Publications by authors named "Branco P"

Brewers' spent grain (BSG), the major by-product of the brewery industry, has high nutritional value, making it suitable for upcycling into products such as healthy, and sustainable cookies. Nonetheless, the incorporation of BSG in cookies can impact their quality, given the increased fiber and protein content. This work explored the effect of replacing wheat flour with BSG at 50% and 75% in cookie formulations, focusing on physical, chemical, and sensory properties.

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Background/objectives: Nutrition labels are an effective tool for providing nutrition information. Additionally, nutrient composition is one of the most dictating factors for athletes' food choices; thus, we aimed to evaluate the use and perceptions regarding the nutrition labels implemented for the meals served at the 2022 European Athletics Championships (EAC).

Methods: During mealtime at the team restaurants, participants completed an online self-administered questionnaire.

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Organized sports are governed by specific rules which aim to create or preserve fair play. An unfair advantage can be obtained by the use of specific substances or methods, also referred to as doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) leads the international doping-free sport movement and annually publishes the List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List), that is used by most sport federations and organizations around the world.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how different resampling techniques combined with machine learning algorithms affect the prediction of 30-day mortality in a clinical dataset, addressing challenges of class imbalance.
  • Existing methods like random under-sampling and SMOTE showed some improvement in specific contexts, but overall effectiveness varied and could even harm model performance.
  • The findings emphasize the need for further research to enhance prediction models for better results in clinical applications.
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Hyperkalemia is a potentially life-threatening condition frequently encountered in clinical practice, particularly among patients with chronic kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes, and hypertension and those undergoing treatment with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RAASi). The management of chronic and acute hyperkalemia is complex and requires timely intervention to prevent severe complications such as cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death. Traditional therapeutic approaches to chronic hyperkalemia, including dietary potassium restriction, use of diuretics, and administration of cation-exchange resins like sodium polystyrene sulfonate, often suffer from limitations like gastrointestinal side effects, variable efficacy, delayed onset of action, and RAASi treatment discontinuation.

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Introduction: Firefighting continues to be among the most hazardous yet least studied occupations in terms of the impact of exposure to occupational disease. In particular, firefighters are at increased risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to significant levels of potentially harmful substances, namely carbon monoxide, particulate matter and formaldehyde, during their professional duties.This paper reports an epidemiologic study aiming to reduce the gaps in assessing the long-term effects of air pollution exposure to forest fires' combat on firefighters, namely regarding chronic obstructive pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma.

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Current therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) do not delay its progression, therefore, novel disease-modifying strategies are urgently needed. Recently, an increasing number of compounds from natural origin with protective properties against AD have been identified. Mixtures or extracts obtained from natural products containing several bioactive compounds have multifunctional properties and have drawn the attention because multiple AD pathways can be simultaneously modulated.

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Courthouses, as public edifices, serve as the physical backdrop for the administration of justice. Simultaneously, they are spaces inhabited and visited by a diverse array of court users, ranging from judicial professionals to litigants. This article explores the nuanced interplay between courthouse spaces and the emotional experiences they generate.

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  • * Data on injuries were collected from 10 championships, showing a total of 1203 injuries across 29,579 athlete starts; results indicated that higher UTCI correlated with lower rates of time-loss injuries, especially muscle injuries.
  • * Specifically, athletes in sprints, hurdles, and throws experienced a reduced incidence of both overall and time-loss muscle injuries at higher feels-like temperatures.
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  • The study aimed to review how different Artificial Intelligence algorithms perform in validating mammography for breast cancer screening through a systematic analysis of existing research.
  • After searching major medical databases and filtering through thousands of articles, 30 relevant studies were selected for analysis over the past decade.
  • The findings indicated that AI algorithms can match radiologists in accuracy and even improve mammogram evaluations when used alongside them, aiding both experienced and less experienced medical professionals in detecting potential lesions.
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Objective: To investigate the feasibility, perceived relevance and usefulness of providing injury and illness prevention information through infographics to athletes and medical teams before and during an international athletics championship, and its potential impact on injury and illness risk during the same championship.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study during the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Roma with (1) dissemination of infographics, (2) data collection on perceived relevance (yes/no) and perceived usefulness (score from 0 to 100) of infographics among athletes and medical teams using an online questionnaire and (3) data collection by medical teams of newly incurred injuries and illnesses among athletes during the championship.

Results: Among the 124 athletes who completed the questionnaire, 35.

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Biotechnological active peptides are gaining interest in the cosmetics industry due to their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-collagenase (ACE) effects, as well as wound healing properties, making them suitable for cosmetic formulations. The antimicrobial activity of peptides (2-10 kDa) secreted by Ethanol-Red was evaluated against dermal pathogens using broth microdilution and challenge tests. ACE was assessed using a collagenase activity colorimetric assay, antioxidant activity via spectrophotometric monitoring of nitrotetrazolium blue chloride (NBT) reduction, and anti-inflammatory effects by quantifying TNF-α mRNA in lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-exposed dermal fibroblasts.

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Chitin-derived furans offer a sustainable alternative feedstock for nitrogen appended aromatic compounds. Herein, we address the challenge of using chitin-derived furans, 3-acetamido-5-acetylfuran (3A5AF) and 3-acetamido-5-furfural aldehyde (3A5F), to favour the formation of exo Diels-Alder adducts and 4-acetylaminophthalimides respectively, using a mechanochemical ball-milling technique. Mechanochemical activation is explored through the synthesis of 7-oxa-norbornene backbones with novel substitution pattern from 3A5AF in yields up to 77 % and improved exo:endo selectivity compared to solution-phase reactions.

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Background: Athletics (track and field) athletes are prone to develop bone stress injuries (BSIs) but epidemiological data on BSIs from top-level sports events are scarce.

Objective: To describe the incidence and characteristics of BSIs during 24 international athletics championships held from 2007 to 2023.

Methods: BSI-related data were prospectively collected during 24 international athletics championships, including the Olympic Games (n = 3), World Outdoor Championships (n = 4), European Outdoor Championships (n = 6), World Indoor Championships (n = 3) and European Indoor Championships (n = 8).

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Indoor air quality (IAQ) in educational facilities is crucial due to the extended time students spend in those environments, affecting their health, academic performance, and attendance. This paper aimed to review relevant parameters (building characteristics and factors related with occupancy and activities) for assessing IAQ in educational facilities, and to identify the parameters to consider when performing an IAQ monitoring campaign in schools. It also intended to identify literature gaps and suggest future research directions.

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Phosphate-containing glycolipids (PcGL) are scarcer than the better understood glycolipids. They are composed of arrangements of phosphate, carbohydrates and glycerol units and are always found associated with lipids. PcGL are often found associated with cell membranes, suggesting they play roles in cell membrane structure and intercellular interactions.

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Background: Total knee replacement (TKR) is the gold standard treatment for end-stage chronic osteoarthritis pain, yet many patients report chronic postoperative pain after TKR. The search for preoperative predictors for chronic postoperative pain following TKR has been studied with inconsistent findings.

Methods: This study investigates the predictive value of quantitative sensory testing (QST) and PainDETECT for postoperative pain 3, 6 and 12 months post-TKR.

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Table olives are one of the most known fruit consumed as fermented food, being a fundamental component of the Mediterranean diet. Their production and consumption continue to increase globally and represent an important economic source for the producing countries. One of the most stimulating challenges for the future is the modernization of olive fermentation process.

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Introduction: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) frequently change renal replacement (RRT) therapy modality due to medical or social reasons. We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of patients under peritoneal dialysis (PD) according to the preceding RRT modality.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational single-center study in prevalent PD patients from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2017, who were followed for 60 months or until they dropped out of PD.

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The growing concerns on environmental pollution and sustainability have raised the interest on the development of functional biobased materials for different applications, including food packaging, as an alternative to the fossil resources-based counterparts, currently available in the market. In this work, functional wood inspired biopolymeric nanocomposite films were prepared by solvent casting of suspensions containing commercial beechwood xylans, cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and lignosulfonates (magnesium or sodium), in a proportion of 2:5:3 wt%, respectively. All films presented good homogeneity, translucency, and thermal stability up to 153 °C.

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Article Synopsis
  • A set of acenaphthylene dyes with arylethynyl π-bridges was synthesized and tested for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using Sonogashira coupling reactions to enhance the conjugated system.
  • The incorporation of various moieties, including phenyl and thiophene, led to noticeable changes in the UV-vis absorption and emission properties, with red shifts observed particularly in the latter three moieties compared to the phenyl-bridged compound.
  • The highest conversion efficiency achieved was 3.15% with the addition of CDCA, while other aryl derivatives showed significantly lower efficiencies, notably 14-40% less than the optimized derivative due to decreased performance metrics.
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  • The study aimed to compare the rates of lower limb muscle injuries (LLMIs) and hamstring muscle injuries (HMIs) among athletes in 100m, 200m, and 400m sprints at international championships.
  • Researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of injuries during finals, semi-finals, and heats over eight championships from 2009 to 2022.
  • Results indicated that the incidence of both LLMI and HMI was significantly higher in finals compared to heats and semi-finals, particularly noting increased HMI rates in 200m finals for male athletes.
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Objective: Cochlear implant surgery is guided by principles of atraumatic insertion as to protect the inner ear. Previous studies suggest the potential benefit of steroids in patients undergoing cochlear implantation (CI), although the optimal route of administration has yet to be determined. We aim to systematically review the human studies of hearing and vestibular function preservation in patients undergoing CI receiving perioperative steroids and to discuss their role.

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  • * Significant alterations in brain activity were observed in opioid users, with increased activity in the mesocorticolimbic area and decreased in the dorsolateral-prefrontal region, linked to negative emotions.
  • * A follow-up after brief opioid abstention indicated changes in brain network dynamics, highlighting withdrawal signs, suggesting careful management of opioid use in chronic pain treatment.
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