Composição corporal e perfil metabólico na deficiência de vitamina D sérica em adultos

sem informaçãoTo investigate the body composition and metabolic profile in individuals in terms of different concentrations of serum vitamin D, ranging from deficiency to sufficiency. A cross-sectional study of 106 adults of both genders, who were divided into three g304419430sem informaçãosem informaçãosem informaçã

Mindfulness Training Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Police Officers: Results From the POLICE Study—A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Police officers'' high-stress levels and its deleterious consequences are raising awareness to an epidemic of mental health problems and quality of life (QoL) impairment. There is a growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are efficacious to promote mental health and well-being among high-stress occupations. Methods: The POLICE study is a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three assessment points (baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up) where police officers were randomized to mindfulness-based health promotion (MBHP) (n = 88) or a waiting list (n = 82). This article focuses on QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and religiosity outcomes. Mechanisms of change and MBHP feasibility were evaluated. Results: Significant group × time interaction was found for QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and non-organizational religiosity. Between-group analysis showed that MBHP group exhibited greater improvements in QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms at both post-intervention (QoL d = 0.69 to 1.01; depression d = 0.97; anxiety d = 0.73) and 6-month follow-up (QoL d = 0.41 to 0.74; depression d = 0.60; anxiety d = 0.51), in addition to increasing non-organizational religiosity at post-intervention (d = 0.31). Changes on self-compassion mediated the relationship between group and pre-to-post changes for all QoL domains and facets. Group effect on QoL overall health facet at post-intervention was moderated by mindfulness trait and spirituality changes. Conclusion: MBHP is feasible and efficacious to improve QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms among Brazilian officers. Results were maintained after 6 months. MBHP increased non-organizational religiosity, although the effect was not sustained 6 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first mindfulness-based intervention RCT to empirically demonstrate these effects among police officers. Self-compassion, mindfulness trait, and spirituality mechanisms of change are examined. Clinical Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov. identifier: NCT03114605.

Exact scaling in the expansion-modification system

This work is devoted to the study of the scaling, and the consequent power-law behavior, of the correlation function in a mutation-replication model known as the expansion-modification system. The latter is a biology inspired random substitution model for the genome evolution, which is defined on a binary alphabet and depends on a parameter interpreted as a \emph{mutation probability}. We prove that the time-evolution of this system is such that any initial measure converges towards a unique stationary one exhibiting decay of correlations not slower than a power-law. We then prove, for a significant range of mutation probabilities, that the decay of correlations indeed follows a power-law with scaling exponent smoothly depending on the mutation probability. Finally we put forward an argument which allows us to give a closed expression for the corresponding scaling exponent for all the values of the mutation probability. Such a scaling exponent turns out to be a piecewise smooth function of the parameter.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

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

Cissus Sicyoides: Pharmacological Mechanisms Involved In The Anti-inflammatory And Antidiarrheal Activities

The objective of this study was to evaluate the pharmacological mechanisms involved in anti-inflammatory and antidiarrheal actions of hydroalcoholic extract obtained from the leaves of Cissus sicyoides (HECS). The anti-inflammatory effect was evaluated by oral administration of HECS against acute model of edema induced by xylene, and the mechanisms of action were analysed by involvement of arachidonic acid (AA) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). The antidiarrheal effect of HECS was observed and we analyzed the motility and accumulation of intestinal fluid. We also analyzed the antidiarrheal mechanisms of action of HECS by evaluating the role of the opioid receptor, α2 adrenergic receptor, muscarinic receptor, nitric oxide (NO) and PGE2. The oral administration of HECS inhibited the edema induced by xylene and AA and was also able to significantly decrease the levels of PGE2. The extract also exhibited significant anti-diarrheal activity by reducing motility and intestinal fluid accumulation. This extract significantly reduced intestinal transit stimulated by muscarinic agonist and intestinal secretion induced by PGE2. Our data demonstrate that the mechanism of action involved in the anti-inflammatory effect of HECS is related to PGE2. The antidiarrheal effect of this extract may be mediated by inhibition of contraction by acting on the intestinal smoothmuscle and/or intestinal transit. © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.17

Effect of oral ingestion of an extract of the herb Uncaria tomentosa on the biodistribution of sodium pertechnetate in rats

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the oral ingestion of an extract of the herb Uncaria tomentosa (cat's claw) on the biodistribution of the radiobiocomplex sodium pertechnetate (Na99mTcO4) in rats. The animals (male Wistar rats, 2 months old, 180-220 g), were treated (1 mL) with an U. tomentosa extract (32 mg/mL, N = 5) or 0.9% NaCl solution (control, N = 5) for 7 days. After this period, Na99mTcO4 (3.7 MBq, 0.3 mL) was injected through the ocular plexus and after 10 min the rats were killed, the organs isolated and counted in a well-gamma counter. A significant (P < 0.05) alteration in Na99mTcO4 uptake i) from 0.57 +/- 0.008 to 0.39 +/- 0.06 %ATI/organ (P < 0.05) and from 0.57 +/- 0.17 to 0.39 +/- 0.14 %ATI/g (P < 0.05) was observed in the heart, ii) from 0.07 +/- 0.02 to 0.19 +/- 0.07 %ATI/g in the pancreas, and iii) from 0.07 +/- 0.01 to 0.18 +/- 0.07 %ATI/g (P < 0.05) in muscle after treatment with this extract. Although these results were obtained with animals, caution is advisable in the interpretation of the nuclear medicine examination when the patient is using this herb. This finding is probably an example of drug interaction with a radiopharmaceutical, a fact that could lead to misdiagnosis of the examination in clinical practice with unexpected consequences for the patient

Trojan-like internalization of anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles by human osteoblast cells

Dentistry and orthopedics are undergoing a revolution in order to provide more reliable, comfortable and long-lasting implants to patients. Titanium (Ti) and titanium alloys have been used in dental implants and total hip arthroplasty due to their excellent biocompatibility. However, Ti-based implants in human body suffer surface degradation (corrosion and wear) resulting in the release of metallic ions and solid wear debris (mainly titanium dioxide) leading to peri-implant inflammatory reactions. Unfortunately, our current understanding of the biological interactions with titanium dioxide nanoparticles is still very limited. Taking this into consideration, this study focuses on the internalization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on primary bone cells, exploring the events occurring at the nano-bio interface. For the first time, we report the selective binding of calcium (Ca), phosphorous (P) and proteins from cell culture medium to anatase nanoparticles that are extremely important for nanoparticle internalization and bone cells survival. In the intricate biological environment, anatase nanoparticles form bio-complexes (mixture of proteins and ions) which act as a kind of ‘Trojan-horse’ internalization by cells. Furthermore, anatase nanoparticles-induced modifications on cell behavior (viability and internalization) could be understand in detail. The results presented in this report can inspire new strategies for the use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in several regeneration therapies

Evolving unipolar memristor spiking neural networks

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Neuromorphic computing – brain-like computing in hardware – typically requires myriad complimentary metal oxide semiconductor spiking neurons interconnected by a dense mesh of nanoscale plastic synapses. Memristors are frequently cited as strong synapse candidates due to their statefulness and potential for low-power implementations. To date, plentiful research has focused on the bipolar memristor synapse, which is capable of incremental weight alterations and can provide adaptive self-organisation under a Hebbian learning scheme. In this paper, we consider the unipolar memristor synapse – a device capable of non-Hebbian switching between only two states (conductive and resistive) through application of a suitable input voltage – and discuss its suitability for neuromorphic systems. A self-adaptive evolutionary process is used to autonomously find highly fit network configurations. Experimentation on two robotics tasks shows that unipolar memristor networks evolve task-solving controllers faster than both bipolar memristor networks and networks containing constant non-plastic connections whilst performing at least comparably

Theory and simulation of quantum photovoltaic devices based on the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism

This article reviews the application of the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism to the simulation of novel photovoltaic devices utilizing quantum confinement effects in low dimensional absorber structures. It covers well-known aspects of the fundamental NEGF theory for a system of interacting electrons, photons and phonons with relevance for the simulation of optoelectronic devices and introduces at the same time new approaches to the theoretical description of the elementary processes of photovoltaic device operation, such as photogeneration via coherent excitonic absorption, phonon-mediated indirect optical transitions or non-radiative recombination via defect states. While the description of the theoretical framework is kept as general as possible, two specific prototypical quantum photovoltaic devices, a single quantum well photodiode and a silicon-oxide based superlattice absorber, are used to illustrated the kind of unique insight that numerical simulations based on the theory are able to provide.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures; invited review pape