Myristoylation and its effects on the human Golgi Reassembly and Stacking Protein 55.

GRASP55 is a myristoylated protein localized in the medial/trans-Golgi faces and involved in the Golgi structure maintenance and the regulation of unconventional secretion pathways. It is believed that GRASP55 achieves its main functionalities in the Golgi organization by acting as a tethering factor. When bound to the lipid bilayer, its orientation relative to the membrane surface is restricted to determine its proper trans-oligomerization.

Does algae β-glucan affect the fecal bacteriome in dairy calves?

β-glucans has been reported to be associated with many health-promoting and improvements in animal performance, however, information about their effects on the bacterial community remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate how the addition of β-glucans can affect the fecal bacterial community with possible consequences on animal growth and health. For this, newborn Holstein calves (n = 14) were individually housed in tropical shelters and blocked according to sex, date, and weight at birth and randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: (1) Control: milk replacer (14% solids, 24% CP, 18.

Biomass ash formulations as sustainable improvers for mining soil health recovery: Linking soil properties and ecotoxicity.

There is a growing need to recover degraded soils to restore their essential ecosystem services and limit damages of anthropic activities onto these systems. Safe and sustainable solutions for long-term recovery must be designed, ideally by recycling existing resources. Using ash from combustion of residual forest biomass at the pulp and paper industry is an interesting and sustainable strategy to recover mining soils.

Food environments and the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: analysis of changes observed in 2020.

Evidence of changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in food security and nutrition conditions, as well as in different food environments, has called researchers' attention to substantial changes taking place in individuals' dietary habits. The aim of this study is to present and address changes that have already happened in food environments, during the first COVID-19 pandemic year, in a middle-income country. Multiple changes were observed and had direct impact on the population, among them, worsened health and nutrition indicators and advanced dietary inequalities, as well as on its food profile in different life cycles, if one takes into consideration aspects such as food availability, financial access and dietary quality.

Hemodynamic phenotyping of transgenic rats with ubiquitous expression of an angiotensin-(1-7)-producing fusion protein.

Activation of the angiotensin (Ang)-converting enzyme (ACE) 2/Ang-(1-7)/MAS receptor pathway of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) induces protective mechanisms in different diseases. Herein, we describe the cardiovascular phenotype of a new transgenic rat line (TG7371) that expresses an Ang-(1-7)-producing fusion protein. The transgene-specific mRNA and the corresponding protein were shown to be present in all evaluated tissues of TG7371 with the highest expression in aorta and brain.

Bio-based films/nanopapers from lignocellulosic wastes for production of added-value micro-/nanomaterials.

The growing demand for products with lower environmental impact and the extensive applicability of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) have received attention due to their attractive properties. In this study, bio-based films/nanopapers were produced with CNFs from banana tree pseudostem (BTPT) wastes and Eucalyptus kraft cellulose (EKC) and were evaluated by their properties, such as mechanical strength, biodegradability, and light transmittance. The CNFs were produced by mechanical fibrillation (after 20 and 40 passages) from suspensions of BTPT (alkaline pre-treated) and EKC.

Different infective forms trigger distinct lesions in the colon during experimental Chagas disease.

With the control of vectorial transmission of Chagas disease caused by metacyclic trypomastigotes (MT) in endemic countries, other pathways of infection have become important. The infection caused by blood trypomastigotes (BT) is relevant in places where the blood transfusion and organ transplantation are poorly controlled. This study aimed to evaluate immunopathogenic parameters in the colon during the acute and chronic phases of experimental infection in Swiss mice infected with BT or MT forms of VL-10 strain of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Characterization of Risk Profiles for Diabetic Retinopathy Progression.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a frequent complication of diabetes and, through its vision-threatening complications, i.e., macular edema and proliferative retinopathy, may lead to blindness.

Analysis of ocular emergencies in a reference eye center in Brazil.

Purpose: To determine the incidence of ocular emergencies and patient profiles in a public health eye center in Brazil.

Methods: The medical record database of the Fundação Altino Ventura, Recife, Brazil was retrospectively analyzed and included all patients assisted at the ophthalmic emergency room between January 2017 and January 2018. Medical records with incomplete data and outpatient complaints were excluded.

Incisor position and alveolar bone thickness.

Objectives: To evaluate incisor position and its relationship to alveolar bone in untreated optimal occlusions and in untreated Class II malocclusions.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-seven lateral cephalograms of individuals with naturally occurring optimal occlusions (mean age = 23 years) were used to assess positions of central incisors and their relationships to alveolar bone. Data were compared to a sample of 57 individuals with untreated Class II malocclusions with concurrent anterior-posterior (AP) skeletal discrepancies (mean age = 16.

Friends with Benefits: An Inside Look of Periodontal Microbes' Interactions Using Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization-Scoping Review.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has proven to be particularly useful to describe the microbial composition and spatial organization of mixed microbial infections, as it happens in periodontitis. This scoping review aims to identify and map all the documented interactions between microbes in periodontal pockets by the FISH technique. Three electronic sources of evidence were consulted in search of suitable articles up to 7 November 2020: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Scopus (Elsevier: Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics: Philadelphia, PA, USA) online databases.

Dynamics of bacterial and archaeal communities along the composting of tannery sludge.

The process of composting has been proposed as a biological alternative to improve the quality of tannery sludge (TS) by the action of microbial communities. However, there is limited knowledge about the dynamic of these microbial communities during the composting process. This study assessed the responses of bacterial and archaeal communities during TS composting using the 16S rRNA sequencing.

Coexistence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases among Brazilian adolescents: Individual characteristics and school environment.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) share common and modifiable risk factors; among them, unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, alcohol intake and smoking habit. However, these factors are not observed in separate and, most often, they influence each other. Risk factors established during adolescence are highly likely to remain in adult life.

Metabolic potential and survival strategies of microbial communities across extreme temperature gradients on Deception Island volcano, Antarctica.

Active volcanoes in Antarctica have remarkable temperature and geochemical gradients that could select for a wide variety of microbial adaptive mechanisms and metabolic pathways. Deception Island is a stratovolcano flooded by the sea, resulting in contrasting ecosystems such as permanent glaciers and active fumaroles, which creates steep gradients that have been shown to affect microbial diversity. In this study, we used shotgun metagenomics and metagenome-assembled genomes to explore the metabolic potentials and survival strategies of microbial communities along an extreme temperature gradient in fumarole and glacier sediments on Deception Island.

Organotypic 3D decellularized matrix tumor spheroids for high-throughput drug screening.

Decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) is emerging as a valuable tool for generating 3D in vitro tumor models that better recapitulate tumor-stroma interactions. However, the development of dECM-3D heterotypic microtumors exhibiting a controlled morphology is yet to be materialized. Precisely controlling microtumors morphologic features is key to avoid an inaccurate evaluation of therapeutics performance during preclinical screening.

Anti-mitochondrial Antibody-Negative Primary Biliary Cholangitis Is Part of the Same Spectrum of Classical Primary Biliary Cholangitis.

Background: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease in which anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMA) are the diagnostic hallmark. Whether AMA-negative PBC patients represent a different phenotype of disease is highly debated.

Aims: The purpose of our study was to compare AMA-positive and AMA-negative PBC patients in a large non-white admixed Brazilian cohort.

Rib cage distortion and dynamic hyperinflation during two exercise intensities in people with COPD.

Background: The relationship between rib cage (RC) motion abnormalities, dynamic hyperinflation (DH), and exercise capacity in people with COPD is controversial.

Aim: To investigate RC distortion and operational chest wall volumes during moderate and high constant-rate exercises in people with COPD.

Methods: Seven male participants [median(Q1-Q3) age: 63(60.

Silk Hydrogel Substrate Stress Relaxation Primes Mesenchymal Stem Cell Behavior in 2D.

Tissue-mimetic silk hydrogels are being explored for diverse healthcare applications, including stem cell delivery. However, the impact of stress relaxation of silk hydrogels on human mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) biology is poorly defined. The aim of this study was to fabricate silk hydrogels with tuned mechanical properties that allowed the regulation of MSC biology in two dimensions.

Spatial inequalities of retail food stores may determine availability of healthful food choices in a Brazilian metropolis.

Objective: To examine the association between economic residential segregation and food environment.

Design: Ecological: Food stores categorised according to the NOVA classification were geocoded, and absolute availability was calculated for each neighbourhood. Segregation was measured using local G statistic, a measure of the sd between the economic composition of a neighbourhood (the proportion of heads of households in neighbourhoods earn monthly income of 0 to 3 minimum wages) and larger metropolitan area, weighted by the economic composition of surrounding neighbourhoods.

Mycorrhizal root colonization in maize fields is more affected by soil management and climate conditions than by plant genotype.

This work aims to characterize the arbuscular mycorrhizal association between maize genotypes and the effects of soil physical-chemical attributes on the symbiosis. A preliminary greenhouse assay evaluated five maize landraces and five conventional modern genotypes in non-sterile, low-P soil. Sixty days after sowing, we measured plant height, stem diameter, shoot and root dry biomass, root colonization structures, and shoot P concentration and total accumulation.

Tetanus vaccination in pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the global literature.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of several factors on the uptake of tetanus vaccination in pregnant women.

Study Design: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the global literature.

Methods: The search strategy was carried out in the EMBASE and MEDLINE (Pubmed) databases, without language restrictions.