What does the vibration therapy add?: a quasi-experimental, pilot study on the short term effects of whole-body vibration as mode of exercise for nursing home residents aged 80+

Aims: To compare the responses of nursing home residents aged 80+ to an 8 weeks exercise program performed on a vibratory device and to the same exercise program preformed without vibration on lower limb performance, functional dependence and quality of life. Methods:Lower limb performance was evaluated using the 30 seconds Chair Sit to Stand test. Functional mobility was assessed using the timed up and go test. Postural stability was measured using a force platform. The Barthel Index was used to assess functional dependence and the EuroQol was used to evaluate Health-Related Quality of Life. 44 participants were allocated to the whole-body vibration group (n= 15), non-vibration group (n= 15) or to the control group (n= 14). Results:Significant differences were detected in favour of the whole-body vibration group in lower limb muscle performance (p= 0.001), mobility (p= 0.001), functional independence (p= 0.009) and quality of life (p <0.001) as compared to the control and non-vibration groups. Conclusions: Whole body vibration based interventions may add additional benefits to conventional exercise programs in terms of lower limb muscle performance, functional dependence and quality of life among nursing home residents over 80 years

The effect of the competition in the telecom market on football broadcasting revenues

The aim of this work project is to study the impact, in Portugal, of collective bargaining on the football broadcasting revenues received by clubs. Due to technology, streaming TV/online video business model, and Pay-high TV penetration, OTT football viewing may alter the competitive dynamics of the broadcast industry and clubs' income. However, Sport TV, the only premium sports channel with I League broadcast rights, is owned by the leading operators, preventing new players from entering the market. According to the qualitative research, competitive equilibrium is the most important factor in football's attraction, although the quality of football must be improved. Consumers also favor TV over other channels (smartphones, tablets, PC). Despite this, Portuguese customers are eager to watch football matches through an OTT model. Additionally, piracy is a key concern which harms the broadcasting business and clubs' finances. There is no assurance that adopting a collective bargaining model will promote competition, although adopting a centralized model would undoubtedly have a negative financial effect on several clubs in the Portuguese League (mostly the top three). This negative influence would certainly be detrimental to the overall performance of Portuguese teams in international events, causing the Portuguese football association's international coefficient to decrease

Genomics methodologies to access autozygosity and inbreeding in dairy cattle

Orientador: Dr. Rodrigo de Almeida TeixeiraCoorientador: Dr. Roberto CarvalheiroTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zootecnia. Defesa : Curitiba, 22/02/2019Inclui referênciasResumo: Para alcançar a demanda crescente de produtos de origem animal a cadeia de produção de leite tem mudado constantemente nos últimos 20 anos. Por exemplo, o melhoramento genético de bovinos de leite tem aumentado o ganho genético de inúmeras características de qualidade e produtividade. Porém, o intenso uso de um pequeno número de reprodutores e a inseminação artificial nos programas de melhoramento genético tem aumentado também o nível de endogamia dessas populações. Altos índices de endogamia têm sido relacionados com a redução no desempenho produtivo e reprodutivo. Atualmente, em bovinos da raça Holandesa, é praticamente impossível encontrar animais sem algum nível de endogamia. O interesse em estimar coeficientes de endogamia com informação genômica apareceu com o advento da tecnologia de genotipagem utilizando milhares de marcadores. Por exemplo, tem sido aplicada em bovinos de leite a estimativa de endogamia através das corridas de homozigose (ROH). Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o efeito da seleção com o acasalamento preferencial positivo sobre a depressão endogâmica em diferentes populações simuladas de bovinos leiteiros, diferentes em desequilíbrio de ligação (LD). Além disso, esta tese avaliou o uso de dados genômicos simulados para investigar muitos aspectos e cenários de endogamia e autozigose em populações de bovinos de leite. Portanto, o objetivo também foi em avaliar a habilidade do método da janela de SNPs e do método de SNPs consecutivos para determinação de ROH e o seu acesso à autozigosidade e ao coeficiente de endogamia genômica em populações simuladas de bovinos taurinos e indianos. A avaliação foi aplicada em populações simuladas de bovinos leiteiros diferentes em níveis de desequilíbrio de ligação (LD). Utilizando o software QMSim, as populações foram simuladas pelo processo forward-in-time. Os parâmetros foram escolhidos para gerar populações com características similares às raças leiteiras taurinas e zebuínas. Foram simulados 93 QTLs relacionados à produção de leite, e aleatoriamente distribuídos em 29 autossomos de Bos taurus. Para criar alto e baixo desequilíbrio de ligação foi realizado um afunilamento na população histórica, 1.020 ou 2.020 gerações foram simuladas iniciando com um tamanho efetivo de 1.000 e terminando com 200 animais no final do ciclo. Para fundar 20 gerações em 5 cenários diferentes para cada nível de desequilíbrio de ligação, as populações foram simuladas com diferentes sistemas de acasalamento e critérios de seleção. A seleção foi feita baseada nos valores genéticos estimados pelo método BLUP ou pelo valor genético verdadeiro estimado com o efeito dos QTLs. A média de endogamia de cada geração foi estimada pelo próprio QMSim e associado com o nível de depressão endogâmica para produção de leite encontrado na literatura. Da última geração da população histórica, para gerar o genótipo para a seleção, foram aleatoriamente selecionados 50.000 marcadores da população (MAF ? 0,02), estes dados imitam os painéis utilizados comumente para genotipar bovinos. As corridas de homozigose foram obtidas por duas diferentes metodologias do pacote detecRUNS do programa R para 1.000 animais nas gerações 1, 5, 10, 15 e 20. O primeiro, o método das janelas consecutivas de SNPs, escaneia cada SNP ao longo do genótipo de cada animal para a detecção de segmentos em homozigose de acordo com um tamanho de corridas de homozigose e um número mínimo de SNPs em homozigose. O segundo, o método consecutivo, não utiliza as janelas para evitar a determinação de falsos ROH, menores que a janela. O coeficiente de endogamia baseado nas corridas de homozigose (FROH) é definido como a proporção de corridas de homozigose em relação ao genoma total do indivíduo. Os níveis mais altos de endogamia foram obtidos nos cenários com acasalamento preferencial positivo, e variaram de 0,2 a 0,36 na vigésima geração de seleção. O uso intenso de um pequeno número de touros em vinte gerações de seleção poderia causar perda entre 6,98 e 7,20% na produção de leite nos piores cenários. Em geral, para os cenários imitando o acasalamento dirigido, e minimizando a endogamia, o aumento no nível médio de endogamia de ~3% e ~8% diminui ~0,6 e ~1,8% a produção de leite aos 305 dias respectivamente. A seleção intensa para uma característica pode incrementar rapidamente os níveis do coeficiente de endogamia para valores críticos em populações com baixo e alto desequilíbrio de ligação inicial. Sistemas de acasalamento dirigido podem ser aplicados para a manutenção de baixos níveis de endogamia e consequentemente controlar a depressão endogâmica. Em geral, o maior número de corridas de homozigose nas gerações de 1 a 20 estão na classe com comprimento variando entre 1-2 Mb. A porcentagem de corridas de homozigose diminuíram com o passar das gerações para a classe 1-2 Mb de comprimento. No entanto, a porcentagem de corridas de homozigose aumentou da primeira para a vigésima geração na classe > 8 Mb nas diferentes populações e metodologias utilizadas para a detecção de ROH. A média do comprimento de ROH na classe 1-2 Mb é maior para populações taurinas comparadas às populações indianas. No entanto, para a classe > 8 Mb, a população indiana geralmente possui um média maior no comprimento da corrida de homozigose. O coeficiente de endogamia baseado no pedigree (FPED) aumentou ao longo das 20 gerações simuladas para as populações taurinas e indianas. Porém, os coeficientes de endogamia genômicos baseados nas corridas de homozigose (FROH), detectados pelas diferentes metodologias, são diferentes entre as populações taurinas e indianas. Estes resultados sugerem que FROH calculado a partir das corridas de homozigose, obtidas em ambas metodologias, é capaz de acessar a autozigosidade muito antiga. A detecção de corridas de homozigose, pelo método das janelas ou dos SNPs consecutivos, são metodologias importantes para acessar endogamia recente ou mais antiga. A estimativa de endogamia genômica baseada nas corridas de homozigose é capaz de demonstrar eventos evolutivos que diferenciam algumas raças de bovinos. Palavras-chave: Holandesa, Ligação, Desequilíbrio, QMSim, Simulação, Seleção, ROH, Homozigosidade, SNP.Abstract: To achieve the livestock products demand, the milk productive chain has been changed constantly over the last 20 years. For instance, dairy cattle's breeding has been improving many milk quality and productivity traits. But, the heavy use of a small number of sires and the artificial insemination practice on breeding programs has been increasing the dairy cattle inbreeding. Besides that, these high levels have been related to reduced fitness and reproductive performance. In Holstein dairy cattle it is almost impossible to find individuals without some level of inbreeding. The interest to estimate inbreeding coefficients with genomic information appears with the advent of high throughput genotyping technologies. For instance, was applied in dairy cattle the estimation of inbreeding coefficient with runs of homozygosity (ROH). Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of selection with assortative positive mating on inbreeding depression considering simulated dairy cattle populations distinguished by linkage disequilibrium (LD). In addition, this thesis evaluated the use of genomic simulated data to investigate many aspects and scenarios of inbreeding and autozygosity under dairy cattle populations. Thus, also the aim of was to evaluate the ability of sliding and consecutive ROH approach to detect and express autozygosity and genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) in taurine and indicine simulated populations with twenty generations of assortative positive mating. The evaluation was applied in dairy cattle populations distinguished by linkage disequilibrium (LD). Using the QMSim software, the populations were simulated based on forward-in-time process. The parameters were chosen to try and generate a population with similar characteristics of taurine and indicine dairy cattle. Were simulated 93 milk yield QTLs randomly distributed on 29 autosomal chromosomes of Bos taurus. To create a high and low level of initial linkage disequilibrium were made a bottleneck in the historical population, 1,020 or 2,020 generations were simulated starting from an effective population of 1,000 to 200 animals at the end of the cycle. To found 20 generations of five different scenarios for each level of LD, the populations were simulated with a different mating system and selection criteria. The selection was based on breeding values estimated with BLUP method or, the true breeding value estimated with the effect of QTLs. Each generation inbreeding mean was estimated by QMSim and associated with the level of inbreeding depression of milk yield found in the literature. From the last generation of the historical population, to generate genotypic data for the selection, the individuals were randomly selected with a total of 50,000 markers (MAF ? 0.02), these data mimicked the commonly SNP panel used to genotype cattle. The runs of homozygosity were obtained by two different methodologies in the detectRUNS package of R software for 1,000 individuals of generations 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20. At first, the sliding window method scans along everyone's genotype, at each SNP marker position, for detection of homozygous segments with a specified length or number of homozygous SNPs. At second, the consecutive method does not use the sliding windows to avoid the introduction of artificial ROH that are shorter than the window. Inbreeding coefficient based on ROH (FROH) is a genomic portion of individual autozygosity and defined it as the proportion of the autosomal genome lying in ROH of certain minimal length relative to the overall genome in interest. The highest inbreeding levels, varying from 0.2 to 0.36, in the twentieth generation were obtained for positive assortative mating systems. The intense use of a few numbers of sires in twenty generations of selection may cause a loss between 6.98 and 7.20% on milk yield in the worst scenarios. In general, for minimizing inbreeding scenarios, the average level inbreeding increasing of ~3 and ~8% in the twenty generations of selection decreases ~0.6 and ~1.8% the milk yield at 305 days respectively. The intensive selection for one trait could rapidly increase the average inbreeding coefficient on critical levels in populations with high and low initial LD. Non-random mating systems must be applied to control inbreeding levels and consequently inbreeding depression. In general, the class of 1-2 Mb length size has the highest number of ROH across all evaluations on generations 1, 5, 10 and 20. The percentage of ROH class 1-2 Mb decreases from generation 1 to 20. Nevertheless, the percentage of ROH class >8 increase across the twenty generations of selection in the distinguished populations and ROH detection methodologies. The mean ROH length in the class 1-2 Mb is higher for taurine than to indicine simulated population. Otherwise, for the class >8 Mb the indicine generally has higher mean ROH length. The inbreeding coefficient level based on pedigree (FPED) increases across the twenty simulated generations for taurine and indicine populations. But, genomic inbreeding coefficients based on ROH detected by sliding approach (FROHs) and ROH detected with the consecutive approach (FROHc) are different among these two populations. These results suggest that FROH from both methods to access ROH can detect ancient and recent autozygosity. Genomic inbreeding estimates based on ROH segments can represent and evolutionary events which distinguish some breeds. Key-words: Holstein, Linkage, Disequilibrium, QMSim, Simulation, Selection, ROH, homozygosity, SNP

Biochemical and cytological studies of genetic transfer from the Mv genome of Aegilops ventricosa into hexaploid wheat

A double interspecific oross {Triticum turgidum (AB) var. rubroatrum H-l-1 x Ae. ventvicosa (DM°) AP-l} x T.aestivum (ABD) cv. Almatense H-10-1S was carried out in 1950 by M. Alonso Peña (Cuenca, Spain) and 70 Unes were devived from it by vepeated selfing (Unes H-93-1 thvough 70). Pveliminavy biochemical evidence indicated genetic tvansfev fvom the M° genome of Ae.ventvicosa into some of these Unes. A more detailed biochemical and cytological characteriza tion of the H-93- Unes was undertaken. A progress report of these studies is presented here. Fourten biochemical systems, each representing a set of up to 4 homoeologous loci, weve investigated in the vavental material, in the H-93- Unes, and in Ae. squavrosa (DD), Ae. comosa (MM) and Ae. uniaristata (M^-M11). Biochemical markers controlled by the A or B genomes of one or both wheat parents weve distributed in the H-93- Unes as expected if the egcells fvom the self-stevile ABDM0 hybvid, rescued by the ABD polen, cavvied the complete A and B genomes from T. tuvgidum. The distvibution of biochemical mavkevs contvolled by the D genomes of one ov both D genome parents indicated that most of the eggcells from the ABDM0 hybrid carvied most of the D genome, i.e. 3 out of 8 markers of the former tupe were absent in a few Unes each, ind.icating incomplete homology between the two D genomes, non-homologous transfer or deletion. Biochemical characters present in Ae. ventricosa (DM°), Ae. comosa (M), Ae. uniaristata (M11) and absent in T. aestivum (ABD), Ae. squarrosa (D) and T. tuvgidum (AB) were selected as M° genome markers. Two of these markers were not transmited to the H-93- Unes, three were tvansmitted with low fvequency and one with a high fvequency. Resistance to Erisiphe graminis was determined by Dosba and Doussinault at Rennes and was found to be transmitted with low fvequency. Somatic chromosome numbers of the H-93- Unes were counted and all weve found to be hexaploid. Meiosis was studied in Unes cavvying M° genome mavkevs and in their hybrids with the T. aestivum parent, to determine the máximum numbev of alien chvornosornespvesent in each Une. The joint considevation of the biochemical and the cytological evidence se^me to indícate that the genetic tvansfev has taken place by chvomosome substitution and by vecombination

Fittonia verschaffeltii Response to Artificial Light Treatments: BIOMASS, Nutrient Concentrations and Physiological Changes

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different light treatments on biomass, nutrient concentrations and physiological parameters of Fittonia verschaffeltii (Lem) Van Houtte. The aim was to establish a methodology to evaluate the effect of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) emitted by lamps on biomass. The light treatments used were tube luminescent Dunn (TL-D), tube luminescent Dunn + light emitting diodes (LEDs) and Tube luminescent 5 (TL-5). At the end of the experimental period, biomass, nutritional, biochemical, and physiological parameters were assessed. A clear reduction in total plant dry weight under TL-D + LEDs at the end of the experiment was recorded. With respect to nutrient concentration in the different organs assessed, there was no clear response under the different light treatments. The growth under TL-D lamps resulted in the highest concentration of total soluble sugars and starch in leaves, whereas the highest value of indole 3-acetic acid concentration was under TL-5 lamps. Plants grown under TL-D + LEDs showed the lowest values of chlorophyll a, b and a + b. The relationship proposed between integrated use of spectral energy (IUSE) and total dry weight (TDW) showed a good correlation with an R2 value of 0.86, therefore we recommend this methodology to discern the effects of the different spectral qualities on plant biomass

Cosmological solutions in generalized hybrid metric-Palatini gravity

We construct exact solutions representing a Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robsertson-Walker (FLRW) universe in a generalized hybrid metric-Palatini theory. By writing the gravitational action in a scalar-tensor representation, the new solutions are obtained by either making an ansatz on the scale factor or on the effective potential. Among other relevant results, we show that it is possible to obtain exponentially expanding solutions for flat universes even when the cosmology is not purely vacuum. We then derive the classes of actions for the original theory which generate these solutions.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure

Erratic overdispersion of three molecular clocks: GPDH, SOD, and XDH

The neutrality theory predicts that the rate of neutral molecular evolution is constant over time, and thus that there is a molecular clock for timing evolutionary events. It has been observed that the variance of the rate of evolution is generally larger than expected according to the neutrality theory, which has raised the question of how reliable the molecular clock is or, indeed, whether there is a molecular clock at all. We have carried out an extensive investigation of three proteins, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH). We have observed that (i) the three proteins evolve erratically through time and across lineages and (ii) the erratic patterns of acceleration and deceleration differ from locus to locus, so that one locus may evolve faster in one than another lineage, whereas the opposite may be the case for another locus. The observations are inconsistent with the predictions made by various subsidiary hypotheses proposed to account for the overdispersion of the molecular clock.F.R.-T. has received support from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (Contrato Temporal de Investigación) and Grant AGL2000- 1073 from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología to A. Ballester. Research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant GM42397 (to F.J.A.).Peer Reviewe

Os MOOCs ao Serviço da Formação do Utilizador nas Bibliotecas do Ensino Superior : a experiência do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

Os MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), cursos online abertos e dirigidos a um público global, surgiram pela primeira vez em 2007, em contexto universitário. Estes cursos caracterizam-se por serem massivos, abertos, online e terem características de formação, uma vez que deve existir um professor-tutor, data de início e término do curso e sistema de avaliação. Este novo modelo de ensino online atingiu o pico da sua popularidade em 2011, quando dois cursos da Universidade de Stanford atingiram os 90.000 inscritos e os 160.000 inscritos. Tendo surgido em contexto académico, este novo modelo educativo apresenta-se como uma oportunidade para as Bibliotecas do ensino superior no âmbito da formação de utilizadores. Este artigo pretende descrever a experiência dos Serviços de Documentação do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria na criação e gestão de dois MOOCS: “E-books nas Bibliotecas de ensino superior” e “Direitos de Autor e Repositórios Institucionais”