Telemedicine Volunteering Experience as a Medical Student During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has strongly affected Brazil and many universities canceled in-person classes for an indefinite period. Many Brazilian medical students enrolled themselves as volunteers in telemedicine services across the country. This text will share the authors’ experience in telemedicine and their insights into the topic as volunteer medical students in Brazil

Hot perturbative QCD in a very strong magnetic background

We compute the pressure, chiral condensate and strange quark number susceptibility from first principles within perturbative QCD at finite temperature and very high magnetic fields up to next-to-leading order and physical quark masses. The region of validity for our framework is given by $m_s \ll T \ll \sqrt{eB}$, where $m_s$ is the strange quark mass, $e$ is the fundamental electric charge, $T$ is the temperature, and $B$ is the magnetic field strength. We study the convergence of the perturbative series for the pressure for different choices of renormalization scale in the running coupling, $\alpha_s (T,B)$. Our results for the chiral condensate and strange quark number susceptibility can be directly compared to recent lattice QCD data away from the chiral transition. Even though current lattice results do not overlap with the region of validity above, perturbative results seem to be in the same ballpark.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

TagSNP transferability and relative loss of variability prediction from HapMap to an admixed population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The application of a subset of single nucleotide polymorphisms, the tagSNPs, can be useful in capturing untyped SNPs information in a genomic region. TagSNP transferability from the HapMap dataset to admixed populations is of uncertain value due population structure, admixture, drift and recombination effects. In this work an empirical dataset from a Brazilian admixed sample was evaluated against the HapMap population to measure tagSNP transferability and the relative loss of variability prediction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The transferability study was carried out using SNPs dispersed over four genomic regions: the PTPN22, HMGCR, VDR and CETP genes. Variability coverage and the prediction accuracy for tagSNPs in the selected genomic regions of HapMap phase II were computed using a prediction accuracy algorithm. Transferability of tagSNPs and relative loss of prediction were evaluated according to the difference between the Brazilian sample and the pooled and single HapMap population estimates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Each population presented different levels of prediction per gene. On average, the Brazilian (BRA) sample displayed a lower power of prediction when compared to HapMap and the pooled sample. There was a relative loss of prediction for BRA when using single HapMap populations, but a pooled HapMap dataset generated minor loss of variability prediction and lower standard deviations, except at the VDR locus at which loss was minor using CEU tagSNPs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Studies that involve tagSNP selection for an admixed population should not be generally correlated with any specific HapMap population and can be better represented with a pooled dataset in most cases.</p

Perfil de Estilos de Pensamiento como eje estructurante de una propuesta didáctica innovadora en Química

One of the topics of greatest research interest in recent decades has been the teaching of Science. In this sense, attention has been focused on the little interest shown by students. This research is presented as an innovative didactic proposal on chemical dissolutions, in attention to the profile of characteristic thinking styles of the students and the IPC biology and chemistry, for the teaching and learning of chemistry in context, according to an epistemological perspective that has emerged in recent decades. The proposal was designed and validated by experts and a pilot test in students enrolled in the academic period 2016-II of the IPC Chemistry Fundamentals course, resulting in a very pertinent tool as it has a satisfactory impact on levels and academic performance. The conclusions are discouraging and point to the high percentage of failures in scientific subjects.Uno de los temas de mayor interés investigativo de las últimas décadas, ha sido la enseñanza de la Ciencia. En este sentido, se ha centrado la atención sobre el poco interés que demuestran los estudiantes. La presente investigación se presenta como una propuesta didáctica innovadora sobre disoluciones químicas, en atención al perfil de estilos de pensamiento característico de los estudiantes de biología y química del IPC, para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de una química en contexto, acorde a una perspectiva epistemológica que ha surgido en las últimas décadas. Se diseñó y validó la propuesta por expertos y prueba piloto en estudiantes inscritos en el período académico 2016-II del curso Fundamentos de Química del IPC, resultando una herramienta muy pertinente al incidir satisfactoriamente sobre los niveles de rendimiento académico. Las conclusiones son desalentadoras y apuntan hacia el alto porcentaje de reprobados en las asignaturas de corte científico. &nbsp; ABSTRACT One of the topics of greatest research interest in recent decades has been the teaching of Science. In this sense, attention has been focused on the little interest shown by students. This research is presented as an innovative didactic proposal on chemical dissolutions, in attention to the profile of characteristic thinking styles of the students and the IPC biology and chemistry, for the teaching and learning of chemistry in context, according to an epistemological perspective that has emerged in recent decades. The proposal was designed and validated by experts and a pilot test in students enrolled in the academic period 2016-II of the IPC Chemistry Fundamentals course, resulting in a very pertinent tool as it has a satisfactory impact on levels and academic performance. The conclusions are discouraging and point to the high percentage of failures in scientific subjects. Key words: Learning, Teaching, Performance, Chemistry. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; RÉSUMÉ&nbsp; L'enseignement des sciences a été l'un des sujets les plus intéressants de la recherche au cours des dernières décennies. En ce sens, l'attention s'est portée sur le peu d'intérêt manifesté par les étudiants. Les conclusions sont décourageantes et soulignent le pourcentage élevé d'échecs dans les matières scientifiques. Cette recherche se présente comme une proposition didactique innovante sur les dissolutions chimiques, en tenant compte du profil des styles de pensée caractéristiques des étudiants et de l'IPC biologie et chimie, pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de la chimie en contexte, selon une perspective épistémologique qui a émergé au cours des dernières décennies. La proposition a été conçue et validée par des experts et un test pilote chez les étudiants inscrits à la période académique 2016-II du cours IPC Chemistry Fundamentals, résultant en un outil très pertinent car il a un impact satisfaisant sur les niveaux et les performances académiques.&nbsp; Mots-clés: Apprentissage, enseignement, performance, chimie

ScatterShot: Interactive In-context Example Curation for Text Transformation

The in-context learning capabilities of LLMs like GPT-3 allow annotators to customize an LLM to their specific tasks with a small number of examples. However, users tend to include only the most obvious patterns when crafting examples, resulting in underspecified in-context functions that fall short on unseen cases. Further, it is hard to know when "enough" examples have been included even for known patterns. In this work, we present ScatterShot, an interactive system for building high-quality demonstration sets for in-context learning. ScatterShot iteratively slices unlabeled data into task-specific patterns, samples informative inputs from underexplored or not-yet-saturated slices in an active learning manner, and helps users label more efficiently with the help of an LLM and the current example set. In simulation studies on two text perturbation scenarios, ScatterShot sampling improves the resulting few-shot functions by 4-5 percentage points over random sampling, with less variance as more examples are added. In a user study, ScatterShot greatly helps users in covering different patterns in the input space and labeling in-context examples more efficiently, resulting in better in-context learning and less user effort.Comment: IUI 2023: 28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interface

BioAfrica's HIV-1 Proteomics Resource: Combining protein data with bioinformatics tools

Most Internet online resources for investigating HIV biology contain either bioinformatics tools, protein information or sequence data. The objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive online proteomics resource that integrates bioinformatics with the latest information on HIV-1 protein structure, gene expression, post-transcriptional/post-translational modification, functional activity, and protein-macromolecule interactions. The BioAfrica HIV-1 Proteomics Resource is a website that contains detailed information about the HIV-1 proteome and protease cleavage sites, as well as data-mining tools that can be used to manipulate and query protein sequence data, a BLAST tool for initiating structural analyses of HIV-1 proteins, and a proteomics tools directory. The Proteome section contains extensive data on each of 19 HIV-1 proteins, including their functional properties, a sample analysis of HIV-1(HXB2), structural models and links to other online resources. The HIV-1 Protease Cleavage Sites section provides information on the position, subtype variation and genetic evolution of Gag, Gag-Pol and Nef cleavage sites. The HIV-1 Protein Data-mining Tool includes a set of 27 group M (subtypes A through K) reference sequences that can be used to assess the influence of genetic variation on immunological and functional domains of the protein. The BLAST Structure Tool identifies proteins with similar, experimentally determined topologies, and the Tools Directory provides a categorized list of websites and relevant software programs. This combined database and software repository is designed to facilitate the capture, retrieval and analysis of HIV-1 protein data, and to convert it into clinically useful information relating to the pathogenesis, transmission and therapeutic response of different HIV-1 variants. The HIV-1 Proteomics Resource is readily accessible through the BioAfrica website at

Evaluation of Retromolar Canals using Cone Beam Computer Tomography/ Avaliação do canal retromolar por meio de tomografia computadorizada de feixe cônico

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, location and clinical implications related to the presence of the retromolar canal (RMC) on cone beam computed tomography(CBCT). CBCT images of patients from Latin America Institute for Dental Research and Education - Curitiba,Pr,Brazil, was performed from June/2008 to February/2013. The interpretation was performed by a calibrated examiner, according to the criterias: presence, location and classification of the RMC variation, as well as, measurements of horizontal distances of the RMC in relation to the buccal bone cortical and diameter of these canals. A total of 751 CBCT images were interpreted: 486(64.7%) from females and 265 (35.3%) from male patients, with mean age of 54.57 (±13.23) years. The presence of RMC was observed in 58 (7.7%) patients, 23 men and 35 women. A total of 1502 hemi- mandibles were analyzed. The RMC was identified in 69(4.6%) hemi-mandibles, 44(63.8%) from females and 25(36.2%) from males. Thirty (42.8%) RMC were observed on the right side and 40 (57.2%) on the left one. The type B1 (n=33; 47.1%) was the most common, followed by the type A1 (n=18;25.7%). The mean diameter of RMC was 0.97mm (±0.44), and the mean distance between retromolar foramen and the buccal cortical of the mandible was 4.12mm (±1.35). There were no significant differences between the distances and genders, and distances and sides (p &gt; 0.05). The prevalence of RMC was 7.7% in the studied sample; they were predominantly unilateral and showed to be type B1

Acoustic frequency atomic spin oscillator in the quantum regime

We experimentally demonstrate quantum behavior of a macroscopic atomic spin oscillator in the acoustic frequency range. Quantum back-action of the spin measurement, ponderomotive squeezing of light, and oscillator spring softening are observed at spin oscillation frequencies down to 6 kHz. Quantum noise sources characteristic of spin oscillators operating in the near-DC frequency range are identified and means for their mitigation are presented. These results constitute an important step towards quantum noise reduction and entanglement-enhanced sensing in the acoustic range using a negative-mass reference frame. In particular, the results are relevant for broadband noise reduction in gravitational wave detectors.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure