Multi-party Function Evaluation with Perfectly Private Audit Trail

We propose an efficient and simple protocol for the evaluation of functions getting their inputs from multiple parties in a way that guarantees the correctness of the computation to everyone and the perfect privacy of the inputs as long as the worker is honest

Stent for Life in Portugal: This initiative is here to stay

AIMS: Portugal has one of the lowest rates of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (p-PCI) in Western Europe. This study assessed the progress of Portuguese p-PCI performance indicators one year after Portugal joined the Stent for Life (SFL) initiative. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two national surveys were carried out, each covering a period of one month: the first when Portugal joined the SFL in 2011 (Moment Zero), and the second one year later (Moment One). A total of 397 consecutive patients with probable ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction were enrolled (201 at Moment Zero and 196 at Moment One) from 15 centers. During this period, the number of patients who arrived at a local hospital without p-PCI decreased (62-47%; p=0.004) and transportation to a p-PCI hospital by the National Institute for Medical Emergencies (INEM) increased significantly (13-37%; p<0.001). Shorter times to revascularization were observed, due to shorter patient delay (118-102 min; p=0.008). Door-to-balloon delay and system delay remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in performance indicators for p-PCI demonstrate the success of the first year of the local SFL plan, which was mainly focused on raising public awareness of the need to use the INEM emergency services, which has reduced patient delay, and on improving secondary transportation

Situação epidemiológica brasileira sobre as hepatites B e C no período de 2000 a 2016 / Brazilian epidemiological situation about hepatitis B and C in the period from 2000 to 2016

A presente pesquisa trata sobre as Hepatites Virais B e C. Objetivou-se: avaliar a situação epidemiológica no período de 2000 a 2016 das infecções por hepatites B e C; compreender a distribuição das hepatites B e C no Brasil; identificar as taxas de incidência/detecção das hepatites B e C; analisar o coeficiente de mortalidade das Hepatites B e C; conhecer a proporção de casos segundo a provável fonte de infecção e avaliar o impacto das medidas de controle. O tipo de investigação foi quantitativa, descritiva, documental e retrospectivo. A amostra incluiu dados coletados entre janeiro a setembro de 2017, diretamente do Sistema Nacional de Agravos e Notificações (SINAN), do Ministério da Saúde (MS) referentes ao período de 2000 a 2016, dentre outros. Nos resultados pode-se constatar que a Região Sul é a que mais detecta e notifica casos; o estado de Rondônia apresentou a maior taxa de incidência de Hepatite B; a faixa etária mais acometida pela hepatite B corresponde a 35 a 39 anos; o sexo mais afetado é o masculino durante todo o período pesquisado; a principal fonte de infecção da Hepatite B foi a via sexual; o coeficiente de mortalidade é maior no sexo masculino. Em relação à taxa de detecção de hepatite C por  região de residência, destacou-se a Região Sudeste; a taxa de incidência dos casos de hepatite C destacou-se a cidade de Porto Alegre; a taxa de detecção de caso de hepatite C segundo sexo, razão de sexo e ano de notificação foi maior em homens;  segundo a faixa etária, a hepatite C evidenciou alta em  maiores de 60 anos, porém quando se conta por sexo entre 45 e 49 em homens e 60 anos ou mais para mulheres; o compartilhamento de seringas e agulhas contaminadas entre usuário de drogas é a principal forma de disseminação da hepatite C com taxa de 50% de novos casos; o coeficiente de mortalidade de hepatite C destaca-se na Região Sul; o coeficiente de mortalidade por hepatite C segundo sexo, razão de sexos e ano de óbito é maior em homens. 

REDE CEGONHA: Avanços e Desafios para Gestão em Saúde no Brasil / REDE CEGONHA: Progress and Challenges for Health Management in Brazil

A estratégia governamental nacional intitulada rede cegonha (RC) foi implantada através da portaria n° 1.459 de 24/6/2011 e traz um novo modelo de atenção à Saúde Materno-infantil com uma assistência garantida à mulher desde o planejamento reprodutivo, passando pelo pré-natal, pré-parto, parto, pós parto e assistência infantil. É uma estratégia que apresenta caráter de acolhimento e resolutividade, onde é garantido a gestante o acesso ao pré-natal, parto e puerpério, garantindo inclusive o direito de um acompanhante durante todo o processo. A rede cegonha enfoca a redução da mortalidade materna e infantil. O artigo objetiva conhecer os avanços e desafios obtidos na implementação da Rede Cegonha. Trata-se de uma pesquisa bibliográfica em que foram utilizados levantamentos nas bases de dados: LILACS, SciELO, MEDLINE e BVS, com temas referentes à Rede cegonha. Utilizou-se os descritores: Rede Cegonha, Saúde da Mulher e Gravidez, de forma agrupada ou isolada. A amostra final desta revisão foi constituída por onze artigos científicos, selecionados pelos critérios de inclusão previamente estabelecidos. Desses, quatro foram encontrados na base de dados LILACS que estavam sobrepostos aos quatro pesquisados na SciELO e vinte e dois na BVS. O quadro 1 representa as especificações de cada um dos artigos. Sobre os tipos de estudos encontrados, observou-se que (27,27%) dos artigos tratava-se de artigos qualitativos, com abordagem quantiqualitativa, relato de experiência e revisão narrativa (27%), pesquisa documental e quantitativas somaram (45,73%). Dentro da política materno-infantil o Brasil já avançou bastante, mas precisa atingir ainda algumas metas, como reduzir as taxas de mortalidade materna, assim como conseguiu reduzir a mortalidade infantil. Já teve a iniciativa de criar várias estrategias para melhorar a assistência à saúde da mulher, que foram citadas nesse artigo e que por mais que precise de implementação já o coloca a frentes de alguns paises emergentes no que diz respeito a temática. Os desafios são muitos, pois não basta apenas formular políticas e não fazer a população conhecer os seus direitos. Precisa-se garantir os direitos da mulher e da criança, reduzir o número de cesareanas, diminuir a prática de medicalização no parto, dentre outros.

CHRONIC MILD STRESS: UM ESTUDO SOBRE A INTERAÇÃO ENTRE SUBMISSÃO AO PROTOCOLO DE ESTRESSORES, COMPORTAMENTO OPERANTE E PRIVAÇÃO

Chronic mild stress (CMS) is an experimental model that attempts to study the effects of the exposition to these stressors in the subjects’ behavior. In the present experiment, the purpose was to identify if whole protocol, and not some of the stressor stimuli specifically (water and food deprivation) is responsible for producing the effects frequently described in literature (decreased sweet substance ingestion and preference when submitted to the protocol). It was also verified the influence of operant concurrent schedule sessions (water-sucrose) in the effects considered. The results were described on sucrose ingestion and preference. Deprivation itself and incomplete protocol (with no deprivation conditions) produced effects on sucrose preference and ingestion. Besides, there was difference in sucrose ingestion between subjects submitted to the operant condition and subjects that did not go this condition (the ingestion showed to be greater for the first ones). According to these results, there are two possible suggestions: (a) neonatal handling can be responsible for the inexistency of the common effects of the protocol in the subjects’ behavior; and (b) the continuous exposure to sucrose can have similar effects to analgesia, making it possible that effects of the protocol are not produced.Keywords: stress protocol, deprivation, operant behavior, neonatal handling, exposure to sucrose.O chronic mild stress (CMS) é um modelo experimental para estudo dos efeitos da exposição a esses estressores no comportamento dos sujeitos. No presente estudo, pretendeu-se verificar se o protocolo completo, e não apenas alguns estressores apresentados isola¬damente (privação de água e privação de alimento), seria responsável pelos efeitos comumente descritos na literatura (diminuição na ingestão e preferência por substância doce pela submissão ao protocolo). Foi verificada, também, a interferência de sessões operantes em esquema concorrente (água-sacarose) nos efeitos considerados. Os resultados encontrados foram analisados com relação à ingestão de líquidos nos testes da gaiola viveiro. Tanto a privação, isoladamente, quanto o protocolo incompleto (sem privação) produziram efeitos na ingestão e preferência de líquidos. Além disso, foi encontrada diferença nos valores de ingestão entre os sujeitos que passaram por sessões operantes e os sujeitos que não passaram (valores maiores para os primeiros). Com relação aos resultados, duas sugestões são colocadas: (a) a manipulação neonatal pode ser uma variável responsável pela não produção de todos os efeitos do protocolo no comportamento dos sujeitos; e (b) a exposição prolongada à sacarose pode ter efeitos similares à analgesia nos sujeitos, fazendo com que os possíveis efeitos do protocolo de estressores não sejam produzidos. Palavras-chave: protocolo de estressores, privação, comportamento operante, manipulação neonatal, exposição à sacarose

The INTEGRAL Galactic bulge monitoring program: the first 1.5 years

The Galactic bulge region is a rich host of variable high-energy point sources. Since 2005, February 17 we are monitoring the source activity in this region about every three days with INTEGRAL. Thanks to the large field of view, the imaging capabilities and the sensitivity at hard X-rays, we are able to present for the first time a detailed homogeneous (hard) X-ray view of a sample of 76 sources in the Galactic bulge region. We describe the successful monitoring program and show the first results for a period of about one and a half year. We focus on the short (hour), medium (month) and long-term (year) variability in the 20-60 keV and 60-150 keV bands. When available, we discuss the simultaneous observations in the 3-10 keV and 10-25 keV bands. Per visibility season we detect 32/33 sources in the 20-60 keV band and 8/9 sources in the 60-150 keV band. On average, we find per visibility season one active bright (>~100 mCrab, 20-60 keV) black-hole candidate X-ray transient and three active weaker (<~25 mCrab, 20-60 keV) neutron star X-ray transients. Most of the time a clear anti-correlation can be seen between the soft and hard X-ray emission in some of the X-ray bursters. Hard X-ray flares or outbursts in X-ray bursters, which have a duration of the order of weeks, are accompanied by soft X-ray drops. On the other hand, hard X-ray drops can be accompanied by soft X-ray flares/outbursts. We found a number of new sources, IGR J17354-3255, IGR 17453-2853, IGR J17454-2703, IGR J17456-2901b, IGR J17536-2339, and IGR J17541-2252. We report here on some of the high-energy properties of these sources. The high-energy light curves of all the sources in the field of view, and the high-energy images of the region, are made available through the WWW at http://isdc.unige.ch/Science/BULGE/.Comment: 27 pages, 42 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract abridged. Tables 3,4,6,7 appear at the end. Images have been compressed and are reduced in quality; original PostScript images can be retrieved from http://isdc.unige.ch/~kuulkers/bulge

Citrus: A Perspective for Developing Phytomedicines for Neurodegenerative Diseases

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Citrus flavonoids can play a key role in their activity against several degenerative diseases and particularly brain diseases. In Brazil promising studies deposited in the patents “pharmaceutical formulation” form was obtained from the inclusion of Citrus sinensis L. (orange) essential oil with β-cyclodextrin and Citrus limon (lemon) compounds and their applications in therapy of Alzheimer’s disease. In this chapter, we report activities of active compounds present in the genus Citrus, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, insecticidal, and anticholinesterase activities. These activities are associated with some neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Pharmaceutical formulations containing such compounds (for example, inhibitors such as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) of C. limon (5,8-dimethoxy-psoralen and 5,7-dimethoxycumarin) and essential oil from C. sinensis oils are reported in this chapter. These results indicate that the effects of the essential oil and substances of Citrus species are very interesting for further isolation of AChE inhibitors that can be used in the formulation of natural products for neurodegenerative diseases

Band gap opening by two-dimensional manifestation of Peierls instability in graphene

Using first-principles calculations of graphene having high-symmetry distortion or defects, we investigate band gap opening by chiral symmetry breaking, or intervalley mixing, in graphene and show an intuitive picture of understanding the gap opening in terms of local bonding and antibonding hybridizations. We identify that the gap opening by chiral symmetry breaking in honeycomb lattices is an ideal two-dimensional (2D) extension of the Peierls metal-insulator transition in 1D linear lattices. We show that the spontaneous Kekule distortion, a 2D version of the Peierls distortion, takes place in biaxially strained graphene, leading to structural failure. We also show that the gap opening in graphene antidots and armchair nanoribbons, which has been attributed usually to quantum confinement effects, can be understood with the chiral symmetry breaking

Efficacy and safety of cannabidiol plus standard care vs standard care alone for the treatment of emotional exhaustion and burnout among frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic : a randomized clinical trial

IMPORTANCE Frontline health care professionals who work with patients with COVID-19 have an increased incidence of burnout symptoms. Cannabidiol (CBD) has anxiolytic and antidepressant properties and may be capable of reducing emotional exhaustion and burnout symptoms. OBJECTIVE To investigate the safety and efficacy of CBD therapy for the reduction of emotional exhaustion and burnout symptoms among frontline health care professionals working with patients with COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This prospective open-label single-site randomized clinical trial used a 1:1 block randomization design to examine emotional exhaustion and burnout symptoms among frontline health care professionals (physicians, nurses, and physical therapists) working with patients with COVID-19 at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School University Hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Participants were enrolled between June 12 and November 12, 2020. A total of 214 health care professionals were recruited and assessed for eligibility, and 120 participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio by a researcher who was not directly involved with data collection. INTERVENTIONS Cannabidiol, 300mg (150mg twice per day), plus standard care or standard care alone for 28 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was emotional exhaustion and burnout symptoms, whichwere assessed for 28 days using the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Brazilian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel. RESULTS A total of 120 participants were randomized to receive either CBD, 300mg, plus standard care (treatment arm; n = 61) or standard care alone (control arm; n = 59) for 28 days. Of those, 118 participants (59 participants in each arm; 79 women [66.9%]; mean age, 33.6 years [95%CI, 32.3- 34.9 years]) received the intervention and were included in the efficacy analysis. In the treatment arm, scores on the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory significantly decreased at day 14 (mean difference, 4.14 points; 95%CI, 1.47-6.80 points; partial eta squared [ηp 2] = 0.08), day 21 (mean difference, 4.34 points; 95%CI, 0.94-7.73 points; ηp 2 = 0.05), and day 28 (mean difference, 4.01 points; 95%CI, 0.43-7.59 points; ηp 2 = 0.04). However, 5 participants, all of whomwere in the treatment group, experienced serious adverse events: 4 cases of elevated liver enzymes (1 critical and 3 mild, with the mild elevations reported at the final 28-day assessment) and 1 case of severe pharmacodermia. In 2 of those cases (1 with critical elevation of liver enzymes and 1 with severe pharmacodermia), CBD therapy was discontinued, and the participants had a full recovery. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this study, CBD therapy reduced symptoms of burnout and emotional exhaustion among health care professionals working with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is necessary to balance the benefits of CBD therapy with potential undesired or adverse effects. Future double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials are needed to confirm the present findings

CENP-F stabilizes kinetochore-microtubule attachments and limits dynein stripping of corona cargoes

Accurate chromosome segregation demands efficient capture of microtubules by kinetochores and their conversion to stable bioriented attachments that can congress and then segregate chromosomes. An early event is the shedding of the outermost fibrous corona layer of the kinetochore following microtubule attachment. Centromere protein F (CENP-F) is part of the corona, contains two microtubule-binding domains, and physically associates with dynein motor regulators. Here, we have combined CRISPR gene editing and engineered separation-of-function mutants to define how CENP-F contributes to kinetochore function. We show that the two microtubule-binding domains make distinct contributions to attachment stability and force transduction but are dispensable for chromosome congression. We further identify a specialized domain that functions to limit the dynein-mediated stripping of corona cargoes through a direct interaction with Nde1. This antagonistic activity is crucial for maintaining the required corona composition and ensuring efficient kinetochore biorientation