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This study aimed to evaluate the effects of molybdenum (Mo) and organic and inorganic sources of copper (Cu) and sulfur (S) on performance and blood concentration of these minerals in lambs. Forty male non-castrated crossbred Dorper x Santa Inês lambs (20 ± 1.2 kg of body weight and 90 ± 2 d of age) were randomly allocated into one of the 10 following treatments: T0) control, basal diet; T1) Mo; T2) inorganic Cu and inorganic S; T3) inorganic Cu and organic S; T4) organic Cu and inorganic S; T5) organic Cu and organic S; T6) Mo plus inorganic Cu and inorganic S; T7) Mo plus inorganic Cu and organic S; T8) Mo plus organic Cu and inorganic S; T9) Mo plus organic Cu and organic S. The animals were kept in individual pens and received a total mixed ration during 84 days. Body weight and blood sampling was performed every 28 days. All animals were slaughtered after 84 days and carcass traits were evaluated. No effects of treatments were observed on body weight and carcass traits. Dietary molybdenum and sulfur-supplemented animals had reduced serum concentrations of copper and ceruloplasmin. Also, an interaction among Mo x Cu sources x S sources was detected for both copper and ceruloplasmin serum concentrations. Organic sources of Cu and S led to increased serum concentration of S. Further, Mo supplementation influenced positively its blood concentration.

A total of 120 Nellore bulls, [initial body weight (BW) = 307 ± 11.6 kg and 12 mo of age] were allocated into 12 collective pens (10 bulls per pen) in a commercial feedlot to evaluate the effects of a specific blend of tannin and saponins on enteric methane (CH4) emissions. The study was a completely randomized design, in which pens were considered the experimental units (N = 6 pens per treatment) and were randomly allocated into one of two treatments: 1) Control (CON), a basal diet with monensin supplementation (25 mg/kg dry matter [DM]; Rumensin, Elanco Animal Health, Greenfield, IN, USA), or 2) Control + a specific blend of tannin and saponins (TAN; 7 g/kg DM; composed of quebracho and chestnut tannin extracts along with carriers from cereals rich in saponins; SilvaFeed BX, Silvateam, San Michele Mondovi, CN, Italy). After the adaptation period (20 d), the experiment was divided into two phases: growing phase (21 to 53 d; total of 33 d) and fattening phase (54 to 139 d; total of 86 d). Enteric methane emissions were estimated using the sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer gas technique. Interactions between treatment and period (growing vs. fattening) were detected for daily CH4 emissions, in which animals fed TAN reduced CH4 emissions by 17.3% during the fattening period compared to bulls fed CON (P = 0.05). In addition, bulls fed TAN had lower CH4 emissions expressed by dry matter intake (DMI) during the fattening period compared to bulls fed CON (P = 0.06). The findings presented herein indicate that a specific blend of tannin and saponins can be used as a strategy to reduce enteric CH4 emissions and its intensity of Nellore bulls finished in feedlot systems under tropical conditions.

The growing number of available APIs means that more developers and interested users need to learn to use unfamiliar interfaces, requiring a learning curve that can compromise productivity. Thus, it becomes important to find ways to facilitate their usability. This work presents a tool that facilitates using the Google Places API, simplifying multiple API calls to cover a region of interest. In addition, the proposed tool also provides features for the enrichment of these data, extending the PoI data from that region with categories from other sources. It is hoped that developers and users without much computer knowledge can benefit from Google Places Enricher, helping to ease the development of new sophisticated urban applications and services.

This study analyzes the urban mobility of Curitiba through the use of public transit by the population divided into socioeconomic strata. To study the established mobility graph and its spatio-temporal patterns, a multilayered approach called Multi-Aspect Graph (MAG) with four aspects is applied. The results detail patterns that cannot be observed in a traditional graph, such as the most frequent routes and the most central points of the city, taking into account all the modeled aspects. The model used allows a strategic understanding of the use of the beneficial public transit system for different applications, such as actions in emergencies and outbreaks of rapidly contagious diseases.

Organophosphorus poisoning caused by some pesticides and nerve agents is a life-threating condition that must be swiftly addressed to avoid casualties. Despite the availability of medical countermeasures, the clinically available compounds lack a broad spectrum, are not effective towards all organophosphorus toxins, and have poor pharmacokinetics properties to allow them crossing the blood-brain barrier, hampering cholinesterase reactivation at the central nervous system. In this work, we designed and synthesised novel isatin derivatives, linked to a pyridinium 4-oxime moiety by an alkyl chain with improved calculated properties, and tested their reactivation potency against paraoxon- and NEMP-inhibited acetylcholinesterase in comparison to the standard antidote pralidoxime. Our results showed that these compounds displayed comparable in vitro reactivation also pointed by the in silico studies, suggesting that they are promising compounds to tackle organophosphorus poisoning.

Em tempos de pandemia, o transporte público pode ser crucial para a disseminação de vírus, principalmente nas grandes cidades. As vacinas costumam fazer parte das estratégias para reduzir o contágio; no entanto, estas podem ser escassas em cenários pandêmicos. Utilizando dados do sistema de transporte público, este trabalho propõe o uso de redes multicamadas variantes no tempo para identificar os principais locais críticos a serem considerados prioritários em intervenções, como campanhas de vacinação, para ajudar a reduzir o contágio nesse meio de locomoção. Nossa abordagem considera os pontos de ônibus críticos como pontos prioritários de vacinação, indicando que a vacinação nesses locais reduz a propagação da infecção usando menos doses do que uma vacinação aleatória. A abordagem proposta neste estudo não se limita às estratégias de vacinação, sendo também aplicável a outros problemas que compartilham propriedades semelhantes, mesmo em contextos diferentes.

A população urbana tem crescido rapidamente nos últimos anos e com ela aumentam também os problemas envolvendo a qualidade de vida das pessoas nos centros urbanos. Nesse sentido, a evolução das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs), permite que serviços baseados em crowdsensing sejam uma ferramenta essencial para melhorar a qualidade de vida das pessoas fornecendo dados valiosos para agentes públicos que gerenciam tais centros. Este trabalho propõe a análise de uma base de dados de eventos (problemas) de trânsito reportados por usuários em um aplicativo de sensoriamento participativo de tráfego na cidade de Vitória-ES considerando três questões: o tempo de duração dos eventos reportados, variação mensal dos eventos, e a correlação entre as chuvas na cidade e os eventos reportados pelos usuários. Dentre os resultados, foi observado que a maioria dos eventos estudados não apresentam um padrão claro de sazonalidade, o que poderiam estar sendo influenciados por fatores climáticos. Observamos ainda correlações positivas (baixas e moderadas) entre chuvas e eventos, principalmente ao analisar meses individualmente. Esse resultado pode abrir novos caminhos de investigação para, por exemplo, novos serviços de previsão de problemas de trânsito.

A considerable part of the culture and behavior of societies are derived from the habits and preferences built up over time. One representative characteristic that a group can present is the preference for certain food groups, thus, building the gastronomic identity of each region around the world. With the increasingly broad connections established by social networks, it is now more feasible to analyze such preferences on a large scale. This study examines recipes from Allrecipes.com network in three continents: America, Europe, and Asia. Based on the evaluations made by the users, a score was developed, allowing the separation of the recipes in two broad groups: well evaluated and poorly evaluated. All the ingredients of these recipes were extracted and used to assemble a network whose links were made via pointwise mutual information. This measure of association, used in pairs of ingredients, allowed us to find the main ingredients common to the countries. Our study may help to better understand the success, or otherwise, of a recipe, in a specific locality, based on its main ingredients. Thus, one of the main utilities envisioned for this work is to establish better recommendations for recipes.

Politics in different countries show diverse degrees of polarization, which tends to be stronger on social media, given how easy it became to connect and engage with like-minded individuals on the web. A way of reducing polarization would be by distributing cross-partisan news among individuals with distinct political orientations, i.e., “reaching the bubbles”. This study investigates whether this holds in the context of nationwide elections in Brazil and Canada. We collected politics-related tweets shared during the 2018 Brazilian presidential election and the 2019 Canadian federal election. Next, we proposed an updated centrality metric that enables identifying highly central bubble reachers, nodes that can distribute content among users with diverging political opinions—a fundamental metric for the proposed study. After that, we analyzed how users engage with news content shared by bubble reachers, its source, and its topics, considering its political orientation. Among other results, we found that, even though news media disseminate content that interests different sides of the political spectrum, users tend to engage considerably more with content that aligns with their political orientation, regardless of the topic.

Although democratic governance imposes temporal constraints, the timing of government policy making activities such as bill initiation is still poorly understood. This holds especially under coalition governments, in which government bills need to find approval by a partner party in parliament. We propose a dynamic temporal perspective in which ministers do not know whether they face a cooperative or competitive partner at the beginning of a term, but they learn this over time and use their agenda control to time further bill initiation in response. A circular regression analysis using data on more than 25,000 government bills from 11 parliamentary democracies over 30 years supports this temporal perspective, showing that ministers initiate bills later in the term when their previous bills have experienced greater scrutiny. Ministers further delay bill initiation when coalition parties’ incentives to deviate from compromise increase and when they have less power to constrain their bills’ scrutiny.

O estudo do comportamento de turistas é estratégico para melhoria dos serviços nesse competitivo segmento econômico. Trabalhos atuais geralmente exploram essa questão usando dados tradicionais, como questionários. Esse tipo de fonte fornece informações valiosas, no entanto, sofre com escalabilidade e abrangência. Uma fonte alternativa que minimiza esses problemas é obtida pelas redes sociais baseadas em localização (LBSNs). No entanto, para o uso apropriado desses dados é necessário averiguar se o comportamento capturado nessas redes reflete de maneira satisfatória o comportamento real medido com dados tradicionais. Assim, o presente trabalho visa validar se o fluxo internacional de turistas capturado com uma LBSN reflete de maneira satisfatória o comportamento real medido com dados tradicionais. Resultados iniciais sugerem que os dados LBSNs representam notavelmente bem o comportamento estudado e que podem habilitar pesquisas sobre a mobilidade desses turistas.

We argue that wealthy elites in democracies can limit their taxes by constraining the fiscal capacity of the state. Corrupting local officials and undermining fiscal capacity are some of the mechan...

Objective The main objective of this study was to utilize eye-tracking technology and self-report measures to test the effectiveness of varying strengths of fear appeals when educating about the seriousness of depression and motivate depressed individuals to engage in health-information-seeking. Methods We analyzed data from 117 university employees affected by a range of depression symptoms who were randomly assigned to a low-threat, moderate threat, and high-threat message condition in a lab-based experimental setting. Attention patterns were captured while participants viewed the health message. A particular emphasis was placed on understanding the role of valence and arousal in determining attention patterns. Results Attentional processes induced emotions (valence) and intensity (arousal) and differed by strength of fear appeal, but were not influenced by symptoms of depression in this study. Arousal mediated the effects of strong fear appeals on attitudes toward information-seeking, whereas negative emotions did not. Conclusion and practice implications Until further research suggests otherwise, caution is warranted when utilizing fear appeals that are highly arousing for health education and promotion.

The objective was to evaluate the selenium (Se) balance and Se concentration in serum, muscle and viscera as well hepatic glutathione peroxidase activity (GSH-Px) in lambs fed diets supplemented with different Se sources and levels. Forty male Suffolk lambs 90 ± 2.5 days old (19.8 ± 2.1 kg) received, during a 84 days period, a total mixed ration (TMR) with three Se sources [Sodium selenite (Na selenite), Selenium-Yeast (Se-Yeast) and Selenium-Methionine (Se-Methionine)] and three Se levels [0.2, 0.8 and 1.4 mg/kg dry matter (DM)]. Also, it was provided a control diet (no addition of Se) for regression comparisons. Contrasts and estimates were used for partition specific treatment effects and serum data were analyzed by time repeated measures. Absorption and retention of Se as well as Se excretion by feces and urine were higher as Se inclusion increased. At 1.4 mg/kg DM level, there was higher Se excretion by feces with inorganic source compared to organic sources. Also, linear increasing was detected to absorption of Se among sources supplemented relative to its intake. Regarding the Se retention efficiency (g/100 g of Se consumed) the Se-methionine treatment showed a linear pattern. Selenium concentrations in serum and liver were higher, regardless of the source, linearly to dose inclusion. The amount of Se in muscle was higher for organic sources at level 0.8 and 1.4 mg/kg DM. At the first cited level, Se-Methionine was superior compared to Se-Yeast and at the second, the opposite occurred. In addition, organic sources leaded to linear effect of Se content in muscle tissue. However, there was higher hepatic GSH-Px activity to Na selenite source compared to organic sources. Regarding to relative Se content, organic Se sources had higher content in muscle tissue compared to Na selenite.

The study aimed to evaluate the supplementation of gilts with cow’s milk naturally enriched with n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on reproductive outcomes, and the serum biochemical and FA profile of swine females and their offspring. During 316 days, 30 gilts were distributed into three groups: (1) Control, fed a basal diet + milk from cows without oil, (2) n-3, fed a basal diet + milk from cows fed a diet enriched with linseed oil, (3) n-6, fed a basal diet + milk from cows fed a diet enriched with soybean oil. The gilts receiving the diets containing PUFA had higher serum urea and very-low-density lipoprotein levels and lower serum total protein and low-density lipoprotein levels compared to the Control group. Females supplemented with n-3 presented higher serum palmitic acid and γ-linolenic acid levels than those fed n-6. Piglets from the Control group were heavier at birth than those from females supplemented with enriched milk. The piglets from females receiving enriched milk had 140 g higher body weight from 1 to 21 days old compared to the Control group, and greater average daily weight gain from 7 to 14 days old. The serum eicosapentaenoic acid level of piglets fed n-3 was 69% higher than those fed n-6, which reduced the AA/EPA ratio. Gilts supplemented with PUFA-enriched cow’s milk showed changes in their serum palmitic and γ-linolenic acid levels, in addition to improved performance, EPA concentration and consequently reduced AA/EPA ratio in their piglets, demonstrating beneficial results for their progeny.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of subcutaneous injections of 15 mg/mL Cu, 5 mg/mL Se, 60 mg/mL Zn, and 10 mg/mL Mn on health, performance, polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) function, circulating glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) concentrations, and inflammation of dairy cows undergoing the transition period in high temperature-humidity index. A total of 923 multiparous cows from 2 commercial dairy farms were randomly allocated into 1 of 2 treatment groups as follows: control and injectable trace mineral supplementation (ITMS). Cows in the ITMS group received 7 mL of subcutaneous injections at dry-off (208 ± 3 d of gestation), 260 ± 3 d of gestation, and at 35 ± 3 d in milk (DIM). Data regarding health traits, reproductive performance, milk yield, and survivability were extracted from farm database software, and animals were followed-up until 300 DIM. For a subset of 142 cows from one herd, blood samples were collected at enrollment, and at 3 ± 1, 7 ± 1, 10 ± 1, and 35 ± 3 DIM to evaluate hematology, PMNL function, GPx and SOD concentrations, and circulating haptoglobin. Logistic regression was used to assess health and pregnancy per artificial insemination at first service. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate hazard of pregnancy and culling. Mixed linear regression models accounting for repeated measures were used to assess all continuous variables collected over time. Parity, twinning, and previous gestation length were considered as potential confounders. Farm was included as a random effect. The ITMS cows tended to have lower incidence of metritis and stillbirth compared with control group. However, ITMS treatment did not influence the incidence of other diseases (e.g., mastitis, retained placenta), milk yield, reproductive performance, culling, and leukocyte count. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, PMNL phagocytosis, and oxidative burst as well as intensity of the oxidative burst were greater for ITMS-treated cows in comparison to control cows. The ITMS cows had decreased expression of the adhesion molecule L-selectin on PMNL surface. The serum concentration of GPx and SOD were not affected by ITMS treatment. In conclusion, ITMS tended to reduce the incidence of metritis and stillbirth parturition, improved PMNL function, and improved the inflammatory status of dairy cows undergoing the transition period in high temperature-humidity index conditions. However, these findings did not translate into improved milk yield, reproductive performance, and survivability.

Este trabalho analisa a mobilidade urbana de Curitiba por meio do uso do transporte público e com a população dividida em estratos socioeconômicos. Para estudar o grafo de mobilidade estabelecido e seus padrões espaço-temporais foi aplicada uma abordagem multicamadas denominada Multi-Aspect Graph (MAG) com quatro aspectos. Os resultados detalham padrões que não podem ser observados em um grafo tradicional, tais como os deslocamentos mais frequentes bem como os pontos mais centrais da cidade levando em consideração todos os aspectos modelados. A modelagem utilizada possibilita um entendimento estratégico do uso do sistema público de transporte benéfico para diferentes aplicações, tais como atuações em situações de emergência, como surtos de doenças de rápido contágio.

As redes sociais baseadas em localização (LBSNs) disponibilizam uma nova variedade de possibilidades para obtenção de dados em larga escala, especialmente com o significativo aumento de usuários de mídias sociais. Nesse sentido, a proposta do trabalho atual é explorar dados de LBSNs para estudar as influências regionais no comportamento de turistas e residentes no âmbito de mobilidade, levando em consideração não somente as coordenadas geográficas, mas também o tipo de local visitado. Os resultados apresentados sugerem que residentes de uma mesma região geográfica tendem a ter hábitos mais similares entre si. Observou-se também que o comportamento entre turistas e residentes é diferente. Além disso, os experimentos indicaram que o país de origem de residência do usuário pode influenciar em suas escolhas enquanto turista em outros países. As análises realizadas permitiram observar também a existência de dois grupos distintos de turistas, sendo um deles mais previsível em termos de coordenadas geográficas e tipo de local visitado. A possibilidade de explorar as características culturais de cada nacionalidade em diferentes destinos mostra-se um caminho promissor para melhorar sistemas de recomendação de locais e serviços oferecidos para grupos de turistas distintos.

Nos dias atuais existe uma escassez de dados de mobilidade reais disponíveis abertamente. Sendo assim, diversos trabalhos da literatura geram mobilidade sintética a qual não representa a mobilidade real. Alguns desses trabalhos fazem o uso de dados contextuais para propor recomendação de rotas, no entanto não estudam o comportamento de tais dados. Além disso, o impacto de cada tipo de dado contextual muda de acordo com o perfil do usuário. Para resolver os problemas citados anteriormente é proposto o CERVA, uma solução de roteamento contextual para veículos com risco espaço-temporal. O CERVA é composto por três módulos, sendo: identificação das janelas contextuais, mapeamento de contexto, e personalização do roteamento. Os resultados da avaliação mostram que o CERVA recomenda as melhores rotas de acordo com o perfil do usuário.

Este trabalho analisa a mobilidade urbana de Curitiba por meio do uso do transporte público. Com a população dividida em subconjuntos correspondentes a estratos socioeconômicos, foram estabelecidas redes onde os vértices correspondem aos bairros da cidade e as arestas representam a existência de um deslocamento entre dois bairros. Para estudar as principais propriedades estruturais dessas redes de mobilidade foram analisados os seus padrões espaço-temporais. Os resultados mostram que padrões espaciais e temporais variam entre os diferentes grupos socioeconômicos. Em particular, o conjunto de dados analisado mostra que, com o aumento da riqueza, a atividade matinal é adiada (em média por 2h) e a distribuição espacial das viagens torna-se mais localizada, com diferenças maiores que 10 km entre as classes.

The spread of misinformation, hate speech, or sexist discourse had become a significant problem, especially on chat platforms. This article describes a data collection and processing tool to support research on users’ behavior exposed to these contents. Our motivation is the recent need to study profiles that propagate this type of information and the need to understand these new dissemination mechanisms. This tool provides a web configuration panel and a mobile application for data collection. Using a chatbot mechanism, the panel allows researchers to perform personalized experiments to analyze specific issues. The application collects the user’s basic profile, allows interaction with the chatbots sent by the researcher, and runs on the volunteers’ devices, similar to a real messaging application such as WhatsApp or Telegram. The data generated regarding the user’s interactions with the application can be exported for analysis through the panel. Also, we describe the insertion of optional codes that can be executed in parallel to the conversations, helping in sophisticated personalizations. We believe that the proposed open-source tool will help researchers from different areas, even without computer programming skills, to understand fundamental mechanisms of user behavior in mobile chat systems.