External Corrosion of the bottom plate of Petroleum and Derivative Storage tanks on Compacted Soils

Inspections carried out on petroleum and derivative storage tanks on compacted soils have shown external corrosion on the bottom plates of the tanks despite cathodic protection by an impressed current. The holes or cavities in the outer plates of the bottom of the tank (in contact with the soil) result in oil leakage, thereby having significant environmental impacts. The objective of this paper is to show, in laboratory experiments, that cathodic protection is not reliable when there are voids or spaces between the plates and the soil. In addition, it proposes the application of a thermal spray with aluminium in the parts of the bottom plates that are in contact with the soil to protect these plates from localised corrosion. It is important to note that the welding temperature was 320°C, without affecting the aluminium coating applied by the thermal spray

Conocimiento sobre la proporcionalidad exhibida por futuros profesores en un curso de formación

En este documento informamos sobre un estudio realizado con una muestra de futuros profesores de primaria, luego de haber concluido su primer cuatrimestre de formación profesional. El estudio estuvo dirigido a determinar el conocimiento sobre la proporcionalidad adquirido por esa muestra, en relación con la distinción entre situaciones proporcionales/no-proporcionales y los tipos de resolución empleados. Los resultados indican, luego de concluido el proceso de instrucción respectivo, la falta de un desarrollo adecuado del razonamiento proporcional para realizar las acciones demandadas

Estudio epistémico del número π: implicaciones didácticas

La realización de un estudio documental epistemológico de la evolución de pi, nos permitió reconstruir un referente global para este número. Concretamente hemos recuperado a lo largo de su construcción científica, tipos de situaciones problemas y sistemas de prácticas en que se pone en juego este objeto. Si bien el punto de partida fue la detección de problemas que hicieran emerger algún significado de pi, interesó estudiar las técnicas, los lenguajes, las entidades conceptuales, proposicionales y argumentativas puestas en juego en cada momento y circunstancia. Los sistemas de prácticas identificados por ese conjunto de objetos permitieron estudiar y describir, desde el punto de vista epistémico, como se configuran los mencionados objetos matemáticos y poner en descubierto la complejidad epistémica de pi. Así, la construcción de un referente global permitió describir tres etapas en las que se ponen de manifiesto que pi va asumiendo diferentes estatus y características, posibilitando dar respuesta a algunos interrogantes vinculados a la enseñanza

Outpatient satisfaction during pharmacotherapy followup

This study aimed to investigate the satisfaction of patients with uncontrolled hypertension referred for pharmacotherapy followup. A cross-sectional study by semi-structured interview was used. The sample comprised patients undergoing pharmacotherapy followup, patients who had discontinued pharmacotherapy followup and patients who had not kept the appointments. A total of 80 (76.9 %) out of 104 patients registered were contacted. The majority of patients undergoing pharmacotherapy followup (91.1 %) were fully satisfied with the pharmacists' care given, their relationship with them (94.9 %), the manner in which their therapy was conducted (99.2 %) and the environment where it was carried out (85.3 %). The reasons for non-attendance were mostly forgetting the date, illness on the appointment day and other arrangements on the same day. Interestingly, all of these patients were completely satisfied with the pharmacists' care given. The satisfaction of patients with the pharmaceutical care is high among patients that have continuous followup, but a relevant proportion discontinued followup. Newer approaches to keep these patients under followup are necessary.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Bone mineral density in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus

We evaluated spine bone mineral density (BMD) in Brazilian children with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) in order to detect potential predictors of reduction in bone mass. A cross-sectional study of BMD at the lumbar spine level (L2-L4) was conducted on 16 female JSLE patients aged 6-17 years. Thirty-two age-matched healthy girls were used as control. BMD at the lumbar spine was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Weight, height and pubertal Tanner stage were determined in patients and controls. Disease duration, mean daily steroid doses, mean cumulative steroid doses and JSLE activity measured by the systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) were determined for all JSLE patients based on their medical charts. All parameters were used as potential determinant factors for bone loss. Lumbar BMD tended to be lower in the JSLE patients, however, this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.10). No significant correlation was observed in JSLE girls between BMD and age, height, Tanner stage, disease duration, corticosteroid use or disease activity. We found a weak correlation between BMD and weight (r = 0.672). In the JSLE group we found no significant parameters to correlate with reduced bone mass. Disease activity and mean cumulative steroid doses were not related to BMD values. We did not observe reduced bone mass in female JSLE.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Departamento de PediatriaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Departamento de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPM, Depto. de PediatriaUNIFESP, EPM, Depto. de MedicinaSciEL

Integrated transcriptomics establish macrophage polarization signatures and have potential applications for clinical health and disease

Growing evidence defines macrophages (Mφ) as plastic cells with wide-ranging states of activation and expression of different markers that are time and location dependent. Distinct from the simple M1/M2 dichotomy initially proposed, extensive diversity of macrophage phenotypes have been extensively demonstrated as characteristic features of monocyte-macrophage differentiation, highlighting the difficulty of defining complex profiles by a limited number of genes. Since the description of macrophage activation is currently contentious and confusing, the generation of a simple and reliable framework to categorize major Mφ phenotypes in the context of complex clinical conditions would be extremely relevant to unravel different roles played by these cells in pathophysiological scenarios. In the current study, we integrated transcriptome data using bioinformatics tools to generate two macrophage molecular signatures. We validated our signatures in in vitro experiments and in clinical samples. More importantly, we were able to attribute prognostic and predictive values to components of our signatures. Our study provides a framework to guide the interrogation of macrophage phenotypes in the context of health and disease. The approach described here could be used to propose new biomarkers for diagnosis in diverse clinical settings including dengue infections, asthma and sepsis resolution

Role of the chemokines CCL3/MIP-1α and CCL5/RANTES in sponge-induced inflammatory angiogenesis in mice

Barcelos, Luciola S Coelho, Amanda M Russo, Remo C Guabiraba, Rodrigo Souza, Adriano L S Bruno-Lima, Guilherme Jr Proudfoot, Amanda E I Andrade, Silvia P Teixeira, Mauro M Microvasc Res. 2009 Sep;78(2):148-54. doi: 10.1016/j.mvr.2009.04.009. Epub 2009 May 8.; International audience; OBJECTIVE: We examined the potential contribution of CCL3 and CCL5 to inflammatory angiogenesis in mice. METHODS: Polyester-polyurethane sponges were implanted in mice and blood vessel counting and hemoglobin, myeloperoxidase and N-acetylglucosaminidase measurements used as indexes for vascularization, neutrophil and macrophage accumulation, respectively. RESULTS: CCL3 and CCL5 were expressed throughout the observation period. Exogenous CCL3 enhanced angiogenesis in WT, but angiogenesis proceeded normally in CCL3(-/-) mice, suggesting that endogenous CCL3 is not critical for sponge-induced angiogenesis in mice. CCL5 expression was detected at day 1, but levels significantly increased thereafter. Exogenous CCL5 reduced angiogenesis in WT mice possible via CCR5 as CCL5 was without an effect in CCR5(-/-) mice. Treatment of WT with the CCR1/CCR5 antagonist, Met-RANTES, prevented neutrophil and macrophage accumulation, but enhanced sponge vascularization. CONCLUSION: Thus, endogenous CCL3 appears not to play a role in driving sponge-induced inflammatory angiogenesis in mice. The effects of CCL5 were anti-angiogenic and appeared to be mediated via activation of CCR5

Outpatient satisfaction during pharmacotherapy followup

This study aimed to investigate the satisfaction of patients with uncontrolled hypertension referred for pharmacotherapy followup. A cross-sectional study by semi-structured interview was used. The sample comprised patients undergoing pharmacotherapy followup, patients who had discontinued pharmacotherapy followup and patients who had not kept the appointments. A total of 80 (76.9 %) out of 104 patients registered were contacted. The majority of patients undergoing pharmacotherapy followup (91.1 %) were fully satisfied with the pharmacists' care given, their relationship with them (94.9 %), the manner in which their therapy was conducted (99.2 %) and the environment where it was carried out (85.3 %). The reasons for non-attendance were mostly forgetting the date, illness on the appointment day and other arrangements on the same day. Interestingly, all of these patients were completely satisfied with the pharmacists' care given. The satisfaction of patients with the pharmaceutical care is high among patients that have continuous followup, but a relevant proportion discontinued followup. Newer approaches to keep these patients under followup are necessary.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Towards a genome-wide transcriptogram: the Saccharomyces cerevisiae case

A genome modular classification that associates cellular processes to modules could lead to a method to quantify the differences in gene expression levels in different cellular stages or conditions: the transcriptogram, a powerful tool for assessing cell performance, would be at hand. Here we present a computational method to order genes on a line that clusters strongly interacting genes, defining functional modules associated with gene ontology terms. The starting point is a list of genes and a matrix specifying their interactions, available at large gene interaction databases. Considering the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome we produced a succession of plots of gene transcription levels for a fermentation process. These plots discriminate the fermentation stage the cell is going through and may be regarded as the first versions of a transcriptogram. This method is useful for extracting information from cell stimuli/responses experiments, and may be applied with diagnostic purposes to different organisms

Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess

The possible gamma-ray excess in the inner Galaxy and the Galactic center (GC) suggested by Fermi-LAT observations has triggered a large number of studies. It has been interpreted as a variety of different phenomena such as a signal from WIMP dark matter annihilation, gamma-ray emission from a population of millisecond pulsars, or emission from cosmic rays injected in a sequence of burst-like events or continuously at the GC. We present the first comprehensive study of model systematics coming from the Galactic diffuse emission in the inner part of our Galaxy and their impact on the inferred properties of the excess emission at Galactic latitudes $2^\circ<|b|<20^\circ$ and 300 MeV to 500 GeV. We study both theoretical and empirical model systematics, which we deduce from a large range of Galactic diffuse emission models and a principal component analysis of residuals in numerous test regions along the Galactic plane. We show that the hypothesis of an extended spherical excess emission with a uniform energy spectrum is compatible with the Fermi-LAT data in our region of interest at $95\%$ CL. Assuming that this excess is the extended counterpart of the one seen in the inner few degrees of the Galaxy, we derive a lower limit of $10.0^\circ$ ($95\%$ CL) on its extension away from the GC. We show that, in light of the large correlated uncertainties that affect the subtraction of the Galactic diffuse emission in the relevant regions, the energy spectrum of the excess is equally compatible with both a simple broken power-law of break energy $2.1\pm0.2$ GeV, and with spectra predicted by the self-annihilation of dark matter, implying in the case of $\bar{b}b$ final states a dark matter mass of $49^{+6.4}_{-5.4}$ GeV.Comment: 65 pages, 28 figures, 7 table