87 research outputs found

    Pátio cercado por árvores de espinho e outras frutas, sem ordem e sem simetria: O quintal em vilas e arraiais de Minas Gerais (séculos XVIII e XIX)

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    This article analyses urban and rural backyards in Minas Gerais, in the late18th and early 19th centuries. Sources include probate records, foreign travelers accounts, administrative documents and iconography. These spaces are interpreted as a part of material culture, as provisioning grounds, and places of sociability and family intimacy. The connections of yards within households and the surrounding streetscapes are examined, revealing that they can be viewed as instruments of balance in the overall urban landscape.O texto objetiva analisar os quintais urbanos e rurais em Minas Gerais, ao final do século XVIII e início do século XIX. Interpreta evidências documentais de inventários post mortem, narrativas de viajantes estrangeiros, documentos administrativos e iconográficos, interpretando esses espaços, na perspectiva da cultura material, como lugares de abastecimento alimentar, sociabilidades e da intimidade familiar. Considera a ligação dos quintais com a casa e as ruas e os vê como espaços de equilibrio da paisagem urbana

    Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

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    Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

    Post-intervention Status in Patients With Refractory Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab During REGAIN and Its Open-Label Extension

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    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether eculizumab helps patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) achieve the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) post-intervention status of minimal manifestations (MM), we assessed patients' status throughout REGAIN (Safety and Efficacy of Eculizumab in AChR+ Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis) and its open-label extension. METHODS: Patients who completed the REGAIN randomized controlled trial and continued into the open-label extension were included in this tertiary endpoint analysis. Patients were assessed for the MGFA post-intervention status of improved, unchanged, worse, MM, and pharmacologic remission at defined time points during REGAIN and through week 130 of the open-label study. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients completed REGAIN and continued into the open-label study (eculizumab/eculizumab: 56; placebo/eculizumab: 61). At week 26 of REGAIN, more eculizumab-treated patients than placebo-treated patients achieved a status of improved (60.7% vs 41.7%) or MM (25.0% vs 13.3%; common OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.1-4.5). After 130 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 88.0% of patients achieved improved status and 57.3% of patients achieved MM status. The safety profile of eculizumab was consistent with its known profile and no new safety signals were detected. CONCLUSION: Eculizumab led to rapid and sustained achievement of MM in patients with AChR+ refractory gMG. These findings support the use of eculizumab in this previously difficult-to-treat patient population. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: REGAIN, NCT01997229; REGAIN open-label extension, NCT02301624. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that, after 26 weeks of eculizumab treatment, 25.0% of adults with AChR+ refractory gMG achieved MM, compared with 13.3% who received placebo

    Minimal Symptom Expression' in Patients With Acetylcholine Receptor Antibody-Positive Refractory Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Treated With Eculizumab

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    The efficacy and tolerability of eculizumab were assessed in REGAIN, a 26-week, phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive (AChR+) refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), and its open-label extension

    Rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

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    Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with high in-hospital mortality. Alveolar recruitment followed by ventilation at optimal titrated PEEP may reduce ventilator-induced lung injury and improve oxygenation in patients with ARDS, but the effects on mortality and other clinical outcomes remain unknown. This article reports the rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART). Methods/Design: ART is a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized (concealed), controlled trial, which aims to determine if maximum stepwise alveolar recruitment associated with PEEP titration is able to increase 28-day survival in patients with ARDS compared to conventional treatment (ARDSNet strategy). We will enroll adult patients with ARDS of less than 72 h duration. The intervention group will receive an alveolar recruitment maneuver, with stepwise increases of PEEP achieving 45 cmH(2)O and peak pressure of 60 cmH2O, followed by ventilation with optimal PEEP titrated according to the static compliance of the respiratory system. In the control group, mechanical ventilation will follow a conventional protocol (ARDSNet). In both groups, we will use controlled volume mode with low tidal volumes (4 to 6 mL/kg of predicted body weight) and targeting plateau pressure <= 30 cmH2O. The primary outcome is 28-day survival, and the secondary outcomes are: length of ICU stay; length of hospital stay; pneumothorax requiring chest tube during first 7 days; barotrauma during first 7 days; mechanical ventilation-free days from days 1 to 28; ICU, in-hospital, and 6-month survival. ART is an event-guided trial planned to last until 520 events (deaths within 28 days) are observed. These events allow detection of a hazard ratio of 0.75, with 90% power and two-tailed type I error of 5%. All analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: If the ART strategy with maximum recruitment and PEEP titration improves 28-day survival, this will represent a notable advance to the care of ARDS patients. Conversely, if the ART strategy is similar or inferior to the current evidence-based strategy (ARDSNet), this should also change current practice as many institutions routinely employ recruitment maneuvers and set PEEP levels according to some titration method.Hospital do Coracao (HCor) as part of the Program 'Hospitais de Excelencia a Servico do SUS (PROADI-SUS)'Brazilian Ministry of Healt

    O problema de corte de estoque com uso e venda de retalhos: uma proposta de otimização para a sustentabilidade ambiental

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    Considering the theories of Ecological Modernization and Cleaner Production (CP), this work relates the sustainability and the operational research through a variation of cutting stock problem with usable leftovers (CSPUL). In the CSPUL a set of standard objects (boutht from suppliers) or non-standard objects (retails generated in previous cutting processes), which area available in stock, must be cut in order to produce a set of demanded items with dimensions and specifed quantities. The objective consists of determining the best way to cut the objects optimizing an objective function and considering that a certain amount of retails can return to the stock to meet future demands. Differently of the work, the CSPUL will be solved, however, retails in stock in addition to being used, they can be sold of this option is more attractive. This problem is named of cutting stock problem with usable leftovers and sale retails (CSPULSR) and has the objective of maximizing the profit. To model the CSPULSR, was modified a mathematical model proposed in the literature and, to solve it, the simplex method with column generation was used. As the obtained solution to this problem is not integer, were proposed two heuristic procedures that also consider the usable leftovers. Computational tests were performed with randomly generated instances considering static problems and a simulation by periods of time, in which retails generated in a period stay available for use and/or sale of the next period. With these tests, very good performance of the proposed strategy was verified. Due to the particularities of this strategy, also was realized an analysis and discussed the results considering implications for CP, which is a strategy that intends to integrate environmental objective into industrial processes, in order to reduce the amount of waste and emissions. It also aligns the theory of Ecological Modernization as it seeks to reduce the environmental...Este trabalho, tendo em vista as teorias de Ecological Modernization e Produção Mais Limpa (P+L), relaciona sustentabilidade e pesquisa operacional por meio de uma variação do problema de corte de estoque com sobras aproveitáveis (PCESA). No PCESA um conjunto de objetos padronizados (comprados de fornecedores) ou não padronizados (retalhos gerados em processos de corte anteriores), disponíveis em estoque, devem ser cortados em um conjunto de itens com dimensões e quantidades especificadas. Este problema tem por finalidade determinar a melhor forma de cortar os objetos de modo a otimizar uma função objetivo e considerando que uma determinada quantidade de retalhos pode retornar ao estoque para atender futuras demandas. Diferente dos trabalhos propostos na literatura, neste trabalho, o PCSE será resolvido, porém, os retalhos em estoque além de serem utilizados, poderão ser vendidos se esta opção for a mais atrativa. Este problema, denominado de problema de corte de estoque com sobras aproveitáveis e venda de retalhos (PCESAVR), tem por objetivo maximizar o lucro. Para modelar o PCESAVR, alterações foram realizadas em um modelo matemático proposto na literatura e, para resolvê-lo, foi utilizado o método simplex com geração de colunas. Como a solução obtida para este problema não é inteira, dois procedimentos heurísticos, que também consideram o aproveitamento de sobras, foram propostos. Testes computacionais foram realizados com exemplares gerados aleatoriamente considerando problemas estatísticos e uma simulação por períodos de tempo, na qual os retalhos gerados em um período ficam disponíveis para o uso e/ou venda no período seguinte. Com esses testes, verificou-se o bom desempenho da estratégia proposta. Devido às particularidades dessa estratégia, também se fez uma análise e discutiu-se os resultados considerando implicações na P+L, que é uma estratégia que pretende integrar objetivos ambientais aos.

    Influence of hyperbaric oxygen on biomechanics and structural bone matrix in type 1 diabetes mellitus rats.

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    The aim of this study was to evaluate the biomechanics and structural bone matrix in diabetic rats subjected to hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO).Twenty-four male rats were divided into the following groups: Control; Control + HBO; Diabetic, and Diabetic + HBO. Diabetes was induced with streptozotocin (STZ) in the diabetic Groups. After 30 days, HBO was performed every 48h in HBO groups and all animals were euthanized 60 days after diabetic induction. The femur was submitted to a biomechanical (maximum strength, energy-to-failure and stiffness) and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses (crosslink ratio, crystallinity index, matrix-to-mineral ratio: Amide I + II/Hydroxyapatite (M:MI) and Amide III + Collagen/HA (M:MIII)).In biomechanical analysis, diabetic animals showed lower values of maximum strength, energy and stiffness than non-diabetic animals. However, structural strength and stiffness were increased in groups with HBO compared with non-HBO. ATR-FTIR analysis showed decreased collagen maturity in the ratio of crosslink peaks in diabetic compared with the other groups. The bone from the diabetic groups showed decreased crystallinity compared with non-diabetic groups. M:MI showed no statistical difference between groups. However, M:MIII showed an increased matrix mineral ratio in diabetic+HBO and control+HBO compared with control and diabetic groups. Correlations between mechanical and ATR-FTIR analyses showed significant positive correlation between collagen maturity and stiffness.Diabetes decreased collagen maturation and the mineral deposition process, thus reducing biomechanical properties. Moreover, the study showed that HBO improved crosslink maturation and increased maximum strength and stiffness in the femur of T1DM animals
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