Why a Species-Based Approach to Biodiversity Is Not Enough. Lessons from Multispecies Biofilms

AbstractIn recent years, we have assisted to an impressive effort to identify and catalogue biodiversity at the microbial level across a wide range of environments, human bodies included (e.g., skin, oral cavity, intestines). This effort, fostered by the decreasing cost of DNA sequencing, highlighted not only the vast diversity at the microbial level but also the importance of cells' social interactions, potentially leading to the emergence of novel diversity. In this contribution, we shall argue that entities other than species, and in particular multispecies biofilms, might play a crucial—and still underestimated—role in increasing biodiversity as well as in conserving it. In particular, after having discussed how microbial diversity impacts ecosystems (Sect. 9.1), we argue (Sect. 9.2) that multispecies biofilms may increase biodiversity at both the genetic and phenotypic level. In Sect. 9.3 we discuss the possibility that multispecies biofilms, both heterotrophic and autotrophic, are evolutionary individuals, i.e. units of selection. In the conclusion, we highlight a major limitation of the traditional species-based approach to biodiversity origination and conservation

Monitoring Photosynthesis by In Vivo Chlorophyll Fluorescence: Application to High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping

In spite of the decrease in the rate of population growth, world population is expected to rise from the current figure (slightly above to 7.2 billion) to reach 9.6 billion in 2050. There is therefore a pressing need to increase food production. Since most of the best arable lands are already under production, expanding the agricultural areas would have negative impacts on important natural areas. Thereby, increasing the productivity of the current agricultural areas is the chief objective of agronomical planners, and planting more productive and better adapted plant varieties is crucial to achieve it. In fact, plant breeding is at the forefront of concern of both agronomists and plant biologists. Plant breeding is a millenary activity that deeply changed our world. However, the use of molecular biology techniques jointly with informatics capabilities—giving rise to the omics techniques—deeply accelerated plant breeding, providing new and better plant varieties at an increased pace. The advances in genomics, though, far by-passed the advances in phenomics, and so there is a rising consensus among plant breeders that plant phenotyping is a bottleneck to advancing plant breeding. Therefore, a range of international initiatives in high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) are at course, and new automated equipment is being developed. Phenotyping plants, however, is not a simple matter. To begin with, it has to be decided which parameters to measure in order to extrapolate to the desired goals, plant resistance and plant productivity. For this, as well as for plant breeding, an in-depth knowledge of plant physiology is required. Photosynthesis has been considered as a good indicator of overall plant performance. It is the only energy input in plants and thereby impacts all aspects of plant metabolism and physiology. The cumulative rate of photosynthesis over the growing season is the primary determinant of crop biomass. It largely determines the redox state of plant cells, and therefore, it is at the core of regulatory networks. Therefore, assessing photosynthesis and the photosynthetic apparatus plays a core role on plant phenotyping. Nevertheless, high-throughput phenotyping demands very rapid measurements, and consequently the most common method of photosynthesis measurement—the infra-red gas analysis—is not well suited for this purpose. On the contrary, the techniques based on in vivo chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence measurements are perfectly fit. In this chapter, an historical perspective on the development of in vivo Chl a measurement is briefly addressed. Then, the state of the art of the fluorescence-based techniques of photosynthesis assessment is presented, and their potential use in HTPP is evaluated. Finally, the current use of these techniques in the main systems of phenotyping is surveyed

Water stress and stress recovery of Portuguese maize cultivars

Poster apresentado na conferência "InterDrought II - the 2nd International Conference on Integrated Approaches to Sustain and Improve Plant Production Under Drought Stress", realizada em Roma, Itália, em Setembro de 2005.Water stress is the most important limitation to plant productivity. The development of drought resistant cultivars has become extremely important as we face the dramatic climate changes over the last years. Maize is one of the world’s most cultivated crops, but its production is limited to warm regions, where water limitation is often common. In six Portuguese maize cultivars (AD3R, PB64, PB260, PB269, PB304, PB369), from different regions of Portugal, drought was imposed, over one week, withholding water supply. Supply of water was restored afterwards and the plants studied for another week. Gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements were made. Relative water content (RWC) was assessed as a measure of plant water status. In control plants, RWC was superior to 90% in all cultivars but stressed plants showed a strong decrease, especially in PB260. Photosynthesis reached values close to zero after a week of stress and all cultivars recovered, with the exception of PB369. The same pattern was observed in transpiration and stomatal conductance. AD3R showed the highest water use efficiency (WUE) and PB64 the lowest. The maximum potential photochemical efficiency of photosystem II and the photochemical quenching showed a small decrease in the last day of stress in all cultivars. The non-photochemical quenching remained constant. The electron transport rate decreased but recovered in all cultivars. PB269 seems to be the cultivar most tolerant to drought, showing the highest rates of photosynthesis and an intermediate WUE. On the contrary, PB369 seems to be the most susceptible cultivar to water stress

Dispositivos móveis na recolha eletrónica de dados em estudos clínicos

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e TelemáticaMobile devices, including common smartphones and tablets, are being increasingly used for mHealth scenarios, in which the device is used to capture health values directly or acting as a hub for health sensors. Such applications allow a machine-to-machine capture and persistence of data, avoiding problems with manual data entry. The availability of smartphones and tablets, on one side, and wearable sensors/medical devices, on the other, creates an opportunity to use mobile data capture of health values also in clinical studies applications. In this dissertation, we propose a mobile front-end for clinical studies participants, developed in Android, including electronic data capture in ambulatory contexts. Besides the common questionnaire filling support, the front-end relies on the ISO/IEEE 11073 standard to directly obtain values from compliant medical devices. The work has been designed to integrate with the existing clinical studies platform uEDC (developed by iUZ Technologies). Early usage of the system shows that the mobile front-end can successfully support different devices and study protocols, fully integrated with the uEDC backend.Os dispositivos móveis, incluido os comuns smartphones e tablets, estão a ser cada vez mais usados em cenários de mHealth, em que o dispositivo é usado para a recolha de dados médicos diretamente ou atuando como um agregador para sensores médicos. Tais aplicações permitem captura e persistência eletrónica dos dados, prevenindo problemas com a inserção manual. A disponibilidade de smartphones e tablets, por um lado, e sensores vestíveis/dispositivos médicos, por outro, cria uma oportunidade para usar a captura de dados de saúde com dispositivos móveis também em aplicações de estudos clínicos. Nesta dissertação, propomos uma applicação móvel para a participação em estudos clínicos, desenvolvida em Android, incluindo a captura eletrónica de dados em contextos ambulatórios. Além do suporte comum para preenchimento de questionários, a aplicação utiliza o protocolo ISO/IEEE 11073 para comunicar com dispositivos médicos compatíveis. O trabalho foi concebido para se integrar com a plataforma de estudos clínicos uEDC (desenvolvida pela iUZ Technologies). O uso experimental dos sistemas mostra que o front-end móvel consegue com sucesso suportar diferentes dispositivos e protocolos de estudo, totalmente integrados com o backend uEDC

Photoprotection and optimization of sucrose usage contribute to faster recovery of photosynthesis after water deficit at high temperatures in wheat

Plants are increasingly exposed to events of elevated temperature and water deficit, which threaten crop productivity. Understanding the ability to rapidly recover from abiotic stress, restoring carbon assimilation and biomass production, is important to unravel crop climate resilience. This study compared the photosynthetic performance of two Triticum aestivum L. cultivars, Sokoll and Paragon, adapted to the climate of Mexico and UK, respectively, exposed to one week water deficit and high temperatures, in isolation or combination. Measurements included photosynthetic assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, in vitro activities of Rubisco (EC 4.1.1.39) and invertase (INV, EC 3.2.1.26), antioxidant capacity and chlorophyll a fluorescence. In both genotypes, under elevated temperatures and water deficit (WD38℃), the photosynthetic limitations were mainly due to stomatal restrictions and to a decrease in the electron transport rate. Chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters clearly indicate differences between the two genotypes in the photoprotection when subjected to WD38℃ and showed faster recovery of Paragon after stress relief. The activity of the cytosolic invertase (CytINV) under these stress conditions was strongly related to the fast photosynthesis recovery of Paragon. Taken together, the results suggest that optimal sucrose export/utilization and increased photoprotection of the electron transport machinery are important components to limit yield fluctuations due to water shortage and elevated temperatures

Avaliação do risco de desenvolver diabetes mellitus tipo 2 em uma unidade saúde familiar

It was intended to evaluate the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus over a period of 10 years in the adult population of a Family Health Unit in the central region of Portugal. A descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study was carried out in a probabilistic, simple random sample, consisting of 341 participants aged between 45 and 54 years, 54.3% female and 45.7% male. After obtaining authorizations and individual informed consent, data collection was carried out through a semi-structured interview. The risk assessment scale for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (FINDRISC) was used. Statistical treatment was performed by computer using the Statistical Package for Social Science program, version 23 of 2016. 129 participants were identified with moderately high, high or very high risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the participants with the highest risk are men, those living in rural areas, those taking anti-dyslipidemics, smokers and hypertensive patients. Participants who presented modifiable risk factors were made aware of the adoption of healthy behaviors, lifestyles and habits, highlighting the need to implement strategies that aim to reduce the effect of risk factors, thus enhancing the achievement of health gains in this sample.Pretendeu-se avaliar o risco de desenvolvimento de diabetes mellitus tipo 2 em um período temporal de 10 anos na população adulta de uma Unidade de Saúde Familiar da região centro de Portugal. Recorreu-se a um estudo descritivo-correlacional, transversal, numa amostra probabilística, aleatória simples, constituída por 341 participantes com idades compreendidas entre 45 e 54 anos, 54.3% do sexo feminino e 45.7% do sexo masculino. Após obtenção das autorizações e consentimento informado individual, a recolha de dados foi efetuada através de entrevista semiestruturada. Utilizou-se escala de avaliação do risco de desenvolvimento de diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (FINDRISC). O tratamento estatístico foi efetuado informaticamente recorrendo ao programa de Statistical Package for Science Social, versão 23 de 2016. Identificaram-se 129 participantes com risco moderadamente alto, alto ou muito alto de desenvolverem diabetes mellitus tipo 2, sendo que os participantes com maior risco são homens, os residentes em meio rural, os que tomam antidislipidémicos, fumadores e hipertensos. Os participantes que apresentaram fatores de risco modificáveis, foram sensibilizados quanto à adoção de comportamentos, estilos de vida e hábitos saudáveis, realçando-se a necessidade da implementação de estratégias que visem diminuir o efeito dos fatores de risco, potencializando-se assim a obtenção de ganhos em saúde nesta amostra

A arena da aprendizagem

O presente relatório de estágio incorpora todas as experiências vivenciadas no Estágio Profissional, unidade curricular do 2º ciclo de estudos conducente ao grau de Mestre em Ensino da Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário, da Faculdade de Desporto da Universidade do Porto. Este relatório visa descrever as vivências como Professor Estagiário na Escola Secundária de Ermesinde e EB 2/3 D. António Ferreira Gomes durante o ano letivo 2019/2020 sob a supervisão e orientação de um Professor Cooperante da instituição de acolhimento e de uma Professora Orientadora da Faculdade de Desporto da Universidade do Porto. O objetivo deste documento consiste em relatar e refletir a minha experiência no contexto de Estágio Profissional, em que descrevo as minhas perspetivas, dificuldades e aprendizagens. Assim, na parte inicial do Relatório de Estágio, está apresentado o enquadramento pessoal e profissional, descrevendo o meu trajeto e expectativas até ao momento do estágio. Seguidamente, apresenta-se um capítulo que contem a descrição das escolas, turmas e Núcleo de Estágio. Posteriormente, está apresentado as diversas experiências que ocorreram durante o Estágio Profissional, que engloba o planeamento, o primeiro contacto com a escola, o processo de avaliação e a importância de uma atitude reflexiva. O último capítulo tem como intuito de relatar as minhas perspetivas e experiências em contexto de Ensino à Distância. Na parte final deste documento está presente uma reflexão sobre a experiência do Estágio Profissional, que descreve as considerações finais e perspetivas futuras.This internship report incorporates all the experiences lived in the Professional Internship, a curricular unit of the 2nd cycle of studies leading to the Master's degree in Physical Education Teaching in Basic and Secondary Education, from the Faculty of Sport of the University of Porto. This report aims to describe the experiences as a Trainee Professor at the Escola Secundária de Ermesinde and EB 2/3 D. António Ferreira Gomes during the academic year 2019/2020 under the supervision and guidance of a Cooperating Professor at the host institution and an Advisor Professor at the Faculty of Sports of the University of Porto. The purpose of this document is to report and reflect my experience in the context of Professional Internship, in which I describe my perspectives, difficulties and learning. In the initial part of the Internship Report, the personal and professional framework is presented, describing my path and expectations until the moment of the internship. Then, a chapter is presented that contains the description of the schools, classes and Internship Center. Subsequently, the various experiences that occurred during the Professional Internship are presented, which includes planning, the first contact with the school, the evaluation process and the importance of a reflective attitude. The last chapter aims to report my perspectives and experiences in the context of Distance Learning. In the final part of this document there is a reflection on the experience of the Professional Internship, which describes the final considerations and future perspectives

Dimensionamento/projecto de reservatórios sob pressão (RSP) segundo a norma ASME séc. VIII

Mestrado em Engenharia MecânicaCom o presente trabalho pretendeu-se desenvolver um conjunto de modelos de cálculo com vista à criação de uma ferramenta computacional para o dimensionamento de recipientes sob pressão (RSP). Um dos objectivos principais foi criar uma ferramenta aberta, modular e com possibilidade de evolução futura, que corra em ambiente Microsoft Windows. Os modelos implementados são totalmente baseados nas indicações de cálculo das normas que regulamentam toda a construção de reservatórios sob pressão, tais como, por exemplo, o código de cálculo ASME Section VIII. Ficando em aberto e estruturada a interligação para a Norma Europeia EN13445, de forma a optimizar todo o cálculo e custos associados daí inerentes. ABSTRACT: The aim of the present work was to create a set of numeric models and develop computational tools that enable the design and dimensioning of unfired pressure vessels. The main purpose was to create an “open” software, modular and with the possibility of further improvements/extensions. This program was designed to run in Microsoft Windows environment. The numeric models used are in conformity with all the calculations recommended in unfired pressure vessels construction standards such as, for example, the design code ASME Section VIII. This software was also implemented with the possibility of integrating the European Standard EN13445, in order tot optimize the cost calculations of the process