Experiences and perceptions of Portuguese chronic low back pain patients` encounters with health professionals

Comunicação apresentada no I Congresso Nacional de Comunicação Clínica em Cuidados de Saúde, 20-21 outubro de 2017, Braga, PortugalN/

Effect of sex chromosome complement on sodium appetite and Fos-immunoreactivity induced by sodium depletion.

Effect of sex chromosome complement on sodium appetite and Fos-immunoreactivity induced by sodium depletion. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 306: R175–R184, 2014. First published November 20, 2013; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00447.2013.—Previous studies indicate a sex chromosome complement (SCC) effect on the angiotensin II-sexually dimorphic hypertensive and bradycardic baroreflex responses. We sought to evaluate whether SCC may differentially modulate sexually dimorphic-induced sodium appetite and specific brain activity due to physiological stimulation of the rennin angiotensin system. For this purpose, we used the “four core genotype” mouse model, in which the effect of gonadal sex and SCC is dissociated, allowing comparisons of sexually dimorphic traits between XX and XY females as well as in XX and XY males. Gonadectomized mice were sodium depleted by furosemide (50mg/kg) and low-sodium diet treatment; control groups were administered with vehicle and maintained on normal sodium diet. Twenty-one hours later, the mice were divided into two groups: one group was submitted to the water-2% NaCl choice intake test, while the other group was perfused and their brains subjected to the Fos-mmunoreactivity (FOS-ir) procedure. Sodium depletion, regardless of SCC (XX or XY), induced a significantly lower sodium and water intake in females than in males, confirming the existence in mice of sexual dimorphism in sodium appetite and the organizational envolvement of gonadal steroids. Moreover, our results demonstrate a SCC effect on induced brain FOS-ir, showing increased brain activity in XX-SCC mice at the paraventricular nucleus, nucleus of the solitary tract, and lateral parabrachial nucleus, as well as an XX-SCC augmented effect on sodium depletion-induced brain activity at two circumventricular organs, the subfornical organ and area postrema, nuclei closely involved in fluid and blood pressure homeostasis.publishedVersio

Functional kernel estimators of conditional extreme quantiles

We address the estimation of "extreme" conditional quantiles i.e. when their order converges to one as the sample size increases. Conditions on the rate of convergence of their order to one are provided to obtain asymptotically Gaussian distributed kernel estimators. A Weissman-type estimator and kernel estimators of the conditional tail-index are derived, permitting to estimate extreme conditional quantiles of arbitrary order.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1107.226

Toxicity ranking of estuarine sediments on the basis of Sparus aurata biomarkers

Sparus aurata biomarkers were used to rank sediments from the Sado River estuary (Portugal) according to their toxicity. Initially, the activities of liver ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase, liver and gill glutathione S-transferases, muscle lactate dehydrogenase, and brain acetylcholinesterase were tested in a laboratory bioassay with the reference compound benzo[a]pyrene. Enzymatic activities were determined in different tissues of fish exposed for 48, 96, or 240 h to three concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (25, 50, and 100 g/L). Induction of liver ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase was observed at all the exposure periods and concentrations, suggesting a continuous response of this system to toxicant exposure. Induction of liver glutathione S-transferases activity was only observed after 240 h of exposure, whereas gill glutathione S-transferases activity was significantly inhibited at all the exposure periods, suggesting a direct or indirect effect of the toxicant on these enzymes. Inhibition of lactate dehydrogenases activity was only observed after 96 h of exposure to 25 g/L of benzo[a]pyrene. No significant effects were observed on acetylcholinesterase activity, suggesting that cholinergic function of S. aurata is not affected by benzo[a]pyrene. In a second phase, fish were exposed for 240 h to sediments collected at five sites of the Sado River estuary, and the same biomarkers were analyzed. For all the enzymes assayed, significant differences among sites were found. In this study, the battery of biomarkers used allowed to discrimination among sites with different types of contamination, levels of contamination, or both, after multivariate data analysis. Discrimination of sites was similar to the ranking provided by a more complex and parallel study (including chemical analysis of sediments, macrobenthic community analysis, amphipod mortality toxicity tests, and sea urchin abnormality embryo assays), suggesting its suitability to evaluate the toxicity of estuarine sediments.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Monitoring programmes: the fundamental component of estuaries management: how to design one?

This article focuses on the design of a conceptual framework to design and assess environmental estuarine monitoring programmes, including the networks, to detect quality status changes in coastal areas within environmental management programmes. Monitoring is a fundamental component in any management system, and in particular in sensitive areas under strong human pressures, like estuaries. These pressures will be reflected in impacts in the ecosystem and also in responses from it. A monitoring program including the network and the indicators measured, should be designed to be able to identify the i) pressures, ii) the state and effects, and iii) the responses of human action in the estuary according to casualty chains, also the monitoring performance should be measured to assess the effectiveness of the monitoring program itself. Answers to these needs are studied in this article, namely in what concerns the selection and location of the monitoring stations. To evaluate the “best” monitoring design one should first clearly identify the objectives of the network and which indicators (in the sense of important variables that reflect environmental attributes) are most appropriate for the particular situation. In this work two methods for monitoring network design will be evaluated, namely i) variance-reduction based, and ii) space-filling. These two are examples of a statistically-based method, and of a random-allocation-based method. The most appropriate objective functions are used to reflect the objectives of the monitoring. In all cases the objective function models are solved with the simulated annealing meta-heuristic algorithm, implemented by the team to solve monitoring optimisation problems. Due to the amount and quality of the information available, the Sado estuary is used as a case-study to demonstrate the results of the methods and helping in the comparative analysis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparação entre a concentração atmosférica de Phl p5 e as contagens polínicas de gramíneas

A exposição a alergenos de gramíneas é actualmente calculada a partir de contagens polínicas dos respectivos tipos polínicos, efectuadas em amostras de ar atmosférico segundo uma metodologia normalizada e assente em equipamentos tipo HIRST. Não existe ainda suficiente evidência de que tais contagens representem uma boa estimativa da exposição aos aeroalergenos deste tipo polínico pelo que, neste estudo, se procurou analisar a relação entre tais contagens e a concentração de um dos alergenos polínicos mais importantes

The influence of meteorological parameters on Alternaria and Cladosporium fungal spore concentrations in Beja (Southern Portugal): preliminary results

Introduction Fungal spores constitute an important fraction of bioaerosols in the atmosphere. Objectives To analyse the content of Alternaria and Cladosporium spores in the atmosphere of Beja and the effect of meteorological conditions on their concentrations. Methodology The daily and hourly data of Alternaria and Cladosporium fungal spores concentration in the atmosphere of Beja were monitored from April 12, 2012 to July 30, 2014, based on the Portuguese Aerobiology Network methodology. The influence of meteorological conditions on the studied types of fungal spore concentrations was assessed through Spearman’s correlation analysis. Results During the study period, 20,741 Alternaria spores and 320,862 Cladosporium spores were counted. In 2013, there were 5,822 Alternaria spores and 123,864 Cladosporium spores. The absolute maximum concentrations of Alternaria and Cladosporium spores were recorded on November 8, 2013, with 211 and 1301 spores/m3, respectively. Temperature,insolation and wind direction parameters showed a positive correlation with Alternaria and Cladosporium spore levels, while relative humidity and precipitation presented a negative correlation, which is statistically significant. Wind speed only showed a statistically significant positive correlation in terms of Alternaria spore levels. Conclusion Alternaria and Cladosporium spores are present in the atmospheric air of Beja throughout the year, with the highest concentration period occurring during spring and autumn. There was a clear effect of meteorological parameters on airborne concentrations of these fungal spores

Advances in Regression, Survival Analysis, Extreme Values, Markov Processes and Other Statistical Applications

Selected papers of the 17th Congress of the Portuguese Statistical Society, covering recent advances in Statistics, particularly in Regression, Extreme values, Markov processes and statistical applications in several areas

Socio-professional profiles of immigrant artists in Portugal

A presença de imigrantes nos mercados de trabalho culturais e artísticos tem merecido a atenção das ciências sociais. No entanto, não existe até ao momento uma análise centrada nos perfis socioprofissionais de artistas provenientes de países terceiros (exteriores à União Europeia) em Portugal. Este artigo apresenta uma análise comparativa de três grupos – artistas de origem portuguesa, intracomunitária e extracomunitária – abrangendo quer as suas características sociodemográficas, quer as suas situações profissionais. Os dados dos Censos de 2001 e 2011 permitem identificar semelhanças e diferenças entre os três grupos referidos, bem como alterações significativas ao longo da primeira década do século XXI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improved Detection of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli among Patients with Travelers' Diarrhea, by Use of the Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique

This study sought to determine whether a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) toxins after chaotropic extraction of DNA from stool would increase the detection of ETEC over that of conventional oligonucleotide probe hybridization of 5 E. coli colonies per stool sample (a standard method). By DNA hybridization, 29 (21%) of 140 patients were positive for ETEC, and 59 (42%) of 140 were positive for ETEC when PCR was used. Sensitivity of the PCR assay was confirmed through spiked stool experiments to be ∼100-1000 ETEC colonies per sample. Specificity of the assay was determined by showing an absence of ETEC by the PCR technique in a subgroup of 48 subjects and by confirming the presence of ETEC DNA of positive samples by dot blot procedure. PCR technique detected significantly more ETEC infections in these subjects than did the hybridization method (P < .0001