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Impervious cover has important hydrologic impacts, namely the increased runoff volume and peak discharges in the rainwater network, which can lead to significant consequences like rapid urban floods with social, environmental and economic implications. LID (Low Impact Development) consist of distributed runoff management measures, like green roofs, pervious pavements, waterways covered with vegetation and filter trails, among others, that seek to control stormwater in the origin, reducing imperviousness. These solutions avoid increased runoff rate and volume, increase infiltration and groundwater recharge. The main goal of the research work here presented is to study the hydrological impact of LID's in UTAD (University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro) campus, which is an institution focused on sustainability, since it has defined in its Strategic Plan to achieve, in a near future, an EcoCampus classification. To achieve the proposed goal, the campus area was studied in detail in order to evaluate the technical possibility of LID's implementation. A peak discharge comparison was made between the current situation and the one with LID's implementation, using the rational method. The results showed that peak discharges reduction between 68 and 95% may be achieved with LID solutions in UTAD campus.

In the domestic segment, various appliances and processes consume great amount of water and, consequently, energy. In this context, the main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of water temperature, flow and bath duration in water and energy consumptions. The impact on CO2 emissions and a simple costs analysis were also carried out. It included a monitoring plan of 197 baths taken under different scenarios of water temperature and flow. It was concluded that increasing water consumption leads to an increase on energy consumption and that both resources consumptions increase with bath duration. Bath temperature had influence not only on energy consumption, as expected, but also in water consumption, what may be explained by the user's satisfaction during baths with higher temperatures. The use of a flow reducing valve is not a guarantee of water saving which can also be related to the user's satisfaction patterns, given that the introduction of a flow reducing valve can lead to a bath duration increase. In what concerns to the CO2 emissions, it was concluded, as expected, that higher values are obtained for baths with higher temperatures given their relation with higher energy consumptions patterns. A simple costs analysis revealed that having flow reducing valves, with a bath temperature of 75 °C, increased the costs with electricity and water in 119% and 32%, respectively, when compared with a temperature of 60 °C.

Rural and urban environments present significant differences between water and energy consumptions. It is important to know, in detail, which factors related to the consumption of these two resources are different in both environments, once that will be those important to manage and discuss in order to improve its use efficiency and sustainability. This research work involves a survey whose aim is to find the factors that in rural and urban environments may justify the differences found in water and energy consumptions. Besides the collection of water and energy consumption data, this survey analyzed 80 variables (socio-demographic, economic, household characterization, among others), that were chosen among the bibliography as possible factors that should influence water and energy consumptions. After the survey application in rural and urban areas and the data statistical treatment, 42 variables remained as truly differentiating factors of rural and urban environments and so as possible determinants of water and energy consumptions. In order to achieve these objectives, a descriptive data analysis and statistical inference (Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test and the Chi-square test of homogeneity) were performed. All the 42 differentiating variables that result from this study may be able to justify these differences, however this will not be presented in the paper and it is reserved for future work., POCI-0-0145-FEDER-016730 Project (PTDC/AAG-REC/4700/2014) with the designation ENERWAT: Water to energy: characterization, modelling and measures for the reduction of urban and rural household consumption, financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 - Programme Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI). This work was partially supported by the FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) through the project PEst-OE/ECI/UI4082/2013 (C-MADE)

Corn cob is considered an agricultural bio-waste that can be reused and incorporated in the building industry as a thermal insulation material. However, more research is required to obtain a more detailed analysis in what concerns building materials' thermal performance using this waste as raw material and, consequently, their sustainability profile. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the thermal behaviour and the environmental impact of two different corn cob particleboards using two types of glue binders: Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA) and Fabricol AG222 (FAG222). An experimental study was performed to analyse the particleboards’ thermal performance, allowing the estimation of the thermal transmission coefficient . A sustainability analysis was carried out using a lifecycle assessment (LCA) tool according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The functional unit “mass of material required to provide a thermal resistance (R) of 1 m 2°C/W″ was considered for the calculation of the environmental impacts. The production and disposal phases (incineration and landfill) were considered. The results revealed that both corn cob particleboards have potential to be used as a sustainable building material for the thermal insulation of walls, considering the values obtained for the thermal performance parameters. Average values of 1.33 W/m2 °C and 0.052 W/m°C were achieved for the thermal transmission coefficient and thermal conductivity of the PVA particleboard. For FAG222, those values corresponded to 1.92 W/m 2°C and 0.087 W/m°C, showing similarities with the current insulation materials. Both options display environmentally friendly profiles, although the particleboard with PVA offers enhanced results when landfill is the preferred disposal method. This research work is thus a contribution to the scientific knowledge regarding the valorisation of agriculture wastes and by-products as potential eco-friendly building materials. Furthermore, applying this bio-waste as insulation material reveals a consistent path on circular economy.

Summary miRNAs have crucial functions in many biological processes and are candidate biomarkers of disease. Here, we show that miR-216a is a conserved, pancreas-specific miRNA with important roles in pancreatic islet and acinar cells. Deletion of miR-216a in mice leads to a reduction in islet size, β-cell mass, and insulin levels. Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a subpopulation of β-cells with upregulated acinar cell markers under a high-fat diet. miR-216a is induced by TGF-β signaling, and inhibition of miR-216a increases apoptosis and decreases cell proliferation in pancreatic cells. Deletion of miR-216a in the pancreatic cancer-prone mouse line KrasG12D;Ptf1aCreER reduces the propensity of pancreatic cancer precursor lesions. Notably, circulating miR-216a levels are elevated in both mice and humans with pancreatic cancer. Collectively, our study gives insights into how β-cell mass and acinar cell growth are modulated by a pancreas-specific miRNA and also suggests miR-216a as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of pancreatic diseases., Graphical abstract, Highlights miR-216a is highly abundant and enriched in mouse and human pancreas Deletion of miR-216a alters pancreatic cell cycle and DNA replication pathways miR-216a deletion decreases susceptibility to pancreatic neoplasia miR-216a levels are elevated in mice and humans with pancreatic cancer, Erener et al. identify miR-216a as a pancreas-specific miRNA affecting pancreatic pathologies. Under a high-fat diet, deletion of miR-216a reduces beta cell mass and induces acinar gene expression. In cancer-prone mice, miR-216a deletion decreases pancreatic neoplasia frequency. Circulating miR-216a levels are elevated in mice and humans with pancreatic cancer.

Water and energy are essential for human existence, and its rational use should be encouraged. According to the literature review, water consumption directly affects energy consumption and are inseparably linked resources. The energy to water part of the water/energy nexus, increasingly highlighted as an important issue for future planning and strategic policy considerations. Joint consideration of both water/energy domains can identify new options for increasing overall resource use efficiency. This work is part of the project ENERWAT that has as goal to measure in situ the water/energy consumption related with water supply end use in rural and urban dwellings in order to validate the data collected by survey. A methodology for low cost measure and store water/energy consumes was developed. Water, Gas and electricity data was stored in image format. In this paper, a CNN architecture was applied and trained to read water/energy. The models suited their proposed. The achieved accuracy for test set was: water - dozen: 0.98, unit: 0.92; gas: dozen: 0.94, unit: 0.99; and electricity - dozen: 0.99, units 0.99. The more challenge digit was water unit digit due to partial occlusion. It is presented a day of readings and discussed some events.

Many methods in freshwater biomonitoring tend to be restricted to a few levels of biological organization, limiting the potential spectrum of measurable of cause-effect responses to different anthropogenic impacts. We combined distinct organisational levels, covering biological biomarkers (histopathological and biochemical reactions in liver and fish gills), community based bioindicators (fish guilds, invertebrate metrics/traits and chironomid pupal exuviae) and ecosystem functional indicators (decomposition rates) to assess ecological status at designated Water Framework Directive monitoring sites, covering a gradient of human impact across several rivers in northern Portugal. We used Random Forest to rank the variables that contributed more significantly to successfully predict the different classes of ecological status and also to provide specific cut levels to discriminate each WFD class based on reference condition. A total of 59 Biological Quality Elements and functional indicators were determined using this procedure and subsequently applied to develop the integrated Multiple Ecological Level Index (MELI Index), a potentially powerful bioassessment tool.

Tabique construction is part of the Portuguese heritage and similar techniques are applied worldwide. Therefore, research works developed on this field may be an added value to future retrofitting processes. In this context, an experimental analysis of the thermal behaviour of three different solutions of tabique walls is presented. These solutions are an uncoated tabique wall, a tabique wall coated with schist tiles and a tabique wall coated with schist tiles and thermally retrofitted with the application of a current insulation material. The obtained experimental results may give a contribution to better understand the thermal behaviour of this type of traditional building elements and also to help future studies focused on achieving energy efficiency solutions to be applied in this context. It was concluded that a simple tabique wall has adequate thermal behaviour for current applications, that coating this building element with a schist tiles layer improves its thermal insulation ability and adding a current thermal insulation material is possible and thermally efficient.

The natural recalcitrance of sugarcane lignocellulosic biomass remains a challenge for second generation (2G) ethanol production. Here, the physical–chemical–morphological characteristics of the whole sugarcane lignocellulosic biomass (including bagasse, straw, and tops) from commercial sugarcane varieties were evaluated before and after dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment, in order to help predict the behaviors of these materials during the 2G ethanol process. Analyses using NMR, FTIR, XRD, and SEM showed that the properties of the sugarcane varieties evaluated here were very similar. The crystallinity index values calculated from the XRD results were also similar for the different residue fractions, and were higher after pretreatment due to the removal of hemicellulose. The lignin and crystalline cellulose FTIR absorption bands were most intense for bagasse, followed by straw and tops. NMR analysis identified the presence of skeletal aromatic and methoxyl groups, attributed to the lignin structure, with the intensity of the signals following the order: bagasse > straw > tops. SEM images showed that structural disruption followed the order: tops > straw > bagasse. The spectral and morphological differences helped to elucidate the characteristics that made the bagasse fraction of the sugarcane residue less susceptible to enzymatic saccharification. Differences between the spectra for straw and tops indicated that the straw was less easily digested by enzymatic action, as also indicated by the morphological analysis. The results demonstrate that the combined use of spectroscopy and microscopy techniques can contribute to understanding the behavior of different biomasses intended to be used for 2G ethanol production.

Rapid, efficient, and low-cost technologies for monitoring the fermentation process during second generation (2G) or cellulosic ethanol production are essential for the successful implementation of this process at the commercial scale. Here, the use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy associated with partial least squares (PLS) regression was investigated as a tool for monitoring the production of 2G ethanol from lignocellulosic sugarcane residues including bagasse, straw, and tops. The spectral data was based on a set of 103 alcoholic fermentation samples. Models based on different pre-processing techniques were evaluated. The best root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) values obtained in the external validation were around 3.02 g/L for ethanol and 6.60 g/L for glucose. The findings showed that the PLS-NIR methodology was efficient in accurately predicting the glucose and ethanol concentrations during the production of 2G ethanol, demonstrating potential for use in monitoring and control of large-scale industrial processes.

We present two cases of misplaced central venous catheters having in common the absence of free blood return from one lumen immediately after placement. The former is a case of right hydrothorax associated with central venous catheterization with the catheter tip in intra-pleural location. In this case the distal port was never patent. In the latter case there was an increased aspiration pressure through the middle port due to a catheter looping.The absence of free flow on aspiration from one lumen of a central catheter should not be undervalued. In these circumstances the catheter should not be used and needs to be removed. Resumo: Apresentamos dois casos de mau posicionamento de cateter venoso central. Têm em comum a ausência do retorno sanguíneo livre em um dos lúmens imediatamente após a colocação. O primeiro é um caso de hidrotórax direito associado ao cateterismo venoso central, com a ponta do cateter em localização intrapleural. Nesse caso, a porta distal nunca esteve patente. No segundo caso houve um aumento da pressão de aspiração através da porta medial por causa da formação de alça no cateter.A ausência de fluxo livre na aspiração de um lúmen do cateter central não deve ser subestimada. Nessas circunstâncias, o cateter não deve ser usado e deve ser removido. Keywords: Central venous catheter, Hydrothorax, Looping, Malposition, Palavras-chave: Cateter venoso central, Hidrotórax, Alça, Mau posicionamento

Objective Free fatty acids (FFAs) cause insulin resistance and are often elevated in obesity. Chronic ingestion of diets rich in saturated fat induces more insulin resistance than diets rich in unsaturated fat, however, it remains unclear whether different FFAs cause distinct levels of insulin resistance in the short-term, which is relevant to the feeding and fasting cycle. Protein kinase C (PKC)-δ is implicated in hepatic insulin resistance. Therefore, we investigated the effects of short-term elevation of fatty acids with different degrees of unsaturation on hepatic insulin action and liver PKC-δ membrane translocation, a marker of activation. Materials/Methods Triglyceride emulsions of Soybean Oil + Heparin (polyunsaturated (POLY)), Olive Oil + Heparin (monounsaturated (MONO)), Lard Oil + Heparin (saturated (SATU)), or saline (SAL) were infused intravenously for 7 h to elevate plasma FFA concentrations ~ 3–4 fold in rats. During the last 2 h of infusion, a hyperinsulinemic–euglycemic clamp with tritiated glucose methodology was performed to examine hepatic and peripheral insulin sensitivity. Results Surprisingly, SATU, MONO, and POLY impaired peripheral insulin sensitivity (glucose utilization divided by insulin) to a similar extent. Furthermore, all lipids induced a similar degree of hepatic insulin resistance compared to SAL. Although there were changes in hepatic content of lipid metabolites, there were no significant differences in liver PKC-δ membrane translocation across fat groups. Conclusions In summary, in the short-term, FFAs with different degrees of unsaturation impair peripheral insulin sensitivity and induce hepatic insulin resistance as well as hepatic PKC-δ translocation to the same extent.

Nowadays, water and energy consumption is intensifying every year in most of the countries. This perpetual increase will not be supportable in the long run, making urgently to manage these resources on a sustainable way. Domestic consumptions of water and electric energy usually are related and it's important to study that relation, identifying opportunities for use efficient improvement. In fact, without an understanding of water-energy relations, there are water efficiency measures that may lead to unintentional costs in the energy efficiency field. In order to take full advantage of combined effect between water and energy water management methodologies, it is necessary to collect data to ensure that the efforts are directed through the most effective paths. This paper presents a study based in the characterization, measurement and analysis of water and electricity consumption in a single family house (2months period) in order to find an interdependent relationship between consumptions at the end user level. The study was carried out on about 200 baths, divided in four different scenarios where the influence of two variables was tested: the flow reducer valve and the bath temperature. Data showed that the presence of flow reducer valve decreased electric energy consumption and water consumption, but increased the bath duration. Setting a lower temperature in water-heater, decreased electric consumption, water consumption and bath duration. Analysing the influence of the flow reducer valve and 60°C temperature simultaneously, it was concluded that it had a significant influence on electric energy consumption and on the baths duration but had no influence on water consumption.

Wastewater and greywater have different scales of end-uses in irrigation in Portugal. Wastewater is treated in a central wastewater treatment plant and reused in public/private large areas of irrigation, like agriculture, public gardens and golf courses. On the contrary, greywater reuse is generally applied in in situ small scales, treated and used in the same place, generally in the production site. The main aim of this paper is to compare the two types of systems: a wastewater centralized reuse system (WWCRS) and a greywater decentralized reuse system (GWDRS) in terms of water quality, energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. In this paper, the main characteristics of both streams are presented and the degree of treatment required in each stream is analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages of its reuse in different scales, in terms of water quality, energy consumption and CO 2 emissions are discussed. A methodology to calculate the energy consumptions and CO 2 emissions related to wastewater treatment that may be applied in different cases is presented. A hypothetical example of the two systems: one referring to a WWCRS and the other to a GWDRS is presented. The energy consumption and the CO 2 emissions are analyzed and compared. The WWCRS needs a higher degree of treatment and so it spends more energy and leads to more CO 2 emissions to the environment than the GWDRS that consumed between 11.8 and 37.5% of the energy consumed in the WWCRS considering the same number of inhabitants served.

Biomolecules labeled with superparamagnetic nanoparticles can be selectively removed from complex reaction mixtures using an external magnetic field. Amino-functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (amino-SPION) were co-aggregated with penicillin G acylase and then cross-linked, generating magnetic cross-linked enzymes aggregates (M-CLEAs) that were quickly and efficiently recovered from the reaction medium by applying an external magnetic field. M-CLEAs and cross-linked enzymes aggregates (CLEAs) prepared under the same reaction conditions were characterized and compared. The best recovered activities were obtained for M-CLEAs prepared using polyethylene glycol 600 as precipitant and the most stable M-CLEA were obtained using tert-butanol. Successive penicillin G hydrolysis reactions were carried out using the same M-CLEA in a 50 mL reactor (3 reaction cycles), after the reactions the derivate was magnetically recovered without loss of activity demonstrating a total magnetic recovery. Line-scan energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy showed that the amino-SPIONs were homogeneously dispersed within the structure of the M-CLEA.

The Northwestern Portuguese region is densely populated and highly industrialized, suffering from high anthropogenic pressure. To assess the biological effect of the several pollutants that are constantly released to the water, a biomarker-based biomonitoring is a promising approach that may provide early-warning signals of pollutants exposure. Fish gill is the first target of pollutants action, thus histopathological and biochemical changes may constitute potential biomarkers. To evaluate this hypothesis, three native fish species (barbel—Luciobarbus bocagei, chub—Squalius carolitertii and nase—Pseudochondrostoma sp.) were sampled in Northwestern Portuguese rivers, the gill histopathological changes were qualitative and quantitatively analyzed and the lipid peroxidation and glutathione-S-transferase activity were determined. A multivariate statistical analysis was performed to establish correlations between these biological responses, environmental variables and ecological status. The quantitative evaluation of the main histopathological changes and oxidative stress responses emphasize the differences, among species, in the responses to the presence of contaminants in water. Discriminant canonical analysis showed that filament epithelium proliferation, necrosis and GST activity were the main contributors to discriminate the ecological status classification. In addition, the results showed that a wide range of environmental factors are influencing fish physiology. In conclusion, the gill biological responses, although not reflecting specific contaminants, can be used as biomarkers of ecosystems perturbation.

Usually, the corn cob is considered an agriculture waste. This natural and organic waste material may be used in the industry, in general, and in the building industry, in particular. The work presented in this paper was developed in order to give a contribution to the knowledge of this material, by attempting to describe and assess its macrostructure and microstructure, elementary chemical composition, density, water absorption, fire resistance and thermal insulation capacity. These properties of the corn cob were compared with the corresponding ones of the most common thermal insulation products applied in the Portuguese building industry, which are extruded polystyrene (XPS), expanded polystyrene (EPS), cork and expanded clay. Several similarities were found when comparing the properties of these materials, in particular between the corn cob and the cork, which suggests that the corn cob may be used as a raw material to process thermal insulating products, light partition walls, ceiling coating, indoor doors and furniture, among other possible applications. The obtained results can also contribute to a more environmentally friendly building industry.

Tabique construction is one of the main Portuguese traditional building techniques that use earth based building materials. It is peculiar building technique which uses corn's cob as a filling material for the external tabique walls. The existing tabique construction in Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro region of northeast Portugal was studied to learn from it for modern day construction. The research showed that corn's cob, an agricultural waste, has the potential to be used as a sustainable building material for thermal insulation. An experimental work concluded that there are significant similarities between the corn's cob and the extruded polystyrene (XPS) material in terms of microstructure and chemical composition. Furthermore, the results obtained from an expeditious experimental thermal procedure indicate that the corn's cob may have adequate thermal properties for building purpose.