Modelling and optimization of the ion exchange membrane bioreactor for removal of anionic pollutants from drinking water streams

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Química, especialidade de Engenharia BioquímicaThe present work aimed at studying the treatment of drinking water supplies contaminated with perchlorate and nitrate, using the Ion Exchange Membrane Bioreactor (IEMB) concept. This system combines the transport of these two anions from contaminated water, through an anion exchange membrane, with their biological reduction in a separate compartment. In the IEMB, the mass transport is dependent not only from membrane properties but also from the biocompartment conditions. Multivariate statistical techniques allowed determining the most important process parameters related mainly to the compositions of the polluted water stream and biomedium and to the fluid dynamics operating conditions. The combination of statistical techniques with mechanistic modelling was a major achievement since the counterion transport across the membrane was successfully simulated and predicted under biological reactions ratelimiting conditions. Since nitrate is present in the contaminated water in much higher concentration than that of perchlorate, the IEMB process rate was mainly limited by the perchlorate bioreduction kinetics. This difference influenced organisation of microbial communities in the biofilm. This organization allows sequentially reduction of nitrate and perchlorate thus minimizing perchlorate inhibition by nitrate. Considering a possible large-scale application, it is essential to determine the effect of the key process variables. In this work, the performance of a plate and-frame module configuration, consisting of a series of anion-exchange membranes was investigated. It was found that contaminated water streams are effectively treated and that secondary contamination of treated water by the carbon source used was avoided by a start-up procedure involving a gradual increase of ethanol feeding to the IEMB biocompartment.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - SFRH/BD/25275/200

Hospital a Domicilio y Educación para la Salud: análisis legislativo pre COVID

Introduction: Hospital from home (HH) is a valid and stable alternative to the conventional hospital admission. Although it has been used since early XX century only recently was implemented in Portugal, on the public sector. Health literacy is a sine qua non condition to exercise of citizenship and informed consenting. Method: document analysis based on a review process of public legal documents from the last 5 years related with the implementation of HH and the development and role that health literacy plays on the process on HH. A discourse analysis was undertaken after documents gathering. Results: a total of 27 documents were recovered from the Portuguese public legal database (Diário da República Portuguesa). From those, a total of 3 versed HH. Discourse analysis presented the lack of emphasis on health literacy on the documents and, thus, on the legal fundamentals of implementation of HH units. Conclusions: Health literacy is a key element to included individuals on their health seeking behaviors and to manage their own health balance. Thus, to accept a different kind of hospital admission (when conditions are met) individuals should be provided with fundamental tools to overcome and develop their health literacy and to have an informed decision and consenting. Health literacy and health education are the core of HH units and, therefore, should be present on the discourse that establishes the units implementation on a legal basis.Introducción: La Hospitalización Domiciliaria es una alternativa válida y competente al internamiento clásico. No obstante, a pesar de contar con una existencia desde el siglo XX, solo recientemente fue una opción concreta para los pacientes del Serviço Nacional de Saúde. La educación para la salud y la alfabetización en salud son criterios fundamentales para un ejercicio de ciudadanía plena y acceso a cuidados de salud. Método: Estudio de análisis documental basada en una revisión de los documentos legales (leys) de los últimos cinco años (2015-2020) y relacionado con la hospitalización domiciliaria y alfabetización en salud y educación para la salud. Al final se realizó un análisis discursivo de los documentos elegidos. Resultados: Un total de 27 documentos resultaron de la búsqueda en el website del Diário da República Portuguesa Online. Dentro de este, 3 eran del Ministério da Saúde y su alcance era la Hospitalización Domiciliaria. El análisis discursivo demostró que no hay énfasis en el soporte legal para la Hospitalización Domiciliaria y sus unidades sobre la educación para la salud o alfabetización en salud. Conclusiones: La educación para la salud y la alfabetización en salud son promotores de comportamientos saludables y el conocimiento puede servir para manejar enfermedades crónicas. La Hospitalización Domiciliaria maneja, mayoritariamente, enfermos con condiciones crónicas en fase aguda. La Hospitalización Domiciliaria es un contexto importante para desarrollar procesos de educación para la salud y promoción de la alfabetización en salud. Es fundamental que la documentación que regula el funcionamiento de la Hospitalización Domiciliaria tenga suporte para intervenciones para la promoción de la alfabetización y educación para la salud

Diachronic profile of startup companies through social media

Peixoto, A. R., Almeida, A. D., António, N., Batista, F., & Ribeiro, R. (2023). Diachronic profile of startup companies through social media. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 13(1), 1-18. [52]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-023-01055-2 --- Funding: Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). This work was partially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) namely by ISTAR Projects: UIDB/04466/2020 and UIDP/04466/2020; UIDB/04152/2020 (MagIC/NOVA IMS); and UIDB/50021/2020 (INESC-ID).Social media platforms have become powerful tools for startups, helping them find customers and raise funding. In this study, we applied a social media intelligence-based methodology to analyze startups’ content and to understand how their communication strategies may differ during their scaling process. To understand if a startup’s social media content reflects its current business maturation position, we first defined an adequate life cycle model for startups based on funding rounds and product maturity. Using Twitter as the source of information and selecting a sample of known Portuguese IT startups at different phases of their life cycle, we analyzed their Twitter data. After preprocessing the data, using latent Dirichlet allocation, topic modeling techniques enabled the categorization of the data according to the topics arising in the published contents of the startups, making it possible to discover that contents can be grouped into five specific topics: “Fintech and ML,” “IT,” “Business Operations,” “Product/Service R&D,” and “Bank and Funding.” By comparing those profiles against the startup’s life cycle, we were able to understand how contents change over time. This provided a diachronic profile for each company, showing that while certain topics remain prevalent in the startup’s scaling, others depend on a particular phase of the startup’s cycle. Our analysis revealed that startups’ social media content differs along their life cycle, highlighting the importance of understanding how startups use social media at different stages of their development.publishersversioninpres

Ruthenium(II)–cyclopentadienyl-derived complexes as new emerging anti-colorectal cancer drugs

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide, urging the need for new and more efficient therapeutic approaches. Ruthenium complexes have emerged as attractive alternatives to traditional platinum-based compounds in the treatment of CRC. This work aims to evaluate anti-CRC properties, as well as to identify the mechanisms of action of ruthenium complexes with the general formula [Ru(η5-C5H4R)(PPh3)(4,4'-R'-2,2'-bipyridine)][CF3SO3], where R = CH3, CHO or CH2OH and R' = H, CH3, CH2OH, or dibiotin ester. The complexes (Ru 1-7) displayed high bioactivity, as shown by low IC50 concentrations against CRC cells, namely, RKO and SW480. Four of the most promising ruthenium complexes (Ru 2, 5-7) were phenotypically characterized and were shown to inhibit cell viability by decreasing cell proliferation, inducing cell cycle arrest, and increasing apoptosis. These findings were in accordance with the inhibition of MEK/ERK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Ruthenium complexes also led to a decrease in cellular clonogenic ability and cell migration, which was associated with the disruption of F-actin cytoskeleton integrity. Here, we demonstrated that ruthenium complexes, especially Ru7, have a high anticancer effect against CRC cells and are promising drugs to be used as a new therapeutical strategy for CRC treatment.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), I.P./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC)—UIDB/00100/2020, UIDB/04050/2020 and through PTDC/QUI-QIN/28662/2017. A.V. acknowledges the CEECIND 2017 Initiative (CEECCIND/01974/2017). A.R.B. and R.G.T. thank FCT for their Ph.D. Grants (SFRH/BD/139271/2018 and SFRH/BD/135830/2018, respectively

Unlocking the power of Twitter communities for startups

Peixoto, A. R., Almeida, A. D., António, N., Batista, F., Ribeiro, R., & Cardoso, E. (2023). Unlocking the power of Twitter communities for startups. Applied Network Science, 8, 1-21. [66]. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3062630/v1, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-023-00593-0 --- This work was partially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) namely by UIDB/04466/2020 and UIDP/04466/2020 (ISTAR_Iscte); UIDB/04152/2020 (MagIC/NOVA IMS); UIDB/50021/2020 (INESC-ID); and UIDB/03126/2020 (CIES_Iscte).Social media platforms offer cost-effective digital marketing opportunities to monitor the market, create user communities, and spread positive opinions. They allow companies with fewer budgets, like startups, to achieve their goals and grow. In fact, studies found that startups with active engagement on those platforms have a higher chance of succeeding and receiving funding from venture capitalists. Our study explores how startups utilize social media platforms to foster social communities. We also aim to characterize the individuals within these communities. The findings from this study underscore the importance of social media for startups. We used network analysis and visualization techniques to investigate the communities of Portuguese IT startups through their Twitter data. For that, a social digraph has been created, and its visualization shows that each startup created a community with a degree of intersecting followers and following users. We characterized those users using user node-level measures. The results indicate that users who are followed by or follow Portuguese IT startups are of these types: “Person”, “Company,” “Blog,” “Venture Capital/Investor,” “IT Event,” “Incubators/Accelerators,” “Startup,” and “University.” Furthermore, startups follow users who post high volumes of tweets and have high popularity levels, while those who follow them have low activity and are unpopular. The attained results reveal the power of Twitter communities and offer essential insights for startups to consider when building their social media strategies. Lastly, this study proposes a methodological process for social media community analysis on platforms like Twitter.publishersversionpublishe

Heat-related mortality amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic

Excess mortality not directly related to the virus has been shown to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, changes in heat-related mortality during the pandemic have not been addressed in detail. Here, we performed an observational study crossing daily mortality data collected in Portugal (SICO/DGS) with high-resolution temperature series (ERA5/ECMWF), characterizing their relation in the pre-pandemic, and how it aggravated during 2020. The combined result of COVID-19 and extreme temperatures caused the largest annual mortality burden in recent decades (~ 12 000 excess deaths [~ 11% above baseline]). COVID-19 caused the largest fraction of excess mortality during March to May (62%) and from October onwards (85%). During summer, its direct impact was residual, and deaths not reported as COVID-19 dominated excess mortality (553 versus 3 968). A prolonged hot spell led mortality to the upper tertile, reaching its peak in mid-July (+ 45% deaths/day). The lethality ratio (+ 14 deaths per cumulated ºC) was higher than that observed in recent heatwaves. We used a statistical model to estimate expected deaths due to cold/heat, indicating an amplification of at least 50% in heat-related deaths during 2020 compared to pre-pandemic years. Our findings suggest mortality during 2020 has been indirectly amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the disruption of healthcare systems and fear of population in attending healthcare facilities (expressed in emergency room admissions decreases). While lockdown measures and healthcare systems reorganization prevented deaths directly related to the virus, a significant burden due to other causes represents a strong secondary impact. This was particularly relevant during summer hot spells, when the lethality ratio reached magnitudes not experienced since the 2003 heatwaves. This severe amplification of heat-related mortality during 2020 stresses the need to resume normal healthcare services and public health awareness.This work was partially funded by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under project IMPECAF (PTDC/CTA-CLI/28902/2017) and project HOLMODRIVE (PTDC/CTA-GEO/29029/2017). AR, PMS, and RT are also grateful by the FCT funding UID GEO 50019 2020–Instituto Dom Luiz. JLG acknowledges FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) for the PhD Grant 2020.05198.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dry Dosage Forms of Add-Value Bioactive Phenolic Compounds by Supercritical CO2-Assisted Spray-Drying

PTDC/BII-BIO/30884/2017—POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030884 PD/00184/2012-PDQSEvery year, grapevine pruning produces huge amounts of residue, 90% of which are from vine shoots. These are a rich source of natural antioxidants, mostly phenolic compounds, which, when properly extracted, can give rise to added-value products. However, their lack of solubility in aqueous media and high susceptibility to thermal and oxidative degradation highly limit their bioavailability. Encapsulation in suitable carriers may have a positive impact on their bioavailability and bioactivity. Previous data on vine-shoot extraction have identified gallic acid (GA) and resveratrol (RSV) as the main phenolic compounds. In this work, model dry powder formulations (DPFs) of GA and RSV using hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) as carriers were developed using Supercritical CO2-Assisted Spray Drying (SASD). A 32 full factorial Design of Experiments investigated the solid and ethanol contents to ascertain process yield, particle size, span, and encapsulation efficiency. Amorphous powder yields above 60%, and encapsulation efficiencies up to 100% were achieved, representing excellent performances. SASD has proven to be an efficient encapsulation technique for these phenolic compounds, preserving their antioxidation potential after three months in storage with average EC50 values of 30.6 µg/mL for GA–DPFs and 149.4 µg/mL for RSV–DPF as assessed by the scavenging capacity of the DPPH radical.publishersversionpublishe

Does diaphragmatic breathing technique really improve its range of motion? An objective assessment

Purpose - To verify the results of a diaphragmatic breathing technique (DBT) on diaphragmatic range of motion in healthy subjects. Methods - A total of 51 healthy subjects (10 male; 41 female), mean age 20 years old and a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 15.6 to 34.9 kg/m2, were enrolled in this study. Diaphragmatic range of motion was assessed by M-mode ultrasound imaging. Measurements were made before and after the DBT implementation in a standard protocol, based on 3 seconds of inspiration starting from a maximum expiration. Differences between assessments were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test (p < 0.05). Results - Mean value range of motion before DBT was 55.3 ± 13.4 mm and after DBT was 63.8 ± 13.2 mm showing a significant improvement of 8.5 ± 14.7 mm (p < 0.001). A strong correlation between the slope and the range of motion was found (r = 0.71, p < 0.001). Conclusions - Based on ultrasound measurements, it has been proved that DBT really contributes to a higher diaphragmatic range of motion. Future studies are needed in order to understand the influence of protocol parameters (e.g. inspiration time). Clinical implications - In the contest of evidence-based practice in physiotherapy, it has been showed by objective measurements that DBT improves the diaphragm range of motion, translating into a more efficient ventilatory function and thus can be used in clinical setting. To our knowledge this is the first study to assess the effects of DBT on range of motion of diaphragm muscle with ultrasound imaging

Improving spatial synchronization between X-ray and near-infrared spectra information to predict wood density profiles

Wood density is one of the most important physical properties of the wood, used in improvement programs for wood quality of major timber species. Traditional core sampling of standing trees has been widely used to assess wood density profiles at high spatial resolution by X-ray microdensitometry methods, but alternative methods to predict wood properties quality are also needed. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, a non-destructive technique, is being increasingly used for wood property assessment and has already been demonstrated to be able to predict wood density. However, the estimation of wood density profiles by NIR has not yet been extensively studied, and improved models using spectra information (NIR) and X-ray data need to be developed. To this end, partial least square regression (PLS-R) models for predicting wood density were developed at a 1.4 mm spatial resolution on Pinus pinaster wood cores, with an improved spatial synchronization along the tangential and radial directions of the strip, between X-ray data and NIR spectra. The validation of the best model showed a high coefficient of determination (0.95), low error (0.026) and no outlier. Compression wood samples were not detected as outliers and were correctly predicted by the model. However, pith spectra were detected as outliers and its predicted values were overestimated by 33% due to unusual spectra suggesting a diverse chemical composition. The results suggest that NIR-PLS models obtained can be used for screening maritime pine wood density profiles along the radii at 1.4 mm spatial resolutioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Long-term population status of two harvested intertidal grazers (Patella aspera and Patella candei), before (1996–2006) and after (2007–2017) the implementation of management measures

Intertidal limpets are subject to harvesting pressure in regions, e.g. oceanic islands, where marine organisms are a more accessible source of protein. These molluscs are very sensitive to human exploitation which often results on a decrease of their densities and an over-representation of immature individuals, because of the loss of large sized reproductive specimens. Two species of exploited limpets (Patella aspera and Patella candei) were assessed throughout 21 years, before (1996–2006) and after (2007–2017) the implementation of conservation measures for their sustainable management in Madeira (North-eastern Atlantic Ocean). Different levels of anthropogenic pressure were also taken in account in this comparative study: (i) proximity to coastal settlements (“Near” vs. “Far”) and (ii) accessibility to the coast (North vs. South), that may be considered surrogates of harvesting pressure on the intertidal of Madeira. The present results showed that the stocks of P. aspera and P. candei are slightly recovered after regulatory measures entered into force, with an increase of mean shell length and dominance of reproductive individuals (> 40 mm). P. aspera populations showed a clearer effect mainly due to the higher exploitation rate relative to P. candei. Conservation measures prompted a positive effect on both exploited limpet species, but further assessment studies are necessary to address the evolution of stocks over time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio