GRASS UTILIZATION IN GROWING FINISHING BÍSARO PIGS (85-107 KG). PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS COMPOSITION

The use of different quantities of vegetables, forages or fresh grass as fodder for growing-finishing pigs is an important factor of the northern Portugal traditional system. The increasing development of swine production in outdoor systems, extensive and organic production, turns to upcoming natural diets, in which grass performs a significant part. With regard to this, some investigation has been made concerning the use of fibre-rich feed ingredients in pig nutrition. Metabolic effects of its ingestion are analysed concerning different sights (economical, social, environmental and physiological ones). The aim of this work was to study the effects of grass utilization in the diets on performances of finishing Bísaro pigs. A total of 22 pigs (16 castrated males and 6 females) was housed outdoor and fed ad libitum (37 – 85 kg live weight) with a growing diet and then transferred to an indoor system (with free access to an outdoor area) for 49 days, according to 3 different treatments: 100% concentrate (C), 75% concentrate + ad libitum grass (CE75), 50% concentrate + ad libitum grass (CE50). The grass was supplied and its intake registered on a daily basis. Every 14 days, the pigs were weighted and their back fat (P2 in vivo) measured. After slaughter (average weight of 107 kg LW), yield and ½ left carcass characteristics were controlled. During the outdoor growing phase, the ADG was 513 g/day. During the indoor finishing phase, the increase grass intake was proportional to the reduction of concentrate in the diet. The ADG (g) and the fat deposition (P2 cm) were significantly different (P<0,05) in the 3 treatments (ADG: C=641, CE75=467, CE50=356 and: C=11,4, CE75=+9,5, CE50=+6,2). The empty body weight (kg) was also proportional to the intake of concentrate (C=116,2; CE75=107,7; CE50=102,2). Comparatively to the weight of the body parts, pigs that had higher intake of grass and lower of concentrate showed a higher % of shoulder (P<0,05; C=20,4, CE75=21,7, CE50=22,2) and the pH45min of CE carcasses was significantly higher (P<0,05). As a conclusion, concentrate substitution for grass showed a slower growing rate, thinner carcasses and a high technological quality. Neverthelles variability (CV %) of the productive parameters at the end of this study were higher in the treatments that included grass: live weight (C= 10,5%; C75=10,7%; C50=14,3%), finishing ADG (C=24%; C75=37%, C50=42%), and final fat (C=37%; C75=32%, C50=52%). These values suggest that the utilization of fibrous feeds in growing-finishing swine may be one of the possible explanations of the more heterogeneous products and carcasses found in the traditional or extensive systems, common users of fibrous feeds in the carcass finishing phase

Understanding drop spreading behaviour on WC-10wt%Co cutting tools – an experimental and numerical study

WC-Co cutting tools performance under demanding cutting conditions largely depend on the efficiency of the cutting fluid, mainly its ability to remove heat and reduce friction, both highly dependent on the wettability and drop spreading behaviour of the fluid. In this context, this study focuses on the spreading behaviour of machining cutting fluid and water in WC-10 wt%Co cutting tools surface. Contact angles were experimentally measured and then used for performing numerical simulations by the level set method. A contact angle of 75.3˚ and 92.8˚ were measured for the machining cutting fluid and distilled water, respectively, and coincident values were found by numerical simulation, as well as a strong agreement in the drop shape. It was also possible to observe that machining cutting fluid has a lower spreading time than water, due to a lower contact angle and higher viscous dissipation, allowing to reach equilibrium phase sooner. Also, the machining cutting fluid presents a higher drop radius than water, meaning a 24.2% contact area increase over 50 ms of spreading time. Furthermore, numerical simulation showed that the drops spreading over the capillary-inertial time, at the early stage of spreading, follow an exponential dependency with a spreading factor of approximately t1/2, which indicates that the initial spreading of both drops is driven and controlled by the balance between inertial and capillary forces. This work intends to contribute to the knowledge on the phenomena that drive the drop spreading behaviour on WC-10 wt%Co cutting tools, being the development of numerical models to predict this behaviour of utmost importance, since it can lead to the development of novel surface improved tools, with an enhanced lubrification effect and heat removal capacity closer to the cutting zone during machining processes, and consequently allowing an improvement in the tribological and cutting performance of these toolspublishe

Tuning of fiber optic surface reflectivity through graphene oxide-based Layer-by-Layer film coatings

SFRH/BD/135820/2018 UID/EEA/50014/2019 UID/FIS/00068/2019 M-ERA-NET2/0002/2016The use of graphene oxide-based coatings on optical fibers are investigated, aiming to tune the reflectivity of optical fiber surfaces for use in precision sensing devices. Graphene oxide (GO) layers are successfully deposited onto optical fiber ends, either in cleaved or hollow microspheres, by mounting combined bilayers of polyethylenimine (PEI) and GO layers using the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technique. The reflectivity of optical fibers coated with graphene oxide layers is investigated for the telecom region allowing to both monitor layer growth kinetics and cavity characterization. Tunable reflective surfaces are successfully attained in both cleaved optical fibers and hollow microsphere fiber-based sensors by simply coating them with PEI/GO layers through the LbL film technique.publishersversionpublishe

Comparing Mixed & Integer Programming vs. Constraint Programming by solving Job-Shop Scheduling Problems

Scheduling is a key factor for operations management as well as for business success. From industrial Job-shop Scheduling problems (JSSP), many optimization challenges have emerged since de 1960s when improvements have been continuously required such as bottlenecks allocation, lead-time reductions and reducing response time to requests.  With this in perspective, this work aims to discuss 3 different optimization models for minimizing Makespan. Those 3 models were applied on 17 classical problems of examples JSSP and produced different outputs.  The first model resorts on Mixed and Integer Programming (MIP) and it resulted on optimizing 60% of the studied problems. The other models were based on Constraint Programming (CP) and approached the problem in two different ways: a) model CP1 is a standard IBM algorithm whereof restrictions have an interval structure that fail to solve 53% of the proposed instances, b) Model CP-2 approaches the problem with disjunctive constraints and optimized 88% of the instances. In this work, each model is individually analyzed and then compared considering: i) Optimization success performance, ii) Computational processing time, iii) Greatest Resource Utilization and, iv) Minimum Work-in-process Inventory. Results demonstrated that CP-2 presented best results on criteria i and ii, but MIP was superior on criteria iii and iv and those findings are discussed at the final section of this work

Acoustic optical fiber sensor based on graphene oxide membrane

A Fabry–Pérot acoustic sensor based on a graphene oxide membrane was developed with the aim to achieve a faster and simpler fabrication procedure when compared to similar graphene-based acoustic sensors. In addition, the proposed sensor was fabricated using methods that reduce chemical hazards and environmental impacts. The developed sensor, with an optical cavity of around 246 µm, showed a constant reflected signal amplitude of 6.8 ± 0.1 dB for 100 nm wavelength range. The sensor attained a wideband operation range between 20 and 100 kHz, with a maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 32.7 dB at 25 kHz. The stability and sensitivity to temperatures up to 90◦C was also studied. Moreover, the proposed sensor offers the possibility to be applied as a wideband microphone or to be applied in more complex systems for structural analysis or imaging.publishersversionpublishe

New synthetic raloxifen-like di(hetero)arylamines induce apoptosis and inhibit the estrogen receptor in breast cancer cells

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the western world, and in spite of some decline in death rates in recent years it is still the second most common cause of death from cancer, in women (1). For more than three decades, the estrogen receptor (ER) has been the most important biomarker of breast cancer, largely due to the substantial benefit that endocrine therapy provides in the treatment of ER positive tumors, in women of all ages (2). Endocrine therapies currently available include selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), like tamoxifen and raloxifene (3). Raloxifene acts as an estrogen antagonist in the breast by competitive binding to the ER, inhibiting estrogen-induced breast tissue proliferation and preventing the growth of mammary tumors. In addition, it shows no increase in incidence of endometrial cancer, which is an advantage compared to tamoxifen (4). The successes of these endocrine therapies, however, are often limited. So, it is important to continue searching for new strategies and/or drugs that overcome resistance problems and that can be potent enough with fewer adverse effects. In this work, we studied the effect of two new synthetic di(hetero)arylamines, named MJQ2 and MJQ3 (which have in common with raloxifene a benzothiophene ring), in cell proliferation and apoptosis of two different cell lines from breast cancer: MCF-7 (ER positive) and MDA-MB-231 (ER negative). Our results showed that both diarylamines induce apoptosis without significant necrosis (evaluated by Hoechst-PI staining), at the IC50 concentration that inhibits cell proliferation (evaluated by the SRB assay). The results obtained with TMRM, a marker of mitochondrial membrane potential, suggest that mitochondrial disruption can be involved in this apoptotic process. These effects are more pronounced in the MCF-7 cell line (ER positive), suggesting that the presence of the ER might be important in the response to these compounds. Confirmation of their interaction with the ER was obtained in the E-Screen assay, where a clear antagonism of the proliferative effects of the hormone 17β-estradiol was observed with both compounds, at non-toxic concentrations. The overall results suggest that these new synthetic “raloxifene-like” drugs might have potential to be further developed as alternative hormonal or adjuvant therapies for breast cancer.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) research project PTDC/QUI/68382/2006 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER 007441)

Palladium-catalyzed borylation and Suzuki coupling (BSC) to obtain beta-substituted dehydroamino acid derivatives

Several benzo[b]thienyldehydroamino acids were prepared by one pot palladium-catalyzed borylation and Suzuki coupling (BSC) from bromobenzo[b]thiophenes containing EDG (OMe or Me), as the component to be borylated with pinacolborane, and pure stereoisomers of beta-bromodehydroamino acid derivatives. To our knowledge it is the first time that the BSC reaction involves a non aromatic system.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - POCTI/1999/QUI/32689, SFRH/BD/4709/2001

Study of 3,4-hydroxypyridinones functionalized beads for iron (III) determination in a microsequential injection solid phase spectrophotometry mode

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deficiência de glicose-6-fosfato desidrogenase eritrocitária em recém-nascidos do sexo masculino e sua relação com a icterícia neonatal

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, the commonest red cell enzymopathy in humans, has an X-linked inheritance. The major clinical manifestations are drug induced hemolytic anemia, neonatal jaundice and chronic nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia. The incidence of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is much greater in G6PD-deficient neonates than babies without this deficiency. The aim of this study was to ascertain the presence of neonatal jaundice in erythrocyte G6PD-deficient male newborns. Samples of umbilical cord blood from a total of 204 male newborns of the Januário Cicco School Maternity located in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil were analyzed. The G6PD deficiency was identified by the methemoglobin reduction test (Brewer's test). The deficiency was confirmed by quantitative spectrophotometric assay for enzyme activity and cellulose acetate electrophoresis was used to identify the G6PD variant. Eight newborns were found to be G6PD deficient with four of them exhibiting jaundice during the first 48 hours after birth with bilirubin levels higher than 10 mg/dL. All deficient individuals presented the G6PD A- variant at electrophoresis. Our findings confirmed the association between G6PD deficiency and neonatal jaundice. Hence, early diagnosis of the deficiency at birth is essential to control the appearance of jaundice and to prevent the exposure of these newborns to known hemolytic agents.A deficiência de glicose-6-fosfato desidrogenase (G6PD) é a anormalidade enzimática hereditária mais frequente. É transmitida como caráter recessivo ligado ao cromossomo X e as principais manifestações clínicas são hemólise induzida por fármacos, icterícia neonatal e anemia hemolítica não esferocítica. O objetivo do estudo foi determinar a presença de icterícia neonatal em recém-nascidos do sexo masculino deficientes de glicose-6-fosfato desidrogenase. Foram analisadas 204 amostras de sangue umbilical de recém-nascidos do sexo masculino provenientes da Maternidade Escola Januário Cicco em Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. A deficiência da glicose-6-fosfato desidrogenase foi determinada através do método qualitativo da redução da metahemoglobina (teste de Brewer) e confirmada mediante determinação espectrofotométrica quantitativa da atividade da G6PD e pela eletroforese da enzima em acetato de celulose. Oito recém-nascidos apresentaram deficiência da G6PD, e quatro deles exibiram icterícia nas primeiras 48 horas depois do nascimento, com valores de bilirrubina maiores de 10 mg/dL. Todos os deficientes apresentaram a variante A-. Os dados encontrados confirmam a associação da deficiência da G6PD e a icterícia neonatal. Assim sendo, o diagnóstico precoce da deficiência logo após o nascimento é essencial ao controle do aparecimento da icterícia e para evitar o contato destes recém-nascidos com conhecidos agentes hemolíticos