Caracterização morfológica da plataforma da ilha do Faial

A plataforma insular do Faial foi cartografada com recurso a um vasto conjunto de dados geofísicos e geológicos. A análise da morfologia da plataforma permitiu perceber quais os factores que mais contribuiram para a sua evolução

Neotectónica e períodos de recorrência de grandes sismos e tsunamis na margem SW Ibérica e Golfo de Cádis

Neste trabalho usámos o método numérico das placas finas (Bird, 1999) para modelar a Neotectónica no Golfo de Cadiz e estimar os períodos de recorrência de grandes sismos e tsunamis. Foram testadas várias configurações de falhas e condições fronteira, e os resultados comparados com as observações de GPS, tensão e deformação sísmica. O melhor ajuste às observações é obtido com um modelo que apresenta uma taxa de movimentação de 1 mm/a nos cavalgamentos com orientação E-O e NE-SO, o que corresponde a períodos de recorrência de 1150, 3620 e 9900 anos para sismos de magnitude Mw de 7, 8 e 8.75

Serum lipids and prostate cancer

Background: Conflicting results are found in the literature relating serum lipids levels and prostate cancer. Some results imply a relationship between them; others contradict this association. The purpose of this study was to investigate a possible association between serum lipids levels and prostate cancer, at time of diagnosis. Methods: We measured serum levels of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides in 237 patients submitted to a prostate biopsy, with PSA between 2 and 10 ng/ml. Patients without cancer at biopsy were used as controls, and the others were considered as cases. No information about lipid-lowering therapy, including statins, was available neither in cases nor in controls. Cases were divided into risk groups, according to the disease severity, based on staging. Lipids levels were compared between groups, using parametric and nonparametric tests. Logistic regression analysis and odds ratios were calculated. Results: LDL and total cholesterol levels were lower in patients with cancer, with the difference being statistically significant for LDL cholesterol (p = 0.010) and borderline for total cholesterol (p = 0.050). No significant differences were found between the several risk groups. Odds ratios for low LDL cholesterol (<130 mg/dl) and low total cholesterol (<200 mg/dl), with prostate cancer as the outcome, were 1.983 and 1.703, respectively. There were no significant differences between cases and controls for the other lipids. Conclusion: Lower LDL cholesterol (<130 mg/dl) and lower total cholesterol (<200 mg/dl) serum levels seem to associate with prostate cancer, at time of diagnosis.publishersversionpublishe

Selective enumeration of propionibacteria in Emmental-type cheese using PetrifilmTM Aerobic count plates added to lithium glycerol broth

Propionibacteria derived from dairy products are relevant starter cultures for the production of Swiss and Emmental-type cheeses, and the monitoring of which is mandatory for proper quality control. This study aimed to evaluate an alternative procedure to enumerate propionibacteria, in order to develop a reliable and practical methodology to be employed by dairy industries. 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) inhibitory activity was tested against five reference strains (CIRM 09, 38, 39, 40 and 116); TTC at 0·0025% (w/v) was not inhibitory, with the exception of one strain (CIRM 116). Subsequently, the four TTC-resistant strains, three commercial starter cultures (PS-1, PB-I, and CHOO) and twelve Emmental-type cheese samples were subjected to propionibacteria enumeration using Lithium Glycerol (LG) agar, and Petrifilm™ Aerobic Count (AC) plates added to LG broth (anaerobic incubation at 30 °C for 7 d). Petrifilm™ AC added to LG broth presented high counts than LG agar (P<0·05) for only two reference strains (CIRM 39, and 40) and for all commercial starter cultures. Cheese sample counts obtained by both procedures did not show significant differences (P<0·05). Significant correlation indexes were observed between the counts recorded by both methods (P<0·05). These results demonstrate the reliability of Petrifilm™ AC plates added to LG broth in enumerating select Propionibacterium spp., despite some limitations observed for specific commercial starter cultures

Synthetic approaches to a challenging and unusual structure—an amino-pyrrolidine guanine core

Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020). Grant number SFRH/BD/136692/2018 from FCT/MCTES.The synthesis of an unreported 2-aminopyrrolidine-1-carboxamidine unit is here described for the first time. This unusual and promising structure was attained through the oxidative decarboxylation of amino acids using the pair of reagents, silver(I)/peroxydisulfate (Ag(I)/S2O82−) followed by intermolecular (in the case of L-proline derivative) and intramolecular trapping (in the case of acyl L-arginine) by N-nucleophiles. The L-proline approach has a broader scope for the synthesis of 2-aminopyrrolidine-1-carboxamidine derivatives, whereas the intramolecular cyclization afforded by the L-acylarginines, when applied, results in higher yields. The former allowed the first synthesis of cernumidine, a natural alkaloid isolated in 2011 from Solanum cernuum Vell, as its racemic form.publishersversionpublishe

A bi‐objective procedure to deliver actionable knowledge in sport services

The increase in retention of customer in gyms and health clubs is nowadays a challenge that requires concrete and personalized actions. Traditional data mining studies focused essentially on predictive analytics, neglecting the business domain. This work presents an actionable knowledge discovery system which uses the following pipeline (data collection, predictive model, retention interventions). In the first step, it extracts and transforms existing real data from databases of the sports facilities. In a second step, predictive models are applied to identify user profiles more susceptible to dropout, where actionable withdrawal rules are based on actionable attributes. Finally, in the third step, based on the previous actionable knowledge some of the values of the actionable attributes should be changed in order to increase retention. Simulation of scenarios is carried out, with test and control groups, where business utility and associate cost are measured. This document presents a bi-objective study in order to choose the more efficient scenarios.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthesis and antibacterial activity of ionic liquids and organic salts based on penicillin g and amoxicillin hydrolysate derivatives against resistant bacteria

Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia through projects (PTDC/QUI-QOR/32406/2017, PEst-C/LA0006/2013) and PTDC/BTM-SAL/29786/2017, and one contract under Investigador FCT (L.C.B.). ZP thanks to Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, MCTES, for the Norma transitoria DL 57/2016 Program Contract. This work was also supported by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MEC, UIDB/50006/2020 and co‐financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI‐01‐ 0145‐FEDER‐007265). The authors also thank Solchemar company for support.The preparation and characterization of ionic liquids and organic salts (OSILs) that contain anionic penicillin G [secoPen] and amoxicillin [seco-Amx] hydrolysate derivatives and their in vitro antibacterial activity against sensitive and resistant Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus strains is reported. Eleven hydrolyzed β-lactam-OSILs were obtained after precipitation in moderate-to-high yields via the neutralization of the basic ammonia buffer of antibiotics with different cation hydroxide salts. The obtained minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) data of the prepared compounds showed a relative decrease of the inhibitory concentrations (RDIC) in the order of 100 in the case of [C2OHMIM][seco-Pen] against sensitive S. aureus ATCC25923 and, most strikingly, higher than 1000 with [C16Pyr][seco-Amx] against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC 43300. These outstanding in vitro results showcase that a straightforward transformation of standard antibiotics into hydrolyzed organic salts can dramatically change the pharmaceutical activity of a drug, including giving rise to potent formulations of antibiotics against deadly bacteria strains.publishersversionpublishe