Pneumonia organizativa – Experiência da consulta de um hospital central

AbstractAim: to characterise outpatients of a Portuguese central hospital diagnosed with organising pneumonia (OP) and compare results with current literature. Methods: medical processes with diagnosis of OP were retrospectively studied as to demographics, aetiology, clinical and radiological features, average time until and date of diagnosis, laboratory and histological changes, treatment and relapse. Results – thirteen patients with a mean follow-up of 171.6weeks (max 334 and min 28 weeks) were evaluated. Nine of these patients (70%) had cryptogenic OP (COP) while 30% had secondary OP (SOP), two with rheumatoid arthritis, one with dermatomyositis and another undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer. Mean age was 55.6 (+-15.3years), 92% female, 77% were non-smokers. Average time until diagnosis was 77.2weeks (min 3 and max 432 weeks). Symptoms at presentation were tiredness (92%), cough (85%), fever (65%), shortness of breath (54%), thoracic pain (23%) and weight loss (23%). At the time of diagnosis, the mean erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 70mm (max 170mm and min 16mm). C-reactive protein level was increased in eight patients. Significant leucocytosis was absent. Chest X-ray and chest CT scan showed bilateral distribution in 12 patients (92%). Consolidation with an air bronchogram was present in 12 patients and in four (31%), consolidation was migratory. Four patients (30%) underwent transbronchial pulmonary biopsy, all uncharacteristic and eight patients surgical pulmonary biopsy, four showed histological confirmation of SOP. Corticosteroids were started in 11 patients and average treatment was 61.6weeks (16-288 weeks). 15% (2/13) had spontaneous resolution. Four patients (31%) relapsed, one of them five times. Two patients are dependent on a low dose of corticosteroids, one due to underlying disease and another due to multiple relapses. Therapy of relapse was corticosteroids alone in minimum effective dosage or associated to azathioprine or ciclosporin. Discussion and conclusion: such a high incidence in females (92%) may be explained by the limited sample of patients. In 70% of the patients diagnosis were established by clinical and radiology criteria. Mean time to diagnosis was very variable which suggests that in some cases the disease was not diagnosed and treated as another interstitial lung disease or as recurrent pneumonia. Most patients (53.8%) had a favourable clinical course after treatment with corticosteroids with a very low number of relapses (30.8%), much lower than described by other authors (60%). Only in experienced centres should the diagnosis of OP established by clinical and radiological criteria.Rev Port Pneumol 2010; XVI (3): 369-38

Quantum Entanglement and fixed point Hopf bifurcation

We present the qualitative differences in the phase transitions of the mono-mode Dicke model in its integrable and chaotic versions. We show that a first order phase transition occurs in the integrable case whereas a second order in the chaotic one. This difference is also reflected in the classical limit: for the integrable case the stable fixed point in phase space suffers a bifurcation of Hopf type whereas for the second one a pitchfork type bifurcation has been reported

Climate change facilitated the early colonization of the Azores Archipelago during medieval times

Humans have made such dramatic and permanent changes to Earth's landscapes that much of it is now substantially and irreversibly altered from its preanthropogenic state. Remote islands, until recently isolated from humans, offer insights into how these landscapes evolved in response to human-induced perturbations. However, little is known about when and how remote systems were colonized because archaeological data and historical records are scarce and incomplete. Here, we use a multiproxy approach to reconstruct the initial colonization and subsequent environmental impacts on the Azores Archipelago. Our reconstructions provide unambiguous evidence for widespread human disturbance of this archipelago starting between 700 -60/+50 and 850 -60/+60 Common Era (CE), ca. 700 y earlier than historical records suggest the onset of Portuguese settlement of the islands. Settlement proceeded in three phases, during which human pressure on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems grew steadily (i.e., through livestock introductions, logging, and fire), resulting in irreversible changes. Our climate models suggest that the initial colonization at the end of the early Middle Ages (500 to 900 CE) occurred in conjunction with anomalous northeasterly winds and warmer Northern Hemisphere temperatures. These climate conditions likelyinhibited exploration from southern Europe and facilitated human settlers from the northeast Atlantic. These results are consistent with recent archaeological and genetic data suggesting that the Norse were most likely the earliest settlers on the islands

Evidence for the strangeness-changing weak decay Ξb−→Λb0π−\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-

Using a $pp$ collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0~fb$^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb detector, we present the first search for the strangeness-changing weak decay $\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-$. No $b$ hadron decay of this type has been seen before. A signal for this decay, corresponding to a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, is reported. The relative rate is measured to be ${{f_{\Xi_b^-}}\over{f_{\Lambda_b^0}}}{\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-) = (5.7\pm1.8^{+0.8}_{-0.9})\times10^{-4}$, where $f_{\Xi_b^-}$ and $f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ are the $b\to\Xi_b^-$ and $b\to\Lambda_b^0$ fragmentation fractions, and ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ is the branching fraction. Assuming $f_{\Xi_b^-}/f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ is bounded between 0.1 and 0.3, the branching fraction ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ would lie in the range from $(0.57\pm0.21)\%$ to $(0.19\pm0.07)\%$.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-047.htm

BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral $B$ mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a $B$ meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other $b$ hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes $B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+$ and $B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0}$ using $3.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the LHCb experiment at $pp$ centre-of-mass energies of $7\mathrm{\,TeV}$ and $8\mathrm{\,TeV}$. Its tagging power on these samples of $B \to J/\psi \, X$ decays is $(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%$.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm