Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in South America: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is among the most prevalent chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases worldwide. The aim of this study was to establish a pooled estimate of the RA prevalence in South America by means of a meta-analysis of the available epidemiologic studies. Systematic searches in PubMed, Lilacs, SciELO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases (updated May 2019) were done followed by a systematic grey literature search to identify original research articles and reports, published after 2000, providing data of RA prevalence in any South American country. Proportion meta-analysis of weighted pooled was performed, with between-trial heterogeneity assessed by the inconsistency relative index. Sensitivity analyses and sub-group analyses were also done. A total of 25 articles, representing 27 population-based studies were included. Pooled prevalence of RA resulted in 0.48% with 591,981 cases in a population of 114,537,812 individuals (I2=99%). Brazil and Colombia presented the lowest rates of RA prevalence 0.22%, and 0.24%, respectively. RA prevalence in indigenous population was higher 1.45%, and studies using COPCORD method reported also the highest rates 1.07%

Telerobotics : methodology for the development of a through-the-internet robotic teleoperated system

This work presents a methodology for the development of Teleoperated Robotic Systems through the Internet. Initially, it is presented a bibliographical review of the Telerobotic systems that uses Internet as way of control. The methodology is implemented and tested through the development of two systems. The first is a manipulator with two degrees of freedom commanded remotely through the Internet denominated RobWebCam (http://www.graco.unb.br/robwebcam). The second is a system which teleoperates an ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) Industrial Robot of six degrees of freedom denominated RobWebLink (http://webrobot.graco.unb.br). RobWebCam is composed of a manipulator with two degrees of freedom, a video camera, Internet, computers and communication driver between the manipulator and the Unix system; and RobWebLink composed of the same components plus the Industrial Robot. With the use of this technology, it is possible to move far distant positioning objects minimizing transport costs, materials and people; acting in real time in the process that is wanted to be controller. This work demonstrates that the teleoperating via Internet of robotic systems and other equipments is viable, in spite of using rate transmission data with low bandwidth. Possible applications include remote surveillance, control and remote diagnosis and maintenance of machines and equipments

Determinants of glycemic control and quality of Life in type 2 diabetic patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of socio-economic, clinical and pharmacotherapeutic determinants, adherence to therapy on the quality of life and glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We conducted a cross-sectional study exploratory. Data collection was conducted through structured interviews and analysis of medical records. We interviewed 146 adult patients. Increasing age, body mass index, number of antidiabetic medications used and blacks, were related to higher levels of glycated hemoglobin. The results indicate that glycemic control was negatively influenced by non-adherence to drug treatment and a higher complexity of pharmacotherapy was related to noncompliance. Health-Related Quality of life (HRQOL) as assessed by the Nottingham Health Profile has negative influence of diabetes complications. HRQOL, as assessed by the Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL), was negatively affected by poor glycemic control.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Ventilatory frequency as a measure of the response of tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) to the odour of potential predators

This study uses changes in ventilatory frequency to quantify the physiological response of an Australian terrestrial herbivore, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), to olfactory cues suggesting the presence of potential predators. Ventilatory frequency proved to be a quantifiable measure to assess the response of this macropod marsupial to olfactory cues. Ventilatory frequency increased from mean resting levels of 45 ± 5.1 breaths min–1 to 137 ± 11.2 breaths min–1 during the first minute of exposure to all odours. These physiological responses diminished over time, with ventilatory frequency in the first minute after introduction of the scents greater than that during the subsequent four, suggesting that the initial reaction was due to disturbance and was investigative in nature. However, the ratio of ventilatory frequency in the remaining 4 min after introduction of the odours compared with before was greater for fox (3.58 ± 0.918) and cat (2.44 ± 0.272) odours than for snake (2.27 ± 0.370), distilled water (1.81 ± 0.463) and quoll (1.71 ± 0.245) odours, suggesting that fox and cat odour provoked a greater response. However, the wallabies’ response to the odour of these introduced predators and to horse odour (2.40 ± 0.492) did not differ. Our study indicates that a long period of co-history with particular predators is not a prerequisite for detection of potentially threatening species. We do not find any support for the hypothesis that an inability to interpret olfactory cues to detect and respond to potential predation by introduced predators is responsible for the decline of these macropod marsupials

Performance evaluation of scheduling policies for the DRCMPSP

In this study, we consider the dynamic resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem (DRCMPSP) where projects generate rewards at their completion, completions later than a due date cause tardiness costs and new projects arrive randomly during the ongoing project execution which disturbs the existing project scheduling plan. We model this problem as a discrete Markov decision process and explore the computational limitations of solving the problem by dynamic programming. We run and compare four different solution approaches on small size problems. These solution approaches are: a dynamic programming algorithm to determine a policy that maximises the average profit per unit time net of charges for late project completion, a genetic algorithm which generates a schedule to maximise the total reward of ongoing projects and updates the schedule with each new project arrival, a rule-based algorithm which prioritise processing of tasks with the highest processing durations, and a worst decision algorithm to seek a non-idling policy to minimise the average profit per unit time. Average profits per unit time of generated policies of the solution algorithms are evaluated and compared. The performance of the genetic algorithm is the closest to the optimal policies of the dynamic programming algorithm, but its results are notably suboptimal, up to 67.2\%. Alternative scheduling algorithms are close to optimal with low project arrival probability but quickly deteriorate their performance as the probability increases

Quality of life among people living with hypertension in a rural Vietnam community

Background - To respond to growing prevalence of hypertension in Vietnam, it is critical to have an in-depth understanding about quality of life (QOL) among people living with hypertension and related factors. This study aimed to measure QOL among hypertensive people in a rural community in Vietnam, and its association with socio-demographic characteristics and factors related to treatment. Methods - This study was conducted in a rural community located 60 km from Ho Chi Minh City. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among 275 hypertensive people aged 50 years and above using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to examine mean scores of quality of life. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were applied to estimate the internal consistency, and the level of agreement between different domains of WHOQOL-BREF, respectively. Independent T-test and ANOVA test followed by multiple linear regression analyses were used to measure the association between QOL domains and independent variables. Results - Both overall WHOQOL-BREF and each domain had a good internal consistency, ranging from 0.65 to 0.88. The QOL among hypertensive patients was found moderate in all domains, except for psychological domain that was fairly low (mean = 49.4). Backward multiple linear regressions revealed that being men, married, attainment of higher education, having physical activities at moderate level, and adherence to treatment were positively associated with QOL. However, older age and presence of co-morbidity were negatively associated with QOL. Conclusion - WHOQOL-BREF is a reliable instrument to measure QOL among hypertensive patients. The results revealed low QOL in psychological domain and inequality in QOL across socio-demographic characteristics. Given the results, encouraging physical activities and strengthening treatment adherence should be considered to improve QOL of hypertensive people, especially for psychological aspect. Actions to improve QOL among hypertensive patients targeted towards women, lower educated and unmarried patients are needed in the setting