Impact of pharmaceutical counseling in minor health problems in rural Portugal

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited."Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of self-medication and to evaluate the clinical impact of pharmaceutical counseling. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used with a prospective component, the latter to evaluate the impact of pharmaceutical counseling . The study was conducted in a rural community pharmacy for 14 consecutive days in December 2012, recruiting all individuals who agreed to participate and met the eligibility criteria. During a facetoface direct interview demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were registered, followed by a pharmaceutical intervention, which consisted of evaluating the symptoms, selecting the most appropriate nonprescription medicine (NPM) available and advising the patient on pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures, all according to established protocols for minor health problems. When appropriate, the patient was referred to a medical appointment. One week later, the clinical outcome of such intervention was measured by asking the patients about the resolution of their minor health problems. Results: Data from 298 patients were analyzed, the majority being female (60.1%) with an average age of 44.84 years (SD=22.41). Respiratory problems were the most frequent (n=78; 26.2%) and respiratory tract medication was the most frequently indicated (n= 77; 27.8%). The observed prevalence of self-medication was 40.7%. Of the 271 patients’ beneficiaries of pharmaceutical counseling, 86.8% had their minor health problems solved after one week (ranging from 77.5% to 88.2% according to a sensibility analysis for drop-outs). Conclusions: This work is important as it demonstrates the beneficial impact of pharmaceutical counseling, a very relevant area for the pharmacist and where literature is particularly scarce.

Ensuring successful introduction of Wolbachia in natural populations of Aedes aegypti by means of feedback control

The control of the spread of dengue fever by introduction of the intracellular parasitic bacterium Wolbachia in populations of the vector Aedes aegypti, is presently one of the most promising tools for eliminating dengue, in the absence of an efficient vaccine. The success of this operation requires locally careful planning to determine the adequate number of individuals carrying the Wolbachia parasite that need to be introduced into the natural population. The introduced mosquitoes are expected to eventually replace the Wolbachia-free population and guarantee permanent protection against the transmission of dengue to human. In this study, we propose and analyze a model describing the fundamental aspects of the competition between mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia and mosquitoes free of the parasite. We then use feedback control techniques to devise an introduction protocol which is proved to guarantee that the population converges to a stable equilibrium where the totality of mosquitoes carry Wolbachia.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Inference of oxygen vacancies in hydrothermal Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3

A high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction study has been made of pseudo-rhombohedral and tetragonal phases in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT), produced via hydrothermal and conventional solidstate methods. Hydrothermal NBT exhibits significantly greater structural distortion at room temperature than solid-state NBT. Peak widths and superstructure peak intensities show a phase transition at 305 C, with trends suggesting that the structure tends towards cubic symmetry at this temperature. Structural refinements indicate that the transition occurs via a phase coexistence region with no clear intermediate phase. Piezoelectric data show evidence of polarisation pinning in hydrothermal NBT, interpreted as a high proportion of oxygen vacancies

O gálio e a patologia óssea.

Estima-se que mais de 200.000 cirurgias para fusão da coluna vertebral são realizadas a cada ano nos EUA. Artrodese lombar posterolateral intertransversalis é o procedimento mais comum realizado, ainda que a falha para obter uma sólida união óssea ocorre em 10% a 40% dos pacientes com único nível envolvido e mais freqüentemente em múltiplos níveis. Esta alta taxa de pseudoartrose indica que eventos fisiológicos, biológicos e químicos, cruciais para este processo, não são adequadamente compreendidos. A não união óssea frequentemente leva a uma resolução insatisfatória dos sintomas clínicos e usualmente resulta em maior custo médico e morbidade, bem como a necessidade de intervenções adicionais(1). Infelizmente, o efeito dos íons metálicos no processo de mineralização não tem recebido considerável atenção até recentemente, entretanto dados interessantes da participação do alumínio e gálio no metabolismo ósseo foram publicados há mais de 15 anos(2). Atualmente, o número de publicações dedicadas ao papel do gálio na patologia óssea está crescendo rapidamente, todavia, revisões abrangentes não estão disponíveis. A intenção do presente estudo é preencher esta lacuna, considerando a formação, crescimento e solubilidade da hidroxiapatita na presença de sais de gálio, a incorporação do gálio dentro do tecido ósseo e o mecanismo de atividade terapêutica deste elemento

Estimativa da umidade de um latossolo vermelho-amarelo distrófico com uso da técnica da TDR.

O acompanhamento da umidade do solo com o uso da reflectomentria do domínio do tempo (TDR) vem sendo cada vez mais utilizada para o monitoramento da umidade do solo, devido à facilidade de operação e determinação de umidade do solo em tempo real. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a estimativa da umidade de um Latossolo Vermelho-Amarelo Distrófico com uso da técnica da reflectomentria do domínio do tempo (TDR). Foram Utilizadas amostras de solo indeformadas, retiradas nas camadas de 0,5-0,20; 0,25 - 0,40; 0,45 - 0,60 e 0,65 - 0,80 m, sendo três repetições para cada camada do solo, totalizando 12 amostras. As sondas de TDR foram confeccionadas artesanalmente, com três hastes de 0,003 m de diâmetro e 0,10 m de comprimento efetivo, fora da resina, espaçadas de 0,017 m com cabos coaxiais de 50 ohms e isoladas com resina epóxi no inicio das hastes. As amostras foram retiradas com tubo de PVC de 0,15 m de comprimento por 0,110 m de diâmetro nominal. As leituras do peso do conjunto tubo - sonda - solo - tela - papel foi feita com balança analítica e a umidade do solo estimada pela TDR. As estimativas para as diferentes camadas do solo não apresentaram diferenças entre si. O ajuste do modelo avaliza a calibração para as camadas do solo em estudo, indicando a viabilidade do emprego das sondas manufaturadas

Photometry of VS0329+1250: A New, Short-Period SU Ursae Majoris Star

Time-resolved CCD photometry is presented of the recently-discovered (V~15 at maximum light) eruptive variable star in Taurus, which we dub VS0329+1250. A total of ~20 hr of data obtained over six nights reveals superhumps in the light curves, confirming the star as a member of the SU UMa class of dwarf novae. The superhumps recur with a mean period of 0.053394(7) days (76.89 min), which represents the shortest superhump period known in a classical SU UMa star. A quadratic fit to the timings of superhump maxima reveals that the superhump period was increasing at a rate given by dP/dt ~ (2.1 +/- 0.8) x 10^{-5} over the course of our observations. An empirical relation between orbital period and the absolute visual magnitude of dwarf novae at maximum light, suggests that VS0329+1250 lies at a distance of ~1.2 +/- 0.2 kpc.Comment: V2 - The paper has been modified to incorporate the referee's comments, and has now been accepted for publication in the PASP. The most significant change is that we are now able to confirm that the superhump period was increasing during the course of our observation