Repositório RCAAP

Este documento descreve o trabalho realizado no âmbito da disciplina de Projecto em Engenharia Informática do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa. É descrito o estágio realizado na WeDo Technologies no âmbito do projecto, que sistematiza a desactivação técnica de clientes Sonaecom fixo que pretendam desistir dos serviços de telefone, Internet e televisão, de um modo automático, permitindo a sistematização do processo. Com este processo, as desactivações efectuam-se de forma mais clara, num menor período de tempo, com a garantia que efectivamente se desactiva os clientes nas diferentes interfaces envolvidas. É descrita a implementação do projecto através de uma framework de modelação de processos de negócio, proprietária da WeDo Technologies, o Activis, que permite, controlar os processos, o ciclo de vida do negócio e as interacções entre sistemas e pessoas. Descrevem-se as tecnologias utilizadas, as interfaces envolvidas e o modo como cada uma destas interage com o processo de negócio, bem como, a implementação das mesmas, através do Activis.

One of the fundamental interests in ecology is understanding which factors drive species’ distribution. We aimed to understand the drivers of bat distribution and co-occurrence patterns in a remote, insular system. The two bat species known to occur in the Azores archipelago were used as a model. Echolocation calls were recorded at 414 point-locations haphazardly distributed across the archipelago. Calls were analysed and assigned to each species. Binominal generalised linear models were adjusted using different descriptors at two scales: archipelago and island. The presence of the co-occurring species was included at both scales. The results show that island isolation, habitat and climate play an essential role on the archipelago and island scales, respectively. However, the positive interaction between bat species was the most critical driver of species’ distribution at the island scale. This high co-occurrence pattern at the island scale may result from both species’ maximising foraging profit in a region where prey abundance may be highly variable. However, further research is necessary to clarify the mechanisms behind this positive interaction. Both species are threatened and lack specific management and protection measures. Maintaining this positive interaction between the two species may prove to be fundamental for their conservation

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Ulceration constitutes the main complication of necrobiosis lipoidica (NL) and usually occurs after trauma. Ulcerated NL predisposes patients to infections and very rarely is associated with malignant transformation, mainly to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We describe the case of a 68-year-old Caucasian male diagnosed with disseminated NL associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), presenting a SCC on an ulcerated plaque of NL located on the left forearm and chronic osteomyelitis of the radius.

Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) has a causative role in several human malignancies. KSHV latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) mediates persistence of viral episomes in latently infected cells. LANA mediates KSHV DNA replication and segregates episomes to progeny nuclei. The structure of the LANA DNA binding domain was recently solved, revealing a positive electrostatic patch opposite the DNA binding surface, which is the site of BET protein binding. Here we investigate the functional role of the positive patch in LANA-mediated episome persistence. As expected, LANA mutants with alanine or glutamate substitutions in the central, peripheral, or lateral portions of the positive patch maintained the ability to bind DNA by EMSA. However, all of the substitution mutants were deficient for LANA DNA replication and episome maintenance. Mutation of the peripheral region generated the largest deficiencies. Despite these deficiencies, all positive patch mutants concentrated to dots along mitotic chromosomes in cells containing episomes, similar to LANA. The central and peripheral mutants, but not the lateral mutants, were reduced for BET protein interaction as assessed by co-immunoprecipitation. However, defects in BET protein binding were independent of episome maintenance function. Overall, the reductions in episome maintenance closely correlated with DNA replication deficiencies, suggesting that the replication defects account for the reduced episome persistence. Therefore, the electrostatic patch exerts a key role in LANA-mediated DNA replication and episome persistence and may act through a host cell partner(s) other than a BET protein or by inducing specific structures or complexes.

O cognome “Poeta-Viajante” é normalmente atribuído ao poeta japonês Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), no entanto o termo merece ser sistematizado quanto à sua significação, visto que atribui à viagem o mesmo peso que atribui à poesia. Argumenta-se neste trabalho que essa atribuição seja apenas aparente, que o “Bashō-viajante” esteja subordinado ao “Bashō-poeta” e que as motivações para viajar derivem sobretudo de um sincretismo entre a composição de poesia e a religiosidade do autor. Este trabalho analisa dois motivos para viajar, são eles: 1) Viagem que se motiva com base no desejo de usufruto da atividade de viajar. 2) Viagem que se motiva com base no desejo de usufruto do destino da viagem.

Aberrant expression of cancer genes and non-canonical RNA species is a hallmark of cancer. However, the mechanisms driving such atypical gene expression programs are incompletely understood. Here, our transcriptional profiling of a cohort of 50 primary clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) reveals that transcription read-through beyond the termination site is a source of transcriptome diversity in cancer cells. Amongst the genes most frequently mutated in ccRCC, we identified SETD2 inactivation as a potent enhancer of transcription read-through. We further show that invasion of neighbouring genes and generation of RNA chimeras are functional outcomes of transcription read-through. We identified the BCL2 oncogene as one of such invaded genes and detected a novel chimera, the CTSC-RAB38, in 20% of ccRCC samples. Collectively, our data highlight a novel link between transcription read-through and aberrant expression of oncogenes and chimeric transcripts that is prevalent in cancer.

Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) is central to episomal tethering, replication and transcriptional regulation of γ2-herpesviruses. LANA binds cooperatively to the terminal repeat (TR) region of the viral episome via adjacent LANA binding sites (LBS), but the molecular mechanism by which LANA assembles on the TR remains elusive. We show that KSHV LANA and MHV-68 LANA proteins bind LBS DNA using strikingly different modes. Solution structure of LANA complexes revealed that while kLANA tetramer is intrinsically bent both in the free and bound state to LBS1-2 DNA, mLANA oligomers instead adopt a rigid linear conformation. In addition, we report a novel non-ring kLANA structure that displays more flexibility at its assembly interface than previously demonstrated. We identified a hydrophobic pivot point located at the dimer-dimer assembly interface, which gives rotational freedom for kLANA to adopt variable conformations to accommodate both LBS1-2 and LBS2-1-3 DNA. Alterations in the arrangement of LBS within TR or at the tetramer assembly interface have a drastic effect on the ability of kLANA binding. We also show kLANA and mLANA DNA binding functions can be reciprocated. Although KSHV and MHV-68 are closely related, the findings provide new insights into how the structure, oligomerization, and DNA binding of LANA have evolved differently to assemble on the TR DNA.

Human infections caused by parasitic protozoans and helminths are among the world's leading causes of death. More than a million people die each year from diseases like malaria and neglected tropical diseases like leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, and schistosomiasis. Patients also endure disabilities that cause lifelong suffering and that affect productivity and development. More insidiously, parasites generate important economic losses, since they often also infect commercially valuable animals. Worldwide, exposure to parasites is increasing due to growing international travel and migrations, as well as climate changes, which affect the geographic distribution of the parasite vectors. The parasitic threat is also aggravated by the rise of the immunocompromised population, which is particularly sensitive to parasite infections (e.g., individuals with AIDS and other immunodeficiencies).

On 28 June 2019, the European Union and Mercosur reached a political agreement to establish an interregional trade agreement as ‘part of a wider Association Agreement between the two regions’. The European Commission and Mercosur member states went on to publish a summary of the negotiating results, while both sides started the process of legal revision. Meanwhile, the European External Action Service and Merco-sur representatives were negotiating the political dialogue and cooperation part of the Association Agreement, which was completed one year later, on 18 June 2020, and has not been published. The present report is about the latter document, to which the author has been granted confidential access: it scrutinises its content, compares it to previous and similar agreements, analyses its prospects of ratification and impact – with a special focus on Brazil – and assesses its potential to cement a meaningful EU-Mercosur strategic partnership. The study is enriched by direct, off-the-record inter-views as well as public documents and analyses. Its originality resides in the conside-ration of informal practices, besides and beyond formal frameworks, to estimate the odds of ratification and implementation of the agreement.

Botanical Gardens are among the most visited touristic attractions, offering scientific, educational, cultural and leisure activities to preserve and enhance heritage and disseminating specialised knowledge on science and history. There are several mobile applications (apps) to support visitors of Botanical Gardens, which explore augmented reality technologies to enrich their experience. Our work aims to systematize a set of requirements that must be considered in the development of these apps. We have applied them in the development of an app for a Botanical Garden available for Android and iOS. Preliminary data analysis of the use of our app revealed some characteristics of the visitors and the preferred tours. Meanwhile we are evaluating our app by conducting a user study.

A aplicação ODS é parte integrante do sistema LISATM, utilizado para o controlo do tráfego na região de voo de Lisboa. Está implementada sobre o sistema operativo Solaris 8 e o objectivo deste projecto é migrar o código da aplicação de visualização por forma a que possa utilizar o sistema operativo Linux. A portagem envolve não só a migração do código da aplicação mas também assegurar que as ferramentas auxiliares que utiliza são aceites pela nova versão do compilador e envolve também a configuração do SO. O ODS é desenhado com base na plataforma ODS Toolbox implementada sobre X Windows. A ODS Toolbox é um conjunto de ferramentas com o objectivo de desenhar sistemas e aplicações em que os objectos dinâmicos são visualizados num ambiente de interface gráfico. É indispensável que a aplicação tenha exactamente o mesmo comportamento e aparência para os controladores de tráfego aéreo.

Six new species are added to the Lepidoptera fauna of mainland Portugal, resulting from the authors’ fieldwork in 2019 and 2020: namely Coleophora anitella Baldizzone, 1985, Aplota palpellus (Haworth, 1828), Anacampsis obscurella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775), Apomyelois bistriatella (Hulst, 1887), Eublemma amoena (Hübner, 1803) and Xestia sexstrigata (Haworth, 1809)

Water scarcity is the most significant factor limiting coffee production, although some cultivars can still have important drought tolerance. This study analyzed leaf transcriptomes of two coffee cultivars with contrasting physiological responses, Coffea canephora cv. CL153 and Coffea. arabica cv. Icatu, subjected to moderate (MWD) or severe water deficits (SWD). We found that MWD had a low impact compared with SWD, where 10% of all genes in Icatu and 17% in CL153 reacted to drought, being mainly down-regulated upon stress. Drought triggered a genotype-specific response involving the up-regulation of reticuline oxidase genes in CL153 and heat shock proteins in Icatu. Responsiveness to drought also included desiccation protectant genes, but primarily, aspartic proteases, especially in CL153. A total of 83 Transcription Factors were found engaged in response to drought, mainly up-regulated, especially under SWD. Together with the enrollment of 49 phosphatases and 272 protein kinases, results suggest the involvement of ABA-signaling processes in drought acclimation. The integration of these findings with complementing physiological and biochemical studies reveals that both genotypes are more resilient to moderate drought than previously thought and suggests the existence of post-transcriptional mechanisms modulating the response to drought.

Moringa oleifera Lam. is a nutraceutical edible plant used to fight malnutrition in developing countries. This investigation describes the nutritional, chemical and bioactive assets of wild and commercially acquired M. oleifera leaves from Guinea-Bissau. Both samples presented significant differences in the contents of almost all the analysed parameters. Carbohydrates and proteins were the major constituents of the leaves, which also showed an interesting profile of tocopherols, organic acids, unsaturated fatty acids, and phenolic compounds. The infused extract of the commercial leaf sample was more effective than other preparations against lipid peroxidation and oxidative haemolysis. In turn, higher antibacterial activity was achieved with hydroethanolic and infused extracts of the wild sample, which extracts also displayed superior antifungal activity. Overall, the commercially acquired M. oleifera leaves stand out with better quality profiles than the wild collected, which aroused interest in studying the processing methods used locally to process this functional food.

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Madagascar has historically suffered from high fragmentation of forested habitats, often leading to biodiversity loss. Neverthless, forest fragments still retain high levels of biological diversity. The Haute Matsiatra Region (south-eastern Madagascar) hosts the renowned Andringitra National Park and several surrounding isolated forest fragments embedded in a matrix of human-dominated landscape. During a herpetological survey conducted in the Region, we visited a total of 25 sites. We applied a molecular taxonomic approach to identify the collected material and generate new reference sequences to improve the molecular identification of Malagasy herpetofauna. We identified a total of 28 amphibian and 38 squamate taxa and provided a systematic account for each one of them. Nine of the identified taxa are candidate species, amongst which one was newly identified. We extended the known distributional range of 21 taxa (nine amphibians and 12 squamates). Although the largest forest fragments hold a higher number of species, we also detected a relatively high herpetological diversity in small patches. Our results highlight the importance of investigating small forest fragments to contribute to a better understanding of the patterns of diversity and distribution of the amphibians and reptiles of Madagascar.

Loranthus europaeus is one of the major plant parasites threatening the fragile ecosystems of oak forests in westernIran. The mistletoe is a hemi-parasite plant which grows on forest species, especially oaks. Carbon isotopecomposition (δ13C) has been central to understand the behaviour of mistletoes in the field. This study investigatedC and N isotope compositions in leaves of L. europaeus and of its host oaks (Quercus libani, Q. infectoria andQ. brantii) in western Iran. The goal was to assess the degree of heterotrophy, and to estimate the carbon partitionbetween host and mistletoe and possible consequences of this phenomenon for the ecology of these hemiparasites.Leaf samples from mistletoe and host oaks were collected in the Mirabad forests of Sardasht, Iran.Ten adult trees of each oak species, with the hemiparasite species, were sampled for determination of leaf dryweight and area, concentration in carbon and nitrogen, and contents of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. In allthree species, we found that the levels of δ13C of the host, were higher than those of the mistletoes. Quercusinfectoria, with the highest leaf mass per area and the highest carbon and nitrogen contents on a mass basis, wasthe oak species with the highest degree of mistletoe heterotrophy, which was negatively related with the hostmistletoeδ13C difference. Our results also showed that host and mistletoe leaf masses per area can be indicatorsof the heterotrophic degree of the mistletoe and an easy alternative to the determination of δ13C. In conclusion, itseems that the difference in δ13C between host and mistletoe is reduced when the host leaf mass per area, Cmassand Nmass increase. This condition relates to an increased heterotrophic degree of mistletoe.

This article suggests that to adequately tackle climate breakdown, urban planning needs to move beyond sustainability to incorporate regenerative development frameworks. Key to this is activating and increasing citizen participation in a fractallike, multi scaled, community-led, bottom up planning process, where active citizens design, construct and are part of the futures they desire for their territories. 2019’s declarations of climate emergency show that decades of sustainable development have not worked. The Sustainable Development Goals are a positive step, but sustainability’s dependence on economic growth is problematic. Recognising Earth’s limits, this article builds on degrowth ideas and doughnut economic frameworks to examine the role of community-led urban transitions in catalysing a regenerative world, where ecocities are the normative goal of contemporary cities. Challenges in scaling the Global Ecovillage Network’s process to large cities are identified and some radical governance experiments examined. Attempting to bridge activism and academia, a transdisciplinary participative action research method is used to develop a Communities of Practice ecosystem to support an eco-social just transition. This work contributes to the European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability, ECOLISE, the Horizon 2020 project UrbanA investigating Sustainable and Just Cities, and the Communities for Future action platform enabling translocal communities to connect, co-create a knowledge commons and help shape policy. Insights from Lisbon are examined with three community-led initiatives; Bela Flor, Ajuda and Marvila. These processes are still at the margins, but could soon become core activities of regenerative urban planning. Re-Making our cities is everyone’s business.