Smart Diary - A Guide to Man's Daily Planning

In this paper we present Smart phone app that senses and analyses mobile data to understand, predict, and summarize a man?s daily activities, such as his daily routine. These activities are used to represent knowledge, which helps in generating digital personal diaries in an automatic manner. Here we make use of different sensors for the purpose of sensing. Smart Diary is able to make predictions based on a wide range of information sources, like phone?s sensor readings, locations, along with interaction history with the users, by integrating such information into a sustainable mining model.. This Android app is specifically developed to handle heterogeneous and noisy data, and it is made to be extensible in which people can define their own logic rules which will express predictions like short-term, mid-term, and long-term events and patterns about their daily routine. The app?s evaluation results are based on the platform provided by Android

Microalgae production in fresh market wastewater and its utilization as a protein substitute in formulated fish feed for oreochromis spp.

Rapid growing of human population has led to increasing demand of aquaculture production. Oreochromis niloticus or known as tilapia is one of the most globally cultured freshwater fish due to its great adaptation towards extreme environment. Besides, farming of tilapia not only involves small scales farming for local consumption but also larger scales for international market which contributes to a foreign currency earning. Extensive use of fishmeal as feed for fish and for other animals indirectly caused an increasing depletion of the natural resource and may consequently cause economic and environmental unstable. Microalgae biomass seems to be a promising feedstock in aquaculture industry. It can be used for many purposes such as live food for fish larvae and dried microalgae to substitute protein material in fish feed. The microalgae replacement in fish feed formulation as protein alternative seem potentially beneficial for long term aqua-business sustainability. The present chapter discussed the potential of microalgae as an alternative nutrition in fish feed formulations, specifically Tilapia

Detection of miRNA cancer biomarkers using light activated Molecular Beacons

Early detection of cancer biomarkers can reduce cancer mortality rate. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs whose expression changes upon the onset of various types of cancer. Biosensors that specifically detect such biomarkers can be engineered and integrated into point-of-care devices (POC) using label-free detection, high sensibility and compactness. In this paper, a new engineered Molecular Beacon (MB) construct used to detect miRNAs is presented. Such a construct is immobilized onto biosensor surfaces in a covalent and spatially oriented way using the photonic technology Light Assisted Molecular Immobilization (LAMI). The construct consists of a Cy3 labelled MB covalently attached to a light-switchable peptide. One MB construct contains a poly-A sequence in its loop region while the other contains a sequence complementary to the cancer biomarker miRNA-21. The constructs have been characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and HPLC. LAMI led to the successful immobilization of the engineered constructs onto thiol functionalized optically flat quartz slides and Silicon on Insulator (SOI) sensor surfaces. The immobilized Cy3 labelled MB construct has been imaged using confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM). The bioavailability of the immobilized engineered MB biosensors was confirmed through specific hybridization with the Cy5 labelled complementary sequence and imaged by CFM and FRET. Hybridization kinetics have been monitored using steady state fluorescence spectroscopy. The label-free detection of miRNA-21 was also achieved by using integrated photonic sensing structures. The engineered light sensitive constructs can be immobilized onto thiol reactive surfaces and are currently being integrated in a POC device for the detection of cancer biomarkers

Fishroesomes as carriers with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivities

The great diversity of marine habitats and organisms renders them a high-value source to find/develop novel drugs and formulations. Therefore, herein, sardine (Sardina pilchardus) roe was used as a lipidic source to produce liposomes. This fish product presents high nutritional value, being its lipidic content associated with important health benefits. Consequently, it can be advantageously used to produce therapeutically active delivery devices. Roe lipids were extracted using the Matyash method. After lipid film hydration and extrusion, sardine roe-derived large unilamellar liposomes (LUVs), designated as fishroesomes, presented a size of â 330 nm and a significant negative surface charge (â - 27 mV). Radical scavenging assays demonstrated that fishroesomes efficiently neutralized peroxyl, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radicals. Moreover, fishroesomes significantly reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines by LPS-stimulated macrophages at non-toxic concentrations for L929 and THP-1 cells. Consequently, the developed liposomes exhibit unique properties as bioactive drug carriers for inflammatory diseases treatment.This work was supported by FCT/MCTES (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology / Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) or FSE/POCH (European Social Fund through the Operational Program of Human Capital) (grant numbers PD/169/2013, PD/ BD/113795/2015, PD/BD/135246/2017, PTDC/BTM-SAL/28882/ 2017), and the NORTE 2020 Structured Project, co-funded by Norte2020 (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000021). Authors also thank the local fisherman for the donation of the samples

Permeation of skin with (C60) fullerene dispersions

Dispersions in transcutol/isopropyl myristate make C60 fullerene molecules suitable for transdermal delivery. We found that C60 can successfully permeate the skin using pig skin in Franz diffusion cells. Molecular dynamics simulations and transmission electron microscopy confirmed these observations. Basic cosmetic formulations with transcutol/ isopropyl myristate without harsh organic solvents show a high potential for delivery of C60 for biopharmaceutical and cosmetics applications.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI01-0145-FEDER-006684).). Artur Ribeiro thanks FCT for the SFRH\BPD\98388\2013 grant.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Curcumin and derivatives function through protein phosphatase 2A and presenilin orthologues in Dictyostelium discoideum.

Natural compounds often have complex molecular structures and unknown molecular targets. These characteristics make them difficult to analyse using a classical pharmacological approach. Curcumin, the main curcuminoid of turmeric, is a complex molecule possessing wide-ranging biological activities, cellular mechanisms and roles in potential therapeutic treatment including Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Here, we investigate the physiological effects and molecular targets of curcumin in Dictyostelium discoideum We show curcumin causes acute effects on cell behaviour, reduces cell growth, and slows multicellular development. We then employ a range of structurally related compounds to show the distinct role of different structural groups cell behaviour, growth, and development, highlighting active moieties in cell function, and showing that these cellular effects are unrelated to the well-known antioxidant activity of curcumin. Molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of curcumin and one synthetic analogue (EF24) were then investigated to identify a curcumin-resistant mutant lacking the protein phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit (PsrA) and an EF24-resistant mutant lacking the presenilin 1 orthologue (PsenB). Using in-silico docking analysis, we then show that curcumin may function through direct binding to a key regulatory region of PsrA. These findings reveal novel cellular and molecular mechanisms for the function of curcumin and related compounds

Voltammetric aptasensors for protein disease biomarkers detection: a review

"Available online 24 May 2016"An electrochemical aptasensor is a compact analytical device where the bioreceptor (aptamer) is coupled to a transducer surface to convert a biological interaction into a measurable signal (current) that can be easily processed, recorded and displayed. Since the discovery of the Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Enrichment (SELEX) methodology, the selection of aptamers and their application as bioreceptors has become a promising tool in the design of electrochemical aptasensors. Aptamers present several advantages that highlight their usefulness as bioreceptors such as chemical stability, cost effectiveness and ease of modification towards detection and immobilization at different transducer surfaces. In this review, a special emphasis is given to the potential use of electrochemical aptasensors for the detection of protein disease biomarkers using voltammetry techniques. Methods for the immobilization of aptamers onto electrode surfaces are discussed, as well as different electrochemical strategies that can be used for the design of aptasensors.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, from Project POCI-01-0145- FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and project ref. RECI/BBB-EBI/ 0179/2012 (project number FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and S. Meirinhos's doctoral grant (ref SFRH/BD/65021/2009) funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia