The development of a business intelligence web application to support the decision-making process regarding absenteeism in the workplace

Nowadays, one of the biggest concerns of industries all over the world is situations regarding absenteeism, since it has a great impact on the productivity and economy of companies, as well as on the health of their employees. The major causes of absenteeism appear to be work accidents and sickness leaves, which lead to the attempt by companies of understanding how the workload is related to the health of their collaborators and, consequently, to absenteeism. Thus, this paper proposes the design and development of a Web Application based on Business Intelligence indicators in order to help the health and human resources professionals of a Portuguese company analyse the relation between absenteeism and the health and lifestyle of employees, with the intention of concluding whether the work executed on the company is harming workers’ health. Furthermore, it is intended to discover the principal motives for the numerous and more frequent absences in this company, so that it is possible to decrease the absenteeism rate and, hence, improve the decision-making process. This platform will also provide higher quality healthcare and the possibility to find patterns in the absence of collaborators, as well as reduce time-waste and errors.This work has been supported by FCT –Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/201

Bayesian molecular clock dating of species divergences in the genomics era

It has been five decades since the proposal of the molecular clock hypothesis, which states that the rate of evolution at the molecular level is constant through time and among species. This hypothesis has become a powerful tool in evolutionary biology, making it possible to use molecular sequences to estimate the geological ages of species divergence events. With recent advances in Bayesian clock dating methodology and the explosive accumulation of genetic sequence data, molecular clock dating has found widespread applications, from tracking virus pandemics, to studying the macroevolutionary process of speciation and extinction, to estimating a timescale for Life on Earth

The Re-Emergence of H1N1 Influenza Virus in 1977: A Cautionary Tale for Estimating Divergence Times Using Biologically Unrealistic Sampling Dates

In 1977, H1N1 influenza A virus reappeared after a 20-year absence. Genetic analysis indicated that this strain was missing decades of nucleotide sequence evolution, suggesting an accidental release of a frozen laboratory strain into the general population. Recently, this strain and its descendants were included in an analysis attempting to date the origin of pandemic influenza virus without accounting for the missing decades of evolution. Here, we investigated the effect of using viral isolates with biologically unrealistic sampling dates on estimates of divergence dates. Not accounting for missing sequence evolution produced biased results and increased the variance of date estimates of the most recent common ancestor of the re-emergent lineages and across the entire phylogeny. Reanalysis of the H1N1 sequences excluding isolates with unrealistic sampling dates indicates that the 1977 re-emergent lineage was circulating for approximately one year before detection, making it difficult to determine the geographic source of reintroduction. We suggest that a new method is needed to account for viral isolates with unrealistic sampling dates

Modeling emergency department visit patterns for infectious disease complaints: results and application to disease surveillance

BACKGROUND: Concern over bio-terrorism has led to recognition that traditional public health surveillance for specific conditions is unlikely to provide timely indication of some disease outbreaks, either naturally occurring or induced by a bioweapon. In non-traditional surveillance, the use of health care resources are monitored in "near real" time for the first signs of an outbreak, such as increases in emergency department (ED) visits for respiratory, gastrointestinal or neurological chief complaints (CC). METHODS: We collected ED CCs from 2/1/94 – 5/31/02 as a training set. A first-order model was developed for each of seven CC categories by accounting for long-term, day-of-week, and seasonal effects. We assessed predictive performance on subsequent data from 6/1/02 – 5/31/03, compared CC counts to predictions and confidence limits, and identified anomalies (simulated and real). RESULTS: Each CC category exhibited significant day-of-week differences. For most categories, counts peaked on Monday. There were seasonal cycles in both respiratory and undifferentiated infection complaints and the season-to-season variability in peak date was summarized using a hierarchical model. For example, the average peak date for respiratory complaints was January 22, with a season-to-season standard deviation of 12 days. This season-to-season variation makes it challenging to predict respiratory CCs so we focused our effort and discussion on prediction performance for this difficult category. Total ED visits increased over the study period by 4%, but respiratory complaints decreased by roughly 20%, illustrating that long-term averages in the data set need not reflect future behavior in data subsets. CONCLUSION: We found that ED CCs provided timely indicators for outbreaks. Our approach led to successful identification of a respiratory outbreak one-to-two weeks in advance of reports from the state-wide sentinel flu surveillance and of a reported increase in positive laboratory test results

Differential expression of MUC genes in endometrial and cervical tissues and tumors

BACKGROUND: Mucin glycoprotein's are major components of mucus and are considered an important class of tumor associated antigens. The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of human MUC genes (MUC1, MUC2, MUC5B, MUC5AC and MUC8) in human endometrium and cervix, and to compare and quantitate the expression of MUC genes in normal and cancerous tissues. METHODS: Slot blot techniques were used to study the MUC gene expression and quantitation. RESULTS: Of the five-mucin genes studied, MUC1, MUC5B and MUC8 showed high expression levels in the normal and cancerous endometrial and cervical tissues, MUC2 and MUC5AC showed considerably lower expression. Statistically, higher levels of MUC1, MUC5B and MUC8 were observed in endometrial adenocarcinomas compared to normal tissues. In contrast, only MUC1 levels increased with no significant changes in expression of MUC5B and MUC8 in cervical tumors over normal cervical tissues. CONCLUSION: Endometrial tumors showed increased expression of MUC1, MUC5B and MUC8 over normal tissues. Only MUC1 appears to be increase, in cervical tumors. All the studied tissues showed high and consistent expression of MUC8 mRNA. Low to neglible levels of MUC2 and MUC5AC were observed in all studied endometrial and cervical tissues

Novel, synergistic antifungal combinations that target translation fidelity

There is an unmet need for new antifungal or fungicide treatments, as resistance to existing treatments grows. Combination treatments help to combat resistance. Here we develop a novel, effective target for combination antifungal therapy. Different aminoglycoside antibiotics combined with different sulphate-transport inhibitors produced strong, synergistic growth-inhibition of several fungi. Combinations decreased the respective MICs by ≥8 fold. Synergy was suppressed in yeast mutants resistant to effects of sulphate-mimetics (like chromate or molybdate) on sulphate transport. By different mechanisms, aminoglycosides and inhibition of sulphate transport cause errors in mRNA translation. The mistranslation rate was stimulated up to 10-fold when the agents were used in combination, consistent with this being the mode of synergistic action. A range of undesirable fungi were susceptible to synergistic inhibition by the combinations, including the human pathogens Candida albicans, C. glabrata and Cryptococcus neoformans, the food spoilage organism Zygosaccharomyces bailii and the phytopathogens Rhizoctonia solani and Zymoseptoria tritici. There was some specificity as certain fungi were unaffected. There was no synergy against bacterial or mammalian cells. The results indicate that translation fidelity is a promising new target for combinatorial treatment of undesirable fungi, the combinations requiring substantially decreased doses of active components compared to each agent alone

Brazilian multicenter study on prevalence of preterm birth and associated factors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The occurrence of preterm birth remains a complex public health condition. It is considered the main cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, resulting in a high likelihood of sequelae in surviving children. With variable incidence in several countries, it has grown markedly in the last decades. In Brazil, however, there are still difficulties to estimate its real occurrence. Therefore, it is essential to establish the prevalence and causes of this condition in order to propose prevention actions. This study intend to collect information from hospitals nationwide on the prevalence of preterm births, their associated socioeconomic and environmental factors, diagnostic and treatment methods resulting from causes such as spontaneous preterm labor, prelabor rupture of membranes, and therapeutic preterm birth, as well as neonatal results.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>This proposal is a multicenter cross-sectional study plus a nested case-control study, to be implemented in 27 reference obstetric centers in several regions of Brazil (North: 1; Northeast: 10; Central-west: 1; Southeast: 13; South: 2). For the cross sectional component, the participating centers should perform, during a period of six months, a prospective surveillance of all patients hospitalized to give birth, in order to identify preterm birth cases and their main causes. In the first three months of the study, an analysis of the factors associated with preterm birth will also be carried out, comparing women who have preterm birth with those who deliver at term. For the prevalence study, 37,000 births will be evaluated (at term and preterm), corresponding to approximately half the deliveries of all participating centers in 12 months. For the case-control study component, the estimated sample size is 1,055 women in each group (cases and controls). The total number of preterm births estimated to be followed in both components of the study is around 3,600. Data will be collected through a questionnaire all patients will answer after delivery. The data will then be encoded in an electronic form and sent online by internet to a central database. The data analysis will be carried out by subgroups according to gestational age at preterm birth, its probable causes, therapeutic management, and neonatal outcomes. Then, the respective rates, ratios and relative risks will be estimated for the possible predictors.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>These findings will provide information on preterm births in Brazil and their main social and biological risk factors, supporting health policies and the implementation of clinical trials on preterm birth prevention and treatment strategies, a condition with many physical and emotional consequences to children and their families.</p