Development of a mixed-meal that impacts carotid-body mediated cardiorespiratory and metabolic parameters - a pilot study

The carotid bodies (CB) have been recently implicated in the genesis of metabolic diseases in animal models. The CBs respond to circulating insulin to increase heart rate, respiratory rate and blood glucose levels. In humans, this mechanism is not well characterized.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anthelmintic effect of Stachytarpheta schottiana in Caenorhabditis elegans

Helminthiasis is considered a serious illness in tropical countries. The study of activity of natural products has proven to be an excellent alternative to parasite control. This work evaluated the anthelmintic activity of the crude extract of Stachytarpheta schottiana on viability, movements, reproduction behaviors and morphology of different stages of Caenorhabditis elegans. The extract did not decrease L1 hatching, and the survival of L1-L2 and adults in all tested concentrations. And it did not alter the movements of C. elegans adults and the egg-laying activity and brood size. Chemotaxis behavioral assays showed that C. elegans was not attracted or repelled by the extract. The morphological analysis of different forms showed several alterations as cuticular damages that promoted the detachment from the nematode body. The eggs were degraded or not present in adult bodies treated. The results obtained with the crude extract suggest that several secondary metabolites isolated from S. schottiana have an anthelmintic effect and for this confirmation, future analyses will be necessary

Culture-dependent characterization of cyanobacterial diversity in the intertidal zones of the Portuguese coast: A polyphasic study

Cyanobacteria are important primary producers, and many are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen playing a key role in the marine environment. However, not much is known about the diversity of cyanobacteria in Portuguese marine waters. This paper describes the diversity of 60 strains isolated from benthic habitats in 9 sites (intertidal zones) on the Portuguese South and West coasts. The strains were characterized by a morphological study (light and electron microscopy) and by a molecular characterization (partial 16S rRNA, nifH, nifK, mcyA, mcyE/ndaF, sxtI genes). The morphological analyses revealed 35 morphotypes (15 genera and 16 species) belonging to 4 cyanobacterial Orders/Subsections. The dominant groups among the isolates were the Oscillatoriales. There is a broad congruence between morphological and molecular assignments. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of 9 strains have less than 97% similarity compared to the sequences in the databases, revealing novel cyanobacterial diversity. Phylogenetic analysis, based on partial 16S rRNA gene sequences showed at least 12 clusters. One-third of the isolates are potential N2-fixers, as they exhibit heterocysts or the presence of nif genes was demonstrated by PCR. Additionally, no conventional freshwater toxins genes were detected by PCR screening

Open-source tool for real-time and automated analysis of droplet-based microfluidic

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Droplet-based microfluidic technology is a powerful tool for generating large numbers of monodispersed nanoliter-sized droplets for ultra-high throughput screening of molecules or single cells. Yet further progress in the development of methods for the real-time detection and measurement of passing droplets is needed for achieving fully automated systems and ultimately scalability. Existing droplet monitoring technologies are either difficult to implement by non-experts or require complex experimentation setups. Moreover, commercially available monitoring equipment is expensive and therefore limited to a few laboratories worldwide. In this work, we validated for the first time an easy-to-use, open-source Bonsai visual programming language to accurately measure in real-time droplets generated in a microfluidic device. With this method, droplets are found and characterized from bright-field images with high processing speed. We used off-the-shelf components to achieve an optical system that allows sensitive image-based, label-free, and cost-effective monitoring. As a test of its use we present the results, in terms of droplet radius, circulation speed and production frequency, of our method and compared its performance with that of the widely-used ImageJ software. Moreover, we show that similar results are obtained regardless of the degree of expertise. Finally, our goal is to provide a robust, simple to integrate, and user-friendly tool for monitoring droplets, capable of helping researchers to get started in the laboratory immediately, even without programming experience, enabling analysis and reporting of droplet data in real-time and closed-loop experiments.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

MarinEye - A tool for marine monitoring

This work presents an autonomous system for marine integrated physical-chemical and biological monitoring – the MarinEye system. It comprises a set of sensors providing diverse and relevant information for oceanic environment characterization and marine biology studies. It is constituted by a physicalchemical water properties sensor suite, a water filtration and sampling system for DNA collection, a plankton imaging system and biomass assessment acoustic system. The MarinEye system has onboard computational and logging capabilities allowing it either for autonomous operation or for integration in other marine observing systems (such as Observatories or robotic vehicles. It was designed in order to collect integrated multi-trophic monitoring data. The validation in operational environment on 3 marine observatories: RAIA, BerlengasWatch and Cascais on the coast of Portugal is also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are Known Cyanotoxins Involved in the Toxicity of Picoplanktonic and Filamentous North Atlantic Marine Cyanobacteria?

Eight marine cyanobacteria strains of the genera Cyanobium, Leptolyngbya, Oscillatoria, Phormidium, and Synechococcus were isolated from rocky beaches along the Atlantic Portuguese central coast and tested for ecotoxicity. Strains were identified by morphological characteristics and by the amplification and sequentiation of the 16S rDNA. Bioactivity of dichloromethane, methanol and aqueous extracts was assessed by the Artemia salina bioassay. Peptide toxin production was screened by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry. Molecular analysis of the genes involved in the production of known cyanotoxins such as microcystins, nodularins and cylindrospermopsin was also performed. Strains were toxic to the brine shrimp A. salina nauplii with aqueous extracts being more toxic than the organic ones. Although mass spectrometry analysis did not reveal the production of microcystins or other known toxic peptides, a positive result for the presence of mcyE gene was found in one Leptolyngbya strain and one Oscillatoria strain. The extensive brine shrimp mortality points to the involvement of other unknown toxins, and the presence of a fragment of genes involved in the cyanotoxin production highlight the potential risk of cyanobacteria occurrence on the Atlantic coast

Elaboração de Tecnologia Educativa como incentivo à alimentação saudável para crianças / Elaboration of Educational Technology as an incentive to healthy eating for children

As atividades lúdicas podem contribuir para a obtenção de conhecimentos relacionados à alimentação e nutrição especialmente com crianças, pois o lúdico torna as atividades de educação alimentar e nutricional prazerosas. O presente artigo objetivou elaborar uma tecnologia educativa, do tipo caderno de atividades para crianças, com a finalidade de promover comportamento alimentar saudável. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo do tipo relato de experiência da elaboração de uma tecnologia educativa de caráter lúdico, realizado por acadêmicas do projeto NutriAção do curso de Nutrição do Centro Universitário do Estado do Pará. Para a construção do caderno de atividades foram realizadas pesquisas sobre alimentação saudável na infância, no período de abril de 2020, para que fossem  desenvolvidas várias atividades com enfoque sobre alimentação, nutrição e saúde. A tecnologia educativa possui 10 atividades e um total de 16 páginas. São atividades ilustradas com conteúdos que estimulam a alimentação saudável e trabalham diferentes competências das crianças, que poderão se divertir e aprender ao mesmo tempo. A temática é abordada de diferentes formas ao longo das atividades, como: pinte as frutas, legumes e verduras que gosta de comer, labirinto da alimentação saudável, monte a pirâmide alimentar, prato saudável, entre outras. A elaboração do carderno com atividades lúdicas diversificadas para crianças tem como função reunir dentro de uma mesma situação, o brincar e o educar, estimulando o consumo de alimentos nutritivos e  sauda?veis.