This article introduces simulations of theoretical material with controlled properties for the evaluation of the effect of key parameters, as volumetric fractions, elastic properties of each phase and transition zone on the effective dynamic elastic modulus (Ed). The accuracy level of classical homogenization models was checked regarding the prediction of Ed. Numerical simulations were performed with finite element method (FEM) for evaluations of the natural frequencies and their correlation with Ed, through frequency equations. An acoustic test validated the numerical results and obtained the elastic modulus of concretes and mortars at 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 water-cement ratios (w/c). Hirsch calibrated according to the numerical simulation (x = 0.27) exhibited a realistic behavior for concretes of w/c = 0.3 and 0.5, with 5% error. Nevertheless, for w/c = 0.7, Ed approached Reuss model, similarly to theoretical triphasic materials. Hashin-Shtrikman bounds is not perfectly applied to theoretical biphasic materials under dynamic situations.

There are few results about the internal damping ratio of normal and high strength concretes. Hence, this paper presents the expansion of the investigation about internal damping ratio under undamaged and damaged conditions, for usual concretes (NSC) and high strength concretes (HSC). In this way, the study cover a strength range of 42 to 83 MPa. Cyclic load was employed by a servo-controlled hydraulic testing machine and for each cyclic step the dynamic elastic modulus (Ed) and internal damping ratio (ξ) were determinate by acoustic tests. Normal strength concretes (fc = 42MPa) presented undamaged internal damping ratio ξ = 0.5% and achieved the maximum value of ξ = 2.5 for a damage index equal to 0.8. High strength concretes mixtures (fc = 83MPa) presented an undamaged internal damping of ξ=0.29% and maximum internal damping equal to ξ=0.93% (under damage index of 0.32). Porosity and the transition zones were the responsible to the initial internal damping values and how the material behavior under each cyclic load. The progressive damage generates the increase of coulomb damping. There are few studies allowing the quantification and comprehension of internal damping ratio under damage cyclic loading and this approach will lead to improve the understanding of NSC and HSC under dynamical excitation subject to damage evolution, mainly in impact situations.

The highly adaptable parasite Trypanosoma cruzi undergoes complex developmental stages to exploit host organisms effectively. Each stage involves the expression of specific proteins and precise intracellular structural organization. These morphological changes depend on key structures that control intracellular components’ growth and redistribution. In trypanosomatids, the flagellar attachment zone (FAZ) connects the flagellum to the cell body and plays a pivotal role in cell expansion and structural rearrangement. While FAZ proteins are well-studied in other trypanosomatids, there is limited knowledge about specific components, organization, and function in T. cruzi. This study employed the CRISPR/Cas9 system to label endogenous genes and conduct deletions to characterize FAZ-specific proteins during epimastigote cell division and metacyclogenesis. In T. cruzi, these proteins exhibited distinct organization compared to counterparts in T. brucei. TcGP72 is anchored to the flagellar membrane, while TcFLA-1BP is anchored to the membrane lining the cell body. We identified unique features in the organization and function of the FAZ in T. cruzi compared to other trypanosomatids. Deleting these proteins had varying effects on intracellular structures, cytokinesis, and metacyclogenesis. This study reveals specific variations that directly impact the success of cell division and differentiation of this parasite.

In this paper, we identify issues and possible solutions in the key area of large-scale antenna systems, also know as Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems. Additionally, we propose the use of Massive MIMO technology as a means to tackle the uplink mixed-service communication problem. Under the assumption of an available physical narrowband shared channel (PNSCH), the capacity of the MTC network and, in turn, that of the whole system, can be increased by grouping Machine-Type Communication (MTC) devices into clusters and letting each cluster share the same time-frequency physical resource blocks. We study the feasibility of applying sub-optimal linear detection to the problem of detecting a large number of MTC devices sharing the same time-frequency resources at the uplink of a base station (BS) equipped with a large number of antennas, M. In our study, we derive the achievable lower-bound rates for the studied sub-optimal linear detectors and show that the transmitted power of each MTC device can be reduced as M increases, which is a very important result for powerconstrained MTC devices running on batteries. Our simulation results suggest that, as M is made progressively larger, the performance of sub-optimal linear detection methods approach the matched filter bound, also known as perfect interference-cancellation bound.

Larus michahellis increased its population throughout the 20th century in its worldwide distribution area. The increase in the Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar has produced changes in the habitats due to the contribution of guano, predation on birds, incidents with workers, and the production of salt. The objective is to analyze the impacts of L. michahellis on the landscape, habitats, waterfowl, salt production, and workers, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of control activities. Censuses of wintering L. michahellis have been carried out between 1990-2021, of nesting aquatic birds between 1994-2021, and nests and eggs of L. michahellis have been eliminated between 2000-2021. The result has been a decrease in pairs of L. michahellis, recovery of waterfowl populations, colonization of others, absence of incidents with workers, and reduction of damage to salt production. However, to reach a definitive solution, measures should be adopted to prevent L. michahellis from accessing the main sources of human food: urban solid waste dumps, aquaculture farms, and fish discards.

Originally developed as a chemotherapeutic agent, miltefosine (hexadecylphosphocholine) is an inhibitor of phosphatidylcholine synthesis with proven antiparasitic effects. It is the only oral drug approved for the treatment of Leishmaniasis and American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas Disease). Although its precise mechanisms are not yet fully understood, miltefosine exhibits broad-spectrum anti-parasitic effects primarily by disrupting the intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis of the parasites while sparing the human hosts. In addition to its inhibitory effects on phosphatidylcholine synthesis and cytochrome c oxidase, miltefosine has been found to affect the unique giant mitochondria and the acidocalcisomes of parasites. Both of these crucial organelles are involved in Ca2+ regulation. Furthermore, miltefosine has the ability to activate a specific parasite Ca2+ channel that responds to sphingosine, that is different to its L-type VGCC human ortholog. Here, we aimed to provide an overview of recent advancements of the anti-parasitic mechanisms of miltefosine. We also explored its multiple molecular targets and investigated how its pleiotropic effects translate into a rational therapeutic approach for patients afflicted by Leishmaniasis and American Trypanosomiasis. Notably, miltefosine's therapeutic effect extends beyond its impact on the parasite to also affect positively the host's immune system. These findings enhance our understanding on its multi targeted mechanism of action. Overall, this review sheds light on the intricate molecular actions of miltefosine highlighting its potential as a promising therapeutic option against these debilitating parasitic diseases.

N-palmitoylethanolamine (PEA) is an endocannabinoid-like compound first encountered within lipid fractions of specific foods and has intrigued researchers since the 1950s due to its therapeutic effects. This study aims to explore the therapeutic promise held by PEA as an anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory agent. Therapeutic impact of PEA reverberates across diverse physiological systems, as the central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, vascular network, digestive and respiratory system. Additionally, it was effective in pain management, reduction of inflammation and immune responses. These attributes have fostered collaborations targeting conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral ischemia, neuroinflammation, general inflammation, pain, coagulopathy, steatohepatitis, and acute lung injury. PEA operates both independently and in synergy with other compounds, like paracetamol, luteolin, and oxymetazoline. This efficacy stems from its interactions with pivotal targets including PPARα, PPAR-δ, PPAR-γ, CB1, CB2, GPR55, and TRPV1. Additionally, PEA exerts a direct influence on the inflammatory cascade, orchestrating precise adjustments in immune responses. Numerous animal studies have elucidated the inherent potential of PEA. Nevertheless, the imperative of reinforcing clinical investigation is evident. This review notably underscores the pivotal necessity for methodologically rigorous clinical trials to definitively establish the translational efficacy of PEA in ameliorating diverse inflammatory pathologies within the human milieu.

Iron ore processing involves critical steps that affect the quality of the final product. Determining the diameter of the pellets is the necessary initial step for volume measurement and, ultimately, for porosity and bulk density measurement, crucial characteristics for optimizing the burning process in the blast furnace. Traditional measurement methods using mercury present issues related to operator safety and environmental preservation, while the practices described in ISO 4698 standard require lengthy preparation and execution time. In light of environmental needs, operator safety, and the time consumed in tests, implementing a new method based on digital image processing and convolutional neural networks for measuring the diameter of burnt iron ore pellets is proposed. The methodology involves capturing images of the pellets using a high-resolution camera and utilizing digital image processing and neural networks capable of performing pixel-by-pixel object segmentation in the images, providing precise information about the pellets to calculate their volume automatically. The results were compared with those obtained using traditional methods, evaluating their conformity with the ISO 4698 standard. In conclusion, this study offers a new approach to measuring the volume of burnt iron ore pellets, providing accurate and reliable results in compliance with safety and environmental preservation standards.

Our study analyzes the ecology and distribution of fish communities related to the environmental variables of the Alto Madre de Dios River, an Andean-Amazon watershed of southern Peru, between 300 and 2811 m a.s.l. within the Manu Biosphere Reserve. We provide new ecological and diversity data for these highly unknown rivers and new data for palm swamp habitats. With electric fishing techniques, we collected a total of 1934 fish specimens belonging to 78 species, 42 genera and 15 families. To assess main patterns of diversity we combined SIMPER and ANOSIM with canonical correspondence analysis to obtain an overview of the community structure of fish and their distribution related to aquatic habitats. Our results show an important shift on fish diversity at 700 m a.s.l. separating headwater and middle-lowland communities. Electrofishing was a hindrance due to the depth, flow and low conductivity of the rivers, but also allowed us to capture fish not observed with other techniques. We also compared the use of elevation with slope as an alternative variable for statistical analysis. Our results show that slope offers a solid and equivalent explanation for fish distribution variability, avoids redundance, and instead of giving geographical data offers ecologically solid information.

“De-[Constructing] Growth” is offered as a deeper and more useful conceptualization that avoids the negative connotations of, and resistance to, “degrowth” by decoupling profit from unsustainable consumption, production, and inequality.

Athletes are exposed to high-intensity loads to promote athletic performance, however without appropriate evaluation for its effects. This study investigates the effects of four types of exhaustion exercises on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Poincaré features as markers of central fatigue; Creatine Kinase (CK) and blood lactate concentrations ([LA-]b) as biomarkers of peripheral fatigue. To achieve this purpose, ten healthy volunteers were exposed to exhaustive exercise using isotonic-, isometric-, aerobic-, and anaerobic-fatigue protocols. HRV Poincaré features, standard deviation of instantaneous beat-to-beat R-R interval variability (SD1) and standard deviation of continuous long-term R-R interval variability (SD2) variables were collected. Central fatigue was tested through the sympathetic stress index (SS) and the sympathetic and parasympathetic index (SS/SD1). Blood samples were collected at the beginning and at the end of the exercises to determine CK and [LA-]b. The SD1 decreased in each exercise protocol, while the SS and SS/SD1 increased. [LA-]b and CK increased at the end of each protocol and correlated with SD1 and SS/SD1. HRV, CK, and [LA^-]_b are acute markers to detect, both central and peripheral fatigue; sensitive to the type, duration, and intensity of exercise, being HRV a novel noninvasive marker, simple and useful for sports coaches and athletes.

This work addresses the challenge of EEG visual multiclass classification into 40 classes for Brain-Computer interface applications, by using deep learning architectures. The visual multiclass classification approach offers BCI applications a significant advantage, since it allows the supervision of more than one BCI interaction, considering that each class label supervises a BCI task. However, because of the nonlinearity and nonstationarity of EEG signals, performing multiclassifiers based on EEG features remains a significant challenge for BCI systems. In the present work, mutual information-based discriminant channel selection and Minimum-Norm Estimate algorithms are implemented to select discriminant channels and enhance EEG data. Hence, deep EEGNet and Convolutional-recurrent neural networks are implemented separately to classify EEG data of image visualization into 40 labels. By using the k-fold cross-validation approach, average classification accuracies of 94.8% and 89.8% were obtained by implementing the aforementioned network architectures, respectively. Satisfactory results obtained with this method offer a new implementation opportunity for multi-task BCI applications by utilizing a reduced number of channels (<50%), compared to those presented in the related literature where the whole set of channels is used.

Water scarcity is a worldwide concern, considering that water is a limited resource and essential for life. In Brazil, approximately 30% of its population lives in one of the areas that most suffer from lack of water, the semi-arid region covering about 20% of the country's territorial extension. The lack of water, mainly in the northeast of the country, has been a problem for years, where people who live in this territory have been suffering for months from the lack of water and the poor distribution of the resource, which increases the degree of inequality between the regions of the country. The research aims to show the effect of the hydrological cycle on the quality of vegetation and how such processing can end up affecting people's lives and the environment. The municipality of Floresta is within the scope of sub-basin 73, the territory is part of the municipalities benefited from the PISF- São Francisco River integration project works, and the study has raised discussion on the part of the scientific community regarding the effectiveness of the population project and the possible risks caused to the environment. This study carried out a temporal analysis, 1961-2021, to investigate water availability and how the hydrological system can affect society, raising the degree of its importance for a better quality of life and consequently reducing hydric inequalities. It was also evaluated how climate changes can interfere with these environmental changes and the quality of life at the local scale. The hydrological model system used to assess water availability was the Pernambuco Hydrological Response Units SUPer-System. In addition, this system helped to understand the changes that occurred in the studied sub-basin. Yet was used UAV-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to view relationship between lives in house and environment conditions. The study can obtain accurate and necessary information to understand the dynamics of the hydrological system and the possible changes of social hydric inequalities. Thus, it is concluded that climate change will have different impacts on small scales and lives conditions due to different characteristic's environment. It is very important to carry out studies on a detailed scale to provide better public policies for mitigating the effects of climate change on people's lives.

The rapid urban expansion requires an effective management of water resources in small basins, where data are often limited. This article addresses a combination of an empirical hydrological model and Steven Method, a flow extrapolation method that considers the morphological char-acteristics of the cross-section. It also proposes an approach for overcoming the challenges asso-ciated with the lack of information on small water basins in rural to urban transition. A rain-fall event occurred in Pau de Caixeta stream basin (33,7 km²), in the Federal District (DF), in De-cember 2022, was evaluated. The simulation was carried out on the decision support system, Analysis of Complex Basins (ABC), using the rainfall registred by the rain gauge instaled within the monitered area with 3 hours duration and 38 mm of total rainfall, in addiction to the mor-phological and hydraulics characteristics of the study section. The basin presented in this study, has a classification regarding land use: i) urban area: horizontal and vertical residential neigh-borhoods (in the study phase) and rapidly expanding urban infrastructure, ii) rural areas and iii) environmental preservation areas. The results were within the acceptable range of flow extrap-olation errors (16%), indicating the integration of the proposed approaches can guide the devel-opment of impact mitigation strategies and promote sustainable practices in sub-basins.

The objective was to analyze the effects of adding anthocyanin delphinidin-3-O-sambubioside and cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. in animal diets. Scientific articles published before 2021 in clinics, pharmacology, nutrition, and animal production were included. The grains/concentrate, metabolic exigency, and caloric stress contribute to increasing the reactive oxygen species (ROS); the excess of ROS unbalance the oxidants and antioxidants. Cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside and delphinidin-3-O-sambubioside have antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, and anthelmintic activities. In the rumen, anthocyanin might show interactions and/or synergisms with substrates, microorganisms, and enzymes which could reduce the fiber degradability, but increase the potential methane (CH4) emissions; since anthocyanin interferes in the biohydrogenation of fats, they increase the fat milk and meat quality. Anthocyanins reduce plasma oxidation and deposit in tissues, increasing the milk and meat antioxidant activities. Cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside and delphinidin-3-O-sambubioside act as inhibitors of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACEi) and rennin expression which may improve milk yield (there is not enough evidence in ruminants, though). Polyphenols affect the reproductive potential. Sub products of HS contain as many amounts of polyphenols as calyces, and their inclusion in diets would positively affect the average daily gain and fat meat quality. Including HS in ruminant diets can improve the meat and milk quality.

Peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases) are present in a wide variety of microorganisms, including protozoan parasites such as Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, Trichomonas vaginalis, Leishmania major, Leishmania donovani, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Entamoeba histolytica, and Giardia intestinalis, all of which cause important neglected diseases. PPIases are classified as cyclophilins, FKBPs, or parvulins and play crucial roles in catalyzing the cis-trans isomerization of the peptide bond preceding a proline residue. This activity assists in correct protein folding. However, the biological structure‒function characterization of PPIases from these protozoan parasites is still incomplete. The recombinant production of these enzymes is highly relevant for this ongoing research. In this review, we explore the structural diversity, functions, recombinant production, and activity and inhibition of protozoan PPIases. We also highlight their potential as biotechnological tools for the in vitro refolding of other recombinant proteins from these parasites. These applications are invaluable for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

Accurate channel estimation is of utmost importance for massive MIMO systems that allow providing significant improvements in spectral and energy efficiency. In this work, we investigate the spectral efficiency performance and present a channel estimator for multi-cell massive MIMO systems subjected to pilot-contamination. The proposed channel estimator performs well under moderate to aggressive pilot contamination scenarios without prior knowledge of the inter-cell large-scale channel coefficients and noise power. The estimator approximates the performance of a linear Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) as the number of antennas increases. Following, we derive a lower bound closed-form spectral efficiency of the Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) detector in the proposed channel estimator. The simulation results highlight that the proposed estimator performance approaches the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) channel estimator asymptotically.

The main contribution of this paper is to develop a graphical tool to evaluate the suitability of a candidate parametric model to fit a data set. The practical motivation is to check the adequacy of the so called SAINT model proposed in Jarner and Kryger (2011). This model has been implemented in practice by an important European pension fund concerned with setting annuity reserves for all current or former employees of Denmark. So, one particular relevant question is whether this mortality model is actually fitting old-age. Our graphical test can be described as follows. First we transform the data by means of the parametric model which is being evaluated. Should the model be correct, the transformed data will be in accordance with an Exponential distribution with rate 1. Then we construct a family of local linear hazard estimates based on the data on the transformed scale. Finally we use the statistical tool SiZer to assess the goodness-of-fit of the Exponential distribution to the data on the transformed scale. If the model is correct the SiZer map should not reveal any significant feature in the family of kernel estimates. Our method allow us to establish a diagnostic regarding the validity of the SAINT model when describing mortality patterns in four different countries.

One of the main objectives of developing new anti-cancer vaccine strategies is to effectively induce CD8+ T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity. Live recombinant vectors, notably Listeria mono-cytogenes, have been shown to elicit a robust in vivo CD8+ T cell response in preclinical settings. Significantly, it has been demonstrated that Listeria induces inflammatory/immunogenic cell death mechanisms such as pyroptosis and necroptosis in immune cells that favorably control immunological responses. Therefore, we postulated that the host's response to Listeria-based vec-tors and the subsequent induction of CD8+ T cell-mediated immunity would be compromised by the lack of regulatory or effector molecules involved in pyroptosis or necroptosis. To test our hy-pothesis, we used recombinant L. monocytogenes carrying the ovalbumin gene (LM.OVA) to vac-cinate wild-type (WT), caspase-1/11-/-, gsdmd-/-, ripk3-/-, and mlkl-/- C57Bl/6 mice. We performed an in vivo cytotoxicity assay to assess the efficacy of OVA-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes in eliminat-ing target cells in wild-type and genetically deficient backgrounds. Furthermore, we evaluated the specific anti-tumor immune response in mice inoculated with B16F0 and B16F0.OVA mela-noma cell lines. Our findings demonstrated that while caspase-1/11 and GSDMD deficiencies in-terfere with the rapid control LM.OVA infection, of the KO seems to contribute to the early acti-vation of OVA-specific CTL responses. In contrast, individual deficiency of each one of these pro-teins negatively impact the generation of long-lasting effector CD8+ T cells.

The wood-based panel industry is experiencing an excessive accumulation of solid residues from the production of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) panels and moldings. It is possible to create new MDF products with acceptable physical and mechanical properties by revaluing MDF residues. Additionally, those products’ thermal properties can be improved by incorporating phase change materials (PCMs). This study aims to develop a wood-based fiberboard made of MDF residues, capable of storing thermal energy. Two types of PCMs, two PCM ratios, and two types of adhesives were used to produce eight different types of panels. The vertical density profile, thickness swelling, water absorption, internal bond (IB), and static bending properties – modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) – were determined for each panel type. The specific heat of the panels was also determined. The results show the panels’ densities were greater than 700 kg/m3. Thickness swelling in water improved by 23% compared to the reference value of the control panel PCMs after PCM incorporation. The highest IB value was 1.30 MPa, which is almost three times the minimum required by regulation standards. The incorporation of PCMs reduced the panels’ bending properties compared to the properties of the control panels. Even though the values obtained are sufficient to comply with the minimum values set out in ANSI standard A208.2 with a MOE value of 2072.4 MPa and the values obtained are sufficient to comply with the minimum standards with a MOE value of 2072.4 MPa and a MOR value of 16.4 MPa. When microencapsulated PCM is used, the specific heat of the panels is increased by more than 100% over that of the control panels. This study develops a feasible alternative for using MDF residues: to create fiberboard that is capable of storing thermal energy and has adequate physical and mechanical properties.

This paper, based on the "Unified Theory of Forces," rigorously proves the formula of de Broglie's wave function. This helps us better understand the following important issues: 1) Theoretically prove and understand the essence of de Broglie's wave function; 2) Prove that when the particle's momentum P is determined, the greater the mass of the particle, the more concentrated its wave function distribution, and the weaker the interference effect; 3) Correct the spatial distribution of the wave function of free particles, proving that the wave function of free particles is strictly constrained within a finite spatial range, which is consistent with the facts we observe.

Mobile applications, websites and social media networks are nowadays widely used communication tools. With the emergence of communication-related technologies in our lives and, consequently, the rise of social networks and mobile applications, health-related applications, generically encompassed under the term digital health, have become popular among the population. Smartphones and artificial intelligence have become very useful tools for health-related interventions. Because they are very accessible and cost-effective. They are also able to serve a larger number of communities than traditional interventions. Nutrition is not a field that has remained on the sidelines, and numerous mobile applications and technological tools have emerged that are intended to help and support diets or in the process of recovering from disease. However, many of these applications have limitations that are important to consider. For this reason, the aim of this review was to analyze the most widely used tools currently in use, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and propose hypotheses for improvement.

Background: Research articles are essential for describing new ideas, techniques, and procedures and consolidating concepts. It creates an opportunity to expose studies and publicly assimilate published knowledge. Therefore, one of them is the most used and accepted index to verify the author’s scientific impact is the H-index or Hirsch index. It provides a robust single metric that combines quality and quantity. Therefore, it presents disadvantages, (1) researchers with shorter scientific carriers may have fewer articles and citations than those with longer scientific life; (2) it allows scientists to receive citations even if no new papers are published; (3) it is only useful for comparing the better scientists in a field; (4) this indicator can never decrease; (5) it is only weakly sensitive to the number of citations received; (6) the major and minor (or no) contributor in the research gained equal h-index. Then, the H-index ignores the total of citations and the time of a researcher's experience (“scientific age” [sa]). Objective: Thus, the goal of this study was to present a new index system (GFsa index ©) based on the two variables completely forgotten (total of citations and “scientific age”), introducing a new terminology “scientific age”, to evaluate the best-ranked researchers in Dentistry. Methods: The AD Scientific Index was used, and all researchers included in this study were cited in the AD Scientific Index (2024) in the Dentistry field and had the Google Scholar page accessible for a consultation to manually obtain the total of citations and calculate the “scientific age”. The information was retrieved by two authors (G.V.O.F. and J.C.H.F.), who assessed the data twice to avoid errors or mistakes. For inclusion: a minimum H-index value of 30; for exclusion: (i) the author did not have a Google Scholar page; (ii) duplicated author; or (iii) presented any suspicious activities about manipulation of articles. Then, a dataset of all researchers who were reported in Dentistry was prepared (name, H-index, i10 index, and publications). The formula developed and applied was GFsa=(total number of citations)/(“scientific age)². The Pearson correlation statistically evaluated the data obtained; the confidence interval was 95%. Results: A total of 9,093 researchers in Dentistry were recorded, of whom 1,020 were included. Then, we collected all 1,020 researchers' Google Scholar data (publications, citations, and indexes), and each researcher's total citations and “scientific age” were registered and calculated. The mean “scientific age” registered was 34.18 ± 13.34 (standard error of mean = 0.4181). With this information and data collected, GFsa index © was calculated, presenting a minimum value of 0.2186 and a maximum of 154.8 (mean = 10.33 ± 11.82; standard error of mean = 0.3706). Then, the data was organized and sorted following the ranking obtained in the GFsa index ©. The Pearson correlation showed that the H-index had a weakly positive association with the researcher’s “scientific age”; this fact means that the H-index will increase according to the “scientific age” increase. Otherwise, a moderately negative correlation between GFsa and “scientific age” was demonstrated, whereby a higher GFsa © had a lower “Scientific age”. This assessment shows that the variables introduced were fairly used. Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between both indexes (H-index and GFsa). Conclusion: It is possible to conclude that the new variable reported (“Scientific age”) and using the total citations brought a fairer and more feasible evaluation among the researchers. Thus, we are launching the new GFsa index © and the new information named “Scientific age” for the first time in the literature. The future perspective of the GFsa © application will be (1) the evaluation of the 9,093 researchers in Dentistry (total initially registered), including more authors/researchers in the Dentistry field, (2) expanding the exposition of this new index for other areas of the knowledge, and (3) provide free access of all data through the website (http://gfindex.us.to).

The market for autonomous vehicles (AV) is expected to experience significant growth over the coming decades and to revolutionize the future of transportation and mobility. The AV is a vehicle that is capable of perceiving its environment and perform driving tasks safely and efficiently with little or no human intervention and is anticipated to eventually replace conventional vehicles. Self-driving vehicles employ various sensors to sense and perceive their surroundings and, also rely on advances in 5G communication technology to achieve this objective. Sensors are fundamental to the perception of surroundings and the development of sensor technologies associated with AVs has advanced at a significant pace in recent years. Despite remarkable advancements, sensors can still fail to operate as required, due to for example, hardware defects, noise and environment conditions. Hence, it is not desirable to rely on a single sensor for any autonomous driving task. The practical approaches shown in recent research is to incorporate multiple, complementary sensors to overcome the shortcomings of individual sensors operating independently. This article reviews the technical performance and capabilities of sensors applicable to autonomous vehicles, mainly focusing on vision cameras, LiDAR and Radar sensors. The review also considers the compatibility of sensors with various software systems enabling the multi-sensor fusion approach for obstacle detection. This review article concludes by highlighting some of the challenges and possible future research directions.

Genetic testing has expanded out of the research laboratory into medical practice and the direct-to-consumer market, and rapid analysis of the resulting genotype data can now have significant impact. We present a method for summarizing personal genotypes as ‘genotype fingerprints’ that meet these needs. Genotype fingerprints can be derived from any single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based assay, and remain comparable as chip designs evolve to higher marker densities. We demonstrate that they support distinguishing types of relationships among closely related individuals and closely related individuals from individuals from the same background population, as well as high-throughput identification of identical genotypes, individuals in known background populations, and de novo separation of subpopulations within a large cohort through extremely rapid comparisons. While fingerprints do not preserve anonymity, they provide a useful degree of privacy by summarizing a genotype in a way that prevents reconstruction of individual marker states. Genotype fingerprints are therefore well-suited as a format for public aggregation of genetic information to support ancestry and relatedness determination without revealing personal health risk status.

Tributyltin (TBT) is an environmental contaminant present on all continents, including Antarctica, with a potent biocidal action. Its use began to be intensified during the 1970s, being effectively banned in 2003, but remaining in the environment to this day due to several factors that increase its half-life and misuse despite the bans. In addition to the endocrine disrupting effect of TBT, that may lead to imposex induction in some invertebrate species, there are several studies that demonstrated that TBT also has an immunotoxic effect. The immunotoxic effects that have been observed experimentally in vertebrates using in vitro and in vivo models involve different mechanisms, but mainly alterations in the expression and/or secretion of cytokines. In this review, we summarize and update the literature on the impacts of TBT on the immune system, as well as discuss what still needs to be done to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the impact of this endocrine disrupting-chemical on immune system homeostasis.

Drought stress has been considered a major problem in coffee crops, and the higher occurrence of unpredictable environmental events has highlighted the vulnerability of agricultural systems. Several reports have indicated selenium (Se) as a plant biostimulant against environmental stress, including drought. The effects of Se in plants are related to the modulation of enzymatic activity, energetics and osmoprotectants plant content, and nutrient balance in plants. However, investi-gating the effective time of Se application is crucial for better understanding its effects on coffee plants, a drought-sensitive crop. This study aimed to investigate the role of Se supply in improving drought tolerance in coffee seedlings while also evaluating the best timing for Se application. Five times of Se foliar application were assessed during induced drought stress by PEG-6000 using the day of imposing stress as a default, plus two control treatments: i) with osmotic stress and without Se; ii) without osmotic stress and Se. The treatments were compared with both control treatments. Results demonstrated that the osmotic stress (OS) promoted mild stress in the coffee plants, as ex-pected. Plants under stress showed reduced GR and SOD activity compared with the non-stressed ones, and the OS induces starch degradation, which is potentialized by Se foliar supply, mainly when Se is applied before inducing the stress. The decline in the starch content might be considered a strategy to provide energy to coffee seedlings. The seedlings that received foliar Se application 8 days before the stress exhibited higher CAT, APX, and SOD than those that did not receive OS nor Se application. The results obtained in this study suggest that the previous Se foliar spray is more effective than the Se supply after OS to overcome the adverse condition. On the other hand, the post-stress application seems to impose extra stress on the plants, leading them to reduce the water potential.

Abstract: COVID-19 in 2020 brought challenges to the Brazilian public health system with an emerging virus with respiratory contagion called SARS-CoV-2. There are few studies in Brazil and in some countries, on the increased incidence of certain viral respiratory infections, includ-ing H1N1 and coronavirus and their association with low levels of vitamin D, zinc and iron. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that the deficit of vitamin D, zinc and iron has an impact on the infectious process of patients with COVID-19 and to establish new forms of prevention for the worsening of COVID-19 in the human body. Data were collected from medical records and test results from patients being followed up during the treatment period for COVID-19. Patients with low blood levels of vitamin D, zinc and iron during the treatment period of COVID-19 had a higher percentage of worsening and complications requiring hospitalization in intensive care beds. The ingestion of vitamin D, zinc and iron in the treatment period of patients with COVID-19 in addition to being an immunological protector against SARS-CoV-2 and alleviating the process of worsening the disease can also act as a biomarker in cases of this disease.

Climacteric fruits undergo a characteristic ripening process regulated by ethylene, a key plant hormone. Extending the shelf life of these fruits while preserving their postharvest quality poses a significant challenge for the food industry. This review provides a comprehensive overview of physiological and molecular strategies to delay ethylene-mediated ripening in climacteric fruits and their impact on shelf life, postharvest quality, sensory attributes, and volatile compounds. Additionally, it examines the role of ethylene in fruit ripening analysing various ethylene managing strategies including ethylene inhibitors, ethylene adsorbents and ethylene scavengers by catalytic oxidation The review concludes with future research directions including integrated strategies, environmental considerations and commercial applications for improving postharvest handling and fruit quality.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and antioxidants are important mediators in the central nervous system (CNS). Lipid derivatives may be used to generate endocannabinoids or prostanoids derived from arachidonic acid, which attenuates excitotoxicity in quadripartite synapses with a focus in astrocytes and microglia; on the other hand, antioxidants, such as glutathione (GSH) and ascorbate, have been shown to signal through transmitter receptors and protect against acute and chronic oxidative stress, modulating the activity of different signaling pathways. Several authors have investigated the role of these nutrients in young and senescent brain, as well as in degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's diseases. Through literature review, we aimed to highlight recent data on the role of fatty acids, antioxidants and physical activity in physiology and in molecular mechanisms of brain senescence. Data indicate the complexity and essentiality of endogenous/dietary antioxidants for maintenance of the redox status and control of neuroglial signaling under stress. Recent studies also indicate that omega-3 and -6 fatty acids act in a competitive manner to generate mediators for energy metabolism, feeding behavior, plasticity and memory mechanisms throughout aging. Finding pharmacological or dietary resources that mitigate or prevent neurodegenerative affections continues to be a great challenge and require additional efforts from researchers, clinicians and nutritionists in the field.

In this work, we derive the spectral efficiency, secrecy outage probability, and bit error rate of a communication system assisted by a large intelligent surface (LIS). We consider a single-antenna user and an array of antennas at the transmitter side and the possibility of a direct link between transmitter and receiver. Additionally, there is a single-antenna eavesdropper with a direct link to the transmitter, which is modeled as a Nakagami-m distributed fading coefficient. The channels from transmitter to the LIS and from the LIS to the user may or may not have the line-of-sight (LoS) and are modeled by the Nakagami- m distribution. Moreover, we assume that the LIS elements perform non-ideal phase cancellation leading to a residual phase error that assumes a Von Mises distribution. We show that the resulting channel can be accurately approximated by a Gamma distribution whose parameters are analytically estimated using the moments of the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio. We also provide an upper bound for the error probability for M-QAM modulations. With the derived formulas, we analyze the effect of the strength of the LoS link by varying the Nakagami parameter, m.

Soil moisture can be an important indicator of climate change in humid and semi-arid areas. This indicator can more efficiently propose different public policies related to climate change than just using precipitation and temperature data. Given the above, the objective of this study is to evaluate changes in soil moisture in the state of Pernambuco during the period 1961-2021, using the System of Hydrological Response Units for Pernambuco. In this study, two river basins in the state of Pernambuco that represent the different climatic conditions of the state will be chosen. The results show that in the coastal region, there is a tendency towards more saturated soils, and in the semi-arid region, there is a tendency towards drier soils. With these results, it is possible to conclude that public policy decisions for the economy, environment, and society must consider this vital water balance variable.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are expected to have a great impact in the manufacturing industry, optimizing time and resource cost by enabling applications such as predictive maintenance (PM) of production machines. A necessary condition for this is the availability of high quality data collected as close as possible to the process in question. With the advent of 5G equipped multi sensor platforms (MSPs), high sampling rate data can be collected and transmitted for processing in real time. This poses a data security challenge, since this data may give valuable insight into confidential business information of companies. Federated learning (FL) enables the training of AI models with data from multiple sources without it leaving the shop floor, by utilizing distributed computing resources available on premise. This paper introduces an architecture of FL based on data collected from 5G MSPs for enabling PM in industrial environments and discusses its potential benefits and challenges.

In computer vision, human action recognition is a hot topic, popularized by the development of deep learning. Current models have achieved high accuracy results on public datasets. Despite this success, they require significant computational resources for training. Given that transfer learning based techniques allow reusing what other models have already learned and training models with less computational resources, in this work we propose using a transfer learning based approach for action recognition in videos. We describe a methodology for human action recognition using transfer learning techniques in a custom dataset. The proposed method consists of four stages: 1) human detection and tracking, 2) video preprocessing, 3) feature extraction (using pretrained models with ImageNet), and 4) action recognition using a two-stream model consisting of TCNs, LSTMs, and CNNs layers. The custom dataset is imbalanced with 189, 390, 490, 854, and 890 videos per class, respectively. For feature extraction, we analyzed the performance of seven pretrained models: Inception-v3, MobileNet-v2, MobileNet-v3-L, VGG-16, VGG-19, Xception, and ConvNeXt-L. We show that the best results were obtained with the last one. Finally, using pretrained models for feature extraction allowed training in a PC with a single GPU with an accuracy of 94.9%.

Metformin is an oral antidiabetic agent with antimicrobial properties, excreted in an active and unmetabolized form. Like some non-antibiotic drugs, subinhibitory concentrations of metformin may contribute to the expression of microbial resistance in wild-type strains. This work aimed to evaluate the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa TGC04 exposed to 100 and 200 µg/mL of metformin, varying the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and flow regime. Biofilms were quantified after 2 and 24 hours, observing reductions and increases in biofilm growth around 13 and 64%, respectively. The greatest biofilm growth occurred in cells exposed to 200 µg/mL of metformin. Both the flow regime and COD concentration were important for the development of the biofilm, whose cells were mostly weakly to moderately adhered. The study provides evidence that in polluted aquatic systems with turbulent regimes, the inhibitory concentration of metformin promoted the least disturbances to the biofilm.

The current investigation scrutinized the strategic approaches employed by the top four teams in the Brazilian Men's Volleyball Superliga, according to the match's opponent. The study encompasses the analysis of 22 matches, involving teams ranked first through fourth, competing against each of the 12 teams participating in the 21-22 season of the Brazilian Men's Volleyball Superliga, including one home and one away match for each team. Utilizing social network analysis facilitated the identification of the interconnections and particularities among all variables, offering a comprehensive perspective. The findings unveiled that during the offensive phase, the second, third, and fourth-ranked teams consistently exhibited higher eigenvector values, irrespective of the opposing team, notably when the middle-blocker positioned themselves in front and near the setter. Conversely, the championship-winning team displayed variations in offensive tactics. The team securing the second position demonstrated alterations in setting placement, whereas the other teams executed settings aimed at zones 3 and 4. Additionally, the initial setter's position at the commencement of a rally displayed varying eigenvector values based on the opponent, indicating team rotation as a performance determinant. Thus, barring the finalist team, the performance of the remaining teams is intricately intertwined with the individual characteristics of players.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease characterized by local and systemic inflammation independently of the risk factor; during the exacerbations, such inflammation is accentuated and amplified. A practical inflammatory marker and one with an applicable predictive value in the follow-up has been sought. FeNO has shown an excellent performance in that respect within the context of asthma and has also been studied in tobacco-smoke COPD (COPD-TS). In Biomass-smoke COPD (COPD-BS), this, to our knowledge, has not been evaluated. Objective: To measure FeNO levels in patients with COPD-BS and to compare these with those of patients with stable COPD-TS and in healthy controls. Methods: Transversal, observational, descriptive, comparative, and analytical study. A total of 57 patients, including 23 with COPD-BS, 17 with COPD-TS, and 17 healthy control subjects. The measurement of FeNO was carried out on all of these by means of the on-line chemiluminescence technique; the values were expressed in parts per billion (ppb) for their analysis. Results: It was observed that the FeNO values were similar between COPD-BS and COPD-TS and were significantly different between the healthy and stable COPD (both groups). No correlation was found between pulmonary function and symptoms with FeNO in any of the groups. Conclusions: The level of FeNO in stable COPD is found to be increased in a similar manner in COPD-BS and COPD-TS, with a significant difference on comparing it with that of the healthy subjects.

Since the first description of SARS-CoV-2 in China in 2019, thousands of variants have emerged worldwide. For some of them, the constellation of mutations caused changes in virus biology, pathogenicity, infectivityity and transmissibility resulting in dissemination throughout the world. Gamma variant (P.1) differs from SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain (B.1) by 12 amino acids in the Spike (S) protein, and presented mutations related to greater affinity for the receptor angioten-sin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) and/or immune escape. The Gamma variant and subvariants were responsible for the second wave of COVID-19 in the Brazilian city of Manaus, characterized by high mortality and rapid transmission. The ability of variants to induce cytokine production may be closely related to their pathogenicity. Herein we observed that there was no significant difference in the quantity of cytokines among macrophages or neutrophils infected with P.1 and B.1 strains. Also, no significant difference was observed in the absolute number of macrophages and neutrophils infected with these variants. Furthermore, no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 replication was observed in macrophages when infected by the two analyzed variants. Our findings suggest that the difference in the epidemiological outcome observed during the P.1 variant spread when compared to B.1, it is not explained by differences in the quantity of cytokines and absolute number of macrophages or neutrophils. Through bioinformatics analysis of the S protein, we observed that the physicochemical differences between the variants and subvariants of P.1, probably refer to the degree of infectivity, due to the impact caused in the recognition of antibodies and receptor af-finity

Cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease, influenced by various factors that affect its progression and response to treatment. Although histopathological diagnosis is crucial for identifying and classifying cancer, it may not accurately predict the disease's development and evolution in all cases. To address this limitation, liquid biopsy has emerged as a valuable tool, enabling a more precise and non-invasive analysis of cancer. Liquid biopsy offers the ability to detect tumor DNA fragments, circulating tumor cells, and exosomes released by cancer cells into the bloodstream. Exosomes, in particular, have attracted significant attention in cancer research due to their specific protein composition, which can provide valuable insights into the disease. The protein profile of exosomes often differs from that of normal cells, reflecting the unique molecular characteristics of cancer. Analyzing these proteins can help identify cancer-associated markers that play critical roles in tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis. Ongoing research and clinical validation are essential to advance and effectively utilize protein biomarkers in cancer. Nevertheless, their potential to improve diagnosis and treatment is highly promising. This review discuss several exosome proteins of interest in breast cancer, particularly focusing on studies conducted in mammary tissue and cell lines in humans and experimental animals. Unfortunately, the studies conducted in the canine species are scarce. This emphasis sheds light on the limited research available in this field. Additionally, we present a curated selection of studies that have explored exosomal proteins as potential biomarkers, aiming to achieve the aforementioned benefits in breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and treatment.

Canine mammary tumors (CMTs) are among the most common disease in female dogs and share similarities with human breast cancer, which have placed these animals as a model of study in comparative oncology. Metabolic reprogramming is one of them and is known as a hallmark of carcinogenesis whereby cells undergo adjustments to supply the high bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands of rapidly proliferating cells. However, such alterations are also vulnerabilities that may serve as therapeutic strategies which have been tested mostly in human clinical trials, but poorly explored in CMTs. In this dedicated review, we compilated the metabolic changes described for CMTs emphasizing the metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, and mitochondrial function. We observed here key factors associated with the presence and aggressiveness of CMTs, such as the increase in glucose uptake followed by enhanced anaerobic glycolysis via upregulation of glycolytic enzymes, changes in glutamine catabolism due to overexpression of glutaminases, raise in fatty acid oxidation and distinct effects depending on the lipid saturation, in addition to mitochondrial DNA which is a hotspot for mutations. Therefore, more attention should be paid to this topic given that targeting metabolic fragilities could improve the outcome of CMTs.

Abstract: Comparing outcrop data to laboratory results is important to verify and validate experiments of analogue and reservoir materials especially regarding conditions for deformation experiments. This is important better understand highly complex carbonate reservoir strata and their response to changes in subsurface conditions, reducing subsurface uncertainty. This study develops methods to allow for a more straightforward comparison of outcrop data (m-scale) with experimentally created fracture arrays developed in cylindrical samples (cm-scale). The main objective is to assess usefulness of experimentally-produced fracture networks as analogues for subsurface structures, typically at the meter and above scale by developing new techniques to use the lab deformation. It analyses key characteristics of laboratory-induced fracture networks by adapting scanline methods to use with x-ray tomography (XRT) images to allow for comparison with outcrop and field data. To test and verify these new methods two low permeability carbonate samples were used for deformation testing and analysis. Applying the different scanline methods we show that they can be used to analyse lab induced fractures (mm to cm-scale) identified in XRT images for comparison with outcrop data (m-scale). In addition, these methods also allow for quantification of fracture network attributes e.g. fracture spacing, fracture apertures, orientation. This new data bridges the gap between micro-scanlines using thin sections and outcrop scanlines.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been used in a broad range of applications conferring to bio-molecules diverse proprieties such as deliver, stabilization and reduction of adverse effects of drugs or plant ex-tracts. Polyphenolic compounds from Bacopa procumbens (BP) are able to modulate proliferation, adhesion, migration and cell differentiation, reducing artificial scratch area in fibroblast cultures and promoting wound healing in in vivo model. Here, chemically synthetized AuNPs conjugated with BP (AuNP-BP) were characterized by Uv-Vis, ATR-FTIR, DLS and zeta-potential. Results showed over-lapping FTIR spectra of polyphenolic compounds from B. procumbens capping the AuNPs, stable size by the DLS and zeta potential, AuNP-BP was 44.58 nm, the zeta-potential of AuNPs was -36.3±12.3 mV after conjugation with the BP; - (AuNP-BP), the zeta-potential was reduced to -18-2±7.02 mV. Enhancement of wound healing effect were evaluated by morphometric, histochemical and FTIR changes in rat wound excision model. Results showed that the nanoconjugation process reduced 100 folds BP concentrations to have the same wound healing effect of BP alone. Besides histological and FTIR spec-troscopy analyses, demonstrated that AuNP-BP treatment displayed better macroscopical performance; the reduction on inflammatory cells, and the increased synthesis and better organization of collagen fibers.

The aim of this study was to provide information on the levels of toxic (Cd and Pb) and essential (Cu, Fe and Zn) elements in cow’s milk produced in the State of Pernambuco (Brazil). A total of 142 samples of raw milk were collected, and the concentrations of essential and toxic elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. In almost 30 % of the samples analyzed, the Pb content exceeded the maximum level established in the Brazilian legislation (0.05 mg/l). By contrast, in all samples the Cd content was below the maximum allowable level (0.02 mg/L). The essential trace elements Cu, Fe and Zn were generally present at lower concentrations than reported in other studies and can be considered within the deficient range for cow’s milk. Statistical and chemometric procedures were used to evaluate the main factors influencing the metal concentrations (proximity to major roads, presence of effluents, and milking method). The study findings demonstrate that the proximity of the farms to major roads influences the concentrations of Cd, Pb and Cu and that this is the main factor explaining the Pb content of milk. In addition, the presence of effluents influenced the concentrations of Cu, while no relationship between the metal content and the milking method was observed. Thus, in accordance with the study findings, consumption of cow’s milk produced in the region can be considered a risk to public health due to the high concentrations of Pb and the low concentrations of other essential minerals such as Cu, Zn and Fe in some of the milk samples.

Water quality assessment stands as a fundamental step in water resource management. In addition to substances and organisms present in the water, land use and land cover are two factors affecting also water quality. This study analyzed the correlation and influence between water quality and land use and land cover in the Miranda River Basin (MRB) and the natural wetlands in the Pantanal Biome. Using a watershed-wide approach, results suggested that water quality management policies can be considered in terms of sub-basins (smaller planning units). The Water Quality Index (WQI) was considered GOOD or EXCELLENT throughout the MRB. It was observed that the natural wetlands have the capacity to contribute to improve WQI, with reductions in thermotolerant coliforms and turbidity; however, high values were found for thermotolerant coliforms, a temporal increasing trend of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and a reduction in dissolved oxygen and total phosphorus. Conversely, it was found in these flooded areas a trend of decrease in dissolved oxygen and an increase in BOD concentrations. Natural wetlands play important hydrological and ecological roles in water quality, storing, removing, and cycling nutrients. They are highly relevant areas for defining watershed management and conservation strategies, environmental protection, and providing ecosystem services.

Sporotrichosis’ clinical manifestations, lesions in the cutaneous or subcutaneous tissues, it is caused by dimorphic fungi of the Sporothrix complex, is a cosmopolitan mycosis that affects humans and animals. This study aimed to identify prevalent species in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and characterize virulence profiles and antifungal susceptibility associated with Sporothrix isolates. Isolates were identified using macro and micro-morphological traits as well molecular biology techniques. Antifungal susceptibility was determined using the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration test, while, virulence factors such as growth at different temperatures, biofilm formation, melanin production, and urease activity were assessed. Our findings revealed S. brasiliensis as a predominant species isolated. Urease activity was a crucial factor associated with growth at 50°C in S. brasiliensis isolates, highlighting their high thermotolerance. Furthermore, strains isolated from humans produced a more robust biofilm compare to those from felines. Strains of S. brasiliensis isolated from Felis catus exhibited faster melanin production, decreased susceptible to antifungal agents tested, and superior growth capacity at 50°C to strains isolated from humans. Therefore, our study highlights the prevalence of S. brasiliensis causing sporotrichosis in both human and felines. However, it underscores the circulation of different strains, with varying levels of virulence and susceptibility to antifungal agents.

Traumatic Brain Injury represents a significant public health concern due to its role in traumatic death and disability, often caused by head impacts or rapid accelerations. Despite advancements in Finite Element Head Models, existing models primarily represent adult males, neglecting anatomical and physiological differences between genders and age groups. Additionally, the mechanistic roles of specific intracranial tissues, such as the dura mater, have conventionally been overlooked. To better understand the mechanical behavior of the brain and its injured regions in the context of TBI, including the dura mater, this study proposes the development of a Female Finite Element Head Model. This model, representative of a middle-aged female subject, was developed using medical image-derived geometry and finite element modeling techniques. The validation results demonstrate a similarity between the numerical displacement curves and those obtained experimentally. In the model with dura mater, the numerical results show analogous behavior to the experimental results, despite minimal variations in the amplitude of the curves. These advancements highlight the significance of including the dura mater in biomechanical brain modeling. Incorporating the dura mater in Finite Element Head Models produces more realistic results than models without it. This emphasizes the importance of enhancing biomechanical models to better represent anatomical complexity.

The advances mobile communications has seen in recent years has rendered the radio spectrum a limited and, hence, an expensive resource. Therefore, technologies that support unlicensed access to spectrum are needed. Therefore, the adoption of novel modulation schemes becomes of utmost importance to obtain better spectral-localization and reduce the OOBE (\textit{Out of Band Emission}) inherent to OFDM (\textit{Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing}) and, consequently, mitigating the interference between secondary (\textit{unlicensed}) and primary users. In this scenario, we assess the gain in the bit error probability using f-OFDM (\textit{filtered-OFDM}) in MIMO systems, both used in the 5G RANGE project.

Large intelligent surfaces (LIS) promises not only to improve the signal to noise ratio, and spectral efficiency but also to reduce the energy consumption during the transmission. We consider a base station equipped with an antenna array using the maximum ratio transmission (MRT), and a large reflector array sending signals to a single user. Each subchannel is affected by the Rayleigh flat fading, and the reflecting elements perform non-perfect phase correction which introduces a Von Mises distributed phase error. Based on the central limit theorem (CLT), we conclude that the overall channel has an equivalent Gamma fading whose parameters are derived from the moments of the channel fading between the antenna array and LIS, and also from the LIS to the single user. Assuming that the equivalent channel can be modeled as a Gamma distribution, we propose very accurate closed-form expressions for the bit error probability and a very tight upper bound. For the case where the LIS is not able to perform perfect phase cancellation, that is, under phase errors, it is possible to analyze the system performance considering the analytical approximations and the simulated results obtained using the well known Monte Carlo method. The analytical expressions for the parameters of the Gamma distribution are very difficult to be obtained due to the complexity of the nonlinear transformations of random variables with non-zero mean and correlated terms. Even with perfect phase cancellation, all the fading coefficients are complex due to the link between the user and the base station that is not neglected in this paper.

Animal products, in particular dairy and fermented products, are natural, major sources of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Due to their antimicrobial properties, LAB are used in humans and in animals, with beneficial effects, as probiotics or in the treatment of a variety of diseases. In livestock production, LAB contribute to animal performance, health, and productivity. In the food industry, LAB are applied as bioprotective and biopreservation agents, contributing to improve food safety and quality. However, some studies have described resistance to relevant antibiotics in LAB, with the concomitant risks associated to the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to foodborne pathogens, their potential dissemination throughout the food chain, and the environment. Here, we summarize the application of LAB in livestock and animal products, as well as the health impact of LAB in animal food products. In general, the beneficial effects of LAB on the human food chain seem to outweigh the potential risks associated with their consumption as part of animal and human diets. However, further studies and continuous monitorization efforts are needed to ensure their safe application in animal products and in the control of pathogenic microorganisms, preventing the possible risks associated with antibiotic resistance and, thus, protecting public health.

Screening of pollen traits in diploid wild potatoes (Solanum sect. Petota, Solanaceae) is desirable to develop heat-tolerant potato (S. tuberosum) cultivars. To accomplish this goal requires exploring potato genetic resources that are conserved in genebanks. The goal of this study was to assess pollen viability and 2n pollen production of the diploid potato wild relatives under heat stress condition. We assessed pollen viability and size of nine potato accessions conserved at the Embrapa Potato Gene Bank, including eight wild potatoes S. chacoense (BRA 00167447-2, BRA 00167017-3, BRA 00167023-1, BRA 00167028-0), S. commersonii (BRA00167007-4, BRA00167420-9, BRA00183760-8), and S. malmeanum (BRA 00183755-8), along with a control accession from the cultivated species S. tuberosum (BRA 00167251-8). The plant accessions were cultivated in different growth chambers, subjected to both control temperature (ranging from 14 to 27°C) and supraoptimal temperature conditions (ranging from 24 to 34°C). At heat stress, the accessions BRA 00167251-8 did not bloom, and BRA 00167023-1 did not produce pollen. The remaining accessions did not exhibit a significant reduction in pollen viability as the temperature increased. Pollen viability at the control temperature had the lowest value in BRA-00167420-9 (S. commersonii) with 68.5% and the highest in BRA 00183755-8 (S. malmeanum) with 100%. At the supraoptimal temperature the lowest value was in BRA 00167420-9 (S. commersonii) with 54.5% and the highest in BRA 00167017-3 (S. chacoense) with 94%. The average of pollen diameter was 20 μm in all wild potato genotypes, and the increase of temperature did not lead to 2n pollen production. Estimated Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) was lower than Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) for pollen viability. The observed heritability values ranged from 58.82% in BRA00167007-4 to 91.32% in BRA 00183755-8. Our results highlight the genetic variability available in wild potato germplasm concerning pollen viability under heat stress. Furthermore, these first insights offer valuable guidance for ongoing and future endeavors in diploid potato breeding.

Cities are complex systems requiring urban design models that balance order and disorder. Collective creativity initiatives engage citizens in these processes, empowering bottom-up approaches that prioritize people and social well-being within urban development. This paper investigates an 'Urban Laboratory' as a case study, examining the potential of collective creativity to address urban complexity. The successful and ongoing project 'El Campo de Cebada' in Madrid, Spain, demonstrates how a community transformed a vacant lot into a vibrant social hub. The phases of this study include case selection, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of the results. This study identifies key enabling factors, including agents, management, social dynamics, infrastructure, and actions. These insights offer a methodological framework for designing future collaborative, resilient, and inclusive urban spaces, addressing the complex needs of communities within our cities.

In this paper is described the obtention of fourteen derivatives from four natural labdane diterpenes isolated from Copaifera oleoresin, named ent-copalic acid (1), ¬ent-3beta-acetoxy copalic acid (2), ent-3beta-hydroxy copalic acid (3) and ent-agathic acid (4). All eighteen compounds were assayed against promastigote form of Leishmania amazonensis and trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi, revealing two promising compounds related to leishmanicidal activity (IC50 = 5.94 micromolar and 5.31 micromolar) and three promising compounds with trypanocidal activity, two of them (IC50 = 13.31micromolar and IC50 = 15.05micromolar) displaying similar activity as the reference drug (IC50 = 13.12micromolar) and one of them even more potent with IC50 = 0.425micromolar.

In the whole world, including Mexico, the rising prevalence of diabetes poses significant challenges to healthcare systems, with a notable impact on hospital admissions even being an ambulatory care sensitive condition, that means, hospital admissions are avoidable. Traditional healthcare methodologies have been instrumental in managing diabetes and preventing complications, yet they often face limitations such as merging, cleansing, and outlier analysis of health data to identify and address diseases effectively. This paper aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive comparison of the methodologies used in healthcare and data science for this purpose. This work uses hospital diabetes discharge records from 2010 to 2023, a total of 36,665,793 records, which belong to medical units of the Ministry of Health of Mexico. In this work, we seek to provide the arguments why as a data scientist it is mandatory to learn the field of knowledge of the problem and its implications if this is not done, and therefore to disclose insights that can help in policy decisions and reduce the burden of avoidable hospitalizations. The approach is mainly based on the standardization or adjust rates by sex and age groups. This study provides the foundations for a new way of data scientist must deal with health data.

Pigs are a social species and they stablish hierarchies for a better use of resources and to reduce conflicts. However, in pig production, the opportunities for growing can differ in dominant and subordinate animals. In the present study a system was tested to perform a Dominance versus Subordinate test in growing pigs to investigate how the hierarchy affects feeding behaviour, growth and gut microbiota assessed in faeces. 64 animals housed in eight different pens were used, with four castrated males and four females in each one, weighing 18kg at arrival and maintained during the whole growing period, until 140 kg. Three stool samplings were obtained from the animals directly from the anus to avoid contamination of the faeces on 58, 100 and 133 days after the start of the study to investigate the microbiota composition. The dominant animals had higher gains during the growing period that the subordinate. In addition, they were performing more visits to the feeder throughout the day. Differential abundance patterns were observed in five bacterial genera, Oliverpabstia, Peptococcus, and Faecalbacterium being more abundant in dominant animals and Holdemanella and Acetitomaculum being overrepresented in subordinate ones. This microbial biomarker accurately classified dominant versus subordinate groups of samples with an AUC of 0.92.

This paper evaluates the feasibility of applying Massive MIMO to tackle the uplink mixed-service communication problem. Under the assumption of an available physical narrowband shared channel (PNSCH), devised to exclusively consume data traffic from Machine Type Communications (MTC) devices, the capacity (i:e:, number of connected devices) of MTC networks and, in turn, that of the whole system, can be increased by clustering such devices and letting each cluster share the same time-frequency physical resource blocks. Following this research line, we study the possibility of employing sub-optimal linear detectors to the problem and present a simple and practical channel estimator that works without previous knowledge of the large-scale channel coefficients. Our simulation results suggest that the proposed channel estimator performs asymptotically as well as the MMSE estimator with respect to the number of antennas and the uplink transmission power. Furthermore, the results also indicate that, as the number of antennas is made progressively larger, the performance of sub-optimal linear detection methods approaches the perfect interference-cancellation bound. The findings presented in this paper shed light on and motivate for new and exciting research lines towards a better understanding of the use of massive MIMO in MTC networks.

The analytical method for the calculation of the properties of a bolted connection established by the structural Eurocodes proposes the T-stub as a component for the characterization of the tension and compression zones in moment joints. In this article, a review of the state of the art on the T-stub component is developed, where the works developed since it was initially defined, and from the perspectives of formulation, experimentation and numerical simulation are summarized and discussed. Additionally, possible future lines of work are proposed.

Diverse factors may have an impact in Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions; thus, three main contributors, energy consumption, exergy indicator and gross domestic product (GDP) are examined in this work. This study explores the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption by means of the hypothesis postulated for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Panel data for 10 countries, from 1971 to 2014 have been studied. Despite all this wide gamma of research, the role of an exergy variable has not been tested to find the EKC; then exergy analysis is proposed. Exergy analyses were developed to propose an exergetic indicator as a control variable and a comparative empirical study is developed to study a multivariable framework with the aim to detect correlations between them. High correlation between CO₂, GDP, energy consumption, energy intensity and trade openness are observed, conversely not statistically significant values for trade openness and energy intensity. The results do not support the EKC hypothesis, however exergy intensity opens the door for future research once it proves to be a useful control variable. Exergy provides opportunities to analyze and implement energy and environmental policies in these countries, with the possibility to link exergy efficiencies and the use of renewables.

: This paper presents a comparison between direct integer orders or classical model reference adaptive control (IO-DMRAC) versus its fractional orders counterpart (FO-DMRAC) applied to the F-16 aircraft longitudinal model pitch rate control. A substantial improvement is achieved when using fractional order adaptive control, since, in addition to performance indices, such as Integral Square-Error criterion (ISE) and Integral Square-Input criterion (ISU) being lower, the oscillations of the system output (pitch rate) in the transient period, are eliminated. Moreover, it is the first attempt in literature of adaptive control that a FO-DMRAC is applied to the pitch rate control of an aircraft. A F-16 short-period model, whose relative degree is equal to 1 (n^*=1) is analyzed by mean of simulations with good results. A FO-DMRAC is designed, for a specific operating flight conditions and compared with its IO-DMRAC counterpart. Furthermore, the boundedness of all signals, including the internal ones ω(t) are assured.

Accurate channel estimation is of utmost importance for massive MIMO systems to provide significant improvements in spectral and energy efficiency. In this work, we present a study on the distribution of a simple but yet effective and practical channel estimator for multi-cell massive MIMO systems suffering from pilot-contamination. The proposed channel estimator performs well under moderate to aggressive pilot contamination scenarios without previous knowledge of the inter-cell large-scale channel coefficients and noise power, asymptotically approximating the performance of the linear MMSE estimator as the number of antennas increases. We prove that the distribution of the proposed channel estimator can be accurately approximated by the circularly-symmetric complex normal distribution, when the number of antennas, M, deployed at the base station is greater than 10.

Vitamin A and E are important during pregnancy, the neonatal period, and childhood. The objective of this study was to assess whether maternal RRR-a-tocopherol supplementation affects serum and breast milk retinol. Serum was collected at baseline and twenty days later, and breast milk, at baseline, and on days 1, 7, and 20 after delivery. After the baseline serum collection, the supplemented group (n=16) received a single 400 IU of RRR-α-tocopherol. The control group (n=18) was only performed collections. Retinol and alpha tocopherol levels were determined by liquid chromatography. Serum retinol and alpha tocopherol at baseline and 20 days after delivery indicated proper vitamin A (> 20 µg/dL) and E (> 516 μg/dL) statuses in the control and supplemented groups (p > 0.05). Colostrum retinol levels on days 1 and 7 after delivery were significantly higher in the supplemented group (p = 0.018 and p = 0.012, respectively). Maternal vitamin E supplementation increased colostrum retinol by 52.23% and 111.2%, 24 hours and 7 days, respectively. However, retinol in mature milk did not differ between the groups (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the supplementation with 400 IU of RRR-α-tocopherol improved vitamin A bioavailability in breast milk.

The objective of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the articles that addressed the effect BA or carnosine supplementation on physical exercise (PE)-induced oxidative stress (OS). Before May 2018 we searched throughout PubMed, CAPES Periodic and SPORTDiscus human model peer review, randomized control studies with chronic BA or carnosine supplementation on PE-induced OS. A total of 128 citations were found. Only four articles met criteria for inclusion. All four studies used healthy young sedentary, recreationally active or athletic participants. After a chronic BA or carnosine supplementation, the studies evaluated PE-induced OS both immediately and several hours after exercise (0.5 to 48 h). In response to PE-induced OS, when compared to placebo, BA/carnosine supplementation increased total antioxidant capacity [TAC; Effect Size (ES) = 0.35, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.06 to 0.65, p = 0.02] and glutathione (GSH; ES = 0.75, 95% CI 0.32 to 1.19, p = 0.0007) concentrations while decreased direct OS markers (ES = −1.19, 95% CI −1.48 to −0.80, p < 0.01) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity (ES = − 0.58, 95% CI −1.10 to −0.06, p = 0.03). BA or carnosine supplementation did not prevent the increase in indirect OS markers (ES: 0.06, 95% CI −0.38 to 0.500, p = 0.80). In humans, following PE-induced OS, initial treatment trials of BA or carnosine supplementation seemed to increase TAC and GSH concentrations, while decreasing SOD activity. Also, albeit mitigating the acute increase in direct OS markers (reactive nitrogen and oxygen species), treatment did not decrease measured values of indirect OS markers (peroxidation or molecule oxidation).

Circular Economy involves structural changes in traditional business models and consumers’ behaviour toward recycled products. The recycling of PET products has been increasing but there is still a gap between consumption and demand for PET packaging in Brazil. In this research, the waste reduction was examined under a projective scenario to the current ecological purposes in Brazil for reducing environmental pollution. In that manner, this paper aimed to comprehend the intention to purchase recycled PET products of Brazilian consumers. With a non-probabilistic and convenience sample, the study counts 422 participants. The method employed was based on Structural Equation Modelling and Partial Least Squares, used to test the hypotheses of causality among the variables. Results showed the perception of low quality about recycled products reduced consumers’ intention to purchase. Also, the sustainability of recycled products positively influenced the intention to purchase. In addition, recycled products presented a negative impact on the perceived safety, which could influence the purchase of recycled products in Brazil. We conclude that the image that Brazilian consumers have about recycled products positively affects the intention to purchase.

Repeated exposure to environmental ozone causes a chronic state of oxidative stress. This state is present in chronic degenerative diseases and induces a loss of control of the inflammatory response. The dysfunction of redox system and failures in control the inflammatory responses are involved in a vicious circle that maintains and increases the degenerative process. Intestine also responds to secondary reactive species formed by exposure to ozone doses, generating noxious stimuli that increase degenerative damage. This review aims to elucidate how environmental pollution, mainly by ozone, induces a state of chronic oxidative stress with the loss of regulation of the inflammatory response, both in the intestine and in the brain, where the functionality of both structures is altered and plays a determining role in some neurodegenerative and chronic degenerative diseases. For this purpose, we searched for information on sites like the Cochrane Library Database, PubMed, Scopus, and Medscape. Reviewing the data published, we can conclude that environmental pollutants are a severe health problem. Ozone pollution has different pathways of action, both molecular and systemic, and participates in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease as well in bowel diseases as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn's Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

In this study, Cu2O nanoparticles were synthesized using the sol-gel technique and subsequently functionalized with extracts from plants of the Rauvolfioideae subfamily and citrus fruits. Com-prehensive characterization techniques, including UV-Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR, XRD, BET, SEM, and TEM, were employed to evaluate the structural and surface properties of the synthesized nanoparticles. The results demonstrated that both functionalized Cu2O nanoparticles exhibit mesoporous structures, as confirmed by nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and pore size distribution analysis. The Green Extract functionalized nanoparticles displayed a more uniform pore size distribution compared to those functionalized with the Orange Extract. The study un-derscores the potential of these functionalized Cu2O nanoparticles for applications in drug de-livery, catalysis, and adsorption processes, highlighting the influence of the functionalization method on their textural properties and performance in antibacterial efficacy.

Changes in food quality can dramatically impair zooplankton fitness, especially in eutrophic water bodies where cyanobacteria are usually predominant. Cyanobacteria are considered a food with low nutritional value, besides some species can produce bioactive secondary metabolites reported as toxic to zooplankton. Considering that cyanobacteria can limit survival, growth and reproduction of zooplankton, we hypothesized that the adverse effects of the dietary exposure of Daphnia species to saxitoxin-producing cyanobacteria depend on the relative abundance of nutitious food source in the diet. Life table experiments were conducted with different diets: 1) without nutritional restriction, where neonates were fed with diets at a constant green algae (Monoraphidium capricornutum) biomass as a nutritious food source, and increasing cyanobacterial concentration (STX-producing Raphidiopsis raciborskii), and 2) with diets consisting of different proportions of M. capricornutum (nutritious) and R. raciborskii (poor food) at a total biomass 1.0 mg C L 1. In general, the presence of high proportions of cyanobacteria promoted a decrease in Daphnia somatic growth, reproduction and intrinsic rate of population increase (r) in both diets with more pronounced effects in the nutritionally restricted diet (90% R. raciborskii). Two-way ANOVA revealed significant effects of species/clone and treatments in both assays, with significant interaction between those factors only in the second assay. Regarding the grazing assay, only D. laevis was negatively affected by increased cyanobacterial proportions in the diet. In the life table assay with constant edible food, a reduction in the reproduction parameters and the intrinsic rate of population increase (r) of all species was observed, In conclusion, we found adverse effects of the toxic cyanobacterial strain R. raciborskii on Daphnia fitness, regardless of the constant amount of nutritious food available, proving the toxic effect of R. raciborskii and the nutritional quality of the food has a greater influence on the fitness of these animals.

We present a study of hybrid neutron stars with color superconducting quark matter cores at finite temperature that results in sequences of stars with constant entropy per baryon, s/nB=const. For the quark matter equation of state, we employ a recently developed nonlocal chiral quark model while nuclear matter is described with a relativistic density functional model of the DD2 class. The phase transition is obtained by a Maxwell construction under isothermal conditions. We find that traversing the mixed phase on a trajectory at low s/nB≲2 in the phase diagram shows a heating effect while at larger s/nB the temperature drops. This behavior may be attributed to the presence of a color superconducting quark matter phase at low temperatures and the melting of the diquark condensate which restores the normal quark matter phase at higher temperatures. While the isentropic hybrid star branch at low s/nB≲2 is connected to the neutron star branch, it gets disconnected at higher entropy per baryon so that the "thermal twin" phenomenon is observed. We find that the transition from connected to disconnected hybrid star sequences may be estimated with the Seidov criterion for the difference in energy densities. The radii and masses at the onset of deconfinement exhibit a linear relationship and thus define a critical compactness of the isentropic star configuration for which the transition occurs which for large enough s/nB≳2 is accompanied by an instability. The results of this study may be of relevance for uncovering the conditions for the supernova explodability of massive blue supergiant stars by the quark deconfinement mechanism. The accretion-induced deconfinement transition with thermal twin formation may contribute to explaining the origin of eccentric orbits in some binary systems and the origin of isolated millisecond pulsars.

The RMA11 water quality model, which has been previously calibrated and validated, was coupled with the RMA10 3D hydrodynamic model to evaluate sanitation scenarios in Buenaventura Bay. The bay receives direct discharge of untreated wastewater from 500,000 people through 695 outlets along the coast. Five different effluent reduction scenarios were proposed and compared based on fecal coliform concentration as an indicator. The areas where values exceed the standard for primary contact were also used to evaluate the scenarios. The model results indicate poor water quality in the bay and how that the situation will become even more severe if immediate action is not taken. The proposed reduction in discharges in stages will have temporarily more severe effects than the current situation, but these will end when the treatment plant becomes operational. However, even with the plant in operation, complete sanitation of the bay cannot be achieved, and further measures must be considered.

An explanation of the origin of dark matter is suggested in this work. The argument is based on symmetry considerations about the concept of mass. In the Wigner's view, the rest mass and the spin of a free elementary particle in flat space-time are the two invariants that characterize the associated unitary irreducible representation of the Poincar\'e group. The Poincar\'e group has two and only two deformations with maximal symmetry. They describe respectively the de Sitter (dS) and Anti de Sitter (AdS) kinematic symmetries. Analogously to their shared flat space-time limit, two invariants, spin and energy scale for de Sitter and rest energy for Anti de Sitter, characterize the unitary irreducible representation associated with dS and AdS elementary systems. While the dS energy scale is a simple deformation of the Poincaré rest energy and so has a purely mass nature, AdS rest energy is the sum of a purely mass component and a kind of zero-point energy derived from the curvature. An analysis based on recent estimates on the chemical freeze-out temperature marking in Early Universe the phase transition quark-gluon plasma epoch to the hadron epoch supports the guess that dark matter energy might originate from an effective AdS curvature energy.

Virus taxonomy uses a Linnaean-like subsumption hierarchy to classify viruses into taxonomic units at species and higher rank levels. Virus species are considered monophyletic groups of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) often delimited by phylogenetic analysis of aligned genomic or metagenomic sequences. Taxonomic units are assumed independent organizational, functional and evolutionary units that follow a ‘natural’ historical rationale. Here, I use phylogenomic and other arguments to show that viruses are not self-standing genetically-driven biological systems. Instead, they are crucial components of holobionts, units of biological organization that dynamically integrate the genetics, epigenetic, physiological and functional properties of their co-evolving members. Remarkably, phylogenomic analyses show viruses share protein domain and loop structures with cells throughout history via massive processes of reticulate evolution, helping spread evolutionary innovations across a wider taxonomic spectrum. Thus, viruses are not merely MGEs or microbes. Instead, their genomes and proteomes conduct cellularly integrated processes akin to those cataloged by the GO Consortium. This prompts the generation of compositional hierarchies that replace the ‘is-a-kind-of’ by a ‘is-a-part-of’ logic to better describe the mereology of integrated cellular and viral makeup. My analysis demands a new paradigm that integrates virus taxonomy into a modern evolutionarily centered taxonomy of organisms.

The objective of this review is to do an overview about the current knowledge of Anti Iglon5 Syndrome, a disease that was first described in 2014. The IgLON proteins are a family of cell adhesion molecules and the presence of antibodies against IgLON5 are crucial for diagnosis of Anti IgLON5 Syndrome. This syndrome has an expanded clinical spectrum that involves prominent sleep disorder, progressive bulbar dysfunction, gait instability with abnormal eye movements reminiscent and cognitive deterioration sometimes associated with chorea. The main neuropathological finding is the neuronal loss with hyperphosphorylated tau (p-Tau) protein accumulation at hypothalamus, brainstem tegmentum, hippocampus, periaqueductal gray matter, medulla oblongata and upper cervical cord. The exact pathogenesis is still unclear and involves a neurodegenerative process and autoimmune response. The early diagnosis is important to avoid unnecessary tests and prevent complications. Important resources for diagnosis are the antibody testing of serum and CSF for IgLON5-IgG. The mortality of anti IgLON5 syndrome is high and new studies published described a good response to immune therapy. However, the response to immune therapy depends of some clinical and analytical characteristic. In addition, future studies are needed to thoroughly study the aspects of pathogenesis and treatment of this important pathological syndrome.

Short-term energy consumption forecasting crucial for the operation of new electrical en-ergy grids, not only due to their own characteristics, but also due to the new elements pre-sent in the energy matrix. Many existing models are limited by their methodologies or by considering only a narrow set of factors influencing energy consumption. This study in-troduces a pipeline for developing an energy forecasting model and evaluates the signifi-cance of factors affecting energy consumption and, consequently, forecast accuracy. The study utilizes a dataset from ISO NE (Independent System Operator New England), span-ning the total electric load of various cities in New England from January 2017 to December 2019. This dataset comprises 23 independent variables, including weather data, economic indicators, and market information. The results outline the steps involved in constructing energy forecast models using time series analysis. By carefully selecting variables and rep-resenting external factors, the study demonstrates the feasibility of generating more accu-rate predictions with reduced computational resources.

This study delves into the performance evaluation of an avant-garde technology in mobile communications known as Large Intelligent Surface (LIS), poised to be an integral component of the sixth-generation (6G) networks. This groundbreaking technology has the potential to markedly augment the Signal-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) by orchestrating signals originating from the base station through a network of digitally controlled reflectors meticulously engineered to modulate the phase of incoming electromagnetic waves. A LIS can establish a Line of Sight (LoS) within channels that inherently do not have a LoS. In addition, it can also be optimized to increase transmission security by ensuring that the signal reaches only the target users of the message with better quality. In this study, analytical expressions were derived to calculate the distribution parameters, the bit error probability, and the secrecy outage probability. These calculations consider the presence of an eavesdropper link, highlighting the potential of the LIS to increase the confidentiality of digital communication systems. The accuracy of the proposed formulas was demonstrated by showing how the performance of the LIS varies with different design parameters and environmental fading.

The expression of the Fasciola hepatica Carboxylesterase type B (CestB) gene is induced in response to the anthelmintic triclabendazole (TCBZ), resulting in a significant increase in enzymatic specific activity. Furthermore, the amino acid sequence of CestB exhibits variations that could lead to substantial amino acid substitutions at the ligand-binding site. These substitutions have the potential to affect the interaction between the ligand and the protein, as well as the catalytic properties of the enzyme. The objective of this study was to identify new CestB polymorphisms in TCBZ-resistant parasites using 3D modeling against the metabolically oxidized form of the anthelmintic TCBZSOX. Our aim was to observe the formation of TCBZSOX-specific binding pockets that could potentially explain the resistance to anthelmintic agents. We identified a CestB polymorphism in a TCBZ-resistant strain of parasites exhibiting three radical amino acid substitutions at positions 147, 215, and 243, resulting in the formation of a TCBZSOX-affinity pocket capable of binding the anthelmintic drug. Additionally, our 3D modeling analysis revealed that these amino acid substitutions also had an impact on the configuration of the CestB catalytic site, affecting the enzyme's interaction with chromogenic carboxylic ester substrates and altering its catalytic properties; however, the identified TCBZSOX-binding pocket was located far from the enzyme's catalytic site, making the enzymatic hydrolysis of TCBZSOX theoretically impossible. Nonetheless, the increased affinity for the anthelmintic may explain a drug-sequestration type of anthelmintic resistance and lays the foundation for the development of a molecular diagnostic tool for identifying anthelmintic resistance in F. hepatica.

One of the most important challenges in the Machine and Deep Learning areas today is to build good models using small datasets, because sometimes it is not possible to have large ones. Several techniques have been proposed in the literature to address this challenge. This paper aims at studying the different available Deep Learning techniques and performing a thorough experimentation to analyze which technique or combination thereof improves the performance and effectiveness of the models. A complete comparison with classical Machine Learning techniques was carried out, to contrast the results obtained using both techniques when working with small datasets. Thirteen algorithms were implemented and trained using three different small datasets (MNIST, Fashion MNIST, and CIFAR-10). Each experiment was evaluated using a well-established set of metrics (Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1, and the Matthews correlation coefficient). The experimentation allowed concluding that it is possible to find a technique or combination of them to mitigate a lack of data, but this depends on the nature of the dataset, the amount of data, and the metrics used to evaluate them.

Sugarcane plays a crucial role in global sugar and ethanol production. Conventionally, sugar-cane propagation involves planting billets. However, Brazilian researchers have introduced the innovative pre-sprouted seedlings (PSS) method, widely used in the MEIOSI (Simultaneously Occurring Interrotational Method) system. Although MPB has several advantages over the con-ventional method, its sensitivity to water scarcity is a challenge. The study aimed to evaluate the survival and growth of PSS inoculated with Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis under differ-ent water regimes. The experiment was conducted in the field in a randomized block in strips (split-block) using a 2×4 factorial scheme consisting of two inoculation conditions (with and without bacteria) and four water regimes (0%, 33%, 66%, and 100% of the ideal irrigation). The bacteria increased the PSS's survival and water use efficiency in the field. In addition, inocula-tion increased root and shoot growth, as well as the nutrient uptake such as N, P, Mn, Zn, and Cu, which resulted in a higher number of stalks per meter and, therefore, a higher multiplica-tion rate in the MEIOSI system. Inoculation proved to be a promising alternative for establishing PSS under water restriction.

The amplified production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or reduced oxidant protection is described as oxidative stress, which contributes to the increase in several disorders, notably obesity and neurodegenerative diseases. Flavonoids are polyphenol compounds found in a variety of foods of plant origin, such as berries, with a basic chemical structure consisting of an aromatic ring linked to a benzene ring and a pyran ring. Flavonoids have neuroprotective activity and promote synaptogenesis and neurogenesis and are also capable of inhibiting oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Anthocyanins are water-soluble natural pigments that belong to the flavonoid class and have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce chronic inflammation associated with various health conditions, including obesity. In addition, flavonoids and anthocyanins can modulate the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, promoting the oxidation of fatty acids and the reduction of lipid synthesis, contributing to the reduction of body fat accumulation. One of the most abundant flavonoids in the natural environment, quercetin, is found mainly in the form of O-glycoside derivatives and rarely as an aglycone. Quercetin has antioxidant properties, against diseases such as cancer; It also acts to combat allergic reactions, inflammatory processes, platelet disorders, obesity, hypertension and atherosclerotic and hypercholesterolemic disorders. Anthocyanins can activate intracellular signaling pathways, such as the AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) pathway, which has a crucial role in regulating energy metabolism and glycemic homeostasis. Activation of this pathway increases glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation, favoring weight loss and improving insulin sensitivity. This review article aims to analyze the effects of using berries in controlling obesity and its role as a reducing factor for mild cognitive decline. A systematic review will be carried out following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyze. We will search the following electronic databases: PubMed (Medline), Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science.

Studies carried out have revealed that every day around three thousand and twelve people lose their lives in the world due to traffic accidents and poor air quality. Large cities, with their millions of inhabitants and vehicles, face many problems relating to vehicular traffic. In 2015 the speed limit was modified on several roads in the city of São Paulo-Brazil. However, in 2017 the speed limits were increased again, but not on all previous routes. This study analyzed the impact of this change on the number of accidents and pollutant concentrations, over a period of ten years, comparing the periods before and after the implementation of the measure, using real data collected and provided by the authorities of the city and the state transit and environmental companies, on more than forty routes and two nearby air quality stations. The results show a clear reduction in the number of accidents without victims on the roads of the city of São Paulo starting in 2010. However, the restrictive measures imposed by government officials may have contributed to the decrease in the number of accidents, but the number of fatalities has not changed much. Air pollution has not improved substantially with speed changes, as new speed increases have been linked to new episodes of congestion. The average number of fatalities due to accidents has been increasing since 2010 and accidents are becoming more serious. The application of a general linear statistical model (GLM) estimated the impact of the speed reduction policy in terms of the number of injuries avoided per month: 43.4 and 14.1 on other roads and on Pinheiros marginal, respectively. The results highlight the need for a constant data collection by the authorities in cities with high vehicle traffic. The important temporal time trend in terms of reduction of injuries but not in terms of fatalities and air quality, shows the need to apply joint public policies, not only speed reduction, but also the use of new technologies and raising drivers’ awareness of the problem.

A 35-year-old man with a late-onset combined immunodeficiency (LOCID) variant of common variable immunodeficiency, severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Crohn's disease attended Regional Hospital of Presidente Prudente and HC-FMUSP, São Paulo, Brazil. Anti-IL-12/IL-23 (ustekinumab) monoclonal antibody was prescribed due to failure of other treatments (phototherapy, oral acitretin) for psoriasis and Psoriasis Area Severity Index &lt;10. We evaluated the impact of ustekinumab, a potent immunosuppressor, on the risk of infectious diseases in this patient followed for 8 years. Four quarterly doses of ustekinumab 90 mg and human immunoglobulin replacement (10,000 mg at 28-day intervals) were administered. Immunophenotyping, culture of lymphocytes, genetic sequencing, and whole exome sequencing were performed to investigate the primary immunodeficiency. Normal lymphocyte proliferation, absence of pathogenic variants in the genes analyzed and no clinically significant variants were detected in the whole exome. The main infections included chronic sinusitis, tonsillitis, fungal and bacterial otitis, gastroenteritis, and community-acquired pneumonia. The patient was infected with COVID-19, dengue (twice), and influenza and was hospitalized three times for intravenous antibiotic therapy. Ustekinumab did not influence susceptibility to severe infections and significantly improved psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Crohn's disease in a patient with LOCID.

This work aimed to elucidate how O3 pollution causes loss of regulation of the immune response in both the brain and the intestine. In this work, we studied the effect of exposing rats to low doses of O3 on the association between the antioxidant response of superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and nuclear factor kappa light chains of activated B cells (NFκB) as a marker of inflammation. Method: 72 Wistar rats were used, divided into six groups that received the following treatments: Control, 7, 15, 30, 60, and 90 days at O3, respectively. After treatment, tissues were extracted and processed using Western blotting, biochemical, and immunohistochemical techniques. The results indicated an increase in 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE) and Cu/Zn-SOD, a decrease in Mn-SOD, and SOD activity in the substantia nigra, jejunum, and colon decrease. Furthermore, the translocation of NFκB to the nucleus increased in the different organs studied. In conclusion, repeated exposure to ozone alters the regulation of the antioxidant and inflammatory response in the substantia nigra and the intestine. This suggests that these responses are critical in the loss of regulation of the inflammatory response, and they respond to ozone pollution, which could be occurring in the progression of chronic degenerative diseases.

To date, uncertainty remains about how long the protective immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 persists and reports of suspected reinfection began to be described in recovered patients months after the first episode. Viral evolution may favor reinfections, and the recently described spike mutations, particularly in the receptor binding domain (RBD) in SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in the UK, South Africa, and most recently in Brazil, have raised concern on their potential impact in infectivity, immune escape and reinfection. We report a case of reinfection from distinct SARS-CoV-2 lineages presenting the E484K mutation in Brazil, a variant associated with escape from neutralizing antibodies.

New advances in creating effective and affordable copper-based catalysts for water splitting represent a promising strategy for driving sustainable energy technologies. However, ma- terials containing copper are susceptible to corrosion and agglomeration. In this study, we describe a synthesis route to produce olamine-functionalized CuO nanoparticles using the Hot Injection method. Nanoparticles were obtained and subsequently deposited on FTO substrates, undergoing thermal treatment at 500°C and 600°C in atmospheres containing O2 and N2, aiming to enhance the adhesion of the active material to the substrate and modify its oxidation state. Microstructural properties were analyzed using XRD, SEM, and TEM, while electrochemical properties were studied using CV, LSV, and EIS. Electrodes treated thermally in an N2 atmosphere at 600°C exhibited higher ESCA, indicating a greater area of active sites exposed to surface reactions and, therefore, superior catalytic activity in Hy- drogen Evolution Reaction (HER). These findings show an interesting strategy for avoiding rapid electron-hole recombination and, consequently, CuO corrosion. For Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER), samples treated thermally in O2 atmosphere at 500°C and 600°C appear to be more effective.

Information has been and will be a vital element for a person or department groups in an organization. That is why there are technologies that help us to give them the proper management of data; Business Intelligence is responsible for bringing technological solutions that correctly and effectively manage the entire volume of necessary and important information for companies. Among the solutions offered by Business Intelligence are Data Warehouses, Data Mining, among other business technologies that working together achieve the objectives proposed by an organization. It is important to highlight that these business technologies have been present since the 50's and have been evolving through time, improving processes, infrastructure, methodologies and implementing new technologies, which have helped to correct past mistakes based on information management for companies. There are questions about Business Intelligence. Could it be that in the not-too-distant future it will be used as an essential standard or norm in any organization for data management, since it provides many benefits and avoids failures at the time of classifying information. On the other hand, Cloud storage has been the best alternative to safeguard information and not depend on physical storage media, which are not 100% secure and are exposed to partial or total loss of information, by presenting hardware failures or security failures due to mishandling that can be given to such information.

The result of the multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers from different areas of knowledge to validate a solar radiation model is presented. The MAPsol is a 3D local-scale adaptive solar radiation model that allows to estimate direct, diffuse and reflected irradiance for clear sky conditions. The model includes the adaptation of the mesh to complex orography and albedo, and considers the shadows cast by the terrain and buildings. The surface mesh generation is based on surface refinement, smoothing and parameterisation techniques and allows the generation of high quality adapted meshes with a reasonable number of elements. Another key aspect of the paper is the generation of a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). This high-resolution DEM is constructed from LiDAR data and its resolution if two times more accurate than the publicly available DEMs. The validation process uses direct and global solar irradiance data obtained from pyranometers at the University of Salamanca located in an urban area affected by systematic shading from nearby buildings. This work provides an efficient protocol for studying solar resources, with particular emphasis on areas of complex orography and dense buildings where shadows can potentially make solar energy production facilities less efficient.

Regular assessment of mood is used in Brazil for a wide variety of purposes, including screening athletes to provide an indicator of psychological wellbeing and risk of mental health issues. The present study tested the psychometric characteristics of the Brazil Mood Scale (BRAMS) using both “right now” and “past week” response time frames and investigated between-group differences in mood based on athlete sex, age, and social vulnerability. Participants were 898 athletes (511 male, 387 female, age range: 12–44 years) from eight sports. Structural equation modelling supported the BRAMS measurement model using both response time frames independently and in a multi-sample analysis. Subscale reliability was supported for both time frames. Fatigue, depression, and tension scores were higher using the past week time frame than the right now time frame. Males reported higher vigor scores than females, and younger participants (&lt;18 years) reported lower scores for anger and depression than older participants (18+ years). No significant between-group differences emerged for social vulnerability. Findings supported the psychometric integrity of the BRAMS and its use as a screening measure for psychological wellbeing among youth and elite athletes in Brazil.

The initial dilution generated by the final disposal of untreated wastewater through a submarine outfall in Santa Marta was examined with a near-field dilution model. Northward and eastward seawater velocity, salinity, and temperature profiles from a 3D hydrodynamic model were used to provide the oceanic conditions to calculate the dilution. At the wastewater discharge site, the upwelling phenomenon occurs two times a year, the major from December to March and the minor in July, eliminating the stratification condition of seawater. The results of the dilution model showed that in these periods the plume reaches the water surface achieving dilutions greater than 100. In addition, the external wave effect on the initial dilution of submarine outfall discharge in Santa Marta was determined. Surface waves increase dilution during the dry period of the year when trade winds increase the surge and start the upwelling phenomenon. The Dilution with/without waves factor is up to 1.90 for the center of the plume on the water column.

A study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of Trypanosoma vivax infection in 72 Murrah buffaloes from Soure, a municipality located on Marajó Island. The aim of the research was to identify the presence of T. vivax in the buffalo population. Blood samples were collected, followed by DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis using the primers TviCatL1 and DTO 155. T. vivax DNA was detected in one 36-month-old female with a body condition score of 2 (on a scale of 1 to 5), although the animal exhibited no clinical signs of infection. These findings suggest that T. vivax is not frequently circulating among the tested buffaloes, or that the animals may be in the chronic phase of infection, which is often characterized by low parasitemia levels. The identification of T. vivax in a clinically asymptomatic animal underscores the importance of using molecular diagnostics for early detection and monitoring of the parasite in buffalo herds, especially in regions where the presence of T. vivax may be underestimated. This study contributes to understanding the epidemiological status of T. vivax in buffaloes on Marajó Island, highlighting the need for ongoing surveillance in endemic areas.

The severity and invasiveness of clinical outcomes from organic responses to trauma are influenced by individual, surgical and anesthetic factors. A stress response elicits neuroendocrine and immune reactions that may lead to multi-organ dysfunction. The degree of neuroinflammatory reflex activation from trauma can increase pro-inflammatory cytokine production, leading to endothelial dysfunction, glycocalyx damage, neutrophil activation and multisystem tissue destruction. A shift in patient treatment towards a neuroinflammatory perspective has prompted a new evaluation protocol for surgical patients, required to understand surgical pathogenesis and its link to chosen anesthesia-surgical methods. This study aims to provide a description of the mechanisms involved in the immune and neuroendocrine response and below is a summary of the main mediators, focusing on video laparoscopic surgeries, by examining its frequency usage by researchers. We performed a narrative review of data from databases like PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, high-impact journals, and studies from the past decade that used inflammatory mediator analysis to compare anesthetic and surgical strategies. Results showed preference for certain biomarkers more sensitive to tissue trauma. These markers display distinct behaviors, temporal fluctuations and their dosages serve as a tool to measure and validate therapeutic approaches in perioperative systemic inflammation.

Background: Scaffold (SCA) functionalization with aptamers (APT) provides adsorption of specific bioactive molecules on biomaterials surface. The aim of this study was to observe if SCA enriched with anti-fibronectin APT can favor coagulum (PhC) and osteoblasts (OSB) differentiation. Methods: 20 ug of APT was functionalized on SCA by simple adsorption. For PhC formation, SCAs were inserted into rat calvaria defects for 17 hours. Following proper transportation (Buffer solution-PB), OSB (UMR-106 lineage) were seeded over PhC + SCAs with and without APT. Cells and PhC morphology, PhC cell population, protein labelling and gene expression were observed in different time points. Results: The APT induced higher ALP and BSP immunolabeling in OSB. CD90, CD45 and CD44 expression was more detected in APT group than when scaffolds were not functionalized. Additionally, an enriched and dense fibrin network and different cell types were observed, with more OSB and white blood cells in PhC formed on SCA with APT. The gene expression showed higher TGF-β1 detection in SCA with APT. Conclusions: The SCA functionalization with fibronectin aptamers provides a selective expression of proteins related to coagulation pattern and osteo differentiation. Additionally, aptamers increase TGF-β1 gene expression, which is highly associated with improvements in regenerative therapies.

Purpose: this paper evaluates the effect of thermo-formed aligners with complementary biomechanical attachments (CBA) on periodontal ligaments (PDL) during the expansion process of the maxillary arch using simulations based on the finite element method (FEM). Methods: four types of teeth (canine 3, premolar 4, premolar 5 and molar 6) were modeled using 3D CAD. In addition, aligners, CBAs and PDL were also 3D modeled. With this information, a FEM model was generated, and a clinical rehabilitation scenario was simulated. For the validation of the results, a comparison with medical records was performed. Results: for canine 3, the displacement was 0.134 mm with a maximum stress of 4.822 x10-3MPa in the amelocemental junction. For premolar 4, the displacement was 0.132 mm at a maximum stress of 3.273x10-3MPa in the amelocemental junction. Premolar 5 had a displacement of 0.129 mm and a stress of 1.358 x10-3MPa at 1 mm from the amelocemental junction. Molar 6 had a displacement of 0.124 mm and a maximum stress of 2.440 x10-3MPa. Conclusions: The simulations showed that the use of CBA reduces tooth tipping. The model with Vestibular CBA presented the best results in terms of the dental movement of expansion of the maxillary arch with the use of thermoformed aligners. Significance: Considering the difficulty of performing in vivo tests that evaluate the configuration effectiveness of the different CBA alternatives in thermoformed aligners, FEM techniques were used to reduce time and costs, and get accurate results with minimal errors.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among all ages; despite the advances, understanding pathophysiological responses after TBI is still complex, involving multiple mechanisms. Previous reviews have focused on potential targets; however, the research on potential targets has continuously grown in the last five years, bringing even more alternatives and elucidating previous mechanisms. Knowing the key and updated pathophysiology concepts is vital for adequate management and better outcomes. This article reviews the underlying molecular mechanisms, the latest updates, and future directions for pathophysiology-based TBI management.

This review paper provides an overview of recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of ejector pumps for vacuum generation. It examines various turbulence models, multiphase flow approaches, and numerical techniques employed to capture complex flow phenomena like shock waves, mixing, phase transitions, and heat/mass transfer. Emphasis is placed on comprehensive assessment of flow characteristics within ejectors, including condensation effects such as nucleation, droplet growth, and non-equilibrium conditions. The review highlights efforts in optimizing ejector geometries and operating parameters to enhance the entrainment ratio, a crucial performance metric for ejectors. The studies reviewed encompass diverse working fluids, flow regimes, and geometric configurations, underscoring the significance of ejector technology across various industries. While substantial progress has been made in developing advanced simulation techniques, several challenges persist, including accurate modeling of real gas behavior, phase change kinetics, and coupled heat/mass transfer phenomena. Future research efforts should focus on developing robust multiphase models, implementing advanced turbulence modeling techniques, integrating machine learning based optimization methods, and exploring novel ejector configurations for emerging applications.

In recent years, using pre-sprouted seedlings for sugarcane establishment has been developed in Brazil. Despite yielding promising results, the optimal irrigation management for this method during the Brazilian winter planting season has yet to be determined. Additionally, information regarding water demand and seedling behavior when subjected to different irrigation levels remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the response of pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings to different irrigation levels during the winter in southeastern Brazil. Pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings were subjected to different irrigation levels during the winter season in the region of Piracicaba, using a sprinkler irrigation system. Periodic evaluations were conducted, such as seedlings mortality rate, root size, root dry mass, number of sugarcane tillers sprouted per meter, total number of tillers, plant height, leaf area index, shoot dry mass, and total leaf chlorophyll index. The findings of this investigation indicate that a 10 mm irrigation level facilitated optimal fixation depth and achieved a 97.8% survival rate. Moreover, a correlation between seedling mortality rate and irrigation management was observed, emphasizing the critical role of irrigation in establishing and developing seedlings. Based on these findings, a 10 mm irrigation may represent the optimal irrigation strategy for pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings in this scenario.

Self-assembling peptide P11-4 is amphiphilic and pH-triggered with demonstrated effectivity repairing early carious lesions in enamel. However, P11-4 effects on dentin biomineralization and repair remain unexplored. Thus, cytocompatibility and effectiveness of P11-4 inducing mineralization and migration of odontoblast-like cells (MDPC-23) were investigated. MDPC-23 were seeded in contact with P11-4(0.5µg/ml and 1µg/ml), Dentin Matrix Protein 1 (DMP1 0.5µg/ml and 1 µg/ml) or Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2 100µg/ml) solutions. Cytotoxicity was verified using MTT (n=6/group). Mineralization was tested using Alizarin Red (n=4/group). Cell migration was assessed by light microscopy (n=2/group). MTT and Alizarin Red data were compared using Krus-kal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney (α=0.05). P11-4 (0.5µg/ml and 1µg/ml) and DMP1 (0.5µg/ml and 1µg/ml) presented the highest cytocompatibility; Ca(OH)2 presented the lowest. DMP1 1µg/ml exhibited the highest mineralization ability, with no difference to P11-4 1µg/ml. Ca(OH)2 presented lower values than DMP1 1µg/ml (p<0.05), but similar to P11-4 1µg/ml. P11-4 and DMP1 at 0.5 µg/ml showed induced less mineralization than P11-4 and DMP1 at 1µg/ml (p<0.05), with no difference to Ca(OH)2. All materials stimulated cell migration, however, lower concentrations of DMP1 and P11-4 provided better results. P11-4 is cytocompatible, induces mineralization and MDPC-23 migration like DMP1. P11-4 could be an alternative for dentin mineralization and tooth repair.

As a form of protection, a nature park is often created to protect and valorise natural and cultural heritage in peripheral rural areas. However, in terms of multi-functionality, new nature parks are incorporated into traditional productive activities, such as recreational and tourist activities, which sometimes compromise sustainability. The research objective is to study the relationship between tourism and sustainability in the Nature Parks of “Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche”, “Sierra Norte de Sevilla” and “Sierra de Hornachuelos” that makes up the Dehesas de Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve in Andalusia, Spain. Therefore, selective interviews have been carried out with the stakeholders to establish their perception of sustainable tourism and the presence of dominant discourses. The main conclusions indicate (1) the presence of different dominant discourses on sustainability, namely the conservationist and mercantilist ones, with the prevalence of the economic dimension; (2) poor awareness and adaptation to the context of global change; and (3) the presence of competitive relationships that generate difficulties for the governance of sustainable tourism.

The high protein content of several microalgal species makes them attractive and unconventional for applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Due to microalgae's robust cell wall, cell rupture is necessary to improve the extraction of their intracellular proteins. Thus, choosing a suitable cell-breaking treatment before protein extraction is a vital downstream processing step. Additionally, it is necessary to use an effective technique for monitoring and measuring the impact of rupture treatments on microalgal cell walls. In our study, Tetradesmus obliquus cells were disrupted by three different mechanical rupture methods: high-pressure homogenization (HPH), ultrasound (US), and ball milling (BM). The ruptured biomass cells were counted, and soluble proteins were extracted and quantified. The cell counting technique did not detect differences between intact and damaged cells after BM treatment because the dye (erythrosine B) did not permeate the microalgae biomass accurately. The US treatment promoted the highest yield of total protein extraction (19.95%). The yields of protein extraction of T. obliquus with HPH (15.68%) and BM (14.11%) were significantly (p value ≤ 0.05) lower than that achieved in the US treatment. The increase in the number of extraction steps increased the protein recovery. Thus, the content of extracted soluble protein was a reliable indirect index for a quantitative comparison of the cell disruption level.

The individual and combined effects of extracellular products (ECP) from Arthrobotrys oligospora (Ao) and A. musiformis (Am) growth in liquid media against Haemonchus contortus L3 (HcL3) were assessed. The following methodological steps were established: isolation, morphological (MI) and molecular identification (Mol-I), assessment of nematocidal activity (NA) of fungal liq-uid culture filtrates (LCF) produced in two liquid media alone and in combination and finally, the myco-compound profile identification (MCP). The MI of both isolates suggested that the fungi corresponded to the species Ao and Am. This result was confirmed by PCR analysis followed by sequencing, alignment and obtaining coverage and similarity with respect to isolates reported in the NCBI database. Likewise, the highest Hc mortalities were 91.4% with individual LCF of Am and 86.2% with those of Ao at the highest concentration (100 mg/mL) in Czapek-Dox Broth. The combination of both LCF resulted in a similarly high larval mortality with no statistical differ-ences in relation to individual activity (P>0.05). The MCP showed the presence of alkaloids in both fungi. Coumarins, triterpenes and saponins were found only in Ao. Both fungi produced ECP with a high NA that could be identified and assessed in future studies as potential natural an-thelmintic compounds.

Artificial intelligence techniques are now widely used in various agricultural applications, including the detection of devastating diseases such as late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and early blight (Alternaria solani) affecting potato (Solanum Tuberorsum L.) crops. In this paper, we present a mobile application for potato crop pest detection based on deep neural networks. The images were taken from the PlantVillage dataset with a batch of 1000 images for each of the three identified classes. An exploratory analysis of the architectures used for early and late blight diagnosis in potatoes was performed, achieving an accuracy of 98.76%, with MobileNetv2. Based on the results obtained, an offline mobile application was implemented, supported on devices with Android 4.1 or later, also featuring an information section on the 27 pests affecting potato crops and a gallery of symptoms. For future work, segmentation techniques will be used to highlight the damaged region in the potato leaf by evaluating its extent and possibly identifying different types of pests affecting the same plant.

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to identify the age and sex-related associations between marital status with PA and TV time. We used data from Vigitel, an annual telephone survey started in 2006 in Brazil. We applied a complex sample logistic regression model to estimate the odds for PA and TV time comparing marital statuses according to age and sex subgroups, independent of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, self-assessed poor health, and smoking. Our sample included 561,837 individuals with a TV time &gt; 3 h/day (prevalence = 25.2%) and PA &gt; 150 min/week (prevalence = 35%). Compared to single individuals, married men and women were less likely to watch TV more than 3 h/day in participants &gt; 30 years old. When compared to single, married participants were less likely to do more than 150 min of PA/week at younger age groups. Married women older than 40 years were more likely to do more than 150 min of PA/week than the single ones, while there were no differences among married men by age group. In conclusion, married individuals are less likely to spend more than 3 hours a day watching TV than single individuals. Single men and women were more likely to do more than 150 min of PA/week at younger age groups and married women older than 40 years were more likely to do 150 min of PA/week than single women.

Castor oil may be differentiated from other non-edible vegetable oils because of its main composition of hydroxylated fatty acids. Ricinoleic acid comprises 80–90% wt. of fatty acids in castor oil (Ricinus communis). In this study, the thermo-oxidative stability and tribological behavior of bio-based lubricant samples synthesized from castor oil using isoamyl alcohol were evaluated. Initially, the compositional and physicochemical properties of the obtained samples were assessed using 1H NMR, FTIR, and ASTM methods. Oxidative stability of the samples was evaluated using Rancimat method at 110 °C under air flow. The final biolubricant sample (BL2), obtained after esterification, epoxidation, and oxirane rings opening reactions, presented an oxidation stability time (OST) of 14.3 h. The thermal stability was also evaluated by thermogravimetry (TG) from the mass variations under inert and oxidative atmosphere. BL2 showed higher thermal stability compared to the other samples, demonstrating higher decomposition temperatures in both inert (339.04 °C) and oxidative (338.47 °C) atmospheres, for a mass loss of 50%. The tribological properties of the samples were evaluated using a four-ball tribometer configuration. The BL1 and BL2 samples exhibited lower friction coefficients than the mineral oil sample (MOS) by 21.5% and 43.1%, respectively. Regarding wear, the observed wear scar diameter (WSD) was also lower in BL1 and BL2 compared to MOS by 5.2% and 40.4%, respectively. The results of the tribological evaluation suggest that both samples obtained in this study have promising potential for applications in lubricating machines and mechanical systems.

The exponential growth in the consumption of electronics, in combination with the reduction in their useful life, leads to a significant increase in the volume of electronic material discarded. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are modules composed of ceramic, polymer and metallic materials of high economic value and with a great potential for damage to biotic and anthropic environments when inadequately discarded. The aims of this work was to study the main environmental impacts and the efficiency of mechanical operations in the electronic waste recycling process in optimizing the concentration of metallic copper. For this, the samples obtained were characterized according to their morphology and chemical composition, and subjected to physical and mechanical treatments: dismantling, grinding, separation by granulometry, density and magnetic property. The environment impacts were estimated by the Life Cycle Assessment of the pre-treatment processes, associated with copper extraction operations in WPCBs. According to the results obtained, it is possible to infer that the NM +1mm Concentrated product presents in its metallic composition around 78% of copper, which contributes to the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical extraction processes. It is noteworthy that the Concentrated class represents about 14% of copper (wt) taking into account the amount of 3.789 kg of PCB waste input material. The potential for reinsertion of the dust in the material recovery process is highlighted, given that the chemical composition of this particulate has a significant presence of metals. In general, it was found that due to the higher concentration (wt %) of the sample being allocated in the range of - 0.15mm + 0.05mm, the elements Fe (18.30%), Si (10.73%), Ca (9.21%) and Cu (8.89%) stand out regarding the participation of the elemental composition of this fraction and also regarding the general composition of the sample. Furthermore, the generation of dust during the fragmentation process, can be associated with occupational respiratory diseases when not managed. About the Life Cycle Assessment, in seven of the nine categories evaluated, crushing and screening activities accounted for more than 90% of the recorded impact values. In general, it is estimated that in the pre-treatment phase be generated 15.4 kg CO2 eq.