Sample treatments prior to capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

Sample preparation is a crucial part of chemical analysis and in most cases can become the bottleneck of the whole analytical process. Its adequacy is a key factor in determining the success of the analysis and, therefore, careful selection and optimization of the parameters controlling sample treatment should be carried out. This work revises the different strategies that have been developed for sample preparation prior to capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS). Namely, the present work presents an exhaustive and critical revision of the different samples treatments used together with on-line CE-MS including works published from January 2000 to July 2006Authors are grateful to the AGL2005-05320-C02-01 Project (Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia) and the ALIBIRD-S-505/AGR-0153 Project (CAM) for financial support of this work.Peer reviewe

Evaluating the determinants of national innovative capacity among european countries

Copyright © 2011 Maria Manuela Santos Natário, João Pedro Almeida Couto, Maria Teresa Borges Tiago, Ascensão Maria Martins Braga. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This paper reflects upon the factors that influence the national innovative capacity that is based on the European Innovation Scoreboard database. The aim is to reflect on, and evaluate, the factors influencing national innovative capacity. A cluster analysis was conducted to verify how different countries are positioned in terms of innovation outputs and determine which factors distinguish their level of innovative capacity. The results point to the existence of four groups of countries. On the other hand, the factors identified are related to the dimensions of institutional efficiency, namely the efficiency of institutions, types of regulation, effective rule of law and level of corruption, societies’ cultural values associated with the level of hierarchy or "power distance" and "uncertainty avoidance." Aspects are related to the innovation framework, such as doctorates in science and engineering, business Research & Development expenses, and the level of collaboration for innovation

Polymedication and its association with individual factors in Portuguese older adults: a cross-sectional study

Population aging is a reality resulting in polymedication and its harmful consequences. Therefore, determining polymedication state in Portugal and identifying its associated characteristics is vital. METHODS: Among the cross-sectional study Nutrition UP 65, information on socio-demographic data, cognitive performance, lifestyle, health, and nutritional status was collected in the Portuguese older population. Frequency of polymedication (self-reported concomitant administration of ≥5 medications and/or supplements) was calculated. Associated factors were determined. RESULTS: A total of 1317 individuals were included in the sample and the frequency of polymedication was 37.1%. Characteristics associated with higher odds of polymedication were living in an institution (OR: 1.97; CI: 1.04-3.73); being overweight (OR: 1.52; CI: 1.03–2.25) or obese (OR: 1.57; CI: 1.06–2.34); perceiving health status as reasonable (OR: 1.68; CI: 1.25–2.27) or bad/very bad (OR: 2.04; CI: 1.37–3.03); having illnesses of the circulatory system (OR: 2.91; CI: 2.14–3.94) or endocrine, metabolic, and nutritional diseases (OR: 1.79; CI: 1.38–2.31). CONCLUSIONS: A 3 to 4 out of 10 Portuguese older adults are polymedicated. Intervention in modifiable factors and the monitorization of others is an important strategy in the care of the elderly

Aerobic and anoxic growth and nitrate removal capacity of a marine denitrifying bacterium isolated from a recirculation aquaculture system

Bacterial biofilters used in marine recirculation aquaculture systems need improvements to enhance nitrogen removal efficiency. Relatively little is known about biofilter autochthonous population structure and function. The present study was aimed at isolating and characterizing an Autochthonous denitrifying bacterium from a marine biofilter installed at a recirculation aquaculture system. Colonization of four different media in a marine fish farm was followed by isolation of various denitrifying strains and molecular classification of the most promising one, strain T2, as a novel member of the Pseudomonas fluorescens cluster. This strain exhibits high metabolic versatility regarding N and C source utilization and environmental conditions for growth. It removed nitrate through aerobic assimilatory metabolism at a specific rate of 116.2 mg NO3-N g dw _1 h _1. Dissimilatory NO3-N removal was observed under oxic conditions at a limited rate, where transient NO2-N formed represented 22% (0.17 mg L _1) of the maximum transient NO2-N observed under anoxic conditions. Dissimilatory NO3-N removal under anoxic conditions occurred at a specific rate of 53.5 mgNO3-N g dw _1 h _1. The isolated denitrifying strain was able to colonize different materials, such as granular activated carbon (GAC), Filtralite and Bioflow plastic rings, which allow the development of a prototype bioreactor for strain characterization under dynamic conditions and mimicking fish-farm operating conditions

O Enfermeiro na Redução de Riscos e Minimização de Danos: A Percepção do Toxicodependente

O artigo incide sobre um estudo que teve como principal problemática o consumo de drogas como a heroína e a cocaína. Este fenómeno traduz-se numa preocupação de governos e da sociedade civil visto acarretar graves e nefastas consequências individuais e colectivas. Nos últimos tempos, fruto de uma evolução técnica e legislativa assistiu-se à diluição de posições extremadas e surgiu uma intervenção legal e mais adequada para aqueles consumidores que são incapazes de uma saída imediata do mundo das drogas. Esta intervenção com carácter humanista e pragmática é a redução de riscos e minimização de danos - RRMD. Este estudo pretendeu compreender a percepção da pessoa dependente de cocaína e/ou heroína sobre o papel do enfermeiro que desenvolve o seu trabalho na RRMD, tendo como objectivos: identi+car a percepção do toxicodependente sobre os cuidados de enfermagem prestados na RRMD e identi+car os cuidados de enfermagem mais valorizados pelo toxicodependente nesta área. O estudo é do tipo exploratório e descritivo e envolveu onze consumidores de cocaína e/ ou heroína, seleccionados intencionalmente numa amostragem não probabilística. A técnica de recolha de informação foi a entrevista semi-estruturada e o tratamento de dados foi realizado através da análise de conteúdo. Dos resultados obtidos, os participantes percepcionaram no papel do enfermeiro, a dimensão técnica, ética, de substituição médica, +cando evidenciado a dimensão relacional, como um dos cuidados mais valorizados. Também percepcionaram de um modo positivo os enfermeiros que trabalham neste contexto de cuidar, no entanto tal não é evidenciado noutras estruturas de saúde. É evidente ao longo deste estudo a necessidade de uma maior individualização dos cuidados de enfermagem. Sugere-se que o enfermeiro faça uma (re)avaliação das suas crenças e valores, para que livre de preconceitos seja promotor de uma relação de ajuda, tornando o toxicodependente autor e actor do seu plano terapêutico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Helicobacter pylori in both the sinuses and the stomach

Background: The role played by Helicobacter pylori in the sinuses, and its association with the same organism’s gastric infection, are still unclear. Methods: In order to compare H.pylori colonization patterns in the nose and stomach we conducted a cohort analysis of 14 patients, eligible for sinus surgery due to chronic medically refractory rhinosinusitis, who were tested for simultaneous presence of H. pylori, by histology, culture and polymerase chain reaction, in pathologic sinus tissue collected during surgery and in gastric mucosa obtained through gastroduodenal endoscopy. Results: H. pylori DNA was found in the sinus mucosa of 15.4% of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, and all of them showed concurrent H. pylori stomach infection. Sinus colonization was not found without simultaneous gastric colonization, although most patients with gastric infection did not have the bacterial DNA in their sinuses. H. pylori’s presence in the nose was not associated with local inflammatory status, and no cultures could be obtained from any of the sinus tissue samples, including those positive for H. pylori DNA. Conclusions: Only H. pylori DNA, and not the culturable active form of the microorganism, could be found in the sinus mucosa of some patients with H. pylori gastric infection. We could not find evidence, however, that the bacterium’s presence in the nose contributes to local mucosal inflammation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Delivery of cytarabine by pegylated liposomes for efficient, long-term anticancer effects

The cytosine arabinoside cytarabine is an effective marine-derived antineoplastic agent for the treatment of acute myelogrnous and lymphocytic leukemias. As this nucleoside antimetabolite is an S-phase-specific drug, prolonged exposure of cells to toxic concentrations is critical to achieve maximum biological effect. The activity of cytarabine is nevertheless decreased by its rapid deamination to the biologically inactive metabolite uracil arabinoside. This rapid degradation process is the reason for the ongoing search for efficient formulations and derivatives of cytarabine that cannot be deaminated and exhibited better pharmacokinetic parameters. In the present study, pegylated liposomes were modified for intended prolonged delivery of cytarabine and tested for improved cytotoxic and cytostatic effect in different human cancer lines

Ventilatory support in critically ill hematology patients with respiratory failure

Introduction: Hematology patients admitted to the ICU frequently experience respiratory failure and require mechanical ventilation. Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) may decrease the risk of intubation, but NIMV failure poses its own risks. Methods: To establish the impact of ventilatory management and NIMV failure on outcome, data from a prospective, multicenter, observational study were analyzed. All hematology patients admitted to one of the 34 participating ICUs in a 17-month period were followed up. Data on demographics, diagnosis, severity, organ failure, and supportive therapies were recorded. A logistic regression analysis was done to evaluate the risk factors associated with death and NIVM failure. Results: Of 450 patients, 300 required ventilatory support. A diagnosis of congestive heart failure and the initial use of NIMV significantly improved survival, whereas APACHE II score, allogeneic transplantation, and NIMV failure increased the risk of death. The risk factors associated with NIMV success were age, congestive heart failure, and bacteremia. Patients with NIMV failure experienced a more severe respiratory impairment than did those electively intubated. Conclusions: NIMV improves the outcome of hematology patients with respiratory insufficiency, but NIMV failure may have the opposite effect. A careful selection of patients with rapidly reversible causes of respiratory failure may increase NIMV success

Variational Mean Field approach to the Double Exchange Model

It has been recently shown that the double exchange Hamiltonian, with weak antiferromagnetic interactions, has a richer variety of first and second order transitions than previously anticipated, and that such transitions are consistent with the magnetic properties of manganites. Here we present a thorough discussion of the variational Mean Field approach that leads to the these results. We also show that the effect of the Berry phase turns out to be crucial to produce first order Paramagnetic-Ferromagnetic transitions near half filling with transition temperatures compatible with the experimental situation. The computation relies on two crucial facts: the use of a Mean Field ansatz that retains the complexity of a system of electrons with off-diagonal disorder, not fully taken into account by the Mean Field techniques, and the small but significant antiferromagnetic superexchange interaction between the localized spins.Comment: 13 pages, 11 postscript figures, revte