First results on the use of a EDXRF scanner for 3D imaging of paintings

A 3D map of chemical elements distribution from energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis would be a perfect conclusion in a detailed study of any type of artifact. This map can be easily achieved by using synchrotron light as source of radiation, and microoptics both at the source and at the detector. In such a manner a micro-voxel is irradiated and detected, which can be at any depth with respect to the surface of the artifact. This method is effective but needs a high-intensity X-ray source; therefore, its use in archaeometry is limited. An alternative method is proposed in the present paper, which uses a portable EDXRF-device to measure the altered Kα/Kβ or Lα/Lβ-ratios, which allow to locate the chemical elements. Several examples are described

Non-destructive assay employing 2D and 3D digital radiographic imaging acquired with thermal neutrons and reactor-produced radioisotopes

The inner structure of some objects can only be visualized by using suitable techniques, when safety reasons or expensive costs preclude the application of invasive procedures. The kind of agent rendering an object partially transparent, unveiling thus its features, depends upon the object size and composition. As a rough rule of thumb, light materials are transparent to gamma and X-rays while the heavy ones are transparent to neutrons. When, after traversing an object, they hit a proper 2-D detector, a radiograph is produced representing a convoluted cross section, called projection, of that object. Taking a large number of such projections for different object attitudes, it is possible to obtain a 3-D tomography of the object as a map of attenuation coefficients. This procedure however, besides a time-consuming task, requires specially tailored equipment and software, not always available or affordable. Yet, in some circumstances it is feasible to replace the 3-D tomography by a stereoscopy, allowing one to visualize the spatial configuration of the object under analysis. In this work, 2-Dand 3-D radiographic images have been acquired using thermal neutrons and reactor-produced radioisotopes and proper imaging plates as detectors. The stereographic vision has been achieved by taking two radiographs of the same object at different angles, from the detector point of view. After a treatment to render them red-white and green-white they were properly merged to yield a single image capable to be watched with red-green glasses. All the image treatment and rendering has been performed with the software ImageJ

On the Richardson-Lucy Algorithm with A Varying Point Spread Function along The Iterations

Abstract: This work analyses the soundness of two algorithms, Fishsint and Almexp to improve images using the Richardson-Lucy (RL) algorithm under a varying Point Spread Function (PSF) along the iterations. A plethora of methods based on Richardson-Lucy has been published, but no further proposal involving such an alternative has been published. Whereas the unnamed predecessor of Fishsint addressed only small size synthetic images under a blind fashion procedure, Fishsint and Almexp employs an algorithm Wdet to determine the initial PSF and all subsequent values after each iteration, respectively. Fishsint performs a loop, where the last determined PSF improves the previously obtained image and vice versa. Its original unnamed version has been modified in the present work by entering a previously determined initial PSF to accelerate the convergence. The algorithm Almexp, as well, uses the algorithm Wdet to determine the PSF of the last obtained image to deconvolve itself. Therefore, whereas the Fishsint unnamed predecessor used an initial guess PSF - chosen by the customer - Almexp determines the PSF always through the algorithm Wdet. Fishsint and Almexp furnish final images which outperform those obtained with the original Richardson-Lucy approach working under a constant PSF along the iterations. Hence, in order to carry out a comparison between their performances, all the algorithms have been embedded into an ad hoc written Fortran 90 program. The results corroborate the soundness of a varying PSF along the iterations with the Richardson Lucy algorithm. Keywords: Richardson-Lucy, varying PSF along iterations, image improvement, neutron radiograph

Performance ao a thermal neutron radiographic system using imaging plates

A performance evaluation of a neutron radiographic system equipped with a thermal neutron sensitive imaging plate has been undertaken. It includes the assessment of spatial resolution, linearity, dynamic range and the response to exposure time, as well as a comparison of these parameters with the equivalent ones for neutron radiography employing conventional films and a gadolinium foil as converter. The evaluation and comparison between the radiographic systems have been performed at the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear - CNEN, using the Argonauta Reactor as source of thermal neutrons and a commercially available imaging plate reade

A 802.11p prototype implementation

This paper presents an IEEE 802.11p full-stack prototype implementation to data exchange among vehicles and between vehicles and the roadway infrastructures. The prototype architecture is based on FPGAs for Intermediate Frequency (IF) and base band purposes, using 802.11a based transceivers for RF interfaces. Power amplifiers were also addressed, by using commercial and in-house solutions. This implementation aims to provide technical solutions for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) field, namely for tolling and traffic management related services, in order to promote safety, mobility and driving comfort through the dynamic and real-time cooperation among vehicles and/or between vehicles and infrastructures. The performance of the proposed scheme is tested under realistic urban and suburban driving conditions. Preliminary results are promising, since they comply with most of the 802.11p standard requirements

Brain shape convergence in the adaptive radiation of New World monkeys

Primates constitute one of the most diverse mammalian clades, and a notable feature of their diversification is the evolution of brain morphology. However, the evolutionary processes and ecological factors behind these changes are largely unknown. In this work, we investigate brain shape diversification of New World monkeys during their adaptive radiation in relation to different ecological dimensions. Our results reveal that brain diversification in this clade can be explained by invoking a model of adaptive peak shifts to unique and shared optima, defined by a multidimensional ecological niche hypothesis. Particularly, we show that the evolution of convergent brain phenotypes may be related to ecological factors associated with group size (e.g., social complexity). Together, our results highlight the complexity of brain evolution and the ecological significance of brain shape changes during the evolutionary diversification of a primate clade.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Genomic Analyses, Gene Expression and Antigenic Profile of the Trans-Sialidase Superfamily of Trypanosoma cruzi Reveal an Undetected Level of Complexity

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, a highly debilitating human pathology that affects millions of people in the Americas. The sequencing of this parasite's genome reveals that trans-sialidase/trans-sialidase-like (TcS), a polymorphic protein family known to be involved in several aspects of T. cruzi biology, is the largest T. cruzi gene family, encoding more than 1,400 genes. Despite the fact that four TcS groups are well characterized and only one of the groups contains active trans-sialidases, all members of the family are annotated in the T. cruzi genome database as trans-sialidase. After performing sequence clustering analysis with all TcS complete genes, we identified four additional groups, demonstrating that the TcS family is even more heterogeneous than previously thought. Interestingly, members of distinct TcS groups show distinctive patterns of chromosome localization. Members of the TcSgroupII, which harbor proteins involved in host cell attachment/invasion, are preferentially located in subtelomeric regions, whereas members of the largest and new TcSgroupV have internal chromosomal locations. Real-time RT-PCR confirms the expression of genes derived from new groups and shows that the pattern of expression is not similar within and between groups. We also performed B-cell epitope prediction on the family and constructed a TcS specific peptide array, which was screened with sera from T. cruzi-infected mice. We demonstrated that all seven groups represented in the array are antigenic. A highly reactive peptide occurs in sixty TcS proteins including members of two new groups and may contribute to the known cross-reactivity of T. cruzi epitopes during infection. Taken together, our results contribute to a better understanding of the real complexity of the TcS family and open new avenues for investigating novel roles of this family during T. cruzi infection

Sports Injuries of a portuguese professional football team during three consecutive seasons

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Professional football players are exposed to high injury risk due to the physical demands of this sport. The purpose of this study was to characterize the injuries of a professional football team in the First Portuguese League over three consecutive sports seasons. Seventy-one male professional football players in the First Portuguese Football League were followed throughout the sports seasons of 2019/2020, 2020/2021, and 2021/2022. In total, 84 injuries were recorded. Each player missed an average of 16.6 days per injury. Lower limbs were massively affected by injuries across all three seasons, mainly with muscular injuries in the quadriceps and hamstrings and sprains in the tibiotarsal structure. Overall, the injury incidence was considerably higher in matches than in training. The two times of the season that proved most conducive to injuries were the months of July and January. Our results emphasize the importance of monitoring sports performance, including injury occurrence, and assisting in identifying risk factors in professional football. Designing individualized training programs and optimizing prevention and recovery protocols are crucial for maximizing this global process.C.F. and E.G. acknowledge support from LARSyS—Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology (FCT) pluriannual funding 2020–2023 (Reference: UIDB/50009/2020). This study was framed in the Marítimo Training Lab Project. The project received funding under application no. M1420-01-0247-FEDER-000033 in the System of Incentives for the Production of Scientific and Technological Knowledge in the Autonomous Region of Madeira—PROCiência 2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estimation of glomerular filtration rate from serum creatinine and cystatin C in octogenarians and nonagenarians

Background: Equations to estimate GFR have not been well validated in the elderly and may misclassify persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We measured GFR and compared the performance of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD), the Chronic Kidney Disease-Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-Epi) and the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS) equations based on creatinine and/or cystatin C in octogenarians and nonagenarians.Methods: Using cross-sectional analysis we assessed 95 very elderly persons (mean 85 years) living in the community. GFR was measured by iohexol (mGFR) and compared with estimates using six equations: MDRD, CKD-Epi_creatinine, CKD-Epi_cystatin, CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin, BIS_creatinine and BIS_creatinine-cystatin.Results: Mean mGFR was 55 (range, 19-86) ml/min/1.73 m(2). Bias was smaller with the CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin and the CKD-Epi_creatinine equations (-4.0 and 1.7 ml/min/1.73 m2). Accuracy (percentage of estimates within 30% of mGFR) was greater with the CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin, BIS_creatinine-cystatin and BIS_creatinine equations (85%, 83% and 80%, respectively). Among the creatinine-based equations, the BIS_creatinine had the greatest accuracy at mGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) and the CKD-Epi_creatinine was superior at higher GFRs (79% and 90%, respectively). the CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin, BIS_creatinine-cystatin and CKD-Epi_cystatin equations yielded the greatest areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve at GFR threshold = 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) (0.88, 0.88 and 0.87, respectively). in participants classified based on the BIS_creatinine, CKD-Epi_cystatin, or BIS_creatinine-cystatin equations, the CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin equation tended to improve CKD classification (net reclassification index: 12.7%, p = 0.18; 6.7%, p = 0.38; and 15.9%; p = 0.08, respectively).Conclusions: GFR-estimating equations CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin and BIS_creatinine-cystatin showed better accuracy than other equations using creatinine or cystatin C alone in very elderly persons. the CKD-Epi_creatinine-cystatin equation appears to be advantageous in CKD classification. If cystatin C is not available, both the BIS_cr equation and the CKD-Epi_cr equation could be used, although at mGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2), the BIS_cr equation seems to be the best alternative.Brazilian Research CouncilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Sch Med, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Paulista Sch Med, Geriatr Div, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Sch Med, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Paulista Sch Med, Geriatr Div, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilBrazilian Research Council: 472115/2010-3Web of Scienc