34 resultados para basis sets
Resumo:
In view of the importance of anticipating the occurrence of critical situations in medicine, we propose the use of a fuzzy expert system to predict the need for advanced neonatal resuscitation efforts in the delivery room. This system relates the maternal medical, obstetric and neonatal characteristics to the clinical conditions of the newborn, providing a risk measurement of need of advanced neonatal resuscitation measures. It is structured as a fuzzy composition developed on the basis of the subjective perception of danger of nine neonatologists facing 61 antenatal and intrapartum clinical situations which provide a degree of association with the risk of occurrence of perinatal asphyxia. The resulting relational matrix describes the association between clinical factors and risk of perinatal asphyxia. Analyzing the inputs of the presence or absence of all 61 clinical factors, the system returns the rate of risk of perinatal asphyxia as output. A prospectively collected series of 304 cases of perinatal care was analyzed to ascertain system performance. The fuzzy expert system presented a sensitivity of 76.5% and specificity of 94.8% in the identification of the need for advanced neonatal resuscitation measures, considering a cut-off value of 5 on a scale ranging from 0 to 10. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.93. The identification of risk situations plays an important role in the planning of health care. These preliminary results encourage us to develop further studies and to refine this model, which is intended to implement an auxiliary system able to help health care staff to make decisions in perinatal care.
Resumo:
A new scientometric indicator, the h-index, has been recently proposed (Hirsch JE. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2005; 102: 16569-16572). The index avoids some shortcomings of the calculation of the total number of citations as a parameter to evaluate scientific performance. Although it has become known only recently, it has had widespread acceptance. A comparison of the average h-index of members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (NAS-USA) was carried out for 10 different areas of science. Although, as expected, the comparison was unfavorable to the members of the BAS, the imbalance was distinct in different areas. Since these two academies represent, to a significant extent, the science of top quality produced in each country, the comparison allows the identification of the areas in Brazil that are closer to the international stakeholders of scientific excellence. The areas of Physics and Mathematics stand out in this context. The heterogeneity of the h-index in the different areas, estimated by the median dispersion of the index, is significantly higher in the BAS than in the NAS-USA. No elements have been collected in the present study to provide an explanation for this fact.
Resumo:
A single bout of resistance exercise (RE) induces hormonal and immune responses, playing an important role in a long-term adaptive process. Whole-body vibration (WBV) has also been shown to affect hormonal responses. Evidence suggests that combining WBV with RE may amplify hormonal and immune responses due to the increased neuromuscular load. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate salivary cortisol (Scortisol) and salivary IgA (SIgA) concentrations following a RE session combined or not with WBV. Nine university students (22.9 ± 5.1 years, 175.8 ± 5.2 cm, and 69.2 ± 7.3 kg) performed five sets of squat exercise (70% one-repetition-maximum) combined (R+V30) or not (R) with WBV at 30 Hz. Saliva samples were obtained before and after exercise. Subjects also rated their effort according to the Borg CR-10 scale (RPE). Data were analyzed by a mixed model. RPE was higher after R+V30 (8.3 ± 0.7) compared to R (6.2 ± 0.7). However, Scortisol (pre: 10.6 ± 7.6 and 11.7 ± 7.6, post: 8.3 ± 6.3 and 10.2 ± 7.2 ng/mL for R and R+V30, respectively) and SIgA concentrations (pre: 98.3 ± 22.6 and 116.1 ± 51.2, post: 116.6 ± 64.7 and 143.6 ± 80.5 µg/mL for R and R+V30, respectively) were unaffected. No significant correlations were observed between Scortisol and RPE (r = 0.45, P = 0.22; r = 0.30, P = 0.42, for R and R+V30, respectively). On the basis of these data, neither protocol modified salivary cortisol or IgA, although RPE was higher after R+V30 than R.
Resumo:
In this article, we compare two strategies for atherosclerosis treatment: drugs and healthy lifestyle. Statins are the principal drugs used for the treatment of atherosclerosis. Several secondary prevention studies have demonstrated that statins can significantly reduce cardiovascular events including coronary death, the need for surgical revascularization, stroke, total mortality, as well as fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction. These results were observed in both men and women, the elderly, smokers and non-smokers, diabetics and hypertensives. Primary prevention studies yielded similar results, although total mortality was not affected. Statins also induce atheroma regression and do not cause cancer. However, many unresolved issues remain, such as partial risk reduction, costs, several potential side effects, and long-term use by young patients. Statins act mainly as lipid-lowering drugs but pleiotropic actions are also present. Healthy lifestyle, on the other hand, is effective and inexpensive and has no harmful effects. Five items are associated with lower cardiac risk: non-smoking, BMI ≤25, regular exercise (30 min/day), healthy diet (fruits, vegetables, low-saturated fat, and 5-30 g alcohol/day). Nevertheless, there are difficulties in implementing these measures both at the individual and population levels. Changes in behavior require multidisciplinary care, including medical, nutritional, and psychological counseling. Participation of the entire society is required for such implementation, i.e., universities, schools, media, government, and medical societies. Although these efforts represent a major challenge, such a task must be faced in order to halt the atherosclerosis epidemic that threatens the world.