Development of weft-knitted and braided polypropylene stents for arterial implant

Textile biomedical materials have been used for various applications contributing considerably in improving quality of life. The current study aims at improving polypropylene fibre stents which may replace metallic ones. In order to produce the stents, weft-knitting and braiding technologies were used. In the braiding technique, by varying the takeup ratio (using gears with the appropriate number of teeth in the braiding machine), it was possible to manufacture regular braids with angles of 65 ° , 70 ° and 75 ° in order to obtain different covers. In the knitting technique, a circular machine was used and the tightness of the structure was adjusted by varying the loop length and thus the fabric loop density, resulting in variations of the sample diameter. The knitting machine had negative feed, and so loop length variations were achieved by varying the yarn input tension, the stitch cam settings and the fabric take-down tension. The samples were heat set. Yarns were contracted by setting at 130 ° C and 140 ° C, and this led to increasing the loop density and the flexural rigidity of the samples. A high cover of the samples resulted in a greater stiffness of the structures. The stents were evaluated by undertaking the tests required for arterial support: rigidity to radial compression, resistance to tensile forces and bending rigidity. The best results were obtained with braided structures. Future work may concentrate in improving the stent design and using new biocompatible fibres.The authors wish to thank the European Commission for awarding research funds under the EU Asia-link programme and the University of Minho (Portugal) and Donghua University (People's Republic of China) for providing research facilities

On a generalised model for time-dependent variance with long-term memory

The ARCH process (R. F. Engle, 1982) constitutes a paradigmatic generator of stochastic time series with time-dependent variance like it appears on a wide broad of systems besides economics in which ARCH was born. Although the ARCH process captures the so-called "volatility clustering" and the asymptotic power-law probability density distribution of the random variable, it is not capable to reproduce further statistical properties of many of these time series such as: the strong persistence of the instantaneous variance characterised by large values of the Hurst exponent (H > 0.8), and asymptotic power-law decay of the absolute values self-correlation function. By means of considering an effective return obtained from a correlation of past returns that has a q-exponential form we are able to fix the limitations of the original model. Moreover, this improvement can be obtained through the correct choice of a sole additional parameter, $q_{m}$. The assessment of its validity and usefulness is made by mimicking daily fluctuations of SP500 financial index.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Phylogenomics of pike cichlids (Cichlidae: Crenicichla): the rapid ecological speciation of an incipient species flock

© 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology The rapid rise of phenotypic and ecological diversity in independent lake-dwelling groups of cichlids is emblematic of the East African Great Lakes. In this study, we show that similar ecologically based diversification has occurred in pike cichlids (Crenicichla) throughout the Uruguay River drainage of South America. We collected genomic data from nearly 500 ultraconserved element (UCEs) loci and \u3e260 000 base pairs across 33 species, to obtain a phylogenetic hypothesis for the major species groups and to evaluate the relationships and genetic structure among five closely related, endemic, co-occurring species (the Uruguay River species flock; URSF). Additionally, we evaluated ecological divergence of the URSF based on body and lower pharyngeal jaw (LPJ) shape and gut contents. Across the genus, we recovered novel relationships among the species groups. We found strong support for the monophyly of the URSF; however, relationships among these species remain problematic, likely because of the rapid and recent evolution of this clade. Clustered co-ancestry analysis recovered most species as well delimited genetic groups. The URSF species exhibit species-specific body and LPJ shapes associated with specialized trophic roles. Collectively, our results suggest that the URSF consists of incipient species that arose via ecological speciation associated with the exploration of novel trophic roles

On exact time-averages of a massive Poisson particle

In this work we study, under the Stratonovich definition, the problem of the damped oscillatory massive particle subject to a heterogeneous Poisson noise characterised by a rate of events, \lambda (t), and a magnitude, \Phi, following an exponential distribution. We tackle the problem by performing exact time-averages over the noise in a similar way to previous works analysing the problem of the Brownian particle. From this procedure we obtain the long-term equilibrium distributions of position and velocity as well as analytical asymptotic expressions for the injection and dissipation of energy terms. Considerations on the emergence of stochastic resonance in this type of system are also set forth.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen

POTENTIAL OF ILMENITE AS A SOLAR ABSORBER

Titanium is considered the fourth most widely used material in industry worldwide. Titanium minerals are currently being applied in various branches of industry, mainly in the field of pigmentation. Ilmenite (FeTiO3) is an iron and titanium oxide of more common and abundant occurrence, with theoretical composition of Fe (36.8%), Ti (31.6%) and O (31.6%). Having regard to the potential of titanium minerals and the abundance of ilmenite, together with the importance of validating direct applications of this ore, since the processing of titanium is still complex and expensive, it is necessary to study this mineral and the knowledge of its main characteristics. This work brings thermal, chemical and mineralogical characterizations of ilmenite, in order to know the potential of application of this ore as a solar absorbing material. The characterization techniques used were: X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement for phase quantification, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), optical spectroscopy in the middle infrared region with Fourier Transformation by Transmittance (FTIR) and thermogravimetric thermal analysis (TGA). The analyzed sample obtained X-ray diffractogram, ilmenite (80.6%) and rutile (19.4%) as significant phases, corroborating the FRX results that indicated greater presence of Fe and titanium oxide in the ilmenite chemical composition under study. The TGA, DTA and DSC analyses indicated good thermal stability of the material in medium and high temperatures. The integration of the obtained data shows that the application of this ore as a precursor material of absorber films for selective purposes is considerable

Fosmid library: methodological challenges.

Abstract: Since 1983, Brazil conducts researchs in the Antartic continent through the Brazilian Antartic Program. For many years, studies were focused only to the understanding of the environmental impacts of climate change resulting from human action and the system of micro.- and macrorganisms. The interest of the bioprospecting molecules for use in agriculture or health began only in the last decade in the same continent. Since about half of the known bioactive compounds are originating from bacteria and fungi, and a tiny portion of the microbiota is cultivable in the Laboratory. Recent advances mainly to independent cultivation techniques allow a greater understanding of microbial biodiversity as well as access to functionality of their metabolic pathways. In this context the heterologous expression from metagenomic clones from total environmental DNA (eDNA) it stands out as a promising tool to access the microbial functional part. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the cloning procedure (metagenomic library of clones in fosmid vector - pCC2FOS) according to different methodologies of obtaining eDNA, selection of the gene inserts and conditions for the reaction for ligation to vector. The samples were collected at Admiralty Bay - Antarctic Peninsula, during last summer (Nov/Feb 2014-2015.) by the MycoAntar Project. The samples were submitted to extraction of eDNA high molecular weight such as to mechanical and chemical cell lysis procedures. A portion of the product extraction was partitioned by pulsed field gel electrophoresis from which they were recovered fragments containing approximately 40Kb and the other portion went directly to the subsequent procedure. The ligation reaction was made in two different temperatures 16-25°C. The result of the chemical cell lysis reaction was more efficient at obtaining size fragments of interest for the cloning procedure despite the quantitative reduction compared to extraction by mechanical lysis. The recovery procedure of the inserts gel using gelase enzyme resulted in drastic losses at the final concentration of eDNA. In relation to the difference in incubation temperature the binding reaction some differences can be observed. Thus 15,000 clones were obtained and are currently preserved at -80°C for next experiments as well as be submitted to the enzymatic screening functional biological activities of biotechnological interest

Controle alternativo da podridão-das-raízes da pimenteira-do-reino com microrganismos eficazes (EM).

bitstream/item/36254/1/ORIENTAL-BPD55.pdfVersão eletrônica. 1ª impressão: 2009

Phylogenetic Grouping by PCR Analyses of \u3ci\u3eSinorhizobium meliloti\u3c/i\u3e Strains Isolated from Eutrophic Soil

This study evaluated the ability of Sinorhizobium meliloti strains (SEMIA-116, SEMIA- 134 and SEMIA-135) to persist in eutrophic soils after three complete growing cycles of alfalfa. PCR fingerprinting using primers for the nifH, Eric, Rep, RP genes and P25 RAPD-PCR performed the phylogenetic grouping of the three commercial strains and 39 field isolates. These analyzes were sufficiently sensitive to discriminate and group the strains and isolate. Our preliminary studies were based upon Eric primers and RP01 RAPD-PCR

Improving the Global Fitting Method on Non-Linear Time Series Analysis

In this paper, we are concerned with improving the forecast capabilities of the Global approach to Time Series. We assume that the normal techniques of Global mapping are applied, the noise reduction is performed, etc. Then, using the mathematical foundations behind such approaches, we propose a method that, without a great computational cost, greatly increase the accuracy of the corresponding forecasting

Metabolic Signatures of Lung Cancer in Biofluids: NMR-Based Metabonomics of Blood Plasma

In this work, the variations in the metabolic profile of blood plasma from lung cancer patients and healthy controls were investigated through NMR-based metabonomics, to assess the potential of this approach for lung cancer screening and diagnosis. PLS-DA modeling of CPMG spectra from plasma, subjected to Monte Carlo Cross Validation, allowed cancer patients to be discriminated from controls with sensitivity and specificity levels of about 90%. Relatively lower HDL and higher VLDL + LDL in the patients' plasma, together with increased lactate and pyruvate and decreased levels of glucose, citrate, formate, acetate, several amino acids (alanine, glutamine, histidine, tyrosine, valine), and methanol, could be detected. These changes were found to be present at initial disease stages and could be related to known cancer biochemical hallmarks, such as enhanced glycolysis, glutaminolysis, and gluconeogenesis, together with suppressed Krebs cycle and reduced lipid catabolism, thus supporting the hypothesis of a systemic metabolic signature for lung cancer. Despite the possible confounding influence of age, smoking habits, and other uncontrolled factors, these results indicate that NMR-based metabonomics of blood plasma can be useful as a screening tool to identify suspicious cases for subsequent, more specific radiological tests, thus contributing to improved disease management.ERDF - Competitive Factors Thematic Operational ProgrammeFCT/PTDC/ QUI/68017/2006FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007439SFRH/BD/ 63430/2009National UNESCO Committee - L'Oréal Medals of Honor for Women in Science 200Portuguese National NMR Network - RNRM