Duration of Low Wage Employment: A Study Based on a Survival Model

This paper includes a survival analysis which attempts to explain the duration, as in the number of years a worker remains in a low wage situation. Explanatory variables take into account the characteristics of the employee, such as education, age, tenure with the company, gender and nationality, and the characteristics of the job and the company such as industry affiliation, number of employees, age of the company and location.low wage, survival, Portugal

Frequência de isolados clínicos de escherichia coli produtores de β-lactamases de largo espectro

Foi objectivo deste estudo determinar a frequência de isolados de E. coli produtores de β-lactamases de largo espectro (ESBLs) tanto em infecções nosocomiais como da comunidade, e avaliar a susceptibilidade aos antibióticos entre as estirpes produtoras e não produtoras de ESBLs. Dos 131 isolados investigados apenas 9 (6.8%) se enquadraram nos critérios definidos pelo CLSI para screening de ESBLs, e a sua presença foi confirmada por Etest ESBL. Estes isolados provieram maioritariamente de infecções da comunidade em doentes com idade avançada e história de hospitalização prévia. A maioria (66.6%) mostrou resistência simultânea aos β-lactâmicos estudados, às quinolonas e aos aminoglicosídeos.It was the purpose of this study to determine the frequency of extended­spectrum β­Lactamases (ESBLs) producing isolates in E. coli, from hospital acquired and community infections, and to evaluate antibiotic susceptibility between ESBL producing and non­producing strains. Of 131 isolates investigated only 9 (6.8%) fulfil CLSI screening criteria for ESBL, and its production was confirmed by ESBL Etest. This strains were mainly recovered form community infections in old aged patients, with an history of previous hospitalisation. The majority (66.6%) showed simultaneous resistance to the studied β­lactams, the quinolones and aminoglycosides

pEPito-driven PEDF Expression Ameliorates Diabetic Retinopathy Hallmarks

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the major complications of diabetes mellitus. It is characterized by retinal microvascular changes caused by chronic exposure to hyperglycemia, leading to low tissue oxygenation and ultimately to neovascularization. Laser photocoagulation and vitrectomy are the most efficient treatments for DR, but display severe side effects such as the destruction of the healthy retina. Another clinical approach uses antiangiogenic agents to prevent and delay progression of neovascularization, but these require recurrent local administrations that increase the possibility of retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, and cataract formation. Studies in human diabetic retinas have revealed an imbalance between proangiogenic factors such as the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and antiangiogenic factors, such as pigment epithelial-derived factor (PEDF). This imbalance favors pathological angiogenesis contributing to DR, and can constitute a therapeutic target. Gene therapy was recently shown to be an adequate intervention for long-term treatment of several retinal pathologies. We have previously shown the newly engineered episomal vector pEPito to be able of sustained gene expression in the mouse retina. We here show that pEPito was able to overexpress PEDF for up to three months, both in in vitro cultures of human retinal pigment epithelial cells and in the retina of diabetic mice after a single subretinal injection. In vivo, in parallel with the increase in PEDF we observed a decrease in VEGF levels in injected compared with noninjected eyes and a significant effect on two hallmarks of DR: reduction of glucose transport (by glucose transporter GLUT1), and reduction of inflammation by decreased reactivity of microglia. Jointly, these results point to a significant therapeutic potential of gene therapy with pEPito-PEDF for the treatment of DR

Shear strength of adhesively bonded polyolefins with minimal surface preparation

Interest in polyethylene and polypropylene bonding has increased in the last years. However, adhesive joints with adherends which are of low surface energy and which are chemically inert present several difficulties. Generally, their high degree of chemical resistance to solvents and dissimilar solubility parameters limit the usefulness of solvent bonding as a viable assembly technique. One successful approach to adhesive bonding of these materials involves proper selection of surface pre-treatment prior to bonding. With the correct pre-treatment it is possible to glue these materials with one or more of several adhesives required by the applications involved. A second approach is the use of adhesives without surface pre-treatment, such as hot melts, high tack pressure-sensitive adhesives, solvent-based specialty adhesives and, more recently, structural acrylic adhesives as such 3M DP-8005® and Loctite 3030®. In this paper, the shear strengths of two acrylic adhesives were evaluated using the lap shear test method ASTM D3163 and the block shear test method ASTM D4501. Two different industrial polyolefins (polyethylene and polypropylene) were used for adherends. However, the focus of this study was to measure the shear strength of polyethylene joints with acrylic adhesives. The effect of abrasion was also studied. Some test specimens were manually abraded using 180 and 320 grade abrasive paper. An additional goal of this work was to examine the effect of temperature and moisture on mechanical strength of adhesive joints

Cutting forces and wear analysis of Si3N4 diamond coated tools in high speed machining

Si3N4 tools were coated with a thin diamond film using a Hot-Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition (HFCVD) reactor, in order to machining a grey cast iron. Wear behaviour of these tools in high speed machining was the main subject of this work. Turning tests were performed with a combination of cutting speeds of 500, 700 and 900 m min−1, and feed rates of 0.1, 0.25 and 0.4 mm rot−1, remaining constant the depth of cut of 1 mm. In order to evaluate the tool behaviour during the turning tests, cutting forces were analyzed being verified a significant increase with feed rate. Diamond film removal occurred for the most severe set of cutting parameters. It was also observed the adhesion of iron and manganese from the workpiece to the tool. Tests were performed on a CNC lathe provided with a 3-axis dynamometer. Results were collected and registered by homemade software. Tool wear analysis was achieved by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) provided with an X-ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) system. Surface analysis was performed by a profilometer

Colour profile analysis of Port Wines by different instrumental and visual methods

BACKGROUND: Wine colour is an important quality parameter, being the first sensorial attribute evaluated during wine tasting. The perception of wine colour can be different depending on many factors, including the depth of the sample under observation. The main objectives of the present study were to measure the colour of Port wines, using CIE L*a*b* parameters at different depths with different instrumental techniques (spectrophotometry and colorimetry), and to compare the obtained results with the sensory (visual) perception of colour samples. RESULTS: Representative profiles of Lightness (L*), Hue (H*) and Chroma (C*) at different depths were obtained using Port wine samples from different categories and ages. In general, relatively good correlations between the colorimetric and spectrophotometric methods were obtained for the L* and H* parameters. The results of the sensory tests also showed good correlations between the visually-assessed hue scores and the colorimetric measurements of the H* parameter, particularly at the lower depths tested (up to 4.0 mm). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results indicate that the colorimetric method can be used for estimating wine colour parameters, providing useful information about the colour profile of wines at different depthsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Turbulence Modeling Insights into Supercritical Nitrogen Mixing Layers

In Liquid Rocket Engines, higher combustion efficiencies come at the cost of the propellants exceeding their critical point conditions and entering the supercritical domain. The term fluid is used because, under these conditions, there is no longer a clear distinction between a liquid and a gas phase. The non-conventional behavior of thermophysical properties makes the modeling of supercritical fluid flows a most challenging task. In the present work, a Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) computational method following an incompressible but variable density approach is devised on which the performance of several turbulence models is compared in conjunction with a high accuracy multi-parameter equation of state. In addition, a suitable methodology to describe transport properties accounting for dense fluid corrections is applied. The results are validated against experimental data, making it clear that there is no trend between turbulence model complexity and the quality of the produced results. For several instances, one- and two-equation turbulence models produce similar results. Finally, considerations about the applicability of the tested turbulence models in supercritical simulations are given based on the results and the structural nature of each model.Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Center (AEROG), Laboratório Associado em Energia, Transportes e Aeronáutica (LAETA) e Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stacked Denoising Autoencoders and Transfer Learning for Immunogold Particles Detection and Recognition

In this paper we present a system for the detection of immunogold particles and a Transfer Learning (TL) framework for the recognition of these immunogold particles. Immunogold particles are part of a high-magnification method for the selective localization of biological molecules at the subcellular level only visible through Electron Microscopy. The number of immunogold particles in the cell walls allows the assessment of the differences in their compositions providing a tool to analise the quality of different plants. For its quantization one requires a laborious manual labeling (or annotation) of images containing hundreds of particles. The system that is proposed in this paper can leverage significantly the burden of this manual task. For particle detection we use a LoG filter coupled with a SDA. In order to improve the recognition, we also study the applicability of TL settings for immunogold recognition. TL reuses the learning model of a source problem on other datasets (target problems) containing particles of different sizes. The proposed system was developed to solve a particular problem on maize cells, namely to determine the composition of cell wall ingrowths in endosperm transfer cells. This novel dataset as well as the code for reproducing our experiments is made publicly available. We determined that the LoG detector alone attained more than 84\% of accuracy with the F-measure. Developing immunogold recognition with TL also provided superior performance when compared with the baseline models augmenting the accuracy rates by 10\%

Proposed Steps to Projects Development in the Public Sector

Public Policy and projects have been the subject of discussion in public organizations, with the argument that it organizations has resources, but there are no projects to invest. This research aims to suggest a step-by-step proposal to elaborate a project, based on a public policy, in a way that will improve public management, with specific results and contribute to the quality of life of citizens and society. In this research was analyzed the concepts of public management, public policy, programs and projects, which resulted in a logical, interrelated proposal, consisting of steps that comprise a step by step to elaborate project to a public policy. He sought the qualitative aspect and used the bibliographical research as methodology. Structuring the work in chapters organizing in introduction, theoretical survey and its analysis, proposed a step by step to elaborate project and concluded with the final considerations