Geoquímica do granito, filões de quartzo com scheelite e águas da mina abandonada de Fonte Santa (NE de Portugal)

Os filões de quartzo com scheelite da mina da Fonte Santa atravessam a formação do Quartzito Armoricano, do Ordovícico Inferior. A mineralização é de tipo “stockwork”, ocorre associada ao leucogranito sin-F3, da Fonte Santa, que aflora a 250 m a Sul do jazigo e relaciona-se com a zona de cisalhamento Moncorvo-Bemposta (Silva e Pereira, 2001). O leucogranito é de grão médio a fino, moscovítico, com foliação N80ºW, subvertical. Possui quartzo, microclina, albite, moscovite, turmalina, silimanite, zircão, apatite, e ilmenite. As amostras alteradas com microclinização e moscovitização intensa contêm clorite, columbite-tantalite, volframite, ixiolite rica em W e óxidos de ferro. É um granito peraluminoso, do tipo S, muito evoluído e estanífero com Sn > 44ppm (Silva, 2000). Alguns filões têm quartzo parcialmente recristalizado, por vezes brechóide, impregnado de sulfuretos preenchendo microfissuras e fracturas. A paragénese dos filões é constituída por quartzo, moscovite, clorite, turmalina, scheelite, pirrotite, pirite, esfalerite, calcopirite, galena, óxidos de ferro, sulfatos de Fe e fosfatos de Pb, Fe e Al. A mina da Fonte Santa foi explorada para W entre 1942 e 1982 (Triede, 2002). As águas associadas à mina da Fonte Santa, são pouco mineralizadas, com condutividade específica < 150 μS/cm, de tipo misto, bicarbonatadas ou sulfatadas. A maioria dos valores de pH (5.0 e 9.2) indicam que não há uma drenagem ácida significativa na região, tal como encontrado noutros locais (e.g., Antunes et al., 2002). Os valores mais ácidos (pH: 3.4-3.5) foram encontrados na lagoa da mina

Contaminação de águas associadas a mineralizações de W de Fonte Santa, NE Portugal

Na região da mina de Fonte Santa ocorrem filões de quartzo mineralizados em W, com scheelite, que cortam os quartzitos do Ordovícico Inferior e estão relacionados com a zona de cisalhamento de Moncorvo-Bemposta. Alguns filões com scheelite têm quartzo recristalizado e brechificado e sulfuretos, tendo sido explorados para W entre 1942 e 1982. As águas relacionadas com a mina da Fonte Santa são pouco mineralizadas, com condutividade eléctrica < 965 μ S/cm, e classificadas como de tipo misto. A maioria dos valores de pH (pH = 5.0 - 8.5) indicam que não há drenagem ácida significativa associada às actividades mineiras e os valores mais ácidos (pH = 3.4) foram obtidos numa lagoa da mina. Nas águas associadas com os filões mineralizados e antigas explorações foram encontradas concentrações elevadas de Fe e Mn que proíbem o seu consumo humano e utilização na agricultura

A novel enzymatically-mediated drug delivery carrier for bone tissue engineering applications: combining biodegradable starch-based microparticles and differentiation agents

In many biomedical applications, the performance of biomaterials depends largely on their degradation behavior. For instance, in drug delivery applications, the polymeric carrier should degrade under physiological conditions slowly releasing the encapsulated drug. The aim of this work was, therefore, to develop an enzymaticmediated degradation carrier system for the delivery of differentiation agents to be used in bone tissue engineering applications. For that, a polymeric blend of starch with polycaprolactone (SPCL) was used to produce a microparticle carrier for the controlled release of dexamethasone (DEX). In order to investigate the effect of enzymes on the degradation behavior of the developed system and release profile of the encapsulated osteogenic agent (DEX), the microparticles were incubated in phosphate buffer solution in the presence of a-amylase and/or lipase enzymes (at physiological concentrations), at 37 C for different periods of time. The degradation was followed by gravimetric measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the release of DEX was monitored by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The developed microparticles were shown to be susceptible to enzymatic degradation, as observed by an increase in weight loss and porosity with degradation time when compared with control samples (incubation in buffer only). For longer degradation times, the diameter of the microparticles decreased significantly and a highly porous matrix was obtained. The in vitro release studies showed a sustained release pattern with 48% of the encapsulated drug being released for a period of 30 days. As the degradation proceeds, it is expected that the remaining encapsulated drug will be completely released as a consequence of an increasingly permeable matrix and faster diffusion of the drug. Cytocompatibility results indicated the possibility of the developed microparticles to be used as biomaterial due to their reduced cytotoxic effects

Mejora de las propiedades químicas del aceite de Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa L.) por interesterificación enzimática

Although Amazonian oils present great potential for various applications, they have not been extensively explored for commercial use. In this study, the effects of enzymatic interesterification of buriti oil in relation to its triacylglycerol composition, regiospecific distribution of fatty acids, and minority compounds were evaluated. The results indicated that the lipase used in the reaction showed higher specificity for oleic acid and the sn-1 and sn-3 positions of triacylglycerol, generating more unsaturated structured lipids. There were increases of 11% and 12.5% in unsaturated-unsaturated-unsaturated triacylglycerol types and reductions of 12.1% and 16.2% in saturated-unsaturated-unsaturated triacylglycerol types after 6 and 24 hours of reaction, respectively. At 24 h of reaction, the structured lipid formed was totally unsaturated at the three triacylglycerol positions. In addition, as the reaction conditions were mild, the carotenoids and phenolic compounds were maintained in the structured lipids. The results indicate that the enzymatic interesterification can be an alternative to produce structured lipids with new functionalities, and diversify the application of this oil from the Amazon.Aunque los aceites amazónicos presentan un gran potencial de aplicación, están poco explorados comercialmente. En este estudio, se evaluaron los efectos de la interesterificación enzimática del aceite de Buriti en relación con la composición en triacilglicerol, la distribución regioespecífica de ácidos grasos y compuestos minoritarios. Los resultados indicaron que la lipasa usada en la reacción mostró una mayor especificidad para el ácido oleico y las posiciones sn-1 y sn-3 del triacilglicerol, generando más lípidos estructurados insaturados. Hubo un aumento entre 11,0% - 12,5% en el tipo de triacilgliceroles insaturados-insaturados-insaturados y una reducción de 12,1% - 16,2% en los triacilgliceroles saturados-insaturados-insaturados después de 6 y 24 horas de reacción, respectivamente. A las 24 h de reacción, el lípido estructurado formado estaba totalmente insaturado en las tres posiciones del triacilglicerol. Además, como las condiciones de reacción fueron suaves, los compuestos carotenoides y fenólicos se conservaron en los lípidos estructurados. Los resultados indicaron que la interesterificación enzimática puede ser una alternativa para producir lípidos estructurados con nuevas funcionalidades, diversificando la aplicación de este aceite del Amazonas

Social-ecological, motivational and volitional factors for initiating and maintaining physical activity in the context of HIV

Sport and exercise can have several health benefits for people living with HIV. These benefits can be achieved through different types of physical activity, adapting to disease progression, motivation and social-ecological options. However, physical activity levels and adherence to exercise are generally low in people living with HIV. At the same time, high drop-out rates in intervention studies are prevalent; even though they often entail more favourable conditions than interventions in the natural settings. Thus, in the framework of an intervention study, the present study aims to explore social-ecological, motivational and volitional correlates of South African women living with HIV with regard to physical activity and participation in a sport and exercise health promotion programme. The qualitative data was produced in the framework of a non-randomised pre-post intervention study that evaluated structure, processes and outcomes of a 10-week sport and exercise programme. All 25 participants of the programme were included in this analysis, independent of compliance. Data was produced through questionnaires, participatory group discussions, body image pictures, research diaries and individual semi-structured interviews. All participants lived in a low socioeconomic, disadvantaged setting. Hence, the psychological correlates are contextualised and social-ecological influences on perception and behaviour are discussed. The results show the importance of considering social-cultural and environmental influences on individual motives, perceptions and expectancies, the fear of disclosure and stigmatisation, sport and exercise-specific group dynamics and self-supporting processes. Opportunities and strategies to augment physical activity and participation in sport and exercise programmes in the context of HIV are discussed.Scopu

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters