Universities as Living Labs for sustainable development : a global perspective

Walter Leal Filho, Baltazar Andrade Guerra, Mark Mifsud and Rudi Pretorius use case studies from Brazil, Malta and South Africa to reflect on how the Living Labs approach can contribute towards a more sustainable futurepeer-reviewe

Origami tesselations: folding algorithms from local to global

Rigid Origami folding surfaces have very interesting qualities for Architecture and Engi-neering for their geometric, structural and elastic qualities. The ability to turn a flat element, isotropic, without any structural capacity, into a self-supporting element through folds in the material opens the door to a multitude of uses. Besides that the intrinsic geometry of the crease pattern may allow the surface to assume doubly curved forms while the flat element, before the folding, could never do it without the deformation of the material. (Schenk, 2011) (Demaine, 2011). The main objective of this PhD research is to reach a workflow from the definition of the geometry of the flat foldable surfaces to their implementation on a construction site. This paper will address mainly the steps taken to the parameterization of the Rigid Origami ge-ometries. We intend to establish a method to simulate the folding of regular crease pat-terns (tessellations) by understanding the geometric operations on the smallest set of faces (local) that can be reproduced to simulate the whole group (global).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease in Portugal, summer 2015

A case of West Nile virus (WNV) infection was reported in the Algarve region, Portugal, in the first week of September 2015. WNV is known to circulate in Portugal, with occasional reports in horses and birds (2004 to 2011) and very sporadically human cases (in 2004 and in 2010). Here we present the clinical and laboratory aspects related to the first human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease reported in Portugal

Effect of the interaction between elevated carbon dioxide and iron limitation on proteomic profiling of soybean

Elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) and iron (Fe) availability are important factors affecting plant growth that may impact the proteomic profile of crop plants. In this study, soybean plants treated under Fe-limited (0.5 mM) and Fe-sufficient (20 mM) conditions were grown at ambient (400 μmol mol−1) and eCO2 (800 μmol mol−1) in hydroponic solutions. Elevated CO2 increased biomass from 2.14 to 3.14 g plant−1 and from 1.18 to 2.91 g plant−1 under Fe-sufficient and Fe-limited conditions, respectively, but did not affect leaf photosynthesis. Sugar concentration increased from 10.92 to 26.17 μmol g FW−1 in roots of Fe-sufficient plants and from 8.75 to 19.89 μmol g FW−1 of Fe-limited plants after exposure to eCO2. In leaves, sugar concentration increased from 33.62 to 52.22 μmol g FW−1 and from 34.80 to 46.70 μmol g FW−1 in Fe-sufficient and Fe-limited conditions, respectively, under eCO2. However, Fe-limitation decreases photosynthesis and biomass. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that cell wall organization, glutathione metabolism, photosynthesis, stress-related proteins, and biosynthesis of secondary compounds changed in root tissues to cope with Fe-stress. Moreover, under eCO2, at sufficient or limited Fe supply, it was shown an increase in the abundance of proteins involved in glycolysis, starch and sucrose metabolism, biosynthesis of plant hormones gibberellins, and decreased levels of protein biosynthesis. Our results revealed that proteins and metabolic pathways related to Fe-limitation changed the effects of eCO2 and negatively impacted soybean production.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desenvolvimento relativo dos componentes regional e tecidual da carcaça de ovinos Corriedale e Ideal em crescimento.

Este trabalho objetivou demonstrar as variações de rendimento comercial da carcaça frente a diferenciais de peso vivo nas raças ideal e Corriedale, bem como as oscilações de desenvolvimento nos componentes regional e tecidual das carcaças destes geótipos, quando em crescimento. Foram empreadas informações pertencentes ao banco de dados da Embrapa Pecuária Sul, Bagé, Rs, destinado a investigações de parâmetros da carcaça de cordeiros à campo.bitstream/item/110566/1/DESENVOLVIMENTO-RELATIVO.pd

Neuregulin 3 Mediates Cortical Plate Invasion and Laminar Allocation of GABAergic Interneurons

Neural circuits in the cerebral cortex consist of excitatory pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons. These two main classes of cortical neurons follow largely different genetic programs, yet they assemble into highly specialized circuits during development following a very precise choreography. Previous studies have shown that signals produced by pyramidal cells influence the migration of cortical interneurons, but the molecular nature of these factors has remained elusive. Here, we identified Neuregulin 3 (Nrg3) as a chemoattractive factor expressed by developing pyramidal cells that guides the allocation of cortical interneurons in the developing cortical plate. Gain- and loss-of-function approaches reveal that Nrg3 modulates the migration of interneurons into the cortical plate in a process that is dependent on the tyrosine kinase receptor ErbB4. Perturbation of Nrg3 signaling in conditional mutants leads to abnormal lamination of cortical interneurons. Nrg3 is therefore a critical mediator in the assembly of cortical inhibitory circuits