Search

The titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ), commonly known as the corpse flower, produces the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. Its rare blooms last only a few days and are notable both for their burst of thermogenic activity and for the odor of rotting flesh by which they attract pollinators. Studies on the titan arum can therefor lend insight into the mechanisms underlying thermogenesis as well as the production of sulfur-based volatiles, about which little is known in plants. Here, we made use of transcriptome and metabolite analyses to uncover underlying mechanisms that enable thermogenesis and volatile production in the titan arum. The ability to perform thermogenesis correlated with the expression of genes involved in bypass steps for the mitochondrial electron transport chain, in particular alternative oxidase expression, and through our analysis is placed within the context of sugar transport and metabolism. The major odorants produced by the titan arum are dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide, and we identified pathways for sulfur transport and metabolism that culminate in the production of methionine, which our analysis identifies as the amino acid substrate for production of these odorants. Putrescine, derived from arginine, was identified as an additional and previously unrecognized component of the titan arum's odor. Levels of free methionine and putrescine were rapidly depleted during thermogenesis, consistent with roles in production of the titan arum's odor. Models for how tissues of the titan arum contribute to thermogenesis and volatile production are proposed., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Background: To evaluate the evidence comparing bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and autogenous bone grafts (ABGs) for regenerating bone defects from ameloblastoma., Material and Methods: An electronic search was performed in PubMed and Scopus from October to December 2023, supplemented by manual searches and review of relevant study reference lists. Cohen's kappa was calculated to assess the interrater reliability between two independent investigators. The methodological quality and risk of bias of the selected articles was assessed using the JBI checklist for case series and the NOS for observational studies., Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the qualitative synthesis. Cohen's kappa (κ) value resulted in 98.21% agreement. A total of 229 participants were included. The BMPs were evaluated in five studies, and four evaluated the ABGs. The BMPs has been tested in 25.76% of the patients, while ABGs were studied in 74.24%. In order to evaluate the final result of regeneration, all the studies based their analysis on postoperative questionnaires, radiographical (CBCT and/or panoramic) and/or clinical examination. The results showed a higher regeneration success rate in the studies where the BMPs was used., Conclusions: Considering the limitations of the studies and the review, it has been shown that BMPs may yield favorable outcomes in terms of bone regeneration, as compared with ABGs.

Introduction: Pituitary adenomas (PAs) are benign tumors with high prevalence and, occasionally, aggressive course. The tumorigenesis of these lesions is not completely understood at the molecular level. BAK1 and BAX proteins play fundamental roles in apoptosis and seem to interact with VDAC proteins, whose expressions have been markedly altered in cancer, impacting their prognosis., Objective: to evaluate the gene expression of VDAC1, VDAC2, BAK1 and BAX and their association with clinical and imaging characteristics in PA., Methods: Clinical-epidemiological data were collected from 117 tumor samples from patients affected by PA. Invasiveness was assessed by the Knosp scale. Gene expression was examined by real-time PCR. Relative expression analysis was performed by 2^(-DDCt) method., Results: The sample was mainly composed of women (69/117 - 57.2%). Tumor subtypes observed were Non-Functioning (NF) (73/117 - 62.4%), Acromegaly (24/117 - 20.5%) and Cushing's Disease (CD) (20/117 - 17.1%). Compared to normal tissue, there was a significant reduction in VDAC1 expression in the Acromegaly (p=0.029) and NF (p=0.002) groups. BAX expression was lower in all groups (p <0.001; p=0.007; P =0.005). No difference was found in VDAC2 and BAK1 expression, compared to normal pituitary. Overexpression of VDAC2 occurred in PAs with post-surgical regrowth (p=0.042). A strongly negative correlation was observed in BAX and BAK1 expression in CD., Conclusion: The results indicated that downregulations of VDAC1 and BAX may be related to resistance to apoptosis. In contrast, overexpression of VDAC2 in regrowing PAs suggests an antiapoptotic role for this gene. In summary, the genes evaluated might be involved in the biopathology of PAs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Facundo, Magalhães, Nascimento, Azulay, Santos, Freitas, Nascimento, Rodrigues, Santos, Beckman, Abreu, Silva, Carneiro, Oliveira Neto, Gil da Costa, Corcoy, Mato and Faria.)

The erythrocyte S1P transporter Mfsd2b is also expressed in the heart. We hypothesized that S1P transport by Mfsd2b is involved in cardiac function. Hypertension-induced cardiac remodeling was induced by 4-weeks Angiotensin II (AngII) administration and assessed by echocardiography. Ca 2+ transients and sarcomere shortening were examined in adult cardiomyocytes (ACM) from Mfsd2b +/+ and Mfsd2b -/- mice. Tension and force development were measured in skinned cardiac fibers. Myocardial gene expression was determined by real-time PCR, Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) by enzymatic assay, and S1P by LC/MS, respectively. Msfd2b was expressed in the murine and human heart, and its deficiency led to higher cardiac S1P. Mfsd2b -/- mice had regular basal cardiac function but were protected against AngII-induced deterioration of left-ventricular function as evidenced by ~ 30% better stroke volume and cardiac index, and preserved ejection fraction despite similar increases in blood pressure. Mfsd2b -/- ACM exhibited attenuated Ca 2+ mobilization in response to isoprenaline whereas contractility was unchanged. Mfsd2b -/- ACM showed no changes in proteins responsible for Ca 2+ homeostasis, and skinned cardiac fibers exhibited reduced passive tension generation with preserved contractility. Verapamil abolished the differences in Ca 2+ mobilization between Mfsd2b +/+ and Mfsd2b -/- ACM suggesting that S1P inhibits L-type-Ca 2+ channels (LTCC). In agreement, intracellular S1P activated the inhibitory LTCC phosphatase PP2A in ACM and PP2A activity was increased in Mfsd2b -/- hearts. We suggest that myocardial S1P protects from hypertension-induced left-ventricular remodeling by inhibiting LTCC through PP2A activation. Pharmacologic inhibition of Mfsd2b may thus offer a novel approach to heart failure., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Podocyte degenerative changes are common in various kidney diseases, and their accurate identification is crucial for pathologists to diagnose and treat such conditions. However, this can be a difficult task, and previous attempts to automate the identification of podocytes have not been entirely successful. To address this issue, this study proposes a novel approach that combines pathologists' expertise with an automated classifier to enhance the identification of podocytopathies. The study involved building a new dataset of renal glomeruli images, some with and others without podocyte degenerative changes, and developing a convolutional neural network (CNN) based classifier. The results showed that our automated classifier achieved an impressive 90.9% f-score. When the pathologists used as an auxiliary tool to classify a second set of images, the medical group's average performance increased significantly, from [Formula: see text]% to [Formula: see text]% of f-score. Fleiss' kappa agreement among the pathologists also increased from 0.59 to 0.83. Conclusion: These findings suggest that automating this task can bring benefits for pathologists to correctly identify images of glomeruli with podocyte degeneration, leading to improved individual accuracy while raising agreement in diagnosing podocytopathies. This approach could have significant implications for the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases. Clinical impact: The approach presented in this study has the potential to enhance the accuracy of medical diagnoses for detecting podocyte abnormalities in glomeruli, which serve as biomarkers for various glomerular diseases., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Dengue virus (DENV) is a global health problem. Severe dengue can manifest with hemorrhage and signs of organ dysfunction, including the kidneys. The innate immune system is an important barrier against arbovirus infection and, specifically in dengue, the cytokines IL1β and IL18 and caspase-1 activation make up a set of host immune strategies. Cell death mechanisms include pyroptosis, necroptosis and autophagy, each with peculiar markers: gasdermin, RIPK3/MLKL, LC3, respectively. In DENV infection, necrosis and apoptosis are involved and, when infecting monocytes and macrophages in vitro, DENV is capable of inducing pyroptosis. Our objective was to explore the presence of markers of necroptosis, pyroptosis and autophagy in renal lesions caused by DENV., Material and Methods: twenty specimens of lesions from patients who died due to DENV infection, from the pathology department of Hospital Guilherme Álvaro, Santos, SP, were subjected to histological and immunohistochemical studies. Histological sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin to evaluate tissue changes or collected for research with antibodies: anti-DENV (Instituto Evandro Chagas-PA), RIPK3 (NBP2-45592), MLKL (ab184718), gasdermin D (#36425), LC3 (14600-AP), caspase 1 (#98033), IL1β (AF201-NA) and IL18 (SC6178). Semi-quantitative analysis was performed on 20 glomeruli and evaluation on tubules and mononuclear cells. This study was approved by the ethics committee of the USP Faculty of Medicine., Results: histological analysis demonstrated glomerular congestion, glomerulitis (medium to severe), acute kidney injury and hyalinization of the glomeruli. Viral antigens were visualized on mononuclear cells. LC3 (autophagy) expression ranged from moderate to intense (++/+++) in glomeruli, tubules and mononuclear cells. The expression of gasdermin (pyroptosis) was mild (+) in most cases in the glomeruli and moderate (++) in the tubules. RIPK3 and MLKL (necroptosis) mild in tubules and mononuclear cells (+). The expression of the cytokines IL1β and IL18 and caspase 1 was moderate (++). Statistical analysis showed greater expression of LC3 over the others., Conclusions: Our results contribute to the understanding of the pathogenesis of renal involvement in severe dengue, considering the likely anti-viral mechanism of autophagy. To a lesser extent, pyroptosis is also present, corroborating previous data., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and two phenethylamine classes (NBOHs and NBOMes) are the main illicit drugs found in seized blotter papers. The preliminary identification of these substances is of great interest for forensic analysis. In this context, this work constitutes the inaugural demonstration of an efficient methodology for the selective detection of LSD, NBOHs, and NBOMes, utilizing a fully 3D-printed electrochemical double cell (3D-EDC). This novel 3D-EDC enables the use of two working electrodes and/or two supporting electrolytes (at different pHs) in the same detection system, with the possibility of shared or individual auxiliary and pseudo-reference electrodes. Thus, the selective voltammetric detection of these substances is proposed using two elegant strategies: (i) utilizing the same 3D-EDC platform with two working electrodes (boron-doped diamond (BDD) and 3D-printed graphite), and (ii) employing two pH levels (4.0 and 12.0) with 3D-printed graphite electrode. This comprehensive framework facilitates a fast, robust, and uncomplicated electrochemical analysis. Moreover, this configuration enables a rapid and sensitive detection of LSD, NBOHs, and NBOMes in seized samples, and can also provide quantitative analysis. The proposed method showed good stability of the electrochemical response with RSD <9 % for I p and <5 % for E p , evaluating all oxidation processes observed for studied analytes (n = 7) at two pH levels, using the same and different (n = 3) working electrodes. It demonstrates a broad linear range (20-100 and 20-70 μmol L -1 ) and a low LOD (1.0 μmol L -1 ) for quantification of a model molecule (LSD) at the two pHs studied. Hence, the 3D-EDC combined with voltammetric techniques using BDD and 3D-printed graphite electrodes on the same platform, or only with this last sensor at two pH values, provide a practical and robust avenue for preliminary identification of NBOHs, NBOMes, and LSD. This method embodies ease, swiftness, cost-efficiency, robustness, and selectivity as an on-site screening tool for forensic analysis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and its treatment usually involves a combination of many medical procedures, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormonal therapy. One of the detrimental effects on physical function is reduced upper limb muscle strength. This study aimed to evaluate upper body strength intra-day and inter-day (test-retest) reliability using the handgrip strength test (HGS) and the bilateral isometric bench press (BIBP) and the test-retest reliability of the one repetition maximum on the bench press (BP-1RM) in breast cancer survivors (BCS). Thirty-two (52.94 ± 8.99 yrs) BCS participated in this study. The muscle strength tests were performed in two different moments, three to seven days apart. Intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CV) were used to assess the reliability. Standard error of measurement (SEM), typical error of measurement (TEM), and minimally detectable change (MDC) analyses were performed. The Bland-Altman analysis was used to assess the agreement between test-retest. We found a reliability that can be described as "high" to "very high" (ICC ≥ 0.88; CV ≤ 10%) for intra-day and test-retest. SEM% and MDC% were lower than 5% and 11%, respectively, for all intra-day testing. SEM% and TEM% ranged from 3% to 11%, and MDC% ranged from 9% to 23% in the test-retest reliability. The agreement demonstrated a systematic bias ranging from 2.3% to 6.0% for all testing, and a lower systematic bias may be presented in the non-treated side assessed by HGS and BIBP. HGS, BIBP, and BP-1RM assessments are reliable for measuring upper-body muscle strength in BCS., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2024 Santos et al.)

This study evaluated the responses of Carapichea ipecacuanha to sunlight stress-induced changes in the electron transport chain and its extended effects on alkaloid production (emetine and cephalin). The treatments consisted of: (i). 50, 70, and 90% shading (controls) and their respective exposure to full sunlight; besides, full sunlight (55 days of direct sun exposure). Photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll a fluorescence transient, antioxidant enzymatic system, and quantification of cephalin and emetine were analyzed. Several changes in the Chl a fluorescence induction were observed, such as a decline in the quantum yield of the conversion of photochemical energy and photosynthetic performance and; an increase in emetine production of plants exposed to full sunlight. These results demonstrated that ipecac plants are extremely sensitive to full exposure to solar radiation, especially in periods with high temperatures, such as in summer, however with increment in emetine production.

The blaNDM-1 gene and its variants encode metallo-beta-lactamases that confer resistance to almost all beta-lactam antibiotics. Genes encoding blaNDM-1 and its variants can be found in several Acinetobacter species, and they are usually linked to two different plasmid clades. The plasmids in one of these clades contain a gene encoding a Rep protein of the Rep&#95;3 superfamily. The other clade consists of medium-sized plasmids in which the gene (s) involved in plasmid replication initiation (rep)have not yet been identified. In the present study, we identified the minimal replication region of a blaNDM-1-carrying plasmid of Acinetobacter haemolyticus AN54 (pAhaeAN54e), a member of this second clade. This region of 834 paired bases encodes three small peptides, all of which have roles in plasmid maintenance. The plasmids containing this minimal replication region are closely related; almost all contain blaNDM genes, and they are found in multiple Acinetobacter species, including A. baumannii. None of these plasmids contain an annotated Rep gene, suggesting that their replication relies on the minimal replication region that they share with the plasmid pAhaeAN54e. These observations suggest that this plasmid lineage plays a crucial role in the dissemination of the blaNDM-1 gene and its variants., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Bello-López et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Patients undergoing chemotherapy with cisplatin commonly present gastrointestinal effects such as constipation and gastric emptying (GE) delay. Both the purinergic system and physical exercise modulate the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In the current study, we investigated the role of ATP, physical exercise, and P2X7 receptor blocking on GE delay induced by cisplatin in rats. Male rats were divided into the following groups: control (C), cisplatin (Cis), exercise (Ex), Brilliant Blue G (BBG), ATP, Cis+Ex, Cis+ATP, Cis+BBG, Cis+Ex+BBG, Cis+Ex+BBG+ATP, and Cis+ATP+BBG. GE delay was induced by treatment with 1 mg/kg cisplatin (1 time/week for 5 weeks, ip). The moderate physical exercise was swimming (1 h/day, 5 days/week for 5 weeks). At the end of the treatment or exercise and 30 min before the GE assessment, some groups received BBG (50 mg/kg, sc) or ATP (2 mg/kg, sc). Then, GE was assessed after a 10-min postprandial period. Chronic use of Cis decreased GE delay (P<0.05) compared to the control group. Both exercise and ATP prevented (P<0.05) GE delay compared to Cis. The pretreatment with BBG significantly inhibited (P<0.05) the effect of exercise and ATP. On the other hand, the association between exercise and ATP reversed (P<0.05) the effect of the BBG and prevented GE delay. Therefore, we suggest that both exercise and treatment with ATP activate P2X7 receptors and prevent GE delay induced by cisplatin in rats.

Proteins are biological units whose essence is defined by their functional relationships with other proteins or biomolecules such as RNA, DNA, lipids, or carbohydrates. These functions encompass enzymatic, structural, regulatory, or physical interaction roles. The STRING database (Nucleic Acids Research, 8 Jan 2021;49(D1): D605-12) provides an index that defines the functional interaction networks between proteins in model organisms. To facilitate the identification, visualization, and evaluation of potential functional networks across organisms from different phylogenetic lineages, we have developed PhyloString (https://biocomputo.ibt.unam.mx/phylostring/), a web server that utilizes the indices of the STRING database. PhyloString decomposes these functional networks into modules, representing cohesive units of proteins grouped based on their similarity of STRING values and the phylogenetic origins of their respective organisms. This study presents and thoroughly discusses examples of such functional networks and their modules identified using PhyloString., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Dorantes-Torres et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is one of the primary sources of animal protein for the Brazilian population. Thus, the safety of this food is highly relevant. This study was based on the evidence of severe contamination of these animals by metals such as lead in Santo Amaro, Bahia. This exploratory study aimed to evaluate associations between lead levels in blood of chicken exposed to a contaminated area with the occurrence of chromosomal alterations, evidencing genotoxic effects. Serum lead analysis was performed by GF-AAS after dilution with a matrix modifier solution (Triton X-100 0.2% v/v and HNO3 0.1% v/v), while chromosomal damage was evaluated using the comet assay. The results showed genotoxic effects (positive comet assay) only for the specimen sample with higher serum lead concentrations (33.9 µg dL-1), suggesting the occurrence of toxic effects at this level of exposure. This work evaluated a relationship between the reduction of serum lead levels in chicken and increased distance from the primary polluting source - a lead processing plant (COBRAC). It also showed that lead is bioavailable in this territory, contaminating chicken and causing genotoxic effects in these animals, further expanding the concern with the local biota and the health of the residents of Santo Amaro.

Individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more susceptible to exacerbation crisis triggered by secondary lung infections due to the dysfunction of antiviral signaling, principally via suppression of IFN-γ. Although the probiotic is known for controlling pulmonary inflammation in COPD, the influence of the Lactobacillus rhamnosus (Lr) on antiviral signaling in bronchial epithelium exposed to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) and viruses, remains unknown. Thus, the present study investigated the Lr effect on the antiviral signaling and the secretion of inflammatory mediators from bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE cells) exposed to CSE and SARS-CoV-2. The 16HBE cells were cultured, treated with Lr, stimulated with CSE, and infected with SARS-CoV-2. The cellular viability was evaluated using the MTT assay and cytotoxicity measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. The viral load, TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR7, TLR8, MAVS, MyD88, and TRIF were quantified using specific PCR. The pro-inflammatory mediators were measured by a multiplex biometric immunoassay, and angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activity, NF-κB, RIG-I, MAD5, and IRF3 were measured using specific ELISA kits. Lr decreased viral load, ACE2, pro-inflammatory mediators, TLR2, TLR4, NF-κB, TLR3, TLR7, and TLR8 as well as TRIF and MyD88 expression in CSE and SARS-CoV-2 -exposed 16HBE cells. Otherwise, RIG-I, MAD5, IRF3, IFN-γ, and the MAVS expression were restored in 16HBE cells exposed to CSE and SARS-CoV-2 and treated with Lr. Lr induces antiviral signaling associated to IFN-γ secreting viral sensors and attenuates cytokine storm associated to NF-κB in bronchial epithelial cells, supporting its emerging role in prevention of COPD exacerbation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: This study aimed to assess whether prior knowledge of computer use determines performance of virtual reality tasks by postmenopausal women and whether menopausal symptoms, sociodemographic factors, lifestyle and cognition modify or interfere with their performance., Method: This cross-sectional study included 152 postmenopausal women divided into two groups: computer users and non-users. Age, ethnicity, time of menopause, menopausal symptoms, female health status, level of physical activity and cognitive function were considered. The participants played a virtual reality game and were assessed for hits, errors, omissions and game time. The Mann-Whitney, chi-square and Fisher exact tests and multivariate linear regression analysis were used., Results: Postmenopausal computer users play virtual reality games ( p  = 0.005) better than postmenopausal non-users of computers. Vasomotor symptoms were high in women who used computers compared to those who did not ( p  = 0.006). Multivariate linear regression analysis found that the best-fitting predictors for the number of hits - that is, age ( p  = 0.039), Mini-Mental State Examination score ( p  = 0.006) and the headache symptom ( p  = 0.021) - influence the performance of virtual reality tasks., Conclusion: Computer users performed virtual reality tasks better than non-users. Headache and age but not vasomotor symptoms negatively affected the postmenopausal women's performance.

The concept of cognitive radio (CR) as a tool to optimize the obstacle of spectral coexistence has promoted the development of shared satellite-terrestrial wireless networks. Nevertheless, in some applications like Earth Exploration Satellite Services, which demand high spectral efficiency (bps/Hz) for downlink transmissions, spectral coexistence amidst interferences from cellular Base Stations is still challenging. Our research aims to mitigate these interferences on low-orbit satellite downlinks carrying imaging data received from a ground station. In order to fulfill this, we present cognitive radio approaches to enhance spectrum exploitation and introduce the adaptive modulation and coding (MODCOD) technique to increase RF power and spectral efficiencies. Therefore, we propose a combined methodology using CR and adaptive MODCOD (ACM) techniques. Afterwards, we applied the solution by monitoring the signal to interference plus noise ratio and the MODCOD strategy. Finally, we provide a real in situ case study at the Cuiabá ground station located in Brazil's central area, which receives images from an Earth observation satellite (EOS). In addition to demonstrating the strategy effectiveness in this scenario, we conducted a bench test emulating the interfering wireless communication system. In this sense, we demonstrated the proposed approach, successfully mitigating the harmful effects on the received EOS images.

The development of new drugs through studies of candidate molecules is a complex undertaking; however, computational or in silico approaches aimed at optimizing molecules with greater development potential are being utilized for predictions of pharmacokinetic properties such as absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) as well as toxicological parameters. The objective of this study was to examine in silico and in vivo pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties of the chemical constituents present in the essential oil of Croton heliotropiifolius Kunth leaves. The following Pubchem platform as well as Software SwissADME and PreADMET software were employed for in silico studies while micronucleus (MN) testing for in vivo determination of mutagenicity, using Swiss adult male Mus musculus mice. In silico findings demonstrated that all chemical constituents presented (1) high oral absorption (2) medium cellular permeability and (3) high blood brain permeability. As for toxicity, these chemical constituents exhibited low to medium risk of occurrence of cytotoxicity. Regarding in vivo evaluation, peripheral blood samples obtained from animals tested with the oil showed no significant differences in number of MN compared to negative controls. Data indicate that further investigations are necessary to corroborate the findings of this study. Our data suggest that essential oil extracted from Croton heliotropiifolius Kunth leaves may serve as a candidate for new drug development.

Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effects of foam roller or stick massage performed after exercise-induced muscle damage protocols on indirect markers of muscle damage compared to a non-intervention control group in healthy individuals., Methods: PubMed, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library database were searched in August 2, 2020, with last update on February 21, 2021. Were included clinical trials involving healthy adult individuals who received foam roller/stick massage versus a non-intervention group and evaluated indirect markers of muscle damage. Risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane Risk of Bias tools. Standardized mean differences with 95% confidence intervals were used to measure the foam roller/stick massage effect on muscle soreness., Results: The five included studies investigated 151 participants (136 men). Overall, the studies presented a moderate/high risk of bias. A between-groups meta-analysis showed no significant difference between massage and non-intervention control groups on muscle soreness immediately after (0.26 [95%CI: 0.14; 0.65], p = 0.20), 24 h (-0.64 [95%CI: 1.34; 0.07], p = 0.08), 48 h (-0.35 [95%CI: 0.85; 0.15], p = 0.17), 72 h (-0.40 [95%CI: 0.92; 0.12], p = 0.13), and 96 h (0.05 [95%CI: 0.40; 0.50], p = 0.82) after an exercise-induced muscle damage protocol. Moreover, the qualitative synthesis showed that foam roller or stick massage had no significant effect on range of motion, muscle swelling, and maximal voluntary isometric contraction recovery., Conclusion: In conclusion, the current literature appears to not support the advantage of foam roller or stick massage to improve recovery of muscle damage indirect markers (muscle soreness, range of motion, muscle swelling, and maximal voluntary isometric contraction) compared to a non-intervention control group in healthy individuals. Furthermore, due to the heterogeneity of the methodological designs among the included studies, making it difficult to compare the results. In addition, there are not enough high-quality and well-designed studies on foam roller or stick massage to draw any definite conclusions., Review Protocol Number: The study was pre-registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Review (PROSPERO) on August 2, 2020, with last update on February 21, 2021. Protocol number: CRD2017058559., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest, or financial, or other interest in any product or product distributor., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To compare the acute effects of rhythmic stabilization (RS) and stabilizer reversal (SR) techniques of PNF on the balance of sedentary elderly women., Methods: Women aged (≥70) were allocated into three groups: RS, SR and control (CR). The experimental groups (RS and SR) performed balance exercises with the addition of rhythmic stabilization techniques (RS group) or with stabilizers reversal (SR group) for 15 min. The CR group performed the exercises without adding the PNF stabilization techniques. Participants performed the Time Up and Go (TUG) test, the Functional Reach Test (FRT) and static and dynamic stabilometry pre and post intervention. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used for comparison between groups and post hoc analysis, respectively, with p ≤ 0.05. For the effect size measurements, the r for Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney signal were used., Results: For functional tests intra-group analysis, a reduction in TUG time and an increase in FRT range (p ≤ 0.05) were observed in RS e SR groups. Stabilometry analysis showed a significant difference only for the RS group, with reduced average velocity of the centre of pressure (COP), and an increased in the left foot pressure., Conclusions: A single RS or SR session reduced the TUG time and the range distance in the FRT in elderly women. A single session of the RS technique was also able to reduce the mean velocity of the COP and the maximum pressure on the left foot., Impact: This study shows an easy-to-apply methods without additional materials that can help prevent falls in the elderly., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that they have. No affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or nonfinancial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript “Acute effects of different Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation stabilization techniques on the balance of elderly women”., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: It is hypothesized that suboptimal soft tissue and collateral ligament balance is a cause of patient dissatisfaction following total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This analysis examined the association between compartment pressures during TKA and patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs)., Methods: This single-institution, retrospective cohort study of prospectively collected compartment pressure data measured during TKA comprised 145 patients who underwent surgery between 2015 and 2021 and completed 1-year follow-up PROMs. The primary outcome included pressures, in pounds (lbs), of the medial and lateral compartments in extension (5°), mid-flexion (45°), and flexion (90°), and associated PROMs. The difference been the 1-year and preoperative PROMs was used to separate the top 25% from the bottom 75% performers. Pressures were compared using Student's T-tests and multivariate linear regressions, while controlling for preoperative deformity. A subgroup analysis of the most popular implant was performed., Results: Higher medial compartment pressures were seen in our total cohort (Knee Society Score (KSS) mid-flexion 24 versus 18 lbs, P = .03, flexion 24 versus 17 lbs P = .01) and within our subgroup analysis (Short form- Mental (SF-M) extension 32 versus 21 lbs P = .01, KSS mid-flexion 27 versus 16 lbs P = .005, extension 31 versus 20 lbs P = .003). This trend persisted in the subgroup analysis when controlling for preoperative deformity (KSS extension +16.22 lbs P ≤ .001, mid-flexion +17.6 lbs. P = .001, and flexion +9.2 lbs, P = .005)., Conclusion: Several groups demonstrated higher medial versus lateral pressures. However, this pattern was not consistent across PROMs, suggesting that compartment pressures at the time of TKA are an important factor but not the sole predictor of patient satisfaction., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Anagrelide (ANG) is a widely used drug for the treatment of essential thrombocytosis and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Recently, a new oxidative degradant was identified when the drug product capsule underwent stress testing. Full structural characterization of this previously unidentified degradant was conducted. Preliminary LC-MS analysis indicated the targeted degradant as a mono-oxygenated product of ANG. For the purpose of facile isolation and purification, various forced degradation conditions were screened to enrich the desired degradant, among which, pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC)-treatment effectively afforded a yield of 55 % unknown degradant. Following isolation by prep-HPLC, 1D and 2D NMR studies and HRMS characterization assigned the products as a pair of 5-hydroxy-Anagrelide (5-OH-ANG) enantiomers. A plausible mechanism of formation is proposed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag from steelmaking could be applied as a binder in building materials, reducing the CO 2 footprint and solid waste, which is relevant for industrial waste management and circular economy. However, its use is mostly restricted because its hydraulic activity is poorly understood. The BOF slag was hydrated in this study, and its reaction products were systematically characterized using XRD, QXRD, and SEM/EDX-based phase mapping. Internal consistency checks of the data were performed between the analytical techniques. The results revealed that the composition of the amorphous hydration products could be identified and quantified, and the main hydration products were hydrogarnets and C-S-H gel. An extended milling process significantly improved the reactivity, and all the major slag phases, including wüstite, participated in the reaction. Brownmillerite formed hydrogarnets during the first 7 days of hydration. The new hydration products contributed to the immobilization of vanadium and chromium. Particle size played an important role in the amount of C 2 S reacting, the composition of the hydrogarnets and C-S-H gel, their proportions, and the immobilization capacity. Based on the findings, an overall hydration reaction was developed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: This study aims to estimate the overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and evaluate the accuracy of an antibody rapid test compared to a reference serological assay during a COVID-19 outbreak in a prison complex housing over 13,000 prisoners in Brasília., Design/methodology/approach: The authors obtained a randomized, stratified representative sample of each prison unit and conducted a repeated serosurvey among prisoners between June and July 2020, using a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA). Samples were also retested using a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) to compare SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and 21-days incidence, as well as to estimate the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) and determine the diagnostic accuracy of the LFIA test., Findings: This study identified 485 eligible individuals and enrolled 460 participants. Baseline and 21-days follow-up seroprevalence were estimated at 52.0% (95% CI 44.9-59.0) and 56.7% (95% CI 48.2-65.3) with LFIA; and 80.7% (95% CI 74.1-87.3) and 81.1% (95% CI 74.4-87.8) with CLIA, with an overall IFR of 0.02%. There were 78.2% (95% CI 66.7-89.7) symptomatic individuals among the positive cases. Sensitivity and specificity of LFIA were estimated at 43.4% and 83.3% for IgM; 46.5% and 91.5% for IgG; and 59.1% and 77.3% for combined tests., Originality/value: The authors found high seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the prison complex. The occurrence of asymptomatic infection highlights the importance of periodic mass testing in addition to case-finding of symptomatic individuals; however, the field performance of LFIA tests should be validated. This study recommends that vaccination strategies consider the inclusion of prisoners and prison staff in priority groups., (© Emerald Publishing Limited.)

One of the main characteristics of prokaryotic genomes is the ratio in which guanine-cytosine bases are used in their DNA sequences. This is known as the genomic GC content and varies widely, from values below 20% to values greater than 74%. It has been demonstrated that the genomic GC content varies in accordance with the phylogenetic distribution of organisms and influences the amino acid composition of their corresponding proteomes. This bias is particularly important for amino acids that are coded by GC content-rich codons such as alanine, glycine, and proline, as well as amino acids that are coded by AT-rich codons, such as lysine, asparagine, and isoleucine. In our study, we extend these results by considering the effect of the genomic GC content on the secondary structure of proteins. On a set of 192 representative prokaryotic genomes and proteome sequences, we identified through a bioinformatic study that the composition of the secondary structures of the proteomes varies in relation to the genomic GC content; random coils increase as the genomic GC content increases, while alpha-helices and beta-sheets present an inverse relationship. In addition, we found that the tendency of an amino acid to form part of a secondary structure of proteins is not ubiquitous, as previously expected, but varies according to the genomic GC content. Finally, we discovered that for some specific groups of orthologous proteins, the GC content of genes biases the composition of secondary structures of the proteins for which they code., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Barceló-Antemate et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: To investigate the influence of different ultra-soft toothbrushes on the progression of erosive tooth wear (ETW)., Methods: Bovine enamel and dentin specimens (n = 10) were submitted to a 5-day erosive-abrasive cycling model (0.3% citric acid for 5 min, artificial saliva for 60 min, 4x/day). Toothbrushing was carried out 2x/day for 15 s, with the different toothbrushes tested (A- Edel White: flexible handle, tapered bristles; B- Oral-B Gengiva Detox: regular handle, criss-cross tapered bristles; C- Colgate Gengiva Therapy: flexible handle, tapered bristles, high tuft density; d- Oral-B Expert Gengiva Sensi: regular handle, round end bristles, high tuft density; E- Oral-B Indicator Plus: soft brush, round end bristles (control). Surface loss (SL, in μm) was assessed by optical profilometry. The toothbrush characteristics were evaluated by a surgical microscope. Data were statistically analyzed (α=0.05)., Results: For enamel, toothbrush C showed the highest SL (means±SD: 9.86 ± 1.28) and it did not differ significantly from A (8.60 ± 0.50), both with flexible handles. The lowest SL was observed for the toothbrush Control E (6.76 ± 0.63), which differed significantly from A and C, but not from the other toothbrushes. For dentin, the highest SL was found for toothbrush D (6.97 ± 1.05) and it did not differ significantly from E (6.23 ± 0.71). The lowest SL was observed for B (4.61 ± 0.71) and C (4.85 + 0.83), without significant differences from A (5.01 ± 1.24)., Conclusions: The ultra-soft toothbrushes had different impacts on the progression of ETW on the dental substrates. On enamel, higher ETW values were observed for the flexible handle toothbrushes, while for dentin, round-end bristles (ultra-soft and soft) caused more ETW., Clinical Significance: Knowledge about the effect of different ultra-soft toothbrushes on ETW can help clinicians to recommend the most suitable types for their patients, bearing in mind that toothbrushes can impact enamel and dentin differently., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This study aimed to profile the clinical progression, demographics, and oxidative status of COVID-19 patients, correlating with disease severity. The study included 143 participants: 93 patients with COVID-19 (28 outpatients, 65 inpatients), and 50 control participants. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) was used as an oxidative damage marker. Antioxidant activity was assessed via quantification of Vitamin C, sulfhydryl groups, ferric reduction ability of plasma (FRAP), Uric acid (UA), and evaluation of delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase (δ-ALA-D) enzymatic activity. Geriatric patients, especially men, with comorbidities such as obesity and/or chronic diseases were more likely to develop the most severe form of COVID-19. The activity of the δ-ALA-D was lower in inpatients, and there was no significant difference with the outpatient. Antioxidants decreased in COVID-19 groups, while lipid peroxidation increased. FRAP and Vitamin C decreased with evolution of the disease. Oxidative stress could be used as a predictor of worsening clinical condition., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Zebrafish is an important animal model, thousands lines have been developed, thus having a great need for their preservation. However, the cryopreservation of fish oocytes is still limited and needs improvement. The sodium alginate hydrogel, in addition to providing support for the cells, has been shown to be a potential cryoprotectant. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the sodium alginate hydrogel encapsulation technique efficiency during zebrafish ovarian tissue vitrification. The encapsulation methodology was standardized in the first experiment. In Experiment 2, we evaluated four vitrified groups: standard protocol without encapsulation (VS); encapsulated with cryoprotectants (VS1-A); encapsulated with half the cryoprotectants concentration (VS2-A); encapsulated without cryoprotectants (VA). VS treatment (54.6 ± 12.3%; 23.7 ± 9.9%; 12.6 ± 5.0%) did not differ from the VS1-A and VA showed a lower membrane integrity percentage (1.2 ± 1.4%; 0.3 ± 0.6%; 0.5 ± 1.5%). Mitochondrial activity was significantly greater in non-encapsulated treatment (VS) when compared to the encapsulated treatments. VS1-A and VS obtained the lowest lipid peroxidation (39.4 ± 4.4 and 40.5 ± 3.3 nmol MDA/mg respectively) in which VS was not significantly different from the VS2-A treatment (63.6 ± 3.1 nmol MDA/mg), unlike, VA obtained the highest lipid peroxidation level (124.7 ± 7.9 nmol MDA/mg). The results obtained in this study demonstrate that the sodium alginate hydrogel encapsulation technique did not have a cryoprotective action, but maintained the membrane integrity when used the standard concentration of cryoprotectants. However, halving the cryoprotectant concentration of fragments encapsulated in alginate hydrogel did not cause an increase in lipid peroxidation. In addition, it provided support and prevented the oocytes from loosening from the tissue during the vitrification process, being an interesting alternative for later in vitro maturation., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Accreditation processes for health care professions are designed to ensure that individuals and programs in these fields meet established standards of quality and effectiveness. The accelerating pace of globalization in the health care professions has increased the need for a shared understanding of the vocabulary of evaluation, assessment, and accreditation. The psychometric principles of valid and reliable assessment are commonly accepted, but the terminology is confusing. We believe that all stakeholders - evaluators, faculty, students but also the community - will benefit from a shared language and common set of definitions. We recognize that not all readers will agree with the definitions we propose, but we hope that this guide will help to ensure clarity, consistency, transparency, and fairness, and that it will promote through the stimulation of a debate greater collaboration across national and international boundaries., (Copyright: © 2023 Sousa N et al.)

ABC transporters have long been known to mediate resistance phenotypes in all kingdoms of life, and ATP-driven tripartite efflux pump from Gram-negative bacteria have attracted increasing interest. We give a special focus on MacAB TolC, a prototypical member of the recently described Type VII ABC transporter superfamily, from Escherichia coli. We provide original experimental evidence for the in vitro, substrate-induced ATPase activity and show a maximal activity when the tripartite pump is fully assembled in lipid nanodiscs. These results are evaluated and interpreted in the context of the structural and functional data that have accumulated over the years., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors have approved the final article., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare and exacerbates the existing insecurities of sex workers. This paper asks: What are sex workers' everyday experiences of (in)security? And: How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced these?, Methods: We engage with these questions through collaborative research based on semi-structured interviews carried out in 2019 and 2020 with sex workers in The Hague, the Netherlands., Results: Revealing a stark mismatch between the insecurities that sex workers' experience and the concerns enshrined in regulation, our analysis shows that sex workers' everyday insecurities involve diverse concerns regarding their occupational safety and health, highlighting that work insecurity is more multi-faceted than sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Widespread employment and income insecurities for sex workers are exacerbated for transwomen and male sex workers. Their legal liminality is enabled not only by the opaque legal status of sex work in the Netherlands, but also by the gendering of official regulation. The COVID-19 pandemic made visible how the sexual and gender norms that informally govern sex workers' working conditions intersect with hierarchies of citizenship, complicating access to COVID-19 support, particularly for migrant sex workers., Conclusions: Sex work regulation in the Netherlands leaves workers in a limbo-not without obligations and surveillance, yet, without the full guarantee of their labour rights., Policy Implications: To effectively address sex workers' insecurities, a shift in regulation from its current biopolitical focus to a labour approach is necessary. Besides, public policy and civil society actors alike need to address the sex industry's harmful social regulation through hierarchies of gender, sexuality and race., Competing Interests: Competing InterestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.

With the pressing antibiotic resistance pandemic, antivirulence has been increasingly explored as an alternative strategy against bacterial infections. The bacterial type IV pilus (T4P) is a well-documented virulence factor and an attractive target for small molecules for antivirulence purposes. The PilB ATPase is essential for T4P biogenesis because it catalyzes the assembly of monomeric pilins into the polymeric pilus filament. Here, we describe the identification of two PilB inhibitors by a high-throughput screen (HTS) in vitro and their validation as effective inhibitors of T4P assembly in vivo . We used Chloracidobacterium thermophilum PilB as a model enzyme to optimize an ATPase assay for the HTS. From a library of 2,320 compounds, benserazide and levodopa, two approved drugs for Parkinson's disease, were identified and confirmed biochemically to be PilB inhibitors. We demonstrate that both compounds inhibited the T4P-dependent motility of the bacteria Myxoccocus xanthus and Acinetobacter nosocomialis. Additionally, benserazide and levodopa were shown to inhibit A. nosocomialis biofilm formation, a T4P-dependent process. Using M. xanthus as a model, we showed that both compounds inhibited T4P assembly in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that these two compounds are effective against the PilB protein in vivo. The potency of benserazide and levodopa as PilB inhibitors both in vitro and in vivo demonstrate potentials of the HTS and its two hits here for the development of anti-T4P chemotherapeutics. IMPORTANCE Many bacterial pathogens use their type IV pilus (T4P) to facilitate and maintain an infection in a human host. Small-molecule inhibitors of the production or assembly of the T4P are promising for the treatment and prevention of infections by these bacteria, especially in our fight against antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Here, we report the development and implementation of a method to identify anti-T4P chemicals from compound libraries by high-throughput screen. This led to the identification and validation of two T4P inhibitors both in the test tubes and in bacteria. The discovery and validation pipeline reported here as well as the confirmation of two anti-T4P inhibitors provide new venues and leads for the development of chemotherapeutics against antibiotic-resistant infections.

The determination of The Radial Basis Function Network centers is an open problem. This work determines the cluster centers by a proposed gradient algorithm, using the information forces acting on each data point. These centers are applied to a Radial Basis Function Network for data classification. A threshold is established based on Information Potential to classify the outliers. The proposed algorithms are analysed based on databases considering the number of clusters, overlap of clusters, noise, and unbalance of cluster sizes. Combined, the threshold, and the centers determined by information forces, show good results in comparison to a similar Network with a k-means clustering algorithm.

Phishing is an attack characterized by attempted fraud against users. The attacker develops a malicious page that is a trusted environment, inducing its victims to submit sensitive data. There are several platforms, such as PhishTank and OpenPhish, that maintain databases on malicious pages to support anti-phishing solutions, such as, for example, block lists and machine learning. A problem with this scenario is that many of these databases are disorganized, inconsistent, and have some limitations regarding integrity and balance. In addition, because phishing is so volatile, considerable effort is put into preserving temporal information from each malicious page. To contribute, this article built a phishing database with consistent and balanced data, temporal information, and a significant number of occurrences, totaling 942,471 records over the 5 years between 2016 and 2021. Of these records, 135,542 preserve the page's source code, 258,416 have the attack target brand detected, 70,597 have the hosting service identified, and 15,008 have the shortener service discovered. Additionally, 123,285 records store WHOIS information of the domain registered in 2021. The data is available on the website https://piracema.io/repository., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The current study sought to evaluate the acute effects of phloretin (PH) on metabolic pathways involved in the maintenance of glycemia, specifically gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis, in the perfused rat liver. The acute effects of PH on energy metabolism and toxicity parameters in isolated hepatocytes and mitochondria, as well as its effects on the activity of a few key enzymes, were also evaluated. PH inhibited gluconeogenesis from different substrates, stimulated glycogenolysis and glycolysis, and altered oxygen consumption. The citric acid cycle activity was inhibited by PH under gluconeogenic conditions. Similarly, PH reduced the cellular ATP/ADP and ATP/AMP ratios under gluconeogenic and glycogenolytic conditions. In isolated mitochondria, PH inhibited the electron transport chain and the F o F 1 -ATP synthase complex as well as acted as an uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation, inhibiting the synthesis of ATP. PH also decreased the activities of malate dehydrogenase, glutamate dehydrogenase, glucose 6-phosphatase, and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Part of the bioenergetic effects observed in isolated mitochondria was shown in isolated hepatocytes, in which PH inhibited mitochondrial respiration and decreased ATP levels. An aggravating aspect might be the finding that PH promotes the net oxidation of NADH, which contradicts the conventional belief that the compound operates as an antioxidant. Although trypan blue hepatocyte viability tests revealed substantial losses in cell viability over 120 min of incubation, PH did not promote extensive enzyme leakage from injured cells. In line with this effect, only after a lengthy period of infusion did PH considerably stimulate the release of enzymes into the effluent perfusate of livers. In conclusion, the increased glucose release caused by enhanced glycogenolysis, along with suppression of gluconeogenesis, is the opposite of what is predicted for antihyperglycemic agents. These effects were caused in part by disruption of mitochondrial bioenergetics, a result that should be considered when using PH for therapeutic purposes, particularly over long periods and in large doses., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The growing availability of scanned whole-slide images (WSIs) has allowed nephropathology to open new possibilities for medical decision-making over high-resolution images. Diagnosis of renal WSIs includes locating and identifying specific structures in the tissue. Considering the glomerulus as one of the first structures analyzed by pathologists, we propose here a novel convolutional neural network for glomerulus segmentation. Our end-to-end network, named DS-FNet, combines the strengths of semantic segmentation and semantic boundary detection networks via an attention-aware mechanism. Although we trained the proposed network on periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-stained WSIs, we found that our network was capable to segment glomeruli on WSIs stained with different techniques, such as periodic acid-methenamine silver (PAMS), hematoxylin-eosin (HE), and Masson trichrome (TRI). To assess the performance of the proposed method, we used three public data sets: HuBMAP (available in a Kaggle competition), a subset of the NEPTUNE data set, and a novel challenging data set, called WSI&#95;Fiocruz. We compared the DS-FNet with six other deep learning networks: original U-Net, our attention version of U-Net called AU-Net, U-Net++, U-Net3Plus, ResU-Net, and DeepLabV3+. Results showed that DS-FNet achieved equivalent or superior results on all data sets: On the HuBMAP data set, it reached a dice score (DSC) of 95.05%, very close to the first place (95.15%); on the NEPTUNE and WSI&#95;Fiocruz data sets, DS-FNet obtained the highest average DSC, whether on PAS-stained images or images stained with other techniques. To the best we know, this is the first work to show consistently high performance in a one-to-many-stain glomerulus segmentation following a thorough protocol on data sets from different medical labs., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is less frequent in young adults, but it has become a significant health problem, associated with the increasing prevalence of modifiable risk factors., Objectives: To characterize patients admitted with premature ACS, comparing with those with nonpremature ACS., Methods: We performed a retrospective study encompassing patients of the Portuguese Registry (ProACS), comparing two groups: one composed of men less than 55 and women less than 65 years old; and other with men ≥55 and women ≥65 years old at the ACS admission. The primary endpoint was the composite of in-hospital mortality, stroke and myocardial reinfarction (re-MI)., Results: A total of 29 870 patients were enrolled and 25% had premature ACS, with a mean age of 50 ± 7 years old. They had a larger prevalence of smoking habits, obesity and dyslipidemia. ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) was the main admission diagnosis in young patients and coronary angiogram mainly revealed one vessel disease in this subgroup. They had a lower Killip-Kimball (KK) class and mostly preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Composite endpoint was more frequent in nonpremature ACS patients. Nonpremature age, presentation with syncope or cardiac arrest, KK class >1, multivessel disease and LVEF <40% were independent predictors of the primary endpoint ( P  < 0.001). Younger patients had lower rates of in-hospital all-cause mortality, re-MI and stroke. One-year all-cause mortality and 1-year cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular readmissions were also lower., Conclusions: Premature ACS affects 25% of the ACS population, mostly presenting with STEMI, but generally associated with better clinical evolution. Nevertheless, prevention measures are essential to correct modifiable cardiovascular risk factors and reduce coronary events., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Lynch syndrome (LS) is the most common hereditary colorectal cancer (CRC) syndrome, characterized by germline pathogenic variants in mismatch repair (MMR)-related genes that lead to microsatellite instability. Patients who meet the clinical criteria for LS and MMR deficiency and without any identified germline pathogenic variants are frequently considered to have Lynch-like syndrome (LLS). These patients have a higher risk of CRC and extracolonic tumors, and little is known about their underlying genetic causes. We investigated the germline spectrum of LLS patients through whole-exome sequencing (WES). A total of 20 unrelated patients with MMR deficiency who met the clinical criteria for LS and had no germline variant were subjected to germline WES. Variant classification was performed according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) criteria. Pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants were identified in 35% of patients in known cancer genes such as MUTYH and ATM . Besides this, rare and potentially pathogenic variants were identified in the DNA repair gene POLN and other cancer-related genes such as PPARG , CTC1 , DCC and ALPK1 . Our study demonstrates the germline mutational status of LLS patients, a population at high risk of colorectal cancer.

Background: Soft tissue balancing in TKA has traditionally relied on surgeons' subjective tactile feedback. Although sensor-guided balancing devices have been proposed to provide more objective feedback, it is unclear whether their use improves patient outcomes., Questions/purposes: We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing freehand balancing with the use of a sensor-guided balancing device and evaluated (1) knee ROM, (2) patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) (SF-12, WOMAC, and Knee Society Functional Scores [KSFS]), and (3) various surgical and hospital parameters (such as operative time, length of stay [LOS], and surgical complications) at a minimum of 2 years of follow-up., Methods: A total of 152 patients scheduled for primary TKA were recruited and provided informed consent to participate in this this study. Of these, 22 patients were excluded preoperatively, intraoperatively, or postoperatively due to patient request, surgery cancellation, anatomical exclusion criteria determined during surgery, technical issues with the sensor device, or loss to follow-up. After the minimum 2-year follow-up was accounted for, there were 63 sensor-guided and 67 freehand patients, for a total of 130 patients undergoing primary TKA for osteoarthritis. The procedures were performed by one of three fellowship-trained arthroplasty surgeons (RPS, HJC, JAG) and were randomized to either soft tissue balancing via a freehand technique or with a sensor-guided balancing device at one institution from December 2017 to December 2018. There was no difference in the mean age (72 ± 8 years versus 70 ± 9 years, mean difference 2; p = 0.11), BMI (30 ± 6 kg/m 2 versus 29 ± 6 kg/m 2 , mean difference 1; p = 0.83), gender (79% women versus 70% women; p = 0.22), and American Society of Anesthesiology score (2 ± 1 versus 2 ± 1, mean difference 0; p = 0.92) between the sensor-guided and freehand groups, respectively. For both groups, soft tissue balancing was performed after all bony cuts were completed and trial components inserted, with the primary difference in technique being the ability to quantify the intercompartmental balance using the trial tibial insert embedded with a wireless sensor in the sensor-guided cohort. Implant manufacturers were not standardized. Primary outcomes were knee ROM and PROMs at 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years. Secondary outcomes included pain level evaluated by the VAS, opioid consumption, inpatient physical therapy performance, LOS, discharge disposition, surgical complications, and reoperations., Results: There was no difference in the mean knee ROM at 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively between the sensor-guided cohort (113° ± 11°, 119° ± 13°, and 116° ± 12°, respectively) and the freehand cohort (116° ± 13° [p = 0.36], 117° ± 13° [p = 0.41], and 117° ± 12° [p = 0.87], respectively). There was no difference in SF-12 physical, SF-12 mental, WOMAC pain, WOMAC stiffness, WOMAC function, and KSFS scores between the cohorts at 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively. The mean operative time in the sensor-guided cohort was longer than that in the freehand cohort (107 ± 0.02 versus 84 ± 0.04 minutes, mean difference = 23 minutes; p = 0.008), but there were no differences in LOS, physical therapy performance, VAS pain scores, opioid consumption, discharge disposition, surgical complications, or percentages of patients in each group who underwent reoperation., Conclusion: This RCT demonstrated that at 2 years postoperatively, the use of a sensor-balancing device for soft tissue balancing in TKA did not confer any additional benefit in terms of knee ROM, PROMs, and clinical outcomes. Given the significantly increased operative time and costs associated with the use of a sensor-balancing device, we recommend against its routine use in clinical practice by experienced surgeons., Level of Evidence: Level I, therapeutic study., Competing Interests: Each author certifies that there are no funding or commercial associations (consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article related to the author or any immediate family members. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request., (Copyright © 2022 by the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons.)

Purpose: There is a significant lack of epidemiological data on hereditary cancer in Northeast Brazil. This is the largest study on the prevalence and mutational spectrum of cancer predisposition genes conducted in this region and the first in the State of Ceará., Methods: Patients ≥18 years of age that were referred to CHANCE (Grupo de Câncer Hereditário do Ceará) from March 2014 to December 2020 with testing criteria for breast cancer susceptibility genes according to NCCN v.1.2021 were eligible to participate. The inclusion of patients was limited to one individual per family and to those born in the State of Ceará. All patients underwent a hereditary cancer panel testing with at least 30 genes., Results: A total of 355 patients were included, and 97 (27.3%) carried a P/LP germline variant in 18 different genes. Among the 97 P/LP carriers, BRCA1 (31, 31.9%) and BRCA2 (25, 25.7%) were the most frequently mutated genes, followed by PALB2 (10, 10.3%), CHEK2 (7, 7.2%) and ATM (4, 4.1%). A small number of recurrent variants (detected in three or more individuals) in BRCA1 , BRCA2 , CHEK2 and ATM represented the majority of the P/LP variants described in this cohort., Conclusion: In this cohort, the prevalence of L/PL was high, particularly involving the BRCA1 , BRCA2 , PALB2 , CHEK2 and ATM genes and, to a lesser extent than expected, the TP53 gene. A high frequency of recurrent variants was also observed, for which further and larger analyses should clarify the presence of any possible founder effect. Characterizing the mutational profile of cancer predisposition genes in diverse populations may contribute to cancer prevention and therapeutic management., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Gifoni, Gifoni, Wotroba, Palmero, Costa, dos Santos and Achatz.)

The Caqueteño Creole (CAQ) is a native breed of cattle from the Caquetá department (Colombia), adapted to tropical conditions, which is extremely important to production systems in those regions. However, CAQ is poorly studied. In this sense, population structure studies associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH) analysis would allow for a better understanding of CAQ. Through ROH analysis, it is possible to reveal genetic relationships between individuals, measure genome inbreeding levels, and identify regions associated with traits of economic interest. Samples from a CAQ population (n = 127) were genotyped with the Bovine HD BeadChip (777,000 SNPs) and analyzed with the PLINK 1.9 program to estimate FROH and ROH islands. We highlighted a decrease in inbreeding frequency for FROH 4−8 Mb, 8−16 Mb, and >16 Mb classes, indicating inbreeding control in recent matings. We also found genomic hotspot regions on chromosomes 3, 5, 6, 8, 16, 20, and 22, where chromosome 20 harbored four hotspots. Genes in those regions were associated with fertility and immunity traits, muscle development, and environmental resistance, which may be present in the CAQ breed due to natural selection. This indicates potential for production systems in tropical regions. However, further studies are necessary to elucidate the CAQ production objective.

Purpose: Build and validate the content of conceptual and operational definitions of the defining characteristics of the nursing diagnosis of NANDA-I "Ineffective health self-management" in people living with HIV/AIDS., Methods: Methodological study, with a quantitative approach. The validation was performed by 26 specialist nurses selected through the Lattes do Brazil platform. The process followed two steps: (a) proposal of new defining characteristics to the Nursing Diagnosis "Ineffective Health Self-Management" and elaboration of conceptual and operational definitions; (b) content validation of the new defining characteristics of the Nursing Diagnosis "Ineffective Health Self-Management" and the conceptual and operational definitions. Data were collected between October 2020 and May 2021., Findings: The researchers included six defining characteristics as components of the diagnosis, adding to the 10 already existing in the NANDA-I version (2021-2023). Then, the experts judged these components and 13 defining characteristics were validated using the binominal test with adequacy ratio above 85% and p value <0.05. After this stage, the conceptual and operational definitions of these defining characteristics were constructed, validating them by the content validation index ≥0.80 by the expert nurses., Conclusions: Three new defining characteristics for Ineffective health self-management were proposed and validated by specialists. Conceptual and operational definitions of the new and current defining characteristics were elaborated and validated for people living with HIV/AIDS., Implications for Nursing Practice: The knowledge and study of the conceptual and operational definitions of nursing diagnoses can contribute to good nursing practices, assisting in the care and evaluation of nurses in the provision of care to people living with HIV/AIDS, and can avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate interpretations and can guarantee assertive clinical judgment., Search Terms: Nursing diagnosis, validation studies, nursing processes, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome., (© 2021 NANDA International, Inc.)

Background: Most colorectal cancers (CRC) arise from precursor lesions. This study aimed to characterize the mutation profile of colorectal cancer precursor lesions in a Brazilian population., Methods: In total, 90 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded colorectal precursor lesions, including 67 adenomas, 7 sessile serrated lesions, and 16 hyperplastic polyps, were analyzed by next-generation sequencing using a panel of 50 oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. The genetic ancestry of the patients was estimated., Results: Somatic driver mutations were identified in 66.7% of cases, including alterations in APC (32.2%), TP53 (20.0%), KRAS (18.9%), BRAF (13.3%) and EGFR (7.8%). Adenomas displayed a higher number of mutations, mainly in APC, compared to serrated polyps (73.1% vs. 47.8%, p = 0.026). Advanced adenomas had a significantly higher frequency of mutation in KRAS and a high overall mutation rate than early adenomas (92.9% vs. 59%, p = 0.006). A high degree of ancestry admixture was observed in the population studied, with a predominance of European components (mean of 73%) followed by African (mean of 11.3%). No association between genetic ancestry and type of lesions was found. The mutation profile of Brazilian colorectal precursor lesions exhibits alteration in APC, KRAS, TP53, and BRAF at different frequencies according to lesion type., Conclusions: These results bestow the knowledge of CRC's biologic history and support the potential of these biomarkers for precursor lesions detection in CRC screening of the Brazilian population., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Snake envenomation is a common but neglected disease that affects millions of people around the world annually. Among venomous snake species in Brazil, the tropical rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terrificus) accounts for the highest number of fatal envenomations and is responsible for the second highest number of bites. Snake venoms are complex secretions which, upon injection, trigger diverse physiological effects that can cause significant injury or death. The components of C. d. terrificus venom exhibit neurotoxic, myotoxic, hemotoxic, nephrotoxic, and cardiotoxic properties which present clinically as alteration of central nervous system function, motor paralysis, seizures, eyelid ptosis, ophthalmoplesia, blurred vision, coagulation disorders, rhabdomyolysis, myoglobinuria, and cardiorespiratory arrest. In this study, we focused on proteomic characterization of the cardiotoxic effects of C. d. terrificus venom in mouse models. We injected venom at half the lethal dose (LD50) into the gastrocnemius muscle. Mouse hearts were removed at set time points after venom injection (1 h, 6 h, 12 h, or 24 h) and subjected to trypsin digestion prior to high-resolution mass spectrometry. We analyzed the proteomic profiles of >1300 proteins and observed that several proteins showed noteworthy changes in their quantitative profiles, likely reflecting the toxic activity of venom components. Among the affected proteins were several associated with cellular deregulation and tissue damage. Changes in heart protein abundance offer insights into how they may work synergistically upon envenomation. SIGNIFICANCE: Venom of the tropical rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terririficus) is known to be neurotoxic, myotoxic, nephrotoxic and cardiotoxic. Although there are several studies describing the biochemical effects of this venom, no work has yet described its proteomic effects in the cardiac tissue of mice. In this work, we describe the changes in several mouse cardiac proteins upon venom treatment. Our data shed new light on the clinical outcome of the envenomation by C. d. terrificus, as well as candidate proteins that could be investigated in efforts to improve current treatment approaches or in the development of novel therapeutic interventions in order to reduce mortality and morbidity resulting from envenomation., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Single-pixel imaging is a technique that can reconstruct an image of a scene by projecting a series of spatial patterns on an object and capturing the reflected light by a single photodetector. Since the introduction of the compressed sensing method, it has been possible to use random spatial patterns and reduce its number below the Nyquist-Shannon limit to form a good quality image but with lower spatial resolution. On the other hand, Hadamard pattern based methods can reconstruct large images by increasing the acquisition measurement time. Here, we propose an efficient strategy to order the Hadamard basis patterns from higher to lower relevance, and then to reconstruct an image at very low sampling rates of at least 8%. Our proposal is based on the construction of generalized basis vectors in two dimensions and then ordering in zigzag fashion. Simulation and experimental results show that the sampling rate, image quality and computational complexity of our method are competitive to the state of the art methods.

Background: Ischemic stroke produces a large health impact worldwide, with scarce therapeutic options., Objective: This study aimed to reveal the role of NADPH oxidase and neuroinflammatory genes in the cerebral anti-ischemic effects of C-Phycocyanin (C-PC), the chief biliprotein of Spirulina platensis., Methods: Rats with either focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) or acute brain hypoperfusion, received C-PC at different doses, or a vehicle, for up to 6 h post-stroke. Neurological, behavioral and histochemical parameters were assessed in I/R rats at 24 h. Cerebral gene expression and hippocampal neuron viability were evaluated in hypoperfused rats at acute (24 h) or chronic phases (30 days), respectively. A molecular docking analysis of NOX2 and C-PC-derived Phycocyanobilin (PCB) was also performed., Results: C-PC, obtained with a purity of 4.342, significantly reduced the infarct volume and neurological deficit in a dose-dependent manner, and improved the exploratory activity of I/R rats. This biliprotein inhibited NOX2 expression, a crucial NADPH oxidase isoform in the brain, and the superoxide increase produced by the ischemic event. Moreover, C-PC-derived PCB showed a high binding affinity in silico with NOX2. C-PC downregulated the expression of pro-inflammatory genes (IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-17A, CD74, CCL12) and upregulated immune suppressive genes (Foxp3, IL-4, TGF-β) in hypoperfused brain areas. This compound also decreased chronic neuronal death in the hippocampus of hypoperfused rats., Conclusion: These results suggest that the inhibition of cerebral NADPH oxidase and the improvement of neuroinflammation are key mechanisms mediating the neuroprotective actions of C-PC against brain ischemia., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Bedding material must absorb moisture, reduce impacts, and allow chicken to express their natural behavior reducing the occurrence of injuries in the footpad and joints, and improving carcass quality and performance., Aims: This study evaluated different bedding materials with different levels of inclusion of dried grass (Zoysia japonica) on the development of lesions in the locomotor system of broiler chickens., Methods: One thousand eight-day-old male chicks of the Cobb 500 ® were distributed in a completely randomized design with a 3 × 2 factorial scheme: three levels of grass inclusion and two bedding materials (100% wood shavings; 100% rice husks; 25% grass and 75% wood shavings; 25% grass and 75% rice husks; 50% grass and 50% wood shavings; 50% grass and 50% rice husks). The birds at 21, 28, 35, and 42 days of age were evaluated for pododermatitis. Ten birds from each repetition were identified and evaluated weekly from 21 to 42 days for Gait score, latency to lie and leg angle (valgus and varus). At 43 days of age, 60 birds of each treatment were slaughtered and evaluated for femoral degeneration and tibial dyschondroplasia., Results: Different litter compositions did not affect the incidence of lameness, tibial dyschondroplasia and spondylolisthesis. Pododermatitis scores increased after 28 days when including 50% of grass ., Conclusion: Age contributes more to the development of locomotion injuries than does bedding material. It is recommended to use inclusions of dried grass only as bedding for young broilers., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

The contamination of milk by antibiotic residues is a worldwide health and food safety problem. There is a need to develop new methods for the rapid determination of antibiotic residues in milk. A method has been developed for determining tylosin residues directly in powdered milk using Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Tylosin is a broad-spectrum macrolide antibiotic. The spectra obtained were submitted to chemometric analysis to obtain a prediction model for tylosin concentration in powdered milk. Using the Boruta algorithm, the absorption bands related to the milk contamination by the antibiotic were identified. Random forest was shown to be adequate for the prediction of tylosin residues in milk at low concentrations (≤ 100 μg L -1 ) and the prediction model generated showed high correlation and determination coefficients (greater than 0.95). The proposed methodology proved to be efficient for the investigation of antibiotic residues in powdered milk., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)