Search

This study aims to demonstrate the applicability and importance of zebrafish (Danio rerio) model to study acute and chronic inflammatory responses induced by different stimuli: carrageenan phlogogen (nonimmune); acute infection by bacteria (immune); foreign body reaction (chronic inflammation by round glass coverslip implantation); reaction induced by xenotransplantation. In addition to the advantages of presenting low breeding cost, high prolificity, transparent embryos, high number of individuals belonging to the same spawning and high genetic similarity that favor translational responses to vertebrate organisms like humans, zebrafish proved to be an excellent tool, allowing the evaluation of edema formation, accumulation of inflammatory cells in the exudate, mediators, signaling pathways, gene expression and production of specific proteins. Our studies demonstrated the versatility of fish models to investigate the inflammatory response and its pathophysiology, essential for the successful development of studies to discover innovative pharmacological strategies.

Abstract Abstract: Successive applications of copper fungicides on vines have resulted in increased copper content in vineyard soils over the years. This high copper content has affected the growth of young vines in eradicated vineyards. Thus, the cultivation of annual species for a few years is an alternative to copper phytostabilization, because it would be a good way to decrease copper availability to plants. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological responses of different soybean cultivars to copper concentration increase. Four different soybean cultivars were grown under three copper concentrations: 0.5, 20 and 40 μM in nutrient solution. The main outcomes of this study were: i) Cultivar M 6410 IPRO recorded the highest photosynthetic rate when plants were exposed to 40 μM of copper in the nutrient solution; ii) plants in cultivar M 6410 IPRO accumulated large copper concentrations in their roots although did not decrease the root dry mass, possibly due to the higher superoxide dismutase activity; iii) cultivar DM 5958 RSF IPRO recorded drastically reduced photosynthetic rate and dry mass production due to copper excess. We conclude that each cultivar responded differently to the excess of copper, but none of them showed tolerance to it.

Healthcare waste management is a critical aspect of public health and environmental protection, particularly in establishments such as dental clinics. This study examined the dental clinic waste (DCW) management processes in clinics within the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Utilizing data from Healthcare Waste Management Plans (HCWMP) provided by the Urban Cleaning Superintendence, the study investigated waste generation, segregation, storage, collection, treatment, and final disposal practices. The results revealed that hazardous DCW represented a significant portion (26.5 %) of waste generated in dental clinics, exceeding the World Health Organization's recommended threshold. Biological waste (22.9 %), mainly consisting of cotton, gauze, and gloves contaminated with blood or body fluids, was the most generated hazardous waste group, followed by chemical (2.2 %) and sharps waste (1.3 %). Incineration was the predominant treatment method for hazardous DCW, raising concerns about environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. Non-hazardous waste, primarily destined for landfills, had limited recycling rates (2.4 %), emphasizing the need for improved waste management strategies to minimize environmental impacts and increase circular economy. Challenges in DCW management included inadequate segregation practices, limited recycling initiatives, and incomplete HCWMPs lacking descriptions of waste management beyond establishment boundaries. Addressing these challenges requires comprehensive training programs, strengthened regulations, and increased environmental awareness among healthcare professionals. In conclusion, improving DCW management in dental clinics is crucial for mitigating occupational and environmental risks. Collective efforts are needed to enhance waste segregation, promote recycling, and ensure compliance with regulations, ultimately safeguarding public health and the 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 © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The growing production of urban solid waste is a structural problem faced by most cities around the world. The proliferation of mini-open dumps (MOD; small spontaneous open-air waste dumps formed in urban and peri-urban areas) on the banks of the Paraná River is particularly evident. During the historical drought (June-December 2021), we carried out sampling campaigns identifying MODs of the Santa Fe River, a secondary channel of the Paraná River. MOD were geolocated, measured, described and classified by origin. The distance to the river and other sensitive places was considered (houses-schools-health facilities). Our results suggested a serious environmental issue associated with poor waste management. MOD were extremely abundant in the study area, being mostly composed of domestic litter. Plastics clearly dominated the MOD composition. Burning was frequently observed as a method to reduce the volume of MOD. We concluded that the proliferation of MOD is a multi-causal problem associated with a failure of public policies and a lack of environmental education., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

To overcome the multifactorial complexity associated with the analysis and interpretation of the capillary electrophoresis results of forensic mixture samples, probabilistic genotyping methods have been developed and implemented as software, based on either qualitative or quantitative models. The former considers the electropherograms' qualitative information (detected alleles), whilst the latter also takes into account the associated quantitative information (height of allele peaks). Both models then quantify the genetic evidence through the computation of a likelihood ratio (LR), comparing the probabilities of the observations given two alternative and mutually exclusive hypotheses. In this study, the results obtained through the qualitative software LRmix Studio (v.2.1.3), and the quantitative ones: STRmix™ (v.2.7) and EuroForMix (v.3.4.0), were compared considering real casework samples. A set of 156 irreversibly anonymized sample pairs (GeneMapper files), obtained under the scope of former cases of the Portuguese Scientific Police Laboratory, Judiciary Police (LPC-PJ), were independently analyzed using each software. Sample pairs were composed by (i) a mixture profile with either two or three estimated contributors, and (ii) a single contributor profile associated. In most cases, information on 21 short tandem repeat (STR) autosomal markers were considered, and the majority of the single-source samples could not be a priori excluded as belonging to a contributor to the paired mixture sample. This inter-software analysis shows the differences between the probative values obtained through different qualitative and quantitative tools, for the same input samples. LR values computed in this work by quantitative tools showed to be generally higher than those obtained by the qualitative. Although the differences between the LR values computed by both quantitative software showed to be much smaller, STRmix™ generated LRs are generally higher than those from EuroForMix. As expected, mixtures with three estimated contributors showed generally lower LR values than those obtained for mixtures with two estimated contributors. Different software products are based on different approaches and mathematical or statistical models, which necessarily result in the computation of different LR values. The understanding by the forensic experts of the models and their differences among available software is therefore crucial. The better the expert understands the methodology, the better he/she will be able to support and/or explain the results in court or any other area of scrutiny., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a fully crossed, repeated measures design to investigate the factors shaping individual variation in baseline cortisol in Antarctic fur seal pups and their mothers. Saliva samples were collected from focal individuals at two breeding colonies, one with low and the other with high density, during two consecutive years of contrasting food availability. Mothers and pups were sampled concurrently at birth and shortly before weaning, while pups were additionally sampled every 20 days. We found that heritability was low for baseline cortisol, while within-individual repeatability and among-individual variability were high. A substantial proportion of the variation in baseline cortisol could be explained in pups and mothers by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors including sex, weight, day, season, and colony of birth. Our findings provide detailed insights into the individualization of endocrine phenotypes and their genetic and environmental drivers in a wild pinniped. Furthermore, the strong associations between cortisol and life history traits that we report in fur seals could have important implications for understanding the population dynamics of species impacted by environmental change., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The nutritional composition and productivity of halophytes is strongly related to the biotic/abiotic stress to which these extremophile salt tolerant plants are subjected during their cultivation cycle. In this study, two commercial halophyte species ( Inula crithmoides and Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum ) were cultivated at six levels of salinity using a soilless cultivation system. In this way, it was possible to understand the response mechanisms of these halophytes to salt stress. The relative productivity decreased from the salinities of 110 and 200 mmol L -1 upwards for I. crithmoides and M.   nodiflorum , respectively. Nonetheless, the nutritional profile for human consumption remained balanced. In general, I. crithmoides vitamin (B1 and B6) contents were significantly higher than those of M. nodiflorum . For both species, β -carotene and lutein were induced by salinity, possibly as a response to oxidative stress. Phenolic compounds were more abundant in plants cultivated at lower salinities, while the antioxidant activity increased as a response to salt stress. Sensory characteristics were evaluated by a panel of culinary chefs showing a preference for plants grown at the salt concentration of 350 mmol L -1 . In summary, salinity stress was effective in boosting important nutritional components in these species, and the soilless system promotes the sustainable and safe production of halophyte plants for human consumption.

This research communication presents an automatic method for the counting of somatic cells in buffalo milk, which includes the application of a fuzzy clustering method and image processing techniques (somatic cell count with fuzzy clustering and image processing|, SCCFCI). Somatic cell count (SCC) in milk is the main biomarker for assessing milk quality and it is traditionally performed by exhaustive methods consisting of the visual observation of cells in milk smears through a microscope, which generates uncertainties associated with human interpretation. Unlike other similar works, the proposed method applies the Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) method as a preprocessing step in order to separate the images (objects) of the cells into clusters according to the color intensity. This contributes signficantly to the performance of the subsequent processing steps (thresholding, segmentation and recognition/identification). Two methods of thresholding were evaluated and the Watershed Transform was used for the identification and separation of nearby cells. A detailed statistical analysis of the results showed that the SCCFCI method is able to provide results which are consistent with those obtained by conventional counting. This method therefore represents a viable alternative for quality control in buffalo milk production.

Polyploidy in angiosperms is an influential factor to trigger apomixis, the reproduction of asexual seeds. Apomixis is usually facultative, which means that both sexual and apomictic seeds can be formed by the same plant. Environmental abiotic stress, e.g. light stress, can change the frequency of apomixis. Previous work suggested effects of stress treatments on meiosis and megasporogenesis. We hypothesized that polyploidy would alter the stress response and hence reproductive phenotypes of different cytotypes. The main aims of this research were to explore with prolonged photoperiods, whether polyploidy alters proportions of sexual ovule and sexual seed formation under light stress conditions. We used three facultative apomictic, pseudogamous cytotypes of the Ranunculus auricomus complex (diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid). Stress treatments were applied by extended light periods (16.5 h) and control (10 h) in climate growth chambers. Proportions of apomeiotic vs. meiotic development in the ovule were evaluated with clearing methods, and mode of seed formation was examined by single seed flow cytometric seed screening (ssFCSS). We further studied pollen stainability to understand effects of pollen quality on seed formation. Results revealed that under extended photoperiod, all cytotypes produced significantly more sexual ovules than in the control, with strongest effects on diploids. The stress treatment affected neither the frequency of seed set nor the proportion of sexual seeds nor pollen quality. Successful seed formation appears to be dependent on balanced maternal: paternal genome contributions. Diploid cytotypes had mostly sexual seed formation, while polyploid cytotypes formed predominantly apomictic seeds. Pollen quality was in hexaploids better than in diploids and tetraploids. These findings confirm our hypothesis that megasporogenesis is triggered by light stress treatments. Comparisons of cytotypes support the hypothesis that ovule development in polyploid plants is less sensitive to prolonged photoperiods and responds to a lesser extent with sexual ovule formation. Polyploids may better buffer environmental stress, which releases the potential for aposporous ovule development from somatic cells, and may facilitate the establishment of apomictic seed formation., (Copyright © 2020 Ulum, Costa Castro and Hörandl.)

Objective: This article concerns the translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and apparent validation of the Trauma and Attachment Belief Scale (TABS), an instrument used to assess the psychological effects of traumatic life experiences and vicarious trauma., Methods: This study involved literature review and evaluation of conceptual and item equivalences involving expert discussion groups focused on the existence and pertinence of the underlying theoretical concepts and corresponding items in a Brazilian context. Two translations and respective back-translations were performed during the evaluation of semantic equivalence, as well as an evaluation considering the referential and general equivalences between the original TABS and each version. Twenty-eight psychiatrists and psychologists completed a pretest. The final version was tested for reliability through the Cronbach's alpha and for verbal comprehension through the adapted verbal-numeric scale (ranging from 0 [I didn't understand anything] to 5 [I understood perfectly and I had no doubt]) in another 64 health professionals., Results: The cross-cultural adaptation demonstrated high semantic equivalence for both the general (>95.0%) and the referential (>90.0%) meaning. The total Cronbach's alpha was 0.9173. All 84 items were maintained, and they favorably contributed to the internal consistency of the scale. The mean values of the adapted verbal-numeric scale for verbal comprehension obtained from health professionals varied from 4.2 to 4.9., Conclusion: The Brazilian version of the TABS demonstrated high-quality conceptual, item, and semantic equivalence with the original instrument, as well as high acceptability, internal consistency, and verbal comprehension. The scale is now available for use.