Mesenteric Panniculitis in Sjögren’s Syndrome: A New Systemic Manifestation to Consider?

The association between mesenteric panniculitis and Sjögren's syndrome, although rare, is starting to be recognized. Usually, mesenteric panniculitis is symptomatic, presenting with either general or gastrointestinal symptoms. Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease that typically affects secretory glands, but may have serious systemic involvement. We report the case of a 77-year-old patient in whom accidental discovery of asymptomatic mesenteric panniculitis on computed tomography led to the diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome with several systemic manifestations

Topography of the medullar cone in the domestic non-defined breed cat

Estudou-se a topografia post mortem do cone medular em 30 gatos adultos sem raça definida. Procedeu-se à remoção da pele e da musculatura dorsal da coluna vertebral e expuseram-se a medula espinhal e seus envoltórios, após a secção dos arcos vertebrais. O cone medular foi evidenciado e mensurado. Avaliou-se a sua relação com as vértebras lombares (L), sacrais (S) e caudais (Cd). O cone medular variou de 3,40 a 8,00cm (média=5,08cm). A esqueletopia foi variável, pois em 24 (80%) animais o cone medular iniciou-se na vértebra L6; em quatro (13,3%), na L7; e em dois (6,7%), na L5. Em 12 (40%) animais terminou na vértebra S2; em 10 (33,3%), na S3; em cinco (16,7%), na Cd1; em dois (6,7%), na S1; e em um (3,3%) na Cd2. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTIt was studied the post mortem topography of the medullar cone in 30 adult non-defined breed cats. The dorsal skin and muscles from the vertebral column were removed and the spinal cord and its wrappers were visualized, after the section of the vertebral arcs. The medullar cone was then exposed and measured. Its relationship with lumbar (L), sacral (S), and caudal (Cd) vertebrae was determined. The length of the medullar cone presented a variation from 3.40 to 8.00cm (average 5.08cm). Its skeletopy was variable; since in 24 animals (80%), the medullar cone began at the L6 vertebra; in four (13.3%), at the L7; and in two (6.7%) at the L5 vertebra. It ended in 12 (40%) animals at the S2 vertebra; in 10 (33,33%), at the S3; in five (16.7%) at the caudal (Cd) vertebra; in two (6.7%), at the S1; and in one (3.3%), at the Cd2

O toque terapêutico nos cuidados de enfermagem: uma revisão integrativa da literatura

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The Combat against COVID-19 in Portugal, Part II: How Governance Reinforces Some Organizational Values and Contributes to the Sustainability of Crisis Management

The new coronavirus caught governments all over the world completely unaware, which led to a set of different and sometimes not quite articulated responses, leading to some undesirable results. The present investigation is based on three objectives: to assess the conditions “before” and “during” the combat and the expected consequences “after” the outbreak, by having as reference the Portuguese case; to offer a framework of the input factors to crisis management in the pandemic context; and to contribute to the crisis management literature, in the public sector from a perspective of collaborative and multi-level governance. This research is inductive and follows a quantitative approach, with the proposal and testing of a crisis management COVID-19 structural model. The Portuguese case presented in this paper suggests a robust and valid crisis management model. This model may be well translated for other countries with cultural proximity to the Portuguese culture, for instance, Portuguese speaking countries such as Brazil, or geographical proximity to Portugal such as, for instance, Spain. The authors, nevertheless, advise readers to exert some restraint on the extrapolation of the results, as governance systems and traditions can vary a good deal from country to country. Future studies should focus on the importance of coordination as one of the most important areas in crisis management, narrowing the scope of analysis from the broad, macro understanding of the research problem presented on this paper.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Combat against COVID-19 in Portugal: How State Measures and Data Availability Reinforce Some Organizational Values and Contribute to the Sustainability of the National Health System

Countries are facing a pandemic crisis in the context of a new disease from the coronavirus family, referred to as COVID-19. This article aims to present the main facts related to the fight against the pandemic from the perspective of the Portuguese governance, aiming to contribute to the knowledge of crisis management by political leaders as well as the performance of public entities. The present research was conducted through a quantitative approach, using data publicly provided by the Portuguese Directorate General of Health. An explanatory and descriptive study is presented about the current panorama, and yet to be shared good practices of crisis management and the relevance of organizational values in crisis management and crisis coordination are also discussed. Based on the lessons from Portugal, the authors suggest the relevance of organizational values and stakeholders’ coordination as key factors in crisis situations, such as the current one.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Transcriptomic and chemogenomic analyses unveil the essential role of Com2-regulon in response and tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to stress induced by sulfur dioxide

During vinification Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells are frequently exposed to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) that is used to avoid overgrowth of unwanted bacteria or fungi present in the must. Up to now the characterization of the molecular mechanisms by which S. cerevisiae responds and tolerates SO2 was focused on the role of the sulfite efflux pump Ssu1 and investigation on the involvement of other players has been scarce, especially at a genome-wide level. In this work, we uncovered the essential role of the poorly characterized transcription factor Com2 in tolerance and response of S. cerevisiae to stress induced by SO2 at the enologically relevant pH of 3.5. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that Com2 controls, directly or indirectly, the expression of more than 80% of the genes activated by SO2, a percentage much higher than the one that could be attributed to any other stress-responsive transcription factor. Large-scale phenotyping of the yeast haploid mutant collection led to the identification of 50 Com2-targets contributing to the protection against SO2 including all the genes that compose the sulfate reduction pathway (MET3, MET14, MET16, MET5, MET10) and the majority of the genes required for biosynthesis of lysine (LYS2, LYS21, LYS20, LYS14, LYS4, LYS5, LYS1 and LYS9) or arginine (ARG5,6, ARG4, ARG2, ARG3, ARG7, ARG8, ORT1 and CPA1). Other uncovered determinants of resistance to SO2 (not under the control of Com2) included genes required for function and assembly of the vacuolar proton pump and enzymes of the antioxidant defense, consistent with the observed cytosolic and mitochondrial accumulation of reactive oxygen species in SO2-stressed yeast cells.This work was funded by INNOVINE&WINE, Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000038, co-financed by the European Region-al Development Fund (ERDF) through Norte 2020 and by ERFD through POCI-COMPETE 2020. Support received by FCT-Portuguese Foundationfor Science and Technology(PTDC/EXPL/AGR-TEC/1823/2013 and PTDC/AGR-TEC/3315/2014) and by INTERACT project –“Integrated Research in Environment, Agro-Chain and Technology”, no. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000017, in its line of research enti-tled VitalityWine. Supportreceived by Biosystems and In-tegrative Sciences Institute (BioISI; FCT/UID/Multi/04046/2018) and iBB-Institute for Bioengi-neering and Biosciences (UID/BIO/04565/2019) by FCT and from Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa 2020 (pro-ject no. 007317 and PTDC/AGR-TEC/3315/2014_LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-016834) is also acknowledged.The authors thank Professor Isabel Sá-Correia for the help and guidance in conducting the chemogenomic analysi

COVID-19 Crisis management and the Portuguese regional governance: Citizens perceptions as evidence

Purpose: By analyse the Portuguese first COVID-19 wave, this study aims to evaluate the Portuguese citizens’ perceptions on pre-COVID-19 measures, government response during COVID-19 and expectations on the impact of COVID-19 on society. Methodology: A quantitative approach is used, and the data was collected through questionnaires applied online. Data collection took place between April 23rd and April 30th, 2020. Based on the theoretical Wave Model and using the crisis management COVID-19 structural equation model for the different Portuguese NUTS II regions, an illustrative comparison between different governance outcomes is presented. Findings: NUTS II do not have the same perceptions on pre-COVID-19 measures, government response during COVID-19 and expectations on the impact of COVID-19 on society. Hypothesis one was statistically confirmed. Practical implications: Empirically, this study aims to identify inconsistencies in Portuguese citizens’ perceptions on crisis management in order to enable future research to address the topic of public management coordination in multiple levels of governance. Originality: The analyse considers the differences in perceptions of citizens from different Portuguese Regions, based on the administrative Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level II (NUTS II), namely, North, Centre, Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve, Azores Autonomous Region and Madeira Autonomous Region.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of Lower Limb Arteriovenous Diameters in Indoor Soccer Athletes: Arterial Doppler Ultrasound Study

The purpose of this study was to analyze the arterial and venous diameters of lower limbs in indoor soccer athletes and non-athletes using Doppler ultrasound to identify the differences in the variation of arterial and venous diameters between groups. Additionally, we intended to verify the differences of arterial and venous diameters between the skilled member (right member) and the not skilled member in each group. 74 male volunteers, aged between 19 and 30 years old, were divided in a group of athletes (n = 37, 24 ± 2.7 years, soccer players from national championship), and a group of non-athletes (n = 37, 26 ± 2.83 years). Vascular lower limb was assessed using Doppler ultrasound (Philips HD7 echograph with linear transducer 7–12 MHz). The athletes showed higher diameters of right common femoral artery (p = 0.009; moderate), left common femoral artery (p = 0.005; moderate), right deep femoral artery (p = 0.013; moderate), right popliteal artery (p = 0.003; moderate), and left popliteal artery (p = 0.017; small) than non-athletes. Veins’ diameters were also higher in athletes, specifically the right deep femoral vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), left deep femoral vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), right popliteal vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), and left popliteal vein (p ≤ 0.001; large). Differences were found between the skilled and non-skilled leg in athletes in the popliteal vein (7.68 ± 1.44 mm vs. 7.22 ± 1.09 mm, respectively, p < 0.003). It seems that futsal athletes have superior mean diameters of lower limbs arteries and veins of the deep venous system to non-athletes. Moreover, the veins presented greater dilation, namely of the leg of the skilled lower limb.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impacts of ocean warming and acidification on the energy budget of three commercially important fish species

Funding This study was supported by the project FISHBUDGET -Effects of climate change on marine fish energy budgets (PTDC/BIA-BMA/28630/2017) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). FCT also supported the contract of Patrícia Anacleto in the framework of the CEECIND 2017 (CEECIND/01739/2017). Acknowledgments This study benefited from the strategic project UIDB/04292/2020 awarded to MARE and through project LA/P/0069/2020 granted to the Associate Laboratory ARNET funded by the FCT/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES), and through other national funds (UIDB/50006/2020). The authors thank the Sparos, Lda company for providing the fish feed, and Olhão Pilot Fish Farming Station team (EPPO-IPMA) for providing the juvenile fish for trials. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for Experimental Biology.A mechanistic model based on Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory was developed to predict the combined effects of ocean warming, acidification and decreased food availability on growth and reproduction of three commercially important marine fish species: white seabream (Diplodus sargus), zebra seabream (Diplodus cervinus) and Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis). Model simulations used a parameter set for each species, estimated by the Add-my-Pet method using data from laboratory experiments complemented with bibliographic sources. An acidification stress factor was added as a modifier of the somatic maintenance costs and estimated for each species to quantify the effect of a decrease in pH from 8.0 to 7.4 (white seabream) or 7.7 (zebra seabream and Senegalese sole). The model was used to project total length of individuals along their usual lifespan and number of eggs produced by an adult individual within one year, under different climate change scenarios for the end of the 21st century. For the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change SSP5-8.5, ocean warming led to higher growth rates during the first years of development, as well as an increase of 32-34% in egg production, for the three species. Ocean acidification contributed to reduced growth for white seabream and Senegalese sole and a small increase for zebra seabream, as well as a decrease in egg production of 48-52% and 14-33% for white seabream and Senegalese sole, respectively, and an increase of 4-5% for zebra seabream. The combined effect of ocean warming and acidification is strongly dependent on the decrease of food availability, which leads to significant reduction in growth and egg production. This is the first study to assess the combined effects of ocean warming and acidification using DEB models on fish, therefore, further research is needed for a better understanding of these climate change-related effects among different taxonomic groups and species.publishersversionpublishe