Dry powder formulations for antibiotic pulmonary delivery

In this work, dry powder formulations (DPFs) containing fusidic acid were produced for the purpose of studying the pulmonary delivery of this drug. As fusidic acid is poorly soluble in aqueous media, this drug was conjugated with two different hydrophilic polymers to increase the bioavailability of the drug. The two hydrophilic polymers used were methoxypolyethylene glycol amine, a commercial product, and poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline), that was synthesized by supercritical-assisted CO2 polymerization and then end-capped with ethylenediamine. The conjugation compounds were synthesized in one-pot reaction and in inert atmosphere conditions. The compounds were characterized in relation to their physical-chemical properties (NMR, MS) and their antibacterial properties (against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA JE2, and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus, MSSA ATCC 25923 and UAMS-1, strains). The biological test results indicate that both conjugated compounds have antimicrobial activity, but the fusidic acid has the lower values of minimum inhibitory concentration in all the tested pathogens. Trehalose-leucine dry powders were produced through the Supercritical CO2 Assisted Spray-Drying (SASD) technique, testing different operating conditions such as temperature, pressure and CO2/solution flow ratio. After finding the optimal operation conditions, three trehalose-leucine DPFs were prepared, containing fusidic or one of two conjugated compounds. All DPFs were characterized in relation to their morphology (Morphologi G3, SEM), to their physical-chemical properties (FT-IR, Water Content, Quantification of fusidic acid) and aerodynamic performance (Andersen Cascade Impactor measurements - to obtain data such as the fine particle fraction (FPF), emitted fraction (EF) and the mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD)). The resulting microparticles showed aerodynamics diameters between 1 and 7 μm, yields up to 67% and FPF up to 62%, making them suitable for pulmonary delivery

A Perception of the Practice of Software Security and Performance Verification

Security and performance are critical nonfunctional requirements for software systems. Thus, it is crucial to include verification activities during software development to identify defects related to such requirements, avoiding their occurrence after release. Software verification, including testing and reviews, encompasses a set of activities that have a purpose of analyzing the software searching for defects. Security and performance verification are activities that look at defects related to these specific quality attributes. Few empirical studies have been focused on how is the state of the practice in security and performance verification. This paper presents the results of a case study performed in the context of Brazilian organizations aiming to characterize security and performance verification practices. Additionally, it provides a set of conjectures indicating recommendations to improve security and performance verification activities.acceptedVersio

Types, equations, dimensions and the Pi theorem

The languages of mathematical physics and modelling are endowed with a rich "grammar of dimensions" that common abstractions of programming languages fail to represent. We propose a dependently typed domain-specific language (embedded in Idris) that captures this grammar. We apply it to explain basic notions of dimensional analysis and Buckingham's Pi theorem. We hope that the language makes mathematical physics more accessible to computer scientists and functional programming more palatable to modelers and physicists.Comment: Submitted for publication in the "Journal of Functional Programming" in August 202

Exposición a la violencia y el consumo de sustancias entre estudiantes en el sur de Brasil

Abstract: Cross-sectional study with probabilistic sample of 3,547 adolescents aged from 12 to 17 years old, 54.2% girls, from southern Brazilian schools that analysed the association between exposure to violence and substance use. Gender and age distribution in general population were controlled and sample proportions were assured. A self report measure was used to evaluate sociodemographic conditions, violence, substance use, psychiatric disorders, school performance, parental practices and relationship with parents and teachers. Descriptive analysis were hold, prevalence ratio for substance use were estimated by Poisson Regression, preceded by control for design effect by school variable. The analysis were adjusted by gender, alcohol and tobacco use by the parents and psychiatric disorders. Association between violence exposure and use in the year of all drugs investigated was found: tobacco [PR=2.49 (CI95%: 1.92-3.25) p&lt;.001], alcohol [PR=1.46 (CI95%: 1.35-1.59) p&lt;.001] and illicit drugs [PR=1.60 (CI95%: 1.27-2.01) p&lt;.001]. When adjusting also for the use of other substances (for example: cocaine, crack), the association remained only for tobacco and alcohol. Prevalence substance use found are similar to national levels and there are evidences of significant and strong association of substance use and exposure to violence at school, mainly for alcohol and tobacco. It is recommended that public policies to improve school climate and school context should focus on school staff skills and competencies to prevent school violence and licit or illicit substance use by Brazilian adolescents.Exposición a la violencia y el consumo de sustancias entre estudiantes en el sur de BrasilResumen: Este estudio transversal con muestra probabilística de 3.547 adolescentes, 54.2% niñas, media de edad 14 años (SD=1.66), realizado en escuelas brasileñas del sur de Brasil, analizó la asociación entre la exposición a la violencia y el consumo de sustancias. El género y la edad fueron controlados y la proporción de la muestra fue asegurada. Una medida de autoinforme ha evaluado datos sociodemográficos, la violencia, el consumo de sustancias, trastornos psiquiátricos, rendimiento escolar, prácticas parentales y la relación de los jóvenes con padres y profesores. Se realizó análisis descriptivo y la razón de prevalencia para el consumo de sustancias fue estimada por regresión de Poisson, precedida por el control para efecto de la variable escuela. El análisis fue ajustada por sexo y el consumo de alcohol y tabaco por los padres, así como por los trastornos psiquiátricos. Asociaciones entre la exposición a la violencia y el uso en el año de todos las sustancias investigadas fueron encontradas: tabaco [PR=2.49 (IC 95%: 1.92 - 3.25) p&lt;.001], alcohol [PR=1.46 (IC95%: 1.35-1.59) p&lt;.001] y drogas ilícitas [PR=1.60 (IC95%: 1.27 - 2.1) p&lt;.001]. Al ajustar para el uso de cualquier sustancia de otros grupos, la asociación sólo quedó para el consumo de tabaco y de alcohol. La prevalencia del consumo de sustancias encontrada fue similar a los niveles nacionales. Se recomienda que las políticas públicas para mejorar el clima de las escuelas brasileñas se centren en las competencias del equipo escolar para prevenir la violencia y el consumo de sustancias por adolescentes</jats:p

Experimental Evaluation of a Checklist-Based Inspection Technique to Verify the Compliance of Software Systems with the Brazilian General Data Protection Law

Recent laws to ensure the security and protection of personal data establish new software requirements. Consequently, new technologies are needed to guarantee software quality under the perception of privacy and protection of personal data. Therefore, we created a checklist-based inspection technique (LGPDCheck) to support the identification of defects in software artifacts based on the principles established by the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD). Objective/Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of LGPDCheck for verifying privacy and data protection (PDP) in software artifacts compared to ad-hoc techniques. Method: To assess LGPDCheck and ad-hoc techniques experimentally through a quasi-experiment (two factors, five treatments). The data will be collected from IoT-based health software systems built by software engineering students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The data analyses will compare results from ad-hoc and LGPDCheck inspections, the participant's effectiveness and efficiency in each trial, defects' variance and standard deviation, and time spent with the reviews. The data will be screened for outliers, and normality and homoscedasticity will be verified using the Shapiro-Wilk and Levene tests. Nonparametric or parametric tests, such as the Wilcoxon or Student's t-tests, will be applied as appropriate.Comment: Registered Report accepted for presentation at 17th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. New Orleans, Louisiana, United State

Fiscal rules in Brazil: an analysis of the Proposed Constitutional Amendment 241

Bibliografia: p. 305-308A proposta de emenda à Constituição que estabelece o teto para os gastos públicos (PEC 241) foi apresentada pelo governo Temer em junho de 2016 como a principal medida para ajustar as contas públicas do país. Por ao menos nove anos, a despesa federal deverá se limitar ao teto definido pelos gastos de 2016 corrigidos pela inflação. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar tal proposta em seus aspectos teóricos e práticos. Para isso, apresenta-se a literatura sobre regras fiscais, destacando o caso específico de regras para despesa, e avalia-se a proposta à luz da experiência internacional. Em seguida, são realizadas simulações para comparar cenários distintos de gasto público e dívida bruta com e sem a adoção do teto. Os resultados mostram que, sem efetiva redução dos gastos projetados com previdência, essa PEC provocará forte redução nas outras despesas do governo. Assim, a reforma da previdência passa a ser crucial para manter a credibilidade da regra proposta.An amendment to the Brazilian Constitution was proposed by President Temer in June 2016 to adopt a fiscal rule on federal expenditures as the main measure to solve Brazilian fiscal imbalances. The proposed rule defines that federal expenditure must not have real growth for at least nine years. The aim of this work is to analyze the proposed rule in both theoretical and empirical aspects. First, we present the review of the literature on fiscal rules and compare the proposed rule to the international experience. Second, we run simulations in order to compare the fiscal variables path until 2032 in different scenarios, with and without this rule. The results show that the proposed rule would impose a strong reduction on all other expenditures categories than pension expenditures until 2032 in the absence of a pension reform. Thus, the conclusion is that a pension reform becomes crucial to maintain the credibility of the new fiscal rule

Alternatives for testing of context-aware software systems in non-academic settings:results from a <i>Rapid Review</i>

Context: Context-awareness challenges the engineering of contemporary software systems and jeopardizes their testing. The variation of context represents a relevant behavior that deepens the limitations of available software testing practices and technologies. However, such software systems are mainstream. Therefore, researchers in non-academic settings also face challenges when developing and testing contemporary software systems. Objective: To understand how researchers deal with the variation of context when testing context-aware software systems developed in non-academic settings. Method: To undertake a secondary study (Rapid Review) to uncover the necessary evidence from primary sources describing the testing of context-aware software systems outside academia. Results: The current testing initiatives in non-academic settings aim to generate or improve test suites that can deal with the context variation and the sheer volume of test input possibilities. They mostly rely on modeling the systems’ dynamic behavior and increasing computing resources to generate test inputs to achieve this. We found no evidence of test results aiming at managing context variation through the testing lifecycle process. Conclusions: So far, the identified testing initiatives and strategies are not ready for mainstream adoption. They are all domain-specific, and while the ideas and approaches can be reproduced in distinct settings, the technologies are to be re-engineered and tailored to the context-awareness of contemporary software systems in different problem domains. Further and joint investigations in academia and experiences in non-academic set- tings can evolve the body of knowledge regarding the testing of contemporary software systems in the field