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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) infection screening of high-risk groups is an important strategy for achieving End TB targets. A TB infection screening program was implemented for quarry workers from a Portuguese high-incidence area in 2018-2022. We aimed to calculate the cost-benefit of the screening program from the societal perspective., Methods: We calculated medical and non-medical direct and indirect screening costs and compared them with the cost savings from averted cases of TB disease. We estimated the number of potentially averted TB disease cases based on the risk of progression of TB infection to TB disease found in the literature., Results: During the screening program, 997 workers were screened. TB infection was diagnosed in 215 workers, 150 of those initiated preventive treatment. Screening program total costs were €136,295. Twenty-nine TB cases were potentially prevented, what would have costed €152,386. Savings of €16,091 were obtained (€4516, €40898, and -€29322 from the workers, employers, and NHS, respectively)., Conclusions: The monetary benefit of a TB infection screening program directed to quarry workers in a high-incidence area was greater than its cost. Companies and workers saved substantially more money. TB infection tests that are better predictors of progression to TB disease could reduce NHS costs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no declarations of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Problem: Therapeutic planning strategies have been developed to enhance the effectiveness of cancer drugs. Nevertheless, their performance is highly limited by the inefficient biological representativeness of predictive tumor growth models, which hinders their translation to clinical practice., Objective: This study proposes a disruptive approach to oncology based on nature-inspired control using realistic Black Hole physical laws, in which tumor masses are trapped to experience attraction dynamics on their path to complete remission or to become a chronic disease. This control method is designed to operate independently of individual patient idiosyncrasies, including high tumor heterogeneities and highly uncertain tumor dynamics, making it a promising avenue for advancing beyond the limitations of the traditional survival probabilistic paradigm., Design: Here, we provide a multifaceted study of chemotherapy therapeutic planning that includes: (1) the design of a pioneering controller algorithm based on physical laws found in the Black Holes; (2) investigation of the ability of this controller algorithm to ensure stable equilibrium treatments; and (3) simulation tests concerning tumor volume dynamics using drugs with significantly different pharmacokinetics (Cyclophosphamide and Atezolizumab), tumor volumes (200 mm 3 and 12 732 mm 3 ) and modeling characterizations (Gompertzian and Logistic tumor growth models)., Results: Our results highlight the ability of this new astrophysical-inspired control algorithm to perform effective chemotherapy treatments for multiple tumor-treatment scenarios, including tumor resistance to chemotherapy, clinical scenarios modelled by time-dependent parameters, and highly uncertain tumor dynamics., Conclusions: Our findings provide strong evidence that cancer therapy inspired by phenomena found in black holes can emerge as a disruptive paradigm. This opens new high-impacting research directions, exploring synergies between astrophysical-inspired control algorithms and Artificial Intelligence applied to advanced personalized cancer therapeutics., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Anthropogenic litter, such as plastic, is investigated by the global scientific community from various fields employing diverse techniques. The goal is to assess and finally mitigate the pollutants' impacts on the natural environment. Plastic litter can accumulate in different matrices of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, impacting both biota and ecosystem functioning. Detection and quantification of macroplastics, and other litter, can be realized by jointly using visual census and remote sensing techniques. The primary objective of this research was to identify the most effective approach for monitoring macroplastic litter in riverine and marine environments through a comprehensive survey based on the experiences of the scientific community. Researchers involved in plastic pollution evaluated four litter occurrence and flux investigation methods (visual census, drone-based surveys, satellite imagery, and GPS/GNSS trackers) through a questionnaire. Traditional visual census and drone deployment were deemed as the most popular approaches among the 46 surveyed researchers, while satellite imagery and GPS/GNSS trackers received lower scores due to limited field validation and short performance ranges, respectively. On a scale from 0 to 5, visual census and drone-based surveys obtained 3.5 and 2.0, respectively, whereas satellite imagery and alternative solutions received scores lower than 1.2. Visual and drone censuses were used in high, medium and low-income countries, while satellite census and GPS/GNSS trackers were mostly used in high-income countries. This work provides an overview of the advantages and drawbacks of litter investigation techniques, contributing i) to the global harmonization of macroplastic litter monitoring and ii) providing a starting point for researchers and water managers approaching this topic. This work supports the selection and design of reliable and cost-effective monitoring approaches to mitigate the ambiguity in macroplastic data collection, contributing to the global harmonization of macroplastic litter monitoring protocols., 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.)

In the context of marine litter monitoring, reporting the weight of beached litter can contribute to a better understanding of pollution sources and support clean-up activities. However, the litter scaling task requires considerable effort and specific equipment. This experimental study proposes and evaluates three methods to estimate beached litter weight from aerial images, employing different levels of litter categorization. The most promising approach (accuracy of 80 %) combined the outcomes of manual image screening with a generalized litter mean weight (14 g) derived from studies in the literature. Although the other two methods returned values of the same magnitude as the ground-truth, they were found less feasible for the aim. This study represents the first attempt to assess marine litter weight using remote sensing technology. Considering the exploratory nature of this study, further research is needed to enhance the reliability and robustness of the methods., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Multirotor drones can be efficiently used to monitor macro-litter in coastal and riverine environments. Litter on beaches, dunes and riverbanks, along with floating litter on coastal and river waters, can be spotted and mapped from aerial drone images. Items detection and classification are prone to image resolution, which is expressed in terms of Ground Sampling Distance (GSD). The GSD is determined by drone flight altitude and camera properties. This paper investigates what is a suitable GSD value for litter survey. Drone flight altitude and camera setup should be chosen to obtain a GSD between 0.5 cm/px and 1.25 cm/px. Within this range, the lowest GSD allows litter categorization and classification, whereas the highest value should be adopted for a coarser litter census. In the vision of drawing up a global protocol for drone-based litter surveys, this work sets the ground for homogenizing data collection and litter assessments., 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 Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

This baseline focuses on the octopus pot, a litter item found on the North Atlantic Iberian coast. Octopus pots are deployed from vessels in ropes, with several hundred units, and placed on the seabed, to capture mostly Octopus Vulgaris. The loss of gears due to extreme seas state, bad weather and/or fishing-related unforeseen circumstances, cause the octopus pots contaminating beaches and dunes, where they are transported by sea current, waves and wind actions. This work i) gives an overview of the use of octopus pot on fisheries, ii) analyses the spatial distribution of this item on the coast, and iii) discusses the potential measures for tackling the octopus pot plague on the North Atlantic Iberian coast. Overall, it is urgent to promote conducive policies and strategies for a sustainable waste management of octopus pots, based on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle hierarchical framework., 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 Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Beach music festivals are numerous and popular worldwide. The concerns about the environmental sustainability of these events have been increasing among scientists, coastal managers and local communities. Nevertheless, the negative effects of beach music festivals on the coastal environment have been poorly studied. This work identified, analysed and discussed the eco-geomorphological impacts of a massive beach music festival held on a Portuguese beach-dune system over three days in July 2022. Drone-based orthophotos and pictures collected in the field were analysed to evaluate the impact of pre- and post-festival works, which turned the beach into a construction site over about twenty days. Digital Surface Model (DSM) analysis showed that beach configuration was approximately restored to the pre-festival configuration after the event. In contrast, the comparison of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps revealed that 18,500 m 2 of embryonic dune vegetation, which represented 35 % of the existing plant community, was removed by works on the beach and by trampling of festival attendees. To authors' knowledge, this is the first work that evaluates the eco-geomorphological impact of a massive beach music festival on the delicate coastal ecosystem. Overall, it contributes in raising awareness for making these events more respectful of the coastal environment., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Individual variation in susceptibility and exposure is subject to selection by natural infection, accelerating the acquisition of immunity, and reducing herd immunity thresholds and epidemic final sizes. This is a manifestation of a wider population phenomenon known as "frailty variation". Despite theoretical understanding, public health policies continue to be guided by mathematical models that leave out considerable variation and as a result inflate projected disease burdens and overestimate the impact of interventions. Here we focus on trajectories of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in England and Scotland until November 2021. We fit models to series of daily deaths and infer relevant epidemiological parameters, including coefficients of variation and effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions which we find in agreement with independent empirical estimates based on contact surveys. Our estimates are robust to whether the analysed data series encompass one or two pandemic waves and enable projections compatible with subsequent dynamics. We conclude that vaccination programmes may have contributed modestly to the acquisition of herd immunity in populations with high levels of pre-existing naturally acquired immunity, while being crucial to protect vulnerable individuals from severe outcomes as the virus becomes endemic., 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.)

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones) has shown to be feasible to perform marine litter surveys. We operationally tested the use of multispectral images (5 bands) to classify litter type and material on a beach-dune system. For litter categorization by their multispectral characteristics, the Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM) technique was adopted. The SAM-based categorization of litter agreed with the visual classification, thus multispectral images can be used to fasten and/or making more robust the manual RGB image screening. Fully automated detection returned an F-score of 0.64, and a reasonable categorization of litter. Overall, the image-based litter density maps were in line with the manual detection. Assessments were promising given the complexity of the study area, where different dunes plants and partially-buried items challenged the UAS-based litter detection. The method can be easily implemented for both floating and beached litter, to advance litter survey in the environment., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Healthcare professionals' high risk of infection and burnout in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic probably hindered their much-needed preparedness to respond. We aimed to inform how individual and institutional factors contributed for the preparedness to respond during the first months of a public health emergency., Study Design: Cross-sectional study., Methods: We surveyed healthcare workers from a Local Health Unit in Portugal, which comprises primary health care centers and hospital services, including public health units and intensive care units, in the second and third months of the COVID-19 epidemic in Portugal. The 460 answers, completed by 252 participants (about 10% of the healthcare workers), were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regressions. We estimated adjusted odds ratios for the readiness and willingness to respond., Results: Readiness to respond was associated with the perception of adequate infrastructures (aOR = 4.04, P < 0.005), lack of access to personal protective equipment (aOR = 0.26, P < 0.05) and organization (aOR = 0.31, P < 0.05). The willingness to act was associated with the perception of not being able to make a difference (aOR = 0.05, P < 0.005), risk of work-related burnout (aOR = 21.21, P < 0.01) and experiencing colleagues or patients' deaths due to COVID-19 (aOR = 0.24, P < 0.05)., Conclusions: Adequate organization, infrastructures, and access to personal protective equipment may be crucial for workers' preparedness in a new public health emergency, as well workers' understanding of their roles and expected impact. These factors, together with the risk of work-related burnout, shall be taken into account in the planning of the response of healthcare institutions in future public health emergencies., (Copyright © 2021 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This baseline reports scientific evidence of marine litter items embedded in the dune volume at two study sites on the North Atlantic Portuguese coast. We described how stranded litter participate in the sand dune growth/erosion processes on a natural beach-dune system. From the storm-eroded foredunes on the urbanized beach, we documented exhumed plastics with age up to 38 years. Whether litter burial was due to beach-dune morphodynamic processes, or to irresponsible and/or illegal dumping in the past, this work emphasises the need of improving buried litter census and monitoring on coastal dunes. Coastal erosion processes may further exhume litter buried in dune volumes and on other coastal environments over short- and long-term, re-exposing items into the marine environment. Thus, coastal erosion can be accounted as a secondary diffuse source of littering pollution, beside the multiple sources already identified in the environment., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This work analyses the cross-shore (80 m) and long-shore (200 m) spatial and size distribution of macro-litter on coastal dunes, employing a mapping framework based on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS, aka drone) and a GIS mobile application. Over the cross-shore, plastic percentage increased from 60% to 90% landwards. The largest items (processed wood) were found on the embryo dune. Plastic bottles and paper napkins were trapped by the foredune grass, while the largest fishing-related items were intercepted by the low scrub plant community on the backdune. Over the long-shore, plastic percentage and items size increased from the urbanized area towards the natural dunes. This work assessed the abundance of marine litter on coastal dune sectors, underlining the role of distinct vegetation types in trapping items of different size. The mapping framework can promote further marine litter monitoring programs and support specific strategies for protecting the dune ecosystems., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS, aka drones) are being used to map macro-litter on the environment. Sixteen qualified researchers (operators), with different expertise and nationalities, were invited to identify, mark and categorize the litter items (manual image screening, MS) on three UAS images collected at two beaches. The coefficient of concordance (W) among operators varied between 0.5 and 0.7, depending on the litter parameter (type, material and colour) considered. Highest agreement was obtained for the type of items marked on the highest resolution image, among experts in litter surveys (W = 0.86), and within territorial subgroups (W = 0.85). Therefore, for a detailed categorization of litter on the environment, the MS should be performed by experienced and local operators, familiar with the most common type of litter present in the target area. This work provides insights for future operational improvements and optimizations of UAS-based images analysis to survey environmental pollution., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones) images for mapping macro-litter in the environment have been exponentially increasing in the recent years. In this work, we developed a multi-class Neural Network (NN) to automatically identify stranded plastic litter categories on an UAS-derived orthophoto. The best results were assessed for items that did not have substantial intra-class colour variability, such as octopus pots and fishing ropes (F-score = 61%, on average). Instead, performance was poor (37%) for plastic bottles and fragments, due to their changing intra-class colours. On average, the performance improved 24% when the binary detection (litter/non-litter, F-Score = 73%) was considered, however this approach did not discriminate the litter categories. This work gives a new perspective for the automated litter detection on drone images, suggesting that colour-based approach can be used to improve the categorization of stranded litter on UAS orthophoto., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study focuses on the ability of commercial natural bath sponges, which are made from the skeletons of marine sponges, to sorb Hg from natural waters. The main component of these bath sponges is spongin, which is a protein-based material, closely related to collagen, offering a plenitude of reactive sites from the great variety of amino acids in the protein chains, where the Hg ions can sorb. For a dose of 40 mg L -1 and initial concentration of 50 μg L -1 of Hg(II), marine spongin (MS) removed ~90% of Hg from 3 water matrixes (ultrapure, bottled, and seawater), corresponding to a residual concentration of ~5 μg L -1 , which tends to the recommend value for drinking water of 1 μg L -1 . This value was maintained even by increasing the MS dosage, suggesting the existence of a gradient concentration threshold below which the Hg sorption mechanism halts. Kinetic modelling showed that the Pseudo Second-Order equation was the best fit for all the water matrixes, which indicates that the sorption mechanism relies most probably on chemical interactions between the functional groups of spongin and the Hg ions. This material can also be regenerated in HNO 3 and reused for Hg sorption, with marginal losses in efficiency, at least for 3 consecutive cycles., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This work shows an integrated approach for coastal environmental monitoring, which aimed to understand the relation between beach-dune morphodynamics, marine litter abundance and environmental forcing. Three unmanned aerial system (UAS) flights were deployed on a beach-dune system at the Atlantic Portuguese coast to assess two main goals: (i) quantifying the morphological changes that occurred among flights, with focus on dune erosion, and (ii) mapping the changes of marine macro-litter abundance on the shore. Two most vulnerable-to-erosion sectors of the beach were identified. In the northern sector, the groin affected the downdrift shoreline, with dune erosion of about 1 m. In the central part of the beach, the dunes recessed about 4 m during the winter, being more exposed to environmental forcing due to the absence of dune vegetation. Marine litter occupation area on the beach decreased from 25% to 20% over the winter, with octopus pots (13%) and fragments (69%) being the most abundant items on average. Litter distribution varied in relation to swash elevation, wind speed and direction. With low swash elevation, the wind played a predominant role in moving the stranded items northwards, whereas high swash elevation concentrated the items at the dune foot. This study emphasizes the potential of UAS in allowing an integrated approach for coastal erosion monitoring and marine litter mapping, and set the ground for marine litter dynamic modelling on the shore., 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 © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Marine litter pollution on coastal dunes has received limited scientific attention when compared with sandy shores. This paper proposes a new framework based on the combined use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and a mobile application to map and quantify marine macro-litter (>2.5 cm) accumulation on coastal dunes. The first application on a dune area of 200 m × 80 m at the north-east Atlantic Portuguese coast is shown. Nine different marine litter categories were found, with styrofoam fragments (23% of the total amount) and plastic bottles (20%) being the most abundant items. Plastic was the most common material (76%). The highest number of items (272) was found on the backdune, mostly related with fishing activities (octopus pots and Styrofoam fragments). In contrast, the highest density (0.031 items/m 2 ) was found on the foredune, with the most abundant items associated with human recreational activities (for example, plastic bottles, bags, papers and napkins). Three major marine litter hotspots (~0.1 items/m 2 ) were identified in correspondence of dune blowouts. The recognition of the primary marine litter pathways highlighted the main role that wind and overwash events play on dune contamination, and suggests that the dune ridge restoration can act as a mitigation measure for preventing marine litter accumulation on the backdune. This study shows how UAS offer the possibility of a detailed non-intrusive survey, and gives a new impulse to coastal dune litter monitoring, where the long residence time of marine debris may threaten the bio-ecological equilibrium of these ecosystems., 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 © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Recent works have shown the feasibility of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for monitoring marine pollution. We provide a comparison among techniques to detect and map marine litter objects on an UAS-derived orthophoto of a sandy beach-dune system. Manual image screening technique allowed a detailed description of marine litter categories. Random forest classifier returned the best-automated detection rate (F-score 70%), while convolutional neural network performed slightly worse (F-score 60%) due to a higher number of false positive detections. We show that automatic methods allow faster and more frequent surveys, while still providing a reliable density map of the marine litter load. Image manual screening should be preferred when the characterization of marine litter type and material is required. Our analysis suggests that the use of UAS-derived orthophoto is appropriate to obtain a detailed geolocation of marine litter items, requires much less human effort and allows a wider area coverage., 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 © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The amount of marine litter, mainly composed by plastic materials, has become a global environmental issue in coastal environments. Traditional monitoring programs are based on in-situ visual census, which require human effort and are time-demanding. Therefore, it is crucial to implement innovative mapping strategies to improve the environmental monitoring of marine litter on the coast. This work presents a procedure for an automated Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based marine litter mapping on a beach-dune system. A multidisciplinary framework, which comprises photogrammetry, geomorphology, machine learning and hydrodynamic modelling, was developed to process a block of UAS images. The work shows how each of these scientific methodologies can be complementary to improve and making more efficient the mapping of marine litter items with UAS on coastal environment. The very high-resolution orthophoto produced from UAS images was automatically screened by random forest machine learning method, in order to characterize the marine litter load on beach and dune areas, distinctively. The marine litter objects were identified with a F-test score of 75% when compared to manual procedure. The location of major marine litter loads within the monitored area was found related to beach slope and water level dynamics on the beach profiles, suggesting that UAS flight deployment and post-processing for beach litter mapping can be optimized based on these environmental parameters. The described UAS-based marine litter detection framework is intended to support scientists, engineers and decision makers aiming at monitoring marine and coastal pollution, with the additional aim of optimizing and automating beach clean-up operations., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting many pathogens to humans and Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus are important vectors in the world. The microbiota plays an important role in developmental studies that involve impacts on the biological cycle of mosquitoes and vector control strategies. In this study, the aim was to understand the environment plays in the microbiota culturable diversity of Aedes aegytpi, Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus. Midgut of studied mosquitoes (laboratory-reared and wild) were dissected and analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS to identify the microbiota. Most of the bacteria identified in the microbiota of mosquitoes from the laboratory and field belong to the phylum Proteobacteria. We reported on the microbial diversity among the mosquito species studied where Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. albopictus show greater bacterial similarity. The genus Rahnella was present in all mosquito species studied, both in those from the laboratory and those from the wild. Bacillus, Ewingella, Microccocus, Klebsiella and Pantoea are genera was predominant among the mosquitoes studied. The difference of microbiota diversity between mosquitoes laboratory-reared and wild shows that the environment plays an important role in the acquisition of bacteria, mainly in Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nanographene oxide (nGO) has been recently proposed as a new antitumoral therapeutic agent, drug delivery carrier and gene transfection vehicle, among others. Treatment is carried out by hyperthermia induced by infrared irradiation. After treatment, the nanosystems will be inevitably excreted and released to the environment. To understand the potential impacts of pegylated nGO (nGO-PEG), three key species from different trophic levels were used: the green micro-algae Raphidocelis subcapitata (growth inhibition test), the cladocera Daphnia magna (acute and chronic tests), and the fish Danio rerio (fish embryo test). Besides a regular standard procedure to assess toxicity, and considering the mode of action of nGO-PEG in cancer treatment, a simultaneous infrared lamp exposure was carried out for D. magna and D. rerio. Additionally, and taking advantage of the phenotypic transparency of D. magna, nGO-PEG was fluorescently tagged to evaluate the potential uptake of nGO-PEG. The R. subcapitata growth inhibition test showed effects during the first 48 h, recovering till the end of the test (96 h). No acute or chronic effects were observed for D. magna, under standard or infrared light exposures although confocal microscope images showed nGO-PEG uptake. Very small percentages of mortality and abnormalities were observed in D. rerio exposed with and without the infrared lamp. Although low hazard may be expected for nGO-PEG in aquatic ecosystems, further studies with species with different life traits should be accomplished, in order to derive more accurate conclusions., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The association of myasthenia gravis (MG) and inflammatory myopathy is rare and often only one of the diseases is diagnosed. Thymus pathology may be in the origin of such disease association., Methods: We described four patients with both MG and inflammatory myopathy., Results: These cases correspond to 2.3% of our MG cohort. Case 1: MG, polymyositis and thymolipoma; case 2: MG and necrotizing myopathy without thymic pathology on a background of scleroderma, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly, telangiectasia (CREST); case 3: MG and dermatomyositis without thymic pathology; case 4: MG and dermatomyositis with type C thymoma., Discussion: The recognition of these neuromuscular co-morbidities contributes to (i) understanding their pathogenic mechanisms, (ii) developing better management approaches and (iii) further improving disease outcomes., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Phytochelatins are metal-binding metabolites found in almost all plant species and some animal groups, including nematodes and annelids, where they can play an important role in detoxifying metals such as cadmium. Species from several other taxa contain a phytochelatin synthase (PCS) gene orthologue, including molluscs, indicating they may have the potential to synthesize phytochelatins. However, the presence of a gene alone does not demonstrate that it plays a functional role in metal detoxification. In the present study, we show that the aquatic snail Lymnaea stagnalis produced both penta- and heptapeptide phytochelatins (i.e. phytochelatin-2 and phytochelatin-3), and their levels increased in response to sub-lethal levels of cadmium., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This work explores the preparation of three-dimensional graphene oxide macroscopic structures, shaped by self-assembling single graphene oxide (3DGO) sheets with control of its surface chemistry by combining with nitrogen functional groups (3DGON), or with nitrogen and sulphur functional groups (3DGOSN), and their application in the removal of mercury (Hg(II)) from aqueous solutions. The chemical structure of the materials was assessed by using different characterization techniques: SEM, XPS and BET. Adsorption studies conducted in Hg(II) contaminated ultra-pure water reveal the enhanced ability of 3DGON for the adsorption of this metal, when compared to the other GO foams. A small dose of 3DGON (10 mg L(-1)) allows to remove up to 96% of Hg(II) after 24 h of contact time, leading to a residual concentration in solution close to the guideline value for drinking water (1 μg L(-1)). The ability of this material to adsorb Hg (II) was evaluated relatively to different experimental parameters such as pH, sorbent dose, time and effect on different competing metal ions. Real application was also evaluated by testing its performance in two different natural matrices, river and sea water, with very promising results., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To evaluate the first 10 years of operation of the population-based breast cancer screening programme implemented in the Northern Region of Portugal, using selected recommended standard performance indicators., Methods: Data from women aged 50-69 screened with two-view mammography, biennially, in the period 2000-2009, were included. Main performance indicators were compared with the recommended levels of the European Guidelines., Results: A total of 202,039 screening examinations were performed, 71,731 (35.5%) in the initial screening and 130,308 (64.5%) in the subsequent screening. Coverage rate by examination reached 74.3% of the target population, in the last period evaluated. Recall rates were 8.1% and 2.4% and cancer detection rates were 4.4/1000 and 2.9/1000 respectively, for initial and subsequent screenings. The breast cancer detection rate, expressed as a multiple of the background expected incidence was 3.1 in initial screen and 2.2 in subsequent screen. The incidence of invasive interval cancers met the desirable recommended levels both the first and second years since last screening examination, in the initial and subsequent screenings. Invasive tumours <15mm were 50.4% and 53.8% of the invasive cancers detected in initial and subsequent screenings. Less favourable size, grading and biomarkers expression were found in interval cancers compared to screen-detected cancers., Conclusions: Breast cancer screening programme in the Northern Region of Portugal was well accepted by the population. Most of the performance indicators were consistent with the desirable levels of the European Guidelines, which indicate an effective screening programme. Future research should verify the consistency of some of these results by using updated information from a larger population., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study investigated the immune response of broiler chickens with oral treatment of a Lactobacillus spp. pool (PL) associated with microencapsulated recombinant proteins flagellin (FliC) and the subunit B of cholera toxin (CTB). Immune responses were evaluated by measuring IgA from intestinal fluid, serum IgY, and immunostaining of CD8(+) T lymphocytes present in the cecum. The evaluations were performed on d 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 posttreatment. A significant increase (P < 0.05) was observed in IgA levels in all immunized groups, especially 3 wk after immunization. Treatments 2 (recombinant CTB) and 3 (recombinant FliC+CTB) showed the highest concentrations. Similarly, serum concentrations IgY (μg/mL) increased along the experiment, and the means for treatments 2 and 3 showed significant differences (P < 0.05) compared with controls, reaching concentrations of 533 and 540 μg/mL, respectively. The number of CD8(+) T lymphocytes in all treatments greatly differed (P < 0.05) compared with the negative control at 21 d posttreatment. However, only treatment 2 (recombinant CTB), 4 (PL), and 5 (recombinant FliC+ recombinant CTB + PL) remained significantly (P < 0.05) different from the control at 28 d posttreatment. Thus, it is concluded that the microencapsulated recombinant proteins administered orally to broiler chickens are capable of stimulating humoral and cellular immune response, and the combinations of these antigens with Lactobacillus spp. can influence the population of CD8(+) T cells residing in the cecum.

The interaction of V(IV)O-salts as well as of a few V(IV)O(carrier)n complexes with human serum transferrin (hTF) is studied focusing on the determination of the nature and stoichiometry of the binding of V(IV)O(2+) to hTF, as well as whether the conformation of hTF upon binding to V(IV)O(2+) or to its complexes is changed. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra measured for solutions containing V(IV)O(2+) and apo-hTF, and V(IV)O-maltol and apo-hTF, clearly indicate that hTF-V(IV)O-maltol ternary species form with a V(IV)O:maltol stoichiometry of 1:1. For V(IV)O salts and several V(IV)O(carrier)n complexes (carrier ligand=maltolato, dhp, picolinato and dipicolinato) (Hdhp=1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone) the maximum number of V(IV)O(2+) bound per mole of hTF is determined to be ~2 or lower in all cases. The binding of V(IV)O to apo-hTF most certainly involves several amino acid residues of the Fe-binding site, and as concluded by urea gel electrophoresis experiments, the formation of (V(IV)O)2hTF species may occur with the closing of the hTF conformation as is the case in (Fe(III))2hTF, which is an essential feature for the transferrin receptor recognition., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The vanadium haloperoxidase (V-HPO) enzyme, extracted from the brown alga Laminaria saccharina, is able to catalyze the formation of a black precipitate, using as precursor the amino acid L-dopa in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and iodide, in one-pot synthesis. The L-dopa oxidation is a multistep reaction with a crucial role played by the iodide in the enzyme catalyzed peroxidative production of dopachrome, a well known intermediate in the synthesis of melanin. Dopachrome is then converted to a synthetic form of melanin through a polymerization reaction. Factors, such as buffer composition and pH, influence significantly the reaction first steps, but further steps of melanin production are hardly influenced. The biosynthetic melanin produced through the combination V-HPO/I/H(2)O(2), was characterized by several spectroscopic techniques (UV-vis and FT-IR) as well as XRD. Moreover, this biopolymer is light sensitive, decomposing into oligo- and monomeric units. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging showed different morphologies when compared with commercial available melanin. The biosynthetic production of melanin can have a wide range of applications from photosensitive cells to biomedicine with the advantage of being produced under eco-friendly and mild conditions., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The behaviour of three vanadium(V) systems, namely the pyridinone (V(V)-dmpp), the salicylaldehyde (V(V)-salDPA) and the pyrimidinone (V(V)-MHCPE) complexes, is studied in aqueous solutions, under aerobic and physiological conditions using (51)V NMR, EPR and UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopies. The speciations for the V(V)-dmpp and V(V)-salDPA have been previously reported. In this work, the system V(V)-MHCPE is studied by pH-potentiometry and (51)V NMR. The results indicate that, at pH ca. 7, the main species present are (V(V)O(2))L(2) and (V(V)O(2))LH(-1) (L=MHCPE(-)) and hydrolysis products, similar to those observed in aqueous solutions of V(V)-dmpp. The latter species is protonated as the pH decreases, originating (V(V)O(2))L and (V(V)O(2))LH. All the V(V)-species studied are stable in aqueous media with different compositions and at physiological pH, including the cell culture medium. The compounds were screened for their potential cytotoxic activity in two different cell lines. The toxic effects were found to be incubation time and concentration dependent and specific for each compound and type of cells. The HeLa tumor cells seem to be more sensitive to drug effects than the 3T3-L1 fibroblasts. According to the IC(50) values and the results on reversibility to drug effects, the V(V)-species resulting from the V(V)-MHCPE system show higher toxicity in the tumor cells than in non-tumor cells, which may indicate potential antitumor activity.

Ischemia and reperfusion injury (IRI) is the main etiology of acute renal failure in native and transplanted kidneys. In the transplantation field, immunosuppressive drugs may play an additional role in acute graft dysfunction. Rapamycin may impair renal regeneration post IRI. Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) is a protective gene with anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic actions. We investigated whether HO-1 played a role in rapamycin-induced renal dysfunction in an established model of IRI. Rapamycin (3 mg/kg) was administered to mice before being subjected to 45 min of ischemia. Animals subjected to IRI presented with impaired renal function that peaked at 24 h (2.05+/-0.23 mg/dl), decreasing thereafter. Treatment with rapamycin caused even more renal dysfunctions (2.30+/-0.33 mg/dl), sustained up to 120 h after reperfusion (1.54+/-0.4 mg/dl), when compared to the control (0.63+/-0.09 mg/dl, P<0.05). Rapamycin delayed tubular regeneration that was normally higher in the control group at day 5 (68.53+/-2.30 vs 43.63+/-3.11%, P<0.05). HO-1 was markedly upregulated after IRI and its expression was even enhanced by rapamycin (1.32-fold). However, prior induction of HO-1 by cobalt protoporphyrin improved the renal dysfunction imposed by rapamycin, mostly at later time points. These results demonstrated that rapamycin used in ischemic-injured organs could also negatively affect post-transplantation recovery. Modulation of HO-1 expression may represent a feasible approach to limit rapamycin acute toxicity.

Currently, oil based fuels are the primary energy source of road transport. The growing need for oil independence and CO(2) mitigation has lead to the increasing importance of alternative fuel usage. CO(2) is produced not only as the fuel is used in the vehicle (tank-to-wheel contribution), but also upstream, from the fuel extraction to the refueling station (well-to-tank contribution), and the life cycle of the fuel production (well-to-wheel contribution) must be considered in order to analyse the global impact of the fuel utilization. A road vehicle tank-to-wheel analysis tool that may be integrated with well-to-tank models was developed in the present study. The integration in a demonstration case study allowed to perform a life cycle assessment concerning the utilization of diesel and natural gas fuels in a specific network line of a bus transit company operating in the city of Porto, Portugal.