Pustulose Palmoplantar Recalcitrante: Já foi Considerada a Hipótese de Dermite de Contacto Alérgica?

Palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP) is a chronic and relapsing disease of the palms and soles, which tends to be difficult to treat. Classically it was described as a subtype of psoriasis. Nowadays it is regarded as a separate entity, although plaque-type psoriasis affects concomitantly many patients with PPP. A link between allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) and PPP has been described, and the former may encompass a potential to perpetuate the latter. Hereby we report two cases of difficult to treat plantar pustulosis. Underneath the dermatosis’s refractive nature was an allergic sensitization to potassium dichromate and cobalt chloride. Leather shoes and leather insoles were commonly worn, and both allergens are employed by the leather industry. Clinical remission was achieved in both cases with allergen eviction. Patch testing must be considered in cases of PPP without response to treatment. If relevant sensitization is found, allergen eviction measures are mandatory.A pustulose palmoplantar (PPP) é uma doença crónica e recorrente das palmas e plantas, que tende a ser díficil de tratar. Classicamente era descrita como um subtipo de psoríase. Actualmente é considerada uma entidade distinta, embora psoríase em placas afecte concomitantemente muitos doentes com PPP. Uma relação entre dermite de contacto alérgica (DCA) e PPP já foi descrita, e a primeira acarreta um potencial de perpeptuar a última. Aqui descrevemos dois casos de pustulose plantar de tratamento díficil. Subjacente à natureza refractária da dermatose, encontrava-se uma sensitização alergénica ao dicromato de potássio e ao cloreto de cobalto. Sapatos e palmilhas de cabedal eram comumente usadas pelas doentes, e ambos os alergénios referidos são utilizados na indústria do cabedal. Remissão clínica foi atingida em ambos os casos com evicção alergénica. O testes epicutâneos devem ser considerados em casos de PPP refractários ao tratamento. Se for demonstrada sensibilização relevante, medidas de evicção alergénica são obrigatórias

A soft computing approach to kidney diseases evaluation

Kidney renal failure means that one’s kidney have unexpectedly stopped functioning, i.e., once chronic disease is exposed, the presence or degree of kidney dysfunction and its progression must be assessed, and the underlying syndrome has to be diagnosed. Although the patient’s history and physical examination may denote good practice, some key information has to be obtained from valuation of the glomerular filtration rate, and the analysis of serum biomarkers. Indeed, chronic kidney sickness depicts anomalous kidney function and/or its makeup, i.e., there is evidence that treatment may avoid or delay its progression, either by reducing and prevent the development of some associated complications, namely hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular complications. Acute kidney injury appears abruptly, with a rapid deterioration of the renal function, but is often reversible if it is recognized early and treated promptly. In both situations, i.e., acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, an early intervention can significantly improve the prognosis.The assessment of these pathologies is therefore mandatory, although it is hard to do it with traditional methodologies and existing tools for problem solving. Hence, in this work, we will focus on the development of a hybrid decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures based on Logic Programming, that will allow one to consider incomplete, unknown, and even contradictory information, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks, in order to weigh the Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such a happening. The present study involved 558 patients with an age average of 51.7 years and the chronic kidney disease was observed in 175 cases. The dataset comprise twenty four variables, grouped into five main categories. The proposed model showed a good performance in the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, since the sensitivity and the specificity exhibited values range between 93.1 and 94.9 and 91.9–94.2 %, respectively

A statistical classifier for assessing the level of stress from the analysis of interaction patterns in a touch screen

This paper describes an approach for assessing the level of stress of users of mobile devices with tactile screens by analysing their touch patterns. Two features are extracted from touches: duration and intensity. These features allow to analyse the intensity curve of each touch.We use decision trees (J48) and support vector machines (SMO) to train a stress detection classifier using additional data collected in previous experiments. This data includes the amount of movement, acceleration on the device, cognitive performance, among others. In previous work we have shown the co-relation between these parameters and stress. Both algorithms show around 80% of correctly classified instances. The decision tree can be used to classify, in real time, the touches of the users, serving as an input to the assessment of the stress level.This work is funded by National Funds through the FCT Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/2011. The work of Davide Carneiro is also supported by a doctoral grant by FCT (SFRH/BD/64890/2009)

Digital clinical guidelines modelling

Oliveira T., Costa A., Neves J., Novais P., Digital Clinical Guidelines Modelling, Modelling and Simulation 2011, Novais P., Machado J., Analide C., Abelha A., (Eds.) (ESM’2011 – The 2011 European Simulation and Modelling Conference, Guimarães, Portugal) EUROSIS Publisher, ISBN: 978-9077381-66-3, pp 392-398, 2011.Healthcare environments are very demanding, because practitioners are required to consult many patients in a short period of time, increasing the levels of stress which usually harms the outcome of healthcare processes. The short time practitioners have with their patients does not facilitate informed decision making and checking all possibilities. A possible solution is the use of guideline-based applications, because they have the potential of being an effective means of both changing the process of healthcare and improving its outcomes. However, current Clinical Guidelines are available in text format as long documents, which render them difficult to consult and to integrate in clinical Decision Support Systems. With this paper we present a new model for guideline interpretation, in order to facilitate de development of guideline-based Decision Support Systems and to increase the availability of Clinical Guidelines at the moment of the clinical process. This model will also provide mechanisms to comply with cases where incomplete and uncertain information is present. The development and implementation of this model will be presented in the following pages

Case study of inner region of Portugal

Food processing and conservation represent decisive factors for the sustainability of the planet given the significant growth of the world population in the last decades. Therefore, the cooling of any food product has been subject of study and improvement in order to ensure the food supply with good quality and safety. A computational tool for the assessment of the energy performance of cheese industries that use refrigeration systems was developed. It aims to promote the improvement of the energy efficiency of this industrial sector. The computational tool for analysis of the energy profile is based on a set of characteristic parameters used for the development of correlations, including the amount of raw material, annual electrical energy consumption and volume of cold stores. In this paper, the developed computational tool was applied to companies in the dairy sector, specifically to cheese industries, subdivided into industrial and handmade cheese. The results obtained help on the decision making of practice measures for the improvement of the energy efficiency.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Transcriptional and metabolic effects of glucose on Streptococcus pneumoniae sugar metabolism

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a strictly fermentative human pathogen that relies on carbohydrate metabolism to generate energy for growth. The nasopharynx colonised by the bacterium is poor in free sugars, but mucosa lining glycans can provide a source of sugar. In blood and inflamed tissues glucose is the prevailing sugar. As a result during progression from colonisation to disease S. pneumoniae has to cope with a pronounced shift in carbohydrate nature and availability. Thus, we set out to assess the pneumococcal response to sugars found in glycans and the influence of glucose (Glc) on this response at the transcriptional, physiological and metabolic levels. Galactose (Gal), N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and mannose (Man) affected the expression of 8 to 14% of the genes covering cellular functions including central carbon metabolism and virulence. The pattern of end-products as monitored by in vivo 13C-NMR is in good agreement with the fermentation profiles during growth, while the pools of phosphorylated metabolites are consistent with the type of fermentation observed (homolactic vs. mixed) and regulation at the metabolic level. Furthermore, the accumulation of α-Gal6P and Man6P indicate metabolic bottlenecks in the metabolism of Gal and Man, respectively. Glc added to cells actively metabolizing other sugar(s) was readily consumed and elicited a metabolic shift towards a homolactic profile. The transcriptional response to Glc was large (over 5% of the genome). In central carbon metabolism (most represented category), Glc exerted mostly negative regulation. The smallest response to Glc was observed on a sugar mix, suggesting that exposure to varied sugars improves the fitness of S. pneumoniae. The expression of virulence factors was negatively controlled by Glc in a sugar-dependent manner. Overall, our results shed new light on the link between carbohydrate metabolism, adaptation to host niches and virulence

2-Amino-6-[(2,6-dichloro­phen­yl)imino]-3-oxocyclo­hexa-1,4-dienecarbaldehyde

The title compound, C13H8Cl2N2O2, was obtained by the oxidation of diclofenac {systematic name: 2-[2-(2,6-dichloro­phenyl­amino)­phen­yl]acetic acid}, an anti-inflammatory drug, with hydrogen peroxide catalysed by chlorido[5,10,15,20-tetra­kis­(2,6-dichloro­phen­yl)porphyrinato]manganese(III), using ammonium acetate as co-catalyst. The asymmetric unit contains two crystallographically independent mol­ecules of the title compound (Z′ = 2). The close packing of individual mol­ecules is mediated by a series of strong and rather directional N—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, plus weak π–π [distance between the individual double bonds of symmetry-related imino­quinone rings = 3.7604 (13) Å] and Cl⋯O inter­actions [3.0287 (18) Å]

Photocatalytic Activity and UV-Protection of TiO(2) Nanocoatings on Poly(lactic acid) Fibres Deposited by Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering

The application of nanocoatings in the textile finishing is increasingly being explored because they open a whole new vista of value-addition possibilities in the textile sector. In the present work, low temperature pulsed DC magnetron sputtering method was used to create functional TiO2 nanocoatings on poly(lactic acid) textile fibres surfaces. In this study, the principal objectives in the application of TiO2 nanocoatings to textile materials are to impart UV protection functions and self-cleaning properties to the textile substrates. The TiO2 films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy and contact angle analysis. The Photocatalytic activity of the films was tested by measuring the photodegradation rates of rhodamine-B dye aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The ultraviolet protection function was tested according to the Australian/New Zealand standards. It was observed that the TiO2 nanocoatings on poly(lactic acid) fibres showed an excellent ultraviolet protection (>40) function and the photocatalytic efficiency was maintained even after a strong washing treatment.We acknowledge the PhD grant of J. H. O. Nascimento to Programa ALBAN-"Programa de bolsas de alto nivel da Uniao Europeia para a America Latina, bolsa no E06D104090BR.

Detecting antibody-labeled BCG MNPs using a magnetoresistive biosensor and magnetic labeling technique

Tuberculosis is still a major global health concern, causing the estimated death of 1.5 million people per year and being associated with high morbidity. The development of point-of-care diagnostic tools for tuberculosis is mandatory, especially because the fast and accurate detection of the slow-growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the conventional diagnostic tests is difficult. The objective of this work was to develop the first steps to achieve a portable method for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, by a sandwich-immunoassay combined with magnetoresistive biochip technology. With the purpose of conjugating 250 nm streptavidin-coated magnetic nanoparticles with anti-M. tuberculosis biotinylated antibodies, Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guerin was used as a surrogate for M. tuberculosis bacteria. After magnetic capture, target bacteria were brought in contact with the surface of the magnetoresistive biochip previously functionalized with a secondary anti-M. tuberculosis antibody. Magnetically labeled cells were detected by an array of spin-valve sensors, which change their electrical resistance in the presence of the fringe field of the magnetic particles. Optimization studies on the efficiency of the magnetic capture and further recognition of the bacteria by the secondary antibody on the biochip surface were conducted. The results on the magnetoresistive biochip showed a clear difference in the signal between specific and control ( nonspecific) sensors, suggesting the usefulness of this technique as a potential biorecognition tool for the development of a point-of-care diagnostic method for tuberculosis.Acknowledgments: Teresa Barroso thanks FCT for her PhD Grant SFRH/BD/33904/2009.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio