Light with tunable non-Markovian phase imprint

We introduce a simple and flexible method to generate spatially non-Markovian light with tunable coherence properties in one and two dimensions. The unusual behavior of this light is demonstrated experimentally by probing the far field and recording its diffraction pattern after a double slit: In both cases we observe instead of a central intensity maximum a line or cross shaped dark region, whose width and profile depend on the non-Markovian coherence properties. Since these properties can be controlled and easily reproduced in experiment, the presented approach lends itself to serve as a testbed to gain a deeper understanding of non-Markovian processes

Limb amputation secondary to pseudoamniotic band syndrome after selective fetoscopic laser photocoagulation: case report

Pseudoamniotic band syndrome (PABS) is a rare iatrogenic complication that occurs after invasive procedures in monochorionic twins for treatment of twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). Selective fetoscopic laser photocoagulation (SFLP) is a commonly performed procedure for the treatment of severe TTTS that may lead to complications such as preterm labor, preterm rupture of membranes, cerebral lesions and fetal death. PABS has been reported to occur in up to 3% of cases of TTTS treated with laser, leading to limb abnormalities. There are no identifiable risk factors and antenatal detection of PABS is rare, but possible.  Thus, obstetricians should be aware of this possibility in pregnancies treated by laser therapy for TTTS.  The authors report a case of a monochorionic biamniotic twin pregnancy submitted to SFLP for TTTS at 19 weeks of gestation with postnatal diagnosis of PABS, presenting with amputation of a fetal limb.

Multi-scale modeling of hydraulic fracturing operations

Apresentação efetuada no 17th International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering (ICCMSE 2021), em Crete, Greece, 202

Repeated exposure to chlorpyrifos is associated with a dose-dependent chronic neurobehavioral deficit in adult rats

Organophosphate (OP) chemicals include commonly used pesticides and chemical warfare agents, and mechanistically they are potent inhibitors of the cholinesterase (ChE) enzyme. Epidemiological studies report long-term neuropsychiatric issues, including depression and cognitive impairments in OP-exposed individuals. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is one of the most widely used pesticides worldwide. Multiple laboratory studies have reported on either the long-term behavioral effect of an acute high-dose CPF (30-250 mg/kg) or studied sub-chronic behavioral effects, particularly the motor and cognitive effects of repeated low-dose CPF. However, studies are lacking on chronic mood and depression-related morbidities following repeated CPF doses that would mimic occupationally relevant OP exposures. In this study, adult male rats were injected with CPF (1, 3, 5, or 10 mg/kg/d, s.c.) for 21 consecutive days. Dependent on the CPF dose, ChE activity was inhibited approximately 60-80% in the blood and about 20-50% in the hippocampus at 2-days after the end of CPF exposures. Following a 12-week washout period, a complete recovery of ChE activity was noted. However, CPF-treated rats exhibited a dose-dependent increase in signs related to anhedonia (sucrose preference test), anxiety (open-field and elevated plus-maze), and despair (forced swim test) at this stage. To the best of our knowledge, this could be the first laboratory study that demonstrates a cause-effect relationship between occupational-like CPF exposures in adult rats and the development of long-term depression-related outcomes and could provide an experimental system to study molecular mechanisms underlying environmental OP exposures and the elevated risk for chronic behavioral deficits

Commercial Gold Complexes Supported on Functionalised Carbon Materials as Efficient Catalysts for the Direct Oxidation of Ethane to Acetic Acid

UIDB/00100/2020 UIDP/00100/2020 LA/P/0056/2020 IST-ID/119/2018 SFRH/BD/146426/2019 CEEC-INST/00102/2018 UIDB/50006/2020 UIDP/50006/2020 Base-UIDB/50020/2020 Programmatic-UIDP/50020/2020The single-pot efficient oxidation of ethane to acetic acid catalysed by Au(I) or Au(III) compounds, chlorotriphenylphosphinegold(I) (1), chlorotrimethylphosphinegold(I) (2), 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidenegold(I) chloride (3), dichloro(2-pyridinecarboxylato)gold(III) (4), homogenous and supported on different carbon materials: activated carbon (AC), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon xerogel (CX), oxidised with nitric acid followed by treatment with NaOH (-ox-Na), is reported. The reactions were performed in water/acetonitrile. The materials were selective for the production of acetic acid, with no trace of by-products being detected. The best homogenous catalysts were complexes 2 and 3 which showed the highest ethane conversion and an acetic acid yield of ca. 21%, followed by 4 and 1. The heterogenised materials showed much better activity than the homogenous counterparts, with acetic acid yields up to 41.4% for 4@CNT-ox-Na, and remarkable selectivity (with acetic acid being the only product detected). The heterogenised catalysts with the best results were reused up to five cycles, with no significant loss of activity, and maintaining high selectivity for acetic acid. 4@CNT-ox-Na showed not only the best catalytic activity but also the best stability during the recycling runs.publishersversionpublishe

Users satisfaction regarding the service provided in community pharmacies

During the last century, the pharmacy professionals have significantly being professionalized, the user is a high priority and not just limited to the sale of pharmaceuticals. As such, it is necessary to know the users, their needs and expectations, their opinions and preferences. This transversal study, observational, correlational, aimed to: determine the degree of satisfaction with the attendance in community pharmacies, if there is a relationship between factors of a personal nature (age and gender) and satisfaction, trying to identify which aspects improve in order to increase satisfaction levels. The sample consisted of 525 respondents. Data collection was conducted in the period from October 2012 to January 2013 in four locations in northern Portugal. It was used a questionnaire consisting of three parts: the first contained items of personal characterization, the second consisted of the scale "Pharmacy Services Questionnaire" (FSQ) validated for the Portuguese language, developed by Larson et al. (2002) and the last had questions about the respondents' opinion. The results showed that the degree of satisfaction with the services of community pharmacies was in majority an average to 39 % and good for 46,1% . Having in mind the factor by gender, females showed a higher degree of satisfaction. Regarding the age group, older users had the highest degree of satisfaction. It was concluded that, generally, community pharmacies bring a higher degree of satisfaction in the older and the female users. "How the pharmacy professionals explain possible side effects" and "how the pharmacy professional answers your questions.", are the two aspects that must be improved to achieve a higher degree of satisfaction. KEYWORDS Satisfaction, Users, Customer Service, Pharmacotherapy Monitoring, Community Pharmacie

Quasi static mechanical study of vacuum bag infused bouligand inspired composites

Three novel Bouligand inspired composites were produced by vacuum bag infusion manufacturing process and their quasi-static mechanical performance were compared to a conventional aircraft laminate. A morphologic/physical study was first conducted for all configurations and their mechanical response under tensile, three-point bending (3-PB) and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) tests were then evaluated and discussed. No significant number of voids were detected into laminates, however, a rough and poor defined interlaminar region was observed in both Bouligand-like configurations. Under quasi-static mechanical solicitations, and when compared to reference layup, bioinspired configurations have shown similar and 18% higher tensile and flexural modulus. However, the progressive and translaminar failure mode, typically observed in these configurations, led to a lower load bearing capability. Despite presented similar interlaminar resistance than reference, finite element models built have revealed a good correlation between cross-section stress field and failure mode observed experimentally.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Projetos UIDB/05256/2020, UIDP/05256/2020 e MITP-TB/PFM/0005/201

Inspiratory resistance decreases limb blood flow in COPD patients with heart failure

Hosp Clin Porto Alegre, Exercise Pathophysiol Res Lab, BR-90035007 Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilHosp Clin Porto Alegre, Div Cardiol, BR-90035007 Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilSerra Gaucha Coll, Phys Therapy Dept, Caxias Do Sul, RS, BrazilHosp Clin Porto Alegre, Pulmonary Div, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilFed Univ Rio Grande, Fac Med, Dept Med, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Resp Dis, Pulmonary Funct & Clin Exercise Physiol Unit, São Paulo, BrazilQueens Univ, Dept Med, Div Respirol, LACEP, Kingston, ON, CanadaKingston Gen Hosp, Kingston, ON K7L 2V7, CanadaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Resp Dis, Pulmonary Funct & Clin Exercise Physiol Unit, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Hierarchical HRP-crosslinked silk fibroin/ZnSr-TCP scaffolds for osteochondral tissue regeneration: assessment of the mechanical and antibacterial properties

"Article 49"The biomaterials requirements for osteochondral (OC) defects restoration simultaneously include adequate mechanical behavior, and the prevention of bacterial adherence and biofilm formation, without impairing local tissue integration. Bilayered and hierarchical scaffolds combining a cartilage-like layer interconnected to an underlying subchondral bone-like layer appeared as innovative technological solutions able to mimic the native OC tissue hierarchical architecture. This study is focused on the assessment of the combined compression-shear stresses and possible bacterial biofilm formation of hierarchical scaffolds prepared from a horseradish peroxidase-crosslinking reaction of silk fibroin (SF) combined with zinc (Zn) and strontium (Sr)-doped β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) for OC tissue regeneration. Scaffolds with undoped-β-TCP incorporation were used as control. Results showed that the bilayered scaffolds presented suitable aptitude to support compression and shear loading for OC tissue, with better mechanical properties for the ZnSr-containing structures. Young and shear moduli presented values close to 0.01 MPa in the region 10â 20% strain. The investigation of biomaterials surface ability to prevent biofilm formation showed reduced bacterial adhesion of Escherichia coli (E. coli, gram-negative) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus, gram-positive) on both scaffolds, thus suggesting that the proposed hierarchical scaffolds have a positive effect in preventing gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria proliferation.This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the Hierarchitech project (M-era-Net/0001/2014), and by the Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) action (H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions) for the BAMOS project (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016- 734156). The authors also thank the funds provided under the distinctions attributed to JO (IF/01285/2015) and SP (CEECIND/03673/2017)

Tribocorrosion behaviour of plasma nitrided and plasma nitrided+oxidised Ti6Al4V alloy

This paper reports the influence of low pressure plasma nitriding treatments, some of them followed by plasma assisted oxidation on the mechanical properties and tribocorrosion resistance of a Ti6Al4V alloy. Nitridation was performed for 640 or 720 min at 600 and 700 °C in a r.f. plasma equipment, using a N2–H2 gas mixture at 7.5 Pa. Some of the samples were then post-oxidized at 700 °C for 15 and 60 min, within a O2 plasma of 9.5 Pa. XRD results revealed the occurrence of the Ti2N phase for the nitrided samples. The oxidized surface layers are poorly crystallised with rutile and traces of anatase TiO2 nanocrystallites. Microhardness tests showed a significant improvement of the surface hardness whatever the treatment, with a slight effect of the treatment temperature. The tribocorrosion results clearly showed that plasma treatments have a strong influence on the tribocorrosion behaviour of the material. Both the corrosion and wear performance of the samples are improved by the increase of the processing temperature