Publications by authors named "Luis Horta"

The consequences of mass radiological events, particularly those involving the activation of a radiological dispersion device (RDD), have been extensively studied by scientific groups. However, the critical initial period of such an event, usually spanning the first 100 h, can be characterized by a scarcity of information, potentially leading to delays in mitigating strategies. In response, a research group utilized computer simulations to generate solid, conservative analytical details that can aid decision-making and guide the prioritization of initial care based on variables such as age, sex, location, and local atmospheric stability conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study of microbialites development is a key tool to understand environmental pathways during deposition. We provide a detailed analysis of modern Central Andean microbialites from high-altitude lakes. The stratigraphic record of Turquesa Lake shows a significant short-term recolonization by microbialite-producing microorganisms during environmental stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction With obesity reaching pandemic proportions, its detrimental influence on many health-related conditions has recently become a focus of research. Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is one of several disorders associated with obesity. Materials and methods This study was designed to identify MSK pain in individuals with severe obesity, recruited from a specialized obesity clinic, and to evaluate the correlation between the MSK symptoms and some individual criteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A human platelet-rich plasma (PRP) concentrate can be defined as a preparation of autologous human plasma with increased platelet concentration produced by centrifugation of a larger volume of a patient's own blood. Platelets contain a plethora of growth factors in their α-granules that are concentrated through the centrifugation process in order to then be injected in supraphysiologic amounts to an injury site with the final aim of augmenting the natural healing process. Preparations of PRP concentrates can be further classified as leucocyte-rich (LR-PRP), defined as having a leucocyte concentration above baseline, and leucocyte-poor (LP-PRP), defined as having a leucocyte concentration below baseline.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: With progressive ageing of the Portuguese population, it is paramount that the conditions of outdoor accessibility and safety are adapted to this age group. The aim of this study was to assess whether the time allocated to pedestrian crossing in the crosswalks with pedestrian crossing lights between Curry Cabral Hospital and local public transport is enough to allow safe passage of the elderly.

Material And Methods: We evaluated 100 ambulatory care patients from the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nowadays, doping is not confined to elite sport, it is also spread throughout gymnasia and fitness centers, and it is seen as a public health concern. Studies focusing on performance-enhancing substances (PES) use among gym users are few and mostly concern the practice of bodybuilding and the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), without providing information about social indicators to further explore why this specific population use these substances. To investigate the extent of PES use and examine the way social indicators, exercise profile and gym modalities influence the use of these substances among a sample of gym users.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Clusters of asthma in athletes have been insufficiently studied. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize asthma phenotypes in elite athletes using latent class analysis (LCA) and to evaluate its association with the type of sport practiced.

Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, an analysis of athletes' records was carried out in databases of the Portuguese National Anti-Doping Committee and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To investigate how changes to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines on asthma medication requests have impacted the management of asthmatic athletes in Portugal.

Design: Retrospective analysis of asthma medication requests submitted in 2008 to 2010.

Setting: Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority database.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The use of growth factors for accelerated healing of sports injuries is restricted under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) anti-doping code. Cheating athletes have used the black market as a source of performance-enhancing substances. Drugs that currently undergo clinical trials are frequently offered--despite the unknown health risks associated with the administration of unapproved pharmaceuticals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To evaluate variation in skeletal age (SA) within single-year chronological age (CA) groups of soccer players aged 11 to 17 years in the context of using SA for age verification in age-group competitions.

Design: Cross sectional.

Setting: Regional and elite youth soccer programs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessions65j60jl50irovkep6rji80vh7an27he): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once