Metabolic-related virulence traits in Streptococcus pneumoniae do not seem to be related with genomic differences

The gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae thrives in almost any environment. Under certain conditions this pathogen can cause several infections such as meningitis, otitis media, endocarditis or pneumonia. The virulence of a strain can be classified into 3 different levels: invasive, colonization and neutral. The goal of this work was to uncover an eventual metabolic basis for these different levels of virulence. For that purpose, we tested if there was a connection between the presence of specific metabolic genes and virulence. For this, a dataset of DNA microarray data showing gene presence and absence and containing 1074 probes was used to analyze the DNA of 72 streptococcus strains, with different levels of virulence. The software Merlin was used to identify the metabolic pathways for each gene from the microarray data. For manipulation and reorganization of the microarray data the software Mev was used. A Mann-Whitney test followed by a frame shift analysis were performed to analyse significant differences for each gene in each group of strains. The results show that around 50 genes were statistically different (predominantly present in invasive strains) between strain types. From these, only 10 were metabolic genes, which included functions such as an argininosuccinate synthase, an amino acid ABC transporter and a metabolic transposase. According to the literature, 3 specific metabolic pathways are connected to virulence: purine metabolism, peptidoglycan biosynthesis and D-glutamine and D-Glutamate metabolism. In general there was not a large deviation in any of the pathways according to the virulence of the strains, hinting that the presence or absence of these specific pathways in the genome might not have a direct connection to virulence. It is thus likely that metabolic differences associated with virulence are not associated with genomic differences but rather with difference patterns in gene expression

RESENHA: COMO REDIGIR UM LAUDO PSICOLÓGICO?

ReviewRevisiónResenh

Digital rectal examination and balloon expulsion test in the study of defecatory disorders: are they suitable as screening or excluding tests?

Background. Rome III criteria add physiological criteria to symptom-based criteria of chronic constipation (CC) for the diagnosis of defecatory disorders (DD). However, a gold-standard test is still lacking and physiological examination is expensive and timeconsuming. Aim. Evaluate the usefulness of two low-cost tests-digital rectal examination (DRE) and balloon expulsion test (BET)-as screening or excluding tests ofDD. Methods. Weperformeda systematic search inPUBMEDandMEDLINE. We selected studies where constipated patients were evaluated by DRE or BET. Heterogeneity was assessed and random effect models were used to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value (NPV) of the DRE and the BET. Results. Thirteen studies evaluating BET and four studies evaluating DRE (2329 patients) were selected. High heterogeneity (.. 2 > 80%) among studies was demonstrated. The studies evaluating the BET showed a sensitivity and specificity of 67% and 80%, respectively. Regarding the DRE, a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 84% were calculated. NPV of 72% for the BET and NPV of 64% for the DRE were estimated. The sensitivity and specificity were similar when we restrict the analysis to studies using Rome criteria to define CC. The BET seems to performbetter when a cut-off time of 2minutes is used and when it is compared with a combination of physiological tests. Considering the DRE, strict criteria seem to improve the sensitivity but not the specificity of the test. Conclusion. Neither of the low-cost tests seems suitable for screening or excluding DD.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Análise de desempenho em ambientes cliente/servidor 2-camadas e 3-camadas

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação.Por volta de 1980, juntamente com o aparecimento dos PC (computadores pessoais), tem-se o surgimento do modelo cliente/servidor baseado em 2-camadas: o cliente e o servidor (representando na maioria das vezes por um servidor de banco de dados). Apesar dos benefícios conseqüentes deste novo modelo, como o surgimento de diversos ambientes de desenvolvimento pertencentes a empresas diferentes, permitindo uma melhor escolha da ferramenta adequada para uma determinada aplicação, a maneira de desenvolver softwares exigiu uma significativa mudança, pois passou a considerar elementos antes ignorados no modelo legado como: largura de banda das redes, capacidade de processamento das estações clientes, etc. Estas novas variáveis provocaram no sistema cliente servidor 2-camadas uma evolução para o modelo baseado em 3-camadas, onde a carga de processamento seria dividida por um terceiro elemento entre o cliente e o servidor chamado de servidor de aplicação. Esta nova camada atenderia as solicitações dos clientes e as gerenciaria com o lado servidor. Este trabalho visa através das metodologias de Planejamento de Capacidade e Avaliação de Desempenho de Sistemas Computacionais, utilizando técnicas de simulação, através do software de simulação ARENA, comparar o desempenho dos dois modelos citados, 2-camadas e 3-camadas. Para tanto foram desenvolvidos um Modelo de Carga e um Modelo de Desempenho, tendo como base para construção destes dois modelos um levantamento realizado com o Núcleo de Informática do Departamento de Trânsito do Estado do Pará. O modelo de carga, e seus componentes básicos, é representado por instruções SQL do tipo Insert e o modelo de desempenho representa uma parte do ambiente computacional corporativo, apenas a LAN foi considerada, do Departamento do Estado do Pará, utilizando um determinado servidor de banco de dados. Partindo-se destes modelos, serão desenvolvidos para as arquiteturas citadas dois modelos no simulador, e as variáveis de desempenho envolvidas, como tempo de resposta, medidas e comparadas para se ter uma medida de desempenho

Spam email filtering using network-level properties

Spam is serious problem that affects email users (e.g. phishing attacks, viruses and time spent reading unwanted messages). We propose a novel spam email filtering approach based on network-level attributes (e.g. the IP sender geographic coordinates) that are more persistent in time when compared to message content. This approach was tested using two classifiers, Naive Bayes (NB) and Support Vector Machines (SVM), and compared against bag-of-words models and eight blacklists. Several experiments were held with recent collected legitimate (ham) and non legitimate (spam) messages, in order to simulate distinct user profiles from two countries (USA and Portugal). Overall, the network-level based SVM model achieved the best discriminatory performance. Moreover, preliminary results suggests that such method is more robust to phishing attacks.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/EIA/64541/200

Projeto de estabilidade de uma habitação unifamiliar recorrendo a programas de cálculo automático

O presente documento é referente à realização de um projeto de estabilidade estrutural em betão armado, no âmbito da disciplina DIPRE (Dissertação/ Projeto / Estágio). A escolha deste tema teve como objetivo aplicar conhecimentos adquiridos ao longo do curso de engenharia civil, especialmente os obtidos nas unidades curriculares referentes ao ramo de estruturas. Para além disso, pretendeu-se o estudo e a utilização de programas informáticos de cálculo de estruturas que permitissem a aquisição de competências que se esperam úteis no desenvolvimento da atividade de projetista no mercado de trabalho. O trabalho desenvolvido refere-se a um projeto de estabilidade estrutural de uma habitação unifamiliar situada na freguesia de Avintes, Vila Nova de Gaia. Foi efetuado recorrendo às funcionalidades dos programas de cálculo Robot Structural Analysis Professional e ao CYPE e sob orientação da Engenheira Isabel Maria Alvim Teles. Com este projeto pretendeu-se seguir todas as fases de execução de um projeto de estabilidade, desde a análise da arquitetura até à elaboração das peças desenhadas, utilizando os regulamentos nacionais e europeus, nomeadamente o REBAP e os Eurocódigos. As peças desenhadas constituintes do projeto de estabilidade final estão apresentadas na secção Anexos deste documento.The present document is related to the realization of a structural stability project in reinforced concrete, in the discipline of DIPRE (Dissertation / Project / Internship). The choice of this theme had the purpose of applying knowledge acquired during the course of civil engineering, especially those obtained in the curricular units regarding structural stability. In addition, it is intended the study and use of software for structure calculations that will allow the acquisition of skills expected to be useful during the development of activity as a designer in the labor market. The work developed refers to a structural stability project of a residence house located in the parish of Avintes, Vila Nova de Gaia. It was achieved by using the features of software such as Robot Structural Analysis and CYPE and under the guidance of the Engineer Isabel Maria Alvim Teles. The aim of this project was to follow all the stages of execution of a stability project, since the architecture analysis to the elaboration of the final drawings, using national and European regulations, as REBAP and Eurocodes. The design drawings of the final stability project are presented in the Annexes section of this document

Team Fernando-Pessa at SemEval-2019 Task 4: back to basics in Hyperpartisan News Detection

This paper describes our submission1 to the SemEval 2019 Hyperpartisan News Detection task. Our system aims for a linguistics-based document classification from a minimal set of interpretable features, while maintaining good performance. To this goal, we follow a feature-based approach and perform several experiments with different machine learning classifiers. On the main task, our model achieved an accuracy of 71.7%, which was improved after the task's end to 72.9%. We also participate in the meta-learning sub-task, for classifying documents with the binary classifications of all submitted systems as input, achieving an accuracy of 89.9%

Permissividade institucional no contexto das relações empresas-governo

Purpose - This article explores the extent to which business–government relations permeate socially irresponsible business activities. While existing theory provides traction in explaining the strength of the pressures to conform that emanate from the institutional environment, it does not adequately explain the conditions under which businesses might exercise discretion in choosing whether or not to conform to local standards of appropriateness and how local actors organize their responses accordingly. Methodology - The empirical evidence is based on an in-depth longitudinal case study developed in an industrial district of Fortaleza, Brazil. Data were collected from three sources, including semi-structured interviews. An inductive thematic analysis of narratives was conducted to investigate the interactions between the different institutional actors and their experiences of institutional change and renegotiation. Findings - It was found that the institutionalized forms of business–government relations are fundamentally permissive and personalized, being based on meeting specific and mutually opportunistic demands. We show that institutional permissiveness can make it possible for large firms to dominate an industrial area and force the government to reduce law enforcement. We demonstrate the historical evolution of forms of the appropriation of space and natural resources. Originality - Our theoretical contribution is to the concept of institutional permissiveness. Unlike other institutional streams, we argue that the concept of the institutional void is inadequate to the task of understanding business–government relations in emerging markets. We show how an institutional configuration can emerge that sustains the power relations and resource appropriations that reproduce social relations distinct from those found in the Anglo-American institutional environment, which does not configure institutional voids.Objetivos – Este artigo explora em que extensão as relações empresas-governo estão imersas em atividades empresariais socialmente irresponsáveis. Embora a teoria existente forneça tração na explicação das pressões de conformidade que emanam do ambiente institucional, ela não explica adequadamente as condições sob as quais as empresas podem exercer o poder discricionário na escolha de se conformar ou não aos padrões locais de adequação e como os atores locais organizam suas respostas. Metodologia – As evidências empíricas baseiam-se em um estudo de caso longitudinal em profundidade, desenvolvido em um distrito industrial de Fortaleza. Os dados foram coletados em três fontes, incluindo entrevistas semiestruturadas. Na sequência foi realizada uma análise temática indutiva das narrativas para investigar as interações entre os diferentes atores institucionais e suas experiências de mudança institucional e renegociação. Resultados - Observou-se que as formas institucionalizadas das relações empresas-governo são fundamentalmente permissivas e personalizadas, baseando-se no atendimento de demandas específicas e mutuamente oportunistas. Mostramos que a permissividade institucional pode permitir que grandes empresas dominem uma área industrial e forçem o governo a reduzir a aplicação da lei. Demonstramos a evolução histórica das formas de apropriação do espaço e dos recursos naturais. Originalidade - Nossa contribuição teórica volta-se para o conceito de permissividade institucional. Ao contrário de outras correntes institucionais, argumentamos que o conceito de vazio institucional é inadequado para a tarefa de compreender as relações empresas-governo em mercados emergentes. Mostramos como pode surgir uma configuração institucional que sustente as relações de poder e formas apropriações de recursos capazes de reproduzir relações sociais distintas daquelas encontradas no ambiente institucional anglo-americano

Guidelines for Successful Quantitative Gene Expression in Real- Time qPCR Assays

This chapter was developed to provide some important guidelines for studies with quantitative PCR (qPCR) using either dyes or probes, citing several essential components necessary for a good PCR assay. The efficiency and specificity of quantitative PCR (qPCR) depend on several parameters related to mRNA quantification that must be controlled to avoid mistakes in data interpretation. Avoiding contamination with proteins, carbohydrate and phenolic compounds during RNA extraction and purification processes will improve RNA quality and provide reliable results. Specific primers and sensible probes are also crucial to intensify efficiency, specificity and fluorescence. Other parameters such as the optimization of primer concentrations and efficiency primer curves must be done. During gene-expression profile quantification, qPCR assays using reference genes are required to normalize the target gene expression data. These reference genes are checked for stability to identify the most stable genes among a group of candidate genes that will be used to normalize the qPCR data, using programs such as geNorm, BestKeeper and NormFinder. Additionally, the choice of appropriate reference genes for a specific experimental condition is fundamental. The main aim of this chapter is to provide guidelines and highlight precautions to obtain a successful qPCR assays

Fibronectin as an adjuvant in the diagnosis of oral inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is a distinctive lesion composed of myofibroblastic spindle shaped cells accompanied by inflammatory infiltrate that may arise in various organs. It is believed to be a noneoplastic inflammatory condition, although this is still controversial. The recognition of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor as an entity is important especially to avoid unnecessary surgery. A few cases have been reported in the oral cavity. This report primarily presents a case of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor that arose in the floor of mouth of a 23-year-old woman. The proliferating spindle cells were immunoreactive for vimentin, smooth muscle actin, and muscle specific actin and negative for desmin, AE1/AE3, S-100, CD68, MyoD1 and caldesmon. In an attempt to assess the potential neoplastic nature of this lesion, immunohistochemical expression of ALK protein was performed, although no immunoreactivity was detected. Also, the presence of well differentiated myofibroblasts identified by fibronectin is discussed, as well as the importance in establishing an immunoprofile to better consolidate the diagnosis. We conclude that the study of fibronectin in case series may aid the diagnosis as well as the prediction of the tumor course