Disfunção sexual feminina e níveis dos hormônios esteroidais em mulheres obesas atendidas no ambulatório de cirurgia bariátrica do hospital universitário Onofre Lopes em Natal/RN

A disfunção sexual corresponde a alterações em uma ou mais fases da resposta sexual humana e apresenta maior prevalência na população feminina. Ademais, a participação de alguns fatores como obesidade e níveis dos hormônios esteroidais na disfunção sexual feminina (DSF) permanece incerta. O presente estudo deteve-se na análise da ocorrência de DSF numa população de mulheres portadoras de obesidade, cadastradas no Ambulatório de Cirurgia Bariátrica do Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes, da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, no município de Natal, RN. O estudo foi realizado em uma amostra composta por trinta e uma mulheres, com idade entre 20 e 50 anos, com índice de massa corpórea (IMC) > 30 Kg/m2. A todas as pacientes foi aplicado um questionário composto por uma seção com dados socio-econômicos, e outra abordando a saúde sexual feminina, sendo esta última correspondente ao Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), para diagnóstico de DSF. A partir dessa caracterização, as pacientes foram reunidas nos grupos CD (pacientes com disfunção, n= 9) e SD (sem disfunção, n= 22). Para a análise do efeito da obesidade na DSF, as pacientes foram reunidas nos grupos 1 (6 pacientes com IMC grau I e II: entre 30 e 40 Kg/m2) e 2 (25 com IMC grau III: acima de 40). Para o estudo da participação dos hormônios esteroidais foram determinadas as concentrações séricas de cortisol, estradiol e dehidroepiandrosterona (DHEA) pelo método de quimiluminescência. A análise estatística dos dados foi realizada usando os testes ANOVA, MANOVA (Pillai), além de análise de Cluster. Para identificar as diferenças entre os domínios do FSFI, foi usado o teste T de Student. A significância considerada para todos os testes foi para p< 0,01. Das pacientes estudadas, 25,8% apresentaram DSF de acordo com o escore total do FSFI. A análise estatística posterior evidenciou que as diferenças ocorreram para os domínios desejo, excitação e orgasmo. Não foi encontrada relação da presença de DSF com os diferentes graus de obesidade ou com os níveis hormonais dos esteróides cortisol, estradiol ou DHEA. Contudo, foi encontrado aumento significativo nos níveis séricos de estradiol para o grupo 1, que corresponde ao de menor índice de IMC. Estes resultados mostram que a prevalência de DSF não diferiu entre os graus I,II e III de obesidade das pacientes deste estudo mas, quando presente, a disfunção ocorre nos domínios desejo, excitação e orgasmo. A maior concentração de estradiol encontrada nas pacientes de menor índice de IMC sugere uma possível relação entre as duas variáveis que precisa ser investigada em estudos futuros.

Mudanças endógenas e suprafisiológicas nos níveis de estrógeno: efeitos sobre a amnésia induzida pela escopolamina em ratas intactas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Efeitos do substrato e da densidade populacional sobre as atividades comportamentais e níveis de homócitos em relação à densidade em Litopenaeus vannamei (BOONE, 1931)

Carciniculture in Brazil occupies world-wide prominence due to shrimp culture, and the state of Rio Grande do Norte has presented the best results in the culture of the Litopenaeus vannamei in the last decade. This species has been shown to adapt easily to different environments and is between the five most cultivated penaeids of the world. The ponds are usually constructed in areas close to water courses and estuaries. Stock density and substrate ponds can pollute environment, causing losses in the growth and survival of the shrimps, being considered stress factors. Shrimps in inadequate densities and substrates can result reduced productivity of the farm; and favor diseases. So, it is important to verify how these variables influence the development of the animals in the culture farms. Our objective was to study the influence of the type of substrate and the stock density on the behavior and haemocyte count of the L. vannamei. Individually marked juvenile shrimps were kept in aquaria with 30 L of seawater and continuous aeration, in 12L-12D photoperiod. They were observed through Ad libitum and focal sampling instantaneous methods during thirty days, five times per week, six times per day (8:00 to 18:00) in windows of 15 minutes every two hours. The marking of carapace permitted quantifying molting and the feeding was supplied three times a day. Two experiments were carried out: the first one tested animals in the three different substrates (fine sand, smaller rocks-SPP and biggest rocks-SGR) with 33 shrimp/m2. In the second one, the animals were tested in three stock densities (26, 52 and 66 shrimp/m2) in fine sand substrate. At the end of experiment, biometry (first and second ones) and haemocyte count (second one) were made. The behavior of the L. vannamei seems to have been influenced by substrate and stocking density. In low granulometry of the substrate; the exploratory behavior became more frequent and inactivity of the shrimps was reduced. Burrowing was registered in sand substrate, specially in the initial period of the day. Cleaning was gradually higher along the day, presenting the biggest levels as the dark phase approached. The ingestion of feeding was more frequent in low density, and the animals were bigger and heavier at the end of the experiment. In the fine sand condition, the animals presented better growth, probably associated with the burrowing. The molting was equivalent in all types of substrate, but it was more frequent in high densities. Mortality of the shrimps was more frequent in high densities, and cannibalism and diseases were also registered in that condition. The clinical signals were similar to the ones of infectious mionecrosis (IMNV), generally associated with environment and physical stress. The haemocyte count was low for the hematologic standards of the penaeid, which we attributed for greater dilution of haemolymph in the postmolting phase. Smaller shrimps presented lower levels of haemocytes in relation to the bigger animals, count was also low in 26 shrimp/m2 density. The study demonstrates that stocking density and the granulometry of the substrate can affect the welfare, the health and the behavior of the L. vannamei. The sand substrate and low stocking density can be important tools in the management systems of shrimp production

Estudo sobre orçamento de atividade do Boto Cinza (Sotalia guianensis) no litoral sul do Rio Grande do Norte

A fundamental analysis on Behavioral Ecology is the construction of Activities Budget, which can be defined as the quantification of the time that each animal uses in activities that are important for its survival and reproduction. Initially developed for theoretical studies about Optimal Foraging, the construction of Activities Budgets has recently being used for analyses in Conservation Biology. However, the measurement of behavior through an adequate methodology that allows the comparison between different samples is a challenge for researchers in the area of Ethology. This problem is even bigger for the students of cetaceans behavior due to the difficulty of visualization of these animals. The present work deals with two aspects of the specialized literature on cetaceans: i) it explores possible variations of results in quantification of behavioral states decurrent of the application of different methods of data collection, and ii) it describes the activity budget of a population of Sotalia guianensis that inhabits coastal waters, south Rio Grande do Norte. The results showed that the use different methods of data collection result in significant differences, but of small scale, in the quantification of the behavioral frequency. The activity budget of Sotalia in the area here analyzed was similar to that described for other populations of this species inhabiting typically estuarine habitats. Tide and day-hour did not influence the dolphin s behavior, however, significant differences were found related to the position of the animals within the area. These results are discussed considering the dietary and behavioral flexibility of the species, contributing to the scientific knowledge and offering information that will be useful in comparative studies and for analyses on the determination of areas for species conservation

Variação diária e anual de freqüência e atividade do Boto Cinza Sotalia guianensis em Pipa, Nordeste do Brasil

The aim of this study was to investigate the daily and annual variation in frequency and in activity of an estuarine dolphin population, Sotalia guianensis, in Brazilian northeastern. Thus we estimated the daily variation and seasonality in frequency of adult and immature and in behavior of socialization, aerial activity, foraging of a boto equatorial population in the Curral inlet (6º13 00 S; 35º3 36 W). We detect some variation. Thus we associate the daily variation with daily period, tide fluctuation and annual season. And the seasonality variation we associate with the fotoperíodo and precipitation variation. From October 1999 to September 2003, through collect four times at month, we made instantaneous record at each five minute in six hours of survey. The surveys hours were ranged into light time of 24 hours, that is, between 06:00 and 17:00 o clock. These observations were developed simultaneous for two observers in a land-based survey at coastline cliff top of which observer have a fully visualization of whole inlet. We found that animals were more active and frequent during the morning. They were more active during low tide than high tide. However they did not show association with tide. We found yet that in a period from June to November (winter-spring) there was the highest socialization, aerial activity and foraging frequency. However adult and immature individual number did not have significance variation along the year. The larger concentration of this behaviors were not associate with photoperiod neither precipitation in the region. These results showed the existence of behavioral daily variation and seasonality in a species that live in equatorial region

Comportamento de mergulho do boto-cinza, Sotalia guianensis, na enseada do Curral, Praia de Pipa-RN, Brasil :possíveis adaptações cardíacas ao mergulho

The marine tucuxi, Sotalia guianensis, is one of the smallest known cetaceans, has coastal habits, and occurs from Hondures to Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. The objective of this dissertation was to describe diving behavior of the marine tucuxi in three age classes and to analyze the cardiac capacity to dive through the examination of hearts of stranded specimens. Observations were made from October 2004 to November 2005 from a vantage point, in Curral Bay at Pipa beach-RN. We used Ad Libitum sampling and All occurrences to record the behaviors. The diving was characterized by the total exposition of the tail fluke for a few seconds, in 90° or 45° angles. Were recorded 131 dives in three behavioral contexts: foraging, traveling and socialization. The difference between juveniles and adults in dive time and fluke out at 45° or 90° to search and/or capture prey is probably influenced by the strategy used and ability to capture the prey. The frequency of fluke out at 90° for foraging in adults may be related to increased physiological efficiency of adults in comparison to juveniles. However, in the context of travel and socialization the dive time and fluke out were independent between the age classes. Dive in calves were frequent during socialization (play behavior) and traveling. This, associated with synchronic calve-adult diving suggests that a relationship of these behaviors and the acquisition of experience and foraging skills. As observed in other cetaceans, the heart (n=12) of the estuarine dolphin is broad and presents long ventricles which form a round apex. The right ventricle is long and narrow. The degree of dilatation of the aortic bulb may support the heart during diastole. The characteristic morphology of the heart and short dive duration < 2 min and depth ranged from 10m in the estuarine dolphin, can be likely at physiological adaptation for diving, typical de dolphins with coastal habits. The limitation of diving time in this specie may be influenced by anatomical and physiological restrictions

Cuidado ao filhote de boto cinza, Sotalia guianensis (van Benédén, 1864)

In some species parental care is vital to survival. Many studies have reported various parental care behaviours in cetaceans. In Sotalia guianensis, some behaviours have been already described and linked to parental care. However, many aspects are still unknown and all these information might be important for the species conservation. The aim of the present study was minimize these gaps, showing the options involved in the marine tucuxi parental care. The observations took place in Enseada do Curral, located in Pipa, Tibal do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte Coast. Between January and December of 2005 the local population of tucuxi was observed during 42 days. The methods used were Focal Animal and Ad Libitum. The results suggest that calves are present in the bay all year long. Groups with calves had a mean of 6,9 animals, allowing the animals to participate in different activities in the group besides caring. The calves created different associations, being usually followed by an adult. In groups, the calves stay mainly in the centre, which offers them protection. Calves remained next to the adults tail, facilitating breastfeeding. The calves most noticeable activities were those in the surface and the behaviour frequencies decreased, in general, in the presence of human swimmers and boats, what could be considered a threat to the animals. Adults shared positions when caring for calves, suggesting allomaternal care; food transfer from adults to calves was observed, which might be related to diet acquisition; three non-described behaviours were seen, indicating a diversified behavioural repertoire for this species

Sincronismo comportamental em Boto cinza(Sotalia guianensis)

Synchronism is the efetivation of the same behavior at the same time by two or more individuals. In cetology only from 2000 we verify an increasing of efforts for studies of synchronic behaviors. The synchronism in cetaceans was reported for a variety of contexts, including feeding, socializing, parental care, while resting, traveling and play, during afilliation, in sexual behaviour and possible while teaching. The synchronism in behavior is influenced by environmental factors and can be modified during stress situations such as the presence of boats. The aim of this study is to explore behavior synchronism presented by the estuarine dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) in Pipa, Rio Grande do Norte state, Northeastern Brazil. A total of 414 hours of observation during the year 2006, using scan sampling method, from a land based sighting was conducted. Analyses were conducted in four steps. Firstly, we determined the pattern of activity of the groups within the bay, testing for the influence of bay configuration before and after rains periods on the activity of animals. Analyses show that forage occurs more frequently after the rainy period, but there was no change in the number of individuals or spatial cohesions between them. Secondly, we analysed the influence of turism boat traffic on the behavior of animals. We verified no changes on the bahavior of animals during the presence of boats. Finally, we tested seven hypotheses regarding the ecological and social dynamics of synchronic behavior. Environmental aspects were considered the main influence for the synchronism, no influences of age, and more selective exihibition of synchronic breathing in feeding and social displays were observed during the study period

Utilizando Pesos estáticos e dinâmicos em sistemas multi-classificadores com diferentes níveis de diversidade

Although some individual techniques of supervised Machine Learning (ML), also known as classifiers, or algorithms of classification, to supply solutions that, most of the time, are considered efficient, have experimental results gotten with the use of large sets of pattern and/or that they have a expressive amount of irrelevant data or incomplete characteristic, that show a decrease in the efficiency of the precision of these techniques. In other words, such techniques can t do an recognition of patterns of an efficient form in complex problems. With the intention to get better performance and efficiency of these ML techniques, were thought about the idea to using some types of LM algorithms work jointly, thus origin to the term Multi-Classifier System (MCS). The MCS s presents, as component, different of LM algorithms, called of base classifiers, and realized a combination of results gotten for these algorithms to reach the final result. So that the MCS has a better performance that the base classifiers, the results gotten for each base classifier must present an certain diversity, in other words, a difference between the results gotten for each classifier that compose the system. It can be said that it does not make signification to have MCS s whose base classifiers have identical answers to the sames patterns. Although the MCS s present better results that the individually systems, has always the search to improve the results gotten for this type of system. Aim at this improvement and a better consistency in the results, as well as a larger diversity of the classifiers of a MCS, comes being recently searched methodologies that present as characteristic the use of weights, or confidence values. These weights can describe the importance that certain classifier supplied when associating with each pattern to a determined class. These weights still are used, in associate with the exits of the classifiers, during the process of recognition (use) of the MCS s. Exist different ways of calculating these weights and can be divided in two categories: the static weights and the dynamic weights. The first category of weights is characterizes for not having the modification of its values during the classification process, different it occurs with the second category, where the values suffers modifications during the classification process. In this work an analysis will be made to verify if the use of the weights, statics as much as dynamics, they can increase the perfomance of the MCS s in comparison with the individually systems. Moreover, will be made an analysis in the diversity gotten for the MCS s, for this mode verify if it has some relation between the use of the weights in the MCS s with different levels of diversity

Sistema de agentes poligínicos para esteganálise de imagens digitais

In this work, we propose a multi agent system for digital image steganalysis, based on the poliginic bees model. Such approach aims to solve the problem of automatic steganalysis for digital media, with a case study on digital images. The system architecture was designed not only to detect if a file is suspicious of covering a hidden message, as well to extract the hidden message or information regarding it. Several experiments were performed whose results confirm a substantial enhancement (from 67% to 82% success rate) by using the multi-agent approach, fact not observed in traditional systems. An ongoing application using the technique is the detection of anomalies in digital data produced by sensors that capture brain emissions in little animals. The detection of such anomalies can be used to prove theories and evidences of imagery completion during sleep provided by the brain in visual cortex areas

Construção de mosaicos georreferenciados usando imagens aéreas de pequeno formato

In this work we propose a technique that uses uncontrolled small format aerial images, or SFAI, and stereohotogrammetry techniques to construct georeferenced mosaics. Images are obtained using a simple digital camera coupled with a radio controlled (RC) helicopter. Techniques for removing common distortions are applied and the relative orientation of the models are recovered using projective geometry. Ground truth points are used to get absolute orientation, plus a definition of scale and a coordinate system which relates image measures to the ground. The mosaic is read into a GIS system, providing useful information to different types of users, such as researchers, governmental agencies, employees, fishermen and tourism enterprises. Results are reported, illustrating the applicability of the system. The main contribution is the generation of georeferenced mosaics using SFAIs, which have not yet broadly explored in cartography projects. The proposed architecture presents a viable and much less expensive solution, when compared to systems using controlled pictures

Utilizando mapas de conectividade fuzzy no desenvolvimento de algoritmos reparadores de imagens binárias 3D

A 3D binary image is considered well-composed if, and only if, the union of the faces shared by the foreground and background voxels of the image is a surface in R3. Wellcomposed images have some desirable topological properties, which allow us to simplify and optimize algorithms that are widely used in computer graphics, computer vision and image processing. These advantages have fostered the development of algorithms to repair bi-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images that are not well-composed. These algorithms are known as repairing algorithms. In this dissertation, we propose two repairing algorithms, one randomized and one deterministic. Both algorithms are capable of making topological repairs in 3D binary images, producing well-composed images similar to the original images. The key idea behind both algorithms is to iteratively change the assigned color of some points in the input image from 0 (background)to 1 (foreground) until the image becomes well-composed. The points whose colors are changed by the algorithms are chosen according to their values in the fuzzy connectivity map resulting from the image segmentation process. The use of the fuzzy connectivity map ensures that a subset of points chosen by the algorithm at any given iteration is the one with the least affinity with the background among all possible choices

RR3D: Uma solução para renderização remota de imagens médicas tridimensionais

The visualization of three-dimensional(3D)images is increasigly being sed in the area of medicine, helping physicians diagnose desease. the advances achived in scaners esed for acquisition of these 3d exames, such as computerized tumography(CT) and Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI), enable the generation of images with higher resolutions, thus, generating files with much larger sizes. Currently, the images of computationally expensive one, and demanding the use of a righ and computer for such task. The direct remote acess of these images thruogh the internet is not efficient also, since all images have to be trasferred to the user´s equipment before the 3D visualization process ca start. with these problems in mind, this work proposes and analyses a solution for the remote redering of 3D medical images, called Remote Rendering (RR3D). In RR3D, the whole hedering process is pefomed a server or a cluster of servers, with high computational power, and only the resulting image is tranferred to the client, still allowing the client to peform operations such as rotations, zoom, etc. the solution was developed using web services written in java and an architecture that uses the scientific visualization packcage paraview, the framework paraviewWeb and the PACS server DCM4CHEE.The solution was tested with two scenarios where the rendering process was performed by a sever with graphics hadwere (GPU) and by a server without GPUs. In the scenarios without GPUs, the soluction was executed in parallel with several number of cores (processing units)dedicated to it. In order to compare our solution to order medical visualization application, a third scenario was esed in the rendering process, was done locally. In all tree scenarios, the solution was tested for different network speeds. The solution solved satisfactorily the problem with the delay in the transfer of the DICOM files, while alowing the use of low and computers as client for visualizing the exams even, tablets and smart phones

Segmentação fuzzy de imagens e vídeos

Image segmentation is the process of subdiving an image into constituent regions or objects that have similar features. In video segmentation, more than subdividing the frames in object that have similar features, there is a consistency requirement among segmentations of successive frames of the video. Fuzzy segmentation is a region growing technique that assigns to each element in an image (which may have been corrupted by noise and/or shading) a grade of membership between 0 and 1 to an object. In this work we present an application that uses a fuzzy segmentation algorithm to identify and select particles in micrographs and an extension of the algorithm to perform video segmentation. Here, we treat a video shot is treated as a three-dimensional volume with different z slices being occupied by different frames of the video shot. The volume is interactively segmented based on selected seed elements, that will determine the affinity functions based on their motion and color properties. The color information can be extracted from a specific color space or from three channels of a set of color models that are selected based on the correlation of the information from all channels. The motion information is provided into the form of dense optical flows maps. Finally, segmentation of real and synthetic videos and their application in a non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) toll are presented

Renderizações não fotorealísticas para estilização de imagens e vídeos usando areia colorida

Non-Photorealisitc Rendering (NPR) is a class of techniques that aims to reproduce artistic techniques, trying to express feelings and moods on the rendered scenes, giving an aspect of that they had been made "by hand". Another way of defining NPR is that it is the processing of scenes, images or videos into artwork, generating scenes, images or videos that can have the visual appeal of pieces of art, expressing the visual and emotional characteristics of artistic styles. This dissertation presents a new method of NPR for stylization of images and videos, based on a typical artistic expression of the Northeast region of Brazil, that uses colored sand to compose landscape images on the inner surface of glass bottles. This method is comprised by one technique for generating 2D procedural textures of sand, and two techniques that mimic effects created by the artists using their tools. It also presents a method for generating 21 2D animations in sandbox from the stylized video. The temporal coherence within these stylized videos can be enforced on individual objects with the aid of a video segmentation algorithm. The present techniques in this work were used on stylization of synthetic and real videos, something close to impossible to be produced by artist in real life