Bee pollen flavonoid/phenolic characterization in different flowering periods

In order to assess the choice made by honey bees all over the time two apiaries in the region of Beira Interior were selected for evaluation of the variance of floral pollen sources used by them in three different flowering periods

How Promising Are "Ultraprocessed" Front-of-Package Labels? A Formative Study with US Adults

High levels of food processing can have detrimental health effects independent of nutrient content. Experts and advocates have proposed adding information about food processing status to front-of-package labeling schemes, which currently exclusively focus on nutrient content. How consumers would perceive "ultraprocessed" labels has not yet been examined. To address this gap, we conducted a within-subjects online experiment with a convenience sample of 600 US adults. Participants viewed a product under three labeling conditions (control, "ultraprocessed" label, and "ultraprocessed" plus "high in sugar" label) in random order for a single product. The "ultraprocessed" label led participants to report thinking more about the risks of eating the product and discouraging them from wanting to buy the product more than the control, despite not grabbing more attention than the control. The "ultraprocessed" plus "high in sugar" labels grabbed more attention, led participants to think more about the risks of eating the product, and discouraged them from wanting to buy the product more than the "ultraprocessed" label alone. "Ultraprocessed" labels may constitute promising messages that could work in tandem with nutrient labels, and further research should examine how they would influence consumers' actual intentions and behaviors

Inhibition Of Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition And Metastasis By Combined Tgfbeta Knockdown And Metformin Treatment In A Canine Mammary Cancer Xenograft Model

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process by which epithelial cells acquire mesenchymal properties, generating metastases. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is associated with this malignancy by having the ability to induce EMT. Metformin, has been shown to inhibit EMT in breast cancer cells. Based on this evidence we hypothesize that treatment with metformin and the silencing of TGF-β, inhibits the EMT in cancer cells. Canine metastatic mammary tumor cell line CF41 was stably transduced with a shRNA-lentivirus, reducing expression level of TGF-β1. This was combined with metformin treatment, to look at effects on cell migration and the expression of EMT markers. For in vivo study, unmodified or TGF-β1sh cells were injected in the inguinal region of nude athymic female mice followed by metformin treatment. The mice’s lungs were collected and metastatic nodules were subsequently assessed for EMT markers expression. The migration rate was lower in TGF-β1sh cells and when combined with metformin treatment. Metformin treatment reduced N-cadherin and increased E-cadherin expression in both CF41 and TGF-β1sh cells. Was demonstrated that metformin treatment reduced the number of lung metastases in animals bearing TGF-β1sh tumors. This paralleled a decreased N-cadherin and vimentin expression, and increased E-cadherin and claudin-7 expression in lung metastases. This study confirms the benefits of TGF-β1 silencing in addition to metformin as potential therapeutic agents for breast cancer patients, by blocking EMT process. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report metformin treatment in cells with TGF-β1 silencing and their effect on EMT. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.221274

Vacuum solutions of the gravitational field equations in the brane world model

We consider some classes of solutions of the static, spherically symmetric gravitational field equations in the vacuum in the brane world scenario, in which our Universe is a three-brane embedded in a higher dimensional space-time. The vacuum field equations on the brane are reduced to a system of two ordinary differential equations, which describe all the geometric properties of the vacuum as functions of the dark pressure and dark radiation terms (the projections of the Weyl curvature of the bulk, generating non-local brane stresses). Several classes of exact solutions of the vacuum gravitational field equations on the brane are derived. In the particular case of a vanishing dark pressure the integration of the field equations can be reduced to the integration of an Abel type equation. A perturbative procedure, based on the iterative solution of an integral equation, is also developed for this case. Brane vacuums with particular symmetries are investigated by using Lie group techniques. In the case of a static vacuum brane admitting a one-parameter group of conformal motions the exact solution of the field equations can be found, with the functional form of the dark radiation and pressure terms uniquely fixed by the symmetry. The requirement of the invariance of the field equations with respect to the quasi-homologous group of transformations also imposes a unique, linear proportionality relation between the dark energy and dark pressure. A homology theorem for the static, spherically symmetric gravitational field equations in the vacuum on the brane is also proven.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, to appear in PR

Dynamics of Brane-World Cosmological Models

We show that generically the initial singularity is isotropic in spatially homogeneous cosmological models in the brane-world scenario. We then argue that it is plausible that the initial singularity is isotropic in typical brane world cosmological models. Therefore, brane cosmology naturally gives rise to a set of initial data that provide the conditions for inflation to subsequently take place, thereby solving the initial conditions problem and leading to a self--consistent and viable cosmology.Comment: Final version. To appear in Physical Revie

Biocompatible hybrids based on nanographene oxide covalently linked to glycolporphyrins: synthesis, characterization and biological evaluation

The major limitation in the development of hybrids based on graphene oxide (GO) and porphyrins is their dispersibility and stability in aqueous systems due to the hydrophobic character induced by porphyrins. Most of the previous approaches reported the direct functionalization of GO with polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains followed by the self-assembly of porphyrins by π-π interactions. Here, new hybrids were prepared using porphyrins previously functionalized with different number/types of glycol branches to be covalently attached through esterification to the carboxyl groups of GO sheets of nanometric dimensions. The number of the glycol chains and its relative position in the porphyrin core showed to be fundamental to improve the hybrids dispersion and stability in aqueous solutions. The best performing hybrids were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared, UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The in vitro biocompatibility assessment of these hybrids was conducted using human Saos-2 cells. Their effects on cell proliferation and viability, the generation of reactive oxygen species as well as the cell morphology after cell uptake were analysed. The results demonstrate the biocompatibility of these hybrid nanomaterials with human Saos-2 cells, which is very promising for future application in biomedicine namely in cancer therapy.publishe

Chaotic Inflationary Universe on Brane

The chaotic inflationary model of the early universe, proposed by Linde is explored in the brane world considering matter described by a minimally coupled self interacting scalar field. We obtain cosmological solutions which admit evolution of a universe either from a singularity or without a singularity. It is found that a very weakly coupled self-interacting scalar field is necessary for a quartic type potential in the brane world model compared to that necessary in general relativity. In the brane world sufficient inflation may be obtained even with an initial scalar field having value less than the Planck scale. It is found that if the universe is kinetic energy dominated to begin with, it transits to an inflationary stage subsequently.Comment: 13 pages, no fig., accepted in Physical Review

Possible international directive for quality control of bee pollen

Comunicação oral da qual só está disponível a apresentação.Possible international directive for quality control of bee pollen.Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia de Portugal POCTI (FEDER) & COMPETE, Ciência Viv