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Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a systemic mycosis with high incidence in Latin America, caused by species of the genus Paracoccidioides spp. Brazil is considered to be the endemic center of this disease, which is identified as the eighth cause of mortality from chronic infectious disease in the country. There are several specific diagnostic methods in PCM, such as microbiological, immunological, histopathological, and molecular. However, the standard laboratory diagnosis depends mostly on fungus direct observation - the gold standard of PCM diagnosis. The implementation of new technologies, such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), can contribute to the clinical diagnosis trial of this disease. Here, we evaluated a new strategy for the diagnosis of PCM by using blood serum FTIR spectra from 20 patients with PCM and 20 healthy individuals. Machine learning algorithms were able to provide an overall accuracy of 91.67% by using Cubic SVM in the PCA data from FTIR results., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Fermentation of cocoa is a key process to obtain aromatic chocolate products from raw cocoa beans. Hitherto, the levels of fermentation in cocoa are determined using destructive techniques, for example by a cut-test to manually observe the colour inside the beans, or by quantifying ammonia nitrogen (NH 3 ) in the cocoa powder. In this paper, we present the use of Terahertz hyperspectral imaging as a new way to non-destructively analyse and detect fermented cocoa beans. The study analysed two sets of twenty-two cocoa bean samples with different levels of fermentation from two producers in Brazil. A correlation between fermentation conditions and the outcome results of their THz measurements was observed., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The most important question and concern in these circumstances of COVID-19 epidemic outspread is when will the pandemic end? Vaccination is the only solution to restore life to normalcy in the fastest and safest possible manner. Therefore, we have carried out a predictive analysis for realistic timescale estimates for overcoming the epidemic considering vaccination rate effect on the dynamics of COVID-19 control. In particular we discuss the worst affected large countries like India, Brazil and USA for estimating effect of vaccination rate in expediting the end of the COVID-19 epidemic. We analytically simulated the dynamic evolution of active cases of these countries in the last nine months using the modified SIR model and then included the effect of vaccination to forecast the proliferation dynamics. We hence obtained the transmission parameters, the variation in the reproduction numbers and the impact of the different values of the vaccination shots in the expected curves of active cases in the coming times to predicted the timescales of the end of the epidemic., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The follow up of Representative behavior after elections is imperative for a democratic Representative system, at the very least to punish betrayal with no re-election. Our goal was to show how to follow Representatives' and how to show behavior in real situations and observe trends in political crises including the onset of game changing political instabilities. We used correlation and correlation distance matrices of Brazilian Representative votes during four presidential terms. Re-ordering these matrices with Minimal Spanning Trees displays the dynamical formation of clusters for the sixteen year period, which includes one Presidential impeachment. The reordered matrices, colored by correlation strength and by the parties clearly show the origin of observed clusters and their evolution over time. When large clusters provide government support cluster breaks, political instability arises, which could lead to an impeachment, a trend we observed three years before the Brazilian President was impeached. We believe this method could be applied to foresee other political storms., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Hairy tongue is a benign pathology, characterized clinically by hyperkeratinized plaques on the dorsal surface of the tongue, hairlike, whose coloration ranges from unpigment, whitish, yellowish, green, brown to black. Diagnosis is clinical, and, in cases of whitish plaques, it may be difficult to differentiate between oral hairy leukoplakia, potentially malignant leukoplakia or squamous cell carcinoma. Thus, widefield optical fluorescence complementary examination may allow a better visualization of the local hairlike pattern of hyperkeratinization, typical of the hairy tongue, facilitating the diagnosis. In this work, a 57-year-old man was referred to the Dental Specialties Department of the Divinópolis Health Department (MG, Brazil) by a general dental practitioner, aiming a differential diagnosis of possible malignant lesion on the dorsal tongue surface. The complementary examination by wide-field optical fluorescence was performed. For this, it was employed a device with high-power light-emitting diode emitting light centered at a wavelength of (400±10) nm and maximum irradiance of (0.040±0.008) W/cm2 was used for fluorescence visualization. Fluorescence images showed projections of hairlike appearance in tongue dorsal surface with no aspects of malignancy. Hairlike appearance is the principal feature of hairy tongue. In this way, the final diagnosis was established. In conclusion, in this case, the use of widefield optical fluorescence in oral diagnostic routine provided a differential diagnosis, with no need of an incisional biopsy.