How mortality patterns have changed in Portugal

Changes in social structures, advances in medicine and technology highly contributed to life expectancy increase across the entire world. Thus, longevity’s increase occurs as a result of significant improvements in health and consequent reductions in mortality rates. Past high levels of mortality are now experienced later in life, suggesting that senescence is being delayed and not stretched and individuals are reaching older ages in better physiological condition (Vaupel, 2010). Following the Human Mortality Database (HMD - http://www.mortality.org), life expectancy at birth in Portugal was, in 2015, 81.12 years (78.02 for males and 84.02 for females)

What do Portuguese people die of?

Nowadays, in developed countries as Portugal, deaths are essentially concentrated at old and very old ages, but it is still rather important to identify main causes of death (CODs). Thus, following Population News, Trends and Attitudes #1, where it was evaluated how mortality patterns have changed In Portugal, i.e., how mortality rates declined over time, it is also imperative to understand from what Portuguese inhabitants are dying of

Cancer mortality in Portugal

Following Population News, Trends and Attitudes #6 it was possible to identify that, despite circulatory system diseases represent the leading causes of death (COD) in Portugal, the share of deaths caused by neoplasms is increasing with time. Analysing data from 10th International Classification of Diseases available at Statistics Portugal (INE), one can observe that since 2010 mortality associated to neoplasms is the major COD for males. In 2015, males presented almost twice the number of deaths caused by neoplasms when compared to females: 356.0 against 169.9 per 100.000 individuals

Epigenetic events underlying somatic cell reprogramming

Although differentiated cells normally retain cell-type-specific gene expression patterns throughout their lifetime, cell identity can sometimes be modified or reversed in vivo by transdifferentiation, or experimentally through cell fusion or by nuclear transfer. Several studies have illustrated the importance of chromatin remodelling, DNA demethylation and dominant transcriptional factor expression for changes in lineage identity. Here the epigenetic mechanisms required to “reset” genome function were investigated using experimental heterokaryons. To examine the epigenetic changes that are required for the dominant conversion of lymphocytes to muscle, I generated stable heterokaryons between human B-lymphocytes and mouse C2C12 myotubes. I show that lymphocyte nuclei adopt an architecture resembling that of muscle and initiate the expression of musclespecific genes in the same temporal order as developing muscle. The establishment of this novel gene expression program is coordinated with the shutdown of several lymphocyte-associated genes. Interestingly, inhibition of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity during reprogramming selectively blocks the silencing of lymphocyte-specific genes but does not prevent the establishment of muscle-specific gene expression. In order to reprogram somatic cells to pluripotency, I fused human Blymphocytes and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The conversion of human cells is initiated rapidly, occurring in heterokaryons before nuclear fusion. Reprogramming of human lymphocytes by mouse ES cells elicits the expression of a human ES-specific gene expression profile in which endogenous hSSEA4, hFgf receptors and ligands are expressed while factors that are characteristic of mouse ES cells, such as Bmp4 and Lif receptor are not. Using genetically engineered mouse ES cells I demonstrate that successful reprogramming requires the expression of Oct4, but importantly, does not require Sox2, a factor implicated as critical for the induction of pluripotency. Following reprogramming, mOct4 becomes dispensable for maintaining the multi-potent state of hybrid cells. Finally, I have examined the reprogramming potential of embryonic germ (EG), embryonic carcinoma (EC) and ES cells deficient for the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) proteins Eed, Suz12 and Ezh2. While EC and EG cells share the ability to reprogram human lymphocytes with ES cells, the lack of Polycomb proteins abolishes reprogramming. Thus, the repressive chromatin mark (H3K27 methylation) catalysed by PRC2 play a crucial role in keeping ES cells with full reprogramming capacity. Collectively my results underscore the importance of chromatin events during cell fate reprogramming

Forensic reconstruction of Ictalurus punctatus invasion routes using on-line fishermen records

In this work, the presence of the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus in the Portuguese section of the Guadiana drainage (Iberian Peninsula) is confirmed based on morphological and molecular species identification. The spatial and temporal dispersal of this non-native catfish was also reconstructed for the Guadiana drainage, based mostly on online fishermen records with minor contributions from the few scientific reports available. The obtained records (mainly from angling fora) span the period since the species\u27 first reported presence in Iberia (1980s) up to the present, and support a westward invasion pattern of non-native fish (NNF) reported for the Iberian fish invasion hotspot. The invasion pathway is driven mainly by natural dispersal downstream at a rate between 8 and 42 km per year. Yet, at least four introduction events within the Guadiana drainage can unambiguously be assigned to human translocations after the initial human-mediated introduction. The present study reinforces the usefulness and relevance of using validated on-line fishermen records, provides a more complete and updated distribution range of NNF species and enables assessment of their dispersal patterns. This is of particular importance because it allows near real-time monitoring of NNF dispersal, including first occurrences of NNF, at minimal cost

Avaliação do risco ambiental de uma mina de urânio (Gouveia, centro de Portugal)

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco com vista à obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Monitorização de Riscos e Impactes AmbientaisA mina de urânio abandonada de Canto do Lagar está localizada em Arcozelo da Serra, na zona uranífera das Beiras, centro de Portugal. A mina foi explorada a céu aberto e produziu cerca de 12 430 kg de óxido de urânio (U3O8), entre 1987 e 1988. Na região, a unidade geológica dominante é o granito porfiróide, de grão grosseiro, de duas micas, predominantemente biotítico. O jazigo é constituído por duas brechas de esmagamento, paralelas, ao granito porfiróide grosseiro, onde ocorrem dois filões de quartzo branco brechificado, de pendor aproximado entre 70º a 80º para WNW. Estes filões encontram-se afastados cerca de 6 metros e contém fases secundárias de fosfatos de urânio, como a autunite e a torbernite com alguns sulfuretos associados. Os materiais rejeitados da exploração mineira (cerca de 1000000 ton) foram depositados em duas escombreiras e formou-se uma lagoa de mina no céu aberto. Para avaliar o risco ambiental da mina de urânio abandonada de Canto do Lagar, foram recolhidas 70 amostras: 14 de sedimentos de corrente, 40 de solos e 16 amostras de material de escombreira, em áreas localizadas fora e dentro da área de influência mineira. Estas amostras foram posteriormente analisadas em laboratório para diversos parâmetros físico-químicos e elementos químicos possivelmente associados com este tipo de exploração mineira. Com os resultados obtidos foi avaliada a possível associação dos elementos constituintes das amostras, usando a Análise em Componentes Principais (ACP) e foi estudada a distribuição espacial com recurso à Krigagem por Indicatriz. Na avaliação do possível grau de contaminação dos sedimentos de corrente, recorreu-se ao índice de geoacumulação de Müller. De um modo geral, os sedimentos de corrente foram classificados como não poluídos e/ou como não poluídos a moderadamente poluídos, à excepção das amostras Clsd 1, Clsd 2, Clsd 8, Clsd 9, Clsd 10 e Clsd 15. Os solos não podem ser usados para espaços públicos, privados ou residenciais de acordo com a legislação utilizada mas, todas as amostras de solos indicam que podem ser aplicadas para espaços comerciais ou industriais, à excepção das amostras Cls 8, Cls 13, Cls 21 e Cls 26. De acordo com a Legislação Holandesa, (VROM 2000), apenas as amostras Cls 13 e Cls 16 apresentam teores que exigem intervenção. Os materiais de escombreira, por sua vez, estão muito poluídos em tório (Th) e em urânio (U) e não devem ser utilizados em qualquer aplicação. Como resultado da distribuição espacial dos valores das amostras, pode verificar-se que para os sedimentos de corrente, a expressão da componente principal 1 diminui na direcção SE-NW e a expressão da componente principal 2 aumenta até ao meio da linha de água, diminuindo depois até à amostra Clsd 16 para aumentar a seguir até à amostra Clsd 14. Para os solos, a expressão da componente principal 1 diminui na direcção SE e aumenta nas direcções NE e SW e a expressão da componente principal 2 diminui do centro para a periferia, aumentando nas direcções N e SW. A distribuição espacial, das amostras de material de escombreira, não permitiu retirar conclusões

PACE: Simple Multi-hop Scheduling for Single-radio 802.11-based Stub Wireless Mesh Networks

IEEE 802.11-based Stub Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are a cost-effective and flexible solution to extend wired network infrastructures. Yet, they suffer from two major problems: inefficiency and unfairness. A number of approaches have been proposed to tackle these problems, but they are too restrictive, highly complex, or require time synchronization and modifications to the IEEE 802.11 MAC. PACE is a simple multi-hop scheduling mechanism for Stub WMNs overlaid on the IEEE 802.11 MAC that jointly addresses the inefficiency and unfairness problems. It limits transmissions to a single mesh node at each time and ensures that each node has the opportunity to transmit a packet in each network-wide transmission round. Simulation results demonstrate that PACE can achieve optimal network capacity utilization and greatly outperforms state of the art CSMA/CA-based solutions as far as goodput, delay, and fairness are concerned

Deep Learning para BigData

We live in a world where data is becoming increasingly valuable and increasingly abundant in volume. Every company produces data, be it from sales, sensors, and various other sources. Since the dawn of the smartphone, virtually every person in the world is connected to the internet and contributes to data generation. Social networks are big contributors to this Big Data boom. How do we extract insight from such a rich data environment? Is Deep Learning capable of circumventing Big Data’s challenges? This is what we intend to understand. To reach a conclusion, Social Network data is used as a case study for predicting sentiment changes in the Stock Market. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a computational study and analyse its performance. The outputs will contribute to understand Deep Learning’s usage with Big Data and how it acts in Sentiment analysis.Vivemos num mundo onde dados são cada vez mais valiosos e abundantes. Todas as empresas produzem dados, sejam eles provenientes de valores de vendas, parâmetros de sensores bem como de outras diversas fontes. Desde que os smartphones se tornaram pessoais, o mundo tornou-se mais conectado, já que virtualmente todas as pessoas passaram a ter a internet na ponta dos dedos. Esta explosão tecnológica foi acompanhada por uma explosão de dados. As redes sociais têm um grande contributo para a quantidade de dados produzida. Mas como se analisam estes dados? Será que Deep Learning poderá dar a volta aos desafios que Big Data traz inerentemente? É isso se pretende perceber. Para chegar a uma conclusão, foi utilizado um caso de estudo de redes sociais para previsão de alterações nas ações de mercados financeiros relacionadas com as opiniões dos utilizadores destas. O objetivo desta dissertação é o desenvolvimento de um estudo computacional e a análise da sua performance. Os resultados contribuirão para entender o uso de Deep Learning com Big Data, com especial foco em análise de sentimento. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a computational study and analyse its performance. The outputs will contribute to understand Deep Learning’s usage with Big Data and how it acts in Sentiment analysis