This study describes the synthesis of an innovative nanomaterial (patent application number BR 1020210000317) composed of cobalt ferrite functionalized in niobium pentoxide CoFe2O4@Nb5O2 (CFNb), ...synthesized via green synthesis using tangerine peel extract. The material emphasizes the combination of a magnetic material (which allows for easy recovery after application) with niobium pentoxide (a metal which is abundant in Brazil). CFNb was applied as a catalyst for the paracetamol (PCT) degradation by photocatalysis. The new materials were characterized through surface and pore analysis (SBET, SEXT, Smic, Vmic, and VTOTAL), photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), zero charge point (pHPZC, scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The reaction parameters studied included pH and catalyst concentration. The results indicated that the CFNb nanocatalysts were efficient in the paracetamol degradation, presenting better results in conditions of low pH (close to 2) and low catalyst concentration under irradiation of the 250 W mercury vapor lamp (greater than 28 mW·cm−2) at 60 min of reaction.
Indoxyl sulfate (IS) is involved in the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and in its cardiovascular complications. One of the approaches proposed to decrease IS is the administration of ...synbiotics. This work aimed to search for a probiotic strain capable to decrease serum IS levels and mix it with two prebiotics (inulin and fructooligosaccharide (FOS)) to produce a putative synbiotic and test it in a rat CKD model. Two groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were nephrectomized. One group (Lac) received the mixture for 16 weeks in drinking water and the other no (Nef). A control group (C) included sham-nephrectomized rats. Serum creatinine and IS concentrations were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Optical microscopy and two-photon excitation microscopy was used to study kidney and heart samples. The Lac group, which received the synbiotic, reduced IS by 0.8% while the Nef group increased it by 38.8%. Histological analysis of kidneys showed that the Lac group increased fibrotic areas by 12% and the Nef group did it by 25%. The synbiotic did not reduce cardiac fibrosis. Therefore, the putative synbiotic showed that function reducing IS and the progression of CKD in a rat model, but no heart protection was observed.
Aim of study: The effect of microencapsulated phenolic compound extracts of Maclura tinctoria (MTBE) on growth performance and humoral immunity markers of the white leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei ...juveniles (0.5 ± 0.2 g initial weight) was studied.Area of study: M. tinctoria was collected from Hampolol, Campeche, and Arroyo del Agua, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.Material and methods: Three MTBE inclusions (0.5, 1, and 2.5 g MTBE/kg, Purina®) were compared with a control commercial feed (Purina®) during 30 days. Nine phenolic acids, nine flavonols, four dihydro-flavonoids, four flavones, and seven unidentified phenolic compounds were determined fin the MTBE using a Perkin Elmer® HPLC chromatograph and diode array-detection.Main results: The mean concentrations of total phenolic compounds, total flavonoid compounds, and condensed tannins were 198.05 ± 5.59 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) g-1 dw, 78.57 ± 1.80 quercetin equivalent g-1, and 28.32 ± 0.33 mg epicatechin equivalent g-1, respectively. The ferric reducing antioxidant power and the total antioxidant capacity, respectively, averaged 28.32 mg GAE mL-1 and 10.9 mg ascorbic acid equivalent mL-1. Survival, weight gain, and specific growth rate of L. vannamei were similar among the experimental diets. The dietary inclusion of MTBE at 0.5 g/kg of food showed significant higher (p < 0.05) plasma hemocyte lysate protein (1.35 ± 0.055 µg mL-1), prophenoloxidase (0.47 ± 0.15, Abs. 492 nm), and superoxide anion (O2.-) activity (0.21 ± 0.07, Abs. 630 nm).Research highlights: The supplementation of MTBE at 0.5 g/kg of food could be considered as a potential alternative additive for L. vannamei diet in the juvenile production, since it improved the response of the humoral immunity markers at post larval life stages, when cultivated shrimp are more susceptible to be infected by pathogens.
In the present research, storage conditions of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) have been monitored using cost-effective fluorescence sensors integrated with intelligent algorithms. Three different ...Spanish pure EVOOs (Arbequina, Cornicabra, and Picual varieties), as well as samples adulterated with expired EVOO, were kept under different environmental conditions: presence or absence of light, bottle material (plastic or glass), and clearness of glass (uncolored or brown glass). To evaluate the effect of these conditions, 54 samples were prepared, and their emission spectra were measured 10 times during a 58-day period. The most statistically relevant information from these spectra was located by the relief-F feature selection method, which led to the design of machine learning-based models. With this aim, up to 158,250 artificial neural network-based models were designed and tested. It was possible to distinguish different storage conditions in terms of light exposure, bottle material, and clearness, as well as locate adulterations. All of the trained and optimized classifiers for all three EVOO varietals reached accuracies ranging between 91 and 100% after meticulous validations. The used technique is fast, portable, user-friendly, inexpensive, and non-destructive, and, therefore, it could be of great use for the olive oil sector as it enables real-time quality control and fraud detection.
•Evaluation of the effect of the container, light, and adulterations on EVOO.•Fluorescence spectroscopy to locate changes in EVOO due to environment.•Neural networks to classify different storage/distribution conditions of EVOO.•Accurate, fast, cost-effective, and real-time approach to aid the olive oil sector.•Chemometric tool potentially applicable to other foods and for new purposes.
During the progression of psoriatic lesions, abundant cellular infiltration of myeloid cells, such as macrophages and activated dendritic cells, occurs in the skin and the infiltrating cells interact ...with naive lymphoid cells to generate a T helper (Th)1 and Th17 environment. Therapies to treat psoriasis include phototherapy, non‑steroidal and steroidal drugs, as well as antibodies to block tumor necrosis factor‑α, interleukin (IL)‑17‑A and IL‑12/IL‑23, which all focus on decreasing the proinflammatory hallmark of psoriasis. The present study obtained the heptapeptide HP3 derived from phage display technology that blocks mononuclear cell adhesion to endothelial cells and inhibits trans‑endothelial migration in vitro. The activity of the heptapeptide in a murine model of psoriasis was also assessed, which indicated that early administration inhibited the development of psoriatic lesions. Therefore, the results suggested that HP3 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for psoriasis.
•A simple non-supervised neural network is proposed to extract hidden information.•It distinguishes noisy signals and signals from adulterated food samples.•It is able to online detect adulterated ...food samples.•It classifies similar pure extra virgin olive oil samples.
A nonlinear algorithm based on chaotic parameters (CPs) has been employed to determine the nature of different output signals obtained from UV–vis spectrophotometer (UV) measurements. These signals come from UV scans of adulterated samples of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with refined olive oil or refined olive pomace oil, or from pure samples of EVOO with white random or sinusoidal white random noises. The data collected from this equipment was used to calculate CP values. Then, a self-organizing map was used to detect different types of signals. Using this method, the signals can be identified and classified into five groups depending on their type, the percentage of noise added, and the concentration of adulterant agents, with a misclassification rate of less than 1.3%.
The current sanitary crisis due to COVID-19 has further evidenced the enormous digital exclusion of older adults. Furthermore, the crisis has urged older adults to adopt new technologies to ...facilitate their tasks, as well as to provide them with an effective means against loneliness and social isolation caused by the confinement. In light of this, Digital Literacy is necessary for all those excluded from the digital era, who are characterized mainly by little or no ability to effectively use technologies. Nevertheless, detailed studies showing the leap from mixed (Blended Learning, BL) to digital literacy in the elderly have not been published. The objective of the present research was to analyze the level of Digital Literacy with the Digital Literacy Evaluation (DILE) of two groups of elderly adults with different levels of literacy (Group 1: G1, and Group 2: G2) during three stages: BL (Aug–Dec 2019); Transition (Feb–Jun 2020); and Digital (Aug–Dec 2020). Comparisons were made before each educational level (pre-pre-pre) and after each educational level (post-post-post) and during consecutive periods before and after each semester (pre vs post) and throughout different educational levels (G1: Basic 1, B1; Basic 2, B2; and intermediate 1, I1; and G2: Intermediate 1 to 3, I1, I2, and I3). Subsequently, considering all the elderly who had passed at least one of the literacy levels, we worked with a total sample of 176 older adults. The comparisons showed that, before the pandemic, G1’s pre digital literacy levels increased between B1 and B2 and that the differences continued with that increasing trend between the B1 level and the I1 completely digital treatment, and the same was observed for post measurements. On the other hand, for the G2, the differences in the DILE were statistically significant between the pre-condition of I2 (before the pandemic) and the I3 (completely digital treatment); and between the pre-conditions of I1 and I3; the same results were obtained for post treatments. Also, pre vs post scores on the DILE were statistically significant and older adults increased progressively their digital literacy despite the COVID-19 pandemic and jumped to the digital age.
A mathematical model based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) has been designed to achieve the estimation of the conductivity of three different binary mixtures containing water and one of the ...following imidazolium-based ionic liquids: 3-ethyl-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (emimBF4), 3-butyl-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmimBF4), and 3-hexyl-methilimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (hmimBF4). It has been accomplished employing the composition of the mixtures (in terms of mole fraction) and the number of carbon atoms that form the lateral chain of the imidazolium cation as independent variables. All the utilized data was gathered from the literature and it corresponds to measurements that were carried out at 298.15 K. The mean prediction error for the estimation of this property was 6.42% and its R 2 value 0.991. These results support that the application of nonlinear mathematical models which rely on ANNs can lead to an accurate estimation of ionic conductivity values of aqueous binary mixtures of imidazolium-based ionic liquids.
The Xanthomonadaceae family consists of species of non-pathogenic and pathogenic γ-proteobacteria that infect different hosts, including humans and plants. In this study, we performed a comparative ...analysis using 69 fully sequenced genomes belonging to this family, with a focus on identifying proteins enriched in phytopathogens that could explain the lifestyle and the ability to infect plants. Using a computational approach, we identified seven phytopathogen-enriched protein families putatively secreted by type II secretory system: PheA (CM-sec), LipA/LesA, VirK, and four families involved in N-glycan degradation, NixE, NixF, NixL, and FucA1. In silico and phylogenetic analyses of these protein families revealed they all have orthologs in other phytopathogenic or symbiotic bacteria, and are involved in the modulation and evasion of the immune system. As a proof of concept, we performed a biochemical characterization of LipA from Xac306 and verified that the mutant strain lost most of its lipase and esterase activities and displayed reduced virulence in citrus. Since this study includes closely related organisms with distinct lifestyles and highlights proteins directly related to adaptation inside plant tissues, novel approaches might use these proteins as biotechnological targets for disease control, and contribute to our understanding of the coevolution of plant-associated bacteria.
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