Abstract Patients suffering from depression frequently display hyperactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) resulting in elevated cortisol levels. One main symptom of this condition ...is anhedonia. There is evidence that exercise training can be used as a rehabilitative intervention in the treatment of depressive disorders. In this scenario, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of an aerobic exercise training protocol on the depressive-like behavior, anhedonia, induced by repeated dexamethasone administration. The study was carried out on adult male Wistar rats randomly divided into four groups: the “control group” (C), “exercise group” (E), “dexamethasone group” (D) and the “dexamethasone plus exercise group” (DE). The exercise training consisted of swimming (1 h/d, 5 d/wk) for 3 weeks, with an overload of 5% of the rat body weight. Every day rats were injected with either dexamethasone (D/DE) or saline solution (C/E). Proper positive controls, using fluoxetine, were run in parallel. Decreased blood corticosterone levels, reduced adrenal cholesterol synthesis and adrenal weight (HPA disruption), reduced preference for sucrose consumption and increased immobility time (depressive-like behavior), marked hippocampal DNA oxidation, increased IL-10 and total brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF; pro-plus mature-forms) and a severe loss of body mass characterized the dexamethasone-treated animals. Besides increasing testosterone blood concentrations, the swim training protected depressive rats from the anhedonic state, following the same profile as fluoxetine, and also from the dexamethasone-induced impaired neurochemistry. The data indicate that physical exercise could be a useful tool in preventing and treating depressive disorders.
Asphalt rubber mixtures are often described as environmentally friendly mixtures due to the incorporation of recycled rubber from used tires and due to their improved service life. In fact, their ...fatigue cracking and rut resistance properties are better than those of conventional asphalt concrete mixtures. However, asphalt rubber mixtures demand higher production temperatures than conventional mixtures due to the higher viscosity of the asphalt rubber binder. The objective of this paper is to assess the efficiency of using a surfactant based additive in the production of warm mix asphalts, by lowering the mixing temperatures of asphalt rubber and asphalt concrete mixtures without changing their performance. Several laboratory tests were carried out on asphalt rubber and asphalt concrete mixtures, with and without the additive, in order to evaluate and compare the performance of the mixtures. It was concluded that the incorporation of small amounts of a surfactant based additive allowed reducing the production temperatures of both types of mixture by 30 °C without compromising their performance, and this can be seen as a great step forward towards the production of cleaner asphalt rubber mixtures.
► The surfactant based additive used barely change the properties of the binder. ► A reduction of 30 °C was obtained with just 0.3–0.5% surfactant WMA additive. ► The additive improved the water sensitivity of both AR and AC mixtures. ► WMA mixtures have shown similar or improved performance in comparison with HMAs. ► Cleaner production conditions were obtained with incorporation of the WMA additive.
•The road use phase should not be neglected in LCA methodologies.•A smoother surface course can reduce about 2% of the vehicles energy consumption.•The use of recycled materials mainly reduces the ...gaseous emissions of pavements.•Energy consumption over 20years is 700times higher than that of construction.•GHG emissions of vehicles are 1000times higher than those of construction phase.
In order to assess sustainability of products and processes, different methodologies have been developed and used in the last years. In the road pavement construction area, most methodologies used for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are essentially focused in the construction phase. The present paper analyses the importance of the use phase of a road in the LCA of different paving alternatives, namely by evaluating energy consumption and gaseous emissions throughout the road pavement’s life. Therefore, a new LCA methodology for road pavements was developed, and the results of its application to a case study involving the construction of alternative pavement structures are discussed. The study intends to assess the influence of using more sustainable paving construction alternatives (asphalt recycling vs. conventional asphalt mixtures), and/or different surface course materials (which have a higher influence on the rolling resistance and, therefore, affect the performance during the use phase). The LCA results obtained for this case study showed that the reductions in energy consumption and gaseous emissions obtained during the use phase, for pavement alternatives with a lower rolling resistance surface course, are higher than the total amount of energy consumption and gas emissions produced during construction. It is therefore clear that some improvements in the characteristics of the surface course may have an effect over the road use phase that will rapidly balance the initial costs and gas emissions of those interventions. The LCA results obtained also showed that the sustainability of pavement construction may also be improved using recycled asphalt mixtures.
A drawback of recycled mixtures containing reclaimed asphalt is their increased stiffness, further worsened by the accelerated aging of binders in extreme weather conditions. Previous studies have ...shown that while rejuvenating agents can mitigate some of these issues by improving flexibility and reducing brittleness, they often present challenges, such as performance variability and the potential for rutting. This study aims to develop an optimal blend of reclaimed bitumen, a rejuvenating agent, and pure bitumen to achieve rheological properties similar to a control 35/50 pen-grade bitumen for road paving. Hence, the rejuvenated binders comprised 30:70 blends of reclaimed asphalt bitumen and 50/70 pen-grade bitumen, adding 0.2% to 0.6% of a rejuvenating agent by mass of the reclaimed asphalt. Sample testing included conventional penetration grade, softening point, and viscosity tests, followed by dynamic shear rheometer tests under unaged, short-term, and long-term aging conditions. The results show that the binder blend with 0.4% rejuvenator closely resembles the rheological properties of 35/50 pen-grade bitumen. This blend exhibits a 20% to 55% stiffness reduction for recycled mixtures with 30% reclaimed asphalt. Notably, the rejuvenated binders exhibited a similar level of aging resistance to the control bitumen, with a marginal difference of less than 5% in aging ratios. Meanwhile, large strain amplitude tests showed the importance of defining maximum rejuvenating incorporation rates in recycled mixtures to avoid rutting problems, where binders with 0.4% rejuvenator doubled the rutting potential (Jnr values). This innovative study highlights the potential for enhancing recycled mixtures’ performance by evaluating rejuvenated reclaimed binders’ rheology subjected to different aging conditions, thus contributing to sustainability in pavement construction.
The yellow fever virus (YFV) epidemic in Brazil is the largest in decades. The recent discovery of YFV in Brazilian
species mosquitos highlights a need to monitor the risk of reestablishment of urban ...YFV transmission in the Americas. We use a suite of epidemiological, spatial, and genomic approaches to characterize YFV transmission. We show that the age and sex distribution of human cases is characteristic of sylvatic transmission. Analysis of YFV cases combined with genomes generated locally reveals an early phase of sylvatic YFV transmission and spatial expansion toward previously YFV-free areas, followed by a rise in viral spillover to humans in late 2016. Our results establish a framework for monitoring YFV transmission in real time that will contribute to a global strategy to eliminate future YFV epidemics.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a multifactorial disease that has a strong genetic component. The HLA-G is a nonclassical HLA class I locus that is associated with immunomodulatory functions, including ...downregulation of innate and adaptive immune responses and induction of immune tolerance. However, there is currently limited information about the involvement of HLA-G in T1D susceptibility. This case-control study aims to investigate the T1D susceptibility association of alleles and genotypes of a widely investigated 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in the HLA-G and to provide further evidence of the frequency distribution of class II HLA-DR-DQ-risk genotypes in T1D children and adolescents in the Brazilian population. The deletion allele and the homozygous deletion genotype are associated with susceptibility to T1D and the insertion allele and the heterozygous deletion/insertion genotype are associated with protection from T1D. We also confirm that genetic susceptibility to T1D is associated with the DRB1*03:01-DQA1*05:01-DQB1*02:01 and DRB1*04-DQA1*03:01-DQB1*03:02 haplotypes in Brazilian northeast region. The DR3-DQ2/DR4-DQ8 genotype conferred the highest detected risk for T1D. Our results identify a novel association of the 14-bp deletion allele and the homozygous deletion genotype with T1D development and provide additional evidence of the importance of HLA class II heterozygous DR3-DQ2/DR4-DQ8 genotype in T1D susceptibility.
Chronic wounds affect thousands of people worldwide, causing pain and discomfort to patients and represent significant economical burdens to health care systems. The treatment of chronic wounds is ...very difficult and complex, particularly when wounds are colonized by bacterial biofilms which are highly tolerant to antibiotics. Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis are within the most frequent bacteria present in chronic wounds. Bacteriophages (phages) have been proposed as an efficient and alternative against antibiotic-resistant infections, as those found in chronic wounds. We have isolated and characterized two novel enterococci phages, the siphovirus vB_EfaS-Zip (Zip) and the podovirus vB_EfaP-Max (Max) to be applied during wound treatment. Both phages demonstrated lytic behavior against E. faecalis and E. faecium. Genome analysis of both phages suggests the absence of genes associated with lysogeny. A phage cocktail containing both phages was tested against biofilms formed in wound simulated conditions at a multiplicity of infection of 1.0 and a 2.5 log CFU.mL
reduction in the bacterial load after at 3 h of treatment was observed. Phages were also tested in epithelial cells colonized by these bacterial species and a 3 log CFU.mL
reduction was observed using both phages. The high efficacy of these new isolated phages against multi-species biofilms, their stability at different temperatures and pH ranges, short latent periods and non-cytotoxicity to epithelial cells suggest their therapeutic use to control infectious biofilms present in chronic wounds.
Summary
Mosquito‐borne diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and, more recently, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) have a great impact in the public health. In addition, the presence of ...such viruses might have an impact on wild animal conservation as well as their possible role as animal reservoir. Here, we performed a serological survey searching for antibodies against a panel of flaviviruses ZIKV, Dengue virus (DENV), Yellow Fever virus (YFV), West Nile virus (WNV), Saint Louis Encephalitis virus (SLEV), Ilheus virus (ILHV) and Rocio virus (ROCV) using plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT90) in both free‐ranging and captive capuchin monkeys (Sapajus flavius and Sapajus libidinosus). Captive and free‐living monkeys were sampled between June 2015 and January 2016 in the state of Pernambuco, including in the border with State of Paraíba, the epicentre of the ZIKV epidemics in Brazil. We have found neutralizing antibodies for ZIKV, DENV‐1, DENV‐2, DENV‐3, DENV‐4, YFV, ILHV and SLEV in both S. flavius and S. libidinosus samples. No positives samples were found for ROCV and WNV. Our results suggest that these flaviviruses might be circulating in capuchin monkey in the studied region. The possible presence of these viruses represents a risk for public health, as well as for animal conservation, especially for S. flavius which is a critically endangered species, facing high risk of extinction.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and metastatic dissemination is the principal factor related to death by this disease. Breast cancer stem cells (bCSC) are thought to be ...responsible for metastasis and chemoresistance. In this study, based on whole transcriptome analysis from putative bCSC and reverse engineering of transcription control networks, we identified two networks associated with this phenotype. One controlled by SNAI2, TWIST1, BNC2, PRRX1 and TBX5 drives a mesenchymal or CSC-like phenotype. The second network is controlled by the SCML4, ZNF831, SP140 and IKZF3 transcription factors which correspond to immune response modulators. Immune response network expression is correlated with pathological response to chemotherapy, and in the Basal subtype is related to better recurrence-free survival. In patient-derived xenografts, the expression of these networks in patient tumours is predictive of engraftment success. Our findings point out a potential molecular mechanism underlying the balance between immune surveillance and EMT activation in breast cancer. This molecular mechanism may be useful to the development of new target therapies.
Highlights • Voluntary exercise produces antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects in mice. • Exercise stimulated brain mitochondrial activity and neuroplasticity. • Exercise stimulated expression ...of mitochondrial genes in the hippocampus. • There might be a link between mitochondrial and antidepressant-like activities.
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