RCIPL

Institutional Repository of the Lisbon Polytechnic

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The aim of this Scientific Repository is to disseminate the scientific production produced by the Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa academic community, to increase the visibility and the investigation impact, to ensure the storage of the intellectual memory and to promote the open access to the information.

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Recent Submissions

Highlighting shooting opportunities in football

Publication . Loutfi, Ilias; Gómez-Jordana, Luis; Ric, Angel; Milho, João; Madaleno Passos, Pedro José

The purpose of the present study was to create a two-dimensional model which illustrates a landscape of shooting opportunities at goal during a competitive football match. For that purpose, we analysed exemplar attacking subphases of each team when the ball was in the last 30 m of the field. The player’s positional data (x and y coordinates) and the ball were captured at 25 fps and processed to create heatmaps that illustrated the shooting opportunities that were available in the first and second half in different field areas. Moreover, the time that the shooting opportunities were available was estimated. Results show that in the observed match, most of the shooting opportunities lasted between 1 and 2 s, with only a few opportunities lasting more than 2 s. The shooting opportunities did not display a homogenous distribution over the field. The obtained heatmaps provide valuable and specific information about each team’s shooting opportunities, allowing the identification of the most vulnerable areas. Additionally, the amount, duration, and location of the shooting opportunities have shown significant differences between teams. This customizable model is sensitive to the features of shooting opportunities and can be used in real-time video analysis for individual and collective performance analysis.

2023-04-24Research article

Open access

Collider phenomenology of new neutral scalars in a flavored multi-higgs model

Publication . Ferreira, Pedro; Gonçalves, João; de Aguiar e Pestana de Morais, António; Onofre, Antonio; Pasechnik, Roman; Vatellis, Vasileios

In this work, we propose and explore for the first time a new collider signature of heavy neutral scalars typically found in many distinct classes of multi-Higgs models. This signature, particularly relevant in the context of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) measurements, is based on a topology with two charged leptons and four jets arising from first and second generation quarks. As an important benchmark scenario of the multi-Higgs models, we focus on a recently proposed Branco-Grimus-Lavoura (BGL) type model enhanced with an Abelian U(1) flavor symmetry and featuring an additional sector of right-handed neutrinos. We discuss how kinematics of the scalar fields in this model can be used to efficiently separate the signal from the dominant backgrounds and explore the discovery potential of the new heavy scalars in the forthcoming LHC runs. The proposed method can be applied for analysis of the statistical significance of heavy scalars' production at the LHC and future colliders in any multi-Higgs model.

2023-05-30Research article

Open access

Blood molecular profile to predict genotoxicity from exposure to antineoplastic drugs

Publication . Ladeira, Carina; Araújo, Rúben; Ramalhete, Luís; Teixeira, Hélder; Calado, Cecília

Genotoxicity is an important information that should be included in human biomonitoring programmes. How-ever, the usually applied cytogenetic assays are laborious and time-consuming, reason why it is critical to develop rapid and economic new methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the molecular profile of frozen whole blood, acquired by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, allows to assess genotoxicity in occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs, as obtained by the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. For that purpose, 92 samples of peripheral blood were studied: 46 samples from hospital professionals occupationally exposed to antineoplastic drugs and 46 samples from workers in academia without exposure (controls). It was first evaluated the metabolome from frozen whole blood by methanol precipitation of macromolecules as haemoglobin, followed by centrifugation. The metabolome molecular profile resulted in 3 ratios of spectral bands, significantly different between the exposed and non-exposed group (p < 0.01) and a spectral principal component-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) model enabling to predict genotoxicity from exposure with 73 % accuracy. After optimization of the dilution degree and solution used, it was possible to obtain a higher number of significant ratios of spectral bands, i.e., 10 ratios significantly different (p < 0.001), highlighting the high sensitivity and specificity of the method. Indeed, the PCA-LDA model, based on the molecular profile of whole blood, enabled to predict genotoxicity from the exposure with an accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 92 %, 93 % and 91 %, respectively. All these parameters were achieved based on 1 mu L of frozen whole blood, in a high-throughput mode, i.e., based on the simultaneous analysis of 92 samples, in a simple and economic mode. In summary, it can be conclude that this method presents a very promising potential for high-dimension screening of exposure to genotoxic substances.

2023-10Research article

Open access

Characterization of the fracture forming limits by radial extrusion

Publication . Sampaio, Rui F.V.; da Fonseca Matos Pragana, João Pedro; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Nielsen, Chris Valentin; Martins, Paulo

2023-06-01Research article

Open access

The hypocholesterolemic potential of the edible algae fucus vesiculosus: Proteomic and quantitative PCR analysis

Publication . André, Rebeca; Pacheco, Rita; Alves, Ana Catarina; Santos, Hugo M. M.; Bourbon, Mafalda; Serralheiro, Maria Luisa

A brown seaweed consumed worldwide, Fucus vesiculosus, has been used to prevent atherosclerosis and hypercholesterolemia, among other uses. However, the mechanisms of action that lead to these effects are not yet fully understood. This work aims to study the in vitro effect of an aqueous extract of F. vesiculosus, previously characterized as rich in phlorotannins and peptides, on the expression of different proteins involved in the synthesis and transport of cholesterol. A proteomic analysis, Western blot, and qRT-PCR analysis were performed to identify protein changes in HepG2 cells exposed to 0.25 mg/mL of the F. vesiculosus extract for 24 h. The proteomic results demonstrated that, in liver cells, the extract decreases the expression of four proteins involved in the cholesterol biosynthesis process (CYP51A1, DHCR24, HMGCS1 and HSD17B7). Additionally, a 12.76% and 18.40% decrease in the expression of two important transporters proteins of cholesterol, NPC1L1 and ABCG5, respectively, was also observed, as well as a 30% decrease in NPC1L1 mRNA levels in the cells exposed to the extract compared to control cells. Our study reveals some of the mechanisms underlying the actions of bioactive compounds from F. vesiculosus that may explain its previously reported hypocholesterolemic effect, future prospecting its use as a functional food.

2023-07-20Research article

Open access