Participatory coastal management through elicitation of ecosystem service preferences and modelling driven by coastal squeeze

The Baixo Vouga Lagunar (BVL) is part of Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon in Portugal, which is classified as a Special Protection Area under the European Habitats and Birds Directives. This part of the system, corresponding to the confluence of the Vouga River with the lagoon, is very important culturally and socioeconomically for the local communities, taking place several human activities, especially agriculture. To prevent salt water intrusion from the Ria de Aveiro into agriculture fields, a floodbank was initiated in the 90's. In frame of ongoing changes in Ria de Aveiro hydrodynamics, the existing floodbank will be now extended, introducing further changes in the ecological dynamics of the BVL and its adjacent area. As a consequence, the water level in the floodbank downstream side is expected to rise, increasing the submersion period in tidal wetlands, and leading to coastal squeeze. The aim of this study is to apply an ecosystem based-management approach to mitigate the impacts on biodiversity resulting from the management plan. To do so, we have modelled the implications of the changes in several hydrological and environmental variables on four saltmarsh species and habitats distribution, as well as on their associated ecosystem services, both upstream and downstream of the floodbank. The ecosystem services of interest were prioritized by stakeholders' elicitation, which were then used as an input to a spatial multi-criteria analysis aimed to find the best management actions to compensate for the unintended loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the BVL. According to our results, the main areas to be preserved in the BVL were the traditional agricultural mosaic fields; the freshwater courses and the subtidal estuarine channels. By combining ecology with the analysis of social preferences, this study shows how co-developed solutions can support adaptive management and the conservation of coastal ecosystems. © 2018 The AuthorsThe European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration supported this study through the collaborative research project AQUACROSS (Grant Agreement no. 642317 ). María Almagro was supported by the Juan de la Cierva Program (Grant IJCI-2015-23500 ). Ana I. Sousa was supported by the “ Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia , I.P. (FCT)” Post-Doc grant SFRH/BPD/107823/2015 . Ana Genua-Olmedo was funded by the project PORBIOTA - Portuguese E-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022127), financed by the “ Programa Operacional de Competitividade e Internacionalização ” and “Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa, FEDER ”, and by the “ Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia , I.P. (FCT)” through national funds (PIDDAC). Thanks are due by co-funding to Labex DRIIHM, French program “Investissements d'Avenir” ( ANR-11-LABX-0010 ) managed by the ANR, which funded the MARSH-C-LEVEL project. Thanks are also due, for the financial support to CESAM ( UID/AMB/50017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638 ), to FCT /MEC through national funds (PIDDAC), and the co-funding by the FEDER , within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020

Reclassification of the intermediate group classified according to heartscore taking in considertaion individual genetic predisposition to coronary artery disease

PosterIntroduction: Cardiovascular risk stratification has included traditional cardiovascular risk factors (TRF) including tobacco, cholesterol and blood pressure adjusted to age and sex. The utility of genetic risk scores (GRS) as predictors of cardiovascular risk remains inconclusive. Objective: We intended to evaluate the ability of a multilocus GRS within the intermediate risk subgroup, defined by the European Heart score, to add predictive power for the association with coronary artery arterial disease (CAD). Methods: After applying European SCORE (ES) stratification to a total population of 2703 Portuguese individuals, 639 individuals with 59.0 ± 4.3 years were considered to be at intermediate risk subgroup (2 Results: GRS was an independent predictor for CAD (OR=2.411; pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Associação independente da variante rs1333049, no locus 9p21, com a doença coronária, numa população portuguesa

Funding: This study was supported by the European Regional Development Fund’s Operational Programme for the Enhancement of Economic Potential and Territorial Cohesion for the Autonomous Region of Madeira (INTERVIR+).Introduction: Recent genome-wide association studies have identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 9p21 locus as risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Among them, the SNP rs1333049 has demonstrated a consistent association with CAD, which has been successfully replicated in several populations. Aim: To investigate whether the SNP rsl333049 located on the 9p21 chromosome is an independent risk factor for CAD in a Portuguese population. Methods: We performed a case-control study which included 1406 individuals, 723 consecutive coronary patients (mean age 53.7±8.9 years, 79.9% male) and 683 controls without coronary disease (mean age 53.3±10.5 years, 73.9% male). Cases and controls were selected so as not to be significantly different in terms of gender and age. We studied the SNP rs1333049 at the 9p21 locus in all individuals, using standard PCR combined with the TaqMan technique (Applied Biosystems). The allelic and genotype distribution (C/G), odds ratios and corresponding confidence intervals for CAD risk were determined. A forward Wald logistic regression analysis model was constructed, adjusted for age, gender, conventional risk factors, biochemical markers and the genotypes under study, in order to determine which variables were linked significantly and independently with CAD. Results: The C allele was found in 60% of the CAD patients and 53% of the controls, with OR=1.33; p=0.0002. The CC genotype appeared in 35.7% of CAD patients, with OR=1.34, p=0.010. The heterozygous CG genotype was present in 48.1% of the CAD patients and 47% of the controls, and did not present vascular risk (OR=1.05, p=0.670). After logistic regression analysis, the CC genotype remained in the equation with 0R=1.7; p=0.018 and CG with OR=I.5, p=0.048. Conclusion: In the present study we replicated the coronary risk linked to the recently discovered variant rs1333049 on the 9p21 chromosome in a Portuguese population. Although the mechanism underlying the risk is still unknown, the robustness of this risk allele in risk stratification for CAD has been consistent, even in very different populations. The presence of the CC or CG genotype may thus prove to be useful for predicting the risk of developing CAD in the Portuguese population.publishersversionpublishe

Uma variante do gene WNK4 está associada à osteoporose mas não à hipertensão na população portuguesa

Germline mutations in the WNK4 gene originate Gordon syndrome or pseudohypoaldosteronism type II, a familial form of hypertension with hyperkalemia and hypercalciuria. The WNK4 protein encodes a protein kinase involved in the regulation of various renal ion channels. In order to elucidate the contribution of WNK4 genetic variants to hypertension and/or osteoporosis, we analyzed 271 control individuals and a cohort of 448 hypertensive and 372 osteoporosis patients from the Portuguese population. Ten genetic variants were detected in 4.3% of the population under study, none of which revealed any significant association to the hypertension phenotype. In contrast, a rare missense alteration in a highly conserved arginine residue in exon 17 showed an association to the osteoporosis group. Our data suggest that WNK4 polymorphism rs56116165 is a rare allelic variant of a candidate gene with a biological function in renal calcium homeostasis and thus may contribute to a genetic predisposition to osteoporosis.FC

Effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen deposition on early to mid-term stage litter decomposition across biomes

Litter decomposition is a key process for carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and is mainly controlled by environmental conditions, substrate quantity and quality as well as microbial community abundance and composition. In particular, the effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on litter decomposition and its temporal dynamics are of significant importance, since their effects might change over the course of the decomposition process. Within the TeaComposition initiative, we incubated Green and Rooibos teas at 524 sites across nine biomes. We assessed how macroclimate and atmospheric inorganic N deposition under current and predicted scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 8.5) might affect litter mass loss measured after 3 and 12 months. Our study shows that the early to mid-term mass loss at the global scale was affected predominantly by litter quality (explaining 73% and 62% of the total variance after 3 and 12 months, respectively) followed by climate and N deposition. The effects of climate were not litter-specific and became increasingly significant as decomposition progressed, with MAP explaining 2% and MAT 4% of the variation after 12 months of incubation. The effect of N deposition was litter-specific, and significant only for 12-month decomposition of Rooibos tea at the global scale. However, in the temperate biome where atmospheric N deposition rates are relatively high, the 12-month mass loss of Green and Rooibos teas decreased significantly with increasing N deposition, explaining 9.5% and 1.1% of the variance, respectively. The expected changes in macroclimate and N deposition at the global scale by the end of this century are estimated to increase the 12-month mass loss of easily decomposable litter by 1.1-3.5% and of the more stable substrates by 3.8-10.6%, relative to current mass loss. In contrast, expected changes in atmospheric N deposition will decrease the mid-term mass loss of high-quality litter by 1.4-2.2% and that of low-quality litter by 0.9-1.5% in the temperate biome. Our results suggest that projected increases in N deposition may have the capacity to dampen the climate-driven increases in litter decomposition depending on the biome and decomposition stage of substrate

Preparation and scale up of extended-release tablets of bromopride

Reproducibility of the tablet manufacturing process and control of its pharmaceutics properties depends on the optimization of formulation aspects and process parameters. Computer simulation such as Design of Experiments (DOE) can be used to scale up the production of this formulation, in particular for obtaining sustained-release tablets. Bromopride formulations are marketed in the form of extended-release pellets, which makes the product more expensive and difficult to manufacture. The aim of this study was to formulate new bromopride sustained release formulations as tablets, and to develop mathematical models to standardize the scale up of this formulation, controlling weight and hardness of the tablets during manufacture according to the USP 34th edition. DOE studies were conducted using Minitab(tm) software. Different excipient combinations were evaluated in order to produce bromopride sustained-release matrix tablets. In the scale-up study, data were collected and variations in tableting machine parameters were measured. Data were processed by Minitab(tm) software, generating mathematical equations used for prediction of powder compaction behavior, according to the settings of the tableting machine suitable for scale-up purposes. Bromopride matrix tablets with appropriate characteristics for sustained release were developed. The scale-up of the formulation with the most suitable sustained release profile was established by using mathematical models, indicating that the formulation can be a substitute for the pellets currently marketed

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02