South American Expert Roundtable : increasing adaptive governance capacity for coping with unintended side effects of digital transformation

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying “wanted/positive” and “unwanted/negative” effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization

Malária transfusional: relato de caso de doador assintomático infectado por Plasmodium malariae

Malaria in Brazil is endemic in the Amazon region, but autochthonous cases with low parasitaemia occur in the Atlantic Forest area of the country. According to Brazilian legislation no test is mandatory for blood donors from non-endemic areas. However if they have traveled to malaria transmission regions they are deferred for six months before they can donate. This report describes a transfusion-transmitted malaria case in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where one recipient received infected blood and developed the disease. He lived in Sao Paulo and had no previous transfusion or trips to endemic areas, including those of low endemicity, such as Atlantic Forest. Thick blood smears confirmed Plasmodiummalariae. All donors lived in Sao Paulo and one of them (Donor 045-0) showed positive hemoscopy and PCR. This asymptomatic donor had traveled to Juquia, in the Atlantic Forest area of S ao Paulo State, where sporadic cases of autochthonous malaria are described. DNA assay revealed P. malariae in the donor's (Donor 045-0) blood. Serum archives of the recipient and of all blood donors were analyzed by ELISA using both P. vivax and P. falciparum antigens, and IFAT with P. malariae. Donor 045-0's serum was P. malariae IFAT positive and the P. vivax ELISA was reactive. In addition, two out of 44 donors' archive sera were also P. vivax ELISA reactive. All sera were P. falciparum ELISA negative. This case suggests the need of reviewing donor selection criteria and deferral strategies to prevent possible cases of transfusion-transmitted malaria.No Brasil a malária é endêmica na Amazônia, porém casos autóctones com baixas parasitemias ocorrem na área costeira de Mata Atlântica. De acordo com a legislação brasileira, não são obrigatórios testes para detecção de malária em doadores de sangue de áreas não-endêmicas; entretanto são excluídos por seis meses aqueles com relato de deslocamento para áreas de transmissão. Este trabalho descreve um caso de malária transfusional ocorrido em São Paulo, Brasil, em que um paciente recebeu sangue infectado, desenvolvendo a doença. Ele residia em São Paulo e não apresentava histórico de transfusão anterior ou deslocamentos para áreas endêmicas, incluindo as de baixa endemicidade, como a Mata Atlântica. A gota espessa revelou Plasmodium malariae. Os doadores eram residentes em São Paulo e um deles (045-0) apresentou hemoscopia e PCR positivos. Este era assintomático com PCR positiva para P. malariae e viagem para Juquiá, Mata Atlântica de São Paulo, onde são descritos casos esporádicos de malária autóctone. Amostras de soro do receptor e de todos os doadores foram ensaiadas por ELISA com antígenos de P. vivax e P. falciparum e RIFI com P. malariae. O doador 045-0 apresentou RIFI positiva para P. malariae. ELISA-P. vivax foi reagente no doador infectado (045-0) e em dois dos 44 doadores. Todos os soros foram negativos com antígeno de P. falciparum. Este caso aponta a necessidade de revisão dos critérios de triagem clínico-epidemiológica para evitar casos transfusionais e também adequar as estratégias de exclusão de doadores de sangue

HIDROCARBONETOS EM SOLOS E SEDIMENTOS DO ENTORNO DA ESTAÇÃO ANTÁRTICA BRASILEIRA COMANDANTE FERRAZ

Despite being remote and uninhabited, the Antartic Continent is not free from the impact of human presence. Among the possible impacts, the presence of oilderived hydrocarbons has been a matter of concern. The ships operating in the region and the transportation of diesel oil to the power plant of Comandante Ferraz Station (EACF) have contributed to the introduction of oil hydrocartbons into the environment. This work, as part of Criosols project, aimed to evaluate the presence of oil hydrocarbons at the surrounds of EACF. Soils samples were collected in a prestablished area during the summer of 2003. The aliphatic and aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons were extracted by Soxhlet. The hydrocarbons were isolated, identified and quantified by CGMS. The aliphatic and aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons found in the soil and sediments were similar to those found in the diesel fuel and their areas of dispersion, mainly in the sub-surface, were larger than those of the volatile aromatic hydrocarbons. The aliphatic hydrocarbons with the highest concentrations were pentadecane, octadecane and pentacosane. Among the aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons, acenaftene, fluorantene and chysene had the highest concentrations and a larger area of dispersion.    Por mais remoto e desabitado que o continente Antártico seja, ele não está livre do impacto da presença humana. Dentre os possíveis impactos, a presença de hidrocarbonetos derivados de petróleo têm sido objeto de preocupação. A ocorrência de embarcações operando na região e o transporte de óleo diesel para os geradores da Estação Antártica Comandante Ferraz (EACF) tem contribuído para a introdução de hidrocarbonetos de petróleo no ambiente. Este trabalho, como parte do projeto Criossolos, teve como objetivo avaliar a presença de hidrocarbonetos de petróleo no entorno da EACF. As amostras de solos foram coletadas numa grade rígida durante o verão de 2003. Os hidrocarbonetos alifáticos e policíclicos aromáticos foram extraídos por Soxhlet. Os hidrocarbonetos foram separados, identificados e quantificados por meio de CGMS. Os hidrocarbonetos alifáticos e policíclicos aromáticos encontrados no solo e sedimentos assemelharam-se àqueles do diesel e a sua área de dispersão, principalmente em sub-superfície, foi maior que aquela dos hidrocarbonetos voláteis. Os hidrocarbonetos alifáticos com maiores concentrações foram o pentadecano, octadecano e o pentacosano. Dentre os hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos os compostos acenafteno, fluoranteno e criseno obtiveram maiores concentrações e uma maior área de dispersão

Robust automated cardiac arrhythmia detection in ECG beat signals

Nowadays, millions of people are affected by heart diseases worldwide, whereas a considerable amount of them could be aided through an electrocardiogram (ECG) trace analysis, which involves the study of arrhythmia impacts on electrocardiogram patterns. In this work, we carried out the task of automatic arrhythmia detection in ECG patterns by means of supervised machine learning techniques, being the main contribution of this paper to introduce the optimum-path forest (OPF) classifier to this context. We compared six distance metrics, six feature extraction algorithms and three classifiers in two variations of the same dataset, being the performance of the techniques compared in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Although OPF revealed a higher skill on generalizing data, the support vector machines (SVM)-based classifier presented the highest accuracy. However, OPF shown to be more efficient than SVM in terms of the computational time for both training and test phases