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Background Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an infectious disease with a variety of clinical signs. The main form of parasite transmission to humans and other mammalian hosts is through the bite of infected arthropod females with Lutzomyia longipalpis serving as the main vector in the Americas. Dogs are the main urban domestic reservoirs of the parasite and the main source of vector infection due to their high prevalence in endemic areas and the large number of parasites in the skin of infected animals. Although miltefosine has been used in Europe since 2002 for treatment of VL infected dogs, in the Americas the treatment of dogs has not been recommended. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate efficacy of miltefosine observing a reduction of clinical signs in infected dogs and the infectiveness to the vector by Leishmania ( L. ) infantum . Methods To our knowledge, this is the first controlled study using qPCR and xenodiagnosis to evaluate the efficacy of miltefosine (Milteforan®, Virbac) as a single treatment in Brazil . Thirty-five adult dogs with canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL), confirmed by clinical and laboratory tests, were included in this study. They received miltefosine at a dose of 2 mg/kg every 24 h for 28 days. The dogs were observed over a three-month period, during which clinical evaluations based on a scoring system were conducted at pre-established times. Parasite load was assessed by cytology and real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Transmissibility to the vector was evaluated by xenodiagnosis. Results At the end of the period, the following were observed: (i) the remission of clinical signs with a reduction in clinical scores for 94.2% of the animals; (ii) a statistically significant reduction (98.7%) in parasitic load by qPCR; and (iii) a reduction in infectivity to sand flies. After treatment, 74.2% of the animals remained or had become non-infectious. Conclusions Our study indicates that the use of miltefosine administered orally for 4 weeks contributes to a clinical improvement and reduction in infectivity of dogs to L. infantum.

The closure of higher education institutions (HEIs) due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to visible changes in pedagogical practices. With the lockdown, there was ambiguity and disagreement about the workload of teachers and students, and about what to teach and what strategies to select. For most instructors, the first challenge was to recreate the face-to-face experience. Worldwide, most universities have speedily adopted synchronous and asynchronous communication modes. Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Webex, Zoom, and Moodle were among the most used tools. The present study is based upon a quantitative approach, and it intends to analyse teachers’ perceptions of remote teaching during the first pandemic period. Data were collected through an online questionnaire during June and July 2020. The questionnaire had 27 questions divided into three main sections: sociodemographic characterization, e-Learning strategies, and remote assessment. The study population was teachers of a Portuguese HEI. A random sample was used with 547 participants. The main conclusions show that the less experienced teachers are, the more satisfied they feel with remote classes and remote assessment. On the other hand, the most experienced teachers used more tools during the remote teaching period and developed more strategies to perform remote assessment. Regarding the overall assessment of the emergency remote teaching, the participants consider that it was a positive period, and they were moderately satisfied with remote classes and the strategies and tools used during this period.

The pathogen Xylella fastidiosa belongs to the Xanthomonadaceae family, a large group of Gram-negative bacteria that cause diseases in many economically important crops. A predicted gene, annotated as glutaredoxin-like protein (glp), was found to be highly conserved among the genomes of different genera within this family and highly expressed in X. fastidiosa. Analysis of the GLP protein sequences revealed three protein domains: one similar to monothiol glutaredoxins (Grx), an Fe-S cluster and a thiosulfate sulfurtransferase/rhodanese domain (Tst/Rho), which is generally involved in sulfur metabolism and cyanide detoxification. To characterize the biochemical properties of GLP, we expressed and purified the X. fastidiosa recombinant GLP enzyme. Grx activity and Fe-S cluster formation were not observed, while an evaluation of Tst/Rho enzymatic activity revealed that GLP can detoxify cyanide and transfer inorganic sulfur to acceptor molecules in vitro. The biological activity of GLP relies on the cysteine residues in the Grx and Tst/Rho domains (Cys33 and Cys266, respectively), and structural analysis showed that GLP and GLPC266S were able to form high molecular weight oligomers (> 600 kDa), while replacement of Cys33 with Ser destabilized the quaternary structure. In vivo heterologous enzyme expression experiments in Escherichia coli revealed that GLP can protect bacteria against high concentrations of cyanide and hydrogen peroxide. Finally, phylogenetic analysis showed that homologous glp genes are distributed across Gram-negative bacterial families with conservation of the N- to C-domain order. However, no eukaryotic organism contains this enzyme. Altogether, these results suggest that GLP is an important enzyme with cyanide-decomposing and sulfurtransferase functions in bacteria, whose presence in eukaryotes we could not observe, representing a promising biological target for new pharmaceuticals.

This paper aims at discussing the advantages of a methodology design grounded on a concept-based approach to Terminology applied to the most prominent scenario of current Higher Education: blended learning. Terminology is a discipline that aims at representing, describing and defining specialized knowledge through language, putting order into our universe (Nuopponen, 2011). Concepts, as elements of the structure of knowledge (Sager, 1990) emerge as a complex research object. Can they be found in language? A concept-based approach to Terminology implies a clear-cut view of the role of language in terminological work: though language is postulated as being a fundamental tool to grasp, describe and organize knowledge, an isomorphic relationship between language and knowledge cannot be taken for granted. In other words, the foundational premise of a concept-based approach is that there is no one-to-one correspondence between atomic elements of knowledge and atomic elements of linguistic expression. This is why a methodological approach to Terminology merely based upon specialized text research is regarded as biased (Costa, 2013). As a consequence, we argue that interactional strategies between terminologist and domain expert deserve particular research attention. To our mind, the key to concept-based terminological work is to carry out a concept analysis of data gathered from a specialised text corpora combined with an elicitation process of the tacit knowledge and concept-oriented discursive negotiation. Following such view, we put forward a methodology to answer the question: how is blended learning defined in the Post-Bologna scenario? Even though there are numerous high-quality models and practical descriptions for its implementation (similarly to other concepts related to distance learning), the need to understand, demarcate and harmonize the concept of blended learning against the current Higher Education background results from the premise that the theoretical reflection on this concept is still insufficient. Therefore, we believe it is vital to understand blended learning as the new normal in Higher Education (Norberg et al., 2011), or a negotiable third way (Peres, 2011; Norberg & Jahnke, 2014). Our methodological model is built in three phases: (1) exploratory phase in the area/ object of the study; (2) conceptual analysis phase of discourse and textual documents; (3) modeling and result validation phase. We support the thesis that the experimental nature of this approach discloses productivity in a cyclical sequence between the discursive and textual analysis with conceptual objectives, collaborative interaction and introspection. In other words, even though the nature of this study does not allow for a generalization (apart from a dual relation in the mediation between the terminologist and the specialist), we advocate the relevance of an action-reflection procedure, both introspective and collaborative, one in which the terminologist will become a conceptualizer, a decision-maker and an interventionist.

Background The therapeutic potential of adult stem cells in the treatment of chronic diseases is becoming increasingly evident. In the present study, we sought to assess whether treatment with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) efficiently retards progression of chronic renal failure (CRF) when administered to experimental models of less severe CRF. Methods We used two renal mass reduction models to simulate different stages of CRF (5/6 or 2/3 mass renal reduction). Renal functional parameters measured were serum creatinine (SCr), creatinine clearance (CCr), rate of decline in CCr (RCCr), and 24-h proteinuria (PT24h). We also evaluated renal morphology by histology and immunohistochemistry. MSCs were obtained from bone marrow aspirates and injected into the renal parenchyma of the remnant kidneys of both groups of rats with CRF (MSC5/6 or MSC2/3). Results Animals from groups MSC5/6 and CRF2/3 seemed to benefit from MSC therapy because they showed significantly reduction in SCr and PT24h, increase in CCr and slowed the RCCr after 90 days. Treatment reduced glomerulosclerosis but significant improvement did occur in the tubulointerstitial compartment with much less fibrosis and atrophy. MSC therapy reduced inflammation by decreasing macrophage accumulation proliferative activity (PCNA-positive cells) and fibrosis (α-SM-actin). Comparisons of renal functional and morphological parameters responses between the two groups showed that rats MSC2/3 were more responsive to MSC therapy than MSC5/6. Conclusion This study showed that MSC therapy is efficient to retard CRF progression and might be more effective when administered during less severe stages of CRF.

The aim of this paper is to offer a representation on how cognitive poetics can be used to analyse Lucian Blaga’s poetry. With the help of digital instruments designed for corpus linguistics, concordances of the term ‘fire’ are identified and classified, giving this cognitive process a material form, together with a hermeneutical perspective. Furthermore, an example of how the similarity in minds’ activity of a group, community, or culture regarding metaphors are englobed in a pattern, can also be remarked in this paper.

Suicide is a major public health challenge worldwide, affecting both classes, sex and ages. The WHO estimates that 700,000 people die from this condition worldwide. With the onset of the pandemic, they believe that these numbers have increased, affecting mainly the most vulnerable. The ingestion of caustic substances is one of the most used means in suicides with significant damage to the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract, in which the dental surgeon is the professional who must provide care for the treatment and oral rehabilitation in these cases. Thus, due to the scarcity of studies, we aim to report two cases of attempted self-extermination with the ingestion of caustic substances that caused great damage to the oral cavity and the care carried out in the intensive care unit, using oral care protocols associated with photobiomodulation with expressive results. We carried out the treatment in the intensive care unit with photobiomodulation, using low-power laser therapy, obtaining significant responses with an average time of four sessions of application of the protocol. We believe that because these are cases of high complexity and high mortality and morbidity rates, the presence of well-defined and applied protocols provides benefits to these patients.

This study aimed to establish the importance of ergothioneine (ERT) in the erythroid adaptation mechanisms by appraising the expression levels of redox-related genes associated with the PI3K/AKT/FoxO3 and Nrf2-ARE pathways using K562 cells induced to erythroid differentiation and H2O2-oxidative stress. Cell viability and gene expression were evaluated. Two concentrations of ERT were assessed, 1 nM (C1) and 100 µM (C2), with and without stress induction (100 µM H2O2). Assessments were made in three periods of the cellular differentiation process (D0, D2, and D4). The C1 treatment promoted the induction of FOXO3 (D0 and 2), PSMB5, and 6 expressions (D4); C1 + H2O2 treatment showed the highest levels of NRF2 transcripts, KEAP1 (D0), YWHAQ (D2 and 4), PSMB5 (D2) and PSMB6 (D4); and C2 + H2O2 (D2) an increase in FOXO3 and MST1 expression, with a decrease of YWHAQ and NRF2 was observed. in C2 + H2O2 (D2) an increase in FOXO3 and MST1, with a decrease in YWHAQ and NRF2 was observed All ERT treatments increased gamma-globin expression. Statistical multivariate analyzes highlighted that the Nrf2-ARE pathway presented a greater contribution in the production of PRDX1, SOD1, CAT, and PSBM5 mRNAs, whereas the PI3K/AKT/FoxO3 pathway was associated with the PRDX2 and TRX transcripts. In conclusion, ERT presented a cytoprotective action through Nrf2 and FoxO3, with the latter seeming to contribute to erythroid proliferation/differentiation.

Melatonin (MEL) presents well-documented pleiotropic actions against oxidative stress (OS), acting indirectly through activation of transcription factors, e.g., FoxO3 and Nrf2. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the possible modulating effects of MEL on the redox signaling pathways PI3K/AKT/FoxO3 and Keap1/Nrf2/ARE in K562 erythroleukemic cells subjected to OS induction. For this, the viability, and transcript levels of genes involved in redox adaptation were evaluated in K562 cells in different periods of erythroid differentiation: under OS induction by hydrogen peroxide (100 µM H2O2); treated with 1 nM (C1) and 1 mM (C2) MEL; and associated or not with stress induction. We observed a restoration of physiological levels of Nrf2 in both MEL concentrations under OS. The C1 was related to enhanced expression of antioxidant and proteasome genes through the Nrf2-ARE pathway, while C2 to the induction of FOXO3 expression, suggesting an involvement with apoptotic pathway, according to BIM transcript levels. The effects of MEL administration in these cells showed a period and dose-dependent pattern against induced-OS, with direct and indirect actions through different pathways of cellular adaptation, reinforcing the importance of this indolamine in the regulation of cellular homeostasis, being a promising therapeutic alternative for diseases that present an exacerbated OS.

Student-centered learning approaches such as project-based learning and flipped classroom stress the active role of the learner by applying knowledge rather than absorbing knowledge, and preparing higher education students for professional development. Student-centered learning environments are more effective when students regulate their learning and learn autonomously. There-fore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a proposed ap-proach of flipped project-based learning on various facets of students' self-regulated learning, including motivational beliefs and learning strategies in higher education. A flipped project-based learning environment was designed and developed to improve students’ self-regulated learning skills. In this regard, multiple case studies were conducted according to a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment design to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by four groups of students from different disciplines. The study employed a mixed-method research approach for data collection. Overall, the results re-vealed that the flipped project-based learning approach significantly enhanced students’ self-regulated learning skills. It was found that the approach fostered the students’ self-regulation performance among different groups across dif-ferent disciplines and levels. Moreover, participants also claimed that the approach was useful and ef-fective. The findings indicated that students who actively engaged within flipped PBL activities demonstrated increases in cognitive and metacognitive functioning both individually and collaboratively. This study contributes to an advance in the understanding of how the development of SRL can be inte-grated into a flipped project-based learning environment in higher education.