Clinical and Histological Effects of the Intrathecal Administration of Methylprednisolone in Dogs

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Tests of proportional hazards and proportional odds models for grouped survival data

In this paper, we derive score test statistics to discriminate between proportional hazards and proportional odds models for grouped survival data. These models are embedded within a power family transformation in order to obtain the score tests. In simple cases, some small-sample results are obtained for the score statistics using Monte Carlo simulations. Score statistics have distributions well approximated by the chi-squared distribution. Real examples illustrate the proposed tests.

Topography-specific spindle frequency changes in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

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

Embriologia do siri Arenaeus cribrarius (Lamarck) (Crustacea, Brachyura, Portunidae)

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

Estudos de expressão gênica utilizando-se microarrays: delineamento, análise, e aplicações na pesquisa zootécnica

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A stochastic shift model for economically designed charts constrained by the process stage configuration

An economic model including the labor resource and the process stage configuration is proposed to design g charts allowing for all the design parameters to be varied in an adaptive way. A random shift size is considered during the economic design selection. The results obtained for a benchmark of 64 process stage scenarios show that the activities configuration and some process operating parameters influence the selection of the best control chart strategy: to model the random shift size, its exact distribution can be approximately fitted by a discrete distribution obtained from a relatively small sample of historical data. However, an accurate estimation of the inspection costs associated to the SPC activities is far from being achieved. An illustrative example shows the implementation of the proposed economic model in a real industrial case. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of bone microarchitecture related to anthropometry in climateric women

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

Subtelomeric region of chromosome 2 in patients with autism spectrum disorders

Autism spectrum disorders are severe psychiatric diseases commonly identified in the population. They are diagnosed during childhood and the etiology has been much debated due to their variations and complexity. Onset is early and characterized as communication and social interaction disorders and as repetitive and stereotyped behavior. Austistic disorders may occur together with various genetic and chromosomal diseases. Several chromosomal regions and genes are implicated in the predisposition for these diseases, in particular those with products expressed in the central nervous system. There are reports of autistic and mentally handicapped patients with submicroscopic subtelomeric alterations at the distal end of the long arm of chromosome 2. Additionally, there is evidence that alterations at 2q37 cause brain malformations that result in the autistic phenotype. These alterations are very small and not identified by routine cytogenetics to which patients are normally submitted, which may result in an underestimation of the diagnosis. This study aimed at evaluating the 2q37 region in patients with autistic disorders. Twenty patients were studied utilizing the fluorescence in situ hybridization technique with a specific probe for 2q37. All of them were also studied by the GTC banding technique to identify possible chromosomal diseases. No alterations were observed in the 2q37 region of the individuals studied, and no patient presented chromosomal diseases. This result may be due to the small sample size analyzed. The introduction of routine analysis of the 2q37 region for patients with autistic disorders depends on further studies. ©FUNPEC-RP.

Measuring supply chain management practices

Purpose: This paper aims to perform an empirical investigation about the constructs and indicators of the supply chain management practices framework. Design/methodology/approach: The measuring framework proposed is based on a survey that was carried out on 107 Brazilian companies. Statistical techniques were employed to verify, validate, and test the reliability of the constructs and their indicators. To validate this framework principal component analysis and structural equation modeling techniques were used. Findings: In general, previous studies suggest six constructs for measuring the supply chain management practices framework. However, in this study a framework was achieved with four constructs of supply chain management practices, namely, supply chain (SC) integration for production planning and control (PPC) support, information sharing about products and targeting strategies, strategic relationship with customer and supplier, and support customer order. This framework has adequate levels of validity and reliability. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study was that only a small sample of companies in a single sector and country were surveyed, and therefore there needs to be further research considering the special conditions in other countries. Originality/value: This study investigated statistically set indicators to discuss the topic supply chain management practices. The framework obtained has good quality of validity and reliability indicators. Thus, an alternative framework has been added to measure supply chain management practices, which is currently a popular topic in the supply chain mainstream literature. Both defined constructs and the validated indicators can be used in other studies on supply chain management. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Efeitos da compensação série na capacidade de sincronização em sistemas multimáquinas

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Sexualidade e envelhecimento na percepção de pessoas idosas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Habilidades matemáticas e memória operacional em crianças de 7 a 12 anos infectadas pelo HIV por transmissão vertical, em estado assintomático

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mapeamento de regiões de ativação cerebral durante tarefas deglutórias por imagens de ressonância magnética funcional

INTRODUÇÃO: A deglutição é um processo fisiológico complexo que acontece por uma sequência motora automática, regulada por um complicado mecanismo neuromotor e neuromuscular que é iniciado de maneira consciente e é resultado da integridade anatômica e funcional de diversas estruturas faciais. É de extrema importância para a nutrição do organismo como um todo. Um dos maiores desafios no campo das ciências é identificar os substratos neurais de comportamentos fisiológicos, incluindo esse processo de deglutição. O desenvolvimento da tecnologia em neuroimagem funcional nos últimos anos está provocando um rápido avanço no conhecimento de funções cerebrais, o que resultou numa explosão de novos achados em neurociência. OBJETIVO: Mapear as regiões de ativação cerebral durante o fenômeno da deglutição por meio do exame de ressonância magnética funcional. MÉTODO: Participaram do estudo quatro indivíduos do sexo feminino, com idade entre 18 e 30 anos, sem alterações neurológicas, estruturais e alimentares. Após a aprovação da Instituição (Clínica Lobo), do Comité de Ética e Pesquisa do Instituto de Ciências da Saúde (ICS) e a aprovação escrita de cada paciente através do termo de consentimento livre e esclarecido, foram submetidos a quatro provas deglutórias, utilizando a técnica de ressonância magnética funcional. RESULTADOS: Foi possível a determinação da ativação dos hemisférios cerebrais e cerebelares e as especificas áreas que os compõem. Mesmo com uma amostragem pequena, os resultados das análises individuais mostraram padrões de acordo com a literatura, conjuntamente com dados novos. DISCUSSÃO: O cerebelo é responsável pela coordenação da ação motora e manutenção da harmonia dos movimentos, posição e equilíbrio do bolo alimentar; o bolbo raquidiano juntamente com o tronco cerebral constitui o centro de atividades reflexas que controla funções ou respostas orgânicas automáticas como a deglutição; o mesencéfalo é a parte do encéfalo que coordena a informação visual; o tálamo encaminha quase todo o tipo de informação sensorial para as zonas específicas do córtex cerebral; o hipotálamo, importante na experimentação das sensações de prazer, regula as funções homeostáticas do corpo, gustação, olfação, salivação, interagindo com o sistema nervoso autônomo e o sistema límbico está ligado ao controle e direção das reações emocionais, sob a ação da amígdala, no processamento de odores e no armazenamento de conteúdos da memória, aqui através do hipocampo. CONCLUSÃO: O ato de deglutir é um processo complexo, ativando muitas áreas cerebrais, dentre elas podemos destacar a gustativa, mental/visual e a olfativa e que é iniciado muito antes dos processos mecânicos envolvidos, conforme demonstrado pelas áreas corticais e subcorticais ativadas. A área olfativa foi a mais notadamente destacada nas imagens colhidas pela Rmf.

Prevalência e aspectos clínicos de doenças gengivais de origem imune e influência da placa bacteriana na melhora dos sinais e sintomas de lesões gengivais de líquen plano bucal

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Geographical variation in the reproduction and sexual dimorphism of the Boddaert's tropical racer, Mastigodryas boddaerti (Serpentes: Colubridae)

We obtained data on time of sexual maturity, dimorphism, fecundity and on the reproductive cycle of Mastigodryas boddaerti (Sentzen, 1796) through the examination of 321 preserved specimens, of which 221 were collected in the Brazilian Amazon region and 100 in the Cerrado savannas of Central Brazil. The degree of sexual size dimorphism (snout-vent length, SVL) was significantly greater in the specimens from the Cerrado in comparison with those from the Amazon. Females had a significantly larger number of ventral scales, on average, whereas males had more sub-caudal scales. However, there was no intersexual difference in tail length or head width, although the heads of the males were significantly longer, which may reflect dietary differences. Breeding females from the Amazon region contained between one and six eggs (N = 12, mean = 3.0), whereas two females from the Cerrado had four to six eggs (N = 10, mean = 5.0). No relationship was found between the SVL of the Amazonian females and the number of eggs or vitellogenic follicles they contained (Cerrado females were not analyzed here due to small sample size). Males are smaller than their female counterpart when they reach sexual maturity. Even though females from the Amazon reproduce throughout the year, females from the Cerrado breed seasonality.