Polytechnic Institute of Porto

Kocarnik J.M., Compton K., Dean F.E., Fu W., Gaw B.L., Harvey J.D., Henrikson H.J., Lu D., Pennini A., Xu R., Ababneh E., Abbasi-Kangevari M., Abbastabar H., Abd-Elsalam S.M., Abdoli A., et. al.

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) provided systematic estimates of incidence, morbidity, and mortality to inform local and international efforts toward reducing cancer burden.To estimate cancer burden and trends globally for 204 countries and territories and by Sociodemographic Index (SDI) quintiles from 2010 to 2019.The GBD 2019 estimation methods were used to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 and over the past decade. Estimates are also provided by quintiles of the SDI, a composite measure of educational attainment, income per capita, and total fertility rate for those younger than 25 years. Estimates include 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs).In 2019, there were an estimated 23.6 million (95% UI, 22.2-24.9 million) new cancer cases (17.2 million when excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) and 10.0 million (95% UI, 9.36-10.6 million) cancer deaths globally, with an estimated 250 million (235-264 million) DALYs due to cancer. Since 2010, these represented a 26.3% (95% UI, 20.3%-32.3%) increase in new cases, a 20.9% (95% UI, 14.2%-27.6%) increase in deaths, and a 16.0% (95% UI, 9.3%-22.8%) increase in DALYs. Among 22 groups of diseases and injuries in the GBD 2019 study, cancer was second only to cardiovascular diseases for the number of deaths, years of life lost, and DALYs globally in 2019. Cancer burden differed across SDI quintiles. The proportion of years lived with disability that contributed to DALYs increased with SDI, ranging from 1.4% (1.1%-1.8%) in the low SDI quintile to 5.7% (4.2%-7.1%) in the high SDI quintile. While the high SDI quintile had the highest number of new cases in 2019, the middle SDI quintile had the highest number of cancer deaths and DALYs. From 2010 to 2019, the largest percentage increase in the numbers of cases and deaths occurred in the low and low-middle SDI quintiles.The results of this systematic analysis suggest that the global burden of cancer is substantial and growing, with burden differing by SDI. These results provide comprehensive and comparable estimates that can potentially inform efforts toward equitable cancer control around the world.

Almeida F., Duarte Santos J., Augusto Monteiro J.

COVID-19 has caused dramatic effects on the world economy, business activities, and people. But digitization is also helping many companies to adapt and overcome the current situation caused by COVID-19. The growth in the use of technology in the daily lives of people and companies to face this exceptional situation is an evidence of the digital acceleration process. This exploratory study analyzes the impact of digital transformation processes in three business areas: labor and social relations, marketing and sales, and technology. The impact of digitalization is expected to be transversal to each area and will encourage the emergence of new digital products and services based on the principle of flexibility. Additionally, new ways of working will foster the demand for new talent regardless of people's geographical location. Moreover, cybersecurity and privacy will become two key elements that will support the integrated development of the Internet of Things technology solutions, artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics.

Rebelo P., Costa-Rama E., Seguro I., Pacheco J.G., Nouws H.P., Cordeiro M.N., Delerue-Matos C.

The ever-increasing presence of contaminants in environmental waters is an alarming issue, not only because of their harmful effects in the environment but also because of their risk to human health. Pharmaceuticals and pesticides, among other compounds of daily use, such as personal care products or plasticisers, are being released into water bodies. This release mainly occurs through wastewater since the treatments applied in many wastewater treatment plants are not able to completely remove these substances. Therefore, the analysis of these contaminants is essential but this is difficult due to the great variety of contaminating substances. Facing this analytical challenge, electrochemical sensing based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) has become an interesting field for environmental monitoring. Benefiting from their superior chemical and physical stability, low-cost production, high selectivity and rapid response, MIPs combined with miniaturized electrochemical transducers offer the possibility to detect target analytes in-situ. In most reports, the construction of these sensors include nanomaterials to improve their analytical characteristics, especially their sensitivity. Moreover, these sensors have been successfully applied in real water samples without the need of laborious pre-treatment steps. This review provides a general overview of electrochemical MIP-based sensors that have been reported for the detection of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants in water samples in the past decade. Special attention is given to the construction of the sensors, including different functional monomers, sensing platforms and materials employed to achieve the best sensitivity. Additionally, several parameters, such as the limit of detection, the linear concentration range and the type of water samples that were analysed are compiled.

Oliveira L.F., Moreira A.P., Silva M.F.

The constant advances in agricultural robotics aim to overcome the challenges imposed by population growth, accelerated urbanization, high competitiveness of high-quality products, environmental preservation and a lack of qualified labor. In this sense, this review paper surveys the main existing applications of agricultural robotic systems for the execution of land preparation before planting, sowing, planting, plant treatment, harvesting, yield estimation and phenotyping. In general, all robots were evaluated according to the following criteria: its locomotion system, what is the final application, if it has sensors, robotic arm and/or computer vision algorithm, what is its development stage and which country and continent they belong. After evaluating all similar characteristics, to expose the research trends, common pitfalls and the characteristics that hinder commercial development, and discover which countries are investing into Research and Development (R&D) in these technologies for the future, four major areas that need future research work for enhancing the state of the art in smart agriculture were highlighted: locomotion systems, sensors, computer vision algorithms and communication technologies. The results of this research suggest that the investment in agricultural robotic systems allows to achieve short—harvest monitoring—and long-term objectives—yield estimation.

Coelho C.M., Suttiwan P., Arato N., Zsido A.N.

Emergencies that occur during natural disasters such as avalanches, earthquakes, and floods tend to be sudden, unexpected, and ephemeral and recruit defensive responses, similar to the ones recruited when faced with dangerous animals (Zsido, et al., 2020). Defensive behaviors are triggered by activity in survival circuits that detects imminent threats and fear is the conscious emotion of that follows immediately. But this particular threat (COVID-19) is useable and mysterious, triggering anxieties much more than fear. We conducted a literature search on 1 May 2020 in Google Scholar, PsychInfo, and Pubmed with search terms related to COVID-19 fears and found 28 relevant articles. We categorized the papers into six groups based on the content and implications: fear of the unknown, social isolation, hypochondriasis, disgust, information-driven fears, and compliance. Considering the nature of fear and anxiety, combined with the characteristics of the present COVID-19 situation, we contemplate that physicians and other health care workers of several specialties, as well as police officers, fire-fighters, and rescue personnel, and first responders might be more able to deal with COVID-19 if they have a) some tolerance of the unknown, b) low illness anxiety disorder, c) tolerance to social isolation; d) low levels of disgust sensitivity; e) be granted financial support, f) have priority if needed medical assistance g) use caution relatively to the COVID-19 media coverage and h) be trained to have high levels of efficacy. Possibilities for preventive and therapeutic interventions that can help both health care personnel and the general population are also discussed.

Brás J.P., Bravo J., Freitas J., Barbosa M.A., Santos S.G., Summavielle T., Almeida M.I.

Growing evidences suggest that sustained neuroinflammation, caused by microglia overactivation, is implicated in the development and aggravation of several neurological and psychiatric disorders. In some pathological conditions, microglia produce increased levels of cytotoxic and inflammatory mediators, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), which can reactivate microglia in a positive feedback mechanism. However, specific molecular mediators that can be effectively targeted to control TNF-α-mediated microglia overactivation, are yet to be uncovered. In this context, we aim to identify novel TNF-α-mediated micro(mi)RNAs and to dissect their roles in microglia activation, as well as to explore their impact on the cellular communication with neurons. A miRNA microarray, followed by RT-qPCR validation, was performed on TNF-α-stimulated primary rat microglia. Gain- and loss-of-function in vitro assays and proteomic analysis were used to dissect the role of miR-342 in microglia activation. Co-cultures of microglia with hippocampal neurons, using a microfluidic system, were performed to understand the impact on neurotoxicity. Stimulation of primary rat microglia with TNF-α led to an upregulation of Nos2, Tnf, and Il1b mRNAs. In addition, ph-NF-kB p65 levels were also increased. miRNA microarray analysis followed by RT-qPCR validation revealed that TNF-α stimulation induced the upregulation of miR-342. Interestingly, miR-342 overexpression in N9 microglia was sufficient to activate the NF-kB pathway by inhibiting BAG-1, leading to increased secretion of TNF-α and IL-1β. Conversely, miR-342 inhibition led to a strong decrease in the levels of these cytokines after TNF-α activation. In fact, both TNF-α-stimulated and miR-342-overexpressing microglia drastically affected neuron viability. Remarkably, increased levels of nitrites were detected in the supernatants of these co-cultures. Globally, our findings show that miR-342 is a crucial mediator of TNF-α-mediated microglia activation and a potential target to tackle microglia-driven neuroinflammation.

Pinto D., Vieira E.F., Peixoto A.F., Freire C., Freitas V., Costa P., Delerue-Matos C., Rodrigues F.

• Optimization of chestnut shells extraction using response surface methodology. • Subcritical water extraction is a clean method for antioxidants extraction. • Optimum extraction conditions: temperature 220 °C and extraction time 30 min. • Caffeoylquinic acid isomers were the main phenolic compounds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the optimal Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE) conditions of antioxidants and polyphenols from chestnut shells using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). A central composite design (CCD) was conducted to analyse the time (6–30 min) and temperature (51–249 °C) effects in antioxidant activity (ABTS, DPPH and FRAP) and Total Phenolic Compounds (TPC). TPC ranged from 315.21 to 496.80 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g DW; the DPPH from 549.23 to 1125.68 mg Trolox equivalents (TE)/g DW; ABTS varied between 631.16 and 965.45 mg ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE)/g DW and FRAP from 2793.95 to 11393.97 mg ferrous sulphate equivalents (FSE)/g DW. The optimal extraction conditions were 30 min/220 °C, revealing excelling scavenging efficiencies against HOCl (IC 50 = 0.79 µg/mL) and O 2 − (IC 50 = 12.92 µg/mL) without toxicity on intestinal cells (0.1 µg/mL). The phenolic composition revealed high amounts of pyrogallol and protocatechuic acid. SWE can be a useful extraction technique for the recovery of polyphenolics from chestnut shells.

Wu L., Adebayo T.S., Yue X., Umut A.

Srivastava H.M., Baleanu D., Machado J.A., Osman M.S., Rezazadeh H., Arshed S., Günerhan H.

This work finds several new traveling wave solutions for nonlinear directional couplers with optical metamaterials by means of the modified Kudryashov method. This model can be used to distribute light from a main fiber into one or more branch fibers. Two forms of optical couplers are considered, namely the twin- and multiple- core couplers. These couplers, which have applications as intensity-dependent switches and as limiters, are studied with four nonlinear items namely the Kerr, power, parabolic, and dual-power laws. The restrictions on the parameters for the existence of solutions are also examined. The 3D- and 2D figures are introduced to discuss the physical meaning for some of the gained solutions. The performance of the used method shows the adequate, power, and ability for applying to many other nonlinear evolution models.

Morais Junior W.G., Gorgich M., Corrêa P.S., Martins A.A., Mata T.M., Caetano N.S.

In either unicellular or multi-cellular form, microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms, mainly known for being part of the human diet in several world regions. More recently, they have been in the spotlight of researchers, not only because of their nutritional value, but also due to their high value-added components. This work reviews five microalgae genera: Dunaliella, Botryococcus, Chlamydomonas, Chlorella and Arthrospira, considered among the most promising for commercial biotechnological applications. The analysis shows that, although the research paradigms are generally shared among species, parameterization changes of culture environment and stress conditions, several applications can be envisaged for the cultivated species, which is discussed in this work. Besides, several applications in which these microalgae are being widely used, or are intended to be used, are analyzed and discussed. The potential applications depend on the type of metabolites found in each microalgae species, which is discussed in this work, giving examples of application and describing methods for their cultivation, harvesting and biomass processing. Thus, in addition to being used in human diet supplementation, microalgae can be used as ingredients for animal feed, medicines, cosmetics pigments, biofuels, bioplastics and biostimulants.