Syndromes associated with children exposure to mycotoxins and health risk assessment to multiple mycotoxins in infant foods

1. Children health and mycotoxins; 2. Routes of exposure; 3. Syndromes Syndromes associated associated with children children exposure exposure to mycotoxins: to mycotoxins: ingestion and inhalation; 4. Health risk assessment to multiple mycotoxins in infant foods -MYCOMIX project (PTDC/DTP-FTO/0417/2012); 5. Critical role of health professional

Inflammatory and Cardiometabolic Risk on Obesity: Role of Environmental Xenoestrogens

Some chemicals used in consumer products or manufacturing (eg, plastics, pesticides) have estrogenic activities; these xenoestrogens (XEs) may affect immune responses and have recently emerged as a new risk factors for obesity and cardiovascular disease. However, the extent and impact on health of chronic exposure of the general population to XEs are still unknown.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perfil da tuberculose em populações vulneráveis: pessoas privadas de liberdade e em situação de rua

Objetivo: descrever o perfil sociodemográfico e epidemiológico das pessoas privadas de liberdade e da população em situação de rua com tuberculose em Belo Horizonte. Metodologia: estudo ecológico descritivo. A fonte de dados foi o Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação do município de Belo Horizonte-MG, de 2015 a 2017. Resultados: observou-se 43 casos de tuberculose em pessoas privadas de liberdade e 188 na população em situação de rua, sendo a maioria do sexo masculino, raça preta ou parda e com idade média de 38 e 40 anos, respectivamente. Nos dois públicos a escolaridade foi inferior a 12 anos e a maioria não era beneficiária de auxílio financeiro. Como comorbidades destaca-se a coinfecção HIV/TB, o alcoolismo e o tabagismo. A ocorrência de tuberculose multidrogarresistente foi de 5% entre os privados de liberdade. Destaca-se a baixa realização do teste rápido molecular. O tratamento diretamente observado foi pouco implementado nos dois grupos e o abandono foi a principal situação de encerramento na população de rua. Conclusões: o perfil sociodemográfico identificado apresenta características de grupos em situação de vulnerabilidade, com menos acesso a diagnóstico e tratamento de qualidade e desfechos mais desfavoráveis na tuberculose. Espera-se mais atuação das autoridades sobre os determinantes sociais de vulnerabilidade, visando sucesso na cura e controle da tuberculose.

The X-SHOOTER Lyman-αα survey at z=2 (XLS-z2) I:the panchromatic spectrum of typical Lyman-αα emitters

We present the first results from the X-SHOOTER Lyman-$\alpha$ survey at $z=2$ (XLS-$z2$). XLS-$z2$ is a deep spectroscopic survey of 35 Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) utilising $\approx90$ hours of exposure time with VLT/X-SHOOTER and covers rest-frame Ly$\alpha$ to H$\alpha$ emission with R$\approx4000$. We present the sample selection, the observations and the data reduction. Systemic redshifts are measured from rest-frame optical lines for 33/35 sources. In the stacked spectrum, our LAEs are characterised by an interstellar medium with little dust, a low metallicity and a high ionisation state. The ionising sources are young hot stars that power strong emission-lines in the optical and high ionisation lines in the UV. The LAEs exhibit clumpy UV morphologies and have outflowing kinematics with blue-shifted SiII absorption, a broad [OIII] component and a red-skewed Ly$\alpha$ line. Typically 30 % of the Ly$\alpha$ photons escape, of which one quarter on the blue side of the systemic velocity. A fraction of Ly$\alpha$ photons escapes directly at the systemic suggesting clear channels enabling a $\approx10$ % escape of ionising photons, consistent with an inference based on MgII. A combination of a low effective HI column density, a low dust content and young star-burst determine whether a star forming galaxy is observed as a LAE. The first is possibly related to outflows and/or a fortunate viewing angle, while we find that the latter two in LAEs are typical for their stellar mass of 10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$

MycoMix and risk assessment: a contribute to improve risk analysis

Risk analysis, is a powerful tool for including science-based knowledge in a systematic approach to food safety problems. The use of risk analysis can promote ongoing improvements in public health and provide a basis for expanding international trade in foods. Within risk analysis, the risk assessment results are quantitative or qualitative expressions of the likelihood of harmful effects associated with exposure to a chemical (WHO, 2010). Human risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals (chemical mixtures) poses several challenges to scientists, risk assessors and risk managers, namely the complexity of the terminology and problem formulation, the diversity of chemical entities, and the toxicological profiles and exposure patterns in test species and humans (EFSA, 2013). Mycotoxins are natural contaminants produced by fungi and its frequent co-occurrence in food poses a threat to human health, mainly to vulnerable population groups as children. MycoMix is an ongoing national project (2013-15) that explores the toxic effects of mixtures of mycotoxins in infant food and its potential health impact. This project aims to study the occurrence of multiple mycotoxins and toxicity interactions in infant foods and cereals consumed by Portuguese children and try to answer several questions: 1) Are children exposed daily to mycotoxins through food? 2) What are the quality and quantity that characterize this exposure? 3) Can this exposure bring harm to children? Answering these questions will raise novel approaches to: 1) apply new techniques on mycotoxin multiple detection, 2) understand the toxicity responses upon multiple mycotoxin exposures, and 3) implement new methodologies to characterize hazard and risk for children exposure to mycotoxins. A multidisciplinary team has been developing, for the first time in Portugal, i) a liquid chromatography (LC) method coupled with tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for multimycotoxin detection in infant food developed and applied to study infant food consumed by Portuguese children, ii) cito and genotoxic assays to assess the toxicity of binary mixtures of mycotoxins detected in analyzed infant foods associated with the MIXTOX tool to assess the interactive effects, iii) in vitro methodologies to simulate the digestive and intestinal absorption processes of binary mixtures of mycotoxins, iv) a web-based dietary assessment and diet planning platform, the “OPEN Portugal”, to record infant food consumption data allowing simultaneously the assessment of the nutritional profile of the inquired children, and v) a set of deterministic, probabilistic (@RISK) and cumulative risk assessment approaches that allow the exposure assessment and risk characterization of Portuguese children to multiple mycotoxins in food. An overview of the results obtained within the MycoMix project will be presented, showing the patterns of the exposure of Portuguese infant to multiple mycotoxins as well as the scientific evidence of the toxic effects of mycotoxin mixtures using in vitro models. Hence,MycoMix outputs contribute for hazard identification and characterization as well as to exposure characterization, contributing for risk analysis.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Gut Microbiota Diversity and C-Reactive Protein Are Predictors of Disease Severity in COVID-19 Patients

Funding Information: We acknowledge support from the NOVA Medical School of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, CINTESIS, and CHRC. Funding. This study was sponsored by the Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia (FCT, project no. 268_596883842), BIOCODEX, and CINTESIS (reference UIDB/4255/2020). The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or manuscript writing. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright © 2021 Moreira-Rosário, Marques, Pinheiro, Araújo, Ribeiro, Rocha, Mota, Pestana, Ribeiro, Pereira, de Sousa, Pereira-Leal, de Sousa, Morais, Teixeira, Rocha, Silvestre, Príncipe, Gatta, Amado, Santos, Maltez, Boquinhas, de Sousa, Germano, Sarmento, Granja, Póvoa, Faria and Calhau.The risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity are still poorly understood. Considering the pivotal role of the gut microbiota on host immune and inflammatory functions, we investigated the association between changes in the gut microbiota composition and the clinical severity of COVID-19. We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study prospectively enrolling 115 COVID-19 patients categorized according to: (1) the WHO Clinical Progression Scale—mild, 19 (16.5%); moderate, 37 (32.2%); or severe, 59 (51.3%), and (2) the location of recovery from COVID-19—ambulatory, 14 (household isolation, 12.2%); hospitalized in ward, 40 (34.8%); or hospitalized in the intensive care unit, 61 (53.0%). Gut microbiota analysis was performed through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the data obtained were further related to the clinical parameters of COVID-19 patients. The risk factors for COVID-19 severity were identified by univariate and multivariable logistic regression models. In comparison to mild COVID-19 patients, the gut microbiota of moderate and severe patients have: (a) lower Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio; (b) higher abundance of Proteobacteria; and (c) lower abundance of beneficial butyrate-producing bacteria such as the genera Roseburia and Lachnospira. Multivariable regression analysis showed that the Shannon diversity index [odds ratio (OR) = 2.85, 95% CI = 1.09–7.41, p = 0.032) and C-reactive protein (OR = 3.45, 95% CI = 1.33–8.91, p = 0.011) are risk factors for severe COVID-19 (a score of 6 or higher in the WHO Clinical Progression Scale). In conclusion, our results demonstrated that hospitalized patients with moderate and severe COVID-19 have microbial signatures of gut dysbiosis; for the first time, the gut microbiota diversity is pointed out as a prognostic biomarker of COVID-19 severity.publishersversionpublishe

The Synchrony of Production & Escape:Half the Bright Lyαα Emitters at z≈2z\approx2 have Lyman Continuum Escape Fractions ≈50%\approx50\%

The ionizing photon escape fraction (LyC $f_{\rm{esc}}$) of star-forming galaxies is the single greatest unknown in the reionization budget. Stochastic sightline effects prohibit the direct separation of LyC leakers from non-leakers at significant redshift. Here we circumvent this uncertainty by inferring $f_{\rm{esc}}$ with resolved (R>4000) LyA profiles from the X-SHOOTER LyA survey at z=2 (XLS-z2). We select leakers ($f_{\rm{esc}}>20$%) and non-leakers ($f_{\rm{esc}}0.2 L^{*}$ LyA emitters (LAEs). With median stacked spectra of these subsets covering 1000-8000 {\AA} (rest-frame) we investigate the conditions for LyC $f_{\rm{esc}}$. We find the following differences between leakers vs. non-leakers: (i) strong nebular CIV and HeII emission vs. non-detections, (ii) O32~8.5 vs. ~3, (iii) Ha/Hb indicating no dust vs. E(B-V)~0.3, (iv) MgII emission close to the systemic velocity vs. redshifted, optically thick MgII, (v) LyA $f_{\rm{esc}}$ of ~50% vs. ~10%. The extreme EWs in leakers (O3+Hb~1100 {\AA}) constrain the characteristic timescale of LyC escape to ~3-10 Myr bursts when short-lived stars with the hardest ionizing spectra shine. The defining traits of leakers -- extremely ionizing stellar populations, low column densities, a dust-free, high ionization state ISM -- occur simultaneously in the $f_{\rm{esc}}>20\%$ stack, suggesting they are causally connected, and motivating why indicators like O32 may suffice to constrain $f_{\rm{esc}}$ at z>6 with JWST. The leakers comprise half our sample, have a median LyC $f_{\rm{esc}}$~50%, and an ionising production efficiency $\log({\xi_{\rm{ion}}/\rm{Hz\ erg^{-1}}})$~25.9. These results show LAEs -- the type of galaxies rare at z=2, but that become the norm at higher redshift -- are highly efficient ionizers, with extreme $\xi_{\rm{ion}}$ and prolific $f_{\rm{esc}}$ occurring in sync. (ABRIDGED

Study of asymmetry information and its impacts on capital cost of Brazilian companies traded in stock exchange

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar o efeito da assimetria da informação no custo de capital próprio das empresas negociadas em bolsa de valores no Brasil. O tema está em constante debate sobre a existência dessa relação e até mesmo sobre sua relação com o custo de capital ser favorável ou não. A assimetria da informação foi estimada através da Probability of informed trading (PIN), mensurando de forma direta a existência de negociações com informação privilegiada para a confrontação com custo de capital das empresas brasileiras. O resultado encontrado não apresentou relação estatisticamente significante a 5% entre a PIN e o custo de capital, de forma que não foi possível verificar a relação entre assimetria da informação e o custo de capital. Adicionalmente, o coeficiente encontrado para a PIN no modelo adotado indica uma possível correlação negativa da variável estudada e o custo de capital, deste modo o estudo corrobora com a conclusão de Lambert et al. (2012), segundo a qual, em mercados líquidos, a assimetria da informação não exerce papel relevante e sim a quantidade e a qualidade da informação disponível, não importando a forma de entrada da informação no mercado.The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the effect of information asymmetry on the cost of equity of companies traded in stock exchanges in Brazil. It is constantly debated whether this relationship exists and also whether information asymmetry\'s effect on the cost of equity is favorable or not. Information asymmetry has been estimated using the PIN (Probability of Informed Trading), directly measuring the existence of insider trading for confrontation with the cost of equity of Brazilian companies. The result obtained did not show a statistically significant relationship at the 5% level between the PIN and the cost of equity; therefore, it was not possible to ascertain the relationship between information asymmetry and cost of equity. Additionally, the coefficient found for the PIN on the selected model indicates a possible negative correlation between the studied variable and the cost of equity, which indicates that the study corroborates the conclusion of Lambert et al. (2012), according to which information asymmetry does not exert a significant role in liquid markets but rather this role is exerted by the quantity and quality of available information, regardless of how information reaches the market

Real-time Symmetry-based Dense Stereo Matching for 3D Reconstruction

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbr