Design and simulation of a direct and indirect drive electrostatically actuated resonant micro-mirrors for scanner applications

Laser scanners have been an integral part of MEMS research for more than three decades. The demand for electrostatically actuated scanning micro-mirrors have been growing in the last decade, mainly for pico-projection and medical applications. These type of actuation wins over others, because it provides long-term stability, size advantages and fabrication schemes which are easier to render CMOS compatibility. The growing field in softwares capable of design and simulate MEMS devices, have been a crucial help for engineers, which are limited to a few of them and still cost huge amount of time. MEMS+® is a software platform that provides simulation results up to 100 times faster than conventional finite element analysis tools and allows to integrate designs in MathWorks®. In this work two types of electrostatically actuated scanning micro-mirrors were designed and simulated using both MEMS+® and MathWorks®, one is a direct drive micro-mirror and the other an indirect drive micro-mirror. In the first the torque is imparted directly from the actuation mechanism to the frame containing the mirror, and in the second the resonance mode amplifies a small motion in a larger mass to a considerably larger motion in the smaller mirror. Regarding the direct-drive micro-mirror, the presented work mainly shows the reliability of MEMS+® compared to other softwares. The indirect drive one, is a state-of-art solution for high frequency electrostatically actuated micro-mirrors, and all the simulations taken on it were aimed to verify it´s behaviour, and then proceed with the microfabrication step. The target microfabrication technology is SOIMUMPs

Pesquisa de resíduos de pesticidas em saladas prontas a consumir

Relatório de projeto no âmbito do Programa de Bolsas Universidade de Lisboa/Fundação Amadeu Dias (2011/2012). Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Farmáci

The use of antibody-antibiotic conjugates to fight bacterial infections

Copyright © 2022 Cavaco, Castanho and Neves. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rapidly increasing and it is one of the significant twenty-first century’s healthcare challenges. Unfortunately, the development of effective antimicrobial agents is a much slower and complex process compared to the spread of AMR. Consequently, the current options in the treatment of AMR are limited. One of the main alternatives to conventional antibiotics is the use of antibodyantibiotic conjugates (AACs). These innovative bioengineered agents take advantage of the selectivity, favorable pharmacokinetic (PK), and safety of antibodies, allowing the administration of more potent antibiotics with less off-target effects. Although AACs’ development is challenging due to the complexity of the three components, namely, the antibody, the antibiotic, and the linker, some successful examples are currently under clinical studies.The project leading to these results has received funding from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434), under the agreement LCF/PR/HR17/52150011 and from Portuguese Funding Agency, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT IP, grants PD/BD/128281/2017 and DL 7/2016/CP1451/CT0023).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Linking personality and appraisal modulators in fish

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, da Terra e do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2016The reason why some individuals from the same fish population react so differently under similar aquaculture husbandry practices or to any other stressful situation is at the core of today’s fish welfare research. In this context, the large individual variation in the physiological or behavioural response under stressful conditions is now accepted as reflection of distinct personality traits and of divergent cognitive evaluation that the individual makes of the situation, i.e. on the way the stressor is appraised. This thesis aimed to uncover which appraisal criteria fish use, the interplay with their personality traits, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and the potential application of psychological modulators of the stress response to improve fish welfare. Thus, the experimental work was oriented towards: i) investigating whether pre-existing inherent traits in behaviour and physiology affect the outcome of exposure to environmental stressors in Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and Atlantic seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) (Chapter II.1 and Chapter II.2); ii) evaluating the effect of predictability on the onset of action-related responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli (Chapter III.1); iii) inferring how predictability stressor modulates the cognitive stress response (Chapter III.2); iv) investigating how controllability improves coping ability on both seabream and seabass (Chapter IV.1); v) examining the relationship between thermal choice and animal personality using Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) as model (Chapter IV.2). Differences in behaviour, physiology and brain states measurements support specific appraisal and motivations in fish, according to the prospect of reward or punishment. This seems to be, nevertheless, highly dependent of both species - and contextspecificity. In addition they suggest that predictable stimuli and social support alongside with perception of control can be used as psychological modulators of the stress response to make animals more resilient and empowered under sustainable farming systems. The link between personality and appraisal deserves further investigation as evidences are narrow. The work developed in the core of this thesis has brought new insights on how to manipulate fish´s ability to cope with changes in their environment, ensuring positive outcomes in terms of welfare, fitness and survival

Editorial: recent advancements on the development and ripening of Mediterranean fruits and tree crops

The Mediterranean basin and other Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTE) are home to many tree crops domesticated and adapted well to their environment. Several of them present specific development and ripening traits that challenge established models. Climate changes that are occurring in the Mediterranean area and in other MTE tends to aggravate the already irregular rainfall and temperature patterns, posing detrimental outcomes on crop performance, productivity, and changes in fruit ripening. With these climate changes, one would expect changes in the fruits and tree crops components growing in these ecosystems. Currently, we are experiencing a tremendous advance in the technology that allows researchers to study in-depth the basic phenomenon and find significant novel data to establish guidelines for new cultural practices, breeding programs, and variety selection that can better adapt to the changing conditions. The goal of this Research Topic was to highlight recent studies on the anatomical, physiological, metabolomic, and genomic processes occurring throughout the development and ripening of fruits and tree crops grown in the Mediterranean Basin and MTE, from field until postharvest. Since many of them are perennial species, they are subjected to adverse environmental conditions throughout their entire life cycle. Thus, the effect of cultural practices, varying environmental factors, as well as the impact of the various stresses on the performance of these tree crops were also acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Antibodies for the treatment of brain metastases, a dream or a reality?

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The incidence of brain metastases (BM) in cancer patients is increasing. After diagnosis, overall survival (OS) is poor, elicited by the lack of an effective treatment. Monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based therapy has achieved remarkable success in treating both hematologic and non-central-nervous system (CNS) tumors due to their inherent targeting specificity. However, the use of mAbs in the treatment of CNS tumors is restricted by the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that hinders the delivery of either small-molecules drugs (sMDs) or therapeutic proteins (TPs). To overcome this limitation, active research is focused on the development of strategies to deliver TPs and increase their concentration in the brain. Yet, their molecular weight and hydrophilic nature turn this task into a challenge. The use of BBB peptide shuttles is an elegant strategy. They explore either receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT) or adsorptive-mediated transcytosis (AMT) to cross the BBB. The latter is preferable since it avoids enzymatic degradation, receptor saturation, and competition with natural receptor substrates, which reduces adverse events. Therefore, the combination of mAbs properties (e.g., selectivity and long half-life) with BBB peptide shuttles (e.g., BBB translocation and delivery into the brain) turns the therapeutic conjugate in a valid approach to safely overcome the BBB and efficiently eliminate metastatic brain cells.This research was funded by the Portuguese Funding Agency, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, FCT IP, grants PD/BD/128281/2017, PTDC/BBB-BQB/1693/2014 and PTDC/BBB-NAN/1578/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cerâmica islâmica em Portugal: 150 anos

As primeiras referências sobre cerâmica islâmica em Portugal remontam ao final do século XIX. A investigação evolui timidamente até aos anos 80 do século XX, quando se assiste ao incremento dos estudos sobre a temática, impulsionado pelos projectos estruturantes de Mértola e Silves. Nos anos 90, este incremento intensifica-se e, na última década, aumenta o número, a diversidade e a dispersão geográfica de trabalhos e projectos, nomeadamente com origem em arqueologia urbana. O projecto CIGA (Cerâmica Islâmica do Garb al-Andalus), iniciado em 2008, insere-se nesta dinâmica, promovendo a sistematização, problematização e divulgação de toda a informação dispersa e apresentando aqui uma síntese histórica dos estudos sobre cerâmica islâmica em Portugal, suas principais tendências, problemas, virtudes e perspectiva futuras

Highly specific blood-brain barrier transmigrating single-domain antibodies selected by an In Vivo phage display screening

Research Areas: Pharmacology & PharmacyA major bottleneck in the successful development of central nervous system (CNS) drugs is the discovery and design of molecules that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Nano-delivery strategies are a promising approach that take advantage of natural portals of entry into the brain such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting endogenous BBB receptors. However, the main selected mAbs rely on targeting broadly expressed receptors, such as the transferrin and insulin receptors, and in selection processes that do not fully mimic the native receptor conformation, leading to mistargeting and a low fraction of the administered dose effectively reaching the brain. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify new BBB receptors and explore novel antibody selection approaches that can allow a more selective delivery into the brain. Considering that in vitro models fail to completely mimic brain structure complexity, we explored an in vivo cell immunization approach to construct a rabbit derived single-domain antibody (sdAb) library towards BBB endothelial cell receptors. The sdAb antibody library was used in an in vivo phage display screening as a functional selection of novel BBB targeting antibodies. Following three rounds of selections, next generation sequencing analysis, in vitro brain endothelial barrier (BEB) model screenings and in vivo biodistribution studies, five potential sdAbs were identified, three of which reaching >0.6% ID/g in the brain. To validate the brain drug delivery proof-of-concept, the most promising sdAb, namely RG3, was conjugated at the surface of liposomes encapsulated with a model drug, the pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (PAN). The translocation efficiency and activity of the conjugate liposome was determined in a dual functional in vitro BEB-glioblastoma model. The RG3 conjugated PAN liposomes enabled an efficient BEB translocation and presented a potent antitumoral activity against LN229 glioblastoma cells without influencing BEB integrity. In conclusion, our in vivo screening approach allowed the selection of highly specific nano-antibody scaffolds with promising properties for brain targeting and drug delivery.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

E da noite se fez dia... Alumiar em período islâmico

Os últimos anos foram decisivos nos estudos sobre a cerâmica islâmica em Portugal, não apenas pelo volume de materiais descobertos como pela quantidade de publicações disponíveis. Embora as lacunas ainda sejam significativas, em especial no que diz respeito aos períodos mais recuados, o tema adquiriu uma grande abrangência territorial, com um considerável número de sítios a permitir um enquadramento cronológico fiável. Neste artigo, tratamos os objectos de iluminação, propondo um ensaio de abordagem crono-tipológica para estas formas no actual território português