significantly larger hyperpolarizabilities (β= 274 - 415 x 10-30 esu) for an incident wavelength of 1064nm). These compounds also displayed improved photochromic behavior with very fast response to the visible light stimulus (1.5 s) and fast thermal return to the original forms (2-3 s).Thanks are due to the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal) and FEDER for financial support through the Centro de Quimica and Centro de Fisica- Universidade do Minho, Project PTDC/QUI/66251/2006 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007429), Project PTDC/CTM/105597/2008 with funding from COMPETE/FEDER and research grants to M. C. R. Castro (UMINHO/BI/142/2009) and M. F. S. Cardoso (UMINHO/BII/249/2009). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005 with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT

Optical fiber sensors based on sol-gel materials: design, fabrication and application in concrete structures

Optical fiber sensing systems have been widely developed for several fields such as biomedical diagnosis, food technology, military and industrial applications and civil engineering. Nowadays, the growth and advances of optical fiber sensors (OFS) are focused on the development of novel sensing concepts and transducers as well as sensor cost reduction. This review provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of OFS based on sol-gel materials for diverse applications with particular emphasis on OFS for structural health monitoring of concrete structures. The types of precursors used in the development of sol-gel materials for OFS functionalization to monitor a wide range of analytes are debated. The main advantages of OFS compared to other sensing systems such as electrochemical sensors are also considered. An interdisciplinary review to a broad audience of engineers and materials scientists is provided and the relationship between the chemistry of sol-gel material synthesis and the development of OFS is considered. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no review manuscripts were found in which the fields of sol-gel chemistry and OFS are correlated. The authors consider that this review will serve as a reference as well as provide insights for experts into the application of sol-gel chemistry and OFS in the civil engineering field. (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry

Frequency of TERT promoter mutations in human cancers

Reactivation of telomerase has been implicated in human tumorigenesis, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we report the presence of recurrent somatic mutations in the TERT promoter in cancers of the central nervous system (43%), bladder (59%), thyroid (follicular cell-derived, 10%) and skin (melanoma, 29%). In thyroid cancers, the presence of TERT promoter mutations (when occurring together with BRAF mutations) is significantly associated with higher TERT mRNA expression, and in glioblastoma we find a trend for increased telomerase expression in cases harbouring TERT promoter mutations. Both in thyroid cancers and glioblastoma, TERT promoter mutations are significantly associated with older age of the patients. Our results show that TERT promoter mutations are relatively frequent in specific types of human cancers, where they lead to enhanced expression of telomerase.We thank to Mrs Mafalda Rocha for the excellent technical support in the sequencing work. This work was partially supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) through BPD (SFRH/BPD/85249/2012 to H. P.), PhD (SFRH/BD/81940/2011 to J.V. and SFRH/BD/79135/2011 to A. A.) and BI grants, and the grant through the Program Ciencia 2008 (J.L.) and the project (PIC/IC/83037/2007). Further funding was obtained from the project 'Microenvironment, metabolism and cancer' partially supported by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2-O Novo Norte), under the Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional (QREN), and through the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). IPATIMUP is an associate laboratory of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and is partially supported by the FCT

A atitude do educador de infância e a participação da criança como referenciais de qualidade em educação

Neste artigo, fundamentado em dois estudos de caso em jardim de infância, refletiu- -se sobre como e com quais ferramentas de apoio se pode avaliar e promover qualidade e intervenção educativa adequada nos contextos. Selecionou-se um grupo de crianças (entre 3 e 6 anos) e desenvolveram-se estratégias com a finalidade de escutar e compreender o modo como elas participam. Ainda, em diversos tempos da rotina de cada contexto, identificaram-se interações e atitudes do educador, analisando-se o respetivo impacto no nível da participação das crianças. Os resultados revelaram que, quando as crianças desenvolvem um sentimento de pertença ao contexto e lhes são oferecidas oportunidades de participação, mais facilmente se envolvem, revelam bem-estar emocional e motivação para aprender, explorar e participar nos processos de tomada de decisão. A escuta ativa, o questionamento e o encorajamento do diálogo assumem-se, por parte do adulto, competências essenciais para a qualidade da intervenção educativa.This paper, based on two case studies in a kindergarten context, describes a reflection on the most appropriate method and tools for the assessment and promotion of quality and context intervention. A group of children (between 3 and 6 years old) was selected and strategies were developed in order to listen to the children’s voices and understand how they were participating. Moreover, in different routine times within each context, interactions and attitudes of educators were identified, with the corresponding analysis of the impact on children’s participation. The results revealed that when children develop a sense of belonging in the context and they are offered opportunities to participate, they more easily get engaged, reveal emotional wellbeing and motivation to learn, explore and participate in decision-making processes. For the adult, active listening, questioning and encouragement of dialogue appear as essential skills to promote quality in educational intervention.En el presente artículo, basado en dos estudios de caso en un jardín de infancia, se reflexionó sobre cómo y con qué herramientas de apoyo se puede evaluar y promover calidad e intervención educativa apropiada en los contextos. Se seleccionó un grupo de niños (entre los 3 y 6 años de edad) y se desarrollaron estrategias con la finalidad de escuchary comprender el modo como dichos niños participan. Además, en diversos momentos de la rutina de cada contexto, se identificaron interacciones y actitudes del educador, analizando el respectivo impacto en la participación de los infantes. Los resultados revelaron que, cuando los niños desarrollan un sentido de pertenencia al contexto y se les ofrece la oportunidad de participar, más fácilmente se envuelven, revelan bienestar emocional y motivación para aprender, explorar y participar en la toma de decisiones. La escucha activa, el cuestionar y fomentar el diálogo constituyen, para el adulto, competencias esenciales para la calidad de la intervención educativa

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Seascape Genetics of a Globally Distributed, Highly Mobile Marine Mammal: The Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Genus Delphinus)

Identifying which factors shape the distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity is central in evolutionary and conservation biology. In the marine realm, the absence of obvious barriers to dispersal can make this task more difficult. Nevertheless, recent studies have provided valuable insights into which factors may be shaping genetic structure in the world's oceans. These studies were, however, generally conducted on marine organisms with larval dispersal. Here, using a seascape genetics approach, we show that marine productivity and sea surface temperature are correlated with genetic structure in a highly mobile, widely distributed marine mammal species, the short-beaked common dolphin. Isolation by distance also appears to influence population divergence over larger geographical scales (i.e. across different ocean basins). We suggest that the relationship between environmental variables and population structure may be caused by prey behaviour, which is believed to determine common dolphins' movement patterns and preferred associations with certain oceanographic conditions. Our study highlights the role of oceanography in shaping genetic structure of a highly mobile and widely distributed top marine predator. Thus, seascape genetic studies can potentially track the biological effects of ongoing climate-change at oceanographic interfaces and also inform marine reserve design in relation to the distribution and genetic connectivity of charismatic and ecologically important megafauna