ANÁLISE DA QUALIDADE DE VIDA SEGUNDO O QUESTIONÁRIO SF-36 DE PACIENTES SOROPOSITIVAS E SORONEGATIVAS EM DOIS AMBULATÓRIOS DO MUNICÍPIO DE ARACAJU

A utilização de terapia antiretroviral eficaz para os pacientes HIV-positivos atrasou o aparecimento da AIDS e aumentou a expectativa de vida e o bem-estar dessas pessoas.  Apesar disso, os pacientes soropositivos ainda experimentam estresse psicológico resultante do medo da AIDS, e ao estigma associado à doença, bem como discriminação, o que acaba afetando as diferentes dimensões da sua saúde e qualidade de vida. Desse modo, o estudo objetivou comparar a qualidade de vida de pacientes soropositivas com a de pacientes soronegativas. Trata-se de um estudo de corte transversal realizado em dois ambulatórios públicos do município de Aracaju, que contou com 30 pacientes soropositivas e 30 pacientes soronegativas com idade entre 18 e 50 anos. Foi aplicado o questionário SF-36 e questionário sociodemográfico. Análise estatística realizada pelo programa SPSS versão 20.0. Foram avaliadas 60 mulheres, sendo 30 soropositivas e 30 soronegativas. A média de idade das soropositivas foi de 32,87 (DP 8,14) e das soronegativas de 34,87 (DP 9,54). Dos 8 domínios analisados pelo SF-36, o grupo das mulheres soropositivas obteve um escore inferior em 5 deles, sendo os piores escores em estado geral e saúde mental, entretanto, essas diferenças não foram estatisticamente significativas. O escore médio, considerando-se todos os domínios, nas pacientes soropositivas foi de 64,82, e nas soronegativas 69,85, mas não obteve significância estatística (p=0,379). O estudo encontrou uma média geral dos domínios superior a outros estudos e não apresentou diferença estatisticamente significativa entre a qualidade de vida de mulheres soropositivas e soronegativas

PERCEPÇÃO SOBRE FATORES DE PROTEÇÃO CARDIOVASCULAR ENTRE ESCOLARES DO ENSINO MÉDIO / PERCEPTIONS ABOUT PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AMONG HIGH SCHOL STUDENTS

Introdução: A adoção de hábitos saudáveis para os fatores de proteção cardiovascular deve ser iniciada na infância e adolescência, a fim de prevenir os fatores de risco e reduzir morbimortalidade cardiovascular. No entanto, existem poucas informações sobre o grau de percepção a respeito dos fatores de proteção cardiovascular, nessas faixas etárias. Objetivo: Avaliar a percepção de hábitos saudáveis como fatores de proteção cardiovascular, entre escolares do ensino médio. Métodos: Estudo transversal para avaliar a percepção de hábitos saudáveis em escolares de ensino médio entre duas escolas distintas, pública e privada. Os escolares foram aleatoriamente investigados, utilizando o Questionário de Percepção de Hábitos Saudáveis (QPHAS). Foi utilizada a análise de regressão logística para detectar associações entre maiores percepções e as variáveis sexo, idade, série do ensino médio e tipo de escola. Resultados: Participaram 474 escolares e apenas 67% obtiveram índices iguais ou superiores a 75% de acertos para maior percepção de hábitos saudáveis. Escolares do ensino privado apresentaram maior percepção sobre os fatores de proteção cardiovascular do que os do ensino público (OR=2,2; IC 95% 1,3-3,7; p = 0,002). A percepção de hábitos saudáveis quase duplica entre as séries do ensino médio, à medida que aumenta o grau de escolaridade, até a terceira série (OR=1,8; IC 95% 1,2-2,5; p = 0,001). Conclusão: Percepções de hábitos saudáveis sobre os fatores de proteção cardiovascular aumentaram a proporção que o nível de escolaridade ficava maior e são significativamente menores em estudantes do ensino público, entre escolares em fase de transição para a vida adulta.Palavras-chave: Fatores de Risco. Comportamento do adolescente. Percepção. Doenças Cardiovasculares.AbstractIntroduction: Adoption of healthy habits towards cardiovascular protection must begin in childhood and adolescence, in order to prevent risk factors and reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, there is lack of information about how these age groups notice cardiovascular protection factors. Objective: To evaluate the perception of healthy habits as protection factors for cardiovascular disease among high school students. Methods: Cross-sectional study evaluating the perception of healthy habits in high school students between two distinct schools, a public school and a private school. Students were randomly investigated using the Questionnaire of Perception of Healthy Habits (QPHAS). Logistic regression analysis was used to detect associations between higher perceptions and sex, age, high school year and type of school. Results: 474 students participated and only 67% obtained rates equal or greater than 75% of correct responses for perception of healthy habits. Private school students had higher perception of risk factors for cardiovascular protection than public school students (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.3 to 3.7, p = 0.002). Perception of healthy habits almost doubles among high school grades as level of education increases (OR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.2-2.5, p = 0.001). Conclusion: Perception of healthy habits concerning protection factors for cardiovascular disease increases along the education level, and is significantly lower in public school students in transition to adulthood.Keywords: Risk factors. Adolescent behavior. Perception. Cardiovascular diseases

A search for ultra-high-energy photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory exploiting air-shower universality

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive detector to primary photons with energies above ∼0.2 EeV. It measures extensive air showers using a hybrid technique that combines a fluorescence detector (FD) with a ground array of particle detectors (SD). The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth at the shower maximum (X$_{max}$) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced background. Using observables measured by the FD and SD, three photon searches in different energy bands are performed. In particular, between threshold energies of 1-10 EeV, a new analysis technique has been developed by combining the FD-based measurement of X$_{max}$ with the SD signal through a parameter related to its muon content, derived from the universality of the air showers. This technique has led to a better photon/hadron separation and, consequently, to a higher search sensitivity, resulting in a tighter upper limit than before. The outcome of this new analysis is presented here, along with previous results in the energy ranges below 1 EeV and above 10 EeV. From the data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in about 15 years of operation, the most stringent constraints on the fraction of photons in the cosmic flux are set over almost three decades in energy

Study on multi-ELVES in the Pierre Auger Observatory

Since 2013, the four sites of the Fluorescence Detector (FD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory record ELVES with a dedicated trigger. These UV light emissions are correlated to distant lightning strikes. The length of recorded traces has been increased from 100 μs (2013), to 300 μs (2014-16), to 900 μs (2017-present), to progressively extend the observation of the light emission towards the vertical of the causative lightning and beyond. A large fraction of the observed events shows double ELVES within the time window, and, in some cases, even more complex structures are observed. The nature of the multi-ELVES is not completely understood but may be related to the different types of lightning in which they are originated. For example, it is known that Narrow Bipolar Events can produce double ELVES, and Energetic In-cloud Pulses, occurring between the main negative and upper positive charge layer of clouds, can induce double and even quadruple ELVES in the ionosphere. This report shows the seasonal and daily dependence of the time gap, amplitude ratio, and correlation between the pulse widths of the peaks in a sample of 1000+ multi-ELVES events recorded during the period 2014-20. The events have been compared with data from other satellite and ground-based sensing devices to study the correlation of their properties with lightning observables such as altitude and polarity

Extraction of the Muon Signals Recorded with the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory Using Recurrent Neural Networks

We present a method based on the use of Recurrent Neural Networks to extract the muon component from the time traces registered with water-Cherenkov detector (WCD) stations of the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The design of the WCDs does not allow to separate the contribution of muons to the time traces obtained from the WCDs from those of photons, electrons and positrons for all events. Separating the muon and electromagnetic components is crucial for the determination of the nature of the primary cosmic rays and properties of the hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies. We trained a neural network to extract the muon and the electromagnetic components from the WCD traces using a large set of simulated air showers, with around 450 000 simulated events. For training and evaluating the performance of the neural network, simulated events with energies between 1018.5, eV and 1020 eV and zenith angles below 60 degrees were used. We also study the performance of this method on experimental data of the Pierre Auger Observatory and show that our predicted muon lateral distributions agree with the parameterizations obtained by the AGASA collaboration