Fractal measures of video-recorded trajectories can classify motor subtypes in Parkinson’s disease

[Abstract] Parkinson’s Disease is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases in the world and affects millions of individuals worldwide. The clinical criteria for classification of motor subtypes in Parkinson’s Disease are subjective and may be misleading when symptoms are not clearly identifiable. A video recording protocol was used to measure hand tremor of 14 individuals with Parkinson’s Disease and 7 healthy subjects. A method for motor subtype classification was proposed based on the spectral distribution of the movement and compared with the existing clinical criteria. Box-counting dimension and Hurst Exponent calculated from the trajectories were used as the relevant measures for the statistical tests. The classification based on the power-spectrum is shown to be well suited to separate patients with and without tremor from healthy subjects and could provide clinicians with a tool to aid in the diagnosis of patients in an early stage of the disease.Brasil. Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; 306571/2011-0Brasil. Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; 481414/2012-

Combining ability of maize grain yield under different levels of environmental stress Capacidade de combinação da produtividade de milho em ambientes com diferentes intensidades de estresses

The objectives of this work were to caracterize the tropical maize germplasm and to compare the combining abilities of maize grain yield under different levels of environmental stress. A diallel was performed among tropical maize cultivars with wide adaptability, whose hybrid combinations were evaluated in two sowing dates, in two years. The significance of the environmental effect emphasized the environmental contrasts. Based on grain yield, the environments were classified as favorable (8,331 kg ha-1), low stress (6,637 kg ha-1), high stress (5,495 kg ha-1), and intense stress (2,443 kg ha-1). None of the genetic effects were significant in favorable and intense stress environments, indicating that there was low germplasm variability under these conditions. In low and high stresses, the specific combining ability effects (SCA) were significant, showing that the nonadditive genetic effects were the most important, and that it is possible to select parent pairs with breeding potential. SCA and grain yield showed significant correlations only between the closer environment pairs like favorable/low stress and high/intense stress. The genetic control of grain yield differed under contrasting stress environments for which maize cultivars with wide adaptability are not adequate.<br>O objetivo deste trabalho foi caracterizar o germoplasma de milho e comparar a capacidade de combinação da produtividade do milho em ambientes com diferentes graus de estresse. Um dialelo foi realizado entre cultivares de milho tropical com ampla adaptabilidade, cujas combinações híbridas foram avaliadas em duas épocas de plantio, em dois anos. A significância do efeito ambiental mostrou que os ambientes foram contrastantes. Com base na produtividade, os ambientes foram classificados como: favorável (8.331 kg ha-1); com baixo estresse (6.637 kg ha-1); com alto estresse (5.495 kg ha-1); e com intenso estresse (2.443 kg ha-1). Nenhum dos efeitos genéticos foi significativo nos ambientes classificados como favorável e com intenso estresse, o que indica haver baixa variabilidade para as combinações genéticas nesses ambientes. Em baixo e alto estresse, os efeitos da capacidade de combinação específica foram significativos, o que mostra que os efeitos genéticos não aditivos foram os mais importantes, e que é possível selecionar pares de genitores com potencial para melhoramento. A capacidade geral de combinação e a produtividade de grãos apresentaram correlações significativas somente entre os ambientes mais próximos como favorável/baixo estresse e alto/intenso estresse. O controle genético da produtividade de grãos difere em ambientes contrastantes quanto ao estresse para os quais as cultivares de milho com ampla adaptabilidade não são adequadas

Investigating extradomiciliary transmission of tuberculosis: An exploratory approach using social network patterns of TB cases and controls and the genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Extradomiciliary contacts have been overlooked in the study of TB transmission due to difficulties in identifying actual contacts in large populations. Complex network analysis provides a framework to model the structure of contacts, specially extradomiciliary ones. We conducted a study of incident sputum-positive TB cases and healthy controls occurring in a moderate TB burden city. Cases and controls were interviewed to obtain data regarding the usual locations of residence, work, study, and leisure. Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from sputum was genotyped. The collected data were used to build networks based on a framework of putative social interactions indicating possible TB transmission. A user-friendly open source environment (GraphTube) was setup to extract information from the collected data. Networks based on the likelihood of patient-patient, patient-healthy, and healthy-healthy contacts were setup, depending on a constraint of geographical distance of places attended by the volunteers. Using a threshold for the geographical distance of 300 m, the differences between TB cases and controls are revealed. Several clusters formed by social network nodes with high genotypic similarity were characterized. The developed framework provided consistent results and can be used to support the targeted search of potentially infected individuals and to help to understand the TB transmission