Diagnosis of pathological conditions through electronic nose analysis of urine samples: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Currently available urinalysis methods are often applied for screening and monitoring of several pathologies. However, traditionally analyzed biomarkers in urinalysis still lack sensitivity and specificity to accurately diagnose some diseases. Several studies have proposed the use of electronic noses (eNoses) for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in urine samples that may, directly or indirectly, correlate with certain pathologies. Hence, the aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies concerning the use of portable electronic noses for diagnosis or monitoring of pathologies through analysis of urine samples. A systematic review of the literature was held according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The results of the revised studies showed that there are various volatile organic compound profiles, identified through eNose analysis, that may be applied for diagnosis or monitoring of several diseases, such as diabetes, urinary tract infection, inflammatory bowel disease, and kidney disease. A meta-analysis was conducted taking into consideration the data of 10 of the initial 24 articles. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio were 84% (95% CI, 0.72–0.92), 85% (95% CI, 0.75–0.91), and 24.17 (95% CI: 7.85–74.41), respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.897. These results suggest that eNose technology has adequate diagnostic accuracy for several pathologies and could be a promising screening tool for clinical settings. However, more studies are needed to reduce heterogeneity between results.João Cavaleiro Rufo was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the Stimulus for Scientific Employment Individual Support (2020.01350.CEECIND). Mariana Farraia was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the PhD Grant Number SFRH/BD/145168/2019. This study was funded by FEDER through the Operational Program Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology—FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education) under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia—Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862; Ref. UID/DTP/04750/2019)

“Colorir o passado com o presente”: proposta de construção e apropriação de memória no projeto Juventude, política e religião: diálogos intergeracionais

Análise de projeto que grava em vídeo depoimentos de líderes evangélicos perseguidos pela ditadura militar, com o intuito de que jovens da atualidade tenham contato com esse material. Utiliza reflexões de Michael Pollak e Maurice Halbwachs, e as relações entre memória e temporalidades contemporâneas tecidas por Andreas Huyssen e Martin-Barbero. São percebidas disputas de identidade e pertencimento dentro do grupo e no contexto amplo da história oficial/memória nacional

Fatal adenoviral necrotizing bronchiolitis case in a post-cardiac surgery intensive care unit

We report a case of a 67 year-old-male patient admitted to the intensive care unit in the post-coronary bypass surgery period who presented cardiogenic shock, acute renal failure and three episodes of sepsis, the latter with pulmonary distress at the 30th post-operative day. The patient expired within five days in spite of treatment with vancomycin, imipenem, colistimethate and amphotericin B. At autopsy severe adenovirus pneumonia was found. Viral pulmonary infections following cardiovascular surgery are uncommon. We highlight the importance of etiological diagnosis to a correct treatment approach

Persistence of magnetic field driven by relativistic electrons in a plasma

The onset and evolution of magnetic fields in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas is determined by several mechanisms, including instabilities, dynamo effects and ultra-high energy particle flows through gas, plasma and interstellar-media. These processes are relevant over a wide range of conditions, from cosmic ray acceleration and gamma ray bursts to nuclear fusion in stars. The disparate temporal and spatial scales where each operates can be reconciled by scaling parameters that enable to recreate astrophysical conditions in the laboratory. Here we unveil a new mechanism by which the flow of ultra-energetic particles can strongly magnetize the boundary between the plasma and the non-ionized gas to magnetic fields up to 10-100 Tesla (micro Tesla in astrophysical conditions). The physics is observed from the first time-resolved large scale magnetic field measurements obtained in a laser wakefield accelerator. Particle-in-cell simulations capturing the global plasma and field dynamics over the full plasma length confirm the experimental measurements. These results open new paths for the exploration and modelling of ultra high energy particle driven magnetic field generation in the laboratory

The BINGO project: V. Further steps in component separation and bispectrum analysis

Context. Observing the neutral hydrogen distribution across the Universe via redshifted 21 cm line intensity mapping constitutes a powerful probe for cosmology. However, the redshifted 21 cm signal is obscured by the foreground emission from our Galaxy and other extragalactic foregrounds. This paper addresses the capabilities of the BINGO survey to separate such signals. Aims. We show that the BINGO instrumental, optical, and simulations setup is suitable for component separation, and that we have the appropriate tools to understand and control foreground residuals. Specifically, this paper looks in detail at the different residuals left over by foreground components, shows that a noise-corrected spectrum is unbiased, and shows that we understand the remaining systematic residuals by analyzing nonzero contributions to the three-point function. Methods. We use the generalized needlet internal linear combination, which we apply to sky simulations of the BINGO experiment for each redshift bin of the survey. We use binned estimates of the bispectrum of the maps to assess foreground residuals left over after component separation in the final map. Results. We present our recovery of the redshifted 21 cm signal from sky simulations of the BINGO experiment, including foreground components. We test the recovery of the 21 cm signal through the angular power spectrum at different redshifts, as well as the recovery of its non-Gaussian distribution through a bispectrum analysis. We find that non-Gaussianities from the original foreground maps can be removed down to, at least, the noise limit of the BINGO survey with such techniques. Conclusions. Our component separation methodology allows us to subtract the foreground contamination in the BINGO channels down to levels below the cosmological signal and the noise, and to reconstruct the 21 cm power spectrum for different redshift bins without significant loss at multipoles 20≲ l ≲ 500. Our bispectrum analysis yields strong tests of the level of the residual foreground contamination in the recovered 21 cm signal, thereby allowing us to both optimize and validate our component separation analysis

Laparoscopic treatment of intestinal malrotation in neonates and infants: retrospective study

Intestinal malrotation in neonates or infants may require urgent surgical treatment, especially when volvulus and vascular compromise of the midgut are suspected. Successful laparoscopic management of malrotation has been described in a number of case reports. It remains unclear, however, whether laparoscopy for the treatment of malrotation has a success rate equal to that of open surgery and what relative risks exist in terms of conversion and redo surgery in larger numbers of patients. This report describes a retrospective analysis of the clinical outcome for 45 children who underwent laparoscopic treatment of intestinal malrotation at the authors' institution. The 45 patients in this series, ages several days to 13 years, underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy for suspected intestinal malrotation. For 37 patients, malrotation with or without volvulus was diagnosed. All these patients underwent laparoscopic derotation and Ladd's procedure. Successful laparoscopic treatment of intestinal malrotation could be performed in 75% of the cases (n = 28), and conversion to an open procedure was necessary in 25% of the cases (n = 9). The median hospital stay was 11 days (range, 2-60 days). Postoperative clinical relapse due to recurrence of malrotation, volvulus, or both occurred for 19% of the laparoscopically treated patients (n = 7). These patients underwent laparoscopic (n = 1) or open (n = 6) redo surgery. Diagnostic laparoscopy is the procedure of choice when intestinal malrotation is suspected. If present, malrotation can be treated adequately with laparoscopic surgery in the majority of cases. Nevertheless, to prevent recurrence of malrotation or volvulus, a low threshold for conversion to an open procedure is mandated

The BINGO project: IV. Simulations for mission performance assessment and preliminary component separation steps

Aims. The large-scale distribution of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the Universe is luminous through its 21 cm emission. The goal of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations (BINGO) radio telescope is to detect baryon acoustic oscillations at radio frequencies through 21 cm intensity mapping (IM). The telescope will span the redshift range 0.127<z<0.449 with an instantaneous field-of-view of 14.75 - 6.0. Methods. In this work we investigate different constructive and operational scenarios of the instrument by generating sky maps as they would be produced by the instrument. In doing this we use a set of end-to-end IM mission simulations. The maps will additionally be used to evaluate the efficiency of a component separation method (GNILC). Results. We have simulated the kind of data that would be produced in a single-dish IM experiment such as BINGO. According to the results obtained, we have optimized the focal plane design of the telescope. In addition, the application of the GNILC method on simulated data shows that it is feasible to extract the cosmological signal across a wide range of multipoles and redshifts. The results are comparable with the standard principal component analysis method

Contribution of ULF Wave Activity to the Global Recovery of the Outer Radiation Belt During the Passage of a High-Speed Solar Wind Stream Observed in September 2014

Energy coupling between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere can affect the electron population in the outer radiation belt. However, the precise role of different internal and external mechanisms that leads to changes of the relativistic electron population is not entirely known. This paper describes how ultralow frequency (ULF) wave activity during the passage of Alfvénic solar wind streams contributes to the global recovery of the relativistic electron population in the outer radiation belt. To investigate the contribution of the ULF waves, we searched the Van Allen Probes data for a period in which we can clearly distinguish the enhancement of electron fluxes from the background. We found that the global recovery that started on 22 September 2014, which coincides with the corotating interaction region preceding a high-speed stream and the occurrence of persistent substorm activity, provides an excellent scenario to explore the contribution of ULF waves. To support our analyses, we employed ground- and space-based observational data and global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and calculated the ULF wave radial diffusion coefficients employing an empirical model. Observations show a gradual increase of electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt and a concomitant enhancement of ULF activity that spreads from higher to lower L-shells. Magnetohydrodynamic simulation results agree with observed ULF wave activity in the magnetotail, which leads to both fast and Alfvén modes in the magnetospheric nightside sector. The observations agree with the empirical model and are confirmed by phase space density calculations for this global recovery period

A spatial approach for the epidemiology of antibiotic use and resistance in community-based studies: the emergence of urban clusters of Escherichia coli quinolone resistance in Sao Paulo, Brasil

Copyright © Kiffer et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background Population antimicrobial use may influence resistance emergence. Resistance is an ecological phenomenon due to potential transmissibility. We investigated spatial and temporal patterns of ciprofloxacin (CIP) population consumption related to E. coli resistance emergence and dissemination in a major Brazilian city. A total of 4,372 urinary tract infection E. coli cases, with 723 CIP resistant, were identified in 2002 from two outpatient centres. Cases were address geocoded in a digital map. Raw CIP consumption data was transformed into usage density in DDDs by CIP selling points influence zones determination. A stochastic model coupled with a Geographical Information System was applied for relating resistance and usage density and for detecting city areas of high/low resistance risk. Results E. coli CIP resistant cluster emergence was detected and significantly related to usage density at a level of 5 to 9 CIP DDDs. There were clustered hot-spots and a significant global spatial variation in the residual resistance risk after allowing for usage density. Conclusions There were clustered hot-spots and a significant global spatial variation in the residual resistance risk after allowing for usage density. The usage density of 5-9 CIP DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants within the same influence zone was the resistance triggering level. This level led to E. coli resistance clustering, proving that individual resistance emergence and dissemination was affected by antimicrobial population consumption

The BINGO project: II. Instrument description

Context. The measurement of diffuse 21-cm radiation from the hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen (Hi signal) in different redshifts is an important tool for modern cosmology. However, detecting this faint signal with non-cryogenic receivers in single-dish telescopes is a challenging task. The BINGO (Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations) radio telescope is an instrument designed to detect baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAOs) in the cosmological Hi signal, in the redshift interval 0:127 ≤ z ≤ 0:449. Aims. This paper describes the BINGO radio telescope, including the current status of the optics, receiver, observational strategy, calibration, and the site. Methods. BINGO has been carefully designed to minimize systematics, being a transit instrument with no moving dishes and 28 horns operating in the frequency range 980 ≤ v ≤ 1260 MHz. Comprehensive laboratory tests were conducted for many of the BINGO subsystems and the prototypes of the receiver chain, horn, polarizer, magic tees, and transitions have been successfully tested between 2018-2020. The survey was designed to cover ∼13% of the sky, with the primary mirror pointing at declination δ = -15°. The telescope will see an instantaneous declination strip of 14:75. Results. The results of the prototype tests closely meet those obtained during the modeling process, suggesting BINGO will perform according to our expectations. After one year of observations with a 60% duty cycle and 28 horns, BINGO should achieve an expected sensitivity of 102μK per 9.33MHz frequency channel, one polarization, and be able to measure the Hi power spectrum in a competitive time frame