Liver enzymes in Nigerians with lichen planus

Lichen planus has been reported in association with liver diseases. Clinical signs such as jaundice may not be reliable indicator of ongoing inflammation or the presence of an ongoing liver disease. Liver function test in spite of its variability may serve as amore reliable indicator of liver disease. The objective of this study is to assess the discriminant power of liver enzymes with lichen planus and control. Sixty Nigerians with lichen planus (LP group) and 30 patients with other dermatoses control group A) and 30 apparently normal individual (control group B) had their liver enzymes assayed using the automated Hitachi 70 auto-analyzer There was no a statistically significant difference in the level of liver enzymes between the LP group and controls Liver enzymes in Nigerian with lichen planus are generally within normal limits and are comparable to individuals without lichen planus. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (1) 2008: pp.64-6

Adaptation of yeasts to fructose rich environments: a role for horizontal gene transfer of a fructose transporter

Abstract of the poster presented 33rd Small Meeting on Yeast Transport and Energetics, 21-24 July 2015, Lisbon, Portugal

Stepwise functional evolution in a fungal sugar transporter family

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Molecular Biology and Evolution following peer review. The version of record Mol Biol Evol (2016) 33 (2): 352-366 is available online at: http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/352 DOI 10.1093/molbev/msv220."Sugar transport is of the utmost importance for most cells and is important to a wide range of applied fields. However, despite the straightforward in silico assignment of many novel transporters, including sugar porters, to existing families, their exact biological role and evolutionary trajectory often remain unclear, mainly because biochemical characterization of membrane proteins is inherently challenging, but also owing to their uncommonly turbulent evolutionary histories. In addition, many important shifts in membrane carrier function are apparently ancient, which further limits our ability to reconstruct evolutionary trajectories in a reliable manner.Here we circumvented some of these obstacles by examining the relatively recent emergence of a unique family of fungal sugar facilitators, related to drug antiporters. The former transporters, named Ffz, were previously shown to be required for fructophilic metabolism in yeasts. We first exploited the wealth of fungal genomic data available to define a comprehensive but well-delimited family of Ffz-like transporters, showing that they are only present in Dikarya. Subsequently, a combination of phylogenetic analyses and in vivo functional characterization was used to retrace important changes in function, while highlighting the evolutionary events that are most likely to have determined extant distribution of the gene, such as horizontal gene transfers (HGTs). One such HGT event is proposed to have set the stage for the onset of fructophilic metabolism in yeasts, a trait that according to our results may be the metabolic hallmark of approximately one hundred yeast species that thrive in sugar rich environments."info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of the liquid phase content and presence of hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose on the properties of a calcium phosphate bone cement

Abstract in proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of CiiEM: Health, Well-Being and Ageing in the 21st Century, held at Egas Moniz’ University Campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, from 3–5 June 2019.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Parturition mode recommendation and symptoms of pelvic floor disorders after obstetric anal sphincter injuries

Introduction and hypothesis: Our primary objective was to evaluate parturition mode (PM) recommendations following obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIs) and adherence to these recommendations and to evaluate recurrence of OASIs in women who had a subsequent vaginal delivery (VD). The hypothesis was that adherence to the PM recommendations leads to a reasonable OASI recurrence rate. Methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study of patients with previous OASIs between 2010 and 2016. After an outpatient visit including 3D transperineal ultrasound to screen for pelvic floor and anal sphincter injuries, all patients received recommendations for a subsequent PM. Patients were invited to complete validated questionnaires 2 to 5 years post-OASIs. Results: The majority of invited patients (265/320) attended follow-up, with 264 receiving a recommendation for PM. Only 5.6% did not adhere to the received recommendation. One hundred sixty-one patients delivered again, 58% had a VD, and 42% had a cesarean section (CS). Recurrence of OASIs was observed in 4.3% of the patients that had a VD. Fecal incontinence occurred in 4.9%, however any form of anal incontinence in 48% of patients. While dyspareunia was common in patients with residual external anal sphincter (EAS) injuries and levator ani muscle (LAM) avulsions, anal pain occurred more frequently in EAS injuries and fecal incontinence in LAM avulsions. Conclusions: This study showed that the vast majority of patients followed PM recommendations, and this resulted in a low recurrence of OASIs with a high CS rate. Fecal incontinence after OASIs was correlated with the degree of OASIs

Non-Invasive Ventilation: Three Years of Clinical Practice in a Paediatric Intermediate Care Unit

Introdução: A ventilação não invasiva tem sido utilizada de forma crescente em crianças com insuficiência respiratória aguda,evitando as complicações associadas à ventilação invasiva. Pretendeu-se descrever a experiência de ventilação não invasiva numa unidade de cuidados intermédios e avaliar a sua eficácia em evitar a transferência das crianças para uma unidade de cuidados intensivos pediátricos. Métodos: Estudo longitudinal retrospetivo de todas as crianças admitidas numa unidade de cuidados intermédios e submetidas a ventilação não invasiva (2012-2015). Foram analisados dados demográficos, ocorrência de complicações, frequência respiratória, frequência cardíaca, pH, pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono e relação entre a saturação periférica de oxigénio e fração inspiratória de oxigénio, antes e duas, quatro, seis, 12 e 24 horas após inicio da ventilação não invasiva. Os doentes foram divididos em dois grupos, sucesso ou insucesso da ventilação não invasiva, de acordo com a necessidade de transferência. Resultados: Foram incluídas 35 crianças com mediana de idade 42 dias. O diagnóstico principal foi bronquiolite em 28 doentes e a indicação para iniciar a ventilação não invasiva foi insuficiência respiratória aguda em 32. Foram eficazmente ventilados 29 (82,9%) e seis necessitaram de ser transferidos. Verificou-se uma melhoria da frequência respiratória, frequência cardíaca, pH e pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono a partir das duas horas de ventilação não invasiva no grupo de sucesso (p < 0,05). Não houve complicações major. Discussão: Confirmou-se a efectividade e segurança da ventilação não invasiva em evitar o agravamento clínico das crianças com insuficiência respiratória aguda numa unidade de cuidados intermédios, evitando a ventilação invasiva e/ou transferência para uma unidade de cuidados intensivos pediátricos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of animal decisions in the development of vegetation mosaics

Abstract A model of herbivore foraging in mosaic landscapes, which seeks to explain how individual decisions of foraging herbivores affect the composition and spatial arrangement of that environment, is described. Animals choose where to forage depending on their perception of the scale of information and the degree of determinism in their foraging decisions. The quality of the vegetation, expressed in terms of potential net energy intake rate, is determined by the patterns of vegetation growth, the animals&apos; intake rate and the digestibility of the vegetation. In situations where the net energy intake rate first increases and then declines, a grazing lawn with utilised and non-utilised areas can develop when animals are selective in their foraging behaviour. The results indicate that herbivore behavioural ecology needs to be considered alongside stocking density in the management of vegetation mosaics. The current model can be developed to take into account the details of multi-species interactions with heather-grass mosaics

HIV Cell-to-Cell Spread Results in Earlier Onset of Viral Gene Expression by Multiple Infections per Cell

Cell-to-cell spread of HIV, a directed mode of viral transmission, has been observed to be more rapid than cell-free infection. However, a mechanism for earlier onset of viral gene expression in cell-to-cell spread was previously uncharacterized. Here we used time-lapse microscopy combined with automated image analysis to quantify the timing of the onset of HIV gene expression in a fluorescent reporter cell line, as well as single cell staining for infection over time in primary cells. We compared cell-to-cell spread of HIV to cell-free infection, and limited both types of transmission to a two-hour window to minimize differences due to virus transit time to the cell. The mean time to detectable onset of viral gene expression in cell-to-cell spread was accelerated by 19% in the reporter cell line and by 35% in peripheral blood mononuclear cells relative to cell-free HIV infection. Neither factors secreted by infected cells, nor contact with infected cells in the absence of transmission, detectably changed onset. We recapitulated the earlier onset by infecting with multiple cell-free viruses per cell. Surprisingly, the acceleration in onset of viral gene expression was not explained by cooperativity between infecting virions. Instead, more rapid onset was consistent with a model where the fastest expressing virus out of the infecting virus pool sets the time for infection independently of the other co-infecting viruses

Religious affiliation modulates weekly cycles of cropland burning in Sub-Saharan Africa

Research ArticleVegetation burning is a common land management practice in Africa, where fire is used for hunting, livestock husbandry, pest control, food gathering, cropland fertilization, and wildfire prevention. Given such strong anthropogenic control of fire, we tested the hypotheses that fire activity displays weekly cycles, and that the week day with the fewest fires depends on regionally predominant religious affiliation.We also analyzed the effect of land use (anthrome) on weekly fire cycle significance. Fire density (fire counts.km-2) observed per week day in each region was modeled using a negative binomial regression model, with fire counts as response variable, region area as offset and a structured random effect to account for spatial dependence. Anthrome (settled, cropland, natural, rangeland), religion (Christian, Muslim, mixed) week day, and their 2-way and 3-way interactions were used as independent variables. Models were also built separately for each anthrome, relating regional fire density with week day and religious affiliation. Analysis revealed a significant interaction between religion and week day, i.e. regions with different religious affiliation (Christian, Muslim) display distinct weekly cycles of burning. However, the religion vs. week day interaction only is significant for croplands, i.e. fire activity in African croplands is significantly lower on Sunday in Christian regions and on Friday in Muslim regions. Magnitude of fire activity does not differ significantly among week days in rangelands and in natural areas, where fire use is under less strict control than in croplands. These findings can contribute towards improved specification of ignition patterns in regional/global vegetation fire models, and may lead to more accurate meteorological and chemical weather forecastinginfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio