Proposal of a lightweight, offline, full-text search engine for an mHealth app

A patients ability to recall and retrieve health information contributes to a better health management. HealthTalks was developed to address these issues by recording a summary of a medical appointment, uttered by the physician, and transcribing it. For each appointment, the user can also take free-text notes. Nowadays, search engines have become a ubiquitous part of everyones life and are expected on most applications. Here, we describe the development of a search engine for HealthTalks. The apps characteristics demand a lightweight and offline engine, which requires a specific solution rather than an existing library or service. Our approach combines SQLites Full-Text Search 4 module, which includes n-gram indexing, with traditional information retrieval techniques to rank the documents. We created a test collection with summaries of clinical appointments (our documents), information needs, search queries, and relevance assessments for an initial search engine evaluation. Using this test collection, we assessed performance using NDCG@10, the first rank position of a totally relevant result, and query latency. Results are promising, with an average NDCG of 0.97. The median rank position of the first relevant result varies between 1.9 and 1.95, depending on the use of 4-gram character tokenization, an aspect that did not significantly affect the results. We expect this work to be useful for future developments of full-text search engines in mobile environments

Discovering trends in brand interest through topic models

Topic Modeling is a well-known unsupervised learning technique used when dealing with text data. It is used to discover latent patterns, called topics, in a collection of documents (corpus). This technique provides a convenient way to retrieve information from unclassified and unstructured text. Topic Modeling tasks have been performed for tracking events/topics/trends in different domains such as academic, public health, marketing, news, and so on. In this paper, we propose a framework for extracting topics from a large dataset of short messages, for brand interest tracking purposes. The framework consists training LDA topic models for each brand using time intervals, and then applying the model on aggregated documents. Additionally, we present a set of preprocessing tasks that helped to improve the topic models and the corresponding outputs. The experiments demonstrate that topic modeling can successfully track people’s discussions on Social Networks even in massive datasets, and ca pture those topics spiked by real-life events.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Spatio-temporal analysis of brand interest using social networks

Social Networks have become part of many people's lives, and applications like Facebook and Twitter are used on a daily basis by millions of users. In such applications, users share their feelings, opinions, and experiences. Twitter in particular, is used to talk about diverse topics, including brands and their products and services. In this paper, we analyze how brand interest is reflected on Twitter and how this platform can be used to monitor mentions of specific brands, as an indicator of brand interest. Our methodology is based on time, location, and the number of brand-related tweets to perform a spatio-temporal analysis. This type of analysis can provide relevant insights into how brand interest evolves over the time and how it might differ from one country to another. We have collected four years' worth of data and report trends, differences, and similarities in terms of brand interest for each brand and for each country.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Active and sedentary behaviors in youth (6-14 years old): Data from the IAN-AF survey (2015-2016)

Background: Strategic health interventions must be guided by effective surveillance systems that monitor population trends and patterns, therefore we aimed to provide youth's (6–14 years) national prevalence estimates of physical activity (PA), active outdoor play (AOP), sedentary behaviur (SB), and structured PA (SPA). Methods: Measures of moderate-to-vigorous PA, SB, AOP, and SPA, were obtained for 719 participants in 2 groups (6–9 and 10–14 years) using diaries and questionnaires. National estimates were calculated, by sex, region, and parental education. Results: While 54% (95%CI: 47.4–61.3) of youth meet PA recommendations, the prevalence is lower for the older group (P = .034). Similarly, AOP decreases with age both on weekends, from 94.3% (95%CI: 90.8–97.8) to 68.7% (95%CI: 62.2–75.1), and on weekdays from 84% (95%CI: 76.5–91.5) to 64.8% (95%CI: 59–70.6). Watching TV for ≥2 h/day is extremely high on weekends [71.3% (95%CI: 65.4–77.2)] and more prevalent in boys than girls on weekdays (P = .043). Higher parental education significantly increased SPA and active time. Time in SB was greater in boys [7.26 h (95%CI: 6.87–7.65)] than girls [6.48 h (95%CI: 6.09–6.87)] and increased with age (P < .001). Conclusions: Almost half of the youth failed to achieve PA guidelines, whereas 71% exceeded recommended TV time on weekends, suggesting the urgency of intervention measures.This study was conducted in the context of the IAN-AF, National Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey funded by the EEAGRANTS programme-initiatives in Public Health (EEA-GRANTS PT06_00088SI3). AP and JM were supported by grants: FCT: UID/DTP/00617/2019 and AP by SFRH/BPD/ 105071/2014

Perceived associations between excessive sugar intake and health conditions

Excessive sugar intake represents an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases (e.g., obesity, cardiometabolic diseases, and dental diseases). Still, it is unclear whether people are aware of these adverse health outcomes. The current study systematically examined the extent to which people associate health conditions with excessive sugar intake. Participants (N = 1010 Portuguese volunteers) freely reported all health conditions they associated with excessive sugar consumption and rated the strength of these associations for eight specific health conditions. All participants reported health conditions associated with excessive sugar intake, with the most frequent being risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes), cardiovascular diseases, oral problems, oncological and mental health conditions. Moreover, participants considered diabetes, overweight/obesity, and oral problems as being the conditions most related to excessive sugar intake. Women, participants with children in the household, and experts in health/nutrition rated excessive sugar intake as being more strongly linked to some of the health conditions. The identification of the health conditions that people associate with excessive sugar consumption may inform policymakers, educators, and health professionals and support interventions targeting the general public or specific groups (e.g., overweight people) in raising awareness of potential adverse health outcomes and, ultimately, contribute to reducing sugar intake.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risk factors associated with Toxoplasma gondii infection in dairy cattle, State of Rio de Janeiro.

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common parasitic zoonoses throughout the world. Infection in man and animals varies in different geographical areas influenced by many environmental conditions. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in cattle in Brazil ranges from 1.03 to 71%. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in 58 out of 453 farms in the South Fluminense Paraiba Valley, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over 3-year-old cattle (n=589) from dairy herds were selected for blood collection and detection of anti-T. gondii antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence reaction (IFA) with initial titration of 1:16; titers ? 64 were considered positive. Univariate analysis of risk factors showed that cats in contact with cattle, cats in contact with drinking water, and number of cats were associated with T. gondii seroprevalence. Logistic regression revealed a two-fold increased risk for infection of cattle (p=0.0138) through larger number of cats (>3) compared with low numbers of cats (1-2) on the farm. In contrast, the presence of chickens was considered a protective factor (p=0.025). Toxoplasmose é uma das mais comuns zoonoses parasitárias do mundo. Infecções em seres humanos e em animais variam nas diferentes áreas geográficas influenciadas pelas condições ambientais. A soroprevalência da infecção por Toxoplasma gondii em bovinos no Brasil varia de 1,03 a 71,0%. O estudo transversal foi realizado em 58 de um total de 453 propriedades na região Sul Fluminense do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Vacas leiteiras acima de 3 anos de idade (n=589) foram selecionadas para coleta de sangue e a detecção de anticorpos anti-T. gondii foi feita pelo teste de imunofluorescência indireta (IFI) com titulação inicial de 1:16 e títulos ? 64 foram considerados positivos. Após análise univariada dos fatores de risco, gatos em contato com bovinos, em contato com a água de beber dos animais e o número de gatos foram associados com a soroprevalência de T. gondii. A regressão logística demonstrou que o número maior de gatos (>3) teve um risco duas vezes maior (p=0,0138) que propriedades que tinham um número menor de gatos (1-2). Em contraste, a presença de galinhas foi considerada um fator de proteção (p=0,025)

Characteristics and outcomes of heart failure hospitalization before implementation of a heart failure clinic: The PRECIC study

Objective: This study aims to characterize patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (HF) in an internal medicine department and their one-year mortality and rate of rehospitalization for decompensated HF. Methods: This retrospective observational study enrolled all patients discharged in 2012 after hospitalization for acute HF. Discharge summaries, clinical records and telephone interviews were analysed. The data reports to the year before implementation of a heart failure clinic. Results: Four hundred and twenty-nine patients were enrolled, with a mean age of 79 years, 62.5% female. The most prevalent comorbidity and etiology was hypertension (86.7%) and the most frequent decompensation trigger was infection. HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) was present in 70.5%. In-hospital mortality was 7.9%. At discharge more than half of the patients were prescribed beta-blockers (52.8%) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (52%). Women presented a significantly higher proportion of HFpEF than men (75.3% vs. 62.7%, p=0.01). Patients with diabetes and those with ischemic etiology had significantly higher pro-portions of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (34.8% vs. 24.3% in non-diabetic patients,p=0.027, and 56.2% vs. 15.6% for other etiologies, p<0.001). The HFrEF group were more fre-quently discharged under beta-blockers and spironolactone (75.2% vs. 46.4% in the HFpEF group,p<0.001 and 31.2% vs. 12.6% in the HFpEF group, p<0.001, respectively). Mortality was 34.3%and rehospitalization for HF was 30.5% in one-year follow-up.Conclusions: The population characterized is an elderly one, mainly female and with HFpEF.Nearly a third of patients died and/or were rehospitalized in the year following discharge

Uso de ratos de laboratório para determinar o valor nutritivo do milho em diversos níveis de carunchamento.

Com o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos do milho carunchado e a qualidade de sua proteína para ratos em crescimento foi conduzido um experimento no biotério do Departamento de Nutrição/UFV. Trinta ratos (fêmeas) recém-desmamados, da linhagem Wistar, com 22 dias de idade e peso médio de 53,9 ± 3,2 g foram distribuídos em delineamento inteiramente casualizado para cinco tratamentos e seis repetições com um animal por unidade experimental. Os tratamentos consistiram de uma dieta basal (controle positivo), como um padrão de caseína, quatro dietas com milho que continha 2%; 10%; 17% e 38% de carunchamento e uma dieta isenta de proteína. O ensaio teve duração de 14 dias. Foram observados maior ganho de peso médio diário (GPMD), maior consumo de ração médio diário (CRMD), melhor conversão alimentar (CA) e maior razão protéica líquida (NPR) nos ratos que receberam a dieta padrão de caseína do que nas dietas que continham o milho carunchado, mas não foi observado diferença entre as dietas que continham diferentes níveis de carunchamento. Por outro lado, foi observado maiores coeficientes de digestibilidade de MS, PB e ED que na dieta padrão de caseína do que nas dietas contendo milho carunchado, embora maiores coeficientes tenham sido observados com 17% e que os valores semelhantes entre 2 e 38% provavelmente estejam relacionados ao processo de carunchamento. Com base nos dados do experimento, pode-se concluir que o aumento do nível de carunchamento do milho não afetou o desempenho dos animais e que a razão protéica líquida (NPR) do milho foi, em média, 57,8% do valor da dieta padrão de caseína. As variações observadas nos coeficientes de digestibilidade do milho podem ser atribuídos ao processo de carunchamento