Comparing reverse complementary genomic words based on their distance distributions and frequencies

In this work we study reverse complementary genomic word pairs in the human DNA, by comparing both the distance distribution and the frequency of a word to those of its reverse complement. Several measures of dissimilarity between distance distributions are considered, and it is found that the peak dissimilarity works best in this setting. We report the existence of reverse complementary word pairs with very dissimilar distance distributions, as well as word pairs with very similar distance distributions even when both distributions are irregular and contain strong peaks. The association between distribution dissimilarity and frequency discrepancy is explored also, and it is speculated that symmetric pairs combining low and high values of each measure may uncover features of interest. Taken together, our results suggest that some asymmetries in the human genome go far beyond Chargaff's rules. This study uses both the complete human genome and its repeat-masked version.Comment: Post-print of a paper accepted to publication in "Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences" (ISSN: 1913-2751, ESSN: 1867-1462

The importance of geotechnical knowledge of terrains: Beja municipality, Alentejo, Portugal

The municipality of Beja, in Alentejo (Portugal), is presented as a case in which the insufficient knowledge of the geological and geotechnical characteristics of terrains contributes to serious problems in the establishment of building platforms. In Beja three main geotechnical units can be defined: fills, residual soils from gabbro-diorite weathering and gabbro-diorite bedrock. The knowledge of location, thickness and geotechnical properties of all these formations will contribute to the accurate engineering design and construction work, and also to support urban planning and therefore to minimize geological risk by avoiding zones with thick problematic soils as shown with a case study

Marketing socioambiental: o estudo de caso da participação popular em áreas de alta densidade de postes e linhas de alta tensão em Portugal

O presente artigo centra-se na análise do marketing socioambiental, promovido por empresas do setor energético, bem como o papel da sociedade civil, por intermédio, dos movimentos populares de reivindicação, contra os postes e linhas de alta e muito alta tensão em áreas residenciais na União Europeia e, especificamente, em Portugal. O processo de urbanização crescente e o modo de vida urbano desenfreado acarretaram mudanças substanciais no tecido urbano, sobretudo, no que diz respeito ao avanço das linhas aéreas de energia elétrica. Desde a década de 1960, uma série de estudos foram desenvolvidos sobre os efeitos destas infraestruturas tecnológicas em áreas residenciais. Apesar do intenso debate ainda não existem resultados consensuais quanto à sua influência na saúde das populações. Não obstante, diversos organismos internacionais, tais como, a Organização Mundia l de Saúde (OMS) e a Comissão Internacional de Proteção Contra Radiação Não - Ionizante (ICNIRP), já estabeleceram parâmetros de precaução, a partir da fixação de valores de exposição, tanto em termos ocupacionais , quanto para a população. Neste sentido, objetiva-se com a presente comunicação analisar o papel do marketing socioambiental, a partir da participação popular, dos movimentos internacionais e nacionais contra a alta tensão, sobretudo em Portugal. A pesquisa centrou-se numa abordagem qualitativa de fontes secundárias de dois blogues e cinco jornais nacionais que apresentavam notícias sobre a constituição e as manifestações realizadas pelo Movimento Nacional Contra Linhas de Alta Tensão em Zonas Habitadas. Este Movimento teve a sua origem no Sul de Portugal e difundiu-se por todo o país recrutando indivíduos preocupados com a instalação das novas e das já existentes linhas aéreas de energia elétrica. O Movimento ganhou força a nível nacional com o apoio de partidos políticos. Também foi realizado trabalho de campo em junho de 2014

Purification of plasmids using aqueous two-phase systems with amino affinity ligands

The increasing development and future application of molecular therapies such as gene therapy and DNA vaccination is expected to have a great impact in health care. However for their wide application large amounts of plasmid DNA (pDNA) are required with a stringent clearance of impurities. This prompted the development of new, efficient and cost-effective large-scale processes for the production and purification of pDNA. Most of the purification processes described are based on chromatography but dispite their high resolution, frequently they are difficult to scale-up, have low capacity and present low yields. In order to overcome these disadvantages other methodologies are also being developed. Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) are one of the most promising approaches for pDNA purification given their several advantages like easy scale-up, high capacity and the possibility of continuous operation. Despite their great potential ATPS have low selectivity, which limits the purification outcome. The addition of certain molecules with affinity for the target molecules (pDNA in this case) may increase their selectivity. In this work it was studied the possibility of using amino ligands for the affinity purification of pDNA from bacterial alkaline lysates. Two free amino acids, lysine and arginine, their respective Polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugates, PEG-lysine and PEGarginine, and PEGamine were tested. The system used was composed of 16,2% (w/w) PEG 600 and 17,4% (w/w) dextran 100 (DEX) and it was evaluate the ability of each ligand to steer the pDNA to the phase where less impurities are accumulated (PEG rich phase). The results show that free amino acids did not have any effect on pDNA partitioning but the PEG conjugates were able to steer the pDNA to the PEG phase, at low concentrations. With the addition of 0,2% of PEG-lysine, or 0,5% of PEG-arginine or 4% of PEG-amine in relation to the total PEG, all the pDNA is recovered in the PEG phase. However it presents some RNA contamination, that could be removed by re-extracting with a new phase containing 30% of ammonium sulphate (NH4)2S04. The purified pDNA is obtained in the bottom phase of this new system with no measurable presence of RNA or proteins

Environmental risk assessment in a contaminated estuary: an integrated weight of evidence approach as a decision support tool

Environmental risk assessment of complex ecosystems such as estuaries is a challenge, where innovative and integrated approaches are needed. The present work aimed at developing an innovative integrative methodology to evaluate in an impacted estuary (the Sado, in Portugal, was taken as case study), the adverse effects onto both ecosystem and human health. For the purpose, new standardized lines of evidence based on multiple quantitative data were integrated into a weight of evidence according to a best expert judgment approach. The best professional judgment for a weight of evidence approach in the present study was based on the following lines of evidence: i) human contamination pathways; ii) human health effects: chronic disease; iii) human health effects: reproductive health; iv) human health effects: health care; v) human exposure through consumption of local agriculture produce; vi) exposure to contaminated of water wells and agriculture soils; vii) contamination of the estuarine sedimentary environment (metal and organic contaminants); viii) effects on benthic organisms with commercial value; and ix) genotoxic potential of sediments. Each line of evidence was then ordinally ranked by levels of ecological or human health risk, according to a tabular decision matrix and expert judgment. Fifteen experts scored two fishing areas of the Sado estuary and a control estuarine area, in a scale of increasing environmental risk and management actions to be taken. The integrated assessment allowed concluding that the estuary should not be regarded as impacted by a specific toxicant, such as metals and organic compounds hitherto measured, but by the cumulative risk of a complex mixture of contaminants. The proven adverse effects on species with commercial value may be used to witness the environmental quality of the estuarine ecosystem. This method argues in favor of expert judgment and qualitative assessment as a decision support tool to the integrative management of estuaries. Namely it allows communicating environmental risk and proposing mitigation measures to local authorities and population under a holistic perspective as an alternative to narrow single line of evidence approaches, which is mandatory to understand cause and effect relationships in complex areas like estuaries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estimating a theoretical model of state banking competition using a dynamic panel: the Brazilian case

In this paper we set up a model of regional banking competition based on Bresnahan (1982), Lau (1982) and Nakane (2002). The structural model is estimated using data from eight Brazilian states and a dynamic panel. The results show that on average the level of competition in the Brazilian banking system is high, even tough the null of perfect competition can be rejected at the usual significance levels. This result also prevails at the state level: Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais have high degree of competition.O presente artigo propõe um modelo regional de competição bancária baseado nas contribuições de Bresnahan (1982), Lau (1982) e Nakane (2002). O modelo estrutural formuladoé estimado utilizando as informações para oito estados brasileiros e um painel dinâmico. Os resultados mostram que, na média, o nível de competição no sistema bancário brasileiro é alto, embora a hipótese nula de competição perfeita possa ser rejeitada aos níveis usuais de significância. De uma forma geral, este padrão também prevalece nos estados: Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco e Minas Gerais têm elevado grau de competição

Dissimilar Symmetric Word Pairs in the Human Genome

In this work we explore the dissimilarity between symmetric word pairs, by comparing the inter-word distance distribution of a word to that of its reversed complement. We propose a new measure of dissimilarity between such distributions. Since symmetric pairs with different patterns could point to evolutionary features, we search for the pairs with the most dissimilar behaviour. We focus our study on the complete human genome and its repeat-masked version.Comment: Submitted 13-Feb-2017; accepted, after a minor revision, 17-Mar-2017; 11th International Conference on Practical Applications of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, PACBB 2017, Porto, Portugal, 21-23 June, 201

Saúde e Ambiente – estudo de caso dos impactes da exposição ao ruído de baixa frequência no bem-estar da população de Serzedelo (Guimarães)

A exposição ao ruído tem efeitos nocivos e constitui um fator de risco para a saúde humana. O principal objetivo da presente pesquisa é analisar a exposição ao ruído de baixa frequência proveniente dos postes elétricos de alta tensão em áreas residenciais, especialmente em Sezerdelo (município de Guimarães) e os impactes na saúde da população que aí reside. A metodologia utilizada para as análises do ruído ambiental foi fundamentada no documento elaborado pelo Acoustics Research Centre (DEFRA), da Universidade de Salford, intitulado Procedure for the assessment of low frequency noise complaints (2011). Os níveis de ruído de Serzedelo ultrapassam os valores de referência do critério da curva nas faixas de 50Hz e 63Hz de 1/3 de oitava em todos os pontos de medição, concretizados em 2014. Neste caso, o nível de ruído proveniente dos postes de alta tensão pode ser incomodativo e suceptível de impacter na saúde da população que reside em Serzdelo

Reparo de lesão periapical extensa após utilização de curativo de demora à base de hidróxido de cálcio: relato de caso

PURPOSE: The objective of this paper is to report the clinical case of a patient who presented a chronic apical periodontitis, arising from internal inflammatory resorption followed by pulp necrosis, and a long-term success of a root canal therapy using calcium hydroxide as root canal dressing. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 20-year-old male patient presented for routine dental treatment. By radiographic examination we noted an extensive radioluscent area, laterally to the permanent maxillary right lateral incisor, with possibility of communication with the lateral periodontium, suggestive of a chronic apical periodontitis. Due to external root resorption detection, we used a calcium hydroxide root canal dressing, changed every 15 days, for a period of 2 months. Root canal filling was performed using gutta-percha cones by lateral condensation technique Radiographic follow up held after 19 years of treatment indicated a periodontium in conditions of normality, with the presence of lamina dura. CONCLUSION: Calcium hydroxide is a suitable material to be used as root canal dressing in teeth with apical periodontitis. Long-term evaluation demonstrated the satisfactory clinical outcome following root canal treatment.OBJETIVO: O objetivo deste trabalho é relatar o caso clínico de um paciente que apresentava lesão periapical crônica decorrente de necrose de pulpar e o sucesso a longo prazo de uma terapia endodôntica utilizando o hidróxido de cálcio como curativo de demora. DESCRIÇÃO DO CASO: O paciente, do gênero masculino, com 20 anos de idade, compareceu à Clínica Odontológica para tratamento de rotina. Por meio de exames radiográficos observamos uma área radioluscente extensa, lateralmente ao incisivo lateral superior direito, com possibilidade de comunicação com o periodonto lateral, sugestivo de lesão periapical. Devido à presença de reabsorção radicular externa, foi utilizado um curativo de demora à base de hidróxido de cálcio (Calen®), trocado a cada 15 dias, por um período de 2 meses. A obturação do canal radicular foi realizada com cones de guta-percha pela técnica de condensação lateral ativa. O acompanhamento radiográfico realizado após 19 anos do tratamento endodôntico indicou um periodonto em condições de normalidade, com integridade da lamina dura. CONCLUSÃO: O hidróxido de cálcio é um material adequado para ser usado como curativo de demora em dentes com lesão periapical, uma vez que a avaliação a longo prazo demonstrou resultados clínicos satisfatórios após o tratamento endodôntico.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP