De novo Sequencing, Assembly, and Annotation of the Transcriptome for the Free-Living Testate Amoeba \u3ci\u3eArcella intermedia\u3c/i\u3e

Arcella, a diverse understudied genus of testate amoebae is a member of Tubulinea in Amoebozoa group. Transcriptomes are a powerful tool for charac- terization of these organisms as they are an efficient way of characterizing the protein-coding potential of the genome. In this work, we employed both sin- gle-cell and clonal populations transcriptomics to create a reference transcrip- tome for Arcella. We compared our results with annotations of Dictyostelium discoideum, a model Amoebozoan. We assembled a pool of 38 Arcella inter- media transcriptomes, which after filtering are composed of a total of 14,712 translated proteins. There are GO categories enriched in Arcella including mainly intracellular signal transduction pathways; we also used KEGG to anno- tate 11,546 contigs, which also have similar distribution to Dictyostelium.A large portion of data is still impossible to assign to a gene family, probably due to a combination of lineage-specific genes, incomplete sequences in the tran- scriptome and rapidly evolved genes. Some absences in pathways could also be related to low expression of these genes. We provide a reference database for Arcella, and we highlight the emergence of the need for further gene dis- covery in Arcella

Visual-vestibular and postural analysis of motion sickness, panic, and acrophobia

Trigger motion sickness and can also have a role in some anxiety disorders. We explore a method to detect individual sensitivity to visual-vestibular unusual patterns, which can signal a vulnerability to develop motion sickness and possibly anxiety disorders such as a fear of heights and panic. 65 undergraduate students were recruited for the purposes of this study as voluntary participants (44 females); average age 21.65 years (SD=2.84) with normal or corrected to normal vision, without vestibular or postural deficiencies. Panic was assessed with the Albany Panic and Phobia Questionnaire, Motion Sickness with the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire and Acrophobia was assessed by means of the Acrophobia Questionnaire. The Sharpened Romberg Test was used to test participant’s postural balance. The Rod and Frame Test (RFT) measures the participant’s ability to align a rod to the vertical within a titled frame providing a measure of error in the perception of verticality by degrees. This test was changed to measure the error offered when a participant’s head was tilted, and to trace the error caused by manipulating the vestibular system input. The main findings show only motion sickness to be correlated with significant errors while performing a visual-vestibular challenging situation, and fear of heights is the only anxiety disorder connected with postural stability, although all disorders (fear of heights, panic and motion sickness) are correlated between each other in the self- report questionnaires. All disorders are correlated to each other in the surveys, and might have some common visual-vestibular origin, in theory. The rod and frame test was exclusively correlated with motion sickness whereas the postural stability test only displayed sensibility to acrophobia. Panic disorder was correlated to neither the RFT nor the Romberg. Although this method was initially employed to increase sensibility in order to detect anxiety disorders, it ended up showing its value in the detection of motion sickness.National funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). FCT/3599-PPCDT/121494/PTGrant IF/00217/ 2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Project, development and test of an artificial multifunctional foot

The main purpose of this project is the development of a multifunctional artificial foot, capable of duplicate a human foot in a laboratory environment, in order to evaluate and simulate footwear’s performance under certain conditions. This foot is used as a laboratory prototype and is multisegmented, in order that each section is controlled independently in terms of heat generation and sweating rate, therefore it is possible to simulate more accurately the real behaviour of a human foot. The device produces thermal insulation values that will help to design footwear with better ability in terms of thermal comfort, replacing human volunteers in thermal comfort perception tests, which are very subjective. The prototype was already tested, and preliminary results indicated that thermal insulation values are within the range of expected values produced by other foot thermal manikins and by human volunteers’ tests. This fact suggests that this lab prototype can be used in future thermal comfort evaluations.This project was supported by FCT (the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) and CTCP (Fo otwear Technology Centre of Portugal) because of its poten tial interest and added value to the footwear industry, which is one of the most profitable business areas in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Co-cultivation of Thermoanaerobacter strains with a methanogenic partner enhances glycerol conversion

Glycerolrich waste streams produced by the biodiesel, bioethanol and oleochemical industries can be treated and valorized by anaerobic microbial communities to produce methane. As current knowledge of the microorganisms involved in thermophilic glycerol conversion to methane is scarce, thermophilic glyceroldegrading methanogenic communities were enriched. A coculture of Thermoanaerobacter and Methanothermobacter species was obtained, pointing to a nonobligately syntrophic glycerol degradation. This hypothesis was further studied by incubating Thermoanaerobacter brockii subsp. finnii and T. wiegelii with glycerol (10 mM) in pure culture and with different hydrogenotrophic methanogens. The presence of the methanogen accelerated glycerol fermentation by the two Thermoanaerobacter strains up to 3.3 mM day1, corresponding to 12 times higher volumetric glycerol depletion rates in the methanogenic cocultures than in the pure bacterial cultures. The catabolic pathways of glycerol conversion were identified by genome analysis of the two Thermoanaerobacter strains. NADH and reduced ferredoxin formed in the pathway are linked to proton reduction, which becomes thermodynamically favourable when the hydrogen partial pressure is kept low by the hydrogenotrophic methanogenic partner.The authors thank Ruben Gonçalves for preparing the thermophilic biomass and Andreia Salvador for the sup port with the microbial communities’ analysis. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit, Project SAICTPAC/0040/2015 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016403) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER 000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 – Programa Opera cional Regional do Norte. The authors also acknowledge the financial support of FCT and European Social Fund through the grants attributed to C.P. Magalhaes (SFRH/BD/132845/2017) and A.L. Arantes (PD/BD/128030/2016).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhanced glycerol conversion by Thermoanaerobacter strains

Glycerol-rich waste streams produced as a surplus by the biodiesel industry can be treated and valorized by anaerobic microbial communities to produce biogas. Glycerol is a highly reduced compound. Its complete degradation to methane and carbon dioxide requires a syntrophic cooperation of anaerobic bacteria and archaea, either directly or through propionate, lactate or ethanol as intermediates. The aim of this work was to study glycerol valorization to methane by thermophilic microbial communities. Glycerol-degrading methanogenic communities were enriched at 55 ºC. A co-culture of Thermoanaerobacter and Methanothermobacter was obtained pointing to facultatively syntrophic glycerol degradation. This hypothesis was further tested by incubating Thermoanaerobacter brockii subsp. finnii and T. wiegelli type strains with glycerol (10 mmol L-1) in pure culture and with different hydrogenotrophic methanogens. The presence of the methanogen accelerated glycerol fermentation by the two Thermoanaerobacter strains up to 3.3 mmol L-1 day-1, corresponding to 12 times higher volumetric glycerol depletion rates in the methanogenic co-cultures than in pure bacterial cultures. The methanogen acted as a biological electron acceptor, which enhanced glycerol conversion by Thermoanaerobacter species, since it facilitates the redox balance and contributes to a higher energy gain of these bacteria. Therefore, syntrophic glycerol fermentation promotes faster anaerobic treatment of glycerol rich waste streams coupled to methane production.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phylogenomics and Morphological Reconstruction of Arcellinida Testate Amoebae Highlight Diversity of Microbial Eukaryotes in the Neoproterozoic

Life was microbial for the majority of Earth's history, but as very few microbial lineages leave a fossil record, the Precambrian evolution of life remains shrouded in mystery. Shelled (testate) amoebae stand out as an exception with rich documented diversity in the Neoproterozoic as vase-shaped microfossils (VSMs). While there is general consensus that most of these can be attributed to the Arcellinida lineage in Amoebozoa, it is still unclear whether they can be used as key fossils for interpretation of early eukaryotic evolution. Here, we present a well-resolved phylogenomic reconstruction based on 250 genes, obtained using single-cell transcriptomic techniques from a representative selection of 19 Arcellinid testate amoeba taxa. The robust phylogenetic framework enables deeper interpretations of evolution in this lineage and demanded an updated classification of the group. Additionally, we performed reconstruction of ancestral morphologies, yielding hypothetical ancestors remarkably similar to existing Neoproterozoic VSMs. We demonstrate that major lineages of testate amoebae were already diversified before the Sturtian glaciation (720 mya), supporting the hypothesis that massive eukaryotic diversification took place in the early Neoproterozoic and congruent with the interpretation that VSM are arcellinid testate amoebae

Fossil fuel prices and the economic and budgetary challenges of a small energy-importing economy : the case of Portugal

This paper examines the economic and budgetary impacts of fuel prices using a dynamic general equilibrium model of the Portuguese economy which high- lights the mechanisms of endogenous growth and includes a detailed modeling of the public sector. The fuel price scenarios are based on forecasts by the US Department of Energy (DOE-US) and the International Energy Agency (IEA-OECD) and represent a wide range of projections for absolute and relative fossil fuel prices. In terms of the long term economic impact, our results suggest a 1.9 % drop in GDP in the DOE-US scenario and 1.6 % in the IEA-OECD scenario. As to the budgetary impact, higher fuel prices lead to lower tax revenues, which, coupled with a reduction in public spending, translate into lower public deficits. Accordingly, increasing fuel prices create an important policy trade off in that they can contribute to reducing the public deficit while hindering economic growth. We find that fairly strong incentives for wind energy can reduce the economic impact of fuel prices by 14.2 % in the DOE-US price scenario and 18.5 % reduction in the IEA-OECD price scenario. Finally, our results highlight the importance of public sector spending decisions and the mechanisms of endogenous growth in understanding the impact of fossil fuel prices. Indeed, a scenario of higher fuel prices would, with exogenous public decisions and exogenous economic growth assumptions, result in substantially smaller economic effects and yield adverse budgetary effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improving the earthquake resilience of primary schools in the border regions of neighbouring countries

This work summarises the strategy adopted in the European research project PERSISTAH. It aims to increase the resilience of the population, focusing on the existing primary schools in the Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain) regions. Software was developed to assess the seismic safety of these schools, considering different earthquake scenarios. Seismic retrofitting measures were studied and numerically tested. Some of them were also implemented in the retrofitting activities of two case study schools (one in each country). It was found that the adopted ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) considerably affect the results obtained with the software, especially for offshore earthquake scenarios. Furthermore, the results show that the masonry buildings would be the most damaged school typologies for all the scenarios considered. Additionally, a set of guidelines was created to support the school community and the technicians related to the construction industry. The goal of these documents is to increase the seismic resilience of the population. Different activities were carried out to train schoolteachers in seismic safety based on the guidelines produced, obtaining positive feedback from them.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio