Wild flowers in urban spaces

Research into wild flowers with a view to their use in urban spaces has not been undertaken in Portugal, considering their importance in ecological design. The Mediterranean climate involves the seasonally of air temperature and precipitation, which leads to a hot drought period in summer and wet period in winter. The reintroduction of native plants reduces the cost of establishing and maintaining as the sustainability green spaces. So, the aim of this work focuses on the behaviour of the native meadow in a young olive orchard, evaluating the floristic composition and its variation along the study. Three years of field experiment were performed comprising two treatments: the mobilized, in which the management of the plants was controlled through the mobilization, and the native meadowland covering until the beginning of the dry period. After that, the plants were cut off by a rotary mower. The observation of the development of the land covering was made with the help of floristical survey during the spring. The results observed in green cover, show a tendency to the increase of monocotyledonae in relation to dicotyledons

Beatus Manuscripts under the microscope: The Alcobaça Beatus and the Iberian Cistercian Tradition revisited

SFRH/BPD/70305/2010The Alcobaça Beatus (Lisbon, National Library, Alc. 247) is one of the few extant unillustrated copies of the eighth-century Commentary on the Apocalypse attributed to the Iberian monk Beatus of Liébana. It has traditionally been considered that this Beatus was produced at the Cistercian Portuguese abbey of Santa Maria de Alcobaça and that its model was the Lorvão Beatus (Lisbon, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Ordem de Cister, Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Lorvão, Liv. 44). This article provides the first in-depth examination of the Alcobaça Beatus, carried out by a multidisciplinary team using combined methods from the natural and human sciences. The technical data provided by the analysis of the decoration, molecular palette and bookbinding support the theory of its production at the scriptorium of the Portuguese monastery of Alcobaça, whereas the analysis of the textual structure and content reveals that the Alcobaça Beatus and the Lorvão Beatus show a different sequence of texts and that the Alcobaça copy contains later notes that evidence its use in the monastic reading practice, especially the liturgical readings of the Divine Office. This set of results turns this manuscript, which had received minimal scholarly attention to date, into a significant case study since it reveals itself as the basis to further investigate the corpus of extant Beatus copies and question the importance of such a work within the Cistercian order, thus provoking new questions within the debate on Cistercians and their identity around the year 1200.authorsversionpublishe

Simulated hemodynamics in human carotid bifurcation based on Doppler ultrasound data

Background: Atherosclerotic lesions commonly develop at arterial branch sites. Noninvasive carotid artery ultrasound is a well-established and effective method which allows real-time images and measurements of flow velocities. We aimed to develop a methodology for patient-specific computational 3D reconstruction and blood flow simulation based on ultrasound image data.Material and Methods: Subject-specific studies based on the acquisition of a set of longitudinal and sequential cross-sectional ultrasound images and Doppler velocity measurements at common carotid artery (CCA) bifurcation were performed at a university hospital. A developed simulation code of blood flow by the finite element method (FEM) that includes an adequate structured meshing of the common carotid artery bifurcation was used to investigate local flow biomechanics.Results: Hemodynamic simulations of CCA bifurcations for six individuals were analysed. Comparing pairs (Doppler, FEM) of velocity values, Lin's concordance correlation coefficient analysis demonstrated an almost perfect strength of agreement (c = 0.9911), in patients with different degrees of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. Numerical simulations were able to capture areas of low wall shear stress correlated with stagnation zones.Conclusions: Simulated hemodynamic parameters can reproduce the disturbed flow conditions at the bifurcation of CCA and proximal ICA, which play an important role in the development of local atherosclerotic plaques. This novel technology might help to understand the relationship between hemodynamic environment and carotid wall lesions, and have a future impact in carotid stenosis diagnosis and management

Evaluation of a novel Escherichia coli fusion system for overproduction of recombinant immunogenic proteins

Recombinant protein production has been widely applied for therapeutic and diagnostic applications, namely for polyclonal antibody production. Antibodies are usually raised against a specific protein by immunization of animals with the purified protein. The bacterium Escherichia coli is one of the most used host cells for the bio-production of proteins, but it still presents some drawbacks: many proteins of biomedical interest are difficult to express properly in this host system, resulting in insoluble protein aggregates. Gene fusion technology has been employed to optimize recombinant protein production in E. coli. Fusion partners have also been used to potentially increase protein immunogenicity. In this work, the overproduction and immunopotentiating properties of a novel fusion system were studied. Novel fusion tags, Fh8 and H, were fused to five target proteins with diagnostic interests: CP12, a 12 kDa surface protein from Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts; CWP, a cyst wall protein from Giardia lamblia; ENT, a surface protein from Entamoeba histolytica cysts; TgOWP, a Toxoplasma gondii oocyst wall protein; and Frutalin, a recombinant lectin from Artocarpus incisa seeds. Production yields of all Fh8-fused proteins, H-fused proteins and non-fused recombinant proteins were compared and polyclonal antibodies were raised against CP12, CWP and ENT nonfused and H-fused antigens. Overall, the results showed that the fusion of both Fh8 and H tags to all target proteins improved their production in comparison with the respective non-fused target proteins. Moreover, the H tag efficiently increased CP12, CWP and ENT specific immunogenicity without being removed from the fusion antigens and without coadministration of adjuvants, resulting in a more effective and earlier immune response. The overproduction and immunopotentiating effects observed for this novel fusion system make it a unique alternative for recombinant protein production in E. coli and for immunodiagnostic and immunoprophylactic purposes

Effects of soil management systems on olive grove plant diversity

Avaliou-se a cobertura e a diversidade específica da vegetação herbácea na entrelinha de um olival jovem, sujeito a dois sistemas de maneio - mobilização (MOB) e corte do coberto vegetal (enrelvamento - ENR) - durante 7 anos. A cobertura, riqueza e diversidade específicas foram mais elevadas no ENR. A MOB promoveu o desenvolvimento de compostas e convolvuláceas e o ENR favoreceu as gramíneas. O ENR, em alternativa à MOB, parece beneficiar os recursos florísticos, prevenindo a perda de biodiversidade, mesmo na sua fase inicial. Adicionalmente, o aumento de gramíneas e a deposição de palha podem melhorar o trânsito dos equipamentos agrícolas durante a poda e a colheita

Contribution of traffic and tobacco smoke in the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on outdoor and indoor PM2.5

Traffic emissions and tobacco smoke are considered two main sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor and outdoor air. In this study, the impact of these sources on the level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and on the distribution of 15 PAHs regarded as priority pollutants by the US-EPA on PM2.5 were evaluated and compared. Outdoor and indoor PM2.5 samples were collected during winter 2008 in Oporto city in Portugal, for sampling periods of 12 and 24 hours, respectively. The outdoor PM2.5 were sampled at one site directly influenced by traffic emissions and the indoor PM2.5 samples were collected at one home directly influenced by tobacco smoke and another one without smoke. A methodology based on microwave-assisted extraction and liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection was applied for the efficient PAHs determination in indoor and outdoor PM2.5. PAHs in indoor PM2.5 concentrations were significantly influenced by the presence of traffic and tobacco smoking emissions. The mean of ΣPAHs in the outdoor traffic PM2.5 was not significantly different from the value attained in the indoor without smoking site. The tobacco smoke increased significantly PAHs concentrations on average about 1000 times more, when compared with the outdoor profile samples suggesting that tobacco smoking may be the most important source of indoor PAHs pollution

Films negros en edifícios históricos de Oporto: caracterización y experiencias de limpieza

Los films negros constituyen el principal motivo de las intervenciones de limpieza de fachadas de edificios históricos en la ciudad de Oporto, Portugal, construidos con el granito de Oporto de dos micas, de grano medio a grueso, compuesto de cuarzo, microclina, plagioclasa, muscovita y biotita. Varios estudios realizados sobre la calidad del aire urbano y la deposición de partículas atmosféricas apuntan a un origen antropogénico de estas capas de alteración. El estudio llevado a cabo sobre muestras de films negros del “Hospital de Santo António” revela la presencia de hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos (PAH) en cantidades apreciables, detectada por LC-FD (Cromatografía líquida con detector de fluorescencia). El análisis por SEM-EDX (Microscopía electrónica de barrido con microanálisis de rayos X) de estos films muestra que están constituidos por una gran cantidad de partículas de dimensión reducida (que raramente pasan los 10-20 m), asociadas a una matriz de material homogéneo de naturaleza probablemente amorfa. Estas partículas se caracterizan por una gran complejidad mineralógica y morfológica, destacándose partículas ricas en Fe, partículas ricas en Pb, no cristalinas, cenizas volantes esféricas de superficie lisa de Si y Al. Las consecuencias de la presencia de estos compuestos en la superficie de los materiales pétreos son su oscurecimiento. Estas capas de alteración se diferencian de las costras negras debido a su textura, forma, exposición a la acción del agua de la lluvia y composición mineralógica. En consecuencia, las técnicas aplicables a su limpieza son también distintas de las habitualmente usadas para las costras negras. Finalmente, se describen experiencias en operaciones de limpieza llevadas a cabo en edificios de la ciudad de Porto con métodos abrasivos y químicos y se discuten posibilidades tecnológicas y parámetros de control de calidad de las intervenciones.Tópico 6: Patrimonio Urbano de los siglos XVIII al XX. Técnicas de Limpieza y de Conservación

Estudo comparativo de duas técnicas de gestão do solo de olivais da região de Moura

Estudou-se, durante 3 anos, num olival da zona de Moura, a influência de dois maneios do coberto vegetal, mobilização tradicional e enrelvamento, nas características do solo. Para além da evolução do coberto vegetal na entrelinha e da avaliação comparativa do seu efeito nas características físicas e no teor de humidade do solo, mediram-se as produções obtidas. No total dos três anos de amostragem, identificaram-se cerca de 120 espécies, 20 das quais gramíneas. As proporções de solo coberto não apresentaram diferenças interanuais significativas. Registou-se, contudo, uma tendência para o aumento da proporção de cobertura por gramíneas, ao longo do período em estudo, em detrimento das restantes famílias. O teor de humidade do solo, medido nas profundidades de 20, 40 e 60 cm, foi mais elevado no enrelvamento, quer durante a primavera e o verão, quer no outono, o que aponta, não só para uma melhor protecção do solo contra a evaporação, durante a estação seca, como também para um aumento da infiltração, durante a estação chuvosa, neste tratamento