Breast milk is known to contain bioactive peptides that are released during digestion, being a major source of bioactive peptides to the new-born, some of which act against invading pathogens. ...However, the formation of bioactive peptides during digestion of human colostrum remains largely uninvestigated. This study aimed to investigate the formation of peptides during simulated digestion of human colostrum from adult women and to prospect antimicrobial peptides. For this purpose, we used high-resolution MS to monitor the release of peptides during
digestion. Bioinformatics was used for the prospection of antimicrobial activity of peptides. During simulated digestion (oral, gastric and duodenal phases), 2318 peptide sequences derived from 112 precursor proteins were identified. At the end of simulated digestion, casein-derived peptide sequences were the most frequently observed. Among precursors, some proteins were seen for the first time in this study. The resulting peptides were rich in proline, glutamine, valine and leucine residues, providing characteristic traits of antimicrobial peptides. From bioinformatics analysis, seven peptides showed potentially high antimicrobial activity towards bacteria, viruses and fungi, from which the latter was the most prominent predicted activity. Antimicrobial peptides released during digestion may provide a defence platform with controlled release for the new-born.
The high volume of mine tailings generated during mining activities poses significant worldwide storage risks. However, these tailings often contain valuable metals that can be recovered. Therefore, ...reprocessing mine tailings has emerged as a crucial strategy to assess secondary metals resources and mitigate storage risks. Furthermore, the mining industry’s extensive use of freshwater necessitates exploring alternative water sources. In this study, the leaching of base metals from mine tailings in chloride-based media was investigated. Approximately 52% Cu, 73% Zn, and 100% Pb were leached from the sample in the presence of HCl and NaCl. The substitution of freshwater with seawater yielded comparable results, demonstrating the potential of seawater as an alternative freshwater source that does not compromise leaching effectiveness. Additionally, 77% of Pb precipitated as PbSO4 from the pregnant leach solution. Through solvent extraction, approximately 100% Cu was recovered using LIX 984 as an extractant, and 71% Zn with D2EHPA. The use of Fe0 significantly reduced the co-extraction of Fe in the Zn recovery step. Overall, this study provides a potential route for reprocessing mine tailings, ensuring maximum leaching and efficient recovery of metals from sulfide mine tailings.
Radiopharmaceuticals have been used to diagnose several diseases, particularly because the procedure is non-invasive. However, it is important that the correct amount of radiopharmaceutical is used ...to avoid inaccurate diagnostic results and suboptimal therapeutic outcomes. The amount of the radiopharmaceutical is measured when produced (by the supplier) and a second time (by the receiver), before it's use. When measured at the receiver, the result is corrected for its normal radioactivity decay. Even then, it is possible that both measurements should be considered nominal different or even statistically different when compared through various statistical tools. This research combines two innovative techniques in the field of clinical metrology. The first technique is data reconciliation, which not only enhances measurement accuracy but also reduces measurement uncertainty. The second technique involves using uncertainty information to establish specification limits for compliance assessments. In this way, our proposal aimed to minimize the risk of making incorrect decisions regarding the conformity of the concentration of radiopharmaceutical activity, that is, rejecting an item or batch that is within specification or accepting an item or batch that is outside of specification. A spreadsheet, based on these metrology fundamentals, is available to help the user with the calculations, presenting numerical and graphical results for some common radioisotopes. Reliable specification limits can be calculated and used to determine if the radiopharmaceutical is in accordance with its proposed application.
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Purpose
Evaluate the impact of TERTp mutation on the outcomes after initial treatment of 45 patients with thyroid carcinomas derived from follicular cells (TCDFC) with aggressive histology, in which ...the role of this mutation is not yet well defined.
Methods
Analysis of the presence of TERTp (−124C > T and −146C > T), BRAF (V600E), and NRAS (Q 61R) mutations by Sanger sequencing and analysis of their correlation with the patient’s outcomes.
Results
Forty-five patients with aggressive histopathologic variants were included in the study. Of these, 68.9% had aggressive variants of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), 22.2% had poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC)/insular carcinoma, and 8.9% had invasive follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) with Hurthle cell features (Hurthle cell carcinoma). Lymph node metastases were present in 46.7% and distant metastases in 54.6%. The response to the initial therapy was excellent in 45.5% and structurally incomplete in 50%. During the follow-up period (median of 56 months; 5–360 months), 47.7% presented with disease progression and 17.8% experienced disease-related death. In 53.3% of the cases at least one molecular alteration (TERTp in 33.4%, BRAF in 24.5%, RAS in 8.9%) was detected. In the multivariate analysis, TERTp mutation was the factor associated with the highest risk (6 times) of having structural disease after initial therapy (
p
= 0.01), followed by vascular invasion (
p
= 0.02), gross extrathyroidal extension (ETE) (
p
= 0.02) and distant metastasis (
p
= 0.04). Regarding mutational status, only TERTp mutation was associated with disease progression, and diminished disease progression-free survival (PFS). The presence of distant metastasis, vascular invasion and gross ETE were significantly associated with the risk of disease progression.
Conclusions
TERTp mutation appears be an indicator of both persistence and progression of structural disease after initial therapy in aggressive variants of TCDFC, and associates with a shorter progression free survival regardless of the therapy employed.
Purpose
Social Rhythm Metric (SRM) is a self-administered instrument to specifically measure the regularity of the occurrence of several daily activities. This study aimed to establish a short form ...of the SRM to assess the social rhythm of stroke patients.
Methods
The sample consisted of 84 patients, mean age 60 years (± 10), and injury time of 19 months (± 22). For seven consecutive days, patients recorded the time of day at which all 17 SRM activities were performed. Data analysis was conducted using factor analysis.
Results
SRM activities were distributed in three forms: the first and second involving 6 activities and a third form with 3 activities. The first form consisted of the following activities: get out of bed, first contact with a person, morning beverage, breakfast, evening TV news program and bedtime; and obtained the highest ALI (Activity Level Index) and SRM scores (29 and 6, respectively). When confirmatory factorial analysis was performed, there was an improvement in the goodness-of-fit statistics only for the first short form of SRM:
χ
2
/
df
value was below 3; RMSEA and values of CFI and TLI increased greatly, reaching approximately the appropriate values for the model adjustment (RMSEA = 0.08, CFI = 0.92 and TLI = 0.81).
Conclusions
The first form was considered the appropriate short form to assess SRM in stroke patients. This instrument may be useful in neurological rehabilitation and evaluating the social and functional impact of this disease.
In this work, we developed a method for the quantification of free glycerol in biodiesel using electrochemical detection and solid phase extraction (SPE). SPE was performed using commercial ...stationary silica phase cartridges to isolate free glycerol from the combined glycerol (such as acylglycerols) and the methyl esters. The electrochemical method was performed by cyclic voltammetry in KOH solution using a glassy carbon electrode modified with Pd nanoparticles. The electrodeposition of palladium nanoparticles was optimized with a complete 3
2
factorial design with triplicate at the central point. The analytical performance of the method was evaluated in terms of linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision (repeatability), and accuracy (recovery). The proposed method exhibits good linearity (
R
2
= 0.99525). The LOD and LOQ values were determined visually, the LOD was1.00 × 10
−6
% w/w, and the LOQ was 3.30 × 10
−6
% w/w, presenting better performance compared with other methods described in the literature. The precision was determined by the relative standard deviation (RSD%), and the values obtained were less than 5%. The recovery ranged between 95.8 and 101%. The proposed method proved to be efficient in the quantification of free glycerol in biodiesel, and the results correlate well with the reference method (GC). The results indicate that the method is presented as an alternative to costly and slow GC-based techniques.
Analytical curves are normally obtained from discrete data by least squares regression. The least squares regression of data involving significant error in both x and y values should not be ...implemented by ordinary least squares (OLS). In this work, the use of orthogonal distance regression (ODR) is discussed as an alternative approach in order to take into account the error in the x variable. Four examples are presented to illustrate deviation between the results from both regression methods. The examples studied show that, in some situations, ODR coefficients must substitute for those of OLS, and, in other situations, the difference is not significant.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) induces vascular adaptations that might be attenuated by postexercise cold-water immersion (CWI). Circulating angiogenic cells (CAC) participate in the ...vascular adaptations and circulating endothelial cells (CEC) indicate endothelial damage. CAC and CEC are involved in vascular adaptation. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate postexercise CWI during HIIT on CAC and CEC and on muscle angiogenesis-related molecules. Seventeen male subjects performed 13 HIIT sessions followed by 15 min of passive recovery (n = 9) or CWI at 10 °C (n = 8). HIIT comprised cycling (8–12 bouts, 90%–110% peak power). The first and the thirteenth sessions were similar (8 bouts at 90% of peak power). Venous blood was drawn before exercise (baseline) and after the recovery strategy (postrecovery) in the first (pretraining) and in the thirteenth (post-training) sessions. For CAC and CEC identification lymphocyte surface markers (CD133, CD34, and VEGFR2) were used. Vastus lateralis muscle biopsies were performed pre- and post-training for protein (p-eNOS
ser1177
) and gene (VEGF and HIF-1) expression analysis related to angiogenesis. CAC was not affected by HIIT or postexercise CWI. Postexercise CWI increased acute and baseline CEC number. Angiogenic protein and genes were not differently modulated by post-CWI. HIIT followed by either recovery strategy did not alter CAC number. Postexercise CWI increased a marker of endothelial damage both acutely and chronically, suggesting that this postexercise recovery strategy might cause endothelial damage.
Novelty
HIIT followed by CWI did not alter CAC.
HIIT followed by CWI increased CEC.
Postexercise CWI might cause endothelial damage.
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