Health-related quality of life in patients with venous leg ulcer treated in primary care in Brazil and Portugal

Background Venous ulcers constitute an important public health problem as they can cause disability with consequences for multiple dimensions of quality of life. Objective To describe the quality of life in patients with venous leg ulcer treated in primary care in two cities from Brazil and Portugal. Methods This was a cross-sectional comparative study with a non-probabilistic sample of 171 patients with venous leg ulcers who were treated in primary care in two cities from Brazil and Portugal, namely, Natal and Évora. A form covering sociodemographic and health data and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey were used, and descriptive and inferential analyses were performed. Results Significant differences in age and income were observed between the two samples. Patients with venous leg ulcer from Brazil had lower income and were younger than those from Portugal. Quality of life scores were significantly higher in Portugal for the physical aspects, pain, and social functioning, among domains, and for the physical health dimension and total score of QOL. Conclusion The quality of life was better in Portugal than in Brazil and the differences between the countries need further investigation

Markedly Divergent Tree Assemblage Responses to Tropical Forest Loss and Fragmentation across a Strong Seasonality Gradient

We examine the effects of forest fragmentation on the structure and composition of tree assemblages within three seasonal and aseasonal forest types of southern Brazil, including evergreen, Araucaria, and deciduous forests. We sampled three southernmost Atlantic Forest landscapes, including the largest continuous forest protected areas within each forest type. Tree assemblages in each forest type were sampled within 10 plots of 0.1 ha in both continuous forests and 10 adjacent forest fragments. All trees within each plot were assigned to trait categories describing their regeneration strategy, vertical stratification, seed-dispersal mode, seed size, and wood density. We detected differences among both forest types and landscape contexts in terms of overall tree species richness, and the density and species richness of different functional groups in terms of regeneration strategy, seed dispersal mode and woody density. Overall, evergreen forest fragments exhibited the largest deviations from continuous forest plots in assemblage structure. Evergreen, Araucaria and deciduous forests diverge in the functional composition of tree floras, particularly in relation to regeneration strategy and stress tolerance. By supporting a more diversified light-demanding and stress-tolerant flora with reduced richness and abundance of shade-tolerant, old-growth species, both deciduous and Araucaria forest tree assemblages are more intrinsically resilient to contemporary human-disturbances, including fragmentation-induced edge effects, in terms of species erosion and functional shifts. We suggest that these intrinsic differences in the direction and magnitude of responses to changes in landscape structure between forest types should guide a wide range of conservation strategies in restoring fragmented tropical forest landscapes worldwide

Advancing Tests of Relativistic Gravity via Laser Ranging to Phobos

Phobos Laser Ranging (PLR) is a concept for a space mission designed to advance tests of relativistic gravity in the solar system. PLR's primary objective is to measure the curvature of space around the Sun, represented by the Eddington parameter $\gamma$, with an accuracy of two parts in $10^7$, thereby improving today's best result by two orders of magnitude. Other mission goals include measurements of the time-rate-of-change of the gravitational constant, $G$ and of the gravitational inverse square law at 1.5 AU distances--with up to two orders-of-magnitude improvement for each. The science parameters will be estimated using laser ranging measurements of the distance between an Earth station and an active laser transponder on Phobos capable of reaching mm-level range resolution. A transponder on Phobos sending 0.25 mJ, 10 ps pulses at 1 kHz, and receiving asynchronous 1 kHz pulses from earth via a 12 cm aperture will permit links that even at maximum range will exceed a photon per second. A total measurement precision of 50 ps demands a few hundred photons to average to 1 mm (3.3 ps) range precision. Existing satellite laser ranging (SLR) facilities--with appropriate augmentation--may be able to participate in PLR. Since Phobos' orbital period is about 8 hours, each observatory is guaranteed visibility of the Phobos instrument every Earth day. Given the current technology readiness level, PLR could be started in 2011 for launch in 2016 for 3 years of science operations. We discuss the PLR's science objectives, instrument, and mission design. We also present the details of science simulations performed to support the mission's primary objectives.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, 9 table

Flows of granular material in two-dimensional channels

Secondary cone-type crushing machines are an important part of the aggregate production process. These devices process roughly crushed material into aggregate of greater consistency and homogeneity. We apply a continuum model for granular materials (`A Constitutive Law For Dense Granular Flows', Nature 441, p727-730, 2006) to flows of granular material in representative two-dimensional channels, applying a cyclic applied crushing stress in lieu of a moving boundary. Using finite element methods we solve a sequence of quasi-steady fluid problems within the framework of a pressure dependent particle size problem in time. Upon approximating output quantity and particle size we adjust the frequency and strength of the crushing stroke to assess their impact on the output

Methods to study microbial adhesion on abiotic surfaces

Microbial biofilms are a matrix of cells and exopolymeric substances attached to a wet and solid surface and are commonly associated to several problems, such as biofouling and corrosion in industries and infectious diseases in urinary catheters and prosthesis. However, these cells may have several benefits in distinct applications, such as wastewater treatment processes, microbial fuel cells for energy production and biosensors. As microbial adhesion is a key step on biofilm formation, it is very important to understand and characterize microbial adhesion to a surface. This study presents an overview of predictive and experimental methods used for the study of bacterial adhesion. Evaluation of surface physicochemical properties have a limited capacity in describing the complex adhesion process. Regarding the experimental methods, there is no standard method or platform available for the study of microbial adhesion and a wide variety of methods, such as colony forming units counting and microscopy techniques, can be applied for quantification and characterization of the adhesion process.This work was financially supported by: Project UID/EQU/00511/2013-LEPABE, by the FCT/MEC with national funds and co-funded by FEDER in the scope of the P2020 Partnership Agreement; Project NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000025 - RL2_Environment&Health, by FEDER funds through Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade-COMPETE, by the Programa Operacional do Norte (ON2) program and by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia; European Research Project SusClean (Contract number FP7-KBBE-2011-5, project number: 287514), Scholarships SFRH/BD/52624/2014, SFRH/BD/88799/2012 and SFRH/BD/103810/2014

Independent evolution of shape and motility allows evolutionary flexibility in Firmicutes bacteria

Functional morphological adaptation is an implicit assumption across many ecological studies. However, despite a few pioneering attempts to link bacterial form and function, functional morphology is largely unstudied in prokaryotes. One intriguing candidate for analysis is bacterial shape, as multiple lines of theory indicate that cell shape and motility should be strongly correlated. Here we present a large-scale use of modern phylogenetic comparative methods to explore this relationship across 325 species of the phylum Firmicutes. In contrast to clear predictions from theory, we show that cell shape and motility are not coupled, and that transitions to and from flagellar motility are common and strongly associated with lifestyle (free-living or host-associated). We find no association between shape and lifestyle, and contrary to recent evidence, no indication that shape is associated with pathogenicity. Our results suggest that the independent evolution of shape and motility in this group might allow a greater evolutionary flexibility

Transcriptome changes in newborn goats' skeletal muscle as a result of maternal feed restriction at different stages of gestation

We investigated how feed restriction at 50% of maintenance requirements during different stages of gestation affects the transcriptome of newborn goats' skeletal muscle. Fourteen pregnant dams were randomly assigned into one of the following dietary treatments: animals fed at 50% of maintenance requirement from 8-84 d of gestation and then fed at 100% of maintenance requirement from day 85 of gestation to parturition (RM, n = 6), and animals fed at 100% of maintenance requirement from 8-84 d of gestation and then fed at 50% of maintenance requirement from day 85 of gestation to parturition (MR, n = 8). At birth, samples of offspring's Longissimus muscle were collected for total RNA extraction and sequencing. Our data showed 66 differentially expressed (DE) genes (FDR < 0.05). A total of 6 genes were upregulated and 60 downregulated (FDR < 0.05) in the skeletal muscle of the newborns resulting from treatment RM compared with MR. Our results suggest that the DE genes upregulated in newborn goats' skeletal muscle from the RM group compared to MR, included genes related to satellite cells, and genes that indicates impaired insulin sensitivity and changes in the composition of intramuscular fat. The DE genes upregulated in newborn goats' skeletal muscle from the MR group compared to RM, are also related to impaired insulin sensitivity, as well as a predominantly oxidative metabolism and cellular oxidative stress. However, protective mechanisms against insulin sensitivity and oxidative stress may have been augmented in the skeletal muscle of offspring from MR treatment compared to RM, in order to maintain cellular homeostasis

Performance of missing transverse momentum reconstruction with the ATLAS detector using proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

The performance of the missing transverse momentum (EmissT) reconstruction with the ATLAS detector is evaluated using data collected in proton–proton collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2015. To reconstruct EmissT, fully calibrated electrons, muons, photons, hadronically decaying τ -leptons, and jets reconstructed from calorimeter energy deposits and charged-particle tracks are used. These are combined with the soft hadronic activity measured by reconstructed charged-particle tracks not associated with the hard objects. Possible double counting of contributions from reconstructed charged-particle tracks from the inner detector, energy deposits in the calorimeter, and reconstructed muons from the muon spectrometer is avoided by applying a signal ambiguity resolution procedure which rejects already used signals when combining the various EmissT contributions. The individual terms as well as the overall reconstructed EmissT are evaluated with various performance metrics for scale (linearity), resolution, and sensitivity to the data-taking conditions. The method developed to determine the systematic uncertainties of the EmissT scale and resolution is discussed. Results are shown based on the full 2015 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1

Measurement of the t¯tZ and t¯tW cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the associated production of a top-quark pair (t¯t) with a vector boson (W, Z) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented, using 36.1  fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in channels with two same- or opposite-sign leptons (electrons or muons), three leptons or four leptons, and each channel is further divided into multiple regions to maximize the sensitivity of the measurement. The t¯tZ and t¯tW production cross sections are simultaneously measured using a combined fit to all regions. The best-fit values of the production cross sections are σt¯tZ=0.95±0.08stat±0.10syst pb and σt¯tW=0.87±0.13stat±0.14syst pb in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measurement of the t¯tZ cross section is used to set constraints on effective field theory operators which modify the t¯tZ vertex