Imatinib, a New Adjuvant Medical Treatment for Multifocal Villonodular Synovitis Associated to Noonan Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review

Noonan syndrome (NS) is an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder caused by the dysregulation of the Rat Sarcoma/Mitogen-activated protein kinase (RAS/MAPK) pathway and characterized by short stature, heart defects, pectus excavatum, webbed neck, learning disabilities, cryptorchidism, and facial dysmorphia. Villonodular synovitis is a joint disorder most common in young adults characterized by an abnormal proliferation of the synovial membrane. Multifocal Villonodular synovitis is a rare disease whose recurrent nature can make its management particularly difficult. Currently, there is no systemic therapy recommended in diffuse and recurrent forms, especially because of the fear of long-term side effects in patients, who are usually young. Yet, tyrosine kinase inhibitors seem promising to reduce the effects of an aberrant colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) production at the origin of the synovial nodule proliferation. We present here the case of a 21-year-old woman with NS associated to diffuse multifocal villonodular synovitis (DMVS). Our clinical case provides therapeutic experience in this very rare association. Indeed, in association with surgery, the patient improved considerably: she had complete daily life autonomy, knee joint amplitudes of 100° in flexion and 0° in extension and was able to walk for 10 min without any technical assistance. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a patient suffering from DMVS associated with a Noonan syndrome treated with Glivec® (oral administration at a dosage of 340 mg/m2 in children, until disease regression) on a long-term basis.

Assessing the Vulnerability of Rural Households to Floods at Pol-e Dokhtar Region in Iran

The agricultural sector in rural areas is seriously affected by climate change, affecting agricultural production and farming communities. This paper investigates rural households’ vulnerability to floods in the seven agricultural-based regions of Pol-e Dokhtar, south of Lorestan Province, Iran. The primary data for the vulnerability indicators were collected from 322 households. Three main components of vulnerability, including exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, were measured using the obtained data. The weighting of indicators was done by the MSF method and using MATLAB software. The results showed that the social and economic characteristics of households affect their vulnerability to floods. The Jayder, Mamolan, and Afrineh regions, which were more exposed to floods, had less capacity for adaptation. The results showed that the most vulnerable communities could be described by characteristics such as low levels of agricultural insurance, limited access to credit, low levels of income diversification, high levels of unemployment, low levels of social capital, higher dependency ratios, and poor infrastructure. This research showed that diversified livelihoods have a significant effect on reducing farmers’ sensitivity to floods. The study proposes policy implications to increase resilience and reduce farmers’ vulnerability to floods. The government and other development partners should prioritize the most vulnerable areas by improving their access to finance and providing the technical assistance required for increasing their coping capacity.

Capacities of local maize seed enterprises in Mexico: Implications for seed systems development

Where maize plays a critical role in food security, governments and donors have invested heavily in support of local, privately owned, often small and medium sized, maize seed enterprises (maize SMEs). Underpinning these investments are strong assumptions about maize SMEs’ capacity to produce and distribute seed to smallholders. This study assesses the capacities of 22 maize SMEs in Mexico that engaged with MasAgro—a large-scale development program initiated in 2011 that has provided maize SMEs with improved genetic material and technical assistance. Data were collected onsite from in-depth interviews with enterprise owners and managers and complemented with other primary and secondary sources. Overall, maize SMEs showed high levels of absorptive capacity for seed production, but limited signs of learning and innovation in terms of business organization and strategic seed marketing. Asset endowments varied widely among the SMEs, but generally they were lowest among the smaller enterprises, and access to business development services beyond MasAgro was practically nonexistent. Results highlighted the critical role of MasAgro in reinvigorating the portfolios of seeds produced by maize SMEs, as well as the challenges ahead for maize SMEs to scale the new technologies in a competitive market that has long been dominated by multinational seed enterprises. Among these challenges were limited investment in seed marketing, weak infrastructure for seed production, and limited experience in business management. Achieving the food security goals through maize SMEs will require making national maize seed industry development a strategic imperative.

Determine Dietary Diversity and Its Relationship with Nutritional Status of Adolescents Studying in High Schools of Bagalkot

Introduction: Dietary diversity is defined as the number of food groups or items consumed over a reference period. A good diverse diet is necessary to furnish the daily nutritional requirements of body. Inadequate dietary diversity is one of major public health problem and can result in unhealthy physical, emotional and psychological changes among adolescents. Objective of the study was to determine dietary diversity and its relationship with nutritional status of adolescents studying in high school. Methods: A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 12 to April 03, 2021, among a total of 120 adolescents, selected using the stratified random sampling technique. The study was conducted in Kalidas high school, Bagalkot. A structured and prepared questionnaire was used to collect baseline data. Dietary diversity was measured by Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) 2020 using the food items method. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was employed to identify the association of nutritional status and dietary diversity among adolescents. Result: Mean age of sample was 15.14 ± 0.81 years. The mean height for age was 1.63 S.D± .880 S.D. The mean BMI for age Z score was 1.73 SD ± .579 SD. The mean BMI for thinness Z score was 2.35 SD ± 1.301SD.Logistic regression analysis revealed that there was no significant association (P< 0.202) found between dietary diversity and nutritional status of adolescents. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that only one-third of both (boys and girls) have adequate dietary diversity. Low level of dietary diversification suggested points to the need for strengthening efforts targeting to improve the healthy dietary practice of adolescents by giving due attention to poor households and undernourished adolescents. Keywords: dietary diversity, nutritional status, adolescents, High school, unhealthy dietary pattern.

A influência do curso profissionalizante da ead na atuação do técnico apicultor na microrregião de são raimundo nonato/pi para a construção de conhecimentos e tecnologias

Nesse estudo, analisa-se a influência da formação técnica na atuação do técnico apicultor para a construção de conhecimentos e tecnologias nas comunidades rurais pesquisadas. Este trabalho é o recorte de pesquisa mais ampla, em desenvolvimento no âmbito do Doutorado Interinstitucional (DINTER PPGTE/UTFPR-UFPI) do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia e Sociedade, da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná e da Universidade Federal do Piauí, intitulada de “CORRELAÇÕES ENTRE O TRABALHO DOS TÉCNICOS EM APICULTURA E AS COMUNIDADES RURAIS PESQUISADAS DA MICRORREGIÃO DE SÃO RAIMUNDO NONATO: (CO)CONSTRUÇÃO DE TECNOLOGIAS”. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, descritiva e exploratória, tendo recorte temporal 2014-2016. A pesquisa adota a perspectiva teórico-metodológica do materialismo histórico dialético e está apoiada em análise documental e bibliográfica, entrevistas com egressos e visitas de campo às comunidades pesquisadas em que se realizaram observação direta, registros fotográficos e entrevistas narrativas. Apresenta-se neste texto, dadas as limitações de espaço, somente o cenário da pesquisa no município de Dom Inocêncio/PI, por ser um dos maiores municípios pesquisados do sudeste do Piauí e um dos locais em que os técnicos apicultores efetivamente trabalham em suas próprias comunidades. Analisou-se os dados produzidos fundamentado pela técnica de análise de conteúdo, proposta por Bardin (2016). Organizou-se a produção de dados no eixo temático intitulado de: “Conexões entre tecnologia, tecnologia social e coconstrução de tecnologias”. Neste sentido, constata-se construções de tecnologias sociais devido à assessoria técnica prestada na comunidade rural Vazante, em Dom Inocêncio/PI, como também um aumento significativo na produção de mel na região e a valorização de seus derivados. Essa interação, implica um retorno não somente na economia local, mas também nos processos de ensino e de aprendizado, pois as correlações efetivadas entre egressos e produtores das comunidades, possibilitam que os outros produtores rurais sejam multiplicadores desse conhecimento técnico e científico e que incorporado com os seus saberes experenciais possam ser fortes potencializadores para uma transformação individual e coletiva. In this study, the influence of technical training on the performance of the beekeeper technician for the construction of knowledge and technologies in the surveyed rural communities is analyzed. This work is part of the broader research, under development within the scope of the Interinstitutional Doctorate (DINTER PPGTE/UTFPR-UFPI) of the Postgraduate Program in Technology and Society, at the Federal Technological University of Paraná and at the Federal University of Piauí, entitled of “CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE WORK OF BEEKEEPING TECHNICIANS AND THE SURVEYED RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE MICROREGION OF SÃO RAIMUNDO NONATO: (CO)CONSTRUCTION OF TECHNOLOGIES”. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with a 2014-2016 time frame. The research adopts the theoretical-methodological perspective of dialectical historical materialism and is supported by documental and bibliographical analysis, interviews with egresses and field visits to the researched communities in which direct observation, photographic records and narrative interviews were carried out. In this text, given space limitations, only the research scenario in the municipality of Dom Inocêncio/PI is presented, as it is one of the largest municipalities surveyed in the southeast of Piauí and one of the places where beekeeper technicians effectively work in their own communities. The data produced was analyzed based on the content analysis technique proposed by Bardin (2016).The production of data was organized in the thematic axis entitled: “Connections between technology, social technology and technology co-construction”. In this sense, there is construction of social technologies due to the technical assistance provided in the rural community Vazante, in Dom Inocêncio/PI, as well as a significant increase in the production of honey in the region and the valorization of its derivatives. This interaction implies a return not only in the local economy, but also in the teaching and learning processes, as the correlations effected between graduates and producers in the communities, allow other rural producers to be multipliers of this technical and scientific knowledge, which is incorporated with their experiential knowledge can be strong potential for individual and collective transformation.

Recognizing Physical Activity of hospitalized Older People from Wearable Sensors Data using IoT

The IoT is a new concept that provides a world where smart, connected, embedded systems operate, giving rise to the amount of data from different sources that are considered to have highly useful and valuable information. Data mining would play a critical role in creating smarter IoT. Traditional care of an elderly person is a difficult and complex task. The need to have a caregiver with the elderly person almost all the time drains the human and financial resources of the health care system. The emergence of Artificial intelligence has allowed the conception of technical assistance where it helps and reduces the time spent by the caregiver with the elderly person. This work aims to focus on analyzing techniques that are used for prediction purposes of falls in the elderly. We examine the applicability of three classification algorithms for IoT data. These algorithms are analyzed and a comparative study is undertaken to find the classifier that performs the best analysis on the dataset using a set of predefined performance metrics to compare the results of each classifier.

Innovative Adaptation of Training and Technical Assistance

The behavioral health workforce is pivotal to provide evidence-based services (EBPs) for patients with mental illnesses or substance use disorders. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing healthcare issues for these patients and highlighted the need for a well-trained workforce. The stay-at-home orders compelled a rapid transition to delivering behavioral health services from traditional face-to-face encounters to telehealth/telecommunication services. Training and technical assistance (TTA) networks supporting the behavioral health workforce's educational needs quickly moved to virtual delivery. This shift has resulted in innovations and adaptations categorized into four areas: adapting is crucial, convening stakeholders is essential, resources (human and technological) are needed, and community involvement is integral. Future TTA efforts should focus on sharing the successful virtual adaptations to EBPs.