The Metis project—education for health: a project report

Universal Access in the Information Society - Medical practice has changed since the classical paternalistic model to nowadays. Currently, the patient assumes a more important role in the decision...     

Twitter alloy steel disambiguation and user relevance via one-class and two-class news titles classifiers

Neural Computing and Applications - This paper addresses the nontrivial task of Twitter financial disambiguation (TFD), which is relevant to filter financial domain tweets (e.g., alloy steel or...     

A divide‐and‐conquer strategy using feature relevance and expert knowledge for enhancing a data mining approach to bank telemarketing

The discovery of knowledge through data mining provides a valuable asset for addressing decision making problems. Although a list of features may characterize a problem, it is often the case that a subset of those features may influence more a certain group of events constituting a sub‐problem within the original problem. We propose a divide‐and‐conquer strategy for data mining using both the data‐based sensitivity analysis for extracting feature relevance and expert evaluation for splitting the problem of characterizing telemarketing contacts to sell bank deposits. As a result, the call direction (inbound/outbound) was considered the most suitable candidate feature. The inbound telemarketing sub‐problem re‐evaluation led to a large increase in targeting performance, confirming the benefits of such approach and considering the importance of telemarketing for business, in particular in bank marketing.     

Foxp3 Silencing with Antisense Oligonucleotide Improves Immunogenicity of an Adjuvanted Recombinant Vaccine against Sporothrix schenckii

Background: In recent years, there has been great interest in developing molecular adjuvants based on antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) targeting immunosuppressor pathways with inhibitory effects on regulatory T cells (Tregs) to improve immunogenicity and vaccine efficacy. We aim to evaluate the immunostimulating effect of 2′OMe phosphorothioated Foxp3-targeted ASO in an antifungal adjuvanted recombinant vaccine. Methods: The uptake kinetics of Foxp3 ASO, its cytotoxicity and its ability to deplete Tregs were evaluated in murine splenocytes in vitro. Groups of mice were vaccinated with recombinant enolase (Eno) of Sporothix schenckii in Montanide Gel 01 adjuvant alone or in combination with either 1 µg or 8 µg of Foxp3 ASO. The titers of antigen-specific antibody in serum samples from vaccinated mice (male C57BL/6) were determined by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Cultured splenocytes from each group were activated in vitro with Eno and the levels of IFN-γ and IL-12 were also measured by ELISA. The results showed that the anti-Eno antibody titer was significantly higher upon addition of 8 µM Foxp3 ASO in the vaccine formulation compared to the standard vaccine without ASO. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that Foxp3 ASO enhances specific immune responses by means of Treg depletion during vaccination. Conclusion: Foxp3 ASO significantly enhances immune responses against co-delivered adjuvanted recombinant Eno vaccine and it has the potential to improve vaccine immunogenicity.     

Identification of Vegetable Oil or Biodiesel Added to Diesel Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Principal Component Analysis

In order to identify possible adulteration of onroad diesel with vegetable oil, fluorescence spectroscopy was used as the analytical technique to differentiate between vegetable oil and biodiesel in diesel blends. Diesel/oil and diesel/biodiesel blends made with different proportions of soy, canola or waste cooking oil were analyzed. The reduced cost of analysis using fluorescence spectroscopy together with the reliability of the results suggest that this technique could be of great use in differentiating between diesel, biodiesel and vegetable oil and could therefore be used for rapid identification or confirmation of adulterated diesel. Furthermore, a compact fluorescence spectrophotometer with an LED excitation source could be used in gas stations or fuel distributors for diesel quality control because of its practicality, low cost and reliability.     

Production of biodiesel: Source strategies and efficiency in the Brazilian energy matrix

This article aims to introduce biodiesel as a possible solution, describing its evolution in Brazilian energy. It was concluded that the use of biodiesel leads to several advantages, such as significant reductions in rates of emission of some greenhouse gases and wide job creation and social inclusion in the poorest regions of the country. Besides the aspects already mentioned, within a national situation of growing imports of diesel oil and with oil prices rising, the article shows that biodiesel becomes an interesting alternative, reducing diesel imports and resulting products, thus enabling development in other industrial chains.     

Environmental and economic cost analysis of housing in temperate climate using an innovative lightweight partitioning system

This paper presents an economic and environmental cost analysis of a representative Portuguese housing dwelling unit using an innovative lightweight adjustable membrane partitioning system, developed within a research project. The environmental and economic costs of this system, both on the construction and occupancy phases, were compared with the Portuguese conventional dividing wall solution, in hollow brick, simulated on the same reference dwelling, using the same layout and remaining constructive elements. The occupancy phase costs were evaluated by computer simulation, which allowed determining how the occupancy schedule of daytime and night time occupied areas may influence the cooling and heating needs for different solar orientations.     

Towards the synthesis of poly(azafulleroid)s: main chain fullerene oligomers for organic photovoltaic devices

For the first time, imino chemistry is explored for the synthesis of main chain fullerene oligomers and low‐molecular‐weight polymers. Oligo(aziridinofullerene)s and low‐molecular‐weight poly(aziridinofullerene)s (PAFs) are prepared by 1,3‐dipolar cycloadditions of bis(azidoalkyl) comonomers to C₆₀. The effect of the steric bulk of the comonomer is studied and it is found that PAF solubilities and molecular weights are increased with longer comonomer side‐chains. Initial and promising photovoltaic characterizations show commensurate improvements in properties. Interestingly, the PAFs exhibit lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals close to those of phenyl‐C₆₁‐butyric acid methyl ester. Routine characterizations are correlated with DFT/B3LYP/6‐31G(d) to understand structural and electronic behaviours. It is expected that higher molecular weights may be obtained through comonomer variations and that this novel methodology will open a route to interesting materials for optoelectronics. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry