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Background W1282X-CFTR variant (c.3846G>A) is the second most common nonsense cystic fibrosis (CF)-causing mutation in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene. Even though remarkable breakthroughs have been done towards CF treatment with the approval of four CFTR protein modulators, none of these are approved for patients with nonsense mutations. CRISPR gene editing tools can be of great value to permanently correct the genetic defects caused by these mutations. Methods We compared the capacity of homology-directed repair (HDR) mediated by Cas9 or Cas12a to correct W1282X CFTR mutation in the CFF-16HBEge W1282X CFTR cell line (obtained from CFF), using Cas9/gRNA and Cas12a/gRNA ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) and single strand DNA (ssODN) oligonucleotide donors. Results Cas9 shows higher levels of correction than Cas12a as, by electroporating cells with Cas9 RNPs and ssODN donor, nearly 18% of precise editing was achieved compared to just 8% for Cas12a. Such levels of correction increase the abundance of CFTR mRNA and protein, and partially restore CFTR function in the pool of edited cells to 18% of WT CFTR function. Moreover, homozygous corrected clones produced levels of mRNA, protein, and function comparable to those of cells expressing WT CFTR. Conclusion Altogether, this work demonstrates the potential of gene editing as a therapeutic strategy for CF directly correcting the root cause of the disease.

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) leads to deficits in upper limb strength and manual dexterity and consequently resulting in functional impairment. Handgrip strength is correlated with the motor symptom severity of the disease, but there is a gap in the literature about the influence of freezing in PD patients. Objective: The objective is to study the correlation between handgrip strength and motor symptom severity considering the freezing phenomenon and to verify variables that can predict Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) III. Methods: This is a multicenter cross-sectional study in PD. 101 patients were divided into 2 groups: freezing of gait (FOG) (n = 51) and nonfreezing (nFOG) (n = 52). Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOGQ); UPDRS II and III sections; Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scale; handgrip dynamometry (HD); 9 Hole Peg Test (9-HPT) were assessed. Results: In both groups, HD was correlated to UPDRS III (nFOG: −0.308; FOG: −0.301), UPDRS total (nFOG: −0.379; FOG: −0.368), UPDRS item 23 (nFOG: −0.404; FOG: −0.605), and UPDRS item 24 (nFOG: −0.405; FOG: −0.515). For the correlation to UPDRS II (0.320) and 9-HPT (−0.323), only nFOG group presented significance. For the UPDRS 25 (−0.437), only FOG group presented statistical significance. The UPDRS III can be predicted by 9-HPT, age, and HY in nFOG patients (Adjusted R2 = 0.416). In FOG group, UPDRS III can be predicted by HD, 9-HPT, age, and HY (Adjusted R2 = 0.491). Conclusion: Handgrip strength showed to be predictive of motor impairment only in the FOG group. Our results showed clinical profile differences of motor symptoms considering freezers and nonfreezers with PD.

Introduction Post-transplant diabetes mellitus is a complication of kidney transplantation with deleterious effects on graft and patient survival and is associated with higher mortality. The goal of this paper is to identify risk factors that contribute to its development so that it can be avoided. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 659 kidney transplants performed in adult patients between January 2013 and December 2017. We excluded patients with a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and identified 61 patients with post-transplant diabetes mellitus (10.6%), then compared them to a control group of 61 patients who did not suffer from the disease, namely the kidney transplant pair or the patient submitted for transplant immediately after. Discussion A comparative analysis of the 2 groups revealed significant differences regarding the use of β-blockers, fasting glucose on the fifth day post-transplant, kidney recipient age, and body mass index. Using multivariate logistic regression methods, 2 variables with an impact on post-transplant diabetes development were found: fasting glucose on the fifth day post-transplant (odds ratio 1.044, 95% confidence interval 1.010–1.079, P = .010) and body mass index (odds ratio 1.130, 95% confidence interval 1.009–1.264, P = .034). We did not find any differences for other potential risk factors. Conclusion A high plasma glucose level on the fifth day after the transplant and a high body mass index in the setting of the transplant can potentially impact the transplant's outcomes, so it is important to identify these levels as soon as possible to take measures to prevent this disease.

This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of dentistry undergraduates regarding the materials used in class II restorations in deciduous teeth, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. The research was carried out during 7 months with students from the last year of graduation (5th grade). An initial visit was made at the dental schools of a municipality in Northeastern Brazil and the students answered a questionnaire containing questions related to the choice of restorative materials, their properties and utilities. The inclusion criteria were undergraduates in Dentistry, attending the last year of the said graduation. Students who had perhaps lost some discipline or locked the course were excluded from this study. The collected data were stored in the Microsoft Office Excel 2016 program, being analyzed with the help of the chi-square test. Composite resin (CR) was the material of choice in patients with low risk and low caries activity with the presence of the marginal crest (82.6%) and absence of marginal crest (67.4%). In patients with high laughter and high activity, conventional glass ionomer cement (IVC) was indicated in both situations 65.2% and 84.8% respectively. Regarding the advantages of the most reported materials by the participants in relation to the IVC was fluoride release (100%) whereas for CR was aesthetics (84.1%). On the other hand, the greatest disadvantage of IVC was related to syneresis and imbibition (75%) and CR was the contraction of polymerization (83.7%). It can be concluded that students have knowledge regarding the materials used in class II restorations in deciduous teeth, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. KEYWORDS: Composite resin; Glass Ionomer; Dental materials; Pediatric Dentistry. RESUMO: Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar o conhecimento dos graduandos de Odontologia com relação aos materiais utilizados em restaurações classe II em dentes decíduos. A pesquisa foi realizada durante 7 meses com alunos do último ano de graduação (5º ano). Foi realizada uma visita inicial nas faculdades de Odontologia de um município do Nordeste Brasileiro e os alunos responderam um questionário contendo perguntas relacionadas à escolha dos materiais restauradores, suas propriedades e utilidades. Os dados coletados foram armazenados no programa Microsoft Office Excel 2016, sendo analisados com o auxílio do teste do qui-quadrado. A resina composta (RC) foi material de escolha em paciente com baixo risco e baixa atividade de cárie com a presença da crista marginal (82,6%) e ausência de crista marginal (67,4%). Nos pacientes de alto riso e alta atividade, o cimento de ionômero de vidro convencional (CIV) foi indicado nas duas situações 65,2% e 84,8% respectivamente. Com relação as vantagens dos materiais a mais relatada pelos participantes com relação ao CIV foi liberação de flúor (100%) enquanto que para a RC foi a estética (84,1%). Por outro lado, a maior desvantagem do CIV estava relacionada a sinérese e embebição (75%) e da RC foi a contração de polimerização (83,7%). Pode-se concluir que os alunos têm conhecimento com relação aos materiais utilizados em restaurações classe II em dentes decíduos, assim como suas vantagens e desvantagens. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Resina Composta; Ionômero de Vidro; Materiais Dentários; Odontopediatria.

This work was financially supported by the projects: (i) UID/ EQU/00511/2019 - Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy − LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); (ii) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029702 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER031297 funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 − Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizaca̧ õ (POCI) and by national funds (PIDDAC) through FCT/ MCTES; (iii) AstraZeneca − Projecto OLDER (CEDOC/ 2015/59); (iv) iNOVA4Health - UID/Multi/04462/2013, financially supported by FCT/Ministerio da Educação e Ciência, and co-funded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. Separation techniques hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry are essential in untargeted metabolomic analyses. Due to the complexity and size of the resulting data, analysts rely on computer-assisted tools to mine for features that may represent a chromatographic signal. However, this step remains problematic, and a high number of false positives are often obtained. This work reports a novel approach where each step is carefully controlled to decrease the likelihood of errors. Datasets are first corrected for baseline drift and background noise before the MS scans are converted from profile to centroid. A new alignment strategy that includes purity control is introduced, and features are quantified using the original data with scans recorded as profile, not the extracted features. All the algorithms used in this work are part of the Finnee Matlab toolbox that is freely available. The approach was validated using metabolites in exhaled breath condensates to differentiate individuals diagnosed with asthma from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. With this new pipeline, twice as many markers were found with Finnee in comparison to XCMS-online, and nearly 50% more than with MS-Dial, two of the most popular freeware for untargeted metabolomics analysis. publishersversion published

Active learning plays an important role in low-resource scenarios, i.e., when only a small amount of annotated instances is available. However, one does not know what is the best active learning strategy before actually testing a handful of strategies on a labeled set, which might not be viable in a real world low-resource scenario. Instead, it would be desirable to dynamically obtain the results from the best strategy on a given scenario, while using as little annotated resources as possible.In this paper, we present a novel application of prediction with expert advice to combine different query strategies as experts, giving a greater weight to those which select the most useful instances. We evaluated our approach in two Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks: Part-of-Speech tagging (for English) and Named Entity Recognition (for Portuguese). Results show that our solution keeps up with the results of the best strategy in each scenario, nearly reaching fully supervised performance with only half of the annotated data.

Aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry that currently accounts for almost half of the fish used for human consumption worldwide. Intensive and semi-intensive practices are used to produce large stocks of fish, but frequent disease outbreaks occur, and the use of antimicrobials has become a customary practice to control them. The selective pressure exerted by these drugs, which are usually present at sub-therapeutic levels for prolonged periods in the water and the sediments, provides ideal conditions for the emergence and selection of resistant bacterial strains and stimulates horizontal gene transfer. It is now widely recognized that the passage of antimicrobial resistance genes and resistant bacteria from aquatic to terrestrial animal husbandry and to the human environment and vice versa can have detrimental effects on both human and animal health and on aquatic ecosystems. A global effort must be made to cease antimicrobial overuse in aquaculture and encourage stakeholders to adopt other disease-prevention measures. Shaping a new path is crucial to containing the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

The effects of physical-therapy intervention on the motor function of upper limbs and the quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are not fully understood. We evaluated the effects of a progressive muscle-strengthening protocol for upper limbs on the functionality and quality of life. Patients were divided into two groups: Intervention (n = 6) and Control (n = 7). Assessment tools used were: Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire, Nine-Hole Peg Test (9HPT), Test d’Evaluation des Membres Superieurs de Personnes Âgees (TEMPA), 10-Repetition Maximum (10-RM) and handgrip dynamometer, which were applied pre- and post-intervention, with follow-up for one month after the last training session. Only, the Intervention group (post-intervention) showed significant statistical differences, with the following outcomes: UPDRS III (p = 0.042); 9HPT, right (p = 0.028) and left side (p = 0.028); TEMPA for total right side (p = 0.028), left side (p = 0.028) and total bilateral tasks (p = 0.028); TEMPA task 2 – open a jar and take a spoonful of coffee (p = 0.028), task 3 – pick up a pitcher and pour water into a glass for right (p = 0.046) and left side (p = 0.028), task 5 – write on an envelope and stick on a stamp (p = 0.028), and task 6 – shuffle and deal playing cards (p = 0.028). We observed significant statistical differences between groups (post-intervention) for TEMPA task 6 (p = 0.032), total right side (p = 0.032), and total bilateral tasks (p = 0.032). An increase in the maximum load in the post-intervention stage, based on the 10-RM test, was observed on the right (p = 0.003) and left (p = 0.007) sides. Our results showed an improvement in upper-limb functionality in PD patients submitted to progressive muscle-strength training, although not in quality of life.

A Population Balance model for the continuous leaching of a roasted zinc concentrate was developed. The Maximum Mixedness and the Segregated Flow approaches were chosen to model the flow patterns and mixing conditions in the reactors. In order to compare these approaches and validate the proposed model, leaching experiments were carried out in a pilot plant. For that, it was also determined the residence time distributions in this plant reactors. As a result, it was observed that the Segregated Flow did not represent the actual pilot plant operation, since the conditions in which the Segregated Flow is recommended (i.e. segregation in the micromixing of the slurry phase, low diffusivity, and high slurry viscosity) were not present. On the other hand, using the Maximum Mixedness resulted in an excellent agreement between the experimental and modeled data (mean absolute error of 0.5% for the zincite conversion). This indicates that the complex particulate phenomena that occur during the leaching, as well as the flow patterns in the continuous reactors were adequately accounted in the model. Therefore, a robust tool for the design and control of leaching plants is delivered, since it is able to predict the effect of operational parameters (e.g. particle size distribution, solid/liquid ratio, feed flow rate) on the reactors performance. This can lead to better decision-making and costs reduction, contributing also to the prediction of problems faced in the operation of these plants. In a direct application of the developed model, it was predicted that the pilot plant could operate with the doubled capacity.

The discovery of antibiotics is considered one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century, revolutionizing both human and veterinary medicine. However, antibiotics have been recently recognized as an emerging class of environmental contaminants since they have been massively administrated in humans and animals and persist in the environment through a complex vicious cycle of transformation and bioaccumulation. The diffusion of antibiotics in the environment, particularly in natural water systems, contributes to the development and global dissemination of antibiotic resistance. This phenomenon is one of the most important challenges to the health care sector in the 21st century. As a result, studies on the occurrence, fate, and effects of antibiotics in European aqueous environments have increased in the last years. Nevertheless, their potential aquatic ecotoxicity and human toxicity via environmental exposure routes remain unknown. Consequently, antibiotics are not regulated through the current European environmental water quality standards, which requires evidence concerning their widespread environmental contamination and intrinsic hazard. In this context, this literature review summarizes the state of knowledge on the occurrence of antibiotics in the different aqueous environmental systems across the Europe, as reported since 2000. Relating this subject to antibiotic consumption and their dynamic behavior in the environment, the acquired insights provide an improved understanding on aquatic pollution by antibiotics to outline the European scenario. Moreover, it addresses challenges, prospects for future research, and typical topics to stimulate discussion. Keywords: Antibiotics, Aquatic environment, European scenario, Antibiotic resistance, Aquatic ecotoxicity, Multiresidue analysis

Background Aquaculture is one of the worldwide strategic development fields, and its importance is evident in its significant worldwide growth in the last decades. This growth is associated with the implementation of intensive and semi-intensive production methods, with the use of antibiotics in order to prevent the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in fish. Fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides, among others, are widely used for this purpose. This practice constitutes a real public health concern, not only due to the presence of antimicrobial residues in edible tissues, which can cause allergic reactions in hypersensitive individuals, but also due to the emergence of bacterial resistance. Consequently, the European Union's Regulatory Agencies have established maximum residue limits and specific requirements regarding the performance of analytical methods. Scope and approach This article reviews the most recent analytical methodologies concerning antimicrobial residues in fish, reported in the literature, given emphasis on sample procedures, extraction/purification methods, chromatographic conditions and validation techniques according to legislation. Key findings and conclusions Liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometric detection is used as preferential tool in the analysis of antimicrobial residues in fish. The current analytical strategy is shifting towards multi-residue and multiclass methods, which save time, and surely represent the future trend in this field. The extraction process still represents the limiting factor of any multi-residual method, since it should provide acceptable recovery of all analytes with a broad range of physicochemical properties, and therefore this is probably the step that requires more in-depth research.

Building large datasets annotated with semantic information, such as FrameNet, is an expensive process. Consequently, such resources are unavailable for many languages and specific domains. This problem can be alleviated by using unsupervised approaches to induce the frames evoked by a collection of documents. That is the objective of the second task of SemEval 2019, which comprises three subtasks: clustering of verbs that evoke the same frame and clustering of arguments into both frame-specific slots and semantic roles. We approach all the subtasks by applying a graph clustering algorithm on contextualized embedding representations of the verbs and arguments. Using such representations is appropriate in the context of this task, since they provide cues for word-sense disambiguation. Thus, they can be used to identify different frames evoked by the same words. Using this approach we were able to outperform all of the baselines reported for the task on the test set in terms of Purity F1, as well as in terms of BCubed F1 in most cases. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

International audience; Challenges posed by demographic changes and population aging are key priorities for the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Commission. Aligned with the vision of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA), the development, exchange, and large-scale adoption of innovative good practices is a key element of the responses required to ensure all European citizens remain as active and healthy as possible as they age. Urged by the need of developing scalable disruptive innovation across Europe, the European Commission and the EIP on AHA created the Reference Sites; local coalition of partners that develop good practices to support AHA. Ageing@Coimbra is an example of how this can be achieved at a regional level. The consortium comprises over 70 institutions that develop innovative practices to support AHA in Portugal. Ageing@Coimbra partners support a regional network of stakeholders that build a holistic ecosystem in health and social care, taking into consideration the specificities of the territories, living environments and cultural resources (2,243,934 inhabitants, 530,423 aged 65 or plus live in the Centre Region of Portugal). Good practices in reducing the burden of brain diseases that affect cognition and memory impairment in older people and tackling social isolation in urban and rural areas are among the top priorities of Ageing@Coimbra. Profiting from the collaborative work of academia, business companies, civil society, and authorities, the quadruple helix of Ageing@Coimbra supports: early diagnosis of frailty and disease; care and cure; and active, assisted, and independent living. This paper describes, as a Community Case Study, the creation of a Reference Site of the EIP on AHA, Ageing@Coimbra, and its impact in Portugal. This Reference Site can motivate other regions to develop innovative formulas to federate stakeholders and networks, building consortia at regional level. This growing movement, across Europe, is inspired by the quadruple helix concept and by the replication of innovative good practices; creating new Reference Sites for the benefit of Citizens.

Background Staphylococcus infection–associated glomerulonephritis is a rare cause of graft dysfunction in kidney transplant. Suspicion should be high in the setting of elevation of serum creatinine, active urinary sediment, with or without hypocomplementemia, and simultaneous Staphylococcus aureus infection. A kidney biopsy is usually diagnostic. Case Report A 56-year-old man, who received a kidney transplant in 1998, with basal serum creatinine of 1.2 mg/dL and normal urinary sediment, was admitted to our kidney transplantation unit with graft dysfunction and a urinary tract infection caused by S aureus with septicemia, treated with antibiotics, in the context of recently intensified immunosuppression for a primary immune thrombocytopenia diagnosed 3 weeks earlier. After antibiotic treatment, the patient persisted with graft dysfunction, edema, and hypertension, with a S aureus isolation in the urine culture, active urinary sediment, and low C3. A kidney biopsy was performed, showing diffuse proliferative endocapillary and mesangial glomerulonephritis, with IgA(++) and C3(++) mesangial and endocapillary deposits in immunofluorescence. The patient was treated symptomatically and maintained his regular immunosuppression. At the last follow-up, his serum creatinine value was stable at 2.5 mg/dL. Conclusions The onset of a nephritic syndrome with a simultaneous S aureus infection should lead to suspicion of this uncommon entity, confirmed histologically. Despite its association with poor graft survival, our patient's graft survival remained stable.

Aquaculture is one of the worldwide strategic development fields, and its importance is evident in its significant worldwide growth in the last decades. This growth is associated with the implementation of intensive and semi-intensive production methods, with the use of antibiotics in order to prevent the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in fish. This practice constitutes a real public health problem, not only due to the presence of antimicrobial residues in edible tissues, which can cause allergic reactions in hypersensitive individuals, but also due to the emergence of bacterial resistance. Consequently, the Regulatory Agencies have established maximum residue limits (MRLs). In the present study, a validated multiclass multi-residue ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry in tandem methodology was used for the determination of 41 antibiotics from seven different classes—sulfonamides, trimethoprim, tetracyclines, macrolides, quinolones, penicillins and chloramphenicol—in 29 samples of gilthead sea bream of aquaculture origin, purchased in Portugal. The analysed samples showed that, in eight of them, antibiotic residues were present, three being of doxycycline—antibiotic for which no MRL is established—that was detected in concentrations ranging from 0.35 to 0.61 μg kg−1. Other antibiotics were also detected and quantified and their concentrations were below the MRL established by the European legislation.

Galaxolide is the most used fragrance since the early 1990s, and it has been largely detected in environmental and biological matrices. This polycyclic musk is present in almost all of our daily products, so the risk of human exposure is substantial, as it had been proved by its detection in human tissues and fluids. Due to the lack of information about the concentrations found in consumer products, monitoring data is needed for exposure assessment purposes. Dermal contact, mostly by personal care products, seems to be the major route of human exposure to galaxolide, and, due to the immaturity of young children’s skin, exposure consequences can be worse in this population. The main objective of this study was to evaluate galaxolide levels in personal care products used by children of Oporto (Portugal), aged 0–5 years, and relate it with consumer habits. Consumer patterns were obtained through 250 questionnaires to caregivers of Oporto children. The 79 most used products were extracted by a dispersive solid phase extraction methodology known as QuEChERS and galaxolide was determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The concentrations ranged between 0.001 ± 0.001 mg·kg−1, on a baby wipe, and 300.480 ± 8.819 mg·kg−1, on glycerin soap, which may correspond to an estimated daily dermal exposure of 277.10 ± 0.02 µg·day−1 on the population of Oporto children. This value is in the range of the results observed for adults, although no information of toxicological risk for children is available.

Delivery systems are extensively used in cosmetic products. This literature review describes some of the delivery systems used in the cosmetic industry, some general considerations about their presence and incorporation in cosmetic formulations, as well as their skin interactions. This review also covers the manufacturing process of a cosmetic cream formulation, including basic ingredients, natural antioxidants in particular. In addition, future perspectives, recent concerns, and further work regarding the cosmetic industry are also described. Natural antioxidants present health benefits such as anti-ageing, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-microbial properties that potentiate their use in cosmetic products. Furthermore, they can also be used as preservatives since they avoid the lipid oxidation that usually occurs in cosmetic products. However, antioxidants may have stability issues and difficulties in crossing the transdermal barrier. Delivery systems can be used to protect sensitive active ingredients from degradation and to grant a target and controlled release. Several types of delivery systems (e.g. liposomes, niosomes, transfersomes, lipid nanoparticles, polymeric microparticles and nanoparticles) have been used in cosmetic formulations. The use of delivery systems may improve the penetration of the antioxidant. Skin interaction with the different delivery systems depends mostly on their size, flexibility and composition. Moreover, delivery systems should be easily incorporated in the cosmetic formulation leading to a final uniform and sensorially attractive product for the costumer. New concerns about environmental impact or animal welfare are emerging with respect to the cosmetic development, manufacturing and quality control.

A laboratory application with a strong component in analytical chemistry was designed for undergraduate students, in order to introduce a current problem in the environmental science field, the water contamination by antibiotics. Therefore, a simple and rapid method based on direct injection and high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed and optimized for the determination of amoxicillin in river water. Students learned the main optimization steps for the improvement of the LC-MS/MS methodology and the correct procedure to validate an analytical method (draw a calibration curve, determine detection and quantification limits, precision, and accuracy). This laboratory experiment was successfully applied by students and enables the analysis of a large number of samples in a short period of time because of the short run time (3 min).

The widespread use of pesticides has made them into a frequent pollutant of soils and water. The usage of essential oils has gathered the attention of the scientific research community in the last decade as they present a reduced environmental impact compared to conventional pesticides and are equally or more effective in controlling pests in crops. Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) essential oil is of particular interest due to its traditional usage in plague/pest control. In fact, recent studies show that it is highly effective and presents a broad spectrum of action as a biocide, affecting bacteria, fungi, yeast, insects, acarines, parasites, nematodes, and plants. This is mainly due to the most common constituents of the essential oil, pulegone and menthone, which are known to have strong pesticidal and antioxidant properties. This review focus on summarizing and systematizing the composition and efficacy as a biocide of M. pulegium essential oils and the developments of the last decade regarding the usage of M. pulegium essential oil as an alternative to pesticides. Encapsulation and inclusion in biofilms are also mentioned as strategies to incorporate M. pulegium essential oil in applications associated with pharmaceutical and food industries.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the CFTR gene. There are at least 346 disease-causing variants in the CFTR gene, but effective small-molecule therapies exist for only ~10% of them. One option to treat all mutations is CFTR cDNA-based therapy, but clinical trials to date have only been able to stabilise rather than improve lung function disease in patients. While cDNA-based therapy is already a clinical reality for a number of diseases, some animal studies have clearly established that precision genome editing can be significantly more effective than cDNA addition. These observations have led to a number of gene-editing clinical trials for a small number of such genetic disorders. To date, gene-editing strategies to correct CFTR mutations have been conducted exclusively in cell models, with no in vivo gene-editing studies yet described. Here, we highlight some of the key breakthroughs in in vivo and ex vivo gene and base editing in animal models for other diseases and discuss what might be learned from these studies in the development of editing strategies that may be applied to cystic fibrosis as a potential therapeutic approach. There are many hurdles that need to be overcome, including the in vivo delivery of editing machinery or successful engraftment of ex vivo-edited cells, as well as minimising potential off-target effects. However, a successful proof-of-concept study for gene or base editing in one or more of the available CF animal models could pave the way towards a long-term therapeutic strategy for this disease.

This work reviews the relevant information about the possibility of producing microparticles with chitosan, by a spray drying process, for industrial applications. The applicability and the advantages of chitosan and modified chitosan in the microencapsulation process are discussed, with special emphasis on relevant operational spray drying conditions, which affect the performance of the final product, namely the efficiency and yield of the microencapsulation process, the particle properties, like size, moisture and stability, and the release time of active compounds. The fundamental equations governing the controlled release of active compounds and the application of control led release technology in food systems are presented.

Microencapsulation techniques have been intensively explored by many research sectors such as pharmaceutical and food industries. Microencapsulation allows to protect the active ingredient from the external environment, mask undesired flavours, a possible controlled release of compounds among others. The purpose of this review is to provide a background of design of experiments in microencapsulation research context. Optimization processes are required for an accurate research in these fields and therefore, the right implementation of micro-sized techniques at industrial scale. This article critically reviews the use of the response surface methodologies in pharmaceutical and food microencapsulation research areas. A survey of optimization procedures in the literature, in the last few years is also presented.

Background: There is a lack understanding between the possible effects of physical intervention in motor function of the upper limbs and quality of life in patients with PD. Objective: To present a progressive muscular strengthening protocol of the upper limbs with focus on the functional capacity. Methods: The sample has been chosen for convenience. The patients have been divided into two groups: Intervention and Control which have not been distributed randomly. The following instruments have been chosen to be evaluating results: Unified Parkinson Disease Rate Scale, Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire, Nine Hole Peg Test, Test d'Evaluation des Membres Superieurs of Personnes Âgees and handgrip dynamometer. All these instruments have to be applied before and after the training phase which is for 2 months, twice a week and follow up period for one month after the last training session. For demographic characteristics of the sample, descriptive statistics have to be used. The Shapiro-Wilk test has to examine the normality of the sample. Parametric or nonparametric tests have to be performed to check if there is a significant statistical difference between pre- and posttraining and follow-up, as correlation tests, pre- and post-training. The significance level of 5% for all procedures have to be adopted. Results: The strength training has to combine isotonic and isometric exercises using elastic tubes for upper limbs. The program has to be carried out for two months, totalizing 16 sessions. Five subjects in each group started the program, but have not yet finished. Results are expected in 2018. Discussion: Most studies on muscle weakness in PD focus on the evaluation aspect. Cover mainly studies of physical rehabilitation the lower limbs, and focus on gait and balance. Therefore, it is important to carry out studies that investigate the possible effects of a progressive muscular strengthening protocol in upper limbs in PD patients.

Chlorogenic acids, the main polyphenolic group present in coffee, which include the caffeoylquinic acids, are recognized as antioxidants with growing interest in pharmacological, cosmetic, and food applications. However, they can be easily oxidized and they are also very unstable when exposed to high temperatures. Therefore, they can suffer transesterification reactions during storage or food processing, limiting their applications. Nevertheless, this situation can be overcome or minimized by microencapsulation. The purpose of the present study was to prepare by a spray-drying process sodium alginate and modified chitosan microparticles with chlorogenic acid (3-CQA), characterize them (morphological analysis), and evaluate the release profile of 3- CQA from the microparticles in in vitro studies. Furthermore, their antioxidant activity and moisture content were determined. The results address the success of chlorogenic acid microencapsulation, resulting in stable microparticles with controlled release properties and good antioxidant activity, suggesting increasing applications in food and pharmaceutical industry.

A new flow procedure based on multicommutation with chemiluminometric detection was developed to quantify gentamicin sulphate in pharmaceutical formulations. This approach is based on gentamicin's ability to inhibit the chemiluminometric reaction between luminol and hypochlorite in alkaline medium, causing a decrease in the analytical signal. The inhibition of the analytical signal is proportional to the concentration of gentamicin sulphate, within a linear range of 1 to 4 μg mL-1with a coefficient variation -1was obtained. The developed method is sensitive, simple, with low reagent consumption, reproducible, and inexpensive, and when applied to the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations (eye drops and injections) it gave results with RSD between 1.10 and 4.40%.

The present article focus on the general concepts regarding the bibliographic research within the investigation context that leads to the production of knowledge. It refers to the bibliographic research in electronic databases, as a methodological procedure for the acknowledgment of the scientific literature, briefly describing each of the main electronic databases within the Health Sciences field. Moreover, this work systematizes the main steps to the construction of a research strategy, by describing the available key resources to operate the research systems in an optimized way.

UV-filters are a group of compounds which have been massively used in the past years due to the recent concerns with sunburns, premature skin ageing and the risk of developing skin cancer, related to sun exposure. At the moment, these compounds have been identified by the scientific community as emerging pollutants, due to their persistence in the environment, potential to accumulate in biota and potential threat as endocrine disruptors. At some point, the majority of sunscreens will find their way into wastewater (due to bathing and washing activities) and because wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not able to remove and/or degrade them, consequently they find their way into rivers, lakes and ocean, so it is not surprising that UV-filters are found in the environment. Therefore, wastewater treatment plants should be the focus of the scientific community aiming to better understand the fate of the UV-filters and develop new technologies to remove them from wastewater and sludge. This review, aims to provide the current state of the art in the occurrence and fate of UV-filters in wastewater treatment plants and how the technologies that are being used are successfully removing these compounds from both wastewater and sludge. Keywords: UV-filters, Wastewater treatment plants, Occurrence, Fate

Resumo Neste trabalho, foram analisadas 251 amostras de alimentos quanto aos teores de gordura total, ácidos graxos TRANS, saturados, monoinsaturados e poli-insaturados de produtos amplamente consumidos pela população, principalmente aqueles com alegação “zero TRANS”. De acordo com a Resolução RDC 360/2003 da ANVISA, é obrigatória a declaração dos níveis de ácidos graxos TRANS na rotulagem dos alimentos embalados quando os teores forem superiores a 0,2 g na porção do alimento. Produtos com valores inferiores a 0,2 g podem ser notificados na rotulagem como “zero TRANS”. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a quantidade de gorduras saturadas e TRANS em diversos grupos de alimentos industrializados, e a adequação, frente à legislação brasileira, da declaração dessas gorduras nos respectivos rótulos. Para as análises, foram utilizados os métodos oficiais de análise de gorduras AOAC 996.01 (modificado) e de ésteres metílicos de ácidos graxos AOAC 996.06. Conforme os resultados obtidos, alguns produtos apresentaram, em 100 g, teores de ácidos graxos TRANS superiores aos recomendados para ingestão total diária em diversos países (2 g/dia). Vários produtos estão conforme a legislação (0,2 g de gordura TRANS por porção), o que não implica necessariamente em zero absoluto, dando a falsa ideia ao consumidor de não estar ingerindo gordura TRANS, independentemente da quantidade consumida. Em apenas 12 amostras, não se detectou gordura TRANS em 100 g de produto analisado. Ressalte-se, ainda, que, muitas vezes, a quantidade consumida é maior do que a porção sugerida, acarretando uma ingestão significativa de ácidos graxos TRANS. Os resultados obtidos nesta avaliação oferecem subsídios para modificações na legislação em vigor, exigindo a declaração de ácidos graxos TRANS na rotulagem.

Nowadays, the consumers around the world are increasingly focused on health and beauty. The renewed consumer interest in natural cosmetic products creates the demand for new products and reformulated others with botanical and functional ingredients. In cosmetic products, essential oils (EOs) play a major role as fragrance ingredients. They can optimize its proprieties and preservation, as well as the marketing image of the final product. Microencapsulation of EOs can protect and prevent the loss of volatile aromatic ingredients and improve the controlled release and stability of this core materials. The importance of EOs for cosmetic industry and its microencapsulation was reviewed in this study. Also a briefly introduction about the preparation of microparticles was presented. Some of the most important and usual microencapsulation techniques of EOs, as well as the conventional encapsulating agents, were discussed. Despite the fact that microencapsulation of EOs is a very promising and extremely attractive application area for cosmetic industry, further basic research needs to be carried out, for a better understanding of the biofunctional activities of microencapsulated EOs and its release modulation, as well as the effects of others cosmetic ingredients and the storage time in the microparticles properties.

Background Functional foods fortified with antioxidants are gaining more popularity since consumption alone of foods naturally rich in antioxidants is insufficient to reduce oxidative stress associated with various diseases. Despite their beneficial effects, natural antioxidants present in coffee are sensitive to heat, light and oxygen, limiting their application in the food industry. Although microencapsulation is able to protect the antioxidant from degradation, mask its taste and control its release, the process of microparticles incorporation affects the original food properties. Scope and approach A carefully designed delivery system is essential to produce sensory appealing food, guarantee the delivery of the bioactive ingredient, prevent interactions with other food components and overcome problems encountered during food manufacturing and digestion. This review discusses the implementation of microencapsulation as a delivery system for coffee antioxidants, focusing on the critical aspects of microparticles food incorporation. Key findings and conclusions The development of microparticles containing coffee antioxidants for food applications should consider technological issues (such as antioxidant bioavailability, food manufacturing process and product final properties) as well as regulatory standards, economic feasibility and consumer acceptability. Further studies regarding the aforementioned parameters are needed in order to design suitable microparticles for functional foods.

Materials and methods Ninety-day-old female Wistar rats were divided into three groups: exercised-control (EC; n=5), high intensity exercised-diabetic (HIED=high intensity training, 80% of the maximum speed in the stress test; n=4) and low intensity exercised-diabetic (LIED=low Intensity training, 40% of the maximum speed in the stress test; n=6). The diabetes was induced in the rats by administration of Alloxan monohydrate Sigma (ALX, 50 mg kg-1 BW). Fatigue strength test and the maximal exercise test were performed before DM induction. Fatigue strength test consisted of treadmill running at 20m/min with slope equal to 0° until the animal could not run spontaneously. Time and distance were determined at the end of the race. Maximal exercise test consisted of treadmill running with a load of 5m /min every 3 min until the animal could not run spontaneously, when it was determined the maximum load. Animals ran on a treadmill running 1 hour/day, 5 days/week for 6 weeks with a load (high or low intensity). After this period animals were sacrificed and hearts removed, weighed and prepared for histomorphometric analysis.

Siloxane-based compounds are widely used in personal care, pharmaceutical and household products as well as in industrial applications. Among the wide variety of these chemicals, special attention has been given to volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs). These compounds have been extensively detected in several environmental compartments, as they are not effectively removed from wastewater and may migrate through different matrices and being lipophilic, bioaccumulate and biomagnify in living organisms. In this work, a prioritisation methodology for several VMSs in different environmental matrices was applied, estimating a hazard quotient by combining exposure evaluation through measured or predicted environmental concentrations (MEC or PEC) and effects using ecotoxicity data to establish no effect concentrations (PNEC). VMSs show quite different hazard potentials in the environment: for linear VMSs it is not considerable, while for cyclic VMSs the hazard is disperse. D4 and D5 may have adverse effects in water, as well as D5 and D6 in sediments. This first multi-matrix approach for the prioritisation of VMSs sets the ground for more accurate studies in the future, provided that more field-based data are reported.

Synthetic musks are organic compounds used as fragrance and fixative additives in several personal care products. Until now, little is known about their occurrence and distribution in these household commodities. However, this information is essential to perform a human dermal exposure assessment. Therefore, this study gives an overview on the levels of 12 synthetic musks in 140 personal care products from 7 different categories (body and hair wash, toilet soaps, shaving products, dentifrice products, deodorants/antiperspirants, moisturizers and perfumes). They were analysed by QuEChERS extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Detection limits were found between 0.01 ng g-1 (galaxolide) and 5.00 ng g-1 (musk xylene). Higher average concentrations of total synthetic musks were detected in perfumes (5245.05 Îg g-1) and shampoos (487.67 Îg g-1) for adults. Galaxolide, exaltolide and cashmeran were the most detected compounds. Combining these results with the daily usage amounts, an average daily dermal exposure of 75.69 Îg kg-1bw day-1 for adults and 15.54 Îg kg-1bw day-1 for babies/children was achieved. The main contributors for adult and babies/children dermal exposure were perfumes and lotions, respectively. About 40% of the adult daily dermal exposure is related to exaltolide, 30% galaxolide, and 15% tonalide, while for babies/children 96% occurs due to exaltolide. An estimate of the amount of musks discharged "down-the-drain" into the wastewater treatment systems through the use of toiletries was also performed. An average emission per capita of 6.7 mg day-1 was determined and galaxolide and exaltolide were the predominant musks in the effluents. Â(c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

In this paper, we compare the right and the left peripheries in European Portuguese, presenting evidence for the analysis of the right-peripheral material as elliptical in nature. We discuss several analyses for the right periphery in light of European Portuguese data, including: (i) data from spontaneous adult (child-directed) speech (5 adults, 29,398 utterances) annotated in the corpus Santos (Santos, 2006/2009; Santos et al ., 2014) and (ii) experimental data (41 children aged between 3;5 and 6;3, and 30 adults) on the comprehension of topicalizations, clitic-left dislocations, post-focal subjects on the right periphery, and subject-verb inversions with a focused subject (Abalada, 2011).

Sexual difference combines various aspects, ranging from the biological to the social, which, once delimited, reduce people to two political categories: woman and man. Although these categories are not naturally watertight, most societies reject diversity (understood as deformity) in favour of a binary sexual system. This article aims to deconstruct this binarism, suggesting that it is not coherent to speak of two sexes, but rather of a multiplicity. Based on feminist theory, queer theory and philosophy, the text develops a reflection on intersex, showing how it has been considered at different times. It also addresses the history of sexual regulation and discusses its causes and effects. Reflection on the concept of human being, which till now excluded intersex – by and large placed beyond the limits of the possible – leads to the interconnection of Butler’s definition of the livable life with Derrida’s notion of unconditional hospitality, which may be the key to the recognition of intersex as a human category.

Synthetic musks have been used for a long time in personal care and household products. In recent years, this continuous input has increased considerably, to the point that they were recognized as emerging pollutants by the scientific community, due to their persistence in the environment, and hazardous potential to ecosystems even at low concentrations. The number of studies in literature describing their worldwide presence in several environmental matrices is growing, and many of them indicate that the techniques employed for their safe removal tend to be ineffective. This is the case of conventional activated sludge treatment plants (WWTPs), where considerable loads of synthetic musks enter mainly through domestic sewage. This review paper compiles and discusses the occurrence of these compounds in the sewage, effluents and sludge, main concentration levels and phase distributions, as well as the efficiency of the different methodologies of removal applied in these treatment facilities. To the present day, it has been demonstrated that WWTPs lack the ability to remove musks completely. This shows a clear need to develop new effective and cost-efficient remediation approaches and foresees potential for further improvements in this field.

A cross-sectional study was carried out over a period of 12 months to investigate the occurrence of human bocavirus (HBoV) infection in infants hospitalized for respiratory infections in a teaching hospital in Salvador, Brazil, and to describe the clinical manifestations of this infection. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from the children and immunofluorescence and polymerase chain reaction were performed to investigate the presence of respiratory viruses. HBoV was detected in 4 out of 66 patients. Two of the HBoV-positive infants were co-infected with other viruses. The principal clinical findings in HBoV-positive children were: nasal obstruction, catarrh, cough, fever and dyspnea. This study revealed HBoV infection in children aged

Introduction: Human T cell lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) can impact the independence and motricity of patients. The aims of this study were to estimate the effects of physiotherapy on the functionality of patients with HAM/TSP during the stable phase of the disease using proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) and to compare two methods of treatment delivery. Methods: Fourteen patients with human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) were randomly allocated into two groups. In group I (seven patients), PNF was applied by the therapist, facilitating the functional activities of rolling, sitting and standing, walking and climbing and descending stairs. In group II (seven patients), PNF was self-administered using an elastic tube, and the same activities were facilitated. Experiments were conducted for 1h twice per week for 12 weeks. Low-back pain, a modified Ashworth scale, the functional independence measure (FIM) and the timed up and go test (TUG) were assessed before and after the interventions. Results: In the within-group evaluation, low-back pain was significantly reduced in both groups, the FIM improved in group II, and the results of the TUG improved in group I. In the inter-group analysis, only the tone was lower in group II than in group I. Conclusions: Both PNF protocols were effective in treating patients with HAM/TSP.

The impact of effluent wastewaters from four different hospitals: a university (1456 beds), a general (350 beds), a pediatric (110 beds) and a maternity hospital (96 beds), which are conveyed to the same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), was evaluated in the receiving urban wastewaters. The occurrence of 78 pharmaceuticals belonging to several therapeutic classes was assessed in hospital effluents and WWTP wastewaters (influent and effluent) as well as the contribution of each hospital in WWTP influent in terms of pharmaceutical load. Results indicate that pharmaceuticals are widespread pollutants in both hospital and urban wastewaters. The contribution of hospitals to the input of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters widely varies, according to their dimension. The estimated total mass loadings were 306 g d(-1) for the university hospital, 155 g d(-1) for the general one, 14 g d(-1) for the pediatric hospital and 1.5 g d(-1) for the maternity hospital, showing that the biggest hospitals have a greater contribution to the total mass load of pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, analysis of individual contributions of each therapeutic group showed that NSAIDs, analgesics and antibiotics are among the groups with the highest inputs. Removal efficiency can go from over 90% for pharmaceuticals like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to not removal for β-blockers and salbutamol. Total mass load of pharmaceuticals into receiving surface waters was estimated between 5 and 14 g/d/1000 inhabitants. Finally, the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals detected in hospital and WWTP effluents was assessed by means of hazard quotients toward different trophic levels (algae, daphnids and fish). Several pharmaceuticals present in the different matrices were identified as potentially hazardous to aquatic organisms, showing that especial attention should be paid to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, azithromycin and clarithromycin, since their hazard quotients in WWTP effluent revealed that they could pose an ecotoxicological risk to algae.

Synopsis Musks are synthetic fragrances applied on personal care and household products as fixatives, by retarding the release of other fragrances with higher volatility. Galaxolide is the most used polycyclic musk since the 90th decade, and it has been detected in several environmental and biological matrices, particularly in human tissues and fluids. For exposure assessment purposes, large-monitoring data need to be obtained and rapid but reliable analytical techniques are requested. The main objective of this study is to develop and validate a new and fast analytical methodology to quantify galaxolide in personal care products and to apply this method to real matrices like skin care products (creams and lotions), shower products (soap bar), hair care products (shampoo and hair conditioner) and oral care products (toothpaste), to evaluate the human dermal exposure risk. A dispersive solid-phase extraction is proposed, using QuEChERS methodology, followed by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Some extraction parameters were studied, like the ratio of sample/solvent amounts, the homogenization time, the salt addition effect and the used sorbents. The validation parameters of the developed method were the following: a linearity range of 0.0051.002mgkg1 sample, a limit of detection of 0.001mgkg1 sample, repeatability between 0.7% and 11.3% (variation coefficient of six standard injections), an intermediate precision of 2.5% (variation coefficient of six independent analysis of the same sample), mean recoveries ranging from 65% (soap bar) to 95% (body cream) and 3% of global uncertainty in most of the working range. The time of analysis, including the extraction steps, is 60min, allowing a throughput of 4samplesh1. Galaxolide was detected in all of the seven analysed products in concentrations ranging from 0.04 +/- 0.01mgkg1 sample (toothpaste) to 280.78 +/- 8.19mgkg1 sample (perfumed body cream), which may correspond to a significant estimated daily human dermal exposure of 904gday1. Resume Les muscs synthetiques sont des parfums appliques sur les produits de soin et les produits menagers comme fixateurs, qui retardent la liberation des autres parfums avec une volatilite plus elevee. Galaxolide est le plus utilise musc polycyclique depuis 20 ans, et il a ete detecte dans plusieurs matrices environnementales et biologiques, en particulier dans les tissus et les fluides humains. Aux fins d'evaluation d'exposition, de donnees de surveillance importantes doivent etre obtenues et des techniques analytiques rapides mais fiables sont donc demandes. L'objectif principal de cette etude est de developper et de valider une nouvelle methode analytique rapide et de quantifier le galaxolide dans les produits de soins, et d'appliquer cette methode pour les matrices reelles comme les produits de soins de la peau (cremes et lotions), les produits de douche (savon), produits de soins capillaires (shampoing et revitalisant capillaire) et les produits d'hygiene buccale (dentifrice), afin d'evaluer le risque d'exposition humaine par voie cutanee. Une extraction en phase solide dispersive est proposee, en utilisant une methodologie QuEChERS, suivie par HPLC avec detection par fluorescence. Certains parametres d'extraction ont ete etudies, comme le ratio des quantites d'echantillon/solvant, le temps d'homogeneisation, l'effet de sel d'addition et les adsorbants utilises. Les parametres de validation de la methode mise au point sont les suivants: une plage de linearite de 0.005 a 1.002 mg.kg1 d'echantillon, une limite de detection de 0,001 mg. kg1 de l'echantillon, la repetabilite entre 0,7 et 11,3% (coefficient de variation de six injections standard), une precision intermediaire de 2,5% (coefficient de variation de six analyses independantes de l'echantillon meme), recouvrements moyens allant de 65% (savon) a 95% (creme pour le corps), et 3 % d'incertitude globale dans la plupart des gammes de travail. Le temps d'analyse, comprenant les etapes d'extraction, est de 60 minutes, ce qui permet un debit de 4 samples.h1. Le galaxolide a ete detecte dans l'ensemble des sept produits analyses dans des concentrations allant de 0,04 +/- 0,01 mg.kg1 (dentifrice) a 280,78 +/- 8,19 mg.kg1 (creme parfumee pour le corps), ce qui peut representer une importante exposition cutanee quotidienne humaine de 904 g.jour1.

Objective The purpose of this study was to describe the high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) features of fatal cases of Influenza A (H1N1) virus-associated pneumonia and to correlate them with pathologic findings. Methods The study included six adult patients who died following Influenza A (H1N1) virus-associated pneumonia. All patients had undergone HRCT, and the images were retrospectively analyzed by two chest radiologists, who reached decisions by consensus. Two experienced lung pathologists reviewed all pathological specimens. The HRCT findings were correlated with the histopathologic data. Results The predominant HRCT findings included areas of airspace consolidation ( n = 6) and ground-glass opacities ( n = 3). The main pathological features consisted of diffuse alveolar damage with hyaline membrane formation ( n = 5), associated with various degrees of pulmonary congestion, edema, hemorrhage, inflammatory infiltration and bronchiolitis. A patient who survived longer showed findings of organizing pneumonia. Conclusion Fatal cases of Influenza A (H1N1) virus-associated pneumonia can present as areas of consolidation on CT, with or without ground-glass opacities. These abnormalities can be pathologically correlated with diffuse alveolar damage. Patients with longer survival may present with findings of organizing pneumonia.

Art.original (p.7-14) Submitted by ROBERTO PAULO CORREIA DE ARAÚJO (ppgorgsistem@ufba.br) on 2016-09-14T12:57:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 R. Ci. méd. biol., v.4, n. 1-2005.pdf: 219270 bytes, checksum: 935b672d1890f2cb098e4db3e6bd5e7e (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-14T12:57:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 R. Ci. méd. biol., v.4, n. 1-2005.pdf: 219270 bytes, checksum: 935b672d1890f2cb098e4db3e6bd5e7e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-01 A Estratégia de Atenção Integrada às Doenças Prevalentes na Infância (AIDPI) foi adotada pelo Ministério da Saúde do Brasil em 1996, sendo adaptada de acordo com as características epidemiológicas às normas nacionais de atenção à criança. Desde 1997, a AIDPI vem progressivamente sendo implantada em diversos estados brasileiros. Algumas Universidades já incluem a AIDPI no curso médico. Em dezembro de 2002, foi iniciado treinamento na estratégia AIDPI para alunos de graduação em Medicina da UFBA. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar o grau de mudança no conhecimento e nas atitudes de estudantes de Medicina após treinamento na estratégia AIDPI. Foi realizado um estudo longitudinal prospectivo no período de dezembro de 2002 a junho de 2003. Catorze alunos constituíram 2 coortes que receberam treinamento na estratégia AIDPI entre dezembro de 2002 e junho de 2003. No ponto zero do acompanhamento de cada coorte, foi realizado um teste com questões referentes a temas de conhecimentos básicos em pediatria, que também fazem parte do programa do curso de treinamento m AIDPI. O teste foi repetido nos desfechos das coortes. Foram utilizados a Prova dos Sinais e o teste de Mcnemar para análise estatística das variáveis estudadas, utilizando-se o software SPSS. Após o treinamento, houve mudanças estatisticamente significativas no conhecimento dos estudantes sobre os principais sinais de doença grave, de pneumonia, de pneumonia grave, de desnutrição grave, de desidratação e do uso apropriado de vacinas. O conhecimento dos estudantes sobre a taxa de mortalidade infantil e causas de óbitos em crianças também se modificou de forma estatisticamente significativa. Houve significativa melhoria nas habilidades de orientação das técnicas adequadas para amamentação exclusiva e para introdução de outros alimentos no desmame. Os resultados demonstraram que o treinamento na estratégia AIDPI gerou modificações estatisticamente significativas nos conhecimentos e atitudes dos alunos avaliados. Salvador

OBJETIVO: Apresentar os achados ultra-sonográficos abdominais em pacientes com dengue e compará-los aos descritos na literatura. MATERIAIS E MÉTODOS: Foram realizados exames ultra-sonográficos abdominais de 38 pacientes, 25 do sexo feminino e 13 do sexo masculino, com idade média de 35 anos, com diagnóstico de dengue sorologicamente confirmado. Os achados foram comparados com os descritos na literatura. RESULTADOS: Os achados ultra-sonográficos mais relevantes foram espessamento difuso da parede da vesícula biliar em 18 casos (47,4%), líquido livre na cavidade abdominal e/ou pélvica em 12 (31,6%), esplenomegalia em 11 (28,9%), hepatomegalia em 10 (26,3%) e líquido pericolecístico em 10 (26,3%). Vinte e seis por cento dos pacientes apresentaram exames ultra-sonográficos normais. CONCLUSÃO: Os achados ultra-sonográficos abdominais são uma ferramenta adicional útil na confirmação de casos suspeitos de dengue hemorrágica e na detecção precoce da gravidade e da progressão da doença, sendo de extrema importância para o radiologista o conhecimento destes possíveis achados. OBJECTIVE: To review the abdominal ultrasound findings in patients with serologically proven dengue fever and to compare the results with data from the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight patients with serologically proven dengue fever, 25 female and 13 male, mean age of 35 years, were submitted to abdominal ultrasound. The ultrasound findings were compared with data from the literature. RESULTS: The most relevant ultrasound findings were diffuse gallbladder wall thickening in 18 cases (47.4%), abdominal and/or pelvic free fluid in 12 (31.6%), splenomegaly in 11 (28.9%), hepatomegaly in 10 (26.3%) and perivesicular fluid in 10 (26.3%). Twenty-six percent of the patients had normal abdominal ultrasound. CONCLUSION: Abdominal sonography is a useful additional diagnostic tool for the confirmation of suspected cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and for the evaluation of severity and progression of the disease. The knowledge of the ultrasound possible findings in patients with dengue fever is of extreme importance for the radiologist.

We conducted a longitudinal study about daily variation of Wistar male rats' behavior in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) evaluated in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 12th, and 18th months of life. Animals were submitted to the plus-maze in 12 sessions at 2-h intervals (n=72, 6 per time point). Spontaneous rest–activity rhythm of four animals was assessed by observation of 24-h videotape records. Time series were analyzed by Cosinor method. Behavioral rates on the six occasions and in light and dark phases were compared by means of two-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Exploratory behavior in EPM was smaller in the light phase and in older animals. Higher values of open and closed arms exploration were observed in the first and third months of the dark phase, and in the first month of the light phase. Adjustment to the 24-h period was significant at all stages for rest–activity data, number of entries in closed arms, and time on center, and for three to five stages for open-arm exploration. In general, 24 h variability was more pronounced in younger animals compared with older ones. The present study showed that: (1) a significant amount of total variability of the behavioral indexes analyzed could be attributed to 24 h variation, (2) light/dark phases differences in EPM exploration were present at all developmental stages, (3) older Wistar rats explored less the EPM and were less active in their home cage compared with younger ones, and (4) behavioral indexes (EPM) decrease was phase related and partially related to a reorganization of rest–activity rhythm.