Publications by authors named "Bento A"

Parents' beliefs and practices significantly shape young children's oral health (OH), particularly during preschool years when these habits are being established. Immigrant parents often face challenges in promoting OH due to cultural, financial, and logistical barriers. This qualitative study explored OH beliefs, practices, and barriers among Brazilian immigrant mothers in the United States (U.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study details a genomics-based approach for the early detection of mosquito-borne pathogens, marked by Uruguay's first ever complete genomic sequencing of Dengue Virus type I genotypes I and V. This pioneering effort has facilitated the prompt identification of these genotypes within the country, enabling Uruguayan public health authorities to develop timely and effective response strategies. Further integrated into this approach is a climate-driven suitability measure, closely associated with Dengue case reports and indicative of the local climate's role in the virus's transmission in the country within the changing climate context.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cryogenic phonon detectors with transition-edge sensors achieve the best sensitivity to sub-GeV/c dark matter interactions with nuclei in current direct detection experiments. In such devices, the temperature of the thermometer and the bias current in its readout circuit need careful optimization to achieve optimal detector performance. This task is not trivial and is typically done manually by an expert.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Brazilian western Amazon is experiencing its largest laboratory-confirmed Oropouche virus (OROV) outbreak, with more than 6,300 reported cases between 2022 and 2024. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed 382 OROV genomes from human samples collected in Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia and Roraima states, between August 2022 and February 2024, to uncover the origin and genetic evolution of OROV in the current outbreak. Genomic analyses revealed that the upsurge of OROV cases in the Brazilian Amazon coincides with spread of a novel reassortant lineage containing the M segment of viruses detected in the eastern Amazon region (2009-2018) and the L and S segments of viruses detected in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador (2008-2021).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

During outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, internationally connected cities often experience large and early outbreaks, while rural regions follow after some delay. This hierarchical structure of disease spread is influenced primarily by the multiscale structure of human mobility. However, during the COVID-19 epidemic, public health responses typically did not take into consideration the explicit spatial structure of human mobility when designing nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To investigate the impact of voluntary hypoventilation at low lung volumes (VHL) during upper body repeated sprints (RS) on performance, metabolic markers and muscle oxygenation in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) athletes.

Methods: Eighteen male well-trained athletes performed two randomized RS sessions, one with normal breathing (RSN) and another with VHL (RS-VHL), on an arm cycle ergometer, consisting of two sets of eight all-out 6-s sprints performed every 30 s. Peak (PPO), mean power output (MPO), and RS percentage decrement score were calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to upgrade systems for infectious disease surveillance and forecasting and modeling of the spread of infection, both of which inform evidence-based public health guidance and policies. Here, we discuss requirements for an effective surveillance system to support decision making during a pandemic, drawing on the lessons of COVID-19 in the U.S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The use of natural products for therapeutic purposes is a common practice throughout the world, in part, due to the global obesity epidemic and the search for products with appetite suppression and weight loss properties, which include nutritional supplements, vitamins and minerals to herbal products. It is known that such products may be associated with various adverse health effects. Thus, the objective of this study is to report a series of cases of patients, who presented fulminant liver failure (HFI) requiring liver transplantation (LT), related to the consumption of products used for weight loss.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Today, black-owned banks are important financial resources challenging economic exclusion. Nevertheless, they do not associate strongly with building black wealth. Some scholars argue this signals black-owned banks are ornamental, or ineffective responses to legacies of economic exclusion in black segregated neighborhoods.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cuticle constitutes the outermost defensive barrier of most land plants. It comprises a polymeric matrix-cutin, surrounded by soluble waxes. Moreover, the cuticle constitutes the first line of defense against pathogen invasion, while also protecting the plant from many abiotic stresses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction And Objectives: Ischemic heart disease is the single most common cause of death in Europe. Mortality in patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is associated with many factors, one of which is the time delay to treatment. The purpose of this work is to analyze the coronary pathway in our region in terms of timing, taking into consideration the place of first medical contact (FMC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Uruguay reported its first outbreak of the Chikungunya virus in 2023, which placed a heavy strain on the healthcare system.
  • - Researchers analyzed data from 30 new whole genomes to understand how the virus is transmitting locally and the ecological factors influencing its spread.
  • - The study aimed to provide quick insights into the outbreak to help manage and control its impact within the country.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, the objective was to learn the life cycle of and the diversity of native parasitoids in the northern region of Portugal between 2017 and 2019. The places studied belonged to the regions of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Beira Interior, and Trás-os-Montes. To achieve the proposed objectives, buds were collected for egg and larva observation, galls were collected for larva, pupa, and adult observation and monitoring, and emergency boxes were used to identify the fauna present in the galls.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Globally, millions of lives are impacted every year by infectious diseases outbreaks. Comprehensive and innovative surveillance strategies aiming at early alert and timely containment of emerging and reemerging pathogens are a pressing priority. Shortcomings and delays in current pathogen surveillance practices further disturbed informing responses, interventions, and mitigation of recent pandemics, including H1N1 influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Saprophytic fungi are able to catabolize many plant-derived aromatics, including, for example, gallate. The catabolism of gallate in fungi is assumed to depend on the five main central pathways, i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Scour phenomena remain a significant cause of instability in offshore structures. The present study estimates scour depths using physics-based numerical modelling and machine-learning (ML) algorithms. For the ML prediction, datasets were collected from previous studies, and the trained models checked against the statistical measures and reported outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Forestry is a significant part of Portugal's ecosystem and economy, with over 20% of its area dedicated to forests.
  • The main product derived from forestry is oleoresin, essential for rosin production, which has various industrial and pharmaceutical uses.
  • Recent studies show that Portugal's oleoresin production has drastically declined to just 2% of total trees, and a detailed analysis of rosin's chemical composition revealed consistent resin acid profiles across different forest locations, primarily consisting of abietic and dehydroabietic acid, mildly influenced by environmental factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ascidians are marine invertebrates that synthesize sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) within their viscera. Ascidian GAGs are considered analogues of mammalian GAGs and possess great potential as bioactive compounds, presenting antitumoral and anticoagulant activity. Due to its worldwide occurrence and, therefore, being a suitable organism for large-scale mariculture in many marine environments, our main objectives are to study GAGs regarding composition, structure, and biological activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Habitual physical activity (HPA) can be used as a non-pharmacological strategy to prevent and control chronic diseases, as well as playing a role in minimizing healthcare costs.

Objective: To verify the impact of HPA on healthcare costs at different levels of care, over 24 months, in an adult population with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including individuals with or without comorbidities.

Methods: Two-hundred and seventy-eight adults with CVD, aged between 30 and 65 years, participated in the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We report the first whole-genome sequences of Dengue Virus type I genotypes I and V from Uruguay, including the first cases ever reported in the country. Through timely genomic analysis, identification of these genotypes was possible, aiding in timely public health responses and intervention strategies to mitigate the impact of dengue outbreaks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Clinical events can occur after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), especially in complex cases, and using advanced intracoronary imaging and pressure guidewires may help reduce these risks.
  • The OPTI-XIENCE study is an international, multicenter prospective observational study involving 1,064 patients with specific high-risk characteristics undergoing stent implantation, monitoring them for 12 months.
  • The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of using these intracoronary tools, with the primary focus on the rate of target lesion failure after one year, while also assessing additional cardiovascular outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article proposes a virtual reality (VR) system for diagnosing and rehabilitating lower limb amputees. A virtual environment and an intelligent space are the basis of the proposed solution. The target audiences are physiotherapists and doctors, and the aim is to provide a VR-based system to allow visualization and analysis of gait parameters and conformity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers utilized phylogenetic and epidemiological models to map YFV transmission patterns over different epidemic seasons and identified areas of high infection risk linked to low vaccination rates in major urban centers.
  • * By analyzing the genomic data, the study revealed three distinct YFV lineages and demonstrated the connectivity between the endemic North and the extra-Amazonian region, suggesting that genomics combined with eco-epidemiology can enhance understanding and strategies for controlling the virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF