Vale Frio 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja) – práticas de enchimento das estruturas em negativo de cronologia pré-histórica.

Neste artigo apresentamos a análise dos enchimentos de um conjunto de fossas da estação pré-histórica de Vale Frio 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja). A análise efetuada permitiu identificar que alguns dos contextos apresentam características que permitem o reconhecimento de uma intencionalidade no processo de enchimento das estruturas. No âmbito desses contextos é de salientar a presença de construções pétreas, de níveis de ocorrência de artefactos e níveis de inumação. As diferenças entre este elementos remetem para diferentes práticas de enchimento e para a utilização destas estruturas enquanto contento- res em cenários sociais muito distintos

Malhada do Vale da Água – novos dados sobre a metalurgia do Bronze Pleno do Sudoeste

A estação arqueológica Malhada do Vale da Água (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja) foi interven- cionada no âmbito dos trabalhos arqueológicos decorrentes da minimização de impactes sobre o património cultural decorrentes da execução do Bloco de Rega de Ervidel – fase de obra EDIA S.A. Os trabalhos efetuados permitiram veri car a existência de uma extensa área de construção de estruturas em negativo, localizada numa área aplanada junto do Barranco do Xacafre. Os enchimentos destas estruturas apresentavam elementos que re- metem para uma longa diacronia de ocupação, tendo-se registado contextos articuláveis com a Pré-história Recente, o período Tardo-romano e a Antiguidade Tardia, o período Islâmico e a Época Moderna/Contemporânea. A ocupação pré-histórica deste sítio compreende um conjunto de fossas e um valado/ fosso, as quais apresentam, na sua maioria, uma componente artefactual articulável com a Idade do Bronze. O presente estudo centrou-se em quatro dessas fossas (Sondagens no 3, 4, 5 e 6) devido à presença nos seus enchimentos de diversos vestígios de produção metalúrgica. Contextos com esses vestígios foram datados pelo radiocarbono como per- tencentes ao nal do segundo – início do terceiro quartel do segundo milénio a.C., sendo portanto enquadráveis no Bronze Pleno. Análises preliminares por espectrometria de fluorescência de raios X, dispersiva de energias (EDXRF) indicaram que os cadinhos cerâmicos, escórias, nódulos metálicos e minérios registados naquelas fossas estão associados com a produção de cobre e bronze. Os cadinhos e as escórias onde foi identificada esta liga são os vestígios mais antigos de produção local de bronze no sudoeste ibérico. A quantidade e o tamanho assinaláveis dos vestígios metalúrgicos recuperados na Malhada do Vale da Água, designadamente das escórias e cadinhos, sugerem a produção de metal numa escala mais elevada do que tem sido registado, em especial considerando a região e o período cronológico em causa

Por Detrás de uma Lombalgia: Um Caso Clínico

A lombalgia é uma das causas de sofrimento mais frequente da espécie humana, depois da “constipação comum”. É um motivo frequente de consulta não só em Medicina Geral e Familiar como também noutras especialidades e é um problema de saúde pública relevante pela morbilidade e custos socioeconómicos que acarreta. Apenas uma pequena percentagem de casos corresponde a uma etiologia específica, exigindo atuação diagnóstica e terapêutica diferenciada. Os autores descrevem um caso de um homem de 53 anos com antecedentes de patologia degenerativa lombar com um quadro de lombalgia de ritmo mecânico, sem alívio com o tratamento analgésico; a tomografia computorizada lombar mostrou um achado suspeito de lesão neoplásica versus espondilodiscite, tendo sido referenciado para consulta de neurocirurgia. A biópsia óssea mostrou tratar-se de uma infeção por Mycobaterium tuberculosis e foi orientado para o centro de diagnóstico pneumológico da área de residência. O tratamento dirigido durou 12 meses

Integrated Design in Welding and Incremental Forming: Material Model Calibration for Friction Stir Welded Blanks

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Ponto de Situação dos trabalhos de minimização de impactes sobre o património cultural decorrentes da execução do Bloco de Rega de Ervidel – Fase de Obra (Aljustrel, Ferreira do Alentejo e Beja, Portugal)

O Bloco de Rega de Ervidel localiza-se nas freguesias de Aljustrel e Ervidel (concelho de Aljustrel), Ferreira do Alentejo (concelho de Ferreira do Alentejo), Santa Vitória e Mombeja (concelho de Beja). No âmbito dos trabalhos de minimização de impactes sobre o património cultural deste projeto, promovidos pela EDIA SA, foram realizadas várias intervenções em estações arqueológicas de diferentes períodos cronológicos. Neste texto iremos apresentar uma análise preliminar dessas intervenções

Sensing sociability: Individual differences in young adults' conversation, calling, texting, and app use behaviors in daily life.

Sociability as a disposition describes a tendency to affiliate with others (vs. be alone). Yet, we know relatively little about how much social behavior people engage in during a typical day. One challenge to documenting social behavior tendencies is the broad number of channels over which socializing can occur, both in-person and through digital media. To examine individual differences in everyday social behavior patterns, here we used smartphone-based mobile sensing methods (MSMs) in four studies (total N = 926) to collect real-world data about young adults' social behaviors across four communication channels: conversations, phone calls, text messages, and use of messaging and social media applications. To examine individual differences, we first focused on establishing between-person variability in daily social behavior, examining stability of and relationships among daily sensed social behavior tendencies. To explore factors that may explain the observed individual differences in sensed social behavior, we then expanded our focus to include other time estimates (e.g., times of the day, days of the week) and personality traits. In doing so, we present the first large-scale descriptive portrait of behavioral sociability patterns, characterizing the degree to which young adults engaged in social behaviors and mapping these behaviors onto self-reported personality dispositions. Our discussion focuses on how the observed sociability patterns compare to previous research on young adults' social behavior. We conclude by pointing to areas for future research aimed at understanding sociability using mobile sensing and other naturalistic observation methods for the assessment of social behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Amplified sinus-P-wave analysis predicts outcomes of cryoballoon ablation in patients with persistent and long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation: A multicentre study

IntroductionOutcomes of catheter ablation for non-paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) remain suboptimal. Non-invasive stratification of patients based on the presence of atrial cardiomyopathy (ACM) could allow to identify the best responders to pulmonary vein isolation (PVI).MethodsObservational multicentre retrospective study in patients undergoing cryoballoon-PVI for non-paroxysmal AF. The duration of amplified P-wave (APW) was measured from a digitally recorded 12-lead electrocardiogram during the procedure. If patients were in AF, direct-current cardioversion was performed to allow APW measurement in sinus rhythm. An APW cut-off of 150 ms was used to identify patients with significant ACM. We assessed freedom from arrhythmia recurrence at long-term follow-up in patients with APW ≥ 150 ms vs. APW < 150 ms.ResultsWe included 295 patients (mean age 62.3 ± 10.6), of whom 193 (65.4%) suffered from persistent AF and the remaining 102 (34.6%) from long-standing persistent AF. One-hundred-forty-two patients (50.2%) experienced arrhythmia recurrence during a mean follow-up of 793 ± 604 days. Patients with APW ≥ 150 ms had a significantly higher recurrence rate post ablation compared to those with APW < 150 ms (57.0% vs. 41.6%; log-rank p < 0.001). On a multivariable Cox-regression analysis, APW≥150 ms was the only independent predictor of arrhythmia recurrence post ablation (HR 2.03 CI95% 1.28–3.21; p = 0.002).ConclusionAPW duration predicts arrhythmia recurrence post cryoballoon-PVI in persistent and long-standing persistent AF. An APW cut-off of 150 ms allows to identify patients with significant ACM who have worse outcomes post PVI. Analysis of APW represents an easy, non-invasive and highly reproducible diagnostic tool which allows to identify patients who are the most likely to benefit from PVI-only approach

Globally invariant metabolism but density-diversity mismatch in springtails.

Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil arthropods regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains unknown. Here, using a global dataset representing 2470 sites, we estimate the total soil springtail biomass at 27.5 megatons carbon, which is threefold higher than wild terrestrial vertebrates, and record peak densities up to 2 million individuals per square meter in the tundra. Despite a 20-fold biomass difference between the tundra and the tropics, springtail energy use (community metabolism) remains similar across the latitudinal gradient, owing to the changes in temperature with latitude. Neither springtail density nor community metabolism is predicted by local species richness, which is high in the tropics, but comparably high in some temperate forests and even tundra. Changes in springtail activity may emerge from latitudinal gradients in temperature, predation and resource limitation in soil communities. Contrasting relationships of biomass, diversity and activity of springtail communities with temperature suggest that climate warming will alter fundamental soil biodiversity metrics in different directions, potentially restructuring terrestrial food webs and affecting soil functioning

Elective surgery cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic: global predictive modelling to inform surgical recovery plans.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine hospital services globally. This study estimated the total number of adult elective operations that would be cancelled worldwide during the 12 weeks of peak disruption due to COVID-19. METHODS: A global expert response study was conducted to elicit projections for the proportion of elective surgery that would be cancelled or postponed during the 12 weeks of peak disruption. A Bayesian β-regression model was used to estimate 12-week cancellation rates for 190 countries. Elective surgical case-mix data, stratified by specialty and indication (surgery for cancer versus benign disease), were determined. This case mix was applied to country-level surgical volumes. The 12-week cancellation rates were then applied to these figures to calculate the total number of cancelled operations. RESULTS: The best estimate was that 28 404 603 operations would be cancelled or postponed during the peak 12 weeks of disruption due to COVID-19 (2 367 050 operations per week). Most would be operations for benign disease (90·2 per cent, 25 638 922 of 28 404 603). The overall 12-week cancellation rate would be 72·3 per cent. Globally, 81·7 per cent of operations for benign conditions (25 638 922 of 31 378 062), 37·7 per cent of cancer operations (2 324 070 of 6 162 311) and 25·4 per cent of elective caesarean sections (441 611 of 1 735 483) would be cancelled or postponed. If countries increased their normal surgical volume by 20 per cent after the pandemic, it would take a median of 45 weeks to clear the backlog of operations resulting from COVID-19 disruption. CONCLUSION: A very large number of operations will be cancelled or postponed owing to disruption caused by COVID-19. Governments should mitigate against this major burden on patients by developing recovery plans and implementing strategies to restore surgical activity safely

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

Springtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.</p