Biomarkers in community-acquired pneumonia: A state-of-the-art review

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) exhibits mortality rates, between 20% and 50% in severe cases. Biomarkers are useful tools for searching for antibiotic therapy modifications and for CAP diagnosis, prognosis and follow-up treatment. This non-systematic state-of-the-art review presents the biological and clinical features of biomarkers in CAP patients, including procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, copeptin, pro-ANP (atrial natriuretic peptide), adrenomedullin, cortisol and D-dimers

Prevalência e seguimento de exame citopatológico de colo uterino com atipias em células escamosas de origem indeterminada em um hospital universitário brasileiro

Introdução: O diagnóstico de ASC-US no INCA (2009) foi de 1,2%. É importante acompanhar a evolução clínica, pois um pequeno percentual resultará em HSIL ou carcinoma.Objetivo: acompanhamento por três anos da evolução da patologia cervical entre mulheres com resultado de ASC-US.Método: Coorte retrospectiva de pacientes do ambulatório de ginecologia/HCPA com ASC-US. Seguimento: CPs, colposcopias e/ou biópsias. Analise: SPSS (dados descritivos e associações). Teste Exato de Fischer/Qui-Quadrado (variáveis qualitativas). Test t de Student/ Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney (quantitativas). IC 95%, p<0,05; aprovação GPPG/HCPA (07-286).Resultados: em 2005 foram realizados 9.514 exames CPs; destes, 823 tiveram como resultado ASC-US (8,6%). Amostra final de 320 casos. Tempo médio de seguimento de pacientes com ASC-US: 18,4 meses. Média da idade: 41,3 anos. 77,5% tiveram seguimento normal, 20,3% tiveram ASC-US persistente ou LSIL e 2,2% evoluíram para HSIL; 0,9% de carcinoma. História de DSTs: 35,9%. A evolução dos casos com lesão persistente por ASC-US, evolução para LSIL ou HSIL foi significativamente maior no grupo de pacientes com história prévia de DSTs (31,3% x 17,6% OR 2,14; IC 1,25-3,65; P<0,005), confirmando-as como fator de risco para lesões cervicais.Discussão e Conclusões: o percentual de exames com ASC-US encontrado em nosso meio está de acordo com a literatura. A evolução favorável, com remissão total das alterações citopatológicas, também está dentro do esperado, assim como o número de LSIL, HSIL e carcinoma. O câncer cervical é uma das neoplasias malignas com maior possibilidade de prevenção e programas adequados de rastreamento precoce podem ter impacto importante na morbimortalidade da doença

Closed doors: predictors of stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD during the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

BACKGROUND: The rise in mental health problems in the population directly or indirectly because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a major concern. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare independent predictors of symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Brazilians one month after the implementation of measures of social distancing. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed using a web-based survey. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) were the outcomes. Data were gathered regarding demographics, social distancing, economic problems, exposure to the news of the pandemic, psychiatric history, sleep disturbances, traumatic situations, and substance use. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - Consumption (AUDIT-C) was also administered. The predictors of the symptoms were investigated using hierarchical multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Of a sample of 3587 participants, approximately two-thirds considered that their mental health worsened after the beginning of the social restriction measures. The most important predictors of the symptoms investigated were the intensity of the distress related to the news of the pandemic, younger age, current psychiatric diagnosis, trouble sleeping, emotional abuse or violence, and economic problems. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirmed the hypothesis that the pandemic impacted the mental health of the population and indicated that the level of distress related to the news was the most important predictor of psychological suffering

Carcass characteristics and meat quality of lambs that are fed diets with palm kernel cake

Objective The aim was to evaluate carcass characteristics, cut yield, and meat quality in lambs that were fed different inclusion levels of palm kernel cake. Methods Forty-five woolless castrated male Santa Inês crossbred sheep with an initial average body weight of 23.16±0.35 kg were used. The experimental design was a completely randomized design with five treatments, with palm kernel cake in the proportions of 0.0%, 7.5%, 15.0%, 22.5%, and 30.0% with nine replications per treatment. After slaughter, the gastrointestinal tract was weighed when it was full, after which it was then emptied. The heart, liver, kidney, pancreas perirenal fat were also collected and weighed. The carcass was split into two identical longitudinal halves and weighed to determine the quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Results The empty body weight, carcass weight and yield, and fat thickness decreased linearly (p0.05) for the rib eye area of animals that were fed palm kernel cake. There was a reduction in the commercial cut weight (p0.05). The sarcomere length decreased linearly (p<0.05), although an effect of the inclusion of palm kernel cake was not observed in other meat quality variables. It is worth noting that the red staining intensity, indicated as A, had a tendency to decrease (p = 0.050). Conclusion The inclusion of palm kernel cake up to 30% in the diet does not lead to changes in meat quality characteristics, except for sarcomere length. Nevertheless, carcass quantitative characteristics decrease with the use of palm kernel cake

Comportamiento epidemiológico de los factores de riesgo asociados a enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles en estudiantes universitarios

Describir el comportamiento epidemiológico de los factores de riesgo relacionados a enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles asociados a hipertrigliceridemia presentes en los estudiantes del primer año de la carrera de Médico y Cirujano de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Estudio descriptivo transversal realizado en 1097 estudiantes, en los cuales se aplicó el cuestionario del método paso a paso para la vigilancia de factores de riesgo de enfermedades crónicas (STEPS) modificado. Se encontró 610 (56%) estudiantes sexo femenino, la media de edad fue de 19 años (±1.56); en relación a los factores de riesgo modificables: 219 (20%) consumen cigarrillo, 274 (25%) consumen alcohol nocivamente, 838 (76%) se alimentan de forma inadecuada, 887 (81%) no practica actividad física significativa; se identificó que 405 (37%) presentaron un índice cintura – cadera considerado de riesgo. En cuanto a los factores asociados a la presencia de hipertrigliceridemia: obesidad se identificó en 147 (13%) estudiantes (X2 de 104.98 y OR de 7), obesidad central en 204 (19%) (X2 de 55.74 y OR de 3), el sobrepeso en 330 (30%) (X2 de 53.4727 y OR de 3), presión arterial alta en 397 (36%) (X2 de 18.63 y OR de 2), y glucemia alterada en ayunas alta en 198 (18%) (X2 de 8.3 y OR de 2). La hipertrigliceridemia se presentó en 411 estudiantes (37%), siendo la edad más afectada la de 19 años. La mayoría de estudiantes estudiados es de sexo femenino. Existe una alta prevalencia de factores de riesgo modificables asociados a enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles, de estos se identificó que factores como obesidad, obesidad central, sobrepeso, presión arterial alta y glucemia alterada en ayunas alta tienen una significativa asociación al desarrollo de hipertrigliceridemia, con un aumento del riesgo de 7, 3, 3, 2 y 2, respectivamente

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

La lección del Nunca Más. Una aproximación interdisciplinar al contenido y alcance jurídico internacional de la obligación estatal de garantizar la no repetición a través de la educación en memoria. Informe Final

Conceptualmente, el proyecto giró en torno a las garantías de no repetición, es decir: medidas orientadas a evitar futuros incumplimientos del Derecho internacional, de muy diversa naturaleza, pues virtualmente pueden consistir en cualquier cosa (siempre que no resulte abusiva), aunque las más habituales en la práctica internacional son la adopción/derogación/reforma de legislación o de medidas administrativas y las medidas de carácter institucional (relativas a la existencia, organización o funcionamiento de órganos del Estado). Cuando un Estado incumple una obligación internacional –y, por tanto, comete un hecho internacionalmente ilícito–, la principal consecuencia que surge para él es la obligación de reparar, en cualquier de sus tres formas –restitución (o, en su caso, compensación por equivalencia), indemnización o satisfacción (reparación moral)–. Además, en circunstancias excepcionales, tendría también la obligación de ofrecer garantías de no repetición1. Esas “circunstancias excepcionales” vienen en esencia delimitadas por la existencia de violaciones graves de normas imperativas de Derecho internacional, como ocurre cuando se lesionan de manera flagrante o sistemática derechos humanos fundamentales, prácticas que a su vez están tipificadas como crímenes internacionales (genocidio o crímenes contra la humanidad). Por tanto, cuando en el interior de un Estado se cometen atrocidades de esa naturaleza, bien por parte de las propias autoridades estatales, bien por parte de actores no estatales cuyo comportamiento no ha sido prevenido o reprimido por el Estado, surgiría para este la obligación de ofrecer garantías de no repetición