Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among Latin American adolescents: a multilevel analysis

High blood pressure (HBP) and obesity is a well-established major risk factor for stroke and coronary heart disease. However, the literatures are scarce about these informations in adolescents from low-and-middle income countries. This school-based survey was carried out among students from Maringá (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) selected random sampling. We studied 991 Brazilian adolescents (54.5% girls) in the age range of 14-18 years. In Argentina, we studied 933 adolescents (45.9% female) in the age range of 11-17 years. The outcomes of this study are general obesity, abdominal obesity and HBP. The associated factors analysed were gender, age and health behaviours. The prevalence of obesity was 5.8% in Brazil and 2.8% in Argentina, the prevalence of abdominal obesity was 32.7% in Brazil and 11.1% in Argentina, the prevalence of HBP was 14.9% in Brazil and 13.5% in Argentina. The multilevel analysis showed that older adolescents (>14 years old) have a little likelihood of being overweight, whereas male adolescents are more likely to be obese and have HBP. The abdominal obesity in both indicators were not associated with the independent variables. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is high in Latin American adolescents independent of each country, and was associated with male gender.Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 15 August 2013; doi:10.1038/jhh.2013.74.

Response of molars and non-molars to a strict supragingival control in periodontal patients

The posterior position in the arches is one of the factors that underlies the poor prognosis of molar teeth (M). It is speculated that M do not benefit from the oral hygiene routine as well as non-molars (NM) do. This study evaluated the response of M and NM to supragingival control during a 6-month period in 25 smokers (S) and 25 never-smokers (NS) with moderate-to-severe periodontitis. One calibrated examiner assessed visible plaque (VPI) and gingival bleeding (GBI) indexes, periodontal probing depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BOP), and clinical attachment loss (CAL) at days 0 (baseline), 30 and 180. At baseline, M showed significantly higher mean values of VPI (p = 0.017) and PPD (p < 0.001) compared with NM; CAL was also greater in M (p < 0.001) and was affected by smoking (p = 0.007). The reductions obtained for periodontal indicators at day 180 showed similar responses between M and NM. For CAL, M (NS 0.57 ± 0.50; S 0.67 ± 0.64) and NM (NS 0.38 ± 0.23; S 0.50 ± 0.33) reached an almost significant difference (p = 0.05). Smoking did not influence the response to treatment. Multilevel analysis revealed that, only for PDD reductions, the interaction between sites, teeth and patient was significant (p < 0.001). It was concluded that M benefit from an adequate regimen of supragingival biofilm control; therefore, supragingival condition should be considered in the prognosis of molar teeth.

Detecção, classificação e localização de faltas de curto-circuito em sistemas de distribuição de energia elétrica usando sistemas inteligentes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Pathogen levels and clinical response to periodontal treatment in patients with Interleukin 8 haplotypes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Quality of life and socio-dental impact among underprivileged brazilian adolescents

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Modeling spatial distribution of cancer incidence in Cordoba, Argentina

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Argentina, and there is little knowledge about its incidence. The first study based on population-based cancer registry described spatial incidence and indicated that there existed at least county-level aggregation. The aim of the present work is to model the incidence patterns for the most incidence cancer in Córdoba Province, Argentina, using information from the Córdoba Cancer Registry by performing multilevel mixed model approach to deal with dependence and unobserved heterogeneity coming from the geo-reference cancer occurrence. Methods: Standardized incidence rates (world standard population) (SIR) by sex based on 5-year age groups were calculated for 109 districts nested on 26 counties for the most incidence cancers in Cordoba using 2004 database. A Poisson twolevel random effect model representing unobserved heterogeneity between first level-districts and second level-counties was fitted to assess the spatial distribution of the overall and site specific cancer incidence rates. Results: SIR cancer at Córdoba province shown an average of 263.53±138.34 and 200.45±98.30 for men and women, respectively. Considering the ratio site specific mean SIR to the total mean, breast cancer ratio was 0.25±0.19, prostate cancer ratio was 0.12±0.10 and lower values for lung and colon cancer for both sexes. The Poisson two-level random intercepts model fitted for SIR data distributed with overdispersion shown significant hierarchical structure for the cancer incidence distribution. Conclusions: a strong spatial-nested effect for the cancer incidence in Córdoba was observed and will help to begin the study of the factors associated with it.

Time-domain analysis of piezoelectric impedance-based structural health monitoring using multilevel wavelet decomposition

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Integrated assessment of multilevel biomarker responses and chemical analysis in Mussels from Sao Sebastiao, São Paulo, Brazil

The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of contaminants in the mussel Perna perna from Sao Sebastiao Channel, São Paulo, Brazil, and to evaluate the effects of these contaminants on these organisms at biochemical (catalase [CAT], glutathione-S-transferase [GST], and cholinesterase [ChE]), cellular (neutral red retention time [NRRT] assay), and physiological (cardiac monitoring) levels. Two sampling surveys were performed (winter of 2001 and summer of 2002) at six stations along the channel: Cigarras, station 1; late Clube de Ilhabela, station 2; Oil Terminal, station 3; Toque Toque, station 4; Ponta da Sela, station 5 (reference station); and Taubate, station 6. Differences in CAT activity were observed between mussels from stations 3 and 5 during the winter, but no differences were detected in the summer. No differences in GST activity were found among stations during the winter, although animals from station 3 showed higher activity during the summer. The ChE activity was significantly higher in the mussels from stations I and 2 during the winter and from stations I and 3 during the summer. Organisms from stations I through 4 showed statistically lower NRRT in both seasons. Similar heart rates were observed in the mussels from all stations. Hydrocarbons were detected in organisms from all the stations in both seasons. During the winter, higher polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels were observed in organisms from station 3, whereas during the summer, higher levels of metals were found in organisms from stations 1, 3, and 4. The multivariate analyses showed a strong influence of PAHs on the winter biological results, but metals showed higher influence on these responses in the summer, indicating multiple contaminant sources.

Power losses analysis and cooling system design of three topologies of multilevel inverters

This paper presents the comparison of three topologies of multilevel inverters applied to drive an induction motor of 500 kVA/4.16 kV. The multilevel inverters analyzed are: a neutral point clamped inverter, a symmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter and a hybrid asymmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter. The performance indexes used in the comparison are total harmonic distortion, first order distortion factor, semiconductors power losses distribution and heat-sink volume. The comparison is developed with the purpose of finding the efficiency and the heat-sink volume where the three systems present the same output filter. ©2008 IEEE.