Honey is a food of great nutritional importance and has always been used for human consumption. The production of honey and other beekeeping products depends on the proper functioning of this extremely important sector, as it has a direct impact on other sectors such as agriculture. The decline in bee colony numbers has been linked, among other factors, to bacterial diseases affecting bees, including American and European foulbrood, and spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroalgae are a promising feedstock with proven biostimulant activity that is enhanced by their biochemical components (e.g., amino acids and phytohormones), which turns them into an appealing feedstock to reduce the use of fertilisers in agriculture and improve crop productivity and resilience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungal and mycotoxin control at a primary stage in the food chain is crucial to maintaining the nutritional quality of animal feed. The control of fungal and mycotoxins is one of the essential points that a good biosecurity program must establish to ensure the safe feeding and protection of animal and human health. Acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the role of mycotoxins is vital to identifying breaches of this control and enabling the performance of proper risk assessments and accurate risk management strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplant Direct
August 2024
Background: The discard of expanded criteria donor (ECD) kidneys is unacceptably high, considering the growing demand for transplantation. Using machine perfusion may reduce the discard rate, increase the number of transplants, and reduce mortality on the waiting list.
Methods: We developed a 5-y Markov model to simulate incorporating the pulsatile perfusion machine into the current government-funded healthcare system.
Consumption of misidentified foraged mushrooms containing bicyclic amanitin octapeptides is a worldwide public health and veterinary problem, being considered one of the deadliest accidental human and canine food ingestion due to acute liver failure (ALF). Reversal of advanced ALF and complete clinical recovery can be achieved following definitive removal of accumulated amatoxin laden bile from the gallbladder. An accurate means of quantifying amanitin content in aspirated bile is, therefore, urgently needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMycotoxins are abiotic hazards whose contamination occurs at the pre- and post-harvest stages of the maize value chain, with animal exposure through contaminated feed leading to their excretion into milk. Currently, only aflatoxin M1 is regulated in milk products. Since feed materials and complete feed present a multi-mycotoxin composition and are the main mycotoxin source into milk, it is important to recognize the occurrence of multiple toxins and their co-occurrence in this highly consumed food product.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe presence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic ecosystems mostly originates from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and such a situation can be responsible for significant negative impacts on natural ecosystems, such as estuarine and coastal areas. Bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals, namely antibiotics, in exposed organisms is known to have remarkable effects on different trophic levels of non-target organisms such as algae, invertebrates and vertebrates, including the emergence of bacterial resistance. Bivalves are a highly appreciated seafood product, as they are fed by filtering water, and can bioconcentrate chemicals, being ideal for biomonitoring environmental health hazards in coastal and estuarine ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe poultry industry, in order to prevent and control coccidiosis caused by , widely uses coccidiostats as feed additives. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of nine coccidiostats in 62 egg samples by UHPLC-MS/MS. Overall, detection frequency and average concentration were 90.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMycotoxins are compounds produced by several fungi that contaminate agricultural fields and, either directly or by carry-over, final food products. Animal exposure to these compounds through contaminated feed can lead to their excretion into milk, posing threats to public health. Currently, aflatoxin M1 is the sole mycotoxin with a maximum level set in milk by the European Union, as well as the most studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaize is a significant crop to the global economy and a key component of food and feed, although grains and whole plants can often be contaminated with mycotoxins resulting in a general exposure of the population and animals. To investigate strategies for mycotoxins control at the grain production level, a pilot study and exploratory research were conducted in 2019 and 2020 to compare levels of mycotoxins in grains of plants treated with two fertilizers, F-BAC and Nefusoil, under real agricultural environment. The 1650 grains selected from the 33 samples were assessed for the presence of both species and mycotoxins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Studies show ethnic inequalities in rates of involuntary admission and types of clinical care (such as psychological therapies). However, few studies have investigated if there is a relationship between clinical care practices and ethnic inequalities in involuntary admission.
Aims: This study investigated the impact of ethnicity and clinical care on involuntary admission and the potential mediation effects of prior clinical care.
The prevalence of mycotoxins in the environment is associated with potential crop contamination, which results in an unavoidable increase in human exposure. Rice, being the second most consumed cereal worldwide, constitutes an important source of potential contamination by mycotoxins. Due to the increasing number of notifications reported, and the occurrence of mycotoxins at levels above the legislated limits, this work intends to compile the most relevant studies and review the main methods used in the detection and quantification of these compounds in rice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the fast and unstoppable development of technology, the amount of available technological devices and the data they produce is overwhelming. In analyzing the context of a smart home, a diverse group of intelligent devices generating constant reports of its environment information is needed for the proper control of the house. Due to this demand, many possible solutions have been developed in the literature to assess the need for processing power and storage capacity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: While there is strong evidence for autonomic involvement in cerebrovascular function acutely, long-term role of autonomic nervous system in cerebrovascular function has been controversial. We assessed autoregulation in 10 healthy individuals, nine patients with vasovagal syncope (VVS), and nine with Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy (FAP), in response to head-up tilt test (HUTT).
Methods: Arterial blood pressure heart rate, cardiac output, and bilateral cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) at the M1 segment of middle cerebral artery (transcranial Doppler ultrasound) were recorded during supine rest and 70° HUTT.
Microalgae have become a promising novel and sustainable feedstock for meeting the rising demand for food and feed. However, microalgae-based products are currently hindered by high production costs. One major reason for this is that commonly cultivated wildtype strains do not possess the robustness and productivity required for successful industrial production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) are a large family of rare genetic diseases for which effective therapies are almost nonexistent. To better understand the reasons behind this, to analyze ongoing therapy research and development (R&D) for CDG, and to provide future guidance, a community-led mixed methods approach was organized during the 4th World Conference on CDG for Families and Professionals. In the quantitative phase, electronic surveys pointed to the prioritization of six therapeutic R&D tools, namely biobanks, registries, biomarkers, disease models, natural history studies, and clinical trials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStatins are the first-line treatment for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), but response is highly variable due to genetic and nongenetic factors. Here, we explored the association between response and genetic variability in 114 Brazilian adult FH patients. Specifically, a panel of 84 genes was analyzed by exon-targeted gene sequencing (ETGS), and the functional impact of variants in pharmacokinetic (PK) genes was assessed using an array of functionality prediction methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the years, anthocyanins have emerged as one of the most enthralling groups of natural phenolic compounds and more than 700 distinct structures have already been identified, illustrating the exceptional variety spread in nature. The interest raised around anthocyanins goes way beyond their visually appealing colors and their acknowledged structural and biological properties have fueled intensive research toward their application in different contexts. However, the high susceptibility of monoglycosylated anthocyanins to degradation under certain external conditions might compromise their application.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive effect on daily routines, especially for university students. This study aimed to compare pre-pandemic domains of students' mental health during the pandemic lockdown. One cross-sectional study was conducted in two waves with academic students from 20 Portuguese universities, in March 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 3579) and 2 months after the first lockdown in May 2020 (n = 1228).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new paradigm for data-driven, model-agnostic new physics searches at colliders is emerging, and aims to leverage recent breakthroughs in anomaly detection and machine learning. In order to develop and benchmark new anomaly detection methods within this framework, it is essential to have standard datasets. To this end, we have created the LHC Olympics 2020, a community challenge accompanied by a set of simulated collider events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMucocutaneous infections caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are characterized by the appearance of vesicles that cause pain and embarrassment to the carrier. The standard treatment is based on the use of antivirals in gels or ointments, however, relapses are common. Local anesthetics decrease the pain caused by the lesion, in addition to showing antiviral properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaize is an important worldwide commodity susceptible to fungal contamination in the field, at harvest, and during storage. This work aimed to determine the occurrence of spp. in maize grains produced in the Tagus Valley region of Portugal and the levels of related mycotoxins in the 2018 harvest and during their storage for six months in barrels, mimicking silos conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin have been used to treat patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). However, evidence on the safety and efficacy of these therapies is limited.
Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label, three-group, controlled trial involving hospitalized patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 who were receiving either no supplemental oxygen or a maximum of 4 liters per minute of supplemental oxygen.