ther clarification in prospective longitudinal studies.[This corrects the article doi 10.1590/s0102-865020200090000003].Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, publications have highlighted the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic mothers, mostly focusing on the impact of social distancing and quarantine. A few months later, despite the lack of effective vaccines or therapeutics in sight, many economic activities are being resumed. Nurseries and schools are expected to be among the latest to reopen, which will amplify the impacts of the pandemic on academic mothers. In this letter, we unwrap the pandemic impacts on academic mothers and describe a set of specific short-, medium- and long-term policies that, if implemented, could reduce setbacks for gender equality during the pandemic and can help to level the playing field for academic mothers.The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak made the development of reliable, sensitive, and reproducible testing methods crucial throughout the world. Without proper analytical validation, testing results can be misinterpreted, leading to a certain degree of misinformation in the clinical area. To accurately assess the methods, the determination of an analytical linear range of response of the assay is fundamental. Based on this curve, the evaluation of some parameters as sensitivity, limit of detection, and limit of quantification can be done, as well as the establishment of cut-off values. Statistical treatments of the collected data can be performed for reproducibility and reliability evaluations. In this context, there is a wide range of analytical concerns that should be in-depth discussed in medical, biomedical and chemical areas. This letter aims to briefly clarify some analytical chemistry concepts, as sensitivity, cut-off and limit of detection, and their application towards clinical diagnosis.Cardiac glycosides have been found to have an anti-viral effect. This was noted in the past during various epidemics including MERS and SARS. It is due to their inhibitory effect on the Na, K-ATPase membrane pump. Furthermore, they exhibit anti-inflammatory properties. These preclinical observations may prove useful in further clinical utility of these well-known compounds in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The current study explored the involvement of neurogenic pathway-linked cholecystokinin (CCK) release in RIP-induced cardioprotection in rats. Male Wistar rats were subjected to four cycles of alternate episodes of ischemia and reperfusion (five min each) to induce RIP. Thereafter, the hearts were subjected to global ischemia and reperfusion ex vivo. The myocardial damage was assessed by quantifying the levels of heartspecific biochemicals i.e. LDH-1, CK-MB and cTnT. Apoptotic cell injury was assessed by measuring the levels of caspase-3 and Bcl-2. https://www.selleckchem.com/mTOR.html The levels of CCK were measured in the plasma following RIP. Exposure to RIP significantly increased the plasma levels of CCK and attenuated IR-induced myocardial injury. Administration of CCK antagonist, proglumide significantly attenuated RIP-induced cardioprotection. Administration of hexamethonium, a ganglion blocker, abolished RIP-induced increase in plasma CCK levels and cardioprotective effects. Exogenous delivery of CCK-8 restored the effects of RIP in hexamethonium treated animals. RIP activates the neurogenic pathway that may increase the plasma levels of CCK, which may act on the heart-localized CCK receptors to produce cardioprotection against I/R injury. RIP activates the neurogenic pathway that may increase the plasma levels of CCK, which may act on the heart-localized CCK receptors to produce cardioprotection against I/R injury. A diagnosis of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) currently requires confirmation with polysomnography (PSG). However, PSG may not be sufficiently available. In these situations, a clinical diagnostic measure might be useful. To validate the Brazilian Portuguese version of RBD screening questionnaire (RBDSQ) for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Using detailed clinical interviews and PSG analysis (diagnostic gold standard), a convenience sample of 69 subjects was divided into the following subgroups patients with PD and RBD (PD+RBD; n=50) and patients with PD alone (PD-RBD; n=19). RBDSQ-BR showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.809) and, except for item 8, adequate item-test correlation. The retest performed in a second sample (n=13, consecutive) showed high agreement for total score (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC=0.863) and acceptable agreement for items 2, 3, 6.2, 6.3, 7, and 8 (K>0.60). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.728. A cut-off score of 4 enabled the correct diagnosis of 76.8% subjects and provided the best balance between sensitivity (84%) and specificity (57.9%), with a 2.0 likelihood ratio of a positive result (LR+) and a 0.3 likelihood ratio of a negative result (LR-). Items 2 and 6.2 had 84.2% specificity and 3.2 LR+. Combined items 1+2+6.2, 2+6.1, and 6.1+6.2 increased the specificity to 94.7%, with LR+ ranging from 6.1 to 7.6. RBDSQ-BR is a reliable instrument, which may be useful for RBD diagnosis of Brazilian patients with PD. The instrument is also valid and may help in a better selection of cases for a more detailed clinical evaluation or even PSG analysis. RBDSQ-BR is a reliable instrument, which may be useful for RBD diagnosis of Brazilian patients with PD. The instrument is also valid and may help in a better selection of cases for a more detailed clinical evaluation or even PSG analysis.Like other bionanomaterials, dendrimers are usually labelled with fluorescent compounds in order to be optically detected within cells. However, this process can interfere with their biological properties, so it is crucial to find other solutions for their traceability. Here, the blue intrinsic fluorescence of amine-terminated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers was enhanced using oxidative treatment with ammonium persulfate (APS). The effects of dendrimer generation (G3, G4, and G5) and pH on the spectroscopic behavior of both pristine and APS-treated PAMAM dendrimers were studied in aqueous solution. Overall, the results pointed out that there are at least two types of emitting electron-rich hetero-atomic sub-luminophores (HASLs) confined within the dendrimer scaffold that have very close maximum emission wavelengths and whose emission properties strongly depend on pH. The APS treatment significantly enhanced the fluorescence intensity by leading to the protonation of the interior of the dendrimer. However, fluorescence intensity was not only dependent on the number of HASLs in the dendrimer scaffold (i.