The development and evaluation of an incontinence screening questionnaire for female primary care

Although there is a high prevalence of leaking urine among Australian women, there are currently no standardized procedures for screening patients for incontinence in the primary care setting (known in Australia as general practice). In response to this, an incontinence screening questionnaire (ISQ) was developed and evaluated for use in general practice. Eighty-nine women completed an original compilation of 33 items that asked about situations associated with leaking urine, avoidance of leakage, and concern about leakage. Each item was assessed according to its acceptability for the population of female general practice patients, discriminative value, and test-retest reliability. These patients also underwent an objective test of incontinence, the 48-hour pad test, so that the screening items could be validated against an objective classification of incontinence. The study included women who had bladder control problems and those who did not. Eight items on the ISQ were shown to be acceptable to patients, discriminative, reliable, and valid indicators of objective incontinence. Five items were capable of predicting almost 70% of patients who showed objective leakage of urine and misclassified fewer than 15% of these patients. Those five items were selected for inclusion in the (refined) ISQ. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. I. Faecal pellet sampling protocol

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in eastern Australia are threatened by land clearing for agricultural and urban development. At the same time, conservation efforts are hindered by a dearth of information about inland populations. Faecal deposits offer a source of information that is readily available and easily collected non-invasively. We detail a faecal pellet sampling protocol that was developed for use in a large rangeland biogeographic region. The method samples trees in belt transects, uses a thorough search at the tree base to quickly identify trees with koala pellets under them, then estimates the abundance of faecal pellets under those trees using 1-m(2) quadrats. There was a strong linear relationship between these estimates and a complete enumeration of pellet abundance under the same trees. We evaluated the accuracy of our method in detecting trees where pellets were present by means of a misclassification index that was weighed more heavily for missed trees that had high numbers of pellets under them. This showed acceptable accuracy in all landforms except riverine, where some trees with large numbers of pellets were missed. Here, accuracy in detecting pellet presence was improved by sampling with quadrats, rather than basal searches. Finally, we developed a method to reliably age pellets and demonstrate how this protocol could be used with the faecal-standing-crop method to derive a regional estimate of absolute koala abundance.

Nitrate retention under sugarcane in wet tropical Queensland deep soil profiles

Nitrate leaching below the crop root-zone in variable charge soils may be adsorbed at anion exchange sites, thereby temporarily reducing the risk of contamination of water bodies. The objectives of this study were (i) to investigate whether nitrate adsorption, accumulation, and retention in the Johnstone River Catchment of Far North Queensland wet tropics is widespread; (ii) to assess the capacity of soil in the Johnstone River Catchment to retain nitrate; and (iii) to deduce the consequences of nitrate adsorption/desorption on contamination of water bodies. Soil cores ranging from 8 to 12.5 m depth were taken from 28 sites across the catchment, representing 9 Ferrosol soil types under sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum-S) cultivation for at least 50 years and from rainforest. The cores were segmented at 0.5-m depth increments and subsamples were analysed for nitrate-N, cation and anion exchange capacities, pH, exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, Na), soil organic C, electrical conductivity, sulfate-S, and chloride. Nitrate-N concentration under sugarcane ranged from 0 to 72.5 mg/kg, compared with 0 to 0.31 mg/kg under rainforest, both Pin Gin soils. The average N load in 1-12 m depth across 19 highly oxidic profiles of the Pin Gin soil series was 1550 kg/ha, compared with 185 kg/ha under 8 non-Pin Gin soils and 11 kg/ha in rainforest on a Pin Gin soil. Most of the nitrate retention was observed at depth of 2-12 m, particularly at 4-10 m, indicating that the accumulation was well below the crop root-zone. The average maximum potential nitrate retention capacity was 10.8 t/ha for the Pin Gin and 4.7 t/ha for the non-Pin Gin soil. Compared with the current N load, the soils still possess a large capacity to adsorb and retain nitrate in profiles. Retention of large quantities of the leached nitrate deep in most of the profiles has reduced the risk of contamination of water bodies. However, computations show that substantial quantities of the nitrate leached below the root-zone were not adsorbed and remain unaccounted for. This unaccounted nitrate might have entered both on- and off-site water bodies and/or have been denitrified.

Necessidades de informa????o e compet??ncias informacionais no setor p??blico: um estudo de caso

O texto apresenta parte do referencial te??rico de pesquisa de doutorado, que buscou estabelecer rela????es te??ricas e pr??ticas entre as necessidades de informa????o de uma determinada atividade e as compet??ncias informacionais desenvolvidas para atend??-las. A premissa da pesquisa foi que a atividade estudada, a supervis??o indireta de institui????es financeiras, era intensiva em informa????o e poderia ser estudada como atividade informacional, a partir do uso de par??metros informacionais. Os par??metros utilizados nos modelos te??ricos foram o ciclo e a tecnologia da informa????o e os contextos de comunica????o da informa????o. A pesquisa emp??rica se iniciou com a identifica????o dos fatores cr??ticos de sucesso da atividade, visando a posterior mapeamento das necessidades de informa????o e das compet??ncias dos profissionais supervisores. Os resultados obtidos e sua an??lise permitiram relacionar os fatores cr??ticos de sucesso da atividade ??s necessidades de informa????o dos profissionais de supervis??o indireta e ??s suas compet??ncias informacionais.

Improving the public management career: report for the ministry of planning, budgeting e management, federal government of Brazil

This report sets out the findings and recommendations of a review of the Public Management Career (EPPGG) undertaken between 5 and 9 January 2009. The purpose of the review was to clarify EPPGG???s role, functions and profile, and to develop proposals for improving its effectiveness and management, taking account of the context within which such improvements would have to be implemented. Specific objectives were to examine a number of human resources management (HRM) aspects of the career in the light of international practice, including recruitment; initial education; professional development; performance evaluation; deployment; mobility and networking.

A casa de Porto Seguro : estudo da morfologia da casa portuguesa no Brasil

O estudo da morfologia das casas da rua Dr. Antônio Ricaldi na Cidade Alta de Porto Seguro no estado da Bahia tem como objetivo esclarecer os limites da influência da arquitetura portuguesa na construção das casas do sítio histórico referido tombado pelo IPHAN desde 1973. Foi realizado um estudo comparativo da tipologia das casas do mesmo conjunto arquitetônico e através da referência teórica da história da arquitetura portuguesa e da evolução urbana nos primeiros núcleos populacionais no Brasil é apresentado a aproximação tipológica portuguesa mais semelhante as casas do conjunto estudado em Porto Seguro. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Cidade Alta de Porto Seguro de 2012 à 2014. O recorte escolhido para o estudo foram 25 casas da rua Dr. Antônio Ricaldi, com ênfase na casa de Edson Ramalho Jr número 65; por sua relevância na conservação da tipologia como um exemplo mais semelhante a uma casa vernácula1 de porta e janela análoga às primitivas construções desse sítio. Esta casa tem um destaque especial por sua localização privilegiada dentro do sítio e como um ponto de referência da história da arquitetura portuguesa no Brasil. O uso da casa como museu: Casa Histórica aconteceu de 1996 à 2004 como um modelo capaz de elencar projetos culturais e educativos para a Cidade Alta, visando o uso, conservação, difusão e sustentabilidade do patrimônio histórico e cultural. A documentação levantada com a pesquisa é relevante para o estímulo da arquitetura vernácula e uma referência à memória da arquitetura portuguesa no Brasil. Fomentando novos estudos e empreendimentos sobre o tema, para um sítio histórico pouco estudado, em uma região de grande visitação turística no Brasil mas, sem projetos que visem a devida conservação, apresentação e uso desse sítio de forma sustentável

Geotecnia urbana da zona ribeirinha de Vila Nova de Gaia: criação de uma base de dados SIG geotécnica

O presente trabalho apresenta os resultados dos estudos geotécnicos e de uma base de dados da zona ribeirinha de Vila Nova de Gaia, com o objectivo de compreender melhor os aspectos geotécnicos em ambiente urbano numa área sensível com um registo histórico de instabilidade de taludes rochosos. Além disso, os escassos estudos científicos recentes de natureza geológica e geotécnica em Vila Nova de Gaia justificam o estudo exploratório da geotecnia urbana da zona ribeirinha de Vila Nova de Gaia. A importância de Vila Nova de Gaia como a terceira maior cidade portuguesa e como centro de intensa actividade económica e cultural despoleta uma constante necessidade de expansão. O aumento da densidade populacional acarreta a realização de projectos complexos de engenharia, utilizando o subsolo para a construção e, com frequência, em terrenos com características geotécnicas desfavoráveis. As cidades de Vila Nova de Gaia e do Porto foram sendo edificadas ao longo de encostas numa plataforma litoral caracterizada por uma vasta área aplanada, inclinando ligeiramente para Oeste. Esta plataforma foi cortada pelo Rio Douro num vale encaixado de vertentes abruptas, nas quais se localizam as zonas ribeirinhas das duas cidades. Este trabalho envolveu, inicialmente, uma caracterização topográfica, morfoestrutural, geotectónica e geomecânica da área de estudo e, numa fase posterior, o desenvolvimento duma base de dados geotécnica. Todos os dados geológicos e geotécnicos locais e os estudos geotécnicos levados a cabo in situ pelas diversas empresas e instituições foram representados cartograficamente numa base apoiada pelos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG). Esta metodologia inter‐disciplinar foi de grande valor para um melhor conhecimento dos riscos geológico‐geotécnicos ao longo das margens do Rio Douro. De facto, a cartografia geotécnica da zona ribeirinha de Vila Nova de Gaia deve constituir uma ferramenta importante para uma previsão mais rigorosa de futuras instabilidades de taludes e um bom instrumento para a gestão do espaço urbano.

Urban sprawl analysis and modeling in Asmara, Eritreia: Application of Geospatial Tools

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Studying urban space and literary representations using GIS: Lisbon, Portugal, 1852-2009

This article proposes a methodology to address the urban evolutionary process, demonstrating how it is reflected in literature. It focuses on “literary space,” presented as a territory defined by the period setting or as evoked by the characters, which can be georeferenced and drawn on a map. It identifies the different locations of literary space in relation to urban development and the economic, political, and social context of the city. We suggest a new approach for mapping a relatively comprehensive body of literature by combining literary criticism, urban history, and geographic information systems (GIS). The home-range concept, used in animal ecology, has been adapted to reveal the size and location of literary space. This interdisciplinary methodology is applied in a case study to nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels involving the city of Lisbon. The developing concepts of cumulative literary space and common literary space introduce size calculations in addition to location and structure, previously developed by other researchers. Sequential and overlapping analyses of literary space throughout time have the advantage of presenting comparable and repeatable results for other researchers using a different body of literary works or studying another city. Results show how city changes shaped perceptions of the urban space as it was lived and experienced. A small core area, correspondent to a part of the city center, persists as literary space in all the novels analyzed. Furthermore, the literary space does not match the urban evolution. There is a time lag for embedding new urbanized areas in the imagined literary scenario.

Urban containment: An effective tool for environmental protection?

This paper examines the effectiveness of urban containment policies to protect forestland from residential conversion and to increase the provision of forest public goods in the presence of irreversible investments and policy uncertainty. We develop a model of a single landowner that allows for switching between competing land uses (forestry and residential use) at some point in the future. Our results show that urban containment policies can protect (even if temporarily) forestland from being developed but must be supplemented with policies that influence the length and number of harvesting cycles if the goal is to increase nontimber benefits. The threat of a development prohibition creates incentives for preemptive timber harvesting and land conversion. In particular, threatened regulation creates an incentive to shorten rotation cycles to avoid costly land-use restrictions. However, it has an ambiguous effect on forestland conversion as the number of rotation cycles can also be adjusted to maximize the expected returns to land. Finally, in the presence of irreversibility, forestland conversion decisions should be done using real option theory rather than net present value analysis

Safe reuse of treated urban wastewater in Praia, Cape Verde: a case study

Dissertação para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão da Água

Effect of incorporating different waste materials in bitumen

The increasing environmental concern about waste materials and the necessity of improving the performance of asphalt mixtures prompted the study of incorporating different waste materials in conventional bitumen. The reuse of waste materials can present benefits at an environmental and economic level, and some wastes can be used to improve the pavement performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the incorporation of different waste materials in bitumen, namely waste motor oil and different polymers. In order to accomplish this goal, 10% of waste motor oil and 5% of polymers (high density polyethylene, crumb rubber and styrene-butadiene-styrene) were added to a conventional bitumen and the resulting modified bitumens were characterized through basic and rheological tests. From this work, it can be concluded that the incorporation of different waste materials improve some important properties of the conventional bitumen. Such improvements might indicate a good behaviour at medium/high temperatures and an increase of fatigue and rutting resistance. Therefore, these modified bitumens with waste materials can contribute to a sustainable development of road paving industry due to their performance and environmental advantages.

Silk fibroin based multifunctional materials

Silk fibroin is a commonly available natural biopolymer produced in specialized glands of arthropods, such as silkworms or spiders, scorpions, mites, bees and flies. This biopolymer has a long history of use in textile production and also as sutures or treatment of skin wounds. Silk fibroin has been increasingly explored in other areas of biomedical science where we can find a higher morphological diversification of silk biomaterials like films, electrospun fibers, 3D porous scaffolds or nanoparticles. In recent years it has been demonstrated that fibroin is an excellent material for active components in optical devices. This new application opens the way towards the development of multifunctional optoelectronic devices, which in perspective can be made fully biocompatible and eventually bioresorbable. Moreover, fibroin can be added to other biocomponents in order to modify the biomaterial properties leading to optimized and total different functions. These improvements can go from higher cell adhesion in tissue engineering or enhanced optical transparency, smoothness or flexibility in optoelectronic devices. The tuning and completely understanding of silk fibers physicochemical properties and interaction with other elements are of crucial importance for the improvement of already existent silk-based materials and the basis for the development of new products.