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Publicações

2012

Evolutionary and Experimental Assessment of Novel Markers for Detection of Xanthomonas euvesicatoria in Plant Samples

Autores
Albuquerque, P; Caridade, CMR; Rodrigues, AS; Marcal, ARS; Cruz, J; Cruz, L; Santos, CL; Mendes, MV; Tavares, F;

Publicação
PLOS ONE

Abstract
Background: Bacterial spot-causing xanthomonads (BSX) are quarantine phytopathogenic bacteria responsible for heavy losses in tomato and pepper production. Despite the research on improved plant spraying methods and resistant cultivars, the use of healthy plant material is still considered as the most effective bacterial spot control measure. Therefore, rapid and efficient detection methods are crucial for an early detection of these phytopathogens. Methodology: In this work, we selected and validated novel DNA markers for reliable detection of the BSX Xanthomonas euvesicatoria (Xeu). Xeu-specific DNA regions were selected using two online applications, CUPID and Insignia. Furthermore, to facilitate the selection of putative DNA markers, a customized C program was designed to retrieve the regions outputted by both databases. The in silico validation was further extended in order to provide an insight on the origin of these Xeu-specific regions by assessing chromosomal location, GC content, codon usage and synteny analyses. Primer-pairs were designed for amplification of those regions and the PCR validation assays showed that most primers allowed for positive amplification with different Xeu strains. The obtained amplicons were labeled and used as probes in dot blot assays, which allowed testing the probes against a collection of 12 non-BSX Xanthomonas and 23 other phytopathogenic bacteria. These assays confirmed the specificity of the selected DNA markers. Finally, we designed and tested a duplex PCR assay and an inverted dot blot platform for culture-independent detection of Xeu in infected plants. Significance: This study details a selection strategy able to provide a large number of Xeu-specific DNA markers. As demonstrated, the selected markers can detect Xeu in infected plants both by PCR and by hybridization-based assays coupled with automatic data analysis. Furthermore, this work is a contribution to implement more efficient DNA-based methods of bacterial diagnostics.

2012

SmellSheet Detective: A Tool for Detecting Bad Smells in Spreadsheets

Autores
Cunha, J; Fernandes, JP; Martins, P; Mendes, J; Saraiva, J;

Publicação
2012 IEEE SYMPOSIUM ON VISUAL LANGUAGES AND HUMAN-CENTRIC COMPUTING (VL/HCC)

Abstract
This tool demo paper presents SmellSheet Detective: a tool for automatically detecting bad smells in spreadsheets. We have defined a catalog of bad smells in spreadsheet data which was fully implemented in a reusable library for the manipulation of spreadsheets. This library is the building block of the SmellSheet Detective tool, that has been used to detect smells in large, real-world spreadsheets within the EUSES corpus, in order to validate and evolve our bad smells catalog.

2012

Strain Characterization of Suspended-Core Fiber Tapers

Autores
Andre, RM; Silva, SO; Becker, M; Schuster, K; Rothardt, M; Bartelt, H; Marques, MB; Frazao, O;

Publicação
MICRO-STRUCTURED AND SPECIALTY OPTICAL FIBRES

Abstract
Suspended core fiber tapers with different cross sections (from 70 mu m to 120 mu m diameter) were produced by filament heating. Before obtaining the taper, the spectral behavior of the suspended core fiber presents multimode interference. When the taper is made an intermodal interference is observed. This effect is clearly visible for high taper reduction. The spectral response of the microtaper inside the suspended core fiber is similar to a beat of two interferometers. The microtaper was subjected to strain, and an increase of sensitivity with the reduction of the transverse area was observed. When the taper was immersed in liquids with different refractive indices or subjected to temperature variations, no spectral change occurred.

2012

Virtual City Neurocognitive Rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Injury

Autores
Dores, AR; Miranda, MJ; Carvalho, IP; Mendes, L; Barbosa, F; Coelho, A; de Sousa, L; Caldas, AC;

Publicação
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract
Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is one of the leading causes of individuals' reduced participation in various contexts of life, compromising autonomous functioning and performance in complex activities. Neurocognitive rehabilitation, carried out by transdisciplinary teams, is part of the intervention after the acute phase, aiming patients' maximum functionality and quality of life. Serious games and virtual reality begin to provide innovative solutions in this area. In this study, a prototype platform for the rehabilitation of executive functioning and other related cognitive functions is presented: the Virtual City. Part of a larger project, it consists of urban virtual environments that simulate real-life scenarios and activities. Tests will be performed to validate it as a tool for the rehabilitation of ABI.

2012

Digital Control of a White Light Interrogation System for Optical Fiber Interferometers

Autores
Velosa, E; Gouveia, C; Frazao, O; Jorge, PAS; Baptista, JM;

Publicação
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL

Abstract
A system to interrogate optical fiber interferometric sensors with digital control is presented. The system is based on a receiving white light Mach-Zehnder interferometer and is capable of operating with four distinct synthetic and pseudo-heterodyne signal detection schemes. A differential phase detection scheme was implemented and system performance with the different processing schemes was compared using fiber Bragg grating based Fabry-Perot cavity strain sensors. With a lock-in time constant of 1 s, most digital techniques were able to nearly match the performance of a standard hardware system, demonstrating the feasibility of low-cost high-resolution interferometric systems operated with virtual instrumentation.

2012

Multimode Interference as a Tool for Fiber Sensing

Autores
Santos, JL; Silva, S; Ferreira, LA; Araujo, FM; Frazao, O;

Publicação
FIBER OPTIC SENSORS AND APPLICATIONS IX

Abstract
Fiber optic modal interferometry has been around as a sensing concept since the outcome of fiber optic sensing. Initially supported by the utilization of standard Hi-Bi fibres associated to polarimetric modal interference, later this sensing approach evolved to modal interference based on spatial modes propagating in the core, on spatial modes propagating in the core and in the cladding with coupling performed by fibre devices such as long period gratings and tapers, and more recently on several types of modes propagating in photonic crystal fibers. This paper will address fiber optic sensing based on modal interferometry, and configurations of different type researched in last years will be presented and their performance compared.

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