Impact of large scale PV deployment in the sizing of urban distribution transformers

UID/SOC/04647/2013 SFRH/BPD/76893/2011With the increasing deployment of solar systems in buildings in urban environments, a future scenario of high photovoltaic penetration is expected to produce impacts on the distribution grid. One of the challenges relates to the power balance at the power transformers, which might not have sufficient spare capacity to accommodate the solar electricity feed in. In this work, we estimate the power balance at the transformers in a small urban area of Lisbon, Portugal, considering full deployment of PV, installed on rooftops and building façades. The PV potential is estimated through two different approaches: the simplified Peak power method, which considers the typical peak power of a module and the available area, and the more labour-intensive Irradiance method that accounts for hourly time step solar irradiance and demand data or simulations. The main findings of this work point out that the Peak power method has limited success if PV facades are to be considered. Moreover, a high PV penetration scenario leads to a locally less resilient grid, hence a solar PV factor was proposed to account for future deployment of PV systems in urban environments.publishersversionpublishe

Enhancing Cultural Communication Competency in the Undergraduate Physiotherapy Course

Trabalho apresentado em 5th European Congress of the European Region WCPT on Physiotherapy Education, 2020, onlineN/

Mitigation of Ochratoxin A in the food chain, from prevention to remediation

Mycotoxins are metabolites produced by a few filamentous fungi, that are ubiquitous in Nature, being found in many food crops. Their toxicity to humans demands a very strict control under a properly designed food safety program. Also, food losses due to fungal deterioration raise food security concerns. Mitigation actions to avoid or reduce human exposure to mycotoxins start in the field, where most mycotoxin producing fungi are active and mycotoxin accumulation starts. These actions include strategies to prevent mycotoxin-producing fungi from proliferating in the food or feed, to prevent these same fungi to produce the toxins, and to either remove, segregate or degrade the mycotoxins that have been produced. Using the case of ochratoxin A in our food, different strategies to mitigate contamination, from the screening of mycotoxigenic strains, integrated in a preventive approach, to the use of enzymes, as a remediation approach, will be discussed in this presentation. The screening of mycotoxin-producing strains will be discussed based on a microbiome approach, where the producing fungi may be spotted without their isolation, while the use of enzymes will be discussed along with a molecular modelling approach to elucidate enzymatic activity. The authors are grateful for the PhD support grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): 2020.05849.BD. (Teresa Vale Dias) and UI/BD/152286/2021 (Joana Santos).The authors are grateful for the PhD support grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): 2020.05849.BD. (Teresa Vale Dias) and UI/BD/152286/2021 (Joana Santos).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Review and prospects for autonomous observing systems in vessels of opportunity

This paper focuses on the state of the art on Autonomous Observing Systems (AOS) used in Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) for collecting in situ atmospheric, oceanic and biogeochemical data. The designation Vessels of Opportunity includes all kinds of ships, even if not having scientific goals, which may carry proper devices that autonomously measure environmental variables. These vessels can be merchant, military, research, cruise liners, fishing, ferries, or even private yachts or sailing boats. The use of AOS can provide the opportunity for highly refined oceanographic data and improved derived data estimation, for local, regional or global scales studies. However, making the collected information accessible, both for scientific and technical purposes, provides a challenge in data management and analysis, which must, above all, ensure trusted useful data to the stakeholders. An overall review of the systems implemented is presented. This includes the definition of objectives, the recruitment of vessels and a review on the installation of proper acquisition devices; the selection and collection of Essential Oceanic Variables (EOV); the mechanisms for transmitting the information, and the quality control analysis and dissemination of data. The present and future capabilities of VOO for measuring EOV, within the Portuguese context are referred.PTDC/CTA-AMB/31141/2017 - MAR-01.04.02-FEAMP-0002 - UIDB/UIDP/00134/2020 - UIDB/04326/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New pre-processing technologies for fruits and vegetables

Horticultural products constitute one of the most perishable foods and its availability throughout the year requires the application of preservation methods. Traditionally, horticultural products are preserved by freezing, allowing these products to reach longer shelf-life periods. Until nowadays, freezing has been preceded by a blanching step, which has been considered as an efficient and safe food preservation method. However, besides its reliable efficiency in terms of food safety, blanching normally induces various chemical reactions, leading to quality deterioration by producing undesirable changes in sensory and nutritional qualities, affecting the balance between high quality and safety. The increasing consumer quality demanding standards has spurred the search for new and gently processing technologies that prolong shelf-life without the detrimental effects caused by severe heating. Non-thermal methods have emerged as attractive alternatives to conventional methods of thermal processing. There are several new nonthermal technologies of potential interest to the industry, such as ozone, UV-C irradiation, ultrasound, high pressure, and electrical pulses. The application of nonthermal technologies to food processing and preservation may yield processed foods with minor losses of colour, flavour, texture and nutrients, while retaining the desired shelf-life and safety. Ozone, UV-C irradiation, and ultrasound treatments are promising techniques for the fruits and vegetables industry. However, their efficiency depends on the product/microorganism under consideration

Identification of putative substrates and inhibitors for Glutathione S-transferases using computational methods

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) comprise a family of enzymes that utilizes glutathione (GSH) in many enzymatic reactions that involved in transformation of several compounds including therapeutic drug molecules and carcinogens. In addition, GSTs influence cellular survival and proliferation, by repressing apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) thus affecting the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in response to various intra and extracellular stresses. Molecules inhibiting the function of GSTs received attention as an adjuvant therapy to the highly toxic electrophilic agents to avoid usage of high doses and toxicity for better outcomes. There is no detailed in silico analysis exists in literature to describe the binding patterns of known inhibitors to all GST isoforms. This study is aimed at providing details of binding patterns of known and putative substrates (Busulfan, Treosulfan, SS-EBDM, SS-DEB), inhibitors (Ethacrynic acid, Sulfolane and Curcumin) with predominately-expressed seven isoforms of GST (Alpha1, Alpha2, Pi1, Mu1, Mu2, Mu5 and Theta1). In silico methodology include six steps namely (a) Retrieval of three-dimensional structure of GSTs and Ligand molecules from RCSB-PDB and NCBI-PubChem databases, (b) Protein and Ligand preparation using Auto Dock Tools (ADT), (c) Receptor grid preparation based on known binding site (Direct docking protocol) of GSTs using AutoDock/Vina plugin in PyMOL, (d) Preparation of Auto Dock Vina configuration file, (e) Running of docking calculation using Auto Dock Vina and (f) Analysis of docking results using ADT, PyMOL and LigPlus programs. Molecular docking studies of substrates/inhibitors are performed with both Apo and GSH bounded forms of GSTs. Structural parameters such as estimated free energy of binding (ΔH), estimated inhibition constant (Ki), binding orientation, intermolecular interactions were noted for all the docking interaction models. Then the parameters were compared against each substrate or inhibitor for the affinity towards a selective GST isoform. Out of the three putative or known inhibitors screened, Curcumin showed a significant high binding affinity towards all the classes of GSTs, particularly GST Alpha1 (ΔH: -9.7 kcal/mol and Ki: 0.08 µM). Ethacrynic acid also showed better binding affinity towards GST Alpha1 (ΔH: -7.6 kcal/mol and Ki: 2.7 uM). Sulfolane did not exhibited a stronger affinity towards all the seven GST isoforms. Busulfan and Treosulfan exhibited a reasonable binding affinity towards GST Alpha1 (ΔH: -5.2 and -5.3 kcal/mol) and weakened affinity for the remaining six GST isoforms. Thus, treosulfan could be a possible substrate for GST Alpha1. Manual inspection of three-dimensional structures of the docking complexes revealed that binding-sites for inhibitor and substrate are different. In an on-going study, we are evaluating the inhibitory potential of Curcumin and Ethacrynic acid against GSTs in in vitro studies. The detailed description of the binding interactions may be useful to screen new putative GST substrates and inhibitors. Presence or absence of variants in these binding pockets also can define the amount of inhibitor required and the affinity and potency of an inhibitor and or substrate. This poster is presented at " ESPT 2017 in Catania, Italy from Oct 4th-7th 2017

Effects of microplastics on microalgae populations: a critical review

Microplastics are persistent contaminants accumulating in the environment. Aquatic ecosystems have been studied worldwide, revealing ubiquitous contamination with microplastics. Microalgae, one of the most important primary producers in aquatic ecosystems, could suffer from microplastic contamination, leading to larger impacts on aquatic food webs. Nonetheless, little is known about the toxic effects of microplastics on microalgae populations. Thus, the objective of this review was to identify these effects and the impacts of microplastics on microalgae populations based on currently available literature, also identifying knowledge gaps. Even though microplastics seem to have limited effects on parameters such as growth, chlorophyll content, photosynthesis activity and reactive oxygen species (ROS), current environmental concentrations are not expected to induce toxicity. Even so, microplastics could disrupt population regulation mechanisms, by reducing the availability or absorption of nutrients (bottom-up) or reducing the population of predator species (top-down). Microplastics' properties can also influence the effects on microalgae, with smaller sizes and positive surface charges having higher toxicity. Therefore, more research is needed to better understand the effects of microplastics on microalgae, such as adaptation strategies, effects on population dynamics and microplastics properties influencing toxicity.publishe

Changes in the detailed pigment composition of red wine during maturity and ageing

[EN] The qualitative and quantitative changes produced, during maturation and ageing, in the pigment composition of a red wine made from Vitis vinifera cv Tempranillo grapes have been studied. In order to determine the detailed composition of the main pigment families involved in the colour changes, a fractionation of the samples has been carried out. One-hundred and twenty-nine different compounds have been identified and their evolutions with wine age have also been established. The data obtained in the analyses of the fractions by high performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC–DAD–MS) have been used in pigment identification. In order to confirm the identity of some of these compounds, their syntheses have also been carried out. As far as we know, compounds originated by acylation of the monoglucosides of the anthocyanins with lactic acid as well as 3,7-diglucosides of anthocyanins have, among others, been reported here for the first time. The moments of appearance and disappearance of all the detected compounds have also been established as well as the changes in the levels of the different pigment families and subfamilies originated as a consequence of maturation and ageing of the wine in barrels or in bottles. As wine became older, the percentages of anthocyanins decreased slightly, whereas that of the anthocyanin-derived pigments increased and, above all, compounds providing the wine with orange hues (pyranoanthocyanins). In the last sample, they represented 70% of the anthocyanin-derived pigments. On the contrary, the percentage of compounds providing bluish hues to the wine, direct and acetaldehyde-mediated flavanol–anthocyanin condensation products, decreased. This change in the nature of the anthocyanin-derived pigmentwould explain the colour change observed in the samples, from purple towards orange hues