Paralisia facial unilateral: aspectos clínicos e principais tratamentos/ Unilateral facial palsy: clinical aspects and main treatments

A paralisia de Bell é caracterizada por uma paralisia unilateral dos músculos inervados pelo nervo facial e pode ser causada por infecção pelo herpes-vírus, inflamação do nervo facial, neuropatia isquêmica, insuficiência na microcirculação, diabetes e hipertensão. Essa paralisia desencadeia diminuição da sensibilidade gustativa e paresia do reflexo de piscar. Ela pode ser tratada através de corticosteroides, antivirais, fisioterapia, acupuntura e radiofrequência. Objetiva-se analisar os principais dados acerca da paralisia de Bell e seus aspectos clínicos. A busca de artigos foi feita no SciELO, LILACS, PubMed, MedLine e Periódico Capes, selecionados através de critérios metodológicos, além de livros de referência. Diante disso, por conta da perda da motricidade voluntária nos músculos faciais, o paciente não consegue franzir a testa e apertar o lábio do lado afetado. Demonstra-se que, dentre as causas, a reativação do vírus herpes simples parece ser a mais comum. A inflamação e o edema do nervo facial estão associados ao seu aprisionamento e a uma neuropatia isquêmica, enquanto diabetes, hipertensão, dislipidemias e idade avançada são fatores de risco para doença oclusiva arterial periférica em pacientes com essa paralisia. Além disso, mostra-se que corticosteroides, antivirais, fisioterapia, acupuntura e radiofrequência aliviam os sintomas e as sequelas dessa condição. Assim, este trabalho buscou destacar informações relevantes acerca da paralisia de Bell

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton-proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of [Formula: see text] TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about [Formula: see text] is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than [Formula: see text] and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing