Linking dietary intake, circadian biomarkers, and clock genes on obesity: A study protocol

BackgroundThe prevalence of obesity continues to rise, and although this is a complex disease, the screening is made simply with the value of the Body Mass Index. This index only considers weight and height, being limited in portraying the multiple existing obesity phenotypes. The characterization of the chronotype and circadian system as an innovative phenotype of a patient's form of obesity is gaining increasing importance for the development of novel and pinpointed nutritional interventions. ObjectiveThe present study is a prospective observational controlled study conducted in Portugal, aiming to characterize the chronotype and determine its relation to the phenotype and dietary patterns of patients with obesity and healthy participants. MethodsAdults with obesity (study group) and healthy adults (control group), aged between 18 and 75, will be enrolled in this study. Data will be collected to characterize the chronotype, dietary intake, and sleep quality through validated questionnaires. Body composition will also be assessed, and blood samples will be collected to quantify circadian and metabolic biomarkers. DiscussionThis study is expected to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of obesity and dietary intake on circadian biomarkers and, therefore, increase scientific evidence to help future therapeutic interventions based on chronobiology, with a particular focus on nutritional interventions

Verifying the Environmental and Energy Feasibility of Potential Improvement Actions in the Steel Production Chain in Brazil

The steel industry is an important pillar of the Brazilian economy. However, as in other countries, the process consumes significant amounts of resources and generates sludge, slag and air emissions. In order to improve the environmental and energy feasibilities of Brazilian steel sector a Life Cycle Assessment was carried out to identify impact sources associated with it. The analysis pointed the coal consumption as the main source of primary energy demand, and high carbon dioxide emissions in steel production, oil refining and electricity generation as the origin of climate change impacts. Three improvement alternative were proposed to reduce impacts: S1: the use of steelmaking gas to produce electricity; S2: installation of dry coke quenching technology; and, S3: replacement of the manganese ore supply. A second round of assessments indicated that changes due to S1 and S2 brought only slight gains concerning impacts, but S3 resulted in improvement in metal depletion

Perspectives of PV Microgeneration in Brazil: A Proposition of Regulation Enhancement Methodology

The solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is disseminating on multiple kinds of sites due to the energy market liberalization, the renewable energy sources subsidies policy, the decreasing of acquisition costs and the adaptability to different installation conditions. These factors allowed the growth of PV generation, especially in the distributed generation (DG) segment. Meanwhile, the development of a legal and regulatory apparatus became mandatory to assure benefits to DG-adopters, without causing damages to the utility grid, preventing technical failures and eventual excessive pricing to non-adopters. As the technology innovations impose new possibilities and the number of adopters grows exponentially, the challenges become more visible and a regulation update, urgent. In this context, this paper aims to review the current pricing model for DG in Brazil, focusing on PV microgeneration, and to propose a methodology based on the Delphi Method to enhance the most critical topics of the on-going regulation

Comparing Mixed & Integer Programming vs. Constraint Programming by solving Job-Shop Scheduling Problems

Scheduling is a key factor for operations management as well as for business success. From industrial Job-shop Scheduling problems (JSSP), many optimization challenges have emerged since de 1960s when improvements have been continuously required such as bottlenecks allocation, lead-time reductions and reducing response time to requests.  With this in perspective, this work aims to discuss 3 different optimization models for minimizing Makespan. Those 3 models were applied on 17 classical problems of examples JSSP and produced different outputs.  The first model resorts on Mixed and Integer Programming (MIP) and it resulted on optimizing 60% of the studied problems. The other models were based on Constraint Programming (CP) and approached the problem in two different ways: a) model CP1 is a standard IBM algorithm whereof restrictions have an interval structure that fail to solve 53% of the proposed instances, b) Model CP-2 approaches the problem with disjunctive constraints and optimized 88% of the instances. In this work, each model is individually analyzed and then compared considering: i) Optimization success performance, ii) Computational processing time, iii) Greatest Resource Utilization and, iv) Minimum Work-in-process Inventory. Results demonstrated that CP-2 presented best results on criteria i and ii, but MIP was superior on criteria iii and iv and those findings are discussed at the final section of this work

Design and construction of a didactic standalone photovoltaic plant

This paper proposes the design and construction of a standalone didactic photovoltaic (PV) plant. The system components are available as a didactic kit to the students of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará (IFCE), Brazil. Thus, contributing to the teaching-learning process and providing a system to be used in future researches. In addition, the system was designed for supplying electricity to the lighting circuit of the Energy Processing Laboratory, located at IFCE Fortaleza Campus. The PV system developed during the work has an autonomy of 900 Ah and the total installed power of 840 Wp. Using a data capture system, a generation generated by the PV microgeneration was registered in operation up to 647 W

Panorama geral dos efeitos da temperatura na saúde humana – Revisão sistemática

Climate change poses enormous risks to human life, with complex effects on the global population’s health. The objective of this study was to achieve an overview of the effects of temperature on human health, searching in studies conducted in different cities around the world. A search was carried out in abstracts on CAPES and SCIELO scientific development platforms using the keywords ‘temperature’ and ‘health’ in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The occurrence of several diseases directly related to temperature variations were indicated in 368 articles published in several countries. Asia, North America and Europe were the continents that most contributed with the total of publications, with participations of 37,8%, 22,6% and 20,0%, respectively. Eleven disease chapters were identified, according to the classification of International Disease System. The discussions present the results found by several authors for the six most studied disease chapters in all continents.As mudanças climáticas representam enormes riscos para a vida humana, com complexos efeitos sobre a saúde da população global. O objetivo deste trabalho foi buscar uma visão geral dos efeitos da temperatura na saúde humana, em estudos conduzidos em diversas cidades do mundo. Para tanto, foi realizada uma busca nas plataformas de desenvolvimento científico CAPES e SCIELO utilizando as palavras-chave 'temperatura' e 'saúde' em resumos em português, inglês e espanhol. Foram selecionados 368 artigos publicados em vários países, os quais indicaram a ocorrência de várias doenças diretamente relacionadas às variações de temperatura. Os continentes que mais contribuíram com publicações foram a Ásia, a América do Norte e a Europa com participações de 37,8%, 22,6% e 20,0% do total, respectivamente. Foram identificados 11 capítulos de enfermidades, de acordo com a classificação do Sistema Internacional de Doenças. As discussões apresentam os resultados encontrados por diversos autores para os 6 capítulos de enfermidades mais estudados em todos os continentes

O Uso da Linguagem como Prática de Liberdade: uma Proposta Dialógica de Ensino de Língua Portuguesa na EJA Prisional

Os debates sobre linguagem, no âmbito acadêmico, suscitam reflexões acerca das práticas de ensino de língua portuguesa na escola, principalmente no que se refere à relação do que se ensina com o que se utiliza no meio social. Considerando o ensino de língua portuguesa no âmbito prisional, essas reflexões são ainda mais significativas, já que a educação geralmente ocupa um lugar pouco privilegiado entre as atividades propostas para a ressocialização. Nessa perspectiva, questiona-se: as práticas educativas têm atendido às necessidades dos educandos privados de liberdade? Será que encarcerado percebe o uso da linguagem como prática de liberdade nas aulas de língua portuguesa? Nesse sentido, o artigo tem por finalidade discutir a importância do ensino de língua portuguesa na Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) nas prisões. Fundamentado nas ideias de educação libertadora de Paulo Freire e na teoria dialógica de Mikhail Bakhtin, este estudo apresenta um panorama sobre a educação nas prisões no Brasil, uma reflexão sobre o uso da linguagem como prática libertadora, alguns aspectos sobre os estudos bakhtinianos e também a relação entre gêneros discursivos e ensino de língua portuguesa. Através deste, espera-se estar contribuindo para o aprimoramento do ensino de língua portuguesa na EJA prisional, demonstrando a relevância do trabalho com gêneros discursivos para o uso da linguagem como prática libertador

Design, synthesis and the effect of 1,2,3-triazole sialylmimetic neoglycoconjugates on Trypanosoma cruzi and its cell surface trans-sialidase

This work describes the synthesis of a series of sialylmimetic neoglycoconjugates represented by 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole-sialic acid derivatives containing galactose modified at either C-1 or C-6 positions, glucose or gulose at C-3 position, and by the amino acid derivative 1,2,3-triazole fused threonine-3-O-galactose as potential TcTS inhibitors and anti-trypanosomal agents. This series was obtained by Cu(I)-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction ('click chemistry') between the azido-functionalized sugars 1-N(3)-Gal (commercial), 6-N(3)-Gal, 3-N(3)-Glc and 3-N(3)-Gul with the corresponding alkyne-based 2-propynyl-sialic acid, as well as by click chemistry reaction between the amino acid N(3)-ThrOBn with 3-O-propynyl-GalOMe. the 1,2,3-triazole linked sialic acid-6-O-galactose and the sialic acid-galactopyranoside showed high Trypanosoma cruzi trans-sialidase (TcTS) inhibitory activity at 1.0 mM (approx. 90%), whilst only the former displayed relevant trypanocidal activity (IC(50) 260 mu M). These results highlight the 1,2,3-triazole linked sialic acid-6-O-galactose as a prototype for further design of new neoglycoconjugates against Chagas' disease. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)USP, Fac Ciencias Farmaceut Ribeirao Preto, BR-14040903 Ribeirao Preto, SP, BrazilUSP, Fac Med Ribeirao Preto, BR-14049900 Ribeirao Preto, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Immunol & Parasitol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Immunol & Parasitol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc