Quando a luta pelos direitos sexuais se faz no feminino: um estudo de caso sobre o associativismo lésbico em Portugal

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento e Políticas Sociais)

Síntese de tetrahidroquinolinas a partir da D-eritrose

Dissertação de mestrado em Química Medicinal

Zeolite-based nanomaterials for the control of opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms

Dissertação de mestrado em Applied Biochemistry (área de especialização em Biomedicine)

Síntese de péptidos contendo resíduos de aminoácidos não proteinogénicos

Dissertação de mestrado em Química Medicinal

Analysis of heterogeneously catalyzed ester hydrolysis reactions in a fixed-bed chromatographic reactor

Reactive Chromatography, Fixed-Bed Reactor, Heterogeneous, Hydrolysis, Ester, Catalyst, Adsorption, Ion-Exchange Resin

Development of a new method for the characterisation of bioreactors concerning heat and mass transfer

Since the specific heat transfer coefficient (UA) and the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa) play an important role for the design of biotechnological processes, different techniques were developed in the past for the determination of these parameters. However, these approaches often use imprecise dynamic methods for the description of stationary processes and are limited towards scale and geometry of the bioreactor. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop a new method, which overcomes these restrictions. This new approach is based on a permanent production of heat and oxygen by the constant decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in continuous mode. Since the degradation of H2O2 at standard conditions only takes place by the support of a catalyst, different candidates were investigated for their potential (regarding safety issues and reaction kinetic). Manganese-(IV)-oxide was found to be suitable. To compensate the inactivation of MnO2, a continuous process with repeated feeds of fresh MnO2 was established. Subsequently, a scale-up was successfully carried out from 100 mL to a 5 litre glass bioreactor (UniVessel®)To show the applicability of this new method for the characterisation of bioreactors, it was compared with common approaches. With the newly established technique as well as with a conventional procedure, which is based on an electrical heat source, specific heat transfer coefficients were measured in the range of 17.1 – 24.8 W/K for power inputs of about 50 – 70 W/L. However, a first proof of concept regarding the mass transfer showed no constant kLa for different dilution rates up to 0.04 h-1.Based on this, consecutive studies concerning the mass transfer should be made with higher volume flows, due to more even inflow rates. In addition, further experiments are advisable, to analyse the heat transfer in single-use bioreactors and in larger common systems.

Peroxynitrite is a key mediator of the cardioprotection afforded by ischemic postconditioning in vivo.

Myocardial ischemic postconditioning (PosC) describes an acquired resistance to lethal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury afforded by brief episodes of I/R applied immediately after the ischemic insult. Cardioprotection is conveyed by parallel signaling pathways converging to prevent mitochondria permeability transition. Recent observations indicated that PostC is associated with free radicals generation, including nitric oxide (NO(.)) and superoxide (O2 (.-)), and that cardioprotection is abrogated by antioxidants. Since NO. And O2 (. -) react to form peroxynitrite, we hypothesized that postC might trigger the formation of peroxyntrite to promote cardioprotection in vivo. Rats were exposed to 45 min of myocardial ischemia followed by 3h reperfusion. PostC (3 cycles of 30 seconds ischemia/30 seconds reperfusion) was applied at the end of index ischemia. In a subgroup of rats, the peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulphonatophenyl) porphyrinato iron (FeTPPS) was given intravenously (10 mg/kg(-1)) 5 minutes before PostC. Myocardial nitrotyrosine was determined as an index of peroxynitrite formation. Infarct size (colorimetric technique and plasma creatine kinase-CK-levels) and left ventricle (LV) function (micro-tip pressure transducer), were determined. A significant generation of 3-nitrotyrosine was detected just after the PostC manoeuvre. PostC resulted in a marked reduction of infarct size, CK release and LV systolic dysfunction. Treatment with FeTPPS before PostC abrogated the beneficial effects of PostC on myocardial infarct size and LV function. Thus, peroxynitrite formed in the myocardium during PostC induces cardioprotective mechanisms improving both structural and functional integrity of the left ventricle exposed to ischemia and reperfusion in vivo.

Modelització i control d'un reactor de producció d'hidrogen per a l'alimentació de piles de combustible

Les piles de combustible permeten la transformació eficient de l’energia química de certs combustibles a energia elèctrica a través d’un procés electroquímic. De les diferents tecnologies de piles de combustible, les piles de combustible de tipus PEM són les més competitives i tenen una gran varietat d’aplicacions. No obstant, han de ser alimentades únicament per hidrogen. Per altra banda, l’etanol, un combustible interessant en el marc dels combustibles renovables, és una possible font d’hidrogen. Aquest treball estudia la reformació d’etanol per a l’obtenció d’hidrogen per a alimentar piles de combustible PEM. Només existeixen algunes publicacions que tractin l’obtenció d’hidrogen a partir d’etanol, i aquestes no inclouen l’estudi dinàmic del sistema. Els objectius del treball són el modelat i l’estudi dinàmic de reformadors d’etanol de baixa temperatura. Concretament, proposa un model dinàmic d’un reformador catalític d’etanol amb vapor basat en un catalitzador de cobalt. Aquesta reformació permet obtenir valors alts d’eficiència i valors òptims de monòxid de carboni que evitaran l’enverinament d’una la pila de combustible de tipus PEM. El model, no lineal, es basa en la cinètica obtinguda de diferents assaigs de laboratori. El reformador modelat opera en tres etapes: deshidrogenació d’etanol a acetaldehid i hidrogen, reformat amb vapor d’acetaldehid, i la reacció WGS (Water Gas Shift). El treball també estudia la sensibilitat i controlabilitat del sistema, caracteritzant així el sistema que caldrà controlar. L’anàlisi de controlabilitat es realitza sobre la resposta de dinàmica ràpida obtinguda del balanç de massa del reformador. El model no lineal és linealitzat amb la finalitat d’aplicar eines d’anàlisi com RGA, CN i MRI. El treball ofereix la informació necessària per a avaluar la possible implementació en un laboratori de piles de combustibles PEM alimentades per hidrogen provinent d’un reformador d’etanol.

IPH response to the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010

IPH contributed to the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England being carried out by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Chair of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health.  IPH acknowledges the immense work done by the Review team and welcomes the opportunity to inform its work. We see the review as a vital opportunity to provide a “catalyst for concerted action” not only in England but in its near neighbours in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Health inequalities are rife across the UK and Ireland despite a range of developments in policy and practice designed to create more equal opportunities for health. We commend the approach taken in the Review, which applies scientific rigour and the combined expertise of a number of defined task groups to seek solutions to the vexing challenge of health inequality.

Sixth Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Group for A Vision for Change - the Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy - July 2012

Sixth Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Group for A Vision for Change – the Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy – July 2012 This is the 6th Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Group for A Vision for Change (IMG) and the final report of the Second Group. It is clear to the IMG that the implementation of A Vision for Change (AVFC) to date including 2011 has been slow and inconsistent. There is a continued absence of a National Mental Health Service Directorate with authority and control of resources. Such a body has the potential to give strong corporate leadership and act as a catalyst for change. Click here to download HSE National and Regional Progress ReportsHSE – 6th Annual Report HSE – National and Regional Progress Report Progress Reports from Government DepartmentsDepartment of Children and Youth AffairsDepartment of Education and SkillsDepartment of Health Department of Justice and Equality Department of Social ProtectionDepartment of Environment, Community & Local Government National Mental Health Programme Plan Consultation Document What We Heard Submissions Received by the IMGAmnesty International Ireland submission Association of Occupational Therapists submission College of Psychiatry of Ireland submissionCollege of Psychiatry of Ireland – Press Release regarding Social Psychiatry and Recovery Conference College of Psychiatry of Ireland – regarding Psychotherapy Training for Psychiatric TraineesCollege of Psychiatry of Ireland – regarding relationship with Pharmaceutical Industry College of Psychiatry of Ireland – Mental Health in Primary CareDisability Federation of IrelandHealth Research Board submission Irish Association of Social Workers – Adult Mental Health Irish Association of Social Workers – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Irish College of General PractitionersMental Health CommissionMental Health ReformPharmaceutical Society of IrelandIrish Advocacy Network Childrens Mental Health CoalitionNational Disability AuthorityNational Service Users ExecutiveNational Service Users Executive – Second Opinions ReportNational Federation of Voluntary BodiesHeadstrong  

Larne Community Development Project

This partnership has been funded a couple of times to mainly looking at supporting women to look at health issues in the area. This project has, to date, worked well in making community development and health real. It has helped establish a women's group in the area and has enabled women to bring back relevant information to their families, friends, communities and other local groups they have been involved in. The pharmacy and pharmacist have been a key catalyst for this making use of skills, knowledge, contacts and premises. Some initial work was also carried out with men in the area, encouraging them to consider their health. This Level 3 project now goes a step further; skilling the women, as facilitators, to enable them to role out the information they have gained in a more formal way to the Larne area and its surrounding rural area. It also allows space and time for those women, not at this stage, to gain information, skills and confidence to take back to their families and friends. It also seeks to develop an approach targeting towards encouraging men to think about their health.

Nanopartícul·les core-shell estabilitzades en polímer amb propietats calítiques i bactericides medioambientalment segure

Aquest projecte de doctorat és un treball interdisciplinari adreçat a l’obtenció de nous nanocompòsits (NCs) funcionals sintetitzats a partir de materials polimèrics bescanviadors d’ions que són modificats amb nanopartícules metàl•liques (NPMs) de diferent composició. Els materials desenvolupats s’avaluen en funció de dues possibles aplicacions: 1) com a catalitzadors de reaccions orgàniques d’interès actual (NCs basats en pal•ladi) i, 2) la seva dedicació a aplicacions bactericides en el tractament d’aigües domèstiques o industrials (NCs basats en plata). El desenvolupament de nanomaterials és de gran interès a l’actualitat donades les seves especials propietats, l’aprofitament de les quals és la força impulsora per a la fabricació de nous NCs. Les nanopartícules metàl•liques estabilitzades en polímer (Polymer Stabilized Metal Nanoparticles, PSNPM) s’han preparat mitjançant la tècnica in-situ de síntesi intermatricial (Inter-matrix synthesis, IMS) que consisteix en la càrrega seqüencial dels grups funcionals de les matrius polimèriques amb ions metàl•lics, i la seva posterior reducció química dins de la matriu polimèrica de bescanvi iònic. L’estabilització en matrius polimèriques evita l’agregació entre elles (self-aggreagtion), un dels principals problemes coneguts de les NPs. Pel desenvolupament d’aquesta metodologia, s’han emprat diferents tipus de matrius polimèriques de bescanvi iònic: membrana Sulfonated PolyEtherEtherKetone, SPEEK, així com fibres sintètiques basades en polypropilè amb diferents tipus de grups funcionals, que ens permeten el seu ús com a filtres en la desinfecció de solucions aquoses o com a material catalitzador. Durant el projecte s’ha anat avançant en l’optimització del material nanocomposite final per a les aplicacions d’interès, en quant activitat i funcionalitat de les nanopartícules i estabilitat del nanocomposite. Així, s’ha optimitzat la síntesi de NPs estabilitzades en resines de bescanvi iònic, realitzant un screening de diferents tipus de resines i la seva avaluació en aplicacions industrials d’interès.

Electronic voting system for computer supported collaborative learning

The EVS4CSCL project starts in the context of a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning environment (CSCL). Previous UOC projects created a CSCL generic platform (CLPL) to facilitate the development of CSCL applications. A discussion forum (DF) was the first application developed over the framework. This discussion forum was different from other products on the marketplace because of its focus on the learning process. The DF carried out the specification and elaboration phases from the discussion learning process but there was a lack in the consensus phase. The consensus phase in a learning environment is not something to be achieved but tested. Common tests are done by Electronic Voting System (EVS) tools, but consensus test is not an assessment test. We are not evaluating our students by their answers but by their discussion activity. Our educational EVS would be used as a discussion catalyst proposing a discussion about the results after an initial query or it would be used after a discussion period in order to manifest how the discussion changed the students mind (consensus). It should be also used by the teacher as a quick way to know where the student needs some reinforcement. That is important in a distance-learning environment where there is no direct contact between the teacher and the student and it is difficult to detect the learning lacks. In an educational environment, assessment it is a must and the EVS will provide direct assessment by peer usefulness evaluation, teacher marks on every query created and indirect assessment from statistics regarding the user activity.

Jasmonate controls polypeptide patterning in undamaged tissue in wounded Arabidopsis leaves.

Wounding initiates a strong and largely jasmonate-dependent remodelling of the transcriptome in the leaf blades of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). How much control do jasmonates exert on wound-induced protein repatterning in leaves? Replicated shotgun proteomic analyses of 2.5-mm-wide leaf strips adjacent to wounds revealed 106 differentially regulated proteins. Many of these gene products have not emerged as being wound regulated in transcriptomic studies. From experiments using the jasmonic acid (JA)-deficient allene oxide synthase mutant we estimated that approximately 95% of wound-stimulated changes in protein levels were deregulated in the absence of JA. The levels of two tonoplast proteins already implicated in defense response regulation, TWO-PORE CHANNEL1 and the calcium-V-ATPase ACA4 increased on wounding, but their transcripts were not wound inducible. The data suggest new roles for jasmonate in controlling the levels of calcium-regulated pumps and transporters, proteins involved in targeted proteolysis, a putative bacterial virulence factor target, a light-dependent catalyst, and a key redox-controlled enzyme in glutathione synthesis. Extending the latter observation we found that wounding increased the proportion of oxidized glutathione in leaves, but only in plants able to synthesize JA. The oxidizing conditions generated through JA signaling near wounds help to define the cellular environment in which proteome remodelling occurs.

Identidad territorial y promoción turística: la organización de eventos como estrategia de creación, consolidación y difusión de la imagen de marca del territorio

La organización de un evento resulta paradigmática en el proceso de construcción de imágenes territoriales vividas in situ. La fabricación de imágenes territoriales - turísticas o no- con motivo de la organización de un evento para su posterior consolidación en el imaginario colectivo de los asistentes, plantea una curiosa alternativa de promoción turística implícita en la propia estrategia de gestión del evento. En efecto, no cabe duda de que el evento, por sí mismo, representa una importante estrategia de promoción del territorio, pero hay más; también puede devenir a modo de catalizador de imágenes, de creador de imaginarios capaces de fijar una marca de ciudad en su conjunto. El presente artículo dará a conocer las posibilidades que se desprenden de la organización de un evento en relación al posicionamiento identitario y promocional de un territorio.