Pemphigus Vulgaris - A Pediatric Case

O Pênfigo Vulgar é uma doença auto-imune rara na infância,com evolução crónica e mortalidade significativa. A doença manifesta-se por lesões vesiculares, semelhantes a infecções benignas, mas que são refractárias ao tratamento sintomático e persistem após a fase aguda. Apresenta-se o caso de uma criança de três anos com lesões muco-cutâneas orais, persistentes. A biópsia permitiu o diagnóstico de Pênfigo Vulgar, tendo sido iniciada terapia corticosteróide sistémica. A dificuldade no controlo da doença levou à introdução de outros fármacos imunossupressores, até se atingir a estabilidade clínica. Todas as opções de tratamento do Pênfigo apresentam efeitos iatrogénicos, sendo imprescindível um equilíbrio entre controlo da doença e qualidade de vida do doente

Utilização de Base de Dados Georreferenciados na criação e gestão da APA de Descalvado.

O trabalho divulga as técnicas de geoprocessamento e sensoriamento remoto, utilizadas na caracterização ambiental da Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) de Descalvado, em São Paulo, visando a elaboração de diagnósticos, estabelecimento de bases para o zoneamento e produção de material cartográfico

Nitrogen fertilization management in no-tillage maize with different witer crops.

The nitrogen (N) utilization by maize grown in a no-tillage system is dependent on the quality of the preceding crop residues, which may promote differences in N fertilization efficiency with respect to time. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the nutritional state, dry matter production and grain yield of maize grown in a clayey soil (Typic Acrustox) under a no-tillage system. The split-plot experimental design was set up in randomized complete blocks with three replications, in which the main plot was treated with different N application strategies and the split-plots were planted with winter crops (soybean and maize). The fertilizer strategies (rate: 120 kg ha-1 of N) used were as follows: (0 ? 0), (20 ? 100), (60 ? 60), (120 ? 0) and (0 ? 120), with the first number corresponding to the rate of N (kg ha-1) applied before planting and the second number corresponding to the top dressing rate (V4-5 stage). Nitrogen fertilization raised the N content (in shoots and leaves) and maize yield (in the shoot dry matter and grain). The maize grown after soybean had both greater N concentrations and production (dry matter and grain) relative to the maize grown after maize. Applying 120 kg ha-1 N did not significantly affect the evaluated variables, regardless of the winter crop

Transformer-based language models for semantic search and mobile applications retrieval

Search engines are being extensively used by Mobile App Stores, where millions of users world-wide use them every day. However, some stores still resort to simple lexical-based search engines, despite the recent advances in Machine Learning, Information Retrieval, and Natural Language Processing, which allow for richer semantic strategies. This work proposes an approach for semantic search of mobile applications that relies on transformer-based language models, fine-tuned with the existing textual information about known mobile applications. Our approach relies solely on the application name and on the unstructured textual information contained in its description. A dataset of about 500 thousand mobile apps was extended in the scope of this work with a test set, and all the available textual data was used to fine-tune our neural language models. We have evaluated our models using a public dataset that includes information about 43 thousand applications, and 56 manually annotated non- exact queries. The results show that our model surpasses the performance of all the other retrieval strategies reported in the literature. Tests with users have confirmed the performance of our semantic search approach, when compared with an existing deployed solution.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Subcutaneous immunotherapy with aeroallergens-evaluation of adherence in real life

Introduction. Adherence in allergen immunotherapy is crucial for its efficacy. At least 3 years of treatment are recommended for achieving a long-term modifying effect. Objectives. To assess patient’s adherence and to identify determinant factors for allergen subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) suspension in patients with respiratory allergy. Methods. Retrospective analysis of the medical record of patients submitted to SCIT between January 2013 and December 2016 in our Department. Results. 323 patients were included: 52% female; mean age 30 ± 13 years; average treatment time 19 ± 13 months. 52 patients (16%) stopped SCIT: 54% female; mean age 30 ± 9 years; average treatment time 12 ± 6 months; 67% dropped the treatment during the 1st year, 27% in the 2nd and 6% during the 3rd year of treatment. Adherence rate determined was 77%. The most frequent reasons for withdrawal were due to economic reasons (47.9%), followed by patients’ perception of no clinical improvement (23%) and change to sublingual immunotherapy (11.6%). Conclusions. Adherence rate in our study was 77%. Economic reasons were the main cause of abandonment in the first year, while the perception of non-improvement was the main reason for abandonment in subsequent years. Adequate information on SCIT prescribing and rigorous monitoring of patients during the treatment can improve adherence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anharmonic transitions in nearly dry L-cysteine I

Two special dynamical transitions of universal character have been recently observed in macromolecules at $T_{D}\sim 180 - 220$ K and $T^{*}\sim 100$ K. Despite their relevance, a complete understanding of the nature of these transitions and their consequences for the bio-activity of the macromolecule is still lacking. Our results and analysis concerning the temperature dependence of structural, vibrational and thermodynamical properties of the orthorhombic polymorph of the amino acid L-cysteine (at a hydration level of 3.5%) indicated that the two referred temperatures define the triggering of very simple and specific events that govern all the biochemical interactions of the biomolecule: activation of rigid rotors ($T<T^{*}$), phonon-phonon interactions with phonons of water dimer ($T^{*}<T<T_{D}$), and water rotational barriers surpassing ($T>T_{D}$).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Chiral organocatalysts based on lipopeptide micelles for aldol reactions in water

A comprehensive study of the self-assembly in water of a lipopeptide consisting of a sequence of L-proline, L-arginine and L-tryptophan with a hydrocarbon chain has been performed. Fluorescence assays were used to determine the critical aggregation concentration. In situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and molecular dynamics simulations showed the presence of spherical micelles with diameters around 6 nm. In agreement with these results, cryo-TEM images showed globular aggregates with diameters ranging from ≈4 nm up to ≈9 nm. Furthermore, the lipopeptide catalytic activity has been tested for the direct aldol reaction between cyclohexanone and p-nitrobenzaldehyde, and we have observed that the self-association of the organocatalyst played a critical role in the enhanced activity. Water affects the selectivity, and poor results are obtained under neat reaction conditions. The location of the catalytic groups at the lipopetide/water solvent interface also endowed unusual selectivity in the catalyzed aldol reactions. Under optimized reaction conditions, high yields (up to >99%), good enantioselectivity (ee up to 85%) and high diastereoselectivity (ds up to 92 : 8) were obtained