One-step transformation of microorganisms

This project aims to develop products that simplify the laboratory methods used for the genetic improvement of microorganisms with commercial potential that can be applied in biotechnology, in areas such as food industry, environment or energy. These products will constitute a new methodological paradigm through its simplicity and will substitute classical procedures that are more time-consuming, more expensive and technically more demanding. Transformation of microorganisms (introducing DNA into microorganisms for a genetic improvement) is a cumbersome procedure normally needing three main steps, namely: (1) preparation of microorganisms (weakening of natural barriers to receive foreign DNA); (2) a shock step (normally through an electric pulse, jump in temperature or by using ultrasounds); and finally the (3) a recovery step in which the microorganisms are grown in rich medium to recover from the previous step. With our technology we envisage attaining transformation in a single step through spreading microorganisms and foreign DNA on novel transformation petri-dishes

Legal advances in the European Union (Intellectual Property Law And Industry 4.0):Extraterritoriality and applicability of comparative law In Brazil

This article aims to provide a critical evaluation Industry 4.0 and intellectual property law, questioning how the widespread adoption of new digital technologies (Internet of Things, robotic systems, artificial intelligence, Big Data Analytics, etc.) can affect the formulation of the intellectual property rights and result in new insights, especially regarding the protection of intellectual property. This assay adopts the hypothetical-deductive methodology utilising literature review and the jurisprudence from UK Court of Appeal (case No. B2/2013/1812) in order to analyse the progress in this area in Europe and in the English legal system, both of which are demonstrating a greater speed in the response to new problems in data protection, recommending at the end, the application of comparative law in Brazil in cases of legislative omission, while there is no specific legislation based on globalized customs.<br/

UNIPAMPA e experiências de internacionalização da Educação Superior

O CONGRESSO DE INTERNACIONALIZAÇÃO DA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR – CIES 2019 é um evento in- ternacional, que reúne professores, pesquisadores e estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação para divulgar a produção científica no campo da Internacionalização do Ensino Superior e fortalecer a cooperação internacional entre diferentes instituições de ensino e grupos de pesquisa no âmbito do MERCOSUL. A iniciativa é fruto de uma parceria entre pesquisadores da Universidade Federal da Integra- ção Latino-Americana (UNILA - Brasil), a Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL - Argentina), a Uni- versidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA - Paraguay) e a Universidad de la República (UDeLaR - Uru- guay), que atuam em projetos vinculados ao Setor Educacional do MERCOSUL, no Núcleo de Estudos e Investigações em Educação Superior. O evento será realizado nos dias 4, 5 e 6 de Setembro de 2019 no campus PTI da UNILA, dentro do Parque Tecnológico da Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu, na cidade de Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brasil. A UNILA, sede do evento, é uma universidade temática criada em 2010 pelo governo federal do Brasil com a missão institucional de formar recursos humanos aptos a contribuir com a integra- ção latino-americana, com o desenvolvimento regional e com o intercâmbio cultural, científico e educacional da América Latina, especialmente no MERCOSUL. Sua finalidade, portanto, é conver- ter-se em um espaço de encontros, de trocas e de aprendizagem mútua, que reforçam o compro- misso em prol da pertinência, da excelência e da construção sustentável de um mundo melhor.A interação entre globalização, inovação e cooperação, com atenção às questões globais, nacionais e locais tem guiado o diálogo acerca do protagonismo da Educação Superior (ES) e sua função em prol da integração regional, a exemplo das discussões que pautaram a CRES 2018. Nesse sentido, durante o Programa de Apoio a Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Federais (Reuni) foram implantadas IES com foco na Cooperação Sul-Sul tais como: a Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA) situada na tríplice fronteira Argentina-Brasil-Paraguai, bem assim a Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS) e a Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA) e , ainda, a Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira (Unilab) com a missão de estimular a integração com os membros da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), especialmente os países africanos. Este trabalho objetiva apresentar um relato das experiências de internacionalização da educação superior levadas a cabo pela UNIPAMPA. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa e de caráter exploratório que apresentará dados institucionais para desenhar o panorama de internacionalização da IES e buscará correlacionar mecanismos de internacionalização ditados em referências bibliográficas. A UNIPAMPA foi criada em 2008, mediante atuação multicampi na mesorregião Metade Sul do Rio Grande do Sul, contemplando unidades em dez municípios localizados na faixa de fronteira com o Uruguay e Argentina e propõe-se a oferecer educação de qualidade e inclusiva, com vistas à democratização do ensino superior e à promoção do desenvolvimento regional. Verifica-se que a IES apresenta uma política institucional com destinação de vagas para cidadãos residentes em municípios do Uruguay e da Argentina nas localidades fronteiriças. Formalizada através de processo seletivo específico para ingresso de fronteiriços na graduação tal política tem sido objeto de estudo tanto no plano de observação como uma política de internacionalização em casa nos termos ditados por Beelen (2007), quanto nos desafios de política linguística e integração conforme estudo de Farias-Marques (2016).Núcleo de Estudios e Investigaciones en Educación Superior del Mercosur - NUCLEO Grupo Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa em Educação na América Latina – EducAL/UNILA Instituto Mercosul de Estudos Avançados – IMEA/UNILA Pró-Reitoria de Relações Institucionais e Internacionais – PROINT/UNIL

Bryophytes distribution along an altitudinal gradient of native forest in Pico island (Azores): preliminary results of epiphytic genera

MOVECLIM, Mid Course Meeting, 2-6 September 2013, Réunion (Mascarenes).The evergreen forests of the Azores offer a great variety of habitats for bryophytes, owing to the diversity of microhabitats and available substrata, and to the hyper-humid conditions they provide. Bryophytes play a vital role in such ecosystems (Homem & Gabriel, 2009). The understanding of species rarity is important in ecological and conservational research

Transformation of Escherichia coli JM109 using pUC19 by the Yoshida effect

Transformation of non-competent Escherichia coli JM109 was accomplished using pUC19 as donor plasmid and sepiolite as the acicular material to promote cell piercing via application of friction with a polystyrene stick or a magnetic bar on the surface of a hydrogel containing agar. An automatic spreading setup was built with a conventional stirring plate and compared to manual spreading. Several parameters were optimized, namely, the agar content of the hydrogel (2%), concentration of cells (OD=1.3 corresponding to 1.4x109 bacterial cells/mL), concentration of sepiolite (0.01%), manual versus mechanical spreading (automatic spreading more consistent) and spreading time (30 sec). Efficiency values up to 4.1 x 104 CFU/µg pUC19 were obtained. The method proved to be suitable for a rapid and low cost transformation of non-competent E. coli JM109, where higher values of efficiency do not need to be attained.Portuguese Foundation for Scienceand Technology (FCT) and the European Community fund FEDER,through Program COMPETE, under the scope of the Projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007025 (PTDC/AMB/68393/2006), PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/ 2013, PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2013, RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01- 0124-FEDER-027462) and the Projects “BioEnv — Biotechnology and Bioengineering for a sustainableworld” and “Matepro—Optimizing Materials and Processes”. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000048 was co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 — O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. The authors also acknowledge the fellowship awarded to Gabriel Mendes SFRH/BD/71661/2010 under the scope of the MITPortugal Program

A changing climate: prospects for the Azorean bryophytes

MOVECLIM, Mid Course Meeting, 2-6 September 2013, Réunion (Mascarenes).As climate change is warming our planet, biodiversity is responding to that input through several different processes, such as range or phenology shifts (Bellard et al., 2012). The main problem with species’ responses is that many seem to be unable to keep up with the fast pace of climate change. Quintero & Wiens (2013) established that projected rates of climate change until 2099 are about 10.000 times superior to the historical climatic niche evolution rates of 540 species of terrestrial vertebrates. If species’ fail to adapt, local extinctions can occur. This is especially true for islands, due to isolation and dispersal barriers. Plants, for example, can only migrate upwards until they reach the mountain summits. From there, they have no place to go, no area to colonize

Physical Activity Levels in Peripheral Artery Disease Patients

BACKGROUND: Increases in daily physical activity levels is recommended for patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). However, despite this recommendation, little is known about the physical activity patterns of PAD patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe the physical activity patterns of patients with symptomatic peripheral artery (PAD) disease. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 174 PAD patients with intermittent claudication symptoms. Patients were submitted to clinical, hemodynamic and functional evaluations. Physical activity was objectively measured by an accelerometer, and the time spent in sedentary, low-light, high-light and moderate-vigorous physical activities (MVPA) were obtained. Descriptive analysis was performed to summarize patient data and binary logistic regression was used to test the crude and adjusted associations between adherence to physical activity recommendation and sociodemographic and clinical factors. For all the statistical analyses, significance was accepted at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Patients spent in average of 640 ± 121 min/day, 269 ± 94 min/day, 36 ± 27 min/day and 15 ± 16 min/day in sedentary, low-light, high-light and MVPA, respectively. The prevalence of patients who achieved physical activity recommendations was 3.4%. After adjustment for confounders, a significant inverse association was observed between adherence to physical activity recommendation and age (OR = 0.925; p = 0.004), while time of disease, ankle brachial index and total walking distance were not associated with this adherence criteria (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The patterns of physical activity of PAD patients are characterized by a large amount of time spent in sedentary behaviors and a low engagement in MVPA. Younger patients, regardless of the clinical and functional factors, were more likely to meet the current physical activity recommendations

Developing a methodology for XPS profiling of biofilms and biological materials

Films of cells on solid substrates are encountered in a variety of biological and biomedical environments, including cells in biofilms that spontaneously colonize medical devices and multilayers of cells filtered from suspensions for analysis. Understanding the chemical properties of cells in such films is important for providing clues about the behavior of the cells or about the effects of treatments that had been applied to the cells. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), with its combination of chemical selectivity and surface specificity, is an ideal technique for analysing these biofilms and multilayers, but it needs to be combined with profiling to more fully characterise the samples. It is well known that profiling with traditionally used argon monomers results in a high degree of chemical modification for most organic materials. Recent studies have shown, however, that argon cluster beams may be used for depth profiling of organic materials while preserving the chemical information. This poster will present data from cluster profiling studies of biofilms and biomaterials. The methodology required for optimum profiling of these samples will be discussed, including an evaluation of XPS data acquisition protocols, as well as sputtering conditions

Stages of health behavior change and factors associated with physical activity in patients with intermittent claudication

OBJECTIVE: To analyze, in people with intermittent claudication, the frequency of individuals who are in each of stages of health behavior change to practice physical activity, and analyze the association of these stages with the walking capacity. METHODS: We recruited 150 patients with intermittent claudication treated at a tertiary center, being included those > 30-year-old-individuals and who had ankle-arm index < 0.90. We obtained socio-demographic information, presence of comorbidities and cardiovascular risk factors and stages of health behavior change to practice physical activity through a questionnaire, they being pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Moreover, the walking capacity was measured in a treadmill test (Gardner protocol). RESULTS: Most individuals were in the maintenance stage (42.7%), however, when the stages of health behavior change were categorized into active (action and maintenance) and inactive (pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation), 51.3% of the individuals were classified as inactive behavior. There was no association between stages of health behavior change, sociodemographic factors and cardiovascular risk factors. However, patients with intermittent claudication who had lower total walking distance were three times more likely to have inactive behavior. CONCLUSION: Most patients with intermittent claudication showed an inactive behavior and, in this population, lower walking capacity was associated with this behavior

Is the algorithm used to process heart rate variability data clinically relevant? Analysis in male adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To analyze whether the algorithm used for the heart rate variability assessment (fast Fourier transform versus autoregressive methods) influenced its association with cardiovascular risk factors in male adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1,152 male adolescents (aged 14 to 19 years). The low frequency, high frequency components (absolute numbers and normalized units), low frequency/high frequency ratio, and total power of heart rate variability parameters were obtained using the fast Fourier transform and autoregressive methods, while the adolescents were resting in a supine position. RESULTS: All heart rate variability parameters calculated from both methods were different (p<0.05). However, a low effect size (<0.1) was found for all parameters. The intra-class correlation between methods ranged from 0.96 to 0.99, whereas the variation coefficient ranged from 7.4 to 14.8%. Furthermore, waist circumference was negatively associated with high frequency, and positively associated with low frequency and sympatovagal balance (p<0.001 for both fast Fourier transform and autoregressive methods in all associations). Systolic blood pressure was negatively associated with total power and high frequency, whereas it was positively associated with low frequency and sympatovagal balance (p<0.001 for both fast Fourier transform and autoregressive methods in all associations). Body mass index was negatively associated with high frequency, while it was positively associated with low frequency and sympatovagal balance (p values ranged from <0.001 to 0.007). CONCLUSION: There are significant differences in heart rate variability parameters obtained with the fast Fourier transform and autoregressive methods in male adolescent; however, these differences are not clinically significant. OBJETIVO: Analisar se o algoritmo usado para avaliação da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca (transformada rápida de Fourier versus autoregressivo) influencia em sua associação com fatores de risco cardiovascular adolescentes do gênero masculino. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal, que incluiu 1.152 adolescentes do gênero masculino (14 a 19 anos). Componentes de baixa e alta frequência (absolutos e unidades normalizadas), razão componente de baixa frequência/componente de alta frequência e poder total da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca foram obtidos em repouso, na posição supina, usando os métodos transformada rápida de Fourier e autorregressivo. RESULTADOS: Todos os parâmetros da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca para ambos os métodos foram diferentes (p<0,05). Entretanto, um pequeno tamanho do efeito (<0,1) foi observado para todos os parâmetros. Os coeficientes de correlação intraclasse entre os métodos variaram de 0,96 a 0,99, enquanto os coeficientes de variação foram de 7,4 a 14,8%. A circunferência abdominal foi negativamente associada com o componente de alta frequência, e positivamente associada com o componente de baixa frequência e o balanço simpatovagal (p<0,001 para a transformada rápida de Fourier e o autorregressivo em todas as associações). A pressão arterial sistólica foi negativamente associada com o poder total e o componente de alta frequência, enquanto foi positivamente associada com o componente de baixa frequência e o balanço simpatovagal (p<0,001 para a transformada rápida de Fourier e o autorregressivo em todas as associações). O índice de massa corporal foi negativamente associado com o componente de alta frequência, enquanto foi positivamente associado com o componente de baixa frequência e o balanço simpatovagal (valores de p variando de <0,001 a 0,007). CONCLUSÃO: Houve diferenças significantes nos parâmetros da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca obtidos com os métodos transformada rápida de Fourier e autorregressivo em adolescentes masculinos, mas essas diferenças não foram clinicamente significativas