The building blocks behind the Electrohydrodynamics of non-polar 2Dinks

This work provides a complete rheological characterization of 2D inks in electric fields with different intensities and orientations to the imposed flow field. 2D nanomaterials used in this study are graphene nanoplatelets, hexagonal boron-nitride, and molybdenum disulfide. These materials with different electric properties are dispersed in a non-polar solvent (Toluene) with different concentrations of Ethyl Cellulose (EC), providing Newtonian or viscoelastic characteristics. Shear rheology tests show that the presence of nanoparticles barely changes the fluid behaviour from the carrier fluid, and the application of an electric field perpendicular to the flow does not result in electrorheological behaviour. However, extensional experiments, which mimic the actual EHD jet printing conditions, allowed the observation of the influence of both the particles and the electric field aligned on the filament thinning process. It was observed that the electric field generates vortices due to an electrophoretic effect in the carrier fluid when EC is present in the formulations, which has severe consequences on the stability of the liquid bridges, whereas it scarcely affects the shear viscosity; additionally, the kind of 2D nanoparticles modifies also the conductivity and permittivity of the solution, inducing Maxwell stresses that also make the filament more stable against surface tension

Diabetes in Pregnancy and Hemoglobin A1c

Introdução: Há estudos que revelam que a Hemoglobina A1c (HbA1c) é um indicador confiável do controlo glicémico em grávidas com diabetes gestacional (DG). Objetivo: Relacionar os níveis de HbA1c no terceiro trimestre e o prognóstico materno-fetal. Tipo de estudo: Retrospetivo. População: Quatrocentos e setenta e quatro mulheres vigiadas na consulta de diabetes e gravidez com o diagnóstico de DG. Métodos: Dividiu-se a população em dois grupos: HbA1c <6% (grupo um) e HbA1c ≥6% (grupo dois). Foram avaliados: fatores de risco para diabetes gestacional, ganho de peso na gravidez, idade gestacional (IG) do diagnóstico, complicações na gravidez, administração de insulina, IG no parto, peso ao nascer e resultado do rastreio pós-parto. Resultados: No grupo um obteve-se 420 mulheres e no grupo dois 54. O grupo dois havia mulheres com maior IMC (27 vs 29 kg / cm2; p-value 0,007), história pessoal de diabetes gestacional(14,3% vs 27,6%; p-value 0,004) e macrossomia prévia (7,6% vs 14,8%; p-value 0,039). Neste mesmo grupo uma maior percentagem de grávidas efetuou insulina (28,6% vs 48,1%; p-value 0,005) e apresentou maior ganho de peso durante a gravidez (24,8% vs 55,6%; p-value 0,000). Verificou-se um maior número de casos de recém-nascidos grandes para a IG (6,7% vs 20,4%; p-value = 0,002) e uma maior percentagem de mulheres apresentou alteração no rastreio pós-parto (15,8% vs 47,5%; p-value = 0,000). Conclusões: As mulheres com valores de HbA1c ≥6% são mais pesadas, com história pessoal de DG e macrossomia prévia, mais frequentemente necessitaram de terapêutica com insulina e apresentam maior ganho de peso. Verificou-se um maior número de casos de recém-nascidos grandes para a IG e uma maior percentagem de mulheres apresentou alteração no rastreio pós-parto

Diabetes in Pregnancy - Postpartum Screening

Introdução: Um terço das mulheres com diabetes gestacional terá o diagnóstico de diabetes ou alteração do metabolismo da glicose no rastreio pós-parto. Objectivo: Avaliar a percentagem de mulheres submetidas a rastreio pós-parto e associar o resultado com a história materna. Métodos: Estudo retrospectivo de 1013 gravidezes com diabetes gestacional (2005-2009). Dividiu-se a população em dois grupos de acordo com o resultado: normal (grupo 1) e com diabetes ou alteração do metabolismo da glicose (grupo 2). Para ambos os grupos foram avaliados: idade materna, índice de massa corporal, ganho de peso na gravidez, idade gestacional do diagnóstico, necessidade de administração de insulina, factores de risco para diabetes gestacional e peso do recém-nascido. Resultados: O rastreio pós-parto foi realizado em 76,8% das mulheres (n=778). O teste foi considerado normal (grupo 1) em 628 mulheres(80,7%) e alterado (grupo 2) em 150 mulheres (19,3%). O Grupo 2 teve mulheres mais velhas (idade média de 34 vs 33 anos;p-value 0,013), com maior índice de massa corporal (28,5 vs 25,8kg / cm2; p-value 0,000), maior número de mulheres com história familiar em primeiro grau de diabetes mellitus (50,3% vs 39,9%; p-value 0,026) e história pessoal de macrossomia prévia (12,1% vs 5,4%; p-value 0,003). O diagnóstico mais precoce da diabetes gestacional foi também feito nesse grupo (27 vs 31 semanas; p-value 0,000) e uma maior percentagem efectuou insulina (41% vs 15%; p-value 0,000), tendo iniciado mais cedo a sua administração (28 vs 30 semanas; p-value 0,010). Verificou-se uma maior percentagem de grávidas multíparas no grupo 2 (64% vs 49,4%; p-value = 0,001) e um maior número de casos de recém-nascidos grandes para a idade gestacional (17,1% vs 8,3%; p-value = 0,001). A história pessoal de diabetes gestacional e ganho de peso durante a gestação foi semelhante nos dois grupos. Conclusões: As mulheres com alteração nos resultados do rastreio pós-parto são geralmente mais velhas, mais pesadas, multíparas, com história familiar em primeiro grau de diabetes Mellitus e história pessoal de macrossomia prévia. O diagnóstico de diabetes gestacional foi mais precoce neste grupo, mais frequentemente necessitaram de terapêutica com insulina com início mais cedo e verificou-se um maior número de recém-nascidos grandes para a idade gestacional

Acenocoumarol-Related Fatal in-Utero Subdural Hematoma

Apresentamos o caso de um hematoma subdural atraumático num feto de 35 semanas de gestação, cuja mãe se encontrava sob terapêutica anticoagulante com acenocumarol, devido a prótese mitral mecânica. A ecografia, realizada às 35 semanas de gestação por redução dos movimentos fetais, revelou aumento do espaço incracraniano extracerebral e provável malformação cortical. RM fetal efetuada no dia seguinte revelou extenso hematoma subdural hemisférico bilateral, com sinais de atividade e significativo efeito de massa. Ecografia de controlo detetou ausência de batimentos cardíacos fetais e autópsia confimou o diagnóstico. Tanto quanto nos foi possível averiguar, este é o mais extenso caso de HSD fetal relacionado com a toma de acenocoumarol descrito em RM fetal e um exelente exemplo da utilidade dets técnica no diagnóstico pré-natal de lesões hemorrágicas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Correlation between the rheology of 2D-inks precursors and the droplet size generated from a capillary nozzle in dripping regime

This study provides a complete rheological characterization of 2D nanomaterial dispersions, employed as 2D-inks precursors in printed electronics. Three different 2D nanomaterials (molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), graphene, and hexagonal boron nitride(hBN)) were dispersed in a Newtonian fluid (toluene) and a viscoelastic fluid (toluene + ethyl cellulose) with different polymer concentrations. The presence of nanoparticles does not change the shear rheology of the carrier fluid. Regarding the extensional rheology, the results showed that the pinch-off phenomenon is present in all Toluene suspensions; however, the presence of the ethyl cellulose introduces elasticity in the system, even leading to the formation of beads-on-a-string, and the relaxation times of the suspensions depends on the kind of nanoparticles present in the fluid. As controlling the droplet size when dispensing 2D-inks is of paramount importance for printed electronics, as well as for many other applications, here it is presented a correlation between the rheological properties of these 2D-inks precursors and their droplet size when generated from a capillary nozzle in dripping regime

Intensity and safety of community-based physical activities for people with COPD

Background: long-term maintenance of the benefits obtained with pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in people with COPD is of upmost importance, yet highly challenging. Integrating these people in community-based physical activities (PAs), after PR, can be a promising strategy to maintain achieved benefits. Nevertheless, to confidently advise people with COPD to enrol these community-based PAs, clinicians must ensure those are safe and ideally are of at least moderate intensity (following PAs guidelines). This study aimed to explore safety and intensity level of community-based PAs (cardiofitness room, senior gymnastics, and aquatic gymnastics) in people with COPD, after PR. Methods: an observational cross-sectional study, part of a larger trial (NCT04223362) was conducted. People with COPD that had finished a community-based PR programme, conducted in the Respiratory Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory (Lab3R) or in four primary health care centres (Aveiro, Estarreja, Oliveira do Bairro and Montemor-o-Velho), and that had a positive risk-benefit analysis regarding their inclusion on community-based PAs were included. Participants were given the opportunity to choose among the available community-based PAs (previously identified as adequate), the one(s), they wanted to try, and were then accompanied by a physiotherapist. During the community-based PAs, dyspnoea and fatigue perception were assessed every 20 minutes using the modified Borg 0-10 scale; and heart rate (HR) and percentage of peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) were constantly monitored. Participants wore the SenseWear Armband on the left triceps to estimate the Metabolic Equivalent Task (METs) of each community-based PA. The final community-based PAs intensity level was obtained by summing the intensity levels yielded by: dyspnoea and fatigue Borg scores, maximal HR percentage predicted (HRmax%predicted) (where HRmaxpredicted=220-age), and METs; with 3-6 Borg scores, 64-76% of HRmax%predicted, and 3-6 METs identifying moderate intensities. For security standards, SpO2 below 88% and HRmax%predicted above 85% were considered. The occurrence of any adverse event during the PAs was registered. Results: three community-based PAs were included, cardiofitness room (9 people with COPD, 68±9 years, 100% men, 58±21 FEV1 %predicted), senior gymnastics (8 people with COPD, 70±9 years, 75% men, 53±11 FEV1 %predicted), and aquatic gymnastics (6 people with COPD, 68±10 years, 100% men, 49±16 FEV1 %predicted). Overall, the explored community-based PAs were classified as of moderate intensity (Figure 1 – a, b, c). Only one participant presented a SpO2 below 88% on the cardiofitness room (lowest SpO2 registered was 86%) and the HRmax%predicted was below 85% in all participants. Mean values of SpO2 and HRmax%predicted are presented in Figure 1 (d, e, f). No adverse event was registered. Conclusion: Cardiofitness room, senior gymnastics, and aquatic gymnastics seem safe and of moderate intensity for people with COPD. Enrolment of people with COPD on these community-based PAs, following PR, should be advised, as these may facilitate the long-term maintenance of PR benefits, while promoting a more physically active lifestyle in this population. Nevertheless, caution is needed when interpreting these results, since intensity of PA is highly influenced by individual factors and patients’ enrolment must be preceded by a careful patient selection to ensure their safety.publishe

A prescription for the conditional mass function of dark matter haloes

[ABRIDGED] The unconditional mass function (UMF) of dark matter haloes has been determined accurately in the literature, showing excellent agreement with high resolution numerical simulations. However, this is not the case for the conditional mass function (CMF). We propose a simple analytical procedure to derive the CMF by rescaling the UMF to the constrained environment using the appropriate mean and variance of the density field at the constrained point. This method introduces two major modifications with respect to the standard re-scaling procedure. First of all, rather than using in the scaling procedure the properties of the environment averaged over all the conditioning region, we implement the re-scaling locally. We show that for high masses this modification may lead to substantially different results. Secondly, we modify the (local) standard re-scaling procedure in such a manner as to force normalisation, in the sense that when one integrates the CMF over all possible values of the constraint multiplied by their corresponding probability distribution, the UMF is recovered. In practise, we do this by replacing in the standard procedure the value delta_c (the linear density contrast for collapse) by certain adjustable effective parameter delta_eff. In order to test the method, we compare our prescription with the results obtained from numerical simulations in voids (Gottlober et al. 2003), finding a very good agreement. Based on these results, we finally present a very accurate analytical fit to the (accumulated) conditional mass function obtained with our procedure, which may be useful for any theoretical treatment of the large scale structure.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Impact of pulmonary rehabilitation on the social support of people with COPD

Social support improves general health (e.g., reduces hospitalisations and exacerbations) and well-being of people with COPD, but it has shown to be low in this population. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has potential to improve social support of people with COPD, however, this needs to be investigated. This study explored the impacts of PR on the social support of people with COPD. An observational study was conducted. Participants received community-based PR for 3 months, twice a week. Sociodemographic and lung function data were used to characterise the sample. Quantity and quality of social support were assessed with the 6-item short form Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). For each item, participants listed all people or institutions who support them on a certain situation (range: 0-9 people; quantity) and indicated how satisfied they were with the support provided (range: 1 very dissatisfied to 6 very satisfied; quality). Total score for quantity and quality was computed using the mean scores from the 6 items. Frequencies, median and interquartile range (IQR) were used to describe the sample. Wilcoxon test was used to explore pre-post differences. Twenty-nine people with COPD (71 [65-77] years; 86.2% ♂; 54 [39.4-62.5] FEV1%pp) participated. No significant impacts were found for quantity (pre 1.5 [1-3.2] vs post 1.7 [1-2.2], p=0.135) nor quality (pre 6 [5.7-6] vs post 6 [5.4-6], p=0.299) of social support after PR. A ceiling effect seem to exist on quality. PR seems to yield minimal impact on the social support of people with COPD assessed with the SSQ. Future work on how to improve social support of people with COPD is needed (e.g., identify determinants and social responses).publishe