Identificação de distâncias de rodovias a massas de água e a sua relação com o atropelamento de anfíbios. Detecção de limiares

As estradas podem exercer impactos negativos significativos na fauna vertebrada. Os anfíbios são um dos grupos mais afetados. Este estudo baseia-se na dependência deste grupo em relação à disponibilidade de água, para identificar limiares de distância das rodovias às massas de água que minimizem os riscos de atropelamento dos anfíbios. No sul de Portugal, foram medidas distâncias de quatro troços de estradas às massas de água circundantes e relacionadas estas distâncias com a localização dos atropelamentos de anfíbios registados nos mesmos troços de estrada ao longo de dois anos de monitorização diária. Foi possível determinar limiares de distância à estrada na mortalidade de anfíbios em sete grupos/espécies: Total de anfíbios 424 m (±115 m), Caudata 506 m (±74 m), Anura 420 m (±154 m), sapos 511 m (±86 m), rãs 72 m (±33 m), Pleurodeles waltl 504 m (± 79 m) e Discoglossus galganoi 81 m (±43 m). Estes dados permitem prever zonas críticas de atropelamento e assim evitá-las ou adaptá-las ao atravessamento seguro de anfíbios; “Identifying distances from roadways to water bodies and its relationship with amphibian roadkill. Threshold detection.” Abstract: Roads can have significant negative impacts on vertebrate wildlife. Amphibians are a particularly affected group. This study is based on the dependence of this faunal group in relation to water availability, to identify distance thresholds from roadways to water bodies that minimize the risk of amphibian roadkills. In southern Portugal, the distances of four sections of roads to nearby bodies of water were measured and related with the location of amphibian roadkills recorded in the same sections of road over two years of daily monitoring. Thresholds for the effect of distance to water on roadkills were found for 7 groups/species: Total amphibians 424 m (± 115 m), Caudata 506 m (± 74 m), Anura 420 m (± 154 m), toads 511 m (± 86m), frogs 72 m (± 33 m), Pleurodeles waltl 504 m (± 79 m) and Discoglossus galganoi 81 m (± 43 m). This information can help predict critical roadkill sections as to avoid or adapt them for secure amphibian crossing of roads

Ocupação da orla costeira, sua morfologia e riscos inerentes. Caso de Estudo Caminha-Espinho

Neste relatório é descrito o estágio curricular efetuado na Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente – Administração da Região Hidrográfica do Norte, na Divisão de Recursos Hídricos do Litoral no âmbito da unidade curricular de Dissertação/Projeto/Estágio do Mestrado em Engenharia Civil – ramo de Infraestruturas do Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto. Durante o estágio pretendeu-se estudar a ocupação e ordenamento da orla costeira Caminha-Espinho, estudar fenómenos de erosão/acreção de sedimentos, bem como analisar riscos a ela inerentes. Foram desenvolvidos três trabalhos distintos. No primeiro, identificaram-se e caracterizaram-se as ocupações em Domínio Público Marítimo. De seguida, pretendeu-se quantificar balanços sedimentares desta orla, utilizando como referência dados dos anos 2001 e 2011. Por fim, abordaram-se os riscos associados à orla costeira, soluções implementadas e intervenções efetuadas pela APA sobre algumas zonas de risco. Cada trabalho levou à produção de um anexo respetivo que apresenta com maior detalhe os resultados obtidos.This report describes the internship carried out at the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente – Administração da Região Hidrográfica do Norte, Divisão de Recursos Hídricos do Litoral within the course Dissertação/Projeto/Estágio inserted in the Civil Engineer Master’s Degree, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto. It is intended to study the occupation and management of coastal areas, study the erosion/accretion and the risk inherent to them. Three separate studies were developed, on the first one it is proposed to study and identify the occupations of the DPM (Public Maritime Domain). The second paper aims to make a sedimentary balance and comparison using data from the year 2001 and 2011. As a final work, it is intended to study existing risks in the coastal areas, the methods to solve them and present some interventions made by APA on those areas. All results are presented in three correspondent annexes

Phenotypic architecture of sociality and its associated genetic polymorphisms in zebrafish

Sociality relies on motivational and cognitive components that may have evolved independently, or may have been linked by phenotypic correlations driven by a shared selective pressure for increased social competence. Furthermore, these components may be domain-specific or of general-domain across social and non-social contexts. Here, we used zebrafish to test if the motivational and cognitive components of social behavior are phenotypically linked and if they are domain specific or of general domain. The behavioral phenotyping of zebrafish in social and equivalent non-social tests shows that the motivational (preference) and cognitive (memory) components of sociality: (1) are independent from each other, hence not supporting the occurrence of a sociality syndrome; and (2) are phenotypically linked to non-social traits, forming two general behavioral modules, suggesting that sociality traits have been co-opted from general-domain motivational and cognitive traits. Moreover, the study of the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and each behavioral module further supports this view, since several SNPs from a list of candidate “social” genes, are statistically associated with the motivational, but not with the cognitive, behavioral module. Together, these results support the occurrence of general-domain motivational and cognitive behavioral modules in zebrafish, which have been co-opted for the social domain. © 2022 The Authors. Genes, Brain and Behavior published by International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PROPOSTA DE UM MODELO DIGITAL DE RECONCILIAÇÃO TERAPÊUTICA COM RECURSO A BLOCKCHAIN E INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is the result of a transformation in the current healthcare system, influenced by innovation, integration, and sharing of clinical data. The EHR should include a clinical summary of patients, electronic prescriptions, electronic medication dispensing records, laboratory results, medical images and/or reports, and hospital discharge notes. Prescription errors and therapeutic administration are among the most common avoidable errors in healthcare, ranking as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and a priority for the World Health Organization since the launch of the “Medication Without Harm” initiative. The objectives of this study are: i) to present a digital therapeutic reconciliation model; ii) to propose an interoperable and legally compliant solution; iii) to integrate Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence technologies into the presented model. Through a descriptive and exploratory literature review, the use of HL7 FHIR and SNOMED-CT standards, a client-CA model for Blockchain, and machine learning and natural language processing models for Artificial Intelligence were proposed. Ensuring the interoperable and secure transmission of clinical data is complex but theoretically feasible. The advantages of therapeutic reconciliation will be measurable through the continuous reduction of morbidity and mortality associated with therapeutic errors.O Registo de Saúde Eletrónico (RSE) é o resultado da mudança do atual sistema de saúde, influenciado pela inovação, integração e partilha de dados clínicos. O RSE deve incluir sumário clínico dos pacientes, prescrições eletrónicas, registo eletrónico de dispensa de medicação, resultados laboratoriais, imagens e/ou relatórios médicos e notas de alta hospitalar. A prescrição médica e a administração de terapêutica são dos erros evitáveis mais comuns em Saúde, a sexta maior causa de morte nos EUA e uma prioridade para a Organização Mundial de Saúde desde que lançou a iniciativa “Medication Without Harm”. Os objetivos deste trabalho são: i) apresentar um modelo digital de reconciliação terapêutica; ii) propor uma solução interoperável e legalmente conforme; iii) integrar a tecnologia Blockchain e Inteligência Artificial no modelo apresentado. Através de uma revisão bibliográfica descritiva e exploratória, propôs-se a utilização dos “standards” HL7 FHIR e SNOMED-CT, modelo “client-CA” para a Blockchain e modelos de “machine learning” e “natural language processing” para a Inteligência Artificial. É complexo garantir a transmissão de dados clínicos de forma interoperável e segura, mas teoricamente exequível. As vantagens ao nível da reconciliação terapêutica serão mensuráveis com a contínua diminuição da morbimortalidade associada ao erro terapêutico

Mortalidade de tambacus (Colossoma macropomum x Piaractus mesopotamicus) infectados por Edwardsiella tarda

O presente trabalho relata um surto de mortalidade de tambacus (Colossoma macropomum x Piaractus mesopotamicus) criados em tanques escavados da Fazenda-Escola da UCDB. Os peixes apresentaram sintomas clínicos de letargia, anorexia, aumento da produção de muco, nado desordenado e comportamento de buscar a superfície da água. Ao exame necroscópico de três peixes foram evidenciadas hemorragias nas nadadeiras e pele, opacidade de córnea, hemoperitôneo, distensão e repleção da vesícula biliar e congestão e hemorragia do tubo digestivo. O exame microbiológico dos materiais coletados das lesões dos tambacus foi positivo para a bactéria Edwardsiella tarda. A análise de qualidade de água indicou grande quantidade de fitoplânctons que proliferaram em função do excesso de matéria orgânica, caracterizando a eutrofização da água. Atribuiu-se a causa da morte dos tambacus à infecção oportunista pela E. tarda, favorecida pelo desequilíbrio devido ao excesso de matéria orgânica em suspensão na água. As mortes cessaram após a correção dos parâmetros da qualidade da água do tanque.An outbreak of mortality of tambacus (Colossoma macropomum x Piaractus mesopotamicus) cultivated in dug tanks at UCDB was reported. Animals had clinical surface symptoms of lethargy, anorexia, increased mucus production, cluttering and swimming toward the water. Macroscopic examination of three fishes showed hemorrhages of the fins and skin, corneal opacity, hemoperitoneum, gallbladder distension and repletion, congestion and hemorrhages of the digestive tract. Water quality analysis indicated large amounts of phytoplankton that proliferated as a result of the excessive organic matter causing eutrophication of the water. The microbiological examination of tambacus lesions revealed the presence of the bacterium Edwardsiella tarda. The cause of the tambacus death was attributed to opportunistic infection by E. tarda, favored by the imbalance due to the intense organic matter in suspended in the water. Deaths stopped after the correction of the water quality parameters

Estudo da resistência mecânica e análise térmica da resina epóxi

Também conhecida como poliepóxidio, a Resina Epóxi é um tipo de Resina plástica que quando misturada a um catalisador inicia seu processo de cura. É um polímero termorrígido, que diferentemente dos polímeros termoplásticos, não pode ser reprocessada com calor, sendo maleável apenas no momento de sua fabricação. O fato de não poderem ser remodelados se deve pelo motivo de que suas macromoléculas formam uma estrutura chamada reticulado, que nada mais é do que uma rede de ligações tridimensionais que se ligam em todas as direções do espaço. Assim como os demais polímeros deste grupo a Resina Epóxi é infusível e insolúvel em solventes orgânicoscomuns. Ao final de sua polimerização tem granderesistência, não sendo sensível ao calor excessivo, água e ácidos. Este material é muito utilizado como cola para outros polímeros, compósitos, cerâmicos e até metais, mas têm as mais diversas aplicações na construção civil, na indústria, artesanato e na confecção de peças elétricas e eletrônicas. Neste trabalho foram confeccionados corpos de prova para avaliação de algumas propriedades da Resina Epóxi, que apresenta valores médios de dureza de 62,98SD, e 26MPa de tensão máxima de flexão

Age-Related Metabolic Pathways Changes in Dental Follicles: A Pilot Study

Aging is not a matter of choice; it is our fate. The “time-dependent functional decline that affects most living organisms” is coupled with several alterations in cellular processes, such as cell senescence, epigenetic alterations, genomic instability, stem cell exhaustion, among others. Age-related morphological changes in dental follicles have been investigated for decades, mainly motivated by the fact that cysts and tumors may arise in association with unerupted and/or impacted teeth. The more we understand the physiology of dental follicles, the more we are able to contextualize biological events that can be associated with the occurrence of odontogenic lesions, whose incidence increases with age. Thus, our objective was to assess age-related changes in metabolic pathways of dental follicles associated with unerupted/impacted mandibular third molars from young and adult individuals. For this purpose, a convenience sample of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) dental follicles from young (<16 y.o., n = 13) and adult (>26 y.o., n = 7) individuals was selected. Samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS)-based untargeted metabolomics. Multivariate and univariate analyses were conducted, and the prediction of altered pathways was performed by mummichog and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) approaches. Dental follicles from young and older individuals showed differences in pathways related to C21-steroid hormone biosynthesis, bile acid biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, androgen and estrogen biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, and lipoate metabolism. We conclude that metabolic pathways differences related to aging were observed between dental follicles from young and adult individuals. Our findings support that similar to other human tissues, dental follicles associated with unerupted tooth show alterations at a metabolic level with aging, which can pave the way for further studies on oral pathology, oral biology, and physiology

Genomic epidemiology unveils the dynamics and spatial corridor behind the Yellow Fever virus outbreak in Southern Brazil

Despite the considerable morbidity and mortality of yellow fever virus (YFV) infections in Brazil, our understanding of disease outbreaks is hampered by limited viral genomic data. Here, through a combination of phylogenetic and epidemiological models, we reconstructed the recent transmission history of YFV within different epidemic seasons in Brazil. A suitability index based on the highly domesticated Aedes aegypti was able to capture the seasonality of reported human infections. Spatial modeling revealed spatial hotspots with both past reporting and low vaccination coverage, which coincided with many of the largest urban centers in the Southeast. Phylodynamic analysis unraveled the circulation of three distinct lineages and provided proof of the directionality of a known spatial corridor that connects the endemic North with the extra-Amazonian basin. This study illustrates that genomics linked with eco-epidemiology can provide new insights into the landscape of YFV transmission, augmenting traditional approaches to infectious disease surveillance and control

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

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016