Knowledge about streamflow regimes and values is essential for different activities and situations in which justified decisions must be made. However, streamflow behavior is commonly assumed to be ...non-linear, being controlled by various mechanisms that act on different temporal and spatial scales, making its estimation challenging. An example is the construction and operation of infrastructures such as dams and reservoirs in rivers. The challenges faced by modelers to correctly describe the impact of dams on hydrological systems are considerable. In this study, an already implemented solution of the MOHID-Land (where MOHID stands for HYDrodinamic MOdel, or MOdelo HIDrodinâmico in Portuguese) model for a natural flow regime in the Ulla River basin was considered as a baseline. The watershed referred to includes three reservoirs. Outflow values were estimated considering a basic operation rule for two of them (run-of-the-river dams) and considering a data-driven model of a convolutional long short-term memory (CLSTM) type for the other (high-capacity dam). The outflow values obtained with the CLSTM model were imposed in the hydrological model, while the hydrological model fed the CLSTM model with the level and the inflow of the reservoir. This coupled system was evaluated daily using two hydrometric stations located downstream of the reservoirs, resulting in an improved performance compared with the baseline application. The analysis of the modeled values with and without reservoirs further demonstrated that considering dams' operations in the hydrological model resulted in an increase in the streamflow during the dry season and a decrease during the wet season but with no differences in the average streamflow. The coupled system is thus a promising solution for improving streamflow estimates in modified catchments.
The global spread of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) strains has restricted the therapeutic options available to treat infections due to this pathogen. Understanding the ...prevalence of such infections and the underlying genetic mechanisms of resistance may help in the implementation of adequate measures to control and prevent acquisition of nosocomial infections, especially in an intensive care unit setting. This study describes the molecular characteristics and risk factors associated with OXA-23-producing A. baumannii infections. A case-control study was undertaken from September/2013 to April/2015. Acquisition of OXA-23-producing A. baumannii was found to be associated with the use of nasogastric tubes, haemodialysis, and the use of cephalosporins. These isolates were only susceptible to amikacin, gentamicin, tigecycline, and colistin, and contained the ISAba1 insertion sequence upstream ofblaOXA-23 and blaOXA-51 genes. Twenty-six OXA-23-producing A. baumannii strains belonged to the ST79 (CC79) clonal group,and patients infected or colonised by these isolates had a higher mortality rate (34.6%). In conclusion, this study showed a dissemination of OXA-23-producing A. baumannii strains that was associated with several healthcare-related risk factors and high mortality rates among intensive care unit patients.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The purpose of this paper is to analyse a picturebook – A Cidade The City, by Inês Fonseca Santos and Beatriz Bagulho – that deals with a symbolic city since it refers to a single building: a ...cultural centre in the heart of Lisbon. Aimed at promoting the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) Cultural Centre of Belém and its cultural activities among young readers, this picturebook depicts the building and its “inhabitants” as a special city, “a city inside a city”, including its history (and anecdotes) and special protagonists. The metaphor used throughout the picturebook reinforces the idea of space cohesion and identity, a sort of a unique ecosystem where art and people can be together. Combining facts and fiction, this picturebook is also distinguished by the way it promotes the idea of an urban setting as a child-friendly space, an uncommon idea in Portuguese children’s literature.
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•Ultrasound is a fast method for phenolic compounds recovery from C. chinense leaves.•Solvent polarity has a strong effect on the recovery of phenolic compounds.•Dielectric constant ...was propose to predict the most appropriate solvent for phenolic extraction.•Antioxidant activity correlates with total phenolic content of C. chinense leaves extracts.•Identification of phenolic compounds was performed by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS.
Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites involved in plant adaptation processes. The development of extraction procedures, quantification, and identification of this compounds in habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense) leaves can provide information about their accumulation and possible biological function. The main objective of this work was to study the effect of the UAE method and the polarity of different extraction solvents on the recovery of phenolic compounds from C. chinense leaves. Quantification of the total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (AA) by ABTS+ and DPPH radical inhibition methods, and the relation between the dielectric constant (ε) as polarity parameter of the solvents and TPC using Weibull and Gaussian distribution models was analyzed. The major phenolic compounds in C. chinense leaves extracts were identified and quantified by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS. The highest recovery of TPC (24.39 ± 2.41 mg GAE g−1 dry wt) was obtained using MeOH (50%) by UAE method. Correlations between TPC and AA of 0.89 and 0.91 were found for both radical inhibition methods (ABTS+ and DPPH). The Weibull and Gaussian models showed high regression values (0.93 to 0.95) suggesting that the highest phenolic compounds recovery is obtained using solvents with “ε” values between 35 and 52 by UAE. The major compounds were identified as N-caffeoyl putrescine, apigenin, luteolin and diosmetin derivatives. The models presented are proposed as a useful tool to predict the appropriate solvent composition for the extraction of phenolic compounds from C. chinense leaves by UAE based on the “ε” of the solvents for future metabolomic studies.
Comorbidities related to the cardiovascular system are one of the most prevalent in patients with acromegaly, and contribute to an increased risk of morbidity and all-cause mortality. Specifically, ...hypertension, cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, arrhythmias, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, and cardiac dysfunction may be frequent findings. Although the underlying physiopathology for each comorbidity may not be fully elucidated, uncontrolled growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor 1 excess, age, prolonged disease duration, and coexistence of other cardio-vascular risk factors are significant influencing variables. A simple diagnostic approach to screen for the presence of these comorbidities may allow prompt treatment and arrest the progression of cardiac abnormalities. In this article, we revise the most prevalent cardiovascular comorbidities and their pathophysiology in acromegalic patients, and we address some recommendations for their prompt diagnosis, management and treatment. Strengths and pitfalls of different diagnostic techniques that are currently being used and how different treatments can affect these complications will be further discussed.
Plasma gasification is a thermal treatment successfully applied to waste streams, especially for solid residues. It sets an upgrade to more common waste-to-energy (WtE) techniques as incineration or ...gasification, granting lower levels of pollutant emissions, less landfilled materials and higher conversion efficiencies and producer gas quality. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of plasma gasification for one ton of a defined stream of solid waste is presented and compared to the hypothetical outcomes of incineration, highlighting the need to implement such sustainable techniques rather than more polluting ones. CML 2001 methodology was applied, enabling the evaluation of eleven impact categories, all of them depicting avoided burdens for the environment. Enhanced efficiency and cleanliness were seen due to the plasma step and to the replacement of part of the electrical grid mix by the produced electricity. Plasma gasification presented an overall better performance than incineration, portraying savings in energy and material resources as well as lower emissions to freshwater. Additionally, lower amounts of air contaminants were seen as well as almost triple of the produced electricity.
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Bossinger G, Spokevicius AV. 2018. Sector analysis reveals patterns of cambium differentiation in poplar stems. Journal of Experimental Botany 69, 4339-4348.
T lymphocytes undergo metabolic reprogramming to adapt to extracellular and intracellular cues. Specifically, T-cell metabolism results into ATP production, anabolism and catabolism pathways that not ...only support rapid cell growth and proliferation, but also differentiation and effector functions, recently referred as “immunometabolism”. Quiescent naïve T cells rely on oxidative phosphorylation whereas aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) occurs in activated T cells (effector CD4+ and CD8+). The molecular mechanisms that sense metabolic status and influence T-cell function require metabolic checkpoints including sensors of metabolic signals and transducers (Myc, HIF-1α, AMPK and mTOR). These metabolic checkpoints represent a novel therapeutic strategy for immune modulation. Interestingly, many immunosuppressive drugs including mTOR inhibitors (rapamycin), calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus, cyclosporine A) and inhibitors of de novo purine synthesis (6-mercaptopurine, mycophenolic acid and methotrexate) provide examples into how modulating these metabolic checkpoints can regulate T-cell activation, differentiation and function.
In this Review we highlight emerging concepts about metabolic reprogramming in T-cell responses and we discuss the potential therapeutic interventions to influence T-cell fate and effector function.
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•Metabolic reprogramming allows for rapid cell adaptation to environmental cues.•Cancer and T cells undergo metabolic reprogramming to adapt to changing situations.•Changes in metabolism are critical for T-lymphocyte fate and effector functions.•Key regulators of cellular metabolism have a fundamental role in immune responses.•Immunosuppressive drugs affect T-cell metabolism by targeting metabolic checkpoints.
This study compares the performance of three different neural network models to estimate daily streamflow in a watershed under a natural flow regime. Based on existing and public tools, different ...types of NN models were developed, namely, multi-layer perceptron, long short-term memory, and convolutional neural network. Precipitation was either considered an input variable on its own or combined with air temperature as another input variable. Different periods of accumulation, average, and/or delay were considered. The models’ structures were optimized and automatically showed that CNN performed best, reaching, for example, a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.86 and a root mean square error of 4.2 m3 s−1. This solution considers a 1D convolutional layer and a dense layer as the input and output layers, respectively. Between those layers, two 1D convolutional layers are considered. As input variables, the best performance was reached when the accumulated precipitation values were 1 to 5, and 10 days and delayed by 1 to 7 days.
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