Characterization of low-molecular-weight glutenin subunit genes at Glu-B3 and GluD3 loci and development of functional markers in common wheat

Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Civil, no ramo de Urbanismo, Ordenamento do Território e Transportes, apresentada ao Departamento de Engenharia Civil da Universidade de Coimbra.O ruído provocado pelo tráfego rodoviário, pelas suas graves consequências a diferentes níveis e pelas proporções crescentes de populações afetadas, é um problema que vem sendo considerado, em cada vez mais países, como uma das prioridades na definição de políticas de garantia das condições de bem-estar e saúde pública. Historicamente, diferentes abordagens têm sido adotadas para mitigar esse problema. Entre aquelas habitualmente associadas à Engenharia Civil, pode-se dizer que a utilização de barreiras acústicas será aquela que maior divulgação tem tido. Mais recentemente vem-se observando um interesse crescente no uso, em alternativa ou em complemento às barreiras, de pavimentos rodoviários que conduzam a menores níveis de ruído na sua origem, sendo ainda de referir a aplicação de elementos com maiores capacidades de isolamento sonoro em edifícios submetidos a tal ruído, em regra como última opção. Na presente tese, após uma síntese referente a diferentes aspetos do ruído de origem rodoviária e do reconhecimento da importância da sua caracterização, no contexto das soluções de pavimentação rodoviária mais correntes a nível nacional, para poder justificar determinadas opções no sentido da sua mitigação, foi dada especial atenção à análise de barreiras acústicas de um tipo relativamente inovador, concretizadas por estruturas resultantes da utilização, numa organização geométrica periódica, de elementos cilíndricos verticais, conhecidas como ‘cristais sónicos’. Sendo uma área de estudo cujo início remonta ao final da década de 1980, a sua aplicação no contexto de barreiras acústicas rodoviárias começou a ser sugerida já no início deste século, tendo, desde então, vindo a merecer o interesse de diversos investigadores com trabalhos relativos a diferentes aspetos de tal aplicação. Tal interesse deve-se à particularidade de, em tais estruturas, a propagação de ondas sonoras poder ser afetada, e mesmo impedida, em determinadas bandas de frequência (conhecidas por ‘band gaps’), em função das propriedades físicas e geométricas dos elementos que as consubstanciam e da sua organização periódica. Na medida em que uma escolha criteriosa daquelas propriedades permitirá ajustar o desempenho acústico de barreiras deste tipo, avaliado pela atenuação sonora proporcionada, às características espectrais específicas de determinado ruído incidente, tais barreiras poderão, assim, configurar uma estratégia de atenuação seletiva do ruído de origem rodoviária. No âmbito deste trabalho, pretendeu-se estudar tal possibilidade, partindo da resolução da equação de Helmholtz de modo a analisar de que forma a propagação de ondas sonoras pode ser afetada pela presença de tais estruturas. Para o efeito, foi proposta uma metodologia de cálculo para prever o desempenho acústico de cristais sónicos, de modo a simular os fenómenos de dispersão acústica, ou outros, que determinados atributos concretos dessas estruturas poderão desencadear. O principal aspeto inovador desta tese prende-se com a utilização de uma técnica de modelação numérica, o Método das Soluções Fundamentais, aplicada à avaliação do desempenho de tais barreiras, julgando-se poder, desta forma, apresentar um contributo importante na modelação eficiente deste tipo de estruturas. A validação da modelação proposta, realizada por comparação de resultados relativos à atenuação sonora proporcionada, quer com outros métodos numéricos quer com recurso a medições experimentais num modelo reduzido, revelou um muito bom ajustamento entre os vários resultados. Tendo-se, ainda, analisado a possibilidade de otimizar o referido desempenho dos cristais sónicos enquanto soluções de barreiras acústicas rodoviárias, alterando alguns dos seus parâmetros definidores através da variação das suas características orgânicas, pôde-se concluir que os resultados obtidos sugerem que tal poderá, de facto, ser levado a cabo utilizando a modelação proposta, o que abre todo o quadro de resolução do problema do ruído rodoviário junto à ocupação humana a uma forma menos perturbadora da envolvente paisagística do que a proporcionada pelas barreiras acústicas tradicionais.Road traffic noise, due to its severe consequences at different levels and the increasing proportions of affected populations, is a problem that is being considered, at an increasing number of countries, as a priority in defining welfare and public health related policies. Historically, different approaches have been taken to mitigate this problem. Among those most commonly associated with civil engineering, the use of noise barriers is arguably the one that has seen a more widespread dissemination. More recently an increasing interest in the use of road surfaces for traffic noise control at its source, as an alternative to or together with barriers, has been witnessed, and the use of façade sound insulation solutions in dwellings affected by such noise, generally as a last resource measure, should also be mentioned. In this thesis, after an overview regarding the different aspects of road traffic noise and acknowledgment of the importance of its characterization, in the context of most commonly used road surfacing solutions at national level, in order to justify the choices of specific measures for its mitigation, special attention was given to the analysis of a somewhat innovative type of acoustic barriers, known as 'sonic crystals', attained by structures presenting periodic arrays of vertical cylindrical elements, or scatterers. Being a field of study whose beginning dates back to the late 1980s, its application as road noise barriers was suggested at the beginning of this century and, since then, it has interested many researchers, working on different aspects of such application. Such interest is due to a feature, in such structures, where the sound propagation can be affected and even prohibited, in some frequency ranges (known as "band gaps"), depending both on the physical and geometric properties of the elements which consubstantiate it and on the periodicity of the array. To the extent that a specific combination of those properties will bring up the possibility to tune the acoustical performance of sonic crystals, measured by its insertion loss, to the specific spectral characteristics of a particular incident noise, these barriers can therefore configure a strategy in order to implement a selective attenuation of road traffic noise. In this work such possibilities were studied, based on the use of the Helmholtz equation in order to analyze how the propagation of sound waves can be affected by the presence of such structures. To this end, a methodology was proposed to predict the acoustic performance of sonic crystals, in order to simulate the acoustic dispersion and other phenomena, which certain specific attributes of those structures are likely to produce. The validation of the proposed model was carried out by comparing the insertion loss results it provided, with those delivered by either other numerical methods or by experimental measurements on a scale model, which revealed a very good fit between the various results. Having also examined the prospect of optimizing the performance of such sonic crystals when used as road noise barriers solutions, changing some of its defining parameters by varying their organic characteristics, it was concluded that the obtained results suggest that this may, in fact, be carried out by using the proposed model, which opens up the whole framework of solving the problem of road noise next to human settlement at a less disruptive form of the surrounding landscape than is provided by using traditional acoustic barriers.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

Pharmacological induction of leukotriene B4 12-hydroxydehydrogenase (LTB4DH) in human neutrophils and its potential in the treatment of myocardial injury

Oral Presentation: Session S29 - Vascular Biology, Basic Research: abstract no. 263postprint16th World Congress on Heart Disease, International Academy of Cardiology, Annual Scientific Sessions, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 23-26 July 2011, Oral Presentation: Session S29: Vascular Biology, Basic Research, Abstract No. 26

Confined conversion of CuS nanowires to CuO nanotubes by annealing-induced diffusion in nanochannels

Copper oxide (CuO) nanotubes were successfully converted from CuS nanowires embedded in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by annealing-induced diffusion in a confined tube-type space. The spreading of CuO and formation of CuO layer on the nanochannel surface of AAO, and the confinement offered by AAO nanochannels play a key role in the formation of CuO nanotubes

Recent changes of water discharge and sediment load in the Yellow River basin, China

The Yellow River basin contributes approximately 6% of the sediment load from all river systems globally, and the annual runoff directly supports 12% of the Chinese population. As a result, describing and understanding recent variations of water discharge and sediment load under global change scenarios are of considerable importance. The present study considers the annual hydrologic series of the water discharge and sediment load of the Yellow River basin obtained from 15 gauging stations (10 mainstream, 5 tributaries). The Mann-Kendall test method was adopted to detect both gradual and abrupt change of hydrological series since the 1950s. With the exception of the area draining to the Upper Tangnaihai station, results indicate that both water discharge and sediment load have decreased significantly (p<0.05). The declining trend is greater with distance downstream, and drainage area has a significant positive effect on the rate of decline. It is suggested that the abrupt change of the water discharge from the late 1980s to the early 1990s arose from human extraction, and that the abrupt change in sediment load was linked to disturbance from reservoir construction.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)43ARTICLE4541-5613

Expression of Multiple Artificial MicroRNAs from a Chicken miRNA126-Based Lentiviral Vector

Background: The use of RNAi in both basic and translational research often requires expression of multiple siRNAs from the same vector. Methods/Principal Findings: We have developed a novel chicken miR126-based artificial miRNA expression system that can express one, two or three miRNAs from a single cassette in a lentiviral vector. We show that each of the miRNAs expressed from the same lentiviral vector is capable of potent inhibition of reporter gene expression in transient transfection and stable integration assays in chicken fibroblast DF-1 cells. Transduction of Vero cells with lentivirus expressing two or three different anti-influenza miRNAs leads to inhibition of influenza virus production. In addition, the chicken miR126-based expression system effectively inhibits reporter gene expression in human, monkey, dog and mouse cells. These results demonstrate that the flanking regions of a single primary miRNA can support processing of three different stem-loops in a single vector. Conclusions/Significance: This novel design expands the means to express multiple miRNAs from the same vector for potent and effective silencing of target genes and influenza virus.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01AI056267)Cobb-Vantress, inc

Genetic Characterization of a Core Set of a Tropical Maize Race Tuxpeño for Further Use in Maize Improvement

The tropical maize race Tuxpeño is a well-known race of Mexican dent germplasm which has greatly contributed to the development of tropical and subtropical maize gene pools. In order to investigate how it could be exploited in future maize improvement, a panel of maize germplasm accessions was assembled and characterized using genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers. This panel included 321 core accessions of Tuxpeño race from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) germplasm bank collection, 94 CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs) and 54 U.S. Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) lines. The panel also included other diverse sources of reference germplasm: 14 U.S. maize landrace accessions, 4 temperate inbred lines from the U.S. and China, and 11 CIMMYT populations (a total of 498 entries with 795 plants). Clustering analyses (CA) based on Modified Rogers Distance (MRD) clearly partitioned all 498 entries into their corresponding groups. No sub clusters were observed within the Tuxpeño core set. Various breeding strategies for using the Tuxpeño core set, based on grouping of the studied germplasm and genetic distance among them, were discussed. In order to facilitate sampling diversity within the Tuxpeño core, a minicore subset of 64 Tuxpeño accessions (20% of its usual size) representing the diversity of the core set was developed, using an approach combining phenotypic and molecular data. Untapped diversity represents further use of the Tuxpeño landrace for maize improvement through the core and/or minicore subset available to the maize community

CdSe Ring- and Tribulus-Shaped Nanocrystals: Controlled Synthesis, Growth Mechanism, and Photoluminescence Properties

With air-stable and generic reagents, CdSe nanocrystals with tunable morphologies were prepared by controlling the temperature in the solution reaction route. Thereinto, the lower reaction temperature facilitates the anisotropic growth of crystals to obtain high-yield CdSe ring- and tribulus-shaped nanocrystals with many branches on their surfaces. The photoluminescence properties are sensitive to the nature of particle and its surface. The products synthesized at room temperature, whose surfaces have many branches, show higher blue shift and narrower emission linewidths (FWHM) of photoluminescence than that of samples prepared at higher temperature, whose surfaces have no branches. Microstructural studies revealed that the products formed through self-assembly of primary crystallites. Nanorings formed through the nonlinear attachment of primary crystallites, and the branches on the surfaces grew by linear attachment at room temperature. And the structure of tribulus-shaped nanoparticle was realized via two steps of aggregation, i.e., random and linear oriented aggregation. Along with the elevation of temperature, the branches on nanocrystal surfaces shortened gradually because of the weakened linear attachment