Exploring the effects of COVID-19-related traumatic events on the mental health of university students in Brazil: A cross-sectional investigation.

University students are vulnerable to mental health issues during their academic lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, university students faced mental distress due to lockdowns and the transition to e-learning. However, it is not known whether these students were also affected specifically by COVID-19-related traumatic events. This study examined the impact of COVID-19-related traumatic events on 2277 university students from two federal institutions of higher education in Brazil. The university students completed an online questionnaire covering demographics, lifestyle habits, health characteristics, COVID-19-related traumatic events, and depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. The results showed that an increased intensity of COVID-19-related traumatic events was positively associated with stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, and each specific type of event was associated with these symptoms. In addition, we found a negative association between these symptoms and male sex and age and a positive association with having or having had a history of cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, or mental disorders or another disease diagnosed by a physician. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the heightened risk of mental health issues in university students in the face of COVID-19-related traumatic events. Women, young people and people who have or have had a history of disease were the most vulnerable to mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of Loneliness on Training Gains with Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback in the Elderly: A Pilot Study.

The negative impact of loneliness on the health of the elderly is particularly noticeable because of the effects of central control on the autonomic nervous system. Such an impact can be assessed through heart rate variability (HRV) analysis and can be modified using HRV biofeedback training. This study aimed to investigate the impact of different levels of social interaction reported by the elderly on HRV before and after training with HRV biofeedback and after a follow-up period. The participants of this pilot study comprised 16 elderly people of both sexes with a mean age of 71.20 ± 4.92 years. The participants were divided into two groups, the loneliness group (N = 8) and the no-loneliness group (N = 8), based on a combination of both criteria: the institutionalization condition (institutionalized or not) and the score on the loneliness scale (high or low). All participants had their HRV components recorded at baseline, after 14 training sessions with HRV biofeedback (three times a week, 15 min each for 4.5 weeks), and after 4.5 weeks of follow-up without training. After HRV biofeedback training, HRV components increased in both groups. However, the gains lasted at follow-up only in the no-loneliness group. In conclusion, loneliness can influence the maintenance of HRV after interruption of training with HRV biofeedback in the elderly. HRV biofeedback training can be an innovative and effective tool for complementary treatment of elderly individuals, but its effects on lonely elderly individuals need to be further investigated.

High depressive symptomatology reduces emotional reactions to pictures of social interaction.

Individuals with severe depressive symptoms present diminished facial expressions compared to healthy individuals. This reduced facial expression, which occurs in most depressive patients could impair social relationships. The current study sought to investigate whether pictures with social interaction cues could elicit different modulations of facial expressions and mood states in individuals with depressive symptoms compared to healthy individuals. A total of 85 individuals were divided into depressive and non-depressive groups based on their beck depression inventory scores. Participants viewed pictures containing neutral (objects), affiliative (people interacting socially), and control (people not interacting) scenes. Electromyographic signals were collected during the entire period of visualization of the blocks, and emotional questionnaires were evaluated after each block to assess sociability and altruism (prosocial states). In non-depressed individuals, affiliative pictures increased the activity of the zygomatic muscle compared to both neutral and control pictures and reduced fear of rejection compared to neutral pictures. During the visualization of the affiliative block, zygomatic major muscle activation was higher and fear of rejection was lower in the non-depressive individuals than in the depressive. These effects reflected the low expressions of smiling and sociability to affiliative pictures in depressive individuals. These findings highlight the importance of smiling and prosocial states in social interactions, especially in these individuals.

Neuroserpin: A potential biomarker for early-onset severe preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disease of pregnancy associated with intense inflammatory and pro-coagulant responses. Neuroserpin is a serine protease inhibitor that has been involved in neurological and immune processes and has not yet been investigated in preeclampsia. Herein, we evaluated neuroserpin levels in association with other inflammatory mediators (IL-17A, IL-33, and CXCL-16) during severe preeclampsia. The mediators' plasma levels were measured by immunoassays in 24 pregnant women with severe preeclampsia (early preeclampsia: N = 17, late preeclampsia: N = 7), 34 normotensive pregnant women, and 32 non-pregnant women. In general, pregnancy was associated with higher levels of neuroserpin, IL-17A, IL-33, and CXCL-16 than the non-pregnant state. However, this increase was attenuated in pregnancies complicated by severe preeclampsia. Although neuroserpin levels did not differ between normotensive pregnant women and pregnant women with severe preeclampsia, neuroserpin levels tended to be lower in early-onset than in late-onset severe preeclampsia. There were positive correlations between neuroserpin and IL-17A, neuroserpin and CXCL-16, and IL-17A and CXCL-16 levels in women with severe preeclampsia. In addition, although the risk for developing severe preeclampsia was higher in older women in this study, maternal age did not significantly influence the mediators' levels, nor their correlations in the preeclampsia group. In summary, our data suggest that neuroserpin might be a potential biomarker for early-onset severe preeclampsia and, that the imbalance among neuroserpin, IL-17A, IL-33, and CXCL-16 levels may be associated with the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, regardless of the maternal age.

Ghost Fat: Altered Female Body Perception After Bariatric Surgery.

Body perception is an individual's ability to recognize their body in attitudinal and/or dimensional aspects. We investigated women's body perceptions before and after bariatric surgery. Participants were 31 women (M age = 36.23, SD = 7.95 years old) with an average pre-operative body mass index of 44.58 (SD = 4.65) kg/m2. We collected anthropometric and body perception measures (attitudinal body image [ABI] and dimensional body image [DBI]) before bariatric surgery and 30, 60, 90, and 120 days after it. There was an average decrease of 21.09% in participants' body weight over the 120 days. Regarding ABI, 51.61% of participants had high body dissatisfaction before surgery, and this proportion of dissatisfied participants decreased to 3.23% 120 days after surgery. We observed no statistically significant differences in DBI perceptions. Fast weight loss caused by bariatric surgery appeared to generate a perception of ghost fat. Somatosensory interventions and/or a longer follow-up are needed to alter this persistent distortion of body dimensions.

Use of Diuretics is Associated with Higher Risk of Sarcopenia in Older Adults with Hypertension

Abstract Background: Sarcopenia is a disease that involves skeletal muscle mass loss and is highly prevalent in the older adult population. Moreover, the incidence of sarcopenia is increased in patients with hypertension. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the association between the classes of the drugs used for arterial hypertension treatment and the presence or absence of sarcopenia. Methods: 129 older adults with hypertension were evaluated by the researchers who registered the participants medication for arterial hypertension treatment. Sarcopenia level was measured by anthropometric parameters, muscular strength, and functional capacity. The data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc test and Fisher's exact test; statistical significance was set at 0.05. Results: Age was not different between women with different levels of sarcopenia, but significant differences were observed between men with absent sarcopenia (66.8±4.2 years) and men with probable sarcopenia (77.0±10.2 years). Individuals with absent sarcopenia showed higher handgrip strength (men: 33.8±7.4, women: 23.2±4.6 Kgf) in comparison with those with sarcopenia (men with probable sarcopenia: 9.5±3.3 Kgf, women with probable, confirmed, and severe sarcopenia: 11.7±2.5, 12.2±3.0, 11.8±1.8 Kgf, respectively). The analysis showed an association between the type of medication and degree of sarcopenia; diuretics were significantly associated with probable sarcopenia, and angiotensin II receptor blockers (alone or in combination with diuretics) was associated with absence of sarcopenia. Conclusion: In conclusion, handgrip strength was a good method to diagnose sarcopenia, and diuretics were associated with increased risk of sarcopenia in older adults with hypertension.

Similar Inflammatory Adaptation in Women following 10 Weeks of Two Equalized Resistance Training with Different Muscle Action Duration.

This study is aimed at evaluating the profile of inflammatory markers and components of redox regulation in untrained women after 10 weeks of resistance training using equalized protocols but different muscle action duration (MAD). Twenty-two women underwent progressive resistance training exercising the knee extensor muscles for 10 weeks-3x/week, with 3-5 sets of 6 repetitions at 50% of the 1 repetition maximum strength test (1RM), with a rest of 180 s between the series, following the training protocol (i) 5 s of concentric muscle action for 1 s of eccentric muscle action (5C-1E) and (ii) 1 s of concentric muscle action for 5 s of eccentric muscle action (1C-5E). Quadriceps muscle hypertrophy maximum strength (1RM) and redox regulation/muscle damage/inflammatory markers (CAT, SOD, TBARS, FRAP, CH, LDH, CXCL8, and CCL2) were evaluated. Plasma markers were evaluated before and 30 minutes after the first and last training sessions. A similar gain in hypertrophy and maximum strength was observed in both groups. However, in the 5C-1E, a significant major effect was observed for SOD (F 1.19 = 10.480, p = 0.004) and a significant major time effect, with a reduction in the last training session, was observed for CXCL8 (F 1.37 = 27.440, p < 0.001). In conclusion, similar protocols of resistance training, with different MAD, produced similar inflammatory and adaptive responses to strength training. As the training load is progressive, the maintenance of this inflammatory and redox regulation profile suggests an adaptive response to the proposed strength training.

Vagal Flexibility during Exercise: Impact of Training, Stress, Anthropometric Measures, and Gender.

We evaluated the effect of physical training, stress, anthropometric measures, and gender upon the reactivity and recovery of the heart rate variability (HRV) during a cardiorespiratory test. Professors (N = 54) were evaluated using the following: physical training: time, frequency, and length of physical exercise; resting heart rate (HR); maximum HR; and recovery HR; stress: stress symptoms, work stress, vital events, and perceived stress; anthropometric measures: body mass index, waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and fat percentage (FP); and HRV before, during, and after the test. The HRV decreased during and increased after the test. Increased recovery HR was associated with the decreased vagal output during the test, and decreased recovery HR was associated with the increased posttest vagal input. The higher the work control and stress symptoms of men and the higher the perceived stress for both genders, the lower the vagal output during the test. The lower stress symptom and work control of men and the lower work demand of women were associated with the posttest vagal increase. The increased WC and decreased WHR of men were associated with the lower vagal output during the test and the lower posttest vagal increase. The lower FP also was associated with the greater recovery.

High fat diet modulates inflammatory parameters in the heart and liver during acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

The high fat diet (HFD) can trigger metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Trypanosoma cruzi infection induces progressive inflammatory manifestations capable to affect the structure and the function of important organs such as the heart and liver. Here we aimed to investigate the effects of a HFD on the immune response and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activities during acute infection with the T. cruzi strain VL-10. The VL-10 strain has cardiac tropism and causes myocarditis in mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were treated with either: (i) regular diet (Reg) or (ii) HFD for 8 weeks, after which mice in each group were infected with T. cruzi. Mice were euthanized on day 30 after infection, and the liver and heart were subjected to histology and zymography to determine MMP-2 activities and plasma levels of IL-10, TNF, CCL2, and CCL5. T. cruzi-infected HFD animals had higher parasitemia, LDL and total cholesterol levels. Regardless of diet, plasma levels of all inflammatory mediators and cardiac MMP-2 activity were elevated in infected mice in contrast with the low plasma levels of leptin. HFD animals presented micro- and macrovesicular hepatic steatosis, while cardiac leukocyte infiltration was mainly detected in T. cruzi-infected mice. Our findings suggested that a HFD promotes higher circulating T. cruzi load and cardiac and liver immunopathogenesis in an experimental model using the VL-10 strain of the T. cruzi.

Strength Training Session Induces Important Changes on Physiological, Immunological, and Inflammatory Biomarkers.

Strength exercise is a strategy applied in sports and physical training processes. It may induce skeletal muscle hypertrophy. The hypertrophy is dependent on the eccentric muscle actions and on the inflammatory response. Here, we evaluate the physiological, immunological, and inflammatory responses induced by a session of strength training with a focus on predominance of the eccentric muscle actions. Twenty volunteers were separated into two groups: the untrained group (UTG) and the trained group (TG). Both groups hold 4 sets of leg press, knee extensor, and leg curl at 65% of personal one-repetition maximum (1RM), 90 s of recovery, and 2″conc/3″eccen of duration of execution in each repetition. Blood samples were collected immediately before and after, 2 hours after, and 24 h after the end of the exercise session. The single session of strength training elevated the heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), visual analog scale (VAS), and lactate blood level in UTG and TG. Creatine kinase (CK) levels were higher at 2 and 24 h after the end of the exercise in UTG and, in TG, only at 24 h. The number of white blood cells (WBC) and neutrophils increased in UTG and TG, post and 2 h after exercise. Lymphocytes increased postexercise but reduced 2 h after exercise in both groups, while the number of monocytes increased only immediately after the exercise session in UTG and TG. The strength training session elevated the levels of apelin and fatty acid-binding proteins-3 (FABP3) in both groups and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in TG. The single exercise session was capable of inducing elevated HR, RPE, lactate level, and CK levels. This protocol changed the count/total number of circulating immune cells in both groups (UTG and TG) and also increased the level of plasmatic apelin, BDNF, and FLTS1 only in TG and FABP3 myokines in both groups.

Risk estimation to human health caused by the mercury content of Sushi and Sashimi sold in Japanese restaurants in Brazil.

Although fish is a healthy alternative for meat, it can be a vehicle for mercury (Hg), including in its most toxic organic form, methylmercury (MeHg). The objective of the present study was to estimate the risk to human health caused by the consumption of sushi and sashimi as commercialized by Japanese food restaurants in the city of Campinas (SP, Brazil). The total Hg content was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry with thermal decomposition and amalgamation, and the MeHg content calculated considering that 90% of the total Hg is in the organic form. The health risk was estimated from the values for the provisional tolerable weekly ingestion (PTWI) by both adults and children. The mean concentrations for total Hg were: 147.99, 6.13, and 3.42 µg kg-1 in the tuna, kani, and salmon sushi samples, respectively, and 589.09, 85.09, and 11.38 µg kg-1 in the tuna, octopus and salmon sashimi samples, respectively. The tuna samples showed the highest Hg concentrations. One portion of tuna sashimi exceeded the PTWI value for MeHg established for children and adults. The estimate of risk for human health indicated that the level of toxicity depended on the type of fish and size of the portion consumed.

Evaluation of raw soapstone (steatite) as adsorbent of trace elements present in Brazilian spirits.

The impact of soapstone (steatite) upon inorganic element contaminant concentrations in alcoholic beverages was investigated. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb levels in 8 Brazilian spirits plus an alcoholic simulant were initially measured, and then measured following each 24h cycle of exposure to raw soapstone cups, for a total of 4 cycles/sample. The results were compared to the levels established by Brazilian and German regulations. The contact between the spirits and the soapstone reduced the Cu content by up to 50.4% and increased the Ni content by up to 622.2%, especially in the first contact cycle. The exposure of spirits to the soapstone exhibits a linear reduction in the Pb content (18.3-54.5%) while As and Cd levels remained unaltered throughout the experiments. In conclusion, crude soapstone in contact with alcoholic solutions acts as an adsorbent of trace elements (Cu and Pb) while releasing Ni.

Análise bayesiana do modelo de herança monogênica no melhoramento vegetal: um exemplo com abobrinha / Bayesian analisys of monogenic inheritance model in plant breeding: a case study with zucchini

Uma estratégia comum em programas de melhoramento é conduzir estudos básicos de herança para investigar a hipótese de controle do caráter por um ou poucos genes de efeito principal, associados ou não a genes modificadores de pequeno efeito. Neste trabalho, foi utilizada a inferência bayesiana para ajustar modelos de herança genética aditiva-dominante a experimentos de genética vegetal com várias gerações. Densidades normais com médias associadas aos efeitos genéticos das gerações foram consideradas em um modelo linear em que a matriz de delineamento dos efeitos genéticos tinha coeficientes indeterminados (precisando ser estimada para cada indivíduo). A metodologia foi ilustrada com um conjunto de dados de um estudo de herança da partenocarpia em abobrinha (Cucurbita pepo L). Tal ajuste permitiu explicitar a distribuição a posteriori das probabilidades genotípicas. A análise corrobora resultados anteriores da literatura, porém foi mais eficiente que alternativas prévias que supunham a matriz de delineamento conhecida para as gerações. Conclui-se que a partenocarpia em abobrinha é governada por um gene principal com dominância parcial.

A common breeding strategy is to carry out basic studies to investigate the hypothesis of a single gene controlling the trait (major gene) with or without polygenes of minor effect. In this study we used Bayesian inference to fit genetic additive-dominance models of inheritance to plant breeding experiments with multiple generations. Normal densities with different means, according to the major gene genotype, were considered in a linear model in which the design matrix of the genetic effects had unknown coefficients (which were estimated in individual basis). An actual data set from an inheritance study of partenocarpy in zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.) was used for illustration. Model fitting included posterior probabilities for all individual genotypes. Analysis agrees with results in the literature but this approach was far more efficient than previous alternatives assuming that design matrix was known for the generations. Partenocarpy in zucchini is controlled by a major gene with important additive effect and partial dominance.

Inheritance of parthenocarpy in summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.).

The inheritance of the tendency to set parthenocarpic fruit in the summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) line Whitaker was studied. Two parental lines, Whitaker (parthenocarpic) and Caserta (non-parthenocarpic), and the F1 and F2 generations and backcrosses to both parents were tested. The parthenocarpic tendency of individual plants was scored on a scale from 1 (non-parthenocarpic fruit) to 5 (parthenocarpic fruit). The Whitaker line produced parthenocarpic fruit and had a mean score of 4.2, whereas Caserta did not set parthenocarpic fruit and had a score of 1.55. The heritability estimates indicated that genetic gains from selection were feasible. The additive-dominant model showed a good fit, with epistasis being negligible or nonexistent. The hypothesis of monogenic inheritance with incomplete dominance was not rejected within the degree of dominance range from 0.2 to 0.5. These results indicate that parthenocarpy is controlled by a single locus, with incomplete dominance in the direction of parthenocarpic expression.

Cytotaxonomy of some species and of interspecific hybrids of Pennisetum (Poaceae, Poales)

Cytotaxonomic studies were carried out on 26 accessions of Pennisetum spp. originating from the Active Germplasm Bank of Embrapa Gado de Leite-Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.This study presents cytogenetics and reproductive morphological data for each one of these accessions, which allowed groupings and suggest botanical identifications to be established. The metaphases of the accessions characterized as P. purpureum confirmed the presence of 2n = 28 chromosomes that have already been described for this species. For the hybrids between P. purpureum and P. glaucum and for the hexaploids, resulting from the chromosome duplication of these hybrids, 2n = 21 and 2n = 42 chromosomes were confirmed, respectively. The wild accession identified as P. setosum showed metaphases with 2n = 54 chromosomes, while those characterized as P. nervosum had cells with 2n = 36 chromosomes. The wild accession 15 was different from the others for the morphological characters, with 2n = 36 chromosomes, and was classified as P. orientale. Two statistical procedures were used (canonical variables and cluster analysis on the basis of the Mahalanobis distance), and the results confirmed the conclusions obtained from the cytogenetic and morphologic analysis