Physical Activity in Rural African School-Aged Children and Adolescents

In industrialized countries, reduced levels of physical activity (PA) associated with increased prevalence of the so-called “hypokinetic diseases” stimulates the interest in research in PA and its correlate

Sarcoidose disseminada: pulmonar, endobrônquica e gástrica

Sarcoidosis is a chronic granulomatous idiopathic systemic disease. Although the pulmonary involvement is the most common form of the disease, sarcoidosis can affect the airways, determining mucosal nodularity and even bronchostenosis. Gastrointestinal involvement is very rare and it is primarily manifested as gastric sarcoidosis. The diagnosis is based on symptoms, radiological findings and histopathological examination of tissue biopsies. In this work, we describe a case of pulmonary, endobronchial and gastric sarcoidosis in the same patient and discuss the approach to this rare presentation of the diseaseA sarcoidose é uma doença granulomatosa crônica idiopática, de caráter sistêmico. Embora o acometimento pulmonar seja a forma mais comum da doença, a sarcoidose pode afetar as vias aéreas, determinando nodulações de mucosa e até estenose brônquica. O envolvimento do trato gastrointestinal é bastante raro e se manifesta principalmente como sarcoidose gástrica. O diagnóstico se baseia na sintomatologia, nos achados radiológicos e na análise histopatológica das biópsias teciduais. No presente trabalho, descrevemos um caso de sarcoidose pulmonar, endobrônquica e gástrica em uma mesma paciente e discutimos a abordagem dessa rara apresentação da doenç

Níveis e padrões de actividade física de crianças e jovens de Calanga: da simples descrição à sua relevância em termos funcionais

A actividade física habitual (AF) é um comportamento associado ao estado de saúde dos sujeitos de qualquer idade. Os níveis de AF das populações de países africanos num estado de transição económica são pouco conhecidos. O propósito central deste capítulo foi o estudar de níveis de AF de crianças e adolescentes de uma comunidade rural de Moçambique (Calanga). A AF física foi avaliada recorrendo ao monitor de AF Actigraph modelo 7164 e a um questionário com questões acerca do modo e frequência de AF

Índice de sustentabilidade agroambiental para o perímetro irrigado Ayres de Souza.

Uma análise integrada do atual uso dos recursos naturais do Perímetro Irrigado de Ayres de Souza, localizado no Vale do Acaraú, Ceará, foi realizada através do desenvolvimento de um índice de sustentabilidade agroecológica. Os dados dessa pesquisa foram oriundos de questionários aplicados a 33 produtores agrícolas beneficiados pelo projeto de irrigação. Os indicadores de sustentabilidade foram estimados pelo emprego de análise fatorial, método da análise fatorial/análise de componentes principais. O índice de sustentabilidade estimado a partir dos indicadores selecionados registrou uma situação de sustentabilidade fragilizada ou de insustentabilidade reversível. As unidades produtivas apresentaram um porcentual de 60,6% com alguma sustentabilidade; e os demais 39,4% estão em condições de insustentabilidade. Os resultados também mostraram que os fatores dominantes do índice de sustentabilidade foram: nível da atividade agrícola praticada, agricultura familiar, condições atuais do sistema água-solo e infraestrutura,fontes alternativas de renda e experiência em tratos culturais

Effect of guar gum on the physicochemical, thermal, rheological and textural properties of green edam cheese

In attempts to produce a low-fat cheese with a rheology and texture similar to that of a full-fat cheese, guar gum (within 0.0025–0.01%; w/v, final concentration) was added to low-fat milk. The obtained cheeses were characterised regarding their physicochemical, thermal, rheological and textural properties. Control cheeses were also produced with low and full-fat milk. The physicochemical properties of the guar gum modified cheeses were similar to those of the low-fat control. No significant differences were detected in the thermal properties (concerning the enthalpy and profile of water desorption) among all types of cheeses. The rheological behaviour of the 0.0025% modified cheese was very similar to the full-fat control. Overall, no trend was observed in the texture profile (hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and elasticity) of the modified cheeses versus guar gum concentration, as well as in comparison with the control groups, suggesting that none of the studied polysaccharide concentrations simulated the textural functions of fat in Edam cheese

Improving the functionality and performance of AA2024 corrosion sensing coatings with nanocontainers

The compatibility between nanocontainers and coating formulations is perhaps the last frontier in the quest for functional coatings. Sensing coatings for early metallic corrosion detection is an urgently needed technology by aeronautical companies to mitigate the costs of corrosion through continuous monitoring. In this work, we revisit phenolphthalein encapsulated silica nanocapsules, which were incorporated into a water-based lacquer, resulting in a novel corrosion sensing coating for aluminum alloy 2024 with improved functionality and standard performance. The ability of the coatings to detect corrosion by color change was investigated by immersion and salt-spray tests. During these tests, it was clearly demonstrated that encapsulation of the active compound is essential to obtain a functional coating, since the shell of the silica nanocapsules minimizes the detrimental interaction of the active compound with the coating formulation. The compatibility between nanostructured additives and coatings is almost never taken into consideration in the literature. Herein this aspect evidences the positive effects of active agent encapsulation, which is explored in terms of reactivity, viscoelastic properties, curing, thermal stability, release and leaching studies, hardness, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. Computer simulations based on the density functional theory and periodic structural models were performed to unveil the interaction mode of phenolphthalein with the metallic surface.This work was developed in the scope of the project CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013), financed by national funds through the FCT/ MEC and when applicable co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreements No 645662. It was also financed in the framework of the project reference PTDC/QEQQFI/ 4719/2014, Project 3599 – Promover a Produção Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e a Constituição de Redes Temáticas (3599-PPCDT) and FEDER funds through COMPETE 2020, Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI). The authors also thank financial support from FCT and COMPETE (Programa Investigador FCT). JT thanks FCT for the research grant IF/00347/ 2013.publishe

Interventions of Brazil's more doctors program through continuing education for Primary Health Care

IntroductionBrazil's More Doctors Program, in its training axis, aims to improve medical training for Primary Health Care through interventions related to the reality of the territory. The research presented here analyzed the interventions implemented by Brazil's More Doctors Program physicians, members of the Family Health Continuing Education Program, and the relationship with Primary Health Care programmatic actions.MethodologyThe research conducted made use of Text and Data Mining and content analysis. In total, 2,159 reports of interventions from 942 final papers were analyzed. The analysis process was composed of the formation of the corpus; exploration of the materials through text mining; and analysis of the results by inference and interpretation.ResultsIt was observed that 57% of the physicians worked in the Northeast Region, which was also the region with the most interventions (66.8%). From the analysis of the bigrams, trigrams, and quadrigrams, four constructs were formed: “women's health,” “child health,” “chronic non-communicable diseases,” and “mental health.” Terms related to improving access, quality of care, teamwork, and reception were also present among the N-grams.DiscussionThe interventions carried out are under the programmatic actions recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health for Primary Health Care, also addressing cross-cutting aspects such as Reception, Teamwork, Access Improvement, and Quality of Care, which suggests that the training experience in the Family Health Continuing Education Program reflects on the way these professionals act