A review on the biological activity of camellia species

Medicinal plants have been used since antiquity to cure illnesses and injuries. In the last few decades, natural compounds extracted from plants have garnered the attention of scientists and the Camellia species are no exception. Several species and cultivars are widespread in Asia, namely in China, Japan, Vietnam and India, being also identified in western countries like Portugal. Tea and oil are the most valuable and appreciated Camellia subproducts extracted from Camellia sinensis and Camellia oleifera, respectively. The economic impact of these species has boosted the search for additional information about the Camellia genus. Many studies can be found in the literature reporting the health benefits of several Camellia species, namely C. sinensis, C. oleifera and Camellia japonica. These species have been highlighted as possessing antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral) and antitumoral activity and as being a huge source of polyphenols such as the catechins. Particularly, epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), and specially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major polyphenols of green tea. This paper presents a detailed review of Camellia species' antioxidant properties and biological activity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Learning Chemistry by Playing

Chemistry belongs to the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathemat ics), which are often labelled as hard subjects of matter. This idea is a starting point to demotivate children even before they learn the subject at school. In addition, school subjects are increasingly extensive and common teaching strategies are becoming less captivating. On the other hand, nowadays children have a strong relationship with technology, particularly with mobile games, which are a good way to pass the time with small e↵ort while providing an enjoyable experience. The evolution of technology also allows us to take advantage of certain tools such as augmented reality, which has presented great potential in the educational field and in the creation of motivation. Another important subject that is directly related to chemistry is climate change. Tak ing into account that children are the generation of the future, it is relevant that they are aware of Climate Change causes and the impacts that those changes have and will have in our planet, as well as the solutions and measures to be implemented, so that the e↵ects won’t be aggravated. Hence, we created an educational mobile game targeting 9 to 12-year-old children to explore its utilization in the transmission of chemistry knowledge, as well as in the creation of motivation and in sensitization regarding climate change subjects. The game contains a unique storyline, and it is based on augmented reality technologies and tangi ble interfaces, that enrich the learning experience. According to our findings, the game provided a pleasant experience to the users, who significantly improved their knowledge regarding basic chemistry concepts addressed in the game. In addition, the game promoted a more positive attitude regarding the chemistry field and awareness regarding the climate change problematic.A química pertence às áreas STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), que são frequentemente rotuladas como difíceis. Esta ideia é um ponto de partida para criar desmotivação por parte das crianças mesmo antes destas aprenderem a matéria na escola. Para além disso, as matérias escolares são cada vez mais extensas e as estratégias comuns de ensino estão a tornar-se cada vez menos cativantes. Por outro lado, hoje em dia as crianças têm uma forte ligação com a tecnologia, em particular com os jogos de telemóvel, que são uma boa maneira de passar o tempo com pouco esforço e ao mesmo tempo providenciam uma experiência agradável. A evolução da tecnologia permite-nos também tirar partido de ferramentas como a realidade aumentada, que tem apresentado um grande potencial na área da educação e na criação de motivação. Outro assunto de grande importância diretamente relacionado com a química são as alterações climáticas. Tendo em conta que as crianças são a geração do futuro, é importante que estas estejam a par das causas e impactos que estas alterações têm e terão no nosso planeta, e ainda das soluções e medidas a serem implementadas, de forma a não agravar os seus efeitos. Como tal, foi criado um jogo educacional para dispositivos móveis destinado a crianças dos 9 aos 12 anos, pretendendo explorar a sua utilização na transmissão de conhecimentos de química, bem como na criação de motivação e na sensibilização relativamente às alterações climáticas. O jogo contém uma história única, e é baseado em tecnologias de realidade aumentada e interfaces tangíveis, de forma a enriquecer a experiência de aprendizagem. De acordo com nossas descobertas, o jogo proporcionou uma experiência agradável aos participantes do estudo, que melhoraram significativamente o seu conhecimento em relação a conceitos básicos de química abordados no jogo. Para além disso, o jogo promoveu uma atitude mais positiva relativamente ao tema da química e uma conscientização relativamente à problemática das mudanças climáticas

Business Strategy and Human Capital: People as Centerpiece. Vicissitudes, Constraints and Opportunities in 21st Century Management

The purpose of this study is to identify the relation between Business Strategy and Human Capital as well as to obtain a deeper understanding of how the introduction of a clear human capital analysis in early stages of strategic planning impact Strategy Execution and the company’s achieved results. By conducting this research we have concluded that Human Capital and Business Strategy have an intimate relationship. In fact, through literature review,surveys and interviews we were able to understand not only that the alignment between a company’s human capital and its outline strategy is critical for strategy implementation and execution but also that the use of a Human Capital Analysis, along with other management tools, in strategic planning helps to maximize the efficiency of achieved results: on one hand by enabling to design more realistic and doable strategies, it helps to align the strategy with the company’s human capital strengths and weaknesses in order to reduce the strategy execution GAP allowing maximizing the efficiency of achieved results, and on other hand by enabling the right alignment between who defines the corporate strategy and who implements it, it helps the whole company´s human capital become more productive and productive people don’t waste time or resources allowing maximizing the efficiency of achieved results. This study’s conclusions point towards the need of rethinking the classic tools used in strategic planning, in order to diminish the Strategy Execution GAP and to help companies achieving better results

Roman republican amphorae from Molião (Lagos, Algarve, Portugal)

[po] as escavações arqueológicas levadas a efeito em monte molião, no algarve litoral, evidenciaram uma extensa ocupação romano/republicana, cujo início foi possível datar do último quartel do século ii a.n.e. Do conjunto dos materiais recolhidos nos nív

The thin walled pottery from Monte Moliao (Lagos, Portugal)

As campanhas de escavação realizadas durante a última década em Monte Molião (Lagos, Portugal) têm permitido aduzir dados importantes para o conhecimento da ocupação romana do sul do território actualmente português. Neste trabalho, é apresentado o conjunto de cerâmica de paredes finas exumado no sítio. Trata-se de produções com origem sobretudo na Península Itálica e no sul da Hispânia, abarcando uma cronologia se estende desde os finais do século II a.C. até ao século II d.C. Os contextos de recolha e, portanto, as associações de materiais permitiram analisar a evolução formal desta categoria cerâmica e discutir as morfologias em função do faseamento já definido para o sítioThe archaeological works carried out during the last decade in Monte Molião (Lagos, Portugal) have allowed to add important data for the knowledge of the Roman occupation of the south of the Portuguese territory. In this work, we present the thin walled pottery assemblage that was so far recovered in the site. They entail vases fabricated mainly in the Italic Peninsula and southern Spain, encompassing a chronology extending from the late 2nd century BC to the late 2nd century AD. Its stratigraphic contexts and, therefore, the material culture associations allow to analyze the evolution of this ceramic category throughout this period and to discuss its morphologies according to the phasing already established for the sit

Detection of resistant mutants within Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony morphology variants in lung cystic fibrosis environment

Bacterial infections caused mainly by P. aeruginosa are typical of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Despite the long and aggressive antibiotic therapy, CF patients still died because of these chronic infections. The deprived bacterial eradication is mainly due to several strategies adopted by bacteria to achieve CF airways adaptation and tolerance to antibiotics. Biofilm formation and phenotypic switching are among the most relevant adaptive biological processes. Triggering those processes bacteria have the potential to better survive to CF conditions and antibiotics action. Phenotypic switching provides a source of microbial diversity through switch between two phenotypic states, analogue to a mechanism ON/OFF, without the fitness costs of irreversible mutations. This interchange of states, visible by differential colony morphology, can have serious impact on bacterial virulence, antimicrobial resistance and persistence. The present work aims to investigate the specific colony variants-forming bacteria responsible by typical CF chronic infections. Through isolation and deep characterization of those colony variants, including discriminatory antibiotic susceptibility profiles and virulence characterization, it is intended to determine the mechanisms underlying the inefficiency of antimicrobial therapies of airway CF. P. aeruginosa strains (collection and clinical isolated) and LB medium were used to simulate airway CF infections. Clonal diversification of P. aeruginosa was checked after 24, 48, 72 and 120 hours after media inoculation (or initial infection) by colony morphology observation. The different colonies were further deep characterized in terms of resistance to in-use antibiotics including piperacillin (PRL), aztreonam (ATM), cefepime (FEP) and ceftazidime (CAZ) in Mueller-Hinton agar plates. Biofilm formation was also tested since it is one of the most relevant virulence factors in airway CF context. Data obtained revealed that new colony variants arisen according infection development stage. These new variants were generally more resistant than the normal P. aeruginosa colony morphology. Interestingly, the population were generally composed by colony variants with distinct resistance profiles. Some colony variants exhibited high specific resistance to CAZ, other variants to PRL or FEP. Some colony variants multi-resistant were as well observed. Such heterogeneous behaviours were also observed concerning biofilm formation ability. These results seemed to corroborate the “insurance hypothesis” that posits biodiversity as a mechanism to ensure population survival. In addition, data also highlight novel evidences since it was noted that single and well-differentiated colonies seemed to encompass bacteria with distinct phenotypes. Such evidences emerged when a single colony was used to test its susceptibility and it was observed resistant mutants within the inhibition zones. The inclusion of resistant mutants was not exclusive of small colony variants, well known for its high and diverse antibiotic resistance. Several other colony morphologies showed to encompass resistant mutants in their populations. This evidence might revolutionize the actual colony morphology knowledge. Colony variants have been so far studied and considered as an amount of identical bacteria. So, it is not just need the simple profiling of colony variants but the deep knowledge about bacteria that composed them. The ignorance or under valorisation of these mutants may be the reason of recalcitrance of CF infections. CF antimicrobial therapies must consider those mutants

A prospect of current microbial diagnosis methods

An accurate identification and characterization of pathogens is crucial in disease management. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the microbial diagnosis method influence the choice of the antimicrobial agent to be used in the treatment of infection. Traditionally, bacterial diagnosis is based on conventional and culturing-dependent approaches, such as culture and counting methods, generally coupled to morphological and physiological characterization. Currently, rapid technological advances in bacterial identification methods are occurring providing a bewildering wide range of techniques to detect, identify and differentiate bacteria. Molecular methods, such as ELISA and PCR, had introduced great improvements in bacterial identification as they contributed to speed up the analysis and the reduction of handling. However, it has been demonstrated that heterogeneous microbial communities are the main cause of several human infections. This genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity is crucial to microorganisms achieving adaptation to human host, and it might reflect distinct pathogenicity potential. The aforementioned molecular methods and new emergent methods, such as MALDI-TOF MS, have still limitations in full identification and differentiation of microbial heterogeneity. Therefore, a new generation of diagnosis methods able to detect and characterize microbial heterogeneity should be developed. Microbial infections are like dynamic systems and it is essential that diagnosis methods and technologies rapidly evolve to detect and measure changes occurring at individual and population level. This new kind of methods will allow a relevant shift about infection development understanding, as well about microbial mechanisms of resistance to antibiotics and human defences and persistence ability in human host that culminate in better medical decisions about antimicrobial therapy

Ceramic unguentaria from Scallabis (Santarém, Portugal)

Archaeological field work carried out in Alcáçova de Santarém (Portugal) during the last two decades of the 20th century have identified a significant amount of data concerning the site’s occupation during the Roman period. In this work, we present and analyze a particular type of archaeological materials associated to this phase, the ceramic unguentaria. This set is, so far, the largest uncovered in habitat settlements in the Portuguese territory (65 fragments – 30 individuals), encompassing the two main shapes of these vessels (fusiform and bulbous profiles), apparently imported from the Italic Peninsula, between the 2nd century BC and the first half of the 1st century AD.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biotecnologia: o futuro da medicina humana

Semana de Ciência e Tecnologia 2008 - O CEB na Escola Secundária de Barcelosinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio