Charged quasiparticles, which are constrained to move on a plane, interact by means of electromagnetic (EM) fields which are not subject to this constraint, living, thus, in three-dimensional space. We have, consequently, a hybrid situation where the particles of a given system and the EM fields (through which they interact) live in different dimensions. Pseudo-Quantum Electrodynamics (PQED) is a U(1) gauge field theory that, despite being strictly formulated in two-dimensional space, precisely describes the real EM interaction of charged particles confined to a plane.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRisk factors for the development of severe COVID-19 include several comorbidities, but age was the most striking one since elderly people were disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the reasons for this markedly unfavorable response in the elderly, immunosenescence and inflammaging appear as major drivers of this outcome. A finding that was also notable was that hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 have an accumulation of senescent T cells, suggesting that immunosenescence may be aggravated by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Despite the high prevalence, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)-induced chronic headache and cognitive deficits are poorly understood and lack effective treatments. Low-dose interleukin-2 (LD-IL-2) treatment soon after mTBI or overexpressing IL-2 in brain astrocytes prior to injury protects mice from developing post-traumatic headache (PTH)-related behaviors and cognitive decline. The present study addresses a clinically relevant knowledge gap: whether LD-IL-2 treatment long after the initial injury is still effective for chronic PTH and cognitive deficits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
June 2024
Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, yet our knowledge of their diversity, ecology and population trends remains abysmally poor. Four major technological approaches are coming to fruition for use in insect monitoring and ecological research-molecular methods, computer vision, autonomous acoustic monitoring and radar-based remote sensing-each of which has seen major advances over the past years. Together, they have the potential to revolutionize insect ecology, and to make all-taxa, fine-grained insect monitoring feasible across the globe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
June 2024
Insects are the most diverse animal taxon on Earth and play a key role in ecosystem functioning. However, they are often neglected by ecological surveys owing to the difficulties involved in monitoring this small and hyper-diverse taxon. With technological advances in biomonitoring and analytical methods, these shortcomings may finally be addressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree genes encoding mitochondrial uncoupling proteins (UCPs) have been described in Arabidopsis thaliana (UCP1 to UCP3). In plants, UCPs may act as an uncoupler or as an aspartate/glutamate exchanger. For instance, much of the data regarding UCP functionality were obtained for the UCP1 and UCP2 isoforms compared with UCP3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBraz J Microbiol
September 2022
Salmonella enterica causes Salmonellosis, an important infection in humans and other animals. The number of multidrug-resistant (MDR) phenotypes associated with Salmonella spp. isolates is increasing worldwide, causing public health concern.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnergy cane is a dedicated crop to high biomass production and selected during Saccharum breeding programs to fit specific industrial needs for 2G bioethanol production. Internode elongation is one of the most important characteristics in Saccharum hybrids due to its relationship with crop yield. In this study, we selected the third internode elongation of the energy cane.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe agriculture sector is one of the backbones of many countries' economies. Its processes have been changing to enable technology adoption to increase productivity, quality, and sustainable development. In this research, we present a scientific mapping of the adoption of precision techniques and breakthrough technologies in agriculture, so-called Digital Agriculture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Chem Toxicol
November 2021
Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide. Regardless of the underlying cause, neuroinflammation is the greatest risk factor for developing any of these disorders. Pectolinarigenin (PNG) is an active flavonoid with several biological properties, anti-metastatic and anti-inflammatory activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSnakebites are considered a major neglected tropical disease, resulting in around 100,000 deaths per year. The recommended treatment by the WHO is serotherapy, which has limited effectiveness against the toxins involved in local tissue damage. In some countries, patients use plants from folk medicines as antivenoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPepper is one of the most consumed spices in the world. Its main compound is capsaicin, a widely studied biomarker that has pharmacological activities due to its anti-inflammatory and analgesic capacity. Topical formulations such as patches based on capsaicin have been developed as an option in relieving pain and reducing swelling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this observational study, phenotypic and genotypic patterns of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from intramammary infections, clinical mastitis, fresh feces, rectal swabs, animal hindlimbs, and bulk tank milk samples from Brazilian dairy herds were investigated. In addition, we identified specific genetic variants present among extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producers. We obtained 169 isolates of K.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGuided endodontic access is a promising method to treat teeth with pulp calcification. This report aimed to describe a case of root canal treatment performed through guided endodontic access in a calcified anterior tooth with apical periodontitis. A 23-year-old female with a history of trauma 10 years ago in the anterior maxilla was referred to the dental office.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum Schum) is a fruit belonging to the same genus as cocoa and, through seed fermentation, a chocolate-like product called "the cupulate" is obtained. The pulp is removed from the seeds before fermentation because its abundance hinders the process. Unlike cocoa, little is known about the microbial diversity involved in cupuassu fermentation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This in vitro study assessed the artifact production related to titanium and zirconia implants in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and compared the effect of different protocol settings on image quality for both materials.
Materials And Methods: A titanium implant and a zirconia implant were placed in a dry mandible. CBCT scans were obtained separately for each implant using the ProMax 3D (Planmeca) unit; 20 protocols were tested with varying kilovoltage (70 to 90 kVp) and resolution (high and low), and with and without a metal artifact reduction tool.
The Polyploid Gene Assembler (PGA), developed and tested in this study, represents a new strategy to perform gene-space assembly from complex genomes using low coverage DNA sequencing. The pipeline integrates reference-assisted loci and de novo assembly strategies to construct high-quality sequences focused on gene content. Pipeline validation was conducted with wheat (Triticum aestivum), a hexaploid species, using barley (Hordeum vulgare) as reference, that resulted in the identification of more than 90% of genes and several new genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report the application of a solid lanthanum-ceria-zinc catalyst in the catalytic regeneration of diesel particulate filters (DPF) in diesel engines. We synthesized a CeO-ZnO-LaO (Ce-Zn-La) mixed oxide by a lactic acid-mediated sol-gel method, which efficiently coated cordierite substrates for soot capture and combustion. We studied the effects of La loading on the physicochemical and catalytic properties of Ce-Zn mixed oxide during low-temperature soot combustion processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsian soybean rust (ASR) is one of the most destructive diseases affecting soybeans. The causative agent of ASR, the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi, presents characteristics that make it difficult to study in vitro, limiting our knowledge of plant-pathogen dynamics. Therefore, this work used leaf lesion laser microdissection associated with deep sequencing to determine the pathogen transcriptome during compatible and incompatible interactions with soybean.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrop diseases caused by fungi constitute one of the most important problems in agriculture, posing a serious threat to food security [1]. To establish infection, phytopathogens interfere with plant immune responses [2, 3]. However, strategies to promote virulence employed by fungal pathogens, especially non-model organisms, remain elusive [4], mainly because fungi are more complex and difficult to study when compared to the better-characterized bacterial pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDraft genomes of three 4,[5],12:i:- (STi) strains isolated from human infections were obtained using Illumina sequencing. They were negative for the operon but positive for , and k-mer analyses revealed their identity as 4,[5],12:i:- 08-1736 and Typhimurium. A draft Typhimurium sequence is described for comparison.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Ceratocystis genus harbors a large number of phytopathogenic fungi that cause xylem parenchyma degradation and vascular destruction on a broad range of economically important plants. Ceratocystis cacaofunesta is a necrotrophic fungus responsible for lethal wilt disease in cacao. The aim of this work is to analyze the genome of C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecies of the Byrsonima genus are widely used in Brazil, especially for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. However, species from the Amazonian region are still poorly studied. Thus, we studied the antioxidant, antinociceptive, and anti-inflammatory activities of for Amazonian species, Byrsonima crispa, Byrsonima duckeana, Byrsonima garcibarrigae, and Byrsonima incarnata.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Rep
June 2017
Overexpression of a tomato TCTP impacts plant biomass production and performance under stress. These phenotypic alterations were associated with the up-regulation of genes mainly related to photosynthesis, fatty acid metabolism and water transport. The translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is a multifaceted and highly conserved eukaryotic protein.
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