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- A circular economy approach to leather by products valorization towards a zero-waste processPublication . Bonifácio-Lopes, Teresa; Afonso, Tiago Barros; Coscueta, Ezequiel; Costa, Eduardo M.; Pintado, ManuelaIntroduction: The tanning industry has a significant waste production and is a major contributor to environmental pollution; The adoption of circular economy principles will help repurposing by-products with a focus on reutilizing leather remnants; With this approach, the objective is to minimize environmental damage and effectively manage waste; This will contribute to sustainability with a reduction of overall waste and will align with UN sustainability goal 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) through the re-use of by products. Objectives: Exploration of different enzymes and conditions to enhance leather industry hydrolysis process to achieve a more sustainable and circular approach; Creation of versatile functional coatings within the leather industry; Utilization of commercial enzyme (Protabate P) and alternative enzymes (Bromelain and Alcalase) to validate its use; Valorization of protein-rich leather by-products. Conclusion: Protabate P 10% 24 h had higher hydrolysis degree (49.66%) and higher total protein (55103.43 μg protein/mL) than all the other enzymes. Regarding antioxidant activity, Alcalase 10% 24 h showed higher values (39.32 μM Trolox equivalents/mL). Apart from total protein, Bromelain 10% 24 h showed the lowest values for hydrolysis degree and antioxidant activity. Between time 0 and pre-final, molecules with MW <0.2 kDa consistently have a higher area. Conducting an enzyme inactivation (2 h/90 ºC) might result in molecule aggregation, leading to an increase in molecules with MW exceeding 50 kDa. Re-using leather byproducts can help the tanning industry to reduce the waste and achieve the UN sustainability goal nr 12. This study outlines the potential of re-using leather by-products to create versatile functional coatings through a circular and more sustainable process.
- Enredar a morte : assassinatos digitalizados no Brasil dos anos 2010Publication . Cardoso, Eduardo Prado; Gil, Isabel Maria de Oliveira CapeloaEsta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar as relações entre representações de assassinatos e a internet no Brasil, posicionando, em particular, crimes da década de 2010 como eventos culturais que remedeiam linguagens e práticas estabelecidas (nomeadamente dos mundos da imprensa, da música, do cinema e da televisão) como forma de confrontar desigualdades ou heranças de imaginários violentos. Como hipótese geral, questiona-se se, em função da digitalização promovida pelas indústrias culturais, o legado moderno das narrativas de violência apresenta continuidades. Através de uma análise sobre como a crítica da modernidade tardia teorizou as indústrias culturais latino-americanas e os modos pelos quais o Brasil produziu e reproduziu crimes em tempos de globalização, é revisitada a produção acadêmica sobre a modernidade tardia para ligar casos de homicídio mediados pelo YouTube e Facebook a transformações sociotecnológicas mais amplas. Teriam as práticas nos ambientes digitais desafiado comunicações hierárquicas, ou perpetuado estratificações de longa data? Ademais, a investigação pretende localizar especificidades sobre o caso brasileiro no período, e compreender o que poderiam ser peculiares engrenagens a envolver crime e cultura, entre 2013 e 2019. Utilizando-se de uma perspectiva dos estudos de cultura, para que as manifestações culturais sob análise reflitam a prática contemporânea de produção, recepção e consumo de histórias de crimes reais após a viragem digital, a pesquisa debate o conceito de circularidades da criminologia cultural para revelar como mediações contemporâneas alteram a maneira com que a comunicação de massa se apossou de funções do Estado antes da chegada do século XXI. A tese postula que os enredos criminais (agora em rede) ainda fazem circular materialidades estéticas e discursos de violência relativos a enredamentos estruturais da modernidade tardia brasileira, nomeadamente a apropriação da violência por táticas do sensacionalismo e do espetáculo, retóricas do punitivismo e da substituição de instituições estatais na resposta aos problemas de segurança pública.
- A circular economy approach to leather by products valorization towards a zero-waste processPublication . Bonifácio-Lopes, Teresa; Afonso, Tiago Barros; Coscueta, Ezequiel; Costa, Eduardo; Pintado, ManuelaThe tanning industry, known for its significant waste production, has a great environmental footprint and is one of the main contributors of environmental pollution. To address this concern, this industry has been actively adopting circular economy principles to repurpose the by-products it generates. One of its key focuses is the reutilization of leather by-products, aiming to minimize environmental harm through effective waste management and resource conservation. This strategy shift not only contributes to reducing overall waste but also aligns itself with the 12nd UN sustainability goal (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) by the re-use of its own byproducts. This study focused on exploring different enzymes and hydrolysis conditions for the repurposing of leather byproducts. The objective is to enhance the existing leather industry hydrolysis process, with a primary focus on achieving a more sustainable and circular approach towards the creation of versatile functional coatings within the leather industry. For this purpose, hydrolysis processes using commercial (ProtaBate P) and alternative enzymes (Bromelain and Alcalase) were optimized targeting its reduction from 24 to 6h reactions. Samples MW was determined through SE-HPLC analyses and hydrolysis percentage (TNBS), total protein (BCA) and antioxidant activity (ORAC) were also evaluated. The results demonstrate that all the enzymes had an effect in the leather by-product. It is also possible to conclude that Alcalase provided a better hydrolysis performance than ProtaBate P and Bromelain. Alcalase had higher hydrolysis percentage (70.12%), MWs between 10 and 50 kDa and a higher antioxidant activity (34.51 vs 32.87 µM Trolox equivalent/mL sample). This study outlines the potential of re-using leather by-products to create versatile functional coatings through a circular and more sustainable process.
- Valorisation of tuna bone waste through its application for the removal of persistent pharmaceuticals from water matricesPublication . Piccirillo, Clara; Miranda, Catarina; Scalera, Francesca; Piancastelli, Andreana; Tiritan, Maria Elizabeth; Castro, Paula M. L.; Amorim, Catarina L.The access to safe and clean water is a critical issue faced by our society. One of the major problems is the presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in water bodies. CECs include pollutants with poor removal rates in wastewater treatment plants, causing adverse effects on ecosystems and humans. Within CECs, pharmaceuticals received increasing attention due to their continuous release into aquatic environments. Therefore, innovative and sustainable solutions to address this problem are needed.In this work a material for pollutants adsorption was developed from fish bones (tuna), a byproduct of the food industry. The powdery material was obtained by pyrolysis of the bones, leading to tuna bone char (TBC), a composite of hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) and graphitic carbon. The capacity of the TBC to adsorb tramadol (TRA) and venlafaxine (VNF), two pharmaceuticals increasingly detected in the environment, was evaluated. The batch adsorption assays were performed in different aqueous matrices, some simulating real wastewater with different salinity levels (up to 12 g/L).The results show that TBC can be successfully applied for the adsorption processes ofpersistent pharmaceuticals, with the salinity levels affecting the efficiency of the removal.Overall, the work presents an alternative strategy for the removal of pharmaceuticals from aqueous matrices whilst contributing for mitigating the solid waste generated by the fish industry.
- Early use of erenumab vs nonspecific oral migraine preventives: the APPRAISE randomized clinical trialPublication . Pozo-Rosich, Patricia; Dolezil, David; Paemeleire, Koen; Stepien, Adam; Stude, Philipp; Snellman, Josefin; Arkuszewski, Michal; Stites, Tracy; Ritter, Shannon; Lopez, Cristina Lopez; Maca, Jeff; Ferraris, Matias; Gil-Gouveia, RaquelImportance: Patients with migraine often cycle through multiple nonspecific preventive medications due to poor tolerability and/or inadequate efficacy leading to low adherence and increased disease burden. Objective: To compare the efficacy, tolerability, patient adherence, and patient satisfaction between erenumab and nonspecific oral migraine preventive medications (OMPMs) in patients with episodic migraine (EM) who had previously failed 1 or 2 preventive treatments. Design, Setting, and Participants: The 12-month prospective, interventional, global, multicenter, active-controlled, randomized clinical trial comparing sustained benefit of 2 treatment paradigms (erenumab qm vs oral prophylactics) in adult episodic migraine patients (APPRAISE) trial was a 12-month open-label, multicenter, active-controlled, phase 4 randomized clinical trial conducted from May 15, 2019, to October 1, 2021. This pragmatic trial was conducted at 84 centers across 17 countries. Overall, participants 18 years or older with a 12-month or longer history of migraine, and 4 or more but fewer than 15 monthly migraine days (MMDs) were included. Interventions: Patients were randomized (2:1) to receive erenumab or OMPMs. Dose adjustment was permitted (label dependent). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was the proportion of patients completing 1 year of the initially assigned treatment and achieving a reduction of 50% or greater from baseline in MMDs at month 12. Secondary end points included the cumulative mean change from baseline in MMDs during the treatment period and the proportion of responders according to the Patients' Global Impression of Change (PGIC) scale at month 12 for patients taking the initially assigned treatment. Results: A total of 866 patients were screened, of whom 245 failed the screening and 621 completed the screening and baseline period. Of the 621 randomized patients (mean [SD] age, 41.3 [11.2] years; 545 female [87.8%]; 413 [66.5%] in the erenumab group; 208 [33.5%] in the OMPM group), 523 (84.2%) completed the treatment phase, and 98 (15.8%) discontinued the study. At month 12, significantly more patients assigned to erenumab vs OMPM achieved the primary end point (232 of 413 [56.2%] vs 35 of 208 [16.8%]; odds ratio [OR], 6.48; 95% CI, 4.28-9.82; P <.001). Compared with OMPMs, treatment with erenumab showed higher responder rate (314 of 413 [76.0%] vs 39 of 208 [18.8%]; OR, 13.75; 95% CI, 9.08-20.83; P <.001) on the PGIC scale (≥5 at month 12). Significant reduction in cumulative average MMDs was reported with erenumab treatment vs OMPM treatment (-4.32 vs -2.65; treatment difference [SE]: -1.67 [0.35] days; P <.001). Substantially fewer patients in the erenumab arm compared with the OMPM arm switched medication (9 of 413 [2.2%] vs 72 of 208 [34.6%]) and discontinued treatment due to adverse events (12 of 408 [2.9%] vs 48 of 206 [23.3%]). No new safety signals were identified. Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this randomized clinical trial demonstrated that earlier use of erenumab in patients with EM who failed 1 or 2 previous preventive treatments provided greater and sustained efficacy, safety, and adherence than continuous OMPM. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03927144.
- Ganhos em saúde sensíveis aos cuidados de enfermagem em contexto das equipas de cuidados continuados integradosPublication . Teixeira, Susana Alexandra Fonseca; Amado, João Manuel da Costa; Parreira, Pedro Miguel Santos DinisA demografia de uma sociedade em envelhecimento tem um significativo impacto nos sistemas de saúde em todo o mundo, conduzindo à procura de cuidados continuados integrados. Em Portugal surgiu a Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados Integrados (RNCCI) como resposta às novas necessidades, constatando-se taxas de ocupação elevadas nas unidades de internamento; no entanto, nos cuidados domiciliários as taxas são consistentemente mais baixas verificando-se disponibilidade de camas apesar da existência de um número elevado de utentes a aguardar referenciação, com uma mediana de tempo de quatro a catorze dias. Neste contexto esta investigação teve como objetivo, identificar as razões da subreferenciação e avaliar os ganhos em saúde sensíveis aos cuidados de enfermagem em contexto das Equipas de Cuidados Continuados Integrados (ECCI). Foram realizados quatro estudos: Estudo I – revisão integrativa da literatura, teve como objetivo comparar os custos dos cuidados de saúde prestados a pessoas idosas funcionalmente dependentes em contexto domiciliário com os cuidados institucionais; Estudo II – qualitativo, descritivo, exploratório cuja finalidade se inscreveu em conhecer as respostas assistenciais e identificar as dificuldades e constrangimentos no processo de referenciação dos utentes para a RNCCI; Estudo III – quantitativo, retrospetivo, visando caracterizar o perfil dos utentes admitidos pelas ECCI em Portugal; e Estudo IV – estudo de caso (casos múltiplos), quantitativo e retrospetivo que pretendeu avaliar o impacto dos cuidados de enfermagem nos ganhos em saúde dos utentes admitidos numa ECCI. Os resultados revelaram que o processo de referenciação é um procedimento muito burocratizado e moroso, que condiciona e atrasa o acesso dos utentes à RNCCI, agravando o seu estado de saúde. No geral os profissionais desconhecem as ECCI. No âmbito nacional, incluindo na área de investigação efetuada, os utentes admitidos nas ECCI espelham uma população envelhecida com baixo nível de literacia, dependentes na mobilidade (andar), atividades de vida diária, atividades instrumentais e défice no estado cognitivo. Apresentam doenças crónicas com multimorbilidades, baixo potencial de reconstrução de autonomia e grande vulnerabilidade na sua condição de saúde. O número de profissionais nas ECCI é insuficiente, induzindo a procura de serviços de urgência. No entanto, apesar dos parcos recursos, os cuidados prestados pelas equipas multiprofissionais têm um impacto positivo nos ganhos em saúde. Urge uma aposta efetiva na promoção dos cuidados domiciliários, garantindo o acesso atempado e equitativo aos cuidados de saúde, sendo urgente reforçar as equipas com mais profissionais especializados adaptadas às diferentes realidades regionais com vista a uma intervenção mais direcionada e efetiva na prestação de cuidados. O Serviço Nacional de Saúde tem que ser repensado tendo em conta os cuidados de saúde centrados nas pessoas, através da integração dos serviços sociais e de saúde como parceiros no planeamento, desenvolvimento e monitorização do atendimento aos utentes. É necessário investir em políticas públicas eficazes, eficientes inclusivas e inovadoras, definidas por valores e evidências, impulsionadas pela sustentabilidade social, económica e ambiental de forma a garantir melhores resultados de saúde para as populações.
- Use of local melatonin with xenogeneic bone graft to treat critical-size bone defects in rats with osteoporosis: a randomized studyPublication . Costa, Karen Laurene Dalla; Abreu, Letícia Furtado; Tolomei, Camila Barreto; Eleutério, Rachel Gomes; Basting, Rosanna; Balbinot, Gabriela; Collares, Fabrício Mezzomo; Lopes, Pedro; Veiga, Nelio; Fernandes, Gustavo Vicentis Oliveira; Peruzzo, Daiane CristinaThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of local administration of melatonin (MLT) on molecular biomarkers and calvaria bone critical defects in female rats with or without osteoporosis, associated or not with a xenogeneic biomaterial. Forty-eight female rats were randomly divided into two groups: (O) ovariectomized and (S) placebo groups. After 45 days of osteoporosis induction, two critical-size defects (5 mm diameter) were created on the calvaria. The groups were subdivided according to the following treatment: (C) Clot, MLT, MLT associated with Bio-Oss® (MLTBO), and Bio-Oss® (BO). After 45 days, the defect samples were collected and processed for microtomography, histomorphometry, and biomolecular analysis (Col-I, BMP-2, and OPN). All animals had one femur harvested to confirm the osteoporosis. Microtomography analysis demonstrated a bone mineral density reduction in the O group. Regarding bone healing, the S group presented greater filling of the defects than the O group; however, in the O group, the defects treated with MLT showed higher mineral filling than the other treatments. There was no difference between the treatments performed in the S group (p = 0.05). Otherwise, O-MLT had neoformed bone higher than in the other groups (p = 0.05). The groups that did not receive biomaterial demonstrated lower levels of Col-I secretion; S-MLT and S-MLTBO presented higher levels of OPN, while O-C presented statistically lower results (p < 0.05); O-BO showed greater BMP-2 secretion (p < 0.05). In the presence of ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis, MLT treatment increased the newly formed bone area, regulated the inflammatory response, and increased OPN expression.
- Harnessing agrifood by-products for sustainable protein development: a focus on circular economy and agriculturePublication . Paupério, Ana Isabel; Brassesco, María Emilia; Coscueta, Ezequiel; Ferreira, João Paulo; Pintado, Manuela
- Tuna bone char as a waste-derived sorbent for the removal of contaminants of emerging concern from saline wastewaterPublication . Piccirillo, Clara; Miranda, Catarina; Scalera, Francesca; Piancastelli, Andreana; Tiritan, Maria Elizabeth; Amorim, Catarina L.; Castro, Paula M. L.Introduction: Today one of the main problems affecting our environment is the presence of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in surface waters. CECs are stable compounds that are not degraded by traditional wastewater treatments processes, accumulating in the environment and potentially causing harm. Within CECs, pharmaceuticals are of particular concern, due to their increased consumption, with the new EU legislation aiming at the improvement of the quality of the treated wastewater to be discharged, especially in what these pollutants. In the present work, a material derived from tuna fish bones was prepared by a pyrolysis process (Tuna Bone Char, TBC) and then used to adsorb two pharmaceuticals, tramadol (TRA) and venlafaxine (VNF). The adsorption assays were performed in aqueous matrices simulating wastewaters with different levels of salinity. Conclusions: Conclusions: Tuna bones were successfully converted into a powder material with a high surface area, suitable for environmental remediation/pollutants adsorption. Pharmaceutical compounds classified as CECs were removed from different water matrices using the TBC powder. The chemical nature of the pharmaceutical possibly affected the adsorption process. The salinity level of the wastewater also affected significantly the adsorption capacity of the TBC.