Previous Renal Replacement Therapy Time at Start of Peritoneal Dialysis Independently Impact on Peritoneal Membrane Ultrafiltration Failure

Background. Peritoneal membrane changes are induced by uraemia per se. We hypothesise that previous renal replacement therapy (RRT) time and residual renal function (RRF) at start of peritoneal dialysis impact on ultrafiltration failure (UFF). Methods. The time course of PET parameters from 123 incident patients, followed for median 26 (4–105) months, was evaluated by mixed linear model. Glucose 3.86% solutions were not used in their standard therapy. Sex, age, diabetes, previous RRT time, RRF, comorbidity score, PD modality and peritonitis episodes were investigated as possible determinants of UFF-free survival. Results. PET parameters remained stable during follow up. CA125 decreased significantly. Inherent UFF was diagnosed in 8 patients, 5 spontaneously recovering. Acquired UFF group presented type I UFF profile with compromised sodium sieving. At baseline they had lower RRF and longer previous time of RRT which remained significantly associated with UFF-free survival by Cox multivariate analysis (HR 0.648 (0.428–0.980), P = 0.04) and (HR 1.016 (1.004–1.028), P = 0.009, resp.). UFF free survival was 97%, 87% and 83% at 1, 3 and 5 years, respectively. Conclusions. Inherent UFF is often unpredictable but transitory. On the other hand baseline lower RRF and previous RRT time independently impact on ultrafiltration failure free survival. In spite of these detrimental factors generally stable long-term peritoneal transport parameters is achievable with a 5-year cumulative UFF free survival of 83%. This study adds a further argument for a PD-first policy

Learning Word Embeddings from the Portuguese Twitter Stream: A Study of some Practical Aspects

This paper describes a preliminary study for producing and distributing a large-scale database of embeddings from the Portuguese Twitter stream. We start by experimenting with a relatively small sample and focusing on three challenges: volume of training data, vocabulary size and intrinsic evaluation metrics. Using a single GPU, we were able to scale up vocabulary size from 2048 words embedded and 500K training examples to 32768 words over 10M training examples while keeping a stable validation loss and approximately linear trend on training time per epoch. We also observed that using less than 50\% of the available training examples for each vocabulary size might result in overfitting. Results on intrinsic evaluation show promising performance for a vocabulary size of 32768 words. Nevertheless, intrinsic evaluation metrics suffer from over-sensitivity to their corresponding cosine similarity thresholds, indicating that a wider range of metrics need to be developed to track progress

Rhizobia of chickpea from southern Portugal: symbiotic efficiency and genetic diversity

Abstract: Aims: In order to evaluate differences between chickpea rhizobial populations from three geographical areas in southern Portugal (Beja, Elvas and Evora), isolates from the three regions were obtained and analysed. Methods and Results: The genetic characterization of the isolates was done by plasmid profiles and restriction analysis of the nif H gene. Symbiotic efficiency of the isolates was also determined. Relationships between geographical origin, symbiotic efficiency and molecular characteristics were established. Beja soil revealed a larger rhizobia population as well as the presence of some of the isolates with higher symbiotic efficiency values. Isolates with a single plasmid showed a significantly higher symbiotic efficiency. Conclusions: Genetic and phenotypic differences were detected between the natural rhizobial populations from the three locations

plataforma colaborativa para organização e gestão de conferências

A organização e gestão de eventos científicos tais como conferências, seminários ou colóquios é por norma um processo trabalhoso e complexo. Para garantir a boa organização de uma conferência desde o primeiro momento e assegurar o seu sucesso, têm vindo a ser criados nos últimos anos sistemas de informação que permitem simplificar muito a sua gestão, realizando muitas das tarefas necessárias de forma automática. O Cid Conference é um sistema de informação criado em 2005 pela empresa Mercatura - Tecnologias de Informação, que tem vindo a ser muito utilizado no suporte à organização e gestão de conferências científicas com dimensões e níveis de complexidade muito variáveis. Nesta dissertação propõe-se que, após uma análise exaustiva do estado da arte de sistemas similares e analisando as principais funcionalidades requeridas por uma aplicação desta natureza, se identifiquem e adicionem novas funcionalidades ao sistema Cid Conference, permitindo que esta plataforma se distinga positivamente relativamente às restantes existentes no mercado. Assim, o objetivo desta dissertação consiste na implementação de funcionalidades que tragam valor acrescido à plataforma Cid Conference, tendo-se identificado duas funcionalidades críticas. A primeira consiste num módulo de geração do programa da conferência, com funcionalidades que permitem ao utilizador gerar um programa automaticamente com as sessões que ele considerar mais interessantes. A segunda funcionalidade implementada consiste na introdução de uma pequena rede social na aplicação, utilizando os padrões que foram previamente identificados como sendo mais relevantes. O objetivo desta funcionalidade é o de trazer os benefícios de uma rede social para uma conferência, promovendo ativamente a interação entre os participantes da conferência. O produto final veio não só contribuiu para melhorar a plataforma Cid Conference, tornando a plataforma muito mais completa, como também alterou de forma decisiva o modo como os utilizadores participam numa conferência, permitindo uma muito maior interação ao longo de todo o processo.Nesta dissertação propõe-se que, após uma análise exaustiva do estado da arte, sejam adicionadas novas funcionalidades ao Cid Conference, que introduzam na plataforma funcionalidades modernas e que permitam distinguir a plataforma das restantes existentes.The organization and management of scientific events such as conferences, seminars or colloquia are normally a laborious and complex process. To ensure the smooth organization of a conference from the outset and ensure its success, have been created in recent years information systems that allow simplify their management, performing many of the needed tasks automatically.Cid Conference is an information system created in 2005 by the company Mercatura - Informação e Tecnologia, which has been widely used in supporting the organization and management of scientific conferences with dimensions and levels of complexity. This thesis proposes that after a thorough analysis of the state of the art of similar systems and analyzing the main functionalities required by an application of this nature, to identify and add new functionality to the system Cid Conference, allowing this platform distinguishes itself positively in relation to remaining on the market.The objective of this thesis is to implement features that bring added value to the platform Cid Conference, having identified two critical functionalities. First, a module of the conference program, with features that allow the user to automatically generate a program with sessions that he considers most interesting. The second functionality is implemented in the introduction of a small social network in the application using the patterns that have previously been identified as being most relevant. The purpose of this feature is to bring the benefits of a social network for a conference, actively promoting the interaction between conference participants.The final product not only contributed to improving the platform Cid Conference, making more complete platform but also decisively changed the way users participating in a conference, allowing a greater interaction throughout the process

Semantically reliable multicast: definition, implementation and performance evaluation

Semantic reliability is a novel correctness criterion for multicast protocols based on the concept of message obsolescence: A message becomes obsolete when its content or purpose is superseded by a subsequent message. By exploiting obsolescence, a reliable multicast protocol may drop irrelevant messages to find additional buffer space for new messages. This makes the multicast protocol more resilient to transient performance perturbations of group members, thus improving throughput stability. This paper describes our experience in developing a suite of semantically reliable protocols. It summarizes the motivation, definition, and algorithmic issues and presents performance figures obtained with a running implementation. The data obtained experimentally is compared with analytic and simulation models. This comparison allows us to confirm the validity of these models and the usefulness of the approach. Finally, the paper reports the application of our prototype to distributed multiplayer games.POSI/32869/CHS/200

Controlling diarrheagenic E. coli with bacteriophages: facts and challenges

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) colonizes the intestine, causing severe diarrhoea in humans and animals. The rise of antibiotic resistances and limitation on their use demands news strategies to tackle this pathology. Bacteriophages (phages), viruses specifically infecting bacteria and harmless to animals and plants, are a promising antibacterial tool. Although studies support their ability to efficiently overcome ETEC infections, they have been shown to be highly strain-specific. If this can be associated with the presence of anti-phage defense systems (APDS) in ETEC genomes, it is also true that phages can counter-evolve to escape APDS. This work aimed to define phage cocktail with broader lytic spectra, capable of overcoming APDS of ETEC, enhancing phage efficacy. We firstly sequenced 29 ETEC strains from our collection to search for the presence of APDS in their genomes. Then, we performed phage isolation and the subsequent in vitro and genomic characterization: i) evaluation of lytic spectra against ETEC collection; ii) whole-genome sequencing and phage safety evaluation (absence of undesirable genes) iii)presence of proteins responsible for escaping the main APDS. We were able to identify distinct mechanisms supporting APDS. Bacterial proteins that prevent the entry of DNA from phages (CRISPR-Cas-related proteins) or that enable the cut of phage nucleic acids (restriction-modification enzymes) were detected, however, most of them were related with the induction of abortive infection events (e.g. toxin-antitoxin systems). We also isolated 3 phages, SUS35, SUS42 and SUS65, which proved to be safe for therapy and to encode proteins enabling to escape APDS, inclusively against abortive infection. Phage-host interaction mechanisms must be considered when preparing phage- based products for therapy. This work clearly indicates that a strict selection of phages, or the construction of synthetic phages with desired traits will be a turning point in their versatility to fight against ETEC infections.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Otimizaçăo de recebimento e distribuiçăo em unidades armazenadoras de soja/

Orientador: Arinei Carlos Lindbeck da SilvaDissertaçăo (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setores de Tecnologia e Cięncias Exatas, Programa de Pós-Graduaçăo em Métodos Numéricos em Engenharia. Defesa: Curitiba, 2005.Inclui bibliografiaÁrea de concentraçăo: Programaçăo Matemátic

Society 5.0: technologies for collecting, analyzing, and sharing data about individuals

The proposal of Sociedade 5.0 is to contribute to a better quality of life for individuals, and for this, it is also necessary to know these individuals. This need has led researchers and organizations to develop and use technological systems and devices for data collection. These systems and devices take different forms and are increasingly present in the daily lives of individuals. Data collection is performed actively, namely through sensors, or passively, receiving the data that is entered by its users, often unconsciously. This paper presents an initial literature review where it is intended to investigate which technologies and the main sources for collecting information about individuals and how this information can be gathered to contribute to Society 5.0. This investigation aims to know some of the possibilities of these technologies and contribute to future work on this topic