Dual consent? Donors' and recipients' views about involvement in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation in research

Background Reasonable disagreement about the role awarded to gamete donors in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation (EGDs) for research purposes emphasises the importance of considering the implementation of participatory, adaptive, and trustworthy policies and guidelines for consent procedures. However, the perspectives of gamete donors and recipients about decision-making regarding research with EGDs are still under-researched, which precludes the development of policies and guidelines informed by evidence. This study seeks to explore the views of donors and recipients about who should take part in consent processes for the use of EGDs in research. Methods From July 2017 to June 2018, 72 gamete donors and 175 recipients completed a self-report structured questionnaire at the Portuguese Public Bank of Gametes (response rate: 76%). Agreement with dual consent was defined as the belief that the use of EGDs in research should be consented by both donors and recipients. Results The majority of participants (74.6% of donors and 65.7% of recipients) were willing to donate embryos for research. Almost half of the donors (48.6%) and half of the recipients (46.9%) considered that a dual consent procedure is desirable. This view was more frequent among employed recipients (49.7%) than among non-employed (21.4%). Donors were less likely to believe that only recipients should be involved in giving consent for the use of EGDs in research (25.0% vs. 41.7% among recipients) and were more frequently favourable to the idea of exclusive donors' consent (26.4% vs. 11.4% among recipients). Conclusions Divergent views on dual consent among donors and recipients indicate the need to develop evidence-based and ethically sustainable policies and guidelines to protect well-being, autonomy and reproductive rights of both stakeholder groups. More empirical research and further theoretical normative analyses are needed to inform people-centred policy and guidelines for shared decision-making concerning the use of EGDs for research

Inverse type II seesaw mechanism and its signature at the LHC and ILC

The advent of the LHC, and the proposal of building future colliders as the ILC, both programmed to explore new physics at the TeV scale, justifies the recent interest in studying all kind of seesaw mechanisms whose signature lies on such energy scale. The natural candidate for this kind of seesaw mechanism is the inverse one. The conventional inverse seesaw mechanism is implemented in an arrangement involving six new heavy neutrinos in addition to the three standard ones. In this paper we develop the inverse seesaw mechanism based on Higgs triplet model and probe its signature at the LHC and ILC. We argue that the conjoint analysis of the LHC together with the ILC may confirm the mechanism and, perhaps, infer the hierarchy of the neutrino masses.Comment: 24 pages, 22 figure

Validação do método analítico de determinação de nitrogênio total para atender a DOQ-CGRE-008 de 2010 do Inmetro.

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Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Caracterização da comunidade de borboletas frugívoras do Parque Zoobotânico de Macapá, AP.

Resumo simples

Iterated Elliptic and Hypergeometric Integrals for Feynman Diagrams

We calculate 3-loop master integrals for heavy quark correlators and the 3-loop QCD corrections to the $\rho$-parameter. They obey non-factorizing differential equations of second order with more than three singularities, which cannot be factorized in Mellin-$N$ space either. The solution of the homogeneous equations is possible in terms of convergent close integer power series as $_2F_1$ Gau\ss{} hypergeometric functions at rational argument. In some cases, integrals of this type can be mapped to complete elliptic integrals at rational argument. This class of functions appears to be the next one arising in the calculation of more complicated Feynman integrals following the harmonic polylogarithms, generalized polylogarithms, cyclotomic harmonic polylogarithms, square-root valued iterated integrals, and combinations thereof, which appear in simpler cases. The inhomogeneous solution of the corresponding differential equations can be given in terms of iterative integrals, where the new innermost letter itself is not an iterative integral. A new class of iterative integrals is introduced containing letters in which (multiple) definite integrals appear as factors. For the elliptic case, we also derive the solution in terms of integrals over modular functions and also modular forms, using $q$-product and series representations implied by Jacobi's $\vartheta_i$ functions and Dedekind's $\eta$-function. The corresponding representations can be traced back to polynomials out of Lambert--Eisenstein series, having representations also as elliptic polylogarithms, a $q$-factorial $1/\eta^k(\tau)$, logarithms and polylogarithms of $q$ and their $q$-integrals. Due to the specific form of the physical variable $x(q)$ for different processes, different representations do usually appear. Numerical results are also presented.Comment: 68 pages LATEX, 10 Figure

Distribuição temporal e espacial do besouro-verde-do-açaizeiro [Macraspis pseudochrysis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelini)] em açaizeiros de várzea em Mazagão, Amapá.

Em diferentes regiões do Estado do Amapá, foi verificada recentemente a ocorrência do besouro-verde-do-açaizeiro (Macraspis pseudochrysis Landin), derrubando as inflorescências de açaizeiro (Euterpe oleracea) em várzeas, provocando preocupação aos produtores, uma vez que a ação deste inseto poderia influenciar na formação de frutos. Com o objetivo de avaliar a distribuição temporal e espacial de M. pseudochrysis, foram realizadas amostragens mensais em inflorescências de E. oleracea em várzea no Campo Experimental da Embrapa Amapá em Mazagão, Amapá. Os açaizeiros eram provenientes de duas regiões do estuário amazônico que apresentam produção de frutos em épocas distintas do ano. A população 1 foi representada por açaizeiros que têm a produção de frutos no período chuvoso do ano (abril a agosto) e a população 2 foi composta por açaizeiros do tipo açaí de verão tendo sua produção de frutos no período de estiagem (agosto a dezembro). No período de maio a outubro de 2011 foram registrados 271 indivíduos de M. pseudochrysis em toda a área experimental. Na população 1 a maior densidade foi obtida em maio, apresentando 3 indivíduos/inflorescência. A população 2 apresentou densidade mais alta em julho com 4 indivíduos/inflorescência. Na maioria das ocasiões de amostragem o padrão de distribuição espacial foi agregado em ambas as populações.bitstream/item/100960/1/CPAF-AP-2014-BPD-82-Besouro-acai-DG3comCGPE.pd