Seroprevalência de SARS-CoV-2 em Portugal após a Campanha de Vacinação em Larga Escala: Resultados do Inquérito Serológico Nacional, Setembro - Novembro 2021

Introduction: Following a COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign, it is important to evaluate the population level of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The aim of this study was to estimate the seroprevalence rate of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies acquired due to infection or vaccination in the Portuguese population. Material and methods: The National Serological Survey (third wave - ISN3COVID-19) is a cross-sectional nationwide epidemiological study developed on a sample of 4545 Portuguese residents aged one year or older, between the 28th September 2021 and the 19th November 2021. The SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleoprotein and anti-spike IgG antibody levels were determined in serum samples using Abbott Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassays. Seroprevalence estimates were stratified by age group, sex, administrative region and self-reported chronic conditions. Medians and respective 95% confidence intervals were used to describe the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in specific population subgroups. Results: The total seroprevalence rate of SARS-CoV-2 was 86.4% (95% CI: 85.2% to 87.6%). A higher seroprevalence rate was estimated for women (88.3%), 50 to 59 years-old (96.5%) and in those with two or more self-reported chronic conditions (90.8%). A higher IgG (anti-Spike) concentration was observed in individuals vaccinated with the booster dose (median = 1 2601.3 AU/mL; 95% CI: 4127.5 to 19 089.1). Conclusion: There was a significant increase in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence following the mass vaccination campaign in Portugal. It is important to continue to monitor the distribution of specific SARS-COV-2 antibody at the population level to further inform public health policies.Introdução: Após uma campanha de vacinação em larga escala contra a COVID-19 é importante avaliar o nível de anticorpos anti-SARS-CoV-2 na população. O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a taxa de seroprevalência dos anticorpos específicos contra SARS-CoV-2 adquiridos após infeção ou vacinação na população portuguesa. Material e Métodos: O Inquérito Serológico Nacional COVID-19 (terceira fase ISN3COVID-19) é um estudo epidemiológico transversal de âmbito nacional que foi desenvolvido numa amostra de 4545 residentes em Portugal com idade igual ou superior a um ano recrutados entre 28 de setembro e 19 de novembro de 2021. Procedeu-se à deteção de anticorpos IgG contra a proteína da nucleocápside e contra a subunidade 1 da proteína da espícula (anti-S) em amostras de soro usando os ensaios quimioluminiscentes de micropartículas (Abbott). As estimativas de seroprevalência foram estratificadas por grupo etário, sexo, região e presença de doenças crónicas. As medianas e os respetivos intervalos de confiança de 95% foram usados para descrever a distribuição de anticorpos específicos contra SARS-CoV-2 em subgrupos populacionais. Resultados: A taxa de seroprevalência total de SARS-CoV-2 foi de 86,4% (IC 95%: 85,2% a 87,6%). Uma maior taxa de seroprevalência foi estimada para mulheres (88,3%) entre os 50 e os 59 anos (96,5%) e naquelas que reportaram ter duas ou mais doenças crónicas (90,8%). Uma concentração de IgG (anti-S) mais elevada foi observada em indivíduos vacinados com a dose de reforço (mediana = 12 601,3 UA/mL; IC 95%: 4127,5 a 19 089,1). Conclusão: Verificou-se um aumento significativo na seroprevalência de SARS-CoV-2 após a campanha de vacinação em Portugal. É importante continuar a monitorizar a distribuição de anticorpos específicos contra SARS-COV-2 ao nível da população para informar futuras políticas de saúde pública.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Thrombus aspiration in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: results of a national registry of interventional cardiology

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the impact of thrombus aspiration (TA) during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (P-PCI) in 'real-world' settings. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, using data from the National Registry of Interventional Cardiology (RNCI 2006-2012, Portugal) with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients treated with P-PCI. The primary outcome, in-hospital mortality, was analysed through adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: We assessed data for 9458 STEMI patients that undergone P-PCI (35% treated with TA). The risk of in-hospital mortality with TA (aOR 0.93, 95%CI:0.54-1.60) was not significantly decreased. After matching patients through the propensity score, TA reduced significantly the risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 0.58, 95%CI:0.35-0.98; 3500 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The whole cohort data does not support the routine use of TA in P-PCI, but the results of the propensity-score matched cohort suggests that the use of selective TA may improve the short-term risks of STEMI..info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

EFSA NDA Panel (EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies), 2013 . Scientific opinion on Dietary Reference Values for fluoride

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) derived Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) for fluoride, which are provided as Adequate Intake (AI) from all sources, including non-dietary sources. Fluoride is not an essential nutrient. Therefore, no Average Requirement for the performance of essential physiological functions can be defined. Nevertheless, the Panel considered that the setting of an AI is appropriate because of the beneficial effects of dietary fluoride on prevention of dental caries. The AI is based on epidemiological studies (performed before the 1970s) showing an inverse relationship between the fluoride concentration of water and caries prevalence. As the basis for defining the AI, estimates of mean fluoride intakes of children via diet and drinking water with fluoride concentrations at which the caries preventive effect approached its maximum whilst the risk of dental fluorosis approached its minimum were chosen. Except for one confirmatory longitudinal study in US children, more recent studies were not taken into account as they did not provide information on total dietary fluoride intake, were potentially confounded by the use of fluoride-containing dental hygiene products, and did not permit a conclusion to be drawn on a dose-response relationship between fluoride intake and caries risk. The AI of fluoride from all sources (including non-dietary sources) is 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day for both children and adults, including pregnant and lactating women. For pregnant and lactating women, the AI is based on the body weight before pregnancy and lactation. Reliable and representative data on the total fluoride intake of the European population are not available

Multilevel analysis of hepatitis A infection in children and adolescents: a household survey in the Northeast and Central-west regions of Brazil

Background The objectives were to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis A among children and adolescents from the Northeast and Midwest regions and the Federal District of Brazil and to identify individual-, household- and area-levels factors associated with hepatitis A infection

Intelligent control for energy-positive street lighting

The paper investigates the application of solar energy in public lighting for realizing a street lighting sub-grid with positive yearly energy balance. The focus is given to the central controller, which ensures the adaptive behavior of the overall system and provides smart city services to the end users via its web-based user interface. A functionality of the controller of special interest is the optimization of the energy management of the system, i.e., determining when to sell and buy electricity to/from the grid, in order to minimize the cost of electricity (or to maximize the profit) subject to a given, time-of-use variable energy tariff. This requires precise forecasts of the energy produced and consumed, as well as appropriate robust optimization techniques that guarantee that the system bridges potential power outages of moderate duration in island mode

A multi-targeted approach to suppress tumor-promoting inflammation

Cancers harbor significant genetic heterogeneity and patterns of relapse following many therapies are due to evolved resistance to treatment. While efforts have been made to combine targeted therapies, significant levels of toxicity have stymied efforts to effectively treat cancer with multi-drug combinations using currently approved therapeutics. We discuss the relationship between tumor-promoting inflammation and cancer as part of a larger effort to develop a broad-spectrum therapeutic approach aimed at a wide range of targets to address this heterogeneity. Specifically, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, cyclooxygenase-2, transcription factor nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, protein kinase B, and CXC chemokines are reviewed as important antiinflammatory targets while curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, lycopene, and anthocyanins are reviewed as low-cost, low toxicity means by which these targets might all be reached simultaneously. Future translational work will need to assess the resulting synergies of rationally designed antiinflammatory mixtures (employing low-toxicity constituents), and then combine this with similar approaches targeting the most important pathways across the range of cancer hallmark phenotypes

No supportive evidence for TIA1 gene mutations in a European cohort of ALS-FTD spectrum patients

We evaluated the genetic contribution of the T cell-erestricted intracellular antigen-1 gene (TIA1) in a European cohort of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Exonic resequencing of TIA1 in 1120 patients (693 FTD, 341 ALS, 86 FTD-ALS) and 1039 controls identified in total 5 rare heterozygous missense variants, affecting the TIA1 low-complexity domain (LCD). Only 1 missense variant, p.Met290Thr, identified in a familial FTD patient with disease onset at 64 years, was absent from controls yet received a combined annotation-dependent depletion score of 11.42. By contrast, 3 of the 4 variants also detected in unaffected controls, p.Val294Glu, p.Gln318Arg, and p.Ala381Thr, had combined annotation-dependent depletion scores greater than 20. Our findings in a large European patient-control series indicate that variants in TIA1 are not a common cause of ALS and FTD. The observation of recurring TIA1 missense variants in unaffected individuals lead us to conclude that the exact genetic contribution of TIA1 to ALS and FTD pathogenesis remains to be further elucidated

Regularity Properties and Pathologies of Position-Space Renormalization-Group Transformations

We reconsider the conceptual foundations of the renormalization-group (RG) formalism, and prove some rigorous theorems on the regularity properties and possible pathologies of the RG map. Regarding regularity, we show that the RG map, defined on a suitable space of interactions (= formal Hamiltonians), is always single-valued and Lipschitz continuous on its domain of definition. This rules out a recently proposed scenario for the RG description of first-order phase transitions. On the pathological side, we make rigorous some arguments of Griffiths, Pearce and Israel, and prove in several cases that the renormalized measure is not a Gibbs measure for any reasonable interaction. This means that the RG map is ill-defined, and that the conventional RG description of first-order phase transitions is not universally valid. For decimation or Kadanoff transformations applied to the Ising model in dimension $d \ge 3$, these pathologies occur in a full neighborhood $\{ \beta > \beta_0 ,\, |h| < \epsilon(\beta) \}$ of the low-temperature part of the first-order phase-transition surface. For block-averaging transformations applied to the Ising model in dimension $d \ge 2$, the pathologies occur at low temperatures for arbitrary magnetic-field strength. Pathologies may also occur in the critical region for Ising models in dimension $d \ge 4$. We discuss in detail the distinction between Gibbsian and non-Gibbsian measures, and give a rather complete catalogue of the known examples. Finally, we discuss the heuristic and numerical evidence on RG pathologies in the light of our rigorous theorems.Comment: 273 pages including 14 figures, Postscript, See also ftp.scri.fsu.edu:hep-lat/papers/9210/9210032.ps.

results from the World Mental Health Survey Initiative

Purpose: Understanding the effects of war on mental disorders is important for developing effective post-conflict recovery policies and programs. The current study uses cross-sectional, retrospectively reported data collected as part of the World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative to examine the associations of being a civilian in a war zone/region of terror in World War II with a range of DSM-IV mental disorders. Methods: Adults (n = 3370) who lived in countries directly involved in World War II in Europe and Japan were administered structured diagnostic interviews of lifetime DSM-IV mental disorders. The associations of war-related traumas with subsequent disorder onset-persistence were assessed with discrete-time survival analysis (lifetime prevalence) and conditional logistic regression (12-month prevalence). Results: Respondents who were civilians in a war zone/region of terror had higher lifetime risks than other respondents of major depressive disorder (MDD; OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1, 1.9) and anxiety disorder (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1, 2.0). The association of war exposure with MDD was strongest in the early years after the war, whereas the association with anxiety disorders increased over time. Among lifetime cases, war exposure was associated with lower past year risk of anxiety disorders (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2, 0.7). Conclusions: Exposure to war in World War II was associated with higher lifetime risk of some mental disorders. Whether comparable patterns will be found among civilians living through more recent wars remains to be seen, but should be recognized as a possibility by those projecting future needs for treatment of mental disorders.publishersversionpublishe