Controlador de protocol Zigbee amb Servei de monitarització de dades (Dashboar) via web

Aquest projecte es desenvolupa a l'empresa DsetSolutions S.L “spin-off” de la Universitat de Gironanascuda l’any 2004 a iniciativa del grup de visió per Computador i Robòtica (VICOROB) de laUniversitat de Girona.Els objectius d'aquest projecte consisteixen en el disseny i desenvolupament d'un sistema demonitorització i anàlisi de dades de consum d'una instal•lació de monitorització (consum energètic,temperatura , etc.). Aquesta informació està recopilada i mesurada per dispositius que disposin delprotocol de comunicacions de baix consum i sense fils Zigbee, entre d'altres.Aquest projecte s'implementarà sobre el dispositiu tipus “gateway”, en concret el “ConnectPortX2Smart Energy” de l'empresa Digi.Com a punt i final, les dades s'envien a una passarel•la intermediària, que mitjançant “web service”viatgen a un servidor de DsetSolutions S.L, on es tracten i es mostren mitjançant un aplicatiu webd'una manera agradable al client. En aquest aplicatiu web hi ha una sèrie de gadgets que és on esdesenvolupa la segona part del projecte, una nova opció de visualització d'aquests.Un dels punts principals de la creació del projecte per part de l'empresa DsetSolutions S.L és lamillora econòmica d'una solució pròpia de l'empresa ja existent

Early-Life Insults Impair Parvalbumin Interneurons via Oxidative Stress: Reversal by N-Acetylcysteine.

BACKGROUND: A hallmark of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia is a dysfunction of parvalbumin-expressing fast-spiking interneurons, which are essential for the coordination of neuronal synchrony during sensory and cognitive processing. Oxidative stress as observed in schizophrenia affects parvalbumin interneurons. However, it is unknown whether the deleterious effect of oxidative stress is particularly prevalent during specific developmental time windows. METHODS: We used mice with impaired synthesis of glutathione (Gclm knockout [KO] mice) to investigate the effect of redox dysregulation and additional insults applied at various periods of postnatal development on maturation and long-term integrity of parvalbumin interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex. RESULTS: A redox dysregulation, as in Gclm KO mice, renders parvalbumin interneurons but not calbindin or calretinin interneurons vulnerable and prone to exhibit oxidative stress. A glutathione deficit delays maturation of parvalbumin interneurons, including their perineuronal net. Moreover, an additional oxidative challenge in preweaning or pubertal but not in young adult Gclm KO mice reduces the number of parvalbumin-immunoreactive interneurons. This effect persists into adulthood and can be prevented with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine. CONCLUSIONS: In Gclm KO mice, early-life insults inducing oxidative stress are detrimental to immature parvalbumin interneurons and have long-term consequences. In analogy, individuals carrying genetic risks to redox dysregulation would be potentially vulnerable to early-life environmental insults, during the maturation of parvalbumin interneurons. Our data support the need to develop novel therapeutic approaches based on antioxidant and redox regulator compounds such as N-acetylcysteine, which could be used preventively in young at-risk subjects.

Administração de medicamentos injetáveis por via intramuscular: conhecimento dos ocupacionais de farmácias

Complicações advindas da aplicação incorreta das injeções intramusculares podem acarretar sérios prejuízos orgânicos, favorecer o aparecimento de infecções e aumentar a permanência do paciente na instituição ou prejudicar as funções no trabalho. Estudo anterior detectou vários casos de pacientes com complicações locais após aplicação intramuscular de diclofenaco sódico em farmácias e concluiu que a falta de conhecimento da técnica de administração desse medicamento pode ter sido uma das causas das complicações. Diante disso o estudo atual teve o objetivo de identificar e avaliar o nível de conhecimentos de ocupacionais que administram medicamentos injetáveis intramusculares à população, em farmácias de Ribeirão Preto - SP. O estudo se constituiu num levantamento, a partir de um questionário contendo 20 questões abertas e fechadas, aplicado a uma população constituída por ocupacionais atuando em farmácias, selecionadas através do método da amostragem simples casual estratificada -partilha proporcional, resultando num total de 41 sujeitos. Concluímos que a população vem recebendo medicamento s injetáveis de ocupacionais com déficit de informações a respeito da técnica de aplicação de injetáveis. Os sujeitos referiram não receber treinamento adequado para exercer esse procedimento, terminando por aprendê-lo com outro funcionário ou observando alguém que o realize. Disto resulta lacunas de conhecimento em uma amostra de ocupacionais que podem, realmente, levar ao aparecimento de complicações pós injeções intramusculares na população que utiliza os serviços desses estabelecimentos.

Inflammasome activators induce interleukin-1α secretion via distinct pathways with differential requirement for the protease function of caspase-1.

Through their capacity to sense danger signals and to generate active interleukin-1β (IL-1β), inflammasomes occupy a central role in the inflammatory response. In contrast to IL-1β, little is known about how IL-1α is regulated. We found that all inflammasome activators also induced the secretion of IL-1α, leading to the cosecretion of both IL-1 cytokines. Depending on the type of inflammasome activator, release of IL-1α was inflammasome dependent or independent. Calcium influx induced by the opening of cation channels was sufficient for the inflammasome-independent IL-1α secretion. In both cases, IL-1α was released primarily in a processed form, resulting from intracellular cleavage by calpain-like proteases. Inflammasome-caspase-1-dependent release of IL-1α and IL-1β was independent of caspase-1 catalytic activity, defining a mode of action for caspase-1. Because inflammasomes contribute to the pathology of numerous chronic inflammatory diseases such as gout and diabetes, IL-1α antagonists may be beneficial in the treatment of these disorders.

Ocorrência de acidente de trabalho por materiais perfurocortantes e fluidos biológicos em estudantes e trabalhadores da saúde de um hospital escola de Brasília

estudo teve por objetivo verificar e analisar a ocorrência de acidentes de trabalho causados por materiais perfurocortantes e fluidos biológicos em estudantes e trabalhadores da área da saúde. Foi realizado em um hospital-escola de Brasilia. A coleta de dados foi feita a partir dos registros de acidentes de trabalho mantidos pela Comissão de Controle de Infecção Hospitalar e referentes ao período de agosto de 1998 a junho de 2000. Verificou-se que 117 pessoas sofreram acidentes de trabalho, em sua grande maioria causados por agulhas. Concluiu-se que existe a necessidade de melhoria nos sistemas de prevenção de acidentes na instituição.

Aplicação de medicamentos por via intramuscular: análise do conhecimento entre profissionais de enfermagem

Utilizando-se questionário contendo questões abertas e fechadas, o presente estudo teve como objetivos: identificar entre profissionais de enfermagem quais as regiões mais utilizadas para aplicação de medicamentos intramuscular; identificar o método que utilizam para delimitação das regiões e local de punção, identificar seu conhecimento acerca das complicações e contra-indicações para uso das regiões e averiguar a utilização da região ventro-glútea. Participaram do estudo 32 profissionais que referiram utilizar as regiões dorsoglútea (65,62%) e deltóidea (31,25%). Evidenciou-se que há necessidade de atualização desses profissionais, especialmente quanto a anatomia, utilização adequada de terminologia para denominação das regiões e conhecimentos acerca de complicações e contra-indicações. É essencial o investimento em treinamento desses profissionais para a utilização da região ventroglútea.

Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) and caspase-8 mediate up-regulation of c-Fos by Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) via a FLICE inhibitory protein (FLIP)-regulated pathway.

Fas, a death domain-containing member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family and its ligand FasL have been predominantly studied with respect to their capability to induce cell death. However, a few studies indicate a proliferation-inducing signaling activity of these molecules too. We describe here a novel signaling pathway of FasL and the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) that triggers transcriptional activation of the proto-oncogene c-fos, a typical target gene of mitogenic pathways. FasL- and TRAIL-mediated up-regulation of c-Fos was completely dependent on the presence of Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) and caspase-8, but caspase activity seemed to be dispensable as a pan inhibitor of caspases had no inhibitory effect. Upon overexpression of the long splice form of cellular FADD-like interleukin-1-converting enzyme (FLICE) inhibitory protein (cFLIP) in Jurkat cells, FasL- and TRAIL-induced up-regulation of c-Fos was almost completely blocked. The short splice form of FLIP, however, showed a rather stimulatory effect on c-Fos induction. Together these data demonstrate the existence of a death receptor-induced, FADD- and caspase-8-dependent pathway leading to c-Fos induction that is inhibited by the long splice form FLIP-L.

Improved earthquake response via simulation and integrated space- and ground-based technologies: the TREMOR proposal

Earthquakes occurring around the world each year cause thousands ofdeaths, millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, and incalculablehuman suffering. In recent years, satellite technology has been asignificant boon to response efforts following an earthquake and itsafter-effects by providing mobile communications between response teamsand remote sensing of damaged areas to disaster management organizations.In 2007, an international team of students and professionals assembledduring theInternational Space University’s Summer Session Program in Beijing, Chinato examine how satellite and ground-based technology could be betterintegrated to provide an optimised response in the event of an earthquake.The resulting Technology Resources for Earthquake MOnitoring and Response(TREMOR) proposal describes an integrative prototype response system thatwill implement mobile satellite communication hubs providing telephone anddata links between response teams, onsite telemedicine consultation foremergency first-responders, and satellite navigation systems that willlocate and track emergency vehicles and guide search-and-rescue crews. Aprototype earthquake simulation system is also proposed, integratinghistorical data, earthquake precursor data, and local geomatics andinfrastructure information to predict the damage that could occur in theevent of an earthquake. The backbone of these proposals is a comprehensiveeducation and training program to help individuals, communities andgovernments prepare in advance. The TREMOR team recommends thecoordination of these efforts through a centralised, non-governmentalorganization.

Educação à distância em processos de esterilização de materiais

Este artigo descreve as etapas de desenvolvimento de um curso de educação à distância (EAD) sobre Processos de Esterilização de Materiais, com o uso da Internet; sua avaliação por especialistas em processos de esterilização e em EAD; o perfil dos alunos e avaliadores; a participação dos alunos e sua opinião sobre o curso. O ambiente de aprendizagem escolhido foi o TelEduc. Utilizou-se a metodologia de ensino Aprendizagem Baseada em Casos (ABC). A população-alvo foi constituída por enfermeiros da Região Metropolitana de Campinas e cidades do Estado de São Paulo. Dos 58 enfermeiros convidados, 14 se inscreveram e 11 finalizaram o curso. O curso foi avaliado pelos juízes antes e após a sua aplicação. Um questionário do tipo Likert foi utilizado para avaliar a opinião dos alunos . A metodologia ABC favoreceu a participação dos alunos e o curso foi avaliado positivamente.

Non-invasive and non-occlusive blood pressure estimation via a chest sensor.

The clinical demand for a device to monitor Blood Pressure (BP) in ambulatory scenarios with minimal use of inflation cuffs is increasing. Based on the so-called Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) principle, this paper introduces and evaluates a novel concept of BP monitor that can be fully integrated within a chest sensor. After a preliminary calibration, the sensor provides non-occlusive beat-by-beat estimations of Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) by measuring the Pulse Transit Time (PTT) of arterial pressure pulses travelling from the ascending aorta towards the subcutaneous vasculature of the chest. In a cohort of 15 healthy male subjects, a total of 462 simultaneous readings consisting of reference MAP and chest PTT were acquired. Each subject was recorded at three different days: D, D+3 and D+14. Overall, the implemented protocol induced MAP values to range from 80 ± 6 mmHg in baseline, to 107 ± 9 mmHg during isometric handgrip maneuvers. Agreement between reference and chest-sensor MAP values was tested by using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.78) and Bland-Altman analysis (mean error = 0.7 mmHg, standard deviation = 5.1 mmHg). The cumulative percentage of MAP values provided by the chest sensor falling within a range of ±5 mmHg compared to reference MAP readings was of 70%, within ±10 mmHg was of 91%, and within ±15mmHg was of 98%. These results point at the fact that the chest sensor complies with the British Hypertension Society (BHS) requirements of Grade A BP monitors, when applied to MAP readings. Grade A performance was maintained even two weeks after having performed the initial subject-dependent calibration. In conclusion, this paper introduces a sensor and a calibration strategy to perform MAP measurements at the chest. The encouraging performance of the presented technique paves the way towards an ambulatory-compliant, continuous and non-occlusive BP monitoring system.

Embryonic vascular endothelial cells are malleable to reprogramming via Prox1 to a lymphatic gene signature.

BACKGROUND: In vivo studies demonstrate that the Prox1 transcription factor plays a critical role in the development of the early lymphatic system. Upon Prox1 expression, early lymphatic endothelial cells differentiate from the cardinal vein and begin to express lymphatic markers such as VEGFR-3, LYVE-1 and Podoplanin. Subsequent in vitro studies have found that differentiated vascular endothelial cells can be reprogrammed by Prox1 to express a lymphatic gene profile, suggesting that Prox1 can initiate the expression of a unique gene signature during lymphangiogenesis. While the in vitro data suggest that gene reprogramming occurs upon Prox1 expression, it is not clear if this is a direct result of Prox1 in vascular endothelial cells in vivo. RESULTS: Overexpression of Prox1 in vascular endothelial cells during embryonic development results in the reprogramming of genes to that of a more lymphatic signature. Consequent to this overexpression, embryos suffer from gross edema that results in embryonic lethality at E13.5. Furthermore, hemorrhaging and anemia is apparent along with clear defects in lymph sac development. Alterations in junctional proteins resulting in an increase in vascular permeability upon Prox1 overexpression may contribute to the complications found during embryonic development. CONCLUSION: We present a novel mouse model that addresses the importance of Prox1 in early embryonic lymphangiogenesis. It is clear that there needs to be a measured pattern of expression of Prox1 during embryonic development. Furthermore, Prox1 reprograms vascular endothelial cells in vivo by creating a molecular signature to that of a lymphatic endothelial cell.

Implementação do sistema de gestão de materiais informatizado do Hospital Universitário da Universidade de São Paulo

Trata-se do relato do processo de implementação do sistema informatizado de gestão de materiais no Hospital Universitário da USP. O sistema foi intitulado Sistema de Gestão de Materiais (SGM). A implementação apresentou quatro fases: a escolha do modelo e da ferramenta informacional, a reestruturação do processo logístico de materiais do hospital, a reestruturação das áreas de apoio e a implantação do próprio sistema SGM. O estudo realizado no Centro Cirúrgico após a implantação do sistema demonstrou que, comparando o consumo e o estoque de materiais do SGM em relação ao Sistema Tradicional, houve uma diminuição da quantidade consumida e do custo dos materiais estocados na Unidade.

Event-related potential analyses via single-subject topographic classification.

Introduction: Responses to external stimuli are typically investigated by averaging peri-stimulus electroencephalography (EEG) epochs in order to derive event-related potentials (ERPs) across the electrode montage, under the assumption that signals that are related to the external stimulus are fixed in time across trials. We demonstrate the applicability of a single-trial model based on patterns of scalp topographies (De Lucia et al, 2007) that can be used for ERP analysis at the single-subject level. The model is able to classify new trials (or groups of trials) with minimal a priori hypotheses, using information derived from a training dataset. The features used for the classification (the topography of responses and their latency) can be neurophysiologically interpreted, because a difference in scalp topography indicates a different configuration of brain generators. An above chance classification accuracy on test datasets implicitly demonstrates the suitability of this model for EEG data. Methods: The data analyzed in this study were acquired from two separate visual evoked potential (VEP) experiments. The first entailed passive presentation of checkerboard stimuli to each of the four visual quadrants (hereafter, "Checkerboard Experiment") (Plomp et al, submitted). The second entailed active discrimination of novel versus repeated line drawings of common objects (hereafter, "Priming Experiment") (Murray et al, 2004). Four subjects per experiment were analyzed, using approx. 200 trials per experimental condition. These trials were randomly separated in training (90%) and testing (10%) datasets in 10 independent shuffles. In order to perform the ERP analysis we estimated the statistical distribution of voltage topographies by a Mixture of Gaussians (MofGs), which reduces our original dataset to a small number of representative voltage topographies. We then evaluated statistically the degree of presence of these template maps across trials and whether and when this was different across experimental conditions. Based on these differences, single-trials or sets of a few single-trials were classified as belonging to one or the other experimental condition. Classification performance was assessed using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: For the Checkerboard Experiment contrasts entailed left vs. right visual field presentations for upper and lower quadrants, separately. The average posterior probabilities, indicating the presence of the computed template maps in time and across trials revealed significant differences starting at ~60-70 ms post-stimulus. The average ROC curve area across all four subjects was 0.80 and 0.85 for upper and lower quadrants, respectively and was in all cases significantly higher than chance (unpaired t-test, p<0.0001). In the Priming Experiment, we contrasted initial versus repeated presentations of visual object stimuli. Their posterior probabilities revealed significant differences, which started at 250ms post-stimulus onset. The classification accuracy rates with single-trial test data were at chance level. We therefore considered sub-averages based on five single trials. We found that for three out of four subjects' classification rates were significantly above chance level (unpaired t-test, p<0.0001). Conclusions: The main advantage of the present approach is that it is based on topographic features that are readily interpretable along neurophysiologic lines. As these maps were previously normalized by the overall strength of the field potential on the scalp, a change in their presence across trials and between conditions forcibly reflects a change in the underlying generator configurations. The temporal periods of statistical difference between conditions were estimated for each training dataset for ten shuffles of the data. Across the ten shuffles and in both experiments, we observed a high level of consistency in the temporal periods over which the two conditions differed. With this method we are able to analyze ERPs at the single-subject level providing a novel tool to compare normal electrophysiological responses versus single cases that cannot be considered part of any cohort of subjects. This aspect promises to have a strong impact on both basic and clinical research.

Transcription, tagging and coding of bilingual corpora via LIDES

L'objectiu d'aquest informe és presentar l'aplicació d'una sèrie de propostes sobre transcripció, etiquetatge i codificació a dos corpus: el corpus bilingüe LC (La Canonja (Català-Espanyol)) i el corpus trilingüe CSCD (Code-switching as Communicative Design (Català-Espanyol-Anglès)). Aquestes propostes, que constitueixen l'aportació de l'equip IULA-LIPPS (Language Interaction in Plurilingual and Plurilectal Speakers) al manual de codificació del sistema LIDES (Language Interaction Database Exchange System), adoptat pel grup europeu LIPPS, poden ser útils per transcriure, etiquetar i codificar dades provinents de llengües tipològicament properes i distants.