ALBERT

Description: The significant energy consumed by road transportation and the difficult market penetration of Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) has led to a substantial body of research aiming to understand consumer preferences and future demand for AFVs. The individual characteristics of consumers are one of the explanatory factors of these preferences. In this context, the main purpose of this work is to present a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of how consumer demographics influence their preferences concerning AFVs. This review focuses on papers that applied Choice Modelling techniques to elicit individual consumer preferences for AFVs through stated preference surveys. Age, gender, income, level of education, family size, driving habits and number of vehicles per household were selected for analysis. This study also adds to the literature by analyzing the influence of demographic characteristics on preferences of Portuguese consumers. Very few studies addressed the influence of demographics on preferences for vehicle attributes. Considering the influence of consumers’ income and age, no consistent results were found. However, when age and consumers’ nationality were crossed, a potential trend of consumers’ age influence was unveiled. Regarding gender, level of education and family size, it was observed that consumers with higher education levels, women and consumers with larger families have higher preferences for AFVs.

Description: The uppermost millimeter of the water column, the surface microlayer (SML), hosts bacterial communities (bacterioneuston) with potential metabolic adaptations to this unique physical and chemical environment. Hydrolysis and monomer incorporation by bacterioneuston and bacterioplankton communities in the estuarine system, Ria de Aveiro, was investigated and compared during a 2-year survey. The study was conducted at two contrasting sites, typifying the marine and brackish water characteristics of the estuary and with different sources, amounts and composition of organic matter. In the marine zone, bacterioneuston showed higher rates of hydrolysis and lower rates of monomer incorporation than bacterioplankton, whereas in the brackish water zone, neustonic and planktonic microbial communities showed similar activity rates. This pattern may result from the different degree of surface organic and inorganic matter enrichments, which reflect site-specific characteristics, such as hydrodynamics and sources of organic matter composition. In general, the estuarine SML environment favors polymer hydrolysis, but inhibits monomer utilization, in comparison with the subsurface layers. However, the differences between the two communities tend to decrease as autotrophic and heterotrophic activities increase in the brackish-water area.

Description: Moving towards a global bioeconomy can mitigate climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels. Within this context, this work applies a set of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tools to prioritise the selection of five alternative bioenergy systems for residential heating based on the combination of three commercial technologies (pellet, wood stove and traditional fireplace) and two different feedstocks (eucalypt and maritime pine species). Several combinations of MCDA methods and weighting approaches were compared to assess how much results can differ. Eight indicators were used for a sustainability assessment of the alternatives while four MCDA methods were applied for the prioritisation: Weighted Sum Method (WSM), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE), and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE). Regarding the sustainability performance indicators, the highest environmental impacts were calculated for the fireplace alternatives, and there was not a best environmental option. Also, no clear trend was found for the economic and social dimensions. The application of MCDA tools shows that wood stove alternatives have the best sustainability performance, in particular wood stove with combustion of maritime pine logs (highest scores in the ranking). Regarding the worst alternative, fireplaces with combustion of eucalypt logs ranked last in all MCDA rankings. Finally, a sensitivity analysis for the weighting of the performance indicators confirmed wood stoves with combustion of maritime pine logs as the leading alternative and the key role of the analysts within this type of MCDA studies.

Description: Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) displays a glycolytic phenotype (Warburg effect). Increased lactate production, impacting on tumor biology and microenvironment modulation, has been implicated in epigenetic mechanisms’ regulation, leading to histone deacetylases inhibition. Thus, in-depth knowledge of lactate’s impact on epigenome regulation of highly glycolytic tumors might allow for new therapeutic strategies. Herein, we investigated how extracellular lactate affected sirtuin 1 activity, a class III histone deacetylase (sirtuins, SIRTs) in RCC. Methods: In vitro and in vivo interactions between lactate and SIRT1 in RCC were investigated in normal kidney and RCC cell lines. Finally, SIRT1 and N-cadherin immunoexpression was assessed in human RCC and normal renal tissues. Results: Lactate inhibited SIRT1 expression in normal kidney and RCC cells, increasing global H3 and H3K9 acetylation. Cells exposed to lactate showed increased cell migration and invasion entailing a mesenchymal phenotype. Treatment with a SIRT1 inhibitor, nicotinamide (NAM), paralleled lactate effects, promoting cell aggressiveness. In contrast, alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate (CHC), a lactate transporter inhibitor, reversed them by blocking lactate transport. In vivo (chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay), lactate and NAM exposure were associated with increased tumor size and blood vessel recruitment, whereas CHC displayed the opposite effect. Moreover, primary RCC revealed N-cadherin upregulation whereas SIRT1 expression levels were downregulated compared to normal tissues. Conclusions: In RCC, lactate enhanced aggressiveness and modulated normal kidney cell phenotype, in part through downregulation of SIRT1, unveiling tumor metabolism as a promising therapeutic target.

Description: In this paper we present a thorough discussion about the photometric redshift (photo-z) performance of the Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS). This survey combines a seven narrow +5 broad passband filter system, with a typical photometric-depth of r ∼ 21 AB. For this exercise, we utilize the Data Release 1 (DR1), corresponding to 336 deg2 from the Stripe-82 region. We rely on the BPZ2 code to compute our estimates, using a new library of SED models, which includes additional templates for quiescent galaxies. When compared to a spectroscopic redshift control sample of ∼100 k galaxies, we find a precision of σz

Description: The Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) is imaging ∼9300 deg2 of the celestial sphere in 12 optical bands using a dedicated 0.8 m robotic telescope, the T80-South, at the Cerro Tololo Inter-american Observatory, Chile. The telescope is equipped with a 9.2k × 9.2k e2v detector with 10 $ m {mu m}$ pixels, resulting in a field of view of 2 deg2 with a plate scale of 0.55 arcsec pixel−1. The survey consists of four main subfields, which include two non-contiguous fields at high Galactic latitudes (|b| 〉 30°, 8000 deg2) and two areas of the Galactic Disc and Bulge (for an additional 1300 deg2). S-PLUS uses the Javalambre 12-band magnitude system, which includes the 5 ugriz broad-band filters and 7 narrow-band filters centred on prominent stellar spectral features: the Balmer jump/[OII], Ca H + K, H δ, G band, Mg b triplet, H α, and the Ca triplet. S-PLUS delivers accurate photometric redshifts (δz/(1 + z) = 0.02 or better) for galaxies with r 〈 19.7 AB mag and z 〈 0.4, thus producing a 3D map of the local Universe over a volume of more than $1, (mathrm{Gpc}/h)^3$. The final S-PLUS catalogue will also enable the study of star formation and stellar populations in and around the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, as well as searches for quasars, variable sources, and low-metallicity stars. In this paper we introduce the main characteristics of the survey, illustrated with science verification data highlighting the unique capabilities of S-PLUS. We also present the first public data release of ∼336 deg2 of the Stripe 82 area, in 12 bands, to a limiting magnitude of r = 21, available at datalab.noao.edu/splus.

Description: This contribution aims to study the nature (kinematic, nuclear activity, and stellar population) of a sample of 10 galaxies in the poor cluster Abell S0805. As no detailed optical spectroscopy for some members has been published yet, the selected sample makes this study ideal for investigating the properties of the following objects: ESO 104- G(002, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 013), Fairall 0187, and PGC (062384, 062391). Our main results were obtained after subtraction of the underlying stellar population with the spectral synthesis code starlight. The residual spectra reveal seven galaxies with only absorption lines [ESO 104- G(002, 007, 008, 009), Fairall 0187 and PGC (062384, 062391)], and three galaxies with emission lines [ESO 104- G(006, 010, 013)]. According to the boundaries in the diagnostic diagrams, the intensities of H α and the low-ionization lines ([N ii] λ6584 Å and [S ii] λλ6716,6731 Å) suggest the following results: (i) the brightest cluster galaxy (ESO 104- G006, an elliptical cD galaxy) shows low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER)-like excitation, quite common in ‘cool core clusters’; (ii) the ESO 104- G010 (‘X-Galaxy’ or ‘Crystal Frog’) shows an excess of the nitrogen emission-line [N ii] λ6584 Å not yet reported. We also suggest this object as a LINER; (iii) the spiral ESO 104- G013 is a star-forming galaxy with typical emission lines. No obvious signs of interaction were observed in this study. The heliocentric velocities agree within 1σ with the most recent values. The stellar population, rotation curves, and velocity dispersions are also discussed for the first time for some objects.