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– The current study aims to prepare an Nb,Ta-containing ordered mesoporous catalyst MCM-41, using hydrated mixed oxide of niobium and tantalum, extracted from the columbite ore processing, as an alternative source of these metals. Direct hydrothermal synthesis was employed to incorporate the metals into the molecular sieve structure using the TEOS + sodium silicate mixture as silica source and varying Nb and Ta content in terms of Si/Me (Me = Nb and Ta) molar ratios of 60, 30 and 15 to evaluate the influence of the charge of these metals on both structural formation and properties of the material. The material was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, N2 adsorption, UV–Vis-DRS, and FTIR investigations to the incorporation of the metal into the MCM-41 framework. The techniques employed proved the successful replacement of Si atoms by metallic cations of Nb and Ta. The catalyst showed good structural order preservation and surface area (>600 m2 g-1) with mesoporous behavior with capillary condensation even at a higher metal load. This research signifies a successful procedure of a novel bimetallic mesoporous material with promising properties for several applications using an abundant ore as a metal source.

2030 This paper presents new results for the recycling of electronic waste, specifically those from printed circuit boards (PCBs) of obsolete computers of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. The main objective of this study is the comprehension of the extraction process of tin and cop per from PCBs by a hydrometallurgical route followed by electrodeposition using copper electrodes. PCBs powder were leached using 1N HNO3 and 3N HCl (aqua regia) aqueous solutions. The process permitted the extraction of all tin present on the PCBs. The electrodeposition processes were performed with currents from 0.5 to 1.5 A, at a constant time of 60 min, with and without mechanical stirring, and with different concentrations of leachate. The results showed that diluting the leachate favors the extraction of tin from the solution. At certain conditions we were able to extract approximately 100% of the tin, copper and lead present in the leachate

This work is funded by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Program, National Funds through FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and POR Lisboa2020 , under the projects with references POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-007688 (Reference UID/CTM/50025), UID/BIA/00329/2013, PTDC/CTM-BIO/6178/2014, M-ERA-NET2/0007/2016 (CellColor) and PTDC/CTM-REF/30529/2017. S.N. Fernandes and L.F. Lopes acknowledge the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education for National Funds , European Social Funds and FCT for fellowships number SFRH/BDP/78430/2011 and SFRH/BPD/84478/2012 , respectively. This work was supported by the Histology and Comparative Pathology laboratory [Electron Microscopy service] of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, specifically Andreia Pinto for her kind support. We would like to thank Carlos Silva for providing the C. chrysina specimen. The C. aurata specimen observed was provided by the Insect Collection of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbo Significant advances have been made to control the iridescence and the selective reflection of left circularly polarised (LCP) light, and transmission of right circularly polarised (RCP) light of solid films prepared from cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). However the manipulation of the photonic properties of the CNCs films, which reflect both RCP and LCP light is less investigated. Solid films prepare from natural sources as CNCs have advantageous characteristics that are absent in other synthetic structures, such as wide availability and renewability. Here we review and compare recent research activity involving the production and characterization of photonic band gap structures resulting from an anisotropic layer inserted between two cholesteric layers with different helical pitches but the same handedness. We make connections between systems existing in Nature and synthetic ones with the hope of advancing in the production and manipulation of CNCs-based photonic structures. authorsversion published

Gout is an inflammatory disease characterized by the accumulation of monosodium urate crystals (MSU) in the joints, leading to severe pain and inflammation. Stephalagine is a Brazilian Savanna aporphine alkaloid isolated from Annona crassiflora Mart. Fruit peel, that has been popularly used to treat rheumatism and have been described with antinociceptive properties. However, no studies evaluated the possible therapeutic properties of stephalagine in arthritic pain.To evaluate the possible antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of stephalagine in an acute gout attack in mice.Adult male wild type C57BL/6/J/UFU mice (20-25 g) were used (process number 018/17). The treated group received stephalagine (1 mg/kg, by gavage) and the vehicle group received saline (10 mL/kg, by gavage), both 1 h before the MSU crystals (100 μg/ankle joint) administration. All groups were analyzed for mechanical allodynia, thermal hyperalgesia, overt pain-like behaviors, and edema development at 2, 4, 6 and 24 h after injections. Synovial fluid and the ankle articulation from the injected joint were collected 4 h after administrations for myeloperoxidase enzyme activity, IL-1β measurement, and histological analysis.Stephalagine had a significant antinociceptive effect on mechanical allodynia, when compared to vehicle group at 2-24 h after intra-articular injection of MSU and 2 h for spontaneous and cold thermal sensitivity. Stephalagine was also able to significantly reduce the articular edema (45 ± 1%), the activity of the myeloperoxidase enzyme (37 ± 6%), and IL-1β levels (43 ± 3%). The histological analysis confirms that stephalagine dramatically reduced the number of infiltrating inflammatory cells (75 ± 6%) in MSU injected animals. Also, stephalagine treatment did not alter the uric acid levels, xanthine oxidase activity, AST and ALT activities, urea and creatinine levels, neither cause any macroscopic changes in the mice's weight, deformations, changes in the coat, or feces.Stephalagine may be an alternative for the management of gout, once it was able to induce antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects without causing adverse effects on the evaluated parameters.

The matter formed in central heavy-ion collisions at a few GeV per nucleon is commonly understood as resonance matter, a gas of nucleons and excited baryon states with a substantial contribution from mesonic, mostly pionic excitations. Yet, in the initial phase of the reaction the system is compressed to beyond nuclear ground state density and hence substantial modifications of the hadron properties are expected to occur. The spectral distribution of virtual photons measured in Au+Au collisions at 2.4 GeV center of mass energy indicates strong medium effects beyond pure superposition of individual NN collisions. We present multi-differential distributions of low-mass electron pairs. This radiation is remarkably well described assuming emission from a thermalized system. To gain deeper understanding of the microscopic origin of the radiation, we extracted the centrality dependent true (not blue-shifted) temperature, its azimuthal distribution, as well as mass-dependent effective slope parameter. Virtual photon spectra are confronted with available model calculations.

2029 It was initially used a 23 experimental design with central point in triplicate to synthesize strontium molybdate by EDTA-citrate combined complexation method, where the influence of pH (6, 7.5 e 9), calcining time (3, 4 e 5 h) and heating rate (5, 7 e 10 °C min−1) was investigated. Single-phase powders were obtained when calcined at 650 °C with tetragonal crystalline structure. The heating rate is the most influent independent variable on the intensities of the X-ray diffractions peaks. The synthesized powders are shown as agglomerates with irregular spherical and bipyramidal morphology. According to the experimental design, the conditions of calcining time of 3 h and heating rate of 10 °C min−1 show the lowest values of energy band gap (4.18 and 4.17 eV) for pH 6 and 9, respectively. The statistical models generated were able to describe the phenomena observed

HADES has a large acceptance combined with a good mass-resolution and therefore allows the study of dielectron and hadron production in heavy-ion collisions with unprecedented precision. With the statistics of seven billion Au-Au collisions at 1.23A GeV recorded in 2012, the investigation of higher-order flow harmonics is possible. At the BEVALAC and SIS18 directed and elliptic flow has been measured for pions, charged kaons, protons, neutrons and fragments, but higher-order harmonics have not yet been studied. They provide additional important information on the properties of the dense hadronic medium produced in heavy-ion collisions. We present here a high-statistics, multidifferential measurement of v 1 and v 2 for protons in Au+Au collisions at 1.23A GeV.

Nanoparticles of cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) were synthesized by the EDTA/Citrate complexing method and hydrothermal method without addition of surfactant. The influence of the pH of the reaction medium (8, 9 or 10), the temperature of the thermal treatment (600 °C, 800 °C or 1000 °C for the EDTA/Citrate method, and 120 °C, 140 °C or 160 °C for the hydrothermal method), and the duration of the thermal treatment (2, 4 or 6 h for the EDTA/Citrate complexing method, and 6, 15 or 24 h for the hydrothermal method) on the average crystallite size was studied by means of an experimental design based on the results obtained by XRD. Statistical analysis led to quantification of the influence of the synthesis parameters on the crystallite size of the powders. Results showed that the pH of the reaction medium is the parameter that shows the greatest influence on the growth of the crystallites of the powders obtained by the hydrothermal method, while calcination temperature is the most significant one for the powders produced by the EDTA/Citrate complexing method.

Mo2C and Ni-doped Mo2C were obtained according to a well-established fixed bad reactor methodology. The structural properties were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. All samples showed a hexagonal structure; however, the micrograph characterization showed a strong dependence of the agglomerate formation with the Ni-concentration. Magnetization properties were measured and confirm the insertion of the Ni onto Mo2C. From the results, the Ni-doped Mo2C system seems to be a great candidate for usage as multifunctional material, combining both functionalities, catalytic properties of the Mo2C material, and the ferromagnetic ones of the Ni material.

Nanocubes of cobalt ferrite with stoichiometric composition, 20 nm in size, were obtained by a solvothermal route, with acetylacetonates precursors and benzyl alcohol as a solvent, in presence of oleylamine and a mixture oleic acid/oleylamine. The cobalt ferrites were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy. Synthesis parameters such as temperature, duration of the thermal treatment, concentration of precursors, were optimized.

In this work, we report the synthesis of SrWO 4 (SWO) and Ce 2 (WO 4 ) 3 (CWO) phases, based on the ethylenediaminetetraacetic–citrate complexing method. All samples were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy to identify the structure and the morphology of each compound. The catalytic reactivity of the samples was analyzed using a homemade reactor coupled to a combined system of Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and mass spectrometer apparatus. The measurements were performed under methane gas flows with different gas carriers (Air and Argon), in the temperature range of 500–950 °C. The catalytic activity was determined as a function of time and temperature. In specific circumstances, FTIR experiments show that methane is partly oxidized into CO thus giving rise to syngas production at low pressure. The reactivity could be linked to oxygen species delivered by solids. Electrical impedance spectroscopy analyses have been carried out on compacted polycrystalline samples, and Nyquist representations have been interpreted. The SWO and CWO samples presented similar semiconducting behaviors with electronic and ionic mix conductions, with higher conductivity for the CWO phase.

ResumoIntroduçãoEm Portugal, mais de metade da população tem excesso ponderal e hipercolesterolémia. Quase metade tem hipertensão e quase um quarto da população é pré-diabética.ObjetivoCalcular a prevalência de fatores de risco cardiovascular numa amostra de militares no ativo e caracterizar a sua distribuição por sexo, idade e classe profissional.MetodologiaEstudo observacional e transversal realizado numa unidade militar. Foram recolhidos dados sociodemográficos e antropométricos, glicemia, perfil lipídico e pressão arterial (PA).ResultadosForam incluídos 83 militares, 86,7% do sexo masculino, com idade média de 33,8 anos. 61% eram oficiais ou sargentos (idade média 41 anos) e 39% praças (idade média 22 anos). 67,5% registaram um índice de massa corporal (IMC) ≥25kg/m2 e 15,7% um IMC ≥30kg/m2. Quanto ao perfil lipídico, 47% apresentaram colesterol total (CT) ≥ 200mg/dl, 51,8% LDL ≥130mg/dl e 19,3% triglicéridos (TG) ≥150mg/dl. 13,3% apresentaram hipertensão e 19,3% apresentaram uma glicémia ≥100mg/dl mas nenhum revelou valores >110mg/dl. Os militares com idade ≥40 anos mostraram valores medianos mais elevados de IMC (27,6 vs. 25,7kg/m2), CT (215 vs. 179mg/dl), TG (115 vs. 88mg/dl), LDL (144 vs. 115,7mg/dl) e glicémia (96,1 vs. 90,0mg/dl), comparativamente com os de idade 110mg/dl. The military aged ≥ 40 years showed higher median values of BMI (27.6 vs 25, 7kg/m2), TC (215 vs 179mg/dl), TG (115 vs 88mg/dl), LDL (144 vs 115, 7mg/dl) and glucose (96.1 vs 90, 0mg/dl) compared with those aged < 40 anos. The officers and sergeants had higher values in all parameters evaluated compared with the squares.ConclusionsMost of the military studied showed excess weight (67.5%) and 47% had hypercholesterolaemia. Our results make us reflect on the need for more studies that assess the eating habits and physical activity in this population.

Worldwide energy consumption has risen 30% in the last 25 years. Fossil fuels exploitation is causing depletion of resources and serious environmental problems. Energy efficiency improvement and energy savings are important targets to be achieved on every society as a whole and in residential buildings in particular. In this article, results of a survey and questionnaire on energy consumption and thermal environment held in Kansai area, Japan are reported. Energy savings potential was analyzed for the surveyed 13 houses focusing on certain electrical appliances e.g. TV, rice cooker and refrigerator. Residents’ environmental awareness towards energy consumption was clarified through questionnaire. An energy information session towards residents was held, and the resulting changes in lifestyle and their implications on energy consumption were evaluated.

We define a lexically scoped, asynchronous and distributed π-calculus, with local communication and process migration. This calculus adopts the network-awareness principle for distributed programming and follows a simple model of distribution for mobile calculi: a lexical scope discipline combines static scoping with dynamic linking, associating channels to a fixed site throughout computation. This discipline provides for both remote invocation and process migration. A simple type system is a straightforward extension of that of the π-calculus, adapted to take into account the lexical scope of channels. An equivalence law captures the essence of this model: a process behavior depends on the channels it uses, not on where it runs.

Using the MIBRA model, an Applied Interregional General Equilibrium Model, constructed for the Brazilian economy and its five macro regions (North, Northeast, Central West, Southeast, an South), this papers tries to identify which would be the impact of the economic growth in the Brazilian economy an in its macro regions, from 2002 to 2012, on environmental variables, i.e., organic and inorganic materials, particulates, sulfurates, water, energy, CO2, and the Amazon rain forest. Concerning the economic growth rates, two scenarios are constructed, one pessimist and other optimistic, and the impact of both scenarios on the environmental variables are then measured. Some major environmental concerns are raised for each one of the Brazilian macro regions: a) for the North region, represented mainly by the Amazon rain forest, it is taken into the consideration the trade off between the area used by agricultural activities with the area used by the rain forest; b) for the Northeast region, the main concern is the restriction on water use; c) for the Central West region, it is taken into consideration the expansion of the agriculture frontier; d) for the Southeast and South regions, the more industrialized regions, pollutants are a problem.

This paper investigates the efficiency of the two major stock indexes of the Iberian Peninsula, the Portuguese Stock Index (PSI-20) and the Spanish Stock Index (IBEX-35). We used daily data from January 1993 to September 2001 for the Portuguese stock index and daily data from October 1990 to September 2001 for the Spanish stock index. Serial correlations, unit root tests and variance ratio tests are used to test the efficiency of these two stock indexes. Although the complementary of these tests, we used all of them to get a higher robustness of the conclusions. We examined serial correlation coefficients for successive stock index changes to test whether they are statistically equal to zero to establish the random walk nature of stock indexes. The augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test are used to test the null hypothesis that the series has a unit root and the variance ratio tests are used to examine the random walk hypothesis for the series of these two stock indexes. The results of the serial correlations, unit root tests and variance ratio tests provide ambiguous evidence for the random walk hypothesis. The empirical evidence from the unit root tests do not reject the efficient market hypothesis for the two stock indexes, while the results from the variance ratio tests and serial correlations do.

Portuguese Abstract: Os modelos de equilibrio geral ganharam importância na decada de 70 por apontar tendencias, ate entao, nao experimentadas pela economia. Um dos exemplos foi a primeira crise do petroleo que os modelos econometricos nao conseguiram prever com base nas series temporais. Os modelos de equilibrio geral, por sua vez, conseguiram mostrar essa tendencia por terem toda a estrutura da economia modelada, o que permitiu realizar analises de situacoes nao enfrentadas anteriormente. Apesar de atualmente existirem varias linhas de trabalho sobre a modelagem de equilibrio geral, destacam-se os modelos que trabalham com as equacoes linearizadas e resultados em taxa de crescimento, denominados modelos de equilibrio geral da classe JOHANSEN/ORANI, e os que tratam as equacoes na forma nao-linear e resultados em nivel como os de Scarf, de Adelman & Robinson, de Dervis, Melo & Robinson. Partindo do modelo ORANI, os seus autores desenvolveram o modelo de equilibrio geral MONASH em nivel nacional, ambos voltados para a economia australiana. A partir deste modelo foi criado o MONASH-MRF em nivel regional, tambem para Australia, com a finalidade de realizar analise estatica comparativa e obter previsoes economicas. Baseando-se no modelo MONASH-MRF, foi desenvolvido o modelo inter-regional para a Economia Brasileira – MIBRA, com dezesseis setores e cinco macrorregioes, utilizando a matriz insumo-produto de 1995. O MIBRA apresenta cinco modulos: 1) o nucleo, com as equacoes referentes a estrutura produtiva da economia; 2) financas do governo, que reunem as equacoes sobre as financas publicas em niveis federal e regional; 3) investimento e acumulacao de capital, que trata sobre a alocacao dos investimentos entre os setores e regioes; 4) acumulacao da divida externa; e 5) populacao e migracao, cujas equacoes tratam o crescimento populacional e a migracao regional. A estrutura teorica do modelo MIBRA e apresentada neste trabalho. English Abstract: The general equilibrium models got importance at the 70's for pointing tendencies that were, until that moment, not experienced by economics. One example was first petrol crisis which econometric models could not predict based on temporal series. On the other hand, the general equilibrium models were capable to indicate this tendency because these models included all economy structure, what allowed the realization of analysis of situations not faced before. Despite that nowadays multiple lines of work about general equilibrium models, models that work with linear equations and results in the form of growth rate, the so called general equilibrium models of the JOHANSEN/ORANI class, and the ones who treats equations on a non-linear form and results in levels, such as Scarf, Adelman & Robinson, Dervis, Melo & Robinson. Using their ORANI model as a start point, the authors developed the MONASH general equilibrium model in national level, both aimed to the Australian economy. From this model it was created the MONASH-MRF model to work in a regional area, also Australia, with the function of realizing statistical comparative analysis and economics previsions. Based on the MONASH-MRF model, an inter regional model was developed to the Brazilian economy, MIBRA, with sixteen sectors and five macro regions, using the input-output matrix of 1995. MIBRA presents five modules: 1) The core, with equations that refers to the productive structure of the economy; 2) Government finances, which gather equations related to the public finances in both federal and regional levels; 3) Investment and capital accumulation, that focus on the allocation of investments among the sectors and regions; 4) External debt accumulation; and 5) Population and migration, which equations are related to population growth and regional migration. The theoretical structure of the MIBRA model is presented in this work.

Methods for estimating sex from a variety of skeletal elements is vital in forensic anthropology as many of the traditionally studied bones are often fragmented upon recovery. The current study examined the seven cervical vertebrae to establish an accurate sex estimation method for Europeans. Discriminant functions were developed from the seven cervical vertebrae using the maximum body height (CHT), vertebral foramen anterior-posterior diameter (CAP), and vertebral foramen transverse diameter (CTR). To date, no study has used these variables to estimate sex from human remains. Two hundred and ninety-five adult individuals (157 males, 138 females) from the University of Athens and the Luis Lopes skeletal collections were studied. No population differences were exhibited between the contemporary Greek and historic Portuguese skeletons, indicating that discriminant functions for sex estimation from the cervical vertebrae may not be population- or temporally-specific. The results of this study indicate that only CHT and CTR exhibited statistically significant sexual dimorphism. Seven multivariate discriminant functions were developed with accuracy rates between 80.3% and 84.5%. Cross-validation studies showed that five of the seven functions exhibited strong statistical algorithms. This study will assist with estimating the sex of unknown Europeans from the cervical vertebrae especially in cases where more accurate predictors of sex, such as the skull or the pelvis, are unavailable.

This volume contains the final proceedings of the Workshop on Types in Programming (TIP'02), held on July 8, 2002, in Dagstuhl, Germany, as a satellite event of MPC'02. The aim of the workshop was to bring together researchers in the area of programming languages and type systems in particular. The emphasis of the workshop was to bridge the gap between theory and practice by making recent theoretical advances in type systems more accessible, pointing out research directions in that area, and by tackling practical problems in using currently deployed systems. The proceedings consist of six papers that were selected for presentation and thoroughly revised after the workshop: • Steffen van Bakel (Imperial College, United Kingdom). Rank 2 Types for Term Graph Rewriting. • Daniel Bonniot (INRIA Rocquencourt, France). Using kinds to type partially-polymorphic methods. • Francisco Martins (University of Azores, Portugal), Luis Lopes, (University of Porto, Portugal), and Vasco T. Vasconcelos (University of Lisbon, Portugal). The Impact of Linearity Information on the Performance of TyCO. • Christian Skalka (John Hopkins University, USA) and Francois Pottier (INRIA Rocquencourt, France) Syntactic Type Soundness for HM(X). • Christian Skalka and Scott Smith (John Hopkins University, USA). Set Types and Applications. • Naoshi Tabuchi, Eijiro Sumii, and Akinori Yonezawa (University of Tokyo, Japan). Regular Expression Types for Strings in a Text Processing Language. We are grateful to the members of the Program Committee and to the external referees for evaluating the submissions. We would also like to acknowledge Eerke Boiten, Bernhard Moller, the organizing committee of MPC'02, and the staff at Dagstuhl for their help with practical matters. Finally, we would like to thank Mike Mislove for his initiative and his help with producing this volume. February 2003 Gilles Barthe and Peter Thiemann Program Committee Gilles Barthe INRIA, France [co-chair] Jacques Garrigue Kyoto University, Japan Eugenio Moggi University of Genova, Italy Zhong Shao Yale University, USA Peter Thiemann Universitat Freiburg, Germany [co-chair] Joe Wells Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland External reviewers Torben Amtoft, Viviana Bono, Giuseppe Castagna, Pierre Courtieu, Ferruccio Damiani, Guillaume Dufay, Christian Haack, Daniel Hirschkoff, Luigi Liquori, Davide Sangiorgi, Martin Sulzmann, Valery Trifonov