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Salicylic acid (SA) is a bioregulator well-known for mitigating salinity damage in plants. However, no studies have examined the interaction between SA and salinity in Dizygostemon riparius , a species rich in bioactive molecules. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effect of SA application on Dizygostemon riparius under different salinity levels. A completely randomized experiment was conducted in a 2 × 3 factorial design (two SA concentrations of 0 and 100 µM and three salinity concentrations of 0, 200, and 400 mM NaCl) with five replicates. At 400 mM NaCl, leaf temperature increased by 11%, while relative water content and total soluble carbohydrates decreased by 30% and 35%, respectively, leading to reduced biomass accumulation. Notably, the SA application mitigated these effects by restoring relative water content under 400 mM NaCl and improving carboxylation efficiency and intrinsic water-use efficiency under 200 mM NaCl. Additionally, dry biomass was maintained under both 200 and 400 mM NaCl with SA treatment. These findings suggest that SA has a promising potential to alleviate salt stress in Dizygostemon riparius . Our results could inform cultivation practices, opening new perspectives on the use of SA as an attenuator of salinity stress.

Objectives: Obesity is a multifactorial condition associated with metabolic alterations that can be aggravated during female aging. Calorie restriction via intermittent fasting (IF) diets may reduce body weight and therefore have the potential to decrease obesity and associated comorbidities, such as insulin resistance. This study investigated the effects of two IF protocols, alternate-day fasting (ADF) and time-restricted feeding (TRF) in middle-aged obese female rats., Methods: Wistar rats (age 15 mo) were fed with standard chow or high-fat diet for 8 wk and then separated into the following groups (n = 5-8 each) for another 8 wk: control (received standard chow), obese (received high-fat diet), obese + ADF (24-h fasting protocol), and obese + TRF (14 h daily)., Results: At the end of the study, both IF protocols were able to reduce body weight and body mass index compared with the obese group. However, no changes were observed in adiposity and glucose homeostasis. We also found an increase in total leukocytes, lymphocytes, and monocytes in the TRF group and a higher number of platelets in the ADF group. Blood lipid profiles, including triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein, as well as liver stress responses, such as heat shock protein 70 and malondialdehyde, were not changed by IF., Conclusions: Although ADF and TRF protocols resulted in a reduction of body weight and body mass index, these dietary interventions did not promote health benefits, such as reducing blood lipid profile, adiposity, and insulin resistance. In addition, ADF and TRF increased inflammatory biomarkers, which may increase the risk of obesity-associated comorbidities., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare regarding the execution of this study nor manuscript for publication. All authors have agreed with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report. We also confirm that the submission is original work and is not under review at any other publication., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method, using an ionic liquid as the extracting solvent was developed, for the simultaneous analysis of three UV filters in different water samples. The extracting and dispersive solvents were selected in a univariate way. Then, the parameters such as the volume of the extracting and dispersive solvents, pH and ionic strength were evaluated using a full experimental design 2 4 , followed by Doehlert matrix. The optimized method consisted of 50 μL of extracting solvent (1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate), 700 μL of dispersive solvent (acetonitrile) and pH of 4.5. When combined with high-performance liquid chromatography, the method limit of detection ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 μg L -1 , enrichment factors between 81 and 101%, and the relative standard deviation between 5.8 and 10.0%. The developed method demonstrated effectiveness in concentrating UV filters in both river and seawater samples, being a simple and efficient option for this type of analysis., 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 © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Total hip arthroplasty in young patients can cause problems when it comes to choosing a suitable implant. The Birmingham Mid-Head Resection prosthesis (BMHR) offers the option of preserving bone stock despite its poor quality in the femoral neck. Femoral neck fractures are a known complication of hip resurfacing prostheses and the main reason for revision surgery. Retaining the femoral implant may cause difficulties in osteosynthesis carried out with implants habitually used for intertrochanteric or femoral neck fractures (e.g., a screw-plate device or a cephalomedullary nail) [2]., Presentation of Case: We present the case of an 81-year-old patient who underwent surgery for right hip osteoarthritis and received a Birmingham Mid-Head Resection prosthesis. She had no history of previous fractures due to frailty. While on holiday, she sustained a periprosthetic fracture as a result of a fall. While the most common fracture in resurfacing prosthesis is produced in the femoral neck, in this case the patient sustained a subtrochanteric fracture. This fracture was surgically treated by means of open reduction and internal fixation with trochanteric plate and three cerclages., Discussion: Olsen et al. [8] described two fracture patterns: transcervical vertical shear type and subcapital type. In our patient's case, the fracture pattern was different to those described, as the fracture started in the cervical area and reached the subtrochanteric area. This change in the standard periprosthetic fracture pattern leads to a change in the therapeutic attitude that must be adopted., Conclusion: BMHR prostheses are metal-on-metal implants that resulted from the development of the standard resurfacing prostheses used to treat hip osteoarthritis in young patients with the goal of preserving as much bone stock as possible. In this paper we will describe a rare complication in this type of prosthesis and how it was surgically treated after reviewing the available literature., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are the main causative agents of cryptococcosis, a systemic fungal disease that affects internal organs and skin, and which is acquired by inhalation of spores or encapsulated yeasts. It is currently known that the C. neoformans/C. gattii species complex has a worldwide distribution, however, some molecular types seem to prevail in certain regions. Few environmental studies of Cryptococcus have been conducted in the Brazilian Amazon. This is the first ecological study of the pathogenic fungi C. neoformans/C. gattii species complex in the urban area of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. A total of 506 samples from pigeon droppings (n = 191), captive bird droppings (n = 60) and tree hollows (n = 255) were collected from June 2012 to January 2014 at schools and public buildings, squares, pet shops, households, the zoo and the bus station. Samples were plated on niger seed agar (NSA) medium supplemented with chloramphenicol and incubated at 25°C for 5 days. Dark-brown colonies were isolated and tested for thermotolerance at 37°C, cycloheximide resistance and growth on canavanine-glycine-bromothymol blue agar. Molecular typing was done by PCR-RFLP. Susceptibility to the antifungal drugs amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole and ketoconazole was tested using Etest(®) strips. In total, 13 positive samples were obtained: one tree hollow (C. gattiiVGII), nine pigeon droppings (C. neoformansVNI) and three captive bird droppings (C. neoformansVNI). The environmental cryptococcal isolates found in this study were of the same molecular types as those responsible for infections in Manaus., (© 2016 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Introduction: Low back pain is a common cause of medical consultation, and usually supposes a non-malignant prognostic., Presentation of Case: We report an atypical appearance of low back pain associated to shock and pulsatile abdominal mass that made us diagnose an abdominal aortic aneurysm as reason of vertebral lysis and pain., Discusion: Surgical repair of contained AAA should be directed to secondary re-rupture prevention, with an approximate survival near to 100% at selected patients for elective surgery. Consequently, orthopedic surgery for back spine stabilization has to be elective in those cases when vertebral destruction is above 30% and clinic is directly related to spine instability., Conclusion: We should consider AAA as other cause of low back pain and routinely examine the abdomen and seek complementary imaging proves when risk factors for AAA are present., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)