Cardiac Troponin T and Illness Severity in the Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infant

Introduction. Respiratory distress are very common in Very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants and Myocardial injury may play a role in the disease outcome. Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) is the most useful marker of injury in adult population, but has not been extensively studied in this population. Aim. To study the role of cTnT in VLBW infants and its association with clinical outcomes. Methods. All VLBW infants admitted to our NICU were included in the study. Echocardiography and blood samples for cTnT determination were collected at 24 and 48 hours of life, and values >0.1 ng/mL were considered CTnT-positive values. Results. A total of 116 neonates had their blood samples collected. The median cTnT concentration within 24 hours was 0.191 (0.1–0.79) ng/mL and within 48 hours was 0.293 (0.1–1.0) ng/mL. A logistic regression analysis showed that PDA, low GA, and use of dopamine were independently associated with positive cTnT and abnormal Dopplerfluxometry and diuretics use had protective effects and was independently associated with troponin values. Conclusion. We observed a high prevalence of positivecTnT values in VLBW infants associated with illness severity. Our findings suggest that cTnT may be a useful and early marker of myocardial injury in VLBW infants

Redes interorganizacionais, poder e dependência no futebol brasileiro

A partir do caso de um clube de futebol profissional, a pesquisa procura construir uma rede interorganizacional de modo a identificar os atores envolvidos e a examinar como se estabelecem relacionamentos entre eles. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com informantes diretamente envolvidos no caso e com outros profissionais relevantes. As análises focalizaram relações duais: televisão / esporte; esporte / patrocinador; e televisão / patrocinador. Observou-se que a maior empresa nacional de televisão, representando uma emissora aberta e um canal fechado, é a grande detentora do poder na rede, sendo a única empresa de transmissão capaz de pagar os direitos cobrados e, assim, oferecer um recurso essencial para as entidades esportivas e para os patrocinadores, que é a exposição. Os patrocinadores, também, são importantes para as entidades esportivas, pois representam, em média, 25% das receitas dos clubes. As entidades esportivas, a seu turno, fornecem o “produto” – o “desempenho esportivo” – mas, em função de sua relativa debilidade financeira, têm apenas reduzido poder na rede

Sewage sludge fertilization—A case study of Sweet Potato yield and heavy metal accumulation

Sewage sludge (SS) is derived from wastewater treatment plants and can be used as a biofertilizer when properly stabilized. This work aimed to evaluate SS application for agricultural production improvement. SS was tested on Porto Santo Island (Portugal). The experiment was randomly designed with three 25 m2 plots for each treatment (2 SS concentrations + control without SS) and performed in two consecutive cycles. For the first cycle, dehydrated sludge was mixed with soil, obtaining final concentrations of 0.8 kg/m2 (C1) and 1.6 kg/m2 (C2). Half of the concentration was used for the second cycle. Fifty-eight sweet potato plants were used in each plot. SS application boosted the agronomic parameters of biomass, productivity, and shoot biomass. Furthermore, improvements in soil properties were observed, mainly for pH, CEC, and NO3 -N, with no significant increase in heavy metals. For the edible parts, heavy metal concentrations decreased, and Pb was the only one that still exceeded the maximum limits. The results demonstrated that SS application to low-fertility soil is effective in improving the agronomic parameters of sweet potato and enhancing soil features. Further studies considering other variables, i.e., SS origin, soil properties, and the crop, must be carried out to propose custom applications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

AUTOMATIC METHOD FOR GLAUCOMA CLASSIFICATION USING TEXTURE ANALYSIS, XGBOOST AND GRID SEARCH

Glaucoma is an irreversible pathology, generated by increased intraocular pressure. Early detection is critical and can pre- vent total vision loss. Clinical examinations are commonly used to detect the disease. Still, the time and cost of identi- fication is quite high. This paper presents a computational methodology that aims to assist specialists in the discov- ery of glaucoma through Computer Vision techniques. The proposed methodology consists in the application of several texture descriptors combined with a parameter optimiza- tion done through Grid search with the XGBoost classifier. A result was obtained with accuracy of 82.37% and ROC of 82.08%

Automatic simulation models generation of warehouses with milk runs and pickers

To help a company of the Bosch Group to reduce its costs (both in time and space) with its supermarket, a micro simulation model was developed in Simio. Particularly, the tool is able to model pickers riding milk runs to collect containers of products, from a supermarket, to satisfy the needs of the production lines. Practitionaer may benefit from this tool, since it is able to model different supermarket scenario, for instance different storage strategies. Additionally, the supermarket itself is automatically created, through an Add-in of Simio that was developed in C#, which implements the API of Simio. Conclusions and future work are discussed.This work has been co-supported by SI I&DT project in joint-promotion nº 36265/2013 (HMIEXCEL 2013-2015 Project) and by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the scope of the project: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mathematical estimation of axial length increment in the control of myopia progression

This study aims to evaluate the existing mathematical approach for the theoretical estimation of axial length (AL) in a cross-sectional study, developing a new mathematical model and testing it in a longitudinal sample. Many professionals do not have a device to measure the AL due to clinic space and cost of equipment. However, this parameter plays an important role in the assessment of myopia progression to monitor treatment effects with myopia control strategies. First, a cross-sectional study based on the mathematical equation proposed by Morgan was performed. The AL was estimated based on the mean values of keratometry and spherical equivalent in 1783 subjects (52% female), aged 14.6 ± 4.6 years (6 to 25 years), of whom 738 were myopic, 770 emmetropic and 275 hyperopic. On average, the AL estimated with the Morgan formula was 0.25 ± 0.48 mm larger than the real AL value (95% limits of agreement: +0.70 to −1.20 mm). The study by gender, ametropia, type of astigmatism and age showed statistically significant differences between the real AL and predicted AL_Morgan (r > 0.750, spearman). Based on the previous sample, a multiple linear regression was applied, and a new mathematical model was proposed. The model was tested on a longitudinal sample of 152 subjects whose mean age was 13.3 ± 3.1 years (9 to 24 years) and of whom 96 were female (64%). The sample consisted of 46 myopes, 82 emmetropes and 24 hyperopes. The longitudinal study of the differences in axial length at one year between the models showed no statistically significant differences and that the mathematical equations are valid for estimating differences in axial increment for ages between 9 and 24 years, despite errors in the predicted value for axial length.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2020 at Center of Physics, UMinho, and predoctoral grant SFRH/BD/136684/2018 to A.A.-d.-S

Anticipating the Climate Change Impacts on Madeira’s Agriculture: The Characterization and Monitoring of a Vine Agrosystem

Climate—Madeira Strategy (CMS) foresees two models to describe the climate scenarios for the Madeira region in 2050 and 2070. These scenarios anticipate an average temperature rise of 1.4 to 3.7 ◦C and a decrease in precipitation by 30 to 40%. Consequently, Madeira’s agriculture will suffer the impacts of climate change. To understand these impacts, a baseline of major agrosystem components needs to be established, with the ultimate goal to monitor its consequences in its functioning. CASBio project used the 1961–1991 and 2010–2020 meteorological data series to modulate climate conditions and characterize and monitor six agrosystems for 2 years. One of them was a vineyard, Quinta das Vinhas, representing a typical agrosystem in the Mediterranean climate. The annual and seasonal variation in climatic parameters, soil conditions, microbiological communities, floristic and insect diversity, and crop production was assessed, using a total of 50 parameters. The results were used to establish a baseline of the agrosystem components and their seasonal and annual variation. The major findings are: (i) winter and summer extreme events show a trend in temperature and precipitation supporting a fast change in climate; (ii) a critical imbalance between nitrogen fixing and denitrifying bacteria was identified, especially in summer, that could be determined by the rise in temperature and drought; (iii) among floristic diversity, the therophytes and geophytes confirm to be the most suitable indicators for the rise in temperature and reduction in precipitation in the agrosystems; (iv) an imbalance in favor of C. capitata plague was observed, associated with the summer rise in temperature and decrease in precipitation; (v) despite an increase in most of the grape varieties production, the Madeiran wine local varieties were shown to be less stable in productivity under observed climate conditions. The agrosystem baseline is a starting point for long term monitoring and allows for further quantifying the influence of climate change on agrosystem productivity, resilience, and sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simulation model generation for warehouse management: Case study to test different storage strategies

A simulation model generator was developed to help a company of the Bosch Group to reduce costs in time and space with its warehouse. The simulation models are automatically created in Simio and can simulate pickers riding milk runs to collect containers from the warehouse, to satisfy the needs of production lines, assisting warehouse management by testing different storage strategies. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the developed generator and to use it in a case study, to test different storage policies for the company. The generator was validated, as was the simulation model automatically created. With this tool, some suggestions could be made to the company in question. Namely, it was shown that it would not be possible to maintain the FIFO rule and, at the same time, eliminate the upper floor of all racks for ergonomic reasons. To allow this, the rate of replacing containers should be synchronised with the needs of production lines. Alternatively, it was also shown that the performance of the warehouse would improve by dividing it into zones allocated to each milk run.This work has been supported by QREN: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: PDE/BDE/114566/2016 – AESI: Advanced Engineering Systems for Industry doctoral programme

Genetic diversity and differentiation in Patellifolia (Amaranthaceae) in the Macaronesian archipelagos and the Iberian Peninsula and implications for genetic conservation programmes

This is the first comprehensive investigation of the patterns of genetic diversity of Patellifolia species. The main objective of our research work is to determine Most Appropriate crop Wild relative Populations (MAWP) suited to conserve in situ wild relatives of the sugar beet. Individual plant samples of P. patellaris were collected at 26 and of P. procumbens/P. webbiana at seven sites and analysed with 24 and 22 microsatellite markers, respectively. On average 15 alleles per locus were found within the set of 581 P. patellaris and an average of 12 alleles per locus in the set of 172 P. procumbens/P. webbiana individuals. The factorial analysis showed diversity patterns which agree well with the geographic origin of the samples. The genetic data suggest that P. patellaris reproduces mainly by self-fertilisation while P. procumbens/P. webbiana have the signature of outbreeders. The measure D was used to calculate the genetic distance of each occurrence to the pooled remaining occurrences, the complement. Occurrences with either the lowest or the highest genetic distance to the complement are particularly suited to conserve the genetic diversity of the species. Eight occurrences of P. patellaris, two of P. procumbens and one for P. webbiana were determined according to this scheme, proposed as MAWP and recommended for the establishment of genetic reserves.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio