Publications by authors named "Lourenco V"

Article Synopsis
  • Nanotechnology may solve medical issues like poor drug delivery and microbial resistance by enhancing the properties of substances such as green propolis.
  • Green propolis contains phenolic acids known for their antimicrobial, immunostimulant, and antioxidant benefits, which can be advantageous in healthcare.
  • The minireview discusses recent research on nano solutions involving green propolis, while also highlighting the limitations and future outlook for clinical use of nanomaterials.
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Coffee processing wastes, such as solid (pulp and husk) and wastewater, co-digested with industrial brewery wastewater, serve as excellent substrates for generating methane in the anaerobic digestion process. This study compared methane production using different compositions of cattle manure (CM) and granular sludge from an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor used in poultry wastewater treatment (GS). Four anaerobic batch reactors (500 mL) were assembled, A (50% CM and 50% GS), B (60% CM and 40% GS), C (70% CM and 30% of GS) and D (60% CM and 40% GS).

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Organic-inorganic hybrid materials have a range of applications due to their unique properties. Their application in agriculture brings alternatives for the controlled release of nutrients in the soil, the seed coating, the transport of herbicides, and the treatment of plant diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the use of fungicides incorporated into hybrid membranes formed by synthetic hectorite (LAPONITE®) and polymers in the pre-treatment of garlic bulbils exposed to the pathogen , which causes white rot.

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Synthetic dyes are persistent organic environmental pollutants that can cause extensive damage to living beings and to the ecosystem as a whole. Cost-effective, sustainable, and efficient strategies to deal with this type of pollution are necessary as it commonly resists conventional water treatment methods. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized using the aqueous extract from the leaves, stem, and fruits of (Leucena) were produced and characterized through UV-vis, TEM, EDS, SDL, XPS, XRD, and zeta potential, and they proved to be able to promote adsorption to remediate methylene blue and tartrazine pollution in water.

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Background: The accurate prediction of genomic breeding values is central to genomic selection in both plant and animal breeding studies. Genomic prediction involves the use of thousands of molecular markers spanning the entire genome and therefore requires methods able to efficiently handle high dimensional data. Not surprisingly, machine learning methods are becoming widely advocated for and used in genomic prediction studies.

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Rice is a significant staple food in the basic diet of the global population that is considered to have a high glycaemic index. The study of the physical and chemical parameters in rice that are related to the starch digestion process, which allows us to quickly predict the glycaemic index of varieties, is a major challenge, particularly in the classification and selection process. In this context, and with the goal of establishing a relationship between physicochemical properties and starch digestibility rates, thus shedding light on the connections between quality indicators and their glycaemic impact, we evaluated various commercial rice types based on their basic chemical composition, physicochemical properties, cooking parameters, and the correlations with digestibility rates.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the use of stable barium (Ba) sources as substitutes for radioactive iodine (I) in nuclear medicine imaging, aiming to address uncertainties in calibration processes traditionally reliant on liquid radionuclide solutions.* -
  • Researchers created and tested multiple traceable Ba sources within various configurations, conducting quantitative SPECT/CT imaging across several member institutions to compare the effectiveness of Ba versus I.* -
  • Results indicate that, despite initial differences in calibration performance, a specific cross-calibration method allows Ba sources to effectively serve as surrogates for I, showcasing their potential in improving imaging accuracy and efficiency.*
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This research aimed at evaluating optimal conditions to obtain value-added metabolites, such as bio-CH, by co-digesting swine manure and food waste diluted in domestic sewage. The assays were carried out in batches using the statistical methods of Rotational Central Composite Design (RCCD) and Surface Response to evaluate the ranges of food waste (1.30-9.

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  • Fear learning is crucial for survival, but traumatic experiences can lead to excessive fear responses, as seen in PTSD, through abnormal fear consolidation and overgeneralization.* -
  • Research examined the role of adenosine A receptors (AR) in fear memory; blocking these receptors after fear conditioning increased fear generalization, while activating them reduced it.* -
  • Findings indicate that ARs influence long-term potentiation in key brain areas during fear consolidation, suggesting they could be a target for treatments addressing fear-related disorders like PTSD.*
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Accurate detection of low-level radioactivity is critical in decommissioning. However, commercial sources used for calibration lack representativeness due to their flat surface. The objective of this work is to produce flexible and large area surface sources for alpha and beta emitters by functionalising aluminium foil.

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Turn-transition timing in childhood has been examined by measuring response latency - that aggregates gap and overlap duration - in turn-transitions contingent to specific semantic categories. This contrasts with studies in infancy where the whole spectrum of temporal contingent vocalizations are examined, and gap and overlap duration is analyzed independently. We propose using the latter approach to investigate the continuities between infancy and childhood.

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A bilateral comparison to determine the activity concentration of the same I solution was organized. As electron-capture radionuclide with a rather high atomic number, I must be regarded as difficult to measure. The situation is partly exacerbated by the fact that some established standardization methods, like photon-photon coincidence counting, can no longer be applied due to the unavailability of appropriate equipment and expertise.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD), which predominantly affects women, involves at its onset a metabolic deregulation associated with a synaptic failure. Here, we performed a behavioral, neurophysiological and neurochemical characterization of 9-month-old female APPswe/PS1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice as a model of early AD. These animals showed learning and memory deficits in the Morris water maze, increased thigmotaxis and anxiety-like behavior and showed signs of fear generalization.

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In recent years, cocoa and dark chocolate have attracted the interest of consumers not only for their sensory characteristics but also for their nutritional properties and positive impact on health. The baobab is a fruit of African origin with a sour and slightly sweet flavour, widely consumed by local communities due to its unique nutritional features. The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of the concentration of baobab flour in the development of functional dark chocolate, including physical, chemical, nutritional and sensory evaluations.

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Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines are a powerful tool for studying development and disease, but the considerable phenotypic variation between lines makes it challenging to replicate key findings and integrate data across research groups. To address this issue, we sub-cloned candidate human iPSC lines and deeply characterized their genetic properties using whole genome sequencing, their genomic stability upon CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing, and their phenotypic properties including differentiation to commonly used cell types. These studies identified KOLF2.

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Aim: To identify the spatiotemporal pattern of childhood tuberculosis and the sociodemographic factors related to it.

Method: This is an ecological study, which used the municipalities of the state of Ceará as units of analysis. The Notifiable Diseases Information System was used as a data source from January 2001 to December 2017.

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Introduction: After the onset of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, many workers were forced to start working from home, creating a new dynamic that could potentially affect their health in several ways.

Objectives: To study the impact of working at home during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on a sample of Brazilian workers.

Methods: This study used a cross-sectional methodology with an online survey conducted by a Brazilian human resources website from June 1 to August 15, 2020, with a sample of employees working at home during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

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The baobab tree ( L.) is found widely in the forests and savannas of sub-Saharan Africa. The baobab fruit has a sour and slightly sweet taste and is widely consumed by the natives, thus containing a high nutritional value and providing a source of income for rural people.

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Article Synopsis
  • To enhance the management of radioactive waste from nuclear decommissioning and site remediation, a new methodology is proposed for organizing interlaboratory comparisons (ILC) to assess measurement techniques for contaminated materials.
  • This methodology, demonstrated using samples from the BR3 case study, emphasizes analyzing common radioactive isotopes with gamma spectroscopy, evaluating both irradiated and certified reference materials (CRM).
  • While CRM offers reliable uncertainty evaluation, its limitations in availability and cost may hinder its use; thus, the study suggests using reference materials with careful reporting of uncertainties and data analysis to achieve reliable performance assessments.
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The article's main objective is to propose a new definition for Information Systems for Health, which is characterized by the identification and involvement of all the parts of a complex and interconnected process for data collection and decision-making in public health in the information society. The development of the concept was through a seven-step process including document analysis, on-site and virtual sessions for experts, and an online survey of broader health professionals. This new definition seeks to provide a holistic view, process, and approach for managing interoperable applications and databases that ethically considers open and free access to structured and unstructured data from different sectors, strategic information, and information and communication technology (ICT) tools for decision-making for the benefit of public health.

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Rice is one of the most cultivated and consumed cereals worldwide. It is composed of starch, which is an important source of diet energy, hypoallergenic proteins, and other bioactive compounds with known nutritional functionalities. Noteworthy is that the rice bran (outer layer of rice grains), a side-stream product of the rice milling process, has a higher content of bioactive compounds than white rice (polished rice grains).

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Article Synopsis
  • Extracellular adenosine, produced during metabolic stress, serves as a signaling molecule in the brain, influencing activity through both inhibitory and facilitatory receptors.
  • Adenosine receptors (AR) are linked to neuroinflammation and synaptic damage but also hold potential for neuroprotection when blocked, highlighting their role in various neurological conditions like Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury.
  • The study suggests that evaluating AR density may serve as a biomarker for brain disease susceptibility and progression, alongside monitoring ATP and adenosine levels, while genetic polymorphisms of AR may further inform individual risks for neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Microanalysis is a method for recording and coding interactional behavior. It has been often compared to a social microscope, for its power in detailing the second-by-second dynamics of social interaction. Microanalysis has deep multidisciplinary foundations, that privilege the description of interactions as they naturally occur, with the purpose of understanding the relations between multiple and simultaneous streams of behaviors.

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The degree to which romantic partners' autonomic responses are coordinated, represented by their pattern of physiological synchrony, seems to capture important aspects of the reciprocal influence and co-regulation between spouses. In this study, we analyzed couple's cardiac synchrony as measured by heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). A sample of 27 couples (N = 54) performed a structured interaction task in the lab where they discussed positive and negative aspects of the relationship.

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