Effect of high-intensity exercise program in the number of circulation endothelial: progenitor cells in overweight/obese adolescents

A obesidade tem aumentado entre a população jovem, e em consequência todas as suas patologias associadas. Isto está atualmente associado à disfunção endotelial, bem como ao número de células progenitoras e à sua capacidade endotelial regenerativa. O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar os efeitos de um programa de treino com exercícios de alta intensidade no número circulante de células tronco hematopoiéticas e células progenitoras endoteliais em adolescentes com sobrepeso/obesos. Um total de 20 (média de idade: 16.7 ± 1.0 anos de idade, peso: 76.9 ± 13.3 kg, índice de massa corporal: 28.4 ± 3.9 kg/m2) adolescentes com sobrepeso/obesos completaram um plano de treino de alta intensidade de 10 semanas com 3 sessões diferentes por semana, cada sessão com a duração de cerca de 60 minutos, composta por aquecimento; exercícios funcionais de alta intensidade em circuito e retorno à calma. Os exercícios foram realizados em intensidades máximas, com frequência cardíaca acima de 90% da frequência cardíaca teórica. A composição corporal, o número de células progenitoras endoteliais e células tronco hematopoiéticas foram medidos na linha de base e após 10 semanas de intervenção usando citometria de fluxo. Resultados: Após a intervenção, observou-se aumento do número de células progenitoras endoteliais (0.0060 ± 0.0021 to 0.0081 ± 0.0020%, p=0.006); o número de células tronco hematopoiéticas não sofreu alteração (0.0319 ± 0.0070 to 0.0321 ± 0.0041%, p=0.920). Uma diminuição significativa no peso corporal (76.91 ± 13.29 to 75.6 ± 12.55, p=0.006), IMC (28.39 ± 3.86 to 27.96 ± 3.79, p=0.011), circunferência abdominal (94.05 ± 11.26 to 90.21 ± 12.00, p<0.001), quantidade de massa gorda (27.53 ± 6.66 to 24.25 ± 6.19, p<0.001) e um aumento significativo de massa magra (49.40 ± 9.57 to 51.35 ± 9.53, p<0.001) foram observados após a intervenção. Conclusão: Este programa de exercícios de alta intensidade de 10 semanas melhorou vários índices de obesidade e aumentou os níveis de circulação de EPCs

Comparing users preferences with landscape planning and management proposals at regional level – tourism sector

Landscape European Convention considers landscape an important part of quality of life for people everywhere and its protection, management and planning entail rights and responsibilities for everyone. In this sense, landscape planning should go beyond technician approaches or legal frameworks to also involve people in the processes. This raises the question of using the results from scientific knowledge developed by different methods to the design of proposals for territorial and sectorial institutional planning – moving into action to transdisciplinarity. This paper addresses this issue as it bridges across the results of a landscape preference survey for tourists in the Alentejo region (included in the ROSA project) and the landscape planning and management proposals for tourism in the Regional Strategic Plan for Alentejo-PROTAL. The results obtained can lead to the adjustment of PROTAL strategies and/or proposed land uses, improving the planning process to include people preferences

Is land cover an important asset for addressing the subjective landscape dimensions

This paper explores which physical landscape components relate to subjective landscape dimensions. The ways in which people describe their surrounding cultural landscape was analyzed through an assessment of their representations of it. A special focus was placed on assessing the role of land cover as a means to communicate landscape meanings regarding a specific geographical region. The methodological framework was built on the basis of a questionnaire survey, multivariate statistical analysis and mapping approaches. This research shows that there is a set of physical landscape components that relate to subjective landscape dimensions which can be disclosed through the assessment of social representations. Enhancing and safeguarding those physical landscape components associated with the subjective landscape dimensions are important aspects in both framing and targeting land cover/use policies and decision making. Results also suggest that land cover can be understood as an important asset for describing landscapes as more than 30% of respondents referred to it when asked to represent the case study region of Alentejo in southern Portugal. This might mean that in addition to objective ecological and biological functions, land cover is also an important asset for evaluating subjective landscape dimensions in line with place attachment and landscape identity. Finally, the ways in which the empirical material gathered here can be used to inform policy and planning are explored

MarinEye - A tool for marine monitoring

This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological monitoring – the MarinEye system. It comprises a set of sensors providing diverse and relevant information for oceanic environment characterization and marine biology studies. It is constituted by a physicalchemical water properties sensor suite, a water filtration and sampling system for DNA collection, a plankton imaging system and biomass assessment acoustic system. The MarinEye system has onboard computational and logging capabilities allowing it either for autonomous operation or for integration in other marine observing systems (such as Observatories or robotic vehicles. It was designed in order to collect integrated multi-trophic monitoring data. The validation in operational environment on 3 marine observatories: RAIA, BerlengasWatch and Cascais on the coast of Portugal is also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelo de análise da produção científica em Programas de Pós-Graduação com base em redes de interação: estudo de caso nas Ciências Ambientais

A avaliação permanente dos Programas de Pós-Graduação (PPG) constitui importante instrumento para melhoria no cenário de conhecimento científico e no desenvolvimento tecnológico no Brasil. O objetivo do artigo foi desenvolver um modelo para análise da produção científica dos PPG, utilizando recursos de redes de interação, com recorte para as ciências ambientais, visando detectar padrões e conexões entre eles. O recorte da pesquisa abrangeu todos os 112 PPG e os cursos da Área de Ciências Ambientais da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoas de Nível Superior (CAPES), no período de 2013 a 2016. A metodologia foi dividida em quatro etapas: 1. coleta de dados e construção de um banco de dados (informações públicas obtidas em consulta à Plataforma Sucupira — CAPES); 5. mineração e processamento dos dados e a produção de uma rede geral para representar os termos e os temas de maior relevância comuns a todas as produções dos PPG (teses, dissertações, projetos de pesquisas, artigos, livros e capítulos de livros); 3. análise das redes semânticas; 4. geração de produtos. Os resultados da pesquisa retornaram como produtos mapas de proximidade geográfica e de agrupamentos, que permitiram analisar a produção dos PPG das Ciências Ambientais em relação aos seus temas centrais, de forma integrada. A metodologia empregada se mostrou bastante robusta e apropriada para contribuir na avaliação dos programas de pós-graduação brasileiros, bem como para identificar lacunas na pesquisa e áreas emergentes em escala nacional, culminando em uma proposta de modelo que, a partir das redes semânticas, analisem as produções científicas nas avaliações quadrienais

Influenza severe cases in hospitals, between 2014 and 2016 in Portugal

Rede Portuguesa de Laboratórios para o Diagnóstico da GripeBackground: Since 2009, the Portuguese Laboratory Network (PLNID) for Influenza Diagnosis has integrated 15 Laboratories in mainland and Atlantic Islands of Azores and Madeira. This PLNID added an important contribute to the National Influenza Surveillance Program regarding severe and hospitalized influenza cases. The present study aims to describe influenza viruses detected in influenza like illness (ILI) cases: outpatients (Outp), hospitalized (Hosp), and intensive care units (ICU), between 2014 and 2016. Methods: The PLNID performs influenza virus diagnosis by biomolecular methodologies. Weekly reports to the National Influenza Reference Laboratory ILI cases tested for influenza. Reports include data on detecting viruses, hospital assistance, antiviral therapeutics, and information on death outcome. Were reported during two winter seasons 8059 ILI cases,being 3560 cases in 2014/15 (1024 in Outp, 1750 Hosp, and 606 in ICU) and 4499 cases in 2015/2016 (1933 in Outp, 1826 Hosp, and 740 in ICU). Results: The higher percentage of influenza positive cases were detected in Outp in both seasons, 18% during 2014/15 and 20% in 2015/16. In 2014/15,influenza cases were more frequent in individuals older than 65 years old and these required more hospitalizations,even in ICU. In 2015/16,the influenza cases were mainly detected in individuals between 15-64 years old. A higher proportion of influenza positive cases with hospitalization in ICU were observed in adults between 45-64 years old.During the study period,the predominant circulating influenza viruses were different in the two seasons: influenza B and A(H3) co-circulated in 2014/15,and influenza A(H1)pdm09 was predominant during 2015/16. Even when influenza A is notthe dominant virus, A(H3) and A(H1)pdm09 subtypes correlate with higher detection rate in hospitalized cases (Hosp and UCI), with higher frequencies in adults older than 45. Influenza B,detected in higher proportion in outpatients, was frequently relatedwith influenza cases in younger age groups: 0-4 and 5-14 years old. Conclusions: This study highlights the correlation of theinfluenza virus type/subtype that circulates in each season with the possible need for hospitalization and intensive care in special groups of the population. Circulation of influenza A subtypes can cause more frequentdisease in individuals older than 45, with need of hospitalization including intensive care. On the other hand, influenza B is more frequently associated with less severe cases and with infection in children and younger adults. Influenza B circulation might predict lower number of hospitalizations.The identification of influenza type in circulation,byPLNID ineach season, could guide action planning measures in population health care.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Immune and spermatogenesis-related loci are involved in the development of extreme patterns of male infertility

We conducted a genome-wide association study in a large population of infertile men due to unexplained spermatogenic failure (SPGF). More than seven million genetic variants were analysed in 1,274 SPGF cases and 1,951 unaffected controls from two independent European cohorts. Two genomic regions were associated with the most severe histological pattern of SPGF, defined by Sertoli cell-only (SCO) phenotype, namely the MHC class II gene HLA-DRB1 (rs1136759, P = 1.32E-08, OR = 1.80) and an upstream locus of VRK1 (rs115054029, P = 4.24E-08, OR = 3.14), which encodes a protein kinase involved in the regulation of spermatogenesis. The SCO-associated rs1136759 allele (G) determines a serine in the position 13 of the HLA-DR beta 1 molecule located in the antigen-binding pocket. Overall, our data support the notion of unexplained SPGF as a complex trait influenced by common variation in the genome, with the SCO phenotype likely representing an immune-mediated condition. A GWAS in a large case-control cohort of European ancestry identifies two genomic regions, the MHC class II gene HLA-DRB1 and an upstream locus of VRK1, that are associated with the most severe phenotype of spermatogenic failure

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio