Evaluating the galactooligosaccharide stability in chocolate milk beverage submitted to ohmic heating.

Among the emerging prebiotics, galactooligosaccharide (GOS) has a remarkable value with health-promoting properties confirmed by several studies. In addition, the application of ohmic heating has been gaining prominence in food processing, due to its various technological and nutritional benefits. This study focuses on the transformative potential of ohmic heating processing (OH, voltage values 30 and 60 V, frequencies 100, 300, and 500 Hz, respectively) in prebiotic chocolate milk beverage (3.0 %w/v galactooligosaccharide) processing. Chemical stability of GOS was assessed along all the ohmic conditions. In addition, microbiological analysis (predictive modeling), physical analysis (color and rheology), thermal load indicators assessment, bioactivity values, and volatile compound was performed. HPAEC-PAD analysis confirmed GOS stability and volatile compound evaluation supported OH's ability to preserve flavor-associated compounds. Besides, OH treatments demonstrated superior microbial reduction and decreased thermal load indicators as well as the assessment of the bioactivity. In conclusion, OH presented was able to preserve the GOS chemical stability on chocolate milk beverages processing with positive effects of the intrinsic quality parameters of the product.

Bioactivity and volatile compound evaluation in sheep milk processed by ohmic heating.

Ohmic heating may improve bioactive compounds and processing, ensuring food safety of beverages, liquid and pasty food, or liquid with solid pieces. Due to those traits, this study conducted a comparison between ohmic heating technology and conventional heating (CH), with a focus on assessing the impact of both methods on functional compounds (such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition, and antioxidant activity) in both fresh and thawed raw sheep milk, which had been frozen for up to 3 mo. Different ohmic heating conditions were applied and compared to CH (3.33-8.33 V/cm vs. CH [73°C/15 s]). A total of 18 peptides with some functional activities were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis. Ohmic heating samples presented the highest activities related to health, followed by CH and raw milk samples; antioxidant activity range was from 0.11% to 0.71%, antihypertensive activity ranged from 0.20% to 0.72%, and antidiabetic activity ranged from 0.21% to 0.79%. Of 51 volatile compounds detected, some were degraded by freezing, storing, and heating the sheep milk. This study showed for the first time that ohmic heating processing improved sheep milk bioactive peptides and preserved volatile compounds.

Balancing food production with climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation are two major environmental actions that need to be effectively performed this century, alongside ensuring food supply for a growing global human population. These three issues are highly interlinked through land management systems. Thus, major global food production regions located in biodiversity hotpots and with potential for carbon sequestration face trade-offs between these valuable land-based ecosystem services. The state of Mato Grosso in Brazil is one such region, where private lands that have been illegally used for agriculture could be restored to natural vegetation - with potential benefits for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, although with potentially negative effects on food production. To address this challenge, in this study we used a multicriteria nexus modeling approach that considers carbon stocks, priority areas for biodiversity conservation, and the opportunity for food production, to develop scenarios of land allocation that aim to balance the benefits and drawbacks of ecosystem restoration. Results show that forcing landowners to restore their individual lands compromises the potential for a "green land market" throughout the Amazon biome in which private landowners with lower food production capacities (e.g., less connected to markets and infrastructure) would benefit from restoration programs that compensate them for the inclusion of environmental restoration among their economic activities, instead of taking large economic risks to produce more food. We additionally highlight that strategic ecosystem restoration can achieve higher gains in biodiversity and carbon with lower costs of restoration actions and with minimal impacts on agriculture. Analyses like ours demonstrate how scenarios of land allocation that simultaneously address climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation through ecosystem restoration, while also minimizing possible impacts on food production, can be sought to move the world towards a sustainable future.

Genetic Structuring of One of the Main Vectors of Sylvatic Yellow Fever: Haemagogus (Conopostegus) leucocelaenus (Diptera: Culicidae).

Genetic diversity and population structuring for the species Haemogogus leucocelaenus, a sylvatic vector of yellow fever virus, were found to vary with the degree of agricultural land use and isolation of fragments of Atlantic Forest in municipalities in the state of São Paulo where specimens were collected. Genotyping of 115 mitochondrial SNPs showed that the populations with the highest indices of genetic diversity (polymorphic loci and mean pairwise differences between the sequences) are found in areas with high levels of agricultural land use (northeast of the State). Most populations exhibited statistically significant negative values for the Tajima D and Fu FS neutrality tests, suggesting recent expansion. The results show an association between genetic diversity in this species and the degree of agricultural land use in the sampled sites, as well as signs of population expansion of this species in most areas, particularly those with the highest forest edge densities. A clear association between population structuring and the distance between the sampled fragments (isolation by distance) was observed: samples from a large fragment of Atlantic Forest extending along the coast of the state of São Paulo exhibited greater similarity with each other than with populations in the northwest of the state.

Decoding Electroencephalography Signal Response by Stacking Ensemble Learning and Adaptive Differential Evolution.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an exam widely adopted to monitor cerebral activities regarding external stimuli, and its signals compose a nonlinear dynamical system. There are many difficulties associated with EEG analysis. For example, noise can originate from different disorders, such as muscle or physiological activity. There are also artifacts that are related to undesirable signals during EEG recordings, and finally, nonlinearities can occur due to brain activity and its relationship with different brain regions. All these characteristics make data modeling a difficult task. Therefore, using a combined approach can be the best solution to obtain an efficient model for identifying neural data and developing reliable predictions. This paper proposes a new hybrid framework combining stacked generalization (STACK) ensemble learning and a differential-evolution-based algorithm called Adaptive Differential Evolution with an Optional External Archive (JADE) to perform nonlinear system identification. In the proposed framework, five base learners, namely, eXtreme Gradient Boosting, a Gaussian Process, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network, and Support Vector Regression with a radial basis function kernel, are trained. The predictions from all these base learners compose STACK's layer-0 and are adopted as inputs of the Cubist model, whose hyperparameters were obtained by JADE. The model was evaluated for decoding the electroencephalography signal response to wrist joint perturbations. The variance accounted for (VAF), root-mean-squared error (RMSE), and Friedman statistical test were used to validate the performance of the proposed model and compare its results with other methods in the literature, including the base learners. The JADE-STACK model outperforms the other models in terms of accuracy, being able to explain around, as an average of all participants, 94.50% and 67.50% (standard deviations of 1.53 and 7.44, respectively) of the data variability for one step ahead and three steps ahead, which makes it a suitable approach to dealing with nonlinear system identification. Also, the improvement over state-of-the-art methods ranges from 0.6% to 161% and 43.34% for one step ahead and three steps ahead, respectively. Therefore, the developed model can be viewed as an alternative and additional approach to well-established techniques for nonlinear system identification once it can achieve satisfactory results regarding the data variability explanation.

Complex relationships between soybean trade destination and tropical deforestation.

Over the last few years, understanding of the effects of increasingly interconnected global flows of agricultural commodities on coupled human and natural systems has significantly improved. However, many important factors in environmental change that are influenced by these commodity flows are still not well understood. Here, we present an empirical spatial modelling approach to assess how changes in forest cover are influenced by trade destination. Using data for soybean-producing municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, between 2004 and 2017, we evaluated the relationships between forest cover change and the annual soybean trade destination. Results show that although most of the soybean produced in Mato Grosso during the study period (60%) was destined for international markets, municipalities with greater and more consistent soybean production not destined for international markets during the study period were more strongly associated with deforestation. In these municipalities, soybean production was also significantly correlated with cattle and pasture expansion. These results have important implications for the sustainable management of natural resources in the face of an increasingly interconnected world, while also helping to identify the most suitable locations for implementing policies to reduce deforestation risks.

The role of forest fragmentation in yellow fever virus dispersal.

The intense process of deforestation in tropical forests poses serious challenges for the survival of biodiversity, as well as for the human species itself. This scenario is supported by the increase in the incidence of epidemics of zoonotic origin observed over the last few decades. In the specific case of sylvatic yellow fever (YF), it has already been shown that an increase in the transmission risk of the causative agent (yellow fever virus - YFV) is associated with areas with a high degree of forest fragmentation, which can facilitate the spread of the virus. In this study we tested the hypothesis that areas with more fragmented landscapes and a higher edge density (ED) but a high degree of connectivity between forest patches favor YFV spread. To this end, we used YF epizootics in non-human primates (NHPs) in the state of São Paulo to build direct networks, and used a multi-selection approach to analyze which landscape features could facilitate YFV spread. Our results showed that municipalities with the potential to spread the virus exhibited a higher amount of forest edge. Additionally, the models with greater empirical support showed a strong association between forest edge density and the risk of occurrence of epizootic diseases, as well as the need for a minimum threshold of native vegetation cover to restrict their transmission. These findings corroborate our hypothesis that more fragmented landscapes with a higher degree of connectivity favor the spread of YFV, while landscapes with fewer connections tend to act as dead zones for the circulation of the virus.

Clonal dissemination of highly virulent Serratia marcescens strains producing KPC-2 in food-producing animals.

Serratia marcescens is a Gram-negative bacterium presenting intrinsic resistance to polymyxins that has emerged as an important human pathogen. Although previous studies reported the occurrence of multidrug-resistance (MDR) S. marcescens isolates in the nosocomial settings, herein, we described isolates of this extensively drug-resistant (XDR) species recovered from stool samples of food-producing animals in the Brazilian Amazon region. Three carbapenem-resistant S. marcescens strains were recovered from stool samples of poultry and cattle. Genetic similarity analysis showed that these strains belonged to the same clone. Whole-genome sequencing of a representative strain (SMA412) revealed a resistome composed of genes encoding resistance to ß-lactams [blaKPC-2, blaSRT-2], aminoglycosides [aac(6')-Ib3, aac(6')-Ic, aph(3')-VIa], quinolones [aac(6')-Ib-cr], sulfonamides [sul2], and tetracyclines [tet(41)]. In addition, the analysis of the virulome demonstrated the presence of important genes involved in the pathogenicity of this species (lipBCD, pigP, flhC, flhD, phlA, shlA, and shlB). Our data demonstrate that food-animal production can act as reservoirs for MDR and virulent strains of S. marcescens.

Prediction of new spin-forbidden transitions in the N2 molecule-the electric dipole A'5Σg + → A3Σu + and magnetic dipole a'1Σu -← A3Σu + transitions.

On the ground of multi-reference configuration interaction calculations with an account of spin-orbit coupling, we have predicted the probability of two unknown spin-forbidden transitions in the spectrum of the N2 molecule: the electric dipole A'5Σg + → A3Σu + emission system and the magnetic dipole a'1Σu - ← A3Σu + transition. The radiative lifetime of the lowest A'5Σg + sublevel is less than a microsecond; the magnetic transition induced by the spin current in the triplet state is predicted with relatively low oscillator strength (f = 10-10), which still could be detectable.

Genomic Analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258 Strain Coproducing KPC-2 and CTX-M-14 Isolated from Poultry in the Brazilian Amazon Region.

This study aimed to characterize a Klebsiella pneumoniae strain (KP411) recovered from the stool samples of poultry (Gallus gallus) in the Brazilian Amazon Region. The whole-genome sequencing of KP411 revealed the presence of an important arsenal of antimicrobial resistance genes to ß-lactams (blaCTX-M-14, blaTEM-1B, blaKPC-2, blaSVH-11), aminoglycosides [aph(3″)- Ib, aph(6)-Id, aph(3')-Ia], sulfonamides (sul1, sul2), quinolones (oqxAB), fosfomycin (fosAKP), and macrolides [mph(A)]. Furthermore, our analyses revealed that the KP411 strain belongs to the ST258 clonal lineage, which is one of the main epidemic clones responsible for the dissemination of KPC-2 worldwide. Our data suggest that food-producing animals may act as reservoirs of multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae belonging to the ST258 clone, and, consequently, contribute to their dissemination to humans and the environment.

Electrophilic C-H Borylation of Aza[5]helicenes Leading to Bowl-Shaped Quasi-[7]Circulenes with Switchable Dynamics.

The intrinsic relationship between helicenes and circulenes is of fundamental interest and importance in molecular engineering. Herein, electrophilic borylation of phenanthroline-derived aza[5]helicenes is presented, resulting in the incorporation of a boryl unit into two termini of helicenes to afford quasi-[7]circulenes. Their bowl-shaped structures were determined by X-ray diffraction. UV-vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as electrochemical measurements and DFT calculations, gave insight into their electronic properties. Variable-temperature NMR studies and DFT calculations revealed bowl-to-bowl inversion at room temperature and bowl-to-helix equilibria at elevated temperature, highlighting the important role of B ← N bond strength in tuning their dynamic properties.

Ohmic heating treatment in high-protein vanilla flavored milk: Quality, processing factors, and biological activity.

The processing of high-protein vanilla-flavored milk was performed under different electric field strengths of ohmic heating (5.22 V/cm, OH6; 6.96 V/cm, OH8; 8.70 V/cm, OH10; 10.43 V/cm, OH12) to evaluate the energy consumption, processing parameters, and microbiological, rheological, and biological aspects, compared with the sample submitted to conventional pasteurization (PAST, 72 °C/15 s). All samples showed higher than 12 g/100 mL of protein, consisting of high-protein content products. In addition, Ohmic Heating (OH) generated lower energy expenditure and more significant microbial inactivation of lactic acid bacteria, molds and yeasts, total mesophiles, and psychotropics. Furthermore, OH at lower electric field strengths, mainly OH8, improved anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant, and anti-hypertensive activities and rheological properties, and resulted in lower hydroxymethylfurfural contents, and higher whey protein nitrogen index. The results suggest that OH is a technology that can be used in flavored milk with high-protein content, being recommended an electric field strength of 6.96 V/cm. However, more studies are necessary to evaluate the effect of OH on high-protein dairy products, mainly by studying other OH processing parameters.

Exploring the Bacteriome and Resistome of Humans and Food-Producing Animals in Brazil.

The epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is complex, with multiple interfaces (human-animal-environment). In this context, One Health surveillance is essential for understanding the distribution of microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). This report describes a multicentric study undertaken to evaluate the bacterial communities and resistomes of food-producing animals (cattle, poultry, and swine) and healthy humans sampled simultaneously from five Brazilian regions. Metagenomic analysis showed that a total of 21,029 unique species were identified in 107 rectal swabs collected from distinct hosts, the highest numbers of which belonged to the domain Bacteria, mainly Ruminiclostridium spp. and Bacteroides spp., and the order Enterobacterales. We detected 405 ARGs for 12 distinct antimicrobial classes. Genes encoding antibiotic-modifying enzymes were the most frequent, followed by genes related to target alteration and efflux systems. Interestingly, carbapenemase-encoding genes such as blaAIM-1, blaCAM-1, blaGIM-2, and blaHMB-1 were identified in distinct hosts. Our results revealed that, in general, the bacterial communities from humans were present in isolated clusters, except for the Northeastern region, where an overlap of the bacterial species from humans and food-producing animals was observed. Additionally, a large resistome was observed among all analyzed hosts, with emphasis on the presence of carbapenemase-encoding genes not previously reported in Latin America. IMPORTANCE Humans and food production animals have been reported to be important reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes (ARGs). The frequency of these multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria tends to be higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), due mainly to a lack of public health policies. Although studies on AMR in humans or animals have been carried out in Brazil, this is the first multicenter study that simultaneously collected rectal swabs from humans and food-producing animals for metagenomics. Our results indicate high microbial diversity among all analyzed hosts, and several ARGs for different antimicrobial classes were also found. As far as we know, we have detected for the first time ARGs encoding carbapenemases, such as blaAIM-1, blaCAM-1, blaGIM-2, and blaHMB-1, in Latin America. Thus, our results support the importance of metagenomics as a tool to track the colonization of food-producing animals and humans by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. In addition, a network surveillance system called GUARANI, created for this study, is ready to be expanded and to collect additional data.

Large Scale Genome-Centric Metagenomic Data from the Gut Microbiome of Food-Producing Animals and Humans.

The One Health concept is a global strategy to study the relationship between human and animal health and the transfer of pathogenic and non-pathogenic species between these systems. However, to the best of our knowledge, no data based on One Health genome-centric metagenomics are available in public repositories. Here, we present a dataset based on a pilot-study of 2,915 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of 107 samples from the human (N = 34), cattle (N = 28), swine (N = 15) and poultry (N = 30) gut microbiomes. Samples were collected from the five Brazilian geographical regions. Of the draft genomes, 1,273 were high-quality drafts (≥90% of completeness and ≤5% of contamination), and 1,642 were medium-quality drafts (≥50% of completeness and ≤10% of contamination). Taxonomic predictions were based on the alignment and concatenation of single-marker genes, and the most representative phyla were Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. Many of these species represent potential pathogens that have already been described or potential new families, genera, and species with potential biotechnological applications. Analyses of this dataset will highlight discoveries about the ecology and functional role of pathogens and uncultivated Archaea and Bacteria from food-producing animals and humans. Furthermore, it also represents an opportunity to describe new species from underrepresented taxonomic groups.

What are the challenges for ohmic heating in the food industry? Insights of a bibliometric analysis.

The trends related to ohmic heating technology in food processing were evaluated using bibliometric analysis based on the scientific literature published in the last decade. Publications from Turkey, Brazil, and Iran represent 32% of all publications. Most studies have targeted the definition of the best combinations of operational parameters for application in different food matrices and their possible effects on the food properties. In addition, a tendency to use ohmic heating as an alternative technology for pasteurization was observed. Future studies should develop mathematical models that evaluate process parameters and food characteristics in the inactivation of microorganisms and enzymes and maintenance of bioactive compounds, the study of the non-thermal effect of electromagnetic waves on the food quality, the evaluation of the processing conditions and food physicochemical properties in the electrode corrosion and migration of metal ions to the treated food, and improvements of homogeneity during processing. This study was the first to perform a bibliometric analysis based on scientific literature concerning ohmic heating in food processing and presented the challenges, future trends, and evolution of scientific research.

SerumCovid database: Description and preliminary analysis of serological COVID-19 diagnosis in healthcare workers.

Serological databases represent an important source of information to perceive COVID-19 impact on health professionals involved in combating the disease. This paper describes SerumCovid, a COVID-19 serological database focused on the diagnosis of health professionals, providing a preliminary analysis to contribute to the understanding of the antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2. The study population comprises 321 samples from 236 healthcare and frontline workers fighting COVID-19 in Vitória de Santo Antão, Brazil. Samples were collected from at least six days of symptoms to more than 100 days. The used immunoenzymatic assays were Euroimmun Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA IgG and IgA. The most common gender in SerumCovid is female, while the most common age group is between 30 and 39 years old. However, no statistical differences were observed in either genders or age categories. The most reported symptoms were fatigue, headaches, and myalgia. Still, some subjects presented positive results for IgA after 130 days. Based on a temporal analysis, we have not identified general patterns as subjects presented high and low values of IgA and IgG with different evolution trends. Unexpectedly, for subjects with both serological tests, the outcome of IgA and IgG tests were the same (either positive or negative) for more than 80% of the samples. Therefore, SerumCovid helps better understand how COVID-19 affected healthcare and frontline workers, which increases knowledge about the infection and enables direct prevention actions.

Fat replacement by green banana biomass: Impact on the technological, nutritional and dynamic sensory profiling of chicken mortadella.

Reducing the fat content of processed meat products has become necessary due to consumer-driven demand for healthier foods. In this sense, this study aimed to characterize chicken mortadella with total and partial replacement of chicken skin by green banana biomass (GBB). Five treatments (with two repetitions each and weighing 400 g) were prepared: F0 (control treatment formulated with 100% chicken skin), F1, F2, F3, and F4 (25, 50, 75, and 100% of chicken skin replacement by GBB, respectively). Samples were characterized according to physicochemical composition - approximate composition, energy value, pH, water activity (Aw), emulsion stability (ES), water-holding capacity (WHC), instrumental color (L*, a* and b*), instrumental texture, fatty acid profile, and microstructure) - nutritional quality and sensory properties (dynamic profiling by Temporal Check-all-that-apply and acceptance). The replacement of 100% chicken skin by GBB increased the WHC of mortadella and did not affect the ES in all formulations. The addition of GBB did not affect the typical mortadella flavor of the samples, and the dominance of the flavor was directed towards the fibrous and fat flavor attributes. In addition, all formulations had acceptance scores above 6.5. Based on the results, replacement up to 100% of chicken skin with GBB is possible and obtains a healthier emulsified meat product with good sensory acceptance.

Freeze concentration techniques as alternative methods to thermal processing in dairy manufacturing: A review.

Freeze concentration technology is applied to concentrate liquid foods at low temperatures, thus separating pure ice crystals from the final concentrate solution. This method is an interesting alternative to concentrate food with high water levels and significant nutritional value such as dairy products, since several bioactive compounds are reduced when exposed to elevated temperatures. Considered that, this technique may be a great alternative to concentrating and maintaining both nutritional and sensory characteristics of liquid foods. The present review aims to introduce freeze concentration procedures as an eligible choice for conserving dairy products', also addressing its effects on the dairy matrix. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study reports the main techniques of freeze concentration applications in dairy products, to be used both on an industrial and laboratory scale, aiming to improve the nutritional quality of the products obtained.

The influence of landscape structure on the dispersal pattern of yellow fever virus in the state of São Paulo.

Man-made changes to the landscape play a crucial role in altering the epidemiologic patterns of infectious diseases, mainly as a result of pathogen spillover. Sylvatic yellow fever is ideally suited to modeling of this phenomenon as the risk of transmission of the disease as well as its circulation and dispersal are associated with forest fragmentation. In this study we investigated the temporal dispersal pattern of yellow fever virus (YFV) by means of confirmed cases of epizootics in non-human primates in municipalities in the state of São Paulo where there was no recommendation for vaccination in 2017. We analyzed the resistance to dispersal associated with different classes of land use and the geographic distances between the different locations where epizootics were recorded. The model that best explained the temporal dispersal pattern of YFV in the study area indicated that this was influenced by the geographic distance between collection locations and by the permeability of the forest edges (150 m) at the interface with the following core areas: Water, Agricultural, Non-Forest Formation and Forestry. Water, Agricultural, Urban and Forest core areas and the interfaces between the latter two formed important barriers to circulation of the virus. These findings indicate that fragmentation of vegetation tends to decrease the time taken for pathogens to spread, while conservation of forest areas has the opposite effect.

In vitro activity of N-phenyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2-amines against tachyzoites and bradyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii.

Toxoplasma gondiiis an apicomplexan parasite, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, a common disease in the world. Toxoplasmosis could be severe, especially in immunocompromised patients. The current therapy is limited, where pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine are the best choices despite being associated with side effects and ineffective against the bradyzoites, the parasitic form present during the chronic phase of the infection. Thus, new therapies against both tachyzoites and bradyzoites from T. gondii are urgent. Herein, we present the anti-T. gondii effect of 1,10-phenanthroline and its N-phenyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2-amine derivatives. The chemical modification of 1,10-phenanthroline tonew derivatives improved the anti-T. gondiiactivity 3.4 fold. The most active derivative presented ED50in the nanomolar range, the smallest value found was for Ph8, 0.1 µM for 96 h of treatment. The host cell viability was maintained after the treatment with the compounds, which were found to be highly selective presenting large selectivity indexes. Treatment with derivatives for 96 h was able to eliminate the T. gondii infection irreversibly. The ultrastructural alterations caused after the treatment with the most effective derivative (Ph8) included signs of cell death, specifically revealed by the Tunel assay for detection of DNA fragmentation. The Phen derivatives were also able to control the growth of the in vitro-derived bradyzoite forms of T. gondii EGS strain, causing its lysis and death. These findings promote the 1,10-phenanthroline derivatives as potential lead compounds for the development of a treatment for acute and chronic phases of toxoplasmosis.