Proxy-reported health-related quality of life of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: Pediatric rheumatology international trials organization multinational quality of life cohort study

Objective. To investigate the proxy-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its determinants in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).Methods. In this multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional study, HRQOL of patients with JIA was assessed through the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) and was compared with that of healthy children of similar age from the same geographic area. of joint inflammation, Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate.Results. A total of 6,639 participants (3,324 with JIA and 3,315 healthy) were enrolled from 32 countries. The mean SD physical and psychosocial summary scores of the CHQ were significantly lower in patients with JIA than in healthy children (physical: 44.5 +/- 10.6 versus 54.6 +/- 4.0, P < 0.0001; psychosocial: 47.6 +/- 8.7 versus 51.9 +/- 7.59 P < 0.0001), with the physical well-being domain being most impaired. Patients with persistent oligoarthritis had better HRQOL compared with other subtypes, whereas HRQOL was similar across patients with systemic arthritis, polyarthritis, and extended oligoarthritis. A CHAQ score > 1 and a pain intensity rating > 3.4 cm on a 10-cm visual analog scale were the strongest determinants of poorer HRQOL in the physical and psychosocial domains, respectively.Conclusion. We found that patients with JIA have a significant impairment of their HRQOL compared with healthy peers, particularly in the physical domain. Physical well-being was mostly affected by the level of functional impairment, whereas the intensity of pain had the greatest influence on psychosocial health.

Irregular Satellites of Jupiter: a study of the capture direction

The irregular satellites of Jupiter are believed to be captured asteroids or planetesimals. In the present work is studied the direction of capture of these objects as a function of their orbital inclination. We performed numerical simulations of the restricted three-body problem, Sun-Jupiter-particle, taking into account the growth of Jupiter. The integration was made backward in time. Initially, the particles have orbits as satellites of Jupiter, which has its present mass. Then, the system evolved with Jupiter losing mass and the satellites escaping from the planet. The reverse of the escape direction corresponds to the capture direction. The results show that the Lagrangian points L1 and L2 mainly guide the direction of capture. Prograde satellites are captured through these two gates with very narrow amplitude angles. In the case of retrograde satellites, these two gates are wider. The capture region increases as the orbital inclination increases. In the case of planar retrograde satellites the directions of capture cover the whole 360 degrees around Jupiter. We also verified that prograde satellites are captured earlier in actual time than retrograde ones.

Alkaline ribonuclease activity in maternal serum and in serum of newborns from birth up to thirty days of age. A study made with full-term appropriate-, full-term small- and preterm appropriate-for-gestational-age infants

We have studied the alkaline ribonuclease (RNase) activity in maternal serum and serum of full-term small- (T-SGA), full-term appropriate- (T-AGA) and preterm appropriate-for-gestational age (PT-AGA) newborns. A significantly lower level of RNase was observed in T-AGA and T-SGA newborns on the 30th day of age and in PT-AGA newborns on the 15th and 30th days of age, as compared to other T-AGA, T-SGA and PT-AGA groups of infants at birth. RNase activity was significantly higher in cord blood than in the maternal blood in all categories studied. Moreover, in preterm newborns, RNase activity in cord blood was significantly higher in those presenting a lower gestational age. We did not observe any significant difference in RNase levels in the cord blood of newborns from the 3 categories studied. The same results were observed concerning maternal blood. We, therefore, conclude that RNase activity in cord blood or in maternal blood is not a very statisfactory indicator of fetal malnutrition.

Free autogenous cartilage grafts to the mandible of rats-histological study.

The present study was designed to histologically evaluate the behavior of free autogenous cartilage grafts to the mandible of rats. A 3-mm segment was removed from the last rib of male adult rats and transplanted fresh to a receptor bed prepared on the mandibular ramus. The results showed that the grafts maintained their vitality up to 120 days and the perichondrium was biologically integrated to the osseous bed. Appositional growth of the grafts was found. New bone formation was observed in close proximity to the grafts, but newly formed trabeculae did not arise from perichondrium.

Hydroxylapatite implants with or without collagen in the zygomatic arch of rats. Histological study.

The authors studied the behavior of calcium phosphate materials used as inlay implants into bone cavities prepared in the zygomatic arch of rats. Fifty male albino rats were divided into four groups as follows: group I-preparation of bone cavities which did not receive any implant material as controls; group II-implants of Interpore 200; group III-implants of experimental hydroxylapatite; group IV-implants of experimental hydroxylapatite combined with collagen. The animals were sacrificed after 5, 15, 30, 60 and 120 days and the specimens were submitted to histological analysis. Results showed that the experimental hydroxylapatite used in group III presented better osteogenic properties compared to the other materials. All tested materials were biocompatible, although group IV presented a more intense inflammatory response.

Multiparticulate systems of pectin-chitosan: Study of swelling and drug release

The aim of this study was to prepare multiparticulate systems of pectin:chitosan (PC:CS) and to evaluate their swelling ratio and the drug release in different environments. PC:CS particles containing triamcinolone were prepared by a complex coacervation/ionotropic gelation method in aqueous environment. The polymer ratio, the calcium concentration and the contact time of the capsules with chitosan dispersion for particles formation and the structures obtained were analyzed. The systems were characterized in relation to morphology, size, swelling, and drug release behavior. The methodology used allowed the production of spherical particles with narrow range of size distribution. The entrapment efficiency for triamcinolone was 84.31 ± 439. It was observed that the particles present a relatively low swelling ratio in acidic medium and a larger swelling ratio in enteric medium. The release profile was dependent on pH and can be related with the swelling ratio.

Improving the accuracy of the optimum-path forest supervised classifier for large datasets

In this work, a new approach for supervised pattern recognition is presented which improves the learning algorithm of the Optimum-Path Forest classifier (OPF), centered on detection and elimination of outliers in the training set. Identification of outliers is based on a penalty computed for each sample in the training set from the corresponding number of imputable false positive and false negative classification of samples. This approach enhances the accuracy of OPF while still gaining in classification time, at the expense of a slight increase in training time. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Accuracy of genotype imputation in Nelore cattle

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)