The order Chaetothyriales (Pezizomycotina, Ascomycetes) harbours obligatorily melanised fungi and includes numerous etiologic agents of chromoblastomycosis, phaeohyphomycosis and other diseases of vertebrate hosts. Diseases range from mild cutaneous to fatal cerebral or disseminated infections and affect humans and cold-blooded animals globally. In addition, Chaetothyriales comprise species with aquatic, rock-inhabiting, ant-associated, and mycoparasitic life-styles, as well as species that tolerate toxic compounds, suggesting a high degree of versatile extremotolerance. To understand their biology and divergent niche occupation, we sequenced and annotated a set of 23 genomes of main the human opportunists within the Chaetothyriales as well as related environmental species. Our analyses included fungi with diverse life-styles, namely opportunistic pathogens and closely related saprobes, to identify genomic adaptations related to pathogenesis. Furthermore, ecological preferences of Chaetothyriales were analysed, in conjuncture with the order-level phylogeny based on conserved ribosomal genes. General characteristics, phylogenomic relationships, transposable elements, sex-related genes, protein family evolution, genes related to protein degradation (MEROPS), carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), melanin synthesis and secondary metabolism were investigated and compared between species. Genome assemblies varied from 25.81 Mb (Capronia coronata) to 43.03 Mb (Cladophialophora immunda). The bantiana-clade contained the highest number of predicted genes (12 817 on average) as well as larger genomes. We found a low content of mobile elements, with DNA transposons from Tc1/Mariner superfamily being the most abundant across analysed species. Additionally, we identified a reduction of carbohydrate degrading enzymes, specifically many of the Glycosyl Hydrolase (GH) class, while most of the Pectin Lyase (PL) genes were lost in etiological agents of chromoblastomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis. An expansion was found in protein degrading peptidase enzyme families S12 (serine-type D-Ala-D-Ala carboxypeptidases) and M38 (isoaspartyl dipeptidases). Based on genomic information, a wide range of abilities of melanin biosynthesis was revealed; genes related to metabolically distinct DHN, DOPA and pyomelanin pathways were identified. The MAT (MAting Type) locus and other sexrelated genes were recognized in all 23 black fungi. Members of the asexual genera Fonsecaea and Cladophialophora appear to be heterothallic with a single copy of either MAT-1-1 or MAT-1-2 in each individual. All Capronia species are homothallic as both MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 genes were found in each single genome. The genomic synteny of the MAT-locus flanking genes (SLA2-APN2-COX13) is not conserved in black fungi as is commonly observed in Eurotiomycetes, indicating a unique genomic context for MAT in those species. The heterokaryon (het) genes expansion associated with the low selective pressure at the MAT-locus suggests that a parasexual cycle may play an important role in generating diversity among those fungi.
This paper presents the development of a continuous dynamic monitoring System and its applications to different structures, with the purpose of understanding structural real behaviours under operational conditions and detecting early structural modifications. The first part of paper introduces a complete continuous dynamic System, consists of signal acquisition and communication, automated signal processing and management, investigation of the interaction between structures and its environmental/operational conditions, feature extraction and detection of structural modification.
The rest of paper describes the applications of continuous dynamic monitoring System to different structures such as a wind turbine System and a highway bridge.
The implementation of a continuous dynamic monitoring System in Pedro e Ines footbridge at Coimbra, Portugal, operating since June 2007, enabled to detect different environmental/operational effects on the modal properties, based on appropriate processing of monitoring data collected by a set of accelerometers and thermal sensors.
In order to remove or mitigate such environmental/operational effects with the purpose of damage detection, two different Statistical methods have been adopted, One of them consists in the multiple linear regression (MLR) by performing correlation analysis between measured modal properties and environmental/operational variables. Another is based on the identification of the linear subspace within the modal properties by applying principal component regression (PCR) without using measured values of environmental and operational variables.
This paper presents a comparison ofthe performance of these two alternative approaches on the basis of continuous monitoring data acquired front the instrumented Pedro e Ines footbridge.
This paper presents the continuous dynamic measurements of an aging prestressed box-beam bridge during the period from 2000 to 2013, which consists of dynamic properties and environmental/operational factors, as well as the Variation of the extracted health features after removing the environmental/operational effects. Firstly, the variations of frequency estimates, temperatures and traffic loads from 2000 to 2013 are described. Subsequently, correlation analysis between them indicates the nonlinear influences of the temperature on the frequency estimates. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) method is used to remove the environmental/operational effects and the health index is proposed by performing the Novelty Detection analysis of the residual errors. Finally, the variations of the health index may indicate clear structural modifications that can be also characterized by the long term monitoring of the dynamic strain in the prestressed cable.
Photodegradation of organic pollutants in water by immobilized porphyrins and phthalocyanines
(2016)
New methods for water treatment are required as a result from an increasing awareness in the reduction of the pollution impact in the environment. In the perspective of the photo-oxidation of organic pollutants present in water, the principal incentive for the preparation of heterogeneous photocatalysts is their easy recovery from the reaction mixture, which allows their reuse in successive runs, minimizing the loss of their original photocatalytic properties. Different types of supports can be used in the immobilization of photoactive species, such as porphyrins (Pors) and phthalocyanines (Pcs). This mini-review will consider the different methodologies for the immobilization of Pors and Pcs and their photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of organic pollutants in water, addressing also their recycling ability in successive water treatments.
This paper addresses operational modal analysis (OMA) and continuous dynamic monitoring (CDM) of two bridges. One of them is installed with Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) while another one is a normal bridge. Two ambient vibration tests were performed on these two bridges respectively. It is observed that not only installation of TMDs but also environmental factors influence the variations of structural frequencies, which may mask the subtle change induced by small structural changes. As a result, continuous dynamic monitoring systems were implemented on these two bridges, in order to evaluate efficiency of the TMD system, remove the environmental effects and build reliable damage indices that are only sensitive to structural changes. The results of CDM of these two bridges during several years are presented. Software systems developed for OMA and CDM are also introduced.
The Westend Bridge is located on the A100 Highway in Berlin. An integrated continuous dynamic monitoring system, composed of 20 velocity sensors, 5 temperature sensors, 3 strain gauges, 1 crack sensor and 2 inclination sensors, was implemented by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in 2000. The system runs continuously with occasional intermittence and led to a huge amount of data over a 14-year span. In this article, variations of the strain, crack and inclination measurements during the last 14 years are presented. It is noted that the observed crack and inclination of the bridge are strongly influenced by seasonal temperature variation. It further induces change in the relationship between the strains measured in both concrete and prestressed tendon. Application of k-means cluster Analysis technique in both the crack and strain measurements can partition them into different seasonal phases by identifying ‘turning points’ that indicate annual periodical bridge change. In the period of these two ‘turning points’, a strong linear relation of the strains in two materials is observed. In the rest of the year, a nonlinear relationship between the strains recorded in both the concrete and the prestressed tendon is noted. The possible reason is the additional thermal load due to the change in temperature difference between the bridge’s surface and soffit. Finally, a health index in a Framework of regression model and process control theory is proposed by investigating the linear relationship between the strains in concrete and prestressed tendon. The tendency of the health index in the 14 years may suggest the long-term bridge change during that time frame.
The implementation of continuous dynamic monitoring systems in two bridges, in Portugal, is enabled to detect the occurrence of very significant environmental and operational effects on the modal properties of these bridges, based on automated processing of massive amounts of monitoring data collected by a set of accelerometers and thermal sensors over several years.
In order to remove or mitigate such environmental/operational effects with the purpose of damage detection, two different statistical methods have been adopted. One of them is the multiple linear regression by performing nonlinear correlation analysis between measured modal properties and environmental/operational variables. Another one is principal component regression based on the identification of the linear subspace within the modal properties without using measured values of environmental and operational variables.
This paper presents a comparison of the performance of these two alternative approaches on the basis of continuous monitoring data acquired from two instrumented bridges and simulated damage scenarios. It is observed that different methods show similar capacity in removing environmental effects, and the multiple linear regression method is slightly more sensitive to structural damage.
The preparation of porphyrins and phthalocyanines covalently attached onto nanostructured magnetic supports consisting of magnetite nanoparticles coated with an amorphous silica shell is reported. The easy recovery of these heterogeneous photocatalysts, just by applying an external magnetic field, allows their reuse in multiple treatment cycles. The photocatalytic activity of the non-immobilized photosensitizers and the obtained hybrid materials was evaluated in the degradation of 17 beta-estradiol, as a model organic pollutant present in water, using batch and flow mode treatment systems, assisted by visible light radiation (4 mW cm(-2)). The flow mode system potentiated the photocatalytic capacity of these novel hybrid materials. In order to improve the process, further studies based on different photocatalyst concentration and pH conditions were performed. Reuse capacity of these materials was investigated upon three photocatalytic cycles.
The antimicrobial photodynamic approach has been demonstrated as an efficient and sustainable process for the eradication of microbial pathogens. In this work, silica-coated Magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) were used as carriers of glycosylated porphyrins and phthalocyanines. Their subsequent cationization
resulted in the production of stable antimicrobial photosensitizing materials, effective against E. coli. Suspensions of the photocatalysts in water present bimodal size distributions formed by big clusters and small NPs with hydrodynamic diameters between 8 and 38 nm. The presence of small NPs in the suspensions is related to an effective photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of E. coli cells. Glycosylation of the PS showed a positive effect on the PDI performance, which could be related to a higher accumulation of the photocatalyst over the bacterial cell membrane. In addition, these biocidal agents proved to be photostable and their photoactive performance decreased only between 23% and 28% upon 5 PDI cycles, mostly because of the loss of material between cycles, which makes them promising materials for water disinfection purposes.