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Bone defects and injuries are common, and better solutions are needed for improved regeneration and osseointegration. Bioresorbable membranes hold great potential in bone tissue engineering due to their high surface area and versatility. In this context, polymers such as poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) can be combined with osteoconductive materials like hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles (NPs) to create membranes with enhanced bioactivity and bone regeneration. Rotary Jet spinning (RJS) is a powerful technique to produce these composite membranes. This study presents an innovative and efficient method to obtain PLGA-HA(NPs) membranes with continuous fibers containing homogeneous HA(NPs) distribution. The membranes demonstrated stable thermal degradation, allowing HA(NPs) quantification. In addition, the PLGA-HA(NPs) presented osteoconductivity, were not cytotoxic, and had high cell adhesion when cultured with pre-osteoblastic cells. These findings demonstrate the potential of RJS to produce PLGA-HA(NPs) membranes for easy and effective application in bone regeneration.

The poor diet quality in line with the rising prevalence of noncommunicable chronic diseases, coupled with the substantial deficit in nutritional education within medical training programs, has precipitated the emergence of Culinary Medicine as an evolving discipline. Culinary Medicine fuses the art of home cooking with the sciences of human nutrition, psychology, gastronomy, and medicine to promote health and well-being. This comprehensive narrative review explores the diverse facets of Culinary Medicine, elucidating its historical evolution, theoretical foundations, educational initiatives in Brazil and worldwide, and its practical implementation in clinical contexts. By integrating evidence-based nutrition knowledge with culinary skills, behavior change tools, and well-established principles of healthy dietary practices, Culinary Medicine arrives to empower individuals - physicians and patients - to make informed dietary choices and enhance their overall health outcomes. Moreover, this review contemplates the roles of physicians in providing dietary guidance within the Culinary Medicine paradigm and the challenges associated with incorporating Culinary Medicine as a complementary facet of conventional medical care and medical education., Competing Interests: Disclosure: no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

The failure rate of restaurants is high in many countries, primarily because of the complex relationships between services and customers. Therefore, improving restaurant customer experience is a significant challenge for entrepreneurs. This multi-dimensional experience encompasses several aspects that may or may not be related to food consumption. Many restaurant owners can avoid bankruptcy if they understand theories of service quality and the factors involved. The objective of this research is to identify and summarize known important factors that lead consumers to choose, patronize or be satisfied with a restaurant. The research question for this review is: What are the important factors that influence consumers (population) to choose, patronize, or be satisfied with a restaurant  (outcome)? Therefore, we conducted an integrative review to address this question. We included 111 studies and identified 117 factors/indicators related to consumer satisfaction and restaurant choices. First, we grouped these factors into four categories based on the Big Four restaurant attributes: atmosphere, food, service, and price & value. Four categories emerged based on consumer- and business-related aspects: behavioral intentions, values and beliefs, experiences, and companies. The "food" category is the most important factor in consumer choice and experience. However, the importance of this category may vary depending on the situation (e.g., lunch, dinner, weekends, weekdays) and should be carefully considered, as all categories were relevant but intricate. Such factors are associated with many positive outcomes, such as satisfaction, loyalty, brand love, patronization, and intent to visit and revisit., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Sleeping and eating before and during an ultramarathon can directly affect an athlete's performance, who may also have their physiological adaptations and recovery process hindered by sleeping problems. Endurance and ultra-endurance athletes may have different sleep and nutrition profiles. Thus, this study aimed to describe the sleep profile (during preparation) and nutritional profile (during competition) of endurance (10-20km) and ultra-endurance (50-100km) running athletes. For this, 16 healthy volunteers answered questionnaires related to sleep quality (Pittsburgh sleep quality index), chronotype (morningness-eveningness questionnaire), and sleepiness (excessive daytime sleepiness questionnaire). Immediately after a competition, a form prepared by the research team about nutritional variables and volunteers' food records during the competition was applied. According to test scoring criteria (Pittsburgh sleep quality index >5; sleepiness >10), endurance running athletes showed low sleep quality. In addition, all athletes showed consumption of carbohydrates and lipids below the recommended, but excessive consumption of proteins. A positive association between sleepiness and sodium intake in endurance runners was observed (r=0.862; p =0.027). Sleep efficiency and race time showed a negative correlation only for ultra-endurance athletes (r=-0.834; p =0.039). The data obtained show that endurance athletes presented more sleep pattern alterations, however, endurance and ultra-endurance athletes showed inadequate nutritional consumption during the competition.

SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), as well as SARS-CoV from 2003 along with MERS-CoV from 2012, is a member of the Betacoronavirus genus of the Nidovirales order and is currently the cause of the pandemic called COVID-19 (or Coronavirus disease 2019). COVID-19, which is characterized by cough, fever, fatigue, and severe cases of pneumonia, has affected more than 23 million people worldwide until August 25th, 2020. Here, we present a review of the cellular mechanisms associated with human coronavirus replication, including the unique molecular events related to the replication transcription complex (RTC) of coronaviruses. We also present information regarding the interactions between each viral protein and cellular proteins associated to known host-pathogen implications for the coronavirus biology. Finally, a specific topic addresses the current attempts for pharmacological interventions against COVID-19, highlighting the possible effects of each drug on the molecular events of viral replication. This review intends to aid future studies for a better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 replication cycle and the development of pharmacological approaches targeting COVID-19.

Introduction: This study investigated the role of early public research funding regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil., Methods: We examined the budget for research projects relating to the number of cases and deaths and the relationship between each federal unit, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and the national GDP per capita., Results: Using data from the websites of official funding agencies and the Brazilian government, we found that, in the first four months since the first case in Wuhan, China (December 31, 2019), around US$ 38.3 million were directed to public funding for scientific investigations against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only 11 out of 27 federal units provided funding during the initial stages of the outbreak, and those that did provide financing were not necessarily the units having the most inhabitants, highest GDP, or the greatest number of cases. The areas of research interest were also identified in the funding documents; the most common topic was "diagnosis" and the least common was "equipment for treatment.", Conclusions: Brazilian researchers had access to funding opportunities for projects against COVID-19. However, strategies to minimize the economic impacts of COVID-19 are crucial in mitigating or avoiding substantial financial and social shortcomings, particularly in terms of an emerging market such as Brazil.

The COVID-19 pandemic is strongly impacting global health and mental health, and has caused routine changes in much of the world. All of these changes can have physical and mental consequences for the population. Metabolic changes, mood disorders and their pharmacotherapy, such as the use of antidepressants can increase the chances of developing sleep disorders, such as Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). As a way to avoid immunosuppression and the greater risk of contamination of COVID-19, it is recommended to perform exercise in light or moderate intensity. This is the first paper to reflect a possible impact of social distancing on RLS, and how it can affect the incidence of mood disorders and metabolic changes in this syndrome, as well as the quality of life of the population. We suggest that regular exercise at light or moderate intensity during home confinement may be effective strategies to minimize the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fear and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, threats to survival are one of the main problems of everyday life; however, mental health care must also be considered a priority. During social isolation also called self-quarantine, the restricted mobility and social contact, concern about financial resources and availability of supplies, fear of infection, questions about the duration of self-quarantine, cause anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia and reduced the quality and quantity of sleep, that may present a greater risk to the health of the general population. Sleep disorders are increasingly becoming a major health issue in modern society, and are influenced by retinal stimulation by electronic devices, as well extended and/or night shift-work, which may aggravate the systemic and lung inflammation during viral infections. Sleep disorders can induce pro-inflammatory states and be harmful during the COVID-19 pandemic. The possible interactions between many drugs used to treat COVID-19, and those used to treat sleep disorders are unknown, mostly due to the lack of a standard protocol to treat these patients. Insufficient sleep or irregular sleep-wake cycles may impair health, immune system, induce pro-inflammation state, and may lead to increased vulnerability to viral infections, involving inflammatory and oxidative/antioxidant imbalance. In this sense, obstructive sleep apnea has been associated with recognized COVID-19 risk comorbidities and considered a risk factor for COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care cannot stop, and telemedicine has presented itself as an alternative method of delivering services. When a face-to-face visit is mandatory, or in locations with minimal community transmission where sleep centers have resumed activities, it is important that the sleep center facilities are properly prepared to receive the patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, and follow all relevant safety rules. In this work we gathered a group of researchers, specialists in aspects related to chronobiology, sleep, sleep disorders, and the immune system. Thus, we conducted a narrative review in order to address the relationship between COVID-19 and sleep, as well as its immunological aspects and strategies that may be applied in order to mitigate the harmful effects on health that affects everyone during the pandemic.

Objective: To analyze the risk factors for death of trauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU)., Method: Retrospective cohort study with data from medical records of adults hospitalized for trauma in a general intensive care unit. We included patients 18 years of age and older and admitted for injuries. The variables were grouped into levels in a hierarchical manner. The distal level included sociodemographic variables, hospitalization, cause of trauma and comorbidities; the intermediate, the characteristics of trauma and prehospital care; the proximal, the variables of prognostic indices, intensive admission, procedures and complications. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed., Results: The risk factors associated with death at the distal level were age 60 years or older and comorbidities; at intermediate level, severity of trauma and proximal level, severe circulatory complications, vasoactive drug use, mechanical ventilation, renal dysfunction, failure to perform blood culture on admission and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II., Conclusion: The identified factors are useful to compose a clinical profile and to plan intensive care to avoid complications and deaths of traumatized patients.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate taste sensitivity and sleep pattern throughout age., Methods: Thirty-five male adults aged (25.05±0.71 years), and twenty- four older adults (68.92 ± 6.43 years) were selected and submitted to sleep evaluation (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale), as well as taste sensitivity. Taste sensitivity was evaluated using three dilutions and the different concentrations were presented for the four basic flavors (salty, sweet, bitter and sour). These samples were encoded with three digits and randomly presented to the participants in 50 mL plastic cups., Results: In both groups, sleep quality was poor (PSQI >5). Older adults presented a negative effect to identify sweet and salty taste and, in this population, sleep time was associated with sweet taste perception., Discussion: We may suggest that aging may cause changes in taste sensitivity, as well as total sleep time was observed to be a significant predictor of sweet taste. Sleep may play an important role in taste sensitivity, although the mechanisms are still unknown. Thus, the results of this research may contribute to the emergence of new studies that seek to better understand this relationship of sleep quality as taste sensitivity.

Non-pharmacologic treatments of Sleep-Related Movement Disorders (SRMD) are already well described in the literature. The physical activity has been presented as a factor to improve quality of life and in several aspects related to sleep disorders. Thus, the purpose of this review was to analyze the benefits of physical exercise and your indication to improve to SRMD. In the research, 19 studies were found that evaluate the efficacy of physical exercise on SRMD in both human and animal models. The results demonstrate that both acute and chronic physical exercises are effective in reducing symptoms of SRMD. However, most studies were performed with aerobic exercise. Three studies evaluated the efficacy of combined exercise, and no studies have investigated the relationship of resistance exercise. Regarding the mechanisms involved, a study discusses the relationship between the release of beta-endorphin and the exercise practice, and two studies with animal models show the changes of the dopaminergic system after physical exercise. From this evidences, we suggested that physical exercise is a favorable non-pharmacological treatment for SRMD. However, more studies should be available for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved, as well of the type, duration and better time of the day to practice.