The balancing roles of mechanical forces during left-right patterning and asymmetric morphogenesis

Left-right patterning and asymmetric morphogenesis arise from a complex set of molecular and cellular interactions that are particularly dynamic and associated with mechanical forces. How do mechanical forces translate into tissular asymmetries? Are these forces asymmetrical de novo, or do they build up from pre-existing asymmetries? Advances in developmental genetics, live imaging and cell biology have recently shed light on the origins of mechanical forces generated at the cell scale and their implication in asymmetric patterning and morphogenesis is now emerging. Here we ask when and how, molecular asymmetries and mechanical forces contribute to left-right patterning and organ asymmetries

Relação entre a prática de atividade fisica e os níveis de concentrações séricas do colesterol total em jovens do ensino superior

As doenças cardiovasculares são a principal causa de mortalidade em Portugal. Controlar os fatores de risco, nomeadamente, a HTA, os níveis de colesterol e de triglicerídeos, o tabagismo, a diabetes, o abuso de álcool, o sedentarismo, a obesidade ou o stress excessivo é de extrema importância (DGS, 2003). Níveis mais elevados de prática frequente de atividade física estão associados a concentrações séricas de colesterol total mais baixas (Katzmarzyk, Church & Blair, 2001; Guedes & Gonçalves, 2007)

Begging and feeding responses vary with relatedness and sex of provisioners in a cooperative breeder

Begging behaviour can provide information on offspring hunger levels and be used by parents to adjust food provisioning efforts. In cooperative breeders, helpers also provide care by feeding the young. However, how helpers of different sex and relatedness to the offspring respond to begging behaviour has rarely been studied in cooperatively breeding species, which limits our understanding of the indirect and/or direct benefits that helpers may obtain by responding to offspring demand. Here, we used a cooperatively breeding bird, the sociable weaver, Philetairus socius, to investigate how nest intervisit intervals of breeders and different types of helpers, distinguished by sex and relatedness, varied with acoustic begging. Moreover, we tested whether these different classes of provisioners experienced distinct levels of begging. Our results show that only breeding males, but not breeding females or helpers of any sex and relatedness to the nestlings, returned faster to the nest to feed after experiencing more begging calls. When contrasted directly, we confirmed a statistically supported difference in responses to begging between male and female breeders. Surprisingly, second-order relatives experienced more begging calls than the other classes of more related helpers and breeders. These results show that we might find differences in how provisioners respond to begging levels when classifying group members according to their potential fitness gains. In sociable weavers, the benefits and costs of adjusting feeding efforts to begging seem to differ with sex and life history stage. Experimental and more detailed investigations on begging-feeding interactions are necessary to understand the origin and prevalence of these differences across cooperatively breeding systems. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/)

Effects of age on the identification of emotions in facial expressions: a meta-analysis

© 2018 Gonçalves et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.Background: Emotion identification is a fundamental component of social cognition. Although it is well established that a general cognitive decline occurs with advancing age, the effects of age on emotion identification is still unclear. A meta-analysis by Ruffman and colleagues (2008) explored this issue, but much research has been published since then, reporting inconsistent findings. Methods: To examine age differences in the identification of facial expressions of emotion, we conducted a meta-analysis of 24 empirical studies (N = 1,033 older adults, N = 1,135 younger adults) published after 2008. Additionally, a meta-regression analysis was conducted to identify potential moderators. Results: Results show that older adults less accurately identify facial expressions of anger, sadness, fear, surprise, and happiness compared to younger adults, strengthening the results obtained by Ruffman et al. (2008). However, meta-regression analyses indicate that effect sizes are moderated by sample characteristics and stimulus features. Importantly, the estimated effect size for the identification of fear and disgust increased for larger differences in the number of years of formal education between the two groups. Discussion: We discuss several factors that might explain the age-related differences in emotion identification and suggest how brain changes may account for the observed pattern. Furthermore, moderator effects are interpreted and discussed.This research was supported by a grant from the Fundação BIAL. Carina Fernandes was supported by a doctoral grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Carina Fernandes - SFRH/BD/112101/2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Egg components and offspring survival vary with group size and laying order in a cooperative breeder

Prenatal resource allocation to offspring can be influenced by maternal environment and offspring value, and affect offspring survival. An important pathway for flexible maternal allocation is via egg components such as nutrients and hormones. In cooperative breeders, females with helpers may increase resource allocation to eggs-'differential allocation'-or reduce it-'load-lightening'. Yet, helper effects on egg composition have been poorly studied. Moreover, it is unknown how helpers' presence modulates laying order effects on egg content and survival. Here, we investigated how maternal allocation varied with group size and laying order in the cooperatively breeding sociable weaver (Philetairus socius). We estimated interactive effects of helpers and laying order on allocation to egg mass, yolk nutrients-yolk mass, proteins, lipids, carotenoids, vitamin A and vitamin E-and hormones-testosterone, androstenedione, and corticosterone. Results concurred with the 'differential allocation' predictions. Females with more helpers produced later-laid eggs with heavier yolks and more lipids, and laid eggs overall richer in lipids. Proteins, antioxidants, and hormones were not found to vary with helper number. We then analyzed how helper number modulated laying order effects on survival. Females with more helpers did not specifically produce later-laid eggs with higher survival, but eggs laid by females with more helpers were overall more likely to fledge. These findings show that some egg components (yolk mass, lipids) can positively vary according to females' breeding group size, which may improve offspring fitness

Author Correction: Efficacy and safety assessment of two enterococci phages in an in vitro biofilm wound model

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multigenerational effects of carbendazim in daphnia magna: from a subcellular to a population level

Anthropogenic activities such as the use of pesticides may affect in some way aquatic biota populations, due to potential agricultural runoffs or disposals. Carbendazim is one example of a widely used fungicide with a high potential to end up in aquatic ecosystems through runoff. Deleterious effects observed at the individual level are possibly explained by changes in homeostasis at cellular and both can then be used to predict effects at the population level. In the present study, an isoclonal population of Daphnia magna (clone k6) was exposed to concentration that mimics relevant levels of carbendazim in the environment during twelve generations. The effects of carbendazim on biochemical biomarkers (cholinesterase, catalase and glutathione S‐transferase), lipid peroxidation and energy‐related parameters (carbohydrates, lipids and proteins jointly with energy available and energy consumption), parental longevity, and population growth (r) were assessed in some generations. The long‐term exposure to carbendazim presented no effect on the intrinsic rate of natural increase (r) of adult D. magna However, daphnids longevity decreased at the F12 when compared to daphnids from control. Cholinesterases, glutathione S‐transferase and lipid peroxidation showed differences between the exposed and non‐exposed populations. However, for catalase and energy related‐parameters no differences were observed between these two populations. Natural variability was observed throughout the test period, under control conditions, within the twelve generations. Overall, carbendazim induced some effects at the subcellular level that were translated to longevity, but latter vanishing in terms of population effects

Current nanotechnology advances in diagnostic biosensors

Current diagnostics present challenges that are imposed by increased life expectancy in the worldwide population. These challenges are related, not only to satisfy the need for higher performance of diagnostic tests, but also to the capacity of creating pointâ ofâ care, wearable, multiplexing and implantable diagnostic platforms that will allow early detection, continuous monitoring and treatment of health conditions in a personalized manner. These health challenges are translated into technological issues that need to be solved with multidisciplinary knowledge. Nanoscience and technology play a fundamental role in the development of miniaturized sensors that are cheap, accurate, sensitive and consume less power. At nanometre scale, these materials possess higher volumeâ toâ surface ratio and display novel properties (composition, charge, reactive sites, physical structure and potential) that are exploited for sensing purposes. These nanomaterials can therefore be integrated into diagnostic sensing platforms allowing the creation of novel technologies that tackle current health challenges. These nanomaterialâ enhanced sensors are extremely diverse, since they use numerous types of materials, nanostructures and detection modes for a multitude of biomarkers. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current stateâ ofâ theâ art of nanomaterialâ enhanced sensors, emphasizing and discussing the diagnostic challenges that are addressed by the different engineering and nanotechnology approaches. This review also aims to identify the drawbacks of nanomaterialâ enhanced sensors, as well as point out future developmental directions.This research was funded by FCT- FUNDAÇÃO PARA A CIÊNCIA E TECNOLOGIA, grant numbers: PTDC/EMD-EMD/31590/2017 and PTDC/BTM-ORG/28168/2017

A comparison between pure active pharmaceutical ingredients and therapeutic deep eutectic solvents: solubility and permeability studies

THEDES, so called therapeutic deep eutectic solvents are here defined as a mixture of two components, which at a particular molar composition become liquid at room temperature and in which one of them is an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). In this work, THEDES based on menthol complexed with three different APIs, ibuprofen (ibu), BA (BA) and phenylacetic acid (PA), were prepared. The interactions between the components that constitute the THEDES were studied by NMR, confirming that the eutectic system is formed by H-bonds between menthol and the API. The mobility of the THEDES components was studied by PFGSE NMR spectroscopy. It was determined that the self-diffusion of the species followed the same behavior as observed previously for ionic liquids, in which the components migrate via jumping between voids in the suprastructure created by punctual thermal fluctuations. The solubility and permeability of the systems in an isotonic solution was evaluated and a comparison with the pure APIs was established through diffusion and permeability studies carried out in a Franz cell. The solubility of the APIs when in the THEDES system can be improved up to 12 fold, namely for the system containing ibu. Furthermore, for this system the permeability was calculated to be 14 105 cm/s representing a 3 fold increase in comparison with the pure API. With the exception of the systems containing PA an increase in the solubility, coupled with an increase in permeability was observed. In this work, we hence demonstrate the efficiency of THEDES as a new formulation for the enhancement of the bioavailability of APIs by changing the physical state of the molecules from a solid dosage to a liquid system.he European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013) under grant agreement nREGPOT-CT2012-316331- POLARIS and from Project ‘‘Novel smart and biomimetic materials for innovative regenerative medicine approaches (Ref.: RL1 - ABMR - NORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000016)” co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Funding was also provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, through contracts LAQV-REQUIMTE: UID/QUI/50006/2013 and UCIBIOREQUIMTE: UID/Multi/04378/2013. This work was co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007728).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio