The use of Manuka honey as treatment of wounds in horses

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina VeterináriaAntimicrobial compounds are essentially important in reducing the global burden of infectious diseases. However, as resistant pathogens develop and spread, the effectiveness of the antibiotics is diminished. This type of bacterial resistance to the antimicrobial agents poses a very serious threat to public health, and for all kinds of antibiotics, including the major lastresort drugs, the frequencies of resistance are increasing worldwide. In addition to the generic properties of honey, Manuka honey has a non-peroxide antimicrobial activity largely attributed to methylglyoxal. Evidence that Manuka honey can also modulate the initial inflammatory response, through activation of toll-like receptor 4 on monocytes to enhance production of cytokines important in tissue repair and regeneration, have arisen. Distal limb wounds in horses usually heal by second intention because primary or delayed primary closure cannot be accomplished. In most cases these wounds have gross contamination and moderate to severe tissue loss that would make closure difficult due to a greater wound retraction, slower rates and earlier cessation of wound contraction. They must heal completely through the process of contraction, granulation, and epithelialization. The aim of applying topical medication to wounds left to heal by second intention is to manipulate the wound environment. As a topical preparation, Manuka honey has been shown to modulate the earlyperiod of second-intention wound healing in the horse, but this precise mechanism of action is still unclear, and has also been shown to control the contamination of the wound environment. The objective of this study is to show the actual evidences of the use of Manuka honey in the process of wound healing in Veterinary medicine, more specifically in horses by presenting a brief review of literature with inclusion and exclusion criteria, and by presenting three cases where Manuka honey treatment had a beneficial role and great outcomes, which provides evidence that it is an alternative treatment worth having in mind when dealing with wounds in horses.RESUMO - O uso de mel de Manuka no tratamento de feridas em cavalos - Os antibióticos são extremamente importantes na redução das doenças infeciosas que atualmente existem a nível mundial. No entanto, à medida que emergem as bactérias resistentes, a eficácia dos antibióticos torna-se mais limitada. A resistência bacteriana aos compostos antimicrobianos, representa uma ameaça muito séria à saúde pública uma vez que continua a aumentar exponencialmente em todo o Mundo. Para além das propriedades gerais do mel, o mel de Manuka tem uma atividade antimicrobiana diferente, na qual a sua atividade não surge devido a ter na sua composição o peróxido de hidrogénio mas sim devido maioritariamente à presença do metilglioxal. A qualidade e quantidade de evidência de que o mel de Manuka também tem capacidade de modular a resposta inflamatória inicial, através da ativação do TRL- 4 nos monócitos fazendo com que haja um aumento da produção de citoquinas importantes na reparação e regeneração tecidular, tem crescido. As feridas do membro distal em cavalos cicatrizam geralmente por segunda intenção, pois a oclusão por primeira intenção não é possível devido a um variado leque de fatores. Na maioria dos casos, estas feridas apresentam um nível elevado de contaminação, uma perda de tecido avaliada de moderada a grave, uma grande taxa de retração do tecido, tempos de contração da pele mais lentos e interrupção antecipada da contração da ferida. O objetivo de aplicar medicação tópica nas feridas é a manipulação do ambiente da mesma. O mel de Manuka quando utilizado topicamente demonstra que é capaz de modular as primeiras fases de cicatrização das feridas que fecham por segunda intenção em equinos, assim como é capaz de atuar no controlo da contaminação que caracteriza estas feridas. Neste trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura, com o objetivo de demonstrar as evidências que existem, assim como a sua qualidade quando se fala no uso do mel de Manuka no processo de cicatrização de feridas em medicina veterinária, mais especificamente em equinos, apresentando critérios de inclusão e exclusão. São também reportados três casos clínicos, onde o tratamento com mel de Manuka teve um papel importante e resultados benéficos de forma a validar e fornecer evidências de que é um tratamento alternativo que vale a pena ter em mente quando se lida com feridas em cavalos.N/

Mulheres e media

Coletânea de textos que resultaram no Encontro Mulheres e Media organizada pela Associação Portuguesa de Estudos sobre as Mulheres, no âmbito da iniciativa "Reflexões no Alvito" promovida pela Plataforma Portuguesa dos Direitos das Mulheres. Integram esta coletânea textos sobre as primeiras mulheres jornalistas na imprensa escrita (de Isabel Ventura), as mulheres e os novos media (de Adriana Delgado), feminismo e espaço virtual (de Noa Wirth-Nogradi) e as representações do 8 de Março na imprensa escrita portuguesa (de Carla Cerqueira). A obra inclui igualmente uma síntese das questões debatidas «durante o Encontro, segundo a lógica que norteou as "Reflexões no Alvito".info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of psychostimulants on central and peripheral neuro-immune regulation: a scoping review of cytokine profiles and their implications for addiction

It is now well-accepted that psychostimulants act on glial cells causing neuroinflammation and adding to the neurotoxic effects of such substances. Neuroinflammation can be described as an inflammatory response, within the CNS, mediated through several cytokines, reactive oxygen species, chemokines and other inflammatory markers. These inflammatory players, in particular cytokines, play important roles. Several studies have demonstrated that psychostimulants impact on cytokine production and release, both centrally and at the peripheral level. Nevertheless, the available data is often contradictory. Because understanding how cytokines are modulated by psychoactive substances seems crucial to perspective successful therapeutic interventions, here, we conducted a scoping review of the available literature. We have focused on how different psychostimulants impact on the cytokine profile. Publications were grouped according to the substance addressed (methamphetamine, cocaine, methylphenidate, MDMA or other amphetamines), the type of exposure and period of evaluation (acute, short- or long-term exposure, withdrawal, and reinstatement). Studies were further divided in those addressing central cytokines, circulating (peripheral) levels, or both. Our analysis showed that the classical pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β were those more investigated. The majority of studies have reported increased levels of these cytokines in the central nervous system after acute or repeated drug. However, studies investigating cytokine levels during withdrawal or reinstatement have shown higher variability in their findings. Although we have identified fewer studies addressing circulating cytokines in humans, the available data suggest that the results may be more robust in animal models than in patients with problematic drug use. As a major conclusion, an extensive use of arrays for relevant cytokines should be considered to better determine which cytokines, upon the classical ones, may be involved in the progression from episodic use to the development of addiction. A concerted effort is still necessary to address the link between peripheral and central immune players, including from a longitudinal perspective. Until there, the identification of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets to envision personalized immune-based therapeutics will continue to be unlikely.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Accessing movies' emotional information

Emotional information is being used in several systems as a way to understand users while interacting with computers or as a way to explore content classification. Movies are a medium emotionally empowered and technological developments and trends for media convergence are turning video into a dominant and pervasive medium, and online video is becoming a growing entertainment activity on the web. In this paper we present a user interface for movies' emotion exploration based on a previous usability study. Felt - is an application for movie and users' emotions exploration as a way to access movies by its emotional properties or as a way of recommending movies by the analysis of users emotional profiles. In this paper we also propose novel interactive mechanisms for movie's emotions exploration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sharing Video Emotional Information in the Web

Video growth over the Internet changed the way users search, browse and view video content. Watching movies over the Internet is increasing and becoming a pastime. The possibility of streaming Internet content to TV, advances in video compression techniques and video streaming have turned this recent modality of watching movies easy and doable. Web portals as a worldwide mean of multimedia data access need to have their contents properly classified in order to meet users’ needs and expectations. The authors propose a set of semantic descriptors based on both user physiological signals, captured while watching videos, and on video low-level features extraction. These XML based descriptors contribute to the creation of automatic affective meta-information that will not only enhance a web-based video recommendation system based in emotional information, but also enhance search and retrieval of videos affective content from both users’ personal classifications and content classifications in the context of a web portal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Science and strategic communication: how can universities attract high school students?

As the use of new media and the new uses of traditional media evolve in the contemporary This is a study on the use of science communication as a component of the promotional mix prepared by universities to attract high school students to their graduate and postgraduate programmes. It proposes the concept of strategic science communication, to name strategic communication practices that use science popularization to reach successful organizational performance. And this proposal was tested through a survey applied to high school students, within the area of influence of the University of Minho, in Portugal. The survey was designed according to a model of analysis developed to study the ability of strategic science communication to act on awareness (familiarity), enjoyment (appreciation), interest (voluntary involvement), opinion (way of thinking), understanding (comprehension), interaction (contact activities) and action (attitude); by extending Burns et al. (2003, p.191) vowel analogy. In the end, results point out: (1st) to the relevance of strategic communication activities in the process of promoting information and interaction with science; (2nd) to the positive effect of science communication activities in the desire to apply for a higher education institution; and (3rd) to the pertinence of the strategic science communication concept in universities’ communication mix

Violência e abuso: respostas simples para questões complexas

Aviolência, na qual se inclui o abuso, constitui um grave problema social e desaúde pública, com relevantes prejuízos para as vítimas, suas famílias esociedade. Importa, por isso, que toda a sociedade esteja informada sobre estaproblemática e sobre as estratégias e soluções para identificar, tratar eprevenir este tipo de vitimização. Apresente publicação tem como objetivo dar resposta, num formato simples, adúvidas frequentes sobre este assunto, contribuindo para criar uma maior sensibilizaçãoe atenção fac

Fatal intimate partner violence against women in Portugal: a forensic medical national study

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important cause of women's health and socio-familial severe problems, the most extreme being the victims' homicide. This is the first nationwide Portuguese autopsy-based and judicial-proven study about female intimate partner homicide. At least 62 women over 15 years old were killed by current or former men-intimate partners, corresponding to an IPV-related female mortality rate of 0.44/100.000 women; intimate partner violence was the reason of homicide in 60.8% of all autopsied women. The typical Portuguese victim showed to be a young adult woman, employed, killed by a current husband in a long-term relationship, usually with children in common and with a history of previous IPV. The typical Portuguese perpetrator showed to be older than the victim, employed, owning a firearm and without criminal records. At the time of the fatal event 59.7% of the relationships were current. In 57.9% of the former relationships women were killed during the 1st year after its terminus. Near half of the perpetrators attempted or committed suicide afterward. Most women were killed by gunshot wounds (45.2%), especially in the thorax (48.4%), with multiple fatal injuries; 56.5% also presented non-fatal injuries. The detection of prior IPV and the risk evaluation seems to be fundamental to decrease these fatal outcomes, but also, the prevention of perpetrators' alcohol abuse and carrying weapons. This work emphasizes the need to deepen the research on this issue, aiming to contribute to prevent both fatal and non-fatal IPV-related cases

Orohanditest: A new method for orofacial damage assessment

Background: Currently, orofacial sequelae are recognized as very influential on the quality-of-life for a victim of orofacial damage. Therefore, correct forensic assessment for indenisation purposes is mandatory. However, orofacial damage is frequently reduced to organic components, which results in a forensic assessment process, which are inadequate. This study aims to improve the orofacial damage assessment through the development of an auxiliary tool, the orohanditest. Materials and Methods: A preliminary inventory was constructed, using relevant bibliographic elements and retrospective study of forensic examinations reports concerning orofacial trauma. This inventory was then utilized in the assessment of 265 orofacial trauma victims for validation. Validity was studied by analyzing the internal construct validity (exploring factorial validity and assessing internal consistency) and the external construct validity (assessing convergent validity and discriminant validity). The level of significance was defined as P < 0.05. Results: The final inventory (orohanditest) was comprised of the three components of body (8 items), functions (10 items) and situations (24 items), which were found to be statistically reliable and valid for assessment. The final score (orofacial damage coefficient) reflects the orofacial damage severity. Conclusion: Orohanditest provides a reliable, precise, and complete orofacial damage description and quantification. Therefore, this method can be useful as an auxiliary tool in the orofacial damage assessment process