(1) Background: Continuous health promotion systems are increasingly important, enabling decentralized patient care, providing comfort, and reducing congestion in healthcare facilities. These systems allow for treatment beyond clinical settings and support preventive monitoring. Wearable systems have become essential tools for health monitoring, but they focus mainly on physiological data, overlooking motor data evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymeric coronary stents, like the ABSORB™, are commonly used to treat atherosclerosis due to their bioresorbable and cell-compatible polymer structure. However, they face challenges such as high strut thickness, high elastic recoil, and lack of radiopacity. This study aims to address these limitations by modifying degradable stents produced by additive manufacturing with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with degradable metallic coatings, specifically zinc (Zn) and magnesium (Mg), deposited via radiofrequency (rf) magnetron sputtering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe urgent need for new antimicrobial compounds has led scientists to explore antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and antimicrobial polymers as solutions for multidrug resistance. In this study, we synthesized copolymers with cationic and hydrophobic moieties by free-radical polymerization (FRP) using a chain transfer agent to control molecular weights. The potential of natural products as part of the hydrophobic moiety was evaluated, along with variations in their monomer content (13-25%) and the molecular weight (MW) of the copolymer (5000-20,000 g·mol).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbdominal ostomy surgery has a severe impact on individuals' daily lives. These procedures are typically indicated for conditions such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, or traumatic injuries. They involve creating an artificial opening, denominated the stoma, in the abdominal area to divert feces or urine, establishing a connection between the affected organs and the body's exterior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMine waste can be transformed into technosol as an ecological strategy. Despite its importance to soil functions, biological activity is often overlooked. Biopolymers can serve as innovative tools for bioremediation, facilitating chemical reactions and creating networks to encapsulate contaminants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Microbiol
October 2024
Yttrium (Y), an important rare earth element (REE), is increasingly prevalent in the environment due to industrial activities, raising concerns about its toxicity. Understanding the effects of Y on microorganisms is essential for bioremediation and biorecovery processes. This study investigates how J19, a strain with notable resistance to Y, manages iron homeostasis as a detoxifying mechanism under Y stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Geochem Health
September 2024
The concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) can be increased by various anthropogenic activities such as mining, fuel combustion, pesticide use, and urban development, which can alter the mechanisms determining their spatial variability in the environment. Determining natural concentrations, monitoring, and assessing potential ecological risks are essential in the management of pollution prevention policies and soil conservation in watersheds. The aim of this study was to determine HMs natural concentrations, establish quality reference values (QRVs), and evaluate pollution indices in a watershed-scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE J Biomed Health Inform
August 2024
Objective - Medical image segmentation is essential for several clinical tasks, including diagnosis, surgical and treatment planning, and image-guided interventions. Deep Learning (DL) methods have become the state-of-the-art for several image segmentation scenarios. However, a large and well-annotated dataset is required to effectively train a DL model, which is usually difficult to obtain in clinical practice, especially for 3D images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGypsum plays a prominent role in agriculture, being considered an effective alternative to alleviate subsurface acidity due to its higher solubility and containing sulfur. However, another significant aspect is which pose long-term risks of groundwater contamination due to excessive applications of salts, pesticides, and other chemicals that will be leached, or even soil chemical depletion. So far, no study has focused on understanding the impacts of the atmospheric gypsum plume originating from gibbsite mining and processing on the leaching of soil bases and chemical degradation surrounding these sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe physiological aging process is well known for functional decline in visual abilities. Among the components of the visual system, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (DLG) and superior colliculus (SC) provide a good model for aging investigations, as these structures constitute the main visual pathways for retinal inputs reaching the visual cortex. However, there are limited data available on quantitative morphological and neurochemical aspects in DLG and SC across lifespan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common cause of peripheral compressive neuropathy and consists of compression of the median nerve in the wrist. Although there are several etiologies, idiopathic is the most prevalent origin, and among the forms of treatment for CTS, conservative is the most indicated. However, despite the high prevalence in and impact of this syndrome on the healthcare system, there are still controversies regarding the best therapeutic approach for patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNonsense mutations are genetic mutations that create premature termination codons (PTCs), leading to truncated, defective proteins in diseases such as cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis type 1, Dravet syndrome, Hurler syndrome, Beta thalassemia, inherited bone marrow failure syndromes, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and even cancer. These mutations can also trigger a cellular surveillance mechanism known as nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) that degrades the PTC-containing mRNA. The activation of NMD can attenuate the consequences of truncated, defective, and potentially toxic proteins in the cell.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Yttrium (Y) holds significant industrial and economic importance, being listed as a critical element on the European list of critical elements, thus emphasizing the high priority for its recovery. Bacterial strategies play a crucial role in the biorecovery of metals, offering a promising and environmentally friendly approach. Therefore, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind bacterial resistance, as well as the processes of bioaccumulation and biotransformation, is of paramount importance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To classify the bibliometric indicators of online scientific research on placentophagy.
Methods: A bibliometric study was conducted to quantify the scientific production of authors and institutions with the aim of highlighting the growth and impact of these publications nationally and internationally. The Bradford Law, network maps, and textual statistics were used, with searches conducted in libraries and databases in October 2021.
Controlling the microbial load in the environment is crucial to prevent the spread of organisms. The continuous spread of nosocomial infections in hospital facilities and the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) highlighted the importance of disinfection processes in health safety. This work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of LED-based disinfection lamps on bacteria from the ESKAPEE group and virus phage in vitro inactivation to be applied in hospital environments and health facilities disinfection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPapaya is a climacteric fruit, rapidly ripening after harvesting due to ethylene production and increased respiratory rate. This swift ripening results in softening of fruit tissues, shortening the fruit shelf life. Pre-cooling serves as an alternative to minimize fruit ripening and post-harvest losses by reducing metabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective was to evaluate the behavior of melon genotypes (Cucumis melo L.) in the physical, chemical and biochemical quality of melon fruits as a function of electrical conductivity irrigation water levels (ECw). The experimental design adopted was randomized blocks in a 5 x 3 factorial scheme with five replications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) already has endemic circulation in about 100 countries and the number of infected patients increases every year, due to the effectiveness of the vector and human universal susceptibility to infection. The virus can also be transmitted from mother to child, more frequently intrapartum. About 50 % of neonates with CHIKV symptoms will have neurodevelopmental delay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe occurrence of healthcare-associated infections is a multifactorial phenomenon related to hospital space contamination by bacteria. The ESKAPE group, specifically and , play a relevant role in the occurrence of these infections. Therefore, comprehensive research is needed to identify characteristics that justify the prevalence of these species in the healthcare environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigates the fabrication process of copper thin films via thermal evaporation, with precise control over film thickness achieved through-position adjustment. Analysis of the as-fabricated copper films reveals a discernible relationship between grain size (〈〉) and-position, characterized by a phenomenological equation〈D〉XRDn(Z)=〈D〉0n1+32rZ2+158rZ4, which is further supported by a growth exponent () of 0.41 obtained from the analysis.
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