Estudo comparativo do efeito de fungicidas na actividade metabólica de leveduras

AnexoNa maior parte dos casos, são encontrados resíduos de fungicidas nos mostos. Nestas concentrações, estes produtos têm um efeito reduzido na fermentação. No entanto, quando aplicados 8 a 15 dias antes das vindimas, podem afectar negativamente a actividade metabólica das leveduras, nomeadamente as taxas específicas de crescimento e de fermentação

In vitro dissolution study in predicting oral absorption of drugs containing paracetamol using an electronic tongue

The bioavailability of drugs is essential for the therapeutic efficacy of medicines, and it is therefore essential to conduct dissolution studies of drugs. The electronic tongue has been demonstrating potential usefulness in this area. Objectives: Verify the potential of electronic tongue in the analysis of paracetamol in different drugs; verify the ability to cross-sensitivity sensors in dissolution studies; selecting a lipidic polymer membrane electrode with good performance in monitoring of samples dissolution. Methods: Four samples of medicines containing 500mg of Paracetamol: unbranded uncoated pill, branded uncoated pill, unbranded coated pill and branded coated pill have been used. We used a dissolution medium simulating the gastric fasting conditions. The polymer membranes were formed by mixing: 4 lipidic additives, 5 plasticizers and polymer polyvinyl chloride. After stabilization of the potential signals from all electrodes, each sample was placed in a metal tube in contact with the dissolution medium. The experiment ended when the tablet was fully dissolved. The assays were repeated three times for each sample. Results: Yielded consistent dissolution profiles between repetitions of the same sample for some 40 tested sensors, including the 34 sensor which showed a similar behavior for both formulations. The uncoated pills obtained a dissolution profile of quick release (30’-unbranded; 25’-branded). The lengthy dissolutions resulted in different dissolution profiles between repetitions of the same sample of coated pills and capsules. Conclusions: The dissolution profile of drugs containing acetaminophen was followed through 40 potentiometric sensors having cross-sensitivity is selected sensor 34, which allow obtaining reproducible results.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Artemisinin inhibits neutrophil and macrophage chemotaxis, cytokine production and NET release

Immune cell chemotaxis to the sites of pathogen invasion is critical for fighting infection, but in life-threatening conditions such as sepsis and Covid-19, excess activation of the innate immune system is thought to cause a damaging invasion of immune cells into tissues and a consequent excessive release of cytokines, chemokines and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). In these circumstances, tempering excessive activation of the innate immune system may, paradoxically, promote recovery. Here we identify the antimalarial compound artemisinin as a potent and selective inhibitor of neutrophil and macrophage chemotaxis induced by a range of chemotactic agents. Artemisinin released calcium from intracellular stores in a similar way to thapsigargin, a known inhibitor of the Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Calcium ATPase pump (SERCA), but unlike thapsigargin, artemisinin blocks only the SERCA3 isoform. Inhibition of SERCA3 by artemisinin was irreversible and was inhibited by iron chelation, suggesting iron-catalysed alkylation of a specific cysteine residue in SERCA3 as the mechanism by which artemisinin inhibits neutrophil motility. In murine infection models, artemisinin potently suppressed neutrophil invasion into both peritoneum and lung in vivo and inhibited the release of cytokines/chemokines and NETs. This work suggests that artemisinin may have value as a therapy in conditions such as sepsis and Covid-19 in which over-activation of the innate immune system causes tissue injury that can lead to death

A novel computer application for scrap reporting and data management in the manufacturing of components for the automotive industry

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2021) 15-18 June 2021, Athens, Greece.The automotive industry is constantly growing with the continuous creation of new technologies in the components industry, also requiring a greater quality control during their manufacturing process. The scrap data management is fundamental to being able to have a sense of where the main production problems are and when to act on them in order to improve processes and reduce scrap costs, getting continuous improvement. In this work, a computer application was created and implemented to manage the information regarding scrap data reporting. Current procedures for reporting and processing scrap data followed a very complex set of steps that made much of the reported information inconsistent and in some cases not even correctly reported, leading eventually to a dataset whose reliability was affected. To address these problems, a computer application for scrap reporting and data management was then created which integrated all existing procedures into one application and standardized all reporting and data processing procedures. In this way, it was possible to optimize scrap reporting and data analysis processes, improving reliability by 76% and, combined with all of this, reduce the time and associated costs related to scrap data treatment procedures by about 75%.The authors would like to thanks FicoCables company due to its commitment in allowing ISEP’s students to carry out interesting applied works in the company during their internship. Thus, we would like to thanks to Dr. Sandra Vaz and Dr. Lurdes Teixeira due to their availability and collaboration in many works already developed under their responsibility.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hypothalamic Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Of Overtrained Mice After Recovery

knowing the relationship between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and inflammation and based on the fact that downhill running-based overtraining (OT) model increases hypothalamus levels of some pro-inflammatory cytokines, we verified the effects of three OT protocols on the levels of BiP, pIRE-1 (Ser734), pPERK (Thr981), pelF2alpha (Ser52), ATF-6 and GRP-94 proteins in the mouse hypothalamus after two weeks of recovery. Methods: the mice were randomized into control (CT), overtrained by downhill running (OTR/down), overtrained by uphill running (OTR/up) and overtrained by running without inclination (OTR) groups. After 2-week total recovery period (i.e., week 10), hypothalamus was removed and used for immunoblotting. Results: The OTR/down group exhibited high levels of BiP and ATF6. The other OT protocols showed higher levels of pPERK (Th981) and pelf-2alpha (Ser52) when compared with the CT group. Conclusion: The current results suggest that after a 2-week total recovery period, the overtrained groups increased partially their ER stress protein levels, but without hypothalamic inflammation, which characterizes a physiological condition related to an adaptation mechanism.2

Effects and bioaccumulation of gold nanoparticles in the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) – Single and combined exposures with gemfibrozil

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are found in a wide range of applications and therefore expected to present increasing levels in the environment. There is however limited knowledge concerning the potential toxicity of AuNPs as well as their combined effects with other pollutants. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of AuNPs alone and combined with the pharmaceutical gemfibrozil (GEM) on different biological responses (behaviour, neurotransmission, biotransformation and oxidative stress) in one of the most consumed fish in southern Europe, the seabream Sparus aurata. Fish were exposed for 96 h to waterborne 40 nm AuNPs with two coatings - citrate and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), alone or combined with GEM. Antioxidant defences were induced in liver and gills upon both AuNPs exposure. Decreased swimming performance (1600 μg.L-1) and oxidative damage in gills (4 and 80 μg.L-1) were observed following exposure to polyvinylpyrrolidone coated gold nanoparticles (PVP-AuNPs). Generally, accumulation of gold in fish tissues and deleterious effects in S. aurata were higher for PVP-AuNPs than for cAuNPs exposures. Although AuNPs and GEM combined effects in gills were generally low, in liver, they were higher than the predicted. The accumulation and effects of AuNPs showed to be dependent on the size, coating, surface charge and aggregation/agglomeration state of nanoparticles. Additionally, it was tissue' specific and dependent on the presence of other contaminants. Although, gold intake by humans is expected to not exceed the estimated tolerable daily intake, it is highly recommended to keep it on track due to the increasing use of AuNPs.This research was supported through the COMPETE – Operational Competitiveness Program and national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project “NANOAu – Effects of Gold Nanoparticles to Aquatic Organisms” (FCT PTDC/MAR-EST/3399/2012) (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029435), through FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) and the cofounding by FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020 to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638). A. Barreto has a doctoral fellowship from FCT (SFRH/BD/97624/2013); L. G. Luis had a fellowship from FCT (BI/UI88/6881/2014). MO has financial support of the program Investigator FCT, co-funded by the Human Potential Operational Programme and European Social Fund (IF/00335(2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comportamento social de ovinos: apresentação de técnicas

The  social behavior is a set of activities and relations that develop between peers in certain animal species through a system of communication. Studies in this field began 30 years ago aiming a better understanding of the habits of animals. The main studies on sheep are carried out in Europe; in Brazil there are still few publications related to sheep behavior. Assessment methodologies are based on animal observation for recording activities in the period; therefore, they are simple and do not need many   resources. The observations can be made by an observer at the moment of the activity or by recording the actions for later analysis. The most common studies on sheep aim to evaluate ewes at the time of parturition and the immediate postpartum,  newborn behavior patterns, the linking of the ewe with her lamb, recognition between sheep and lamb, and the affinity of sheep to man. The most common mistakes that can be committed  during an evaluation experiment of social behavior are related to animal handling prior to the experiment, lack of description and assessment of environment, the position of the observer and the genetics of animals. Several methodologies are available and can be modified according to the research aims, and the results help in the management of the environment and natural resources, in the animal welfare, and in the improvement of productivity.O comportamento social é o conjunto de atividades e de relações  que se desenvolvem entre congêneres em certas espécies animais graças a um sistema de comunicação. Estudos nessa área iniciaram há 30 anos com objetivo de melhor compreensão dos hábitos dos animais. Os principais trabalhos desenvolvidos com ovinos são realizados na Europa, e no Brasil ainda há poucas publicações relacionadas ao comportamento de ovinos. As metodologias de avaliação baseiam-se na observação dos animais para registro das atividades desenvolvidas no período, portanto, são simples e não necessitam de muitos recursos. As observações podem ser feitas por um observador no momento da atividade ou por meio de gravação das ações para posterior análise. Os estudos mais comuns realizados com ovinos visam avaliar as ovelhas no momento do parto e no pós-parto imediato, o comportamento do neonato, a ligação da ovelha com seu cordeiro, o reconhecimento entre ovelha e cordeiro e a afinidade dos ovinos pelo homem. Os erros mais comuns que podem ser cometidos durante um  experimento de avaliação de comportamento social são relacionados ao manejo animal prévio ao experimento, não  descrição e avaliação do ambiente, a postura do observador e a genética dos animais. Diversas metodologias estão disponíveis e podem ser modificadas conforme o objetivo da pesquisa, e os  resultados auxiliam no manejo do ambiente e dos recursos naturais, do bem-estar animal e auxiliam a melhoria da  produtividade