11,160 research outputs found
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
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
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
Influence of hydrodynamic patterns on foraminifera in reef sediment sat the Praia do Forte beach and Itacimirim, Bahia, Brazil
Abstrac
Planktonic diatoms in lotic and lentic environments in the Lago dos Tigres hydrologic system (Britânia, Goiás, Brazil) : Coscinodiscophyceae and Fragilariophyceae
Coscinodiscophyceae and Fragilariophyceae). A floristic study of Coscinodiscophyceae and Fragilariophyceae in the Lago dos Tigres hydrologic system is presented. Phytoplankton samples were collected with a plankton net (25 μm mesh) at 11 sampling stations, three in lotic areas and eight in lacustrine zones. Eleven species of Coscinodiscophyceae and eight of Fragilariophyceae were identified; descriptions, comments, their geographic distributions for the midwestern region of Brazil, type of environment (lentic/lotic), and illustrations are provided. Among the taxa found, 13 were recorded for the first time in midwestern Brazil: Aulacoseira alpigena, A. distans, A. granulata var. angustissima, A. granulata var. valida, A. muzzanensis, Discostella stelligera var. stelligera, Fragilaria capucina var. fragilarioides, F. delicatissima var. delicatissima, F. javanica, Pleurosira laevis, Staurosira acutirostrata, Staurosirella crassa, and Ulnaria ulna
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