Breve estudo comparativo entre a música gravada e a música “ao vivo”

A Hipertensão Arterial apresenta-se como uma doença crónica e multifatorial altamente instalada na sociedade e, mesmo apesar da disponibilidade de terapêutica anti-hipertensiva e aconselhamento dos profissionais de saúde, mostra-se ainda relutantemente prevalente. É especificamente neste contexto que pode vir a inserir-se a terapia musical que, para além da vasta panóplia de benefícios comprovados que patenteia, revela também um elevado potencial para reduzir a Pressão Arterial. O principal objetivo deste trabalho de investigação é aferir se o impacto do mesmo trecho musical, apresentado por meio de gravação e na forma de música “ao vivo”, revela diferenças a curto prazo nos parâmetros fisiológicos estudados: Pressão Arterial e Frequência Cardíaca. Para o efeito, selecionou-se uma amostra de 40 indivíduos, repartida em dois grupos, que foram sujeitos a duas abordagens musicais: a primeira exposição musical, gravada, foi comum a ambos os grupos; a segunda exposição foi dividida em música gravada e música “ao vivo”, conforme o grupo de estudo. Recorreu-se a um sistema de monitorização contínua da Pressão Arterial digital, bem como ao esfigmomanómetro (digital) para efeitos comparativos. Os resultados evidenciam o facto de a música sedativa/relaxante produzir uma diminuição significativa a níveis estatísticos, a curto prazo, nos parâmetros fisiológicos estudados. Por outro lado, as diferenças médias dessa influência não se mostraram estatisticamente significativas ao comparar uma exposição de música gravada com outra de música “ao vivo”. Apesar disso, observou-se que a probabilidade de ocorrer uma descida dos parâmetros fisiológicos em análise após a segunda abordagem musical foi superior à probabilidade dessa redução não ocorrer. No mesmo sentido, embora o número de pessoas que experienciou uma descida da Pressão Arterial Sistólica entre o início do primeiro e o fim do segundo trecho musicais fosse semelhante em cada um dos grupos de estudo, verificou-se que, após a primeira abordagem de música gravada, o grupo que foi sujeito a música “ao vivo” revelou um menor número de reduções desta medida comparativamente ao grupo que foi novamente sujeito a música gravada.Arterial Hypertension presents itself as a highly installed chronic and multifactorial disease in society and, despite the acessibility of antihypertensive therapy or the advice of health professionals, still persists reluctantly prevalent. It’s in this context that music therapy may step into the scene as a potential resource to reduce Blood Pressure, among it’s wide range of proven benefits. The main objective of this research is to determine the impact, on a short-term basis, of the same music excerpt, presented as a recording or as “live” music, in the variation of the physiological parameters regarded in this study: Blood Pressure and Heart Rate. For this purpose, we selected a sample of 40 individuals, which were distributed into two equal-sized groups, and exposed them to two musical approaches. The first recorded musical exposure was the same for both groups. As for the second exposure, it was divided into recorded music and "live" music depending on the group. We used a continuous monitoring system of digital Blood Pressure, having also used, for comparative purposes, the measures of a digital sphygmomanometer. The results show that sedative/relaxing music produces a statistically significant decrease, on a short term basis, of the physiological parameters taken into analysis. On the other hand, the mean diferences of that decrease were not statistically significant when we compare the exhibition of recorded music with "live" music. Nevertheless, it was observed that, after the second musical approach, the physiological parameters have a higher probability of decreasing than increasing. Similarly, although the number of people who experienced a decline in sistolic blood pressure between the beginning of the first and the end of the second musical excerpt was similar in each of the study groups, it was found that after the first excerpt of recorded music, the group which listened to "live" music revealed fewer reductions of this measure compared to the group which listened again to recorded music

Partial Characterization of Biosurfactant from Lactobacillus pentosus and Comparison with Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate for the Bioremediation of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soil

The capability of a cell bound biosurfactant produced by Lactobacillus pentosus, to accelerate the bioremediation of a hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, was compared with a synthetic anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulphate SDS-). The biosurfactant produced by the bacteria was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) that clearly indicates the presence of OH and NH groups, C=O stretching of carbonyl groups and NH nebding (peptide linkage), as well as CH2–CH3 and C–O stretching, with similar FTIR spectra than other biosurfactants obtained from lactic acid bacteria. After the characterization of biosurfactant by FTIR, soil contaminated with 7,000 mg Kg−1 of octane was treated with biosurfactant from L. pentosus or SDS. Treatment of soil for 15 days with the biosurfactant produced by L. pentosus led to a 65.1% reduction in the hydrocarbon concentration, whereas SDS reduced the octane concentration to 37.2% compared with a 2.2% reduction in the soil contaminated with octane in absence of biosurfactant used as control. Besides, after 30 days of incubation soil with SDS or biosurfactant gave percentages of bioremediation around 90% in both cases. Thus, it can be concluded that biosurfactant produced by L. pentosus accelerates the bioremediation of octane-contaminated soil by improving the solubilisation of octane in the water phase of soil, achieving even better results than those reached with SDS after 15-day treatment.The authors wish to thank to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects CTM 2008-01608/TECNO and CTM2012-31873)S

Direct tissue-sensing reprograms TLR4+ Tfh-like cells inflammatory profile in the joints of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Funding Information: We thank Cláudia Andrade for technical support and Juliana Gonçalves for testing samples for SARS-CoV-2 exposure. We are extremely grateful to all the participants of the study and to the whole rheumatology department at Hospital Egas Moniz that made this study possible. This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) PTDC/MEC-REU/29520/2017, by iNOVA4Health UID/Multi/04462 and by Portuguese Society for Rheumatology (SPR) grants to H.S. H.S. is supported by FCT through IF/01722/2013 and CEECIND/01049/2020, DAS and RCT were supported by FCT through PD/BD/137409/2018 and UID/Multi/04462, respectively. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).CD4+ T cells mediate rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis through both antibody-dependent and independent mechanisms. It remains unclear how synovial microenvironment impinges on CD4+ T cells pathogenic functions. Here, we identified a TLR4+ follicular helper T (Tfh) cell-like population present in the blood and expanded in synovial fluid. TLR4+ T cells possess a two-pronged pathogenic activity whereby direct TLR4+ engagement by endogenous ligands in the arthritic joint reprograms them from an IL-21 response, known to sponsor antibody production towards an IL-17 inflammatory program recognized to fuel tissue damage. Ex vivo, synovial fluid TLR4+ T cells produced IL-17, but not IL-21. Blocking TLR4 signaling with a specific inhibitor impaired IL-17 production in response to synovial fluid recognition. Mechanistically, we unveiled that T-cell HLA-DR regulates their TLR4 expression. TLR4+ T cells appear to uniquely reconcile an ability to promote systemic antibody production with a local synovial driven tissue damage program.publishersversionpublishe

Revisão Sistemática

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review in order to examine the effectiveness of ozone therapy on knee osteoarthritis. The objectives were to evaluate the effect over time of ozone therapy in terms of knee pain, functional improvement and radiographic progression. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A search was carried out on PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Web of Science databases to identify randomized and controlled studies focusing on this association. The following descriptors were used in English: ozone therapy, knee osteoarthritis. A descriptive summary and quality assessment was made of all studies included for analysis. RESULTS: Six randomized and controlled studies were identified. The risk of bias assessment demonstrated that one study was considered as having a moderate risk of bias and the remainder a high risk of bias. No quantitative analysis of the data was performed, as the studies included were not sufficiently homogeneous. The participants in the studies were generally elderly patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. DISCUSSION: The variability of ozone therapy and the comparators demonstrates that there is no standardized therapy. Few studies reported adverse effects, and where they occurred, they were mild and associated with the procedure. CONCLUSION: Ozone therapy proved effective in the short-term in relation to placebo and when combined with hyaluronic acid, but it was not superior to other current treatments. More randomised and controlled studies are needed to evaluate the risks/benefits of ozone therapy, both in the short term and the medium/long term.publishersversionpublishe