Municipal (bottom ash and glass cullet coming from the municipal solid waste incineration and a community glass recycling program, respectively) and industrial (steel fly ash) wastes are particularly ...suitable to be subjected to a vitrification/devitrification process, leading to the production of alkaline and alkaline-earth silicate differently colored glasses with good chemical properties, capable to be transformed into surface nucleated basaltic glass-ceramics. These materials were investigated by means of differential thermal analysis, durability and release tests, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy.
An asthma score was proposed in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) framework, as dichotomous definitions could be less appropriate in the study of chronic diseases. The aims of ...this study were to assess the value of this asthma score in comparison with other definitions of asthma in another population setting, using as criteria bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) to methacholine and diagnosed asthma, and the association of these definitions to known risk factors of asthma. We used the ECRHS questionnaire on 2063 Brazilians, aged 23-25 years, and measured their BHR. We assessed the positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR) of the asthma score (0-8), a three question score (ECRHS definition) and single asthma symptoms in relation to BHR and diagnosed asthma. The PLR were relatively low for all asthma definitions with odd ratios varying from 1.47 for asthma score to 5.50 for wheeze and waking with breathlessness without a cold. The NLR were near 1. The PLR were lower for assessments using the score than for dichotomous assessments or the ECRHS definition. The PLR increased with asthma scores, but the prevalence with higher scores was too low for useful analysis. The asthma score was slightly better for identifying associations from a set of known risk factors than the other two approaches. Our study provided little support for a greater validity of this asthma score over other asthma definitions, and only marginal advantage for identifying risk factors.
Background
Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease associated with excess risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Guidelines recognize psoriasis as a CVD risk enhancer; however, psoriasis patients ...often do not have CVD risk factors identified nor managed.
Objective
This study examines strategies to improve CVD prevention care from the perspective of physicians and patients with psoriasis.
Methods
Qualitative interviews were conducted using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to examine the perspectives of physicians (N = 16) and patients with psoriatic disease (N = 16) on barriers and facilitators to CVD prevention. Interviews were transcribed and coded using an integrated approach designed to enhance reliability and validity using NVivo software.
Results
We found 3 major themes suggesting areas to target for the future: (1) Appropriateness: perceptions of whether CVD care should be deployed in this setting by both physicians and patients, (2) Feasibility: whether CVD prevention care could be integrated into the current structure of specialist practice, and (3) Care Coordination: an interest by all parties to better integrate a team approach in CVD preventative care to reduce duplicative efforts, work practically in an already existing system rather than reinventing the wheel, and progress with the patients’ best interests in mind.
Conclusions
These findings will inform the design of a clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of specialist clinician implementation of CVD guideline-based prevention care in patients with psoriasis. Ultimately, this study aims to increase the lifespan and health of patients living with psoriatic disease by decreasing barriers to their receiving appropriate CVD prevention care.
Abstract Study Objective Assess the quality of life (QOL) of female adolescents with children compared to those without children. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Public university-affiliated family ...planning clinic, São Paulo, Brazil. Participants 91 female adolescents (16-19 years) of low socio-economic status with and without children. Interventions The Portuguese version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used. Outcome Measures Mean scores of the 4 main domains were compared between adolescents with and without children. Results Both mothers (N = 40) and nonmothers (N = 51) had low mean scores (<75%) in most of the QOL domains. Compared to adolescents without children, adolescent mothers scored significantly lower in the physical (52.1 vs 59.4, P = .0137) and social (66.9 vs 77.3, P = .0182) domains. Conclusion Adolescent mothers have a significantly lower quality of life in the physical and in the social relationships domains than nonmothers.
In the late 1980's child malnutrition was still prevalent in Brazil, and child obesity was beginning to rise in the richest regions of the country. To assess the extent of the nutritional transition ...during the period and the influence of birth weight and maternal smoking on the nutritional condition of schoolchildren, we estimated the prevalence of excess weight and malnutrition in a cohort of Brazilian schoolchildren from 1987 to 1989. We calculated the body mass index (BMI) of 8- to 10-year-old schoolchildren born in Ribeirão Preto in 1978/79. We considered children with a BMI <5th percentile (P5) to be malnourished, children with P5 > or = BMI<P85 to be thin and normal, and children with BMI > or = P85 to be overweight. We evaluated the association of these nutritional disorders with birth factors (infant weight, sex, preterm delivery, number of pregnancies, maternal smoking during pregnancy, marital status, and schooling) and type of school using nominal logistic regression. A total of 2797 schoolchildren were evaluated. There was a significant prevalence of malnutrition (9.5%) and excess weight already tended to increase (15.7%), while 6.4% of the children were obese. Excess weight was more prevalent among children attending private schools (odds ratio, OR = 2.27) and firstborn children (OR = 1.69). Maternal smoking during pregnancy protected against malnutrition (OR = 0.56), while children with lower birth weight were at higher risk for malnutrition (OR = 4.23). We conclude that a nutritional transition was under way while malnutrition was still present, but excess weight and related factors were already emerging.
We consider the proton and neutron quasiparticle orbits around the closed-shell (56)Ni and (48)Ca isotopes. It is found that large model spaces (beyond the capability of shell model applications) are ...necessary for predicting the quenching of spectroscopic factors. The particle-vibration coupling is identified as the principal mechanism. Additional correlations--due to configuration with several particle-hole excitations--are estimated using shell model calculations and generate an extra reduction which is < or approximately equal to 4% for most quasiparticle states. The theoretical calculations nicely agree with (e, e'p) and inverse kinematics knockout experiments. These results open a new path for a microscopic understanding of the shell model.
Aim: To evaluate whether the ventricular septal defect (VSD) size, along with the degree of preoperative growth impairment and age at repair, may influence postoperative growth, and if VSD size can ...be useful to identify children at risk for preoperative failure to thrive.
Methods: Sixty‐eight children submitted to VSD repair in a Brazilian tertiary‐care institution were evaluated. Weight and height measurements were converted to Z‐scores. Ventricular septal defect size was normalized by dividing it by the aortic root diameter (VSD/Ao ratio).
Results: Twenty‐six patients (38%) had significantly low weight‐for‐height, 10 patients (15%) had significantly low height‐for‐age and 13 patients (19%) had both conditions at repair. Catch‐up growth occurred in 82% of patients for weight‐for‐age, in 75% of patients for height‐for‐age and in 89% of patients for weight‐for‐height. Weight‐for‐height Z‐scores at surgery were significantly lower in patients who underwent repair before 9 months of age. The VSD/Ao ratio did not associate with any other data. On multivariate analysis, weight‐for‐age Z‐scores and age at surgery were independent predictors of long‐term weight and height respectively.
Conclusion: The VSD/Ao ratio was not a good predictor of preoperative failure to thrive. Most patients had preoperative growth impairment and presented catch‐up growth after repair. Preoperative growth status and age at surgery influenced long‐term growth.
SUMMARYThe Gram-negative bacterium
is responsible for deadly plague, a zoonotic disease established in stable foci in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia. Its persistence in the environment relies on ...the subtle balance between
-contaminated soils, burrowing and nonburrowing mammals exhibiting variable degrees of plague susceptibility, and their associated fleas. Transmission from one host to another relies mainly on infected flea bites, inducing typical painful, enlarged lymph nodes referred to as buboes, followed by septicemic dissemination of the pathogen. In contrast, droplet inhalation after close contact with infected mammals induces primary pneumonic plague. Finally, the rarely reported consumption of contaminated raw meat causes pharyngeal and gastrointestinal plague. Point-of-care diagnosis, early antibiotic treatment, and confinement measures contribute to outbreak control despite residual mortality. Mandatory primary prevention relies on the active surveillance of established plague foci and ectoparasite control. Plague is acknowledged to have infected human populations for at least 5,000 years in Eurasia.
genomes recovered from affected archaeological sites have suggested clonal evolution from a common ancestor shared with the closely related enteric pathogen
and have indicated that
gene acquisition during the Bronze Age conferred
with ectoparasite transmissibility while maintaining its enteric transmissibility. Three historic pandemics, starting in 541 AD and continuing until today, have been described. At present, the third pandemic has become largely quiescent, with hundreds of human cases being reported mainly in a few impoverished African countries, where zoonotic plague is mostly transmitted to people by rodent-associated flea bites.
We extend the formalism of self-consistent Green's function theory to include three-body interactions and apply it to isotopic chains around oxygen for the first time. The third-order algebraic ...diagrammatic construction equations for two-body Hamiltonians can be exploited upon defining system-dependent one- and two-body interactions coming from the three-body force, and, correspondingly, dropping interaction-reducible diagrams. The Koltun sum rule for the total binding energy acquires a correction due to the added three-body interaction. This formalism is then applied to study chiral two- and three-nucleon forces evolved to low momentum cutoffs. The binding energies of nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine isotopes are reproduced with good accuracy and demonstrate the predictive power of this approach. Leading order three-nucleon forces consistently bring results close to the experiment for all neutron rich isotopes considered and reproduce the correct driplines for oxygen and nitrogen. The formalism introduced also allows us to calculate form factors for nucleon transfer on doubly magic systems.
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