Service Provisioning in Edge-Cloud Continuum Emerging Applications for Mobile Devices

Disruptive applications for mobile devices can be enhanced by Edge computing facilities. In this context, Edge Computing (EC) is a proposed architecture to meet the mobility requirements imposed by these applications in a wide range of domains, such as the Internet of Things, Immersive Media, and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. EC architecture aims to introduce computing capabilities in the path between the user and the Cloud to execute tasks closer to where they are consumed, thus mitigating issues related to latency, context awareness, and mobility support. In this survey, we describe which are the leading technologies to support the deployment of EC infrastructure. Thereafter, we discuss the applications that can take advantage of EC and how they were proposed in the literature. Finally, after examining enabling technologies and related applications, we identify some open challenges to fully achieve the potential of EC, and also research opportunities on upcoming paradigms for service provisioning. This survey is a guide to comprehend the recent advances on the provisioning of mobile applications, as well as foresee the expected next stages of evolution for these applications

Chromobacterium Violaceum Sepsis in Minas Gerais

Infection by Chromobacterium violaceum, known as chromobacteriosis, is a rare cause of severe sepsis with rapid spread and high mortality. In February 2009, a 14-year-old male patient was admitted to Santa Casa of Misericórdia of Juiz de Fora Hospital, and he deteriorated rapidly with severe sepsis and death by chromobacteriosis. In this article we discuss the main clinical fidings, sensitivity profie, and antimicrobial therapy of this case

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of lycopene in mice lungs exposed to cigarette smoke.

Lycopene is a carotenoid with knownantioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.Weaimed to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo effects of lycopene on reducing the redox imbalance and inflammation induced by cigarette smoke (CS). For the in vitro study, J774A.1 (macrophages) cells were incubated in the presence of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0, 10.0 and 25 ?Mof lycopene for 3, 6 and 24 h or in the presence of 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.625%, 1.25%, 2.25%, 5% and 10% cigarette smoke extract (CSE) for 3, 6 and 24 h to assess cell viability and measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). For the in vivo study, 40 micewere divided into 5 groups: a control exposed to ambient air (CG), a vehicle-control group that received 200 ?l of sunflower oil by orogastric gavage, a group exposed to CS and two groups administered lycopene (diluted in sunflower oil) at doses of either 25 or 50 mg/kg/day prior to exposure to CS (LY25+CS and LY50+CS). The total treatment time lasted 5 days. A cell viability decreasewas observed at 10- and 25-?Mconcentrations of lycopene in 3, 6 and 24 h compared with CG. Therewas an increase ofROS production in 24 h in CS compared with CG. Lycopene concentrations of 1 ?Mand 2 ?Mwere able to reduce the production of ROS in 24 h comparedwith CS. In the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, the total number of leukocytes increased in the CS group compared with the control groups (CG). Administrationwith lycopene at the highest dose suppressed this CS-induced increase in leukocytes. Lipid peroxidation and DNA damage increased in the CS group comparedwith that in the controls, and this increase was suppressed by lycopene at the highest dose. In contrast, superoxide dismutase activity decreased in the CS group compared with that in the controls. Catalase activity also increased in the CS group compared with that in both control groups, and this increase was suppressed in LY25+CS and LY50+CS. There was an increase in the levels of tumor necrosis factor-?, interferon-? and interleukin-10 after exposure to CS, and these effects were suppressed by both doses of lycopene. These data elucidate the role of lycopene as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent in these two models of short-term exposure to CS

Vaccine effectiveness of CoronaVac against COVID-19 among children in Brazil during the Omicron period.

Although severe COVID-19 in children is rare, they may develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome, long-COVID and downstream effects of COVID-19, including social isolation and disruption of education. Data on the effectiveness of the CoronaVac vaccine is scarce during the Omicron period. In Brazil, children between 6 to 11 years are eligible to receive the CoronaVac vaccine. We conducted a test-negative design to estimate vaccine effectiveness using 197,958 tests from January 21, 2022, to April 15, 2022, during the Omicron dominant period in Brazil among children aged 6 to 11 years. The estimated vaccine effectiveness for symptomatic infection was 39.8% (95% CI 33.7-45.4) at ≥14 days post-second dose. For hospital admission vaccine effectiveness was 59.2% (95% CI 11.3-84.5) at ≥14 days. Two doses of CoronaVac in children during the Omicron period showed low levels of protection against symptomatic infection, and modest levels against severe illness

Crude protein of tropical forage legumes grown in silvopastural system and full sol

Todos os textos, informa??es e resultados apresentados s?o de inteira responsabilidade dos autores.Ag?ncia financiadora para a realiza??o desse trabalho: Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG).Objetivou-se neste estudo avaliar o teor de prote?na bruta (PB) de tr?s leguminosas forrageiras tropicais cultivadas em dois sistemas: no sub-bosque de sistema silvipastoril (SSP) e a pleno sol. O experimento foi conduzido em Curvelo-MG, na fazenda experimental da UFVJM. Utilizou-se um delineamento em blocos casualizados em esquema fatorial 2 (SSP e pleno sol) x 3 esp?cies (estilosantes, kudzu tropical e macrotiloma) com 4 repeti??es. O teor de PB foi determinado nas por??es: planta inteira, folha e hastes das tr?s leguminosas forrageiras em fun??o dos tratamentos. Foi observado efeito de esp?cie para as por??es planta inteira e haste (P<0,05), n?o sendo verificado este efeito para a por??o folha. Os maiores teores de PB para planta inteira e haste foram encontrados nas esp?cies kudzu e estilosantes (P<0,05), os quais diferiram do teor de PB apresentado no macrotiloma. Para o teor de PB na folha observou-se efeito da intera??o esp?cie x sistema de cultivo, tendo o macrotiloma apresentado acr?scimo no valor de PB (P<0,05) quando cultivado no sub-bosque do SSP. O sombreamento no sub-bosque do sistema silvipastoril estudado n?o promoveu incremento no teor de prote?na bruta para nenhuma das esp?cies cultivadas.The aim of this study was to evaluate the crude protein (CP) of three tropical forage legumes grown in two systems: the silvopastoral system understory (SSP) and full sun. The experiment was conducted in Curvelo, Minas Gerais at the experimental farm of UFVJM. We used a randomized block design in a factorial 2 (SSP and full sun) x 3 species (estilosantes, tropical kudzu and macrotiloma) with 4 repetitions. The crude protein content was determined in portions: Whole plant, leaves and stems of three forage legumes in the treatments. Kind of effect was observed for whole plant and stem portions (P <0.05), not being checked for this purpose the sheet portion. The higher crude protein content for whole plant and stem were found on kudzu and estilosantes species (P <0.05), which differ from the CP content presented in macrotiloma. For the PB content in the leaf it was observed effect of interaction species x cropping system, with the macrotiloma presented increase in the amount of CP (P <0.05) when grown in SSP understory. The shading in the understory of the silvopastoral system studied did not promote increase in crude protein content for any of the cultivated species

Whole-genome sequencing of 1,171 elderly admixed individuals from Brazil

As whole-genome sequencing (WGS) becomes the gold standard tool for studying population genomics and medical applications, data on diverse non-European and admixed individuals are still scarce. Here, we present a high-coverage WGS dataset of 1,171 highly admixed elderly Brazilians from a census-based cohort, providing over 76 million variants, of which ~2 million are absent from large public databases. WGS enables identification of ~2,000 previously undescribed mobile element insertions without previous description, nearly 5 Mb of genomic segments absent from the human genome reference, and over 140 alleles from HLA genes absent from public resources. We reclassify and curate pathogenicity assertions for nearly four hundred variants in genes associated with dominantly-inherited Mendelian disorders and calculate the incidence for selected recessive disorders, demonstrating the clinical usefulness of the present study. Finally, we observe that whole-genome and HLA imputation could be significantly improved compared to available datasets since rare variation represents the largest proportion of input from WGS. These results demonstrate that even smaller sample sizes of underrepresented populations bring relevant data for genomic studies, especially when exploring analyses allowed only by WGS

CoronaVac vaccine is effective in preventing symptomatic and severe COVID-19 in pregnant women in Brazil: a test-negative case-control study.

BACKGROUND: More doses of CoronaVac have been administered worldwide than any other COVID-19 vaccine. However, the effectiveness of COVID-19 inactivated vaccines in pregnant women is still unknown. We estimated the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of CoronaVac against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 in pregnant women in Brazil. METHODS: We conducted a test-negative design study in all pregnant women aged 18-49 years with COVID-19-related symptoms in Brazil from March 15, 2021, to October 03, 2021, linking records of negative and positive SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to national vaccination records. We also linked records of test-positive cases with notifications of severe, hospitalised or fatal COVID-19. Using logistic regression, we estimated the adjusted odds ratio and VE against symptomatic COVID-19 and against severe COVID-19 by comparing vaccine status in test-negative subjects to test-positive symptomatic cases and severe cases. RESULTS: Of the 19,838 tested pregnant women, 7424 (37.4%) tested positive for COVID-19 and 588 (7.9%) had severe disease. Only 83% of pregnant women who received the first dose of CoronaVac completed the vaccination scheme. A single dose of the CoronaVac vaccine was not effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. The effectiveness of two doses of CoronaVac was 41% (95% CI 27.1-52.2) against symptomatic COVID-19 and 85% (95% CI 59.5-94.8) against severe COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: A complete regimen of CoronaVac in pregnant women was effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and highly effective against severe illness in a setting that combined high disease burden and marked COVID-19-related maternal deaths