Molecular characterization of Portuguese populations of the pinewood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus using cytochrome b and cellulase genes

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is the causal agent of pine wilt disease and a worldwide pest with high economic impact. Since its first diagnosis in Portugal in 1999, it has been subjected to quarantine measures with impact on forest health and ecosystem stability, significantly affecting international trade of wood products. The disease was detected in the north and centre of continental Portugal and, since 2008, the whole country has been considered an affected area. Recently, it was detected in Madeira Island. In order to avoid new outbreaks, it has become of major importance to understand the patterns of spread, introduction points and to characterize the new populations from continental Portugal and Madeira Island. Mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) and parasitic cellulase gene sequences were used to evaluate the genetic relationships among isolates that could indicate possible origins of the new outbreaks. Portuguese isolates were compared with isolates from USA, China, Japan and South Korea, in order to investigate possible infection pathways and disease spread patterns in Portugal. Phylogenetic trees based on both genes show that Portuguese isolates group with Asian isolates. Isolates from USA are in a separate position in both gene trees. However, the phylogenetic tree based on the cellulase gene sequences shows higher differentiation among Portuguese isolates than that of cytb. These results agree with those previously obtained using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR). This was the first study to use cytb and cellulase genes to characterize pinewood nematode (PWN) populations. This study suggests that cellulase is a better marker than cytb to study genetic diversity in B. xylophilus

Avaliação electromiográfica dos efeitos da aplicação de bandas neuromusculares nos músculos extensores lombares durante uma tarefa de mobilização passiva

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciada em FisioterapiaObjectivo: Avaliar os efeitos da aplicação de bandas neuromusculares (BNM) na actividade electromiográfica (EMG) dos extensores lombares do terapeuta, durante a execução de uma tarefa de mobilização passiva fisiológica da articulação coxofemoral para hiperextensão. Métodos: 15 participantes (7 femininos e 8 masculinos) com média de idades de 23,20±3,28 anos, foram submetidos a avaliação electromiográfica antes, durante e após a tarefa de mobilização passiva. Cada participante foi avaliado nos mesmos 3 dias da mesma semana. Resultados: Existem diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre o primeiro dia, correspondeste ao controlo, e o segundo dia de avaliação, com aplicação aguda da BNM nos músculos extensores lombares esquerdos. Conclusão: Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a aplicação aguda da BNM reduziu a actividade electromiográfica dos músculos erectores da coluna lombar esquerdos durante a tarefa de mobilização passiva da articulação coxo-femoral.Objective: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of the application of kinesiology tape (KT) in the electromyographic (EMG) signal on the therapist lumbar extensor muscles, during a task of physiological passive mobilization of the hip joint for hyperextension. Methods: 15 subjects (7 female and 8 male) with a mean age of 23,20±3,28 years, participated in the study. They were evaluated with surface electromyography before, during and after the task of passive mobilization. Each subject was assessed on the same 3 days of the same weak. Results: There were statistically significant differences between the first day of evaluation, corresponding to control, and the second day of evaluation, with acute KT application, on the left lumbar extensor muscles during a task of passive mobilization, between the first and second days. Conclusion: The results suggest that the application of KT reduces the electromyographic activity on the left lumbar extensor muscles during the task of physiological passive mobilization of the hip joint

The effects of physical activity level, sex, and different exercise protocols on monocyte TLR expression

It has been suggested that moderate exercise contributes to protection against the development of chronic diseases by anti-inflammatory mechanisms that include elevations of anti-inflammatory cytokines and also reduction of the expression of Toll- Like Receptors (TLRs). However, prolonged strenuous exercise has been shown to reduce the function of some immune cells, decrease virus protection and consequently may account for the reason athletes appear more vulnerable to catching Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URTI). Although it has been proven that some exercise is better than no exercise, it is not clear yet what is the right amount of exercise to elicit beneficial immune responses and to help prevent the development of diseases. Therefore, the general aim of the studies in this thesis was to evaluate the impact of different types of exercise on monocyte TLR expression in participants with different fitness levels. It was found that different acute exercise protocols elicit different changes in TLR2 and TLR4 expression, where an acute bout of strenuous exercise reduced TLR4 expression for a few hours after the completion of the exercise (Chapter 5); however, short two bouts of exhaustive exercise separated by 2 hours did not change TLR4 expression (Chapter 6). In addition, changes in TLR4 expression were related to sex and the physical activity level of the participants (Chapter 4), and should therefore be considered separately when analysing TLR4 expression. Furthermore, high-intensity intermittent training improves participants’ aerobic capacity and modifies the monocyte subpopulation concentration in the blood, with no changes in TLR4 expression. Further research needs to be done in this area to achieve a conclusive finding about changes in TLR4 expression and monocyte subsets after different training protocols, and possible relationships to cytokine production

Has the crisis impacted the determinants of capital structure for Portuguese Public Firms?

The intention of the present dissertation is to identify the determinants of capital structure for Portuguese public firms for the period of 2005-2015 and in different sub-periods: before and during the global financial crisis, and during the European sovereign debt crisis. Thus, it proposes to empirically identify the firm characteristics and prevailing capital structure theories influencing managers’ decision-making process regarding the level of leverage. For the period 2005-2015, information regarding 57 firms from the Euronext Lisbon index was collected and analysed. Empirical results concluded that i) for the entire sample period, profitability and growth opportunities influenced negatively the level of leverage, while size and non-debt tax shields revealed to be positively related to indebtedness; ii) during the global financial crisis, profitability and liquidity were the only firm characteristics explaining the level of debt and iii) when the European sovereign debt crisis hit, growth opportunities and non-debt tax shields were the sole determinants in explaining Portuguese public firms’ leverage. The determinants influencing the proportion of long-term debt in the capital structure were also analysed for the same sample and time horizon.O objetivo da presente dissertação é identificar os determinantes da estrutura de capitais das empresas cotadas portuguesas, para o período de 2005-2015, e em diferentes sub-períodos: antes e durante a crise financeira global, e durante a crise europeia de dívidas soberanas. Propõe-se então a identificar empiricamente as características das empresas e principais teorias de estrutura de capitais que influenciaram o processo de decisão de gestores, relativamente ao nível de endividamento. Para o período 2005-2015, é analisada informação sobre 57 empresas pertencentes ao índice Euronext Lisbon . Os resultados empíricos permitem concluir que i) para todo o período, rendibilidade e oportunidades de crescimento influenciaram negativamente o nível de dívida, enquanto a dimensão da empresa e outros benefícios além da dívida revelaram-se positivamente relacionadas com o endividamento, ii) durante a crise financeira global, rendibilidade e liquidez foram as únicas características explicativas do nível de dívida e iii) durante a crise europeia de dívidas soberanas, oportunidades de crescimento e outros benefícios além da dívida foram os únicos determinantes a explicar o endividamento das empresas públicas portuguesas. Os determinantes que influenciaram a proporção de dívida de longo prazo na estrutura de capital foram também analisados, para a mesma amostra e período de tempo

A ClpB Chaperone Knockout Mutant of Mesorhizobium ciceri Shows a Delay in the Root Nodulation of Chickpea Plants

Several molecular chaperones are known to be involved in bacteria stress response. To investigate the role of chaperone ClpB in rhizobia stress tolerance as well as in the rhizobiaplant symbiosis process, the clpB gene from a chickpea microsymbiont, strain Mesorhizobium ciceri LMS-1, was identified and a knockout mutant was obtained. The ClpB knockout mutant was tested to several abiotic stresses, showing that it was unable to grow after a heat shock and it was more sensitive to acid shock than the wild-type strain. A plant-growth assay performed to evaluate the symbiotic performance of the clpB mutant showed a higher proportion of ineffective root nodules obtained with the mutant than with the wild-type strain. Nodulation kinetics analysis showed a 6- to 8-day delay in nodule appearance in plants inoculated with the Delta clpB mutant. Analysis of nodC gene expression showed lower levels of transcript in the Delta clpB mutant strain. Analysis of histological sections of nodules formed by the clpB mutant showed that most of the nodules presented a low number of bacteroids. No differences in the root infection abilities of green fluorescent protein tagged clpB mutant and wild-type strains were detected. To our knowledge, this is the first study that presents evidence of the involvement of the chaperone ClpB from rhizobia in the symbiotic nodulation process

Multi-objective scheduling of Scientific Workflows in multisite clouds

Clouds appear as appropriate infrastructures for executing Scientific Workflows (SWfs). A cloud is typically made of several sites (or data centers), each with its own resources and data. Thus, it becomes important to be able to execute some SWfs at more than one cloud site because of the geographical distribution of data or available resources among different cloud sites. Therefore, a major problem is how to execute a SWf in a multisite cloud, while reducing execution time and monetary costs. In this paper, we propose a general solution based on multi-objective scheduling in order to execute SWfs in a multisite cloud. The solution consists of a multi-objective cost model including execution time and monetary costs, a Single Site Virtual Machine (VM) Provisioning approach (SSVP) and ActGreedy, a multisite scheduling approach. We present an experimental evaluation, based on the execution of the SciEvol SWf in Microsoft Azure cloud. The results reveal that our scheduling approach significantly outperforms two adapted baseline algorithms (which we propose by adapting two existing algorithms) and the scheduling time is reasonable compared with genetic and brute-force algorithms. The results also show that our cost model is accurate and that SSVP can generate better VM provisioning plans compared with an existing approach.Work partially funded by EU H2020 Programme and MCTI/RNP-Brazil (HPC4E grant agreement number 689772), CNPq, FAPERJ, and INRIA (MUSIC project), Microsoft (ZcloudFlow project) and performed in the context of the Computational Biology Institute (www.ibc-montpellier.fr). We would like to thank Kary Ocaña for her help in modeling and executing the SciEvol SWf.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Formas da urbanização de baixa densidade entre Braga e Barcelos: a matriz histórica do território: informar a intervenção

info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Formas da urbanização de baixa densidade entre Braga e Barcelos: uma proposta de leitura a partir da matriz histórica e geográfica do território

O processo de acumulação entre formas de urbanização recentes e dispersão antiga no território da urbanização de baixa densidade entre Braga e Barcelos motiva-nos uma reflexão sobre as potencialidades de uma leitura atenta à conformação do suporte no tempo longo. Começamos com a contextualização do problema e com os fundamentos que justificam o campo argumentativo. Definimos uma estratégia metodológica que parte da delimitação geográfica do objecto de estudo, para estabelecer as coordenadas de observação entre os assentamento proto-históricos e o período medieval, na perspectiva de selecionar processos e materiais que nos informam sobre a pertinência da matriz cognitiva. Na segunda parte tratamos questões que interessam à problematização da forma urbana relacionadas com os factores sistémicos de ocupação do território e com a possibilidade de trabalhar a partir dos valores formais do suporte geográfico. Refletimos sobre um entendimento de base morfológica vinculado à hipótese de estruturar campos de relações a partir dos processos de sedimentação das formas, segundo um processo onde a continuidade se passa a estabelecer por relações de significado.From the process that combines recent urban forms and old fragments in the territory of low density urbanisation between Braga and Barcelos drives a reflection about the potential of a reading that is attentive to the construction of the territory over time. We start with contextualising the problem and the foundations that justify the argumentative field. We define a methodological strategy that starts with the geographical delimitation of the object of this study, in order to establish the boundaries of this analysis: the proto-historic settlements and the medieval period. From here we select processes and materials that inform the pertinence of the subject-matter. In the second part we raise questions that concern the problematisation of the urban form as they relate to systemic factors of occupation of the territory, and to the possibility of working from the formal values of the geographical support. We ponder the understanding of this morphological basis associated to the hypothesis of structuring relationship fields through the processes of shape sedimentation, following a process where continuity is established by meaning.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio