Universidade Lusófona

Participants searched for discrepant fear-relevant pictures (snakes or spiders) in grid-pattern arrays of fear-irrelevant pictures belonging to the same category (flowers or mushrooms) and vice versa.Fearrelevant pictures were found more quickly than fear-irrelevant ones.Fear-relevant, but not fear-irrelevant, search was unaffected by the location of the target in the display and by the number of distractors, which suggests parallel search for fear-relevant targets and serial search for fear-irrelevant targets.Participants specifically fearful of snakes but not spiders (or vice versa) showed facilitated search for the feared objects but did not differ from controls in search for nonfeared fear-relevant or fear-irrelevant, targets.Thus, evolutionary relevant threatening stimuli were effective in capturing attention, and this effect was further facilitated if the stimulus was emotionally provocative.Mammals evolved in environments where resources and dangers were unpredictably distributed in space and time.The reproductive potential of individuals, therefore, was predicated on the ability to efficiently locate critically important events in the surroundings.Resources such as food and mating partners were the objects of active foraging, whereas dangers had to be reflexively detected to be adaptively avoided.Framed in this way, an important component of the adaptive problem concerns different varieties of selective attention.Following James (1890), researchers have commonly distinguished between active and passive attention.The former is conceptualized as goal-driven and voluntarily controlled in a top-down fashion, whereas the latter is stimulusdriven and governed by bottom-up perceptual processes.Thus, in foraging for food, mammals would rely on active, goal-driven processes, and in detecting threat, on passive, stimulus-driven attention.Indeed, James (1890, pp.416-417) included threatening events such as "wild animals," "metallic things," "blows," and "blood" among stimuli likely automatically and reflexively to capture attention.In agreement with this distinction, there are experimental data suggesting a contrast between voluntary, effortdemanding attentional processes with a slow time course, and quickly dissipating selective processes that are rapidly and automatically activated by peripheral stimulus events (e.

We evaluated the response of the Earth land biomes to drought by correlating a drought index with three global indicators of vegetation activity and growth: vegetation indices from satellite imagery, tree-ring growth series, and Aboveground Net Primary Production (ANPP) records. Arid and humid biomes are both affected by drought, and we suggest that the persistence of the water deficit (i.e., the drought time-scale) could be playing a key role in determining the sensitivity of land biomes to drought. We found that arid biomes respond to drought at short time-scales; that is, there is a rapid vegetation reaction as soon as water deficits below normal conditions occur. This may be due to the fact that plant species of arid regions have mechanisms allowing them to rapidly adapt to changing water availability. Humid biomes also respond to drought at short time-scales, but in this case the physiological mechanisms likely differ from those operating in arid biomes, as plants usually have a poor adaptability to water shortage. On the contrary, semiarid and subhumid biomes respond to drought at long time-scales, probably because plants are able to withstand water deficits, but they lack the rapid response of arid biomes to drought. These results are consistent among three vegetation parameters analyzed and across different land biomes, showing that the response of vegetation to drought depends on characteristic drought time-scales for each biome. Understanding the dominant time-scales at which drought most influences vegetation might help assessing the resistance and resilience of vegetation and improving our knowledge of vegetation vulnerability to climate change.

This paper reviews the European summer heat wave of 2003, with special emphasis on the first half of August 2003, jointly with its significant societal and environmental impact across Western and Central Europe. We show the pattern of record-breaking temperature anomalies, discuss it in the context of the past, and address the role of the main contributing factors responsible for the occurrence and persistence of this event: blocking episodes, soil moisture deficit, and sea surface temperatures. We show that the anticyclonic pattern corresponds more to an anomalous northern displacement of the North Atlantic subtropical high than a canonical blocking structure, and that soil moisture deficit was a key factor to reach unprecedented temperature anomalies. There are indications that the anomalous Mediterranean Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) have contributed to the heat wave of 2003, whereas the role of SST anomalies in other oceanic regions is still under debate. There are methodological limitations to evaluate excess mortality due to excessive temperatures; however, the different studies available in the literature allow us to estimate that around 40,000 deaths were registered in Europe during the heat wave, mostly elderly persons. Despite previous efforts undertaken by a few cities to implement warning systems, this dramatic episode has highlighted the widespread un-preparedness of most civil and health authorities to cope with such large events. Therefore, the implementation of early warning systems in most European cities to mitigate the impact of extreme heat is the main consequence to diminish the impact of future similar events. In addition to mortality (by far the most dramatic impact), we have also analyzed the record-breaking forest fires in Portugal and the evidence of other relevant impacts, including agriculture and air pollution.

). In this study, shotgun metagenomics allowed the rapid reconstruction and phylogenomic characterization of the first MPXV outbreak genome sequences, showing that this MPXV belongs to clade 3 and that the outbreak most likely has a single origin. Although 2022 MPXV (lineage B.1) clustered with 2018-2019 cases linked to an endemic country, it segregates in a divergent phylogenetic branch, likely reflecting continuous accelerated evolution. An in-depth mutational analysis suggests the action of host APOBEC3 in viral evolution as well as signs of potential MPXV human adaptation in ongoing microevolution. Our findings also indicate that genome sequencing may provide resolution to track the spread and transmission of this presumably slow-evolving double-stranded DNA virus.

Abstract Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3–6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017—and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions—was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing—and in some countries reversal—of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.

Abstract The Iberian Peninsula precipitation and river flow regimes are characterized by large values of inter‐annual variability, with large disparities between wet and dry years, especially in southern Iberia. This situation is a major problem for water resources management in general, and for the production of hydroelectricity in particular. Hydroelectric production represents, in an average year of precipitation, 20% of the total Spanish electricity production (and 35% for Portuguese production). Its absolute value, however, can vary by a factor of three between wet and dry years. We have assessed the impact of the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) on winter precipitation and river flow regimes for the three main international Iberian river basins, namely the Douro (north), the Tejo (centre) and the Guadiana (south). Results show that the large inter‐annual variability in the flows of these three rivers is largely modulated by the NAO phenomenon. Throughout most of the 20th century, the January‐to‐March river flow is better correlated with the December to February (DJF) NAO index than is the simultaneous (DJF) river flow. Correlation values for the period 1973–98 are highly significant (−0.76 for Douro, −0.77 for Tejo and −0.79 for Guadiana), being consistently of higher magnitude than those obtained over previous decades. This impact of the NAO on winter river flow was quantified in terms of total Spanish potential hydroelectricity production. The important control exerted by the NAO and the recent positive trend in the NAO index contribute to a significant decrease in the available flow. This reduction represents an important hazard for the two Iberian economies because of its negative impact on water‐dependent resources, such as intensive agriculture and hydroelectric power production. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society

The most important sources of atmospheric moisture at the global scale are herein identified, both oceanic and terrestrial, and a characterization is made of how continental regions are influenced by water from different moisture source regions. The methods used to establish source‐sink relationships of atmospheric water vapor are reviewed, and the advantages and caveats associated with each technique are discussed. The methods described include analytical and box models, numerical water vapor tracers, and physical water vapor tracers (isotopes). In particular, consideration is given to the wide range of recently developed Lagrangian techniques suitable both for evaluating the origin of water that falls during extreme precipitation events and for establishing climatologies of moisture source‐sink relationships. As far as oceanic sources are concerned, the important role of the subtropical northern Atlantic Ocean provides moisture for precipitation to the largest continental area, extending from Mexico to parts of Eurasia, and even to the South American continent during the Northern Hemisphere winter. In contrast, the influence of the southern Indian Ocean and North Pacific Ocean sources extends only over smaller continental areas. The South Pacific and the Indian Ocean represent the principal source of moisture for both Australia and Indonesia. Some landmasses only receive moisture from the evaporation that occurs in the same hemisphere (e.g., northern Europe and eastern North America), while others receive moisture from both hemispheres with large seasonal variations (e.g., northern South America). The monsoonal regimes in India, tropical Africa, and North America are provided with moisture from a large number of regions, highlighting the complexities of the global patterns of precipitation. Some very important contributions are also seen from relatively small areas of ocean, such as the Mediterranean Basin (important for Europe and North Africa) and the Red Sea, which provides water for a large area between the Gulf of Guinea and Indochina (summer) and between the African Great Lakes and Asia (winter). The geographical regions of Eurasia, North and South America, and Africa, and also the internationally important basins of the Mississippi, Amazon, Congo, and Yangtze Rivers, are also considered, as is the importance of terrestrial sources in monsoonal regimes. The role of atmospheric rivers, and particularly their relationship with extreme events, is discussed. Droughts can be caused by the reduced supply of water vapor from oceanic moisture source regions. Some of the implications of climate change for the hydrological cycle are also reviewed, including changes in water vapor concentrations, precipitation, soil moisture, and aridity. It is important to achieve a combined diagnosis of moisture sources using all available information, including stable water isotope measurements. A summary is given of the major research questions that remain unanswered, including (1) the lack of a full understanding of how moisture sources influence precipitation isotopes; (2) the stationarity of moisture sources over long periods; (3) the way in which possible changes in intensity (where evaporation exceeds precipitation to a greater of lesser degree), and the locations of the sources, (could) affect the distribution of continental precipitation in a changing climate; and (4) the role played by the main modes of climate variability, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation or the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, in the variability of the moisture source regions, as well as a full evaluation of the moisture transported by low‐level jets and atmospheric rivers.

The Bacillus subtilis endospore coat protein CotA shows laccase activity. By using comparative modeling techniques, we were able to derive a model for CotA based on the known x-ray structures of zucchini ascorbate oxidase and Cuprinus cereneus laccase. This model of CotA contains all the structural features of a laccase, including the reactive surface-exposed copper center (T1) and two buried copper centers (T2 and T3). Single amino acid substitutions in the CotA T1 copper center (H497A, or M502L) did not prevent assembly of the mutant proteins into the coat and did not alter the pattern of extractable coat polypeptides. However, in contrast to a wild type strain, both mutants produced unpigmented colonies and spores unable to oxidize syringaldazine (SGZ) and 2'2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS). The CotA protein was purified to homogeneity from an overproducing Escherichia coli strain. The purified CotA shows an absorbance and a EPR spectra typical of blue multicopper oxidases. Optimal enzymatic activity was found at < or =pH 3.0 and at pH 7.0 for ABTS or SGZ oxidation, respectively. The apparent K(m) values for ABTS and SGZ at 37 degrees C were of 106 +/- 11 and 26 +/- 2 microm, respectively, with corresponding k(cat) values of 16.8 +/- 0.8 and 3.7 +/- 0.1 s(-1). Maximal enzyme activity was observed at 75 degrees C with ABTS as substrate. Remarkably, the coat-associated or the purified enzyme showed a half-life of inactivation at 80 degrees C of about 4 and 2 h, respectively, indicating that CotA is intrinsically highly thermostable.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial compound used extensively to produce synthetic polymers, such as epoxy resins, which are incorporated into the inner coating of metal cans, and also to manufacture polycarbonates with applications in bottles, including bottles of water. Several studies have reported on the transfer of this compound to food. Regarding human exposure to BPA, food intake can be considered the most serious among all the routes, not only because it potentially reaches more people in different age groups (including infants, an especially vulnerable group), but also because it inadvertently occurs over long time periods. BPA is considered an endocrine disruptor and several studies have proposed a relationship between exposure to BPA and the appearance of adverse health effects, such as cancer, infertility, diabetes, and obesity, among others. In 2015 however, the European Food Safety Authority concluded in its last scientific opinion that this compound does not pose any risk to the exposed population's health. Therefore, the EU regards BPA as an authorized product to be used as food contact material. Although BPA intake through food is apparently below the set limits, research into BPA and its potential negative effects is still ongoing. This review contains the most recent in vitro and in vivo studies on BPA toxicity and its harmful effects on health, and it intends to address human exposure to BPA, namely through dietary exposure and its impact on human health.

In Brief This article summarizes research from an ecological dynamics program of work on team sports exemplifying how small-sided and conditioned games (SSCG) can enhance skill acquisition and decision-making processes during training. The data highlighted show how constraints of different SSCG can facilitate emergence of continuous interpersonal coordination tendencies during practice to benefit team game players. Key findings from an ecological dynamics research program highlight benefits of small-sided and conditioned games for enhancing skill acquisition and decision making.

Biofilms, present as microorganisms and surviving on surfaces, can increase food cross-contamination, leading to changes in the food industry's cleaning and disinfection dynamics. Biofilm is an association of microorganisms that is irreversibly linked with a surface, contained in an extracellular polymeric substance matrix, which poses a formidable challenge for food industries. To avoid biofilms from forming, and to eliminate them from reversible attachment and irreversible stages, where attached microorganisms improve surface adhesion, a strong disinfectant is required to eliminate bacterial attachments. This review paper tackles biofilm problems from all perspectives, including biofilm-forming pathogens in the food industry, disinfectant resistance of biofilm, and identification methods. As biofilms are largely responsible for food spoilage and outbreaks, they are also considered responsible for damage to food processing equipment. Hence the need to gain good knowledge about all of the factors favouring their development or growth, such as the attachment surface, food matrix components, environmental conditions, the bacterial cells involved, and electrostatic charging of surfaces. Overall, this review study shows the real threat of biofilms in the food industry due to the resistance of disinfectants and the mechanisms developed for their survival, including the intercellular signalling system, the cyclic nucleotide second messenger, and biofilm-associated proteins.

This article explores the topics of motivation and self-regulation in the context of weight management and related behaviors. We focus on the role of a qualitative approach to address motivation--not only considering the level but also type of motivation--in weight control and related behaviors. We critically discuss the operationalization of motivation in current weight control programs, present a complementary approach to understanding motivation based on self-determination theory, and review empirical findings from weight control studies that have used self-determination theory measures and assessed their association with weight outcomes. Weight loss studies which used Motivational Interviewing (MI) are also reviewed, considering MI's focus on enhancing internal motivation. We hypothesize that current weight control interventions may have been less successful with weight maintenance in part due to their relative disregard of qualitative dimensions of motivation, such as level of perceived autonomy, often resulting in a motivational disconnect between weight loss and weight-related behaviors. We suggest that if individuals fully endorse weight loss-related behavioral goals and feel not just competent but also autonomous about reaching them, as suggested by self-determination theory, their efforts are more likely to result in long-lasting behavior change.

About 9 out of 10 liters of water evaporated from the oceans every year precipitates back onto oceans. However, the remaining 10% that get transported to continents play an irreplaceable role feeding the land branch of the hydrological cycle. Here we use an objective 3‐D Lagrangian model (FLEXPART) to detect major oceanic moisture source areas and the associated continental regions significantly influenced by each moisture source. Our results reveal a highly asymmetrical supply of oceanic moisture to the continents, with the Northern Atlantic subtropical ocean source impacting the continents considerably more than the large Southern Indian and North Pacific sources. Also, the small Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea basins are important moisture sources for relatively large land areas. The Indian subcontinent receives moisture from six different major oceanic source regions. Future changes in meteorological conditions over the oceanic moisture source regions may have an impact on water availability for many river basins.

Long-term behavioral self-regulation is the hallmark of successful weight control. We tested mediators of weight loss and weight loss maintenance in middle-aged women who participated in a randomized controlled 12-month weight management intervention. Overweight and obese women (N = 225, BMI = 31.3 +/- 4.1 kg/m(2)) were randomly assigned to a control or a 1-year group intervention designed to promote autonomous self-regulation of body weight. Key exercise, eating behavior, and body image variables were assessed before and after the program, and tested as mediators of weight loss (12 months, 86% retention) and weight loss maintenance (24 months, 81% retention). Multiple mediation was employed and an intention-to-treat analysis conducted. Treatment effects were observed for all putative mediators (Effect size: 0.32-0.79, P < 0.01 vs. controls). Weight change was -7.3 +/- 5.9% (12-month) and -5.5 +/- 5.0% (24-month) in the intervention group and -1.7 +/- 5.0% and -2.2 +/- 7.5% in controls. Change in most psychosocial variables was associated with 12-month weight change, but only flexible cognitive restraint (P < 0.01), disinhibition (P < 0.05), exercise self-efficacy (P < 0.001), exercise intrinsic motivation (P < 0.01), and body dissatisfaction (P < 0.05) predicted 24-month weight change. Lower emotional eating, increased flexible cognitive restraint, and fewer exercise barriers mediated 12-month weight loss (R(2) = 0.31, P < 0.001; effect ratio: 0.37), but only flexible restraint and exercise self-efficacy mediated 24-month weight loss (R(2) = 0.17, P < 0.001; effect ratio: 0.89). This is the first study to evaluate self-regulation mediators of weight loss and 2-year weight loss maintenance, in a large sample of overweight women. Results show that lowering emotional eating and adopting a flexible dietary restraint pattern are critical for sustained weight loss. For long-term success, interventions must also be effective in promoting exercise intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy.

Endospores produced by the Gram-positive soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis are shielded by a proteinaceous coat formed by over 30 structural components, which self-assemble into a lamellar inner coat and a thicker striated electrodense outer coat. The 65-kDa CotA protein is an abundant component of the outer coat layer. CotA is a highly thermostable laccase, assembly of which into the coat is required for spore resistance against hydrogen peroxide and UV light. Here, we report the structure of CotA at 1.7-A resolution, as determined by x-ray crystallography. This is the first structure of an endospore coat component, and also the first structure of a bacterial laccase. The overall fold of CotA comprises three cupredoxin-like domains and includes one mononuclear and one trinuclear copper center. This arrangement is similar to that of other multicopper oxidases and most similar to that of the copper tolerance protein CueO of Escherichia coli. However, the three cupredoxin domains in CotA are further linked by external interdomain loops, which increase the packing level of the structure. We propose that these interdomain loops contribute to the remarkable thermostability of the enzyme, but our results suggest that additional factors are likely to play a role. Comparisons with the structure of other monomeric multicopper oxidases containing four copper atoms suggest that CotA may accept the largest substrates of any known laccase. Moreover, and unlike other laccases, CotA appears to have a flexible lidlike region close to the substrate-binding site that may mediate substrate accessibility. The implications of these findings for the properties of CotA, its assembly and the properties of the bacterial spore coat structure are discussed.

The traditional consumption of edible insects is common in one third of the world's population, mostly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. There are over one thousand identified species of insects eaten in some stage of their life cycle; and they play important roles in ensuring food security. The most common way to collect insects are from the wild, which is seasonal with limited availability and has an increasing demand resulting in a disruption to the ecosystem. There is a growing interest shown in rearing insects for commercial purposes, and an industrial scale production will be required to ensure steady supplies. Industrial production will need to take into account the living environment of insects, the nutritional composition of their feed and the overall efficiency of the production system. We provide a short overview on the consumption of and rearing insects in Africa, Asia and Europe. For Africa, a snapshot is given for Nigeria, Ghana, Central African Republic, Kenya and Uganda, while the following countries are reported for Asia: China, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, a list of insect species with the highest potential for food and feed in the European Union is provided with some reference to The Netherlands and Finland. The review concludes that there is need to better understand the rearing and farming procedures that will yield high quality edible insects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

We propose a novel, non-discriminatory classification of monkeypox virus diversity. Together with the World Health Organization, we named three clades (I, IIa and IIb) in order of detection. Within IIb, the cause of the current global outbreak, we identified multiple lineages (A.1, A.2, A.1.1 and B.1) to support real-time genomic surveillance.

In this paper, we propose new approaches based on convex optimization to address the received signal strength (RSS)-based noncooperative and cooperative localization problems in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). By using an array of passive anchor nodes, we collect the noisy RSS measurements from radiating source nodes in WSNs, which we use to estimate the source positions. We derive the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, since the ML-based solutions have particular importance due to their asymptotically optimal performance. However, the ML estimator requires the minimization of a nonconvex objective function that may have multiple local optima, thus making the search for the globally optimal solution hard. To overcome this difficulty, we derive a new nonconvex estimator, which tightly approximates the ML estimator for small noise. Then, the new estimator is relaxed by applying efficient convex relaxations that are based on second-order cone programming and semidefinite programming in the case of noncooperative and cooperative localization, respectively, for both cases of known and unknown source transmit power. We also show that our approaches work well in the case when the source transmit power and the path loss exponent are simultaneously unknown at the anchor nodes. Moreover, we show that the generalization of the new approaches for the localization problem in indoor environments is straightforward. Simulation results show that the proposed approaches significantly improve the localization accuracy, reducing the estimation error between 15% and 20% on average, compared with the existing approaches.

This overview of reviews aimed to summarize the effects of exercise training programs on weight loss, changes in body composition, and weight maintenance in adults with overweight or obesity. A systematic search of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SR-MAs) published between 2010 and December 2019 was performed. Only SR-MAs of controlled trials were included. The mean difference (MD) or standardized MD (SMD) were extracted from SR-MAs. Twelve SR-MAs (149 studies) were included. Exercise led to a significant weight loss (4 SR-MAs, MDs ranging from -1.5 to -3.5 kg), fat loss (4 SR-MAs, MDs ranging from -1.3 to -2.6 kg) and visceral fat loss (3 SR-MAs, SMDs ranging from -0.33 to -0.56). No difference in weight, fat, and visceral loss was found between aerobic and high-intensity interval training as long as energy expenditure was equal. Resistance training reduced lean mass loss during weight loss (1 SR-MA, MD: 0.8 [95%CI: 0.4-1.3] kg). No significant effect of exercise was found on weight maintenance (1 SR-MA). These findings show favorable effects of exercise training on weight loss and body composition changes in adults with overweight or obesity. Visceral fat loss may lead to benefits for cardiometabolic health. More research is needed to identify training modalities that promote weight maintenance.

The worldwide interest in the use of medicinal plants has been growing, and its beneficial effects being rediscovered for the development of new drugs. Based on their vast ethnopharmacological applications, which inspired current research in drug discovery, natural products can provide new and important leads against various pharmacological targets. This work pioneers an extensive and an updated literature review on the current state of research on Rosmarinus officinalis L., elucidating which compounds and biological activities are the most relevant. Therefore, a search was made in the databases PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science with the terms 'rosemary', 'Rosmarinus officinalis', 'rosmarinic acid' 'carnosol' and 'carnosic acid', which included 286 articles published since 1990 about rosemary's pharmacological activities and their isolated compounds. According to these references, there has been an increasing interest in the therapeutic properties of this plant, regarding carnosic acid, carnosol, rosmarinic acid and the essential oil. The present manuscript provides an updated review upon the most reported activities on R. officinalis and its active constituents.