The article focuses on how the Portuguese arts have dealt with the Portuguese crisis, in the years 2011-2014, when the country was subjected to a financial bailout. The approach is based on a cross-section analysis, considering the domains of literature, fine arts, visual arts and cinema, music and performing arts. It emphasizes three distinct and complementary ways through which the relation between arts and society was developed in these years. The first way is the directly political positioning of artists, through artistic works and performances. The second way is the presence of the crisis as a background of several artistic creations of this time. And the third way is the one by which the crisis projects a new light into consistent topics of the Portuguese artistic imagination, stressing the centrality of collective identity and self-reflexivity. The Portuguese case suggests how promising can be for the sociological explanation of social processes the consideration of their cultural and artistic dimensions. ; O artigo focaliza-se no modo como as artes portuguesas lidaram com a crise portuguesa nos anos de 2011 a 2014, altura em que o país foi sujeito a um resgate financeiro. A abordagem é baseada numa análise transversal, tomando em conta os domínios da literatura, das belas-artes, das artes visuais e do cinema, da música e das artes performativas. O artigo enfatiza três formas distintas e complementares através das quais se desenvolveu a relação entre as artes e a sociedade nestes anos. A primeira forma relaciona-se com o posicionamento político direto dos artistas através do trabalho artístico e suas performances. A segunda forma centra-se na presença da crise como pano de fundo de várias criações artísticas nessa época. E a terceira forma é aquela em que a crise projeta uma nova perspetiva nos tópicos consistentes da imaginação artística portuguesa, reforçando a centralidade da identidade coletiva e da autorreflexividade. Assim, o caso português sugere quanto pode ser promissora a consideração das dimensões culturais e artísticas na explicação dos processos sociais. ; Le propos de l'article est d'analyser la façon dont les arts portugais ont fait face à la crise portugaise au cours des années 2011-2014, quand le pays était soumis à un rachat financier. L'approche est basée sur une analyse transversale, en examinant les domaines de la littérature, des beaux-arts, des arts visuels et des films, de la musique et des arts performatifs. On souligne trois formes, différentes et complémentaires, par lesquelles la relation entre les arts et la société s'est développée pendant ces années-là. La première forme concerne le positionnement politique direct des artistes, à travers leur travail artistique et leurs performances. La deuxième forme prend la crise comme contexte et enjeu de plusieurs créations artistiques de ce temps-là. La troisième forme envisage les moyens par lesquels la crise projette une nouvelle perspective sur les sujets durables de l'imagination artistique portugaise, en renforçant la centralité de l'identité collective et de l'autoréflexivité. Ainsi, l'analyse du cas portugais suggère la possibilité d'enrichissement apportée par la prise en considération des dimensions culturelles et artistiques dans l'explication des processus sociaux. ; Este artículo se focaliza en cómo el arte en Portugal ha lidiado con la crisis económica durante los años del rescate financiero (2011-2014). La metodología de este trabajo se basa en una muestra que toma en consideración diversas áreas como la literatura, las artes plásticas y visuales, la música y las artes escénicas. El artículo pone de manifiesto tres formas diferentes, pero complementarias, en las que el arte y la sociedad han interactuado y se han desarrollado durante estos años. La primera de esa formas hace referencia al posicionamiento político directo de los artistas, a través de sus trabajos y de sus actuaciones. La segunda es la presencia de la crisis, como tema de fondo, en muchas de las creaciones artísticas de esta época. Y la tercera es la forma en la que la crisis ha alumbrado nuevas perspectivas y formas de entender ciertos temas de la imaginación artística portuguesa, destacando la importancia de las identidades colectivas y la autorreflexividad. Así, el caso portugués sugiere cuán prometedora puede ser la toma en consideración de las dimensiones culturales y artísticas a la hora de explicar sociológicamente determinados procesos sociales.
The article focuses on how the Portuguese arts have dealt with the Portuguese crisis, in the years 2011-2014, when the country was subjected to a financial bailout. The approach is based on a cross-section analysis, considering the domains of literature, fine arts, visual arts and cinema, music and performing arts. It emphasizes three distinct and complementary ways through which the relation between arts and society was developed in these years. The first way is the directly political positioning of artists, through artistic works and performances. The second way is the presence of the crisis as a background of several artistic creations of this time. And the third way is the one by which the crisis projects a new light into consistent topics of the Portuguese artistic imagination, stressing the centrality of collective identity and self-reflexivity. The Portuguese case suggests how promising can be for the sociological explanation of social processes the consideration of their cultural and artistic dimensions. ; Este artículo se focaliza en cómo el arte en Portugal ha lidiado con la crisis económica durante los años del rescate financiero (2011-2014). La metodología de este trabajo se basa en una muestra que toma en consideración diversas áreas como la literatura, las artes plásticas y visuales, la música y las artes escénicas. El artículo pone de manifiesto tres formas diferentes, pero complementarias, en las que el arte y la sociedad han interactuado y se han desarrollado durante estos años. La primera de esa formas hace referencia al posicionamiento político directo de los artistas, a través de sus trabajos y de sus actuaciones. La segunda es la presencia de la crisis, como tema de fondo, en muchas de las creaciones artísticas de esta época. Y la tercera es la forma en la que la crisis ha alumbrado nuevas perspectivas y formas de entender ciertos temas de la imaginación artística portuguesa, destacando la importancia de las identidades colectivas y la autorreflexividad. Así, el caso portugués sugiere cuán ...
Introduction: A bioterrorist attack is the intentional release of pathogenic micro-organisms, such as viruses, bacteria, or their toxins, with the aim of causing illness or death in people, animals, or plants. In this study, we investigated the knowledge and practices related to bioterrorism preparedness in Central Portugal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed with a convenience sample in the population of Aveiro, Central Portugal, to assess their knowledge about bioterrorism, self-perceived preparation to act in case of bioterrorism and pet owners' preparation. An online validated questionnaire was completed by 198 participants from January to February 2020. Results: In this study, 46.0% of the respondents answered that they knew nothing about bioterrorism or had never heard about the possibility of bioterrorist attacks. In the case of an attack, 77.8% participants did not consider themselves prepared to act, and 62.1% did not know how to use personal protective equipment. More than half of the respondents (60.6%) were not familiar with the local emergency response system in response to catastrophes/bioterrorist attacks. Almost all respondents (95.6%) assigned high importance to drinking water and food for pets, but only 22.9% of respondents attributed high importance to pet carrier boxes, an item essential for cat evacuation. Conclusion: This is the first survey of this kind in Portugal concerning bioterrorism preparedness in citizens and animals. Results suggest that Portuguese knowledge is limited, and people have inadequate preparedness for a bioterrorist attack. These results reinforce the importance of further studies to better understand the existing gaps in knowledge of Portuguese citizens, strengthen the need to adopt the One Health concept in preparedness plans and emphasize the crucial role of health education in prevention.
In: Leandro , M J , Marques , S , Ribeiro , B , Santos , H & Fonseca , C 2019 , ' More sustainable dairy industries : selection of Kluyveromyces strains for direct conversion of concentrated waste streams into bioethanol ' , MICROBIOTEC'19 , Coimbra , Portugal , 05/12/2019 - 07/12/2019 pp. 448 .
The dairy industry is one of the most polluting industries in the food sector, with very high energy and water consumption demands. Dairy wastewater treatment is therefore mandatory to reduce its environmental impact and to allow water recycling and energy savings. In this work, retentates (concentrated lactose streams) obtained from dairy wastewater processed by nanofiltration or reverse osmosis were assessed for direct bioethanol production by lactose-fermenting yeasts. Two of the tested Kluyveromyces strains efficiently fermented all available lactose, with ethanol yields higher than 90% of the theoretical maximum (>0.47 g/g yield). A K. marxianus strain was selected that under severe oxygen-limiting conditions was able to reach 70 g/L (8.9 % v/v) of ethanol, which is compatible with energy-efficient distillation processes. The process here described for handling dairy wastewaters, making use of membrane technology, allows water recycling from the permeate, complying with legislation for drinking water, and simultaneous bioenergy (bioethanol) production from the retentate, therefore contributing to a more sustainable dairy industry.
The response of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) quasispecies to antiretroviral therapy is influenced by the ensemble of mutants that composes the evolving population. Low-abundance subpopulations within HIV-1 quasispecies may determine the viral response to the administered drug combinations. However, routine sequencing assays available to clinical laboratories do not recognize HIV-1 minority variants representing less than 25% of the population. Although several alternative and more sensitive genotyping techniques have been developed, including next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods, they are usually very time consuming, expensive and require highly trained personnel, thus becoming unrealistic approaches in daily clinical practice. Here we describe the development and testing of a HIV-1 genotyping DNA microarray that detects and quantifies, in majority and minority viral subpopulations, relevant mutations and amino acid insertions in 42 codons of the pol gene associated with drug- and multidrug-resistance to protease (PR) and reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors. A customized bioinformatics protocol has been implemented to analyze the microarray hybridization data by including a new normalization procedure and a stepwise filtering algorithm, which resulted in the highly accurate (96.33%) detection of positive/negative signals. This microarray has been tested with 57 subtype B HIV-1 clinical samples extracted from multi-treated patients, showing an overall identification of 95.53% and 89.24% of the queried PR and RT codons, respectively, and enough sensitivity to detect minority subpopulations representing as low as 5-10% of the total quasispecies. The developed genotyping platform represents an efficient diagnostic and prognostic tool useful to personalize antiviral treatments in clinical practice. ; This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN grant BIO2010-20696 to CB), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO grants BIO2013-47228-R to CB and SAF2014-52400-R to ED), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (PLATESA, grant S2013/ABI-2906 to ED), Biotherapix, S.L.U. and FEDER funds from the European Union. Work at CIBERehd is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). MICINN provided funding for VM under grants RyC2010-06516 and AGL2015-64290-R. CP is supported by Miguel Servet program of the ISCIII (CP14/00121), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Funding for open access charge: Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The funders provided support in the form of salaries and research materials for authors [MICINN and MINECO for VM, CP, MF-A, HGDS, VP, MM, DA, ED and CB; ISCIII for CP, JG-P and JA; Biotherapix, S.L.U. for PG, MP and JLT], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section. ; Sí
16 p.-1 fig. ; Microbes and their activities have pervasive, remarkably profound and generally positive effects on the functioning, and thus health and well‐being, of human beings, the whole of the biological world, and indeed the entire surface of the planet and its atmosphere. Collectively, and to a significant extent in partnership with the sun, microbes are the life support system of the biosphere. This necessitates their due consideration in decisions that are taken by individuals and families in everyday life, as well as by individuals and responsible bodies at all levels and stages of community, national and planetary health assessment, planning, and the formulation of pertinent policies. However, unlike other subjects having a pervasive impact upon humankind, such as financial affairs, health, and transportation, of which there is a widespread understanding, knowledge of relevant microbial activities, how they impact our lives, and how they may be harnessed for the benefit of humankind – microbiology literacy – is lacking in the general population, and in the subsets thereof that constitute the decision makers. Choices involving microbial activity implications are often opaque, and the information available is sometimes biased and usually incomplete, and hence creates considerable uncertainty. As a consequence, even evidence‐based 'best' decisions, not infrequently lead to unpredicted, unintended, and sometimes undesired outcomes. We therefore contend that microbiology literacy in society is indispensable for informed personal decisions, as well as for policy development in government and business, and for knowledgeable input of societal stakeholders in such policymaking. An understanding of key microbial activities is as essential for transitioning from childhood to adulthood as some subjects currently taught at school, and must therefore be acquired during general education. Microbiology literacy needs to become part of the world citizen job description. To facilitate the attainment of microbiology literacy in society, through its incorporation into education curricula, we propose here a basic teaching concept and format that are adaptable to all ages, from pre‐school to high school, and places key microbial activities in the contexts of how they affect our everyday lives, of relevant Grand Challenges facing humanity and planet Earth, and of sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals. We exhort microbiologists, microbiological learned societies and microbiology‐literate professionals, to participate in and contribute to this initiative by helping to evolve the basic concept, developing and seeking funding to develop child‐friendly, appealing teaching tools and materials, enhancing its impact and, most importantly, convincing educators, policy makers, business leaders and relevant governmental and non‐governmental agencies to support and promote this initiative. Microbiology literacy in society must become reality. ; Peer reviewed
In: Timmis , K , Cavicchioli , R , Garcia , J L , Nogales , B , Chavarría , M , Stein , L , McGenity , T J , Webster , N , Singh , B K , Handelsman , J , de Lorenzo , V , Pruzzo , C , Timmis , J , Martín , J L R , Verstraete , W , Jetten , M , Danchin , A , Huang , W , Gilbert , J , Lal , R , Santos , H , Lee , S Y , Sessitsch , A , Bonfante , P , Gram , L , Lin , R T P , Ron , E , Karahan , Z C , van der Meer , J R , Artunkal , S , Jahn , D & Harper , L 2019 , ' The urgent need for microbiology literacy in society ' , Environmental Microbiology , vol. 21 , no. 5 , pp. 1513-1528 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14611
Microbes and their activities have pervasive, remarkably profound and generally positive effects on the functioning, and thus health and well-being, of human beings, the whole of the biological world, and indeed the entire surface of the planet and its atmosphere. Collectively, and to a significant extent in partnership with the sun, microbes are the life support system of the biosphere. This necessitates their due consideration in decisions that are taken by individuals and families in everyday life, as well as by individuals and responsible bodies at all levels and stages of community, national and planetary health assessment, planning, and the formulation of pertinent policies. However, unlike other subjects having a pervasive impact upon humankind, such as financial affairs, health, and transportation, of which there is a widespread understanding, knowledge of relevant microbial activities, how they impact our lives, and how they may be harnessed for the benefit of humankind - microbiology literacy - is lacking in the general population, and in the subsets thereof that constitute the decision makers. Choices involving microbial activity implications are often opaque, and the information available is sometimes biased and usually incomplete, and hence creates considerable uncertainty. As a consequence, even evidence-based 'best' decisions, not infrequently lead to unpredicted, unintended, and sometimes undesired outcomes. We therefore contend that microbiology literacy in society is indispensable for informed personal decisions, as well as for policy development in government and business, and for knowledgeable input of societal stakeholders in such policymaking. An understanding of key microbial activities is as essential for transitioning from childhood to adulthood as some subjects currently taught at school, and must therefore be acquired during general education. Microbiology literacy needs to become part of the world citizen job description. To facilitate the attainment of microbiology literacy in ...