Behav Brain Res
December 2024
Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results in autoreactive T cells chronically destroying pancreatic islets. This often results in irreplaceable loss of insulin-producing beta cells. To reverse course, a combinatorial strategy of employing glucose-responsive insulin restoration coupled with inhibiting autoreactive immune responses is required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with peripheral artery disease and generalized atherosclerosis are at high risk of cardiovascular and limb complications, affecting both quality of life and longevity. Lower limb atherosclerotic disease is associated with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and adequate management is founded on treatments involving patient-dependent factors, such as lifestyle changes, and physician-dependent factors, such as clinical treatment, endovascular treatment, or conventional surgery. Medical management of peripheral artery disease is multifaceted, and its most important elements are reduction of cholesterol level, antithrombotic therapy, control of arterial blood pressure, control of diabetes, and smoking cessation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate quantification of ethanol and methanol is essential for regulatory compliance and product quality assurance. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) offers rapid, non-destructive analysis with minimal sample preparation, making it a promising tool for wine analysis. In this exploratory study, the use of FTIR and PLS regression for the simultaneous quantification of ethanol and methanol in wine samples of 11 different Portuguese mono-varietal wines and different vintages deriving from the same winery in Lisbon was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease, a neglected global health concern primarily transmitted through the bite and feces of kissing bugs, has garnered increasing attention due to recent outbreaks in northern Brazil, highlighting the role of oral transmission facilitated by the kissing bugs species Rhodnius robustus and Rhodnius pictipes. These vectors are associated with palm trees with large crowns, such as the maripa palm (Attalea maripa) and moriche palm (Mauritia flexuosa). In this study, we employ maximum entropy (MaxEnt) ecological niche models to analyze the spatial distribution of these vectors and palm species, predicting current and future climate suitability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorn () is the most widely planted crop in the world. (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) is currently a primary corn pest. The starting point for the development of pest control decision-making systems is the determination of a conventional sampling plan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Microbiol Biotechnol
June 2024
This manuscript presents a new report on the in vitro antimicrobial photo-inactivation of foodborne microorganisms (Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes) using tetra-cationic porphyrins. Isomeric tetra-cationic porphyrins (3MeTPyP, 4MeTPyP, 3PtTPyP, and 4PtTPyP) were tested, and antimicrobial activity assays were performed at specific photosensitizer concentrations under dark and white-light LED irradiation conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tools for assessing a country's capacity in the face of public health emergencies must be reviewed, as they were not predictive of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social cohesion and risk communication, which are related to trust in government and trust in others, may have influenced adherence to government measures and mortality rates due to COVID-19.
Objective: To analyse the association between indicators of social cohesion and risk communication and COVID-19 outcomes in 213 countries.
Synthetic hydrogels provide controllable 3D environments, which can be used to study fundamental biological phenomena. The growing body of evidence that cell behavior depends upon hydrogel stress relaxation creates a high demand for hydrogels with tissue-like viscoelastic properties. Here, a unique platform of synthetic polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels in which star-shaped PEG molecules are conjugated with alendronate and/or RGD peptides, attaining modifiable degradability as well as flexible cell adhesion, is created.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMatrix remodeling plays central roles in a range of physiological and pathological processes and is driven predominantly by the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which degrade extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Our understanding of how MMPs regulate cell and tissue dynamics is often incomplete as approaches are lacking and many strategies cannot provide high-resolution, quantitative measures of enzyme activity within tissue-like 3D microenvironments. Here, we incorporate a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor of MMP activity into fully synthetic hydrogels that mimic many properties of the native ECM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge assessment of the living is a fundamental procedure in the process of human identification, in order to guarantee fair treatment of individuals, which has ethical, civil, legal, and medical repercussions. The careful selection of the appropriate methods requires evaluation of several parameters: accuracy, precision of the method, as well as its reproducibility. The approach proposed by Mincer et al adapted from Demirjian et al exploring third molar mineralisation, is one of the most frequently considered for age estimation of the living.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Brain death (BD) is known to compromise graft quality by causing hemodynamic, metabolic, and hormonal changes. The abrupt reduction of female sex hormones after BD was associated with increased lung inflammation. The use of both corticoids and estradiol independently has presented positive results in modulating BD-induced inflammatory response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of invasive species on biodiversity, food security and economy is increasingly noticeable in various regions of the globe as a consequence of climate change. Yet, there is limited research on how climate change affects the distribution of the invasive Asian citrus psyllid Kuwayama (Hemiptera:Liviidae) in Ghana. Using maxnet package to fit the Maxent model in R software, we answered the following questions; (i) what are the main drivers for distribution, (ii) what are the -specific habitat requirements and (iii) how well do the risk maps fit with what we know to be correctly based on the available evidence?.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn response to the escalating demand for sustainable agricultural methodologies, the utilization of microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as antagonists against phytopathogens has emerged as a viable eco-friendly alternative. Microbial volatiles exhibit rapid diffusion rates, facilitating prompt chemical interactions. Moreover, microorganisms possess the capacity to emit volatiles constitutively, as well as in response to biological interactions and environmental stimuli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Psychiatry Psychother
April 2024
Plants (Basel)
February 2024
The citrus blackfly (CBF), Ashby, is an exotic pest native to Southeast Asia that has spread rapidly to the world's main centers of citrus production, having been recently introduced to Brazil. In this study, a maximum entropy niche model (MaxEnt) was used to predict the potential worldwide distribution of CBF under current and future climate change scenarios for 2030 and 2050. These future scenarios came from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), SSP1-2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
February 2024
(Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae) is one of the main pests in coffee crops. The economic injury level (EIL) is the lowest density of the pest at which economic damages match the costs of control measures. The economic threshold (ET) is the density of the pest at which control measures must be taken so that this population does not reach the EIL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe demonstrate a broadband acousto-optic notch filter based on a tubular-lattice hollow-core fiber for the first time to our knowledge. The guided optical modes are modulated by acoustically induced dynamic long-period gratings along the fiber. The device is fabricated employing a short interaction length (7.
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