Combining two teaching techniques for young children on Aedes aegypti control: Effects on entomological indices in western Mexico

A study of the effect of educating four- to six-year-old children in mosquito control was recently conducted in a city in the state of Jalisco, western Mexico. Four neighborhood districts were selected. Children attending one kindergarten in each of two experimental districts were taught mosquito control with a video from the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA), joined to the use of the AMCA Touch Table Technique. The entomological indices monitored in the study decreased significantly (P<0.05) in houses in the experimental districts, apparently because parents acted on the comments and suggestions of the children and eliminated or monitored containers used as oviposition sites by mosquitoes. Based on these results, combining both techniques for teaching children mosquito control is a potentially useful tool for control efforts in Mexico and other places in Latin America. � 2012 The Society for Vector Ecology

Activity recognition for an agent-oriented personal health system

We present a knowledge representation framework that allows an agent situated in an environment to recognise complex activities, reason about their progress and take action to avoid or support their successful completion. Activities are understood as parameterised templates whose parameters consist of a unique name labelling the activity to be recognised, a set of participants co-involved in the carrying out of the activity and a goal revealing the desired outcome the participants seek to bring about. The novelty of the work is the identification of an activity lifecycle where activities are temporal fluents that can be started, interrupted, suspended, resumed, or completed over time. The framework also specifies activity goals and their associated lifecycle, as with activities, and shows how the state of such goals aids the recognition of significant transitions within and between activities. We implement the resulting recognition capability in the Event Calculus and we illustrate how an agent using this capability recognises activities in a personal health system monitoring diabetic patients

AVALIAÇÃO NUTRICIONAL DE ESTUDANTES UNIVERSITÁRIOS DO SEXO FEMININO

A auto-avaliação do estado nutritional, utilizada corno estratégia de ensino no Curso de Graduação em Enfermagem, subsidiou o presente trabalho. Com esse fim, as 50 alunas do 3º semestre (idade média de 21,7 anos) registraram seu consumo de alimentos por três dias consecutivos e suas medidas de peso e altura. A análise da adequação do consumo mostrou que 98% das alunas apresentaram ingestão insuficiente (abaixo de 90% do recomendado pela National Research Council - 1980) em pelo menos um dos nutrientes analisados (proteína, cálcio, ferro e vitaminas A, B1, B2, C e niacina). Constatou-se ingestão inadequada de cálcio em 80% das alunas, de vitamina A em 72%, de ferro em 64%, de vitamina B1 e B2 em 74 e 56% respectivamente e de vitamina C em 34%. A freqüência e a gravidade da inadequação foi maior para cálcio, vitamina A e ferro: 42, 20 e 16% das alunas consumiram menos que 60% da recomendação, evidenciando uma dieta deficiente em vitaminas e minerais.The self-evaluation of nutritional status, utilized as a teaching strategy of introductory nutrition course at Nursing School (São Paulo's University), gave a subsidy to this work. With this purpose, 50 female university students 3rd'semester (mean age was 21,7) were required to complete a three days food record and report their approximate heigth and weigth. The analysis of food intake adequacy indicated that 98% of the students had insufficient intake (less than 90% of recommended of National Research Council - 1980) of, at least, one of the nutrients (protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, B1, B2, C and niacin). It was evidenced an inadequate intake (less than 90% of RDA) of calcium (80% of the students), vitamin A (72%), iron (64%), vitamin B1 (74%), vitamin B2 (56%) and vitamin C (34%). The inadequate intake was more frequently and serious (less than 60% RDA) for calcium (42%), vitamin A (20%) and iron (16%) showing a vitamins and minerals deficient diet

Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

International audienceOn 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of $\sim 1.7\,{\rm{s}}$ with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg(2) at a luminosity distance of ${40}_{-8}^{+8}$ Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 $\,{M}_{\odot }$. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at $\sim 40\,{\rm{Mpc}}$) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position $\sim 9$ and $\sim 16$ days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta