Generation of new transgenic zebrafish lines for studying neuronal circuits underlying behavior in zebrafish

A central goal of Neuroscience is to understand how the brain processes sensory stimuli and generates behavioral responses. To achieve this goal, it is crucial to monitor and manipulate the neuronal activity of single cells in real time, as well as to study the neuronal circuits and their connections throughout the whole-brain in a behaving animal. Thus, it is important to use a genetically tractable model organism with a relatively simple nervous system but with robust behavior. Zebrafish has become a promising model organism in the study of nervous system. The accessibility and optical transparency of embryos and larvae make possible the expression and visualization of genetically encoded fluorescent reporters, through transgenic techniques. In this work, recent genetically encoded fluorescent reporters (LSSmOrange, mScarlet and GCaMP6fEF05) were used for establishing new transgenic zebrafish lines, through the Tol2 transposon system. These lines will be used to study the communication between different populations of neurons and to record neural activity during behavioral responses. The generation of new genetic tools allied to the development of sophisticated imaging techniques has opened up the possibility of whole-brain imaging with single-cell resolution and high temporal precision. In the coming years, the challenge will be to combine the approaches developed and currently used in zebrafish to understand how behaviors are generated in higher vertebrates

The Liturgical Office for the Feast of Mary’s Purification in Late Medieval Braga

UIDB/00693/2020 UIDP/00693/2020publishersversionpublishe

El suelo en duelo

This is a thesis about colonialism. When I was seven years old I interrogated my mom about the consequences of Puerto Rico achieving its independence from the United States. I remember asking her “If Puerto Rico gains its independence, would that mean that we would no longer be able to purchase apples at the store?” The warm climate prohibits apples from growing in Puerto Rico. I never liked apples, and would much rather have had oranges, but I guess that concerned me at that time. She looked at me with a funny look. With that funny look that any parent has on their face when they’re trying to explain to their seven-year old how the United States occupied colonized their country. Maybe you don’t know the look. She proceeded to kindly explain that we would most likely not run out of apples, and that gaining independence would actually mean that we could freely choose what apples we wanted to have, rather than have others govern our apple negotiations. Of course, this is a simplified version of what it means to live in a colony, but this memory always stayed with me, it guides the making outlined in this thesis. “El suelo en duelo” is a series of writings and visual works that outline resistance tactics against colonialism in the context of the United State’s occupation over Puerto Rico. Using sand as my weapon of choice, I consider its potential to refuse legibility and transform our lived experiences through the act of play. The ground becomes an active agent, a space of resistance, and a place for mourning our historie

The cultural and political context that led to the presence of a set of Portuguese miracles in the Marian songbook of Alfonso X

UIDB/00693/2020 UIDP/00693/2020publishersversionpublishe

Psychological detachment from work during off-job time: an integrative study

Previous studies have perceived psychological detachment from work during off-job time as an important recovery strategy allowing employees to recover from job stressors. Psychological detachment is defined as an individual’s sense of mentally disengaging from work while physically absent from it. Increasing levels of workload contribute to a lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time. Therefore, this study examines an integrative view of how a moderation of supervisor support, and a mediation of work engagement – which in turn is influenced by indirect sets of effects of moderations of emotion regulation and neuroticism – help predict psychological detachment. In addition, we examine the outcome of burnout from employees’ ability to psychologically detach from work. We tested our hypotheses in a cross-sectional study with a sample of 546 employees from a public service organization. Multiple regression analysis showed that workload, supervisor support, and work engagement were significant predictors of psychological detachment. Additionally, psychological detachment from work is significant to explain employee’s burnout and it decreases in the presence of high levels of work engagement. Moreover, concerning practical implications, it is crucial to provide adequate supervisor support, carefully understand if it is imperative to reduce or increase work engagement, and promote interventions that facilitate employees’ detachment from work.Estudos anteriores defendem o distanciamento psicológico como uma importante estratégia de recuperação, permitindo aos colaboradores recuperar de fatores indutivos de stress no trabalho. O distanciamento psicológico é definido como a capacidade de um indivíduo se desvincular mentalmente do trabalho enquanto fisicamente ausente do mesmo, com a particularidade de que o aumento da carga de trabalho dificulta o distanciamento psicológico. Neste sentido, o presente estudo examina uma visão que integra os efeitos de uma moderação de suporte do supervisor e uma mediação de work engagement. Esta mediação, por sua vez, é influenciada por conjuntos de efeitos indiretos de moderações de regulação emocional e neuroticismo, no distanciamento psicológico de um colaborador. Foi ainda examinado o burnout como resultado do distanciamento psicológico do trabalho. As hipóteses foram testadas num estudo transversal, com uma amostra de 546 colaboradores de uma organização de serviço público. A análise de múltiplas regressões mostrou que a carga de trabalho, o suporte do supervisor e work engagement são preditores significativos do distanciamento psicológico. Adicionalmente, o distanciamento psicológico é significativo na explicação do burnout nos colaboradores e diminui perante níveis elevados de work engagement. Por fim, no que diz respeito às implicações práticas, é crucial fornecer suporte adequado do supervisor, entender se se deve reduzir ou aumentar work engagement, e promover intervenções que facilitem o distanciamento dos colaboradores do trabalho

The value of a user-design strategy : the role of giving background information about the user-community and consumer characteristics

A growing number of companies are starting to empower their user community in order to develop new products which can be afterwards labeled as user-design to the whole market. Social Identity theory explains why observing consumers prefer to buy products from firms using those type of strategies. This experimental study aims to understand the influence of communicating that a firm relies on a community of users for developing new products. Moreover this study looks at a) the impact of giving background information about the usercommunity b) what type of consumers, depending on their type of chronically self-construal, this strategy is most suited to. Firstly results show that user-design strategy is preferred to the professional-design one, regardless how the community is described. Observing consumers report higher levels of identification with firms employing a user-design strategy which latter is translated in preference for user-design products. Secondly, results indicate that when the user-community is perceived as similar by the observing consumer, feelings of identification towards the firm increase. This effect mediates product choice. Lastly, results indicate that chronically interdependent self-construal individuals are more enthusiastic about user-design effect and show higher levels of product preference for firms using a user-design approach when compared with independent individuals. These findings provides insights that not all consumers have the same preference for a user-design strategy which is relevant for managers wanting to involve user communities in new product development.Um número crescente de empresas começa agora a dar importância as suas comunidades de consumidores para desenvolver novos produtos, que posteriormente podem ser comunicados ao mercado como “criados por um consumidor”. A teoria da identidade social explica o porquê dos restantes consumidores preferirem comprar produtos de empresas que utilizam este tipo de estratégia. Este estudo tem como objetivo perceber qual é a influência de comunicar que uma empresa utiliza a sua comunidade de consumidores aquando do desenvolvimento de um novo produto. Adicionalmente este estudo investiga a) o impacto de dar informação sobre a comunidade de consumidores b) em que tipo de consumidores, dependendo da sua escala crónica de auto-interpretação, é que esta estratégia é mais indicada. Primeiro os resultados mostram que o produto criado por utilizadores é preferido ao criado pelos profissionais, independentemente da descrição da comunidade que é feita. Os consumidores sentem níveis de identificação crescentes por empresas que usam esta estratégia o que posteriormente é traduzido na escolha do produto. Em segundo lugar, os resultados indicam que quando a comunidade é semelhante aos consumidores, sentimentos de identificação aumentam o que no fim acaba por mediar a escolha do produto. Finalmente, os resultados mostram que os indivíduos mais interdependentes mostram maior preferência por produtos destas empresas que indivíduos independentes. Isto mostra que nem todos os consumidores têm a mesma preferência por este tipo de estratégia o que é relevante para os gestores que tencionam envolver as suas comunidades de consumidores no desenvolvimento de novos produtos

Pattern Research Project: An Investigation of The Pattern And Printing Process - Diamond

The Pattern Research Project involves research and analysis of contemporary patterns found in the textiles and wallcoverings of the built interior environment. Patterns use motif, repetition, color, geometry, craft, technology, and space to communicate place, time, and concept. Through this research and analysis, built environments - their designers, occupants, construction, and context - can be better understood. Mariana Alcala-Ramos, VCU Interior Design BFA 2022, selected the ICA Elevator pattern for the 2019 Pattern Research Project. The text below is excerpted from the student’s work: The design of this pattern says a lot of technology, it was created using vinyl (a synthetic man-made material) and using the Die-cut vinyl process. The whole progress that took to create this project was technology-based. Without technology, it couldn’t have been done. From the beginning of it being designed on a computer program to being cut out with a machine .https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/prp/1030/thumbnail.jp

Sistemas de comunicação quânticos baseados em Qubits codificados na polarização

We are now facing a second quantum revolution, that started in the early 21st century, bringing significant technological advances to science, industry and society based on advances on quantum information. The eminent emergence of a quantum computer has boosted concerns about the security of current classical public-key cryptography systems. One important topic in the research field of quantum information is the way we distribute keys in order to allow secure communication between distant parties. QKD systems are already in a pre-commercial stage attracting companies and government heavy investment in researching for quantum information technologies. However, there still are a lot of research to be done in this field, specially regarding high rate transmission, achievable distance reach, and obviously the practical implementation cost. In this thesis, we start by experimentally implement a polarization-encoded discrete variables based quantum communication system which allowed us to identify issues that must be solved in order to make it suitable for QKD protocols practical implementation. In this way, we propose a non-intrusive heuristic method to automatically compensate polarization random drift in standard opticalfiber channels due birefringence effects, and that induces errors during qubit transmission. The compensation of polarization drifts induced by the quantum channel is fundamental to enable the deployment of polarization encoded single-photons transmission over the current optical fiber networks. Furthermore, in this thesis we also propose and validated though numerical simulations a novel polarization-based DV-QKD system that combines the use of phase-modulators for state of polarization (SOP) generation and basis switching with a polarization diversity coherent detection scheme. This enables a full implementation of DV-QKD systems using only classical hardware, which low the cost of QKD systems based on polarization encoded single-photons at the same time that increases the transmission rate. Our results open the door to very high baud-rate polarization qubits transmission in access and metro networks. We report continuous qubit transmission, even in environments subjected to high polarization drift, without consuming extra-bandwidth with a maximum Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) of 2%.Estamos perante a segunda revolução quântica, a qual começou no início do século 21 trazendo avanços significativos na ciência, na indústria e na sociedade baseados nos avanços da teoria da informação. A emergência eminente de um computador quântico tem despoletado preocupações relativamente à segurança dos atuais sistemas de criptografia pública clássica. Um tópico importante no campo da investigação de informação quântica diz respeito à forma de distribuição de chaves criptográficas de forma a garantir comunicações seguras entre partes distantes. Os sistemas de distribuição de chaves quânticas estão já num estágio comercial, o que tem atraído investimento de empresas e governos para a investigação nas tecnologias de informação quântica. Contudo, existe ainda muita investigação a ser feita neste campo, especialmente no que diz respeito a elevadas taxas de transmissão, distância atingida, e obviamente o custo duma implantação prática. Neste trabalho de doutoramento, começamos por implementar experimentalmente um sistema de comunicações quânticas que usa variáveis discretas com codificação na polarização, o que nos permite identificar os problemas a serem resolvidos de forma a tornar possível a implementação prática de protocolos de distribuição de chave quântica. Desta forma, propomos um método heurístico não intrusivo para compensar automaticamente a deriva aleatória de polarização em canais padrão de fibra ótica devido a efeitos de birrefringência, e que induzem erros durante a transmissão de Qubits. A compensação da deriva de polarização induzida pelo canal quântico é fundamental para permitir a implementação prática generalizada da transmissão de fotões únicos com codificação na polarização nas redes atuais de fibra ótica. Neste trabalho de doutoramento propomos ainda e validamos através de simulações numéricas um novo sistema de DV-QKD baseado na polarização que combina o uso de moduladores de fase para gerar quatro estados de polarização e mudança de base com um esquema de deteção coerente. Este sistema permite a implementação de sistemas de DV-QKD usando unicamente equipamento clássico, o que garante um custo reduzido da implementação de sistemas Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) baseados em fotões únicos codificados na polarização e ao mesmo tempo um aumento da taxa de transmissão. Os nossos resultados abrem a porta a sistemas de transmissão de qubits a débitos elevados aquando da sua implementação nas redes instaladas de fibra ótica. Reportamos transmissões continuas de qubits mesmo em ambientes sujeitos a elevada deriva da polarização, sem a necessidade de consumir largura de banda extra com uma taxa de erro quântico máxima de 2%.Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrotécnic