Heavy neutrino-antineutrino oscillations at the FCC-ee

We discuss the impact of heavy neutrino-antineutrino oscillations (NNOs) on heavy neutral lepton (HNL) searches at proposed electron-positron colliders such as the future circular $e^+e^-$ collider (FCC-ee). During the $Z$ pole run, HNLs can be produced alongside a light neutrino or antineutrino that escapes detection and can decay into a charged lepton or antilepton together with an off-shell $W$ boson. In this case, signals of lepton number violation only show up in the final state distributions. We discuss how NNOs, a typical feature of collider-testable low-scale seesaw models where the heavy neutrinos form pseudo-Dirac pairs, modify such final state distributions. For example, the forward-backward asymmetry (FBA) of the reconstructed heavy (anti)neutrinos develops an oscillatory dependence on the HNL lifetime. We show that these oscillations can be resolvable for long-lived HNLs. We also discuss that when the NNOs are not resolvable, they can nevertheless significantly modify the theory predictions for FBAs and observables such as the ratio of the total number of HNL decays into $\ell^-$ over ones into $\ell^+$, in an interval of the angle~$\theta$ between the HNL and the beam axis. Our results show that NNOs should be included in collider simulations of HNLs at the FCCee.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Patterns of Eating Behavior among 13-Year-Old Adolescents and Associated Factors: Findings from the Generation XXI Birth Cohort

Eating behavior adopted during adolescence may persist into adulthood. The aims of this study were to identify eating behavior patterns among Portuguese adolescents and to explore whether groups differ in terms of early life and family characteristics, severity of depressive symptoms, and body mass index (BMI) z-score. Participants were 3601 13-year-olds enrolled in the birth cohort Generation XXI. Eating behavior was assessed using the self-reported Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ), validated in this sample. The severity of depressive symptoms was measured through the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and data on sociodemographic and anthropometrics were collected at birth and 13-years-old. Latent class analysis was conducted, and associations were estimated using multinomial logistic regression models. Five patterns of individuals were identified: Picky eating, Disinterest towards food, Food neophilia, Emotional eating, and Food attractiveness. The adolescents' sex, maternal education, BMI z-score, and severity of depressive symptoms were significantly associated with the identified patterns. In particular, adolescents with a higher BMI z-score were more likely in Food neophilia while individuals with more severe depressive symptoms were in the Picky eating, Emotional eating, and Food attractiveness patterns. These findings suggest a starting point for the development and planning of targeted public health interventions

Evaluation of an educational programme for socially deprived asthma patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an asthma education programme in moderate and severe asthma patients in a longitudinal, prospective and randomized study with a control group. Fifty-three asthmatic patients were studied, 26 of whom were assigned to the educational group and 27 to the control group.The educational group attended the programme regularly for a period of 6 months. the programme included information about asthma, instruction on the appropriate use of medication and training in the metered dose inhaler (MDI) technique, and information about the identification and control of asthma attacks and the recognition of early signs of exacerbation. the control group was submitted to the routine tare provided at the Asthma Clinic, with no formal instruction regarding asthma control. the groups were identical with regard to severity parameters, skills, lung function and quality of Life at the beginning of the trial.At the end of the study, the education group showed significant differences when compared with the control group education/control (mean values) with respect to: visits to the asthma emergency room over the previous 6 months, 0.7/2 (p=0.03); nocturnal symptoms, 0.3/0.7 (p=0.04); score of symptoms, 1.3/2 (p=0.04). Improvements were also observed in skills and quality of life, knowledge of how to deal with attacks and how to control the environmental triggering factors, 73/35 (<0.05); correct use of the MDI, 8/4 (0.001); understanding of the difference between relief and antiinflammatory medication, 86/20 (<0.05); and in the global limitation quality of life score, 28/50 (0.02).It is concluded that the educational programme led to a significant improvement in asthma morbidity and that the implantation of educational programmes is possible for special populations when these programmes are adapted to the socioeconomic profile of the patients, with a significant gain in terms of the reduction of symptoms and improved pulmonary function and quality of life of asthmatics.Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Lund Div, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Lund Div, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Complex Network Tools to Understand the Behavior of Criminality in Urban Areas

Complex networks are nowadays employed in several applications. Modeling urban street networks is one of them, and in particular to analyze criminal aspects of a city. Several research groups have focused on such application, but until now, there is a lack of a well-defined methodology for employing complex networks in a whole crime analysis process, i.e. from data preparation to a deep analysis of criminal communities. Furthermore, the "toolset" available for those works is not complete enough, also lacking techniques to maintain up-to-date, complete crime datasets and proper assessment measures. In this sense, we propose a threefold methodology for employing complex networks in the detection of highly criminal areas within a city. Our methodology comprises three tasks: (i) Mapping of Urban Crimes; (ii) Criminal Community Identification; and (iii) Crime Analysis. Moreover, it provides a proper set of assessment measures for analyzing intrinsic criminality of communities, especially when considering different crime types. We show our methodology by applying it to a real crime dataset from the city of San Francisco - CA, USA. The results confirm its effectiveness to identify and analyze high criminality areas within a city. Hence, our contributions provide a basis for further developments on complex networks applied to crime analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 14th International Conference on Information Technology : New Generation

Variance of bioimpedance analysis measurements with physicalactivity and ingestion of food and water

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Suporte nutricional em diferentes unidades de cuidados intensivos

[resumo][abstract

Spin-Polarized STM for a Kondo adatom

We investigate the bias dependence of the tunneling conductance between a spin-polarized (SP) scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip and the surface conduction states of a normal metal with a Kondo adatom. Quantum interference between tip-host metal and tip-adatom-host metal conduction paths is studied in the full range of the Fano parameter $q$. The spin-polarized STM gives rise to a splitting of the Kondo peak and asymmetry in the zero-bias anomaly depending on the lateral tip-adatom distance. For increasing lateral distances, the Kondo peak-splitting shows a strong suppression and the spin-polarized conductance exhibits the standard Fano-Kondo profile.Comment: new version with improved discussion. added one figure. 12 pages (one-column) + 5 figure

Prevalence of Nutritional Risk at Admission in Internal Medicine Wards in Portugal: The Multicentre Cross-Sectional ANUMEDI Study

Introduction: Disease-related undernutrition is highly prevalent and requires timely intervention. However, identifying undernutrition often relies on physician judgment. As Internal Medicine wards are the backbone of the hospital setting, insight into the prevalence of nutritional risk in this population is essential. We aimed to determine the prevalence of nutritional risk in Internal Medicine wards, to identify its correlates, and to assess the agreement between the physicians' impression of nutritional risk and evaluation by Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre study was performed in Internal Medicine wards of 24 Portuguese hospitals during 2017. Data on demographics, previous hospital admissions, primary diagnosis, and Charlson comorbidity index score were collected. Nutritional risk at admission was assessed using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. Agreement between physicians' impression of nutritional risk and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 was tested by Cohen's kappa. Results: The study included 729 participants (mean age 74 +/- 14.6 years, 51% male). The main reason for admission was respiratory disease. Mean Charlson comorbidity index score was 5.8 +/- 2.8. Prevalence of nutritional risk was 51%. Nutritional risk was associated with admission during the previous year (odds ratio = 1.65, 95% confidence interval: 1.22 - 2.24), solid tumour with metastasis (odds ratio = 4.73, 95% confidence interval: 2.06 - 10.87), any tumour without metastasis (odds ratio = 2.04, 95% confidence interval:1.24 - 3.34), kidney disease (odds ratio = 1.83, 95% confidence interval: 1.21 - 2.75), peptic ulcer (odds ratio = 2.17, 95% confidence interval: 1.10 - 4.25), heart failure (odds ratio = 1.51, 95% confidence interval: 1.11 - 2.04), dementia (odds ratio = 3.02, 95% confidence interval: 1.96 - 4.64), and cerebrovascular disease (odds ratio = 1.62, 95% confidence interval: 1.12 - 2.35). Agreement between physicians' evaluation of nutritional status and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 was weak (Cohen's kappa = 0.415, p < 0.001). Discussion: Prevalence of nutritional risk in the Internal Medicine population is very high. Admission during the previous year and multiple comorbidities increase the odds of being at-risk. Subjective physician evaluation is not appropriate for nutritional screening. Conclusion: The high prevalence of at-risk patients and poor subjective physician evaluation suggest the need to implement mandatory nutritional screening

Enteric methane emissions expressed by carcass productivity of Nellore cattle raised in different pasture systems.

In 2023, the population reached the mark of 8 billion people in the world, and projections indicate that this number will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050 [1]