Bryophytes from restinga in Setiba State Park, Espírito Santo State, Brazil

A total of 34 bryophyte species were identified (25 hepatics, 9 mosses) from restinga at Setiba State Park, Guarapari Municipality, Espírito Santo State, Brazil. Several species reported previously from restinga appear to be erroneous records, based on misidentification

Bryophytes of Rio Branco Municipality, Acre, Brazil

A survey of the bryophyte flora of Rio Branco Municipality, State of Acre, Brazil, has revealed a total of 76 species of bryophyte; 66 are new records for the State of Acre and two hepaticas, Cololejeunea dzumacensis P. Tix. and Lejeunea bermudiana (Evs.) Schust., are new records for Brazil. The Anthocerotae are represented only by Notothylas vitalii Udar & Singh

Nondirected linearity and modulatory networks in Webern’s Op. 10/4

In his recent book collecting short notes and essays about music, Eduardo Lourenço gives an insightful poetic account of two pieces of Webern—op. 10 and op. 21—that stresses the fragmentary, directionless and discontinuous character of such compositions (LOURENÇO, 2012, 45-6), an approach that resonates fairly well with a number of analytical views on this composer. Drawing from BERRY (1976) and KRAMER (1988), I argue that Lourenço’s ideas can be complemented with a more fluid, process-oriented approach that focuses on dynamic aspects that are also relevant to Webern’s musical syntax. As an example of that, I present a detailed analysis of op. 10/4, highlighting a number of either progressive or recessive tendencies (in BERRY’s terms) that occur in this piece at the textural, metrical and intervallic levels. I also show that the ultimate goal of such tendencies is generally not predictable, creating instances of nondirected linear time (in KRAMER’s terms). At the metrical level, for instance, a clear and uniform organization is gradually replaced by a much more ambiguous and stratified one, whereas at the intervallic level one notes a gradual shift of emphasis from set-class (015) to set-class (012). Supporting the intervallic analysis, I introduce two theoretical concepts—intervallic combination and modulatory network—which allow us to conceive set-class progressions in light of the mediating role played by given interval-classes. This represents a new way of looking at this movement’s set structure, different from—but complementary to—classic approaches such as FORTE’s (1973) and LEWIN’s (1993).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bryophytes on fungi

Sixty one species of bryophytes (26 mosses, 35 liverworts) have been found growing on fungi basidiomata in Brazil

Simple contracts with adverse selection and moral hazard

We study a principal-agent model with moral hazard and adverse selection. Risk-neutral agents with limited liability have arbitrary private information about the distribution of outputs and the cost of effort. We show that under a multiplicative separability condition, the optimal mechanism offers a single contract. This condition holds, for example, when output is binary. If the principal’s payoff must also satisfy free disposal and the distribution of outputs has the monotone likelihood ratio property, the mechanism offers a single debt contract. Our results generalize if the output distribution is “close” to multiplicatively separable. Our model suggests that offering a single contract may be optimal in environments with adverse selection and moral hazard when agents are risk neutral and have limited liability

Implementing a webserver for managing and detecting viral fusion proteins

Dissertação de mestrado em BioinformáticaViral fusion proteins are essential to allow enveloped viruses (such as Influenza, Dengue, HIV and SARS-CoV-2) to enter their hosts’ cells, in a mechanism referred to as membrane fusion. This makes these proteins (with special relevance to their fusion peptides, the com ponent of the protein that can insert into the host’s membrane by itself) interesting potential therapeutic targets for preventing or treating for some well-known diseases. However, there is no centralized data repository containing all the relevant information regarding viral fusion proteins. With that in mind, the main purpose of this work is to develop a CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) web server that will allow researchers to find all the necessary data regarding viral fusion proteins, through an easy-to-use web interface. The web application will also contain other bioinformatics functionalities, such as sequence alignment (through BLAST, Clustal and Weblogo) to allow researchers to retrieve key pieces of information regarding a fusion protein, as well as machine learning models capable of predicting the location of fusion peptides inside the viral fusion protein sequence. The implementation of the server used Django as its back-end, retrieving the data from a MySQL database, and Angular as its front-end. The main result of the work is, therefore, a working webserver, with a web interface available online through the URL: https://viralfp.bio.di.uminho.pt/. The web application allows users to explore the gathered data related to viral fusion proteins in a user-friendly way. This tool contains all the proposed functionalities and machine learning models. As expected in an application’s development, there are several aspects that require future work to improve the usefulness of this tool to the scientific community.Proteínas virais de fusão são essenciais para que vírus encapsulados (tais como Influenza, Dengue, HIV e SARS-CoV-2) sejam capazes de se inserir nos seus hospedeiros, num mecanismo conhecido como fusão membranar. Por este motivo, estas proteínas (com especial relevância para os seus péptidos de fusão, que são a parte da proteína que se insere na membrana do hospedeiro por si mesma) são potenciais alvos terapêuticos interessantes para prevenir ou tratar algumas doenças bem conhecidas. No entanto, não existe nenhuma fonte de dados centralizada disponível que contenha toda a informação relativa a proteínas virais de fusão. Sabendo isto, o propósito primário deste trabalho é desenvolver um web server CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) que permitira investigadores encontrar toda a informação necessária relacionada com proteínas virais de fusão, através de um interface user-friendly. Este web server incluirá outras funcionalidades bioinformáticas, tais como ferramentas de alinhamento de sequências (como BLAST, Clustal e Weblogo), que permitirá investigadores extrair informações importantes acerca de uma proteína de fusão. Por fim, incluir a modelos de machine learning capazes de prever a localização de péptidos de fusão na sequência da proteína de fusão. A implementação do servidor usou Django como seu back-end, que permite extrair a informação da base de dados MySQL, e Angular como front-end. O principal resultado deste trabalho é, portanto, um web server funcional, com a interface web disponível através do URL: https://viralfp.bio.di.uminho.pt/. Esta aplicação web permite que utilizadores possam explorar a informação acumulada acerca de proteínas virais de fusão através de uma interface user-friendly. Esta ferramenta contém todas as funcionalidades e modelos de machine learning propostos. Como seria de esperar no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação, existem vários aspetos que requerem trabalho futuro para melhorar a utilidade desta ferramenta para a comunidade científica.First and foremost, this dissertation is funded by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under the project ”Using computational and experimental methods to provide a global characterization of viral fusion peptides”, through the funding program ”02/SAICT/2017 - Projetos de Investigação Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnologico (IC&DT)”, with the reference ”NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-028200”, who I would like to thank for their trust

STABILITY OF RUDDLESDEN-POPPER PHASE LANTHANUM NICKELATE AS AIR ELECTRODE FOR REVERSIBLE SOLID OXIDE CELLS

This thesis studied the long-term stability of Ruddlesden-Popper phase Lanthanum Nickelate under operating conditions as the air electrode for Reversible Solid Oxide Cells (R-SOC). Renewable energies have gone through increase in popularity throughout the last decades, mainly due to the consequences of the rapid population growth in the world. These new energies have been pointed as the rightful successor of fossil fuel energies in order to decrease the environmental impact of our day-to-day life. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells as well as Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells are believed to be the key to stabilizing the energy supply when environmental conditions are not favorable enough for it. In order to maximize operation efficiency and fulfill production needs, Solid Oxide Cells are arranged in stacks, in which metallic interconnectors provide support and connection from cell to cell. These interconnectors tend to segregate chromium-containing compounds at high temperatures, which leads to a rapid degradation of the cell and will likely end in cell malfunction. Lanthanum Nickelate seems like a good electrode choice for this role due to its characteristics, both electrochemical as well as structural. Lanthanum Nickelate electrodes were performed as air electrodes and were tested under chromium exposure in different conditions to simulate the effect that metallic interconnects would have on this air electrode material. The impact of chromium on the composition/structure and the performance of Lanthanum Nickelate were investigated in detail