Variações da temperatura de superfície e produtividade oceânicas ao largo da Margem Ibérica durante os últimos 20.000 anos

Este trabalho teve como objectivo a reconstrução detalhada da temperatura superficial do oceano (SST) e produtividade oceânica ao largo da margem Ibérica, ao longo dos últimos 20 ka. Foram analisadas amostras de sedimento da sondagem de pistão Calypso MD01-2446 (39º03.36’N, 12º37.44’W; 3547 m) colhida na vertente sudeste do monte submarino do Tore, situada a 300 km a oeste de Portugal. Foram quantificados foraminíferos planctónicos e bênticos em 56 amostras. As variações de SST e produtividade exportada foram calculadas usando a técnica de função de transferência SIMMAX 28 de Pflaumann et al. (1996) e uma versão alargada da base de dados de Salgueiro et al. (2010). A SST reconstruída para os últimos 20 ka varia entre os 10 e os 21,7 ºC e a produtividade exportada de Verão varia entre os 31,5 e os 95,2 gC/m2/a. O Holocénico é marcado por uma SST de Verão relativamente quente, acima de 20 ºC, e pode ser dividido em 3 fases, com uma SST um pouco mais fria antes e depois de um período quente entre os 7,7 e os 3,7 ka BP. Este período quente coincidiu com os valores mínimos de produtividade exportada. Entre 13,3 e 12 ka BP ocorreu um período mais frio (mínimo de 10 ºC), com aumento dos valores de produtividade exportada (máximo de 89,9 gC/m2/a). As tendências observadas no core MD01-2446 estão, em geral, de acordo com o registo de baixa resolução da sondagem D11957P, também localizada no monte submarino do Tore (39º03’N, 12º35’W, Lebreiro et al., 1997). A evolução climática durante o Holocénico registada pela sondagem MD01-2446 é semelhante à encontrada em sondagens localizadas ao largo de Sines (37º47.99N, 10º9.99’W, Salgueiro et al., 2010), embora tenha registado maior arrefecimento durante o Younger Dryas que as sondagens costeiras da margem Portuguesa e o evento de Heinrich 1 tenha sido mais quente

Integrated plant monitoring to improve plant operation strategy and results

The more and more demanding conditions in the power generation sector requires to apply all the available technologies to optimize processes and reduce costs. An integrated asset management strategy, combining technical analysis and operation and maintenance management can help to improve plant performance, flexibility and reliability. In order to deploy such a model it is necessary to combine plant data and specific equipment condition information, with different systems devoted to analyze performance and equipment condition, and take advantage of the results to support operation and maintenance decisions. This model that has been dealt in certain detail for electricity transmission and distribution networks, is not yet broadly extended in the power generation sector, as proposed in this study for the case of a combined power plant. Its application would turn in direct benefit for the operation and maintenance and for the interaction to the energy marke

eXcitingTrails/Events: Events for Touristic Scenarios

The Internet's availability and the growth of Information and Communication Technologies are increasingly being used in benefit of tourism and culture. This project's main goal is to explore innovative solutions to make tourism more appealing. In the scope of the eXcitingTrails initiative, this proposal consists on the creation and promotion of different events for different environments through a web application that manages a small community of users. To enrich this system, a mobile guide, that takes advantage of positioning and wireless communication, is developed to support the realization of these events. The usage scenarios involve leisure activities, like guided or autonomous walks, or even ludic and competitive games, such as peddypapers where visitors can better discover or learn cultural and historical information about a specific area of interest while playing a game and socializing with other visitors

Teaching (History) in the 21st Century: new competencies with identical contents

Contemporary thinking in Education must go beyond what is already known and feed on a utopian vision. Regardless of the contents, the change needs to happen, within the pedagogical practice above anything else: listening more and talking less; embracing new perspectives and different readings from well-known authors; preparing our interlocutors (students) to face the unforeseen and the uncertainty with optimism. In Basic and Secondary Education, this circumstance assumes the characteristics of a historical thinking and a historical consciousness progressively more sophisticated and, therefore, coincident with a reading of the world desirably more complex and humanistic. In Higher Education, it is crucial that future teachers perceive the relevance of that attitude of change. Based on these contemporary educational potentialities and challenges, we intend to discuss possible paths to consider, today, a teaching of History that allows us to design new futures or other competencies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Formal Gold to Gold Transmetalation of an Alkynyl Group Mediated by Palladium: A Bisalkynyl Gold Complex as a Ligand to Palladium

Producción CientíficaThe reaction of [Au(C≡CnBu)]n with [Pd(η3-allyl)Cl(PPh3)] results in a ligand and alkynyl rearrangement, and leads to the heterometallic complex [Pd(η3-allyl){Au(C≡CnBu)2}]2 (3) with an unprecedented bridging bisalkynyl gold ligand coordinated to palladium. This is a formal gold to gold transmetalation that occurs through reversible alkynyl transmetalations between gold and palladium.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (CTQ2013-48406-P)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA064U13

Screening of the activity of quercetin-biapigenin and their poly(ε-caprolactone)-loaded nanoparticles in HepG2 cells

Hypericum perforatum extracts have been used for their antidepressive effects. A selected fraction (HP) containing quercetin and biapigenin proved to be neuroprotective. Liver is the organ primary responsible for compound metabolization and extremely susceptibility to toxic effects. This study aims to determine the hepatotoxic/protective activity of HP and HP PCL-loaded nanoparticles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human and microbial proteins from corpora amylacea of Alzheimer's disease

Corpora amylacea (CA) are spherical bodies mainly composed of polyglucans and, to a lesser extent, proteins. They are abundant in brains from patients with neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease. Although CA were discovered many years ago, their precise origin and function remain obscure. CA from the insular cortex of two Alzheimer's patients were purified and the protein composition was assessed by proteomic analysis. A number of microbial proteins were identified and fungal DNA was detected by nested PCR.A wide variety of human proteins form part of CA. In addition, we unequivocally demonstrated several fungal and bacterial proteins in purified CA. In addition to a variety of human proteins, CA also contain fungal and bacterial polypeptides.In conclusion, this paper suggests that the function of CA is to scavenge cellular debris provoked by microbial infections.The financial support of Pharma Mar, S.A. is acknowledged. We also acknowledge an institutional grant to Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” from the Fundación Ramón Arece

Spatial Analysis of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in Europe: A Scoping Review

Mosquito-borne infections are increasing in endemic areas and previously unaffected regions. In 2020, the notification rate for Dengue was 0.5 cases per 100,000 population, and for Chikungunya <0.1/100,000. In 2019, the rate for Malaria was 1.3/100,000, and for West Nile Virus, 0.1/100,000. Spatial analysis is increasingly used in surveillance and epidemiological investigation, but reviews about their use in this research topic are scarce. We identify and describe the methodological approaches used to investigate the distribution and ecological determinants of mosquito-borne infections in Europe. Relevant literature was extracted from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception until October 2021 and analysed according to PRISMA-ScR protocol. We identified 110 studies. Most used geographical correlation analysis (n = 50), mainly applying generalised linear models, and the remaining used spatial cluster detection (n = 30) and disease mapping (n = 30), mainly conducted using frequentist approaches. The most studied infections were Dengue (n = 32), Malaria (n = 26), Chikungunya (n = 26), and West Nile Virus (n = 24), and the most studied ecological determinants were temperature (n = 39), precipitation (n = 24), water bodies (n = 14), and vegetation (n = 11). Results from this review may support public health programs for mosquito-borne disease prevention and may help guide future research, as we recommended various good practices for spatial epidemiological studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio