Post-fire diversity and abundance in pine and eucalipt stands in Portugal: effects of biogeography, topography, forest type and post-fire management

This study concerned the mid-term regeneration of the woody understory vegetation of pure and mixed stands of Pinus pinaster Ait. and Eucalyptus globulus Labill. in northern and central Portugal following wildfires in 2005 and 2006. Pine and eucalypt stands are the most widespread and most fire-prone forest types in Portugal. The main aim was to investigate the importance of biogeography, topography, forest type and post-fire management operations in explaining the patterns in shrub diversity (species richness) and abundance (cover). To this end, 284 study sites in four distinct biogeographic regions were sampled 5 to 7 years following the last wildfire. At each site, the presence and cover of individual shrub species were estimated using 4 sub-plot of approximately 10 m2 each. The entire data set was analyzed by means of GLM using a total of seven explanatory variables: biogeographic region, forest type, three types post-fire management operations (soil tillage, tree harvesting, and shrub clearance), and two topographic variables (slope angle and elevation). The GLM analysis was also done for the individual biogeographic regions. Biogeographic region and slope steepness were key factors explaining shrub species richness, albeit the role of slope angle was possibly linked to the intensity of past land use. Biogeographic region equally played a significant role in explaining the cover of all shrubs together as well as of the shrubs of Leguminosae and Cistaceae. All three types of post-fire management operations appeared to hamper the recovery of resprouters and Leguminosae, whereas just tree harvesting and shrub clearance (but not soil tillage) negatively affected the cover of seeder species. These impacts of post-fire management operations had a noticeable region-specific component, being more relevant in the less productive biogeographic regions. Also the role of forest type depended strongly on biogeographic region. It was only significant in the South Mediterranean region, where pine plantations had a higher total shrub cover as well as higher covers of seeders and Cistaceae. Possibly, however, this significant role of forest type could be due to the lower incidence of shrub clearance in the pine standsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Caracterização sanitária de rebanho de bovinos da raça Sindi no município de Petrolina, PE.

Os bovinos da raça Sindi, originários do Paquistão, apresentam elevada rusticidade e alta tolerância ao calor. São animais de pequeno porte, pelagem avermelhada e altamente adaptados às condições adversas da região semiárida do Nordeste do Brasil. Diante da importância da brucelose e da tuberculose na saúde humana e animal, o Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) instituiu o Programa Nacional de Controle e Erradicação da Brucelose e Tuberculose (PNCEBT), visando diminuir o impacto negativo destas enfermidades nos rebanhos nacionais. Diante disso, o presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar sanitariamente os bovinos da raça Sindi do rebanho da Embrapa Semiárido, Petrolina, PE. Foram examinadas 109 amostras de soro sanguíneo dos bovinos pelo teste de soroaglutinação com Antígeno Acidificado Tamponado (AAT) para a detecção de anticorpos contra a Brucella abortus. Das 109 amostras avaliadas, todas apresentaram resultado negativo no teste de soroaglutinação rápida em placa. Realizou-se o teste intradérmico cervical comparado com as tuberculinas (PPD) bovina e aviária nos 109 animais e nenhum apresentou reação positiva para tuberculose. Diante dos resultados obtidos, concluiu-se que neste tipo de rebanho em que ocorre pouco ou nenhum transito de animais (entrada), o risco de ocorrência de brucelose e tuberculose é considerado pequeno.bitstream/item/17921/1/BPD78.pd

Linha de apoio ao doente oncológico: optimizar a qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem em oncologia

As doenças oncológicas, pela sua elevada morbimortalidade, têm um profundo impacto na vida dos doentes, família e sociedade. As intervenções nas áreas da prevenção/ tratamento, devem ter por base o princípio da equidade e qualidade dos cuidados, dirigida aos doentes e familia. O HDO do HFF é um serviço ambulatório que tem um horário de funcionamento de 12 horas em dias úteis. A linha de apoio é um serviço disponível desde 1998, que surgiu para dar resposta às necessidades constantes dos doentes oncológicos da unidade, permitindo o seu acompanhamento permanente (24 horas / dia). Tem como objectivo: esclarecer dúvidas, apoiar e orientar as famílias de doentes em fase paliativa e terminal, orientar nas complicações decorrentes do tratamentos de quimioterapia, instruir e esclarecer dúvidas na gestão do regime terapêutico, assistir para resolução de eventuais problemas nas infusões contínuas de citotóxicos no domicílio, e ainda um meio de contacto com os diferentes serviços do hospital. Realizou-se um estudo retrospectivo, descritivo e de abordagem quantitativa, referente ao ano de 2008, tendo como principal objectivo, Identificar motivos dos contactos telefónicos, e a caracterização do tipo de encaminhamento. Recorreu-se a uma base dados de Excell. Verificou-se que dos 475 contactos, 50,5% dos casos foram resolvidos no domicílio, em 18,2% houve necessidade de avaliação pela equipa de saúde do HDO, 11,3% encaminhamento para o SU e em 0,6% houve necessidade de apoio da emergência médica (INEM). Com o apoio telefónico durante as 24h, evitou-se um acréscimo do número de casos que recorreram ao S.U., dos custos e de morbimortalidade, promovendo assim a optimização de recursos humanos e organizacionais, o aumento da qualidade de vida destes doentes e família, bem como, a sua satisfação

A Target Enrichment Bait Set for Studying Relationships among Ostariophysan Fishes

© 2020 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Target enrichment of conserved nuclear loci has helped reconstruct evolutionary relationships among a wide variety of species. While there are preexisting bait sets to enrich a few hundred loci across all fishes or a thousand loci from acanthomorph fishes, no bait set exists to enrich large numbers (\u3e1,000 loci) of ultraconserved nuclear loci from ostariophysans, the second largest actinopterygian superorder. In this study, we describe how we designed a bait set to enrich 2,708 ultraconserved nuclear loci from ostariophysan fishes by combining an existing genome assembly with low coverage sequence data collected from two ostariophysan lineages. We perform a series of enrichment experiments using this bait set across the ostariophysan tree of life, from the deepest splits among the major groups (\u3e150 Ma) to more recent divergence events that have occurred during the last 50 million years. Our results demonstrate that the bait set we designed is useful for addressing phylogenetic questions from the origin of crown ostariophysans to more recent divergence events, and our in silico results suggest that this bait set may be useful for addressing evolutionary questions in closely related groups of fishes, like Clupeiformes

Giant paraselar aneurysm simulating pituitary tumour

Revisamos 7 pacientes com comprometimento da sela turca ao raio X do crânio que apresentavam aneurisma gigante da porção intracavernosa da artéria carótida (6 casos) e aneurisma da artéria comunicante anterior (1 caso). As alterações encontradas foram: cefaléia (7/7), oftalmoplegia complexa interessando III, IV e VI nervos cranianos (5/7) e comprometimento do V nervo (4/7), dor ocular (4/7). Outras alterações encontradas foram: sinais meníngeos (2/7), cegueira unilateral (1/7), hemiparesia (1/7) cacosmia (1/7) e quadrantanopsia bitemporal inferior (1/7). Cinco pacientes com aneurisma da porção intracavernosa da artéria carótida beneficiaram-se com a ligadura progressiva da artéria carótida interna a nível cervical; o outro paciente faleceu antes da realização da operação. O paciente com aneurisma da artéria comunicante anterior foi submetido a clipagem do aneurisma, tendo boa evolução. Baseados neste estudo e em concordância com a literatura, concluímos que o diagnóstico diferencial entre aneurisma localizado na região parasselar e outras patologias dessa área freqüentemente apresenta dificuldade. O diagnóstico definitivo requer a realização de angiografia cerebral. O tratamento cirúrgico, por ligadura da carótida interna na região cervical, é benéfico e quase desprovido de complicações.Seven cases of compromised pituitary fossa at the conventional skull X-ray, who had the final diagnosis of giant aneurysm of the intracavernous portion of the carotid artery (6 cases) and one of the anterior communicant artery, are reported. The main findings were: headache (7/7), complex ophtalmoplegia involving the III, IV and VI cranial nerves (5/7), compromised V cranial nerve (4/7) and eyeball pain (4/7). Other manifestations were: meningeal signs (2/7), unilateral blindness (1/7), hemiparesis (1/7), cacosmia (1/7) and inferior bitemporal quadrantanopsia (1/7). Five patients with intracavernous carotid artery aneurysm showed benefits with progressive occlusion of the internal carotid artery at the cervical level. One died before surgery. The case with anterior communicant artery aneurysm improved after its surgical clipping. Our data, in accord with the literature, support the conclusion that the differential diagnosis of aneurysms in the parasellar egion remains a very difficult task. The accurate final diagnosis requires cerebral angiography and the surgical treatment with progressive occlusion at the cervical portion of the internal carotid artery has a relatively low risk with promising results

The Portuguese Society of Rheumatology position paper on the use of biosimilars

Biotechnological drugs have become a fundamental resource for the treatment of rheumatic patients. Patent expiry of some of these drugs created the opportunity for biopharmaceutical manufacturers to develop biosimilar drugs intended to be as efficacious as the originator product but with a lower cost to healthcare systems. Due to the complex manufacturing process and highly intricate structure of biologicals, a biosimilar can never be an exact copy of its reference product. Consequently, regulatory authorities issued strict preclinical and clinical guidelines to ensure safety and efficacy equivalence and, in September 2013, the biosimilar of infliximab was the first biosimilar monoclonal antibody to be authorized for use in the European Union. The current document is a position statement of the "Sociedade Portuguesa de Reumatologia" (Portuguese Society of Rheumatology) on the use of biosimilar drugs in rheumatic diseases. Two systematic literature reviews were performed, one concerning clinical trials and the other one concerning international position papers on biosimilars. The results were presented and discussed in a national meeting and a final position document was discussed, written and approved by Portuguese rheumatologists. Briefly, this position statement is contrary to automatic substitution of the originator by the biosimilar, defends either a different INN or the prescription by brand name, supports that switching between biosimilars and the originator molecule should be done after at least 6 months of treatment and based on the attending physician decision and after adequate patient information, recommends the registration of all biosimilar treated patients in Reuma.pt for efficacy, safety and immunogenicity surveillance, following the strategy already ongoing for originators, and opposes to extrapolation of indications approved to the originator to completely different diseases and/or age groups without adequate pre-clinical, safety or efficacy data.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diminished Self-Chaperoning Activity of the ΔF508 Mutant of CFTR Results in Protein Misfolding

The absence of a functional ATP Binding Cassette (ABC) protein called the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) from apical membranes of epithelial cells is responsible for cystic fibrosis (CF). Over 90% of CF patients carry at least one mutant allele with deletion of phenylalanine at position 508 located in the N-terminal nucleotide binding domain (NBD1). Biochemical and cell biological studies show that the ΔF508 mutant exhibits inefficient biosynthetic maturation and susceptibility to degradation probably due to misfolding of NBD1 and the resultant misassembly of other domains. However, little is known about the direct effect of the Phe508 deletion on the NBD1 folding, which is essential for rational design strategies of cystic fibrosis treatment. Here we show that the deletion of Phe508 alters the folding dynamics and kinetics of NBD1, thus possibly affecting the assembly of the complete CFTR. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we find that meta-stable intermediate states appearing on wild type and mutant folding pathways are populated differently and that their kinetic accessibilities are distinct. The structural basis of the increased misfolding propensity of the ΔF508 NBD1 mutant is the perturbation of interactions in residue pairs Q493/P574 and F575/F578 found in loop S7-H6. As a proof-of-principle that the S7-H6 loop conformation can modulate the folding kinetics of NBD1, we virtually design rescue mutations in the identified critical interactions to force the S7-H6 loop into the wild type conformation. Two redesigned NBD1-ΔF508 variants exhibited significantly higher folding probabilities than the original NBD1-ΔF508, thereby partially rescuing folding ability of the NBD1-ΔF508 mutant. We propose that these observed defects in folding kinetics of mutant NBD1 may also be modulated by structures separate from the 508 site. The identified structural determinants of increased misfolding propensity of NBD1-ΔF508 are essential information in correcting this pathogenic mutant

Allozyme differentiation of two populations of the genus Neoplecostomus Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1888 (Teleostei, Loricariidae) from the upper Paraná River basin, Brazil

Allozyme electrophoresis was used to examine 12 enzymatic systems in two populations of the genus Neoplecostomus from the Paraná River basin. Samples of Neoplecostomus sp. 1 were collected in Paraitinguinha stream of the Tietê River basin, in the municipality of Salesópolis, São Paulo State, and those of Neoplecostomus sp. 2 from São Domingos stream of the Rio Grande River basin, in the municipality of Muzambinho, Minas Gerais State. The genetic variability of the two populations was estimated by Nei’s expected heterozygosity and was considered lower than average for populations of freshwater fish. The proportion of polymorphic loci was low (only 5.26% for the locus Idh). The low frequency of heterozygosity for both populations revealed a high fixation of alleles for each locus. Homozygote excess was observed in both populations. The values of Nei’s genetic identity and the presence of loci with different allele frequencies in both populations may imply that the two populations belong to different species. The genetic variability between populations was compared to other data for loricariids

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin