Mercury levels in biological matrices from inhabitants of Estarreja, Portugal

Humans are exposed to mercury trough several pathways including the consumption of contaminated seafood and ingestion of contaminated house dust. We have previously demonstrated that mercury levels in house dust samples from Estarreja region are amongst the highest reported in Portugal. Here we report the levels of total mercury in different biological matrices from 88 adult individuals from Estarreja (age: 37-83, median: 68). Mercury was detected in all samples analysed, with the highest levels being found in hair (range: 560-4540 ng/g, median: 1680 ng/g), followed by fingernails (range: 215-1740 ng/g, median: 844 ng/g), toenails (range: 144-1850 ng/g, median: 555 ng/g), blood (range: 0.97-18.4 ng/g, median: 6.70 ng/g) and urine (range: 0.15-5.14 ng/g, median: 0.61 ng/g). The hair to blood ratio (H:B) varied between 147 and 616, with a median value of 274, which is only 9% higher than the H:B ratio proposed by the Word Health Organization . The concentrations of mercury in hair were very strongly correlated with the concentrations in blood (p0.001). Such results suggest that a urine levels reflect the exposure to a different species of mercury, reinforcing previous studies that propose urine as a suitable matrix for inorganic mercury whereas blood, hair and nails are suitable matrices for methylmercury exposure.Ana C Sousa acknowledges the financial support from University of Aveiro, in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19 (A.C.A. Sousa)publishe

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases

The study of indoor environmental quality as well as the development and progression of chronic respiratory diseases have received a great deal of attention in the past few years. However, most of those surveys focus on the effects of particulate matter (PM) and biological contaminants (fungi and bacteria) and evidences on the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in these pathologies are limited. Hence, RESPIRA project aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the role of multiple stressors in respiratory diseases by providing data on the levels and effects of EDCs in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and control individuals from Estarreja region (NW Portugal). Here we will summarize the results obtained for phenolic compounds (parabens, triclosan and triclocarban) in matched human and indoor environmental samples (house dust) from COPD patients. Overall, the concentrations in dust samples are one to two orders of magnitude higher that the concentrations in human urine. Triclosan was detected in all the dust samples, triclocarban was detected in 82% of the dust samples and parabens in 90% to 100% of the samples. In urine samples, triclosan was detected in 56% of the samples, triclocarban was always bellow detection limit (0.25 ng/mL) and parabens detection frequency varied widely (23-84%). Interestingly, the highest level reported in dust for triclosan (1200 ng/g) corresponded to the house of the patient with the highest triclosan concentration in urine (140 ng/mL).publishe

Urinary neonicotinoids profiles in adults from Aveiro district, NW Portugal

Neonicotinoid insecticides (Neonics - NNs) are systemic insecticides widely used in agriculture to control insects. Due to their broad-spectrum insecticide activity, they are also used in the domestic environment and on animals, including household pets. Owing to their toxicity towards non-target organisms, particu-larly honeybees, the agricultural outdoor use of some neonics was already banned. Nevertheless, they can still be used in indoor activities. Neonics’ residues have been detected in food, water and indoor dust and, consequently, humans are exposed to these insecticides. However, human biomonitoring data is limited to a few studies worldwide, with no data for Portugal. In this study, levels of neonicotinoids namely ace-tamiprid (and its metabolite dm-acetamiprid), clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, nitenpyran, thi-acloprid and thiamethoxan, were quantified in spot urine samples provided by 46 volunteers from Aveiro district. The volunteers were recruited from RESPIRA project, an ongoing study that aims to evaluate the role of environmental contaminants in the progression of respiratory diseases. Overall, the obtained re-sults disclose that 81.4% of the individuals were exposed to at least one neonicotinoid. Dinotefuran and dm-acetamiprid showed the highest detection frequencies (46.5%), followed by imidacloprid (41.9%), whereas nitenpyran and thiacloprid were never detected (bellow detection limit). The neonics with the highest concentrations were dm-acetamiprid (max: 1443 ug/g creatinine, average: 39.1 ug/g creatinine) and thiamethoxan (max: 152 ug/g creatinine, average: 6.9 ug/g creatinine). These results are in general accordance with previous reports that disclosed dm-acetamiprid as one of the most frequently detected NN in human urine samples.publishe

Personal care products in matched human and environmental samples collected under the framework of RESPIRA Project

The indoor environment is an important source of exposure to microbial communities that may deleteriously affect human respiratory health. Recent studies demonstrated that the microbial community structure can be altered by the use of household products such as antimicrobial agents. Hence, in order to understand the modulation of the indoor microbiome by household products and their joint effect in the respiratory status of COPD patients we evaluated the levels of antimicrobials agents in dust samples and matched urine samples from patients with COPD. Overall, the concentrations in dust samples are one to two orders of magnitude higher that the concentrations in human urine. Triclosan was detected in all the dust samples, triclocarban was detected in 82% of the dust samples and parabens in 90% to 100% of the samples. In urine samples, triclosan was detected in 56% of the samples, triclocarban was always bellow detection limit (0.25 ng/mL) and parabens detection frequency varied widely (23-84%). Interestingly, the highest level reported in dust for triclosan (1200 ng/g) corresponded to the house of the patient with the highest triclosan concentration in urine (140 ng/mL) and at that house high levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria were found. Such results suggest that the use of antimicrobials might be associated with the presence of resistant bacteria and thus deserve to be further studied.publishe

A global analysis of Y-chromosomal haplotype diversity for 23 STR loci

In a worldwide collaborative effort, 19,630 Y-chromosomes were sampled from 129 different populations in 51 countries. These chromosomes were typed for 23 short-tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385ab, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, GATAH4, DYS481, DYS533, DYS549, DYS570, DYS576, and DYS643) and using the PowerPlex Y23 System (PPY23, Promega Corporation, Madison, WI). Locus-specific allelic spectra of these markers were determined and a consistently high level of allelic diversity was observed. A considerable number of null, duplicate and off-ladder alleles were revealed. Standard single-locus and haplotype-based parameters were calculated and compared between subsets of Y-STR markers established for forensic casework. The PPY23 marker set provides substantially stronger discriminatory power than other available kits but at the same time reveals the same general patterns of population structure as other marker sets. A strong correlation was observed between the number of Y-STRs included in a marker set and some of the forensic parameters under study. Interestingly a weak but consistent trend toward smaller genetic distances resulting from larger numbers of markers became apparent.Peer reviewe

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Estudo genético-populacional de Timor-Leste : antropologia e aplicações forenses

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências Biomédicas apresentada à Fac. de Medicina da Univ. de Coimbr