Hazard assessment of storm events for the battery, New York

The environmental and socio-economic importance of coastal areas is widely recognized, but at present these areas face severe weaknesses and high-risk situations. The increased demand and growing human occupation of coastal zones have greatly contributed to exacerbating such weaknesses. Today, throughout the world, in all countries with coastal regions, episodes of waves overtopping and coastal flooding are frequent. These episodes are usually responsible for property losses and often put human lives at risk. The floods are caused by coastal storms primarily due to the action of very strong winds. The propagation of these storms towards the coast induces high water levels. It is expected that climate change phenomena will contribute to the intensification of coastal storms. In this context, an estimation of coastal flooding hazards is of paramount importance for the planning and management of coastal zones. Consequently, carrying out a series of storm scenarios and analyzing their impacts through numerical modeling is of prime interest to coastal decision-makers. Firstly, throughout this work, historical storm tracks and intensities are characterized for the northeastern region of United States coast, in terms of probability of occurrence. Secondly, several storm events with high potential of occurrence are generated using a specific tool of DelftDashboard interface for Delft3D software. Hydrodynamic models are then used to generate ensemble simulations to assess storms' effects on coastal water levels. For the United States’ northeastern coast, a highly refined regional domain is considered surrounding the area of The Battery, New York, situated in New York Harbor. Based on statistical data of numerical modeling results, a review of the impact of coastal storms to different locations within the study area is performed

Prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes by extreme values of first trimester screening markers

Background To determine the association between extreme values of first trimester markers and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Methods A retrospective cohort study of 916 women who underwent first-trimester combined screening during 2015 was performed. Extreme values of NT, pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and free -hCG, and their association with adverse pregnancy outcomes were analyzed. Results Low PAPP-A (<10th percentile) was associated with an increased risk for preeclampsia (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.13), fetal growth restriction (AOR 3.94) and abruptio placentae (AOR 52.63). Abnormally low or high free -hCG, high PAPP-A or increased NT was not associated with an increased risk for adverse outcomes. Discussion PAPP-A <10th percentile could be associated with an increased risk for adverse outcomes. However, the majority of patients with these events do not have abnormal PAPP-A and few patients with PAPP-A <10th percentile will have an adverse outcome.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Os processos de contratação pública e execução de despesa no sistema de gestão documental eletrónica nos SIMAS de Oeiras e Amadora (SIMASOA)

Os SIMASOA encontram-se enquadrados por uma paisagem legal na área das T.I.C. que define obrigatoriedades de sustentabilidade, prova, transparência e proteção de direitos, cujos antecedentes podem apenas ser extrapolados do paradigma em suporte papel que criou os fundamentos da Arquivística. Acima de tudo, é necessário autenticar os atos decisórios que ocorrem durante a tramitação documental e que constituem prova de legalidade, facto que é a razão de ser do ato administrativo.A aplicação deste desiderato ao terreno – processos de contratação pública e execução de despesa – revelou a necessidade de compromissos entre o modo de trabalhar o suporte papel e o eletrónico e, a partir destes compromissos, construir consensos no que é passível de ser imediatamente desmaterializado ou não, pagando o preço através de processos híbridos e duplicação de tarefas. Paradoxalmente, este problema não é apenas humano, mas também de interação entre diferentes sistemas informáticos, uma vez que estes processos são transversais correndo em diferentes aplicações, bases de dados e suportes.Por estas razões, é necessário, através de uma equipa multidisciplinar, desenhar o processo tal como ele se apresenta em papel e procurar perceber até que ponto poderá ser desmaterializado sem incorrer em problemas informáticos, arquivísticos, jurídicos e organizacionais.Palavras-chave: Reengenharia de processos de negócio, Assinatura eletrónica, Webservice

European Portuguese Adaptation of Glasgow Content of Thoughts Inventory (GCTI): Psychometric Characterization in Higher Education Students

Persistent cognitive activity is an important factor in disturbing sleep-onset both during bedtime and when attempting to get back to sleep after nocturnal awakenings. One of the most specific self-report measures designed to assess this feature is the Glasgow Content of Thoughts Inventory (GCTI). In this study, we investigated the preliminary psychometric properties of GCTI in a large sample of higher education European Portuguese students (N = 2995). Our results suggest that there is evidence of good internal consistency (α = 0.93) and validity indicators. Moreover, we found an interpretable factorial structure comprising 5 correlated factors that needs to be confirmed in future studies. The European Portuguese version of the GCTI appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for measurement of sleep-onset disturbing cognitions

Unlocking the potential of snake venom-based molecules against the malaria, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis triad

Funding Information: This work received financial support from PT national funds ( FCT/MCTES , Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior) through the project CIRCNA/BRB/0281/2019 . Funding Information: This work received financial support from PT national funds (FCT/MCTES, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior) through the project CIRCNA/BRB/0281/2019.The authors further thank FCT/MCTES for supporting Research Units LAQV-REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020), GHTM (UID/Multi/04413/2020). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsMalaria, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease are vector-borne protozoal infections with a disproportionately high impact on the most fragile societies in the world, and despite malaria-focused research gained momentum in the past two decades, both trypanosomiases and leishmaniases remain neglected tropical diseases. Affordable effective drugs remain the mainstay of tackling this burden, but toxicicty, inneficiency against later stage disease, and drug resistance issues are serious shortcomings. One strategy to overcome these hurdles is to get new therapeutics or inspiration in nature. Indeed, snake venoms have been recognized as valuable sources of biomacromolecules, like peptides and proteins, with antiprotozoal activity. This review highlights major snake venom components active against at least one of the three aforementioned diseases, which include phospholipases A2, metalloproteases, L-amino acid oxidases, lectins, and oligopeptides. The relevance of this repertoire of biomacromolecules and the bottlenecks in their clinical translation are discussed considering approaches that should increase the success rate in this arduous task. Overall, this review underlines how venom-derived biomacromolecules could lead to pioneering antiprotozoal treatments and how the drug landscape for neglected diseases may be revolutionized by a closer look at venoms. Further investigations on poorly studied venoms is needed and could add new therapeutics to the pipeline.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Interleaved Sequence RNNs for Fraud Detection

Payment card fraud causes multibillion dollar losses for banks and merchants worldwide, often fueling complex criminal activities. To address this, many real-time fraud detection systems use tree-based models, demanding complex feature engineering systems to efficiently enrich transactions with historical data while complying with millisecond-level latencies. In this work, we do not require those expensive features by using recurrent neural networks and treating payments as an interleaved sequence, where the history of each card is an unbounded, irregular sub-sequence. We present a complete RNN framework to detect fraud in real-time, proposing an efficient ML pipeline from preprocessing to deployment. We show that these feature-free, multi-sequence RNNs outperform state-of-the-art models saving millions of dollars in fraud detection and using fewer computational resources.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, to appear in SIGKDD'20 Industry Trac

Silk hydrogels from non-mulberry and mulberry silkworm cocoons processed with ionic liquids

Matrices based on silk fibroin from the non-mulberry silkworm Antheraea mylitta and the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori have demonstrated good applicability in regenerative medicine. However, the cocoons of A. mylitta are underutilized in part due to their lack of solubility in traditional organic solvents. Therefore, the present work investigates the solubilization and processing of degummed fibers obtained from the cocoons of both silkworm species into hydrogels using ionic liquids (ILs). The developed hydrogels exhibited a rubbery consistency, viscoelastic behavior and rapid degradation in the presence of protease XIV. Scanning electron and confocal microscopy images suggest that human adipose stem cells (hASCs) are able to adhere to and migrate at different levels within the hydrogel structures. Moreover, the MTS assay demonstrated the maintenance of cell metabolic activity for up to 28days, while DNA quantification showed that hASCs were able to proliferate on the seeded hydrogels. The findings indicate that complete IL removal from the fabricated hydrogels results in a positive hASCs cellular response. Thus the present approach provides a unique opportunity to broaden the processability and application of silk fibroin obtained from A. mylitta cocoons for regenerative medicine, namely cartilage regeneration.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Grants SFRH/BPD/45307/2008 and SFRH/BD/64070/2009), the Fundo Social Europeu, and the Programa Diferencial de Potencial Humano. This work was partially supported by the FEDER through POCTEP 0330_IBERO-MARE_1_P and also by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. S.C.K. is grateful to R.L.R. and S.S.S. for their excellent hospitality during his stay at the 3B's laboratory, Guimaraes, Portugal. R.L.R. also offers his sincere thanks to S.C.K. for providing hospitality during his short visits to his laboratory in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Hazard assessment of storm events for the portuguese northern coast

Coastal zones currently face severe weaknesses and are subject to high-risk situations. Tropical storm events can contribute to the occurrence of these high-risk situations by causing storm surges with high water levels and, consequently, episodes of wave-overtopping and coastal flooding. This work considers a series of storm scenarios and analyzes their impacts through numerical modelling. Firstly, historical storm tracks and intensities are characterized for the Portuguese northern coast in terms of probability of occurrence. Secondly, several storm events with a high potential of occurrence are generated using a specific tool of the DelftDasboard interface for Delft3D software. Hydrodynamic models are then used to generate an ensemble of simulations to assess the storms? effects on coastal water levels. Based on the statistical data of the numerical modeling results, a synthesis of the coastal storms? impacts at different locations within the study area is performed. Depending on the storm category, surge heights can reach 1.10 meters above tide levels under simulated conditions on the Portuguese northwestern coast.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Photoinactivation of bacterial and fungal planktonic/biofilm forms using the combination of a porphyrinic formulation with potassium iodide

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is a promising approach against multidrug-resistant microorganisms. In this work, we accessed the photodynamic efficiency of an affordable formulation composed of five cationic porphyrins (FORM) and its combined effect with potassium iodide (KI) on a large spectrum of microorganisms. For this purpose, the aPDT assays were conducted with FORM alone and FORM + KI on planktonic and biofilm forms of Gram(+) (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram(−) (Escherichia coli) bacteria and of the yeast Candida albicans. The results obtained indicate that FORM, at low concentrations (0.5–5.0 μM), had an efficient photodynamic action on the planktonic forms of E. coli, S. aureus, and C. albicans. Moreover, the combination of FORM with KI improved the photodynamic action of this PS, promoting microbial inactivation with lower PS concentrations and treatment time. The combination of FORM + KI was also extremely efficient in the destruction of bacterial and fungal biofilms. This outstanding effect may be due to the action of longer-lived iodine reactive species produced by the reaction of KI with the ROS generated by FORM during the aPDT treatment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quando a expressão plástica e a matemática dão as mãos

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio