Incidência de dor lombar em policiais militares e o efeito do exercício

Orientador : Anderson Caetano PauloMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Curso de Especialização em Fisiologia do Exercício.Resumo : Os policiais encontram-se nas categorias profissionais mais expostas aos riscos à integridade física. Esta profissão apresenta jornadas de trabalho com condições estressantes, aliadas as longas horas em pé ou sentado e a sobrecarga causada pelo uso de equipamentos de proteção individual. Esses fatores podem influenciar na alteração da biomecânica do sistema musculoesquelético, além de poder comprometer a estrutura e a função do corpo, predispondo o aparecimento de distúrbios osteomusculares. A presente revisão tem como objetivo buscar na literatura os estudos que relacionem o efeito agudo do exercício na dor lombar em policiais militares e civis. A busca dos artigos foi realizada na base de dados "PubMed", utilizando as seguintes descritores "low back pain/police" e "resistance training/low back pain", e na base de dados "Scielo", os seguintes descritores, "coluna/policiais", "dor lombar/policiais", "dor lombar/colete balístico", "discos intervertebrais/estatura" e "treinamento de força/dor lombar". As avaliações para o diagnóstico de dor lombar em policiais são baseadas em avaliações subjetivas, através de questionários e escalas que fornecem resultados qualitativos. Com o desenvolvimento da tecnologia para a saúde, métodos de avaliação com indicadores quantitativos podem ser utilizados, propiciando evidências complementares aos estudos com variáveis anteriormente avaliadas por métodos qualitativos

A cross‐sectional analysis of the muscle strength, spinal shrinkage, and recovery during a working day of military police officers

Objective: Military personnel has a large prevalence of back pain, especially those involved in patrolling routines, as they wear heavy protective equipment. Patrolling includes long periods of sustaining the protective equipment in a sitting or in a motor vehicle (motorcycle or car). Thus, understanding spinal loading of military police officers after patrolling by car (CAR; n = 14), motorcycle (MOT; n = 14), and administrative (ADM; n = 14) routines is relevant to establish preventive strategies. Methods: The torque of the trunk and working and anthropometric characteristics were assessed to explain spinal loading using stature variation measures. Precise stature measures were performed before and after a 6 h journey (LOSS) and 20 min after a resting posture (RECOV). The trunk extensor (PTE BM−1) and flexor (PTF BM−1) muscles' isometric peak torque were measured before the working journey. Results: The LOSS was similar between CAR and MOT (4.8 and 5.8 mm, respectively) after 6 h of patrolling. The ADM presented the lowest LOSS (2.8 mm; P .05). Vibration may explain the greater spinal loading involved in patrolling in comparison to the ADM. A GLM analysis revealed that BMI was the only explanatory factor for stature loss. No independent variables explained RECOV. The ability of the trunk muscles to produce force did not influence LOSS or RECOV. Conclusions: Military police officers involved in patrolling may require greater post‐work periods and strategies designed to reduce the weight of the protective apparatus to dissipate spinal loading. The external load used in patrolling is a relevant spinal loading factor

Indoor location based services challenges, requirements and usability of current solutions

Indoor Location Based Services (LBS), such as indoor navigation and tracking, still have to deal with both technical and non-technical challenges. For this reason, they have not yet found a prominent position in people’s everyday lives. Reliability and availability of indoor positioning technologies, the availability of up-to-date indoor maps, and privacy concerns associated with location data are some of the biggest challenges to their development. If these challenges were solved, or at least minimized, there would be more penetration into the user market. This paper studies the requirements of LBS applications, through a survey conducted by the authors, identifies the current challenges of indoor LBS, and reviews the available solutions that address the most important challenge, that of providing seamless indoor/outdoor positioning. The paper also looks at the potential of emerging solutions and the technologies that may help to handle this challenge

Notch Promotes Neural Lineage Entry by Pluripotent Embryonic Stem Cells

A central challenge in embryonic stem (ES) cell biology is to understand how to impose direction on primary lineage commitment. In basal culture conditions, the majority of ES cells convert asynchronously into neural cells. However, many cells resist differentiation and others adopt nonneural fates. Mosaic activation of the neural reporter Sox-green fluorescent protein suggests regulation by cell-cell interactions. We detected expression of Notch receptors and ligands in mouse ES cells and investigated the role of this pathway. Genetic manipulation to activate Notch constitutively does not alter the stem cell phenotype. However, upon withdrawal of self-renewal stimuli, differentiation is directed rapidly and exclusively into the neural lineage. Conversely, pharmacological or genetic interference with Notch signalling suppresses the neural fate choice. Notch promotion of neural commitment requires parallel signalling through the fibroblast growth factor receptor. Stromal cells expressing Notch ligand stimulate neural specification of human ES cells, indicating that this is a conserved pathway in pluripotent stem cells. These findings define an unexpected and decisive role for Notch in ES cell fate determination. Limiting activation of endogenous Notch results in heterogeneous lineage commitment. Manipulation of Notch signalling is therefore likely to be a key factor in taking command of ES cell lineage choice

Incidência de dor lombar em policiais militares e o efeito do exercício

Orientador : Anderson Caetano PauloMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Curso de Especialização em Fisiologia do Exercício.Resumo : Os policiais encontram-se nas categorias profissionais mais expostas aos riscos à integridade física. Esta profissão apresenta jornadas de trabalho com condições estressantes, aliadas as longas horas em pé ou sentado e a sobrecarga causada pelo uso de equipamentos de proteção individual. Esses fatores podem influenciar na alteração da biomecânica do sistema musculoesquelético, além de poder comprometer a estrutura e a função do corpo, predispondo o aparecimento de distúrbios osteomusculares. A presente revisão tem como objetivo buscar na literatura os estudos que relacionem o efeito agudo do exercício na dor lombar em policiais militares e civis. A busca dos artigos foi realizada na base de dados "PubMed", utilizando as seguintes descritores "low back pain/police" e "resistance training/low back pain", e na base de dados "Scielo", os seguintes descritores, "coluna/policiais", "dor lombar/policiais", "dor lombar/colete balístico", "discos intervertebrais/estatura" e "treinamento de força/dor lombar". As avaliações para o diagnóstico de dor lombar em policiais são baseadas em avaliações subjetivas, através de questionários e escalas que fornecem resultados qualitativos. Com o desenvolvimento da tecnologia para a saúde, métodos de avaliação com indicadores quantitativos podem ser utilizados, propiciando evidências complementares aos estudos com variáveis anteriormente avaliadas por métodos qualitativos

Analysis of Notch1 function by in vitro T cell differentiation of Pax5 mutant lymphoid progenitors

Signaling through the Notch1 receptor is essential for T cell development in the thymus. Stromal OP9 cells ectopically expressing the Notch ligand Delta-like1 mimic the thymic environment by inducing hemopoietic stem cells to undergo in vitro T cell development. Notch1 is also expressed on Pax5-/- pro-B cells, which are clonable lymphoid progenitors with a latent myeloid potential. In this study, we demonstrate that Pax5-/- progenitors efficiently differentiate in vitro into CD4+CD8+ alphabeta and gammadelta T cells upon coculture with OP9-Delta-like1 cells. In vitro T cell development of Pax5-/- progenitors strictly depends on Notch1 function and progresses through normal developmental stages by expressing T cell markers and rearranging TCRbeta, gamma, and delta loci in the correct temporal sequence. Notch-stimulated Pax5-/- progenitors efficiently down-regulate the expression of B cell-specific genes, consistent with a role of Notch1 in preventing B lymphopoiesis in the thymus. At the same time, Notch signaling rapidly induces cell surface expression of the c-Kit receptor and transcription of the target genes Deltex1 and pre-Talpha concomitant with the activation of TCR Vbeta germline transcription and the regulatory genes GATA3 and Tcf1. These data suggest that Notch1 acts upstream of GATA3 and Tcf1 in early T cell development and regulates Vbeta-DJbeta rearrangements by controlling the chromatin accessibility of Vbeta genes at the TCRbeta locus

Analysis of Notch1 function by in vitro T cell differentiation of Pax5 mutant lymphoid progenitors

Signaling through the Notch1 receptor is essential for T cell development in the thymus. Stromal OP9 cells ectopically expressing the Notch ligand Delta-like1 mimic the thymic environment by inducing hemopoietic stem cells to undergo in vitro T cell development. Notch1 is also expressed on Pax5-/- pro-B cells, which are clonable lymphoid progenitors with a latent myeloid potential. In this study, we demonstrate that Pax5-/- progenitors efficiently differentiate in vitro into CD4+CD8+ alphabeta and gammadelta T cells upon coculture with OP9-Delta-like1 cells. In vitro T cell development of Pax5-/- progenitors strictly depends on Notch1 function and progresses through normal developmental stages by expressing T cell markers and rearranging TCRbeta, gamma, and delta loci in the correct temporal sequence. Notch-stimulated Pax5-/- progenitors efficiently down-regulate the expression of B cell-specific genes, consistent with a role of Notch1 in preventing B lymphopoiesis in the thymus. At the same time, Notch signaling rapidly induces cell surface expression of the c-Kit receptor and transcription of the target genes Deltex1 and pre-Talpha concomitant with the activation of TCR Vbeta germline transcription and the regulatory genes GATA3 and Tcf1. These data suggest that Notch1 acts upstream of GATA3 and Tcf1 in early T cell development and regulates Vbeta-DJbeta rearrangements by controlling the chromatin accessibility of Vbeta genes at the TCRbeta locus

Modelling methods and validation techniques for CFD simulations of PEM fuel cells

The large-scale adoption of fuel cells system for sustainable power generation will require the combined use of both multidimensional models and of dedicated testing techniques, in order to evolve the current technology beyond its present status. This requires an unprecedented understanding of concurrent and interacting fluid dynamics, material and electrochemical processes. In this review article, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are analysed. In the first part, the most common approaches for multi-phase/multi-physics modelling are presented in their governing equations, inherent limitations and accurate materials characterisation for diffusion layers, membrane and catalyst layers. This provides a thorough overview of key aspects to be included in multidimensional CFD models. In the second part, advanced diagnostic techniques are surveyed, indicating testing practices to accurately characterise the cell operation. These can be used to validate models, complementing the conventional observation of the current-voltage curve with key operating parameters, thus defining a joint modelling/testing environment. The two sections complement each other in portraying a unified framework of interrelated physical/chemical processes, laying the foundation of a robust and complete understanding of PEMFC. This is needed to advance the current technology and to consciously use the ever-growing availability of computational resources in the next future