Measuring the vulnerability of the Uruguayan population to vector-borne diseases via spatially hierarchical factor models

We propose a model-based vulnerability index of the population from Uruguay to vector-borne diseases. We have available measurements of a set of variables in the census tract level of the 19 Departmental capitals of Uruguay. In particular, we propose an index that combines different sources of information via a set of micro-environmental indicators and geographical location in the country. Our index is based on a new class of spatially hierarchical factor models that explicitly account for the different levels of hierarchy in the country, such as census tracts within the city level, and cities in the country level. We compare our approach with that obtained when data are aggregated in the city level. We show that our proposal outperforms current and standard approaches, which fail to properly account for discrepancies in the region sizes, for example, number of census tracts. We also show that data aggregation can seriously affect the estimation of the cities vulnerability rankings under benchmark models.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS497 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Mídias sociais em tempos de bibliotecas 2.0: um estudo em Bibliotecas das instituições federais de ensino brasileiras trazendo perspectivas futuras para a preservação digital

This study aims to discuss the main challenges regarding the social participation on the Web by the Brazilian Federal Education Institutions’(IFES) Libraries and the changes related to the these institutions’ activities, especially interactions with their audience. The Research conducted a quantitative approach survey on the use of the main existing social media by these libraries. The survey sought to identify the level of involvement and participation of these libraries in social media. It is understood that this investigation is necessary as a foundation to the urgent need to raise awareness these Brazilian institutions as the valuable potential of interaction with their users through these media, despite the study demonstrated an incipient use. Based on the conducted survey, the study presents a reflection of the importance that it should devote to digital preservation, not only of their collections, but also the relevant records of the social media content. The results show that most brazilian public universities use Web 2.0 tools with social focus, and the greater adoption of Facebook (43%) and Twitter (29%), but only 5% of them use these medias to disseminate the collections. Thus, it was concluded that the use of social media by these libraries still have a lot to develop and consequently the digital preservation actions need to consider the inclusion of content generated by these media that increasingly have become a valuable communication channel

Avaliação da volemia em pacientes críticos: nova proposta

In order to turn a fluid challenge into a significant increase in stroke volume and cardiac output, 2 conditions must be met: 1) fluid infusion has to significantly increase cardiac preload and 2) the increase in cardiac preload has to induce a significant increase in stroke volume. In other words, a patient can be nonresponder to a fluid challenge because preload does not increase during fluid infusion or/and because the heart (more precisely, at least 1 of the ventricles) is operating on the flat portion of the Frank-Starling curve. Volumetric markers of cardiac preload are therefore useful for checking whether cardiac preload effectively increases during fluid infusion. If this is not the case, giving more fluid, using a venoconstricting agent (to avoid venous pooling), or reducing the intrathoracic pressure (to facilitate the increase in intrathoracic blood volume) may be useful for achieving increased cardiac preload. Arterial pulse pressure variation is useful for determining whether stroke volume can/will increase when preload does increase. If this is not the case, only an inotropic drug can improve cardiac output. Therefore, the best option for determining the usefulness of, and monitoring fluid therapy in critically ill patients is the combination of information provided by the static indicators of cardiac preload and arterial pulse pressure variation.Para ser efetivo em aumentar significativamente o volume sistólico um volume de fluido precisa preencher duas condições : 1- A infusão deste fluido tem que aumentar a pré-carga 2- O aumento da pré-carga tem que promover uma elevação proporcional do volume sistólico Em outras palavras o paciente pode ser não responsivo à infusão de volume em termos de volume sistólico, devido a quantidade de fluidos ainda não ser a necessária ou o coração já estar operando na faixa superior da curva de Frank-Starling. Os indicadores volumétricos da pré-carga cardíaca são úteis para verificar se esta pré-carga aumenta efetivamente durante a infusão de fluido. Em caso negativo, ou seja a pré-carga não aumenta, medidas adicionais como mais fluidos, venoconstrictores para aumentar o quantidade de sangue, ou aumento do retorno venoso por redução da pressão intratorácica podem ser efetivas para atingir a primeira condição: aumento da pré-carga. Delta PP pode ser útil para verificar se o volume sistólico aumenta com a infusão de fluidos. Isto não acontecendo somente drogas inotrópicas podem aumentar o débito cardíaco. Portanto, combinando os indicadores estáticos da pré-carga (PVC, pressão capilar pulmonar) com Delta PP, consegue-se a melhor opção para monitorar a resposta aos fluidos em pacientes críticos

Testing the Coulomb/Accessible Surface Area solvent model for protein stability, ligand binding, and protein design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protein structure prediction and computational protein design require efficient yet sufficiently accurate descriptions of aqueous solvent. We continue to evaluate the performance of the Coulomb/Accessible Surface Area (CASA) implicit solvent model, in combination with the Charmm19 molecular mechanics force field. We test a set of model parameters optimized earlier, and we also carry out a new optimization in this work, using as a target a set of experimental stability changes for single point mutations of various proteins and peptides. The optimization procedure is general, and could be used with other force fields. The computation of stability changes requires a model for the unfolded state of the protein. In our approach, this state is represented by tripeptide structures of the sequence Ala-X-Ala for each amino acid type X. We followed an iterative optimization scheme which, at each cycle, optimizes the solvation parameters and a set of tripeptide structures for the unfolded state. This protocol uses a set of 140 experimental stability mutations and a large set of tripeptide conformations to find the best tripeptide structures and solvation parameters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using the optimized parameters, we obtain a mean unsigned error of 2.28 kcal/mol for the stability mutations. The performance of the CASA model is assessed by two further applications: (i) calculation of protein-ligand binding affinities and (ii) computational protein design. For these two applications, the previous parameters and the ones optimized here give a similar performance. For ligand binding, we obtain reasonable agreement with a set of 55 experimental mutation data, with a mean unsigned error of 1.76 kcal/mol with the new parameters and 1.47 kcal/mol with the earlier ones. We show that the optimized CASA model is not inferior to the Generalized Born/Surface Area (GB/SA) model for the prediction of these binding affinities. Likewise, the new parameters perform well for the design of 8 SH3 domain proteins where an average of 32.8% sequence identity relative to the native sequences was achieved. Further, it was shown that the computed sequences have the character of naturally-occuring homologues of the native sequences.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Overall, the two CASA variants explored here perform very well for a wide variety of applications. Both variants provide an efficient solvent treatment for the computational engineering of ligands and proteins.</p

Rat thyroid graft transplantation after cryopreservation with scintigraphic standardization for an experimental study

Purpose: Budget cuts among other factors undermine the use of state-of-the-art equipment by many research groups. This doesn't mean that their scientific data are not reliable or top-notch. Resort to adaptations is a recurrent need in their reality. The aim of this study was to assess whether scintigraphy with 99mTcO4 is effective in evaluating the functionality of thyroid grafts after cryopreservation in rats. Material and methods: 24 rats were randomly distributed into 3 groups: Control Group (CG), without surgical procedure, Hypothyroidism Group (HTG), submitted to total thyroidectomy, and Transplanted Group (TG), with total thyroidectomy and cryopreservation of the thyroid gland for 7 days followed by grafting of a thyroid lobe. A protocol using a gamma camera imaging was conducted fourteen weeks after transplantation, and the whole body 99mTc, focusing on the topic of heterotopic thyroid uptake was evaluated. Results: The images acquired had good quality with no noise and artifacts that could jeopardize its analysis. On the 14th day, HTG displayed no thyroid uptake, and the TG had a clear uptake of the thyroid graft in the topography of the biceps femoris muscle. Presented data also showed that both equipment spatial resolution and alignment (4.375&nbsp;mm) did not interfere with the physiological uptake of 99mTc by the thyroid graft. Conclusion: The viability and functionality of cryopreserved thyroid autotransplantation in rats who underwent total thyroidectomy were successfully accessed by the scintigraphy protocol developed

Critérios de avaliação para sistemas de bibliotecas digitais: uma proposta de novas dimensões analíticas

The article presents an overview of the main criteria used by the technical literature in the area of Information Science for analysis and comparison of digital libraries information systems. Points out the features of these criteria, seeking to detail their analytical dimensions, potential and limitations. From this review, the paper proposes a set of analytical dimensions inspired by the Information Architecture theory to organize and complement these systems comparison criteria. It suggests some new analytic dimensions derived from the new social web interaction paradigms and concludes by proposing an integrated set of criteria organized by dimensions that should be taken into account when comparing and analyzing information of digital library systems.O artigo apresenta uma revisão dos principais critérios utilizados pela literatura técnica na área da Ciência da Informação para análise e comparação de sistemas de informação voltados para a criação de bibliotecas digitais. Aponta as características desses critérios, procurando detalhar suas dimensões analíticas, potenciais e limitações. A partir dessa revisão, o artigo propõe um conjunto de dimensões analíticas inspiradas na teoria da Arquitetura da Informação para organizar e complementar esses critérios de comparação de sistemas. Sugere também algumas novas dimensões analíticas oriundas dos novos paradigmas de interação da websocial e conclui propondo um conjunto integrado de critérios organizados por dimensões que deveriam ser levados em consideração quando da comparação e análise de sistemas de informação de bibliotecas digitais

The Ising model in a Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile

We study the spin-1 Ising model with non-local constraints imposed by the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model of self-organized criticality (SOC). The model is constructed as if the sandpile is being built on a (honeycomb) lattice with Ising interactions. In this way we combine two models that exhibit power-law decay of correlation functions characterized by different exponents. We discuss the model properties through an order parameter and the mean energy per node, as well as the temperature dependence of their fourth-order Binder cumulants. We find (i) a thermodynamic phase transition at a finite T_c between paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases, and (ii) that above T_c the correlation functions decay in a way typical of SOC. The usual thermodynamic criticality of the two-dimensional Ising model is not affected by SOC constraints (the specific heat critical exponent \alpha \approx 0), nor are SOC-induced correlations affected by the interactions of the Ising model. Even though the constraints imposed by the SOC model induce long-range correlations, as if at standard (thermodynamic) criticality, these SOC-induced correlations have no impact on the thermodynamic functions.Comment: 9 page

OS SELOS AMBIENTAIS E A MODESTA CONSCIENTIZAÇÃO DOS CONSUMIDORES DO MUNICÍPIO DE BARRA DO GARÇAS - MATO GROSSO

Com o aumento da população mundial, a crise ambiental toma forma complexa, devido ao mal uso dos recursos naturais esgotáveis. Diante disso, os Selos Ambientais surgiram para divulgar as práticas para com o meio ambiente e informar aos consumidores acerca do processo produtivo. Nesse passo, o objetivo da pesquisa foi verificar o nível de informação dos consumidores a respeito dos Selos Ambientais na cidade de Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso, em outubro de 2017. Foi realizada pesquisa de campo e bibliográfica, adotado o método hipotético-dedutivo e analisados os dados por amostragem