Mass movement processes in the Southwest Portuguese Continental Margin during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene : a multidisciplinary approach for volume quantification, estimation of recurrence times and hazard implications

The Alentejo Margin, in the Southwest Portuguese Continental Margin, is a very complex and dynamic geomorphological area, located near the Eurasia-Africa plate boundary and affected by the flow path of the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW). This margin comprises the Sines Contourite Drift (SCD), which is the most prominent depositional feature (~2311 km2, 303.9 km perimeter, 98 km length and 35 km width), emplaced in the continental slope of this margin, evolving in four main phases by the action of MOW, since the Late Pleistocene. The interaction between along-slope and downslope processes forms a mixed morphosedimentary setting, which is greatly affected by mass movement activity in the middle and lower continental slopes, during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene. This work analyses the occurrence of mass movement processes in the southwest Portuguese margin, in a total extent of ~85 km×82 km and identifies the main triggering and conditioning factors promoting slope instability during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene and assesses the morphosedimentary evolution of the Sines Contourite Drift. This study was performed through geophysical, sedimentological, physical, geochemical, and geotechnical analyses, using multibeam bathymetry, multichannel seismic and sub-bottom profiler, and gravity cores data. The Alentejo margin is an unstable area, where the presence of a contourite drift significantly contributes for slope instability in consequence of its sediment mechanical properties. The SCD hosts a cluster of dominantly small landslide scars, affecting both steep and smooth slopes. This scar concentration is mainly provided by local intrinsic conditions that favour slope instability in the area. Scars predominantly occur on slope angles steeper than 5º, however sediment properties, especially low consolidation, very low permeability, high pore-pressure, high compressibility and low shear strength greatly promote slope instability in the Alentejo Margin. The inherent instability conditions of the area are increased by frequent seismicity that promotes additional stress, leading to increased slope instability

Cloning, Expression and Regulation of CYP3A10, a Hamster Liver Cytochrome P450 Involved in Lithocholic Acid and Steroid 6β-Hydroxylation: a Dissertation

Bile acid metabolism is integrally involved in cholesterol homeostasis in mammals because it is the major means by which cholesterol is eliminated from the body. We have undertaken an effort to study the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of bile acid metabolism by isolating and characterizing the cDNA and gene for an enzyme that hydroxylates lithocholic acid (LCA) at position 6β, lithocholic acid 6β-hydroxylase; the first bile acid-induced gene reported. LCA is a very hydrophobic, toxic bile acid formed from chenodeoxycholic acid in the gut lumen upon reduction of the 7α-hydroxy group by microbial enzymes. The proper elimination of LCA is essential for maintenance of the bile acid pool and for prevention of cholestasis which results from LCA precipitating in the cannaculi of the liver when its concentration is high. The LCA 6β-hydroxylase cDNA was isolated by differential hybridization of hamster liver libraries prepared from animals fed either a cholic acid enriched diet or a cholestipol-rich chow and was named CYP3A10 based on its homology with other cytochrome P450s (P450) in family 3A. We found that CYP3A10 was essentially expressed only in males. A statistical analysis of RNA from young males fed with cholic acid and normal chow showed that the cholic acid induction was about 50% at the RNA level. We determined the biological nature of the protein encoded by CYP3A10 by expression of the cDNA in COS cells. Microsomes prepared from transfected cells were assayed with LCA as a substrate and found to hydroxylate LCA predominantly at position 6β. We examined whether CYP3A10 could hydroxylate other steroid compounds by assays with testosterone, progesterone and androstenedione and found that, although 6β-hydroxylase (as well as others) activity was observed with all three, LCA was the preferred substrate based on kinetic analysis. A developmental time course of CYP3A10 expression in males showed little expression before puberty, a striking induction of expression at puberty and a fourfold induction thereafter through adulthood. We then examined the male-specific expression of CYP3A10 in hamster liver. We disrupted the pattern of GH secretion in male hamsters by hypophysectomy, neonatal glutamate treatment and by continuous infusion of GH via osmotic minipumps (to mimic the female pattern of GH secretion) and found no significant effect on CYP3A10 expression. Conversely, in females, hypophysectomy and neonatal glutamate treatment significantly induced CYP3A10 expression 5- to 10-fold. Additionally, when females treated neonatally with glutamate were injected twice daily with GH as adults (to mimic the male pattern of GH secretion), the levels of CYP3A10 expression were not significantly different from those of normal males. These results led us to conclude that the pattern of GH secretion in males does not control the male-specific expression of CYP3A10 but that in females expression can be induced by altering the tonic secretion of GH. No significant effect on CYP3A10 expression was observed by castration of adult males, indicating that circulating androgens were not required for expression. We found that gonadal hormones (e.g. estrogen and progesterone) do not have a suppressive effect on CYP3A10 expression in females since ovariectomy did not induce expression. Many genes are imprinted neonatally by exposure to a given effector for developmental-, tissue- or sexually regulated expression. We investigated whether neonatal androgen exposure was required for male-specific expression of CYP3A10 by castrating hamsters neonatally and determining the level of CYP3A10 expression in adulthood. Our results indicate that androgens are required neonatally for CYP3A10 expression since no expression was observed in neonatally castrated hamsters. We were unable to induce expression in neonatally castrated hamsters by either GH or testosterone injections. These results suggest several notable points 1) that CYP3A10 expression is programmed neonatally by androgen exposure; 2) that androgens exert their effect directly on the liver and not via the hypothalamus; 3) that neither testosterone nor GH can restore CYP3A10 expression when males have not been exposed to androgens neonatally; and 4) that in experimental conditions, females can be induced to express CYP3A10, which indicates that there are two modes for regulating expression: by imprinting in males and by GH and testosterone in females. We are now studying the molecular mechanisms involved in the bile acid-mediated induction and the male-specific expression of CYP3A10. We have cloned approximately 8 kb of 5\u27 flanking DNA from a hamster genomic library and sequenced about 1 kb of proximal DNA. Primer extension and S1 digestion analyses indicate that the mRNA for CYP3A10 has multiple transcription initiation sites clustered about 90 bp from the initiator methionine codon. We have also prepared CYP3A10 promoter/lacZ chimeric constructs to begin delineating the cis-acting elements controlling CYP3A10 expression and regulation. We used H2.35 cells as recipients because they are a mouse hepatocyte cell line that has been transformed with a temperature sensitive SV40. These cells can be grown at the permissive temperature and can be induced to behave like liver cells, the differentiated condition, by switching to a nonpermissive temperature. We have found that the construct with 1 kb of proximal CYP3A10 5\u27 flanking DNA was able to express the reporter gene at higher levels under differentiated conditions, which were consistent with higher expression of an albumin promoter/lacZconstruct, upon switching the cells to the more liver phenotype. The system characterized and described here is ideally suited for dissecting the molecular details governing bile acid-mediated regulation and sexually dimorphic expression of liver genes. Very little is known about both these very important biological phenomena. Much could be learned about transcriptional regulation of liver genes by investigating the cis-elements and trans-acting factors mediating regulation of CYP3A10 expression

Automação industrial. Uma perspetiva de terreno!

De que é que falamos quando nos referimos a AUTOMAÇÃO? - Estamos no âmbito da engenharia eletrotécnica, da mecânica, da eletrónica, da programação, das comunicações, da instrumentação, da pneumática, ….? Na realidade referimo-nos a um pouco disto tudo - a automação será possivelmente a área de engenharia mais pluridisciplinar e integradora de tecnologia. Quererá isto dizer que se trata de uma atividade de Engenharia complexa e densa? - Sim e não! - Vejamos; é vasta e densa porque o seu exercício obriga ao conhecimento de um alargado e diversificado leque de tecnologias mas, a sua base teórica, ou se quisermos os seus “algoritmos”, são bastante simples; baseiam-se em lógica e em sequências temporais. Que competências serão então necessárias para se exercer Automação? - Um conhecimento transversal de engenharia, com particular foco na Engenharia Eletrotécnica e uma boa experiência de terreno. Partindo desta constatação este artigo tem a intenção de abordar a automação de um ponto de vista eminentemente prático e aplicado

Avaliação do valor dos ecossistemas de turfeiras dos Açores, com recurso a modelação em sistemas de informação geográfica

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências Agrárias (especialidade em Ciência do Solo), 19 de Novembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.O panorama mundial tem-se debatido com os problemas inerentes às alterações climáticas, bem como os decorrentes das alterações aos usos do solo, propondo soluções que passam, em grande parte, pelo recurso a sistemas florestais. Recentemente tem-se assistido ao dealbar de vozes que reclamam as zonas húmidas como uma solução mais promissora, assistindo-se a um avanço do conhecimento caracterizador dos diferentes impactos ambientais resultantes das acções antrópicas. As turfeiras são zonas húmidas particulares, nas quais se têm centrado grandes esforços de obtenção de conhecimento, revelando-se como ecossistemas prioritários a inserir nas preocupações de entidades internacionais, tais como a FAO, ou a Comissão Europeia (e. g.: European Comission 2013; Borges et al. 2010; Joosten et al. 2012; McInnes 2007; Wood & Halsema 2008). No caso específico de Portugal as turfeiras não assumiram ainda um papel de destaque, encontrando-se uma grande área de turfeiras, perturbadas e/ou em bom estado de conservação no arquipélago dos Açores e só recentemente surgiu no debate científico como área relevante (Mendes 2009, 2010, 2013) e no plano político como área de investimento prioritário para recuperação ecológica (Decreto Legislativo Regional n.º 15/2010/A). Estas, na Região açoriana, ocupam cerca de 40% da superfície das áreas protegidas, sendo esta emergente relevância reconhecida pelas funções que as mesmas desempenham como elementos estruturadores da paisagem, na capacidade das ilhas para serem ecologicamente equilibradas, como sistema tamponizante/retentor de eventos climáticos, atuando como regularizadores do mesmo nas partes mais altas das ilhas e, consequentemente, das linhas de água a jusante. São um sistema retentor de metano e sequestrador de carbono; promotores de biodiversidade zonal e azonal (Dias et al. 2004); são ainda promotores da estabilidade física das zonas mais altas das ilhas, limitando a possibilidade de derrocadas e deslizamentos. São ecossistemas produtivos, que, nos Açores sofrem pressões antrópicas, as quais limitam as funções ecológicas desempenhadas pelos mesmos. Existem trabalhos caracterizadores das turfeiras nos Açores, porém o desconhecimento ainda é considerável, pelo que se torna premente desenvolver um estudo que quantifique os impactos que as mesmas têm na regulação do ciclo hídrico e no processo de crescimento e acumulativo de turfa (com as consequências inerentes), bem como da distribuição potencial no território açoriano. Pretende-se assim colmatar esta falta de conhecimento, estimando estes impactos, recorrendo a técnicas de modelação tridimensional em Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG), com recurso a dados cartográficos, modelação da distribuição potencial de diversos tipos de turfeiras, secções transversais das mesmas, medições de matéria orgânica, uso de radares de penetração no solo e dados da quantidade de água retida pelas turfeiras, bem como uma avaliação do seu potencial futuro sob diferentes modelos de gestão

A influência da Fisioterapia na prevenção de quedas no idoso: revisão bibliográfica

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciado em FisioterapiaObjetivo: Analisar diversos protocolos sobre a influência da Fisioterapia na prevenção de quedas na população idosa. Metodologia: Foi realizada uma pesquisa computorizada nas bases de dados Pubmed, Web of Knowledge e PEDro para identificar estudos que avaliassem a influência da fisioterapia na prevenção de quedas na população idosa. Resultados: Foram incluídos 6 estudos randomizados controlados envolvendo um total de 645 participantes. Foi possível constatar vários resultados positivos para os idosos nas intervenções realizadas nos 6 estudos tais como melhoria do equilíbrio, aumento da produção de força, flexibilidade, diminuição do risco de quedas e aumento da qualidade de vida do idoso. Conclusão: A fisioterapia tem um papel importante na vida ativa do idoso e na prevenção de quedas nos idosos utilizando programas de exercício que incluem: Pilates, Treinos de Força, Resistência e Equilíbrio.Objective: To analyze several protocols on the influence of Physiotherapy in falls prevention in the elderly population. Methodology: A computerized research was conducted in Pubmed, Web of Knowledge and PEDro databases to identify studies that evaluated the influence of physiotherapy on falls prevention in the elderly population. Results: 6 randomized controlled trials involving a total of 645 participants were included. It was possible to verify several positive results for the elderly in the interventions carried out in the 6 studies such as improvement of balance, better strength production, flexibility, decreased risk of falls and increased quality of life. Conclusion: Physiotherapy plays an important role in the active life of the elderly and in falls prevention using exercise programs that include: Pilates, Strength Training, Endurance and Balance.N/

As veias abertas da América Latina

Em 1971 é publicada a obra da autoria de Eduardo Galeano, As Veias Abertas da América Latina. Inicialmente em espanhol, a obra rapidamente se disseminou e obteve tradução em diversos idiomas. O livro conta a história da constante exploração por parte do Imperialismo, primeiramente Europeu e posteriormente Norte-Americano, da América Latina desde os primórdios da Humanidade até à actualidade

Ductile damage prediction in sheet metal forming and experimental validation

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Mecânica. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201