Conventional and emergent technologies for honey processing: A perspective on microbiological safety, bioactivity, and quality

Honey is a natural food of worldwide economic importance. Over the last decades, its potential for food, medical, cosmetical, and biotechnological applications has been widely explored. One of the major safety issues regarding such applications is its susceptibility to being contaminated with bacterial and fungi spores, including pathogenic ones, which may impose a hurdle to its consumption in a raw state. Another factor that makes this product particularly challenging relies on its high sugar content, which will lead to the formation of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) when heated (due to Maillard reactions). Moreover, honey’s bioactivity is known to be affected when it goes through thermal processing due to its unstable and thermolabile components. Therefore, proper food processing methodologies are of utmost importance not only to ensure honey safety but also to provide a high-quality product with low content of HMF and preserved biological properties. As so, emerging food processing technologies have been employed to improve the safety and quality of raw honey, allowing, for example, to reduce/avoid the exposure time to high processing temperatures, with consequent impact on the formation of HMF. This review aims to gather the literature available regarding the use of conventional and emergent food processing technologies (both thermal and nonthermal food processing technologies) for honey decontamination, preservation/enhancement of honey biological activity, as well as the sensorial attributes.Thanks are due to the University of Aveiro and FCT/MCT for the financial support for the LAQV/REQUIMTE and CIMO research Units (FCT UID/QUI/50006/2020 and UIDB/00690/2020, respectively) through national funds and, where applicable, co-financed by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, and to the Portuguese NMR Network. The authors Hana Scepankova and Carlos A. Pinto would like to thank also FCT/MCT for the Ph.D. grants (SFRH/BD/88133/2012 and SFRH/BD/137036/2018).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae Control at a Pig Abattoir: Are We Missing Lairage Time Effect, Pig Skin, and Internal Carcass Surface Contamination?

This article belongs to the Special Issue Foodborne Pathogens Control: Current State of the Art and Future Prospects.To provide meat safety and consumer protection, appropriate hygiene control measures at an abattoir are required. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of visual fecal contamination level (VFCL) and lairage time (LT) on pig skin (PS) and external (ECS) and internal (ICS) carcass surfaces. The presence of Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella in PS, ECS, and ICS were evaluated. A total of 300 paired samples were collected from 100 pigs. Results underlined the importance of the skin (Enterobacteriaceae: 3.27 ± 0.68 log CFU/cm2; E. coli: 3.15 ± 0.63 log CFU/cm2; Salmonella: 21% of samples) as a direct or indirect source of carcass contamination. Although VFCL revealed no significant effect (p > 0.05), the increase of LT had a significant impact (p < 0.001) on Enterobacteriaceae and E. coli levels across all analysed surfaces, and Salmonella presence on ICS (p < 0.01), demanding attention to LT. Also, the ICS showed a higher level of these bacteria compared to ECS. These results highlight the need of food business operators to consider ICS as an alternative area to sample for Salmonella, as a criterion for process hygiene based on EC Regulation No. 2073/2005, and as a potential contamination source to be integrated in the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) plans.This work was supported by the projects UIDP/00772/2020, LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB) research unit, grant number UIDB/04033/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multidrug-Resistant Methicillin-Resistant Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci in Healthy Poultry Slaughtered for Human Consumption

This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Use and Antibiotic Resistance in Animals.Coagulase-negative staphylococci are commensals that are known to be prevalent in most environments, and they are also an important reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant genes. Staphylococcal infections in animal husbandry are a high economic burden. Thus, we aimed to determine the prevalence and species diversity of methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS) in poultry slaughtered for human consumption and to study the antimicrobial resistance of the isolates. Swab samples were recovered from 220 commercial chickens, homebred chickens and quails. Species identification was performed using MALDI-TOF. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the disc diffusion method against 14 antimicrobials. The presence of antimicrobial-resistant genes was investigated by polymerase chain reaction. Totals of 11 (19.6%), 13 (20.3%), and 51 (51%) MRCoNS were isolated from commercial chickens, homebred chickens and quails, respectively. S. lentus was isolated from all homebred chickens, whereas 11 S. lentus and 2 S. urealyticus were isolated from commercial chickens. As for quails, the most prevalent MRCoNS were S. urealyticus. Almost all isolates had a multidrug-resistant profile and carried the mecA gene. Most isolates showed resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, penicillin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and fusidic acid and harbored the ermA, ermB, ermC, mphC tetK, tetL, tetM and tetO genes. This study showed a frequent occurrence of multidrug resistance in MRCoNS isolated from healthy poultry in Portugal.This work was funded by the R&D Project CAREBIO2: Comparative assessment of antimicrobial resistance in environmental biofilms through proteomics—towards innovative thera- nostic biomarkers, with reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030101 and PTDC/SAU-INF/30101/2017, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Northern Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). This work was supported by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020) and by the projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Vanessa Silva is grateful to FCT (Fundacão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) for financial support through the PhD grant SFRH/BD/137947/2018.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multidrug-Resistant Methicillin-Resistant Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci in Healthy Poultry Slaughtered for Human Consumption

This work was funded by the R&D Project CAREBIO2: Comparative assessment of antimicrobial resistance in environmental biofilms through proteomics—towards innovative thera-nostic biomarkers, with reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030101 and by the projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). V Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Coagulase-negative staphylococci are commensals that are known to be prevalent in most environments, and they are also an important reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant genes. Staphylococ-cal infections in animal husbandry are a high economic burden. Thus, we aimed to determine the prevalence and species diversity of methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS) in poultry slaughtered for human consumption and to study the antimicrobial resistance of the isolates. Swab samples were recovered from 220 commercial chickens, homebred chickens and quails. Species identification was performed using MALDI-TOF. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the disc diffusion method against 14 antimicrobials. The presence of antimicrobial-resistant genes was investigated by polymerase chain reaction. Totals of 11 (19.6%), 13 (20.3%), and 51 (51%) MRCoNS were isolated from commercial chickens, homebred chickens and quails, respectively. S. lentus was isolated from all homebred chickens, whereas 11 S. lentus and 2 S. urealyticus were isolated from commercial chickens. As for quails, the most prevalent MRCoNS were S. urealyticus. Almost all isolates had a multidrug-resistant profile and carried the mecA gene. Most isolates showed resistance to erythromycin, clindamycin, penicillin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and fusidic acid and harbored the ermA, ermB, ermC, mphC tetK, tetL, tetM and tetO genes. This study showed a frequent occurrence of multidrug resistance in MRCoNS isolated from healthy poultry in Portugal.publishersversionpublishe

A didactic teaching methodology to assist in the analysis of the economic impact on fuel prices commercialized in the Carajás region.

This research aims to analyze the economic impacts caused by the addition of the third digit after the comma in the prices of fuels commercialized in the Carajás region (Parauapebas, Canaã dos Carajás, Curionópolis e Serra dos Carajás) located in the southeast of Pará State, Brazil, and the professional categories chosen were UBER application drivers, who use gasoline with additives in their vehicles, sales representatives who use motorcycles and regular gasoline for their work and lastly, intercity van cooperative drivers who use regular diesel fuel. The results of the investigation highlighted that there was a total loss of 2,10 BRL, for the three categories of professionals for every 100 liters of fuel consumed, representing an economic impact of approximately 43% for S-10 diesel, 38% for regular gasoline and 19% for gasoline with additives. Furthermore, in the professional categories analyzed, it was observed that the greatest economic impact occurred for the group of inter-municipal van drivers, with an annual cost of 191,52 BRL. Subsequently, App drivers obtained 14,72 BRL of economic implication per year, and finally, with less annual impact, sales representatives with a cost of 2,72 BRL

Predictors of cardiac involvement in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies

Copyright © 2023 Bandeira, Dourado, Melo, Martins, Fraga, Ferraro, Saraiva, Sousa, Parente, Soares, Correia, Almeida, Dinis, Pinto, Oliveira Pinheiro, Rato, Beirão, Samões, Santos, Mazeda, Chícharo, Faria, Neto, Lourenço, Brites, Rodrigues, Silva-Dinis, Dias, Araújo, Martins, Couto, Valido, Santos, Barreira, Fonseca and Campanilho-Marques. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Objectives: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a group of rare disorders that can affect the heart. This work aimed to find predictors of cardiac involvement in IIM. Methods: Multicenter, open cohort study, including patients registered in the IIM module of the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register (Reuma.pt/Myositis) until January 2022. Patients without cardiac involvement information were excluded. Myo(peri)carditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, conduction abnormalities, and/or premature coronary artery disease were considered. Results: 230 patients were included, 163 (70.9%) of whom were females. Thirteen patients (5.7%) had cardiac involvement. Compared with IIM patients without cardiac involvement, these patients had a lower bilateral manual muscle testing score (MMT) at the peak of muscle weakness [108.0 ± 55.0 vs 147.5 ± 22.0, p=0.008] and more frequently had oesophageal [6/12 (50.0%) vs 33/207 (15.9%), p=0.009] and lung [10/13 (76.9%) vs 68/216 (31.5%), p=0.001] involvements. Anti-SRP antibodies were more commonly identified in patients with cardiac involvement [3/11 (27.3%) vs 9/174 (5.2%), p=0.026]. In the multivariate analysis, positivity for anti-SRP antibodies (OR 104.3, 95% CI: 2.5-4277.8, p=0.014) was a predictor of cardiac involvement, regardless of sex, ethnicity, age at diagnosis, and lung involvement. Sensitivity analysis confirmed these results. Conclusion: Anti-SRP antibodies were predictors of cardiac involvement in our cohort of IIM patients, irrespective of demographical characteristics and lung involvement. We suggest considering frequent screening for heart involvement in anti-SRP-positive IIM patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A cirurgia plástica no contexto estético: aspectos sociais por uma revisão de literatura

The objective of this study is to disassemble, through scientific articles, the aspects related to aesthetic plastic surgery and the body satisfaction resulting from these procedures by the individuals who undergo them. A deep search of articles was carried out in the databases Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and PubMed, with the following Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS): Body; Body image; Surgical procedures. Articles were selected between the periods of 1998 to 2023, in French, Spanish, English and Portuguese, to increase the level of relevance and quality of the review, given the scarcity of scientific studies on the subject. This review study made it possible to expose the current moment of aesthetic plastic surgeries, in addition to understanding the profile of the individuals who undergo it. Body dissatisfaction becomes an image disorder, correlated with feelings and emotions, are reasons that lead to the search for “correction” through aesthetic procedures. However, plastic surgery can alleviate dissatisfaction and is a tool against different body contexts.El objetivo de este estudio es desmontar, a través de artículos científicos, los aspectos relacionados con la cirugía plástica estética y la satisfacción corporal resultante de estos procedimientos por parte de los individuos que se someten a ellos. Se realizó una búsqueda profunda de artículos en las bases de datos Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) y PubMed, con los siguientes Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS): Body; Imagen corporal; Procedimientos quirúrgicos. Se seleccionaron artículos entre los períodos de 1998 a 2023, en francés, español, inglés y portugués, para aumentar el nivel de relevancia y calidad de la revisión, dada la escasez de estudios científicos sobre el tema. Este estudio de revisión permitió exponer el momento actual de las cirugías plásticas estéticas, además de comprender el perfil de los individuos que se someten a ella. La insatisfacción corporal se convierte en un trastorno de la imagen, correlacionado con los sentimientos y emociones, son motivos que llevan a la búsqueda de “corrección” a través de procedimientos estéticos. Sin embargo, la cirugía plástica puede aliviar la insatisfacción y es una herramienta frente a diferentes contextos corporales.Objetivo desse estudo é desmontar, por meio de artigos científicos, os aspectos que tange a cirurgia plástica estética e a satisfação corporal advinda desses procedimentos pelos indivíduos submetidos. Foi realizada uma profunda pesquisa de artigos nas bases de dados Medical Literature Analysis and Retrievel System Online (MEDLINE), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) e PubMed, com os seguintes Descritores em Ciências da Saúde (DeCS): Body; Body image; Surgical procedures. Foram selecionados artigos entre os períodos de 1998 a 2023, nos idiomas Frances, Espanhol, Inglês e Português, para ampliar o nível de relevância e a qualidade da revisão, visto a escassez de estudos científicos sobre a temática. Este estudo de revisão possibilitou expor o momento atual das cirurgias plásticas estéticas, além da compreensão do perfil dos indivíduos que são submetidos. A insatisfação do corpo se torna um distúrbio de imagem, correlacionados a sentimentos e emoções, são motivos que levam a busca de “correção” através de procedimentos estéticos. Todavia, a cirurgia plástica pode amenizar quadros de insatisfação e é uma ferramenta contra diversos contextos corporais