Pancreatic Involvement by Plasma Cell Neoplasms

INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic involvement by plasma cell neoplasms is an extremely rare event, with only 50 cases described in the literature. They can present as a primary solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma or plasmacytoma secondary to a plasma cell myeloma. Clinical manifestations are due to the presence of a pancreatic mass usually in the pancreas head, which causes extra-biliary obstruction and abdominal pain. METHODS: Abdominal imaging including CT scan or endoscopic ultrasound with fine-needle aspiration tissue sampling is essential for the initial diagnostic procedure. However, immunohistochemical analysis of the biopsy specimen or flow cytometry of the aspirated material is crucial to prove the monoclonality and the final diagnosis of a plasma cell neoplasm. DISCUSSION: Management of these situations include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery or combined therapy. Novel medications including the immunomodulatory drugs or the proteasome inhibitors followed by consolidation with intensive chemotherapy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation are nowadays used as upfront treatment in the cases associated to a plasma cell myeloma. CONCLUSION: Despite the rarity, plasma cell neoplasms should be considered in the differential diagnosis of obstructive jaundice and pancreatic neoplasms since they are potentially treatable situations

Understanding the mental health burden of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom

This article outlines the mental health burden of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom population, and presents preliminary evidence of less common psychiatric issues, such as paranoia and hallucinations, to which vulnerable groups in the U.K. population may be more vulnerable. It is argued that cognitive– behavioral therapy, with components of mindfulness, should be part of the therapeutic response

Performing edge detection by difference of Gaussians using q-Gaussian kernels

In image processing, edge detection is a valuable tool to perform the extraction of features from an image. This detection reduces the amount of information to be processed, since the redundant information (considered less relevant) can be unconsidered. The technique of edge detection consists of determining the points of a digital image whose intensity changes sharply. This changes are due to the discontinuities of the orientation on a surface for example. A well known method of edge detection is the Difference of Gaussians (DoG). The method consists of subtracting two Gaussians, where a kernel has a standard deviation smaller than the previous one. The convolution between the subtraction of kernels and the input image results in the edge detection of this image. This paper introduces a method of extracting edges using DoG with kernels based on the q-Gaussian probability distribution, derived from the q-statistic proposed by Constantino Tsallis. To demonstrate the method's potential, we compare the introduced method with the traditional DoG using Gaussians kernels. The results showed that the proposed method can extract edges with more accurate details.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, IC-MSQUARE 201

Bifurcations of the Riccati quadratic polynomial differential systems

In this paper, we characterize the global phase portrait of the Riccati quadratic polynomial differential system ẋ = α2(x), ẏ = ky2 + β1(x)y + γ2(x), with (x,y)∈R2, γ2(x) nonzero (otherwise the system is a Bernoulli differential system), k ≠ 0 (otherwise the system is a Liénard differential system), β1(x) a polynomial of degree at most 1, α2(x) and γ2(x) polynomials of degree at most 2, and the maximum of the degrees of α2(x) and ky2 + β1(x)y + γ2(x) is 2. We give the complete description of the phase portraits in the Poincaré disk (i.e. in the compactification of R2 adding the circle S1 of the infinity) modulo topological equivalence

Irrigação na cultura da bucha vegetal.

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Approach for preventive maintenance planning of machine tools

This paper addresses a common problem to manufacturing companies: the maintenance of machine tools and their components. Preventive maintenance has always been a great challenge for companies, due to the need of predicting failures or production shutdowns, which requires knowledge and resources. However, the planning of machine tools maintenance presents itself as an even more complex problem due to the distinct lifetimes of their components. Age-based preventive replacement and Block replacement models define optimal replacement intervals for one item based on associated maintenance costs. A machine tool can be seen as a serial system of components or items. The concepts of group technology and clustering can be used to group components together in order to define common preventive maintenance intervals and reduce the number of production stops. In the literature, some contributions are found. However, the defined groups are static as well as the preventive maintenance intervals. This paper presents a conceptual model for the definition of dynamic clusters and intervals. It also presents an application to record the inputs, data collected in real time, needed to group components and set up preventive maintenance intervals. The developed application is being implemented in a metalworking company.We would like to thank the companies that are involved in the project and express our appreciation for the commitment of the employees involved. This work has been supported by Norte 010247 FEDER 017833 – TechParts I&D

Exploring the direct and indirect influence of perceived organizational support on affective organizational commitment

As a result of the pandemic and the consequent changes in labor market patterns, firms are facing a difficult moment in attracting and retaining talented employees. In these new patterns, remuneration factors are increasingly a necessary but not sufficient condition to address this challenge. Given this background, this study seeks to identify the role of perceived organizational support in affective organizational commitment. In order to achieve this objective, structural equation models were used based on survey data from a sample of 333 respondents. The findings of this study reveal that perceived organizational support positively influences affective organizational commitment, job involvement, and job satisfaction. Furthermore, job involvement and job satisfaction were found to play a mediating effect in the relation between perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitmentinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Job integration and motivation of foreigners workers: A cluster analysis

Currently in several countries worldwide there is a huge mass of immigrants from every corner of the world. This work aims to understand what the immigrant seeks when he decides to live in a specific country. We know that it is very difficult for an immigrant to decide to live in another country and not work, taking into consideration this fact, this study seeks to address the issues of immigrant career management in Portugal trying to understand what are the factors that lead to immigration, such as the behaviour of the immigrant within the organisations to be integrated into the organisation, what are the factors that make the immigrant motivated within the organisations. To achieve this a questionnaire was launched to get answers from immigrants or immigrants who have already worked in Portugal. After the data gathered was studied using exploratory analysis and confirmatory analysis through a cluster model. We can see in this research that the integration of immigrants is the relevant factor when it comes to job satisfaction. The results show that self-knowledge, network, integration and motivation contribute positively to job satisfaction.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Efeito do ethephon na maturação pós-colheita de peras cultivar Princesinha.

Este trabalho objetivou avaliar o efeito de diferentes concentrações de ethephon em conjunto com diferentes tempos de armazenamento em temperatura controlada, na aceleração da 29 maturação de peras da cultivar princesinha