Monte Carlo Study of Mixed-Spin S=(1/2,1) Ising Ferrimagnets

We investigate Ising ferrimagnets on square and simple-cubic lattices with exchange couplings between spins of values S=1/2 and S=1 on neighbouring sites and an additional single-site anisotropy term on the S=1 sites. Based mainly on a careful and comprehensive Monte Carlo study, we conclude that there is no tricritical point in the two--dimensional case, in contradiction to mean-field predictions and recent series results. However, evidence for a tricritical point is found in the three-dimensional case. In addition, a line of compensation points is found for the simple-cubic, but not for the square lattice.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Effectiveness of Psycho-Educational Intervention in HIV Patients' Treatment

Adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) is the main prognostic factor associated with HIV disease progression and death. The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a psycho-educational program to promote adherence to HAART in HIV patients. A longitudinal study (n = 102) over 9 months in an Infectious Diseases Hospital was carried out. Adherence to HAART was measured with standardized scales and values of viral load. Two groups were defined: adherents and non-adherents. In the latter, a psycho-educational program was implemented and 6 months later measured adherence to HAART. Knowledge about the infection, CD4 T lymphocytes and HIV-ribonucleic acid values were measured before and after this program. The sample was predominantly male (70%), heterosexual (78%), with a mean age of 49 (SD = 12.7) years, and 48% of participants were not adhering to HAART. After the program, non-adherence decreased to 21.6%. Knowledge about the infection increased from 79 to 97%. A significant increase in CD4 T lymphocytes (mean 540-580) and a decrease in viral load (mean 5411-3052) were observed, the latter of statistical significance. This program seems to be feasible and efficient, improving adherence to HAART

Renal Allograft Rupture: A Clinicopathologic Review

Transplantation Proceedings Volume 32, Issue 8, December 2000, Pages 2597-2598 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- doi:10.1016/S0041-1345(00)01801-7 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Cited By in Scopus (4) Permissions & Reprints Renal allograft rupture: a clinicopathologic review M Ramosa, , L Martinsa, L Diasa, A.C Henriquesa, J Soaresa, J Queirósa and A.M Sarmentoa aDepartments of Urology and Nefrology, Hospital Geral de Santo António, Oporto, Portugal Available online 19 December 2000. Article Outline Patients and methods Results Discussion References Renal allograft rupture (RAR) is a rare but very serious complication of renal transplantation, requiring emergency surgery. The most common cause is acute allograft rejection, but other causes such as renal vein thrombosis (RVT), acute tubular necrosis (ATN), renal biopsy, and lymphatic obstruction have been reported.[1] and [2] We reviewed our experience with the aim of identifying RAR predisposing conditions. Patients and methods In a consecutive series of 934 renal transplants performed between July 1983 and September 1999, 11 patients (1.2%) had RAR. In these cases we studied donor and recipient characteristics, preservation conditions, clinical signs and symptoms, treatment, and pathology findings. This group of patients was then compared with their paired cohort. Data analysis was computer-based. In the statistical analysis t test and Fisher’s exact test were used. Results All 11 kidneys that suffered RAR were from cadaver donors, nine male and two female. The mean age was 29.5 years with good terminal serum creatinine (mean 1.1 mg/dL). All organs were stored in Eurocollins solution and the mean cold ischemia time was 21 hours and 25 minutes (range, 10 hours to 29 hours and 20 minutes). Excluding one black patient, all recipients were Caucasian. Eight were female and 3 were male, with a mean age of 33.8 years. The mean HLA match was 1.7, and the mean peak panel reactive antibody (PRA) was 22% (range 0 to 93%) and current was 15% (range 0 to 67%). All patients had cyclosporine treatment, eight had delayed graft function requiring dialysis, and three underwent renal allograft biopsy. In two patients rupture occurred in the second allograft; the others were first transplants. The day of RAR was a mean of 5.3 (range 2 to 13). All patients had new onset of severe allograft pain, eight had a drop in daily hematocrit, and six had hypotension. The four patients with more precocious ruptures had sudden onset of bleeding through the drainage tube. Transplant nephrectomy was performed in 10 patients, and surgical conservative treatment with fibrin glue and collagen foam was performed in one. All patients survived RAR. Three had a second transplant and currently have functioning allografts. Pathology examination revealed RVT in three patients and some degree of rejection in the remaining eight. One patient had a rupture on the second day because of hyperacute rejection, and three had severe acute cellular rejection, but in four patients the dominant figure was ATN with minimal rejection. Excluding the patient with hyperacute rejection, the day of rupture was later for those with severe acute rejection, a mean of 9.6 days (range 6 to 13). In those with ATN, the day of RAR was a mean of 4.5 (range 3 to 6) and the patients with RVT had ruptures even sooner, on mean third day (range 2 to 4). Variables associated with RAR were: sex mismatch (P = .004), current PRA (P = .012), and a need for dialysis (P = .042). Age of the recipient, transplant number, cold ischemia time, total HLA match, and peak PRA were not associated with RAR. Discussion Higher current PRA and a need for dialysis are variables associated with rejection and ATN. Therefore they are expected to be related to rupture. The well-documented conditions that are associated with ATN and rejection3 must be the same, which in extreme conditions predispose to RAR. We find no explanation for the statistically significant association of sex mismatch and RAR, other than random error. Acute allograft rejection is the most frequent cause of graft rupture in the literature (60 to 80%),3 but ATN has received little note. In our series, ATN was responsible for 36% of the ruptures, as much as severe acute rejection. ATN alone can cause RAR,4 because of interstitial edema and rise in intrarenal pressure. But when associated with rejection, it seems that these two conditions can act synergistically to cause allograft rupture. Our data suggests that rupture occurs later when caused by rejection, rather than when RVT is responsible. To our knowledge this finding had never been reported in world literature. Perhaps the timing of RVT is related to technical problems, such as twisting and kinking of the vein or intima tear, although the thrombogenic effect of cyclosporine can also have a role in this process.5 All these patients were on cyclosporine therapy, which may explain the small number of RAR caused by rejection alone and the significant number of patients that had RVT (27%). It appears that cyclosporine therapy is changing the etiology of the graft rupture.6 References 1 T. Grochowiecki, J. Szmidt and K. Madej et al., Transplantation Proc 28 (1996), p. 3461. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2) 2 R.S. Lord, D.J. Effeney and J.M. Hayes et al., Ann Surg 177 (1973), p. 268. Full Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (4) 3 G.J. Azar, A. Zarifian and G.D. Frentz et al., Clin Transplantation 10 (1996), p. 635. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (12) 4 Y.H. Chan, K.M. Wong and K.C. Lee et al., Am J Kidney Dis 34 (1999), p. 355. Abstract | Article | PDF (86 K) 5 R.M. Jones, J.A. Murie and A. Ting et al., Clin Transplant 2 (1988), p. 122. 6 A.J. Richardson, R.M. Higgins and A.J. Jaskowski et al., Br J Surg 77 (1990), p. 558. Full Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (19

An Approach to Web-Scale Named-Entity Disambiguation

We present a multi-pass clustering approach to large scale. wide-scope named-entity disambiguation (NED) oil collections of web pages. Our approach Uses name co-occurrence information to cluster and hence disambiguate entities. and is designed to handle NED on the entire web. We show that on web collections, NED becomes increasing), difficult as the corpus size increases, not only because of the challenge of scaling the NED algorithm, but also because new and surprising facets of entities become visible in the data. This effect limits the potential benefits for data-driven approaches of processing larger data-sets, and suggests that efficient clustering-based disambiguation methods for the web will require extracting more specialized information front documents

Peripheral arterial tonometry as a method of measuring reactive hyperaemia correlates with organ dysfunction and prognosis in the critically ill patient: a prospective observational study

Predictions of mortality may help in the selection of patients who benefit from intensive care. Endothelial dysfunction is partially responsible for many of the organic dysfunctions in critical illness. Reactive hyperaemia is a vascular response of the endothelium that can be measured by peripheral arterial tonometry (RH-PAT). We aimed to assess if reactive hyperaemia is affected by critical illness and if it correlates with outcomes. Prospective study with a cohort of consecutive patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit. RH-PAT was accessed on admission and on the 7th day after admission. Early and late survivors were compared to non-survivors. The effect of RH-PAT variation on late mortality was studied by a logistic regression model. The association between RH-PAT and severity scores and biomarkers of organic dysfunction was investigated by multivariate analysis. 86 patients were enrolled. Mean ln(RHI) on admission was 0.580 and was significantly lower in patients with higher severity scores (p < 0.01) and early non-survivors (0.388; p = 0.027). The model for prediction of early-mortality estimated that each 0.1 decrease in ln(RHI) increased the odds for mortality by 13%. In 39 patients, a 2nd RH-PAT measurement was performed on the 7th day. The variation of ln(RHI) was significantly different between non-survivors and survivors (− 24.2% vs. 63.9%, p = 0.026). Ln(RHI) was significantly lower in patients with renal and cardiovascular dysfunction (p < 0.01). RH-PAT is correlated with disease severity and seems to be an independent marker of early mortality, cardiovascular and renal dysfunctions. RH-PAT variation predicts late mortality. There appears to be an RH-PAT impairment in the acute phase of severe diseases that may be reversible and associated with better outcomes.Professor Rita Gaio was partially supported by CMUP (UID/MAT/00144/2013), which is funded by FCT (Portugal) with national (MEC) and European structural funds (FEDER), under the partnership agreement PT2020

Mannosylated solid lipid nanoparticles for the selective delivery of rifampicin to macrophages

Tuberculosis (TB) is still a devastating disease and more people have died of TB than any other infectious diseases throughout the history. The current therapy consists of a multidrug combination in a long-term treatment, being associated with the appearance of several adverse effects. Thus, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were developed using mannose as a lectin receptor ligand conjugate for macrophage targeting and to increase the therapeutic index of rifampicin (RIF). The developed SLNs were studied in terms of diameter, polydispersity index, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC). Morphology, in vitro drug release and differential scanning calorimetry studies, macrophage uptake studies, cell viability and storage stability studies were also performed. The diameter of the SLNs obtained was within the range of 160–250 nm and drug EE was above 75%. The biocompatibility of M-SLNs was verified and the internalization in macrophages was improved with the mannosylation. The overall results suggested that the developed mannosylated formulations are safe and a promising tool for TB therapy targeted for macrophages.The authors also thank the CNPq Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil for the Doctoral fellowship 246514/2012–4 and FCT for the PostDoctoral fellowship SFRH/BPD/99124/2013. SCL thanks Operac¸ão NORTE-01–0145-FEDER-000011 for her investigator contract. This work received financial support from the European Union (FEDER funds) and National Funds [FCT/MEC, Fundac¸ão para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Ministério da Educac¸ão e Ciência] under the Partnership Agreement PT2020 UID/MULTI/04378/2013 – POCI/01/0145/FEDER/ 007728. This work was financed by FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020 [NORTE-01–0145-FEDER-000012], and by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundac¸ão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovac¸ão in the framework of the project “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” [POCI-01–0145-FEDER-007274]

AQUA: um sistema de informação para análise e a validação de parâmetros de qualidade da água em Alqueva

A fiabilidade de dados disponíveis em domínios como os da hidrologia, das infra-estruturas (hidráulicas e sanitárias) e das variáveis biofísicas e sócio-económicas constitui elemento de base fundamental para a alimentação de qualquer sistema de suporte à decisão numa bacia hidrográfica. Isto significa que a transformação de dados brutos em informação com qualidade controlada, deve ser processada de forma eficiente e compatível com exigências dos ambientes hidroinformáticos, dos decisores e do público em geral. O sistema de informação AQuA, criado no âmbito do projecto ODeAnA, tem como objectivo principal o desenvolvimento de um sistema para análise e validação de parâmetros de qualidade da água no Empreendimento de Fins Múltiplos de Alqueva. Este sistema visa recolher os dados provenientes de leituras sobre a qualidade da água efectuadas pelas estações de recolha automática ou por técnicos de laboratório, analisando e validando esses mesmos dados e, posteriormente, integrando os dados limpos e consolidados numa base de dados projectada especificamente para o efeito. O sistema assegura mecanismos de detecção de anomalias, bem como a manutenção de esquemas de resolução para alguns tipos dessas ocorrências. Em termos de análise, é permitida a exploração dos dados, tendo o apoio de algumas funcionalidades de geo-referenciação, e a geração de relatórios ou gráficos específicos. O sistema está preparado para acolher os diversos perfis de utilização definidos: administrador de sistemas, supervisor de resultados, utilizadores internos e externos e público em geral. A implementação do sistema foi organizada e desenvolvida segundo dois módulos operacionais: (i) AQuA Wrapper – responsável por tratar os serviços relacionados com extracção, processamento e armazenamento dos dados provenientes das diversas estações de recolha; (ii) AQuA Web – responsável por tratar os serviços relacionados com validação e exploração dos dados recolhidos. Este módulo disponibiliza uma plataforma Web para acesso aos dados resultantes das leituras efectuadas sobre a qualidade da água nas diversas redes do sistema e constitui o principal elo de ligação dos utilizadores com o sistema de monitorização.Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra-estruturas do Alqueva, (EDIA

Classification of healthcare-associated infection: a systematic review 10 years after the first proposal

BACKGROUND: Ten years after the first proposal, a consensus definition of healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) has not been reached, preventing the development of specific treatment recommendations. A systematic review of all definitions of HCAI used in clinical studies is made. METHODS: The search strategy focused on an HCAI definition. MEDLINE, SCOPUS and ISI Web of Knowledge were searched for articles published from earliest achievable data until November 2012. Abstracts from scientific meetings were searched for relevant abstracts along with a manual search of references from reports, earlier reviews and retrieved studies. RESULTS: The search retrieved 49,405 references: 15,311 were duplicates and 33,828 were excluded based on title and abstract. Of the remaining 266, 43 met the inclusion criteria. The definition more frequently used was the initial proposed in 2002--in infection present at hospital admission or within 48 hours of admission in patients that fulfilled any of the following criteria: received intravenous therapy at home, wound care or specialized nursing care in the previous 30 days; attended a hospital or hemodialysis clinic or received intravenous chemotherapy in the previous 30 days; were hospitalized in an acute care hospital for ≥2 days in the previous 90 days, resided in a nursing home or long-term care facility. Additional criteria founded in other studies were: immunosuppression, active or metastatic cancer, previous radiation therapy, transfer from another care facility, elderly or physically disabled persons who need healthcare, previous submission to invasive procedures, surgery performed in the last 180 days, family member with a multi-drug resistant microorganism and recent treatment with antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the evidence gathered we conclude that the definition initially proposed is widely accepted. In a future revision, recent invasive procedures, hospitalization in the last year or previous antibiotic treatment should be considered for inclusion in the definition. The role of immunosuppression in the definition of HCAI still requires ongoing discussion.This research was supported by an ASSUCIP (Associação de Apoio à Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalente - ICU, Hospital de Santo António, Porto, Portugal) grant. Dr. Cardoso is partially funded by a PhD research grant from the Teaching and Research Department (Departamento de Formação, Ensino e Investigação) of Oporto Hospital Centre. The funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of the study; the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data; or the preparation, review or approval of the manuscript, nor in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Analysing consumer-brand engagement through appreciative listening on social network platforms

The evolution of technology changed the external environment surrounding businesses creating a plethora of new opportunities and challenges. Particularly, social network platforms became attractive to companies due to their interactive nature as they increase consumers’ and brand opportunities for developing long-term relationships and engagement. In this sense, the main goal of this article is to understand whether appreciative listening can contribute to the improvement of consumer-brand engagement using these platforms. We develop two studies based on Starbuck’s facebook page whereby findings from study one are used as inputs to study two. Results demonstrate that appreciative listening can actually improve consumer-brand engagement.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Surface and bulk polaritons in a linear magnetoelectric multiferroic with canted spins: Transverse Electric polarisation

Some magnetoelectric multiferroics have a canted spin structure that can be described by a Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya coupling. We calculate properties and features expected for surface and bulk magnon polaritons in such media with a linear magnetoelectric interaction for the case of transverse electric polarisation. The dielectric polarisation and magnetisation of weak ferromagnetism are constrained to lie in the plane parallel to the surface. We examine a geometry with the polarisation oriented in the film plane and present numerical results for the transverse electric polarisation. Particular attention is given to non-reciprocal surface modes, which exist in frequency between two bulk bands, and show how these modes can be modified by external magnetic field. Results for attenuated total reflection are presented, and discussed in relation to nonreciprocity. Example results are calculated for the canted antiferromagnet BaMnF4.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure