EnzymeML: seamless data flow and modeling of enzymatic data.

The design of biocatalytic reaction systems is highly complex owing to the dependency of the estimated kinetic parameters on the enzyme, the reaction conditions, and the modeling method. Consequently, reproducibility of enzymatic experiments and reusability of enzymatic data are challenging. We developed the XML-based markup language EnzymeML to enable storage and exchange of enzymatic data such as reaction conditions, the time course of the substrate and the product, kinetic parameters and the kinetic model, thus making enzymatic data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). The feasibility and usefulness of the EnzymeML toolbox is demonstrated in six scenarios, for which data and metadata of different enzymatic reactions are collected and analyzed. EnzymeML serves as a seamless communication channel between experimental platforms, electronic lab notebooks, tools for modeling of enzyme kinetics, publication platforms and enzymatic reaction databases. EnzymeML is open and transparent, and invites the community to contribute. All documents and codes are freely available at https://enzymeml.org .

Smart and Multifunctional Materials Based on Electroactive Poly(vinylidene fluoride): Recent Advances and Opportunities in Sensors, Actuators, Energy, Environmental, and Biomedical Applications.

From scientific and technological points of view, poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, is one of the most exciting polymers due to its overall physicochemical characteristics. This polymer can crystalize into five crystalline phases and can be processed in the form of films, fibers, membranes, and specific microstructures, being the physical properties controllable over a wide range through appropriate chemical modifications. Moreover, PVDF-based materials are characterized by excellent chemical, mechanical, thermal, and radiation resistance, and for their outstanding electroactive properties, including high dielectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroelectric response, being the best among polymer systems and thus noteworthy for an increasing number of technologies. This review summarizes and critically discusses the latest advances in PVDF and its copolymers, composites, and blends, including their main characteristics and processability, together with their tailorability and implementation in areas including sensors, actuators, energy harvesting and storage devices, environmental membranes, microfluidic, tissue engineering, and antimicrobial applications. The main conclusions, challenges and future trends concerning materials and application areas are also presented.

Endovascular Versus Medical Management in Distal Medium Vessel Occlusion Stroke: The DUSK Study.

BACKGROUND: Endovascular treatment (EVT) is part of the usual care for proximal vessel occlusion strokes. However, the safety and effectiveness of EVT for distal medium vessel occlusions remain unclear. We sought to compare the clinical outcomes of EVT to medical management (MM) for isolated distal medium vessel occlusions. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from seven comprehensive stroke centers. Patients were included if they had isolated distal medium vessel occlusion strokes due to middle cerebral artery M3/M4, anterior cerebral artery A2/A3, or posterior cerebral artery P1/P2 segments. Patients treated with EVT or MM were compared with multivariable logistic regression and inverse probability of treatment weighting. The primary outcome was the shift in the degree of disability as measured by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days. Secondary outcomes included 90-day good (mRS score, 0-2) and excellent (mRS score, 0-1) outcomes. Safety measures included symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and 90-day mortality. RESULTS: A total of 321 patients were included in the analysis (EVT, 179; MM, 142; 40.8% treated with intravenous thrombolysis). In the inverse probability of treatment weighting model, there were no significant differences between EVT and MM in terms of the overall degree of disability (mRS ordinal shift; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.25 [95% CI, 0.95-1.64]; P=0.110), rates of good (mRS score, 0-2; aOR, 1.32 [95% CI, 0.97-1.80]; P=0.075) and excellent (aOR, 1.32 [95% CI, 0.94-1.85]; P=0.098) outcomes, or mortality (aOR, 1.20 [95% CI, 0.78-1.85]; P=0.395) at 90 days. The multivariable regression model showed similar findings. Moreover, there was no difference between EVT and MM in rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage in the multivariable regression model (aOR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.21-1.58]; P=0.277), but the inverse probability of treatment weighting model showed a lower likelihood of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (aOR, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.24-0.85]; P=0.013) in the EVT group. CONCLUSIONS: This multicenter study failed to demonstrate any significant outcome differences among patients with isolated distal medium vessel occlusions treated with EVT versus MM. These findings reinforce clinical equipoise. Randomized clinical trials are ongoing and will provide more definite evidence.

Exploring the Resurgence of a Neglected Disease: Lessons From the 2023-2024 Mpox Outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Following the 2022 global mpox outbreak, diagnoses decreased worldwide, even in settings with limited vaccine access. In 2023-2024, a new outbreak emerged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, highlighting the importance of continuous surveillance, preventive measures such as vaccination in vulnerable populations, and treatment options, emphasizing equitable global health technology distribution.

Insights from Melipona bicolor hybrid genome assembly: a stingless bee genome with chromosome-level scaffold.

BACKGROUND: The highly eusocial stingless bees are crucial pollinators of native and agricultural ecosystems. Nevertheless, genomic studies within this bee tribe remain scarce. We present the genome assembly of the stingless bee Melipona bicolor. This bee is a remarkable exception to the typical single-queen colony structure, since in this species, multiple queens may coexist and share reproductive duties, resulting in genetically diverse colonies with weak kinship connections. As the only known genuinely polygynous bee, M. bicolor's genome provides a valuable resource for investigating sociality beyond kin selection. RESULTS: The genome was assembled employing a hybrid approach combining short and long reads, resulting in 241 contigs spanning 259 Mb (N50 of 6.2 Mb and 97.5% complete BUSCOs). Comparative analyses shed light on some evolutionary aspects of stingless bee genomics, including multiple chromosomal rearrangements in Melipona. Additionally, we explored the evolution of venom genes in M. bicolor and other stingless bees, revealing that, apart from two genes, the conserved repertoire of venom components remains under purifying selection in this clade. CONCLUSION: This study advances our understanding of stingless bee genomics, contributing to the conservation efforts of these vital pollinators and offering insights into the evolutionary mechanisms driving their unique adaptations.

High-Capacity, Cooperative CO2 Capture in a Diamine-Appended Metal-Organic Framework through a Combined Chemisorptive and Physisorptive Mechanism.

Diamine-appended Mg2(dobpdc) (dobpdc4- = 4,4'-dioxidobiphenyl-3,3'-dicarboxylate) metal-organic frameworks are promising candidates for carbon capture that exhibit exceptional selectivities and high capacities for CO2. To date, CO2 uptake in these materials has been shown to occur predominantly via a chemisorption mechanism involving CO2 insertion at the amine-appended metal sites, a mechanism that limits the capacity of the material to ∼1 equiv of CO2 per diamine. Herein, we report a new framework, pip2-Mg2(dobpdc) (pip2 = 1-(2-aminoethyl)piperidine), that exhibits two-step CO2 uptake and achieves an unusually high CO2 capacity approaching 1.5 CO2 per diamine at saturation. Analysis of variable-pressure CO2 uptake in the material using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) reveals that pip2-Mg2(dobpdc) captures CO2 via an unprecedented mechanism involving the initial insertion of CO2 to form ammonium carbamate chains at half of the sites in the material, followed by tandem cooperative chemisorption and physisorption. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis, supported by van der Waals-corrected density functional theory, reveals that physisorbed CO2 occupies a pocket formed by adjacent ammonium carbamate chains and the linker. Based on breakthrough and extended cycling experiments, pip2-Mg2(dobpdc) exhibits exceptional performance for CO2 capture under conditions relevant to the separation of CO2 from landfill gas. More broadly, these results highlight new opportunities for the fundamental design of diamine-Mg2(dobpdc) materials with even higher capacities than those predicted based on CO2 chemisorption alone.

Complete phylogeny of Micrathena spiders suggests multiple dispersal events among Neotropical rainforests, islands and landmasses, and indicates that Andean orogeny promotes speciation.

The Neotropical region is the most diverse on the planet, largely owing to its mosaic of tropical rainforests. Multiple tectonic and climatic processes have been hypothesized to contribute to generating this diversity, including Andean orogeny, the closure of the Isthmus of Panama, the GAARlandia land bridge and historical connections among currently isolated forests. Micrathena spiders are diverse and widespread in the region, and thus a complete phylogeny of this genus allows the testing of hypotheses at multiple scales. We estimated a complete, dated phylogeny using morphological data for 117 Micrathena species and molecular data of up to five genes for a subset of 79 species. Employing eventc-based approaches and biogeographic stochastic mapping while considering phylogenetic uncertainty, we estimated ancestral distributions, the timing and direction of dispersal events and diversification rates among areas. The phylogeny is generally robust, with uncertainty in the position of some of the species lacking sequences. Micrathena started diversifying around 25 Ma. Andean cloud forests show the highest in-situ speciation, while the Amazon is the major dispersal source for adjacent areas. The Dry Diagonal generated few species and is a sink of diversity. Species exchange between Central and South America involved approximately 23 dispersal events and started ~20 Ma, which is consistent with a Miocene age for the Isthmus of Panama closure. We inferred four dispersal events from Central America to the Antilles in the last 20 Myr, indicating the spiders did not reach the islands through the GAARlandia land bridge. We identified important species exchange routes among the Amazon, Andean cloud forests and Atlantic forests during the Plio-Pleistocene. Sampling all species of the genus was fundamental to the conclusions above, especially in identifying the Andean forests as the area that generated the majority of species. This highlights the importance of complete taxonomic sampling in biogeographic studies.

Consistent trajectories of rhinitis control and treatment in 16,177 weeks: The MASK-air® longitudinal study.

INTRODUCTION: Data from mHealth apps can provide valuable information on rhinitis control and treatment patterns. However, in MASK-air®, these data have only been analyzed cross-sectionally, without considering the changes of symptoms over time. We analyzed data from MASK-air® longitudinally, clustering weeks according to reported rhinitis symptoms. METHODS: We analyzed MASK-air® data, assessing the weeks for which patients had answered a rhinitis daily questionnaire on all 7 days. We firstly used k-means clustering algorithms for longitudinal data to define clusters of weeks according to the trajectories of reported daily rhinitis symptoms. Clustering was applied separately for weeks when medication was reported or not. We compared obtained clusters on symptoms and rhinitis medication patterns. We then used the latent class mixture model to assess the robustness of results. RESULTS: We analyzed 113,239 days (16,177 complete weeks) from 2590 patients (mean age ± SD = 39.1 ± 13.7 years). The first clustering algorithm identified ten clusters among weeks with medication use: seven with low variability in rhinitis control during the week and three with highly-variable control. Clusters with poorly-controlled rhinitis displayed a higher frequency of rhinitis co-medication, a more frequent change of medication schemes and more pronounced seasonal patterns. Six clusters were identified in weeks when no rhinitis medication was used, displaying similar control patterns. The second clustering method provided similar results. Moreover, patients displayed consistent levels of rhinitis control, reporting several weeks with similar levels of control. CONCLUSIONS: We identified 16 patterns of weekly rhinitis control. Co-medication and medication change schemes were common in uncontrolled weeks, reinforcing the hypothesis that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms.

Vocal learning: Beyond the continuum.

Vocal learning is the ability to modify vocal output on the basis of experience. Traditionally, species have been classified as either displaying or lacking this ability. A recent proposal, the vocal learning continuum, recognizes the need to have a more nuanced view of this phenotype and abandon the yes-no dichotomy. However, it also limits vocal learning to production of novel calls through imitation, moreover subserved by a forebrain-to-phonatory-muscles circuit. We discuss its limitations regarding the characterization of vocal learning across species and argue for a more permissive view.

New insights to diversity and enzyme-substrate interactions of fungal glucuronoyl esterases.

Glucuronoyl esterases (GEs) (EC 3.1.1.117) catalyze the cleavage of ester-linked lignin-carbohydrate complexes that has high impact on the plant cell wall integrity. The GEs are among the very few known types of hydrolytic enzymes that act at the interface of lignin, or which may potentially interact with lignin itself. In this review, we provide the latest update of the current knowledge on GEs with a special focus on the fungal variants. In addition, we have established the phylogenetic relationship between all GEs and this reveals that the fungal enzymes largely fall into one major branch, together with only a minor subset of bacterial enzymes. About 22% of the fungal proteins carry an additional domain, which is almost exclusively a CBM1 binding domain. We address how GEs may interact with the lignin-side of their substrate by molecular docking experiments based on the known structure of the Cerrena unicolor GE (CuGE). The docking studies indicate that there are no direct interactions between the enzyme and the lignin polymer, that the lignin-moiety is facing away from the protein surface and that an elongated carbon-chain between the ester-linkage and the first phenyl of lignin is preferable. Much basic research on these enzymes has been done over the past 15 years, but the next big step forward for these enzymes is connected to application and how these enzymes can facilitate the use of lignocellulose as a renewable resource. KEY POINTS: Fungal GEs are closely related and are sometimes linked to a binding module Molecular docking suggests good accommodation of lignin-like substructures GEs could be among the first expressed enzymes during fungal growth on biomass.

Novel Approach to Intradialytic Progressive Resistance Exercise Training.

Physical activity levels are typically undesirably low in chronic kidney disease patients, especially in those undergoing haemodialysis, and particularly on dialysis days. Intradialytic exercise programmes could be a solution to this issue and have been reported to be safe and relatively easily implemented in dialysis clinics. Nevertheless, such implementation has been failing in part due to barriers such as the lack of funding, qualified personnel, equipment, and patient motivation. Intradialytic aerobic exercise has been the most used type of intervention in dialysis clinics. However, resistance exercise may be superior in eliciting potential benefits on indicators of muscle strength and mass. Yet, few intradialytic exercise programmes have focused on this type of intervention, and the ones which have report inconsistent benefits, diverging on prescribed exercise intensity, absent or subjective load progression, equipment availability, or exercise supervision. Commonly, intradialytic resistance exercise interventions use free weights, ankle cuffs, or elastic bands which hinder load progression and exercise intensity monitoring. Here, we introduce a recently developed intradialytic resistance exercise device and propose an accompanying innovative resistance exercise training protocol which aims to improve the quality of resistance exercise interventions within dialysis treatment sessions.

The effectiveness of concept mapping as a tool for developing critical thinking in undergraduate medical education - a BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No. 81.

BACKGROUND: Concept maps (CMs) visually represent hierarchical connections among related ideas. They foster logical organization and clarify idea relationships, potentially aiding medical students in critical thinking (to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe). However, there are inconsistent claims about the use of CMs in undergraduate medical education. Our three research questions are 1) What studies have been published on concept mapping in undergraduate medical education; 2) What was the impact of CMs on students' critical thinking; 3) How and why have these interventions had an educational impact? METHODS: Eight databases were systematically searched (plus a manual and an additional search were conducted). After eliminating duplicate entries, titles and abstracts and full-texts were independently screened by two authors. Data extraction and quality assessment of the studies were independently performed by two authors. Qualitative and quantitative data were integrated using mixed-methods. The results were reported using the STructured apprOach to the Reporting In healthcare education of Evidence Synthesis statement and BEME guidance. RESULTS: Thirty-nine studies were included from 26 journals (19 quantitative, 8 qualitative and 12 mixed-methods studies). CMs were considered as a tool to promote critical thinking, both in the perception of students and tutors, as well as in assessing students' knowledge and/or skills. In addition to their role as facilitators of knowledge integration and critical thinking, CMs were considered both a teaching and a learning methods. CONCLUSIONS: CMs are teaching and learning tools which seem to help medical students develop critical thinking. This is due to the flexibility of the tool as a facilitator of knowledge integration, as a learning and teaching method. The wide range of contexts, purposes, and variations in how CMs and instruments to assess critical thinking are used increases our confidence that the positive effects are consistent.

Evidence of positive selection on six spider developmental genes.

Spiders constitute more than 49,000 described species distributed all over the world, and all ecological environments. Their order, Araneae, is defined by a set of characteristics with no parallel among their arachnid counterparts (e.g., spinnerets, silk glands, chelicerae that inoculate venom, among others). Changes in developmental pathways often underlie the evolution of morphological synapomorphies, and as such spiders are a promising model to study the role of developmental genes in the origin of evolutionary novelties. With that in mind, we investigated changes in the evolutionary regime of a set of six developmental genes, using spiders as our model. The genes were mainly chosen for their roles in spinneret ontogeny, yet they are pleiotropic, and it is likely that the origins of other unique morphological phenotypes are also linked to changes in their sequences. Our results indicate no great differences in the selective pressures on those genes when comparing spiders to other arachnids, but a few site-specific positive selection evidence were found in the Araneae lineage. These findings lead us to new insights on spider evolution that are to be further tested.

Comparison of rhinitis treatments using MASK-air® data and considering the minimal important difference.

BACKGROUND: Different treatments exist for allergic rhinitis (AR), including pharmacotherapy and allergen immunotherapy (AIT), but they have not been compared using direct patient data (i.e., "real-world data"). We aimed to compare AR pharmacological treatments on (i) daily symptoms, (ii) frequency of use in co-medication, (iii) visual analogue scales (VASs) on allergy symptom control considering the minimal important difference (MID) and (iv) the effect of AIT. METHODS: We assessed the MASK-air® app data (May 2015-December 2020) by users self-reporting AR (16-90 years). We compared eight AR medication schemes on reported VAS of allergy symptoms, clustering data by the patient and controlling for confounding factors. We compared (i) allergy symptoms between patients with and without AIT and (ii) different drug classes used in co-medication. RESULTS: We analysed 269,837 days from 10,860 users. Most days (52.7%) involved medication use. Median VAS levels were significantly higher in co-medication than in monotherapy (including the fixed combination azelastine-fluticasone) schemes. In adjusted models, azelastine-fluticasone was associated with lower average VAS global allergy symptoms than all other medication schemes, while the contrary was observed for oral corticosteroids. AIT was associated with a decrease in allergy symptoms in some medication schemes. A difference larger than the MID compared to no treatment was observed for oral steroids. Azelastine-fluticasone was the drug class with the lowest chance of being used in co-medication (adjusted OR = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.71-0.80). CONCLUSION: Median VAS levels were higher in co-medication than in monotherapy. Patients with more severe symptoms report a higher treatment, which is currently not reflected in guidelines.

Behavioural patterns in allergic rhinitis medication in Europe: A study using MASK-air® real-world data.

BACKGROUND: Co-medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis-related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to assess AR co-medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real-world data. METHODS: We analysed 2015-2020 MASK-air® European data. We compared days under no medication, monotherapy and co-medication using the visual analogue scale (VAS) levels for overall allergic symptoms ('VAS Global Symptoms') and impact of AR on work. We assessed the monthly use of different medication schemes, performing separate analyses by region (defined geographically or by Google Trends patterns). We estimated the average number of different drugs reported per patient within 1 year. RESULTS: We analysed 222,024 days (13,122 users), including 63,887 days (28.8%) under monotherapy and 38,315 (17.3%) under co-medication. The median 'VAS Global Symptoms' was 7 for no medication days, 14 for monotherapy and 21 for co-medication (p < .001). Medication use peaked during the spring, with similar patterns across different European regions (defined geographically or by Google Trends). Oral H1 -antihistamines were the most common medication in single and co-medication. Each patient reported using an annual average of 2.7 drugs, with 80% reporting two or more. CONCLUSIONS: Allergic rhinitis medication patterns are similar across European regions. One third of treatment days involved co-medication. These findings suggest that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms (irrespective of how they understand AR) and that co-medication use is driven by symptom severity.

Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy.

Recently, prominent theoretical linguists have argued for an explicit scenario for the evolution of the human language capacity on the basis of its computational properties. Concretely, the simplicity of a minimalist formulation of the operation Merge, which allows humans to recursively compute hierarchical relations in language, has been used to promote a sudden-emergence, single-mutation scenario. In support of this view, Merge is said to be either fully present or fully absent: one cannot have half-Merge. On this basis, it is inferred that the emergence of our fully fledged language capacity had to be sudden. Thus, proponents of this view draw a parallelism between the formal complexity of the operation at the computational level and the number of evolutionary steps it must imply. Here, we examine this argument in detail and show that the jump from the atomicity of Merge to a single-mutation scenario is not valid and therefore cannot be used as justification for a theory of language evolution along those lines.

Chikungunya Fever: Comparison Study of Synovitis and Tenosynovitis of the Hands and Wrists Using Physical Examination, Ultrasound, and MRI Findings.

OBJECTIVES: To compare musculoskeletal changes on a physical examination (PE), ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the hands and wrists of patients with Chikungunya fever (CF). METHODS: The sample consisted of 30 patients in the chronic phase of CF. The sites analyzed were the interphalangeal (IP), metacarpophalangeal (MCP) and wrist/mediocarpal (WMC) joints and periarticular soft tissue. The interval between the PE and imaging tests was 7 days, and the interval between US and MRI was 2 days. The kappa coefficient was calculated to estimate the agreement between the PE and US and MRI findings and between the US and MRI findings. RESULTS: Significant agreement was observed between PE and US in the diagnosis of synovitis. The only statistically significant agreement between US and MRI was the finding of flexor tenosynovitis; the agreement was moderate. CONCLUSIONS: US has great potential for use in diagnosing synovitis suspected based on a PE. The limited agreement observed between US and MRI, in turn, may suggest a complementary role of these methods.

Rapid assembly and profiling of an anticoagulant sulfoprotein library.

Hematophagous organisms produce a suite of salivary proteins which interact with the host's coagulation machinery to facilitate the acquisition and digestion of a bloodmeal. Many of these biomolecules inhibit the central blood-clotting serine proteinase thrombin that is also the target of several clinically approved anticoagulants. Here a bioinformatics approach is used to identify seven tick proteins with putative thrombin inhibitory activity that we predict to be posttranslationally sulfated at two conserved tyrosine residues. To corroborate the biological role of these molecules and investigate the effects of amino acid sequence and sulfation modifications on thrombin inhibition and anticoagulant activity, a library of 34 homogeneously sulfated protein variants were rapidly assembled using one-pot diselenide-selenoester ligation (DSL)-deselenization chemistry. Downstream functional characterization validated the thrombin-directed activity of all target molecules and revealed that posttranslational sulfation of specific tyrosine residues crucially modulates potency. Importantly, access to this homogeneously modified protein library not only enabled the determination of key structure-activity relationships and the identification of potent anticoagulant leads, but also revealed subtleties in the mechanism of thrombin inhibition, between and within the families, that would be impossible to predict from the amino acid sequence alone. The synthetic platform described here therefore serves as a highly valuable tool for the generation and thorough characterization of libraries of related peptide and/or protein molecules (with or without modifications) for the identification of lead candidates for medicinal chemistry programs.

Automatic segmentation and classification of mice ultrasonic vocalizations.

This paper addresses the development of a system for classifying mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) present in audio recordings. The automatic labeling process for USVs is usually divided into two main steps: USV segmentation followed by the matching classification. Three main contributions can be highlighted: (i) a new segmentation algorithm, (ii) a new set of features, and (iii) the discrimination of a higher number of classes when compared to similar studies. The developed segmentation algorithm is based on spectral entropy analysis. This novel segmentation approach can detect USVs with 94% and 74% recall and precision, respectively. When compared to other methods/software, our segmentation algorithm achieves a higher recall. Regarding the classification phase, besides the traditional features from time, frequency, and time-frequency domains, a new set of contour-based features were extracted and used as inputs of shallow machine learning classification models. The contour-based features were obtained from the time-frequency ridge representation of USVs. The classification methods can differentiate among ten different syllable types with 81.1% accuracy and 80.5% weighted F1-score. The algorithms were developed and evaluated based on a large dataset, acquired on diverse social interaction conditions between the animals, to stimulate a varied vocal repertoire.

Multispectral Facial Recognition in the Wild.

This work proposes a multi-spectral face recognition system in an uncontrolled environment, aiming to identify or authenticate identities (people) through their facial images. Face recognition systems in uncontrolled environments have shown impressive performance improvements over recent decades. However, most are limited to the use of a single spectral band in the visible spectrum. The use of multi-spectral images makes it possible to collect information that is not obtainable in the visible spectrum when certain occlusions exist (e.g., fog or plastic materials) and in low- or no-light environments. The proposed work uses the scores obtained by face recognition systems in different spectral bands to make a joint final decision in identification. The evaluation of different methods for each of the components of a face recognition system allowed the most suitable ones for a multi-spectral face recognition system in an uncontrolled environment to be selected. The experimental results, expressed in Rank-1 scores, were 99.5% and 99.6% in the TUFTS multi-spectral database with pose variation and expression variation, respectively, and 100.0% in the CASIA NIR-VIS 2.0 database, indicating that the use of multi-spectral images in an uncontrolled environment is advantageous when compared with the use of single spectral band images.