905 results match your criteria: "CEB - Centre of Biological Engineering[Affiliation]"

A Comprehensive Review of Mammalian Pigmentation: Paving the Way for Innovative Hair Colour-Changing Cosmetics.

Biology (Basel)

February 2023

CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.

The natural colour of hair shafts is formed at the bulb of hair follicles, and it is coupled to the hair growth cycle. Three critical processes must happen for efficient pigmentation: (1) melanosome biogenesis in neural crest-derived melanocytes, (2) the biochemical synthesis of melanins (melanogenesis) inside melanosomes, and (3) the transfer of melanin granules to surrounding pre-cortical keratinocytes for their incorporation into nascent hair fibres. All these steps are under complex genetic control.

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Burns affect the skin and appendages, impair their function, and become favorable regions for bacterial infections. Owing to time-consuming and costly treatments, burns have been considered a public health problem. The limitations of the treatments used for burns have motivated the search for more efficient alternatives.

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Background: Developing new bioprocesses to produce chemicals and fuels with reduced production costs will greatly facilitate the replacement of fossil-based raw materials. In most fermentation bioprocesses, the feedstock usually represents the highest cost, which becomes the target for cost reduction. Additionally, the biorefinery concept advocates revenue growth from the production of several compounds using the same feedstock.

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The quality standards for the export of chestnuts generate large quantities of rejected fruits, which require novel processing technologies for their safe industrial utilization. This study aimed to investigate the impact of high-pressure processing (HPP) and hydrothermal treatments (HT) on the physicochemical properties of rejected chestnut starch. Chestnuts were treated by HPP at 400, 500, and 600 MPa for 5 min and HT at 50 °C for 45 min.

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A Lab-Made E-Nose-MOS Device for Assessing the Bacterial Growth in a Solid Culture Medium.

Biosensors (Basel)

December 2022

Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.

The detection and level assessment of microorganisms is a practical quality/contamination indicator of food and water samples. Conventional analytical procedures (e.g.

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Food and feed contamination by fungi, especially by toxigenic ones, is a global concern because it can pose serious health problems when the production of mycotoxins is involved. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), well-known for fermenting foods, have been gaining attention for their antifungal and anti-mycotoxin properties. This work tested 14 LAB strains isolated from naturally fermented Brazilian table olives for growth inhibition of , , , and .

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Comparative study of e-cigarette aerosol and cigarette smoke effect on ex vivo embryonic chick lung explants.

Toxicol Lett

March 2023

Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga, Portugal. Electronic address:

Electronic cigarette usage has significantly expanded among young people and pregnant women in the last decade. Although there are already some data regarding the short- and long-term consequences of e-cigarettes on human health, their effect on embryo and lung development still needs to be fully disclosed. In this sense, this study describes, for the first time, the impact of electronic cigarette aerosol on early lung development.

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Integral valorisation of tomato by-products towards bioactive compounds recovery: Human health benefits.

Food Chem

June 2023

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina - Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Rua Diogo Botelho 1327, 4169-005 Porto, Portugal. Electronic address:

The tomato processing industry is one of the world's most important markets. This industry aims to optimise production, minimise energy costs and waste streams while ensuring high-quality products. This sector produces substantial amounts of by-products frequently disposed of as waste rather than reintroducing them with a new intent into the supply chain.

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Antimicrobial materials for endotracheal tubes: A review on the last two decades of technological progress.

Acta Biomater

March 2023

CEB - Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; LABBELS - Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal. Electronic address:

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an unresolved problem in nosocomial settings, remaining consistently associated with a lack of treatment, high mortality, and prolonged hospital stay. The endotracheal tube (ETT) is the major culprit for VAP development owing to its early surface microbial colonization and biofilm formation by multiple pathogens, both critical events for VAP pathogenesis and relapses. To combat this matter, gradual research on antimicrobial ETT surface coating/modification approaches has been made.

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Microbial exopolysaccharides (EPS) are promising alternatives to synthetic polymers in a variety of applications. Their high production costs, however, limit their use despite their outstanding properties. The use of low-cost substrates such as agro-industrial wastes in their production, can help to boost their market competitiveness.

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is one of the most notorious pathogens for its ability to adapt, colonize, and proliferate in different habitats through a multitude of acquired virulence factors. Its presence affects the food-processing industry and causes food poisoning, being also a major economic burden for the food, agriculture, and health sectors. Bacteriophages are emerging as an appealing strategy to mitigate bacterial pathogens, including specific pathovars, without exerting a deleterious effect on humans and animals.

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Editorial overview: Special issue on phage therapy.

Curr Opin Virol

February 2023

Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Technology, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Brussels B-1120, Belgium. Electronic address:

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Polymer-based magnetoelectric (ME) nanocomposites are an enabling material technology for a wide range of applications in the area of digitalization strategies. Due to its highest piezoelectric response among polymers, poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) is the piezoelectric matrix most used in polymer-based ME materials with over 80% of the total reports, with the resulting composites typically processed from solutions with ,-dimethylformamide (DMF), a toxic solvent. Nevertheless, environmentally friendlier approaches and sustainable technologies are increasingly being required.

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Optimism and pessimism analysis using deep learning on COVID-19 related twitter conversations.

Inf Process Manag

May 2022

Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Informática, Edificio Politécnico, Campus Universitario As Lagoas S/N 32004, Ourense, Spain.

This paper proposes a new deep learning approach to better understand how optimistic and pessimistic feelings are conveyed in Twitter conversations about COVID-19. A pre-trained transformer embedding is used to extract the semantic features and several network architectures are compared. Model performance is evaluated on two new, publicly available Twitter corpora of crisis-related posts.

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An Electronic Nose as a Non-Destructive Analytical Tool to Identify the Geographical Origin of Portuguese Olive Oils from Two Adjacent Regions.

Sensors (Basel)

December 2022

Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.

The geographical traceability of extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) is of paramount importance for oil chain actors and consumers. Oils produced in two adjacent Portuguese regions, Côa (36 oils) and Douro (31 oils), were evaluated and fulfilled the European legal thresholds for EVOO categorization. Compared to the Douro region, oils from Côa had higher total phenol contents (505 versus 279 mg GAE/kg) and greater oxidative stabilities (17.

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Calcium-doped manganese ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) are gaining special interest in the biomedical field due to their lower cytotoxicity compared with other ferrites, and the fact that they have improved magnetic properties. Magnetic hyperthermia (MH) is an alternative cancer treatment, in which magnetic nanoparticles promote local heating that can lead to the apoptosis of cancer cells. In this work, manganese/calcium ferrite NPs coated with citrate (CaMnFeO ( = 0, 0.

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Opportunistic pathogenic fungi arise in agricultural crops as well as in surrounding human daily life. The recent increase in antifungal-resistant strains has created the need for new effective antifungals, particularly those based on plant secondary metabolites, such as capsaicinoids and capsinoids produced by species. The use of such natural compounds is well-aligned with the One Health approach, which tries to find an equilibrium among people, animals, and the environment.

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Targeted Killing of Ocular by the Phage Endolysin MSlys.

Ophthalmol Sci

December 2022

Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and Infectious Disease Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

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Essential oils (EO) obtained from plants have proven industrial applications in the manufacturing of perfumes and cosmetics, in the production and flavoring of foods and beverages, as therapeutic agents in aromatherapy, and as the active principles or excipients of medicines and pharmaceutics due to their olfactory, physical-chemical, and biological characteristics. On behalf of the new paradigm of a more natural and sustainable lifestyle, EO are rather appealing due to their physical, chemical, and physiological actions in human beings. However, EO are unstable and susceptible to degradation or loss.

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Occurrence of Aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A during Merkén Pepper Powder Production in Chile.

Foods

November 2022

Department of Chemical Science and Natural Resources, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811-230, Chile.

Berry fruits of L. cv. "Cacho de Cabra" are used for the manufacture of a traditional pepper powder known as Merkén.

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Enhancing Antioxidants Extraction from Agro-Industrial By-Products by Enzymatic Treatment.

Foods

November 2022

Biotecnia Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Campus Agua, University of Vigo (Campus Ourense), 32004 Ourense, Spain.

Nowadays, agro-industrial by-products are of increasing interest as a source of antioxidant compounds. Thus, alternative green techniques to extract antioxidant compounds have been pursued. The use of enzymes to release bioactive compounds through antioxidant activity reduces the environmental impact caused by traditional extraction systems using organic solvents.

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Potato peels waste as a sustainable source for biotechnological production of biofuels: Process optimization.

Waste Manag

January 2023

CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; LABBELS - Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.

Potato peel waste (PPW) is a starchy by-product generated in great amounts during the industrial processing of potatoes. It can be used as a low cost alternative, and renewable feedstock for the production of second generation bioethanol. In order to intensify this process, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ethanol Red®, a robust and thermotolerant yeast strain, was selected and two experimental designs and response surfaces assessment were conducted to enable very high gravity fermentations (VHGF) using PPW as feedstock.

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