Knowledge and practices of general practitioners of district Peshawar about schizophrenia

ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia with its disabling features has been placed in the top ten of global burden of disease and is associated with long-term decline in functional ability. General Practitioners not only have an important role in treating patients with an established diagnosis of schizophrenia but they can also contribute significantly by identifying people in early stages of psychosis as they are the first hand medical help available and the duration of untreated psychosis is a good indicator of patient’s prognosis. This cross sectional survey, conducted at the clinics of General Practitioners, was designed to assess the knowledge and practices of general practitioners in Peshawar on diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia. A semi structured questionnaire was used to assess their knowledge and practices regarding schizophrenia. The Knowledge/Practice was then categorized as good or poor based on their responses to the questions of the administered questionnaire. Overall, the results showed that the knowledge and practices of general practitioners of district Peshawar were poor regarding schizophrenia and may be responsible for delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment and poor prognosis.

Cluster analysis and segmentation of Global M&A transactions

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Multi-GPU support on the marrow algorithmic skeleton framework

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

O e-Planning como Instrumento na Construção do Cluster do Mar em Portugal - Quantificação, Participação e Envolvimento dos Setores Socioeconómicos Nacionais

Tese apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em e-Planeamento

Corporate finance in general equilibrium models with incomplete markets: A survey

A Masters Thesis, presented as part of the requirements for the award of a Research Masters Degree in Economics from NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Multivariate analysis applied to clinical analysis data

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Genetic and functional analysis of the bacillus subtilis BSP1 gam cluster

Mannans (linear mannan, glucomannan, galactomannan and galactoglucomannan) are the major constituents of the hemicellulose fraction in softwoods and show great importance as a renewable resource for fuel or feedstock applications. As complex polysaccharides, mannans can only be degraded through a synergistic action of different mannan-degrading enzymes, mannanases. Microbial mannanases are mainly extracellular enzymes that can act in wide range of pH and temperature, contributing to pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, food and feed, oil and textile successful industrial applications. Knowing and controlling these microbial mannan-degrading enzymes are essential to take advantage of their great biotechnological potential. The genome of the laboratory 168 strain of Bacillus subtilis carries genes gmuA-G dedicated to the degradation and utilization of glucomannan, including an extracellular -mannanase. Recently, the genome sequence of an undomesticated strain of B. subtilis, BSP1, was determined. In BSP1, the gmuA-G operon is maintained, interestingly, however, a second cluster of genes was found (gam cluster), which comprise a second putative extracellular β-mannanase, and most likely specify a system for the degradation and utilization of a different mannan polymer, galactoglucomannan. The genetic organization and function of the gam cluster, and whether its presence in BSP1 strain results in new hemicellulolytic capabilities, compared to those of the laboratory strain, was address in this work. In silico and in vivo mRNA analyses performed in this study revealed that the gam cluster, comprising nine genes, is organized and expressed in at least six different transcriptional units. Furthermore, cloning, expression, and production of Bbsp2923 in Escherichia coli was achieved and preliminary characterization shows that the enzyme is indeed a β-mannanase. Finally, the high hemicellulolytic capacity of the undomesticated B. subtilis BSP1, demonstrated in this work by qualitative analyses, suggests potential to be used in the food and feed industries.

Botnet cluster identification

Botnets are a group of computers infected with a specific sub-set of a malware family and controlled by one individual, called botmaster. This kind of networks are used not only, but also for virtual extorsion, spam campaigns and identity theft. They implement different types of evasion techniques that make it harder for one to group and detect botnet traffic. This thesis introduces one methodology, called CONDENSER, that outputs clusters through a self-organizing map and that identify domain names generated by an unknown pseudo-random seed that is known by the botnet herder(s). Aditionally DNS Crawler is proposed, this system saves historic DNS data for fast-flux and double fastflux detection, and is used to identify live C&Cs IPs used by real botnets. A program, called CHEWER, was developed to automate the calculation of the SVM parameters and features that better perform against the available domain names associated with DGAs. CONDENSER and DNS Crawler were developed with scalability in mind so the detection of fast-flux and double fast-flux networks become faster. We used a SVM for the DGA classififer, selecting a total of 11 attributes and achieving a Precision of 77,9% and a F-Measure of 83,2%. The feature selection method identified the 3 most significant attributes of the total set of attributes. For clustering, a Self-Organizing Map was used on a total of 81 attributes. The conclusions of this thesis were accepted in Botconf through a submited article. Botconf is known conferênce for research, mitigation and discovery of botnets tailled for the industry, where is presented current work and research. This conference is known for having security and anti-virus companies, law enforcement agencies and researchers.

How can clusters help in the product type choice? The case of a specialized retail store

This work project (WP) is a study about a clustering strategy for Sport Zone. The general cluster study’s objective is to create groups such that within each group the individuals are similar to each other, but should be different among groups. The clusters creation is a mix of common sense, trial and error and some statistical supporting techniques. Our particular objective is to support category managers to better define the product type to be displayed in the stores’ shelves by doing store clusters. This research was carried out for Sport Zone, and comprises an objective definition, a literature review, the clustering activity itself, some factor analysis and a discriminant analysis to better frame our work. Together with this quantitative part, a survey addressed to category managers to better understand their key drivers, for choosing the type of product of each store, was carried out. Based in a non-random sample of 65 stores with data referring to 2013, the final result was the choice of 6 store clusters (Figure 1) which were individually characterized as the main outcome of this work. In what relates to our selected variables, all were important for the distinction between clusters, which proves the adequacy of their choice. The interpretation of the results gives category managers a tool to understand which products best fit the clustered stores. Furthermore, as a side finding thanks to the clusterization, a STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) was initiated, being this WP the first steps of a continuous process.

Changes in prescribing patterns of benzodiazepines after training of general practitioners

RESUMO: Introdução: As benzodiazepinas são os fármacos ansiolíticos e hipnóticos mais utilizados. O elevado consumo destes fármacos tem representado uma preocupação devido aos efeitos secundários do seu uso prolongado e dependência. Portugal tem a maior utilização de benzodiazepinas na Europa. Este estudo pretende analisar a alteração do padrão de prescrição de benzodiazepinas após uma intervenção com clínicos gerais. Métodos: A intervenção consistiu numa sessão educacional a um grupo de clínicos gerais. Foi comparado o padrão de prescrição de benzodiazepinas dos médicos intervencionados com o de um grupo de médicos não intervencionado da mesma região e com o de um grupo de médicos não intervencionados de outra região. Analisaram-­‐se as prescrições de 12 meses antes e depois da intervenção. A análise do padrão de prescrição utilizou como metodologia a Dose Diária Definida (DDD) e a Dose Diária Definida por 1000 pacientes por dia (DHD). A análise estatística recorreu a métodos de regressão segmentada. Resultados: Houve uma diminuição no padrão de prescrição de benzodiazepinas no grupo intervencionado após a intervenção (p=0.005). Houve também uma redução no padrão de prescrição no grupo não intervencionada da mesma região (p=0.037) e no grupo não-intervencionado da região diferente (p=0.010). Analisando por género, prescritores do género feminino prescrevem uma quantidade maior de benzodiazepinas. Os clínicos gerais do género feminino intervencionados tiveram a maior redução na prescrição após a intervenção (p=0.008). Discussão: Os dados demonstraram que a intervenção reduziu a prescrição de benzodiazepinas após a intervenção. A diminuição geral do padrão de prescrição poderá ser explicada pelo efeito de Hawthorne ou pela contaminação entre os três grupos de clínicos gerais. Os dados disponíveis não explicam as diferenças nos padrões de prescrição por género. Conclusão: Este estudo demonstra como uma única intervenção tem um impacto positivo na melhoria dos padrões de prescrição. A replicação desta intervenção poderá representar uma oportunidade para alterar a prescrição de benzodiazepinas em Portugal. -----------------------------ABSTRACT: Introduction: Benzodiazepines are the most utilized anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs. The high consumption of benzodiazepines has been a concern due to the reported side effects of long-­‐term use and dependence. Portugal has the highest benzodiazepine utilisation in Europe. This study aims to analyse the change in General Practitioners’ (GPs) benzodiazepine prescription pattern after na intervention period. Methods: An educational session was delivered to a group of intervened GPs. The benzodiazepine prescription pattern of the intervened group was compared to the pattern of a non-­‐intervened matched group from the same region, and to the pattern of another non-­‐intervened matched group from a diferente region. The research time frame was 12 month before and after intervention. The analysis of the prescription trends used the Defined Daily Dose (DDD) and Defined Daily Dose per 1000 patients per day (DHD) methodology. The statistical methods consisted of segmented regression analysis. Results: There was a decrease in benzodiazepine prescription pattern of intervened GPs after intervention (p=0.005). There was also a decrease in benzodiazepine prescription pattern for the non-­‐intervened group from the same region (p=0.037) and for the non-­‐ intervened group from a diferente region (p=0.010). Concerningthe analysis by gender, female gender prescribed a higher amount of benzodiazepines. The intervened female gender prescribers presented the highest decrease in prescription trend after intervention (p=0.008). Discussion: The data demonstrated that the intervention was effective in reducing benzodiazepine prescription after intervention. The general decrease in prescription trend might be explained by a Hawthorne effect or a contamination effect between the three groups of GPs. The available data couldn´t explain the diferences in prescription patterns by gender. Conclusion: This study demonstrates how a single intervention has a positive impact on improving prescription trends. The replication of this intervention might be an opportunity to changing the worrying benzodiazepine utilisation in Portugal.