Calçada pública – Estudo de caso: Acessibilidade na Avenida Getúlio Vargas / Public sidewalk – Case study: Accessibility on Avenida Getúlio Vargas

De forma qual obtenha-se maior conhecimento e clareza a respeito da acessibilidade de pessoas portadoras de deficiência, o presente trabalho através do estudo de caso na Avenida Getúlio Vargas, cidade de Manaus, tem o objetivo geral de apontar as condições da via em relação à mobilidade para Pessoas com Deficiências e, portanto, delimitando a partir dos objetivos específicos: Definir Acessibilidade; Pontuar as dificuldades que pessoas com mobilidade reduzida enfrentam todos os dias na via, e Citar as principais falhas voltadas à acessibilidade de pessoas com deficiência ao longo da via. O estudo justifica-se na necessidade de melhores estudos dentro da Engenharia Civil para proporcionar maior acessibilidade as pessoas com deficiência na cidade de Manaus. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória, de dados qualitativos obtidos em pesquisa de campo. Foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada com pessoas portadoras de deficiência na Av. Getúlio Vargas, gerando gráficos para melhor análise dos resultados obtidos no estudo. Conclui-se que embora tenha sido criadas leis nos âmbitos federais, estaduais e municipais, é preciso maiores mudanças nos locais do estudo, tais como calçadas adequadas, corrimão de apoio paras as rampas de acesso e sinalização específica para proporcionar aos PCDs melhores condições de tráfego

All clinically-relevant blood components transmit prion disease following a single blood transfusion: a sheep model of vCJD

Variant CJD (vCJD) is an incurable, infectious human disease, likely arising from the consumption of BSE-contaminated meat products. Whilst the epidemic appears to be waning, there is much concern that vCJD infection may be perpetuated in humans by the transfusion of contaminated blood products. Since 2004, several cases of transfusion-associated vCJD transmission have been reported and linked to blood collected from pre-clinically affected donors. Using an animal model in which the disease manifested resembles that of humans affected with vCJD, we examined which blood components used in human medicine are likely to pose the greatest risk of transmitting vCJD via transfusion. We collected two full units of blood from BSE-infected donor animals during the pre-clinical phase of infection. Using methods employed by transfusion services we prepared red cell concentrates, plasma and platelets units (including leucoreduced equivalents). Following transfusion, we showed that all components contain sufficient levels of infectivity to cause disease following only a single transfusion and also that leucoreduction did not prevent disease transmission. These data suggest that all blood components are vectors for prion disease transmission, and highlight the importance of multiple control measures to minimise the risk of human to human transmission of vCJD by blood transfusion

Improving response rates using a monetary incentive for patient completion of questionnaires: an observational study

Background: Poor response rates to postal questionnaires can introduce bias and reduce the statistical power of a study. To improve response rates in our trial in primary care we tested the effect of introducing an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound for the completion of postal questionnaires. Methods: We recruited patients in general practice with knee problems from sites across the United Kingdom. An evidence-based strategy was used to follow-up patients at twelve months with postal questionnaires. This included an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound to patients for the completion and return of questionnaires. The first 105 patients did not receive the 5 pound incentive, but the subsequent 442 patients did. We used logistic regression to analyse the effect of introducing a monetary incentive to increase the response to postal questionnaires. Results: The response rate following reminders for the historical controls was 78.1% ( 82 of 105) compared with 88.0% ( 389 of 442) for those patients who received the 5 pound payment (diff = 9.9%, 95% CI 2.3% to 19.1%). Direct payments significantly increased the odds of response ( adjusted odds ratio = 2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.0, P = 0.009) with only 12 of 442 patients declining the payment. The incentive did not save costs to the trial - the extra cost per additional respondent was almost 50 pound. Conclusion: The direct payment of 5 pound significantly increased the completion of postal questionnaires at negligible increase in cost for an adequately powered study

Kepler and TESS observations of PG 1159-035

PG 1159-035 is the prototype of the PG 1159 hot (pre-)white dwarf pulsators. This important object was observed during the Kepler satellite K2 mission for 69 days in 59 s cadence mode and by the TESS satellite for 25 days in 20 s cadence mode. We present a detailed asteroseismic analysis of those data. We identify a total of 107 frequencies representing 32 ℓ = 1 modes, 27 frequencies representing 12 ℓ = 2 modes, and eight combination frequencies. The combination frequencies and the modes with very high k values represent new detections. The multiplet structure reveals an average splitting of 4.0 ± 0.4 μHz for ℓ = 1 and 6.8 ± 0.2 μHz for ℓ = 2, indicating a rotation period of 1.4 ± 0.1 days in the region of period formation. In the Fourier transform of the light curve, we find a significant peak at 8.904 ± 0.003 μHz suggesting a surface rotation period of 1.299 ± 0.002 days. We also present evidence that the observed periods change on timescales shorter than those predicted by current evolutionary models. Our asteroseismic analysis finds an average period spacing for ℓ = 1 of 21.28 ± 0.02 s. The ℓ = 2 modes have a mean spacing of 12.97 ± 0.4 s. We performed a detailed asteroseismic fit by comparing the observed periods with those of evolutionary models. The best-fit model has Teff = 129, 600 ± 11 100 K, M* = 0.565 ± 0.024M⊙, and $\mathrm{log}g={7.41}_{-0.54}^{+0.38}$, within the uncertainties of the spectroscopic determinations. We argue for future improvements in the current models, e.g., on the overshooting in the He-burning stage, as the best-fit model does not predict excitation for all of the pulsations detected in PG 1159-035

Factors associated with hospital readmission in sickle cell disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sickle cell disease is the most frequent hereditary disease in Brazil, and people with the disease may be hospitalised several times in the course of their lives. The purpose of this study was to estimate the hazard ratios of factors associated with the time between hospital admissions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study sample comprised all patients admitted, from 2000 to 2004, to a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro State, south-east Brazil, as a result of acute complications from sickle cell disease (SCD). Considering the statistical problem of studying individuals with multiple events over time, the following extensions of Cox's proportional hazard ratio model were compared: the independent increment marginal model (Andersen-Gill) and the random effects model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study considered 71 patients, who were admitted 223 times for acute events related to SCD. The hazard ratios for hospital readmission were statistically significant for the prior occurrence of vaso-occlusive crisis and development of renal failure. However, analysis of residuals of the marginal model revealed evidence of non-proportionality for some covariates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>the results from applying the two models were generally similar, indicating that the findings are not highly sensitive to different approaches. The better fit by the frailty model suggests that there are unmeasured individual factors with impact on hospital readmission.</p

ER and HER2 expression are positively correlated in HER2 non-overexpressing breast cancer

PMCID: PMC3446380This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Retail investor attention and IPO valuation

Given restrictions placed on communication with prospective investors, retail investor attention can help firms/underwriters with the task of initially valuing an IPO. Using Google search volume to proxy for retail investor attention, we find that the presence of and an increase in retail attention following initial filing but prior to initial pricing are positively related to initial valuations. Our results are robust to alternative matching methods to identify our matched sample of non-IPO firms and to including several controls for institutional demand. We conclude that retail investor attention plays a critical role in the early stages of IPO valuation

Photo-antagonism of the GABAA receptor

Neurotransmitter receptor trafficking is fundamentally important for synaptic transmission and neural network activity. GABAA receptors and inhibitory synapses are vital components of brain function, yet much of our knowledge regarding receptor mobility and function at inhibitory synapses is derived indirectly from using recombinant receptors, antibody-tagged native receptors and pharmacological treatments. Here we describe the use of a set of research tools that can irreversibly bind to and affect the function of recombinant and neuronal GABAA receptors following ultraviolet photoactivation. These compounds are based on the competitive antagonist gabazine and incorporate a variety of photoactive groups. By using site-directed mutagenesis and ligand-docking studies, they reveal new areas of the GABA binding site at the interface between receptor β and α subunits. These compounds enable the selected inactivation of native GABAA receptor populations providing new insight into the function of inhibitory synapses and extrasynaptic receptors in controlling neuronal excitation