2,098 research outputs found
Antibiotic consumption in Portugal: 2010 and 2011
The use of antibiotics has contributed to
a marked decrease in morbidity caused by communicable and infec-
tious diseases over the past few years.
The aim of our study is to evaluate the use of antibiotics in clinic
in 2010 and 2011, considering two different methodologies: the
defined daily dose per 1000 inhabitants per day (DHD) and the
number of packages per 1000 inhabitants per day (PHD)
Inefficient lobbying, populism and oligarchy
This paper analyses the efficiency consequences of lobbying in a production economy with imperfect commitment. We first show that the Pareto efficiency result found for truthful equilibria of common agency games in static exchange economies no longer holds under these more general conditions. We construct a model of pressure groups where the set of e.cient truthful common-agency equilibria has measure zero. Equilibria are generally inefficient as a direct result of the existence of groups with conflicting interests, which allocate real resources to lobbying. If lobbies representing "the poor " and "the rich " have identical organizational capacities, we show that these equilibria are biased towards the poor, who have a comparative advantage in politics, rather than in production. If the pressure groups di.er in their organizational capacity, both pro-rich (oligarchic) and pro-poor (populist) equilibria may arise, all of which are inefficient with respect to the constrained optimum.
First order perturbations of the Einstein-Straus and Oppenheimer-Snyder models
We derive the linearly perturbed matching conditions between a Schwarzschild
spacetime region with stationary and axially symmetric perturbations and a FLRW
spacetime with arbitrary perturbations. The matching hypersurface is also
perturbed arbitrarily and, in all cases, the perturbations are decomposed into
scalars using the Hodge operator on the sphere. This allows us to write down
the matching conditions in a compact way. In particular, we find that the
existence of a perturbed (rotating, stationary and vacuum) Schwarzschild cavity
in a perturbed FLRW universe forces the cosmological perturbations to satisfy
constraints that link rotational and gravitational wave perturbations. We also
prove that if the perturbation on the FLRW side vanishes identically, then the
vacuole must be perturbatively static and hence Schwarzschild. By the dual
nature of the problem, the first result translates into links between
rotational and gravitational wave perturbations on a perturbed
Oppenheimer-Snyder model, where the perturbed FLRW dust collapses in a
perturbed Schwarzschild environment which rotates in equilibrium. The second
result implies in particular that no region described by FLRW can be a source
of the Kerr metric.Comment: LaTeX; 29 page
Matching of spatially homogeneous non-stationary space--times to vacuum in cylindrical symmetry
We study the matching of LRS spatially homogeneous collapsing dust
space-times with non-stationary vacuum exteriors in cylindrical symmetry. Given
an interior with diagonal metric we prove existence and uniqueness results for
the exterior. The matched solutions contain trapped surfaces, singularities and
Cauchy horizons. The solutions cannot be asymptotically flat and we present
evidence that they are singular on the Cauchy horizons.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, 1 figure, submitted for publicatio
Emulsion formation and stabilization by biomolecules: the leading role of cellulose
Emulsion stabilization by native cellulose has been mainly hampered because of its insolubility in water. Chemical modification is normally needed to obtain water-soluble cellulose derivatives. These modified celluloses have been widely used for a range of applications by the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutic, paint and construction industries. In most cases, the modified celluloses are used as rheology modifiers (thickeners) or as emulsifying agents. In the last decade, the structural features of cellulose have been revisited, with particular focus on its structural anisotropy (amphiphilicity) and the molecular interactions leading to its resistance to dissolution. The amphiphilic behavior of native cellulose is evidenced by its capacity to adsorb at the interface between oil and aqueous solvent solutions, thus being capable of stabilizing emulsions. In this overview, the fundamentals of emulsion formation and stabilization by biomolecules are briefly revisited before different aspects around the emerging role of cellulose as emulsion stabilizer are addressed in detail. Particular focus is given to systems stabilized by native cellulose, either molecularly-dissolved or not (Pickering-like effect).Financially support by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT, via the projects PTDC/AGR-TEC/4814/2014, PTDC/ASP-SIL/30619/2017 and researcher grant IF/01005/2014. RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB and PERFORM, a competence platform in Formulation Science at RISE, are acknowledged for additional financing. This research has been supported by
Treesearch.se.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Consensus must be found on intravenous fluid therapy management in trauma patients
Introduction: Trauma is an important cause of death among young people and 30-40% of this mortality rate is due to hypovolemic shock, intensified by trauma's lethal triad: Hypothermia, Acidosis, and Coagulopathy. Nurses are responsible for managing fluid therapy administration in trauma victims. The purpose of this study is to analyse the reasons why intravenous fluid therapy is recommended for trauma patients' hemodynamic stabilization.
Methods: This narrative literature review included published and unpublished studies in English, Spanish or Portuguese between 1994 and January 2019. The search results were analyzed by two independent reviewers. Inclusion criteria encompasses quantitative studies involving trauma victims aged over 18 who underwent fluid therapy in a prehospital assessment context.
Results&Discussion: 11 quantitative studies were included. 9 involved the use of fluid therapy for hypotension treatment and 2 of the studies analyzed involved the use of warmed fluid therapy for hypothermia treatment. The analysis performed reveals that the administration of aggressive fluid therapy seems to be responsible for the worsening of the lethal triad. In the presence of traumatic brain injury, permissive hypotension is not allowed due to the negative impact on cerebral perfusion pressure. Used as warming measure, warmed fluid therapy does not seem to have a significant impact on body temperature.
Conclusions: There is no consensus regarding the administration of fluid therapy to trauma patients. This conclusion clearly supports the need to develop more randomized controlled trials in order to understand the effectiveness of such measure when it comes to control hypovolemia and hypothermia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A framework for realistic real-time walkthroughs in a VR distributed environment
Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) are
increasingly being used in various business scenarios and
are important driving forces in technology development.
However the usage of these technologies in the home
environment is restricted due to several factors including
lack of low-cost (from the client point of view) highperformance
solutions. In this paper we present a general
client/server rendering architecture based on Real-Time
concepts, including support for a wide range of client
platforms and applications. The idea of focusing on the
real-time behaviour of all components involved in
distributed IP-based VR scenarios is new and has not been
addressed before, except for simple sub-solutions. This is
considered as âthe most significant problem with the IP
environmentâ [1]. Thus, the most important contribution of
this research will be the holistic approach, in which
networking, end-systems and rendering aspects are
integrated into a cost-effective infrastructure for building
distributed real-time VR applications on IP-based
networks
Trajectories of disability and long-term care utilization after acute health events
Funding Information: Judite Gonçalves acknowledges funding from the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research, and Technology (FCT, grant number CEECIND/03117/2018) and LuĂs Filipe from the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (NIHR ARC NWC). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their institutions. We appreciate comments from two anonymous reviewers, Joana Pestana, France Weaver, Joan Costa-Font, Helena Telles, Ălvaro Almeida, Pedro Pita Barros, and participants at the Conference of the Portuguese Health Economics Association, a Lisbon Microgroup meeting, the European Health Economics Association Conference, the Workshop of the Portuguese Health Economics Association, and the Public Sector Economics Conference on Ageing and Long-Term Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Hip fractures, strokes, and heart attacks are common acute health events that can lead to long-term disability, care utilization, and unmet needs. However, such impacts, especially in the long term, are not fully understood. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, 1992â2018, this study examines the long-term trajectories of individuals suffering such health shocks, comparing with individuals not experiencing health shocks. Hip fracture, stroke, and heart attack are confirmed to have severe implications for disability. In most cases of stroke and heart attack, informal caregivers provide the daily support needed by survivors, whereas following hip fracture, nursing home care is more relevant. These health shocks put individuals on worse trajectories of disability, care utilization, and unmet needs. There is no long-term recovery or convergence with individuals who do not suffer shocks. Unmet need is prevalent, even pre-shock and among individuals who do not experience health shocks, emphasizing the importance of preventative care measures. These findings support policy action to ensure hospitalized individuals, especially those aged 50 and above, receive rehabilitative services and other post-acute care. Furthermore, hospitalization is an event that requires the detection and addressing of unmet care needs beyond the short run.publishersversioninpres
Second Order Perturbations of Flat Dust FLRW Universes with a Cosmological Constant
We summarize recent results concerning the evolution of second order
perturbations in flat dust irrotational FLRW models with . We
show that asymptotically these perturbations tend to constants in time, in
agreement with the cosmic no-hair conjecture. We solve numerically the second
order scalar perturbation equation, and very briefly discuss its all time
behaviour and some possible implications for the structure formation.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. to be published in "Proceedings of the 5th
Alexander Friedmann Seminar on Gravitation and Cosmology", Int. Journ. Mod.
Phys. A (2002). Macros: ws-ijmpa.cls, ws-p9-75x6-50.cl
A stochastic model of Min oscillations in Escherichia coli and Min protein segregation during cell division
The Min system in Escherichia coli directs division to the centre of the cell
through pole-to-pole oscillations of the MinCDE proteins. We present a one
dimensional stochastic model of these oscillations which incorporates membrane
polymerisation of MinD into linear chains. This model reproduces much of the
observed phenomenology of the Min system, including pole-to-pole oscillations
of the Min proteins. We then apply this model to investigate the Min system
during cell division. Oscillations continue initially unaffected by the closing
septum, before cutting off rapidly. The fractions of Min proteins in the
daughter cells vary widely, from 50%-50% up to 85%-15% of the total from the
parent cell, suggesting that there may be another mechanism for regulating
these levels in vivo.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures (25 figure files); published at
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/physbi
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