Transient Symptomatic Zinc Deficiency in an Exclusively Breastfed Infant

A 3-month-old, full term female infant, adequate for gestational age, and exclusively breastfed, was admitted with a 10 day history of generalised scaling erythematous dermatitis, affecting the face (perinasal, nasolabial folds and periauricular), acral and intertriginous areas, with irritability and failure to thrive. Her mother had been treated with isoniazid since the third trimester because of family contact with tuberculosis. Based on a diagnosis of suspected impetiginised eczema, the infant was treated with flucloxacillin and prednisolone, and maternal isoniazid was suspended, with no improvement. Investigations found low serum zinc levels in the infant (33 μg/dL; normal range (NR) >60 μg/dL), normal plasma zinc levels in the mother (111.3 μg/dL; NR 68-120 μg/dL) and lower than the normal range of zinc levels in breast milk (270μg/L; NR 1000-2500 μg/L), suggesting acrodermatitis caused by zinc deficiency. Oral zinc supplementation (3 mg/kg/day) was started with a marked improvement in skin lesions, as well as good weight gain. At the age of 6 months, after food diversification, supplementation was suspended, without any recurrence of symptoms.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Experimental Apparatus for Vibration Analysis in Robotics

Robotic systems use different types of sensors both in control and in environment perception. Those sensors can be digital encoders, tachometers, accelerometers, force sensors,current sensors and many others. In this paper an experimental setup is presented to study vibrations and impacts. The system acquires data from the sensors, in real time, and, in a second phase, processes it through an analysis package. Several examples with experimental results are carried out showing the functionalities of the developed apparatus.N/

Fractional order fourier spectra in robotic manipulators with vibrations

This paper presents a fractional system perspective in the study of signals captured during impacts and vibrations of mechanical manipulators. In order to acquire and study the signals an experimental setup was developed. The system acquires data from the sensors, in real time, and, in a second phase, processes it through an analysis package. The experimental study provides useful information that can assist in the design of a control system to be used in eliminating or reducing the effect of vibrations.N/

Participação pública na decisão em saúde. O que temos aprendido?

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Acquired Cytomegalovirus Infection in an Extremely Low-Birth Weight Infant Presenting with a Severe Sepsis-Like Syndrome

Cytomegalovirus infection is one of the most common congenital infections worldwide. Moreover, it seems to be an important cause of postnatally acquired infection. Perinatal transmission can occur intrapartum (from the birth canal), from a blood transfusion, via maternal breast milk, or from close contact with infected people. The risk of breast milk-acquired cytomegalovirus infection is higher in countries with a high prevalence of cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin G-positive women. Usually, acquired cytomegalovirus infection is asymptomatic, especially in term infants. However, preterm infants can present with a sepsis-like syndrome and multiple organ involvement. A high index of suspicion is required to make an early diagnosis. Therapeutic guidelines for symptomatic postnatal cytomegalovirus infection are not yet available. More studies are required to understand the long-term sequelae of postnatally acquired cytomegalovirus infection and know which is the best strategy to avoid cytomegalovirus post-natal transmission.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Coloboma: Chave Ocular Para Patologia Sistémica

Introdução: Um coloboma é uma anomalia do desenvolvimento que se caracteriza, na maioria dos casos, por um deficiente encerramento da fissura embrionária na 6ª semana da gestação. Trata-se de um defeito que pode afectar diferentes estruturas do globo ocular, nomeadamente, a íris, corpo ciliar, coróide, retina ou nervo óptico. A eventual associação com patologia sistémica e alterações genéticas faz com que o diagnóstico oftalmológico seja fundamental para a orientação e seguimento dos doentes. Material e métodos:Estudo retrospectivo de 26 doentes da Consulta de Oftalmologia Pediátrica do Hospital de São José, do Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, através da consulta do processo, exames complementares de diagnóstico e registo fotográfico. Foram caracterizados os doentes de acordo com o sexo, idade, antecedentes familiares de anomalias oculares, antecedentes gestacionais, tipo de coloboma, localização, lateralidade, melhor acuidade visual corrigida, presença de outras anomalias oculares concomitantes e associação com doenças sistémicas. Com este estudo pretendemos avaliar e comparar o perfil dos doentes portadores de colobomas, comparando-o com o descrito na literatura, bem como salientar a importância para o seu seguimento, despiste de doenças sistémicas associadas e tratamento das complicações. Resultados: Dos 26 doentes avaliados, 14 (54%) eram do sexo feminino, e 12 (46%) do sexo masculino. A idade variou entre 1 e 25 anos, com média de 11,23 anos. A média da idade do diagnóstico foi de 2,6 anos, variando entre 1 mês até 8 anos de idade. Nenhum doente apresentava história familiar de coloboma, existindo história de prematuridade em 2 casos (8%). Quanto à localização, 16 casos (62%) apresentavam coloboma do disco óptico, 14 (54%) da íris e 13 (50%) colobomas coriorretinianos. Em 13 casos (50%) o coloboma atingia mais do que uma estrutura anatómica e era bilateral em 11 casos (42%). As acuidades visuais variaram entre ausência de percepção luminosa e 20/20. Apenas 3 casos (12%) apresentavam um coloboma isolado, sendo os restantes associados a outras alterações oftalmológicas, nomeadamente estrabismo em 13 casos (50%), microftalmia em 8 casos (31%), catarata em 3 casos (12%), descolamento de retina em 3 casos (12%) e nistagmus em 4 casos (15%). Da série de 26 doentes, 19 (73%) não apresentavam doenças sistémicas associadas ao coloboma. 4 doentes (15%) foram classificados como tendo síndrome CHARGE, 1 aguardando confirmação molecular (4%), 1 síndrome de Joubert, 1 síndrome de Kabuki e 1 síndrome de DiGeorge. Foram detectadas anomalias do desenvolvimento psicomotor em 8 casos (31%). Conclusões:O exame oftalmológico completo é importante no diagnóstico, prognóstico e vigilância de doentes com coloboma. O coloboma é frequentemente o primeiro achado diagnóstico nestas crianças, sendo que a referenciação pela Oftalmologia a outras especialidades é fundamental, devendo incluir o despiste das várias anomalias sistémicas que podem estar associadas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Higher Dimensional Gravity, Propagating Torsion and AdS Gauge Invariance

The most general theory of gravity in d-dimensions which leads to second order field equations for the metric has [(d-1)/2] free parameters. It is shown that requiring the theory to have the maximum possible number of degrees of freedom, fixes these parameters in terms of the gravitational and the cosmological constants. In odd dimensions, the Lagrangian is a Chern-Simons form for the (A)dS or Poincare groups. In even dimensions, the action has a Born-Infeld-like form. Torsion may occur explicitly in the Lagrangian in the parity-odd sector and the torsional pieces respect local (A)dS symmetry for d=4k-1 only. These torsional Lagrangians are related to the Chern-Pontryagin characters for the (A)dS group. The additional coefficients in front of these new terms in the Lagrangian are shown to be quantized.Comment: 10 pages, two columns, no figures, title changed in journal, final version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra

Hamiltonian Treatment of the Gravitational Collapse of Thin Shells

A Hamiltonian treatment of the gravitational collapse of thin shells is presented. The direct integration of the canonical constraints reproduces the standard shell dynamics for a number of known cases. The formalism is applied in detail to three dimensional spacetime and the properties of the (2+1)-dimensional charged black hole collapse are further elucidated. The procedure is also extended to deal with rotating solutions in three dimensions. The general form of the equations providing the shell dynamics implies the stability of black holes, as they cannot be converted into naked singularities by any shell collapse process.Comment: 20 pages,1 figure, CECS style. Accepted for publication in Physical Review