Understanding the mobile internet to develop the next generation of online medical teaching tools

Healthcare providers (HCPs) use online medical information for self-directed learning and patient care. Recently, the mobile internet has emerged as a new platform for accessing medical information as it allows mobile devices to access online information in a manner compatible with their restricted storage. We investigated mobile internet usage parameters to direct the future development of mobile internet teaching websites. Nephrology On-Demand Mobile (NODM) (http://www.nephrologyondemand.org) was made accessible to all mobile devices. From February 1 to December 31, 2010, HCP use of NODM was tracked using code inserted into the root files. Nephrology On-Demand received 15 258 visits, of which approximately 10% were made to NODM, with the majority coming from the USA. Most access to NODM was through the Apple iOS family of devices and cellular connections were the most frequently used. These findings provide a basis for the future development of mobile nephrology and medical teaching tools

Modelagem Prospectiva Mineral com Base em Lógica Fuzzy: Avaliação do Distrito Ferrífero de Quiterianópolis/CE

Nos últimos anos, o estado do Ceará, participou do mercado internacional como produtor e exportador de minério de ferro, principalmente através de uma usina de beneficiamento da mina Bandarra localizada em Quiterianópolis/CE. Neste município são conhecidas cinco ocorrências de ferro: Calixto, Bandarra, São Francisco, Olho D’água e Pintada. A mina de ferro Bandarra produziu e exportou para China aproximadamente 1,2 milhões de toneladas de minério de ferro com teor de 60%. Esses depósitos de ferro estão contextualizados na Província Borborema Setentrional, Domínio Ceará Central, entre o Lineamento Transbrasiliano e a zona de cisalhamento Tauá, no Subdomínio Acaraú, onde predominam gnaisses do Complexo Canindé do Ceará, rochas metassedimentares do Grupo Novo Oriente, granitoides do Complexo Tamboril-Santa Quiteria e depósitos cenozoicos. A pesquisa propõe uma integração pelo método da Lógica Fuzzy (knowledge-driven), envolvendo dados aerogeofísicos (magnetometria e gamaespctrometria) e de sensoriamento remoto com dados Landsat ETM+(Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus), para elaboração de um modelo de prospectividade ferrífera para região de Quiterianópolis/CE. A Lógica Fuzzy consiste na simplificação de dados raster por meio da aplicação de funções de pertinência Fuzzy e posterior integração pelos operadores Fuzzy. O modelo prospectivo foi gerado através das imagens Amplitude do Gradiente Horizontal Total (AGHT), Amplitude do Sinal Analítico (ASA), %K, eTh, eU, Contagem Total (CT), PC1, PC3, PC5, PC6 e Razão ETM 3/1, 4/1 e 5/7. A imagem do mapa de prospectividade ferrífera apresentou três classes de prospectividade: baixa, média e alta prospectividade. As ocorrências de ferro localizam-se sobre áreas de alta prospectividade, servindo como referência para validação do modelo proposto. Através do modelo apresentado foi possível concluir que a técnica Fuzzy é uma ferramenta poderosa nas etapas iniciais de uma pesquisa mineral

SUSTENTABILIDADE AMBIENTAL DA EXTRAÇÃO DE ÁRIDOS: A LAVRA DE AREIA NO CANAL ATIVO DO RIO CANINDÉ –PARAMOTI – CEARÁ

O presente trabalho analisa a sustentabilidade ambiental da extração de areia ao longo do canal ativo do rio Canindé, município de Paramoti, Ceará. O material lavrado foi amostrado, caracterizado e qualificado para uso como agregado na construção civil. O jazimento foi cubado, resultando em reservas medida, indicada e total. A extração de areia é realizada ininterruptamente no leito ativo do rio Canindé, desde os anos sessenta e, ao final de cada período de chuvas as reservas se renovam.Os impactos foram criteriosamente identificados e valorados tomando-se como base a mensuração de seu caráter, sua magnitude e duração das ações. Diferente de outros locais de extração, a retirada da areia ora tratada traz muitos benefícios para a comunidade local e para o meio ambiente. O aprofundamento do canal do rio, a montante da cidade de Paramoti, minimiza o impacto das inundações nos períodos das precipitações mais intensas. As águas retidas servem a dessedendação animal e mesmo ao abastecimento das comunidades mais próximas, carentes do recurso. Com o aprofundamento do seu leito o rio retém o fluxo de sedimento que flui a cada ano hídrico e impede que este material alcance os açudes situados rio abaixo, preservando-os de um assoreamento precoce. Recomenda-se o monitoramento, fiscalização e controle das ações aqui preconizadas, pois são de fundamental importância para a continuidade da viabilidade econômica e ambiental do empreendimento. Palavras-chave: mineração; impactos ambientais; sustentabilidade

Tweeting the Meeting: An In-Depth Analysis of Twitter Activity at Kidney Week 2011

In recent years, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) has increased its efforts to use its annual conference to inform and educate the public about kidney disease. Social media, including Twitter, has been one method used by the Society to accomplish this goal. Twitter is a popular microblogging service that serves as a potent tool for disseminating information. It allows for short messages (140 characters) to be composed by any author and distributes those messages globally and quickly. The dissemination of information is necessary if Twitter is to be considered a tool that can increase public awareness of kidney disease. We hypothesized that content, citation, and sentiment analyses of tweets generated from Kidney Week 2011 would reveal a large number of educational tweets that were disseminated to the public. An ideal tweet for accomplishing this goal would include three key features: 1) informative content, 2) internal citations, and 3) positive sentiment score. Informative content was found in 29% of messages, greater than that found in a similarly sized medical conference (2011 ADA Conference, 16%). Informative tweets were more likely to be internally, rather than externally, cited (38% versus 22%, p<0.0001), thereby amplifying the original information to an even larger audience. Informative tweets had more negative sentiment scores than uninformative tweets (means −0.162 versus 0.199 respectively, p<0.0001), therefore amplifying a tweet whose content had a negative tone. Our investigation highlights significant areas of promise and improvement in using Twitter to disseminate medical information in nephrology from a scientific conference. This goal is pertinent to many nephrology-focused conferences that wish to increase public awareness of kidney disease

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to &lt;90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], &gt;300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of &lt;15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P&lt;0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P&lt;0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Tweets from Kidney Week 2011.

<p>Tweets from Kidney Week 2011.</p

Actual and Predicted Informative Tweets.

<p>Actual and Predicted Informative Tweets.</p

Citations of tweets.

*<p>Total citations (1063) greater than total number of tweets (917) because some messages contained both internal and external citations and are represented more than once.</p