Adaption of the ex vivo mycobacterial growth inhibition assay for use with murine lung cells.

In the absence of a correlate(s) of protection against human tuberculosis and a validated animal model of the disease, tools to facilitate vaccine development must be identified. We present an optimised ex vivo mycobacterial growth inhibition assay (MGIA) to assess the ability of host cells within the lung to inhibit mycobacterial growth, including Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Erdman. Growth of BCG was reduced by 0.39, 0.96 and 0.73 log10 CFU following subcutaneous (s.c.) BCG, intranasal (i.n.) BCG, or BCG s.c. + mucosal boost, respectively, versus naïve mice. Comparatively, a 0.49 (s.c.), 0.60 (i.n.) and 0.81 (s.c. + mucosal boost) log10 reduction in MTB CFU was found. A BCG growth inhibitor, 2-thiophenecarboxylic acid hydrazide (TCH), was used to prevent quantification of residual BCG from i.n. immunisation and allow accurate MTB quantification. Using TCH, a further 0.58 log10 reduction in MTB CFU was revealed in the i.n. group. In combination with existing methods, the ex vivo lung MGIA may represent an important tool for analysis of vaccine efficacy and the immune mechanisms associated with vaccination in the organ primarily affected by MTB disease

Cascaded four-wave mixing in tapered plasmonic nanoantenna

We study theoretically the cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) in broadband tapered plasmonic nanoantennas and demonstrate a 300-fold increase in nonlinear frequency conversion detected in the main lobe of the nanoantenna far-field pattern. This is achieved by tuning the elements of the nanoantenna to resonate frequencies involved into the FWM interaction. Our findings have a potentially broad application in ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, sensing, on-chip optical frequency conversion, nonlinear optical metamaterials and photon sources

Dust-to-metal ratios in damped Lyman-alpha absorbers: Fresh clues to the origins of dust and optical extinction towards gamma-ray bursts

Motivated by the anomalous dust-to-metal ratios derived in the literature for gamma-ray burst (GRB) damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs), we measure these ratios using the dust-depletion pattern observed in UV/optical afterglow spectra associated with the ISM at the GRB host-galaxy redshifts. Our sample consists of 20 GRB absorbers and a comparison sample of 72 QSO-DLAs with redshift 1.2 < z < 4.0 and down to Z = 0.002 Z_Sol metallicities. The dust-to-metal ratio in QSO- and GRB-DLAs increases both with metallicity and metal column density, spanning ~10--110% of the Galactic value and pointing to a non universal dust-to-metal ratio. The low values of dust-to-metal ratio suggest that low-metallicity systems have lower dust fractions than typical spiral galaxies and perhaps that the dust in these systems is produced inefficiently, i.e. by grain growth in the low-metallicity regime with negligible contribution from supernovae (SNe) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. On the other hand, some GRB- and QSO-DLAs show high dust-to-metal ratio values out to z ~ 4, requiring rapid dust production, such as in SN ejecta, but also in AGB winds and via grain growth for the highest metallicity systems. GRB-DLAs overall follow the dust-to-metal-ratio properties of QSO-DLAs, GRBs probing up to larger column and volume densities. For comparison, the dust-to-metal ratio that we derive for the SMC and LMC are ~82--100% and ~98% of the Galactic value, respectively. The literature dust-to-metal ratio of the low-metallicity galaxy I Zw 18 (< 37%) is consistent with the distribution that we find. The dust extinction Av increases steeply with the column density of iron in dust, N(Fe)dust, calculated from relative metal abundances, confirming that dust extinction is mostly occurring in the host galaxy ISM. Most GRB-DLAs display log N(Fe)dust > 14.7, above which several QSO-DLAs reveal H2 (abridged).Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. A&A, in pres

Reabilita??o respirat?ria no idoso p?s-cirurgia ortop?dica

Disserta??o de Mestrado em Enfermagem de Reabilita??o apresentada na Escola Superior de Sa?de do Instituto Polit?cnico de Viana do CasteloContexto e Objetivo: Com a melhoria dos processos terap?uticos e socioecon?micos assiste-se a uma r?pida transi??o demogr?fica, refletindo-se num aumento da esperan?a de vida, mas tamb?m num exponencial aumento de pessoas idosas com doen?as cr?nicas e consequentemente em situa??o de depend?ncia. Em Portugal, os indiv?duos com mais de 65 anos representam cerca de 20% de toda a popula??o, o que tem ?bvias implica??es na sa?de respirat?ria. A elevada preval?ncia da patologia respirat?ria surge como uma das doen?as cr?nicas mais influentes na depend?ncia nos idosos. Para al?m disto, nos servi?os de internamento hospitalar, a cirurgia ortop?dica representa taxas de ocupa??o mais elevada nos indiv?duos com mais de 65 anos. As cirurgias implicam restri??o de mobilidade e desta adv?m a depend?ncia e a dispneia nos autocuidados. A Reabilita??o Respirat?ria ? por isso crucial. O presente estudo tem como objetivo principal avaliar o efeito de um programa de reabilita??o respirat?ria no idoso com comorbilidade respirat?ria p?s-cirurgia ortop?dica. M?todo: Estudo quantitativo, quase-experimental, longitudinal, de grupo ?nico. A amostra foi constitu?da por 30 (n=30) utentes com idade compreendida entre 65 e 84 anos, intervencionados cirurgicamente ? anca ou joelho, obtiveram-se aleatoriamente 15 utentes de cada tipo de interven??o. O programa de reabilita??o respirat?ria decorreu durante 4 semanas. Avaliou-se o impacto da depend?ncia e da dispneia nos autocuidados: banho, mobilidade, subir e descer escadas e vestir atrav?s do ?ndice de Barthel e da Escala Modificada de Borg, respetivamente. Resultados: N?o se evidenciaram rela??es estaticamente significativas entre o grau de independ?ncia e o grau de dispneia com as vari?veis g?nero, habilita??es liter?rias, estado civil, diagn?stico, IMC, complica??es p?s-operat?rias, medica??o, destino da alta e tempo de restri??o de mobilidade. Relativamente ao grau de depend?ncia e de dispneia verificou-se regress?o ? medida que o programa de reabilita??o respirat?ria progredia, constatando-se uma evolu??o positiva desde a primeira ? quarta avalia??o. Na primeira avalia??o verificou-se um grau grave de depend?ncia (M=57,33) evoluindo para um grau de muito leve depend?ncia na quarta avalia??o ap?s o programa de reabilita??o respirat?ria (M=96,83), pelo que podemos concluir que o programa contribuiu para a regress?o da depend?ncia e melhorou a capacidade para a realiza??o dos autocuidados banho, mobilidade, subir/descer escadas e vestir. No que se refere ao grau de dispneia, verificam-se diferen?as estatisticamente significativas ap?s aplica??o do programa. Conclus?o: A implementa??o do programa de reabilita??o respirat?ria p?s-cirurgia, pelo Enfermeiro de Reabilita??o, revelou benef?cios, com diminui??o do grau de depend?ncia nomeadamente para os autocuidados banho, mobilidade, subir e descer escadas e vestir e ainda efeito positivo na regress?o do grau de dispneia, verificando-se diferen?as estatisticamente significativas quer nos utentes submetidos a cirurgia ? anca ou ao joelho. No entanto, ? crucial a realiza??o de mais estudos neste ?mbito, de forma a comprovar a efetividade do papel da enfermagem de reabilita??o respirat?ria na pr?tica cl?nica.Context and Objective: With the improvement of therapeutic and socio-economic processes, there is a rapid demographic transition, reflected in an increase in life expectancy, but also in an exponential increase in the number of elderly people with chronic diseases and consequently in a situation of dependency. In Portugal, individuals over 65 represent about 20% of the entire population, which has obvious implications for respiratory health. The high prevalence of respiratory pathology emerges as one of the most influent chronic diseases in the elderly. In addition, in hospital inpatient services, orthopedic surgery represents higher occupancy rates in individuals over 65 years of age. Surgeries imply mobility restriction and from this comes dependence and dyspnea on self-care. Respiratory Rehabilitation is therefore crucial. The present study has as main objective to evaluate the effect of a program of respiratory rehabilitation in the elderly after orthopedic surgery. Method: Quantitative, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, single group study. The sample consisted of 30 (n = 30) patients aged between 65 and 84 years, surgically operated on the hip or knee, 15 patients (n = 15) were randomly assigned to each type of intervention. The sample participated in the respiratory rehabilitation program for 4 weeks. The impact of dependence and dyspnea was evaluated through the Barthel Index and the Modified Borg Scale, respectively, namely for self-care: bathing, mobility, climbing and descending stairs and dressing. Results: There were no statistically significant relationships between the degree of independence and the degree of dyspnea with sociodemographic variables (gender, literacy, marital status) and clinical variables (diagnosis, BMI, postoperative complications, medication, discharge and time of mobility restriction). The results indicated contributions from the respiratory rehabilitation program in the regression of the degree of dependence and of dyspnea, both the degree of dependence and the degree of dyspnea were reverted as the respiratory rehabilitation program progressed, denoting a greater difference of values between the first and fourth evaluation. The Barthel Index presented a severe degree of dependence (M = 57.33) in the first evaluation, for a very mild degree of dependence in the fourth evaluation after the respiratory rehabilitation program (M = 96.83). The program regains dependency, improves the capacity for self-care (bathing, mobility, climbing / descending stairs and dressing). After the program, statistically significant values are outlined in all assessments of the degree of dyspnea for these self-care. Conclusion: The implementation of the postoperative respiratory rehabilitation program, by the Rehabilitation Nurse, revealed benefits, with a decrease in the degree of dependence namely for self-care bathing, mobility, climbing and descending stairs and dressing, and still positive effect in the regression of the degree of dyspnea, with statistically significant differences. However, it is crucial to carry out further studies in this field, in order to prove the effectiveness of the role of respiratory rehabilitation nursing in clinical practice