RESUMO

Although the relationship between paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) and solid tumors has been described more than 80 years ago, reports of PCM and gastric cancer are rare. PCM can present before or concomitantly with the diagnosis of cancer, and its clinical presentation may rise the suspicion of malignancies or be part of reactivation by immunosuppression. We present the case of a 52-year-old Peruvian man with a signet-ring cell (SRC) gastric adenocarcinoma who after 6 chemotherapy sessions with FLOT (docetaxel, oxaliplatin, leucovorin, 5-fluorouracil) presented rapidly growing lung nodules. The lung biopsy showed yeasts compatible with Paracoccidioides sp., so he received initial treatment with itraconazole and after gastrectomy maintenance therapy with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole accompanied by tomographic resolution of lesions.

RESUMO

We identify different schemes to enhance the violation of Leggett-Garg inequalities in open many-body systems. Considering a nonequilibrium archetypical setup of quantum transport, we show that particle interactions control the direction and amplitude of maximal violation, and that in the strongly-interacting and strongly-driven regime bulk dephasing enhances the violation. Through an analytical study of a minimal model we unravel the basic ingredients to explain this decoherence-enhanced quantumness, illustrating that such an effect emerges in a wide variety of systems.

RESUMO

In this article, we present a molecular thermodynamic study of a system of N particles contained within a volume V and interacting via a hard-core pair potential with an attractive interaction according to the Wolf model for charged systems. This variable-range potential is characterized by three parameters: the repulsive hard-core diameter σ, the energy-well depth ϵ, and the inverse range α; a fourth parameter of the model is a cut-off distance xc that depends on α according to the relation xc = 2/α. Two equations of state (EOSs) are presented and derived from thermodynamic perturbation theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation data. The first EOS is given by the standard Zwanzig's high-temperature expansion of the Helmholtz free energy, where the first three perturbation terms a1, a2, and a3 were obtained from MC simulations in the canonical ensemble (NVT) and parameterized as functions of α and the reduced density of particles ρ* = Nσ3/V. The second EOS was obtained from the discrete perturbation theory applied to a discrete representation of the Wolf potential. Results for pressures, internal energies, and isochoric heat capacities are compared to the MC computer simulation data of the Wolf system, including vapor-liquid coexistence curves, for different values of α. Overall, both EOSs give a very good representation of the thermodynamic properties of the Wolf fluid when 0.3 ≤ α ≤ 1.0 and 0.05 ≤ ρ* ≤ 0.8. Since the Yukawa fluid can reproduce information of screened ionic interactions, we discuss the equivalence between the Wolf and Yukawa fluids in the context of equivalent systems in liquid theory.

RESUMO

We analyze the water vapour-liquid and solid-liquid phase transitions from the perspective of hydrogen bond networks. Using molecular dynamics simulation data for the TIP4P/2005 and TIP4P/ice water models, we built hydrogen bond networks in the neighbourhood of the transitions. We studied the behaviour of some topological network properties: the average degree, clustering coefficient, and average path length. We found that these properties exhibit a discontinuity while approaching a phase transition region, similar to those that appear for some thermodynamic properties in the same region. This approach can be extended to characterize other water phase transitions. Besides, it can also be applied to study the phase transitions of other hydrogen-bonded substances or to other scenarios whose relevant "interaction" could be identified together with a "proper criterion" defined in an analogous way as in the case of hydrogen bonded systems.

RESUMO

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Evidence in Colombia and Latin America has been insufficient for establishing the clinical characteristics of patients with antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). The present study attempts to describe the clinical characteristics of patients with AAD and to determine the presence of Clostridium difficile, utilizing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-three patients with AAD, managed at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio in Bogotá, Colombia, were evaluated. Prospective patient information was collected, with respect to demographic characteristics, profile of the antibiotic management received, clinical manifestations, risk factors, and paraclinical reports. In addition, the real time PCR test for Clostridium difficile (Cepheid Xpert®, Sunnyvale, CA, United States) was performed. RESULTS: Patient mean age was 58 years (19.31 SD). The majority of the patients received 2 or more antibiotics (62.9%) and the beta-lactams were the most frequently used. Hospital stay ranged from 2 to 104 days with a median of 10 days. The most frequent clinical manifestations were abdominal pain and bloating, followed by fever and tachycardia. At the time of diagnosis, 23 patients had noninflammatory results in the stool sample analyses and 18 had kidney failure. The mean level of albumin was 2.4mg/dl (0.7 SD). The presence of Clostridium difficile was documented through PCR in 6 patients (13.95% of the cases). CONCLUSIONS: AAD patients were characterized by a high frequency of severe comorbidities and prolonged hospital stay. The presence of Clostridium difficile in only 13.9% of the cases suggests that other causes of diarrhea in the hospitalized patient should be considered.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Population genetic studies are efficient for inferring the invasion history based on a comparison of native and invasive populations, especially when conducted at species scale. An expected outcome in invasive populations is variability loss, and this is especially true in self-fertilizing species. We here focus on the self-fertilizing Pseudosuccinea columella, an invasive hermaphroditic freshwater snail that has greatly expanded its geographic distribution and that acts as intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, the causative agent of human and veterinary fasciolosis. We evaluated the distribution of genetic diversity at the largest geographic scale analysed to date in this species by surveying 80 populations collected during 16 years from 14 countries, using eight nuclear microsatellites and two mitochondrial genes. As expected, populations from North America, the putative origin area, were strongly structured by selfing and history and harboured much more genetic variability than invasive populations. We found high selfing rates (when it was possible to infer it), none-to-low genetic variability and strong population structure in most invasive populations. Strikingly, we found a unique genotype/haplotype in populations from eight invaded regions sampled all over the world. Moreover, snail populations resistant to infection by the parasite are genetically distinct from susceptible populations. Our results are compatible with repeated introductions in South America and flash worldwide invasion by this unique genotype/haplotype. Our study illustrates the population genetic consequences of biological invasion in a highly selfing species at very large geographic scale. We discuss how such a large-scale flash invasion may affect the spread of fasciolosis.

Assuntos

Assuntos

RESUMO

This study is devoted to analyze the metallic electrochemical recovery of nickel from synthetic solutions simulating plating rinsing discharges, in order to meet the water recycling policies implemented in these industries. These effluents present dilute Ni(II) concentrations (100 and 200 ppm) in chloride and sulfate media without supporting electrolyte (397-4202 µS cm(-1)), which stems poor current distribution, limited mass transfer, ohmic drops and enhancement of parasitic reactions. An electrochemical reactor with rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) and a pH controller were utilized to overcome these problems. The pH control around 4 was crucial to yield high purity nickel, and thus prevent the precipitation of hydroxides and oxides. Macroelectrolysis experiments were systematically conducted to analyze the impacts of the applied current density in the recovery efficiency and energy consumption, particularly for very diluted effluents (100 and 200 ppm Ni(II)), which present major recovery problems. Promising nickel recoveries in the order of 90% were found in the former baths using a current density of -3.08 mA cm(-2), and with overall profits of 9.64 and 14.69 USD kg(-1), respectively. These estimations were based on the international market price for nickel ($18 USD kg(-1)).

Assuntos

RESUMO

El Cáncer Renal se presenta habitualmente como un hallazgo de las imágenes abdominales y cuando se manifiesta clínicamente lo hace a través de los efectos que produce una gran masa abdominal o las metástasis a distancia. En este trabajo se presenta un caso de cáncer renal cuyas manifestaciones clínicas fueron secundarias a la obstrucción de las venas supra hepáticas, es decir un síndrome de Budd-Chiari florido por la presencia de un trombo tumoral en la cava retro hepática. El diagnóstico oportuno y una evaluación adecuada con imágenes permitieron la ejecución de un plan de tratamiento que incluyó un abordaje combinado abdominal y torácico que permitió un tratamiento no solo sintomático sino que potencialmente curativo de un cáncer renal con esta rara presentación.

Renal Cancer usually occurs as a finding of abdominal imaging and when it clinically manifests itself it does so through a large abdominal mass or distant metastases. In this paper we present a case of renal cancer whose clinical manifestations were secondary to obstruction of hepatic veins, a Budd-Chiari syndrome because of the presence of a tumor thrombus in the retro hepatic vena cava. Early diagnosis and appropriate imaging evaluation allowed the implementation of a treatment plan that included a combined abdominal and thoracic approach allowing not only a symptomatic treatment but potentially curative treatment of renal cancer with this rare presentation.

Assuntos

RESUMO

INTRODUCTION: Corn has been from the prehispanic era, the most important feeding plant in the Mexican population, particularly in the most important sectors and in marginal areas. In this setting, enriching the product as flour implies an increase in its nutritional quality, especially because corn is the basic food. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of the consumption of corn flour enriched with 3% soybean, vitamins, and minerals on the growth and development of infants and preschool children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: experimental study lasting 10 months. The experimental group (n=195) received enriched corn flour whereas the control group (n=200) received non-enriched flour. The indicators were: nutritional status, mental and psychomotor development, and blood hemoglobin levels. RESULTS: in the total sample, there were no differences between the experimental group and the control group. However, there were improvements in the weight-to-height and weight-to-age indexes in the children consuming enriched flour and in children older than one year, who were the babies of indigenous women living in marginal areas. CONCLUSIONS: enriched corn flour appears to be an alternative benefitting the children population with higher nutritional deficiencies. However, a longer intervention is necessary to obtain better results.

Assuntos