Mobile Applications for the Promotion and Support of Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Habits: A Systematic Review, Extraction of Features and Taxonomy Proposal

Background: Mobile applications can be used for the monitoring of lifestyles and physical activity. It can be installed in commodity mobile devices, which are currently used by different types of people in their daily activities worlwide. Objective: This paper reviews and categorizes the mobile applications related to diet, nutrition, health, physical activity and education, showing the analysis of 73 mobile applications available on Google Play Store with the extraction of the different features. Methods: The mobile applications were analyzed in relation to each proposed category and their features, starting with the definition of the search keywords used in the Google Play Store. Each mobile application was installed on a smartphone, and validated whether it was researched in scientific studies. Finally, all mobile applications and features were categorized. Results: These mobile applications were clustered into four groups, including diet and nutrition, health, physical activity and education. The features of mobile applications were also categorized into six groups, including diet, anthropometric parameters, social, physical activity, medical parameters and vital parameters. The most available features of the mobile applications are weight, height, age, gender, goals, calories needed calculation, diet diary, food database with calories, calories burned and calorie intake. Conclusion: With this review, it was concluded that most mobile applications available in the market are related to diet, and they are important for different types of people. A promising idea for future work is to evaluate the acceptance by young people of such mobile applications.This work is funded by FCT/MEC through national funds and when applicable co-funded by FEDER – PT2020 partnership agreement under the project UID/EEA/50008/2019

Evaluation of Low-Cost Mitigation Measures Implemented to Improve Air Quality in Nursery and Primary Schools

Indoor air pollution mitigation measures are highly important due to the associatedhealth impacts, especially on children, a risk group that spends significant time indoors. Thus,the main goal of the work here reported was the evaluation of mitigation measures implementedin nursery and primary schools to improve air quality. Continuous measurements of CO2, CO,NO2, O3, CH2O, total volatile organic compounds (VOC), PM1, PM2.5, PM10, Total SuspendedParticles (TSP) and radon, as well as temperature and relative humidity were performed in twocampaigns, before and after the implementation of low-cost mitigation measures. Evaluation of thosemitigation measures was performed through the comparison of the concentrations measured in bothcampaigns. Exceedances to the values set by the national legislation and World Health Organization(WHO) were found for PM2.5, PM10, CO2 and CH2O during both indoor air quality campaigns.Temperature and relative humidity values were also above the ranges recommended by AmericanSociety of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). In general, pollutantconcentrations measured after the implementation of low-cost mitigation measures were significantlylower, mainly for CO2. However, mitigation measures were not always sufficient to decrease thepollutants' concentrations till values considered safe to protect human health

Agronomic biofortification of cowpea with selenium: effects of selenate and selenite applications on selenium and phytate concentrations in seeds

BACKGROUNDSelenium (Se) is a nutrient for animals and humans, and is considered beneficial to higher plants. Selenium concentrations are low in most soils, which can result in a lack of Se in plants, and consequently in human diets. Phytic acid (PA) is the main storage form of phosphorus in seeds, and it is able to form insoluble complexes with essential minerals in the monogastric gut. This study aimed to establish optimal levels of Se application to cowpea, with the aim of increasing Se concentrations. The efficiency of agronomic biofortification was evaluated by the application of seven levels of Se (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 60 g ha−1) from two sources (selenate and selenite) to the soil under field conditions in 2016 and 2017.RESULTSApplication of Se as selenate led to greater plant Se concentrations than application as selenite in both leaves and grains. Assuming human cowpea consumption of 54.2 g day−1, Se application of 20 g ha−1 in 2016 or 10 g ha−1 in 2017 as selenate would have provided a suitable daily intake of Se (between 20 and 55 μg day−1) for humans. Phytic acid showed no direct response to Se application.CONCLUSIONSelenate provides greater phytoavailability than selenite. The application of 10 g Se ha−1 of selenate to cowpea plants could provide sufficient seed Se to increase daily human intake by 13–14 μg d−1. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industr

Single-nucleotide polymorphism, linkage disequilibrium and geographic structure in the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax: prospects for genome-wide association studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ideal malaria parasite populations for initial mapping of genomic regions contributing to phenotypes such as drug resistance and virulence, through genome-wide association studies, are those with high genetic diversity, allowing for numerous informative markers, and rare meiotic recombination, allowing for strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) between markers and phenotype-determining loci. However, levels of genetic diversity and LD in field populations of the major human malaria parasite <it>P. vivax </it>remain little characterized.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and LD patterns across a 100-kb chromosome segment of <it>P. vivax </it>in 238 field isolates from areas of low to moderate malaria endemicity in South America and Asia, where LD tends to be more extensive than in holoendemic populations, and in two monkey-adapted strains (Salvador-I, from El Salvador, and Belem, from Brazil). We found varying levels of SNP diversity and LD across populations, with the highest diversity and strongest LD in the area of lowest malaria transmission. We found several clusters of contiguous markers with rare meiotic recombination and characterized a relatively conserved haplotype structure among populations, suggesting the existence of recombination hotspots in the genome region analyzed. Both silent and nonsynonymous SNPs revealed substantial between-population differentiation, which accounted for ~40% of the overall genetic diversity observed. Although parasites clustered according to their continental origin, we found evidence for substructure within the Brazilian population of <it>P. vivax</it>. We also explored between-population differentiation patterns revealed by loci putatively affected by natural selection and found marked geographic variation in frequencies of nucleotide substitutions at the <it>pvmdr-1 </it>locus, putatively associated with drug resistance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings support the feasibility of genome-wide association studies in carefully selected populations of <it>P. vivax</it>, using relatively low densities of markers, but underscore the risk of false positives caused by population structure at both local and regional levels.</p> <p>See commentary: <url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/90</url></p

Lanthanide nitrates as Lewis acids in the one-pot synthesis of 1,2,4-oxadiazole derivatives

In this work we report the use of lanthanide nitrates [Ln(NO3)3] acting as catalyst in direct one-pot synthesis of 3-benzoyl- and 3-acetyl-1,2,4-oxadiazoles derivatives from ketones, nitriles and nitric acid. This is the first example of one-pot synthesis of benzoyl- and acetyl 1,2,4-oxadiazoles derivatives preparation using acetophenones derivates with electron-donator groups.Neste trabalho relatamos o uso de nitratos de lantanídeos [Ln(NO3)3] atuando como catalisador na síntese de uma única etapa de derivados de 3-benzoíla- e 3-acetila-1,2,4-oxadiazóis a partir de cetonas, nitrilas e ácido nítrico. Este é o primeiro exemplo da síntese em única etapa de preparação de derivados benzoíla e acetila-1,2,4-oxadiazóis, usando acetofenonas com grupos doadores de elétrons.14371440Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Detection of simple and complex de novo mutations with multiple reference sequences.

The characterization of de novo mutations in regions of high sequence and structural diversity from whole-genome sequencing data remains highly challenging. Complex structural variants tend to arise in regions of high repetitiveness and low complexity, challenging both de novo assembly, in which short reads do not capture the long-range context required for resolution, and mapping approaches, in which improper alignment of reads to a reference genome that is highly diverged from that of the sample can lead to false or partial calls. Long-read technologies can potentially solve such problems but are currently unfeasible to use at scale. Here we present Corticall, a graph-based method that combines the advantages of multiple technologies and prior data sources to detect arbitrary classes of genetic variant. We construct multisample, colored de Bruijn graphs from short-read data for all samples, align long-read-derived haplotypes and multiple reference data sources to restore graph connectivity information, and call variants using graph path-finding algorithms and a model for simultaneous alignment and recombination. We validate and evaluate the approach using extensive simulations and use it to characterize the rate and spectrum of de novo mutation events in 119 progeny from four Plasmodium falciparum experimental crosses, using long-read data on the parents to inform reconstructions of the progeny and to detect several known and novel nonallelic homologous recombination events

Accessing decavanadate chemistry with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, and evaluation of methylene blue bleaching

Two decavanadates (trisH)4[H2V10O28]·10H2O ( 1 ) and (trisH)6[V10O28] ( 2 ) have been synthesised from NaVO3 or V2O5 in an aqueous solution of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (tris). Bimetallic derivatives [Cu(OH2)5(trisH)]2[V10O28]·6H2O ( 3 ) and [Cu(OH2)3(2–amp)]2(trisH)2 [V10O28]·2H2O ( 4 ) were obtained by the addition of CuCl2 or CuCl2 / 2–amp (2–(aminomethyl)pyridine) to the route that gave 2 . The products were characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffractometry, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR, Raman and EPR spectroscopies. Moreover, 4 was effective in bleaching a methylene blue (MB) solution under natural light in acidic media by either degradation of the dye or precipitation of a MB-decavanadate salt depending on the experimental conditions