The agro-industrial system regional sustainable development, a coherent strategy

The agro-industrial system represents annually circa 3,6 x 109 € in the formation of the Centro Region of Portugal gross income and that accounts for 39% of the Portuguese overall return for this sector. Given this dynamics it is of utmost importance to perform a consistent strategy to promote the sustainable growth of this regional system income. Therefore, the CERNAS/IPC research unit has developed an integrated approach bringing together several regional actors under a networking logic that links the industrial needs with the academia R&D capabilities, and of capacity building and entrepreneurship (2011-2013). This strategy is rooted in the InovCluster, where CERNAS leads two anchor projects, the in_AGRI and the ECODEEP, and collaborates with a third one, the AGRITRAINING. The in_AGRI aims the upgrade of the system value chains by bridging the academia with the industry in a series of workshops, supported with a knowledge transfer platform and a network of research facilities, and ECODEEP will develop eco-efficiency tools, based on a LCA approach to enhance the overall sustainability by improving practises and find new solutions within an industrial ecology framework. The AGRITRAINING surveys the training needs of the system, looking forward to complement the actual capacity building achieved by the Master courses in Food Engineering and Environmental Management. In addition, an advanced training in Environmental Entrepreneurship is being implemented, and an Innovation Management for SME’s program is being designed, promoting a cultural change towards the sustainable welfare of our present and future generations.InAGRI – Proj. n.º 3494 (Mais Centro/PORC); EcoDeep – Proj. n.º 18643 (SIAC/COMPETE/POFC); InovEnergy– Proj. n.º 18642 (SIAC/COMPETE/POFC); Agritraining – Proj. n.º 8310 (SIAC/COMPETE/POFC); GovCluster –Proj. n.º 8063 (SIAC/COMPETE/POFC

Analysis and improvement of the packaging sector of an industrial company

Manual operations in manufacturing companies are still a common practice. This often results in high costs, high cycle times and therefore in lower productivity, particularly for companies operating in western countries. This is why many manufacturing companies relocated their production facilities in low age countries. This study was developed at a leading Portuguese material construction manufacturing company. The objective was to improve the packaging and labeling processes, that were identified as main bottlenecks in the factory. Lean was used to streamline these processes before being automated. This allowed for annual savings of 12432 €, with human operators being reallocated to other departments where they are more useful. Furthermore, cycle times were reduced by 42,9%, non-value-added activities were minimized, and operations with potentially high ergonomic risks were eliminated. In addition, a reduction of 84,3% in lithographed packaging was achieved, with a cost reduction of around 36 000 €/year, which is expected to continue in the forthcoming years.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lean manufacturing applied to a wiring production process

This project was carried out at a company in the electric mobility sector, which manufactures chargers for electric vehicles, specifically in the wiring section. The main objective of the developed work was to improve the production processes in order to enhance responsiveness to the growing demand. After analyzing the processes in the section, the objectives were outlined to enable the improvement of some practices in the production department, such as the ones related to the organization of the raw material supermarket, as well as the calculation of the wiring consumption by chargers, and the implementation of a production control system. After the improvement actions were implemented, it was possible to observe a 14,9% reduction in the changeover process of the cable cutting process; weekly wiring consumptions were estimated, and procedures were defined to generate orders of raw material and supply to the workstation, which led to the elimination of stock shortages. In addition, worker autonomy increased and production downtime was reduced.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pro-oxidant Activity And Genotoxicity Of The Astronium Fraxinifolium Using Wing Smart And Allium Cepa Test

Astronium fraxinifolium is an arboreal species found throughout the Brazilian Cerrado region and used in folk medicine as antimicrobial, anti-hemorrhagic and healing. Pro-oxidant activity of extracts of fraxinifolium rough Relative Electrophoresis Mobility (REM) of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) protein in presence of the extract and Cu2+ and also the genotoxic potential through Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART) and Allium cepa tests has been investigated during this study. In the REM, the extracts acting exclusively on BSA resulted in a band formation with higher molecular weight than BSA, probably due to oxidative action of the extracts. In presence of Cu2+and extracts occurred protein fragmentation due to Cu2+ oxidative action potentiated by the extracts. In SMART test the frequency of mutant spots increases with the increased concentration of extract A. fraxinifolium (50 mg mL-1= 1.40 and 100 mg mL-1 = 2.66). The HB cross shows a decrease in the total of mutant spots frequency for the different treatments (50 mg mL-1 =6.60 and 100 mg mL-1 = 3.25). Evaluation of A cutest demonstrated the following results (concentration extract = chromosomal abnormalities) 1 mg mL-1 = 85,10 mg L-1 = 61 50 mg mL-1 = 53,100 mg mL-1 =33 and MMS 10 mg L-1 = 50. Genotoxic and cytotoxic actions can be explained by the actions of tannins present in its composition. Butthere may be other substances that also act for such results. The genotoxicity in medicinal plants contributes to therapeutic safety warning that although the use of medicinal plants is an inexpensive and non-aggressive method it can cause harmful effects if used incorrectly. © 2016 Rafael Rozolen Teixeria Zafred et al.10427628

Silencing mutant ataxin-3 rescues motor deficits and neuropathology in machado-joseph disease transgenic mice.

Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) or spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is an autosomal dominantly-inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by the over-repetition of a CAG codon in the MJD1 gene. This expansion translates into a polyglutamine tract that confers a toxic gain-of-function to the mutant protein - ataxin-3, leading to neurodegeneration in specific brain regions, with particular severity in the cerebellum. No treatment able to modify the disease progression is available. However, gene silencing by RNA interference has shown promising results. Therefore, in this study we investigated whether lentiviral-mediated allele-specific silencing of the mutant ataxin-3 gene, after disease onset, would rescue the motor behavior deficits and neuropathological features in a severely impaired transgenic mouse model of MJD. For this purpose, we injected lentiviral vectors encoding allele-specific silencing-sequences (shAtx3) into the cerebellum of diseased transgenic mice expressing the targeted C-variant of mutant ataxin-3 present in 70% of MJD patients. This variation permits to discriminate between the wild-type and mutant forms, maintaining the normal function of the wild-type allele and silencing only the mutant form. Quantitative analysis of rotarod performance, footprint and activity patterns revealed significant and robust alleviation of gait, balance (average 3-fold increase of rotarod test time), locomotor and exploratory activity impairments in shAtx3-injected mice, as compared to control ones injected with shGFP. An important improvement of neuropathology was also observed, regarding the number of intranuclear inclusions, calbindin and DARPP-32 immunoreactivity, fluorojade B and Golgi staining and molecular and granular layers thickness. These data demonstrate for the first time the efficacy of gene silencing in blocking the MJD-associated motor-behavior and neuropathological abnormalities after the onset of the disease, supporting the use of this strategy for therapy of MJD

Stress intensity factor solutions for CTS mixed mode specimen

The Compact Tension Shear (CTS) specimen is used to study fracture and fatigue under mixed mode I/II loading conditions. The K solution available in literature was developed for fracture studies and does not consider the effect of crack deflection. The aim of present work is to develop KI and KII empirical solutions for cracks with different crack lengths, loading angles and crack orientations. A total number of 1120 cracked geometries were studied numerically with the finite element method and analytical solutions were fitted to the numerical predictions. An average difference of 0.53 % was found between numerical predictions and the analytical solution proposed for KI. For KII the difference is higher, but the equivalent stress intensity factor showed a difference of only 1% because KII is lower than KI. Experimental work was developed to study fatigue crack growth in CTS specimens. The cracks always adopted a direction approximately normal to loading direction, i.e., tend to propagate under mode I

Determination of thresholds for storm impacts

Storms are responsible for important erosion, coastal retreat and damage when infrastructures are placed within their acting area. The characterisation of storm parameters and associated thresholds for erosion and damage are therefore of fundamental importance for coastal management purposes. This work presents ways of determining thresholds for important morphological changes (including erosion), overwash occurrence and damage associate to storm occurrence. These methods were tested and applied to Ancão Peninsula (South Portugal) and the results shown. The use of these approaches will enable coastal managers to have a quantitative knowledge of consequences associated to each particular storm and to act accordingly, for instance defining set-back lines, designing nourishments or implementing evacuation plans.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multidisciplinary Experience In The Selection Of Patients For Tubal Sterilization.

Results of the use of a special protocol for evaluation of patients requiring tubal ligation is presented after applied by a multidisciplinary group. The authors conclude that the use of defined parameters of age, parity, marital union duration, number of children alive and the presence of maternal clinical pathology are useful to identify patients with smaller chances of regret after surgery.27% of reproductive-age women in Brazil have chosen surgical sterilization as their contraceptive method. Most of these women who have undergone tubal sterilization opted for cesarean surgery. However, given the young ages of many of these women, many regret having been sterilized. This paper summarizes the experience of a multidisciplinary group in evaluating women who apply for surgical sterilization at the Department of Tocogynecology, Faculdade de Ciencas Medicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo. Detailed descriptions are presented of the medical and social characteristics of cases seen between June 1988 and July 1989. The authors conclude that the use of the defined parameters of age, parity, marital union duration, number of living children, and the presence of maternal clinical pathology are useful in identifying the patients who are least likely to regret undergoing surgical sterilization.113171572

Gender- and age-related changes in three dimensional facial profiles of healthy Northern Sudanese persons

The study aimed to provide quantitative information about gender-related normative data and growth changes between childhood and young adulthood in the soft tissue facial profiles of Northern Sudanese individuals. The three dimensional coordinates of 50 landmarks on the facial soft tissues were obtained using a hand-held laser scanner in 654 healthy Northern Sudanese subjects (327 males and 327 females) aged 4-30 years. The subjects were divided into 8 nonoverlapping age groups [1]. From selected landmarks, 15 facial angles were calculated and averaged for gender and age: upper, middle, and lower facial, and mandibular corpus convexities in the horizontal plane; relative position of the exocanthia and nasion; facial convexity in the sagittal plane; midfacial to mandibular plane, nasal convexity, nasolabial, mentolabial, interlabial, maxillary prominence, and left and right gonial angles. Comparisons were performed by factorial analysis of variance. On average men had larger facial and mandibular corpus convexities in the horizontal plane than women (ANOVA, p<0.01); on the contrary, no gender differences were found for facial convexities in the sagittal plane. Gender significantly influenced also the relative position of exocanthia and nasion, the maxillary prominence angle and the gonial angles (p<0.01). All analysed measurements were influenced by age (p<0.001): nasal convexity and interlabial angle increased from childhood to young adulthood, while mentolabial and gonial angles, horizontal facial convexity and sagittal facial convexity including the nose decreased as a function of age. No consistent age-related patterns were found for the other evaluated angles. Data collected in the current study can be used as a database for the quantitative description of facial profiles in Northern Sudanese subjects during normal growth and development

On the resolution of cosmic coincidence problem and phantom crossing with triple interacting fluids

We here investigate a cosmological model in which three fluids interact with each other involving certain coupling parameters and energy exchange rates. The motivation of the problem stems from the puzzling `triple coincidence problem' which naively asks why the cosmic energy densities of matter, radiation and dark energy are almost of the same order of magnitude at the present time. In our model, we determine the conditions under triple interacting fluids will cross the phantom divide.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Eur. Phys. J. C (2009