Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2016-04"
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- Intraluminal duodenal ("Windsock") diverticulum: a rare cause of gastrointestinal bleedingPublication . Eusébio, Marta; Ramos, André; Guerreiro, HorácioIntraluminal duodenal diverticulum (IDD), also known as ‘‘windsock’’ diverticulum, is a rare congenital abnormality that seems to result from an incomplete recanalization of the foregut lumen. Symptoms usually do not appear until the third decade of life (...).
- Analysis of behaviours and attitudes of antibiotics use in Algarve's populationPublication . F. Marques, C.; Amado, A.; Ramalhinho, I. R.Background and objective: In the past years, the antimicrobial resistance has been increasing, partly due to its misuse, and this has been considered as a threat for the public health by WHO. The aim of this study was to evaluate behaviours and attitudes of antibiotics use among adults in the south region of Portugal, Algarve, particularly self-medication and knowledge about these drugs.
- Editorial: Non-traditional participants in adult education and learningPublication . Almeida, António Fragoso de; Kurantowicz, EwaIs it valid to assume that adult education with a focus on non-participants or non-traditional participants takes into account the improvement of participants’ lives, or the emancipation of groups? Or, is this today a false assumption? Is the (scientific) discipline of adult education focussed on change? Although it is of course impossible to answer all those questions in such a modest contribution - the present thematic issue - some researchers forwarded very interesting perspectives. (DIPF/Orig.)
- Clouding of nonionic surfactantsPublication . Lindman, Bjorn; Medronho, Bruno; Karlstrom, GunnarNonionic surfactants have broad applications such as cleaning and dispersion stabilization, which frequently are hampered by strong temperature sensitivities. As manifested by clouding and decreased solubility with increasing temperature, the interaction between water and the oligo(oxyethylene) head-groups is becoming less favorable. Different aspects of surfactant self-assembly, like the critical micelle concentration, micelle size and shape, intermicellar interactions and phase separation phenomena are reviewed as well as suggested underlying causes of the temperature dependence. Furthermore, the effect of cosolutes on clouding and the behavior of related systems, non-aqueous solutions and nonionic polymers, are examined. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Do hatchery-reared sea urchins pose a threat to genetic diversity in wild populations?Publication . Segovia-Viadero, M.; Serrao, Ester; Canteras-Jordana, J. C.; Gonzalez-Wangueemert, MercedesIn salmonids, the release of hatchery-reared fish has been shown to cause irreversible genetic impacts on wild populations. However, although responsible practices for producing and releasing genetically diverse, hatchery-reared juveniles have been published widely, they are rarely implemented. Here, we investigated genetic differences between wild and early-generation hatchery-reared populations of the purple sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (a commercially important species in Europe) to assess whether hatcheries were able to maintain natural levels of genetic diversity. To test the hypothesis that hatchery rearing would cause bottleneck effects (that is, a substantial reduction in genetic diversity and differentiation from wild populations), we compared the levels and patterns of genetic variation between two hatcheries and four nearby wild populations, using samples from both Spain and Ireland. We found that hatchery-reared populations were less diverse and had diverged significantly from the wild populations, with a very small effective population size and a high degree of relatedness between individuals. These results raise a number of concerns about the genetic impacts of their release into wild populations, particularly when such a degree of differentiation can occur in a single generation of hatchery rearing. Consequently, we suggest that caution should be taken when using hatchery-reared individuals to augment fisheries, even for marine species with high dispersal capacity, and we provide some recommendations to improve hatchery rearing and release practices. Our results further highlight the need to consider the genetic risks of releasing hatchery-reared juveniles into the wild during the establishment of restocking, stock enhancement and sea ranching programs.
- Tissue responsiveness to estradiol and genistein in the sea bass liver and scalePublication . Estêvão, M. Dulce; Andrade, André; Santos, Soraia; Power, Deborah; Pinto, Patricia ISAs in mammals, estrogens in fish are essential for reproduction but also important regulators of mineral homeostasis. Fish scales are a non-conventional target tissue responsive to estradiol and constitute a good model to study mineralized tissues effects and mechanisms of action of estrogenic compounds, including phytoestrogens. The responsiveness to estradiol and the phytoestrogen genistein, was compared between the scales and the liver, a classical estrogenic target, in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Injection with estradiol and genistein significantly increased circulating vitellogenin (for both compounds) and mineral levels (estradiol only) and genistein also significantly increased scale enzymatic activities suggesting it increased mineral turnover. The repertoire, abundance and estrogenic regulation of nuclear estrogen receptors (ESR1, 2a and 2b) and membrane G-protein receptors (GPER and GPER-like) were different between liver and scales, which presumably explains the tissue-specific changes detected in estrogen-responsive gene expression. In scales changes in gene expression mainly consisted of small rapid increases, while in liver strong, sustained increases/decreases in gene expression occurred. Similar but not overlapping gene expression changes were observed in response to both estradiol and genistein. This study demonstrates for the first time the expression of membrane estrogen receptors in scales and that estrogens and phytoestrogens, to which fish may be exposed in the wild or in aquaculture, both affect liver and mineralized tissues in a tissue-specific manner. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Non-traditional students in higher education: barriers to learning and professional insertionPublication . Almeida, António Fragoso de; Quintas, Helena; Campos Goncalves, Teresa IsabelThis article emerges from two research projects focused on non-traditional students in higher education. Our objectives aims to understand the barriers of learning and academic success, considering the perspectives of the several social actors in the academia; and to understand the barriers of the same students had in their transition to the work environment. The results show that a set of situational and institutional factors work as obstacles to these students. The results also show that age is a determinant factor regarding hiring and that the characteristics of the labour market today make hard the professional insertion of non-traditional undergraduates.
- Observer-biased bearing condition monitoring: from fault detection to multi-fault classificationPublication . Li, Chuan; Oliveira, José Valente de; Cerrada, Mariela; Pacheco, Fannia; Cabrera, Diego; Sanchez, Vinicio; Zurita, GroverBearings are simultaneously a fundamental component and one of the principal causes of failure in rotary machinery. The work focuses on the employment of fuzzy clustering for bearing condition monitoring, i.e., fault detection and classification. The output of a clustering algorithm is a data partition (a set of clusters) which is merely a hypothesis on the structure of the data. This hypothesis requires validation by domain experts. In general, clustering algorithms allow a limited usage of domain knowledge on the cluster formation process. In this study, a novel method allowing for interactive clustering in bearing fault diagnosis is proposed. The method resorts to shrinkage to generalize an otherwise unbiased clustering algorithm into a biased one. In this way, the method provides a natural and intuitive way to control the cluster formation process, allowing for the employment of domain knowledge to guiding it. The domain expert can select a desirable level of granularity ranging from fault detection to classification of a variable number of faults and can select a specific region of the feature space for detailed analysis. Moreover, experimental results under realistic conditions show that the adopted algorithm outperforms the corresponding unbiased algorithm (fuzzy c-means) which is being widely used in this type of problems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Da conceção à implosão da nova política de educação e formação de adultos (EFA) em Portugal (1996-2016): e agora tudo o vento levou? From conception to implosion of the new policy of adult learning and training in Portugal (1996-2016): and now everything is gone with the wind?Publication . Barros, RosannaO foco desta análise é a defesa do direito (inalienável) dos adultos à educação, o que implica admitir o Estado, nas suas várias reconfigurações hodiernas, como ator político principal no dever de zelar pela garantia e efetivação deste direito, numa ótica de justiça social que ultrapassa e torna dilemática a ótica de justiça de mercado. Com esta matriz de fundo revisitam-se as medidas de política pública responsáveis por viragens-chave ocorridas desde o período do relançamento político da educação de adultos em Portugal e reflete-se sobre as características, bem como ambivalências e tensões tanto da agenda de diversificação como da agenda de massificação desta oferta educacional. Por fim, tecem-se breves reflexões sobre o momento político atual em que dados internacionais apontam agora Portugal como o último país da União Europeia quanto à Educação ao Longo da Vida dos adultos pouco escolarizados e posicionamo-nos contra a implosão em curso da, ainda recente, política de Educação e Formação de Adultos portuguesa.
- Functional study of OPTN promoter: new OPTN regulators and effect of genetic variantsPublication . Silva, I. A. L.; Michou, L.; Cancela, M. Leonor; Conceição, NatérciaBackground: Optineurin (OPTN) is a gene located in chromosome 10 that has been associated with several pathologies, including Paget’s disease of bone (PDB). Using DNA samples from our cohort of PDB patients we have found two SNPs in OPTN promoter (rs3829923 and RV -9906) that could alter OPTN expression. However little is known about the role of this gene in bone and how this gene is regulated.