The Government needs to catch up with early years professionals

Last month, at the height of the pandemic, we were asked by the STA (Standards and Testing Agency) to review Test Items for its third attempt at Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) in September 2023

Work objective in emergency wards: professionals' conceptions

This qualitative case study aimed to analyze how health team professionals perceive the work objective in one emergency unit. The place of study was a hospital emergency ward in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Data collection was conducted through observation and semi-structured interview. The results disclose the divergence between the health needs that make users seek health care in the emergency ward; and the work objective at that ward as highlighted by the professionals. The work team shows dissatisfaction due to the excessive search for care that cannot be classified as emergency, highlighting the number of attendances as a justification for resistance to perform the work and lack of commitment in care production.Se trata de un estudio cualitativo, del tipo estudio de caso, que tuvo como objetivo analizar las concepciones de los profesionales del equipo de salud acerca de la finalidad del trabajo en una unidad de atención a las urgencias y emergencias. El campo de estudio fue una unidad hospitalaria de atención a las urgencias y emergencias del interior del Estado de Río Grande del Sur. Las técnicas para recolección de datos fueron la observación y la entrevista semiestructurada. Los resultados apuntan para la divergencia entre las necesidades de la salud que llevan a los usuarios a buscar la unidad y la finalidad del trabajo del local destacada por los profesionales. El equipo de salud revela insatisfacción con la búsqueda excesiva del servicio por pacientes, cuyas necesidades no pueden ser clasificadas como urgencia o emergencia, apuntando el número de atenciones como justificativa para la resistencia en realizar el trabajo y para la falta de compromiso con la producción del cuidado.Trata-se de estudo qualitativo, do tipo estudo de caso, que teve como objetivo analisar as concepções dos profissionais da equipe de saúde acerca da finalidade do trabalho em uma unidade de atendimento às urgências e emergências. O campo de estudo foi uma unidade hospitalar de atendimento às urgências e emergências do interior do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. As técnicas para coleta de dados foram observação e entrevista semiestruturada. Os resultados apontam a divergência entre as necessidades de saúde que levam os usuários a procurar a unidade e a finalidade do trabalho do local destacada pelos profissionais. A equipe de saúde revela insatisfação com a procura excessiva de pacientes, cujas necessidades não podem ser classificadas como urgência ou emergência, apontando o número de atendimentos como justificativa para a resistência em realizar o trabalho e o descompromisso com a produção do cuidado

Association between culture and the preference for, and perceptions of, 11 routes of medicine administration: A survey in 21 countries and regions

Medicines can be taken by various routes of administration. These can impact the effects and perceptions of medicines. The literature about individuals' preferences for and perceptions of the different routes of administration is sparse, but indicates a potential influence of culture. Our aim was to determine: (i) any association between one's culture and one's preferred route of medicine administration and (ii) individual perceptions of pain, efficacy, speed of action and acceptability when medicines are swallowed or placed in the mouth, under the tongue, in the nose, eye, ear, lungs, rectum, vagina, on the skin, or areinjected. A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey of adults was conducted in 21 countries and regions of the world, namely, Tunisia, Ghana, Nigeria, Turkey, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Malta, Brazil, Great Britain, United States, India, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, mainland China and Estonia, using the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map to ensure coverage across all cultures. Participants scored the pain/discomfort, efficacy, speed of onset and acceptability of the different routes of medicine administration and stated their preferred route. Demographic information was collected. A total of 4435 participants took part in the survey. Overall, the oral route was the most preferred route, followed by injection, while the rectal route was the least preferred. While the oral route was the most preferred in all cultures, the percentage of participants selecting this route varied, from 98% in Protestant Europe to 50% in the African-Islamic culture. A multinomial logistic regression model revealed a number of predictors for the preferred route. Injections were favoured in the Baltic, South Asia, Latin America and African-Islamic cultures while dermal administration was favoured in Catholic Europe, Baltic and Latin America cultures. A marked association was found between culture and the preference for, and perceptions of the different routes by which medicines are taken. This applied to even the least favoured routes (vaginal and rectal). Only women were asked about the vaginal route, and our data shows that the vaginal route was slightly more popular than the rectal one

Reduction of volatile acidity of wines by selected yeast strains

Herein we isolate and characterize wine yeasts with ability to reduce volatile acidity of wines using a refermentation process, which consists in mixing the acidic wine with freshly crushed grapes or musts or, alternatively, in the incubation with the residual marc. From a set of 135 yeast isolates, four strains revealed ability to use glucose and acetic acid simultaneously. Three of them were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one as Lachancea thermotolerans. Among nine commercial S. cerevisiae strains, strains S26, S29 and S30 display similar glucose and acetic acid initial simultaneous consumption pattern and were assessed in refermentation assays. In a medium containing an acidic wine with high glucose/low ethanol concentrations, under low oxygen availability, strain S29 is the most efficient one, whereas L. thermotolerans 44C is able to decrease significantly acetic acid similar to the control strain Zygosaccharomyces bailii ISA 1307, but only under aerobic conditions. Conversely, for low glucose/high ethanol concentrations, under aerobic conditions, S26 is the most efficient acid degrading strain, while under limited-aerobic conditions, all the S. cerevisiae strains studied display acetic acid degradation efficiencies identical to Z. bailii. Moreover, S26 strain also reveals capacity to decrease volatile acidity of wines. Together, the S. cerevisiae strains characterized herein appear promising for the oenological removal of volatile acidity of acidic wines.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa POCI 2010 (FEDER/FCT, POCI/AGR/56102/2004, PTDC/AGRALI/71460/2006

Consórcio couve-coentro em cultivo orgânico e sua influência nas populações de joaninhas.

O consórcio de culturas é comumente praticado na produção de hortaliças devido a diversos benefícios econômicos. Em alguns casos, podem reduzir infestações de pragas por favorecer a conservação dos inimigos naturais nos agroecossistemas. Avaliou-se a viabilidade agronômica do consórcio de couve e coentro, sob manejo orgânico, com base em parâmetros fitotécnicos, além de sua influência sobre populações de joaninhas (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), na comparação com os respectivos cultivos solteiros. O coentro, representando a cultura secundária, foi utilizado com a finalidade de fornecer recursos para as joaninhas. O estudo foi realizado em área do Sistema Integrado de Produção Agroecológica em Seropédica-RJ. O experimento consistiu dos consórcios: 1) couve consorciada com coentro, cujas quatro linhas de plantas foram colhidas na fase vegetativa (consórcio I), e 2) couve consorciada com coentro, cujas plantas das duas linhas internas (próximas à linha da couve) foram colhidas na fase vegetativa e as duas linhas externas foram cortadas após floração (consórcio II). Em ambos consórcios foram avaliados os parâmetros fitotécnicos da couve e do coentro na fase vegetativa (padrão comercial), enquanto que no consórcio II, também se avaliou as populações de joaninhas, por meio de coletas semanais de adultos, em comparação com a couve em cultivo solteiro. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições. O coentro não interferiu na produtividade da couve consorciada e sua introdução contribuiu positivamente para a abundância e diversidade de espécies de joaninhas. O índice de equivalência de área para o consórcio I, com referência aos rendimentos de biomassa aérea fresca, foi superior em 92% em relação ao cultivo solteiro. Este resultado demonstra a viabilidade do consórcio I, no manejo orgânico adotado, para plantios de outono nas condições edafoclimáticas da Baixada Fluminense

Adaptation and applicability of the "mistreatment" component in Integrated Management of Childhood Illness in Brazil

OBJETIVOS: descrever o processo de adaptação ao contexto brasileiro e da aplicabilidade do conteúdo do módulo de maus-tratos no âmbito da estratégia Atenção Integrada às Doenças Prevalentes na Infância (AIDPI), a partir do original proposto pela Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde. MÉTODOS: O protocolo original foi traduzido para o português, retro-traduzido e revisado de forma independente. Foram incorporados aspectos relativos à legislação, contexto de saúde e organização dos serviços brasileiros. O material foi discutido por especialistas de diferentes áreas até obter consenso a respeito de compreensão e correspondência sobre os conceitos e os instrumentos propostos. A versão preliminar foi testada com grupo de monitores da estratégia AIDPI. Sugestões foram incorporadas ao texto. O módulo final foi aplicado com sucesso em treinamento para monitores em AIDPI na Região Nordeste. RESULTADOS: o material mostrou-se útil, claro e coerente. A classificação de gravidade para maus tratos psicológicos e negligência, além de textos com orientações aos profissionais e pais sobre o desenvolvimento psicomotor e emocional normais da criança foram incluídos. CONCLUSÕES: A incorporação desse módulo de maus-tratos em treinamentos formais na estratégia AIDPI pode preencher uma lacuna na educação do profissional de saúde na atenção primária, onde problemas relacionados à violência contra a criança são frequentes. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES: to describe the process of adaptation to the Brazilian context and the applicability of the "mistreatment" module in the Integrated Mana-gement of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy, based on the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) proposal. METHODS: the original protocol was translated into Portuguese, back-translated and reviewed by an independent observer. Features relating to legislation, the health context and the way Brazilian services are organized were incorporated. The materials were discussed by specialists from various areas until consensus was achieved with regard to the comprehensibility of the text and the correspondence between the wording and the intentions. The preliminary version was tested with a group of IMCI strategy monitors and suggestions arising from this were incorporated into the text. The final module was successfully applied during training of IMCI monitors in the Northeast region of the country. RESULTS: the material was found to be useful, clear and coherent. The ranking of degrees of severity of psychological mistreatment and negligence and texts providing guidelines for health workers and parents on the normal psychomotor and emotional deve-lopment of children were included. CONCLUSIONS: the incorporation of this module on mistreatment in the IMCI strategy's formal training sessions may fill a gap in the education of primary care health workers, who encounter problems relating to violence against children on a regular basis

Emergence of responsible sanctions without second order free riders, antisocial punishment or spite

While empirical evidence highlights the importance of punishment for cooperation in collective action, it remains disputed how responsible sanctions targeted predominantly at uncooperative subjects can evolve. Punishment is costly; in order to spread it typically requires local interactions, voluntary participation, or rewards. Moreover, theory and experiments indicate that some subjects abuse sanctioning opportunities by engaging in antisocial punishment (which harms cooperators), spiteful acts (harming everyone) or revenge (as a response to being punished). These arguments have led to the conclusion that punishment is maladaptive. Here, we use evolutionary game theory to show that this conclusion is premature: If interactions are non-anonymous, cooperation and punishment evolve even if initially rare, and sanctions are directed towards non-cooperators only. Thus, our willingness to punish free riders is ultimately a selfish decision rather than an altruistic act; punishment serves as a warning, showing that one is not willing to accept unfair treatments

Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli

Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts.  Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins.  Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets

Characterization of Modular Bacteriophage Endolysins from Myoviridae Phages OBP, 201ϕ2-1 and PVP-SE1

Peptidoglycan lytic enzymes (endolysins) induce bacterial host cell lysis in the late phase of the lytic bacteriophage replication cycle. Endolysins OBPgp279 (from Pseudomonas fluorescens phage OBP), PVP-SE1gp146 (Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis phage PVP-SE1) and 201ϕ2-1gp229 (Pseudomonas chlororaphis phage 201ϕ2-1) all possess a modular structure with an N-terminal cell wall binding domain and a C-terminal catalytic domain, a unique property for endolysins with a Gram-negative background. All three modular endolysins showed strong muralytic activity on the peptidoglycan of a broad range of Gram-negative bacteria, partly due to the presence of the cell wall binding domain. In the case of PVP-SE1gp146, this domain shows a binding affinity for Salmonella peptidoglycan that falls within the range of typical cell adhesion molecules (Kaff = 1.26×106 M−1). Remarkably, PVP-SE1gp146 turns out to be thermoresistant up to temperatures of 90°C, making it a potential candidate as antibacterial component in hurdle technology for food preservation. OBPgp279, on the other hand, is suggested to intrinsically destabilize the outer membrane of Pseudomonas species, thereby gaining access to their peptidoglycan and exerts an antibacterial activity of 1 logarithmic unit reduction. Addition of 0.5 mM EDTA significantly increases the antibacterial activity of the three modular endolysins up to 2–3 logarithmic units reduction. This research work offers perspectives towards elucidation of the structural differences explaining the unique biochemical and antibacterial properties of OBPgp279, PVP-SE1gp146 and 201ϕ2-1gp229. Furthermore, these endolysins extensively enlarge the pool of potential antibacterial compounds used against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections