Factors That Could Impact on Liver Fibrosis Staging by Transient Elastography.

PublishedReviewTransient elastography (TE) based on liver stiffness measurement (LSM) is one of the most validated noninvasive methods for liver fibrosis staging in patients with chronic liver diseases. This method is painless, has no potential complications, is rapid (100 exams), in a 3-hour fasting status, and its results should be handled by specialist clinicians that are aware of the limitations of this method.This work was supported by funding from Newton Fund RCUK-CONFAP Research Partnerships Call, Fundac¸ao Car- ˜ los Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio ` de Janeiro (FAPERJ) under Grant E-26/170.021/2015 (Brazil), and Medical Research Council (MRC) Grant reference MR/ M026515/1 (UK); from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient´ıfico e Tecnologico (CNPq)/Bolsa Jovem Talento ´ (BJT) under Grant 301520/2014-3; from FAPERJ under Grant E-26/110.268/2014; and from Fundac¸ao para Desenvolvi- ˜ mento Cientifico e Tecnologico em Sa ´ ude (FioTec), Rio de ´ Janeiro, Brazil

Thermal treatment of the minority game

We study a cost function for the aggregate behavior of all the agents involved in the Minority Game (MG) or the Bar Attendance Model (BAM). The cost function allows to define a deterministic, synchronous dynamics that yields results that have the main relevant features than those of the probabilistic, sequential dynamics used for the MG or the BAM. We define a temperature through a Langevin approach in terms of the fluctuations of the average attendance. We prove that the cost function is an extensive quantity that can play the role of an internal energy of the many agent system while the temperature so defined is an intensive parameter. We compare the results of the thermal perturbation to the deterministic dynamics and prove that they agree with those obtained with the MG or BAM in the limit of very low temperature.Comment: 9 pages in PRE format, 6 figure

Factoring in a Dissipative Quantum Computer

We describe an array of quantum gates implementing Shor's algorithm for prime factorization in a quantum computer. The array includes a circuit for modular exponentiation with several subcomponents (such as controlled multipliers, adders, etc) which are described in terms of elementary Toffoli gates. We present a simple analysis of the impact of losses and decoherence on the performance of this quantum factoring circuit. For that purpose, we simulate a quantum computer which is running the program to factor N = 15 while interacting with a dissipative environment. As a consequence of this interaction randomly selected qubits may spontaneously decay. Using the results of our numerical simulations we analyze the efficiency of some simple error correction techniques.Comment: plain tex, 18 pages, 8 postscript figure

Clinical study of a multivitamin and polymineral complex associated with Panax ginseng extract (Natus Gerin®)

This study aimed to stablish the efficacy of a multivitamin and polyminerals supplemented with Panax ginseng extract (Natus Gerin®) on patients subjected to common physical or mental stress. Patients were randomly divided in two groups and underwent a thorough clinical examination. Group A received Natus Gerin® capsules and B placebo capsules. Two capsules were taken daily during meals during four weeks. Mood and physical activity were evaluated through a questionnaire assessing quality of life. From the 176 patients enrolled, 17 were excluded due to voluntary withdrawal, 81 completed the study in group A and 78 in group B. The treatment with Natus Gerin® increased the quality of life when compared to placebo. After 15 and 30 days, group A showed a significant increase in average scoring score from 1.78 to 3.78, and finally 5.32 points. The study has shown that the daily use of Natus Gerin® can be effective in improving quality of life in patients suffering from physical and mental stressColegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Avaliação de genótipos de milheto para silagem no semiárido.

Objetivou-se com esta pesquisa avaliar o rendimento forrageiro, as características agronômicas e morfométricas das plantas e as perdas, perfil fermentativo e composição bromatológica de silagens de genótipos de milheto. Para avaliação das características agronômicas e morfométricas dos genótipos utilizou-se o delineamento experimental em blocos casualizados, com cinco repetições. Na fase de avaliação dos silos experimentais o delineamento passou a ser inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições. Foram testados os cultivares Sauna B, CMS 01, ADR 500, BRS 1501 e CMS 03. Não houve diferença para a PMV, PMS e MS. Os genótipos de milheto apresentaram uma média de PMV de 9.073 kg/ha no primeiro ciclo e de 10.054kg/ha na rebrota. Quanto à lâmina foliar e a produção de colmo não houve iferença em ambos os cortes. Os teores médios de AL variaram de 1,98 a 5,17%, para os genótipos SAUNA B e CMS 01, respectivamente. Para os teores de PB verificou-se efeito significativo entre os genótipos estudados, com valores variando de 11,56 a 7,90%. Os genótipos estudados se equivaleram tanto na avaliação das plantas como na avaliação das silagens, podendo ser utilizados como uma alternativa forrageira em regiões semiáridas

Micro-costing analysis of guideline-based treatment by direct-acting agents: the real-life case of hepatitis C management in Brazil

Background Eradication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) using direct-acting agents (DAA) has been associated with a financial burden to health authorities worldwide. We aimed to evaluate the guideline-based treatment costs by DAAs from the perspective of the Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMoH). Methods The activity based costing method was used to estimate the cost for monitoring/treatment of genotype-1 (GT1) HCV patients by the following strategies: peg-interferon (PEG-IFN)/ribavirin (RBV) for 48 weeks, PEG-IFN/RBV plus boceprevir (BOC) or telaprevir (TEL) for 48 weeks, and sofosbuvir (SOF) plus daclastavir (DCV) or simeprevir (SIM) for 12 weeks. Costs were reported in United States Dollars without (US$) and with adjustment for purchasing power parity (PPP$). Drug costs were collected at the National Database of Health Prices and an overview of the literature was performed to assess effectiveness of SOF/DCV and SOF/SIM regimens in real-world cohorts. Results Treatment costs of GT1-HCV patients were PPP$43,176.28 (US$ 24,020.16) for PEG-IFN/RBV, PPP$71,196.03 (US$ 39,578.23) for PEG-IFN/RBV/BOC and PPP$86,250.33 (US$ 47,946.92) for PEG-IFN/RBV/TEL. Treatment by all-oral interferon-free regimens were the less expensive approach: PPP$19,761.72 (US$ 10,985.90) for SOF/DCV and PPP$21,590.91 (US$ 12,002.75) for SOF/SIM. The overview reported HCV eradication in up to 98% for SOF/DCV and 96% for SOF/SIM. Conclusion Strategies with all oral interferon-free might lead to lower costs for management of GT1-HCV patients compared to IFN-based regimens in Brazil. This occurred mainly because of high discounts over international DAA prices due to negotiation between BMoH and pharmaceutical industries

Agronomic evaluation of sorghum hybrids for silage production cultivated in semiarid conditions.

The aim of this study was to study the agronomic traits of different Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench hybrids for silage productionin semiarid conditions. It was a 1-year evaluation conducted in a randomized block design with 24 treatments and three replicates. The treatments were sorghum hybrids developed by the breeding program of ?Embrapa Milho e Sorgo? (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation). The fresh matter yield (FMY) in the first cut varied from 22,643.56 to 44,033.15 kg/ha, with an average of 32,607.37 kg/ha, leading to the formation of two groups. Similar results were observed for the dry matter yield (DMY), in which the highest group yielded from 9,471.32 to 14,540.23 kg/ha dry matter (DM). For plant regrowth, there was an increase in the number of stems and a decrease in the amount of panicles. Two groups were formed for the accumulated dry matter yield (ADMY), averaging 14,217.91 kg/ha; the highest group showed mean values of 18,003.00 to 14,221.94 kg/ha. The evaluated sorghum hybrids exhibited satisfactory accumulated forage yields due to their high yield in regrowth, which indicates that they are suitable for use in animal production systems in semi-arid regions

Effect of Trends on Detrended Fluctuation Analysis

Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is a scaling analysis method used to estimate long-range power-law correlation exponents in noisy signals. Many noisy signals in real systems display trends, so that the scaling results obtained from the DFA method become difficult to analyze. We systematically study the effects of three types of trends -- linear, periodic, and power-law trends, and offer examples where these trends are likely to occur in real data. We compare the difference between the scaling results for artificially generated correlated noise and correlated noise with a trend, and study how trends lead to the appearance of crossovers in the scaling behavior. We find that crossovers result from the competition between the scaling of the noise and the ``apparent'' scaling of the trend. We study how the characteristics of these crossovers depend on (i) the slope of the linear trend; (ii) the amplitude and period of the periodic trend; (iii) the amplitude and power of the power-law trend and (iv) the length as well as the correlation properties of the noise. Surprisingly, we find that the crossovers in the scaling of noisy signals with trends also follow scaling laws -- i.e. long-range power-law dependence of the position of the crossover on the parameters of the trends. We show that the DFA result of noise with a trend can be exactly determined by the superposition of the separate results of the DFA on the noise and on the trend, assuming that the noise and the trend are not correlated. If this superposition rule is not followed, this is an indication that the noise and the superimposed trend are not independent, so that removing the trend could lead to changes in the correlation properties of the noise.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figure

Similarity solutions for unsteady shear-stress-driven flow of Newtonian and power-law fluids : slender rivulets and dry patches

Unsteady flow of a thin film of a Newtonian fluid or a non-Newtonian power-law fluid with power-law index N driven by a constant shear stress applied at the free surface, on a plane inclined at an angle α to the horizontal, is considered. Unsteady similarity solutions representing flow of slender rivulets and flow around slender dry patches are obtained. Specifically, solutions are obtained for converging sessile rivulets (0 < α < π/2) and converging dry patches in a pendent film (π/2 < α < π), as well as for diverging pendent rivulets and diverging dry patches in a sessile film. These solutions predict that at any time t, the rivulet and dry patch widen or narrow according to |x|3/2, and the film thickens or thins according to |x|, where x denotes distance down the plane, and that at any station x, the rivulet and dry patch widen or narrow like |t|−1, and the film thickens or thins like |t|−1, independent of N