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Introdução: Uma das medidas mais eficazes para evitar a infecção pelo SARS-CoV-2 e prevenir a COVID-19 é assegurar a adequada higienização das mãos, o que pode ser conseguido de forma eficaz com o uso de antissépticos contendo álcool etílico. Objetivos: O objetivo do trabalho foi preparar, avaliar a qualidade e pesquisar a eficácia in vitro de géis alcoólicos produzidos para doação à serviços de saúde de municípios da região sul capixaba. Métodos: Três lotes de gel contendo álcool etílico foram preparados e tiveram os seguintes parâmetros de qualidade avaliados: aspecto, pH, densidade relativa, resistência à centrifugação, viscosidade, teor, perfil de textura e contagem de microrganismos mesófilos totais. A eficácia antimicrobiana in vitro foi estudada. Resultados: Os valores de pH variaram de 6,2 a 6,5; a densidade relativa, entre 0,864 e 0,876 g/mL; a viscosidade, entre 115.500 e 123.500 cP; a dureza entre 33 e 40 g e, a elasticidade e a adesividade, entre 6,42 e 6,76 mm e 1,1 a 1,7 mJ, respectivamente. Não houve fluidificação durante testes de estresse mecânico. O teor de álcool etílico variou de 69,15 a 72,75%. Os produtos atenderam às especificações para ausência de proliferação microbiana e inibiram o crescimento das cepas estudadas. Conclusão: Os géis apresentaram qualidade conforme as especificações recomendadas, sendo considerados seguros e eficazes para o uso como antissépticos para as mãos. O trabalho é inédito, pois, reúne a discussão da legislação, técnica de preparo, ensaios e parâmetros de qualidade e, pesquisa a eficácia de antissépticos em gel baseados no álcool etílico.

We characterized the functional and taxonomic composition of the active and dormant communities from perennial lagoons and temporary ponds in a coastal plain. We sought to determine the degree of coherence between the egg bank and the active community within the same type of environment (temporary or perennial) and between environments subject to different hydrological cycles. We sampled the zooplankton community and environmental variables in six temporary ponds and five perennial lagoons in the dry and the wet periods of the hydrological cycle. Temporary ponds and perennial lagoons differed in abiotic conditions, with higher values of dissolved carbon in temporary ponds and higher values of salinity in perennial lagoons. The taxonomic coherence between active and dormant communities in temporary environments was greater than in perennial environments. In functional terms, we observed a high coherence between active and dormant communities for both types of environments. Our results highlight the need to conserve both temporary and perennial environments to assure the maintenance of zooplankton diversity. Although these environments are subject to the same set of climatic variables and pool of species, their idiosyncrasies are important forces promoting and sustaining biological diversity.

A análise estática de código é uma técnica da verificação de software, onde uma ferramenta identifica defeitos anteriores à execução de trechos de código. Este trabalho propõe analisar e comparar algumas dessas ferramentas para o PHP. Para atingir esse objetivo, foram selecionadas cinco ferramentas entre as 70 encontradas, que passaram por critérios como: ter código aberto, disponibilizar documentação e abranger métricas de código. As ferramentas foram classificadas conforme eficiência e eficácia e sua avaliação ocorreu por meio de testes com três projetos em PHP para sites do Governo Federal do Brasil (eGOV), baseados nos CMS’s Drupal, Joomla e WordPress

Herein, we report the development of sandwich type Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) immunosensor modified to be zwitterionic for the detection of soluble B7–H6 biomarker in blood serum from cervical cancer patients. Anti-fouling capture SERS substrate of biosensor based on gold (Au) thin film was modified with a self-assembled monolayer of zwitterionic l -cysteine to combat serum fouling and was then conjugated with NKp30 receptor protein to capture the B7–H6 biomarker in blood serum. The SERS nanoprobe based on spiky gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was functionalized with ATP reporter molecule, that is stable at a wide range of pH, making the SERS signal reliable in complex media. Then, it was conjugated with anti-B7-H6 antibody forming the complex anti-B7-H6@ATP@AuNPs (i.e., SERS nanoprobe). The proposed immunosensor demonstrated high reproducibility for the quantitative detection of soluble tumor biomarker B7–H6 within the range of 10−10 M to 10−14 M with limit of detection (LOD) of 10−14 M or 10.8 fg mL−1, in the cancer patient serum, greatly exceeding (100 fold) the LOD of commercially available ELISA kits. Such low LOD is partially the result of zwitterionic modification which reduces the serum fouling by 55% compared to traditionally used BSA blocked capture substrates (i.e., control). Notably, this immunosensors demonstrated higher accuracy for detecting the B7–H6 biomarker in undiluted blood serum samples from cervical cancer patients and outperforms the currently available analytical techniques, making it reliable for point of care (POC) testing.

In this work, it is reported for the first time the synthesis of high-purity Lead Sulfide (PbS) quantum dot (QD) using the nano-emulsion method assisted by an ultrasonic bath, which was tested as a hole transporting material (HTM) in perovskite devices. Further, these PbS QDs were introduced in CH3NH3PbI3 based perovskite device, between the perovskite layer and the HTM to enhance its stability against humidity. The hydrophobic nature of the PbS protects the perovskite by preventing the diffusion of water into the device. To compare the effect, the perovskite devices with and without the layer of PbS QDs were tested under high humidity conditions (~70%) without encapsulation. The pristine perovskite devices completely degraded after a span of 10 days, whereas the devices with PbS QDs showed huge resistance to humidity by retaining 76% of its initial efficiency after a span of 60 days. Such enhanced stability under adverse environmental conditions has never been reported. Also, these results would open up a new insight of PbS QDs being utilized as a barrier against high humid conditions for making air-stable devices.

Quantifying the interactions between functional diversity and environmental change is important for understanding the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes. This study aims to evaluate zooplankton secondary production and biomass in an experiment with different levels of functional diversity and environmental stress in the form of increased salinity. It is expected that communities that are more functionally diverse will present higher secondary production and biomass, even under conditions of environmental stress. To test this hypothesis, a mesocosm experiment with two factors was performed: low and high diversity and with and without salt totaling four possible combinations of treatments over the duration of 4 weeks. The high functional diversity treatments showed higher zooplankton secondary production and biomass than those of the low diversity treatments, even under salt addition. The salinity decreased zooplankton production and functional diversity, but its effects were more pronounced in the low than in the high diversity communities. However, in the low diversity treatments the zooplankton biomass and production were maintained due to the dominance of species with certain traits. In summary, our study contributed to understanding the role of zooplankton functional diversity on ecosystem processes in the face of environmental changes promoted by increased salinity.

En este trabajo se discuten las propiedades ópticas y electrónicas de nanomateriales, se analizan sus características fundamentales y su aplicación en el diseño de dispositivos y técnicas para la detección, imagen y terapia, especialmente en problemas de cáncer. Se discuten algunos resultados recientes obtenidos en nuestro laboratorio donde hemos podido medir concentraciones del orden de 10-22 moles de complejos de interés. Reportamos la detección de residuos en sangre de medicamentos del orden de 10-8 y 10-9 molar (M), lo que abre el camino para el monitoreo de fármacos con un enfoque a la implementación de una medicina personalizada. Discutimos resultados de técnicas de terapia con el uso de nanomateriales que han permitido reducir la viabilidad celular por debajo del 10%. Estos resultados muestran que la nanotecnología está cambiando el paradigma en salud a una medicina preventiva, personalizada y al alcance de todos.

Public repository for Software Product Line Scoping: A Systematic Literature Review This work is part of a project developed within the Laboratory of Empirical Studies in Software Engineering (http://lesse.com.br/) Abstract: Software product line (SPL) scoping aids companies to define the boundaries of their products. As scoping guides the management of the resources in SPL development, it becomes one of the core activities in this process. One may find in the literature, several approaches on this topic, proposing techniques and methodologies to be applicable in different organizational scenarios. Due to the importance of such approaches, there is a need for an update in the state of the art in this field. In this context, we look into identifying, analyzing, and extracting important information from SPL scoping proposals found in the literature. This important information includes similarities and differences among these approaches as well as scoping concepts and research opportunities. Thus, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) alongside snowballing, following a well-defined protocol to retrieve, classify and extract information from the literature. We analyzed a total of 58 studies, identifying 41 different approaches in the field, highlighting their similarities and differences, and establishing a generic scoping process. Furthermore, research opportunities in the SPL scoping field are discussed. This SLR was conducted using the Thoth tool (http://lesse.com.br/tools/thoth/).

A análise estática de código é uma técnica aplicada na etapa de verificação de um software, com o objetivo de identificar defeitos sem a necessidade da execução da aplicação. Atualmente existem diversas ferramentas de análise estática disponíveis no mercado, onde cada uma possui suas particularidades e diferentes escopos de análise. Portanto, escolher a ferramenta correta a ser usada não é uma atividade trivial. Este estudo tem como objetivo comparar duas ferramentas de análise estática de código sendo elas o SonarQube e o PMD, analisando a sua eficácia na identificação de defeitos em um código de software. Com esta finalidade foram criados mutantes a partir de projetos Open Source, que auxiliaram a verificar a eficácia das ferramentas.

The variety of database system technologies that have become available in recent years makes it difficult to select tools for entity-relationship modeling (ER) in the teaching-learning context. This paper reports a replicated controlled experiment carried out with 33 subjects in order to compare effort spent (time) and quality, using the harmonic average between precision and recall, of the models produced with two different approaches. The models were produced in a proposed tool (ERtext) with a textual-based DSL and in another tool with a graphical approach (brModelo). Briefly, the data obtained indicate: i) both approaches present similar performance in relation to associated effort, and; ii) that there is a statistically significant difference in relation to the quality of the generated models, with a slightly advantage for the textual approach. Therefore, we conclude that the use of a textual-based DSL is feasible and our proposal is an acceptable solution in the context of conceptual database modeling.

Orientador: Marcius Fabius Henriques de Carvalho Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica Resumo: O atual ambiente competitivo induz as empresas a optarem por uma competência central e associarem-se, em parceria, a outras empresas para aproveitamento de uma oportunidade de mercado. Esta associação se torna cada vez mais dinâmica à medida que o ciclo do produto se encurta. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para formação de parceria em Cadeia de Suprimentos. Sua base fundamenta-se na expansão dos conceitos de Tecnologia de Grupo, às aplicações que tratam do projeto de parceria entre empresas a constituir uma Cadeia de Suprimentos. A metodologia considera, em uma primeira etapa, a similaridade entre as atividades necessárias à execução de um produto. Em uma segunda etapa sugere a utilização de uma medida de distância entre a empresa candidata e a empresa padrão, estabelecida pela empresa gestora, como elemento de seleção de empresas parceira. Uma aplicação teórica mostra a importância da metodologia proposta no apoio à decisão de configuração de parcerias em sistemas produtivos Abstract: The current competitive environment leads the enterprise toward a central competence and to associate, in partnership, with other enterprises to take advantage of a market opportunity. This association becomes increasingly dynamics as the cycle of the product is shortened. This work presents a methodology for partnership formation in Supply Chain. It is based on the expansion of the Group Technology concepts, to the applications of the partnership project among enterprises to constitute a Supply Chain. It considers, in the first stage, the similarity among the necessary activities to the execution of a product. In the second stage, it suggests the use of a distance measurement between the candidate enterprise and the reference enterprise, established by the project¿s coordinating enterprise, as a means of selecting partner enterprises. A theoretical application shows the usefulness of the proposed methodology. The results show the importance of the methodology to support the decision-making in the configuration of partnership of production systems Doutorado Mecânica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecânico Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica

For biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems, the use of coarse group classifications, either taxonomic or functional, has been proposed as an alternative to more highly resolved taxonomic identification. We tested this proposition for phytoplankton and zooplankton using a pan-United States dataset, which also allows us to investigate biogeographic relationships between plankton groups and environmental variables. We used data from 1010 lakes composing the 2012 US National Lakes Assessment and compared relationships derived using genus-level, more aggregated taxonomic resolution and functional types. We examined responses nationally and by ecoregion. Differences in plankton assemblages among ecoregions were detected, especially at genus-level classification. Our analyses show a gradient of altitude and temperature influencing both phytoplankton and zooplankton, and another gradient of nutrients and anthropogenic activity influencing mostly phytoplankton. The overall variation in the planktonic communities explained by environmental variables ranged from 4 to 22%, but together indicated that aggregated taxonomic classification performed better for phytoplankton; for zooplankton, the performance of different classification types depended on the ecoregion. Our analyses also revealed linkages between particular phytoplankton and zooplankton groups, mainly attributable to similar environmental responses and trophic interactions. Overall, the results support the applicability of coarse classifications to infer general responses of plankton communities to environmental drivers.

The development of practical and sensitive tools for detecting phosphate deficiency could facilitate engineering approaches to enhance crop yield and quality in phosphate-stressed environments, reducing the misuse of nonrenewable fertilizers and their consequent ecological impact. Herein, a 975 nm-activated method based on ZrO2:Yb,Er@ZrO2 core@shell upconversion nanoparticles is presented for rapid visualization and determination of the phosphate ions in aqueous solutions and extracts. At optimized thickness, the nondoped ZrO2 shell not only enhances the emission of the ZrO2:Yb,Er but also provides an active surface for the intense interaction with the phosphate group, allowing a "label-free" determination that avoids the use of additional phosphate-recognizing elements like ligands or antibodies. According to the experimental evidence, the optical output of the ZrO2:Yb,Er@ZrO2 nanoparticles specifically matches with the absorption spectrum of the fast green alimentary dye (FG) electrostatically attached to the nanoparticle surface, activating the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and thereby the upconversion luminescence quenching. Upon addition of the phosphate ions and the covalent interaction with the ZrO2:Yb,Er@ZrO2-FG nanocomplex, the FG is gradually removed, displaying a fast and reproducible "turn-on" luminescence which allows measurements in a few minutes. This rapid response is due to the stronger coordination between the ZrO2 shell and the phosphate compared to the FG molecules (-31.97 and -5.99 eV, respectively). The detection method was then effectively modulated in a 20-1000 nM linear response range without interfering effects of commonly coexisting ions, achieving a detection limit up to 15 times lower than that obtained with the conventionally used colorimetric methods.

Functional traits are ecologically relevant characteristics of species. They are relevant to community structuring in face of environmental drivers (response traits) and to ecosystem processes (effect traits). For planktonic microcrustaceans, the link between functional traits and their responses or effects is not always clear. Our objective was to review the literature on linking functional traits to environmental drivers and ecosystem processes for planktonic cladocerans and copepods. Response traits are discussed in four categories: morphological, life history, behavioral, or physiological. Temperature, predation, resources, and stressors are important drivers of morphological and life-history traits. Body size, a morphological trait, is probably the most important trait, because it responds to several environmental characteristics and is correlated with physiological traits and to zooplankton impact on ecosystems functions. In an ecosystem perspective, zooplankton is an important energy link between primary producers and secondary consumers. In trophic webs, it may control phytoplankton biomass and productivity, with consequences for whole lakes. Its influence on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles is expected to increase with body size. Other traits may be important, but there is a lack of information. We point out the need of more functional trait research, especially with freshwater copepods and neglected tropical species. For a better understanding of natural systems, an integrative approach of multiple traits with multiple environmental drivers and ecosystem functions is necessary.

In this work, a recently developed carbon nanodots (CnDs) were introduced in the mesoscopic TiO2 to form a TiO2: CnDs composite, to be used as an electrode in CH3NH3PbI3 based perovskite devices. It resulted the improvement in morphology of perovskite film and induced a carbon-doping passivating the oxygen defects. In addition, the presence of carbon dots enhanced the charge carrier mobility of TiO2 and provided extra photo-generation ability to the perovskite device due to its absorbing nature. The improved morphology, carbon-doping, photogeneration ability and the improved charge transfer characteristics with the introduction of carbon dots was verified by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-visible absorption, X-ray diffraction, space charge limited current (SCLC) measurement, photoluminescence (PL), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), current leakage and open circuit photovoltage decay (OCPD) measurements. An optimized concentration of CnDs (3 wt%) within the TiO2 resulted in a maximum power conversion efficiency of 19.45% with negligible hysteresis, which is 16% higher than the device with pristine TiO2.

A comparative study of hydrogen evolution in devices based on cadmium chalcogenides quantum dots (CdS, CdSe and CdTe) and its combinations, sensitizing TiO2 was carried out. A maximum photocurrent of 2.7 mA cm−2 at 0 V bias, and a solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency of 0.9%, was obtained with CdSe QDs due to its wide absorption range. The co-sensitized device with CdS–CdSe QDs showed a higher photocurrent of 3.9 mA cm−2 with an STH of 1.2%. The improvement in hydrogen generation for electrodes sensitized with CdS in combination with CdSe or CdTe QDs, was attributed to the increased light absorption and appropriate band alignment for the enhanced charge transport.