Recent range expansion and population genetics of the Argentine ant

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura, apresentada ao Departamento de Arquitectura da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra.A habitação remonta às origens do homem, tendo evoluído do abrigo, que proporcionava proteção, até às casas dos nossos dias, representativas dos indivíduos que as habitam. Na atualidade, no mundo ocidental, a habitação tem que permitir aos seus moradores satisfazer as necessidades básicas de conforto, privacidade, higiene e alimentação, possibilitando um espaço de dormir, de lazer e de trabalho, adaptado às famílias contemporâneas. Numa altura em que é reconhecida a qualidade dos arquitetos portugueses a nível internacional, torna-se pertinente observar/perceber, de que forma estes desenvolvem a habitação unifamiliar, representativa do maior encargo financeiro na vida quotidiana das famílias portuguesas, que conta com o maior número de amadores. De forma a aprofundar a habitação unifamiliar contemporânea, em Portugal, a presente dissertação recorre à análise de dois empreendimentos que lhe servem de casos de estudo, o Bom Sucesso, Architecture Resort, Leisure & Golf, em Óbidos e o Vila Utopia, em Oeiras. Destinados um a primeira habitação e outro a segunda, abrangem um grupo de arquitetos de renome. Para facilitar a sua análise, ambos são estudados quer enquanto conjunto, quer através de algumas moradias representativas dos mesmos.The housing goês back to the origins of man, having evolved from the shelter, which provided protection to the homes of today, representative of the individuals who inhabit them. Today, in the western world, housing is required to allow its residents meet the basic needs of comfort, privacy, hygiene and nutrition, providing a space to sleep, leisure and work, adapted to contemporary families. At a time of recognition of the quality of Portuguese architects internationally, it is pertinent to note/notice, how they develop the single-family housing, representing the largest financial burden on thedaily lives of Portuguese families, which hás the largest number amateur. In order to deepen the contemporary family house in Portugal, this thesis refers to the analysis of two projects which serve as a case study, the Bom Sucesso Architecture Resort, Leisure & Golf in Obidos and the Vila Utopia, in Oeiras. The first one for as the primary housing and the second as a secondary house, cover a group of renowned architects. To facilitate the analysis, both are studied either as a body or through some representative of themselves

Spontaneous esophageal perforation within a hiatal hernia : A case report

Introduction: Spontaneous esophageal perforation, also commonly referred to as Boerhaave's syndrome, is one of the most lethal diseases causing an acute abdomen. Though rare, emergent surgical intervention is often required and management can be various based upon the site of the perforation. This literature has been written in line with the SCARE criteria (Agha et al., 2020) [1]. Presentation of case: A 76-year-old man presented with acute abdominal pain. Computed tomography (CT) revealed and an emergent esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) was performed carefully, which revealed a 7 cm all-layer esophageal laceration in the left lower esophageal wall. In our case, a hiatal hernia was protruding into the mediastinum, and the perforation site was inside of it, but there was no invasion into the thoracic cavity, thus a transabdominal approach was performed without thoracotomy. Discussion: This type of esophageal perforation within a hiatal hernia is quite rare and provides a unique clinical challenge. In addition, A review reported the average length of spontaneous esophageal perforation to be around 2 cm while our case had a perforation with a length of 7 cm. We chose the combination of the simple suture with omental buttress and wide drainage, but a complete fundoplication was impossible due to its large size of perforation. Conclusion: We chose the open abdominal approach because the case had high inflammation, a hiatal hernia and possibility of retro-gastric perforation. However, MIS should have been considered first if a situation or human resources allow it

Multi-physics Extension of OpenFMO Framework

OpenFMO framework, an open-source software (OSS) platform for Fragment Molecular Orbital (FMO) method, is extended to multi-physics simulations (MPS). After reviewing the several FMO implementations on distributed computer environments, the subsequent development planning corresponding to MPS is presented. It is discussed which should be selected as a scientific software, lightweight and reconfigurable form or large and self-contained form.Comment: 4 pages with 11 figure files, to appear in the Proceedings of ICCMSE 200

Association between reductions of number of cigarettes smoked per day and mortality among older adults in the United States

Many smokers do not quit but instead reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke per day (CPD) over their lifetime. Yet the associations of such changes in CPD with health risks are unclear. We examined the association of changes in CPD with subsequent death in the period 2004-2011 among 253,947 participants of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Using a questionnaire assessing responders\u27 history of smoking cigarettes, we identified cigarette smokers who quit, decreased, maintained, or increased their CPD between ages 25-29 and 50-59 years. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained from multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models. Relative to never smokers, smokers who maintained a consistent CPD had 2.93 times (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.82, 3.05) higher all-cause mortality risk, and participants who increased their CPD had still higher risk (hazard ratio (HR) = 3.37, 95% CI: 3.23, 3.52). Death risk was lower among participants who decreased their CPD (HR = 2.38, 95% CI: 2.25, 2.52) or quit smoking (for quitting between ages 30 and 39 years, HR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.39). Similar patterns were observed for smoking-related causes of death, with particularly strong associations for lung cancer and respiratory disease. Reductions in CPD over the lifetime meaningfully decreased death risk; however, cessation provided a larger benefit than even large declines in CPD

Effects of Fipronil on Non-target Ants and Other Invertebrates in a Program for Eradication of the Argentine Ant, Linepithema humile

Pesticides are frequently used to eradicate invasive ant species, but pose ecological harm. Previous studies assessed non-target effects only in terms of the increase or decrease of abundance or species richness after pesticide applications. Positive effects of the release from pressure caused by invasive ant species have not been considered so far. To more accurately assess pesticide effects in the field, the non-target effects of pesticides should be considered separately from the positive effects of such releases. Here, we used monitoring data of ants and other invertebrates collected in a program for the eradication of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr), using fipronil. First, we separately assessed the effects of L. humile abundance and fipronil exposure on non-target ants and other invertebrates using generalized linear models. The abundance of L. humile and the number of pesticide treatments were negatively associated with the total number of non-target individuals and taxonomic richness. We also noted negative relationships between the number of individuals of some ant species and other invertebrate taxonomic groups. The L. humile × pesticide interaction was significant, suggesting that the abundance of L. humile affected the level of impact of pesticide treatment on non-target fauna. Second, we evaluated the dynamics of non-target ant communities for 3 years using principal response curve analyses. Non-target ant communities treated with fipronil continuously for 3 years recovered little, whereas those treated for 1 year recovered to the level of the untreated and non-invaded environment

The Gamma Ray Origin in RXJ0852.0-4622 Quantifying the Hadronic and Leptonic Components: Further Evidence for the Cosmic Ray Acceleration in Young Shell-type SNRs

Fukui et al. (2021) quantified the hadronic and leptonic gamma rays in the young TeV gamma ray shell-type supernova remnant (SNR) RXJ1713.7-3946 (RXJ1713), and demonstrated that the gamma rays are a combination of the hadronic and leptonic gamma ray components with a ratio of $\sim 6:4$ in gamma ray counts $N_\mathrm{g}$. This discovery, which adopted a new methodology of multiple-linear gamma-ray decomposition, was the first quantification of the two gamma ray components. In the present work, we applied the same methodology to another TeV gamma ray shell-type SNR RX~J0852.0$-$4622 (RXJ0852) in the 3D space characterized by [the interstellar proton column density $N_{\mathrm{p}}$]-[the nonthermal X-ray count $N_{\mathrm{x}}$]-[$N_{\mathrm{g}}$], and quantified the hadronic and leptonic gamma ray components to have a ratio of $\sim 5:5$ in $N_{\mathrm{g}}$. The present work adopted fitting of two/three flat planes in the 3D space instead of a single flat plane, which allowed to suppress fitting errors. The quantification indicates that the hadronic and leptonic gamma rays are in the same order of magnitude in these two core-collapse SNRs, verifying the significant hadronic gamma ray components. We argue that the target interstellar protons, in particular their spatial distribution, are essential in any attempts to identify type of particles responsible for the gamma-ray emission. The present results confirm that the CR energy $\lesssim 100$\,TeV is compatible with a scheme that SNRs are the dominant source of these Galactic CRs