Schistosomal myeloradiculopathy associated with hepatitis B virus infection: a case report

Schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people worldwide. The involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) is rare but when it occurs, the spinal cord damage is the most common and severe form. The reported case is a 19-years-old patient with asymmetric progressive paraparesis, areflexia in the lower limbs, urinary incontinence and back pain. He used to swim in ponds of endemic area for S. mansoni. Cerebrospinal fluid presented pleocytosis with 53 cells per mm3 where 3% eosinophils, 87% lympho-cytes, 10% monocytes, Glucose 67mg/dL protein and 176mg/dL. Spinal MRI showed extensive damage from T1 to L2 in T2-weighted acquisition and heterogeneous contrast uptake in lumbosacral cord, suggesting active inflammation in the latter region. It also presented positive stools for Schistosoma mansoni and positive serology for hepatitis B virus (HBV) in its chronic form. It´s emphasized in this paper that the myeloradiculopathy by schistosomiasis (MRE) has consistent clinical diagnostic criteria and early diagnosis and treatment is of paramount importance to avoid neurological and disabling sequelae.A esquistossomose afeta mais de 200 milhões de pessoas em todo mundo. O envolvimento do Sistema Nervoso Central é raro, porém quando ocorre o acometimento medular é a forma mais frequente e grave. O caso relatado é de um paciente de 19 anos, com quadro de paraparesia assimétrica de evolução progressiva, arreflexia em membros inferiores, incontinência urinária e dor lombar. Havia história prévia de banhos em lagoas de região endêmica para S. mansoni. O líquor apresentava-se com pleocitose de 53 células por mm3 sendo 3% de eosinófilos, 87% de linfócitos, 10% de monócitos, glicose de 67mg/dL e proteínas 176mg/dL. A ressonância magnética de coluna mostrou lesão extensa de T1 a L2 nas aquisições ponderadas em T2 e impregnação heterogênea pelo contraste em medula lom-bossacra, sugerindo inflamação ativa nesta última região. Apresentou ainda exame parasitológico de fezes positivo para S. mansoni e sorologia positiva para o vírus da hepatite B (VHB) em sua forma crônica. Enfatiza-se neste trabalho que a mielorradiulopatia esquistos-somótica tem critérios diagnósticos clínicos consistentes e o diagnóstico e tratamento precoce é de suma importância para se evitar se-quelas neurológicas e incapacitantes

Mundos mesclados, espaços segregados: cultura material, mestiçagem e segmentação no sítio Aldeia em Santarém (PA)

This article discusses the processes of cultural exchange between Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazilian, Amerindians, and mestizos based on the analysis of the material culture from households of Santarém (PA), occupied during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,. Although these social groups manipulated material culture aiming to express different values, related to hierarchy, social segmentation, and affirmation of identities, ambiguity also characterizes these assemblages. This material ambiguity informs about the mixtures of both practices and cultural references that brought about the building of a mestizo society.Com base na análise da cultura material proveniente de unidades domésticas do núcleo urbano de Santarém (PA), ocupadas nos séculos XVIII e XIX, o presente artigo discute os processos de trocas culturais entre portugueses, luso-brasileiros, indígenas e mestiços. Embora esses grupos sociais tenham manipulado a cultura material visando expressar diferentes valores, relacionados à hierarquia, segmentação social e afirmação de identidades, a ambigüidade é uma característica das amostras analisadas, informando sobre as misturas de práticas e de referenciais culturais que levaram à construção de uma sociedade mestiça

Functionalities of multi-agent systems in Programmable Logic Controllers

The consumer market ever more calls for diversified products in small batches and the industry lacks production systems that meet the demands with efficiency and ability to adapt quickly. Integrated manufacturing systems implemented have their management for programmable logic controllers and electrical interconnections, control logic and satisfactory robustness, but they do not attend the needs of diversity and flexibility in production. The solutions to these needs refer the company to migrate to the use of new technologies of control, circuit and logic. However, for an industry migrates is a very big and expensive step. Then, there is an urgent need for methods that implement the interface between logic controllers and multi-agent systems in order to evolve an integrated manufacturing system taking advantage of all electrical circuitry, control logic and the logic controller that installs itself, taking advantage of the self-adapting characteristics that the multi-agent systems provide.publishersversionpublishe

CoBuilt : towards a novel methodology for workflow capture and analysis of carpentry tasks for human-robot collaboration

Advanced manufacturing and robotic fabrication for the housing construction industry is mainly focused on the use of industrial robots in the pre-fabrication stage. Yet to be fully developed is the use on-site of collaborative robots, able to work cooperatively with humans in a range of construction trades. Our study focuses on the trade of carpentry in small-to-medium size enterprises in the Australian construction industry, seeking to understand and identify opportunities in the current workflows of carpenters for the role of collaborative robots. Prior to presenting solutions for this problem, we first developed a novel methodology for the capture and analysis of the body movements of carpenters, resulting in a suite of visual resources to aid us in thinking through where, what, and how a collaborative robot could participate in the carpentry task. We report on the challenges involved, and outline how the results of applying this methodology will inform the next stage of our research

Some features of the territories in the breeding males of the intertidal blenny Lipophrys pholis (Pisces: Blenniidae)

In this paper we present data on the organization of the territories in males of Lipophrys pholis during the breeding season. Data were collected during high tides by skin- and scubadiving and during low tides by direct inspection of nests. Our study area was located at Arrébida, Portugal. The main results are: (i) The territories of the breeding males of this species are temporary, being established each breeding season, (ii) The guarding males stay in the nest holes with the egg masses while the tide is low and are subjected to several hours of emersion in each tidal cycle, (iii) Even when the nests are submerged the fishes stay inside the nest for an average of 92% of the time. All the activities performed outside the nest correspond to an average of 27 minutes per day. (iv) There was a low frequency of territorial intrusions. Conspecific intruders released a significantly higher frequency of agonistic responses than did Coryphoblennius galerita. (v) Removal experiments showed that vacated territories are not occupied by other males during the same breeding season, (vi) Without the presence of the guarding male the eggs are slowly destroyed by predation and infection, but some eggs can still survive and hatch up to five days after the removal of the parental male. The results are discussed in terms of the probable costs and benefits of breeding intertidally

Rattus norvegicus (Rodentia: Muridae) Infected by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (syn. Le. chagasi) in Brazil

In the present study we surveyed the fauna of phlebotomine sand flies and small mammals in peridomestic areas from a Brazilian municipality where the American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is endemic. A total of 608 female phlebotomine sand flies were captured during nine months in 2009 and 2010. Seven different species were represented with 60% of them being Lutzomyia intermedia and Lu. whitmani, both incriminated vectors of ACL. Lu. longipalpis, a proven vector of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was also captured at high proportion (12.8%). Genomic DNA analysis of 136 species-specific pools of female sand flies followed by molecular genotyping showed the presence of Leishmania infantum DNA in two pools of Lu. longipalpis. The same Leishmania species was found in one blood sample from Rattus norvegicus among 119 blood and tissue samples analysed. This is the first report of Le. infantum in R. norvegicus in the Americas and suggests a possible role for this rodent species in the zoonotic cycle of VL. Our study coincided with the reemergence of VL in Governador Valadares