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Plant-derived pentacyclic triterpenic acids (TAs) have gained increasing attention due to their multiple biological activities. Betulinic acid (BA) and ursolic acid (UA) modulate diverse pathways in carcinogenesis, offering increased changes of success in refractory cancers, such as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The present work aimed to assess the metabolic effects of BA and UA in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells (TNBC model), as well as in MCF-10A non-cancer breast epithelial cells, with a view to unveiling the involvement of metabolic reprogramming in cellular responses to these TAs. Cell viability and cell cycle analyses were followed by assessment of changes in the cells exo- and endometabolome through 1H NMR analysis of cell culture medium supernatants, aqueous and organic cell extracts. In MDA-MB-231 cells, BA was suggested to induce a transient upregulation of glucose consumption and glycolytic conversion, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intensification, and hydrolysis of neutral lipids, while UA effects were much less pronounced. In MCF-10A cells, boosting of glucose metabolism by the two TAs was accompanied by diversion of glycolytic intermediates to the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) and the synthesis of neutral lipids, possibly stored in detoxifying lipid droplets. Additionally, breast epithelial cells intensified pyruvate consumption and TCA cycle activity, possibly to compensate for oxidative impairment of pyruvate glycolytic production. This study provided novel insights into the metabolic effects of BA and UA in cancer and non-cancer breast cells, thus improving current understanding of the action of these compounds at the molecular level.

Cynara cardunculus L. is a cardoon species native to the Mediterranean region, which is composed of three botanical taxa, each having distinct biological characteristics. The aim of this study was to examine wild populations of C . cardunculus established in Portugal, in order to determine their genetic diversity, geographic distribution, and population structure. Based on SSR markers, 121 individuals of C . cardunculus from 17 wild populations of the Portuguese Alentejo region were identified and analysed. Ten SSRs were found to be efficient markers in the genetic diversity analysis. The total number of alleles ranged from 9 to 17 per locus. The expected and observed means in heterozygosity, by population analysed, were 0.591 and 0.577, respectively. The wild population exhibited a high level of genetic diversity at the species level. The highest proportion of genetic variation was identified within a geographic group, while variation was lower among groups. Geographic areas having highest genetic diversity were identified in Alvito, Herdade da Abóboda, Herdade da Revilheira and Herdade de São Romão populations. Moreover, significant genetic differentiation existed between wild populations from North-Alentejo geographic locations (Arraiolos, Évora, Monte da Chaminé) and Centro Hortofrutícola, compared with other populations. This study reports genetic diversity among a representative number of wild populations and genotypes of C . cardunculus from Portugal. These results will provide valuable information towards future management of C . cardunculus germplasm.

Periodic waves were observed in the OI6300 airglow images over São João do Cariri (36.5∘ W, 7.4∘ S) from 2012 to 2014 with simultaneous observations of the thermospheric wind using two Fabry–Pérot interferometers (FPIs). The FPIs measurements were carried out at São João do Cariri and Cajazeiras (38.5∘ W, 6.9∘ S). The observed spectral characteristics of these waves (period and wavelength) as well the propagation direction were estimated using two-dimensional Fourier analysis in the airglow images. The horizontal thermospheric wind was calculated from the Doppler shift of the OI6300 data extracted from interference fringes registered by the FPIs. Combining these two techniques, the intrinsic parameters of the periodic waves were estimated and analyzed. The spectral parameters of the periodic waves were quite similar to the previous observations at São João do Cariri. The intrinsic periods for most of the waves were shorter than the observed periods, as a consequence, the intrinsic phase speeds were faster compared to the observed phase speeds. As a consequence, these waves can easily propagate into the thermosphere–ionosphere since the fast gravity waves can skip turning and critical levels. The strength and direction of the wind vector in the thermosphere must be the main cause for the observed anisotropy in the propagation direction of the periodic waves, even if the sources of these waves are assumed to be isotropic. Keywords. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (waves and tides)

This study aims to evaluate the effects of N -acetylcysteine (NAC) on bovine oocyte maturation, mitochondrial activity and transzonal projections (TZP), as well as on the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and messenger RNA (mRNA) for catalase ( CAT ) superoxide dismutase ( SOD ), periredoxin-6 ( Prdx6 ), glutathione peroxidase ( GPx ), growth and differentiation factor-9 ( GDF9 ), histone H1Foo , cyclin B1 ( CCNB1 ) and c- Mos . Bovine cumulus–oocyte complexes (COC) of medium-sized antral follicles (3.0–6.0 mm) were prematured in TCM-199 for 8 h at 38.5°C in 5% CO 2 . After prematuration in the presence of forskolin and C-type natriuretic peptide, COCs were matured in TCM-199 alone or with 0.1, 0.5 or 2.5 mM NAC. Then, oocytes were classified according to the stage of chromatin. Furthermore, mitochondrial activity and intracellular levels of ROS and TZP were also evaluated. The levels of mRNAs for CAT , SOD , Prdx6 , GPx , GDF9 , H1Foo , CCNB1 and c- Mos were evaluated using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed that NAC significantly increased the percentages of oocytes with resumption of meiosis when compared with those oocytes matured in control medium. Oocytes had homogeneous mitochondrial distribution, and those cultured with 0.1 and 0.5 mM NAC had lower levels of ROS when compared with the control. In addition, 0.5 mM NAC reduced TZP and the levels of mRNA for CCNB1 . In contrast, NAC did not influence the expression of CAT , GPx , Prdx6 , SOD , GDF9 , H1Foo , and c -Mos . In conclusion, 0.5 mM NAC reduced the levels of ROS, TZP and mRNA for CCNB1 , and improved in vitro resumption of meiosis in oocytes from medium-sized bovine antral follicles.

The present work reports seasonal characteristics of small- and medium-scale gravity waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region. All-sky images of the hydroxyl (NIR-OH) airglow emission layer over São João do Cariri (7.4∘ S, 36.5∘ W; hereafter Cariri) were obtained from September 2000 to December 2010, during a total of 1496 nights. For investigation of the characteristics of small-scale gravity waves (SSGWs) and medium-scale gravity waves (MSGWs), we employed the Fourier two-dimensional (2-D) spectrum and keogram fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques, respectively. From the 11 years of data, we could observe 2343 SSGW and 537 MSGW events. The horizontal wavelengths of the SSGWs were concentrated between 10 and 35 km, while those of the MSGWs ranged from 50 to 200 km. The observed periods for SSGWs were concentrated around 5 to 20 min, whereas the MSGWs ranged from 20 to 60 min. The observed horizontal phase speeds of SSGWs were distributed around 10 to 60 m s−1, and the corresponding MSGWs were around 20 to 120 m s−1. In summer, autumn, and winter both SSGWs and MSGWs propagated preferentially northeastward and southeastward, while in spring the waves propagated in all directions. The critical level theory of atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) was applied to study the effects of wind filtering on SSGW and MSGW propagation directions. The SSGWs were more susceptible to wind filtering effects than MSGWs. The average of daily mean outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) was also used to investigate the possible wave source region in the troposphere. The results showed that in summer and autumn, deep convective regions were the possible source mechanism of the AGWs. However, in spring and winter the deep convective regions did not play an important role in the waves observed at Cariri, because they were too far away from the observatory. Therefore, we concluded that the horizontal propagation directions of SSGWs and MSGWs show clear seasonal variations based on the influence of the wind filtering process and wave source location. Keywords. Atmospheric composition and structure (airglow and aurora) – electromagnetics (wave propagation) – history of geophysics (atmospheric sciences)

Algae have been consumed for millennia in several parts of the world as food, food supplements, and additives, due to their unique organoleptic properties and nutritional and health benefits. Algae are sustainable sources of proteins, minerals, and fiber, with well-balanced essential amino acids, pigments, and fatty acids, among other relevant metabolites for human nutrition. This review covers the historical consumption of algae in Europe, developments in the current European market, challenges when introducing new species to the market, bottlenecks in production technology, consumer acceptance, and legislation. The current algae species that are consumed and commercialized in Europe were investigated, according to their status under the European Union (EU) Novel Food legislation, along with the market perspectives in terms of the current research and development initiatives, while evaluating the interest and potential in the European market. The regular consumption of more than 150 algae species was identified, of which only 20% are approved under the EU Novel Food legislation, which demonstrates that the current legislation is not broad enough and requires an urgent update. Finally, the potential of the European algae market growth was indicated by the analysis of the trends in research, technological advances, and market initiatives to promote algae commercialization and consumption.

On 8 April 2005, strong gravity wave (GW) activity (over a period of more than 3 h) was observed in São João do Cariri (7.4∘ S, 36.5∘ W). These waves propagated to the southeast and presented different spectral characteristics (wavelength, period and phase speed). Using hydroxyl (OH) airglow images, the characteristics of the observed GWs were calculated; the wavelengths ranged between 90 and 150 km, the periods ranged from ∼26 to 67 min and the phase speeds ranged from 32 to 71 m s−1. A reverse ray-tracing analysis was performed to search for the possible sources of the waves that were detected. The ray-tracing database was composed of temperature profiles from the Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter (NRLMSISE-00) model and SABER measurements as well as wind profiles from the Horizontal Wind Model (HWM) and meteor radar data. According to the ray tracing result, the likely source of these observed gravity waves was the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which caused intense convective processes to take place in the northern part of the observatory. Also, the observed preferential propagation direction of the waves to the southeast could be explained using blocking diagrams, i.e. due to the wind filtering process.

This paper presents a study of diurnal tidal winds observed simultaneously by two meteor radars located on each side of the Equator in the equatorial region. The radars were located in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica (10.3∘ N, 85.6∘ W) (hereafter CR) and São João do Cariri, Brazil (7.4∘ S, 36.5∘ W) (hereafter CA). The distance between the sites is 5800 km. Harmonic analysis has been used to obtain amplitudes and phases (hour of peak amplitude) for diurnal, semidiurnal and terdiurnal tides between 82 and 98 km altitude, but in this work we concentrate on the diurnal component. The period of observation was from April 2005 to January 2006. The results were compared to the Global Scale Waves Model (GSWM-09). Magnitudes of zonal and meridional amplitudes from November to January for CR were quite different from the predictions of the model. Concerning phases, the agreement between model and radar meridional tidal phases at each site was good, and a vertical wavelength of 24 km for the diurnal tide was observed practically every month, although on some occasions determination of the vertical wavelength was difficult, especially for the zonal component, due to nonlinear phase variations with height. For the diurnal zonal amplitude, there were notable differences between the two sites. We attribute this site-to-site difference of the diurnal zonal amplitude to the nonmigrating component of the tide and propose that an anomaly was present in the troposphere in the winter (Northern Hemisphere) of 2005–2006 which produced substantial longitudinal variation.

This work aims to compare the hardness (H) and roughness (Ra) of glass/epoxy composites after being exposed to various hostile environments, which is possible because the constituents are always the same. Considering the stacking sequence [452, 902, −452, 02]s, the hardness increases for all solutions up to a certain exposure time, from which it decreases for longer immersion times. For the same stacking sequence, roughness had its highest increase (around 44.5%) for the alkaline solution after 36 days of immersion, while the highest decrease (around 25%) occurred for all mortars after 30 days of exposure. For the stacking sequence [02, 902]2s, the hardness varied in the opposite direction for acidic and alkaline solutions, observing a direct increase in H with immersion time. However, for samples immersed in oil, hardness decreased as a function of immersion time. In terms of roughness, there was a linear increase with immersion time for all samples, which increased linearly. Therefore, it can be concluded that the stacking sequence has a significant influence on hardness and roughness. Furthermore, knowledge of the variation in hardness and roughness is very important because it can be associated with the structural response of a composite exposed to hostile environments.

Using OI6300 airglow images collected over São João do Cariri (7.4∘ S, 36.5∘ W) from 2000 to 2007, the equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) zonal drifts were calculated. A strong day-to-day variability was observed in the EPB zonal drifts, which is directly associated with the very complex dynamics of the nighttime thermosphere–ionosphere system near the Equator. The present work investigated the contribution of the semidiurnal lunar tide M2 for the EPB zonal drifts. The M2 presented an amplitude of 3.1 m s−1 in the EPB zonal drifts, which corresponds to 5.6 % of the average drifts. The results showed that the M2 amplitudes in the EPB zonal drifts were solar cycle and seasonally dependent. The amplitude of the M2 was stronger during the high solar activity, reaching over 10 % of the EPB zonal drift average. Regarding the seasons, during the Southern Hemisphere summer, the M2 amplitude was twice as large (12 %) compared to the equinox ones. The seasonality agrees with other observations of the M2 in the ionospheric parameters such as vertical drifts and electron concentration, for instance. On the other hand, the very large M2 amplitudes found during the high solar activity agree with previous observations of the lunar tide in the ionospheric E region.