Cellular uptake of BCG-loaded chitosan microparticles and in vivo evaluation of immune response following intranasal immunisation

Attenuated Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only currently available vaccine against tuberculosis. It is highly effective in pre-exposure immunisation against TB in children when administered by subcutaneous route to newborns. However, it does not provide permanent protection in adults. In this work, polymeric chitosan-alginate microparticles have been evaluated as potential nasal delivery systems and mucosal adjuvants for live attenuated BCG. Chitosan (CS) has been employed as adjuvant and mucosal permeation-enhancer, and, together with alginate (ALG), as additive to enhance BCG-loaded microparticles (MPs) cellular uptake in a human monocyte cell line, by particle surface modification. The most suitable particles were used for vaccine formulation and evaluation of immune response following intranasal immunisation of BALB/c mice

ENTRE A DECADÊNCIA E A RENOVAÇÃO: estratégias de sobrevivência de antigos hotéis localizados no hipercentro de Belo Horizonte

Este estudo tem como objetivo identificar as estratégias utilizadas por antigos hotéis localizados no hipercentro de Belo Horizonte para sobreviver às transformações ambientais que afetaram o setor, tais como a degradação do hipercentro da cidade e o aumento da concorrência, bem como a outros fatores, tais como alterações na estrutura de propriedade e controle e, sobretudo, ao próprio tempo físico e histórico. Para compreensão do processo estratégico dessas organizações, foram utilizadas as contribuições teóricas de Mintzberg, Ahlstrand e Lampel (2000), que concebem a estratégia como um padrão consistente ao longo do tempo, bem como a tipologia estratégica de Miles e Snow (1978). Foi realizado um estudo qualitativo, por meio da técnica de estudos de caso, a partir de entrevistas em profundidade, realizadas com os sóciosproprietários e gestores dos três hotéis pesquisados, tendo todos esses mais de 40 anos de existência. As informações coletadas foram tratadas por meio da técnica de análise temática de conteúdo. Os resultados mostram que essas organizações adotam comportamentos estratégicos defensivos, apresentam uma capacidade relativa de escanear o ambiente que as cerca, minimizam a importância dos fatores exógenos, e suas estratégias geralmente emergem de um processo quase errático, mais com o objetivo de resolver um problema imediato do que propriamente de constituir um padrão estratégico. Embora as alternativas estratégicas utilizadas tenham permitido a sobrevivência dessas organizações, novos desafios e também perspectivas promissoras parecem exigir que essas organizações (re)definam seus processos estratégicos para o futuro

One-year predictors of PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression in SARS-CoV-2 survivors: Psychological flexibility and major life events as main predictive factors

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic held considerable health-related outcomes worldwide, including mental health challenges, with elevated risk of psychiatric sequelae. Methods: This study aimed to test the longitudinal (1 year) predictive role of psychosocial factors on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depressive symptoms in SARS-CoV-2 survivors (N = 209 at T1; N = 61; attrition rate 70.83%), through Pearson’s correlation analyses and longitudinal multiple regression analyses. Participants (age M = 35.4, SD = 10.1) completed online self-report questionnaires of psychosocial variables, PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Results: Depression and anxiety symptoms were increased, and 42% of survivors presented clinically meaningful PTSD symptoms. PTSD symptoms were longitudinally predicted by having children (β = 0.32, p < 0.01), number of recent major life events (β = 0.34, p < 0.01), and psychological flexibility (β = −0.36, p < 0.01). Number of major life events (β = 0.29, p < 0.05) and psychological flexibility (β = −0.29, p < 0.05) predicted anxiety. Number of recent major life events (β = 0.32, p < 0.01) was the sole predictor of depressive symptoms. Discussion: Psychosocial variables contribute to the long-term harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychopathological symptoms. These results suggest that, during the pandemic, mental health was impacted by both socio-contextual factors and individual self-regulatory skills, namely the ability to respond flexibily to contextual cues and guide behavior according to the direct experience. Specifically, results point out the importance of societal incentives to reduce parental burden and socioeconomic losses, as well as to promote adaptive psychological skills such as psychological flexibility

The posttraumatic stress disorder project in Brazil: neuropsychological, structural and molecular neuroimaging studies in victims of urban violence

Abstract Background Life trauma is highly prevalent in the general population and posttraumatic stress disorder is among the most prevalent psychiatric consequences of trauma exposure. Brazil has a unique environment to conduct translational research about psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder, since urban violence became a Brazilian phenomenon, being particularly related to the rapid population growth of its cities. This research involves three case-control studies: a neuropsychological, a structural neuroimaging and a molecular neuroimaging study, each focusing on different objectives but providing complementary information. First, it aims to examine cognitive functioning of PTSD subjects and its relationships with symptomatology. The second objective is to evaluate neurostructural integrity of orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus in PTSD subjects. The third aim is to evaluate if patients with PTSD have decreased dopamine transporter density in the basal ganglia as compared to resilient controls subjects. This paper shows the research rationale and design for these three case-control studies. Methods and design Cases and controls will be identified through an epidemiologic survey conducted in the city of São Paulo. Subjects exposed to traumatic life experiences resulting in posttraumatic stress disorder (cases) will be compared to resilient victims of traumatic life experiences without PTSD (controls) aiming to identify biological variables that might protect or predispose to PTSD. In the neuropsychological case-control study, 100 patients with PTSD, will be compared with 100 victims of trauma without posttraumatic stress disorder, age- and sex-matched controls. Similarly, 50 cases and 50 controls will be enrolled for the structural study and 25 cases and 25 controls in the functional neuroimaging study. All individuals from the three studies will complete psychometrics and a structured clinical interview (the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Global Assessment of Function, The Social Adjustment Scale, Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, Early Trauma Inventory, Clinical global Impressions, and Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire). A broad neuropsychological battery will be administered for all participants of the neuropsychological study. Magnetic resonance scans will be performed to acquire structural neuroimaging data. Single photon emission computerized tomography with [(99m)Tc]-TRODAT-1 brain scans will be performed to evaluate dopamine transporters. Discussion This study protocol will be informative for researchers and clinicians interested in considering, designing and/or conducting translational research in the field of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.</p

The impact of breeding Yellow-Legged Gulls on vegetation cover and plant composition of Grey Dune habitats

The establishment of large populations of yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis in coastal and urban areas can lead to strong changes in vegetation cover and composition through creating physical disturbance in the vegetation and impacting the soil quality through defecation. In this study, we evaluated the effects of breeding yellow-legged gull populations on tall and short vegetation cover and plant species composition in old (occupied for 13 years) and new (occupied for 3 years) colony sites in grey dunes of the Algarve, southern Portugal. In each site, sampling plots were used to measure the percentage of vegetation cover in areas with and without breeding gulls. In the old colony site, the cover by tall vegetation was substantially reduced and the cover by short vegetation substantially increased in the areas where gulls are breeding in comparison with the adjacent areas. In the new colony sites, there were only minor differences. The increase in cover of short vegetation in the breeding area of the old colony site was mostly by nitrophilous species (Paronychia argentea and Malcolmia littorea) and should be explained by the decrease in vegetation cover of tall plant species and by feces deposition. Tall and slow-growing species Suaeda maritima and Helichrysum italicum covers were negatively affected. Our results showed that yellow-legged gulls affected vegetation cover and composition of grey dunes after 3 years of consecutive breeding, and this should be considered in the management of these habitats where breeding yellow-legged gulls are increasing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparative Analyses of Power Consumption in Arithmetic Algorithms Implementation

Historically, energy management in computer science has been treated as an activity predominantly of hardware optimization. A great part of the effort on the area, even nowadays, is concerned in components activation, deactivation or resources scheduling to provide, as a final result, the reduction of total power consumption. This work is focused on the power consumption subject under the developer point of view, using a reliable power measurement framework, to validate the literature programming premises about programming options, as, for example, multiplication operations are high consuming in power energy. Besides some elementary operations and authors suggestions about alternatives for power consumption reduction on the programming stage, it was also compared two well used and known algorithms for big numbers multiplication, Karatsuba and Toom-Cook. The results lead to conclusions that would help the developer, in programming stage, to choose, in some cases, the best technique for reduction of power consumption, speed up the software developed, or take some decisions to limit the final software to be under some maximum power