Publications by authors named "Maria Madruga"

Article Synopsis
  • Yaws is a disease caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue (TPE) that mainly affects children in tropical rural areas, prompting a new eradication initiative due to its exclusive human reservoir.
  • Researchers developed a new multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for identifying TPE strains and used it to analyze samples from a drug administration study in Papua New Guinea, finding a prevalence of 28.5% TPE DNA in collected samples.
  • The study revealed low genetic diversity among TPE isolates with three main genotypes identified, and significant links between TPE positivity and factors like age and ulcer characteristics, along with a mutation in certain strains that led to azithromycin resistance.
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The ALLIANCE Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for radioecology is a living document that defines a long-term vision (20 years) of the needs for, and implementation of, research in radioecology in Europe. The initial SRA, published in 2012, included consultation with a wide range of stakeholders (Hinton et al., 2013).

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Radon (Rn) and thoron (Rn) are radioactive gases emanating from geological materials. Inhalation of these gases is closely related to an increase in the probability of lung cancer if the levels are high. The majority of studies focus on radon, and the thoron is normally ignored because of its short half-life (55.

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The objective of this work consisted of analysing the spatial and temporal evolution of two radionuclide concentrations in the Tagus River. Time-series analysis techniques and numerical modelling have been used in this study. (137)Cs and (90)Sr concentrations have been measured from 1994 to 1999 at several sampling points in Spain and Portugal.

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In order to evaluate Callithrix jacchus as an animal model for mansoni schistosomiasis, a group of 10 male animals were once percutaneously exposed to 250 cercariae of the Schistosoma mansoni SLM (São Lourenço da Mata) strain. Animals were periodically bled for measuring serum level of enzymes and proteins and for blood cell counting. When comparing pre-infection to post-infection values, a significant increase was found for alkaline phosphatase at 15 to 120 days p.

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