31 documents found, page 1 of 4
HiZeca: A serious game for emotions recognition
Santos, P. M.; Silva, Vinicius Corrêa Alves; Esteves, João Sena; Pereira, Ana Paula da Silva; Soares, FilomenaTo comprehend human behavior can be a very difficult task for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These children have difficulties in social interaction, and they manifest repetitive patterns. Furthermore, they present deficits in imitation which can be directly linked to impairments in social interaction skills. Taking this into account, this paper presents the serious game HiZeca, in which a virtual...
Absence of light exposure increases pathogenicity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pne...
Mesquita, Cristina S.; Ribeiro, Artur; Gomes, Andreia C; Santos, P. M.Pseudomonas aeruginosa can alter its lifestyle in response to changes in environmental conditions. The switch to a pathogenic host-associated lifestyle can be triggered by the luminosity settings, resorting to at least one photoreceptor which senses light and regulates cellular processes. This study aimed to address how light exposure affects the dynamic and adaptability of two P. aeruginosa pneumonia-associate...
Current advances in the bacterial toolbox for the biotechnological production o...
Castro, Pedro Miguel Soares; Soares, Filipa; Santos, P. M.Monoterpenes are plant secondary metabolites, widely used in industrial processes as precursors of important aroma compounds, such as vanillin and (−)-menthol. However, the physicochemical properties of monoterpenes make difficult their conventional conversion into value-added aromas. Biocatalysis, either by using whole cells or enzymes, may overcome such drawbacks in terms of purity of the final product, ecolo...
Illuminating Olea europaea L. endophyte fungal community
Costa, Daniela; Fernandes, Telma; Martins, Fatima; Pereira, Jose A.; Tavares, R. M.; Santos, P. M.; Baptista, Paula; Lino-Neto, T.Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micres.2020.126693.; A wide array of fungal endophytes is known to inhabit plant tissues and were recently recognized as essential for plant health. A better description of the scarcely known endophyte microbiota in olive tree phyllosphere is the first step for elucidating the microbial interact...
Microbial metabolic potential of phenol degradation in wastewater treatment pla...
Viggor, Signe; Jõesaar, Merike; Soares-Castro, Pedro; Ilmjärv, Tanel; Santos, P. M.; Kapley, Atya; Kivisaar, MaiaThe drilling, processing and transportation of oil are the main sources of pollution in water and soil. The current work analyzes the microbial diversity and aromatic compounds degradation potential in the metagenomes of communities in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of a crude oil refinery. By focusing on the degradation of phenol, we observed the involvement of diverse indigenous microbial communities a...
New insights into the immunoproteome of B. cenocepacia J2315 using serum sample...
Sousa, Sílvia A; Soares-Castro, Pedro; Seixas, António M M; Feliciano, Joana R; Balugas, Bernardo; Barreto, Celeste; Pereira, Luísa; Santos, P. M.Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) are ubiquitous multidrug resistant organisms and opportunistic pathogens capable of causing life threatening lung infections among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. No effective therapies are currently available to eradicate Bcc bacteria from CF patients, as these organisms are inherently resistant to the majority of clinically available antimicrobials. An immunop...
Proteomics and antioxidant enzymes reveal different mechanisms of toxicity indu...
Barros, Diana; Pradhan, Arunava; Mendes, Vera M.; Manadas, Bruno; Santos, P. M.; Pascoal, Cláudia; Cássio, FernandaThe increased use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) raises concerns about their impacts on aquatic ecosystems. The impacts of Ag+ and AgNPs were assessed on proteomic and antioxidant enzymatic responses of Pseudomonas sp. M1. The effects of Ag+ on bacterial growth were stronger than those of AgNPs (EC20 = 107.1 μg L−1 for Ag+; EC20 = 307.2 μg L−1 for AgNPs), indicating the lower toxicity of the latter. At EC20, t...
Identification of genomic loci associated with genotypic and phenotypic variati...
Mesquita, Cristina S; Soares-Castro, Pedro; Faustino, Alberta; Santos, Hugo M; Capelo, José L; Santos, P. M.In this work, a genotype-phenotype survey of a highly diversified Pseudomonas aeruginosa collection was conducted, aiming to detail pathogen-associated scenarios that clinicians face nowadays. Genetic relation based on RAPD-PCR of 705 isolates, retrieved from 424 patients and several clinical contexts, reported an almost isolate-specific molecular-pattern. Pneumonia-associated isolates HB13 and HB15, clustered ...
Climatic impacts on the bacterial community profiles of cork oak soils
Reis, Francisca; Soares-Castro, Pedro; Costa, Daniela; Tavares, R. M.; Baptista, Paula; Santos, P. M.; Lino-Neto, T.Climate changes comprise increasing global temperature and water cycle deregulation (precipitation storms and long dry seasons). Many affected ecosystems are located within the Mediterranean basin, where cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is one of the most important forest ecosystems. Despite cork oak tolerance to drought, the decrease of water availability and increase of temperature is causing a serious decline of ...
Seasonal bacterial community dynamics in a crude oil refinery wastewater treatm...
Soares-Castro, Pedro; Yadav, Trilok C; Viggor, Signe; Kivisaar, Maia; Kapley, Atya; Santos, P. M.The biological treatment of oil refinery effluents in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) relies on specialized bacteria contributing to remove organic load, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus compounds. Knowledge about bacterial dynamics in WWTPs and how they affect the performance of the wastewater treatment is limited, particularly in tropical countries. The bacterial communities from three compartments of an ...