985 research outputs found
Implementação de serviços em ambientes multi-access edge computing
Driven by the visions of the 5th Generation of Mobile Networks (5G), and with
an increasing acceptance of software-based network technologies, such as
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networks (SDN),
a transformation in network infrastructure is presently taking place, along with
different requirements in terms of how networks are managed and deployed.
One of the significantly changes is a shift in the cloud computing paradigm,
moving from a centralized cloud computing towards the edge of the network.
This new environment, providing a cloud computing platform at the edge of
the network, is referred to as Multi-Acess Edge Computing (MEC). The main
feature of MEC is to provide mobile computing, network control and storage to
the network edges, enabling computation-intensive and latency-critical applications
targeting resource-limited mobile devices. In this thesis a MEC architecture
solution is provided, capable of supporting heterogeneous access networks,
to assist as a platform for service deployment. Several MEC use case
scenarios are evaluated on the proposed scheme, in order to attest the advantages
of a MEC deployment. Results show that the proposed environment is
significantly faster on performing compute-intensive applications, mainly due
to lower end-to-end latency, when compared to traditional centralized cloud
servers, translating into energy saving, and reduced backhaul traffic.Impulsionados pelas visões da quinta geração de redes móveis, e com uma
crescente aceitação das tecnologias de redes baseadas em software, tais
como funções de redes virtualizadas (NFV) e redes definidas por software
(SDN), encontramo-nos perante uma transformação na infraestrutura nas redes
de telecomunicações, assim como no modo como estas são geridas e
implementadas. Uma das alterações mais significativas é a mudança no paradigma
de computação na cloud, passando de uma implementação centralizada
para uma ramificada na direção das extremidades da rede. Este novo
ambiente, que possibilita uma plataforma de computação na extremidade da
rede, é denominado de Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC). A principal característica
do MEC é fornecer computação móvel, armazenamento e recursos
de rede na extremidade da rede, permitindo que terminais móveis com
recursos limitados tenham acesso a aplicações exigentes em termos de latência
e computação. Na presente tese, é apresentada uma solução de arquitetura
MEC, que suporta ligações a redes de acesso heterogéneas, servindo
de plataforma para a implementação de serviços. Alguns cenários MEC foram
aplicados e avaliados na plataforma proposta, de forma a demonstrar as
vantagens da implementação MEC. Os resultados demonstram que a plataforma
proposta é significativamente mais rápida na execução computação intensiva,
maioritariamente devido à baixa latência, quando comparado com os
tradicionais datacenters centralizados, resultando numa poupança de energia
e redução de tráfego no backhaul.Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe
The perception of sleep quality in kidney transplant patients during the first year of transplantation
OBJECTIVE: Poor sleep quality is one of the factors that adversely affects patient quality of life after kidney transplantation, and sleep disorders represent a significant cardiovascular risk factor. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of changes in sleep quality and their outcomes in kidney transplant recipients and analyze the variables affecting sleep quality in the first years after renal transplantation. METHODS: Kidney transplant recipients were evaluated at two time points after a successful transplantation: between three and six months (Phase 1) and between 12 and 15 months (Phase 2). The following tools were used for assessment: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the quality of life questionnaire Short-Form-36; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale; the Karnofsky scale; and assessments of social and demographic data. The prevalence of poor sleep was 36.7% in Phase 1 and 38.3% in Phase 2 of the study. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between patients with and without changes in sleep quality between the two phases. We found no changes in sleep patterns throughout the study. Both the physical and mental health scores worsened from Phase 1 to Phase 2. CONCLUSION: Sleep quality in kidney transplant recipients did not change during the first year after a successful renal transplantation
The perception of sleep quality in kidney transplant patients during the first year of transplantation
OBJECTIVE: Poor sleep quality is one of the factors that adversely affects patient quality of life after kidney transplantation, and sleep disorders represent a significant cardiovascular risk factor. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of changes in sleep quality and their outcomes in kidney transplant recipients and analyze the variables affecting sleep quality in the first years after renal transplantation. METHODS: Kidney transplant recipients were evaluated at two time points after a successful transplantation: between three and six months (Phase 1) and between 12 and 15 months (Phase 2). The following tools were used for assessment: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the quality of life questionnaire Short-Form-36; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale; the Karnofsky scale; and assessments of social and demographic data. The prevalence of poor sleep was 36.7% in Phase 1 and 38.3% in Phase 2 of the study. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between patients with and without changes in sleep quality between the two phases. We found no changes in sleep patterns throughout the study. Both the physical and mental health scores worsened from Phase 1 to Phase 2. CONCLUSION: Sleep quality in kidney transplant recipients did not change during the first year after a successful renal transplantation.CAPESCAPE
Livro Verde dos Montados
O Livro Verde dos Montados apresenta diversos objectivos que se interligam:
Em primeiro lugar, o Livro Verde pretende reunir e sistematizar, de uma forma simples e acessível ao público, o conhecimento produzido em Portugal pelos investigadores e técnicos de várias instituições de investigação ou de gestão que estudam o Montado. Assume-se como uma oportunidade de caracterizar o sistema tendo em conta as suas várias dimensões, identificando as principais ameaças à sua preservação assim como os caminhos que podem ajudar à sua sustentabilidade. Não sendo um documento científico, baseia-se no conhecimento científico e pretende constituir a base para uma plataforma de organização, tanto dos investigadores como do conhecimento científico actualmente produzido em Portugal sobre o Montado.Em segundo lugar, o Livro Verde deverá contribuir para um entendimento partilhado do que é o Montado, por parte do público, de técnicos e de especialistas, conduzindo a uma classificação mais clara do que pode ser considerado Montado e de quais os tipos distintos de Montados que podem ser identificados.
Em terceiro lugar, o Livro Verde estabelece as bases para uma estratégia coordenada de disponibilização de informação sobre o sistema Montado, visando o seu conhecimento, apreciação e valorização pela sociedade portuguesa no seu conjunto. Deste modo, o Livro Verde poderá constituir um instrumento congregador e inspirador para a realização de acções de sensibilização e informação sobre o Montado.
Em quarto lugar, pretende-se que o Livro Verde contribua para um maior reconhecimento e valorização do Montado como sistema, a nível do desenho das políticas nacionais por parte dos vários sectores envolvidos.Finalmente, o Livro Verde constituirá um documento parceiro do Livro Verde das Dehesas, produzido em Espanha em 2010, de forma a reforçar o reconhecimento e a devida valorização destes sistemas silvo-pastoris no desenho das estratégias e políticas relevantes pelas instituições europeias.
Em suma, os autores pretendem que o Livro Verde dos Montados se afirme como o primeiro passo para uma efectiva definição e implementação de uma estratégia nacional para os Montados
Common genetic variation in KATNAL1 non-coding regions is involved in the susceptibility to severe phenotypes of male infertility
Free PMC article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9546047/Background: Previous studies in animal models evidenced that genetic mutations
of KATNAL1, resulting in dysfunction of its encoded protein, lead to male infertility
through disruption of microtubule remodelling and premature germ cell exfoliation.
Subsequent studies in humans also suggested a possible role of KATNAL1 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the development of male infertility as a consequence of
severe spermatogenic failure.
Objectives: The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of the
common genetic variation of KATNAL1 in a large and phenotypically well-characterised
cohort of infertile men because of severe spermatogenic failure.
Materials and methods: A total of 715 infertile men because of severe spermato genic failure, including 210 severe oligospermia and 505 non-obstructive azoospermia
patients, as well as 1058 unaffected controls were genotyped for three KATNAL1
single-nucleotide polymorphism taggers (rs2077011, rs7338931 and rs2149971).
Case–control association analyses by logistic regression assuming different models
and in silico functional characterisation of risk variants were conducted.
Results: Genetic associations were observed between the three analysed taggers and
different severe spermatogenic failure groups. However, in all cases, the haplotype
model (rs2077011*C | rs7338931*T | rs2149971*A) better explained the observed
associations than the three risk alleles independently. This haplotype was associated
with non-obstructive azoospermia (adjusted p = 4.96E-02, odds ratio = 2.97), Sertoli cell only syndrome (adjusted p = 2.83E-02, odds ratio = 5.16) and testicular sperm
extraction unsuccessful outcomes (adjusted p = 8.99E-04, odds ratio = 6.13). The in
silico analyses indicated that the effect on severe spermatogenic failure predisposition
could be because of an alteration of the KATNAL1 splicing pattern.
Conclusions: Specific allelic combinations of KATNAL1 genetic polymorphisms may
confer a risk of developing severe male infertility phenotypes by favouring the
overrepresentation of a short non-functional transcript isoform in the testis.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific
and Technical Research and Innovation (refs. SAF2016-78722-R and
PID2020-120157RB-I00), the ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (Fondo
de Investigaciones Sanitarias)/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional
‘Una manera de hacer Europa’ (FIS/FEDER) (ref. DTS18/00101 to
Sara Larriba), the Generalitat de Catalunya (ref. 2017SGR191), the
‘Ramón y Cajal’ program (ref. RYC-2014-16458) and the ‘Juan de
la Cierva Incorporación’ program (ref. IJC2018-038026-I), as well as
the Andalusian Government through the R&D&i Projects Grants for
Universities and Public Research Entities (ref. PY20_00212), which
include FEDER funds. Andrea Guzmán-Jiménez was a recipient of a
grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Professional Training (‘Becas de Colaboración en Departamentos Universitarios para el curso académico 2020/2021’). Patricia I. Marques is supported by
the FCT post-doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/120777/2016), financed
from the Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Tech nology and High Education and from the European Social Fund,
available through the ‘Programa Operacional do Capital Humano’. João
Gonçalves was partially funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds
attributed to the Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health—
ToxOmics (UID/BIM/00009/2016 and UIDB/00009/2020). Sara Larriba is sponsored by the Researchers Consolidation Program (ISCIII
SNS/Dpt. Salut Generalitat de Catalunya) (CES09/020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Common genetic variation in KATNAL1 non‐coding regions is involved in the susceptibility to severe phenotypes of male infertility
© 2022 The Authors. Andrology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Andrology and European Academy of Andrology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Background: Previous studies in animal models evidenced that genetic mutations of KATNAL1, resulting in dysfunction of its encoded protein, lead to male infertility through disruption of microtubule remodelling and premature germ cell exfoliation. Subsequent studies in humans also suggested a possible role of KATNAL1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the development of male infertility as a consequence of severe spermatogenic failure.
Objectives: The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of the common genetic variation of KATNAL1 in a large and phenotypically well-characterised cohort of infertile men because of severe spermatogenic failure.
Materials and methods: A total of 715 infertile men because of severe spermatogenic failure, including 210 severe oligospermia and 505 non-obstructive azoospermia patients, as well as 1058 unaffected controls were genotyped for three KATNAL1 single-nucleotide polymorphism taggers (rs2077011, rs7338931 and rs2149971). Case-control association analyses by logistic regression assuming different models and in silico functional characterisation of risk variants were conducted.
Results: Genetic associations were observed between the three analysed taggers and different severe spermatogenic failure groups. However, in all cases, the haplotype model (rs2077011*C | rs7338931*T | rs2149971*A) better explained the observed associations than the three risk alleles independently. This haplotype was associated with non-obstructive azoospermia (adjusted p = 4.96E-02, odds ratio = 2.97), Sertoli-cell only syndrome (adjusted p = 2.83E-02, odds ratio = 5.16) and testicular sperm extraction unsuccessful outcomes (adjusted p = 8.99E-04, odds ratio = 6.13). The in silico analyses indicated that the effect on severe spermatogenic failure predisposition could be because of an alteration of the KATNAL1 splicing pattern.
Conclusions: Specific allelic combinations of KATNAL1 genetic polymorphisms may confer a risk of developing severe male infertility phenotypes by favouring the overrepresentation of a short non-functional transcript isoform in the testis.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (refs. SAF2016-78722-R and PID2020-120157RB-I00), the ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias)/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional ‘Una manera de hacer Europa’ (FIS/FEDER) (ref. DTS18/00101 to Sara Larriba), the Generalitat de Catalunya (ref. 2017SGR191), the ‘Ramón y Cajal’ program (ref. RYC-2014-16458) and the ‘Juan de la Cierva Incorporación’ program (ref. IJC2018-038026-I), as well as the Andalusian Government through the R&D&i Projects Grants for Universities and Public Research Entities (ref. PY20_00212), which include FEDER funds. Andrea Guzmán-Jiménez was a recipient of a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Professional Training (‘Becas de Colaboración en Departamentos Universitarios para el curso académico 2020/2021’). Patricia I. Marques is supported by the FCT post-doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/120777/2016), financed from the Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and High Education and from the European Social Fund, available through the ‘Programa Operacional do Capital Humano’. João Gonçalves was partially funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds attributed to the Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health—ToxOmics (UID/BIM/00009/2016 and UIDB/00009/2020). Sara Larriba is sponsored by the Researchers Consolidation Program (ISCIII SNS/Dpt. Salut Generalitat de Catalunya) (CES09/020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory
A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding
eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers
with zenith angles greater than detected with the Pierre Auger
Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum
confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above
eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law with
index followed by
a smooth suppression region. For the energy () at which the
spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence
of suppression, we find
eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger
Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers.
These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of
the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray
energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30
to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of
the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is
determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated
using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due
to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components.
The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of
the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the
AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air
shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy
-- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy
estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the
surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator
scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent
emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for
the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at
least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy
We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio
emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate
energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of
15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV
arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling
quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from
state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our
measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric
energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with
our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector
against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI.
Supplemental material in the ancillary file
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