Crimes cometidos contra animais de companhia: contributos para a atuação policial

Os abusos perpetrados sobre animais são uma das práticas mais antigas da humanidade. Apesar de fazerem parte da vida do homem desde sempre, este não tem sabido emprestar à sua relação com os animais a dignidade merecida, exercendo violência ou desfazendo-se deles de forma fria e cruel. Em 2014, os maus tratos e o abandono de animais de companhia passaram a ser considerados crime em Portugal. Mas este passo veio a revelar-se tímido e muito incompleto, não só porque apenas englobou uma pequena parte dos animais, mas também porque muitas questões, a montante e a jusante do problema, ficaram por abordar. Assim, o que parecia um salto evolucional qualitativo na nossa sociedade serviu, essencialmente, para nos relembrar que não estamos ainda preparados para lidar com a questão dos animais de forma competente e integrada, envolvendo todas as entidades com responsabilidades. A Polícia de Segurança Pública, enquanto ator central nesta matéria, tem vindo a melhorar nas várias fases da sua intervenção, desde o recebimento das denúncias, passando pela averiguação no terreno, gestão do local do crime e investigação criminal. No entanto, são ainda (boas) práticas demasiado isoladas e dispersas, que cumpre sistematizar, enriquecer e disseminar a nível nacional.Abuse perpetrated on animals are one of mankind’s oldest practices. Despite being part of man’s life since always, he has not been able to give his relationship with animals the deserved dignity, exercising violence or getting rid of them in a cold and cruel way. In 2014, pet animal abuse and abandonment became a crime in Portugal. But this step revealed itself shy and very incomplete, not only because it only included a small part of animals, but also because many issues, upstream and downstream the problem, were not addressed. Therefore, what seemed to be a quality evolutionary leap in our society served, essentially, to remind us that we are not yet prepared to deal with the animal issue in a competent and integrated way, involving every authority with responsibilities. Polícia de Segurança Pública, as a central actor in this matter, has been improving in the several stages of its intervention, from receiving complaints, through ground check, crime scene management and criminal investigation. However, these are still too isolated and dispersed (good) practices, in need of systematize, enrich and disseminate nationwide.N/

Variabilidade espacial da distribuição da cobertura vegetal após colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a variabilidade espacial na distribuição da cobertura vegetal, no sistema de colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar. O experimento foi conduzido na Fazenda Santa Clara, localizada em Lambari D?Oeste, MT, em uma área experimental de 9,75 ha, sob cultivo de cana-de-açúcar, demarcada em 70 pontos. Foram quantificadas a cobertura vegetal (kg.ha-1) e as brotações, as quais foram analisadas pela estatística descritiva e geoestatística. Os resultados mostraram que existe variabilidade espacial na distribuição da cobertura vegetal sobre o solo após a colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar

Partial replacement of fish oil by soybean oil on lipid distribution and liver histology in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) juveniles

A 12-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of fish oil replacement by soybean oil, on lipid distribution and liver histology of two commercially important finfish species: rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). Sea bass (16.2 +/- 0.5 g; mean +/- SD) and rainbow trout (52.1 +/- 0.5 g) juveniles were fed one of three isonitrogenous (500 g kg(-1) CP) and isoenergetic (19 kJ g(-1)) diets, containing 0% (control, diet A), 25% (diet B) and 50% (diet C) soybean oil. At the end of the experiment, lipid deposition was evaluated in muscle, liver and viscera. Cholesterol and triglycerides levels were also determined in plasma. Tissue total, neutral and polar lipid composition (g kg(-1) total lipids) showed no significant differences within species, regardless the dietary treatment. The same trend was observed for plasma parameters (P > 0.05). Viscera were the preferential tissue of lipid deposition, with 252-276 and 469-513 g kg(-1) total lipid content in trout and sea bass, respectively. Dietary fish oil replacement had no effect on either hepatic lipid droplets accumulation or degree and pattern of vacuolization in the observed liver sections. These data suggest that both sea bass and trout can be fed diets containing up to 50% soybean oil without adverse effects on tissue lipid composition or liver histology

Infective Endocarditis Complicated by Large Aortic Pseudoaneurysm after Cardiac Surgery

A 66-year-old female with Streptococcus viridans aortic and tricuspid infective endocarditis develops, during the course of antibiotic therapy, rupture of a right coronary sinus of Valsalva aneurysm to the right ventricle. An urgent cardiac surgery is preformed with implantation of a mechanical aortic prosthesis and a right coronary sinus plasty. Six months later a huge aortic pseudoaneurysm is diagnosed and she is submitted to a second uneventful surgery. A review is done for the significant features with discussion of diagnosis and therapy

A cumulative risk model of child physical maltreatment potential: findings from a community-based study

"Published online before print November 20, 2015"Previous studies have identified the predictive risk factors of child physical maltreatment (CPM). However, a significant number of these studies assessed risk factors in isolation. The cumulative risk hypothesis postulates that health problems are caused by the accumulation of risk factors, independently of the presence or absence of specific risk indicators. Few studies examined the effect of cumulative risk on CPM potential. This study aimed to test two concurrent models of cumulative risk of CPM potential by investigating whether CPM potential was better predicted by a threshold cumulative risk model or a linear cumulative risk model. Data from the National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect in Portugal were used. Parents of school-age children (N = 796) answered to self-report measures regarding sociodemographic variables, history of child maltreatment, psychological distress, and CPM potential. A cumulative risk index was computed, comprising 10 dichotomized risk factors. Evidence for a threshold cumulative effect was found. Additional bivariate logistic regressions revealed that the odds for high-potential CPM were dramatically higher for those parents with six or more risk factors when compared with parents with any one risk factor. By testing and confirming a threshold cumulative effect on CPM potential, it was possible to find a "trigger point" from which a dramatic increase in child physical maltreatment potential occurs.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology through a research grant to the second author (POCTI/PSI/14276/1998

Zika virus tropism and interactions in myelinating neural cell cultures: CNS cells and myelin are preferentially affected

The recent global outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has been linked to severe neurological disorders affecting the peripheral and central nervous systems (PNS and CNS, respectively). The pathobiology underlying these diverse clinical phenotypes are the subject of intense research; however, even the principal neural cell types vulnerable to productive Zika infection remain poorly characterised. Here we used CNS and PNS myelinating cultures from wild type and Ifnar1 knockout mice to examine neuronal and glial tropism and short-term consequences of direct infection with a Brazilian variant of ZIKV. Cell cultures were infected pre- or post-myelination for various intervals, then stained with cell-type and ZIKV-specific antibodies. In bypassing systemic immunity using ex vivo culture, and the type I interferon response in Ifnar1 deficient cells, we were able to evaluate the intrinsic infectivity of neural cells. Through systematic quantification of ZIKV infected cells in myelinating cultures, we found that ZIKV infection is enhanced in the absence of the type I interferon responses and that CNS cells are considerably more susceptible to infection than PNS cells. In particular, we demonstrate that CNS axons and myelinating oligodendrocytes are especially vulnerable to injury. These results have implications for understanding the pathobiology of neurological symptoms associated with ZIKV infection. Furthermore, we provide a quantifiable ex vivo infection model that can be used for fundamental and therapeutic studies on viral neuroinvasion and its consequences

Endocardite Aguda Bi-Valvular Esquerda por Estafilococo Aureus Meticilino-Resistente com Complicações Cardíaca, Cerebral, Renal e Sepsis

Infective endocarditis (IE) is now rare in developed countries, but its prevalence is higher in elderly patients with prosthetic valves, diabetes, renal impairment, or heart failure. An increase in health-care associated IE (HCAIE) has been observed due to invasive maneuvers (30% of cases). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus are the most common agents in HCAIE, causing high mortality and morbidity. We review complications of IE and its therapy, based on a patient with acute bivalvular left-sided MRSA IE and a prosthetic aortic valve, aggravated by congestive heart failure, stroke, acute immune complex glomerulonephritis, Candida parapsilosis fungémia and death probably due to Serratia marcescens sepsis. The HCAIE was assumed to be related to three temporally associated in-hospital interventions considered as possible initial etiological mechanisms: overcrowding in the hospital environment,iv quinolone therapy and red blood cell transfusion. Later in the clinical course,C. parapsilosis and S. marcescens septicemia were considered to be possible secondary etiological mechanisms of HCAIE

Selective albumin-binding surfaces modified with a thrombin-inhibiting peptide

Blood-contacting medical devices have been associated with severe clinical complications, such as thrombus formation, triggered by the activation of the coagulation cascade due to the adsorption of certain plasma proteins on the surface of biomaterials. Hence, the coating of such surfaces with antithrombotic agents has been used to increase biomaterial haemocompatibility. Biomaterial-induced clotting may also be decreased by albumin adsorption from blood plasma in a selective and reversible way, since this protein is not involved in the coagulation cascade. In this context, this paper reports that the immobilization of the thrombin inhibitor D-Phe-Pro-D-Arg-D-Thr-CONH2 (fPrt) onto nanostructured surfaces induces selective and reversible adsorption of albumin, delaying the clotting time when compared to peptide-free surfaces. fPrt, synthesized with two glycine residues attached to the N-terminus (GGfPrt), was covalently immobilized onto self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) having different ratios of carboxylate-hexa(ethylene glycol)- and tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated thiols (EG6-COOH/EG3) that were specifically designed to control GGfPrt orientation, exposure and density at the molecular level. In solution, GGfPrt was able to inactivate the enzymatic activity of thrombin and to delay plasma clotting time in a concentration-dependent way. After surface immobilization, and independently of its concentration, GGfPrt lost its selectivity to thrombin and its capacity to inhibit thrombin enzymatic activity against the chromogenic substrate n-p-tosyl-Gly-Pro-Arg-p-nitroanilide. Nevertheless, surfaces with low concentrations of GGfPrt could delay the capacity of adsorbed thrombin to cleave fibrinogen. In contrast, GGfPrt immobilized in high concentrations was found to induce the procoagulant activity of the adsorbed thrombin. However, all surfaces containing GGfPrt have a plasma clotting time similar to the negative control (empty polystyrene wells), showing resistance to coagulation, which is explained by its capacity to adsorb albumin in a selective and reversible way. This work opens new perspectives to the improvement of the haemocompatibility of blood-contacting medical devices