Sobre o Workshop de Avaliação do Ensino e da Pesquisa em Estudos Urbanos e Regionais

O artigo introduz os temas abordados no Workshop de Avaliação do Ensino e da Pesquisa em Estudos Urbanos e Regionais, colocando as inquietações básicas sobre o papel do ensino do terceiro grau e da pós-graduação em estudos urbanos e regionais: o debate entre ensino público e ensino privado, entre a formação acadêmica e a formação profissionalizante, a questão da avaliação do ensino e da política de pesquisa. O workshop foi organizado em palestras, sessões de trabalho e mesas-redondas. O texto descreve as palestras de Wrana Panizzi, que se refere à discussão sobre o ensino público, e o de Marco Lisboa, sobre a experiência da FGV/RJ. Relata também as palavras dos key-note speakers das sessões de trabalho, tanto a introdução à experiência didática na área, por Ana Clara Torres Ribeiro, como o processo de avaliação dos cursos, por Maurício de Abreu. Na sessão de trabalho sobre pesquisa os key-note speakers foram Philip Gunn, comentando as linhas de pesquisa privilegiadas pelos programas em planejamento urbano e regional, e Linda Gondim, sobre o mecanismo de avaliação das pesquisas e pesquisadores. O texto apresenta também as conclusões do evento, incorporando as sugestões da sessão final de enceramento.

Correlation between mass and volume of collected blood with positivity of blood cultures

Background The collection of blood cultures is an extremely important method in the management of patients with suspected infection. Microbiology laboratories should monitor blood culture collection. Methods Over an 8-month period we developed a prospective, observational study in an adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We correlated the mass contained in the blood vials with blood culture positivity and we also verified the relationship between the mass of blood and blood volume collected for the diagnosis of bloodstream infection (BSI), as well as we explored factors predicting positive blood cultures. Results We evaluated 345 patients with sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock for whom blood culture bottles were collected for the diagnosis of BSI. Of the 55 patients with BSI, 40.0 % had peripheral blood culture collection only. BSIs were classified as nosocomial in 34.5 %. In the multivariate model, the blood culture mass (in grams) remained a significant predictor of positivity, with an odds ratio 1.01 (i.e., for each additional 1 mL of blood collected there was a 1 % increase in positivity; 95 % CI 1.01–1.02, p = 0.001; Nagelkerke R Square [R2] = 0.192). For blood volume collected, the adjusted odds ratio was estimated at 1.02 (95 % CI: 1.01–1.03, p \u3c 0.001; R2 = 0.199). For each set of collected blood cultures beyond one set, the adjusted odds ratio was estimated to be 1.27 (95 % CI: 1.14–1.41, p \u3c 0.001; R2 = 0.221). Conclusions Our study was a quality improvement project that showed that microbiology laboratories can use the weight of blood culture bottles to determine if appropriate volume has been collected to improve the diagnosis of BSI

Removal of Hepatitis B virus surface HBsAg and core HBcAg antigens using microbial fuel cells producing electricity from human urine

© 2019, The Author(s). Microbial electrochemical technology is emerging as an alternative way of treating waste and converting this directly to electricity. Intensive research on these systems is ongoing but it currently lacks the evaluation of possible environmental transmission of enteric viruses originating from the waste stream. In this study, for the first time we investigated this aspect by assessing the removal efficiency of hepatitis B core and surface antigens in cascades of continuous flow microbial fuel cells. The log-reduction (LR) of surface antigen (HBsAg) reached a maximum value of 1.86 ± 0.20 (98.6% reduction), which was similar to the open circuit control and degraded regardless of the recorded current. Core antigen (HBcAg) was much more resistant to treatment and the maximal LR was equal to 0.229 ± 0.028 (41.0% reduction). The highest LR rate observed for HBsAg was 4.66 ± 0.19 h−1 and for HBcAg 0.10 ± 0.01 h−1. Regression analysis revealed correlation between hydraulic retention time, power and redox potential on inactivation efficiency, also indicating electroactive behaviour of biofilm in open circuit control through the snorkel-effect. The results indicate that microbial electrochemical technologies may be successfully applied to reduce the risk of environmental transmission of hepatitis B virus but also open up the possibility of testing other viruses for wider implementation

Charge-transfer metal-insulator transitions in the spin-one-half Falicov-Kimball model

The spin-one-half Falicov-Kimball model is solved exactly on an infinite-coordination-number Bethe lattice in the thermodynamic limit. This model is a paradigm for a charge-transfer metal-insulator transition where the occupancy of localized and delocalized electronic orbitals rapidly changes at the metal-insulator transition (rather than the character of the electronic states changing from insulating to metallic as in a Mott-Hubbard transition). The exact solution displays both continuous and discontinuous (first-order) transitions.Comment: 22 pages including 4 figures(eps), RevTe

Influence of auxin and its polar transport inhibitor on the development of somatic embryos in Digitalis trojana

The present study reports the role of auxin and its transport inhibitor during the establishment of an efficient and optimized protocol for the somatic embryogenesis in Digitalis trojana Ivan. Hypocotyl segments (5 mm long) were placed vertically in the Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with three sets [indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) alone or 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) alone or IAA-TIBA combination] of formulations of plant growth regulators, to assess their differential influence on induction and proliferation of somatic embryos (SEs). IAA alone was found to be the most effective, at a concentration of 0.5 mg/l, inducing similar to 10 SEs per explant with 52% induction frequency. On the other hand, the combination of 0.5 mg/l of IAA and 1 mg/l of TIBA produced significantly fewer (similar to 3.6 SEs) and abnormal (enlarged, oblong, jar and cup-shaped) SEs per explant with 24% induction frequency in comparison to that in the IAA alone. The explants treated with IAA-TIBA exhibited a delayed response along with the formation of abnormal SEs. Our study revealed that IAA induces high-frequency SE formation when used singly, but the frequency gradually declines when IAA was coupled with increasing levels of TIBA. Eventually, our findings bring new insights into the roles of auxin and its polar transport in somatic embryogenesis of D. trojana

Blood cultures in ambulatory outpatients

BACKGROUND: Blood cultures are a gold standard specific test for diagnosing many infections. However, the low yield may limit their usefulness, particularly in low-risk populations. This study was conducted to assess the utility of blood cultures drawn from ambulatory outpatients. METHODS: Blood cultures drawn at community-based collection sites in the Calgary Health Region (population 1 million) in 2001 and 2002 were included in this study. These patients were analyzed by linkages to acute care health care databases for utilization of acute care facilities within 2 weeks of blood culture draw. RESULTS: 3102 sets of cultures were drawn from 1732 ambulatory outpatients (annual rate = 89.4 per 100,000 population). Significant isolates were identified from 73 (2.4%) sets of cultures from 51 patients, including Escherichia coli in 18 (35%) and seven (14%) each of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Compared to patients with negative cultures, those with positive cultures were older (mean 49.6 vs. 40.1 years, p < 0.01), and more likely to subsequently receive care at a regional emergency department, outpatient antibiotic clinic, or hospital (35/51 vs. 296/1681, p < 0.0001). Of the 331 (19%) patients who received acute care treatment, those with positive cultures presented sooner after community culture draw (median 2 vs. 3 days, p < 0.01) and had longer median treatment duration (6 vs. 2 days, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Blood cultures drawn in outpatient settings are uncommonly positive, but may define patients for increased intensity of therapy. Strategies to reduce utilization without excluding patients with positive cultures need to be developed for this patient population

The insertion of two 8-methyl-2′-deoxyguanosine residues in tetramolecular quadruplex structures: trying to orientate the strands

In this article, we report a structural study, based on NMR and CD spectroscopies, and molecular modelling of all possible d(TG3T) and d(TG4T) analogues containing two 8-methyl-2′-deoxyguanosine residues (M). Particularly, the potential ability of these modified residues to orientate the strands and then to affect the folding topology of tetramolecular quadruplex structures has been investigated. Oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) TMMGT (T12) and TMMGGT (F12) form parallel tetramolecular quadruplexes, characterized by an all-syn M-tetrad at the 5′-side stacked to all-anti M- and G-tetrads. ODNs TMGMT (T13) and TMGGMT (F14) form parallel tetramolecular quadruplexes, in which an all-anti G core is sandwiched between two all-syn M-tetrads at the 5′- and the 3′-side. Notably, the quadruplex formed by T13 corresponds to an unprecedented structure in which the syn residues exceed in number the anti ones. Conversely, ODN TGMGMT (F24) adopts a parallel arrangement in which all-anti G-tetrads alternate with all-syn M-tetrads. Most importantly, all data strongly suggest that ODN TMGMGT (F13) forms an unprecedented anti-parallel tetramolecular quadruplex in which G and M residues adopt anti and syn glycosidic conformations, respectively. This article opens up new understandings and perspectives about the intricate relationship between the quadruplex strands orientation and the glycosidic conformation of the residues