Associations and community health workers: analysis and time trends over ten years of training-action

Objective To analyse the profile of the persons and associations that participated in the course, quantify peer education activities and analyse their evolution. Method A quantitative study using an analysis of the course records from 2009 to 2018 was designed for this purpose inside mihsalud program designed to promote health amongst persons in vulnerable situations in the city of Valencia (Spain). It offers a yearly training-action course of community health workers (CHW) that is attended by persons who have been proposed by associations. The associations were defined according to their population (immigrant, local or intercultural) and the CHWs according to gender, country of birth, year of course, association and continuity after training. Means and confidence intervals were calculated at 95% and a bivariate analysis was conducted in order to compare the activities that took place in 2009 to 2013 with those of 2014 to 2018. The time trends were analysed by applying linear regression models that included the different years studied as the dependent variable. Results 201 CHW of 31 nationalities were trained, 81.6% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 75.5-86.7] were women. Eighty-two associations participated, 51.2% (95% CI: 39.9-62.4] worked with culturally diverse populations. Participation by associations (p = .017) and CHWs (p = .377) increased in a statistically significant manner over the years. After the course, 35.3% (95% CI: 28.7-42.4] of the CHWs continued to collaborate voluntarily in the associations. Conclusions The results of the CHW training-action course improve over time given that a significant increase in participation by associations and women can be seen, along with a greater number of activities completed during the training. One effect of this is that CHWs are contracted or carry out voluntary activities in the associations

Higher Order Evaluation of the Critical Temperature for Interacting Homogeneous Dilute Bose Gases

We use the nonperturbative linear \delta expansion method to evaluate analytically the coefficients c_1 and c_2^{\prime \prime} which appear in the expansion for the transition temperature for a dilute, homogeneous, three dimensional Bose gas given by T_c= T_0 \{1 + c_1 a n^{1/3} + [ c_2^{\prime} \ln(a n^{1/3}) +c_2^{\prime \prime} ] a^2 n^{2/3} + {\cal O} (a^3 n)\}, where T_0 is the result for an ideal gas, a is the s-wave scattering length and n is the number density. In a previous work the same method has been used to evaluate c_1 to order-\delta^2 with the result c_1= 3.06. Here, we push the calculation to the next two orders obtaining c_1=2.45 at order-\delta^3 and c_1=1.48 at order-\delta^4. Analysing the topology of the graphs involved we discuss how our results relate to other nonperturbative analytical methods such as the self-consistent resummation and the 1/N approximations. At the same orders we obtain c_2^{\prime\prime}=101.4, c_2^{\prime \prime}=98.2 and c_2^{\prime \prime}=82.9. Our analytical results seem to support the recent Monte Carlo estimates c_1=1.32 \pm 0.02 and c_2^{\prime \prime}= 75.7 \pm 0.4.Comment: 29 pages, 3 eps figures. Minor changes, one reference added. Version in press Physical Review A (2002

Biocompatibilidade e comportamento de compósitos de hidroxiapatita em falha óssea na ulna de coelhos Biocompatibility and behavior of hydroxyapatite on bone defect on rabbit's ulna

Avaliaram-se os compósitos de hidroxiapatita sintética e carbono (HAC) e hidroxiapatita sintética, carbono e fosfato biácido de sódio (HACF), ambos na forma sólida, como substituto ósseo em 36 coelhos adultos. Após protocolos anestésico e cirúrgico habituais, retirou-se um fragmento de aproximadamente 2cm de comprimento no terço médio da ulna esquerda. Os animais do grupo 1 receberam, em cada falha provocada, blocos de HAC e HACF, e os do grupo 2 somente HAC. Os do grupo 3 não receberam tratamento. Os animais foram submetidos a avaliações clínicas e radiológicas nos dias 8, 15, 30, 60, 120 e 180 de pós-operatório. Nas mesmas datas, dois animais de cada grupo foram sacrificados e deles colheu-se material para histologia. Observou-se evolução normal da regeneração óssea em todos os animais, sendo mais precoce nos dos grupos que receberam os compósitos. O uso de HAC e HACF na ulna de coelho mostrou-se um método eficiente, não apresentando sinais de infecção e nem evidência de rejeição.Composites of synthetic hydroxyapatite and carbon (HAC) and synthetic hydroxyapatite, carbon and sodium biacid phosphate (HACF), both of them in solid form, as substitute in bone regeneration were studied. Thirty-six rabbits divided in three groups were used. After routine anesthetic and surgical procedure, a bone fragment with two-centimeter in length was taken from the middle part of the left ulna. Animals from group 1 received one block of HAC and HACF, from group 2 received only HAC, in the criated bone defect, and animals from group 3 did not receive any treatment. They were submitted to clinical and radiographic examinations at 8, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 180 days after surgery to evaluate bone healing. At the same dates, two animals of each group were enthanised and bone fragments were collected for histological evaluations. The results showed normal evolution of bone regeneration in all groups but faster in animals that received the composites. The use of HAC and HACF showed to be efficient and biocompatible, and not caused rejection

Potentialities of some surface characterization techniques for the development of titanium biomedical alloys

Bone formation around a metallic implant is a complex process that involves micro- and nanometric interactions. Several surface treatments, including coatings were developed in order to obtain faster osseointegration. To understand the role of these surface treatments on bone formation it is necessary to choose adequate characterization techniques. Among them, we have selected electron microscopy, profilometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to describe them briefly. Examples of the potentialities of these techniques on the characterization of titanium for biomedical applications were also presented and discussed. Unfortunately more than one technique is usually necessary to describe conveniently the topography (scanning electron microsocopy, profilometry and/or AFM) and the chemical state (XPS) of the external layer of the material surface. The employment of the techniques above described can be useful especially for the development of new materials or products