Native-valve endocarditis caused by Achromobacter xylosoxidans: a case report and review of literature

Achromobacter xylosoxidans is a Gram-negative aerobic bacterium first described by Yabuuchi and Ohyama in 1971. A. xylosoxidans is frequently found in aquatic environments. Abdominal, urinary tract, ocular, pneumonia, meningitis, and osteomyelitis are the most common infections. Infective endocarditis is rare. As far as we know, until now, only 19 cases have been described, including this current report. We report the case of community-acquired native valve endocarditis caused by A. xylosoxidans in an elderly patient without a concomitant diagnosis of a malignancy or any known immunodeficiency. The patient presented with a 2-month history of fever, weight loss, and progressive dyspnea. On physical examination, mitral and aortic murmurs were present, along with Janeway’s lesions, and a positive blood culture for A. xylosoxidans. The transesophageal echocardiogram showed vegetation in the aortic valve, which was consistent with the diagnosis of infective endocarditi

A STUDY ON ECONOMIC DAMAGE FOR TOURISM IN KYOTO CITY BY EARTHQUAKE DISASTER

As a typical historic and touristic city of Japan, Kyoto City with a total of 14 UNESCO world heritage sites, and more than 2,000 shrines and temples, attracts annually about 50 million tourists from Japan and overseas. However, because of the disaster of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 which both gave serious damage to Japan, the tourism sector of Kyoto City was impacted by the obvious decrease in the number of tourists. In this study focusing on the two disaster cases of Kyoto City, we estimated the amount of economic damage to the tourism sector, which consists of direct damage from decreasing tourism activities and indirect damage from influences on the regional economy caused by decreases in tourism consumption, which was estimated by the input-output analysis. Then from the analysis of decreasing tourists and estimation of the results, we considered factors whichhave impacted tourism activities and the regional economy

Genetic analysis of porcine H3N2 viruses originating in southern China

From immunological and phylogenetic analyses of H3 influenza viruses isolated from pigs and ducks in the People's Republic of China (China), Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, between 1968 and 1982, we arrived at the following conclusions. The H3 haemagglutinin and N2 neuraminidase genes from swine isolates can be segregated into four mammalian lineages, including: (i) the earliest human strains; (ii) early swine strains including Hong Kong isolates from 1976-1977; (iii) an intermediate strain between the early swine and recent human strains; and (iv) recent human strains. In this study we found an unusual swine strain (sw/Hong Kong/127/82) belonging to the third lineage which behaved like those of the early swine-like lineage in the haemagglutination inhibition test; but neuraminidase inhibition profiles with monoclonal antibodies indicated that this virus is related to late human strains. On the basis of pairwise comparisons of complete or partial nucleotide sequences the genes encoding the three polymerase proteins (PB2, PB1, PA), the nucleoprotein, the membrane protein and possibly the nonstructural proteins of sw/Hong Kong/127/82 are of the swine H1N1 lineage, whereas genes encoding the two surface glycoproteins belong to the human H3N2 lineage. In contrast, all RNA segments of one swine isolate (sw/Hong Kong/81/78) are similar to those of recent human H3N2 viruses. This study indicated that frequent interspecies infections between human and swine hosts appeared to occur during 1976-82. Although the evolutionary rates of human (0.0122/site/year), swine (0.0127/site/year) and avian (0.0193/site/year) virus genes are similar when based upon synonymous substitutions, nonsynonymous substitutions indicated that viral genes derived from human and swine viruses evolved about three times faster (0.0026-0.0027/site/year) than those of avian viruses (0.0008/site/year). Furthermore, the evolutionary mechanism by which human and swine H3 haemagglutinin genes evolve at a similar rate, based on nonsynonymous substitutions, appeared to be quite different from previous evidence which showed that human H1 haemagglutinin genes evolved three times faster than those of swine viruses. However, comparison of the number of nonsynonymous substitutions in the antigenic sites (A-E) of haemagglutinin molecules demonstrated that swine viruses evolve at a rate that is about one fifth to one tenth that of human viruses, reflecting the conservative nature of the antigenic structure in the former.published_or_final_versio

O dia em que as flores pararam de florescer - Design editorial autoral: a transformação dos sentimentos em design

Pesquisa sem auxílio de agências de fomentoTrabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação)O presente projeto trata da criação de um projeto de design editorial que tenha a função de ser um meio de registro de emoções para o designer e seu processo de cunho emocional, assim como um meio gerador de emoções para o leitor. Para tal, propõe-se um projeto de um livro impresso que seja um meio das emoções da autora designer (processo autoral), assim como um propiciador de emoções ao leitor, sendo um meio de refúgio e transcender, em uma atualidade conturbada (este trabalho é feito em 2022, ano pandêmico e de guerra)

Estudo de reforço ao cisalhamento de vigas de concreto armado com compósitos de fibra de carbono

Trabalho de conclusão de curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Ambiental, 2016.Este trabalho visa o estudo do cisalhamento em vigas de concreto armado com Polímeros Reforçados com Fibra de Carbono, ou Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), colados externamente. Tal estudo é realizado através da utilização de métodos teóricos de cálculo prevendo as cargas últimas de estruturas testadas em laboratório. Diversos resultados experimentais de trabalhos brasileiros e estrangeiros foram coletados e comparados com valores teóricos dos critérios propostos por normas e pesquisadores. Sendo a resistência total da viga ao cisalhamento a soma entre as parcelas de resistência da viga de concreto armado e dos compósitos de fibra de carbono, foram aplicadas as normas ABNT NBR 6118 (2014) e ACI 318 (2011); e as formulações propostas pelo pesquisador Zsutty (1968). Para o cálculo da parcela de resistência da fibra de carbono, não existem muitas normas que abordem o assunto de maneira direta, sendo que as que possuem maior representatividade são o ACI 440 (2008) e FIB bulletin 14 (2001), além das formulações propostas pelos pesquisadores Chen e Teng (2003). Após a aplicação dos métodos, os valores são combinados para que seja possível concluir qual método ou norma mais se aproxima do valor de resistência da viga testada em laboratório e com menor variação entre seus resultados. Desse modo, é possível ter uma idéia do quão aproximados são os métodos de dimensionamento de elementos estruturais desse tipo e também podemos facilitar a escolha dos tipos de aplicação de reforços estruturais dependendo das condições locais e da normativa utilizada. No total foram coletados os resultados experimentais de mais de 200 vigas testadas em laboratório dentre as quais existem variações em propriedades e modos de aplicação do reforço que foram investigados sobre suas influências nos resultados dos métodos de cálculo.This project aims the study of shear in reinforced concrete beams with externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP). Such study is made by using theoretical methods of calculation predicting the ultimate loads of structures tested in laboratory. A range of experimental results, coming from brazilian and foreign works, were collected and compared with values produced by standards and researchers. The total shear capacity of the beam is the sum of the resistence of the reinforced concrete beam with the resistence of the carbon fiber composite. Therefore, in order to calculate the shear resistence of the concrete and the steel reinforcement, the applied standards were ABNT NBR 6118 (2014) and ACI 318 (2011); and the formulations proposed by the researcher Zsutty (1968). In relation to the calculation of the carbon fiber resistence, there are not many standards that directly approach the subject, so the most representative ones are ACI 440.2R (2008) and FIB bulletin 14 (2001); and the formulations proposed by the researchers Chen and Teng (2003). After the application of the methods, the values were combined to make it possible to conclude which method or standard approximates more of the resistence of the tested beam and with less variation between its results. Thereby, it is possible to have an idea of how aproximate the methods of design of structural elements are, and also facilitate the selection of a type of application of the reinforcement depending on the conditions and standards applied. It were collected the experimental results of more than 200 beams that were tested in laboratory. Amongst them, there is some properties variations and types of reinforcement application which were investigated about their influence on the calculation results

A suspensão do parlamento britânico (“prorogation”) sob o prisma constitucional : salvação ou abominação?

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Direito, 2019.Longe de ser um trabalho voltado exclusivamente ao estudo profundo do Constitucionalismo Britânico, a presente monografia tem como principal objetivo analisar, através de premissas que podem ser aplicadas a qualquer democracia do mundo, uma das mais controversas decisões políticas do Reino Unido tomada nos últimos anos: a Suspensão do Parlamento (“Prorrogação”) por cinco semanas requerida por Boris Johnson, atual Primeiro Ministro da Grã Bretanha. Dessa forma, também serão estudadas as reações dos demais poderes estatais, notadamente o Legislativo e o Judiciário, à suspensão requerida pelo Chefe do Executivo, trazendo elementos tanto do Direito, como da Ciência Política, destacando também o inédito ativismo judicial empregado pela Suprema Corte Britânica ao decidir sobre a questão. O atual contexto político do Reino Unido, especialmente voltado ao Brexit, é vital para a sucessão dos acontecimentos que serão expostos nesse trabalho, razão pela qual ele também será abordado ao longo dele.Far from being a work devoted exclusively to the in-depth study of British Constitutionalism, the present monograph aims to analyze, through premises that can be applied to any democracy in the world, one of the UK's most controversial political decisions in recent years: Suspension of Parliament (“Prorogation”) for five weeks required by Boris Johnson, current Prime Minister of Great Britain. In this way, will also be studied the reactions of the other state powers, namely notably the Legislative and the Judiciary, to the suspension requested by the Chief Executive, bringing elements of both Law and Political Science, also highlighting the unprecedented judicial activism employed by the British Supreme Court when deciding on the issue. The current political context of the United Kingdom, especially focused on Brexit, is vital to the succession of events that will be exposed in this work, which is why it will also be addressed throughout i

Production of viral vectors using recombinase-mediated cassette exchange

DNA viruses are often used as vectors for foreign gene expression, but large DNA region from cloned or authentic viral genomes must usually be handled to generate viral vectors. Here, we present a unique system for generating adenoviral vectors by directly substituting a gene of interest in a small transfected plasmid with a replaced gene in a replicating viral genome in Cre-expressing 293 cells using the recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) reaction. In combination with a positive selection of the viral cis-acting packaging signal connected with the gene of interest, the purpose vector was enriched to 97.5 and 99.8% after three and four cycles of infection, respectively. Our results also showed that the mutant loxP V (previously called loxP 2272), a variant target of Cre used in the RMCE reaction, was useful as a non-compatible mutant to wild-type loxP. This method could be useful for generating not only a large number of adenovirus vectors simultaneously, but also other DNA virus vectors including helper-dependent adenovirus vector

Relationship between blood pressure repeatedly measured by a wrist-cuff oscillometric wearable blood pressure monitoring device and left ventricular mass index in working hypertensive patients

This study sought to evaluate the relationship between blood pressure (BP) taken by a new wrist-cuff oscillometric wearable BP monitoring device and left ventricular mass index measured by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI-LVMI) in 50 hypertensive patients (mean age 60.5 ± 8.9 years, 92.0% men, 96% treated for hypertension) with regular employment. Participants were asked to self-measure their wearable BPs twice in the morning and evening under a guideline-recommended standardized home BP measurement, and once each at five predetermined times and any additional time points under an ambulatory condition for a maximum of 7 days. In total, 2105 wearable BP measurements (home BP: 747 [morning: 409, evening: 338], ambulatory condition: 1358 [worksite: 942]) were collected over 5.5 ± 1.2 days. The average of all wearable systolic BP (SBP) readings (129.8 ± 11.0 mmHg) was weakly correlated with cMRI-LVMI (r = 0.265, p = 0.063). Morning home wearable SBP average (128.5 ± 13.8 mmHg) was significantly correlated with cMRI-LVMI (r = 0.378, p = 0.013), but ambulatory wearable SBP average (132.5 ± 12.7 mmHg) was not (r = 0.215, p = 0.135). The averages of the highest three values of all wearable SBPs (153.3 ± 13.9 mmHg) and ambulatory wearable SBPs (152.9 ± 13.9 mmHg) were 16 mmHg higher than that of the morning home wearable SBPs (137.0 ± 15.9 mmHg). Those peak values were significantly correlated with cMRI-LVMI (r = 0.320, p = 0.023; r = 0.310, p = 0.029; r = 0.451, p = 0.002, respectively). In conclusion, an increased number of wearable BP measurements, which could detect individual peak BP, might add to the clinical value of these measurements as a complement to the guideline-recommended home BP measurements, but further studies are needed to confirm these findings