A Fish Production Problem Probably Related to Free Market Competition

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MARGOT: Dynamic IoT Resource Discovery for HADR Environments

Smart City services leverage sophisticated IT architectures whose assets are deployed in dynamic and heterogeneous computing and communication scenarios. Those services are particularly interesting for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations in urban environments, which could improve Situation Awareness by exploiting the Smart City IT infrastructure. To this end, an enabling requirement is the discovery of the available Internet-of-Things (IoT) resources, including sensors, actuators, services, and computing resources, based on a variety of criteria, such as geographical location, proximity, type of device, type of capability, coverage, resource availability, and communication topology / quality of network links. To date, no single standard has emerged that has been widely adopted to solve the discovery challenge. Instead, a variety of different standards have been proposed and cities have either adopted one that is convenient or reinvented a new standard just for themselves. Therefore, enabling discovery across different standards and administrative domains is a fundamental requirement to enable HADR operations in Smart Cities. To address these challenges, we developed MARGOT (Multi-domain Asynchronous Gateway Of Things), a comprehensive solution for resource discovery in Smart City environments that implements a distributed and federated architecture and supports a wide range of discovery protocols

Identification of murine phosphodiesterase 5A isoforms and their functional characterization in HL-1 cardiac cell line

Phosphodiesterase 5A (PDE5A) specifically degrades the ubiquitous second messenger cGMP and experimental and clinical data highlight its important role in cardiac diseases. To address PDE5A role in cardiac physiology, three splice variants of the PDE5A were cloned for the first time from mouse cDNA library (mPde5a1, mPde5a2 and mPde5a3). The predicted amino acidic sequences of the three murine isoforms are different in the N-terminal regulatory domain. mPDE5A isoforms were transfected in HEK293T cells and they showed high affinity for cGMP and similar sensitivity to sildenafil inhibition. RT-PCR analysis showed that mPde5a1, mPde5a2 and mPde5a3 had differential tissue distribution. In the adult heart, mPde5a1 and mPde5a2 were expressed at different levels whereas mPde5a3 was undetectable. Overexpression of mPDE5As induced an increase of HL-1 number cells which progress into cell cycle. mPDE5A1 and mPDE5A3 overexpression increased the number of polyploid and binucleated cells, mPDE5A3 widened HL-1 areas and modulated hypertrophic markers more efficiently respect to the other mPDE5A isoforms. Moreover, mPDE5A isoforms had differential subcellular localization: mPDE5A1 was mainly localized in the cytoplasm, mPDE5A2 and mPDE5A3 were also nuclear localized. These results demonstrate for the first time the existence of three PDE5A isoforms in mouse and highlight their potential role in the induction of hypertrophy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

RISK-FACTORS ASSOCIATED TO LOW SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

ESCOLA PAULISTA MED,DEPT PEDIAT,São Paulo,BRAZILESCOLA PAULISTA MED,DEPT PEDIAT,São Paulo,BRAZILWeb of Scienc

Tecnologias de Informação em Saúde: Desafios e Perspectivas a Partir da Avaliação dos Usuários da Rede Pública de Blumenau (SC)

O presente trabalho avalia a satisfação dos usuários/pacientes após a implantação de um prontuário eletrônico na rede pública de saúde de Blumenau, município com cerca de 310 mil habitantes, situado no Estado de Santa Catarina, no Sul do Brasil. Desde uma perspectiva metodológica, trata-se de uma pesquisa básica (natureza do estudo), quantitativa (abordagem do problema) e descritiva (objetivos). Quanto aos procedimentos técnicos para a realização do trabalho, empregou-se a pesquisa bibliográfica e o levantamento ou survey. A análise dos dados coletados baseou-se em técnicas da estatística descritiva, analítica e inferencial, incluindo a Modelagem de Equação Estrutural (MEE). Os resultados do estudo confirmam a estreita relação que existe entre a satisfação do usuário com o padrão de serviço prestado e a sua atitude frente a uma inovação, com destaque para a influência de variáveis como o sexo e a faixa etária dos entrevistados. Nesse sentido, conclui-se que a participação da sociedade na implantação das novas tecnologias contribuiria para o aperfeiçoamento de tais processos na área de assistência sanitária e ofereceria novas perspectivas de avanços no setor

Tecnologias de Informação em Saúde: Desafios e Perspectivas a Partir da Avaliação dos Usuários da Rede Pública de Blumenau (SC)

O presente trabalho avalia a satisfação dos usuários/pacientes após a implantação de um prontuário eletrônico na rede pública de saúde de Blumenau, município com cerca de 310 mil habitantes, situado no Estado de Santa Catarina, no Sul do Brasil. Desde uma perspectiva metodológica, trata-se de uma pesquisa básica (natureza do estudo), quantitativa (abordagem do problema) e descritiva (objetivos). Quanto aos procedimentos técnicos para a realização do trabalho, empregou-se a pesquisa bibliográfica e o levantamento ou survey. A análise dos dados coletados baseou-se em técnicas da estatística descritiva, analítica e inferencial, incluindo a Modelagem de Equação Estrutural (MEE). Os resultados do estudo confirmam a estreita relação que existe entre a satisfação do usuário com o padrão de serviço prestado e a sua atitude frente a uma inovação, com destaque para a influência de variáveis como o sexo e a faixa etária dos entrevistados. Nesse sentido, conclui-se que a participação da sociedade na implantação das novas tecnologias contribuiria para o aperfeiçoamento de tais processos na área de assistência sanitária e ofereceria novas perspectivas de avanços no setor

Long-term effects of the new direct antiviral agents (DAAs) therapy for HCV-related mixed cryoglobulinaemia without renal involvement: a multicentre open-label study

Objective. To investigate the long-term effects and safety of new direct antiviral agents (DAAs) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related mixed cryoglobulinaemia (MC) without renal involvement.Methods. The study enrolled 22 consecutive patients, 19 received sofosbuvir-based regimen and three patients received other DAAs, individually tailored according to latest guidelines. As of December 2016, the median length of follow-up was 17 months (range 13-21).Results. Extra-hepatic manifestations at enrollment were: purpura and arthralgia (12 cases), peripheral neuropathy (10 cases) and marginal zone Blymphomas (2 cases). After a four-week DAA therapy, all patients became HCV-negative. Moreover, after 48 weeks since the beginning of DAA treatment, sustained regression of purpura and arthralgias was observed respectively in eight and in nine cases; peripheral neuropathy improved in seven cases, and cryocrit median values decreased from three (1-20) at baseline to two (1-12) after 48 weeks. Two cases with indolent marginal zone lymphomas did not show any haematological response: size and number of the involved nodes remained unchanged. In addition, the monoclonal B-cell population found in the peripheral blood in four cases did not disappear after recovery from HCV-RNA. Mild side effects occurred in nine patients, but six patients developed ribavirin-related anaemia requiring reduction of ribavirin dose.Conclusion. DAA therapy is safe and effective to eradicate HCV in MC, but seems associated with satisfactory clinical response in mild or moderate cryoglobulinaemic vasculitis and no response in B-NHL

Quality of Life in Patients with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms: The Role of Severity, Clinical Heterogeneity and Resilience

Context Although health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a fundamental outcome in oncological clinical trials, its evaluation in the neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN) research field is still limited. Objectives This study assessed the role of clinical severity (i.e., presence or absence of metastasis and lines of therapies) and heterogeneity (i.e., primary site, types of therapy, biology and surgery) of NEN in relation to HRQoL, as well as resilience as a moderator between clinical severity and HRQoL. Design Cross-sectional multicentric study. Setting Italian university hospitals. Patients 99 Italian patients (53 men and 46 women) with a NEN ranged in age from 22 to 79 years old. Main Outcome Measure Severity and heterogeneity of NENs, HRQoL and resilience. Results The presence of metastasis and a greater number of therapies affected the global health and some physical symptoms. Resilience was associated with global health, functional status and some physical symptoms, and moderated the impact of metastases on constipation and of the multiple therapies on diarrhea and financial problems. Patients with NEN in districts other than the gastro-entero-pancreatic system and those in follow-up perceived fewer physical symptoms than their counterparts. Patients with a sporadic NEN perceived their functional status, global health and disease-related worries as better than those with a hereditary NEN. Patients who underwent surgery were lower in constipation than their counterparts. Conclusion These findings highlight the need to assess the relationships between the clinical severity and heterogeneity of NEN with HRQoL and the role of resilience in improving patients’ HRQoL

Imbalance of Neutrophils and Lymphocyte Counts Can Be Predictive of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Occurrence in Hepatitis C-related Cirrhosis Treated With Direct-acting Antivirals

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