Real-time rheology of actively growing bacteria

The population growth of a Staphylococcus aureus culture, an active colloidal system of spherical cells, was followed by rheological measurements, under steady-state and oscillatory shear flows. We observed a rich viscoelastic behavior as a consequence of the bacteria activity, namely, of their multiplication and density-dependent aggregation properties. In the early stages of growth (lag and exponential phases), the viscosity increases by about a factor of 20, presenting several drops and full recoveries. This allows us to evoke the existence of a percolation phenomenon. Remarkably, as the bacteria reach their late phase of development, in which the population stabilizes, the viscosity returns close to its initial value. Most probably, this is caused by a change in the bacteria physiological activity and in particular, by the decrease of their adhesion properties. The viscous and elastic moduli exhibit power-law behaviors compatible with the "soft glassy materials" model, whose exponents are dependent on the bacteria growth stage. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.030701

A insolvência do empregador : a qualificação dos créditos laborais

No presente estudo, o foco incidirá sobre a natureza e distinção dos créditos laborais, sempre com vista a enquadrá-los no âmbito do processo de insolvência do empregador e definir a sua qualificação como dívidas da insolvência ou dívidas da massa insolvente. Esta questão tem gerado bastante controvérsia doutrinal, espelhada nas decisões jurisprudenciais, em que se pode verificar várias decisões do mesmo Tribunal e do mesmo dia em sentidos diversos. Nestes termos, pretendemos analisar as posições e argumentos esgrimidos a fim de definir o tratamento a dar aos créditos laborais no âmbito do processo de insolvência.In the present study the focus will be on the nature and distinction of labor claims, with the aim of placing them in the employer’s insolvency proceedings and distinguishing between insolvency debts and debts of the insolvent estate. This issue has generated a great deal of doctrinal controversy, transposed to jurisprudential decisions, in which several decisions of the same court and in the same day can be found in different veredicts. In these terms, we intend to analyse existing positions and arguments in order to define the treatment that shall be applied to labor claims in the insolvency proceedings

Vinculação, Aliança Terapêutica e Resultados Terapêuticos em Psicoterapia Individual e Psicoterapia de Grupo

A eficácia da psicoterapia é sustentada por uma série de fatores comuns, intrínsecos às diversas abordagens terapêuticas. Entre esses fatores, destaca-se a aliança terapêutica, uma peça fundamental no processo terapêutico. Em psicoterapia de grupo, a dinâmica da aliança terapêutica adquire uma maior complexidade, pois transcende a interação entre terapeuta e cliente, englobando também as interações entre os membros do grupo. Para esta relação, tanto na psicoterapia individual como na psicoterapia de grupo, contribuirão inúmeros fatores, sendo a organização de vinculação do/a cliente um deles. A vinculação do/a cliente poderá ter influência na forma como se estabelece e desenvolve a aliança terapêutica e consequentemente nos resultados terapêuticos O presente estudo tem como objetivo central analisar a relação entre as variáveis da vinculação, aliança terapêutica e resultados terapêuticos, em psicoterapia individual e psicoterapia de grupo. A amostra foi constituída por 232 participantes, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 63 anos, de nacionalidade portuguesa, 216 em acompanhamento individual e 16 em psicoterapia de grupo. Na análise dos resultados, não foram encontradas diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre os dois grupos nas variáveis em estudo. Relativamente às associações, tanto no grupo de psicoterapia individual quanto no grupo de psicoterapia de grupo, as dimensões de vinculação apresentaram correlações estatisticamente significativas com as dimensões de aliança terapêutica e resultados terapêuticos, que também mostraram correlações estatisticamente significativas entre si. Especificamente no grupo de psicoterapia de grupo, as dimensões da relação com o grupo também exibiram correlações estatisticamente significativas com as dimensões de vinculação e aliança terapêutica. O modelo de regressão linear múltipla revelou que as dimensões de vinculação e aliança terapêutica são preditores significativos dos resultados terapêuticos, explicando cerca de 41% da variação dos resultados. Os resultados vão ao encontro da literatura e são discutidos atendendo às suas implicações para a prática clínica.The effectiveness of psychotherapy is supported by a series of common factors intrinsic to the various therapeutic approaches. Among these factors, the therapeutic alliance stands out as a fundamental piece in the therapeutic process. In group psychotherapy, the dynamics of the therapeutic alliance acquire greater complexity, as it transcends the interaction between therapist and client, also encompassing the interactions among group members. For this relationship, both in individual and group psychotherapy, numerous factors contribute, with the client's attachment organization being one of them. The client's attachment may influence how the therapeutic alliance is established and developed, and consequently, the therapeutic outcomes. The present study aims to analyze the relationship between the variables of attachment, therapeutic alliance, and therapeutic outcomes in individual and group psychotherapy. The sample consisted of 232 participants, aged between 18 and 63 years, of Portuguese nationality, with 216 in individual therapy and 16 in group psychotherapy. In the analysis of the results, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in the variables under study. Regarding associations, both in the individual psychotherapy group and the group psychotherapy group, the dimensions of attachment showed statistically significant correlations with the dimensions of the therapeutic alliance and therapeutic outcomes, which also showed statistically significant correlations among themselves. Specifically, in the group psychotherapy group, the dimensions of the relationship with the group also exhibited statistically significant correlations with the dimensions of attachment and the therapeutic alliance. The multiple linear regression model revealed that the dimensions of attachment and therapeutic alliance are significant predictors of therapeutic outcomes, explaining about 41% of the variation in outcomes. The results are consistent with the literature and are discussed considering their implications for clinical practice

Detection of the Epstein-Barr virus in blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells of patients with aggressive B-cell non Hodgkin's lymphoma is not associated with prognosis

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a large spectrum of lymphoproliferative diseases. Traditional methods of EBV detection include the immunohistochemical identification of viral proteins and DNA probes to the viral genome in tumoral tissue. The present study explored the detection of the EBV genome, using the BALF5 gene, in the bone marrow or blood mononuclear cells of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) and related its presence to the clinical variables and risk factors. The results show that EBV detection in 21.5% of patients is not associated with age, gender, staging, B symptoms, international prog¬nostic index scores or any analytical parameters, including lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) or β-2 microglobulin (B2M). The majority of patients were treated with R-CHOP like (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone or an equivalent combination) and some with CHOP-like chemotherapy. Response rates [complete response (CR) + partial response (PR)] were not significantly different between EBV-negative and -positive cases, with 93.2 and 88.9%, respectively. The survival rate was also similar in the two groups, with 5-year overall survival (OS) rates of 64.3 and 76.7%, respectively. However, when analyzing the treatment groups separately there was a trend in EBV-positive patients for a worse prognosis in patients treated with CHOP-like regimens that was not identified in patients treated with R-CHOP-like regimens. We conclude that EBV detection in the bone marrow and blood mononuclear cells of DLBC patients has the same frequency of EBV detection on tumoral lymphoma tissue but is not associated with the risk factors, response rate and survival in patients treated mainly with immunochemotherapy plus rituximab. These results also suggest that the addition of rituximab to chemotherapy improves the prognosis associated with EBV detection in DLBCL

Rheology of living cells

The mechanical behavior of living cells, during planktonic growth, has been thoroughly explored combining common biological techniques with rheology and rheo-imaging measurements. Under a shear flow, bacterial cultures of Staphylococcus aureus revealed a complex and rich rheological behavior not usually accessed in biological studies. In particular, in stationary shear flow, the viscosity increased during the exponential phase and returned close to its initial value at the late phase of growth, accompanied by the stabilization of the bacterial population. In oscillatory flow, the elastic and viscous moduli exhibited power-law behaviors whose exponents are dependent on the bacteria growth stage, and can be associated to a Soft Glassy Material behavior. These behaviors were framed in a microscopic model that suggests the formation of a dynamic web-like structure, where specific aggregation phenomena may occur, depending on growth stage and cell density. Furthermore, systematic measurements combining optical density and dry weight techniques presented new evidences, which confirmed that the observed cell aggregation patterns developed during growth, under shear, can not only be cell density dependent.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A prediction rule to stratify mortality risk of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Tuberculosis imposes high human and economic tolls, including in Europe. This study was conducted to develop a severity assessment tool for stratifying mortality risk in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients. A derivation cohort of 681 PTB cases was retrospectively reviewed to generate a model based on multiple logistic regression analysis of prognostic variables with 6-month mortality as the outcome measure. A clinical scoring system was developed and tested against a validation cohort of 103 patients. Five risk features were selected for the prediction model: hypoxemic respiratory failure (OR 4.7, 95% CI 2.8-7.9), age >= 50 years (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7-4.8), bilateral lung involvement (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.44.4), >= 1 significant comorbidity-HIV infection, diabetes mellitus, liver failure or cirrhosis, congestive heart failure and chronic respiratory disease-(OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3-3.8), and hemoglobin = 6) mortality risk. The mortality associated with each group was 2.9%, 22.9% and 53.9%, respectively. The model performed equally well in the validation cohort. We provide a new, easy-to-use clinical scoring system to identify PTB patients with high-mortality risk in settings with good healthcare access, helping clinicians to decide which patients are in need of closer medical care during treatment.This work was supported by Fundacao Amelia de Mello/Jose de Mello Saude and Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia (SPP). This work was developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). NSO is a FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) investigator. MS is an Associate FCT Investigator. The fundershad no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

'Eye-Mind-Design-Production': An Interview with Johanna Drucker

In this interview, Johanna Drucker talks about her work as book artist and media scholar, and discusses the methods and practices of Digital Humanities.Nesta entrevista, Johanna Drucker descreve a sua obra como artista do livro e teórica dos média, e fala sobre os métodos e práticas das Humanidades Digitais