Variations in peak expiratory flow measurements associated to air pollution and allergic sensitization in children in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Background In the last 20 years, there has been an increase in the incidence of allergic respiratory diseases worldwide and exposure to air pollution has been discussed as one of the factors associated with this increase. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of air pollution on peak expiratory flow (PEF) and FEV1 in children with and without allergic sensitization. Methods Ninety-six children were followed from April to July, 2004 with spirometry measurements. They were tested for allergic sensitization (IgE, skin prick test, eosinophilia) and asked about allergic symptoms. Air pollution, temperature, and relative humidity data were available. Results Decrements in PEF were observed with previous 24-hr average exposure to air pollution, as well as with 310-day average exposure and were associated mainly with PM10, NO2, and O3 in all three categories of allergic sensitization. Even though allergic sensitized children tended to present larger decrements in the PEF measurements they were not statistically different from the non-allergic sensitized. Decrements in FEV1 were observed mainly with previous 24-hr average exposure and 3-day moving average. Conclusions Decrements in PEF associated with air pollution were observed in children independent from their allergic sensitization status. Their daily exposure to air pollution can be responsible for a chronic inflammatory process that might impair their lung growth and later their lung function in adulthood. Am. J. Ind. Med. 55:10871098, 2012. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Single Statistic for Monitoring the Covariance Matrix of Bivariate Processes

In this article, we present a new control chart for monitoring the covariance matrix in a bivariate process. In this method, n observations of the two variables were considered as if they came from a single variable (as a sample of 2n observations), and a sample variance was calculated. This statistic was used to build a new control chart specifically as a VMIX chart. The performance of the new control chart was compared with its main competitors: the generalized sampled variance chart, the likelihood ratio test, Nagao's test, probability integral transformation (v(t)), and the recently proposed VMAX chart. Among these statistics, only the VMAX chart was competitive with the VMIX chart. For shifts in both variances, the VMIX chart outperformed VMAX; however, VMAX showed better performance for large shifts (higher than 10%) in one variance.

Avaliação da distribuição de sementes por uma semeadora de anel interno rotativo utilizando média móvel exponencial

Conceitos de qualidade cada vez mais se tornam essenciais para a sobrevivência da empresa agrícola, pois a importância do aprimoramento das operações agrícolas se faz necessária para a obtenção de resultados viáveis economicamente, ambientamente e socialmente. Uma das dimensões da qualidade é conseguir de conformidade, ou seja, a garantia de execução exata do que foi planejado para atender aos requisitos dos clientes em relação a um determinado produto ou serviço. Os objetivos deste trabalho são avaliar a distribuição longitudinal entre sementes de uma semeadora de anel interno rotativo, e propor a utilização da metodologia estatística da Média Móvel Exponencialmente Ponderada (MMEP) como alternativa para o controle de qualidade da semeadura, quando não há normalidade da distribuição dos dados. Os resultados demonstraram que a MMEP é adequada para a avaliação da qualidade da distribuição longitudinal de sementes, pois concordou com os dados apresentados na estatística descritiva, o que lhe credencia para avaliação de distribuições não normais.