Asthma Mortality Inequalities in Brazil: Tolerating the Unbearable

Asthma is responsible for a high morbidity, resulting in hospitalizations, recurrent asphyxiation, and eventually death. In Brazil, where asthma is the third cause of hospitalizations for clinical illnesses and the fourth cause of death from respiratory diseases, some 20% of the population present wheezing. We evaluated the asthma mortality rates in the period between 1998 and 2009, using linear regressions, using the National Mortality Database (Ministry of Health of Brazil). The annual mortality rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) ranged from 1.68 in 1998 to 1.32 in 2009 (mean : 1.49). Brazil presents a slight tendency of reduction in asthma mortality. Asthma mortality rates trends declined in the most developed regions of the country:  Midwest, South, and Southeast, but it increased in the underprivileged regions: North (not statistically significant) and Northeast. This terrible sort of inequality requires urgent reaction from the public health authorities

A three-dimensional numerical model of an anion exchange membrane fuel cell

PhD ThesisThe global demand for alternative energy conversion procedures has increased considerably in the past few decades. As a result, increasing attention has been given to proton exchange membrane fuel cells as they offers several advantages over fossil fuel engines such as high efficiency, high power density and the absence of greenhouse gas emission to name a few. Polymer exchange membranes can be classified as either proton exchange membrane or anion exchange membrane (AEM). The latter has several distinct advantages including the possibility of precious metal free catalysts, enhanced oxygen reduction catalysis, and a wider option of fuels. Even though significant progress has been made on the experiment analysis of the AEM fuel cells, further improvement of the current numerical models is necessary in order to better describe the transportation phenomena within the catalyst layer and to enhance the accuracy of the numerical results. The numerical simulation presented in this thesis is performed applying the methodologies of computational fluid dynamics. A finite volume method-based methodology was used and conservation equations of mass, momentum, species, liquid water, membrane water content, electronic and ionic potential and energy were solved in a coupled manner. The SIMPLE algorithm was used to link velocity and pressure. Grid sensitivity and convergence criteria analysis were performed in order to ensure that the grid size does not significantly affect the solution and that the numerical solution is converged. In this thesis, firstly, a three-dimensional multiphase macro-homogeneous models is proposed which was subsequently used to evaluate the effects of operating temperature, inlet relative humidity, and flow direction (anode and cathode flowing in the same and opposite direction) on the overall performance of the fuel cell. Secondly, a three-dimensional multiphase agglomerate model for an AEM fuel cell is proposed and, in addition to the length scale present in the macro- homogeneous model (i.e. catalyst layer thickness), an additional length scale is introduced (i.e. ionomer thickness) to the numerical model. Subsequently, a direct comparison is made between the proposed agglomerate model and the previously developed macro-homogeneous model and a detailed discussion between both models is presented. Finally, further improvement on the agglomerate model is proposed to mimic the transport phenomena within the catalyst layer in a more realistic manner and an investigation of the effects of the catalyst layer composition (i.e. platinum and carbon loading, ionomer loading), structural parameters (i.e. catalyst layer thickness, porosity) and operating parameters is performed.Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) through the Science without Borders Projec

Quantitative real-time PCR data analysis with R

This dissertation covers an introduction to the field of qPCR data analysis using the state-of-the-art R programming language. qPCR analyses genomic data based on the DNA replication. After showing a set of basic biological and statistics concepts, the roots of qPCR technology, together with its principal data analysis modelisations (visualisation, filtering, clustering, ...) are shown. A web application has been developed to ease and extend qPCR data analysis functionalities to other areas such as biology or forensics

Does sacking a coach really help? Evidence from a Difference-in-Differences approach

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceThis project looks to evaluate if football clubs should or should not change their coach in order to improve their performance in the national league. For this analysis I selected, three of the most important European football leagues, La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy) and Premier League (England). The data used in this project was taken from the transfermarkt website, a large football platform. The data period is from season 2005-06 to season 2019-20 and has information about individual games results and squad value by player. The steps before the analysis were a data cleaning and consolidation of the information, creation of new features as a performance measure and selection of cases of interest for this analysis based on club and coach profile. Numeric variables were standardized to be on the same scale and make different seasons comparable. A K-means was applied to identify clubs according to their investments which has a proportional correlation with performance. Finally, a difference in differences analysis was applied to evaluate if a club would obtain a performance gain if they decided to sack their coach between game twelve and twenty-six of the season after a poor performance in consideration to squad price. As a general conclusion, it is possible to consider that on average the clubs in the treatment group and comparison group recover their performance after a period of underperforming, but the recovery of the clubs that sack their coach is lower compared with the clubs that keep them

PERFIL EPIDEMIOLÓGICO DE MULHERES COM PAPILOMAVÍRUS HUMANO QUE UTILIZAM O SERVIÇO PÚBLICO DE SAÚDE

Objetivo: conhecer o perfil de mulheres com papilomavírus humano genital e investigar o conhecimento sobre a infecção e sua prevenção. Método: estudo descritivo através da aplicação de formulário estruturado para uma amostra de 49 mulheres. Todas apresentaram resultado de papanicolaou com lesão intraepitelial de baixo grau. Os dados foram tratados por meio de análise estatística descritiva utilizando o programa EPI-INFO® 7.1.4. Resultados: as mulheres estudadas, em sua maioria, eram adultas jovens, solteiras e com ensino médio. A incidência da infecção ocorreu em participantes com renda familiar inferior a cinco salários mínimos por mês. A realização do exame de papanicolaou e sua periodicidade foi referida por mais de 70% delas. Conclusão: os dados apontaram ocorrência do papilomavírus humano em mulheres entre 20 e 40 anos de idade, com maior frequência naquelas que iniciaram a atividade sexual após os 15 anos de idade.Descritores: Papilomavírus humano. Saúde da mulher. Saúde Pública

Irrigação dos músculos papilares do ventrículo esquerdo do coração de caninos (Canis familiaris, L. 1758)

The irrigation of the papillary muscles, has incomplete information on the distribution of the arterial vessels. Objectifying to establish the origin of these arteries and their distribution in the left ventricle papillary muscles, we used 30 hearts of adult, male and female mongrel dogs. After the death, the heart was removed, washed and injected through the left coronary artery opening with an acetate solution of stained vinyl, neoprene latex 650 colored or 10% gelatin. The papillary muscles in all the applied techniques had been fixed with 10% formaldehyde solution. The dissection was carried out with the aid of a 40% sulfuric acid solution. For accomplishment of the radiography, we used mercury injection what assisted the assembly of the studied vascularization projects. Clearing technique of Spalteholz was applied for better visualization of the cardiac irrigation. We evidenced that the subauricular and subatrial papillary muscles are irrigated by the left coronary artery branches. The subauricular papillary muscle was blood-supplied by the interventricular paraconal and circumflex branches and the subatrial papillary muscle mainly by the circumflex branch. The sub-segments that supply the subauricular papillary muscle from the interventricular paraconal branch are the left collateral and ventricular branches and from the circumflex branch: left dorsal branches and intermedial (left ventricular marginal) and rarely from the left ventricular ridge (diaphragmatic branch). The subsegments of the circumflex branch that supply the subatrial papillary muscle are: intermedial (left ventricular marginal), from the left ventricular ridge (diaphragmatic branch), right dorsal branches and subsinuous interventricular branch. In some cases we observed the collateral branch and the proper interventricular paraconal branch reaching the portion of the vertex of the subatrial papillary muscle.A irrigação dos músculos papilares tem informações incompletas sobre a distribuição dos vasos arteriais. Objetivando estabelecer a origem destas artérias e sua distribuição nos músculos papilares do ventrículo esquerdo, utilizamos 30 corações de cães adultos, machos e fêmeas de raça não definida e de várias idades. Após o óbito, o coração foi removido, lavado em água corrente e em seguida injetado através do óstio da artéria coronária esquerda com uma solução de acetato de vinil corado, neoprene látex 650 corado ou gelatina a 10%. Os músculos papilares em todas as técnicas utilizadas foram fixados com solução de formol a 10%. A dissecação foi realizada de forma acelerada com o uso de solução de ácido sulfúrico a 40%. Para realização das radiografias utilizamos injeção de mercúrio o que auxiliou a montagem dos esquemas da vascularização estudada. Utilizamos a técnica de diafanização de Spalteholz para melhor visualizar a irrigação cardíaca. Evidenciamos que os músculos papilares subauricular e subatrial são irrigados pelos ramos da artéria coronária esquerda. O subauricular pelos ramos interventricular paraconal e circunflexo e o subatrial predominantemente pelo ramo circunflexo. Os subsegmentos que suprem o subauricular do ramo interventricular paraconal são os ramos: colateral e ventriculares à esquerda; e do ramo circunflexo são os ramos: dorsais à esquerda e intermédio (marginal ventricular esquerdo) e mais raramente o ramo da borda ventricular esquerda (ramo diafragmático). Os subsegmentos do ramo circunflexo que suprem o subatrial são os ramos: intermédio (marginal ventricular esquerdo), da borda ventricular esquerda (ramo diafragmático), ramos dorsais direito e ramo interventricular subsinuoso. Em alguns casos observamos o ramo colateral e o próprio ramo interventricular paraconal atingirem a porção do vértice do subatrial

Avaliação da marcha em hemiparéticos após Acidente Vascular Encefálico submetidos à dupla tarefa motora e cognitiva

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Araranguá. Fisioterapia.Introdução: O acidente vascular encefálico (AVE) é definido como uma redução do fluxo de sangue em uma região do cérebro. Após o AVE, os pacientes frequentemente apresentam déficits motores comprometendo a realização das atividades de vida diária, especialmente a marcha. O que configura um importante comprometimento na marcha é a perda da automatização, o que prejudica a capacidade de realizar duas atividades de forma concomitante. Esta capacidade de associar duas tarefas é chamada de dupla tarefa e é um importante componente para o desempenho funcional nas atividades de vida diária. Objetivo: Comparar o efeito da dupla tarefa, com demanda motora e cognitiva, na marcha de pacientes hemiparéticos pós-AVE. Materiais e métodos: Trata-se de um estudo observacional transversal, realizado no setor de fisioterapia da Unidade Básica de Saúde Paulo Luppin, no município de Balneário Arroio do Silva. Participaram do estudo seis indivíduos hemiparéticos, que foram submetidos a três tarefas. O instrumento utilizado foi a análise da marcha através do teste de caminhada de 10m (TC10m) e da medida da área de contato do pé. Resultados: Foi observado que os sujeitos pós-AVE aumentaram o número de passos e de passadas de forma significativa na dupla tarefa cognitiva (p= 0,008). Conclusão: A execução de dupla tarefa cognitiva interfere na marcha dos sujeitos hemiparéticos pós-AVE

The relationship between phylogeny and ontogeny in the development of infant laterality

A lateralidade humana tem sido concebida como sendo predominantemente o resultado de fatores filogenéticos do desenvolvimento humano, enquanto que apenas importância secundária tem sido atribuída à interação indivíduo-ambiente. Neste estudo é apresentada uma revisão crítica da literatura com indicadores da influência de fatores filo e ontogenéticos no desenvolvimento da lateralidade, com particular ênfase aos primeiros anos de vida. A partir dos resultados discutidos, propomos que a lateralidade humana é um processo dinâmico, com efeitos marcantes das experiências sensório-motoras lateralizadas sobre a preferência manual e assimetrias interlaterais de desempenho motor.Human laterality has been conceived as resulting, predominantly, from phylogenetic factors in human development, whereas individual-environment interaction is thought to play only a minor role. This study aims at presenting a critical review of literature showing evidence of the effect of phylogenetic and ontogenetic factors on the development of laterality, with particular emphasis on the first years of life. From the results presented, we propose that human laterality is a dynamic process, with sharp effects of lateralized sensorimotor experiences over manual preference and interlateral asymmetry of motor performance.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq