Identifying individuals using fNIRS-based cortical connectomes

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORThe fMRI-based functional connectome was shown to be sufficiently unique to allow individual identification (fingerprinting). We aimed to test whether a fNIRS-based connectome could also be used to identify individuals. Forty-four participants performed experimental protocols that consisted of two periods of resting-state interleaved by a cognitive task period. Connectome identification was performed for all possible pairwise combinations of the three periods. The influence of hemodynamic global variation was tested using global signal regression and principal component analysis. High identification accuracies well-above chance level (2.3%) were observed overall, being particularly high (93%) to the oxyhemoglobin signal between resting conditions. Our results suggest that fNIRS is a suitable technique to assess connectome fingerprints.10628892897FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORSem informaçãoSem informaçãoSem informaçã

Increased expression of monocarboxylate transporters 1, 2, and 4 in colorectal carcinomas

Tumour cells are known to be highly glycolytic, thus producing high amounts of lactic acid. Monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs), by promoting the efflux of the accumulating acids, constitute one of the most important mechanisms in the maintenance of tumour intracellular pH. Since data concerning MCT expression in colorectal carcinomas (CRC) are scarce and controversial, the present study aimed to assess the expressions of MCT1, 2, and 4 in a well characterized series of CRC and assess their role in CRC carcinogenesis. CRC samples (126 cases) were analyzed for MCT1, MCT2, and MCT4 immunoexpression and findings correlated with clinico-pathological parameters. Expression of all MCT isoforms in tumour cells was significantly increased when compared to adjacent normal epithelium. Remarkably, there was a significant gain of membrane expression for MCT1 and MCT4 and loss of plasma membrane expression for MCT2 in tumour cells. Plasma membrane expression of MCT1 was directly related to the presence of vascular invasion. This is the larger study on MCT expression in CRC and evaluates for the first time its clinico-pathological significance. The increased expression of these transporters suggests an important role in CRC, which might justify their use, especially MCT1 and MCT4, as targets in CRC drug therapy

Development of an image analysis methodology for animal cell cultures characterization

To establish a strong cell culture protocol and to evaluate experimental results, a quantitative determination of animal cells characteristics, such as confluence and morphology is quite often required. Quantitative image analysis using automated processing has become a routine methodology in a wide range of applications with the advantage of being non-invasive and non-destructive. However, in animal cells cultures automatic techniques giving valuable information based on visual inspection are still lacking. In the present work an image analysis procedure was developed to accurately detect animal cell cultures from images captured in phase-contrast microscopy. Image analysis results demonstrated that the methodology was successfully applied, leading to more efficient animal cell culturing with less variability

Image processing on animal cell cultures : a refined technique

The process of microscopic animal cell counting can be a time-consuming process, resulting in a subjective analysis varying according to the researcher’s perception. Regarding the ideal moment to divide the cells, the decision is performed in an empirical manner and is affected by the complexity of cell morphology and density. Searching for a way to overcome these problems, and considering the decreasing costs of computational data processing, a window was found for new methodologies to quickly characterize a given structure. Advances in digital imaging allow the extraction of quantitative information, opposite to the qualitative and subjective evaluation of human analysis. Thus, microscopy image analysis techniques have gained, during the last years, an unquestionable role in several fields of research. The purpose of an image processing step resides in obtaining a final image holding significant information for a given application. These techniques should be automated as much as possible to avoid subjectivity. Thus, several segmentation techniques have been already proposed. For segmentation to take place, usually a threshold value(s) must be defined to allow the differentiation between the objects and background. Other methods, such as region growing, mathematical morphology and watershed are also used for this purpose. These are simple algorithms that when appropriately used can provide promising results and oftentimes with a low computation complexity. Nevertheless, the previous methods have some limitations, including non-uniform intensity variations, low-contrast images, irregular segmentation and over-segmentation. More sophisticated methods based on frameworks of active contours (e.g. snakes, level-sets) or graph-cuts can also be applied to segment cells with positive results. Nonetheless, these algorithms present high computational complexity. The main goal of this work was to develop an image processing tool using several algorithms in order to improve cell segmentation processing for different morphological cells and densities. For that purpose, different cells were used ‒ MDA-MB-231 and -435, both cancer cell lines, and MCF-10-2A, a non-tumorigenic line. Cells were observed in a Leica DM IL inverted contrasting microscope, in phase-contrast at 100x total magnification, coupled with a Leica D-LUX 3 camera, ensuring the same acquisition conditions. Despite the variability in their morphology, preliminary results demonstrated that the segmentation process was fairly successfully. As a result, the previously described flaws were minimized, leading to more efficient animal cell culturing with less variability

Morphologic and Genetic Analysis of Synhimantus (Synhimantus) laticeps from a Long-Eared Owl (Asio otus)

The long-eared owl (Asio otus) is a medium-sized owl species that is well-distributed in almost all of the territories in Portugal. Nematodes were found in the oral cavity of a long-eared owl (A. otus) admitted to CRASSA (Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Santo Andre). During a physical exam and stabilization of the bird, five nematodes were collected. The worms were examined and measured under light microscopy, and photos were taken. After a morphological analysis was conducted, all the nematodes (five females) were identified as Synhimantus (Synhimantus) laticeps. Two specimens were subjected to molecular analysis, which confirmed the result. This study provides a combined morphological and genetic approach to S. laticeps. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first report including genetic sequencing of S. laticeps in a long-eared owl (A. otus) from Portugal.This work was supported by the projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). S.S.-S. thanks FCT for the financial support of his PhD work under the 2021 scholarship 2021.09461.BD contract through the Maria de Sousa-2021 program

Comportamento ao fogo de paredes de blocos de terra compactados (btc) com incorporação de resíduos

Diante da crescente busca por métodos de construção sustentáveis, blocos de terra compactados (BTC) vêm se tornando uma alternativa cada vez mais utilizada em construções. Além de serem compostos majoritariamente por solo, os BTC oferecem ainda a possibilidade de inclusão de resíduos diversos em suas composições, o que resulta na redução de impactos ambientais [1]. Dentre os desafios da utilização desse material destaca-se a heterogeneidade e grande variabilidade entre os solos disponíveis, o que dificulta padronizações na execução e nas propriedades dos blocos. Desse modo, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo a avaliação do comportamento ao fogo de paredes de BTC, analisando influências da inclusão de resíduos. Para tal finalidade, recorre-se à análise experimental do fenómeno, por meio de ensaio em laboratório e simulação numérica do mesmo, via Método dos Elementos Finitos (FEM). Para realização dos ensaios experimentais, estão a ser executadas paredes de 1 m2 compostas por blocos de terra compactados assentados com argamassa. As paredes são submetidas a ensaios conforme o Eurocódigo 1364-1 [2], avaliando-se critérios de estanqueidade e isolamento. Paralalelamente à execução das paredes, estão a ser caracterizadas as propriedades térmicas dos BTC, de modo a permitir simulações computacionais que apresentem resultados condizentes àqueles observados em laboratório. Após a execução dos ensaios experimentais e das simulações computacionais, busca-se avaliar as influências da incorporação de resíduos orgânicos aos blocos quando submetidos ao fogo. Além disso, espera-se também identificar na caracterização das propriedades térmicas dos BTC as influências que a inclusão de resíduos pode causar no comportamento dos blocos, estabelecendo-se assim proporções e características adequadas do resíduo a ser incorporado.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In-depth quantitative proteomics uncovers specie-specific metabolic programs in Leishmania (Viannia) species

Author summary Leishmania braziliensis,L.panamensis, andL.guyanensisare responsible for most of the cases of tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) in the Americas. These species are associated with a variety of clinical manifestations of TL ranging from self-healing localized cutaneous lesions to disseminated and mucocutaneous presentations that may result in severe oropharyngeal mutilation. Here, we report a comprehensive quantitative comparison of the proteome of those species. Assessment of absolute titers of similar to 7000 proteins revealed a very clear differentiation among them. Significant differences in energy metabolism, membrane proteins, transporters, and lipids are contributing for species-specific traits and provide rich substrate for exploring new molecules for diagnosing purposes. Leishmaniaspecies are responsible for a broad spectrum of diseases, denominated Leishmaniasis, affecting over 12 million people worldwide. During the last decade, there have been impressive efforts for sequencing the genome of most of the pathogenicLeishmaniaspp. as well as hundreds of strains, but large-scale proteomics analyses did not follow these achievements and theLeishmaniaproteome remained mostly uncharacterized. Here, we report a comprehensive comparative study of the proteomes of strains representingL.braziliensis,L.panamensisandL.guyanensisspecies. Proteins extracted by SDS-mediated lysis were processed following the multi-enzyme digestion-filter aided sample preparation (FASP) procedure and analysed by high accuracy mass spectrometry. "Total Protein Approach" and "Proteomic Ruler" were applied for absolute quantification of proteins. Principal component analysis demonstrated very high reproducibility among biological replicates and a very clear differentiation of the three species. Our dataset comprises near 7000 proteins, representing the most completeLeishmaniaproteome yet known, and provides a comprehensive quantitative picture of the proteomes of the three species in terms of protein concentration and copy numbers. Analysis of the abundance of proteins from the major energy metabolic processes allow us to highlight remarkably differences among the species and suggest that these parasites depend on distinct energy substrates to obtain ATP. WhereasL.braziliensisrelies the more on glycolysis,L.panamensisandL.guyanensisseem to depend mainly on mitochondrial respiration. These results were confirmed by biochemical assays showing opposite profiles for glucose uptake and O(2)consumption in these species. In addition, we provide quantitative data about different membrane proteins, transporters, and lipids, all of which contribute for significant species-specific differences and provide rich substrate for explore new molecules for diagnosing purposes. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD017696

Novel CaLB-like Lipase Found Using ProspectBIO, a Software for Genome-Based Bioprospection

Enzymes have been highly demanded in diverse applications such as in the food, pharmaceutical, and industrial fuel sectors. Thus, in silico bioprospecting emerges as an efficient strategy for discovering new enzyme candidates. A new program called ProspectBIO was developed for this purpose as it can find non-annotated sequences by searching for homologs of a model enzyme directly in genomes. Here we describe the ProspectBIO software methodology and the experimental validation by prospecting for novel lipases by sequence homology to Candida antarctica lipase B (CaLB) and conserved motifs. As expected, we observed that the new bioprospecting software could find more sequences (1672) than a conventional similarity-based search in a protein database (733). Additionally, the absence of patent protection was introduced as a criterion resulting in the final selection of a putative lipase-encoding gene from Ustilago hordei (UhL). Expression of UhL in Pichia pastoris resulted in the production of an enzyme with activity towards a tributyrin substrate. The recombinant enzyme activity levels were 4-fold improved when lowering the temperature and increasing methanol concentrations during the induction phase in shake-flask cultures. Protein sequence alignment and structural modeling showed that the recombinant enzyme has high similarity and capability of adjustment to the structure of CaLB. However, amino acid substitutions identified in the active pocket entrance may be responsible for the differences in the substrate specificities of the two enzymes. Thus, the ProspectBIO software allowed the finding of a new promising lipase for biotechnological application without the need for laborious and expensive conventional bioprospecting experimental steps

Discriminação do perfil de compostos orgânicos voláteis emitidos por diferentes variedades de manga (Mangifera indica L.).

O setor frutícola é um dos importantes segmentos do agronegócio brasileiro, sendo estratégico no desenvolvimento social do país. Dentro deste contexto, destaca-se a produção de manga (Mangifera indica L.), um dos frutos mais consumidos. Seu elevado consumo é atribuído às suas agradáveis propriedades sensoriais como o aroma

Extração de compostos orgânicos voláteis de plantas intercalares utilizadas em cultivos de citros por meio de microextração em fase sólida (SPME).

Objetivo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi estabelecer um protocolo para extração de COV?s de espécies de plantas utilizadas como intercalares em pomares de citros do estado da Bahia, utilizando a técnica de micro--extração em fase sólida (SPME)