Remaining missed opportunities of child survival in Peru:Modelling mortality impact of universal and equitable coverage of proven interventions

Abstract Background Peru has made great improvements in reducing stunting and child mortality in the past decade, and has reached the Millennium Development Goals 1 and 4. The remaining challenges or missed opportunities for child survival needs to be identified and quantified, in order to guide the next steps to further improve child survival in Peru. Methods We used the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to project the mortality impact of proven interventions reaching every women and child in need, and the mortality impact of eliminating inequalities in coverage distribution between wealth quintiles and urban–rural residence. Results Our analyses quantified the remaining missed opportunities in Peru, where prioritizing scale-up of facility-based case management for all small and sick babies will be most effective in mortality reduction, compared to other evidenced-based interventions that prevent maternal and child deaths. Eliminating coverage disparities between the poorest quintiles and the richest will reduce under-five and neonatal mortality by 22.0 and 40.6 %, while eliminating coverage disparities between those living in rural and urban areas will reduce under-five and neonatal mortality by 29.3 and 45.2 %. This projected neonatal mortality reduction achieved by eliminating coverage disparities is almost comparable to that already achieved by Peru over the past decade. Conclusions Although Peru has made great strides in improving child survival, further improvement in child health, especially in newborn health can be achieved if there is universal and equitable coverage of proven, quality health facility-based interventions. The magnitude of reduction in mortality will be similar to what has been achieved in the past decade. Strengthening health system to identify, understand, and direct resources to the poor and rural areas will ensure that Peru achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

Applying MILP-based algorithms to automated job-shop scheduling problems in aircraft-part manufacturing

This work presents efficient algorithms based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) for complex job-shop scheduling problems raised in Automated Manufacturing Systems. The aim of this work is to find alternative solution approaches of production and transportation operations in a multi-product multistage production process that can be used to solve industrial-scale problems with reasonable computational effort. The MILP model developed must take into account; dissimilar recipes, single unit per production stage, re-entrant flows, sequence- dependent free transferring times and load transfer movements in a single automated material-handling device. In addition, logical-based strategies are proposed to iteratively find and improve the solutions generated over time. These approaches were tested in different real-world problems appeared in the surfacetreatment process of metal components in aircraft manufacturing industry.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Applying MILP-based algorithms to automated job-shop scheduling problems in aircraft-part manufacturing

This work presents efficient algorithms based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) for complex job-shop scheduling problems raised in Automated Manufacturing Systems. The aim of this work is to find alternative solution approaches of production and transportation operations in a multi-product multistage production process that can be used to solve industrial-scale problems with reasonable computational effort. The MILP model developed must take into account; dissimilar recipes, single unit per production stage, re-entrant flows, sequence- dependent free transferring times and load transfer movements in a single automated material-handling device. In addition, logical-based strategies are proposed to iteratively find and improve the solutions generated over time. These approaches were tested in different real-world problems appeared in the surfacetreatment process of metal components in aircraft manufacturing industry.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Applying MILP-based algorithms to automated job-shop scheduling problems in aircraft-part manufacturing

This work presents efficient algorithms based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) for complex job-shop scheduling problems raised in Automated Manufacturing Systems. The aim of this work is to find alternative solution approaches of production and transportation operations in a multi-product multistage production process that can be used to solve industrial-scale problems with reasonable computational effort. The MILP model developed must take into account; dissimilar recipes, single unit per production stage, re-entrant flows, sequence- dependent free transferring times and load transfer movements in a single automated material-handling device. In addition, logical-based strategies are proposed to iteratively find and improve the solutions generated over time. These approaches were tested in different real-world problems appeared in the surfacetreatment process of metal components in aircraft manufacturing industry.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Testing spatial noncommutativiy via the Aharonov-Bohm effect

The possibility of detecting noncommutative space relics is analyzed using the Aharonov-Bohm effect. We show that, if space is noncommutative, the holonomy receives non-trivial kinematical corrections that will produce a diffraction pattern even when the magnetic flux is quantized. The scattering problem is also formulated, and the differential cross section is calculated. Our results can be extrapolated to high energy physics and the bound $\theta \sim [ 10 {TeV}]^{-2}$ is found. If this bound holds, then noncommutative effects could be explored in scattering experiments measuring differential cross sections for small angles. The bound state Aharonov- Bohm effect is also discussed.Comment: 16 pp, Revtex 4, 2 fig, new references added. To appear in PR

Knowledge-based energy functions for computational studies of proteins

This chapter discusses theoretical framework and methods for developing knowledge-based potential functions essential for protein structure prediction, protein-protein interaction, and protein sequence design. We discuss in some details about the Miyazawa-Jernigan contact statistical potential, distance-dependent statistical potentials, as well as geometric statistical potentials. We also describe a geometric model for developing both linear and non-linear potential functions by optimization. Applications of knowledge-based potential functions in protein-decoy discrimination, in protein-protein interactions, and in protein design are then described. Several issues of knowledge-based potential functions are finally discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 6 figures. To be published in a book by Springe

Quantification of table olives' acid, bitter and salty tastes using potentiometric electronic tongue fingerprints

The intensities of the gustatory attributes of table olives is one of the sensory set of parameters evaluated by trained sensory panels accordingly to the recommendations of the International Olive Council. However this is an expensive and time-consuming process that only allows the evaluation of a limited number of samples per day. So, an electronic tongue coupled with multivariate statistical tools, is proposed for assessing the median intensities of acid, bitter and salty tastes perceived in table olives. The results showed that the device, coupled with linear discriminant analysis, could be used as a taste sensor, allowing classifying aqueous standard solutions according to the three basic tastes (repeated K-fold cross-validation: 98% ± 3% of correct classifications) based on the electrochemical signals of 5 sensors. It was demonstrated that the taste sensor with multiple linear regression models, enabled quantifying the median intensities of the three basic tastes (repeated K-fold cross-validation: R2 ? 0.96 ± 0.04) perceived in table olives by a trained sensory panel, based on the potentiometric fingerprints (2125 signal profiles) of aqueous olive pastes and brines. The overall satisfactory results showed the electronic tongue potential to assess the intensities of gustatory attributes of table olives, formerly only achievable by sensory panels.This work was financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM and by Project UID/QUI/00616/2013 – CQ-VR both funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit is also acknowledged. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/104038/2014)

Single-cultivar extra virgin olive oil classification using a potentiometric electronic tongue

Label authentication of monovarietal extra virgin olive oils is of great importance. A novel approach based on a potentiometric electronic tongue is proposed to classify oils obtained from single olive cultivars (Portuguese cvs. Cobrançosa, Madural, Verdeal Transmontana; Spanish cvs. Arbequina, Hojiblanca, Picual). A meta-heuristic simulated annealing algorithm was applied to select the most informative sets of sensors to establish predictive linear discriminant models. Olive oils were correctly classified according to olive cultivar (sensitivities greater than 97%) and each Spanish olive oil was satisfactorily discriminated from the Portuguese ones with the exception of cv. Arbequina (sensitivities from 61% to 98%). Also, the discriminant ability was related to the polar compounds contents of olive oils and so, indirectly, with organoleptic properties like bitterness, astringency or pungency. Therefore the proposed E-tongue can be foreseen as a useful auxiliary tool for trained sensory panels for the classification of monovarietal extra virgin olive oils.This work was co-financed by FCT and FEDER under Program COMPETE (Project PEst-C/EQB/LA0020/2013)