Anaphylaxis in Pregnancy: a Rare Cause of Neonatal Mortality

Anaphylaxis is a rare condition in pregnancy. Drugs are the aetiological agents most often implicated. Maternal anaphylaxis can lead to significant fetal morbidity and even mortality if uterine perfusion and maternal oxygenation are compromised. Significant risk of neonatal neurological damage or death can occur even when the maternal clinical outcome is favourable. The authors present the case of a newborn, born at gestational age of 29 weeks, who died at 11 days of life with hypoxic-ischaemic cerebral injuries as a consequence of maternal anaphylaxis following the administration of amoxicillin in the community setting.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Avaliação de insumos agrícolas por meio de testes ecotoxicológicos: fase preliminar.

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Avaliação do efeito do corte horizontal da copa, com máquina de podar de discos, em pomares de pera “Rocha

Current pear pruning making use of pneumatic shears still is a very labour intensive operation. The Proder project “Avaliação da poda mecânica em pomares de pera” was designed to contribute to solutions that would reduce the present dependence in labour and therefore to promote a reduction in pruning costs. This paper shows the results of a trial made to evaluate the influence of mechanical topping in manual pruning complement field work and pear yield. Topping was performed using a Reynolds 6DT 3.0m cutting bar with six hydraulic-driven circular disc-saws mounted in the three point tractor linkage system. The field trial was performed in a commercial orchard with 20 years, planted in an array of 4m x 2m with tree lines oriented in North-South direction. Trees were trained as the central leader system. In this trial, in a randomised complete block design with four replications, two treatments are being compared leading to 8 plots with one line of 14 trees per plot. The treatments tests were: T1 - manual pruning performed by workers using pneumatic shears, in each year; T2 - Topping the canopy parallel to the ground, using a discs-saw pruning machine mounted in a front loader of an agricultural tractor, followed by manual pruning complement performed by workers with pneumatic shears. Tree height and width was measured, before and after pruning. Work was timed and pear yields evaluated. Mechanical topping seems to be effective in the control of tree height, which can contribute to increase 14% of work rates on manual pruning complement. No significant differences in pear yield were found between treatments

Croup and COVID‐19

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Response of growth, yield and berry composition to basal leaf removal in Jaen grapevine

Results from a leaf removal experiment located at Dão Winegrowing region of Portugal are presented. Three intensity levels of defoliation (control non-defoliated, leaves removed up to the third basal node and up to the sixth basal node) are compared. Defoliation treatments had no significant effect on yield and on must soluble solids, showing that the remaining leaves were able to guarantee berry development and sugar accumulation in the fruit. The more intense defoliation treatment induced favorable effects on light microclimate in the cluster zone, with positive consequences for polyphenols synthesis and reduction of Botrytis cinerea Pers. incidenceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Immunological Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome and Thrombotic Microangiopathy: Severe Complications in a Child With Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Some patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection deteriorate shortly after starting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the so-called immunological reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS).1 Although having a spontaneous resolution in many instances, it can be fatal.1 Worse prognosis is seen in younger children, severe immunosuppression and central nervous system IRIS, or infections with specific agents, namely, Criptococcus.2 Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) has also been described in children with HIV infection, in the context of an immunological system dysregulation.3 Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) became rare with the introduction of HAART, being mostly associated with advanced disease.4 HIV-associated TMA has specific clinical aspects as well as a worse prognosis than idiopathic or congenital TMA.4-9 The authors present the case of a 10-month-old boy with advanced HIV infection who developed IRIS complicated with HLH and TMA during the course of his treatment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rheological Properties of Dough and the Bread Quality

Funding Information: This research was funded by the Argentinean Agency for the Scientific and Technological Promotion (ANPCyT; Projects PICT-2018-0647, PICT-2016-3047). Argentinean Research Council (CONICET), and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), MINCYT (Argentina) and FCT (Portugal) for the financial support (MYNCYT-FCT-PO-0928-2009). This work was also supported by FCT, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the R&D Unit, UIDB/04551/2020 (GREEN-IT, Bioresources for Sustainability) and the project UIDB/04033/2020. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.Protein-based foods based on sweet lupine are gaining the attention of industry and consumers on account of their being one of the legumes with the highest content of proteins (28–48%). Our objective was to study the thermal properties of two lupine flours (Misak and Rumbo) and the influence of different amounts of lupine flour (0, 10, 20 and 30%) incorporations on the hydration and rheological properties of dough and bread quality. The thermograms of both lupine flours showed three peaks at 77–78 °C, 88–89 °C and 104–105 °C, corresponding to 2S, 7S and 11S globulins, respectively. For Misak flour, higher energy was needed to denature proteins in contrast to Rumbo flour, which may be due to its higher protein amount (50.7% vs. 34.2%). The water absorption of dough with 10% lupine flour was lower than the control, while higher values were obtained for dough with 20% and 30% lupine flour. In contrast, the hardness and adhesiveness of the dough were higher with 10 and 20% lupine flour, but for 30%, these values were lower than the control. However, no differences were observed for G′, G″ and tan δ parameters between dough. In breads, the protein content increased ~46% with the maximum level of lupine flour, from 7.27% in wheat bread to 13.55% in bread with 30% Rumbo flour. Analyzing texture parameters, the chewiness and firmness increased with incorporations of lupine flour with respect to the control sample while the elasticity decreased, and no differences were observed for specific volume. It can be concluded that breads of good technological quality and high protein content could be obtained by the inclusion of lupine flours in wheat flour. Therefore, our study highlights the great technological aptitude and the high nutritional value of lupine flours as ingredients for the breadmaking food industry.publishersversionpublishe

Dye assessment in nanostructured TiO2 sensitized films by microprobe techniques

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have received considerable attention once this technology offers economic and environmental advantages over conventional photovoltaic (PV) devices. The PV performance of a DSC relies on the characteristics of its photoanode, which typically consists of a nanocrystalline porous TiO2 film, enabled with a large adsorptive surface area. Dye molecules that capture photons from light during device operation are attached to the film nanoparticles. The effective loading of the dye in the TiO2 electrode is of utmost importance for controlling and optimizing solar cell parameters. Relatively few methods are known today for quantitative evaluation of the total dye adsorbed on the film. In this work, a new approach combining microprobe techniques namely, Ion Beam Analytical (IBA) techniques using a micro-ion beam (Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE)) and Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA) was carried out to assess dye distribution and depth profile in TiO2 films and the dye load based on Ru/Ti mass ratio. Different 1D nanostructured TiO2 films were prepared, morphologically characterised by SEM, sensitized and analysed by the referred techniques. Dye load evaluation in different TiO2 films by three different techniques (PIXE, RBS and EPMA/ wavelength dispersive spectrometry (WDS)) provided similar results of Ru/Ti mass fraction ratio. Moreover, it was possible to assess dye surface distribution and its depth profile, by means of Ru signal, and to visualise the dye distribution in sample cross-section through X-ray mapping by EPMA/ energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). PIXE maps of Ru and Ti indicated an homogeneous surface distribution. The assessment of ruthenium depth profile by RBS showed that some films have homogeneous Ru depth distribution while others present different Ru concentration in the top layer (2 ìm thickness). These results are consistent with the EPMA/EDS maps obtained. EPMA (WDS and EDS) together with IBA techniques proved to be powerful tools for functional materials characterisation and provided very promising results in the study of nanostructured TiO2 sensitized films

Microscopy techniques for dye distribution in DSCs nanocrystalline TiO2 films

Capture of sunlight has attracted an increasing interest in the scientific community and triggered the development of efficient and cheap photovoltaic devices. Amongst recent generation technologies for solar energy conversion, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) show an optimal trade-off between high-conversion efficiency and low-cost manufacturing. For the last two decades, significant progress has been made and best energy conversion efficiency of the DSC at the laboratory scale has surpassed 12% [1]. A lot of work has focused on the enlargement of surface areas to enhance the amount of adsorbed dyes by reduction of nanoparticle sizes or utilization of novel structures. Nevertheless there remain some crucial details of DSC operation for which limited information is available, namely dye diffusion and adsorption, surface coverage and dye distribution throughout the nc-TiO2 film. Microprobe techniques can be powerful tools to evaluate the dye load, the dye distribution and dye depth profile in sensitized films. Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) and Ion Beam Analytical (IBA) techniques using a micro-ion beam, namely micro-Particle Induced X-ray Emission ( PIXE) and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), were used to quantify and to study the distribution of the ruthenium organometallic (N719) dye in TiO2 films, profiting from the different penetration depth and beam sizes of each technique. Two different types of films were prepared and sensitized, mesoporous nanoparticles and 1D nanostructured TiO2 films (figure 1). Despite the low concentration of Ru, the high sensitive analytical techniques used allowed to assess the Ru surface distribution and depth profile. Fig. 2 shows the PIXE maps of Ru and Ti indicating an homogeneous surface distribution. The same figure presents the RBS spectra obtained with a 2 MeV proton beam of the same sample showing that a good spectra fit is obtained considering only two sample layers: the first one with a 1.7 ìm thickness; the second one being the SiO2 substrate. The Ru RBS signal also shows that the dye has an homogeneous depth distribution. Due to the fine spatial resolution of the EPMA/WDS (Wavelength Dispersive Spectroscopy) technique it was possible to visualise the dye distribution in sample cross-section (with micrometer or submicrometer dimensions) as presented in Fig. 3 for the elemental mapping of a mesoporous nanoparticle TiO2 film. Dye load evaluation by two different techniques (ìPIXE and EPMA/WDS) provided similar results (Ru/Ti values around 0.5 %). The distribution analysis of the organometallic dye (N719) was done through ruthenium distribution via X-ray mapping. RBS was used to assess the ruthenium depth profile. This assessment can lead to a better understanding of the device performance

Assessment of dye distribution in sensitized solar cells by microprobe techniques

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have received considerable attention once this technology offers economic and environmental advantages over conventional photovoltaic (PV) devices. The PV performance of a DSC relies on the characteristics of its photoanode, which typically consists of a nanocrystalline porous TiO2 film, enabled with a large adsorptive surface area. Dye molecules that capture photons from light during device operation are attached to the film nanoparticles. The effective loading of the dye in the TiO2 electrode is of paramount relevance for controlling and optimizing solar cell parameters. Relatively few methods are known today for quantitative evaluation of the total dye adsorbed on the film. In this context, microprobe techniques come out as suitable tools to evaluate the dye surface distribution and depth profile in sensitized films. Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) and Ion Beam Analytical (IBA) techniques using a micro-ion beam were used to quantify and to study the distribution of the Ru organometallic dye in TiO2 films, making use of the different penetration depth and beam sizes of each technique. Different 1D nanostructured TiO2 films were prepared, morphologically characterized by SEM, sensitized and analyzed by the referred techniques. Dye load evaluation in different TiO2 films by three different techniques (PIXE, RBS and EPMA/WDS) provided similar results of Ru/Ti mass fraction ratio. Moreover, it was possible to assess dye surface distribution and its depth profile, by means of Ru signal, and to visualize the dye distribution in sample cross-section through X-ray mapping by EPMA/EDS. PIXE maps of Ru and Ti indicated an homogeneous surface distribution. The assessment of Ru depth profile by RBS showed that some films have homogeneous Ru depth distribution while others present different Ru concentration in the top layer (2 lm thickness). These results are consistent with the EPMA/EDS maps obtained