Estudo da eficácia dos pavimentos drenantes na redução do ruído rodoviário para condições seco e molhado

A experiência portuguesa no domínio da avaliação dos níveis sonoros em diferentes tipos de pavimentos e dos factores que os determinam ainda é insuficiente, face às exigências europeias de qualidade ambiental. Assim, neste artigo estuda-se a eficácia dos pavimentos drenantes na redução do ruído de tráfego, quer na presença, quer na ausência de precipitação. No estudo consideram-se duas secções consecutivas, integradas na A41/IC24, uma com camada de desgaste em betão betuminoso drenante e a outra, com camada de desgaste em betão betuminoso. A avaliação dos níveis sonoros em cada uma das secções foi realizada pelo Método Estatístico de Passagem. Para as condições de ensaio consideradas – tipo de veículo, velocidade de ensaio, superfície seca e molhada – verificou-se que o nível de ruído é inferior na secção com camada drenante com a superfície seca e molhada, embora os benefícios da sua utilização sejam reduzidos quando se trata de veículos pesados

A influência da água no ruído produzido pelo tráfego rodoviário

A qualidade ambiental preconizada na legislação europeia, no que respeita ao ruído produzido pelo tráfego rodoviário, é cada vez mais exigente. Por sua vez, a prática portuguesa no domínio da avaliação do ruído rodoviário e o conhecimento dos factores que o determinam ainda são insuficientes para satisfazer os requisitos europeus. Assim, neste artigo estuda-se a influência da presença da água no nível de ruído em dois tipos de superfícies usadas correntemente em Portugal. No estudo consideram-se dois trechos consecutivos, integrados na A41/IC24, uma com camada de desgaste em betão betuminoso drenante e a outra com camada de desgaste em betão betuminoso. A avaliação dos níveis sonoros em cada uma das secções foi realizada pelo Método Estatístico de Passagem. A análise dos resultados integra 3 abordagens, as quais se baseiam no índice estatístico de passagem, no nível de pressão sonora dos veículos de ensaio e no espectro de ruído. Verificou-se que o nível de ruído aumenta significativamente com a presença da água. Esse aumento é determinado pelos níveis de pressão sonora correspondentes a frequências superiores a 500 Hz, quando se trata de veículos pesados. No caso dos veículos ligeiros esse aumento é mais significativo a frequências superiores a 1000 Hz, particularmente na camada em betão betuminoso

Non-Destructive Inspection of High Temperature Piping Combining Ultrasound and Eddy Current Testing

Project Hi2TRUST—Second generation platform for high-temperature component inspection, (Ref. 3335), supported by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa (Lisb@2020 and Portugal2020). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.This paper presents an automated Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) system for the in-service inspection of orbital welds on tubular components operating at temperatures as high as 200 °C. The combination of two different NDT methods and respective inspection systems is here proposed to cover the detection of all potential defective weld conditions. The proposed NDT system combines ultrasounds and Eddy current techniques with dedicated approaches for dealing with high temperature conditions. Phased array ultrasound was employed, searching for volumetric defects within the weld bead volume while Eddy currents were used to look for surface and sub-surface cracks. The results from the phased array ultrasound results showed the effectiveness of the cooling mechanisms and that temperature effects on sound attenuation can be easily compensated for up to 200 °C. The Eddy current results showed almost no influence when temperatures were raised up to 300 °C.publishersversionpublishe

Behaviour of NBD-head group labelled phosphatidylethanolamines in POPC bilayers: a molecular dynamics study

A complete homologous series of fluorescent phosphatidylethanolamines (diCnPE), labelled at the head group with a 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazo-4-yl(NBD) fluorophore and inserted in 1-palmitoyl, 2-oleoyl-snglycero- 3-phosphocholine (POPC) bilayers, was studied using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. The longer-chained derivatives of NBD-diCnPE, with n = 14, 16, and 18, are commercially available, and widely used as fluorescent membrane probes. Properties such as location of atomic groups and acyl chain order parameters of both POPC and NBD-diCnPE, fluorophore orientation and hydrogen bonding, membrane electrostatic potential and lateral diffusion were calculated for all derivatives in the series. Most of these probes induce local disordering of POPC acyl chains, which is on the whole counterbalanced by ordering resulting from binding of sodium ions to lipid carbonyl/glycerol oxygen atoms. An exception is found for NBD-diC16PE, which displays optimal matching with POPC acyl chain length and induces a slight local ordering of phospholipid acyl chains. Compared to previously studied fatty amines, acyl chain-labelled phosphatidylcholines, and sterols bearing the same fluorescent tag, the chromophore in NBD-diCnPE locates in a similar region of the membrane (near the glycerol backbone/carbonyl region) but adopts a different orientation (with the NO2 group facing the interior of the bilayer). This modification leads to an inverted orientation of the P–N axis in the labelled lipid, which affects the interface properties, such as the membrane electrostatic potential and hydrogen bonding to lipid head group atoms. The implications of this study for the interpretation of the photophysical properties of NBD-diCnPE (complex fluorescence emission kinetics, differences with other NBD lipid probes) are discussed

Structural and optical properties of ZnS/MgNb2O6 heterostructures

In this letter, we report a simple and efficient synthetic procedure where the first step is a coprecipitation/calcination method used to obtain magnesium niobate MgNb2O6(MN) nanocrystals and in the second stage a microwave assisted hydrothermal method (MAH) is employed to synthesize zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanocrystals and ZnS/MN heterostructures. These heterostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman (MR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). XRD patterns and MR spectra indicate that MN and ZnS nanocrystals have an orthorhombic and cubic structure, respectively. FE-SEM, TEM and HR-TEM images proved the presence of aggregated MN nanocrystals, ZnS nanocrystals and the presence of ZnS nanocrystals on the surface of MN nanocrystals. Their optical properties were investigated by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements at room temperature. ZnS/MN heterostructures show a decrease in the values for the optical band gap with respect to both components. The presence of the ZnS nanocrystals in this heterostructure promotes a high intense PL emission

Hereditary breast cancer and ancestry in the Madeira archipelago: An exploratory study

Access to genetic testing and counselling in remote areas such as the Madeira archipelago, in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, may be complex. Different counselling methods, including telegenetics, should be explored. In this study, we characterise the Hereditary Breast/Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) families with Madeira ancestry enrolled in our programme. Of a total of 3, 566 index patients tested between January 2000 and June 2018, 68 had Madeira ancestry and 22 were diagnosed with a pathogenic germline variant (PV). As in the whole group, BRCA2 PV were more frequent in Madeira patients (68.4%: c.9382C>T (26.3%), c.658_659del (21%), c.156_157insAlu (10.5%), c.793+1G>A (5.3%) and c.298A>T (5.3%). However, the most frequently diagnosed PV in Madeira patients was the BRCA1 c.3331_3334del (31.6%). BRCA1/2 detection rates were 27.9% and 10.5% for Madeira and the whole group, respectively. This study is the first characterisation of HBOC patients with Madeira ancestry. A distinct pattern of BRCA1/2 variants was observed, and the geographic clustering of BRCA1 c.3331_3334del variant may support the possibility of a founder mutation previously described in Northern Portugal. The high detection rate observed reinforces the need to reduce gaps in access to genetic testing in Madeira and other remote areas. According to current guidelines, timely identification of HBOC patients can contribute to their ongoing care and treatment

Identifying and rationalizing the morphological, structural, and optical properties of β-Ag2MoO4 microcrystals, and the formation process of Ag nanoparticles on their surfaces: combining experimental data and first-principles calculations

We present a combined theoretical and experimental study on the morphological, structural, and optical properties of β-Ag2MoO4 microcrystals. β-Ag2MoO4 samples were prepared by a co-precipitation method. The nucleation and formation of Ag nanoparticles on β-Ag2MoO4 during electron beam irradiation were also analyzed as a function of electron beam dose. These events were directly monitored in real-time using in situ field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The thermodynamic equilibrium shape of the β-Ag2MoO4 crystals was built with low-index surfaces (001), (011), and (111) through a Wulff construction. This shape suggests that the (011) face is the dominating surface in the ideal morphology. A significant increase in the values of the surface energy for the (011) face versus those of the other surfaces was observed, which allowed us to find agreement between the experimental and theoretical morphologies. Our investigation of the different morphologies and structures of the β-Ag2MoO4 crystals provided insight into how the crystal morphology can be controlled so that the surface chemistry of β-Ag2MoO4 can be tuned for specific applications. The presence of structural disorder in the tetrahedral [MoO4] and octahedral [AgO6] clusters, the building blocks of β-Ag2MoO4, was used to explain the experimentally measured optical properties

Facet-dependent photocatalytic and antibacterial properties of a-Ag2WO4 crystals: combining experimental data and theoretical insights

In this paper, we have combined the various experimental results and first-principles calculations with a new and interesting discussion to explain the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of α-Ag2WO4 crystals, which were obtained using the microwave-hydrothermal (MH) method with anionic surfactants. The advantages of the insights gained through the present work are two-fold. First, the mechanism and origin of the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities can be rationalized. Second, this facile and controllable synthetic method is expected to encourage the synthesis of complex metal oxides with specific active facets, and these insights can contribute to the rational design of new materials for multifunctional applications. X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement analysis confirmed that all the crystals have an orthorhombic structure without deleterious phases. Ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy indicated the presence of intermediary energy levels and a variation in the optical band gap values (3.09–3.14 eV) with the crystal growth process. The geometry, electronic properties of the bulk, and surface energies of these crystals were evaluated using first-principles quantum mechanical calculations based on the density functional theory. The crystal shapes was experimentally and theoretically modeled based on Rietveld refinement data, emission scanning electron microscopy images, and Wulff construction. To obtain a wide variety of crystal shapes, the morphologies were gradually varied by tuning the surface chemistry, i.e., the relative stability of the faceted crystals. The growth mechanisms of different α-Ag2WO4 crystals and their facet-dependent photocatalytic and antibacterial performances were explored in details. The combination of experimental and theoretical data revealed the presence of (110) and (011) planes with high surface energies together with the disappearance of faces related to the (010)/(0[1 with combining macron]0) planes in α-Ag2WO4 crystals are key factors that can rationalize both the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities. The different activities may be attributed to the different number of unsaturated superficial Ag and W atoms capable of forming the main active adsorption sites. Finally, we discuss how knowledge of surface-specific properties can be utilized to design a number of crystal morphologies that may offer improved performance in various applications.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the following Brazilian research funding institutions: the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP; 2012/14004-5 and 2013/07296-2), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; 479644/2012-8 and 304531/2013-8) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). J.A. and L.G. are grateful to Prometeo/2009/053 (GeneralitatValenciana), Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain; CTQ2012-36253-C03-02), and the Spanish Brazilian program (PHB2009-0065-PC). We also acknowledge the Servei Informática, Universitat Jaume I for the generous allotment of computer time

Unveiling biological activities of marine fungi: the effect of sea salt

There is an urgent need for new substances to overcome current challenges in the health sciences. Marine fungi are known producers of numerous compounds, but the manipulation of growth conditions for optimal compound production can be laborious and time-consuming. In Portugal, despite its very long coastline, there are only a few studies on marine fungi. From a collection of Portuguese marine fungi, we screened for antimicrobial, antioxidant, enzymatic, and cytotoxic activities. Mycelia aqueous extracts, obtained by high pressure-assisted extraction, and methanolic extracts of culture media showed high antioxidant, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities. The mycelium extracts of Cladosporium rubrum showed higher antioxidant potential compared to extracts from other fungi. Mycelia and culture media extracts of Aspergillus affinis and Penicillium lusitanum inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Kocuria rhizophila, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, including multiresistant strains. Penicillium lusitanum and Trichoderma aestuarinum inhibited the growth of clinical strains of Candida albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis. All extracts from culture media were cytotoxic to Vero cells. Sea salt induced alterations in the mycelium's chemical composition, leading to different activity profiles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthesis, Solubility, Permeability, and In Vitro Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Funding Information: This work was supported by FCT-MCTES (PTDC/QUI-QOR/32406/2017, PEst-C/LA0006/2013, RECI/BBBBQB/0230/2012) and by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV (FCT-MCTES UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020). The NMR spectrometers are part of the National NMR Network (PTNMR) and are partially supported by Infrastructure Project N° 022161 (co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE 2020, POCI, PORL, and FCT through PIDDAC). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.The development of novel pharmaceutical tools to efficiently tackle tuberculosis is the order of the day due to the rapid development of resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Herein, we report novel potential formulations of a repurposed drug, the antimalarial mefloquine (MFL), which was combined with organic anions as chemical adjuvants. Eight mefloquine organic salts were obtained by ion metathesis reaction between mefloquine hydrochloride ([MFLH][Cl]) and several organic acid sodium salts in high yields. One of the salts, mefloquine mesylate ([MFLH][MsO]), presented increased water solubility in comparison with [MFLH][Cl]. Moreover, all salts with the exception of mefloquine docusate ([MFLH][AOT]) showed improved permeability and diffusion through synthetic membranes. Finally, in vitro activity studies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis revealed that these ionic formulations exhibited up to 1.5-times lower MIC values when compared with [MFLH][Cl], particularly mefloquine camphorsulfonates ([MFLH][(1R)-CSA], [MFLH][(1S)-CSA]) and mefloquine HEPES ([MFLH][HEPES]).publishersversionpublishe