Tradução e adaptação transcultural da escala Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors em universitários portugueses

Permanecem desafios para melhorar o estado nutricional das populações e garantir padrões de produção e consumo sustentáveis. A escala Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors avalia comportamentos alimentares saudáveis e sustentáveis em jovens adultos polacos. No nosso melhor conhecimento, em Portugal, desconhece-se a existência de um instrumento que avalie estes comportamentos, de forma holística, em jovens adultos universitários. Como tal, o objetivo do estudo consistiu em traduzir e adaptar transculturalmente esta escala para esta população. Após obtenção da versão portuguesa da escala, através da tradução e retrotradução, procedeu-se à sua adaptação transcultural, com a participação de 30 jovens adultos, numa entrevista semiestruturada, com a aplicação direta da versão preliminar da escala. Depois, foram realizadas adaptações às afirmações da escala, que tinham suscitado problemas de compreensão por parte dos universitários e como resultado das sugestões feitas pelo painel de especialistas. Obteve-se a versão final da escala em língua portuguesa, pelo que será possível caracterizar os comportamentos alimentares saudáveis e sustentáveis em universitários portugueses e avaliar o impacto de projetos de educação alimentar e de políticas alimentares nesta população.</jats:p

Simple and highly discriminatory microsatellite-based multiplex PCR for Aspergillus fumigatus strain typing

AbstractThe answers to important questions concerning Aspergillus fumigatus pathogenicity, transmissions routes and efficacy of treatments require highly discriminating and reproducible genotyping methods. The present study was aimed at improving microsatellite methodology for A. fumigatus typing by reducing the task of strain identification to a single multiplex reaction and by selecting highly accurate short tandem repeat polymorphisms. A set of eight primer pairs was used for the genotype determination of 116 clinical isolates of A. fumigatus obtained from three healthcare centres. A new, automated and highly discriminatory typing method is described for A. fumigatus strains. The optimized multiplex PCR was successfully performed with all tested clinical strains and showed a discriminatory power of 0.9997 among presumably unrelated isolates. The comparison of groups of strains from different health centres showed that 99.6% of the genotypic variation was present within groups. Strains with the same genotype were isolated from the same patient, sometimes recovered more than 1 year later. A few cases of patients at the same clinic unit carrying strains of identical genotype strongly suggested colonization by A. fumigatus during their hospitalization. Specific measures must therefore be taken in order to prevent and restrict such incidents

Uso Da Zona De Amortecimento De Uma Unidade De Conservação De Cerrado Por Mamíferos

Habitat loss and degradation is threatening mammals worldwide. Therefore, Protected Areas (PA) are of utmost importance to preserve biodiversity. Their effectiveness, however, depends on some management strategies such as buffer zones, which prevent/mitigate the impact of external threats and might increase the amount of available habitat for wildlife existing within reserves. Nevertheless, how intensively terrestrial mammals use buffer zones remains little studied, particularly in the Neotropical region. Aiming to analyse the use of a buffer zone (5 km wide) by medium and large-sized mammals, we modelled the occupancy probabilities of five species of conservation concern including local (interior and buffer zone) as a site covariate, simultaneously controlling for imperfect detection. Data collection was made with camera traps from April to September 2013 in a 9000 ha Cerrado PA (“interior”) and in its surrounding area (39721.41 ha; “buffer zone”). This PA (Jataí Ecological Station) is immersed in a landscape where sugarcane plantations predominate in the northeastern of the state of São Paulo. We also conducted an inventory to compare the number and composition of species between interior and buffer zone. A total of 31 mammal species (26 natives) was recorded via camera traps and active search for sightings, vocalizations, tracks and signs. Occupancy estimates for Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Leopardus pardalis and Pecari tajacu were numerically higher in interior. On the other hand, Chrysocyon brachyurus had the highest occupancy in buffer zone, while the largest predator, Puma concolor, used both areas similarly. However, as the confidence intervals (95%) overlapped, the differences in occupancy probabilities between interior and buffer were weak for all these species. Additionally, regarding only the species recorded by cameras, the observed and estimated richness were similar between interior and buffer zone of the PA. Our data demonstrated that the buffer zone is indeed used by medium and large-sized mammals, including conservation-dependent ones. The lack of enforcement of current legislation regarding buffer zones is therefore a real threat for mammals, even when protection is guaranteed in the interior of protected areas. © Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16

Multi-level Autonomic Business Process Management

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38484-4_14Nowadays, business processes are becoming increasingly complex and heterogeneous. Autonomic Computing principles can reduce this complexity by autonomously managing the software systems and the running processes, their states and evolution. Business Processes that are able to be self-managed are referred to as Autonomic Business Processes (ABP). However, a key challenge is to keep the models of such ABP understandable and expressive in increasingly complex scenarios. This paper discusses the design aspects of an autonomic business process management system able to self-manage processes based on operational adaptation. The goal is to minimize human intervention during the process definition and execution phases. This novel approach, named MABUP, provides four well-defined levels of abstraction to express business and operational knowledge and to guide the management activity; namely, Organizational Level, Technological Level, Operational Level and Service Level. A real example is used to illustrate our proposal.Research supported by CAPES, CNPQ and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.Oliveira, K.; Castro, J.; España Cubillo, S.; Pastor López, O. (2013). Multi-level Autonomic Business Process Management. En Enterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling. Springer. 184-198. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-38484-4_14S184198España, S., González, A., Pastor, Ó.: Communication Analysis: A Requirements Engineering Method for Information Systems. In: van Eck, P., Gordijn, J., Wieringa, R. (eds.) CAiSE 2009. LNCS, vol. 5565, pp. 530–545. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Ganek, A.G., Corbi, T.A.: The dawning of the autonomic computing era. IBM Systems Journal 42(1), 5–18 (2003)Gonzalez, A., et al.: Unity criteria for Business Process Modelling. In: Third International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, RCIS 2009, pp. 155–164 (2009)Greenwood, D., Rimassa, G.: Autonomic Goal-Oriented Business Process Management. Management, 43 (2007)Haupt, T., et al.: Autonomic execution of computational workflows. In: 2011 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, FedCSIS, pp. 965–972 (2011)Kephart, J.O., Chess, D.M.: The vision of autonomic computing. IEEE (2003)Lee, K., et al.: Workflow adaptation as an autonomic computing problem. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science, New York, NY, USA, pp. 29–34 (2007)Mosincat, A., Binder, W.: Transparent Runtime Adaptability for BPEL Processes. In: Bouguettaya, A., Krueger, I., Margaria, T. (eds.) ICSOC 2008. LNCS, vol. 5364, pp. 241–255. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Oliveira, K., et al.: Towards Autonomic Business Process Models. In: International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge, SEKE 2012, San Francisco, California, USA (2012)Rahman, M., et al.: A taxonomy and survey on autonomic management of applications in grid computing environments. Concurr. Comput.: Pract. Exper. 23(16), 1990–2019 (2011)Reijers, H.A., Mendling, J.: Modularity in process models: Review and effects. In: Dumas, M., Reichert, M., Shan, M.-C. (eds.) BPM 2008. LNCS, vol. 5240, pp. 20–35. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Rodrigues Nt., J.A., Monteiro Jr., P.C.L., de O. Sampaio, J., de Souza, J.M., Zimbrão, G.: Autonomic Business Processes Scalable Architecture. In: ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Benatallah, B., Paik, H.-Y. (eds.) BPM Workshops 2007. LNCS, vol. 4928, pp. 78–83. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Strohmaier, M., Yu, E.: Towards autonomic workflow management systems. ACM Press (2006)Terres, L.D., et al.: Selection of Business Process for Autonomic Automation. In: 2010 14th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, pp. 237–246 (October 2010)Tretola, G., Zimeo, E.: Autonomic internet-scale workflows. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Monitoring, Adaptation and Beyond, New York, NY, USA, pp. 48–56 (2010)Vedam, H., Venkatasubramanian, V.: A wavelet theory-based adaptive trend analysis system for process monitoring and diagnosis. In: Proceedings of the 1997 American Control Conference, vol. 1, pp. 309–313 (June 1997)Wang, Y., Mylopoulos, J.: Self-Repair through Reconfiguration: A Requirements Engineering Approach. In: 2009 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, pp. 257–268 (November 2009)Yu, T., Lin, K.: Adaptive algorithms for finding replacement services in autonomic distributed business processes. In: Proceedings Autonomous Decentralized Systems, ISADS 2005, pp. 427–434 (2005

Phosphorus removal by a fixed-bed hybrid polymer nanocomposite biofilm reactor

Eutrophication is one of the main challenges regarding the ecological quality of surface waters, phosphorus bioavailability being its main driver. In this context, a novel hybrid polymer nanocomposite (HPN-Pr) biofilm reactor aimed at integrated chemical phosphorus adsorption and biological removal was conceived. The assays pointed to removal of 1.2 mg P/g of reactive phosphorus and 1.01 mg P/g of total phosphorus under steady-state conditions. A mathematical adsorption–biological model was applied to predict reactor performance, which indicated that biological activity has a positive effect on reactor performance, increasing the amount of reactive phosphorus removed.The authors acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support under Project SFRH/BD/39085/2007

An investigation of digital skills of therapeutic radiographers/radiation therapists: A european survey of proficiency level and future educational needs

This study aims to assess the proficiency level of digital skills, the factors influencing that level and the training needs of Therapeutic Radiographers/Radiation Therapists (TR/RTTs), due to the differences in technology availability and accessibility, variations in the regulation and education of TR/RTTs in European countries, and the lack of a digital skills framework. An online survey was distributed to TR/RTTs working in Europe to capture their self assessment of proficiency levels of digital skills when performing their clinical role. Information was also gathered regarding training, work experience and level of information and communication tech nology (ICT) skills. Quantitative measures were analysed using descriptive statistics and correlation between variables, and qualitative responses using thematic analysis. 101 respondents from 13 European countries completed the survey. Digital skills in treatment planning followed by management and research were the least developed skills, while the most developed were transversal digital skills followed by digital skills in treatment delivery. The Radio therapy areas of practice where TR/RTT has experience (e.g. Planning Image, Treatment Planning, Treatment), as well as the level of generic ICT skills (communication, content creation and problem solving), was related to the level of proficiency of TR/RTT digital skills. Greater scope of practice and level of generic ICT were associated with a higher level of TR/RTT digital skills. Thematic analysis allowed the identification of new sub-themes to be included in the training of TR/RTTs. Education and training of TR/RTTs should be improved and adapted to the current needs of digitalisation to avoid differences in digital proficiency levels. Implications for practice: Aligning TR/RTTs’ digital skill sets with emerging digitalisation will improve current practice and ensure the best care to all RT patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Boldine-derived Alkaloids inhibit the activity of DNA topoisomerase I and growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The spread of multidrug-resistant isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires the discovery of new drugs directed to new targets. In this study, we investigated the activity of two boldine-derived alkaloids, seconeolitsine (SCN) and N-methyl-seconeolitsine (N-SCN), against M. tuberculosis. These compounds have been shown to target DNA topoisomerase I enzyme and inhibit growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Both SCN and N-SCN inhibited M. tuberculosis growth at 1.95-15.6 µM, depending on the strain. In M. smegmatis this inhibitory effect correlated with the amount of topoisomerase I in the cell, hence demonstrating that this enzyme is the target for these alkaloids in mycobacteria. The gene coding for topoisomerase I of strain H37Rv (MtbTopoI) was cloned into pQE1 plasmid of Escherichia coli. MtbTopoI was overexpressed with an N-terminal 6-His-tag and purified by affinity chromatography. In vitro inhibition of MtbTopoI activity by SCN and N-SCN was tested using a plasmid relaxation assay. Both SCN and N-SCN inhibited 50% of the enzymatic activity at 5.6 and 8.4 µM, respectively. Cleavage of single-stranded DNA was also inhibited with SCN. The effects on DNA supercoiling were also evaluated in vivo in plasmid-containing cultures of M. tuberculosis. Plasmid supercoiling densities were -0.060 in cells untreated or treated with boldine, and -0.072 in 1 × MIC N-SCN treated cells, respectively, indicating that the plasmid became hypernegatively supercoiled in the presence of N-SCN. Altogether, these results demonstrate that the M. tuberculosis topoisomerase I enzyme is an attractive drug target, and that SCN and N-SCN are promising lead compounds for drug development

Effects of dual blockade in heart failure and renal dysfunction: Systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The effect of dual renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibition in heart failure (HF) is still controversial. Systematic reviews have shown that dual RAS blockade may reduce mortality and hospitalizations, yet it has been associated with the increased risk of renal dysfunction (RD). Surprisingly, although RD in patients with HF is frequent, the effect of combining RAS inhibitors in HF patients with RD has never been studied in a meta-analysis. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials involving HF patients with RD who received dual blockade analyzing death, cardiovascular (CV) death or HF hospitalization, and adverse events. RESULTS: Out of 2258 screened articles, 12 studies were included (34,131 patients). Compared with monotherapy, dual RAS inhibition reduced hazard ratio of death to 0.94 (p=0.07) and significantly reduced CV death or HF hospitalization to 0.89 (p=0.0006) in all individuals, and to 0.86 (p=0.005) in patients with RD and to 0.91 (p=0.04) without RD. Nevertheless, dual RAS blockade significantly increased the risk of renal impairment (40%), hyperkalemia (44%), and hypotension (42%), although discontinuation of treatment occurs only in 3.68% versus 2.19% (p=0.00001). CONCLUSIONS: Dual RAS inhibition therapy reduces the risk of CV death or HF hospitalization. However, cautions monitoring for specific adverse events may be warranted