Guilherme Bovi Ambrosano

Objective: To analyze and compare trends in visits and procedures performed at an Oral Emergency Service during the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Longitudinal study analyzing 76,530 records of dental visits and procedures performed at the Dental Emergency Service in the municipality of Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, between January 2019 and October 2023. The time series were decomposed using LOESS to identify trends and seasonality. After adjusting the data for autocorrelation and removing the seasonal effect, control charts were constructed assuming a negative binomial distribution, and generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) were fitted, also assuming a negative binomial distribution. The chi-square test was used to assess the association between procedure type and year. A significance level of 5% was adopted. Result: In April 2020, visits decreased by 30.2% compared with the previous month and by 39.7% compared with the same month of the previous year. Procedures decreased by 29.1% compared with the previous month and by 39.5% compared with the same month of the previous year. Tooth extractions were the most frequent procedure in all years, accounting for approximately 73% of procedures, followed by temporary sealing of pulpal cavities, accounting for approximately 16%. Conclusion: Demand for emergency dental services declined sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a gradual recovery from 2021 onward.

Indoor green plants, such as the Anthurium plowmanii (Anthurium Bird Nest group), are used to balance the domestic environment in large cities and stand out in this market. This study aimed to evaluate in vitro plantlets of Anthurium plowmanii cultivated under 30% photo-selective nets in the red, blue, and black spectra, and two kinds of pots, opaque and translucent. After one year of cultivation, plants under the red net showed a higher number of leaves per pot, fresh mass, and leaf length, regardless of the pot type. The roots were influenced by the type of pot, with a higher thickness of velamen in the roots grown in opaque pots. The presence of chloroplasts and chlorophyll in the cortical parenchyma of the roots is exclusively in translucent pots. No root escape was observed in either treatment at the end of the 12-month cultivation period.

Plant species sensitive to desiccation or vegetatively propagation are difficult to store and transport in the germplasm for space travel. Applying plant tissue culture can help to create a Plant Germplasm Bank for this species. For this purpose, the Compact Growth Chamber (CGC) was created to store and transport in vitro explants, maintaining them for long periods in Slow-Grown Storage (SGS). Explants under SGS have reduced growth metabolism to complete space missions. This study aimed to evaluate the CGC efficacy in the long term of in vitro storage of explant of Taioba (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), a tropical species that vegetatively propagates and has high nutritional value. For this, three CGCs were connected, side by side, with different LED light spectra (CGC1: Red spectrum; CGC2: 50% Red + 50% Blue spectra-control; CGC3: Blue spectrum), each one containing nine test tubes with taioba explants (one per test tube), and LED lights intensity adjusted for 30 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹. The CGCs were maintained for 120 days in the darkroom, at 25 ± 2 °C temperature and 50–60% humidity, and, at the end, the growth and morphological parameters of taioba plantlets were evaluated. These results demonstrate that the explant storage in CGC3 showed lower root numbers and root lengths than in CGC1 and CGC2. In addition, the Blue spectrum in CGC3 reduced the root oxidation and browning, resulting in 100% live explants. This study provides that the CGC fulfilled its proposed function of transporting and storing the in vitro explants for space travel.

F1 populations are widely used in genetic mapping studies in agriculture, where known pedigrees enable rigorous quality control measures such as segregation distortion testing. However, conventional tests for segregation distortion are inadequate for polyploids, as they fail to account for double reduction, preferential pairing, and genotype uncertainty, leading to inflated type I error rates. Prior work developed a statistical framework to address these issues in tetraploids. Here, we extend these methods to higher even ploidy levels and introduce additional strategies to mitigate the influence of outliers. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our tests maintain appropriate type I error control while retaining power to detect true segregation distortion. We further validate our approach using empirical data from a hexaploid mapping population. Our methods are implemented in the segtest R package, available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.segtest).

F1 populations are widely used in genetic mapping studies in agriculture, where known pedigrees enable rigorous quality control measures such as segregation distortion testing. However, conventional tests for segregation distortion are inadequate for polyploids, as they fail to account for double reduction, preferential pairing, and genotype uncertainty, leading to inflated type I error rates. Gerard et al. (2025) (doi:10.1007/s00122-025-04816-z) developed a statistical framework to address these issues in tetraploids. Here, we extend these methods to higher even ploidy levels and introduce additional strategies to mitigate the influence of outliers. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our tests maintain appropriate type I error control while retaining power to detect true segregation distortion. We further validate our approach using empirical data from a hexaploid mapping population. Our methods are implemented in the segtest R package, available on the GitHub ( https://github.com/dcgerard/segtest ).

The efficacy and safety of phytotherapeutic medicines are intrinsically related to the quality of their plant-based raw materials, which is directly influenced by agronomic cultivation practices. In this scenario, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of colored shade nets and foliar application of D-limonene on the growth and secondary metab-olism of Mikania laevigata Sch.Bip. ex Baker. The experiment followed a completely randomized 4 × 5 split-plot design, with three photoselective shade nets (red, blue and black) compared to full sunlight (control) and five D-limonene doses (0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, and 2.00 mL L⁻¹). Our findings revealed significant effects on plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter, and leaf dry matter. The red net promoted greater shoot biomass accumulation and increased leaf dry mass. Regarding secondary metabolites, the red and black nets enhanced coumarin content by 18.80% and 15.36%, respectively, compared to full sunlight cultivation. D-limonene positively influenced biometric traits up to 1.20 mL·L⁻¹, followed by a decline. These findings indicate that colored shade nets could be an effective approach to enhance the phytochemical yield of M. laevigata, while D-limonene contributes mainly to morphological development and biomass accumu-lation.

This cross-sectional study aimed to assess whether levels of anxiety, perceived stress, and self-perception of happiness during the Covid-19 pandemic were lower among Tai Chi (TC) practitioners. An online questionnaire was applied from September 2020 to November 2021 through email list and instant messaging application "WhatsApp". In total 368 individuals, 341 of whom did not practice TC, coming from a university and sports academies and 27 TC practitioners from the Brazilian Society of TC and Oriental Culture were included. Sociodemographic, mental health, habits related to physical activity and the State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS14) and the Andrews Faces Scale were collected to assess level of state-anxiety, perceived-stress, and self-perception of happiness, respectively. Each independent variable with the outcome variables (severe anxiety level, severe stress level, moderate/severe stress level and self-perception of happiness) were analyzed for simple and multiple logistic regression model. Individuals who do not practice TC are more likely to have a severe level of anxiety (OR=3.55; CI95%CI: 1.37-9.20) and a moderate/severe level of stress (OR=2.60; 95%CI: 1.07-6.35), p<0.05. TC practitioners are more likely to perceive themselves as happy than non-practitioners (OR=3.18; 95%CI: 1.16-8.71), p<0.05. Do not practice regular physical activity (OR=2.88; 95%CI:1.50-4.34); (OR=1.7; 95%CI: 95%: 1.09-2.74) and being young were associated with high levels of stress, p<0.05. The TC practice during the pandemic promoted lower level of perceived stress, state anxiety and greater self-perception of happiness, showing the importance of TC practice and maintaining the frequency of physical activity during the pandemic.