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OBJECTIVES: Adolescence is a crucial life stage that can lead to excess weight and body dissatisfaction. Social inequalities in these issues may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to analyze the presence of socioeconomic inequalities and their changes in these inequalities stratified by sex in 13- to 19-year-olds in a large Mediterranean city (Barcelona, Spain). STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional population-based study. METHODS: We used data from the 2016 and 2021 editions of the FRESC survey, which is a representative citywide survey that captures various aspects of adolescent health. Excess weight was determined by objective body mass index measurements. Body dissatisfaction was defined as the discrepancy between perceived and desired body shape. Socioeconomic status was divided into five pseudo-quintiles by using the Family Affluence Scale. We calculated the corresponding prevalence estimates and fitted robust Poisson regression models to estimate both simple and complex measures of inequality, including relative and absolute differences between the two survey years. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of excess weight increased from 25.3% [23.9-26.6] to 29.8% [28.2-31.4] between 2016 and 2021. Similarly, body dissatisfaction increased from 44.2% [42.6-45.8] to 60.4% [58.7-62]. Socioeconomic inequalities in excess weight significantly increased in girls (adjusted ratio of the relative index of inequalities = 1.72 [1.08; 2.74] but not in boys. No significant changes were detected in body dissatisfaction in either girls or boys. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the presence of a sex-specific change in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent well-being regarding excess weight and body dissatisfaction. These results underscore the need for local public policies to improve social equity in adolescent health.
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OBJECTIVES: Loneliness is a public health issue among older adults. We designed an intervention offering 10 sessions with diverse artistic methods (ArtGran). This study assessed the effectiveness of ArtGran in reducing loneliness and its negative effects on health in community-dwelling older adults in 2022 in Barcelona. STUDY DESIGN: Quasi-experimental study, with an intervention group (IG) and a comparison group (CG). METHODS: The sample included residents aged ≥70 years from 6 selected neighbourhoods of Barcelona. In each neighbourhood, an IG and a CG was formed with participants who reported loneliness and without special mobility needs. The participants were referred from primary care centres, social services, and community health centres. We included 138 participants (IG = 63, CG = 75). We collected data on loneliness, quality of life (QoL-5D), mood, and self-perceived health before and after the intervention through validated questionnaires. To assess the effect of the intervention, we built Poisson models with robust variance and linear regression models. RESULTS: At the end of the intervention, participants in the IG were more likely than those in the CG to be able to perform their usual activities without problems (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] = 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.45). Compared with the CG, participants in the IG attending more than half of the sessions had lower levels of loneliness (aPR = 1.36; 95%CI: 1.07-1.73), a better ability to perform their usual activities (aPR [95%CI] = 1.24 [1.05-1.48]), and higher happiness scores (ß = 0.73; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of the intervention was more pronounced when participants had high attendance. Our results suggest that high attendance of the ArtGran program was helpful in shielding older individuals from loneliness, fostering positive moods, and preserving their functional status.
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Solidão , Qualidade de Vida , Humanos , Idoso , Museus , Vida IndependenteRESUMO
Microorganisms drive the degradation of organic matter thanks to their enzymatic versatility. However, the structure of lignocellulose poses a great challenge for the microbiota inhabiting a compost pile. Our purpose was to increase the biodegradability of vegetable waste in the early stages of the composting process by applying a microbial consortium with lignocelllulolytic capacity. For this, a previous screening was performed among the culturable microbiota from different composting processes to find inoculants with ligninocellulolytic activity. Selected strains were applied as a pure culture and as a microbial consortium. The starting material was composed of tomato plant and pruning remains mixed in a ratio (50:50 v/v), whose humidity was adjusted to around 65%. To determine the ability of both treatments to activate the biodegradation of the mixtures, moisture, organic matter, ash, C/N ratio, 4-day cumulative respirometric index (AT4) and degradation rates of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were evaluated. Subsequently, a real composting process was developed in which the performance of the microbial consortium was compared with the composting process without inoculum (control). According to our tests, three microbial strains (Bacillus safensis, Bacillus licheniformis and Fusarium oxysporum) were selected. The results showed that the application of the bacteria strains at low doses (104 CFU g-1 on the complete residual material of the pile) resulted in higher rates of lignocelullose degradation after 10 days of treatment compared to that observed after application of the fungus in pure culture or untreated controls. The implementation of the strategy described in this work resulted in obtaining compost with better agronomic quality than the uninoculated controls. Therefore, the application of this consortium could be considered as an interesting tool for bioactivation of lignocellulosic waste prior to the composting process.
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Compostagem , Lignina , Lignina/metabolismo , Celulose , Bactérias/metabolismo , SoloRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Emotional education programmes are universal preventive strategies for health promotion, especially mental health. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of '1,2,3, emoció!': a preschool-based programme designed to improve emotional competence and targeted to 3-5-year-old children in Barcelona during three academic years. STUDY DESIGN: Cluster randomised trial, using schools as clusters. METHODS: The study's population included preschoolers 3-5 years old from Barcelona. Teachers offered the programme during one or three academic years in the intervention groups. We evaluated the emotional competence of each child at the beginning and the end of the academic year with the Emotional Competence Assessment Questionnaire (30-180 scale). We studied the implementation process and analysed the outcomes with nested linear regression models. Considering sociodemographic variables and implementation outcomes, we obtained the individual differences in emotional competence at the end of the school year-segregated by sex-for intervention and comparison groups. RESULTS: 1586 children participated in the study. The emotional competence level increased significantly after one year (4.1 in boys; 5.6 in girls; P < 0.05) and after three years of intervention (5.5 in boys; 8.0 in girls; P < 0.01), compared to comparison group. The level of emotional competence was the highest for the 3-year intervention group: we obtained an average ECAQ score of 131.1 (95% CI 126.9-135.2) for boys and 141 (95% CI 137.2-144.9) for girls. We observed that an accurate implementation improved its results. CONCLUSIONS: The programme '1,2,3, emoció!' effectively increases preschool children's emotional competence, especially when the programme is rigorously implemented for three years.
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Promoção da Saúde , Instituições Acadêmicas , Masculino , Feminino , Humanos , Pré-Escolar , Escolaridade , Cognição , Saúde MentalRESUMO
When an object conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with a food unconditioned stimulus (US), anticipatory goal-directed action directed at the US location (goal tracking) is accompanied by behavior directed at the object CS (sign tracking). Sign-tracking behavior appears to be compulsive and habit-like and predicts increased vulnerability to the addictive potential of drugs in animal models. A large body of the literature also suggests that environmental enrichment protects against the development of addiction-prone phenotypes. Thus, we investigated whether compulsive-like sign tracking develops in environmentally enriched rats trained directly in their enriched home environment. We demonstrate that adolescent enriched-housed male Sprague-Dawley rats readily sign track a 5% ethanol bottle CS in their home environment and at a rate higher than adolescent standard-housed rats. We also show that enriched adolescent rats sign track less than enriched adult-trained rats and that acute isolation stress affects sign- and goal-tracking performance of adolescents and adults differently. Sign tracking increased more in the adult than the adolescent rats. Whereas the younger rats showed a decrease in goal tacking after the final stressor manipulation, the adults showed increased goal tracking. Our results are consistent with recent studies, which suggest that although sign tracking performance is compulsive-like, it is not as inflexible and habit-like as previously assumed. Testing in an enriched home environment with object CSs having greater affordance than "neutral" lever CSs may provide greater ecological relevance for investigating the development and expression of adaptive and compulsive-like behaviors in translational research.
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Sinais (Psicologia) , Recompensa , Adaptação Psicológica , Animais , Comportamento Animal , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Masculino , Motivação , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-DawleyRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Social and demographic trends show a global increase of proportion of older people at risk of social isolation. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention conducted in low-income neighbourhoods to reduce social isolation and its negative effects on health in older persons. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study with a comparison group was performed. The 'School of Health for Older People' is a weekly community intervention that promotes resources among individuals and communities to enhance their ability to identify problems and activate solutions, encouraging community participation. Data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Social support, psychological morbidity and health-related quality of life were measured through questionnaires information on visits to the primary care centre was obtained from the electronic medical records of primary care centres. Multivariate regression models were conducted to assess changes after the intervention. RESULTS: A total of 135 participants were included in the study. The intervention helped to improve participants' mental health (aPR = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.23-0.90) comparing with the comparison group. Also, the intervention helped to maintain quality of life and social support, which were worsened or maintained respectively in the case of comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence on how a community intervention can improve quality of life, mental health and social support in older people. The evidence can help to fill the knowledge gap in this area and might be especially useful for the design of social and public health policies and programmes for older people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in urban areas. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03142048.
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Qualidade de Vida , Isolamento Social , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Humanos , Pobreza , Isolamento Social/psicologia , Apoio Social , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The acquisition of emotional competencies through emotional education programs improves both short- and long-term health outcomes. The 1,2,3,emoció! program directed at children aged 3-5 years aims to promote health through the development of emotional competencies. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the program during its first year of implementation. STUDY DESIGN: Cluster randomized trial. METHODS: The information sources were an ad-hoc questionnaire to evaluate emotional competencies and focus group discussions with the teachers implementing the program. For the quantitative data analysis, we compared mean emotional competencies scores pre- and postintervention for the intervention group and the comparison group. We also conducted a multilevel regression with repeated measures, adjusted by sociodemographic variables and stratified by gender and school year. For the qualitative data, we performed a thematic content analysis. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 2625 children (48.4% girls and 49.2% intervention group). Emotional competencies improved in both groups after the school year (P-value < 0.001), but the increase was greater in the intervention group. The multilevel analysis showed an improvement in the final scores attributed to the intervention, especially for those in the first year of preschool [boys: 12.33 points (95% CI 5.51-19.15), girls: 9.66 points (95% CI 3.36-15.96)]. The thematic content analysis also highlighted enhanced emotional competencies in the intervention group. The final scores did not vary by sociodemographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: The 1,2,3,emoció! program had a positive effect on emotional competencies among children, with effectivity being higher among younger children.
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Promoção da Saúde , Instituições Acadêmicas , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Cognição , Emoções , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Avaliação de Programas e Projetos de Saúde , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
Olive mill wastewater (OMW) resulting from the olive oil extraction process is usually disposed of in evaporation ponds where it concentrates generating a sludge that pollutes the ponds nearby area. In this study, four bio-treatments were applied for the in-situ bioremediation and valorization of OMW sludge: Landfarming, phytoremediation, composting and vermicomposting. In all cases, the OMW sludge was added with organic residues (mushroom compost, rabbit manure, and chicken manure). The bio-treatments were carried out in duplicate, inoculated and non-inoculated, to determine the effect of a specialized fungal consortium (Aspergillus ochraceus H2 and Scedosporium apiospermum H16) on the efficacy of the bio-treatments. The evaluation of chemical parameters, toxicity, and functional microbial biodiversity revealed that the four techniques depleted the toxicity and favored the stimulation of functional microbiota. Landfarming and phytoremediation allowed the decontamination and improvement of soils. Composting and vermicomposting also offered high-quality products of agronomic interest. Inoculation improved the bioremediation effectiveness. Biological treatments are effective for the safe recovery of contaminated OMW sludge into high-quality services and products.
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Olea , Esgotos , Animais , Resíduos Industriais/análise , Esterco , Olea/química , Azeite de Oliva , Lagoas , Coelhos , Esgotos/microbiologia , Eliminação de Resíduos Líquidos/métodos , Águas ResiduáriasRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The aim of our study was to assess the outcomes of surgical treatment for severe tricuspid regurgitation according to whether cardiac surgery had been performed before the tricuspid valve intervention. METHODS: Between 1996 and 2013, 201 consecutive patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation underwent tricuspid surgery at our center. Patients were classified according to whether or not they had undergone previous cardiac surgery, which 33% of the sample had. Perioperative as well as long-term morbidity and mortality were analyzed. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 62.3 years. 32.8% underwent suture annuloplasty, 41.3% underwent ring annuloplasty, 15.4% received a bioprosthesis, and 10.4% received a mechanical prosthesis. There were no significant differences in perioperative mortality between the group that had not undergone previous cardiac surgery and the group that had (12.7% vs. 17.9%, respectively; p = 0.32). The long-term mortality rate (median follow-up time: 53 months) was 43.3%. Long-term survival curves showed no significant differences between the two groups (p = 0.884), and previous cardiac surgery was not a predictive factor for long-term mortality (hazard ratio = 1.211; p = 0.521). CONCLUSION: In a series of patients who underwent tricuspid valve surgery, no significant differences were observed in perioperative mortality or in long-term survival according to whether or not subjects had undergone previous cardiac surgery.
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Procedimentos Cirúrgicos Cardíacos , Anuloplastia da Valva Cardíaca , Implante de Prótese de Valva Cardíaca , Insuficiência da Valva Tricúspide , Humanos , Estudos Retrospectivos , Resultado do Tratamento , Valva Tricúspide/diagnóstico por imagem , Valva Tricúspide/cirurgia , Insuficiência da Valva Tricúspide/diagnóstico por imagem , Insuficiência da Valva Tricúspide/cirurgiaRESUMO
In the new European Waste Law, composting is proposed as one of the best options to properly manage organic waste of anthropogenic origin. Currently, the massive generation of this type of waste, as well as its heterogeneity, makes difficult in many cases control this process of degradation on an industrial scale. In this work, 15 facilities were selected based on 5 types of organic waste: Urban Solid Waste, Vegetable Waste, Sewage Sludges, Agrifood Waste and "Alpeorujo". The samples were collected in different thermal phases. The results revealed very different physicochemical and enzymatic profiles, as well as different degrees of humification depending on the process and the raw materials. However, parameters such as ß-glucosidase, amylase, lignin/holocellulose ratio and humification rate showed similar trends in all cases. All of them could act as important indicators to evaluate the quality of a composting process, despite the heterogeneity of the starting materials.
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Compostagem , Lignina , Solo , Resíduos SólidosRESUMO
BACKGROUND: An intervention to promote the development of an allergen control plan (ACP) and preventive measures for the management of allergens in school food services was implemented in all schools of Barcelona city over a three-year period (2013-2015) by the public health services. The present study aimed to assess changes regarding the management of food allergens in school food services in Barcelona after an intervention conducted by the public health services of the city. METHODS: School meal operators of a random sample of 117 schools were assessed before and after the intervention using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire collected general information on the students and their demand for special menus, and included 17 closed questions regarding the implementation of specific preventive measures for the management of allergens. Based on these 17 questions, a food safety score was calculated for each school. The improvement in these scores was evaluated. RESULTS: The results showed positive increments in the percentage of implementation of 12 of the 17 preventive measures assessed. The percentage of school food services with an implemented ACP increased by 49%. Schools with external and internal food supplies increased their scores by 16.5% and 19.6%, respectively. The greatest improvements were observed in smaller food services and in schools located in districts with low gross household incomes. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention was effective in improving school food services' management of allergens and in reducing the differences found among food services in the pre-intervention survey. We must also focus efforts on reducing socio-economic inequalities linked to the management of allergens.
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Hipersensibilidade Alimentar/prevenção & controle , Inocuidade dos Alimentos/métodos , Serviços de Alimentação/normas , Instituições Acadêmicas , Alérgenos , Criança , Feminino , Análise de Perigos e Pontos Críticos de Controle/métodos , Humanos , Masculino , Saúde Pública/métodos , EspanhaRESUMO
The density functional formalism has been used to investigate the stability and the properties of small palladium clusters supported on graphdiyne layers. The large triangular holes existing on the graphdiyne structure provide efficient sites to hold the clusters at small distances from the plane of the graphdiyne layer. The cluster adsorption energies, between 3 and 4 eV, are large enough to maintain the clusters tightly bound to the triangular holes. The competition between dispersion of Pd atoms on graphdiyne and growth of Pd clusters in the triangular holes of the layer is also discussed. In addition, the triangular holes can be simultaneously decorated with clusters on both sides. This indicates that palladium clusters could be used to build nanostructures formed by stacked graphdiyne layers with tailored interlayer distances controlled by the size of the clusters. The size of the clusters also controls the electronic HOMO-LUMO gap of the material.
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Simulations of the hydrogen storage capacities of nanoporous carbons require an accurate treatment of the interaction of the hydrogen molecule with the graphite-like surfaces of the carbon pores, which is dominated by the dispersion forces. These interactions are described accurately by high level quantum chemistry methods, like the Coupled Cluster method with single and double excitations and a non-iterative correction for triple excitations (CCSD(T)), but those methods are computationally very expensive for large systems and for massive simulations. Density functional theory (DFT)-based methods that include dispersion interactions at different levels of complexity are less accurate, but computationally less expensive. In order to find DFT-methods that include dispersion interactions to calculate the physisorption of H2 on benzene and graphene, with a reasonable compromise between accuracy and computational cost, CCSD(T), Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory method, and several DFT-methods have been used to calculate the interaction energy curves of H2 on benzene and graphene. DFT calculations are compared with CCSD(T) calculations, in the case of H2 on benzene, and with experimental data, in the case of H2 on graphene. Among the DFT methods studied, the B97D, RVV10, and PBE+DCACP methods yield interaction energy curves of H2-benzene in remarkable agreement with the interaction energy curve obtained with the CCSD(T) method. With regards to graphene, the rev-vdW-DF2, PBE-XDM, PBE-D2, and RVV10 methods yield adsorption energies of the lowest level of H2 on graphene, very close to the experimental data.
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A comprehensive understanding of how human disturbance affects tropical forest ecosystems is critical for the mitigation of future losses in global biodiversity. Although many genetic studies of tropical forest fragmentation have been conducted to provide insight into this issue, relatively few have incorporated landscape data to explicitly test the effects of human disturbance on genetic differentiation among populations. In this study, we use a newly developed landscape genetic approach that relies on a genetic algorithm to simultaneously optimize resistance surfaces to investigate the effects of human disturbance in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, which is an important part of a universally recognized biodiversity hotspot. Our study species is the endangered Udzungwa red colobus monkey (Procolobus gordonorum), which is endemic to the Udzungwa Mountains and a known indicator species that thrives in large and well-protected blocks of old growth forest. Population genetic analyses identified significant population structure among Udzungwa red colobus inhabiting different forest blocks, and Bayesian cluster analyses identified hierarchical structure. Our new method for creating composite landscape resistance models found that the combination of fire density on the landscape and distance to the nearest village best explains the genetic structure observed. These results demonstrate the effects that human activities are having in an area of high global conservation priority and suggest that this ecosystem is in a precarious state. Our study also illustrates the ability of our novel landscape genetic method to detect the impacts of relatively recent landscape features on a long-lived species.
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Colobus/genética , Ecossistema , Genética Populacional , Algoritmos , Animais , Teorema de Bayes , Análise por Conglomerados , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais , Espécies em Perigo de Extinção , Florestas , Genótipo , Atividades Humanas , Humanos , TanzâniaRESUMO
Ab initio density functional simulations have been performed to study the adsorption of propene on partially oxidized silver surfaces and its interaction with surface oxygen. Two different adsorption conformations for propene are studied, with the molecule either intact or forming an Ag-C3H6-O oxymetallacycle (OMC) intermediate. Then, pathways for propene oxide, acrolein and propanone formation have been studied in detail, providing insight into the selectivity of the surfaces. We find that formation of acrolein must necessarily take place from OMC intermediates, requiring at least two neighbouring reactive surface oxygen anions. This suggests a strong relationship between the concentration of surface oxygen and the selectivity of these surfaces.
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Many alternatives for the proper disposal of horticultural plant wastes have been studied, and composting is one of the most attractive due to its insignificant environmental impact and low cost. The quality of compost for agronomical use is related to the degree of organic matter maturation and stabilization. Traditional parameters as well as temperature, ratio C/N, cationic exchange capacity, extractable carbon, or evolution of humificated substances have been successfully used to assess compost maturity and stability. However, microorganisms frequently isolated during composting release a wide range of hydrolytic enzymes, whose activity could apparently give interesting information on the rate of decomposition of organic matter and, therefore, on the product stability. The aim of this work was to study the evolution of some important enzymatic activities during composting of agricultural wastes and their comparison with other chemical parameters commonly employed as quality and maturity indexes, to establish a relationship between the degradation intensity of specific organic carbon fractions throughout the process. In this work, the chemical and biochemical parameters of plant wastes were studied along a composting process of 189 days to evaluate their importance as tools for compost characterization. Results showed an intense enzymatic activity during the first 2-3 weeks of composting (bio-oxidative phase), because of the availability of easily decomposable organic compounds. From a biological point of view, a less intense phase was observed between second and third month of composting (mesophilic or cooling phase). Finally, chemical humification parameters were more closely associated with the period between 119 and 189 days (maturation phase). Significant correlations between the enzymatic activities as well as between enzyme activities and other more traditional parameters were also highlighted, indicating that both kind of indexes can be a reliable tool to determine the degree of stability and maturation of horticultural plant wastes based-compost.
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Carbono/metabolismo , Enzimas/metabolismo , Plantas/metabolismo , Solo , Plantas/enzimologiaRESUMO
In recent decades, gout became the most common inflammatory arthritis and one in which pathogenesis and risk factors are best understood. One of the treatment objectives in current guidelines is "cure". However, audits show that minority of patients with gout receive adequate advice and treatment. Doctors often focus on managing acute attacks rather than viewing gout as a chronic progressive crystal deposition disease. Accordingly, urate-lowering treatment is underprescribed and often underdosed. The recent introduction of a panel of new treatments of gout and a better understanding of epidemiologic factors (such as the fructose) may improve management of this easily diagnosed and curable form of potentially severe arthritis, worsening probably the cardiovascular prognostic.
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Gota/terapia , Dieta , Gerenciamento Clínico , Supressores da Gota/uso terapêutico , HumanosRESUMO
Muskuloskeletal ultrasound has been incorporated by rheumatologist to the clinical practice over the past decade. The technical improvements of the devices allowed the production of high quality images contributing to better identification of joint inflammation and structural damage. In this review, we highlight the applications of ultrasound in the study of different rheumatic conditions.
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Doenças Reumáticas/diagnóstico por imagem , Humanos , Sistema Musculoesquelético/diagnóstico por imagem , UltrassonografiaRESUMO
The abuse of chemical fertilizers in recent decades has led the promotion of less harmful alternatives, such as compost or aqueous extracts obtained from it. Therefore, it is essential to develop liquid biofertilizers, which in addition of being stable and useful for fertigation and foliar application in intensive agriculture had a remarkable phytostimulant extracts. For this purpose, a collection of aqueous extracts was obtained by applying four different Compost Extraction Protocols (CEP1, CEP2, CEP3, CEP4) in terms of incubation time, temperature and agitation of compost samples from agri-food waste, olive mill waste, sewage sludge and vegetable waste. Subsequently, a physicochemical characterization of the obtained set was performed in which pH, electrical conductivity and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) were measured. In addition, a biological characterization was also carried out by calculating the Germination Index (GI) and determining the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5). Furthermore, functional diversity was studied using the Biolog EcoPlates technique. The results obtained confirmed the great heterogeneity of the selected raw materials. However, it was observed that the less aggressive treatments in terms of temperature and incubation time, such as CEP1 (48 h, room temperature (RT)) or CEP4 (14 days, RT), provided aqueous compost extracts with better phytostimulant characteristics than the starting composts. It was even possible to find a compost extraction protocol that maximize the beneficial effects of compost. This was the case of CEP1, which improved the GI and reduced the phytotoxicity in most of the raw materials analyzed. Therefore, the use of this type of liquid organic amendment could mitigate the phytotoxic effect of several composts being a good alternative to the use of chemical fertilizers.
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The search for new sustainable alternatives for plant disease control has gained interest in the last decades. Compost extracts are nowadays considered a remarkable alternative to agrochemicals due to their biopesticidal properties. However, these properties could be affected by the different variables of extraction protocols and by starting compost. This work focused on the physicochemical and biological characterization of compost extracts obtained from a wide range of composted materials and different extraction protocols (CEP). CEP-1 and CEP-4 involved incubation at 20 °C for 48 h and 14 days, respectively; CEP-2 incubation for 24 h at 40 °C; while CEP-3 were incubated for 12 h at 70 °C. Electrical conductivity, pH, total organic carbon (TOC) and phenolic content were determined as well as the actinobacterial count and enzyme profiles related to plant pathogen suppression. Additionally, the influence of the different materials and protocols on the in vitro growth inhibition of Alternaria alternata and Botrytis cinerea was determined. The starting materials and extraction protocols significantly influenced the physicochemical and biological characteristics of extracts. Treatments based on long incubation times at 20 °C, as well as those based on short incubation times at 40 °C, resulted in extracts with increased suppressive properties. However, extracts derived from CEP-3 protocol were characterized by high phenolic and TOC content, low functional biodiversity, and a more discreet antagonistic capacity. Therefore, the development and optimization of suitable extraction protocols could lead to compost extracts with increased phytoprotective capacities, thus becoming an effective and sustainable alternative to chemical inputs.