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Looking through the window, Manon could barely discern the skyline. There had been many power shortages in the city, and Manon wondered if today’s blurred view was due to a lack of street lighting or if the smog had started to appear again. ‘Mom! Is the wire down again?’ ‘Yes!’ A canned sound wrenched from the bathroom. ‘Shit! Not only the light...’ Manon cursed the situation and searched aimlessly for his t-shirt on the floor. ‘Yet another day in paradise...’ Manon started worrying. He had surgery to participate in—a significant learning opportunity for his final exams associated with his virtual internship at the city hospital.Manon is a medical student aiming for graduation in 2062. During most of his medical training, the constant and almost daily power shortages made things quite problematic for the brain-computer interface (BCI)-based medical activities he was training for in the privacy of his own home. Fortunately, he was still living with his mom, as these shortfalls had lengthened his medical training immensely. When electricity was off most of the day, the sound from the gas-driven gen-erator was everyday life, and the Internet was unwired via an antenna. Activities not demanding a high-speed bandwidth often performed during these times were emailing. However, these old-school activities were insufficient for today’s tasks: the wired connection was necessary for transferring the Internet’s 3D space and intelligent sensors’ zettabyte data. LICT

Introduction: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CIAKI) is one of the main causes of acute renal failure in hospitalized patients, following the administration of iodinated contrast medium used for CT scans and angiographic procedures. CIAKI determines a high cardiovascular risk and appears to be one of the most feared complications of coronary angiography, causing a notable worsening of the prognosis with high morbidity and mortality. Aim: To evaluate a possible association between the renal resistive index (RRI) and the development of CIAKI, as well as an association with the main subclinical markers of atherosclerosis and the main cardiovascular risk factors. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 101 patients with an indication for coronary angiography. Patients underwent an assessment of renal function (serum nitrogen and basal creatinine, 48 and 72 h after administration of contrast medium), inflammation (C reactive protein (CRP), serum calcium and phosphorus, intact parathormone (iPTH), 25-hydroxyvitaminD (25-OH-VitD), serum uric acid (SUA), total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum glucose and insulin). All patients also carried out an evaluation of RRI, intima-media thickness (IMT), interventricular septum (IVS) and the ankle-brachial index (ABI). Results: 101 patients (68 male), with a mean age of 73.0 ± 15.0 years, were enrolled for the study; 35 are affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus. A total of 19 cases of CIAKI were reported (19%), while among diabetic patients we reported an incidence of 23% (8 patients). In our study, patients with CIAKI had significantly higher RRI (p < 0.001) and IMT (p < 0.001) with respect to the patients who did not develop CIAKI. Furthermore, patients with CIAKI had significantly higher CRP (p < 0.001) and SUA (p < 0.006). Conclusions: We showed a significant difference in RRI, IMT, SUA and CRP values between the population developing CIAKI and patients without CIAKI. This data appears relevant considering that RRI and IMT are low-cost, non-invasive and easily reproducible markers of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis.

The Scandinavian countries are often seen as a unity. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic striking differences on how the countries approached the crisis became evident. This quantitative-ethnographic (QE) study aimed to understand political and cultural similarities and differences between the three Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway and Sweden – through their crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we focused on how the health authorities of the three countries, in their press releases, treated information about COVID-19 and acted in four fields: reorganization of population behavior, containment of viral transmission, preparation of health systems, and management of socioeconomic impacts. As a methodology, the QE tools nCoder and ENA were applied, respectively: to code the press releases and to correlate the treatment of information with the four fields of action.

This article presents a brief study on inequalities and democracy in online education during the covid-19 pandemic, based on a comparison between Brazil and Sweden. The paper addresses the organization of the educational systems; educational measures during the covid-19 pandemic concerning the frame factor resources such as digital technologies; the effects of these measures on access and use of digital technologies, regarding the digital divide; a problematization of online education with Big Tech digital platforms in the light of an association between liberation pedagogy and socio-technical cartography. As methodology, legislation, speeches, and statistical data from different institutions related to in Brazil and Sweden were consulted and processed through content analysis. These materials focus on the interim March-June of 2020, a period characterized by hasty adoption of measures that defined the technical and political bases of online education present until today. The authors expect that this brief investigation presents results of interest for studies on globalized countries, which shares similarities and differences on socio-educational issues and technologies for online education. Thus, this paper is a contribution to comparative studies about singularities and universalities worldwide, specially, on inequalities and democracy in online education during the covid-19 pandemic. Este artigo apresenta um breve estudo sobre desigualdades e democracia na educação online durante a pandemia covid-19, a partir de uma comparação entre Brasil e Suécia. O artigo aborda: a organização dos sistemas educacionais desses países; medidas de reorganização da educação básica, com ênfase em tecnologias digitais; efeitos dessas medidas no acesso e uso das tecnologias digitais, com ênfase na desigualdade social; problematização da educação online com plataformas digitais Big Tech, à luz de uma associação entre pedagogia libertadora e cartografia sociotécnica. Como metodologia, foram consultadas e analisadas legislações, discursos e dados estatísticos de diferentes instituições relacionadas à educação básica no Brasil e na Suécia. Esses materiais enfocam o ínterim entre março a junho de 2020, período caracterizado pela rápida adoção de medidas públicas que definiram as bases técnicas e políticas da educação online nesse período e que se mantém atualmente. Os autores esperam que esta breve investigação apresente resultados de interesse para estudos sobre Brasil, Suécia e outros países globalizados, que compartilham semelhanças e diferenças tanto em questões socioeducativas quanto em tecnologias para educação online. Trata-se de uma breve contribuição para estudos comparativos sobre singularidades e universalidades, em todo o mundo, especialmente sobre desigualdades e democracia na educação online durante a pandemia covid-19.

BackgroundRegular physical activity (PA) is a valued part of cystic fibrosis (CF) care. Although the accelerometer, SenseWear Armband (SWA), accurately measures habitual PA in CF, it is mostly used for research purposes. For the first time, we analyzed different methods of measuring PA in daily life by the use of smartphones and other electronic devices such as smartwatch and Fitbit.MethodsTwenty-four stable adults with CF (mean age 37.5 ± 11.5SD yrs.; FEV158 ± 19% predicted, BMI 22.9 ± 3.2) were studied. Daily PA was monitored for seven consecutive days. All patients wore the accelerometer SWA and at the same time they monitored PA with the electronic device they used routinely. They were allocated into one of four arms according to their device: Smartwatch, Fitbit, Android smartphones and iOS smartphones. PA related measurements included: duration of PA, energy expenditure, number of steps.ResultsThere was a good agreement between SWA and Fitbit for number of steps (p = 0.605) and energy expenditure (p = 0.143). iOS smartphones were similar to SWA in monitoring the number of steps (p = 0.911). Significant differences were found between SWA and both Smartwatch and Android smartphones.ConclusionsFitbit and iOS smartphones seem to be a valuable approach to monitor daily PA. They provide a good performance to measure step number compared to SWA.

Introduction Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the overproduction of collagen leading to fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the major causes of death in patients with SSc. Exercise tolerance can be investigated by cardio-pulmonary exercise testing (CPET). First-line therapies in patients with SSc associated with ILD (SSc-ILD) include cyclophosphamide and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the response of patients with SSc-ILD to MMF by means of CPET. Methods Ten consecutive SSc patients were enrolled in this study. All SSc patients underwent clinical evaluation, echocardiography, pulmonary function tests, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and CPET at baseline and after 2 years of therapy with MMF. Results After 24 months of treatment with MMF (target dose 1500 mg twice daily), forced vitality capacity, diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure had not improved significantly and there were no significant differences in HRCT findigns. In addition, peak oxygen uptake (V′O2 peak) and ventilatory equivalents for carbon dioxide production (V′E/V′CO2 slope) had not improved significantly. In contrast, there was a significant improvement from baseline to 24 months of treatment in the respiratory exchange ratio [median (interquartile range): 1.07 (0.92–1.22) vs. 1.26 (1.22–1.28), respectively; p

Esta pesquisa faz parte de uma investigacao coletiva sobre a agencia social de elementos metalicos utilizados na producao de smartphones. Nesta pesquisa em particular, analisamos a agencia social do cobre (29-Cu), com interesse especial aos seus aspectos historicos e culturais.

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) and exercise are an important part of cystic fibrosis (CF) care. The accelerometer, SenseWear Armband (SWA), is a validated device and provides an accurate estimate of PA in the free-living environment. As the SWA is primarily for research purposes, different methods of measuring PA in daily practice are required. Aims and Objectives: The aim was to investigate if PA dertermined by smartphones (i.e., accelerometer vs new electronic devices) provides similar information. Methods: Twenty-four consecutive stable adults with CF (17 males, 7 females, mean age 37.5±11.5SD yrs; FEV1 58±19 % predicted, BMI 22.9±3.2) were studied. PA was monitored for seven consecutive days. All patients wore the accelerometer SWA and at the same time they monitored daily activity with the electronic device they used routinely. They were equally divided into four arms according to their device: iOS smartphones, android smartphones, smartwatches and fitbit. PA related measurements included: number of steps, duration of PA, energy expenditure. Results: We found evidence of difference between SWA and both android smartphones and smartwatches for all PA variables (p Conclusions: iOS smartphone and fitbit seem to be a valuable approach to monitor PA. CF patients should be more motivated to use personal devices to control daily PA. This could be a pragmatic approach to monitor PA levels in clinical practice.

The combination of the corrector lumacaftor with the potentiator ivacaftor has been approved for treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients homozygous for the Phe508del CFTR mutation. There are no reports detailing the effect of lumacaftor–ivacaftor on physical activity (PA) and exercise tolerance. We performed incremental cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and we assessed PA pre- and post 2 years initiation of lumacaftor–ivacaftor in three CF adults. PA of mild intensity improved by +13% in patient 1, + 84% in patients 2 and + 89% in patient 3. Oxygen uptake increased both at anaerobic threshold and at peak exercise (patient 1 + 33%, patient 2 + 42% and patient 3 + 20%). Daily physical activities and exercise tolerance improved after two years of lumacaftor–ivacaftor therapy.