Optimização de redes ópticas de distribuição de serviços

O aumento da utilização e da oferta de tipos de serviços nas redes de acesso conduziram à necessidade de encontrar uma solução capaz de responder às exigências da sociedade de informação, em particular dos utilizadores, sendo o consequente aumento de largura de banda a medida mais tomada pelos operadores de telecomunicações. Perante este cenário é inevitável a migração das redes de acesso de cobre para redes de acesso em fibra óptica de elevada disponibilidade. Esta dissertação propõe-se realizar um estudo sobre o projecto e a optimização das redes ópticas de distribuição de serviços urbanos e exemplificar esse tema através da implementação de um caso de estudo. Para tal, numa primeira fase, foi realizado o estudo das várias redes de acesso existentes no mercado, DSL, cabo, Ethernet, etc., bem como a sua evolução para redes PON e a migração de serviços. Numa segunda etapa procedeu-se à aplicação dos conceitos, anteriormente analisados, através da implementação prática do projecto numa rede urbana em fibra óptica, no município da Amadora, com recurso à tecnologia actual. A implementação do caso de estudo foi útil para melhorar a largura de banda existente, o tipo de acesso e a quantidade de serviços de rede disponibilizados, bem como a redução de custos com as comunicações de voz e dados

LESÃO DE LIGAMENTO CRUZADO ANTERIOR EM ATLETAS DE FUTEBOL: UMA REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA

Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is one of the most prevalent and serious injuries in ball sports, especially in soccer, occurring mainly in non-contact situations. In view of the above, there is a need for a study that seeks to better inform about anterior cruciate ligament surgeries in soccer athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present a solid subject, gathering quality and current articles available in the national and international literature. Materials and methods: This is an integrative literature review. After applying all inclusion and exclusion criteria, a final sample of 6 articles was obtained for the integrative review. Results and discussion: It is said that the incidence of ACL lesions is higher in female athletes when compared to males. Regarding residual laxity in the ACL graft, studies have observed that, in the long term, this problem may worsen the prognosis of patients, increasing the chance of surgical revisions. As for the return of athletes to soccer, it was observed that players who return to the sport have a significantly higher risk of suffering a new knee injury. Conclusion: the articles analyzed suggested that surgical treatment was highly resolutive for ACL injuries.Introducción: La rotura del ligamento cruzado anterior (LCA) es una de las lesiones más frecuentes y graves en los deportes de pelota, principalmente en el fútbol, que se produce principalmente en situaciones en las que no hay contacto. En vista de lo anterior, es necesario un estudio que busque informar mejor sobre las cirugías de rotura del ligamento cruzado anterior en los deportistas de fútbol. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es presentar un tema sólido, reuniendo artículos de calidad y actuales disponibles en la literatura nacional e internacional. Materiales y métodos: Se trata de una revisión bibliográfica integradora. Tras aplicar todos los criterios de inclusión y exclusión, se obtuvo una muestra final de 6 artículos para la revisión integradora. Resultados y discusión: Se dice que la incidencia de las lesiones del LCA es mayor en las mujeres deportistas en comparación con los hombres. En cuanto a la laxitud residual en el injerto del LCA, los estudios han observado que, a largo plazo, este problema puede empeorar el pronóstico de los pacientes, aumentando la posibilidad de revisiones quirúrgicas. En cuanto al regreso de los deportistas al fútbol, se observó que los jugadores que vuelven a practicar este deporte tienen un riesgo significativamente mayor de sufrir una nueva lesión de rodilla. Conclusión: los artículos analizados sugieren que el tratamiento quirúrgico es altamente resolutivo para las lesiones del LCA.Introdução: A ruptura do ligamento cruzado anterior (LCA) é uma das lesões mais prevalentes e graves nos esportes com bola, principalmente no futebol, ocorrendo principalmente em situações em que não há contato. Diante do exposto, há necessidade de um estudo que busque informar melhor sobre as cirurgias de lesão do ligamento cruzado anterior em atletas de futebol. Sendo assim, o objetivo do estudo se dá por expor assunto de forma sólida, reunindo artigos de qualidade e atuais disponíveis na literatura nacional e internacional. Materiais e métodos: Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa da literatura. Após aplicação de todos os critérios de inclusão e exclusão, obteve-se uma amostra final de 6 artigos para a revisão integrativa. Resultado e discussão: É dito que a incidência de lesões de LCA é maior em atletas do sexo feminino quando comparada ao sexo masculino. Em relação à frouxidão residual no enxerto de LCA, estudos observaram que, à longo prazo, esse problema pode piorar o prognóstico dos pacientes, aumentando a chance de revisões cirúrgicas. Quanto ao retorno dos atletas ao futebol, observou-se que os jogadores que retornam ao esporte têm um risco significativamente maior de sofrer nova lesão no joelho. Conclusão: os artigos analisados sugeriram que o tratamento cirúrgico foi altamente resolutivo no caso de lesões de LCA.Introdução: A ruptura do ligamento cruzado anterior (LCA) é uma das lesões mais prevalentes e graves nos esportes com bola, principalmente no futebol, ocorrendo principalmente em situações em que não há contato. Diante do exposto, há necessidade de um estudo que busque informar melhor sobre as cirurgias de lesão do ligamento cruzado anterior em atletas de futebol. Sendo assim, o objetivo do estudo se dá por expor assunto de forma sólida, reunindo artigos de qualidade e atuais disponíveis na literatura nacional e internacional. Materiais e métodos: Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa da literatura. Após aplicação de todos os critérios de inclusão e exclusão, obteve-se uma amostra final de 6 artigos para a revisão integrativa. Resultado e discussão: É dito que a incidência de lesões de LCA é maior em atletas do sexo feminino quando comparada ao sexo masculino. Em relação à frouxidão residual no enxerto de LCA, estudos observaram que, à longo prazo, esse problema pode piorar o prognóstico dos pacientes, aumentando a chance de revisões cirúrgicas. Quanto ao retorno dos atletas ao futebol, observou-se que os jogadores que retornam ao esporte têm um risco significativamente maior de sofrer nova lesão no joelho. Conclusão: os artigos analisados sugeriram que o tratamento cirúrgico foi altamente resolutivo no caso de lesões de LCA

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Length of hospital stay and quality of care

The relationship between Length Of hospital Stay (LOS) and Quality-of- Care (QofC) is demanding and difficult to assess. Indeed, a multifaceted intertwining network of countless services and LOS factors is available, which may range from organizational culture to hospital physicians availability, without discarding the possibility of lifting the foot on intermediate care services, to the customs and cultures of the people. On health policy terms, LOS remains a measurable index of efficiency, and most of the studies that have been undertaken show that QoC or health outcomes do not appear to be compromised by reductions in LOS times. Therefore, and in order to assess this statement, a Logic Programming based methodology to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, allowing the modeling of the universe of discourse in terms of defective data, information and knowledge is used, being complemented with an Artificial Neural Networks based approach to computing, allowing one to predict for how long a patient should remain in a hospital or at home, during his/her illness experience.FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/2014info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An assessment on the length of hospital stay through Artificial Neural Networks

The attitude of stashing costs and preventing people of any kind of intervention on the valuation of the problem referred to above, may undermine their belief on present society values and on their way of living. Cutting funds from Education to Health is at best delaying the inevitable crash that is foresha- dowed. Indeed, regarding people, a major concern may be described as jeopar- dizing their health condition, i.e., providing healthcare is a very sensitive issue and prunes to drastic changes in short spaces of time. Factors like age, sex, and context – house conditions, daily lives – should also be central when deciding how long a specific patient should remain in a hospital. In no way, ought this be decided by economic circumstances alone. To fulfill this goal, a Logic Pro- gramming based approach is used for knowledge representation and reasoning, letting the modeling of the universe of discourse in terms of defective data, in- formation and knowledge. Artificial Neural Networks are enforced as the com- putational framework, allowing one to predict how long a patient should remain in a hospital

High Doses of Essential Oil of Croton Zehntneri Induces Renal Tubular Damage

The essential oil of Croton zehntneri (EOCZ) and its major compounds are known to have several biological activities. However, some evidence shows potential toxic effects of high doses of EOCZ (>300 mg/kg) in amphibian and human kidneys. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effects on renal function of EOCZ at 300 mg/kg/day in healthy Swiss mice and a subclinical acute kidney injury (subAKI) animal model, which presents tubule-interstitial injury (TII). Four experimental groups were generated: (1) CONT group (control); (2) EOCZ, mice treated with EOCZ; (3) subAKI; (4) subAKI+EOCZ, subAKI treated simultaneously with EOCZ. EOCZ treatment induced TII measured by increases in (1) proteinuria; (2) cortical tubule-interstitial space; (3) macrophage infiltration; (4) collagen deposition. A decrease in tubular sodium reabsorption was also observed. These results were similar and nonadditive to those observed in the subAKI group. These data suggest that treatment with EOCZ at higher concentrations induces TII in mice, which could be mediated by protein overload in the proximal tubule

Paraganglioma of the Cauda Equina – Case Report and Literature Review

Paragangliomas of the cauda equina are tumors of rare incidence, with ~ 220 cases described in the world literature. They are benign lesions, grade I by the World Health Organization (WHO), whose definitive diagnosis can only be made by immunohistochemical analysis. Its neuroendocrine nature is evidenced by the presence of chromogranin. The relevance of reporting this case is because paragangliomas of the cauda equina should be included among the differential diagnoses of intradural and extramedullary tumors, and especially because they can cause perioperative and intraoperative hypertensive crises by adrenergic discharge

Lithium ameliorates tubule-interstitial injury through activation of the mTORC2/protein kinase B pathway.

Tubule-interstitial injury (TII) is a critical step in the progression of renal disease. It has been proposed that changes in proximal tubule (PT) albumin endocytosis plays an important role in the development of TII. Some reports have shown protective effects of lithium on kidney injury animal models that was correlated to proteinuria. We tested the hypothesis that lithium treatment ameliorates the development of TII due to changes in albumin endocytosis. Two experimental models were used: (1) TII induced by albumin overload in an animal model; (2) LLC-PK1 cells, a PT cell line. Lithium treatment ameliorates TII induced by albumin overload measured by (1) proteinuria; (2) collagen deposition; (3) area of tubule-interstitial space, and (4) macrophage infiltration. Lithium treatment increased mTORC2 activity leading to the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (PKB) at Ser473 and its activation. This mechanism enhanced albumin endocytosis in PT cells, which decreased the proteinuria observed in TII induced by albumin overload. This effect did not involve changes in the expression of megalin, a PT albumin receptor. In addition, activation of this pathway decreased apoptosis in LLC-PK1 cells, a PT cell line, induced by higher albumin concentration, similar to that found in pathophysiologic conditions. Our results indicate that the protective role of lithium treatment on TII induced by albumin overload involves an increase in PT albumin endocytosis due to activation of the mTORC2/PKB pathway. These results open new possibilities in understanding the effects of lithium on the progression of renal disease