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Abstract Secondary metabolites play important physiological roles being bioactive as defences against other organisms, or attractive signals used for various purposes, including reproduction. Their production and the emission in the environment may be viewed as an adaptive feature subjected to evolutionary selection. They were demonstrated to be useful for applications in various biotechnological fields, such as pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical. Sponges and microalgae, including diatoms, are the most promising sources of bioactive compounds from the sea. We aimed at detecting the ecotoxicological effects of crude extracts and fractions obtained from three marine sponges, Geodia cydonium, Haliclona (Halichoclona) vansoesti and Agelas oroides and two benthic diatoms, Nanofrustulum shiloi and Cylindrotheca closterium on model marine organisms. We tested their effects on the Mediterranean purple sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, and on two diatoms, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Cylindrotheca closterium, chosen because they are considered standard indicators for assessment of ecological impacts. Our results showed that extracts and fractions from both sponges and diatoms may be harmful for model invertebrates. However, eggs appeared “protected” from sponge allelochemicals when still unfertilized. The majority of sponge fractions exhibited noticeable impacts during the post-fertilization treatments. In contrast, fractions from diatoms notably increased the rate of malformations compared to the control, both in pre- and post-fertilization treatments.

Garantir que 99% da população tenha acesso à água potável é uma das metas dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável. No entanto, em áreas de vulnerabilidade, como ocupações urbanas irregulares, podem ser observados elevados índices de doenças de veiculação hídrica devido à falta de saneamento. Nesse contexto, este trabalho avaliou a qualidade da água do Bairro Élisson Prieto (“Ocupação do Glória”), no município de Uberlândia/MG, e promoveu a conscientização da população acerca da importância do saneamento básico e do cuidado com doenças associadas ao consumo de água contaminada. Após o mapeamento da área, foram coletadas e analisadas amostras de água de 25 residências, nas quais detectou-se a presença de bactérias coliformes em seis pontos. Esses resultados indicaram que a condição sanitária do bairro se encontra deficiente, expondo a população a riscos à saúde. O processo de conscientização foi realizado por meio de palestra informativa, distribuição de cartilhas e aplicação de questionários aos moradores. A comunidade local foi instruída quanto à descontaminação e ao armazenamento correto da água para consumo, além de cuidados de higiene. Os resultados indicaram que o projeto de extensão foi uma importante ferramenta de transmissão dos conhecimentos adquiridos na universidade para a população acerca da qualidade da água e de seus impactos na saúde.

Sponges play a significant role in many marine environments. In tropical regions, the relationship between Porifera and spongivorous organisms, including fish, has been extensively studied. In the Mediterranean Sea, the dominant predators of sponges are sea stars, sea urchins and nudibranches, while knowledge of fish feeding on sponges is limited to sporadic events. This study aimed to investigate sponges as part of the diet of the white seabream Diplodus sargus. The results revealed that sponges were abundantly present in seabream stomachs, reaching up to 79.7% of the total biomass ingested by a single individual. Five different species were found in fish stomachs. The presence and organization of the spicular component seemed to affect the biting strategy of fish. Sponges with a prevalent organic component, such as Chondrosia reniformis Nardo, 1847, and Chondrilla nucula Schmidt, 1862, were ingested as fragments, while specimens of the Tethya citrina Sarà & Melone, 1965, characterized by a globular body, were engulfed entirely. Data from this study represent the first effort to investigate the trophic relationship between fish and Porifera in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pasta, a Mediterranean diet staple, enhances well-being when enriched with healthy ingredients like durum wheat-germ (WG) and wheat-bran (WB). We studied the nutritional and clinical responses to four experimental pastas (EP1-EP4) made with de-oiled WG, WB, and microencapsulated durum wheat-oil (mWO), compared to a control pasta of water and semolina dough. WG addition significantly boosted total phenols and radical scavenging activity. Simulated colonic fermentation showed WG-enriched pasta enhanced short-chain fatty acids production.The clinical response to pasta was studied in 70 healthy subjects by semiquantitative scales of sensory perception, functional ultrasonography of gastric and gallbladder kinetics, and breath test for orocecal transit time. Sensory analysis revealed differences in odor, aftertaste, and overall pleasantness, especially in EP2. Gastrointestinal motility was similar across pastas, but EP3 had a shorter transit time and higher colonic fermentation. This study suggests that wheat by-products enriched pastas offer nutraceutical benefits, agreeability, digestibility, and sustainability.

Introduction:A growing literature has shown that exposure to adverse life events during childhood or adolescence is associated with the presence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), which is in turn associated with the risk of psychotic outcomes. Ruminative thinking, i.e., the tendency to dwell on particular issues or ideas, may affect the perceived aversiveness and ability to cope with adverse life events. However, the role that rumination plays in the relationship between adverse life events and the presence of PLEs remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to assess the association between adverse life events and PLEs in a longitudinal sample of young adults and adolescents, and to investigate whether this relationship is mediated by ruminative thinking.MethodsWe used a longitudinal naturalistic sample of 706 volunteers assessed at ages 18 and 22 years, within the Imagen consortium. Lifetime occurrence of adverse life events (i.e., events perceived as strongly negative by participants) was investigated using the Life Events Questionnaire. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE-42) served to assess the presence of PLEs, while ruminative thinking was investigated through the Ruminative Response Scale.ResultsResults showed that both frequency of PLEs and their persistence over time were associated with greater adverse life events exposure (r = 0.32, p < 0.001 and F1 = 9.8; p < 0.001, respectively) and greater ruminative response (r = 0.66, p < 0.001 and F1 = 94.9; p < 0.001, respectively). Mediation analyses showed that relationship between adverse life events and PLEs frequency was partially mediated by rumination (direct effect Z: 5.4, p < 0.001; indirect effect Z: 6.9, p < 0.001; total effect Z: 5.9, p < 0.001). Considering changes between the two assessment timepoints, relationship between PLEs variation between 18 and 22 years and adverse life events occurred during the same period was partially mediated by changes in rumination (direct effect Z: 2.8, p < 0.005; indirect effect Z: 4.3, p < 0.001; total effect Z: 4.3; p < 0.001).DiscussionOverall, our findings confirm that the presence of adverse life events may increase the risk of experiencing PLEs in healthy individuals and suggest that dysfunctional coping strategies, such as ruminative thinking, may be related to psychosis proneness. Results do not disentangle whether individuals with greater risk for psychosis tend to ruminate more or whether rumination exacerbates psychosis risk.

Abstract Age is the most important risk factor in degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA), which is associated with the accumulation of senescent cells in the joints. Here, we aimed to assess the impact of senescence on the therapeutic properties of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from human fat mesenchymal stromal cells (ASCs) in OA. We generated a model of DNA damage-induced senescence in ASCs using etoposide and characterized EVs isolated from their conditioned medium (CM). Senescent ASCs (S-ASCs) produced 3-fold more EVs (S-EVs) with a slightly bigger size and that contain 2-fold less total RNA. Coculture experiments showed that S-ASCs were as efficient as healthy ASCs (H-ASCs) in improving the phenotype of OA chondrocytes cultured in resting conditions but were defective when chondrocytes were proliferating. S-EVs were also impaired in their capacity to polarize synovial macrophages towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype. A differential protein cargo mainly related to inflammation and senescence was detected in S-EVs and H-EVs. Using the collagenase-induced OA model, we found that contrary to H-EVs, S-EVs could not protect mice from cartilage damage and joint calcifications, and were less efficient in protecting subchondral bone degradation. In addition, S-EVs induced a pro-catabolic and pro-inflammatory gene signature in the joints of mice shortly after injection, while H-EVs decreased hypertrophic, catabolic and inflammatory pathways. In conclusion, S-EVs are functionally impaired and cannot protect mice from developing OA.

Abstract The polygenic architecture of schizophrenia implicates several molecular pathways involved in synaptic function. However, it is unclear how polygenic risk funnels through these pathways to translate into syndromic illness. Using tensor decomposition, we analyze gene co-expression in the caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of post-mortem brain samples from 358 individuals. We identify a set of genes predominantly expressed in the caudate nucleus and associated with both clinical state and genetic risk for schizophrenia that shows dopaminergic selectivity. A higher polygenic risk score for schizophrenia parsed by this set of genes predicts greater dopamine synthesis in the striatum and greater striatal activation during reward anticipation. These results translate dopamine-linked genetic risk variation into in vivo neurochemical and hemodynamic phenotypes in the striatum that have long been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with an increased risk of life-long cognitive impairments, age-related chronic disease, and premature mortality. We investigated evidence for advanced brain ageing in adult SZ patients, and whether this was associated with clinical characteristics in a prospective meta-analytic study conducted by the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group. The study included data from 26 cohorts worldwide, with a total of 2803 SZ patients (mean age 34.2 years; range 18-72 years; 67% male) and 2598 healthy controls (mean age 33.8 years, range 18-73 years, 55% male). Brain-predicted age was individually estimated using a model trained on independent data based on 68 measures of cortical thickness and surface area, 7 subcortical volumes, lateral ventricular volumes and total intracranial volume, all derived from T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Deviations from a healthy brain ageing trajectory were assessed by the difference between brain-predicted age and chronological age (brain-predicted age difference [brain-PAD]). On average, SZ patients showed a higher brain-PAD of +3.55 years (95% CI: 2.91, 4.19; I2 = 57.53%) compared to controls, after adjusting for age, sex and site (Cohen's d = 0.48). Among SZ patients, brain-PAD was not associated with specific clinical characteristics (age of onset, duration of illness, symptom severity, or antipsychotic use and dose). This large-scale collaborative study suggests advanced structural brain ageing in SZ. Longitudinal studies of SZ and a range of mental and somatic health outcomes will help to further evaluate the clinical implications of increased brain-PAD and its ability to be influenced by interventions.

Palygoskite pellets were synthesized with lignin and WAX® and subjected to technological characterization for application in the remediation of Pb ions contained in aqueous effluents. X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization of the palygorskite:lignin:WAX® material in a proportion of 70:15:15 revealed that the heat treatment of the pellets did not compromise the crystalline structure of the palygoskite. Texture analyses demonstrated that the surface area increased after synthesis and heat treatment, thus increasing the adsorption capacity. Regarding porosity, X-ray microtomography revealed that the pellets exhibit an irregular and porous spherical morphology with interconnected pores. Adsorption tests showed a removal of 73% of PbII contained in aqueous effluents after 15 min, with equilibrium reached in 60 min (88.36%). After the adsorption process, the presence of lead in the material was qualitatively confirmed through scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) images. The produced pellets exhibit promising adsorbent qualities, such as strength and effective PbII ion adsorption.

Abstract The settlement is a critical factor in foundation selection. To ensure the safety and stability of a structure, engineers must accurately predict settlement and design the foundation accordingly. However, in cases where the soil stratigraphy is complex, a more detailed analysis is necessary to determine safe and cost-effective solutions for a building's foundation. This paper presents a case study in which settlement monitoring was performed on a 23-story building with spread footings laid on a stiff rock layer of limited thickness overlying more compressible layers of clay and sand. The building was monitored through four construction stages, during which data on vertical displacements and stress distribution on the soil were obtained. To improve the accuracy of the results, a methodology for calibrating the thicknesses of the soil strata was applied, based on the measured settlements, soil-structure interaction, and estimates from semi-empirical methods. Furthermore, a numerical analysis was performed using the finite element method, where more conservative displacements were observed. Finally, the safety of the building was evaluated by verifying angular distortions.

ABSTRACT The combination of management practices affects weed populations and biodiversity. The objective was to evaluate the infesting weed community in the implementation of a corn silage (Zea mays L.) /pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L)/corn silage succession system subjected to early potassium fertilization in the winter crop. The experiment began in October 2019 under fallow area. In the 2019/20 summer season, corn silage was grown in a complete area. In the 2020 fall/winter season, the plots consisted of pearl millet, six doses of potassium fertilization (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 kg ha-1) and one fallow. In the 2020/21 summer season, the treatments consisted of corn silage and six doses of K2O, complementing the treatment applied in the previous harvest (120, 90, 60, 30, 0 kg ha-1) and one with recommended fertilization. Phytosociological evaluations of weeds were performed using a 0.25 m2 square. The density and number of species increased in the first year. Early fertilization at doses of 90, 120 and 150 kg ha-1 of K2O increased the dry weight of weeds before planting and at V4 stage of the corn silage cultivated in sequence; however, were lower than those for plots fallowed in the winter.