Search Results (8)

Snakebites caused by Bothrops snakes are the most prevalent in the Amazon region, causing local and systemic complications. Local complications are mostly represented by necrosis, secondary bacterial infection and compartment syndrome. There are reports of long-term disabilities, but their burden is poorly investigated. This study aims to describe and estimate the frequency of physical and sensory long-term disabilities from Bothrops snakebites in the Manaus Region, in the western Brazilian Amazon region. Participants were >18-years individuals that accepted to return to the hospital 3–12 months (average follow-up time of 195 days) after the discharge for neuromusculoskeletal, chronic pain and sensory assessments. Assessment of disability was also performed using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0). Factors associated with summary disability using WHODAS 2.0 were identified. Fifty participants were enrolled. A frequency of 20% of the participants reported difficulty in moving the affected limb (20%), and 23.7% reported difficulty in walking. Limitations of daily activities were reported by 26% of the patients. Decreased strength of the affected limb was observed in 22% of the patients. Decreased range of joint motion was seen in 20% of the patients. Chronic pain was reported in 48% of the patients. Tactile sensibility was decreased in 30%, thermal sensibility in 14%, painful sensibility (hypoalgesia) in 12%, kinetic-postural sensibility (hypokinesthesia) in 4% and vibratory sensibility was decreased or abolished in 16% of the participants. Cognition and mobility domains were those with the highest frequencies of participants with any degree of disability, each with 57%. The summary WHODAS 2.0 disability rate was 59%. Age > 59 years (p = 0.02)] was associated with protection against disability. Difficulty in moving the limb (p = 0.05), pain at the affected limb (p < 0.01), limitations of daily activities (p < 0.01) and decreased thermal sensibility (p = 0.05) were significantly associated with disability. The present study consists of the first follow-up investigation involving Bothrops snakebite patients related to long-term disabilities. These findings represent important data on Bothrops snakebites causing clinically significant long-term neuromusculoskeletal and sensory disabilities, resulting in reduced quality of life of the patients. Full article

A one-year-old female miniature goat was presented to an emergency service after calving a dead goatling. Physical and ultrasonographic examination revealed the presence of a viable fetus; therefore, the goat was submitted to an emergency cesarean section. In the postoperative period, the animal had septic peritonitis caused by Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus casseliflavus. Both bacterial strains showed contrasting antimicrobial resistance profiles. Laparohysterectomy and abdominal cavity lavage were performed, but, once the animal had adhesions and necrotic lesions in abdominal organs, euthanasia was executed. A post-mortem examination revealed fibrino-necrotic septic peritonitis secondary to uterine rupture. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first detailed report of polymicrobial septic peritonitis in a miniature goat and the first report of septic peritonitis caused by E. faecium and E. casseliflavus. Full article

This paper proposes and implements a smart architecture for Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) that enables interoperability among devices from different manufacturers. This is achieved through the use of standardized elements and the design of an innovative middleware. The system comprises a control unit that communicates with smart outlets using the Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network (WI-SUN) Home Area Network (HAN) specification, while smart metering is achieved using the WI-SUN Field Area Network (FAN) specification. To manage important data, a web platform and mobile app were created. Additionally, machine learning techniques are utilized to identify energy consumption of individual appliances when only the aggregate energy consumption of the house is available. The architecture presented here supports real-time control of energy use and generation through HEMS, and new devices can be added transparently. Finally, a comparison of the proposed system with similar systems in literature highlights its many advantages in terms of functionality. Full article

Background: Low-frequency electrical stimulation (LFES) is an adjuvant method for heart failure (HF) patients with restrictions to start an exercise. However, the impact on molecular changes in circulating is unknown. We investigated the effects of 10 weeks of home-based LFES on plasma cytokines profile, redox biomarkers, metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity, and exercise performance in HF patients. Methods: Twenty-four HF patients (52.45 ± 9.15 years) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (EF < 40%), were randomly assigned to a home-based LFES or sham protocol. Plasma cytokines profile was assessed through interleukins, interferon-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor levels. Oxidative stress was evaluated through ferric reducing antioxidant power, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, and inducible nitric oxide synthase. The MMPs activity were analyzed by zymography. Cardiorespiratory capacity and muscle strength were evaluated by cardiopulmonary test and isokinetic. Results: LFES was able to increase the active-MMP2 activity post compared to pre-training (0.057 to 0.163, p = 0.0001), while it decreased the active-MMP9 (0.135 to 0.093, p = 0.02). However, it did not elicit changes in cytokines, redox biomarkers, or exercise performance (p > 0.05). Conclusion: LFES protocol is a promising intervention to modulate MMPs activity in HFrEF patients, although with limited functional effects. These preliminary responses may help the muscle to adapt to future mechanical demands dynamically. Full article

SARS-CoV-2 serologic surveys estimate the proportion of the population with antibodies against historical variants, which nears 100% in many settings. New approaches are required to fully exploit serosurvey data. Using a SARS-CoV-2 anti-Spike (S) protein chemiluminescent microparticle assay, we attained a semi-quantitative measurement of population IgG titers in serial cross-sectional monthly samples of blood donations across seven Brazilian state capitals (March 2021–November 2021). Using an ecological analysis, we assessed the contributions of prior attack rate and vaccination to antibody titer. We compared anti-S titer across the seven cities during the growth phase of the Delta variant and used this to predict the resulting age-standardized incidence of severe COVID-19 cases. We tested ~780 samples per month, per location. Seroprevalence rose to >95% across all seven capitals by November 2021. Driven by vaccination, mean antibody titer increased 16-fold over the study, with the greatest increases occurring in cities with the highest prior attack rates. Mean anti-S IgG was strongly correlated (adjusted R2 = 0.89) with the number of severe cases caused by Delta. Semi-quantitative anti-S antibody titers are informative about prior exposure and vaccination coverage and may also indicate the potential impact of future SARS-CoV-2 variants. Full article

Intracellular peptides (InPeps) generated by proteasomes were previously suggested as putative natural regulators of protein–protein interactions (PPI). Here, the main aim was to investigate the intracellular effects of intracellular peptide VFDVELL (VFD7) and related peptides on PPI. The internalization of the peptides was achieved using a C-terminus covalently bound cell-penetrating peptide (cpp; YGRKKRRQRRR). The possible inhibition of PPI was investigated using a NanoBiT^® luciferase structural complementation reporter system, with a pair of plasmids vectors each encoding, simultaneously, either FK506-binding protein (FKBP) or FKBP-binding domain (FRB) of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). The interaction of FKBP–FRB within cells occurs under rapamycin induction. Results shown that rapamycin-induced interaction between FKBP–FRB within human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells was inhibited by VFD7-cpp (10–500 nM) and FDVELLYGRKKRRQRRR (VFD6-cpp; 1–500 nM); additional VFD7-cpp derivatives were either less or not effective in inhibiting FKBP–FRB interaction induced by rapamycin. Molecular dynamics simulations suggested that selected peptides, such as VFD7-cpp, VFD6-cpp, VFAVELLYGRKKKRRQRRR (VFA7-cpp), and VFEVELLYGRKKKRRQRRR (VFA7-cpp), bind to FKBP and to FRB protein surfaces. However, only VFD7-cpp and VFD6-cpp induced changes on FKBP structure, which could help with understanding their mechanism of PPI inhibition. InPeps extracted from HEK293 cells were found mainly associated with macromolecular components (i.e., proteins and/or nucleic acids), contributing to understanding InPeps’ intracellular proteolytic stability and mechanism of action-inhibiting PPI within cells. In a model of cell death induced by hypoxia-reoxygenation, VFD6-cpp (1 µM) increased the viability of mouse embryonic fibroblasts cells (MEF) expressing mTORC1-regulated autophagy-related gene 5 (Atg5), but not in autophagy-deficient MEF cells lacking the expression of Atg5. These data suggest that VFD6-cpp could have therapeutic applications reducing undesired side effects of rapamycin long-term treatments. In summary, the present report provides further evidence that InPeps have biological significance and could be valuable tools for the rational design of therapeutic molecules targeting intracellular PPI. Full article

Under conditions of high temperature, humidity, and incidence of solar radiation, dairy cows use behavioral changes as a strategy to decrease the metabolic heat production at pasture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the behavioral and physiological responses of Gyr and Girolando (5/8 Holstein 3/8 Gyr, and ½ Holstein ½ Gyr) dairy cows submitted to environments with and without shade. The experiment was conducted at Embrapa Cerrados (Technology Center for Dairy Zebu breeds—CTZL), Brasilia, Distrito Federal—Brazil, with 48 Gyr and Girolando cows total in the lactation group, with low to medium milk production, in full sun or shade with Eucalyptus urograndis (267 plants/ha⁻¹). The physiological and behavioral characteristics evaluated were panting score, superficial temperature, and time spent grazing, ruminating, and lying down. Other traits included skin and coat thickness, hair diameter, density and length, and predominant coat color. In addition, body measurements, such as body length, the height of withers, chest circumference, and shin circumference, were measured. Shaded cows had 34% longer rumination times than cows in full sun (p = 0.01). With a temperature-humidity index ranging from 79 to 83, the rumination time was 1.7 times higher in cows under shade (p = 0.01) during a 24-h period of observation. There were no significant differences in the grazing time between the environments, but lying time was 23% longer in cows under the sun (p = 0.01). The panting score was not influenced by the environment (p = 0.17). Girolando cows had a 35% higher panting score than Gyr cows (p = 0.01) regardless of the environment. The panting score increased two and a half times during the afternoon compared with the morning (p = 0.01). The surface and rectal core temperatures had significant differences between treatments and time of the day. Body measurements were not different between cows in both environments, but there was a difference between breeds. The use of trees in pastures with a silvopastoral system for dairy zebu cows is indicated to improve grazing behavior, as well as time spent ruminating and lying down. Full article

Brazil has a monitoring system to track annual forest conversion in the Amazon and most recently to monitor the Cerrado biome. However, there is still a gap of annual land use and land cover (LULC) information in all Brazilian biomes in the country. Existing countrywide efforts to map land use and land cover lack regularly updates and high spatial resolution time-series data to better understand historical land use and land cover dynamics, and the subsequent impacts in the country biomes. In this study, we described a novel approach and the results achieved by a multi-disciplinary network called MapBiomas to reconstruct annual land use and land cover information between 1985 and 2017 for Brazil, based on random forest applied to Landsat archive using Google Earth Engine. We mapped five major classes: forest, non-forest natural formation, farming, non-vegetated areas, and water. These classes were broken into two sub-classification levels leading to the most comprehensive and detailed mapping for the country at a 30 m pixel resolution. The average overall accuracy of the land use and land cover time-series, based on a stratified random sample of 75,000 pixel locations, was 89% ranging from 73 to 95% in the biomes. The 33 years of LULC change data series revealed that Brazil lost 71 Mha of natural vegetation, mostly to cattle ranching and agriculture activities. Pasture expanded by 46% from 1985 to 2017, and agriculture by 172%, mostly replacing old pasture fields. We also identified that 86 Mha of the converted native vegetation was undergoing some level of regrowth. Several applications of the MapBiomas dataset are underway, suggesting that reconstructing historical land use and land cover change maps is useful for advancing the science and to guide social, economic and environmental policy decision-making processes in Brazil. Full article