Immersive research experience in STEAM

Title
Evolutionary Generative Design

Adviser
Penousal Machado

Scientific Area
Computer Science; Arts

R&D Unit
CISUC - Center for Informatics and Systems

Description

The present proposal is aligned with the research efforts of the CDV Lab. on Generative Design and Evolutionary Computation. It aims at performing incremental research that expands the state-of-the-art in the fields of Generative Design and Evolutionary Art.

Graphic Design has a rich history, and though the tools of the trade have evolved, two key principles endure: the freedom to make choices within a defined solution space, and the thrill of exploring new, uncharted territory. Now, with high-level programming languages, designers have the power to create generative models that adhere to these principles, free from the constraints of standard tools. But with so many parameters, designers often only explore a fraction of possible solutions. That's where our innovative framework comes in. By combining a generative design model with an evolutionary algorithm, we're ushering in a new era of automated generative design, with better choices and more rewarding exploration for designers.

The key goals of the present proposal are: (a) Design and implement mechanisms to allow the exploration of the implicit/explicit parametric space associated with current programmatic generative design models; (b) Make steps towards the development of approaches able to create generative models from a set of examples.

Addressing each of these goals involves attaining several sub-goals: developing generative artifacts, studying design processes, defining a markup language for tagging parameters, developing an evolutionary framework, and studying fitness assignment schemes.

Title
Laboratory activity in hydrogeochemistry

Adviser
Ana Maria de Aguiar Castilho Ramos Lopes

Scientific Area
Geology, Geological and Mining Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, among others

R&D Unit
CGEO - Center for Geosciences

Description
Laboratory activity in hydrogeochemistry, as part of ongoing research activities (CGEO)

Objective: To analyze the chemical composition of surface and groundwater bodies in the RH4a Hydrographic Region (Mondego, Vouga and Lis Rivers).

Tasks:
1. Collect, prepare and properly store natural, surface and groundwater samples
2. Prepare standard samples for calibration and perform the validation of analytical methods
3. Perform chemical analysis of inorganic constituents in natural waters
4. Analyze the results of chemical analysis, determine errors of analysis, perform quality control and validation of results
5. Interpret the results, performing statistical analysis, graphical representation and simple hydrogeochemical modelling
6. Prepare reports for the communication of results

Title
Decomposition of organic fluorinated compounds in the troposphere: a computational approach

Adviser
Luís Pedro Viegas

Scientific Area
Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

R&D Unit
CQ - Center for Chemistry - Coimbra

Description
The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol put additional pressure on the countries that signed this amendment to replace hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by compounds with lower environmental impact, namely those that have a lower contribution to global warming. It is therefore necessary to study and develop compounds that can replace HFCs in their various functions, and a high quality theoretical/computational approach can make an essential contribution to the discovery of new compounds and understanding of the chemical reactivity of a series of fluorinated compounds, such as alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ethers and ketones. The internship plan will focus on the study and application of a computational protocol created by the person responsible for the internship that determines with good accuracy the atmospheric lifetimes of all these classes of compounds and allows a more detailed understanding of their reactivity, allowing prediction of which compounds will have a smaller contribution to global warming.

Title
Study the expression levels of microRNA 186-5p in the brain of animals under chronic stress

Adviser
Ricardo A Leitão

Scientific Area
Neurosciences

R&D Unit
CNC - Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology

Description

Neuropsychiatric disorders (including depression) are a huge health problem, affecting more than 11% of world’s population. However, several patients seem to be irresponsive to antidepressant drugs. Moreover, it has been shown an increase of miR-186-5p (microRNAs are small RNA that regulates the expression of mRNAs) in blood exosomes of Major Depressive Disorder patients. Importantly, our preliminary data also show that the overexpression of miR186 in the prefrontal cortex is sufficient to induce depressive-like behavior in mice. However, the levels of this microRNA in the brain of mice chronically exposed to unpredictable stress paradigm is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this project is to evaluate the expression levels of both miR-186-5p and its target, the GluA2 (Glutamate ionotropic receptor AMPA type subunit 2), in the pre-frontal cortex of mice under the chronic stress protocol, using techniques of RNAscope and RT-qPCR.

Title
Neutrophils infiltration through blood-brain barrier in traumatic brain injury: Role of CXCL8

Advisor
Ricardo A Leitão

Field of Science
Neurosciences

R&D Unit
CNC - Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology

Description

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating neurologic condition that affects millions of patients annually. Despite TBI prevalence and severe consequences, currently available therapies only aim to treat acute effects with no precise approach against the lifelong negative outcomes of TBI besides physical and occupational therapies. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify an effective strategy to counteract both short- and long-term detrimental outcomes of TBI. Intriguingly, high serum levels of CXCL8 in TBI patients is correlated with worst prognosis and higher probability of death. Moreover, neutrophils are the first peripheral cells infiltrating in the trauma site. Notably, CXCL8 is the most potent chemoattractant for neutrophils, and in the CNS, brain endothelial cells are the main producer of this chemokine. Transmigration of immune cells through blood-brain barrier can occur by two different routes, paracellular and transcellular. Paracellular route occurs between two adjacent endothelial cells and involves the interaction of adhesion molecules from endothelial cells and immune cells. Transcellular pathway is mediated by vesicles (clathrin- or caveolin-1-coated) that transport cells from luminal side (blood vessel) to abluminal side (brain tissue).
Therefore, the main hypothesis of this project is that neutrophils can migrate through the blood-brain barrier, exploiting paracellular or transcellular transport routes within BBB. We also postulated that this transmigration of neutrophils is mediated by CXCL8, through activation of its receptor CXCR2.

Title
Development of Machine Learning Algorithms for Air Pollution Modelling

Adviser
Pedro Jorge Caridade

Scientific Area
Chemistry

R&D Unit
CQ - Center for Chemistry - Coimbra

Description

Air pollution is a serious environmental issue impacting negatively human productivity and health and even causing premature death. Being able to forecast accurately the concentrations of pollutants such as particulate matter is of great importance to enable citizens to act preventively. Starting from a time series data for the major pollutants, it is proposed to create algorithms to forecast in space and time by machine learning and artificial intelligence methods. The training of the networks will be carried out using earth observation remote sensing data, while the programming language will be python.