Publications by authors named "Andre Martins"

The question of why we age is a fundamental one. It is about who we are, and it also might have critical practical aspects as we try to find ways to age slower. Or to not age at all.

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  • Previous research indicated that the MRI probe GdL1 can differentiate between healthy and cancerous prostate tissues based on zinc levels.
  • Mice were given varying zinc diets for three weeks, and their prostate zinc secretion was analyzed using advanced imaging techniques.
  • Results showed that healthy mice effectively regulated zinc levels, while cancerous mice struggled, suggesting that zinc supplements before imaging could improve prostate cancer detection accuracy.
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  • Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in athletes is a serious issue, and this study aimed to analyze SCD cases in Portugal over the last 20 years to better understand its incidence.
  • The research included a comprehensive search for cases and involved contacting sports federations, identifying 42 instances of SCD, predominantly among males aged around 27, with most cases occurring in outdoor sports during competitions.
  • The overall incidence of SCD was low, at 0.39 cases per 100,000 athletes per year, highlighting the need for better data collection practices to understand the causes and contexts of these tragic events.
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Introduction And Objectives: Sex differences among patients with acute myocardial infarctions remain a matter of debate. Inequalities in presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis are frequently observed, contributing to a worse prognosis in women. The aim of this study was to investigate sex-related differences in Portuguese ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.

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  • - Perfusion dynamics are crucial for delivering nutrients and oxygen to tissues while clearing waste; imaging methods like MRI, CT, and PET help visualize these processes but have limitations.
  • - A new hybrid PET/MRI probe called [F][Gd(FL)] has been developed, showing excellent stability and enabling easier radiolabeling, which enhances its diagnostic capabilities.
  • - In initial tests on healthy mice, [F][Gd(FL)] effectively detected early signs of unilateral renal dysfunction, suggesting it could improve the accuracy of diagnosing complex conditions.
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This meeting report summarizes a consultants meeting that was held at International Atomic Energy Agency Headquarters, Vienna, in July 2022 to provide an update on the development of multimodality imaging by combining nuclear medicine imaging agents with other nonradioactive molecular probes and/or biomedical imaging techniques.

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DNA data storage based on synthetic oligonucleotides is a major attraction due to the possibility of storage over long periods. Nowadays, the quantity of data generated has been growing exponentially, and the storage capacity needs to keep pace with the growth caused by new technologies and globalization. Since DNA can hold a large amount of information with a high density and remains stable for hundreds of years, this technology offers a solution for current long-term data centers by reducing energy consumption and physical storage space.

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  • - The study investigates cutaneous (CL) and mucosal leishmaniasis (ML) cases in mainland Portugal from 2010 to 2020, identifying 43 CL and 7 ML cases, predominantly in immunosuppressed individuals.
  • - Most cases were autochthonous, with common symptoms including papules/nodules, particularly on the head, and a varied treatment approach noted, mainly using liposomal amphotericin B for ML.
  • - The findings highlight a need for better surveillance, clinical awareness, and diagnostic capabilities for leishmaniasis, advocating a One Health approach to tackle the complexities of the disease in Portugal and globally.
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The aims of the present study were to identify strongyles in the feces of Thoroughbred horses based on larval morphology; to detect Strongylus vulgaris using molecular diagnosis and compare results to those of feces culture; and to determine the association between the presence of S. vulgaris with corresponding animal information (age range, gender, and anthelmintic use). Feces of horses kept in six Training Centers in Rio de Janeiro State, that showed the presence of ≥500 eggs per gram of feces (EPG) were subjected to strongyle identification.

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The extracellular superoxide dismutases (ecSODs) secreted by reduce the reactive oxygen species (ROS) stimulated by the . Here, we demonstrate that the bacterial transferase hexapeptide (hexapep) motif and bacterial-immunoglobulin-like (BIg-like) domain of ecSODs bind to the cell membrane and transiently open hemichannels, facilitating ROS reductions. RNAi-mediated ecSOD silencing elevated ROS in host hemocytes, impairing parasitoid larva development.

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This study was designed to test whether the single appended phosphonate group in GdDOTA-1AmP is sufficient for catalyzing the exchange of proton from the single inner-sphere water-exchanging molecule. Unlike the other phosphonate derivatives in this series, GdDOTA-1AmP showed a surprisingly smooth increase in relaxivity from 3.0 to 6.

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Background: Various suture configurations are available for medial meniscus posterior root tear (MMPRT) repair. The modified Mason-Allen (MMA) technique has been proposed as a refixation technique for MMPRT instead of the conventional 2 simple stitches (TSS). This is in view of its superior biomechanical characteristics.

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Paraneoplastic syndromes are rare and diverse conditions caused by either an abnormal chemical signaling molecule produced by tumor cells or a body's immune response against the tumor itself. These syndromes can manifest in a variable, multisystemic and often nonspecific manner posing a diagnostic challenge. We report the case of an 81-year-old woman who exhibited severe hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, and worsening hyperglycemia.

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The dynamics of competing opinions in social network plays an important role in society, with many applications in diverse social contexts such as consensus, election, morality, and so on. Here, we study a model of interacting agents connected in networks in order to analyze their decision stochastic process. We consider a first-neighbor interaction between agents in a one-dimensional network with the shape of ring topology.

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Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer therapy, yet the efficacy of these treatments is often limited by the heterogeneous and hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid tumors. In the TME, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on cancer cells is mainly regulated by Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), which induces T cell exhaustion and enables tumor immune evasion. In this study, we demonstrate that acidosis, a common characteristic of solid tumors, significantly increases IFN-γ-induced PD-L1 expression on aggressive cancer cells, thus promoting immune escape.

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Background: Evidence suggests that certain groups of orthopaedic patients have an increased prevalence of mental health disorders than the general population. This scoping review aims to evaluate the effect of pre-operative mental health on outcomes of foot and ankle surgery.

Methods: A literature search was performed in four databases.

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Since 2014, Brazil has experienced an unprecedented epidemic caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), with several waves of East-Central-South-African (ECSA) lineage transmission reported across the country. In 2018, Rio de Janeiro state, the third most populous state in Brazil, reported 41% of all chikungunya cases in the country. Here we use evolutionary and epidemiological analysis to estimate the timescale of CHIKV-ECSA-American lineage and its epidemiological patterns in Rio de Janeiro.

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Influenza is a respiratory disease caused by the influenza virus, which is highly transmissible in humans. This paper presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and test-negative designs (TNDs) to assess the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of seasonal influenza vaccines (SIVs) in humans aged 15 to 64 years. An electronic search to identify all relevant studies was performed.

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Ilex paraguariensis is a native tree from South America known for the presence of bioactive compounds, and its processed leaves are consumed as hot and cold infusions. After harvest (step 1), the leaves are subjected to flame blanching to inactive the enzymes (step 2), followed by drying and milling (step 3). The impacts of I.

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The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of helminths in Thoroughbred horses in Rio de Janeiro; make correlations with risk factors for these infections; and compare the efficiency of three floatation solutions applied in the quantitative Mini-FLOTAC technique. Fecal samples from 520 horses were collected from six training centers between 2019 and 2021. These were subjected to the Mini-FLOTAC technique using three solutions: NaCl (density = 1.

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The frequency of gastrointestinal parasites with an emphasis on Strongylus vulgaris was investigated among the Brazilian Pony breed kept on farms in the municipality of Teresópolis, state of Rio de Janeiro. Fecal samples were collected in three stud farms: A (n= 22 animals), B (n= 3), and C (n= 2). Fecal samples were subjected to the quantitative Mini-FLOTAC technique, using three different solutions, and to qualitative techniques.

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Chromatin accessibility assays have revolutionized the field of transcription regulation by providing single-nucleotide resolution measurements of regulatory features such as promoters and transcription factor binding sites. ATAC-seq directly measures how well the Tn5 transposase accesses chromatinized DNA. Tn5 has a complex sequence bias that is not effectively scaled with traditional bias-correction methods.

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The early attainment of puberty in heifers is essential for the profitability of the cow-calf farm. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of juvenile average daily gain (ADG) and sire's expected progeny difference (EPD) on puberty of crossbred beef heifers. Sixty Angus × Nellore heifers early weaned (age = 102 ± 4.

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Two experiments were designed to evaluate the impacts of supplementing lasalocid (LAS), narasin (NAR), or virginiamycin (VRM) on rumen fermentation parameters, apparent nutrient digestibility, and blood parameters (Exp. 1), as well as feed intake and performance (Exp. 2) of Nellore cattle consuming a forage-based diet.

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