CP4 miracle: shaping Yukawa sector with CP symmetry of order four

We explore the phenomenology of a unique three-Higgs-doublet model based on the single CP symmetry of order 4 (CP4) without any accidental symmetries. The CP4 symmetry is imposed on the scalar potential and Yukawa interactions, strongly shaping both sectors of the model and leading to a very characteristic phenomenology. The scalar sector is analyzed in detail, and in the Yukawa sector we list all possible CP4-symmetric structures which do not run into immediate conflict with experiment, namely, do not lead to massless or mass-degenerate quarks nor to insufficient mixing or CP-violation in the CKM matrix. We show that the parameter space of the model, although very constrained by CP4, is large enough to comply with the electroweak precision data and the LHC results for the 125 GeV Higgs boson phenomenology, as well as to perfectly reproduce all fermion masses, mixing, and CP violation. Despite the presence of flavor changing neutral currents mediated by heavy Higgs scalars, we find through a parameter space scan many points which accurately reproduce the kaon CP-violating parameter $\epsilon_K$ as well as oscillation parameters in K and $B_{(s)}$ mesons. Thus, CP4 offers a novel minimalistic framework for building models with very few assumptions, sufficient predictive power, and rich phenomenology yet to be explored.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; v2: expanded discussion, extra references, matches published versio

ROAZ Autonomous Surface Vehicle Design and Implementation

The design of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle for operation in river and estuarine scenarios is presented. Multiple operations with autonomous underwater vehicles and support to AUV missions are one of the main design goals in the ROAZ system. The mechanical design issues are discussed. Hardware, software and implementation status are described along with the control and navigation system architecture. Some preliminary test results concerning a custom developed thruster are presented along with hydrodynamic drag calculations by the use of computer fluid dynamic methods

Hemangioendotelioma hepático infantil: características clínicas e imaginológicas. Presentación de un caso y revisión de la literatura

ResumenSe presenta un caso de hemangioendotelioma (HE) hepático infantil en un recién nacido masculino quien consultó por presentar síntomas de falla cardíaca. Se hace revisión de sus manifestaciones clínicas y sus características imagenológicas.[Ferreira HH, Archila MM. Hemangioendotelioma hepático infantil: características clínicas e imaginológicas. Presentación de un caso y revisión de la literatura. MedUNAB 2006; 9:151-155].Palabras clave: Hemangioendotelioma, falla cardíaca congestiva

The relative age effect among elite youth competitive swimmers

The aim of this study was to analyse the relative age effect (RAE) in competitive swimming. The best 50 Portuguese swimmers (12- to 18-year-olds) for the main individual swimming pool events of both genders were considered. Analysis was conducted on 7813 swimming event participants, taking account of respective swimmer birth dates and the Fédération Internationale de Natation points gained. Differences in the distribution of birth dates by quarter year were determined using the Chi-square. A one-way analysis of variance ANOVA was used to test for differences measured in points between individuals by quarterly birth year intervals. A two-way analysis of variance ANOVA was also conducted to test the interaction between gender and seasonal birth date with regard to performance. The results show an inequitable distribution (p<0.01) of birth dates by quarter for almost all age groups and both genders. However, the distribution of birth dates by quarter for each considered swim event shows that RAE seems to exist only for 12-year-old females and 12- to 15-year-old males. Analysing mean swimming performance, post-hoc results (p<0.01) show no consistency in RAE. Higher performance occurs among older swimmers only in 100 m butterfly (female 1998, 1st≠2nd quarter, p=0.003). The results also show no interaction between gender and seasonal birth date (p<0.01). Findings of this study show that a higher number of swimmers, particular males, are born in the first two quarters of the year, although there is mostly no effect of seasonal birth date on performance differences within the top 50 swimmers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Bearings Meta-Analysis of Experimental Procedure

In the domain of predictive maintenance, when trying to repli- cate and compare research in remaining useful life estimation (RUL), several inconsistencies and errors were identified in the experimental methodology used by various researchers. This makes the replication and the comparison of results diffi- cult, thus severely hindering both progress in this research do- main and its practical application to industry. We survey the literature to evaluate the experimental procedures that were used, and identify the most common errors and omission in both experimental procedures and reporting. A total of 70 papers on RUL were audited. From this meta- analysis we estimate that approximately 11% of the papers present work that will allow for replication and comparison. Surprisingly, only about 24.3% (17 of the 70 articles) com- pared their results with previous work. Of the remaining work, 41.4% generated and compared several models of their own and, somewhat unsettling, 31.4% of the researchers made no comparison whatsoever. The remaining 2.9% did not use the same data set for comparisons. The results of this study were also aggregated into 3 categories: problem class selec- tion, model fitting best practices and evaluation best practices. We conclude that model evaluation is the most problematic one. The main contribution of the article is a proposal of an ex- perimental protocol and several recommendations that specif- ically target model evaluation. Adherence to this protocol should substantially facilitate the research and application of RUL prediction models. The goals are to promote the collab- oration between scholars and practitioners alike and advance the research in this domain

Rock art at S. Gonçalo hill, Barcelos (NW Portugal), and the construction of a structural place in the prehistoric landscape

[Excerpt] Introduction In 2012 the first engravings were discovered at hill of S. Gonçalo, due to occasional prospection works performed by the City Hall Archaeological Cabinet. Since 2015 this entity developed the systematic inventory of the rock art identified at the hill, mainly with two objectives: update the Archaeological County Map and classify the archaeological set of rock art as Property of Public Interest. At this scope, all the occurrences were photographed during daytime, and surveying photogrammetric works were accomplished. The morphological analysis to the engraved surfaces was done using Meshlab soLware.This work was developed under the projects Northwest Rock Art Route. A Project of Cultural Tourism (RAR/Lab2PT2014) and North‐west Iberia Rock Art. Liminality and Heterotopy (SFRH/BSAB/114296/2016)

Selective flexibility of side-chain residues improves VEGFR-2 docking score using autodock vina

Selective side-chain residue flexibility is an option available on AutoDock Vina docking software. This approach is promising as it attempts to provide a more realistic ligand-protein interaction environment, without an unmanageable increase in computer processing time. However, studies validating this approach are still scarce. VEGFR-2 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2), a known protein target for anti-angiogenic agents, was used in this study. Four residues present in the VEGFR-2 kinase site were selected and made flexible: Lys866, Glu885, Cys917 and Asp1044. The docking scores for all possible combinations of flexible residues were compared to the docking scores using a rigid conformation. The best overall docking scores were obtained using the Glu883 flexible conformation, with pearson and spearman rank correlation values of 0.568 and 0.543, respectively, and a 51% increase in computer processing time. Using different VEGFR-2 X-ray structures a similar trend was observed with Glu885 flexible conformation presenting the best scores. This study demonstrates that careful use of selective side-chain residue flexibility can improve AutoDock Vina docking score accuracy, without a significant increase in computer processing time. This methodology proved to be a valuable tool in drug design when using VEGFR-2 but will also probably be useful if applied to other protein targets.The authors are grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) and COMPETE/QREN/EU for financial support through research project PTDC/QUI-QUI/111060/2009 and Rui M.V. Abreu thanks to SFRH/PROTEC/49450/2009 grant

Dried blood spots in clinical lipidomics: optimization and recent findings

Dried blood spots (DBS) are being considered as an alternative sampling method of blood collection that can be used in combination with lipidomic and other omic analysis. DBS are successfully used in the clinical context to collect samples for newborn screening for the measurement of specifc fatty acid derivatives, such as acylcarnitines, and lipids from whole blood for diagnostic purposes. However, DBS are scarcely used for lipidomic analysis and investigations. Lipidomic stud ies using DBS are starting to emerge as a powerful method for sampling and storage in clinical lipidomic analysis, but the major research work is being done in the pre- and analytical steps and procedures, and few in clinical applications. This review presents a description of the impact factors and variables that can afect DBS lipidomic analysis, such as the type of DBS card, haematocrit, homogeneity of the blood drop, matrix/chromatographic efects, and the chemical and physi cal properties of the analyte. Additionally, a brief overview of lipidomic studies using DBS to unveil their application in clinical scenarios is also presented, considering the studies of method development and validation and, to a less extent, for clinical diagnosis using clinical lipidomics. DBS combined with lipidomic approaches proved to be as efective as whole blood samples, achieving high levels of sensitivity and specifcity during MS and MS/MS analysis, which could be a useful tool for biomarker identifcation. Lipidomic profling using MS/MS platforms enables signifcant insights into physiological changes, which could be useful in precision medicine.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Marine Operations with the SWORDFISH Autonomous Surface Vehicle

IEEE Robótica 2007 - 7th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions, Paderne, Portugal 2007This paper describes the design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system. The work focuses the sensors, actuators, communications and C4I of an unmanned vehicle for marine operations. SWORDFISH is an autonomous surface vehicle used as the central communications link between air, undersea, and terrestrial robotic vehicles of a network centric operation. It is used as a test bed platform for deployment and testing of advanced control and operational concepts for multi-vehicles systems. This new unmanned marine vehicle was done in the context of the PISCIS project. The PISCIS project concerns the development, test and evaluation of new vehicles and new concepts of operation for networked vehicle systems in oceanographic data collection. The PISCIS system includes two autonomous underwater vehicles, the Swordfish ASV, an acoustic navigation system, acoustic and radio communications and a distributed command and control system

Proof-of-Concept Study of Multifunctional Hybrid Nanoparticle System Combined with NIR Laser Irradiation for the Treatment of Melanoma

Supplementary Materials - available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/biom11040511/s1The global impact of cancer emphasizes the importance of developing innovative, effective and minimally invasive therapies. In the context of superficial cancers, the development of a multifunctional nanoparticle-based system and its in vitro and in vivo safety and efficacy characterization are, herein, proposed as a proof-of-concept. This multifunctional system consists of gold nanoparticles coated with hyaluronic and oleic acids, and functionalized with epidermal growth factor for greater specificity towards cutaneous melanoma cells. This nanoparticle system is activated by a near-infrared laser. The characterization of this nanoparticle system included several phases, with in vitro assays being firstly performed to assess the safety of gold nanoparticles without laser irradiation. Then, hairless immunocompromised mice were selected for a xenograft model upon inoculation of A375 human melanoma cells. Treatment with near-infrared laser irradiation for five minutes combined with in situ administration of the nanoparticles showed a tumor volume reduction of approximately 80% and, in some cases, led to the formation of several necrotic foci, observed histologically. No significant skin erythema at the irradiation zone was verified, nor other harmful effects on the excised organs. In conclusion, these assays suggest that this system is safe and shows promising results for the treatment of superficial melanoma.The authors would like to thank to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the essential financial support under the project’s references PTDC/BBB-BMC/0611/2012, UIDB/00645/2020, UIDB/04138/2020 and UIDP/04138/2020 as well as for the PhD fellowships SFRH/BD/148044/2019 and SFRH/BD/147306/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio