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Although Lean Thinking (LT) is becoming popular in service organizations, few studies have applied Lean tools to the education sector. Furthermore, although inventories are one of the main wastes in this sector, to date, no study has presented a decision support system (DSS), based on LT, for stock management in academic institutions. This study aims to design an application of LT in teaching and research laboratories to provide improvements in workplace organization, setup times, and stock management. Lean tools were implemented in a case study, and an e-Kanban DSS was designed to determine when and in what quantity an order should be placed, considering factors such as forecasting demand, demand level (high or low), and component deterioration. For testing the DSS, a simulation was carried out using as an example a set of articles that integrate the protocol of laboratory activity. The implementation of Lean tools improved the organization of the workplace, which contributed to a reduction in unnecessary movements and the setup time of practical activities. Additionally, the study demonstrated that the developed DSS calculates the quantities to be ordered according to the selected mathematical formulas and generates appropriate visual alerts, depending on the need to place an order.

First colorimetric and low-cost approach for detecting and quantifying galectin-3 using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) bioconjugated with Gal-3 antibody.

In order to create high-quality products, quality engineering must be integrated across the entire product development process. To accomplish the ultimate goal, innovative approaches are required, and a Quality Management System-QMS is imperative to standardize all processes. All business areas depend on people and processes, but quality is especially dependent on them. A QMS can benefit from the application of Quality 4.0—Q4.0 and Cognitive Engineering—CE aspects to reduce the workload and cognitive capacity required from QMS specialists, using these technologies to tackle long-standing quality concerns and to re-optimize to deliver creative solutions. The decision to implement a QMS based on Q4.0 technologies is difficult to take due to the challenge that is to automatize dispersed activities. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that aids in the application of a Q4.0 QMS. The relationship between quality management practices and Industry 4.0 technologies that improve quality are deeply studied and connected with CE practices to develop an advanced framework, that makes it easier to overview all the dispersed activities within the manufacturing environment gathered as one, and simplify the application of new technologies to the QMS activities. The proposed framework was developed as result of this study.

This paper addresses the design of a system to facilitate individual environmental risk assessment and long-term risk management in the Industry 4.0 work context. The solution is based on IoT to provide data related to workers’ exposure to hazardous agents (dust, noise, ultraviolet radiation, poor lighting, and inappropriate temperature and humidity) through a simple interface for employees and employers. The system includes a monitoring device and a server and performs employee registration, receives secure messages from the monitoring devices, shows information about the workers’ exposure, and triggers alarms when the measures reach or exceed the limits established by applicable legislation and/or standards. The system was tested in a controlled environment, and the results are presented in this work. Our solution is still under development, and in future stages, it will include a smartphone app for employees to check their exposures and the use of artificial intelligence on the server, which is expected to enable long-term planning by companies based on the analysis of employees’ health history and their exposures to hazardous agents.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a multifaceted syndrome with a complex aetiology often associated with several comorbidities, such as left ventricle pressure overload, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and kidney disease. Its pathophysiology remains obscure mainly due to the complex phenotype induced by all these associated comorbidities and to the scarcity of animal models that adequately mimic HFpEF. Increased oxidative stress, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction are currently accepted as key players in HFpEF pathophysiology. However, we have just started to unveil HFpEF complexity and the role of calcium handling, energetic metabolism, and mitochondrial function remain to clarify. Indeed, the enlightenment of such cellular and molecular mechanisms represents an opportunity to develop novel therapeutic approaches and thus to improve HFpEF treatment options. In the last decades, the number of research groups dedicated to studying HFpEF has increased, denoting the importance and the magnitude achieved by this syndrome. In the current technological and web world, the amount of information is overwhelming, driving us not only to compile the most relevant information about the theme but also to explore beyond the tip of the iceberg. Thus, this review aims to encompass the most recent knowledge related to HFpEF or HFpEF-associated comorbidities, focusing mainly on myocardial metabolism, oxidative stress, and energetic pathways.

A factory layout is a decisive factor in the improvement of production levels, efficiency, and even in the sustainability of a company. Regardless of the type of layout to be implemented, they are typically designed to optimize the work conditions and provide high performance, reducing production losses. The wine sector encompasses a wide diversity of possible configurations of production layouts, from one-level designs with separate infrastructures in several buildings or centralized single facilities, or even subdivided into different levels or floors. The general purpose is to maximize energy efficiency and process performance while minimizing costs. Thus, an optimization model based on the organization of productive layouts is proposed, using a methodology based on a genetic algorithm. The obtained results reveal that the optimization model for winery layouts was successfully applied, providing feasible solutions to improve the production processes’ efficiency combined with the minimization of general and ergonomic risks.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most prevalent noncutaneous cancer among men. The limited accuracy and/or invasive nature of the current diagnostic tools have driven the demand for new and noninvasive biomarkers. Urine as a noninvasive sample that contains prostatic secretions is a promising source of PCa markers. The automatic text-mining functionality of VOSviewer was used to retrieve and create co-occurrence networks of terms associated with PCa. These results were complemented with DisGENET data, a repository of PCa associations, and with a recent bioinformatic analysis integrating all differentially expressed proteins identified in tumor tissue and urine from PCa patients to address the limited term selection of VOSviewer. Afterward, the results were integrated with gene expression data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database to correlate gene and protein levels. This study suggests AXIN2, GSTM2, KLK3, LGALS3, MSMB, PRTFDC1, and SH3RF1 as important entities in PCa context. KLK, LGALS3, and MSMB proteins are common to a previous bioinformatic analysis, and a concordance was found between the levels of gene and protein expression. The applicability of the pipeline presented here was validated by showing altered urinary levels of galectin-3 protein in PCa patients compared to noncancer subjects.

Smart packaging provides one possible solution that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison with traditional packaging, which aims to extend the product's useful life and to facilitate transport and marketing, smart packaging allows increased efficiency, for example by ensuring authenticity and traceability from the product's origin, preventing fraud and theft, and improving security. Consequently, it may help to reduce pollution, food losses, and waste associated with the food supply chain. However, some questions must be answered to fully understand the advantages and limitations of its use. What are the most suitable smart packaging technologies for use in agro-industrial subsectors such as meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables, bakery, and pastry? What are the opportunities from a perspective of life extension, process optimization, traceability, product quality, and safety? What are the future challenges? An up-to-date, systematic review was conducted of literature relevant to the application of indicator technologies, sensors, and data carriers in smart packaging, to answer these questions. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Nowadays, the strong increase in products consumption, the purchase of products on online platforms as well as the requirements for greater safety and food protection are a concern for food and packaging industries. Active packaging brings huge advances in the extension of product shelf-life and food degradation and losses reduction. This systematic work aims to collect and evaluate all existing strategies and technologies of active packaging that can be applied in food products, with a global view of new possibilities for food preservation. Oxygen scavengers, carbon dioxide emitters/absorbers, ethylene scavengers, antimicrobial and antioxidant active packaging, and other active systems and technologies are summarized including the products commercially available and the respective mechanisms of action. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Deep Learning has been successfully applied to image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing in recent years. Therefore, there has been an incentive to apply it in other fields as well. The field of agriculture is one of the most important fields in which the application of deep learning still needs to be explored, as it has a direct impact on human well-being. In particular, there is a need to explore how deep learning models can be used as a tool for optimal planting, land use, yield improvement, production/disease/pest control, and other activities. The vast amount of data received from sensors in smart farms makes it possible to use deep learning as a model for decision-making in this field. In agriculture, no two environments are exactly alike, which makes testing, validating, and successfully implementing such technologies much more complex than in most other industries. This paper reviews some recent scientific developments in the field of deep learning that have been applied to agriculture, and highlights some challenges and potential solutions using deep learning algorithms in agriculture. The results in this paper indicate that by employing new methods from deep learning, higher performance in terms of accuracy and lower inference time can be achieved, and the models can be made useful in real-world applications. Finally, some opportunities for future research in this area are suggested., This work is supported by the R&D Project BioDAgro—Sistema operacional inteligente de informação e suporte á decisão em AgroBiodiversidade, project PD20-00011, promoted by Fundação La Caixa and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, taking place at the C-MAST-Centre for Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences and Technology, Department of Electromechanical Engineering of the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.

1. Quarta Capa Te convido a conhecer as histórias das Mulheres diamantes empreendedoras de campo largo, que desenvolveram um ecossistema de negócios e de resultados, transformando não só suas vidas mais uma cidade. Silvia Maria Correa Marcia Moscatelli de Almeida Rodrigues Francieli Ribeiro Dias Tezolin Pulice TÂNIA LIMA RODRIGUES Valéria Barrichello Julyane Théo Sierpinski de Souza Ana Caluciuc

When in contact with biological fluids, nanoparticles dynamically absorb biomolecules like proteins and lipids onto their surface, forming a “corona”. This biocorona is a dynamic and complex structure that determines how host cells respond to nanoparticles. Despite the common use of mouse models in pre-clinical and toxicological experiments, the impact of corona formed in mouse serum on the biophysical and biological properties of different size NP has not been thoroughly explored. Furthering the knowledge on the corona formed on NP exposed to mouse serum proteins can help in understanding what role it might have in in vivo studies at systemic, tissue, and cellular levels. To investigate biocorona formation, different sized polystyrene NP were exposed to mouse serum. Our data show a size- and time-dependent protein and lipid corona formation. Several proteins were identified and apolipoproteins were by far the most common group on the NPs surfaces. Moreover, we observed that cholesterol and triglycerides effectively bind to NP emphasizing that proteins are not the only biomolecules with high-affinity binding to nanomaterial surfaces. These results highlight that further knowledge on NP interactions with mouse serum is necessary regarding the common use of this model to predict the in vivo efficiency of NP. The authors acknowledge Rui Fernandes from Histology and Electron Microscopy platform (HEMS) i3s Scientific platform, for the TEM analysis. Tânia Lima was supported by FCT fellowship PD/BD/128393/2017 from BiotechHealth International Doctoral programme. Open access funding provided by Lund University.

In the wine industry, task planning is based on decision-making processes that are influenced by technical and organizational constraints as well as regulatory limitations. A characteristic constraint inherent to this sector concerns occupational risks, in which companies must reduce and mitigate work-related accidents, resulting in lower operating costs and a gain in human, financial, and material efficiency. This work proposes a task scheduling optimization model using a methodology based on the ant colony optimization approach to mitigate the ergonomic risks identified in general winery production processes by estimating the metabolic energy expenditure during the execution of tasks. The results show that the tasks were reorganized according to their degree of ergonomic risk, preserving an acceptable priority sequence of tasks with operational affinity and satisfactory efficiency from the point of view of the operationalization of processes, while the potential ergonomic risks are simultaneously minimized by the rotation and alternation of operative teams between those tasks with higher and lower values of metabolic energy required. We also verified that tasks with lower ergonomic-load requirements influence the reorganization of the task sequence by lowering the overall value of metabolic energy, which is reflected in the reduction of the ergonomic load.

This work studies the extraction and purification of a novel arabinogalactan from pistachio external hull. It was extracted with a simple method from pistachio hull which is considered as unexploited waste. Based on the results of sugar analysis by GC-FID, glycosidic linkage by GC–MS, NMR spectroscopy, and molecular weight by Size Exclusion Chromatography, pistachio hull water soluble polysaccharides (PHWSP) were identified as a type II arabinogalactan (AG), with characteristic terminally linked α-Araf, (α1 → 5)-Araf, (α1 → 3,5)-Araf, terminally linked β-Galp, (β1 → 6)-Galp, and (β1 → 3,6)-Galp. DEPT-135, HSQC, HMBC and COSY NMR data suggested the presence of (β1 → 3)-Galp mainly branched at O-6 with (β1 → 6)-Galp chains, α-Araf chains, and terminally linked α-Araf. These AG from pistachio external hulls showed in vitro stimulatory activity for B cells, suggesting their possible use as an immunological stimulant in nutraceutical and biomedical applications.

Precision irrigation and optimization of water use have become essential factors in agriculture because water is critical for crop growth. The proper management of an irrigation system should enable the farmer to use water efficiently to increase productivity, reduce production costs, and maximize the return on investment. Efficient water application techniques are essential prerequisites for sustainable agricultural development based on the conservation of water resources and preservation of the environment. In a previous work, an off-policy deep reinforcement learning model, Deep Q-Network, was implemented to optimize irrigation. The performance of the model was tested for tomato crop at a site in Portugal. In this paper, an on-policy model, Advantage Actor–Critic, is implemented to compare irrigation scheduling with Deep Q-Network for the same tomato crop. The results show that the on-policy model Advantage Actor–Critic reduced water consumption by 20% compared to Deep Q-Network with a slight change in the net reward. These models can be developed to be applied to other cultures with high production in Portugal, such as fruit, cereals, and wine, which also have large water requirements.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer types among men. The quantification of prostate-specific antigen used for PCa detection has revealed limited applicability. Thus, it is crucial to identify new minimally invasive biomarkers for PCa. It is believed that the integration of proteomics data from different studies is vital for identifying new biomarkers for PCa, but studies carried out in this regard have few converging results. Using a different approach, this study aimed to unveil molecular features consistently dysregulated in PCa and potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. The novelty of this analysis relies on the comparison of urinary and tissue proteomes from PCa patients and consequent exclusion of kidney and bladder cancer interference. The conducted bioinformatic analysis revealed molecular processes dysregulated in urine from PCa patients that mirror the alterations in prostate tumor tissue. To identify putative urinary biomarkers, proteins previously detected in kidney and bladder tissues were eliminated from the final list of potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. After a detailed analysis, MSMB, KLK3, ITIH4, ITIH2, HPX, GP2, APOA2 and AZU1 proteins stood out as candidate urinary biomarkers for PCa.

Background: Often, pressure overload–induced myocardial remodeling does not undergo complete reverse remodeling after decreasing afterload. Recently, mitochondrial abnormalities and oxidative stress have been successively implicated in the pathogenesis of several chronic pressure overload cardiac diseases. Therefore, we aim to clarify the myocardial energetic dysregulation in (reverse) remodeling, mainly focusing on the mitochondria. Methods: Thirty-five Wistar Han male rats randomly underwent sham or ascending (supravalvular) aortic banding procedure. Echocardiography revealed that banding induced concentric hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction (early diastolic transmitral flow velocity to peak early-diastolic annular velocity ratio, E/E′: sham, 13.6±2.1, banding, 18.5±4.1, P =0.014) accompanied by increased oxidative stress (dihydroethidium fluorescence: sham, 1.6×10 8 ±6.1×10 7 , banding, 2.6×10 8 ±4.5×10 7 , P Results: Two weeks later, hypertrophy decreased with the decline of oxidative stress (dihydroethidium fluorescence: banding, 2.6×10 8 ±4.5×10 7 , debanding, 1.96×10 8 ±6.8×10 7 , P P =0.029). The reduction of energetic demands imposed by overload relief allowed the mitochondria to reduce its activity and myocardial levels of phosphocreatine, phosphocreatine/ATP, and ATP/ADP to normalize in debanding towards sham values (phosphocreatine: sham, 38.4±7.4, debanding, 35.6±8.7, P =0.71; phosphocreatine/ATP: sham, 1.22±0.23 debanding, 1.11±0.24, P =0.59; ATP/ADP: sham, 6.2±0.9, debanding, 5.6±1.6, P =0.66). Despite the decreased mitochondrial area, complex III and V expression increased in debanding compared with sham or banding. Autophagy and mitophagy-related markers increased in banding and remained higher in debanding rats. Conclusions: During compensatory and maladaptive hypertrophy, mitochondria become more active. However, as the disease progresses, the myocardial energetic demands increase and the myocardium becomes energy deficient. During reverse remodeling, the concomitant attenuation of cardiac hypertrophy and oxidative stress allowed myocardial energetics, left ventricle hypertrophy, and diastolic dysfunction to recover. Autophagy and mitophagy are probably involved in the myocardial adaptation to overload and to unload. We conclude that these mitochondrial reversible changes underlie diastolic function adaptations during myocardial (reverse) remodeling.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer types among men. The quantification of prostate-specific antigen used for PCa detection has revealed limited applicability. Thus, it is crucial to identify new minimally invasive biomarkers for PCa. It is believed that the integration of proteomics data from different studies is vital for identifying new biomarkers for PCa, but studies carried out in this regard have few converging results. Using a different approach, this study aimed to unveil molecular features consistently dysregulated in PCa and potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. The novelty of this analysis relies on the comparison of urinary and tissue proteomes from PCa patients and consequent exclusion of kidney and bladder cancer interference. The conducted bioinformatic analysis revealed molecular processes dysregulated in urine from PCa patients that mirror the alterations in prostate tumor tissue. To identify putative urinary biomarkers, proteins previously detected in kidney and bladder tissues were eliminated from the final list of potential urinary biomarkers for PCa. After a detailed analysis, MSMB, KLK3, ITIH4, ITIH2, HPX, GP2, APOA2 and AZU1 proteins stood out as candidate urinary biomarkers for PCa.

Aortic Stenosis (AS) is the most frequent valvulopathy in the western world. Traditionally aortic valve replacement (AVR) has been recommended immediately after the onset of heart failure (HF) symptoms. However, recent evidence suggests that AVR outcome can be improved if performed earlier. After AVR, the process of left ventricle (LV) reverse remodelling (RR) is variable and frequently incomplete. In this study, we aimed at detecting mechanism underlying the process of LV RR regarding myocardial structural, functional and molecular changes before the onset of HF symptoms. Wistar-Han rats were subjected to 7-weeks of ascending aortic-banding followed by a 2-week period of debanding to resemble AS-induced LV remodelling and the early events of AVR-induced RR, respectively. This resulted in 3 groups: Sham (n = 10), Banding (Ba, n = 15) and Debanding (Deb, n = 10). Concentric hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction (DD) were patent in the Ba group. Aortic-debanding induced RR, which promoted LV functional recovery, while cardiac structure did not normalise. Cardiac parameters of RV dysfunction, assessed by echocardiography and at the cardiomyocyte level prevailed altered after debanding. After debanding, these alterations were accompanied by persistent changes in pathways associated to myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis and LV inflammation. Aortic banding induced pulmonary arterial wall thickness to increase and correlates negatively with effort intolerance and positively with E/e′ and left atrial area. We described dysregulated pathways in LV and RV remodelling and RR after AVR. Importantly we showed important RV-side effects of aortic constriction, highlighting the impact that LV-reverse remodelling has on both ventricles.

Non-puerperal uterine inversion is a rare clinical entity and usually occurs as a prolapse of a benign or malignant mass located at the fundus of the uterus. Mechanism for its occurrence remains no...

We evaluated the potential of a liposomal antigen delivery system (ADS) containing Candida albicans cell wall surface proteins (CWSP) in mediating protection against systemic candidiasis. Treatment of bonemarrow- derived dendritic cells with CWSP-loaded dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide:monoolein (DODAB:MO) liposomes enhanced and prolonged their activation comparatively to free antigen, indicating that liposome-entrapped CWSP were released more sustainable. Therefore, we immunized mice with CWSP either in a free form or loaded into two different DODAB:MO liposome formulations, respectively designated as ADS1 and ADS2, prior to intravenous C. albicans infection. Immunization with ADS1, but not with ADS2, conferred significant protection to infected mice, comparatively to immunization with CWSP or empty liposomes as control. ADS1-immunized mice presented significantly higher serum levels of C. albicans-specific antibodies that enhanced phagocytosis of this fungus. In these mice, a mixed cytokine production profile was observed encompassing IFN-c, IL-4, IL-17A and IL-10. Nevertheless, only production of IL-4, IL-17 and IL-10 was higher than in controls. In this study we demonstrated that DODAB:MO liposomes enhance the immunogenicity of C. albicans antigens and host protection in a murine model of systemic candidiasis. Therefore, this liposomal adjuvant could be a promising candidate to assess in vaccination against this pathogenic fungus., This work was supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI). Catarina Carneiro holds scholarship SFRH/BD/69068/2010. We acknowledge NanoDelivery-I&D em Bionanotecnologia, Lda for access to their equipment.

Do modernismo ao mundo contemporâneo, muita coisa se transfigurou e se dizimou no campo dalinguagem. Em uma travessia conduzida pelo idioma dos homens anfíbios de Raul Bopp, analisa--se como se constitui o imaginário do mito de Cobra Norato, dentro de rios feitos de mangues. Aose deparar com o solo movediço do rio como uma cobra d’água fazendo uma volta dentro da noite,Bopp recria o poema por intermédio do tecido ficcional da oralidade. O trato com a natureza partede um olhar exótico, mitificado pelo desenho surrealista do verbo. Cobra Norato é um livro feitode uma geografia, não apenas surreal, mas que também demarca um elo “eco crítico” entre a palavrae a cultura. Nesse percurso, ao se falar da natureza em poesia, vem à tona uma teia rizomática derelação eco-cultural. Apontam-se alguns diálogos suscitados nesta pesquisa que bebem nas liçõesretiradas das teorias de Félix Guattari. Palavras-chave: Raul Bopp, Cobra Norato, Poesia.

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2021.803134/ full#supplementary-material, Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm cells are characterized by increased antimicrobial tolerance and improved ability to evade host immune system defenses. These features are, in part, due to the presence of viable but non-culturable (VBNC) cells. A previous study identified genes potentially involved in VBNC cells formation in S. epidermidis biofilms, among which SERP1682/1681 raised special interest due to their putative role as a toxinantitoxin system of the mazEF family. Herein, we constructed an S. epidermidis mutant lacking the mazEF genes homologues and determined their role in (i) VBNC state induction during biofilm formation, (ii) antimicrobial susceptibility, (iii) survival in human blood and plasma, and (iv) activation of immune cells. Our results revealed that mazEF homologue did not affect the proportion of VBNC cells in S. epidermidis 1457, refuting the previous hypothesis that mazEF homologue could be linked with the emergence of VBNC cells in S. epidermidis biofilms. Additionally, mazEF homologue did not seem to influence key virulence factors on this strain, since its deletion did not significantly affect the mutant biofilm formation capacity, antimicrobial tolerance or the response by immune cells. Surprisingly, our data suggest that mazEF does not behave as a toxinantitoxin system in S. epidermidis strain 1457, since no decrease in the viability and culturability of bacteria was found when only the mazF toxin homologue was being expressed., This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) by the funder project PTDC/BIA-MOL/29553/2017, under the scope of COMPETE2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029553) and by the strategic funding unit UIDB/04469/2020. VG acknowledges the support of FCT individual fellowship [SFRH/BD/131452/2017]., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion