Crenças em saúde para o controle da hipertensão arterial

As crenças em saúde podem influenciar na adesão ao tratamento da hipertensão arterial. Estimar o percentual de crenças em saúde sobre barreiras e benefícios quanto às medidas de prevenção e controle da hipertensão arterial e conhecer os fatores sociodemográficos associados a essas crenças foi o objetivo deste estudo descritivo-exploratório, que adotou como referencial teórico o Modelo de Crenças em Saúde. Foi realizado em um centro de saúde em Salvador, com 106 adultos, autodeclarados negros e com diagnóstico médico de hipertensão arterial. Para a entrevista, utilizou-se uma Escala de Crenças em Saúde sobre treze comportamentos relacionados às medidas de prevenção e controle da doença. Para análise dos dados, utilizaram-se índices percentuais, freqüência de casos, escores e a razão de prevalência. Os testes estatísticos foram verificados no nível de 5% de significância. A análise global mostrou predomínio da categoria "crenças sobre benefícios" para doze comportamentos de saúde. Homens e mulheres perceberam diferentemente benefícios para esses comportamentos e constatou-se uma tendência à percepção de menos benefícios quanto às medidas de prevenção e controle da hipertensão arterial em estratos socioeconômicos menos favorecidos, adultos jovens e pessoas sem companheiro.Health beliefs can interfere with the adherence to arterial hypertension therapy. The aim of this descriptive-exploratory study that adopted the Model of Health Beliefs as a theoretical reference was to estimate percentages of health beliefs about the benefits of prevention and control measures of arterial hypertension and to identify the social-demographic factors associated with these beliefs. The study was conducted in a Health Center in the city of Salvador, with 106 adults self- declared as black, and with a medical diagnosis of arterial hypertension. For the interviews we used a "Scale of Health Beliefs" about 13 behaviors related to disease prevention and control measures. The data analysis was based on percentage rates, frequency of cases and scores and the social-demographic factors associated to these beliefs were analyzed based on the prevalence rate. The global analysis showed predominance in the category "beliefs about benefits" for 12 behaviors. Men and women realized different benefits from these behaviors. The socio-economically less favored strata, young adults and individuals living without a partner tended to perceive less benefits from the prevention and control measures of arterial hypertension

Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

Tropical forests face increasing climate risk1,2, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. Although xylem embolism resistance thresholds (for example, Ψ50) and hydraulic safety margins (for example, HSM50) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk3–5, little is known about how these vary across Earth’s largest tropical forest. Here, we present a pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. Parameters Ψ50 and HSM50 vary markedly across the Amazon and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both Ψ50 and HSM50 influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM50 was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM50 are gaining more biomass than are low HSM50 forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth–mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM50 in the Amazon6,7, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink

LEAF TOTAL NITROGEN CONCENTRATION AS AN INDICATOR OF NITROGEN STATUS FOR PLANTLETS AND YOUNG PLANTS OF EUCALYPTUS CLONES

The use of leaf total nitrogen concentration as an indicator for nutritional diagnosis has some limitations. The objective of this study was to determine the reliability of total N concentration as an indicator of N status for eucalyptus clones, and to compare it with alternative indicators. A greenhouse experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design in a 2 × 6 factorial arrangement with plantlets of two eucalyptus clones (140 days old) and six levels of N in the nutrient solution. In addition, a field experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 factorial arrangement, consisting of two seasons, two regions, two young clones (approximately two years old), and three positions of crown leaf sampling. The field areas (regions) had contrasting soil physical and chemical properties, and their soil contents for total N, NH+4-N, and NO−3-N were determined in five soil layers, up to a depth of 1.0 m. We evaluated the following indicators of plant N status in roots and leaves: contents of total N, NH+4-N, NO−3-N, and chlorophyll; N/P ratio; and chlorophyll meter readings on the leaves. Ammonium (root) and NO−3-N (root and leaf) efficiently predicted N requirements for eucalyptus plantlets in the greenhouse. Similarly, leaf N/P, chlorophyll values, and chlorophyll meter readings provided good results in the greenhouse. However, leaf N/P did not reflect the soil N status, and the use of the chlorophyll meter could not be generalized for different genotypes. Leaf total N concentration is not an ideal indicator, but it and the chlorophyll levels best represent the soil N status for young eucalyptus clones under field conditions

Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: The pan-Amazonian HT dataset (Ψ 50, Ψ dry and HSM50) and branch wood density per species per site, as well as forest dynamic and climate data per plot presented in this study are available as a ForestPlots.net data package at https://forestplots.net/data-packages/Tavares-et-al-2023. Basal area weighted mean LMA is shown in Supplementary Table 2. Species stem wood density data were obtained from Global Wood Density database65,66. Species WDA data were extracted from ref. 45.Code availability: The codes to recreate the main analyses and the main figures presented in this study are available as a ForestPlots.net data package at https://forestplots.net/data-packages/Tavares-et-al-2023.Tropical forests face increasing climate risk, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. Although xylem embolism resistance thresholds (for example, Ψ 50) and hydraulic safety margins (for example, HSM50) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk, little is known about how these vary across Earth’s largest tropical forest. Here, we present a pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. Parameters Ψ 50 and HSM50 vary markedly across the Amazon and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both Ψ 50 and HSM50 influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM50 was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM50 are gaining more biomass than are low HSM50 forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth–mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM50 in the Amazon, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink

General and abdominal adiposity and hypertension in eight world regions: a pooled analysis of 837 population-based studies with 7•5 million participants

Background Adiposity can be measured using BMI (which is based on weight and height) as well as indices of abdominal adiposity. We examined the association between BMI and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) within and across populations of different world regions and quantified how well these two metrics discriminate between people with and without hypertension. Methods We used data from studies carried out from 1990 to 2023 on BMI, WHtR and hypertension in people aged 20–64 years in representative samples of the general population in eight world regions. We graphically compared the regional distributions of BMI and WHtR, and calculated Pearson's correlation coefficients between BMI and WHtR within each region. We used mixed-effects linear regression to estimate the extent to which WHtR varies across regions at the same BMI. We graphically examined the prevalence of hypertension and the distribution of people who have hypertension both in relation to BMI and WHtR, and we assessed how closely BMI and WHtR discriminate between participants with and without hypertension using C-statistic and net reclassification improvement (NRI). Findings The correlation between BMI and WHtR ranged from 0·76 to 0·89 within different regions. After adjusting for age and BMI, mean WHtR was highest in south Asia for both sexes, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. Mean WHtR was lowest in central and eastern Europe for both sexes, in the high-income western region for women, and in Oceania for men. Conversely, to achieve an equivalent WHtR, the BMI of the population of south Asia would need to be, on average, 2·79 kg/m2 (95% CI 2·31–3·28) lower for women and 1·28 kg/m2 (1·02–1·54) lower for men than in the high-income western region. In every region, hypertension prevalence increased with both BMI and WHtR. Models with either of these two adiposity metrics had virtually identical C-statistics and NRIs for every region and sex, with C-statistics ranging from 0·72 to 0·81 and NRIs ranging from 0·34 to 0·57 in different region and sex combinations. When both BMI and WHtR were used, performance improved only slightly compared with using either adiposity measure alone. Interpretation BMI can distinguish young and middle-aged adults with higher versus lower amounts of abdominal adiposity with moderate-to-high accuracy, and both BMI and WHtR distinguish people with or without hypertension. However, at the same BMI level, people in south Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa, have higher WHtR than in the other regions. Funding UK Medical Research Council and UK Research and Innovation (Innovate UK)

Production planning using time windows for short-term multipurpose batch plants scheduling problems

This paper deals with short-time planning and scheduling in multipurpose plants subject to a variable demand profile. In this case, production delays are often due to equipment overload, and this paper addresses a two-level approach that is intended to help managers engineer a scheduling solution that fulfills a compromise between products' demands and plant loading. At the first level, once a product's demand and raw-material delivery plan are defined, backward and forward explosion procedures are developed in such a way that time windows, defined by the earliest starting time and latest finishing time for each batch, are generated. Those time windows are submitted to an extended capacity analysis, based on constraint-propagation mechanisms, which is intended to reduce the time windows. If, after the capacity analysis, the problem is still feasible and the plant loading is accepted, then a scheduling procedure is launched. The scheduling approach is based on a uniform discrete time representation that is intended to explore plant features, such as, zero-wait policies, limited storage; and/or low equipment demand. The mixed integer linear problem (MILP) approach, combined with the time-window shortening procedure at the planning level, leads to smaller MILP problems, thereby reducing the solution time.39103823383

OPTIMIZATION OF WATER REMOVAL IN THE PRESS SECTION OF A PAPER MACHINE

An optimization problem regarding water removal in the press section of a paper machine is considered in this work. The proposed model tries to minimize a cost function comprising the replacement of the felts in the press section, the cost of energy to operate the press and the cost of energy in the drying section, while satisfying the constraints of water mass balance in the process. The model is classified as a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) in which the most important decisions are: a) the sequence of paper to produce or when to produce the paper; b) the need to exchange the felts; and c) when to exchange the felts. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the model.27227528