Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence in a Community Sample From the City of Sao Paulo

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) in a community sample from the city of Sao Paulo. METHODS: This epidemiological survey was conducted at a family health program in Sao Paulo, Brazil, using randomized sampling. Data were collected by interviewing residents and were analyzed by Pearson`s correlation coefficients, chi-square tests, and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Seventy (10.7%) of the 657 subjects currently presented UI, including 50.7% with sporadic UI and 74.3% with UI upon moderate efforts. Ninety-three percent woke up during the night, 43.7% maintained continence until the bathroom, 63.4% had a sensation of wetness, and 77.5% reported no use of any continence aids. Female gender, advanced age, gynecologic or urologic surgery, dysuria, and urinary tract infection were correlated with UI (P < .001; r(2) = 0.572). CONCLUSION: The overall prevalence of UI was found to be high and was comparable to results from multiple countries.

Environment-friendly soy flour-based resins without formaldehyde

Glyoxalated soy flour adhesives for wood particleboard added with a much smaller proportion of glyoxalated lignin or tannin and without any addition of either formaldehyde or formaldehyde-based resin are shown to yield results satisfying the relevant standard specifications for interior wood boards. Adhesive resin formulations in which the total content of natural material is either 70 or 80% of the total resin solids content gave good results. The resins comprising 70% by weight of natural material can be used in a much lower proportion on wood chips and can afford pressing times fast enough to be significant under industrial panel pressing conditions. The best formulation of all the ones tried was the one based on glyoxalated precooked soy flour (SG), to which a condensed tannin was added in water solution and a polymeric isocyanate (pMDI), where the proportions of the components SG/T/pMDI was 54/16/30 by weight. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Friere`s Dialogic Concept Enables Family Health Program Teams to Incorporate Health Promotion

Objective The study analyzes the possibility of incorporating health promotion measures into the work processes of Family Health Program teams at a primary health care clinic in Brazil. Design and Sample We used the participatory research concept developed in 1968 by Freire. The study sample comprised the end-users of the health care system, together with 3 multidisciplinary teams. A total of 77 health care users and 55 health professionals participated in the study. Measures Culture circles composed of health care professionals, and users from different areas investigated generative topics, encoded/decoded topics, and engaged in critical probing for clarification. Topics affecting quality of life and health were heuristically evaluated. Results Although most topics were related to changing the focus of health care facilities, some were related to subsidizing community-based interventions, improving environmental strategies, individual skills, and public policies. Incorporating the novel health promotion measures and creating an expanded full-treatment clinic are important steps toward that goal. Conclusions Topics that can stimulate dialogue among the members of the culture circles include creating an environment of closer cultural contact, with repercussions for work processes, family health models, and general health models, as well as the inclusion of social aspects in the decision-making processes related to health issues that affect the living conditions of the population.

Performance of a horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass (HAIB) reactor and dynamics of the microbial community during degradation of pentachlorophenol (PCP)

The anaerobic biological treatment of pentachlorophenol (PCP) and methanol as the main carbon source was investigated in a horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass (HAIB) reactor at 30 +/- 1 degrees C, during a 220-day trial period. The reactor biomass was developed as an attached biofilm on polyurethane foam particles, with 24 h of hydraulic retention time. The PCP concentrations, which ranged from 2.0 to 13.0 mg/L, were controlled by adding synthetic substrate. The HAIB reactor reduced 97% of COD and removed 99% of PCP. The microbial biofilm communities of the HAIB reactor amended with PCP, without previous acclimatization, were characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) with specific Archaea oligonucleotide primers. The ARDRA technique provided an adequate analysis of the community, revealing the profile of the selected population along the reactor. The biomass activities in the HAIB reactor at the end of the experiments indicated the development of PCP degraders and the maintenance of the population of methanogenic Archaea, ensuring the high efficiency of the system treating PCP with added methanol as the cosubstrate. The use of the simplified ARDRA method enabled us to monitor the microbial population with the addition of high concentrations of toxic compounds and highlighting a selection of microorganisms in the biofilm. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Surface treatment of reinforced concrete in marine environment: Influence on chloride diffusion coefficient and capillary water absorption

There are currently many types of protective materials for reinforced concrete structures and the influence of these materials in the chloride diffusion coefficient still needs more research. The aim of this paper is to study the efficacy of certain surface treatments (such as hydrophobic agents, acrylic coating, polyurethane coating and double systems) in inhibiting chloride penetration in concrete. The results indicated that all tested surface protection significantly reduced the sorptivity of concrete (reduction rate > 70%). However, only the polyurethane coating was highly effective in reducing the chloride diffusion coefficient (reduction rate of 86%). (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision making in fuzzy environment and multicriteria power engineering problems

This paper presents results of research into the use of the Bellman-Zadeh approach to decision making in a fuzzy environment for solving multicriteria power engineering problems. The application of the approach conforms to the principle of guaranteed result and provides constructive lines in computationally effective obtaining harmonious solutions on the basis of solving associated maxmin problems. The presented results are universally applicable and are already being used to solve diverse classes of power engineering problems. It is illustrated by considering problems of power and energy shortage allocation, power system operation, optimization of network configuration in distribution systems, and energetically effective voltage control in distribution systems. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Swarm Intelligence applied in synthesis of hunting strategies in a three-dimensional environment

Systems of distributed artificial intelligence can be powerful tools in a wide variety of practical applications. Its most surprising characteristic, the emergent behavior, is also the most answerable for the difficulty in. projecting these systems. This work proposes a tool capable to beget individual strategies for the elements of a multi-agent system and thereof providing to the group means on obtaining wanted results, working in a coordinated and cooperative manner as well. As an application example, a problem was taken as a basis where a predators` group must catch a prey in a three-dimensional continuous ambient. A synthesis of system strategies was implemented of which internal mechanism involves the integration between simulators by Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO), a Swarm Intelligence technique. The system had been tested in several simulation settings and it was capable to synthesize automatically successful hunting strategies, substantiating that the developed tool can provide, as long as it works with well-elaborated patterns, satisfactory solutions for problems of complex nature, of difficult resolution starting from analytical approaches. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measuring Dynamic Oscillations of a Small Span Cable-Stayed Footbridge: Case Study Using L1 GPS Receivers

Highly redundant or statically undetermined structures, such as a cable-stayed bridge, have been of particular concern to the engineering community nowadays because of the complex parameters that must be taken into account for healthy monitoring. The purpose of this study was to verify the reliability and practicability of using GPS to characterize dynamic oscillations of small span bridges. The test was carried out on a cable-stayed wood footbridge at Escola de Engenharia de Sao Carlos-Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Initially a static load trial was carried out to get an idea of the deck amplitude and oscillation frequency. After that, a calibration trial was carried out by applying a well known oscillation on the rover antenna to check the environment detectable limits for the method used. Finally, a dynamic load trial was carried out by using GPS and a displacement transducer to measure the deck oscillation. The displacement transducer was used just to confirm the results obtained by the GPS. The results have shown that the frequencies and amplitude displacements obtained by the GPS are in good agreement with the displacement transducer responses. GPS can be used as a reliable tool to characterize the dynamic behavior of large structures such as cable-stayed footbridges undergoing dynamic loads.

Palynological and physicochemical characterization of Apis mellifera L. bee pollen in the Southern region of Brazil

Bee pollen has been used for many years in both traditional medicine and supplementary nutrition, as well as in alternative diets, mainly due to its nutritional properties and health benefits. Bee pollen production is a recent activity in Brazil, having begun in the late 1980s. However, the country has the potential of being a large world producer of high quality pollen, particularly because of the great diversity of tropical flora and the resistance of the Brazilian Apis mellifera bee races. Thirty-six samples of bee pollen from the Southern region of Brazil were analyzed regarding pollen types and physicochemical and nutritional composition. Only one sample was considered monofloral, which was exclusively composed by pollen from the Asteraceae family). The State of Parana showed a greater variety of pollen types, 18 in total, representing 82% of the total number identified in this study. The bee pollen in the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Parana showed a higher number of samples with humidity content above the standard permitted by the Brazilian legislation, i.e. over 4%. The bee pollen was characterized by its high protein content with average values of 20.47%. The analysis regarding humidity, lipids and sugar showed no statistical differences among the samples (p<0.05). The pollen samples had a high concentration of reducible sugars (48%). The predominant minerals in the samples PR, SC and RS were phosphorus (7102.29, 6873.40, 6661.73 mg/kg of pollen), followed by potassium (5383.73, 4997.77, 4773.26 mg/kg of pollen), calcium (1179.05, 961.93, 848.36 mg/kg of pollen) and magnesium (818.02, 679.01, 725.89 mg/kg of pollen). Statistical analysis (Tukey test) demonstrated no significant difference between the contents of calcium, copper, iron, phosphorus and sodium in the pollen samples of the South of Brazil. However, the samples from the State of Parana contained the highest contents of potassium and differed statistically from the samples of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

Impact of seedling removal on regenerating community structure of a seasonal semideciduous forest

(Impact of seedling removal on regenerating community structure of a seasonal semideciduous forest). Transplanting seedlings and saplings from natural forests has been considered an alternative to producing saplings of native species for forest restoration purposes, but the possible impact of this procedure on plant community regeneration has not been investigated. This work evaluates the impact of different treatments of shrub and tree-seedling (up to 30 cm) removal from a seasonal semideciduous forest fragment located in southeastern Brazil on the natural regeneration process. Eighty 2x2 m plots were installed in two habitats (forest edge and interior) and submitted to four seedling-removal treatments (I, II - 100% removal with or without soil mixing; III - 50% removal without soil mixing: and IV - control treatment Without seedling removal). Regeneration density and richness were evaluated before treatment as well as 6, 12 and 18 months later. The results were compared among treatments for each evaluation period and among periods within treatments. There were similarities between edge and interior. The natural regeneration process did not improve with soil mixing. Plots submitted to seedling removal partially recovered plant density; however, these plots had lower species richness when compared to the control and to the initial values before treatment. Seedling removal has a negative impact on the regeneration process of low-density species, thus the use of natural regeneration as a sapling source for forest restoration purposes should focus only on high-density species with well-known regeneration strategies and not on the community as a whole.

Changes in the hemolymph and fat body metabolites of Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera : Crambidae) parasitized by Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera : Braconidae)

The koinobiont Cotesia flavipes responds to and is influenced by biochemical changes in the host hemolymph composition, Diatraea saccharalis. Changes in the composition of macronutrients may occur due to the hosts own development or by changes induced after parasitization. These changes occur to facilitate parasitoid invasion and to make the host internal environment suitable to parasitoid immature development. Therefore, changes in the availability of stored and circulating nutrients may correlate with the nutritional requirements of specific parasitoid immature stages. In here, we describe changes in the biochemical composition of parasitized and control larvae at different stages of parasitoid development to gain information on C flavipes host regulation and on its quantitative immature nutritional requirements. Total proteins, lipids and carbohydrates free in the hemolymph or stored in host fat bodies, and the SDS-PAGE protein profile of the hemolymph were evaluated in control and parasitized 6th instar during the whole parasitoid development. Changes in the total protein available in the host hemolymph were detected soon after parasitization, but carbohydrate and lipids were observed to differ only towards parasitoid larvae egression. Although C. flavipes affected the availability of all macronutrients observed in the host hemolymph, lipids and proteins stored in the host fat bodies were unaffected. However, carbohydrate concentration at the end of parasitoid larval development was much lower in parasitized than in control larvae at the same stage of development. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated C flavipes up-regulated two host proteins (125 and 48 kDa) and released two parasitism-specific proteins towards the end of parasitoid larval development. We provide a discussion on the role these changes may have on the process of host regulation and their possible requirement to sustain parasitoid development. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Ramulosis Disease of Cotton Under Controlled Environment and Field Conditions

Colletotrichum gossypii var. cephalosporioides, the fungus that causes ramulosis disease of cotton, is widespread in Brazil and can cause severe yield loss. Because weather conditions greatly affect disease development, the objective of this work was to develop weather-based models to assess disease favorability. Latent period, incidence, and severity of ramulosis symptoms were evaluated in controlled environment experiments using factorial combinations of temperature (15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 degrees C) and leaf wetness duration (0, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 h after inoculation). Severity was modeled as an exponential function of leaf wetness duration and temperature. At the optimum temperature of disease development, 27 degrees C, average latent period was 10 days. Maximum ramulosis severity occurred from 20 to 30 degrees C, with sharp decreases at lower and higher temperatures. Ramulosis severity increased as wetness periods were increased from 4 to 32 h. In field experiments at Piracicaba, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, cotton plots were inoculated (10(5) conidia ml(-1)) and ramulosis severity was evaluated weekly. The model obtained from the controlled environment study was used to generate a disease favorability index for comparison with disease progress rate in the field. Hourly measurements of solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity, leaf wetness duration, rainfall, and wind speed were also evaluated as possible explanatory variables. Both the disease favorability model and a model based on rainfall explained ramulosis growth rate well, with R(2) of 0.89 and 0.91, respectively. They are proposed as models of ramulosis development rate on cotton in Brazil, and weather-disease relationships revealed by this work can form the basis of a warning system for ramulosis development.

Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium dose effect in the graft box of lemon tree (of the family Rutaceae) nutrition and production.

Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium dose effect in the graft box of lemon tree (of the family Rutaceae) nutrition and production. The aim of the study was to evaluate the graft box of lemon tree (of the family Rutaceae) nutritional state and its components of growth in function of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium dose by fertilization. The experimental outlining was entirely made casually in factorial scheme 3(3) + 1, being 3 factors (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - NPK), 3 doses and in evidence (without fertilization), with 3 repetitions. The experimental milt was constituted by two tubes of 2,8 cm diameter and 12,3 cm high with a graft box (Hipobioto) of lemon tree (of the family Rutaceae) in each tube. The doses used were constituted by doses of N (460; 920 e 18,10 mg dm(-3)), P (50; 100 e 200 mg dm(-3)) and K (395; 790 e 1580 mg dm(-3)). The fertilization with N and K was carried out by fertirrigations and the P added to the substract of Pinus rind and vermiculite before the seeding. when the plants were 133 days after the germination they were subdivided in radicular system and air part for the determinations of the dry matter mass, height, foliar area, stem diameter and contents of nutrients. The N, K and P doses of 920 mg dm(-3), 790 mg dm(-3), 100 mg dm(-3), respectively, were enough for the suitable development of the graft box of lemon tree (of the family Rutaceae) in tubes.

Reclaimed wastewater: Effects on citrus nutrition

The effects of irrigation with reclaimed wastewater (RWW) were compared with well water (WW) on citrus (Citrus paradisi Macfad. X Citrus aurantium L) nutrition. The deviation from the optimum percentage (DOP) index of macro- and micro-nutrients were used to evaluate the nutritional status: optimal (DOP = 0), deficiency (DOP < 0) or excess (DOP > 0). After 11 years of RWW irrigation the influence on nutrient concentration in plants decreased in the order: B > Zn > Mn = Ca > Cu > Mg > P > K. Reclaimed wastewater irritation positively affected citrus nutrition as it rendered the concentration of macronutrients, i.e. P, Ca, and K. closer to their optimum levels (Sigma DOP(macro) = 7). However micro-nutrients tended to be excessive in plants (EDOP(micro) = 753) due to imbalanced supply of these elements in the RWW, particularly, for B and Cu. Citrus groves with long-term RWW irrigation may exercised caution in monitoring concentrations of B and Cu to avoid plant toxicity and soil quality degradation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bacterial soil community in a Brazilian sugarcane field

The assessment of bacterial communities in soil gives insight into microbial behavior under prevailing environmental conditions. In this context, we assessed the composition of soil bacterial communities in a Brazilian sugarcane experimental field. The experimental design encompassed plots containing common sugarcane (variety SP80-1842) and its transgenic form (IMI-1 - imazapyr herbicide resistant). Plants were grown in such field plots in a completely randomized design with three treatments, which addressed the factors transgene and imazapyr herbicide application. Soil samples were taken at three developmental stages during plant growth and analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-based PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and clone libraries. PCR-DGGE fingerprints obtained for the total bacterial community and specific bacterial groups - Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria - revealed that the structure of these assemblages did not differ over time and among treatments. Nevertheless, slight differences among 16S rRNA gene clone libraries constructed from each treatment could be observed at particular cut-off levels. Altogether, the libraries encompassed a total of eleven bacterial phyla and the candidate divisions TM7 and OP10. Clone sequences affiliated with the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Acidobacteria were, in this order, most abundant. Accurate phylogenetic analyses were performed for the phyla Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, revealing the structures of these groups, which are still poorly understood as to their importance for soil functioning and sustainability under agricultural practices.