Electrodeposition of WO3 Nanoparticles for Sensing Applications

The motivation of using metal oxides is mainly due to its charge storage capabilities, and electrocatalytic, electrochromic and photoelectrochemical properties. But comparing with bulk, nanostructured materials present several advantages related with the spatial confinement, large fraction of surface atoms, high surface energy, strong surface adsorption and increased surface to volume ratio, which greatly improves the performances of these materials. The deposition of this materials can be accomplished by a variety of physical and chemical techniques but nowadays, electrodeposited metal oxides are generally used in both laboratories and industries due to the flexibility to control structure and morphology of the oxide electrodes combined with a reduced cost. Tungsten oxide (WO3) is a well-studied semiconductor and is used for several applications as chromogenic material, sensor and catalyst. The major important features is its low cost and availability, improved stability, easy morphologic and structural control of the nanostructures, reversible change of conductivity, high sensitivity, selectivity and biocompatibility. For the electrodeposition of WO3, more than one method can be adopted: electrodeposition from a precursor solution, anodic oxidation, and electrodeposition of already produced nanoparticles; however, in this case the mechanism of the electrodeposition is not fully understood. In this chapter, a review of the latest published work of electrodeposited nanostructured metal oxides is provided to the reader, with a more detailed explanation of WO3 material applied in sensing devices

Fluorinated beta-sheet breaker peptides

The aggregation of amyloid-beta peptide (Ab) has been linked to the formation of neuritic plaques, which are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. We synthesized peptides containing fluorinated amino acids and studied their effect on the Ab aggregation. The peptides were based on the sequence LVFFD, in which valine was substituted by either 4,4,4-trifluorovaline or 4-fluoroproline, or the phenylalanine at position 3 was replaced by 3,4,5-trifluorophenylalanine. Our results demonstrate that fluorination of the hydrophobic residue valine or phenylalanine is effective in preventing the Ab aggregation. This study opens up the possibility of using new sequences based on fluorinated amino acids to inhibit the amyloid- fibril formation

Diagnóstico de áreas degradadas ripárias no Rio São Francisco: criação e utilização de banco de dados relacional.

Para compor um programa de recuperação de ambientes ripários no Semiárido, diagnósticos foram realizados com a finalidade de embasar planos de manejo. Contudo, as variáveis utilizadas por cada área de estudo acumulavam-se em um grande número de dados e informações, tornando o diagnóstico de difícil entendimento, por dificuldades de se relacionarem todos os dados coletados. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi criar um banco de dados relacional para a manipulação de todos os dados e informações referentes ao diagnóstico de áreas degradadas ciliares do Rio São Francisco na RIDE de Petrolina?Juazeiro. Para a construção do sistema de banco de dados relacional utilizou-se a ferramenta MySQL. Esse sistema possibilita ter vários usuários, com acesso de diferentes locais. As tabelas de dados foram trabalhadas nos editores de planilhas BrOffice Calc ou Excel. O software (interface) utilizado para dar acesso, exportação e importação dos dados foi o phpMyadmin. Após a criação e utilização do banco de dados, constatou-se que o banco de dados desenvolvido atende a necessidade de pesquisa relacional, uma vez que permite utilizar um número de identificação (ID), de fácil acesso e manipulação, gerado a partir do estabelecimento de relações entre as variáveis analisadas

Occurrence, nanofiltration treatment and toxicity screening

Funding Information: This work was also funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior ( FCT / MCTES , Portugal) through national funds to iNOVA4Health (UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020) and the Associate Laboratory LS4FUTURE (LA/P/0087/2020). Teresa I.A. Gouveia and Vanessa Jorge Pereira would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ( FCT ) for Ph.D. ( SFRH / BD /147301/2019) and CEECIND/02919/2018 grants, respectively. Funding Information: This research was financially supported by: (i) Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031297 (CytoStraTech)—funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and by national funds (PIDDAC) through FCT /MCTES; (ii) NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000069 (Healthy Waters) co-funded by European Regional Development Fund ( ERDF ), through North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement; (iii) UIDB/04750/2020 (EPIUnit) and LA/P/0064/2020 (ITR), funded by national funds through the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.; (iv) LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE), Base Fundings UIDB/00511/2020 and UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) and UIDB/50020/2020 and UIDP/50020/2020 (LSRE- LCM ), funded by national funds through FCT / MCTES (PIDDAC). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsAntineoplastic drugs are pharmaceuticals that have been raising concerns among the scientific community due to: (i) their increasing prescription in the fight against the disease of the twentieth century (cancer); (ii) their recalcitrance to conventional wastewater treatments; (iii) their poor environmental biodegradability; and (iv) their potential risk to any eukaryotic organism. This emerges the urgency in finding solutions to mitigate the entrance and accumulation of these hazardous chemicals in the environment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been taken into consideration to improve the degradation of antineoplastic drugs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), but the formation of by-products that are more toxic or exhibit a different toxicity profile than the parent drug is frequently reported. This work evaluates the performance of a nanofiltration pilot unit, equipped with a Desal 5DK membrane, in the treatment of real WWTP effluents contaminated (without spiking) with eleven pharmaceuticals, five of which were never studied before. Average removals of 68 ± 23% were achieved for the eleven compounds, with decreasing risks from feed to permeate for aquatic organisms from receiving waterbodies (with the exception of cyclophosphamide, for which a high risk was estimated in the permeate). Aditionally, no significative impact on the growth and germination of three different seeds (Lepidium sativum, Sinapis alba, and Sorghum saccharatum) were determined for permeate matrix in comparison to the control.publishersversionpublishe

Mixed matrix membranes based on ionic liquids and porous organic polymers for selective CO2 separation

The Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB ( LA/P/0140/2020 ), which are financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES. The authors also thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21772013 ) and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2202049 ) for generous support. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier B.V.The development of more efficient materials is a crucial step in the development of gas separation membranes. In this work, we combine ionic liquids (ILs) and porous organic polymers (POPs) for the first time to fabricate a new type of mixed matrix iongel membranes, which are entirely composed of organic materials. The new azo-POPs reported in this work were specifically designed due to their “CO2-philic” feature to be incorporated in iongel materials. The membranes, comprising 80 wt% of [C2mim][TFSI] IL and 20 wt% of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) network, were prepared using a solvent-free UV curing method. The unique properties of azo-POPs within the iongel material resulted in the fabrication of dense and defect-free membranes with improved gas separation performances, in terms of both CO2 permeability (62.3–90.6 barrer) and, CO2/CH4 (9.9–12.0), CO2/H2 (6.0–12.1) and CO2/N2 (16.8–53.1) ideal selectivities, with the latter revealing to be highly dependent on the morphological properties of the azo-POPs. Furthermore, iongel characterization in terms of morphology, chemical structure and thermal properties, confirmed the potential of the novel mixed matrix iongels for CO2 separation processes.publishersversionpublishe

Physics of ULIRGs with MUSE and ALMA: The PUMA project: I. Properties of the survey and first MUSE data results

Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) are characterised by extreme starburst (SB) and AGN activity, and are therefore ideal laboratories for studying the outflow phenomena. We have recently started a project called Physics of ULIRGs with MUSE and ALMA (PUMA), which is a survey of 25 nearby (z < 0.165) ULIRGs observed with the integral field spectrograph MUSE and the interferometer ALMA. This sample includes systems with both AGN and SB nuclear activity in the pre- and post-coalescence phases of major mergers. The main goals of the project are to study the prevalence of multi-phase outflows as a function of the galaxy properties, to constrain the driving mechanisms of the outflows (e.g. distinguish between SB and AGN winds), and to identify feedback effects on the host galaxy. In this first paper, we present details on the sample selection, MUSE observations, and derive first data products. MUSE data were analysed to study the dynamical status of each of the 21 ULIRGs observed so far, taking the stellar kinematics and the morphological properties inferred from MUSE narrow-band images into account. We also located the ULIRG nuclei, using near-IR (HST) and mm (ALMA) data, and studied their optical spectra to infer the ionisation state through BPT diagnostics, and outflows in both ionised and neutral gas. We show that the morphological and stellar kinematic classifications are consistent: post-coalescence systems are more likely associated with ordered motions, while interacting (binary) systems are dominated by non-ordered and streaming motions. We also find broad and asymmetric [OIII] and NaID profiles in almost all nuclear spectra, with line widths in the range 300-2000 km/s, possibly associated with AGN- and SB-driven winds. This result reinforces previous findings that indicated that outflows are ubiquitous during the pre- and post-coalescence phases of major mergers.ERC STF

Standardised inventories of spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) of Macaronesia I : The native forests of the Azores (Pico and Terceira islands)

Background The data presented here come from samples collected as part of two recent research projects (NETBIOME - ISLANDBIODIV and FCT - MACDIV) which aimed at understanding the drivers of community assembly in Macaronesian islands. We applied the sampling protocol COBRA (Conservation Oriented Biodiversity Rapid Assessment, Cardoso 2009) in sixteen 50 m x 50 m native forest plots in the Azorean Islands of Pico (6 plots) and Terceira (10 plots) to assess spider diversity. Through this publication, we contribute to the knowledge of the arachnofauna of the Azores and, more specifically, to that of the islands of Pico and Terceira. New information The collected samples yielded 8,789 specimens, of which 45% were adults (3,970) belonging to 13 families, 36 species and three morphospecies that have yet to be described. Species of the family Linyphiidae dominated the samples, with 17 species and two morphospecies that have yet to be described (48% of the taxa). Out of the identified (morpho) species, 16 were introduced, 13 Azorean endemic (three of which were undescribed) and seven native (five of them Macaronesian endemics). We report the first record of the introduced species Haplodrassus signifer and Agyneta decora in Pico Island.Peer reviewe

The AMS-RICH velocity and charge reconstruction

The AMS detector, to be installed on the International Space Station, includes a Ring Imaging Cerenkov detector with two different radiators, silica aerogel (n=1.05) and sodium fluoride (n=1.334). This detector is designed to provide very precise measurements of velocity and electric charge in a wide range of cosmic nuclei energies and atomic numbers. The detector geometry, in particular the presence of a reflector for acceptance purposes, leads to complex Cerenkov patterns detected in a pixelized photomultiplier matrix. The results of different reconstruction methods applied to test beam data as well as to simulated samples are presented. To ensure nominal performances throughout the flight, several detector parameters have to be carefully monitored. The algorithms developed to fulfill these requirements are presented. The velocity and charge measurements provided by the RICH detector endow the AMS spectrometer with precise particle identification capabilities in a wide energy range. The expected performances on light isotope separation are discussed.Comment: Contribution to the ICRC07, Merida, Mexico (2007); Presenter: F. Bara

Interpersonal dynamics in baseline rallies in tennis

In tennis, the relative positioning of players on court constrains their opportunities to perform successful actions. In this study we proposed and validated an empirical function that captures the spatial-temporal relationship between tennis players during competitive performance. This parameter, termed goal-directed displacement index (GDD Index), is defined over time by the product of both players' distances to the central line of the court and to the centre of the net. Results showed that the GDD index successfully described tennis players' patterns of interaction, as well as identified breaks in patterns of play during competitive performance, due to changes in relative positioning on court. Our analysis revealed two different patterns of interpersonal interactions, cross and down-the-line rallies, and two ways for a break to emerge in game dynamics, parallel variation (transition from a cross court rally to a down-the-line rally) and angle opening (lateral displacement). Data suggest that the elaboration of specific individual profiles of performance for different players, using the GDD index, could improve performance analysis in tennis

Molecular and immunological features of a prolonged exceptional responder with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated initially and rechallenged with pembrolizumab.

BACKGROUND: This case represents an exceptional response to pembrolizumab in a patient with epithelioid mesothelioma with a further response on rechallenge. CASE PRESENTATION: A 77-year-old woman with advanced epithelioid mesothelioma extensively pretreated with chemotherapy demonstrated a prolonged response of 45 months to 52 cycles of pembrolizumab. On rechallenge with pembrolizumab, further disease stability was achieved. Serial biopsies and analysis by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence demonstrated marked immune infiltration and documented the emergency of markers of immune exhaustion. Whole exome sequencing demonstrated a reduction in tumor mutational burden consistent with subclone elimination by immune checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy. The relapse biopsy had missense mutation in BTN2A1. CONCLUSION: This case supports rechallenge of programme death receptor 1 inhibitor in cases of previous CPI sensitivity and gives molecular insights