Aproximación bioarqueológica sobre poblaciones de la puna argentina (puna meridional y puna septentrional).

La bioarqueología es una disciplina que toma como objeto de estudio a los restos humanos como parte del contexto arqueológico. Dentro de ese marco, este proyecto plantea una serie de problemas e hipótesis respecto al estado de salud y enfermedad de las sociedades agropastoriles que habitaron dos regiones de la Puna de Atacama durante los periodos Tardío y Tardío ‐ Inka: Antofagasta de la Sierra (Puna Meridional, Argentina) y el Sector Oriental de la Puna de Jujuy (Puna Septentrional, Argentina). La meta es contribuir al conocimiento de la dinámica de las sociedades agropastoriles del pasado desde una línea adicional de evidencia.publishedVersio

Scalar Spectrum from a Dynamical Gravity/Gauge model

We show that a Dynamical AdS/QCD model is able to reproduce the linear Regge trajectories for the light-flavor sector of mesons with high spin and also for the scalar and pseudoscalar ones. In addition the model has confinement by the Wilson loop criteria and a mass gap. We also calculate the decay amplitude of scalars into two pion in good agreement to the available experimental data.Comment: Presented in the 4th International Workshop on Astronomy and Relativistic Astrophysic

The conservation of energy-momentum and the mass for the graviton

In this work we give special attention to the bimetric theory of gravitation with massive gravitons proposed by Visser in 1998. In his theory, a prior background metric is necessary to take in account the massive term. Although in the great part of the astrophysical studies the Minkowski metric is the best choice to the background metric, it is not possible to consider this metric in cosmology. In order to keep the Minkowski metric as background in this case, we suggest an interpretation of the energy-momentum conservation in Visser's theory, which is in accordance with the equivalence principle and recovers naturally the special relativity in the absence of gravitational sources. Although we do not present a general proof of our hypothesis we show its validity in the simple case of a plane and dust-dominated universe, in which the `massive term' appears like an extra contribution for the energy density.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publishing in GR

Extra polarization states of cosmological gravitational waves in alternative theories of gravity

Cosmological Gravitational Waves (GWs) are usually associated with the transverse-traceless part of the metric perturbations in the context of the theory of cosmological perturbations. These modes are just the usual polarizations `+' and `x' which appear in the general relativity theory. However, in the majority of the alternative theories of gravity, GWs can present more than these two polarization states. In this context, the Newman-Penrose formalism is particularly suitable for evaluating the number of non-null GW modes. In the present work we intend to take into account these extra polarization states for cosmological GWs in alternative theories of gravity. As an application, we derive the dynamical equations for cosmological GWs for two specific theories, namely, a general scalar-tensor theory which presents four polarization states and a massive bimetric theory which is in the most general case with six polarization states for GWs. The mathematical tool presented here is quite general, so it can be used to study cosmological perturbations in all metric theories of gravity.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravity

Association between dietary calcium intake and blood pressure among portuguese children

Higher blood pressure (BP) in childhood is associated with cardiovascular risk. It has been described that dietary calcium intake may affect BP regulation. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between dietary calcium intake and BP in children.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adiposity indicators and cardiovascular risk factors in Azorean adolescents

This study was conducted to evaluate the association of adiposity indicators (body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio) with cardiovascular risk factors in lean andobese Azorean adolescents.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Committed to quality in physical activity programmes for elderly people – The customer results

There has been a growing concern in conceiving physical activity (PA) programmes for elderly people since the evidence indicates that this type of health promotion interventions may reduce the deleterious effects of the aging process. In Portugal, the Public Administration is the sector that offers the largest supply of goods and services and as such, it is the sector that must devote most attention to Quality Some studies support the EFQM Excellence Model as an operational framework for Total Quality Management. Excellent Results with respect to Performance, Customers, People and Society are achieved through Leadership driving Policy and Strategy that is delivered through People, Partnerships and Resources, as well as Processes. Consequently, the EFQM Model might be used as a self-assessment instrument, to discern the strengths of the programmes, as well as areas in which improvement can be made. The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the existence of customers’ outcomes measurement in Portuguese PA programmes for elderly people, comparing it with programmes’ characteristics and 2) to analyse the associations between the different evaluated items. Data were collected by an on-line questionnaire sent to 26 Coordinators of PA Programmes. Descriptive statistics were used in order to characterize de PA programmes and the participants’ outcome measurement items. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher’s Exact Test and Pearson’s Qui-square test. 57,7 % of the programmes recorded participants’ outcome measures at regular intervals. Most of them (73,3%; p 0.05) were free of charge programmes. Statistically significant associations were found between the following outcomes items: cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility, muscular strength, coordination, balance and body composition. Portuguese PA programmes for elderly people showed a feeble attention on participants’ outcome measures, even though the measurement process represents one of the most important components of customer results from an exercise programme. Furthermore, there are significant differences between customers’ outcome measures chosen by each programme.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ability of Different Measures of Adiposity to Identify High Metabolic Risk in Adolescents

Introduction. This study aimed to evaluate the screening performance of different measures of adiposity: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) for high metabolic risk in a sample of adolescents. Methods. A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted on 517 adolescents aged 15–18, from the Azorean Islands, Portugal. We measured fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure. HOMA and TC/HDL-C ratio were calculated. For each of these variables, a Z-score was computed by age and sex. A metabolic risk score (MRS) was constructed by summing the Z-scores of all individual risk factors. High risk was considered when the individual had ≥1SD of this score. Receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) were used. Results. Linear regression analyses showed that, after adjusting for age and pubertal stage, all different measures of adiposity are positively and significantly associated with MRS in both sexes, with exception of WHtR for boys. BMI, WC, and WHtR performed well in detecting high MRS, indicated by areas under the curve (AUC), with slightly greater AUC for BMI than for WC and WHtR in both sexes. Conclusion. All measures of adiposity were significantly associated with metabolic risk factors in a sample of Portuguese adolescents

Synthesis, wash and light fastness of azo dyes derived from N,N-diethylanilines

A series of monoazo dyes was prepared by coupling carbocyclic and heterocyclic diazo components to four compounds of the N, N-dialkylaniline type. The dyes were characterised by spectroscopic methods, elemental analysis or mass spectrometry. Dispersions of the dyes were applied by conventional techniques to polyester and polyamide, or by reactive dyeing to wool and polyamide, when a CO2H group was present. Wash and light fastness ratings of coloured samples are presented.Foram preparados vários corantes do tipo mono-azo por acoplamento de componentes diazo carboxílicos e heterocíclicos a quatro compostos do tipo N,N-dialquilanilinas. Os corantes foram caracterizados por métodos espectroscópicos, análise elementar ou espectrometria de massa. Foram aplicadas dispersões dos corantes a poliéster e poliamida, ou por tingimento reactivo à lã e poliamida, quando o grupo CO2H estava presente. Apresentam-se os resultados da resistência à luz e à lavagem das amostras coradas

Novel deletions and unusual genetic mechanisms underlying alpha-thalassemia

Hemoglobin (Hb) is a protein responsible for oxygen transportation from lungs to the entire body. It is composed by four globular subunits - the globins - each with a central core containing a heme molecule. Globins are encoded by the α- and β-globin gene clusters located at 16p13.3 and 11p15.5, respectively. The pattern of globin genes expression during development is precisely controlled by the interaction of cis-regulatory genomic regions (located in close proximity to and far from genes) with trans-activating/silencing factors within permissive chromatin domains. In fact, approximately 25-65 kb upstream of the α-globin genes there are four multispecies conserved sequences (MCS-R1 to R4) which are critical for the expression regulation of the downstream globin genes. The main objectives of this work were to characterize the molecular lesions underlying eight unusual cases of α-thalassemia or Hb H disease, and to understand their origin and functional consequences. Deletions were detected by Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) using the SALSA MLPA P140B HBA kit (MCR-Holland). Additionally, specifically designed synthetic MLPA probes, as well as Gap-PCR and Sanger sequencing were performed for fine deletion breakpoint mapping. We have found seven different deletions (ranging from 3.3 to ≈323 kb), four of them not previously described. The four largest deletions removed all the α-globin genes, whereas the other three deletions removed one or more of the distal regulatory elements keeping the globin genes structurally intact. In one case, only the MCS-R2 (also known as HS-40) was removed and replaced by a 39 nt DNA fragment possibly resulting from a complex rearrangement that introduces new pieces of DNA (probably from Chrs. 3 and 7) bridging the two deletion breakpoints. In the remaining case, no deletion was found and the patient revealed to be a very unusual case of acquired alpha-thalassemia-myelodysplastic syndrome. It is important to detect individuals with this type of uncommon deletions as there is a 25% risk of having a child with Hb Bart’s hydrops fetalis or Hb H disease if their partner is a carrier of an α0-thal or α+-thal allele, respectively. Moreover, further investigation is currently being developed on one of these natural mutants which is bringing new insights into the long-range regulation mechanism of the globin gene expression and to the pathophysiology of the α-thalassemia.N/