Myocardial hypertrophy and dysfunction occur in response to excessive catecholaminergic drive. Adverse cardiac remodelling is associated with activation of proinflammatory cytokines in the ...myocardium. To test the hypothesis that exercise training can prevent myocardial dysfunction and production of proinflammatory cytokines induced by β‐adrenergic hyperactivity, male Wistar rats were assigned to one of the following four groups: sedentary non‐treated (Con); sedentary isoprenaline treated (Iso); exercised non‐treated (Ex); and exercised plus isoprenaline (Iso+Ex). Echocardiography, haemodynamic measurements and isolated papillary muscle were used for functional evaluations. Real‐time RT‐PCR and Western blot were used to quantify tumour necrosis factor α, interleukin‐6, interleukin‐10 and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF‐β1) in the tissue. NF‐κB expression in the nucleus was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. The Iso rats showed a concentric hypertrophy of the left ventricle (LV). These animals exhibited marked increases in LV end‐diastolic pressure and impaired myocardial performance in vitro, with a reduction in the developed tension and maximal rate of tension increase and decrease, as well as worsened recruitment of the Frank–Starling mechanism. Both gene and protein levels of tumour necrosis factor α and interleukin‐6, as well as TGF‐β1 mRNA, were increased. In addition, the NF‐κB expression in the Iso group was significantly raised. In the Iso+Ex group, the exercise training had the following effects: (1) it prevented LV hypertrophy; (ii) it improved myocardial contractility; (3) it avoided the increase of proinflammatory cytokines and improved interleukin‐10 levels; and (4) it attenuated the increase of TGF‐β1 mRNA. Thus, exercise training in a model of β‐adrenergic hyperactivity can avoid the adverse remodelling of the LV and inhibit inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, the cardioprotection is related to beneficial effects on myocardial performance.
Pathological left ventricular hypertrophy is a powerfulpredictor of heart failure and mortality. Substantial evidence has demonstrated that sustained β‐adrenergic cardiac stimulation is often associated with myocardial hypertrophy. We show that an exercise training programme was suitable to inhibit the myocardial hypertrophy induced in rats by β‐adrenergic hyperactivity. Prevention of hypertrophy was accompanied by inhibition of proinflammatory substances (cytokines) in the myocardium. Surprisingly, there was an improvement of myocardial function even in the presence of β‐adrenergic hyperactivity. These results show that exercise training is very effective in promoting heart protection against β‐adrenergic hyperactivity. This is particularly interesting for cardiovascular diseases, since in these conditions (e.g. hypertension and heart failure) there is an excessive adrenergic drive.
This study aimed to identify the clusters of obesogenic behaviors, and verify the association with metabolic risk according to the categories of somatic maturity status of adolescents.
This is a ...cross-sectional study conducted with 1159 (55.1% girls) Brazilian adolescents aged between 10 and 16 years (mean age: 12.9 years). Measurements of waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, HDL-C, and triglycerides were combined to calculate a metabolic risk score. Somatic maturity was assessed by estimating the peak of height velocity. The obesogenic behaviors analyzed were physical activity (Baecke questionnaire), sedentary behavior (screen-based behaviors) and dietary habits (consumption of healthy and unhealthy food). The Two Step clustering algorithm using the log-likelihood measure was employed to cluster formation and regression models were adopted to the main analysis.
We observed a complex co-existence of obesogenic behaviors. Differences regarding the metabolic risk between clusters was only observed among the early-maturing adolescents, where the cluster with higher number of healthy behaviors but lower physical activity presented higher metabolic risk score.
We conclude that physical activity has an important role on the association of clusters of obesogenic behaviors and metabolic risk in early-maturing adolescents.
The objective of this study is to determine the incidence, socio-demographic and clinical risk factors for preeclampsia and associated maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes. This is a nested ...case-control derived from the multicentre cohort study Preterm SAMBA, in five different centres in Brazil, with nulliparous healthy pregnant women. Clinical data were prospectively collected, and risk factors were assessed comparatively between PE cases and controls using risk ratio (RR) (95% CI) plus multivariate analysis. Complete data were available for 1,165 participants. The incidence of preeclampsia was 7.5%. Body mass index determined at the first medical visit and diastolic blood pressure over 75 mmHg at 20 weeks of gestation were independently associated with the occurrence of preeclampsia. Women with preeclampsia sustained a higher incidence of adverse maternal outcomes, including C-section (3.5 fold), preterm birth below 34 weeks of gestation (3.9 fold) and hospital stay longer than 5 days (5.8 fold) than controls. They also had worse perinatal outcomes, including lower birthweight (a mean 379 g lower), small for gestational age babies (RR 2.45 1.52-3.95), 5-minute Apgar score less than 7 (RR 2.11 1.03-4.29), NICU admission (RR 3.34 1.61-6.9) and Neonatal Near Miss (3.65 1.78-7.49). Weight gain rate per week, obesity and diastolic blood pressure equal to or higher than 75 mmHg at 20 weeks of gestation were shown to be associated with preeclampsia. Preeclampsia also led to a higher number of C-sections and prolonged hospital admission, in addition to worse neonatal outcomes.
Phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) from snake venoms comprise a group of 14-18 kDa proteins, responsible for several toxic effects induced by the whole venom. Considering this, studies aiming at the search ...for natural inhibitors of these proteins are very important. The present work had as objectives the isolation and functional/structural characterization of a γ-type phospholipase A2 inhibitor (PLI) from Bothrops jararacussu snake plasma, named γBjussuMIP. This acidic glycoprotein was isolated in a high purity level through affinity chromatography on CNBr-Sepharose 4B coupled with BthTXII, showing a pI ∼ 5.5 and molecular weight of 23,500 for the monomer (determined by SDS-PAGE), and 160,000 for the oligomer (determined by molecular exclusion chromatography on Sephacryl S-200). The interaction between γBjussuMIP (MIP) and Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) was confirmed using circular dichroism (CD) and emission fluorescence techniques. The helical content of the 1:1 molar mixture was higher than that calculated for the addition of the spectra of the unbound proteins indicating binding. The emission fluorescence experiments pointed that Trp residues in PLA2 participate in proteins interaction as blue shift of 4 nm was observed. The γBjussuMIP cDNA, obtained by PCR of the liver of B. jararacussu snake, revealed 543 bp codifying for a mature protein of 181 amino acid residues. Alignment of its amino acid sequence with those of other snake γPLIs showed 89-94% of similarity. γBjussuMIP mainly inhibited the pharmacological properties of Asp49 PLA2s, such as phospholipase, anticoagulant, myotoxic, edema inducing, cytotoxic, bactericidal and lethal activities. In addition, it showed to be able to supplement Bothrops antivenom, potentiating its antimyotoxic effect. The aspects broached in this work will be able to provide complementary information on possible mechanisms of action, relating structure and function, which could result in a better understanding of the inhibitory effects induced by γBjussuMIP.
This work reports the concept and development of two mechanically frequency-tunable horn filtennas for microwave and millimeter-waves. Our design approach relies on the integration of a horn antenna ...with a mechanically tunable filter based on dual-post resonators. The proposed filtennas have been manufactured and experimentally characterized, by means of reflection coefficient, radiation pattern, and gain. Measurements demonstrate that both filtennas have a tuning ratio of approximately 1.37 with continuous adjustment. The first prototype operates from 2.56 to 3.50 GHz, whereas in the second one the bandwidth is from 17.4 to 24.0 GHz. In addition, the higher-frequency filtenna has been implemented in a 5.0-meter-reach indoor environment, using a 16-QAM signal at 24 GHz. The best configuration in terms of performance resulted in a root mean square error vector magnitude (EVMRMS) and antenna radiation efficiency of 3.69% and 97.0%, respectively.
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases ...of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local‐scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site‐level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
The collation of biodiversity datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents is necessary to understand historical declines and to project – and hopefully avert – future declines. We describe a newly collated database of more than 1.6 million biodiversity measurements from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local‐scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world.
Brazilian purpuric fever is a febrile hemorrhagic pediatric disease caused by
biogroup
, a bacterium which was formerly associated with only self-limited purulent conjunctivitis. Here, we present ...draft genomes of strains from five Brazilian purpuric fever cases and one conjunctivitis case.
Forest landscape restoration (FLR) commitments have been established in the past years to restore over 200 million hectares, as part of the global Bonn Challenge goal, mostly through the ...implementation of several different restorative practices in degraded lands, ranging from commercial tree monocultures to restoration plantings. The potential of such contrasting restorative practices to support biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision vary over space and time, making the monitoring of FLR programs an emerging challenge. Remote sensing techniques, together with innovative technologies for data acquisition, treatment, and analysis have proven to be strategic for planning and monitoring FLR, yet there are still important unresolved questions. Here, we evaluated the potential of multispectral orbital images of the high spatial (5 m) and spectral (12 bands) resolution VENμS microsatellite, joint project of the Israeli Space Agency and CNES, to classify the spectral behavior and diversity of six tree cover classes (savanna woodlands, old- and second-growth semi-deciduous forests, young restoration plantings, and eucalyptus and pine tree monocultures) commonly found in FLR programs in tropical regions. We assessed how these tree cover classes located in a study landscape in southeastern Brazil differ according to their spectral response (winter and summer bands, and vegetation indices), canopy variability (textural features), seasonal behavior (delta layers - difference between summer and winter vegetation indexes), and spectral diversity, and used these attributes as variables to the model. We used the Random Forest algorithm to generate the models and evaluate how the tree cover classes differ in the classification and how the variables supported the model. We achieved high values of global accuracy (91.9%) and “F1 score” (above 0.8) for all tree cover classes, in which second-growth forest presented the lowest accuracy. The textural layers, delta layers, and the spectral diversity layers were the most important attributes to discriminate among tree cover classes. We demonstrate here the potential of using VENμS or similar sensor images together with different image processing and machine learning algorithms to monitor FLR programs, allowing further remote sensing approaches and in-deep field assessments to advance evaluation of FLR benefits for nature and people. We demonstrated how the fusion of all these types of data and innovative approaches to data processing, can result in novel ways to assess restoration performance and open new avenues to upscale monitoring, bridging the gap between FLR expectations and achieved goals.
•Modeling tree cover canopy for planning and monitoring FLR.•Combination of several data manipulation and machine learning algorithm to characterize forest canopy.•VENμS multiespectral images performed well in the forest types classification.•Spectral diversity atributes and textural features showed high importance to models' overall accuracy.•Models achieved 91.9% mean global accuracy and above 0.8 F1 score for all classes.
Purpose
The study aimed to investigate the change in the skin temperature after exercise-induced delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and after cold water immersion during a recovery period.
Methods
...Randomized controlled trial. Thirty-nine participants were randomly divided into four groups: group 1 (G1) which performed aerobic exercise; group 2 (G2) only performed plyometric exercise; group 3 (G3) was submitted to plyometric exercise and cold water immersion (CWI) protocol; and group 4 (G4) was the non-exercised control group. Skin temperature (TsK) was collected in two regions of interest (forehead and anterior thigh) at rest (T-rest), immediately after exercise (T0), 10, 20, and 30 min (T10, T20, and T30), and 24 and 48 h (T24 and T48) after exercise using an infrared camera. In addition, isometric knee extension strength and DOMS were assessed at times T-rest, T0, T24, and T48 for all groups.
Results
A higher skin temperature was indicated in the anterior thigh muscles that performed plyometric exercise (G2). This thermographic change was accomplished by a decrease in the knee extensor strength immediately after performing exercises. In addition, it seems clear from our data that CWI was effective in reducing Thigh’s TsK until 30 min after exercise, but had no effect on the Thigh’s TsK 24 and 48 h after exercise. CWI attenuated pain inducted by muscle compression 48 h after plyometric exercise.
Conclusion
This paper presents evidence that plyometric anaerobic exercise leads to a higher skin temperature on the exercised muscle groups than aerobic exercise and that the application of CWI has no influence on muscle temperature 24 h after exercise while minimizing DOMS and the deficit of isometric force.
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