Terahertz optical fibers [Invited].

Lying between optical and microwave ranges, the terahertz band in the electromagnetic spectrum is attracting increased attention. Optical fibers are essential for developing the full potential of complex terahertz systems. In this manuscript, we review the optimal materials, the guiding mechanisms, the fabrication methodologies, the characterization methods and the applications of such terahertz waveguides. We examine various optical fiber types including tube fibers, solid core fiber, hollow-core photonic bandgap, anti-resonant fibers, porous-core fibers, metamaterial-based fibers, and their guiding mechanisms. The optimal materials for terahertz applications are discussed. The past and present trends of fabrication methods, including drilling, stacking, extrusion and 3D printing, are elaborated. Fiber characterization methods including different optics for terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) setups are reviewed and application areas including short-distance data transmission, imaging, sensing, and spectroscopy are discussed.

Why we should stop using the word leprosy.

Leprosy is endemic in more than 100 countries worldwide, with over 200 000 new diagnoses each year and more than 4 million people living with some form of impairment related to leprosy. The term leprosy, as used in the Bible, designated a multitude of diseases with skin manifestations. Biblical leprosy carried huge stigma and was considered synonymous with impurity and divine punishment. Global actions to eliminate leprosy have been implemented but have yet to succeed, with stigmatisation and discrimination against people affected by the disease being recognised as two of the biggest obstacles. In Brazil, leprosy was officially renamed hanseníase (Hansen's disease) in 1975, and the Brazilian experience of renaming leprosy during the past four decades has given clear signs of the benefit of this measure in fighting stigma and discrimination. More recent actions by WHO and many years of advocacy by patient organisations have followed, but concrete and effective measures to dignify language and terminology need to be implemented as soon as possible.

Assessment of bioactive metabolites and hypolipidemic effect of polyphenolic-rich red cabbage extract.

CONTEXT: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and the consumption of red cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. rubra DC. - Brassicaceae) has been linked with the reduction risk of chronic diseases. OBJECTIVE: The present study assesses the bioactive metabolites and hypolipidemic effect of red cabbage on rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The content of total phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant capacity were assessed, while individual phenolic acids and flavonoids were detected using reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. Acute hypolipidemic activity of aqueous extract of red cabbage (RC - 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg) was investigated using a Triton WR-1339 (400 mg/kg) induced hyperlipidemic Wistar rats compared to fenofibrate (65 mg/kg). RESULTS: The HPLC analysis of extracts revealed eight phenolic acids, gallic, protocatechuic, p-hydroxybenzoic, m-coumaric, syringic, caffeic, cinnamic, dicaffeoylquinic and three flavonoids, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, gallocatechin. Furthermore, the aqueous extract showed higher amounts of total phenolics (116.00 mg/g), flavonoids (161.32 µg/g) and, antioxidant activity (87.19%) than the hydromethanolic (89.33 mg/g, 123.34 µg/g and 75.07%), respectively. The RC significantly (p < 0.001) ameliorated the levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins alterations in hyperlipidemic rats without toxicity. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Herein, the RC presented the higher amounts of phenolics and flavonoids comparing with the hydromethanolic extract. Additionally, the RC showed as the majority compounds, dicaffeoylquinic and cinnamic acids, and the flavonoids epicatechin and gallocatechin. Furthermore, the RC demonstrated a beneficial effect against hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia, demonstrating its potential therapeutic effect on these risk factors of cardiovascular diseases.

Uma cura controversa: a promessa biomédica para a hanseníase em Portugal e no Brasil / A controversial cure: the biomedical promise for hanseniasis in Portugal and Brazil

Este artigo procura responder à pergunta, nascida na empiria do trabalho de campo: por que algumas pessoas portadoras de hanseníase e tratadas com a poliquimioterapia (PQT) se sentem curadas e outras não? Com base numa etnografia multissituada nas escalas transnacional (programa global para a hanseníase da Organização Mundial da Saúde), nacional (paisagens morais e paradigmas biopolíticos para a hanseníase em Portugal e Brasil) e local (prática clínica em contexto hospitalar e experiência incorporada das pessoas portadoras nos dois países), analisa como a incerteza documentada na clínica da hanseníase e a clivagem experienciada por algumas pessoas, entre a cura bacteriológica e o sentimento de se sentir sanado, abre uma controvérsia em torno dos principais postulados que sustentam o emprego da PQT como uma entidade autônoma do contexto e difratam a fronteira entre o normal e o patológico em que se baseia o enquadramento contemporâneo da hanseníase e as respostas institucionais à mesma. Finalmente, conclui pela necessidade de incluir uma escolha incorporada na atual política ontológica para a hanseníase que amplie a própria nosologia e refunde um novo paradigma de cuidado, de tipo participativo.

This paper aims to answer the following question that arouse during fieldwork: why some people with hanseniasis and treated with multidrug therapy (MDT) feel healed and others don't? From a multi-sited ethnography in the transnational (global program for hanseniasis from the World Health Organization), national (Portuguese and Brazilian moral landscapes and biopolitical paradigms), local (clinical practice and incorporated experience of people with hanseniasis in both countries) scales, it examines how the uncertainty documented in the clinic and the gap experienced by some people between the bacteriological cure and the feeling of being healed, opens for a controversy on the main postulates that sustain the use of MDT as an autonomous entity and diffract the contemporaneous framing of hanseniasis and the institutional responses to it. Finally, it concludes on the need for including an incorporated choice that might widen hanseniasis' ontological politics and rebuild a new participatory paradigm of care.

Leprosy as a multilayered biosocial phenomenon: The comparison of institutional responses and illness narratives of an endemic disease in Brazil and an imported disease in Portugal.

This paper questions the relation between human health and society from the case study of leprosy. To discuss the cultural and social mediator factors of both the experience of leprosy and outcomes of medical practices, it examines the biomedical twist in the dialectic between citizenship and public good that aimed to turn leprosy into a disease like any other, with the advent of multidrug therapy during the 1980s. Such analysis is based on a multisited ethnography, developed between 2008 and 2013 in two divergent contexts from the global South and North: Brazil, which remains the country in the world with the highest relative cases of leprosy, and Portugal, in which leprosy has become an imported disease. The main results of this research point to the limits of a pharmaceuticalized governmentality of leprosy and to heterogeneous medicalization's processes, which evince the determinacy of historical intersections between the State and civil society, as well as the corollaries of the former in medical care. This paper concludes with an analysis of the partition between biomedical cure and the healing of leprosy, which unveils the intermediation of institutional and extrainstitutional factors in access to health and in the cure of leprosy. It is finally argued that such intermediation requires a public health approach that might resocialize leprosy through a paradigmatic shift toward intersectoral and participatory operational strategies.

Pode a testemunha modesta falar? a biomedicina em trânsito paradigmático / Can the modest witness speak? biomedicine within a paradigmatic shift

Este ensaio discute a hipótese aventada por Boaventura de Sousa Santos, em Um discurso sobre as ciências, de que a ciência moderna atravessa uma transição paradigmática. Ancorando essa reflexão no campo disciplinar da biomedicina, buscar-se-á aprofundar a proposta para uma "dupla ruptura epistemológica" que promova a emergência de "um paradigma prudente para uma vida decente". A partir do exame dos filamentos ideológicos que urdem a matriz epistemológica da biomedicina, bem como da sua substanciação heterogênea enquanto prática social mediada por relações de poder, defender-se-á, num primeiro momento, que a "primeira ruptura epistemológica" entre a ciência moderna e o senso comum deteve um cunho preponderantemente discursivo, e que é, por conseguinte, na transformação desse nexo que, embora invisibilizado, não cessou de existir, que se poderá operar uma "dupla ruptura epistemológica". Para isso, será proposto, com base na análise da expansão contemporânea do campo da biomedicina para a inclusão de objetos e metodologias que destabilizam as dicotomias modernas, que o saber fenomenológico, historicamente marginalizado, do paciente seja ponderado como um senso comum emancipatório que descerra o caminho para uma "epistemologia das consequências", transformando, com isso, a testemunha modesta da ciência moderna numa testemunha subalterna que fala a partir da densidade experiencial que abrange a amplitude social do posicionamento do corpo-próprio.

This essay aims to discuss the hypothesis posed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos in Um discurso sobre as ciências, that modern science is going through a paradigmatic shift. By grounding this reflection on the disciplinary field of biomedicine, this essay will try to deepen the proposal for a "double epistemological rupture" that might promote a "prudent knowledge for a decent life". From the examination of the ideological filaments that weave the epistemological matrix of biomedicine, as well as of its heterogeneous substantiation as a social practice mediated by power relations, it will be argued that the "first epistemological rupture" between modern science and common sense was mostly discursive, and that for which reason it is precisely on the transformation of that bound (which although invisibilized didn not cease to exist) that a "double epistemological rupture might be operated. For that purpose, it will be proposed, from the analysis of the contemporaneous expansion of the field of biomedicine to encompass objects and methodologies which destabilize modern dichotomies, that the phenomenological and historically marginalized knowledge of the patient should be considered as an emancipatory common sense which enables the production of an "epistemology of consequences". As such, the modest witness to modern science could be transformed into a subaltern witness who speaks from the experiential density of the Self's body which encompasses its social positioning.

[The Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais: the last Portuguese leprosarium and the contingent universes of experience and memory]. / O Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais: a última leprosaria portuguesa e os universos contingentes da experiência e da memória.

The Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais was inaugurated in Portugal in the 1940s for the treatment, study and prophylaxis of leprosy based on the compulsive internment model, whose configuration reflects the total institution concept proposed by Goffman. It concerns an important hygiene project of the Estado Novo. Its educative paradigm combined elements inspired in European social medicine and the ideology of the paternalistic Portuguese dictatorial regime. The Hospital Colony here will be thought of as a disciplinary dispositive, developing considerations regarding the confrontation between disciplinary power and experience. Memory emerges as a contingent instrument to access the practices and interstitial meanings woven into the Hospital Colony's daily life, seeking to find out about the experience of its former patients as political subjects.

O Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais: a última leprosaria portuguesa e os universos contingentes da experiência e da memória / The Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais: the last Portuguese leprosarium and the contingent universes of experience and memory

O Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais foi inaugurado em Portugal na década de 1940, com vistas ao tratamento, estudo e profilaxia da lepra, de acordo com modelo de internamento compulsivo, cuja configuração remete ao conceito de instituição total proposto por Goffman. Trata-se de um importante projeto higienista do Estado Novo. O seu paradigma educativo combinava elementos inspirados na medicina social europeia e na ideologia do regime ditatorial paternalista português. O Hospital-Colónia será aqui ponderado como dispositivo disciplinar, desenvolvendo-se reflexão acerca do confronto entre o poder disciplinar e a experiência. A memória emerge como instrumento contingente para o acesso às práticas e aos significados intersticiais tecidos no quotidiano do Hospital-Colónia, buscando-se auscultar a experiência de seus ex-doentes como sujeitos políticos.

The Hospital-Colónia Rovisco Pais was inaugurated in Portugal in the 1940s for the treatment, study and prophylaxis of leprosy based on the compulsive internment model, whose configuration reflects the total institution concept proposed by Goffman. It concerns an important hygiene project of the Estado Novo. Its educative paradigm combined elements inspired in European social medicine and the ideology of the paternalistic Portuguese dictatorial regime. The Hospital Colony here will be thought of as a disciplinary dispositive, developing considerations regarding the confrontation between disciplinary power and experience. Memory emerges as a contingent instrument to access the practices and interstitial meanings woven into the Hospital Colony's daily life, seeking to find out about the experience of its former patients as political subjects.

Influência da contaminação da dentina por cimentos temporários na resistência da união de sistemas adesivos / Influence of dentin contamination by temporary cements on the bond strength of adhesive systems

Objetivo: Avaliar a resistência da união de sistemas adesivos à dentina contaminada por cimentos temporários com ou sem eugenol. Método: Foram obtidas superfícies planas de dentina de 24 terceiros molares humanos. Com exceção do grupo controle (n=8), as superfícies foram cobertas com Interim Restorative Material (Caulk Dentsplay, Milford, DE, USA) ou Cavit (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, EUA) e mantidas em estufa a 37°C por sete dias. Após a remoção dos cimentos, os sistemas adesivos Adper Single Bond (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, EUA) ou Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japão) foram aplicados segundo a recomendação dos fabricantes e, em seguida, realizadas as construções de coroas em resina composta. Os dentes foram secionados em espécimes com área transversal de união de 0,81mm², os quais foram submetidos ao teste de microtração em máquina para ensaios mecânicos com velocidade do atuador de 0,5mm/min. Os dados foram analisados por testes t e Anova, complementada por testes de Tukey (α=0,05). Resultados: Para Adper Single Bond (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, EUA), a resistência de união foi estatisticamente não-diferente (p>0,05) para todas as condições experimentais. Para Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japão), apenas o grupo Interim Restorative Material (Caulk Dentsplay, Milford, DE, USA) apresentou resistência de união significativamente inferior (30,1±13,8 MPa) em relação aos demais grupos; controle (38,9±13,5 MPa) e Cavit (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, EUA) (42,1±11,0 MPa), os quais não apresentaram diferença significativa entre si. Conclusão: Concluiu-se que o recobrimento prévio da dentina com cimento temporário, contendo eugenol, exerceu efeito deletério apenas no desempenho adesivo do sistema autocondicionante.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the bond strength of adhesive systems to dentin contaminated by temporary cements with or without eugenol. Method: Flat dentin surfaces were obtained from twenty-four human third molars. With exception of the control group (n=8), the surfaces were covered with Interim Restorative Material (Caulk Dentsplay, Milford, DE, USA) or Cavit (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA) and kept in an oven at 37°C for seven days. After removing the cements, the adhesive systems Adper Single Bond (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA) or Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan) were applied in accordance with the manufacturers' recommendations, and then the crowns were constructed in of resin composite. The teeth were sectioned into specimens with a cross-sectional bond area of 0.81mm², which were submitted to microtensile testing in a mechanical test machine at an actuator speed of 0.5mm/min. The data were analyzed by t- and ANOVA tests, complemented by Tukey tests (α=0.05). Results: For Adper Single Bond (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA), bond strength did not differ statistically (p>0.05) for all the experimental conditions. For Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan), only the Interim Restorative Material (Caulk Dentsplay, Milford, DE, USA) Group showed significantly lower bond strength (30.1±13.8 MPa) in comparison with the other groups; control (38.9±13.5 MPa) and Cavit (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA) (42.1±11.0 MPa), which showed no significant difference between them. Conclusion: It was concluded that the previous covering of dentin with temporary cement containing eugenol had a deleterious effect on the adhesive performance of the self-etching system only.