Estudo preliminar do espalhamento do plano fundamental de galáxias tipo early do universo local

Galáxias elípticas são usualmente apresentadas como sistemas simples, supostamente em equilíbrio dinâmico (virial). Estes objetos cobrem um grande intervalo de tamanhos, luminosidades e dinâmica interna. Existem, ainda assim, relações bem estabelecidas entre seus parâmetros fundamentais. É o caso do denominado Plano Fundamental: uma relação entre três desses parâmetros (raio efetivo, dispersão central de velocidades e brilho superficial médio) definindo um plano, onde galáxias do tipo “early” (elípticas e lenticulares) são encontradas. É de grande interesse verificar se essa relação é universal e o que causa o seu pequeno espalhamento. Aqui nos concentramos em avaliar essa questão do ponto de vista da morfologia das galáxias e do meio ambiente. Embora a formação das galáxias seja um processo que supostamente ocorre a partir de condições físicas iniciais quase idênticas, as diferentes morfologias (elíptica e lenticular) ou histórias evolutivas diferentes poderiam deixar marcas no Plano Fundamental e dar algumas pistas importantes para a compreensão de um cenário mais realista para a origem e evolução de galáxias. Com esse propósito, utilizamos os dados do projeto ENEAR, que conta com uma amostra homogênea e representativa do Universo local e determinações de distâncias reais para todos os objetos. Constatamos a identidade do indicador de distâncias (relação Dn — o) do projeto ENEAR com o Plano Fundamental e comparamos os planos obtidos para amostras em meios de alta e baixa densidades, assim como verificamos se há diferença entre os definidos por elípticas e por lenticulares. Também realizamos uma comparação com outros resultados encontrados na literatura. Notamos que determinadas classes de galáxias apresentam um maior espalhamento, especialmente em função do brilho superficial central. Entretanto, mais de 80% das galáxias tipo “early” são bem descritas pelo Plano Fundamental, não se encontrando qualquer dependência desta relação com a morfologia dos objetos e o meio ambiente

Plant phenolic extracts as an effective strategy to control Staphylococcus aureus, the dairy industry pathogen

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common contagious mastitis pathogens. Bovine mastitis is considered an important reservoir for dairy industry contamination, and therefore to ensure S. aureus control has gained a pivotal importance. Natural matrices present multiple biological effects, being its antimicrobial potential increasingly reported. Thus, the present study aims to assess the antibacterial activity of several methanol:water extracts, obtained from plants, against Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, the most effective extract was characterized in terms of phenolic compounds, by using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array and mass spectrometer detectors. Among the tested extracts, Eucalyptus globulus was the most effective against all tested S. aureus strains, followed by Juglans regia and Foeniculum vulgare. Inhibition halos of the plant extracts varied between 8.0-16.0 mm, excepting for F. vulgare in which two evident halos were observed: one with growth inhibition (5.0-7.0 mm) and a second one with visible cell density reduction (13.0-14.0 mm). Susceptibility assays evidenced that E. globulus extract exerted the highest antibacterial activity (MICs=0.195-0.39 mg/mL), being effective against all the tested strains. Among the phenolic compounds identified in this extract, gallotannins, ellagic acid glycoside, and quercetin derivatives, were the most abundant; and therefore, may exert a positive and contributive effect to the observed antibacterial effect. Overall, the use of plant extracts to control bovine mastitis caused by S. aureus is a promising solution that could contribute to the reduction of the occurrence of dairy food industry contaminations, providing considerable benefits to agro-industries on the formulation of high-quality and safety dairy products.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (grant number SFRH/BPD/84488/2012) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 − Programa Operacional Regional do Norte, as also Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2013 to CIMO. The authors are also grateful to the Interreg España-Portugal for financial support through the project 0377_Iberphenol_6_E and to Ana Maria Carvalho for the collection and identification of the wild samples, chemically characterized in previous studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Percepção de agentes operadores do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar

OBJETIVO: Identificar a percepção de agentes operadores sobre o Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar. MÉTODOS: Trata-se de um estudo observacional, transversal e quali-quantitativo desenvolvido em amostra não probabilística e selecionada por conveniência em um evento promovido pelo Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação em 2015 no Rio de Janeiro. Os dados foram coletados com o auxílio de um questionário cujas questões se relacionavam a categorias pré-definidas relacionadas ao Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar. O questionário foi respondido por 43 nutricionistas, 41 membros do Conselho de Alimentação Escolar e 16 gestores da alimentação escolar de 38 municípios do Rio de Janeiro. A análise das narrativas foi baseada em referenciais de análise cognitiva de políticas públicas. A associação entre as variáveis foi investigada com o teste qui-quadrado, sendo calculado o poder do teste das associações. RESULTADOS: A percepção da execução do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar foi caracterizada por alguns desafios: 1) baixo quantitativo de nutricionistas para atender à demanda das escolas; 2) baixa adesão à chamada pública para compra de produtos da agricultura familiar por dificuldades burocráticas e insuficiência de produção local de alimentos; 3) reduzida abrangência das ações de educação alimentar e nutricional pela restrição dos recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros; e 4) limitação na atuação do Conselho de Alimentação Escolar por oferta insuficiente de capacitação e de transporte para as visitas regulares. A adequação do quantitativo de nutricionistas mostrou associação estatisticamente significante com a compra de produtos da agricultura familiar (p = 0,002; poder = 99%) e com as atividades de educação alimentar e nutricional (p = 0,021; poder = 79%).OBJECTIVE: Identify the perception operating agents have on the Brazilian National School Feeding Program METHODS: This is an observational, cross-sectional and quali-quantitative study developed in non-probability and convenience sampling selected in an event promoted by the National Fund for Educational Development in 2015 in Rio de Janeiro. Data were collected through questions related to pre-defined categories concerning the National School Feeding Program. The questionnaire was answered by 43 nutritionists, 41 members of the School Feeding Board, and 16 school feeding administrators from 38 cities of Rio de Janeiro. The narrative analysis was based on benchmarks of cognitive analysis of public policies. The association among variables was investigated with chi-square test, being calculated the power for association testing. RESULTS: The perception of the implementation of the National School Feeding Program has been characterized by some challenges: 1) low number of nutritionists to meet the demand from schools; 2) low adhesion to the public call for the purchase of family farming products due to bureaucratic difficulties and insufficient local food production; 3) reduced coverage of food and nutritional measures due to the restriction of human, material and financial resources; and 4) limitation of the participation of the School Feeding Board due to insufficient training and transport for regular visits. The adequacy of the number of nutritionists showed statistically significant association with the purchase of family farming products (p = 0.002; power = 99%) and with the food and nutritional education activities (p = 0.021; power = 79%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate the need for employment of nutritionist in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of the National School Feeding Program, investment in educational activities of healthy eating in schools, training of the School Feeding Board, greater availability of vehicles for school visits and assistance to family farmers in order to facilitate their participation in programs of institutional purchases and encourage the diversification of production

The influence of genetic stability on Aspergillus fumigatus virulence and azole resistance

Genetic stability is extremely important for the survival of every living organism, and a very complex set of genes has evolved to cope with DNA repair upon DNA damage. Here, we investigated the Aspergillus fumigatus AtmA (Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated, ATM) and AtrA kinases, and how they impact virulence and the evolution of azole resistance. We demonstrated that A. fumigatus atmA and atrA null mutants are haploid and have a discrete chromosomal polymorphism. The ?atmA and ?atrA strains are sensitive to several DNA-damaging agents, but surprisingly both strains were more resistant than the wild-type strain to paraquat, menadione, and hydrogen peroxide. The atmA and atrA genes showed synthetic lethality emphasizing the cooperation between both enzymes and their consequent redundancy. The lack of atmA and atrA does not cause any significant virulence reduction in A. fumigatus in a neutropenic murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and in the invertebrate alternative model Galleria mellonela. Wild-type, ?atmA, and ?atrA populations that were previously transferred 10 times in minimal medium (MM) in the absence of voriconazole have not shown any significant changes in drug resistance acquisition. In contrast, ?atmA and ?atrA populations that similarly evolved in the presence of a subinhibitory concentration of voriconazole showed an ~5-10-fold increase when compared to the original minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. There are discrete alterations in the voriconazole target Cyp51A/Erg11A or cyp51/erg11 and/or Cdr1B efflux transporter overexpression that do not seem to be the main mechanisms to explain voriconazole resistance in these evolved populations. Taken together, these results suggest that genetic instability caused by ?atmA and ?atrA mutations can confer an adaptive advantage, mainly in the intensity of voriconazole resistance acquisition.We thank the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientí fi co e Tecnológico, Brazil, for fi nancial support. F.R. and B.H.F. were supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Targeting the non-structural protein 1 from dengue virus to a dendritic cell population confers protective immunity to lethal virus challenge

Dengue is the most prevalent arboviral infection, affecting millions of people every year. Attempts to control such infection are being made, and the development of a vaccine is a World Health Organization priority. Among the proteins being tested as vaccine candidates in preclinical settings is the non-structural protein 1 (NS1). In the present study, we tested the immune responses generated by targeting the NS1 protein to two different dendritic cell populations. Dendritic cells (DCs) are important antigen presenting cells, and targeting proteins to maturing DCs has proved to be an efficient means of immunization. Antigen targeting is accomplished by the use of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against a DC cell surface receptor fused to the protein of interest. We used two mAbs (αDEC205 and αDCIR2) to target two distinct DC populations, expressing either DEC205 or DCIR2 endocytic receptors, respectively, in mice. The fusion mAbs were successfully produced, bound to their respective receptors, and were used to immunize BALB/c mice in the presence of polyriboinosinic: polyribocytidylic acid (poly (I:C)), as a DC maturation stimulus. We observed induction of strong anti-NS1 antibody responses and similar antigen binding affinity irrespectively of the DC population targeted. Nevertheless, the IgG1/IgG2a ratios were different between mouse groups immunized with αDEC-NS1 and αDCIR2-NS1 mAbs. When we tested the induction of cellular immune responses, the number of IFN-γ producing cells was higher in αDEC-NS1 immunized animals. In addition, mice immunized with the αDEC-NS1 mAb were significantly protected from a lethal intracranial challenge with the DENV2 NGC strain when compared to mice immunized with αDCIR2-NS1 mAb. Protection was partially mediated by CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells as depletion of these populations reduced both survival and morbidity signs. We conclude that targeting the NS1 protein to the DEC205(+) DC population with poly (I:C) opens perspectives for dengue vaccine development.Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq)National Institute of Science and Technology Research Funding Agency (INCTV) - 15203*12São Paulo State Research Funding Agency (FAPESP) - 2007/08648-9, 2011/51761-6BNP-Paribas BankRio de Janeiro State Research Funding Agency (FAPERJ

Construindo hábitos alimentares na infância: um olhar para o futuro

Sabe-se que diversos fatores estão correlacionados no que se refere à promoção de uma melhor qualidade de vida e prevenção de doenças, incluindo a garantia de uma alimentação adequada desde os primeiros anos de vida de um indivíduo. Crianças que, durante seu desenvolvimento, mantêm uma alimentação adequada, baseada em alimentos do tipo in natura e/ou minimamente processados, apresentam maiores chances de se tornarem adultos saudáveis no futuro. Diante disso, este relato de experiência do Projeto de Extensão Universitário “NutriAção - Projeto de Incentivo a Nutrição e Alimentação Saudável nas Comunidades”, cujo propósito é baseado na alimentação saudável infantil, visa ilustrar a ação de práticas de educação alimentar e nutricional como estratégia na construção de hábitos alimentares saudáveis na infância a partir de atividades em instituições filantrópicas na cidade do Rio de Janeiro

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Síndrome de DiGeorge (deleção do cromossomo 22q11.2): manejo e prognóstico

A síndrome de DiGeorge (SDG), também conhecida como síndrome velocardiofacial, é uma condição neurogenética autossômica dominante de interesse global caracterizada pela microdeleção do cromossomo 22q11.2, na qual não há predileção por gênero ou raça. A doença é conhecida pela tríade clássica as cardiopatias congênitas, timo hipoplásico – ou aplásico – e hipocalcemia decorrente da hipoplasia paratireoidiana O diagnóstico da síndrome baseia-se em dois exames laboratoriais, a Hibridização Genômica Comparativa baseada em microarray (aCGH) e a Hibridização por Fluorescência in situ (FISH), ambas com a finalidade de investigar o distúrbio genético e o tratamento consiste em tratar as alterações decorrentes da patologia. O objetivo estudo é analisar o manejo e o prognóstico da síndrome de DiGeorge por meio de um apanhado de casos clínicos. Trata-se de uma revisão bibliográfica integrativa, de natureza quantitativa, que utilizou as plataformas PubMed (Medline), Scientific Eletronic Library On-line (SciELO) e Cochrane Library como bases de dados para a seleção dos artigos, todos na língua inglesa. Foram utilizadas literaturas publicadas com recorte temporal de 2017 a 2022. De acordo com as literaturas analisadas, foi observado que a SDG requer diligência por parte dos profissionais da saúde no que concerne ao seu manejo, vide os vários fenótipos, desde leves a graves, da patologia. Por ter envolvimento multissistêmico, é essencial que, mesmo antes do diagnóstico, os distúrbios inerentes à síndrome sejam tratados e sujeitos à suspeição por intermédio da equipe, a qual necessita ter conhecimento acerca dessa possibilidade, haja vista a eventualidade de um pior prognóstico aos pacientes portadores

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic