A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Brazilian and United Kingdom University Students’ Pre-Drinking Behaviour and Alcohol Use During Nights out

This thesis explores students’ drinking behaviour in nightlife settings. In many parts of the world, much of the burden of alcohol is related to risky alcohol consumption amongst students, which often occurs during a night out, including during pre-drinking (drinking at home or other private settings before going out). In several countries, creating a safer nightlife environment has become synonymous with reducing levels of violence, injury and other health problems associated with high levels of alcohol use. This research was conducted in England, where policies and interventions to prevent nightlife-related harms have been implemented, and in Brazil, where there is no well-established prevention activity in place. A high prevalence of pre-drinking and related harms can be found across many countries, including Brazil and the UK. Hence, it is important to understand this phenomenon in more detail considering the different policy and cultural factors that might affect such behaviour, in order to inform effective policies and practices aimed at preventing and reducing pre-drinking and its associated harms across countries with diverse nightlife environments and drinking cultures. Thus, a mixed-method research study was undertaken, comprising a survey, completed by 1,151 Brazilian university students and 424 UK university students, and focus group interviews with 25 Brazilian students currently living in the UK, aimed at exploring cross-cultural differences in drinking behaviours within nightlife settings from a socio-ecological perspective. Differences in the prevalence of pre-drinking and alcohol consumption were found between Brazilian and UK respondents. The findings suggested that more UK students pre-drink, yet Brazilian students drink more than UK students when they do pre-drink. Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards existing alcohol policies (e.g. drink-drive incidents; restrictions on alcohol sales and drunk and disorderly behaviour) differed between the two countries, which might have an influence on their drinking behaviour in a nightlife context. Brazilian students’ views suggested that the UK’s heavy drinking culture is influenced by the interaction of many factors, including the perceived British students’ cultural drinking norms focused on drinking large amounts of alcohol when compared with Brazilian students and the fact that according to Brazilian participants’ views British students have more positive outcome expectations towards drunkenness. Brazilian participants’ views also iii suggested that the acceptance of drunkenness amongst students is higher in the UK, with an emphasis on British students intentionally getting extremely drunk for entertainment. For Brazilian participants getting drunk was suggested not to be a priority for having a good night out, rather it was perceived to be a consequence for losing control of drinking. Moreover, Brazilian students’ perceived effectiveness of alcohol policy also differed between the two countries, with emphasis on lax law enforcement in Brazil. Effective policies targeted towards reducing drunkenness and its risks within nightlife settings need to be put in place particularly in Brazil, where law implementation and strict enforcement are not the rules, resulting in a culture of drinking that can be harmful to university students

Characterization of acerola byproduct flour during storage in different packaging.

Considering the nutritional richness, the presence of bioactive compounds and the potential for the processing and utilization of acerola by-products, the objective was to evaluate the physico-chemical transformations that occur during the storage of a flour obtained from the industrial byproduct of acerola in different types of packaging.The flour was produced by drying the by-product in an oven with air circulation at 65 ° C, crushed, sieved (16 mesh) and stored for up to 180 days in the following packages: vacuum bag (VAC), ethylene polytetraphthalate PET), polystyrene (PLT) pots and polypropylene (PP) pots and analyzed every 45 days.The parameters of pH, moisture, water activity (Aqualab), acidity in citric acid, glucose reducing sugars, color (L* Chroma and Hue), ascorbic acid (Tillmans method), anthocyanins, flavonoids, total phenols (Folin-Ciocalteau) and antioxidant potential (DPPH) were determined, whose results at time 0 were 3.56; 10.55 g 100g; 0.39; 5.36 g 100g-1; 24.63 g 100g-1; 36.60; 26.85; 63.76; 964.80 mg 100g-1; 15.66 mg 100g-1; 149.30 mg 100g-1; 1319.55 mg 100g- 1; 252.40 μg mL-1 (EC-50), respectively. There was significant interaction for storage period x packaging in most variables except pH, potential antioxidants and Chroma that were influenced only by storage time. In general, most of the packaging treatments presented a linear and gradual increase of humidity (66.16%) and a gradual and linear decrease in the values of L* (-4.78%) and sugar content in glucose (-11.73%) and anthocyanins (-39.85%) at the end of storage, however, these effects were generally reduced in vacuum packaging, since this packaging provides a physical barrier between product and environment, reducing the exchange of gases and vapors between the two environments, allowing the reduction of enzyme activity and oxidation of the substrate.Resumo 112414

High-order harmonic generation with a strong laser field and an attosecond-pulse train: the Dirac Delta comb and monochromatic limits

In recent publications, it has been shown that high-order harmonic generation can be manipulated by employing a time-delayed attosecond pulse train superposed to a strong, near-infrared laser field. It is an open question, however, which is the most adequate way to approximate the attosecond pulse train in a semi-analytic framework. Employing the Strong-Field Approximation and saddle-point methods, we make a detailed assessment of the spectra obtained by modeling the attosecond pulse train by either a monochromatic wave or a Dirac-Delta comb. These are the two extreme limits of a real train, which is composed by a finite set of harmonics. Specifically, in the monochromatic limit, we find the downhill and uphill sets of orbits reported in the literature, and analyze their influence on the high-harmonic spectra. We show that, in principle, the downhill trajectories lead to stronger harmonics, and pronounced enhancements in the low-plateau region. These features are analyzed in terms of quantum interference effects between pairs of quantum orbits, and compared to those obtained in the Dirac-Delta limit.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures (eps files). To appear in Laser Physic

Effects of hyaluronic acid injections on pain and functioning in patients affected by tendinopathies: a narrative review

BACKGROUND: Tendinopathies are overuse tendon injuries showing load-dependant pain, stiffness, weakness of movement in the affected area, and impairment in the movements. The scientific interest on the role of Hyaluronic Acid (HA) for the management of tendinopathies has been increased due to its anti-inflammatory and lubricative properties. OBJECTIVE: To collect evidence regarding the effectiveness and safety of HA injections in reducing pain in patients affected by tendinopathies. METHODS: A scientific literature search was conducted using the PubMed, Medline and PEDro electronic databases. The databases were searched since their inception until July 2021. The search was limited to English language articles. Different combinations of the terms and MeSH terms 'tendinopathy', 'tendinosis', 'tendinitis', 'hyaluronic acid', 'hyaluronate', 'infiltration', 'hyaluronic injections', 'viscosupplementation' connected with various boolean operators were used for other electronic databases. RESULTS: One hundred and one records were identified from the selected databases plus three additional papers identified by the authors through other sources. After removing duplicated papers and title/abstract screening, 19 studies were included in our review (eight papers on shoulder, three on elbow, four on hand, one on knee, and three on ankle). CONCLUSION: The results showed that none of the studies report severe adverse effects and most of them support the use of HA injections in tendinopathies, with a special attention to pain reduction and functional assessment. Further studies are warranted to better investigate effects and methods of administration of HA in tendinopathies

Multiphysics simulation of corona discharge induced ionic wind

Ionic wind devices or electrostatic fluid accelerators are becoming of increasing interest as tools for thermal management, in particular for semiconductor devices. In this work, we present a numerical model for predicting the performance of such devices, whose main benefit is the ability to accurately predict the amount of charge injected at the corona electrode. Our multiphysics numerical model consists of a highly nonlinear strongly coupled set of PDEs including the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow, Poisson's equation for electrostatic potential, charge continuity and heat transfer equations. To solve this system we employ a staggered solution algorithm that generalizes Gummel's algorithm for charge transport in semiconductors. Predictions of our simulations are validated by comparison with experimental measurements and are shown to closely match. Finally, our simulation tool is used to estimate the effectiveness of the design of an electrohydrodynamic cooling apparatus for power electronics applications.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figure

Oxygen–ozone therapy in the rehabilitation field: state of the art on mechanisms of action, safety and effectiveness in patients with musculoskeletal disorders

In recent years, the interest in oxygen–ozone (O2O3) therapy application has considerably increased in the field of rehabilitation. Despite its widespread use in common clinical practice, the biochemical effects of O2O3 are still far from being understood, although its chemical properties seem to play a pivotal role in exerting its positive effects on different pathological conditions. Indeed, the effectiveness of O2O3 therapy might be partly due to the moderate oxidative stress produced by O3 interactions with biological components. O2O3 therapy is widely used as an adjuvant therapeutic option in several pathological conditions characterized by chronic inflammatory processes and immune over‐activation, and most musculoskeletal disorders share these pathophysiological processes. The present comprehensive review depicts the state‐of‐the‐art on the mechanisms of action, safety and effectiveness of O2O3 therapy in the complex scenario of the management of musculoskeletal disorders. Taken together, our findings suggest that O2O3 therapy seems to reduce pain and improve functioning in patients affected by low back pain and knee osteoarthritis, as reported by several studies in the literature. However, to date, further studies are warranted to clearly investigate the therapeutic effects of this promising therapy on other musculoskeletal disorders in the field of rehabilitation

Non-surgical and rehabilitative interventions in patients with frozen shoulder: umbrella review of systematic reviews

Background: Frozen shoulder (FS) is a painful condition characterized by progressive loss of shoulder function with passive and active range of motion reduction. To date, there is still no consensus regarding its rehabilitative treatment for pain management. Purpose: The aim of this umbrella review of systematic reviews was to analyze the literature, investigating the effects of non-surgical and rehabilitative interventions in patients suffering from FS. Patients and Methods: A review of the scientific literature was carried out from 2010 until April 2020 using the following search databases: PubMed, Medline, PEDro, Scopus and Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews. A combination of terms was used for the search: frozen shoulder OR adhesive capsulitis AND systematic review OR meta-analysis AND rehabilitation NOT surgery NOT surgical intervention. We included systematic reviews that specifically dealt with adults with FS, treated with non-surgical approaches. All the systematic reviews and meta-analyses included in the study that met the inclusion criteria were assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews as a quality assessment tool. Results: Out of 49 studies, only 14 systematic reviews respected the eligibility criteria and were included in this study. Their results showed an important heterogeneity of the studies and all of them agree on the lack of high-quality scientific work to prove unequivocally which rehabilitative treatment is better than the other. Due to this lack of gold standard criteria, there may be also a heterogeneity in the diagnosis of the reviews analyzed. Conclusion: Non-surgical and rehabilitative interventions are undoubtedly effective in treating FS, but there is no evidence that one approach is more effective than the other regarding the methods reported. Future high-quality RCTs are needed to standardize the treatment modalities of each physiotherapy intervention to provide strong recommendations in favor