The Portuguese case study

This paper assesses the potential for technological modernization and innovation based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in traditional agri-food companies located in the central region of Portugal. A survey was applied to 50 agri-food companies of Cereals, Cheese, Olive oil, Dry sausages, Honey, Wine, and Horticultural sectors. Survey results can be summarized as: The majority of companies use computers and have Internet service. Most of companies do not have a webpage and neither use Internet for advertising campaigns, selling or buying products. Half of companies use social networks for business purposes. Most companies have not promoted the training in ICT of their collaborators in the last year. Companies claim that possessing a webpage and attending ICT training will be the technological solutions that will improve their productivity and/or marketing products and services. For each sector, recommendations and suggestions were provided in order to promote the use of ICT for business purposes. The required ICT solution was developed to a limited set of companies. The main ICT-based solutions developed were company webpages and Facebook pages. A CRM system was developed for one company. A satisfaction survey was carried out at the end of the implementation of the ICT solution. Companies’ managers were highly satisfied with the ICT specific solution developed for its company and they affirmed that the company sales increased due to the web visibility gained by the company products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Potential for technological modernisation and innovation based on ICT in agri-food companies of central region of Portugal

This paper assesses the potential for technological modernisation and innovation based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in agri-food companies located in the central region of Portugal. The survey was applied to 50 agri-food companies of Cereals, Cheese, Olive oil, Dry sausages, Honey, Wine, and Horticultural sectors. Survey results can be summarised as: The large majority of companies use computers and have Internet service. Most of companies don't have a webpage and neither use Internet for advertising campaigns, selling or buying products. Half of companies use social networks for business purposes. Most companies haven't promoted collaborators training in ICT in the last year. Companies claim that possessing a webpage and attending ICT training will be the technological solutions that will improve their productivity and/or marketing products and services. For each sector, recommendations and suggestions were provided in order to promote the use of ICT for business purposes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Potencial para a modernização tecnológica e inovação na indústria agroalimentar com base em TIC – caso de estudo da Região Centro de Portugal

Alavancagem da atividade económica nas pequenas e médias empresas de sectores estratégicos e tradicionais: Encorajamento na utilização de novas tecnologias, Oportunidade enorme para as novas TIC nas empresas agroalimentares, Incorporar recursos inovadores com valor acrescentado, melhorar as competências de atividade das PME, promover a modernização do sector empresarial regional, a utilização das TIC irá fomentar a economia e a competitividade dos sectores agro-alimentares tradicionaisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Morte em neonatologia: vivências dos profissionais de saúde na prestação de cuidados paliativos neonatais

Introdução: Recentemente, tem-se constatado que os profissionais que trabalham nas Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatais mostram um interesse crescente pelas decisões tomadas no final da vida e pela qualidade dos cuidados prestados aos recém-nascidos e suas famílias. Objetivos: Compreender as vivências dos profissionais de saúde relativamente aos cuidados paliativos neonatais. Métodos: Utilizou-se a metodologia de investigação qualitativa, exploratório-descritiva, de cariz fenomenológica. Resultados: Foram aplicados e analisados questionários a 15 profissionais a exercer numa UCIN do centro de Portugal. Os dados obtidos revelam carência de ensino e inexistência de protocolos/guidelines, bem como necessidade de suporte psicológico a profissionais e família do RN. Conclusões: A formação contínua e específica, o apoio e acompanhamento psicológico dos profissionais e das famílias devem constituir o pilar dos cuidados paliativos neonatais

Clinical performance of an infliximab rapid quantification assay

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM)-based algorithms can be used to guide infliximab (IFX) adjustments in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. This study aimed to explore a rapid IFX-quantification test from a clinical perspective. Methods: This manuscript describes a prospective cohort study involving 110 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients on the maintenance phase of IFX. IFX trough levels were quantified using a rapid quantification assay and a commonly-used reference kit. Results: Irrespective of the assay used to measure IFX, its through levels were statistically different between patients with and without endoscopic remission (Mayo endoscopic score = 0), as well as between patients stratified by their faecal calprotectin (FC) levels. Despite the fact that the two methods correlated well with each other [Spearman's rank correlation coefficient = 0.843, p < 0.001; intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.857, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.791-0.903], there was a discernible systematic variation; values obtained with the reference kit were on average 2.62 units higher than those obtained with the rapid assay. Notwithstanding, 3 mu g/ml was shown to be an acceptable cut-off to assess endoscopic status and inflammatory burden levels using both assays. The percentage of patients that had a positive outcome when the IFX concentration measured by the rapid assay ranked above 3 mu g/ml was 88% both for a Mayo endoscopic score <= 1 and for an FC concentration <250 mu g/g. Conclusions: Based on this study, we concluded that using the rapid IFX assessment system with a 3 mu g/ml threshold is a reliable alternative to the time-consuming enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in patients on the maintenance phase of IFX.Portuguese IBD Group (GEDII, Grupo de Estudo da Doenca Inflamatoria Intestinal)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anthelmintic activity of Annona crassiflora leaves against Haemonchus contortus: part 1: in vitro inhibition of the hatchability and larval development

We evaluated the activity of Annona crassiflora leaves against Haemonchus contortus resistant to albendazol.  Aqueous (AE), ethanolic (EE) and ethyl acetate (EAE) extracts were produced and the predominant presence of flavonoids was observed in HPLC-DAD chromatograms. Initially we evaluated the larval development inhibition (LDI) of dry A. crassiflora leaf powder or its AE directly in fecal quantitative cultures. The efficacies of the extracts, with or without tannins, on egg hatching inhibition (EHI) were investigated reveling that the EE was the most effective (LC90 = 8.96 mg/mL). However, after tannin removal, AE showed the highest activity (LC90 = 4.27 mg/mL). In the LDI test, the LC90 of AE was &lt; 6.25 mg/g of fecal culture and to leaf powder of leaves was 69.14 mg/g.  High efficacies of AE and EE for EHI were detected and the tannins were not the main active metabolites. The anthelmintic potential of this plant could be attributed to association between flavonoids and other metabolites

Anthelmintic activity of Annona crassiflora leaves against Haemonchus contortus: part 2: efficacy in vivo and blood parameters

In this study we evaluated the oral toxicity of leaf extracts of Annona crassiflora of for mice and the blood and parasitological parameters of lambs experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus and treated with leaves of this plant. The highest dose of AE (aqueous extract) administered to mice (203.0 mg/kg bw) was well tolerated, suggesting low toxicity. At necropsy, macroscopic examination revealed no abnormalities of the evaluated viscera.  Lambs infected with the nematode were divided one group treated with leaf powder and a control group that did not treat. Split-plot design analysis was performed where the treatments were defined as plots and three periods of collection were defined as subplots. Similar performances to weight gain were observed among the lamb groups. The oral administration of leaf powder at 2.75g /Kg bw did not alter the physiological blood parameters in comparison to untreated lambs; however, this dose was not efficient to fecal egg reduction.    We consider that other formulations and administration protocols should be evaluated to promote an effective alternative control using the leaves of this plant

Detection of anti-infliximab antibodies is impacted by antibody titer, infliximab level and IgG4 antibodies: a systematic comparison of three different assays

Background: There is scant information on the accuracy of different assays used to measure anti-infliximab antibodies (ADAs), especially in the presence of detectable infliximab (IFX). We thus aimed to evaluate and compare three different assays for the detection of IFX and ADAs and to clarify the impact of the presence of circulating IFX on the accuracy of the ADA assays.Methods: Blood samples from 79 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients treated with infliximab were assessed for IFX levels and ADAs using three different assays: an in-house assay and two commercial kits, Immundiagnostik and Theradiag. Sera samples with ADAs and undetectable levels of IFX were spiked with exogenous IFX and analyzed for ADAs.Results: The three assays showed 81-96% agreement for the measured IFX level. However, the in-house assay and Immundiagnostik assays detected ADAs in 34 out of 79 samples, whereas Theradiag only detected ADAs in 24 samples. Samples negative for ADAs with Theradiag, but ADA-positive in both the in-house and Immundiagnostik assays, were positive for IFX or IgG4 ADAs. In spiking experiments, a low concentration of exogenous IFX (5 mu g/ml) hampered ADA detection with Theradiag in sera samples with ADA levels of between 3 and 10 mu g/ml. In the Immundiagnostik assay detection interference was only observed at concentrations of exogenous IFX higher than 30 mu g/ml. However, in samples with high levels of ADAs (> 25 mu g/ml) interference was only observed at IFX concentrations higher than 100 mu g/ml in all three assays. Binary (IFX/ADA) stratification of the results showed that IFX+/ADA and IFX-/ADAs + were less influenced by the assay results than the double-positive (IFX+/ADAs+) and double-negative (IFX-/ADAs-) combination.Conclusions: All three methodologies are equally suitable for measuring IFX levels. However, erroneous therapeutic decisions may occur when patients show double-negative (IFX-/ADAs) or double-positive (IFX+/ADAs+) status, since agreement between assays is significantly lower in these circumstances

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio