Observations at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths offer a complementary perspective on our Sun and other stars, offering significant insights into both the thermal and magnetic composition of their chromospheres. Despite the fundamental progress in (sub-)millimeter observations of the Sun, some important aspects require diagnostic capabilities that are not offered by existing observatories. In particular, simultaneously observations of the radiation continuum across an extended frequency range would facilitate the mapping of different layers and thus ultimately the 3D structure of the solar atmosphere.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
November 2023
Modeling time series has been a particularly challenging aspect due to the need for constant adjustments in a rapidly changing environment, data uncertainty, dependencies between variables, volatile fluctuations, and the need to identify ideal hyperparameters. The present study presents a Framework capable of making projections from time series related to cases and deaths by COVID-19 in the Amazonian state of Pará, in Brazil. For the first time, deep learning models such as TCN, TRANSFORMER, TFT, N-BEATS, and N-HiTS were assessed for this purpose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComput Methods Programs Biomed
October 2021
Background And Objective: In the difficult problem of comparing countries regarding their lockdown measures or deaths caused by the COVID-19, there is still no agreement on what is the best strategy to follow. Thus, we propose a new way of comparison countries that avoids the main difficulties in the comparison by using three-dimensional trajectories for this type of data.
Methods: We introduce a new index to analyze the level of confinement that each country was subject to overtime, based on the Community Mobility Reports published by Google resorting to Principal Component Analysis.
We present briefly the LLAMA sub-mm radiotelescope, a joint project of Argentina and Brazil, being mounted in the Andes, Argentina, at 4800 m altitude. Here we focus on the activities that are going on mostly under the responsibility of Brazil, like the high frequency receivers, parts of the back-end and electronics, the optical system of the telescope to bring the radiation to the receivers, the equipment needed for the integration and verification phase (optical telescope and holography) and the computation system.The main scientific applications that are planned are dscribed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Mediterranean climate is characterized by hot dry summers and frequent droughts. Mediterranean crops are frequently subjected to high evapotranspiration demands, soil water deficits, high temperatures, and photo-oxidative stress. These conditions will become more severe due to global warming which poses major challenges to the sustainability of the agricultural sector in Mediterranean countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Pharmacother
April 2019
Biologically active compounds from species of the phylum Basidiomycota have been shown a wide range of pharmacological activities and provide a vast reservoir of potential innovational drugs. The aim of this review is to discuss some mechanisms of action involved in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic/antitumoral activities attributed to the bioactive compounds from species of the phylum Basidiomycota. We show that isolated compounds from extracts, secondary metabolites and polysaccharides that presented antioxidant properties have mechanisms of action involved in the elimination/capture of free radicals and reduction of lipid peroxidation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present SpotOn, a web server to identify and classify interfacial residues as Hot-Spots (HS) and Null-Spots (NS). SpotON implements a robust algorithm with a demonstrated accuracy of 0.95 and sensitivity of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStomata respond to darkness by closing to prevent excessive water loss during the night. Although the reorganisation of actin filaments during stomatal closure is documented, the underlying mechanisms responsible for dark-induced cytoskeletal arrangement remain largely unknown. We used genetic, physiological and cell biological approaches to show that reorganisation of the actin cytoskeleton is required for dark-induced stomatal closure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding protein-protein interactions is a key challenge in biochemistry. In this work, we describe a more accurate methodology to predict Hot-Spots (HS) in protein-protein interfaces from their native complex structure compared to previous published Machine Learning (ML) techniques. Our model is trained on a large number of complexes and on a significantly larger number of different structural- and evolutionary sequence-based features.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJatropha curcas, a multipurpose plant attracting a great deal of attention due to its high oil content and quality for biofuel, is recognized as a drought-tolerant species. However, this drought tolerance is still poorly characterized. This study aims to contribute to uncover the molecular background of this tolerance, using a combined approach of transcriptional profiling and morphophysiological characterization during a period of water-withholding (49 d) followed by rewatering (7 d).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGarcinielliptone FC (GFC) isolated from hexanic fraction seed extract of species Platonia insignis Mart. It is widely used in folk medicine to treat skin diseases in both humans and animals as well as the seed decoction has been used to treat diarrheas and inflammatory diseases. However, there is no research on GFC effects in the central nervous system of rodents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe classical view that the drought-related hormone ABA simply acts locally at the guard cell level to induce stomatal closure is questioned by differences between isolated epidermis and intact leaves in stomatal response to several stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that ABA mediates, in addition to a local effect, a remote effect in planta by changing hydraulic regulation in the leaf upstream of the stomata. By gravimetry, porometry to water vapour and argon, and psychrometry, we investigated the effect of exogenous ABA on transpiration, stomatal conductance and leaf hydraulic conductance of mutants described as ABA-insensitive at the guard cell level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnowledge on variety traits and physiological responses to stress is still scarce in Vitis vinifera L., limiting the optimisation of irrigation and breeding for high water use efficiency. We have characterised five grapevine varieties using thermal imaging, leaf gas exchange, leaf morphology and carbon isotope composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultivariate finite mixture models have been applied to the identification of dietary patterns. These models are known to have many parameters, and consequently large samples are usually required. We present a special case of a multivariate mixture model that reduces the number of parameters to be estimated and seems adequate for small to moderately sized samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity is nowadays a serious worldwide public health problem. In order to give patients a better quality of live, there are now medical and surgical treatments that may be offered to those patients. Since 2005, the Hospital de Santarém has been doing bariatric surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Med
June 2008
Introduction: Many studies of the prevalence of erectile dysfunction have been conducted in several countries. This is the first Portuguese study that provides current and comparative data on the prevalence of erectile dysfunction.
Aim: The main objective was to estimate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction in men aged 40 to 69 years and correlate erectile dysfunction to certain risk factors.
We report on the investigation and successful application of vertical profiling of the structure parameter C2m and of the outer scale L0 of absorption fluctuations and of the horizontal wind velocity (vector) during daytime by the analysis of solar transmission measurements. The method is relatively simple and straightforward so that the presented (or a similar) technique could be used in the routine remote sensing of daytime C2m, L0, and wind profiles. It requires multiple beams pointing in different directions at the Sun.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Gilbert's syndrome is a chronic benign disease leading to recurrent jaundice and major unconjugated bilirubin increase that may be toxic after the use of routine medication. This report aimed at describing the anesthetic approach in Gilbert's syndrome patient submitted to videolaparoscopic surgery.
Case Report: Female patient, 22 years old with Gilbert's syndrome, submitted to videolaparoscopic surgery under general anesthesia with propofol, alfentanil, succinylcholine, atracurium and isoflurane.