Electricity consumption dataset of a local energy cooperative.

Real-world data collections are generally not easily available. Energy measurements from buildings, houses and other devices can be used within different areas of research while being employed to plan or train models, allowing the improvement of power grid energy efficiency or providing more insight on how an energy community can work. This paper provides a dataset concerning a Portuguese community of 172 households that are geographically close to each other, enabling the establishment of relationships among buildings and the analysis of a community's power consumption. In addition to the consumed energy values, the related local weather information is included in the data. The intersection of weather data and energy measurements can be helpful to train AI models, contributing to explain variations in energy consumption and the absolute values of the energy readings. The inclusion of these weather parameters aims to unveil features that can correlate to the energy measurements, enabling them to be used in multiple areas of research. Hence, it will provide added value to the data as it can be reused to explore Machine Learning algorithms or community energy planning by grid operators.

Physical Fitness in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: To synthesize evidence about physical fitness levels in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) compared with typically developing (TD) children. METHODS: We searched four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO) for cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies comparing physical fitness between children with and without DCD. We assessed the methodological quality of the studies with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). We calculated Cohen's d effect sizes to provide clinical evidence of group differences in aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, muscle strength, body composition and flexibility. RESULTS: We included 32 studies for qualitative synthesis after applying eligibility criteria. All selected studies ranged from moderate to high research quality. Effect sizes in favor of typically developing children over children with DCD were large for aerobic capacity (d = 1.15), anaerobic capacity (d = 0.90), and muscle strength (d = 0.79), and small for body composition (d = 0.43) and flexibility (d = 0.21) outcomes. CONCLUSION: Children with DCD presented significantly lower physical fitness than their typically developing peers, particularly in aerobic and anaerobic capacity and in muscle strength.

Short- and Long-Term Changes in Balance After Active Video Game Training in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Active video games (AVG) have been used as training tools and are known to ameliorate balance performance in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Our aim was to evaluate balance using clinical tests and by measuring body sway using a force plate with a mixed design of vision (eyes open/eyes closed), surface (rigid/soft), and support (stance/semitandem) before, and after, training and 4 months later (follow-up). Thirty-six DCD children and 40 typically developing children participated in the study, of which 50 children (26 DCD; 24 typically developing) were retested after 4 months. Balance improved on the clinical measures after the training, which was independent of type of AVG (Wii-Fit and Xbox Kinect) used, and this effect was still present after 4 months. The AVG training did not influence general sway behavior, but only sway in the eyes-open condition, corresponding with task demands of the training and indicating a training-specific effect. Overall, DCD children and typically developing children responded comparably to the AVG training, thereby maintaining the gap in performance between the two groups. The changes in postural sway are interpreted as a sign of more confidence and less freezing of the joints, enabling greater flexibility of movements and balance strategies as supported by the improved performance on balance tests in the DCD children. This is the first study that showed long-term effects of AVG training on balance performance. However, these follow-up results should be interpreted with caution given that 35% of the children were lost in follow-up.

Hours of sleep and associated factors in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Sleep alterations are common in college students, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sociodemographic factors may predict these alterations in this population. OBJECTIVE: To identify the sociodemographic factors and health characteristics associated with the number of hours of sleep of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out with 244 university students from a multicampi public university in the State of Bahia, Northeast Brazil. Data collection was performed online and participants answered a specific questionnaire to assess sleep hours, sociodemographic and health variables. RESULTS: Significant associations were observed between hours of sleep and older students (odds ratio adjusted -ORaj: 3.75; 95% Confidence Interval -CI: 1.81-7.75; p <  0.01), attending the final semesters (ORaj: 1.85; 95% CI: 1.05-3.25; p <  0.03), and who reported having some disease (ORaj: 2.18; 95% CI: 1.05-4.50; p <  0.03) with greater chances of getting less sleep. However, those who used tobacco (ORaj: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.01-0.45; p <  0.001) were likely to have more hours of sleep per night. CONCLUSION: Sleep restriction was common among participating college students, which has likely intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions. This encourages specific public health actions, contemplating the health and hours of sleep of this population.

Large-scale and regional climatic influences on surface temperature and precipitation in the South Shetland Islands, northern Antarctic Peninsula.

Using data from SCAR observations, ERA5 reanalysis, and regional climate model simulations (RACMO), we examined the influence of large- and regional-scale climate forcing on temperature and precipitation variations in the South Shetland Islands (SSI). Specifically, we focused on understanding how regional climate indices influence the temporal variability of temperature and precipitation on the SSI. Our findings indicate that both large- and regional-scale climate indices significantly impact the interannual and seasonal temperature variability in the SSI. For instance, the Amundsen Sea Low, characterised by low-pressure systems over the Amundsen Sea, and sea ice extent in the northwestern part of the Weddell Sea, exert a strong influence on temperature variability (r from -0.64 to -0.87; p < 0.05). In contrast, precipitation variability in this region is primarily controlled by regional climatic indices. Particularly, anomalies in atmospheric and surface pressure over the Drake Passage region strongly regulate the interannual variability of precipitation in the SSI (r from -0.46 to -0.70; p < 0.05). Large-scale climatic indices demonstrate low but statistically significant correlations, including the Southern Annular Mode and deep convection in the central tropical Pacific. Given the importance of temperature and precipitation in the glacier changes, we recommend assessing the impact of the Drake region on SSI glaciers.

Spectral Linear Mixing Model application in passive microwave data to analyze Antarctic surface melting dynamics (1978-2018).

Several studies have utilized passive microwave imagery for monitoring snowmelt in Antarctica. However, due to the low spatial resolution of these images (25 km), the quantification of snowmelt is not precise. To enhance the accuracy of these estimations, this study proposed a subpixel analysis approach based on a Spectral Linear Mixing Model. This approach was applied to images obtained from channels 18/19 GHz and 37 GHz, both horizontally and vertically polarized, acquired from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSM/IS) instruments, spanning the period 1978-2018. The spatiotemporal analysis of the estimated snowmelt fraction images indicated that the most persistent and intensive melt was observed on the Antarctic Peninsula, particularly on the Larsen, Wilkins, George VI, and Wordie ice shelves. The melting period in the Antarctic Peninsula began in late October, with a peak in early January, and ended in late March. Other regions with persistent and intensive snowmelt were Mary Bird Land and Wilkes Land, followed by Dronning Maud Land, Amery Ice Shelf, Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, and Ross Ice Shelf. These snowmelt data are valuable for modeling the impacts of snowmelt on glacial systems, local coastal environments, and sea-level rise.

Concentration and thickness of sea ice in the Weddell Sea from SSM/I passive microwave radiometer data.

This study evaluated feasibility statistically and analyzed, during the freezing period, the relationship between brightness temperature (Tb) data of the 37V polarisation and the GR3719 (Gradient Ratio 37V and 19V) obtained by Special Sensor Microwave/Imager from F11 and F13 satellites with sea ice thickness (SIT) data obtained in the Weddell Sea through Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate program. The multiple linear regression (MLR) was applied at 1,520 points, with 70% of these points being randomly separated to generate the MLR and 30% to carry out the validation. To perform the temporal mapping, the MLR was applied only to pixels with sea ice concentration (SIC) ≥ 90%, obtained through the fraction image calculated from the spectral linear mixing model (SLMM) using the Tb in the channels and polarizations 19H, 19V and 37V. The results of the SLMM validation process for estimating the SIC were σ = 10.5%, RMSE = 11.0%, and bias = -2.8%, and the SIT based on the MLR, the results were R² = 0.57, RMSE = 0.268 m, and bias = 0.103 m. In the SIT mapping, we highlight the trend of thickness reduction on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula during the period 1992-2009.

First report of Lasiodiplodia brasiliensis causing root rot in melon plants in northeastern Brazil.

Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is the second most exported fruit in Brazil with an annual production of 27.5 million tons (FAO 2023). From September 2019 through February 2020, 50-day-old melon plants started showing root rot symptoms (dark-brow necrotic zones in their roots that extended to the collar zone) in northeastern Brazil, 30% of the plants in the fields were affected by the disease. The fields are in clay soil where melon, in monoculture, is produced all year long with three cycles of the culture per year. A total of 132 samples from "Yellow" and "Cantaloupe" cultivars were collected from four melon fields (4°59'45.3"S, 37°33'39.7"W; 4°57'10.2"S, 37°31'37.1"W; 5°38'17.9"S, 37°56'27.7"W; and 5°00'25.5"S, 37°23'55.3"W). Small pieces of diseased tissues were surface disinfested in 70% ethanol for 30 sec, in 2% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min, washed in sterilized distilled water, plated on a PDA Petri dishes with tetracycline (0.05g/L), and incubated for seven days at 28 ± 2 ºC. Nine representative isolates were selected for downstream analysis. Colonies were white and later became dark gray, pycnidia and conidia were produced after 30 days ofncubation at 25°C under near-UV light in water-agar medium. Conidia were hyaline when immature and dark brown when mature, ranging from cylindrical subovoid to ellipsoidal and septate to non-septate, and with an average size of 12.54 to 21.97 µm. The colonies were morphologically identified as Lasiodiplodia sp. (Phillips et al. 2013). Total DNA from the isolates was extracted and the ITS, TUB, and TEF-1α genes (Jayawardena et al. 2019) were partially amplified by PCR, Sanger sequenced, and deposited in Genbank: ITS (OM102511 to OM102520), TUB (OR062087 to OR062094 and OR062095), and TEF-1α (OP536826 to OP536835). Blastn analysis of the partial sequences ITS (519bp), TUB (388bp), and TEF-1α (315bp) showed 100% nucleotide similarity of the isolates with sequences of L. brasiliensis and L. theobromae from the GenBank. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using the Maximum Parsimony Analysis method. All nine isolates were grouped into the L. brasiliensis clade with 71% bootstrap support, confirming the isolates's identity. Pathogenicity assays were conducted in a greenhouse using the wooden toothpick inoculation method (Nogueira et al. 2019). "Goldex" Yellow melon seedlings were used in a completely randomized experimental design, with 10 treatments (9 isolates + Mock) and six replicates, with one plant per pot. Plants were inoculated 15 days after sowing, and disease severity was evaluated 50 days after inoculation. All nine isolates caused symptoms in the assessed melon plants. The fungus was reisolated from the lesions and looked morphologically identical to the inoculated fungus, fulfilling Koch's postulates. The pathogenicity test was repeated and yielded similar results. All samples in this study were provided by melon growers who were concerned about the high incidence of root rot disease in their plantations. More research needs to be conducted to determine the epidemiology and the extension of the economic impact caused by this pathogen to melons to develop strategies for disease control to properly assist the growers's concerns. This pathogen has been reported to cause disease in other crops in Brazil, e.g., watermelon (Alves et al. 2023) and apples (Martins et al. 2018). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of L. brasiliensis causing root rot in melons in Brazil.

Molecular Interplay between Non-Host Resistance, Pathogens and Basal Immunity as a Background for Fatal Yellowing in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Plants.

An oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) bud rod disorder of unknown etiology, named Fatal Yellowing (FY) disease, is regarded as one of the top constraints with respect to the growth of the palm oil industry in Brazil. FY etiology has been a challenge embraced by several research groups in plant pathology throughout the last 50 years in Brazil, with no success in completing Koch's postulates. Most recently, the hypothesis of having an abiotic stressor as the initial cause of FY has gained ground, and oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) damaging the root system has become a candidate for stress. Here, a comprehensive, large-scale, single- and multi-omics integration analysis of the metabolome and transcriptome profiles on the leaves of oil palm plants contrasting in terms of FY symptomatology-asymptomatic and symptomatic-and collected in two distinct seasons-dry and rainy-is reported. The changes observed in the physicochemical attributes of the soil and the chemical attributes and metabolome profiles of the leaves did not allow the discrimination of plants which were asymptomatic or symptomatic for this disease, not even in the rainy season, when the soil became waterlogged. However, the multi-omics integration analysis of enzymes and metabolites differentially expressed in asymptomatic and/or symptomatic plants in the rainy season compared to the dry season allowed the identification of the metabolic pathways most affected by the changes in the environment, opening an opportunity for additional characterization of the role of hypoxia in FY symptom intensification. Finally, the initial analysis of a set of 56 proteins/genes differentially expressed in symptomatic plants compared to the asymptomatic ones, independent of the season, has presented pieces of evidence suggesting that breaks in the non-host resistance to non-adapted pathogens and the basal immunity to adapted pathogens, caused by the anaerobic conditions experienced by the plants, might be linked to the onset of this disease. This set of genes might offer the opportunity to develop biomarkers for selecting oil palm plants resistant to this disease and to help pave the way to employing strategies to keep the safety barriers raised and strong.

Osmoprotectants play a major role in the Portulaca oleracea resistance to high levels of salinity stress-insights from a metabolomics and proteomics integrated approach.

Introduction: Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is a non-conventional food plant used extensively in folk medicine and classified as a multipurpose plant species, serving as a source of features of direct importance to the agricultural and agri-industrial sectors. This species is considered a suitable model to study the mechanisms behind resistance to several abiotic stresses including salinity. The recently achieved technological developments in high-throughput biology opened a new window of opportunity to gain additional insights on purslane resistance to salinity stress-a complex, multigenic, and still not well-understood trait. Only a few reports on single-omics analysis (SOA) of purslane are available, and only one multi-omics integration (MOI) analysis exists so far integrating distinct omics platforms (transcriptomics and metabolomics) to characterize the response of purslane plants to salinity stress. Methods: The present study is a second step in building a robust database on the morpho-physiological and molecular responses purslane to salinity stress and its subsequent use in attempting to decode the genetics behind its resistance to this abiotic stress. Here, the characterization of the morpho-physiological responses of adult purslane plants to salinity stress and a metabolomics and proteomics integrative approach to study the changes at the molecular level in their leaves and roots is presented. Results and discussion: Adult plants of the B1 purslane accession lost approximately 50% of the fresh and dry weight (from shoots and roots) whensubmitted to very high salinity stress (2.0 g of NaCl/100 g of the substrate). The resistance to very high levels of salinity stress increases as the purslane plant matures, and most of the absorbed sodium remains in the roots, with only a part (~12%) reaching the shoots. Crystal-like structures, constituted mainly by Na+, Cl-, and K+, were found in the leaf veins and intercellular space near the stoma, indicating that this species has a mechanism of salt exclusion operating on the leaves, which has its role in salt tolerance. The MOI approach showed that 41 metabolites were statistically significant on the leaves and 65 metabolites on the roots of adult purslane plants. The combination of the mummichog algorithm and metabolomics database comparison revealed that the glycine, serine, and threonine, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathways were the most significantly enriched pathways when considering the total number of occurrences in the leaves (with 14, 13, and 13, respectively) and roots (all with eight) of adult plants; and that purslane plants employ the adaptive mechanism of osmoprotection to mitigate the negative effect of very high levels of salinity stress; and that this mechanism is prevalent in the leaves. The multi-omics database built by our group underwent a screen for salt-responsive genes, which are now under further characterization for their potential to promote resistance to salinity stress when heterologously overexpressed in salt-sensitive plants.

Health-related quality of life in children with developmental coordination disorder: a systematic review.

The aims of this study were (1) to synthesize evidence of the general health-related quality of life in children with DCD compared to their typically developing peers, and (2) to verify which domains of HRQOL are more compromised in children with DCD. A systematic search was carried out to identify cross-sectional studies that evaluated self-perception and/or the parent's perception of the HRQOL in children with and without DCD as an outcome. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed, and the effect size calculated. Initial searches in the databases identified 1092 articles. Of these, six were included. Most of the articles (5/6) included noted that children with DCD show a significantly lower HRQOL than their typically developing peers. Regarding the most compromised HRQOL domains, the results are heterogeneous. Most studies (3/6) had moderate methodological quality, and two studies were classified as high methodological quality. Effect sizes ranged from low to high.

Combretastatins D series and analogues: from isolation, synthetic challenges and biological activities.

The combretastatin D series and its analogues, corniculatolides and isocorniculatolides belong to a class of macrocycles called cyclic diaryl ether heptanoids (DAEH). This review is intended to highlight the structure elucidation, biosynthesis, and biological activity of these compounds as well as the use of different strategies for their synthesis.

Multi-omics Analysis of Young Portulaca oleracea L. Plants' Responses to High NaCl Doses Reveals Insights into Pathways and Genes Responsive to Salinity Stress in this Halophyte Species.

Soil salinity is among the abiotic stressors that threaten agriculture the most, and purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is a dicot species adapted to inland salt desert and saline habitats that hyper accumulates salt and has high phytoremediation potential. Many researchers consider purslane a suitable model species to study the mechanisms of plant tolerance to drought and salt stresses. Here, a robust salinity stress protocol was developed and used to characterize the morphophysiological responses of young purslane plants to salinity stress; then, leaf tissue underwent characterization by distinct omics platforms to gain further insights into its response to very high salinity stress. The salinity stress protocol did generate different levels of stress by gradients of electrical conductivity at field capacity and water potential in the saturation extract of the substrate, and the morphological parameters indicated three distinct stress levels. As expected from a halophyte species, these plants remained alive under very high levels of salinity stress, showing salt crystal-like structures constituted mainly by Na+, Cl-, and K+ on and around closed stomata. A comprehensive and large-scale metabolome and transcriptome single and integrated analyses were then employed using leaf samples. The multi-omics integration (MOI) system analysis led to a data-set of 51 metabolic pathways with at least one enzyme and one metabolite differentially expressed due to salinity stress. These data sets (of genes and metabolites) are valuable for future studies aimed to deepen our knowledge on the mechanisms behind the high tolerance of this species to salinity stress. In conclusion, besides showing that this species applies salt exclusion already in young plants to support very high levels of salinity stress, the initial analysis of metabolites and transcripts data sets already give some insights into other salt tolerance mechanisms used by this species to support high levels of salinity stress. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43657-022-00061-2.

Improved attentional abilities after playing five weeks of active video games in children with and without developmental coordination disorder.

BACKGROUND: Besides motor coordination problems, attentional impairments are reported in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), but the connection or trainability is still unclear. AIM: To test changes on attentional abilities after playing active video games (AVG) in children with DCD and their peers (TD), to evaluate near transfer and the relationship between omissions in attentional and motor tests. METHODS: Seventy children (35 DCD; 35 TD), 7-12 years old, were assessed on three types of attention: distractibility (DIS); divided-attention (DA); sustained-attention (SA) and on the Wii Fit test pre- and post-training. RESULTS: A significant decrease of errors in attentional tasks was found after training, independent of group (TD/DCD) and console (Wii Fit/Xbox) with medium-strong effect sizes (DIS η2p =.42; DA η2p =.51; SA η2p =.41). The groups responded similarly to the training but the DCD children scored poorer on the DA. A positive transfer-effect to the non-trained Wii Fit test was found in accuracy (missed gates), while speed proved console-specific. A medium/strong relation was found between omissions in attentional tasks and the missed gates (Wii Fit test). CONCLUSION: More accurate responses on attentional tasks were found after AVG-training in both groups. A clear relationship between attentional abilities and motor performance was found.

Factors Associated with the Lifestyle of Pediatric Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The objective of this study was to analyze the association between sociodemographic and occupational variables with the lifestyle of health professionals in pediatric units during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 407 health professionals working in four pediatric health units in the State of Bahia, northeast Brazil. The Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire and a questionnaire with sociodemographic and employment variables self-applied via Google Forms were used. The final binary logistic regression models revealed significant associations between those who received 3 to 5 minimum wages, without a marital relationship and with more than one employment relationship. Data suggest that these sociodemographic and occupational profiles are more exposed to risky lifestyle behaviors. The findings of this study demonstrated the need for greater attention to the health of health professionals in the pediatric field, as well as the promotion of initiatives that seek to value the work of these professionals and reduce the damage caused to their lifestyle, especially in a pandemic scenario.

Common mental disorders and associated factors in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic changed the way people live. As a result, workload and mental health problems increased, especially in healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE: To verify the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD) and its association with sociodemographic and work variables in healthcare workers of a Family Health Support Center in the Primary Health Care context (NASF-AB) in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 68 healthcare workers, both sex (55 female/13 male), from the Primary Health Care context in Brazil, particularly NASF-AB of Salvador Bahia. NASF-AB is part of a policy to consolidate Primary Health Care in Brazil. NASF-AB of Salvador has twelve multidisciplinary teams distributed in twelve health districts. The data collection was performed from May to August 2021. The self-reporting questionnaire - 20 (SRQ-20), that assessed the prevalence of CMD, and a sociodemographic questionnaire assessed sociodemographic and work variables via Google forms. RESULTS: The prevalence of CMD was 39.71%. On SRQ-20, 70, 59% of participants felt nervous; 54, 41% felt tired all the time and 51, 47% felt tired easily. CMD was also significantly associated with females (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of CMD was high (39, 71%), with females (n = 27/55) being more susceptible to CMD than males (n = 0/13). Feel nervous, tired all the time and easily tired were the most frequent symptoms reported by the participants, indicating depressive/anxious mood, and reduced vital energy. Our findings highlight the need for specific measures to improve health and quality of life of healthcare workers.