Dermatoglyphics in sports sciences: Understanding the distribution of quantitative indicators in non-athletes and athletes of basketball according to their performance

Objectives. One of the concerns of Sports Sciences is the search for methodologies that can help discover potential athletes. In this sense, some initiatives have been taken in an attempt to identify and characterize the genetic profile of dermatoglyphic marks (fingerprints). The present work has the objective of understanding the distribution of quantitative dermatoglyphic indicators in basketball players with different levels of performance compared to non-players. Methods. The subjects observed constituted 125 individuals, divided into five numerically equal groups, three of which were composed of professional basketball players according to their level of participation (Brazilian Team, National Championship and São Paulo Championship) and the last two formed by weekend players and non-players, respectively. Eleven dermatoglyphic variables were analysed in the descriptive level by means of measurement of position, variability and limits of confidence of the median, and, in inferential terms, the Kruskal-Wallis statistical test was adopted. Results. The more expressive ones were: TRC, counting lines a-b and A'-d, behave differently between athletes and non-athletes. Conclusion. Studies about this kind of analysis should be continued, calling on resources that take into consideration all variables simultaneously as a multivariate study. © 2012 Revista Andaluza de Medicina del Deporte.

Qualidade de dados fluviométricos obtidos através de perfilamento acústico

Acoustic Doppler current profilers are currently the main option for flow measurement and hydrodynamic monitoring of streams, replacing traditional methods. The spread of such equipment is mainly due to their operational advantages ranging from speed measurement to the greatest detail and amount of information generated about the hydrodynamics of hydrometric sections. As in the use of traditional methods and equipments, the use of acoustic Doppler profilers should be guided by the pursuit of data quality, since these are the basis for project and management of water resources constructions and systems. In this sense, the paper presents an analysis of measurement uncertainties of a hydrometric campaign held in Sapucaí River (Piranguinho-MG), using two different Doppler profilers - a Rio Grande ADCP 1200 kHz and a Qmetrix Qliner. 10 measurements were performed with each equipment consecutively, following the literature quality protocols, and later, a Type A uncertainty analysis (statistical analysis of several independent observations of the input under the same conditions). The measurements of the ADCP and Qliner presented, respectively, standard uncertainties of 0.679% and 0.508% compared with the averages. These results are satisfactory and acceptable when compared to references in the literature, indicating that the use of Doppler profilers is valid for expansion and upgrade of streamflow measurement networks and generation of hydrological data.

The development of services in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Effect of andiroba oil on periodontitis in Wistar rats

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of andiroba oil on the periodontitis in rats. METHODS: The periodontitis was induced by the placement of cotton ligatures around the cervix of the second upper molars on fifteen rats, and waiting fifty days. The animals were randomly distributed into three groups: saline group, andiroba oil group and meloxican group, differentiated by substance used in the treatment of periodontitis. The groups received the respective substance by gavage for seven days, after the periodontitis induced. It was analyzed the score of inflammatory cells and the measurement from the cemento-enamel junction to the bone crest. RESULTS: The andiroba oil group (p=0.008) and meloxican group (p=0.0347) show a less score of inflammatory cells than saline group, however there weren't difference between them (p=0.2754). Regarding the analysis of measurement from the cemento-enamel junction to the bone crest, there was no difference between groups studied (p=0.3451). CONCLUSION: Andiroba oil decreased the quantity of inflammatory cells, however, it didn't have an effect on the measurement of alveolar bone loss, like the treatment with Meloxican®.

The Automatic Mapping of Princeton WordNet Lexical-Conceptual Relations onto the Brazilian Portuguese WordNet Database

Princeton WordNet (WN.Pr) lexical database has motivated efficient compilations of bulky relational lexicons since its inception in the 1980's. The EuroWordNet project, the first multilingual initiative built upon WN.Pr, opened up ways of building individual wordnets, and interrelating them by means of the so-called Inter-Lingual-Index, an unstructured list of the WN.Pr synsets. Other important initiative, relying on a slightly different method of building multilingual wordnets, is the MultiWordNet project, where the key strategy is building language specific wordnets keeping as much as possible of the semantic relations available in the WN.Pr. This paper, in particular, stresses that the additional advantage of using WN.Pr lexical database as a resource for building wordnets for other languages is to explore possibilities of implementing an automatic procedure to map the WN.Pr conceptual relations as hyponymy, co-hyponymy, troponymy, meronymy, cause, and entailment onto the lexical database of the wordnet under construction, a viable possibility, for those are language-independent relations that hold between lexicalized concepts, not between lexical units. Accordingly, combining methods from both initiatives, this paper presents the ongoing implementation of the WN.Br lexical database and the aforementioned automation procedure illustrated with a sample of the automatic encoding of the hyponymy and co-hyponymy relations.

The importance of a Biosphere Reserve of Atlantic Forest for the conservation of stream fauna

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Cross-cultural adaptation and assessment of the reliability and validity of the Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) for the Brazilian-Portuguese language

The use of patient-orientated questionnaires is of utmost importance in assessing the outcome of spine surgery. Standardisation, using a common set of outcome measures, is essential to aid comparisons across studies/in registries. The Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) is a short, multidimensional outcome instrument validated for patients with spinal disorders. This study aimed to produce a Brazilian-Portuguese version of the COMI. A cross-cultural adaptation of the COMI into Brazilian-Portuguese was carried out using established guidelines. 104 outpatients with chronic LBP (> 3 months) were recruited from a Public Health Spine Medical Care Centre. They completed a questionnaire booklet containing the newly translated COMI, and other validated symptom-specific questionnaires: Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Roland Morris disability scale (RM), and a pain visual analogue scale. All patients completed a second questionnaire within 7-10 days to assess reproducibility. The COMI summary score displayed minimal floor and ceiling effects. On re-test, the responses for each individual domain of the COMI were within 1 category in 98% patients for the domain 'function', 96% for 'symptom-specific well-being', 97% for 'general quality of life', 99% for 'social disability' and 100% for 'work disability'. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC2,1) for COMI pain and COMI summary scores were 0.91-0.96, which compared favourably with the corresponding values for the RM (ICC, 0.99) and ODI (ICC, 0.98). The standard error of measurement for the COMI was 0.6, giving a "minimum detectable change" (MDC95%) of approximately 1.7 points i.e., the minimum change to be considered "real change" beyond measurement error. The COMI scores correlated as hypothesised (Rho, 0.4-0.8) with the other symptom-specific questionnaires. The reproducibility of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the COMI was comparable to that of other language versions. The COMI scores correlated in the expected manner with existing but longer symptom-specific questionnaires suggesting good convergent validity for the COMI. The Brazilian-Portuguese COMI represents a valuable tool for Brazilian study-centres in future multicentre clinical studies and surgical registries.

Diverse levels of an inwardly rectifying potassium conductance generate heterogeneous neuronal behavior in a population of dorsal cochlear nucleus pyramidal neurons

Leao RM, Li S, Doiron B, Tzounopoulos T. Diverse levels of an inwardly rectifying potassium conductance generate heterogeneous neuronal behavior in a population of dorsal cochlear nucleus pyramidal neurons. J Neurophysiol 107: 3008-3019, 2012. First published February 29, 2012; doi:10.1152/jn.00660.2011.-Homeostatic mechanisms maintain homogeneous neuronal behavior among neurons that exhibit substantial variability in the expression levels of their ionic conductances. In contrast, the mechanisms, which generate heterogeneous neuronal behavior across a neuronal population, remain poorly understood. We addressed this problem in the dorsal cochlear nucleus, where principal neurons exist in two qualitatively distinct states: spontaneously active or not spontaneously active. Our studies reveal that distinct activity states are generated by the differential levels of a Ba2+-sensitive, inwardly rectifying potassium conductance (K-ir). Variability in K-ir maximal conductance causes variations in the resting membrane potential (RMP). Low K-ir conductance depolarizes RMP to voltages above the threshold for activating subthreshold-persistent sodium channels (Na-p). Once Na-p channels are activated, the RMP becomes unstable, and spontaneous firing is triggered. Our results provide a biophysical mechanism for generating neural heterogeneity, which may play a role in the encoding of sensory information.

Reliability and construct validity of the karate-specific aerobic test

Chaabene, H, Hachana, Y, Franchini, E, Mkaouer, B, Montassar, M, and Chamari, K. Reliability and construct validity of the karate-specific aerobic test. J Strength Cond Res 26(12): 3454-3460, 2012-The aim of this study was to examine absolute and relative reliabilities and external responsiveness of the Karate-specific aerobic test (KSAT). This study comprised 43 male karatekas, 19 of them participated in the first study to establish test-retest reliability and 40, selected on the bases of their karate experience and level of practice, participated in the second study to identify external responsiveness of the KSAT. The latter group was divided into 2 categories: national-level group (G(n)) and regional-level group (Gr). Analysis showed excellent test-retest reliability of time to exhaustion (TE), with intraclass correlation coefficient ICC(3,1) >0.90, standard error of measurement (SEM) <5%: (3.2%) and mean difference (bias) +/- the 95% limits of agreement: -9.5 +/- 78.8 seconds. There was a significant difference between test-retest session in peak lactate concentration (Peak [La]) (9.12 +/- 2.59 vs. 8.05 +/- 2.67 mmol.L-1; p < 0.05) but not in peak heart rate (HRpeak) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) (196 +/- 9 vs. 194 +/- 9 b.min(-1) and 7.6 +/- 0.93 vs. 7.8 +/- 1.15; p > 0.05), respectively. National-level karate athletes (1,032 +/- 101 seconds) were better than regional level (841 +/- 134 seconds) on TE performance during KSAT (p < 0.001). Thus, KSAT provided good external responsiveness. The area under the receiver operator characteristics curve was >0.70 (0.86; confidence interval 95%: 0.72-0.95). Significant difference was detected in Peak [La] between national- (6.09 +/- 1.78 mmol.L-1) and regional-level (8.48 +/- 2.63 mmol.L-1) groups, but not in HRpeak (194 +/- 8 vs. 195 +/- 8 b.min(-1)) and RPE (7.57 +/- 1.15 vs. 7.42 +/- 1.1), respectively. The result of this study indicates that KSAT provides excellent absolute and relative reliabilities. The KSAT can effectively distinguish karate athletes of different competitive levels. Thus, the KSAT may be suitable for field assessment of aerobic fitness of karate practitioners.

Translation and Cross-cultural Adaptation of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale Into a Brazilian Portuguese Version and Validation on Patients With Knee Injuries

STUDY DESIGN: Clinical measurement. OBJECTIVE: To translate and culturally adapt the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) into a Brazilian Portuguese version, and to test the construct and content validity and reliability of this version in patients with knee injuries. BACKGROUND: There is no Brazilian Portuguese version of an instrument to assess the function of the lower extremity after orthopaedic injury. METHODS: The translation of the original English version of the LEFS into a Brazilian Portuguese version was accomplished using standard guidelines and tested in 31 patients with knee injuries. Subsequently, 87 patients with a variety of knee disorders completed the Brazilian Portuguese LEES, the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, and the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form and a visual analog scale for pain. All patients were retested within 2 days to determine reliability of these measures. Validation was assessed by determining the level of association between the Brazilian Portuguese LEFS and the other outcome measures. Reliability was documented by calculating internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and standard error of measurement. RESULTS: The Brazilian Portuguese LEES had a high level of association with the physical component of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (r = 0.82), the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (r = 0.87), the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form (r = 0.82), and the pain visual analog scale (r = -0.60) (all, P<.05). The Brazilian Portuguese LEES had a low level of association with the mental component of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (r = 0.38, P<.05). The internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .952) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.957) of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the LEES were high. The standard error of measurement was low (3.6) and the agreement was considered high, demonstrated by the small differences between test and retest and the narrow limit of agreement, as observed in Bland-Altman and survival-agreement plots. CONCLUSION: The translation of the LEFS into a Brazilian Portuguese version was successful in preserving the semantic and measurement properties of the original version and was shown to be valid and reliable in a Brazilian population with knee injuries. J Ort hop Sports Phys Ther 2012;42(11):932-939, Epub 9 October 2012. doi:10.2519/jospt.2012.4101

Investigation of auditory processing disorder and language impairment using the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response

This study investigated whether there are differences in the Speech-Evoked Auditory Brainstem Response among children with Typical Development (TD), (Central) Auditory Processing Disorder (C) APD, and Language Impairment (LI). The speech-evoked Auditory Brainstem Response was tested in 57 children (ages 6-12). The children were placed into three groups: TD (n = 18), (C)APD (n = 18) and LI (n = 21). Speech-evoked ABR were elicited using the five-formant syllable/da/. Three dimensions were defined for analysis, including timing, harmonics, and pitch. A comparative analysis of the responses between the typical development children and children with (C)APD and LI revealed abnormal encoding of the speech acoustic features that are characteristics of speech perception in children with (C)APD and LI, although the two groups differed in their abnormalities. While the children with (C)APD might had a greater difficulty distinguishing stimuli based on timing cues, the children with LI had the additional difficulty of distinguishing speech harmonics, which are important to the identification of speech sounds. These data suggested that an inefficient representation of crucial components of speech sounds may contribute to the difficulties with language processing found in children with LI. Furthermore, these findings may indicate that the neural processes mediated by the auditory brainstem differ among children with auditory processing and speech-language disorders. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of Clinically Invisible, but Optical Coherence Tomography Detected, Optic Disc Margin Anatomy on Neuroretinal Rim Evaluation

PURPOSE. We previously demonstrated that most eyes have regionally variable extensions of Bruch's membrane (BM) inside the clinically identified disc margin (DM) that are clinically and photographically invisible. We studied the impact of these findings on DM- and BM opening (BMO)-derived neuroretinal rim parameters. METHODS. Disc stereo-photography and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT, 24 radial B-scans centered on the optic nerve head) were performed on 30 glaucoma patients and 10 age-matched controls. Photographs were colocalized to SD-OCT data such that the DM and BMO could be visualized in each B-scan. Three parameters were computed: (1) DM-horizontal rim width (HRW), the distance between the DM and internal limiting membrane (ILM) along the DM reference plane; (2) BMO-HRW, the distance between BMO and ILM along the BMO reference plane; and (3) BMO-minimum rim width (MRW), the minimum distance between BMO and ILM. Rank-order correlations of sectors ranked by rim width and spatial concordance measured as angular distances between equivalently ranked sectors were derived. RESULTS. The average DM position was external to BMO in all quadrants, except inferotemporally. There were significant sectoral differences among all three rim parameters. DM- HRW and BMO-HRW sector ranks were better correlated (median rho = 0.84) than DM- HRW and BMO-MRW (median rho = 0.55), or BMO-HRW and BMO-MRW (median rho = 0.60) ranks. Sectors with the narrowest BMO-MRW were infrequently the same as those with the narrowest DM-HRW or BMO-HRW. CONCLUSIONS. BMO-MRW quantifies the neuroretinal rim from a true anatomical outer border and accounts for its variable trajectory at the point of measurement. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53:1852-1860) DOI:10.1167/iovs.11-9309

Decay of imprinted surface waves in polymers

CONCLUSIONS The focus of this work was the investigation ofanomalies in Tg and dynamics at polymer surfaces. Thethermally induced decay of hot-embossed polymer gratings isstudied using laser-diffraction and atomic force microscopy(AFM). Monodisperse PMMA and PS are selected in the Mwranges of 4.2 to 65.0 kg/mol and 3.47 to 65.0 kg/mol,respectively. Two different modes of measurement were used:the one mode uses temperature ramps to obtain an estimate ofthe near-surface glass temperature, Tdec,0; the other modeinvestigates the dynamics at a constant temperature aboveTg. The temperature-ramp experiments reveal Tdec,0 valuesvery close to the Tg,bulk values, as determined bydifferential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The PMMA of65.0 kg/mol shows a decreased value of Tg, while the PS samples of 3.47 and 10.3 kg/mol (Mwof an amplitude reduction and a finalstate is smaller in the case of PS than in the case of PMMA.This suggests a higher degree of cooperation between thepolymer chains for PMMA than for PS chains even near thesurface. A reduction of the investigated near-surface region byusing smaller grating constants and AFM did not show achange in the near-surface Tdec,0. Decay experiments were performed at a variety ofconstant temperatures. Master plots are produced by shifting the decay curves, on the logarithmic time scale,with respect to a reference curve at Tref. From thisprocedure shift factors were extracted. An Arrhenius analysis of the shift factors reveals adecreasing non-Arrhenius (fragile) behavior with molecular weight for PMMA. PS is fragile for all Mw asexpected for linear polymers. Non-Arrhenius behavior allowsone to fit the shift factors to the William-Landel-Ferry(WLF) equation. The WLF parameters for the varying molecular weights ofPMMA and PS were extracted and compared to the values frombulk rheology measurements. Assuming cg1=16+/-2 at Tg, assuggested by Angell, the glass temperature was determinedfrom the dynamic decay experiments. Within the experimentalerrors, the values for Tg,surf(c1=16) and T_g,bulk(c1=16)tend to be smaller than Tdec,0 and Tg,bulk fromtemperature-ramp and DSC measurements, but confirm thecourse of the values with increasing Mw. The comparison of the fragilities (temperaturedependence of the polymer properties at Tg) near the surfaceand in the bulk shows a higher fragility for PS near thesurface, a lower one for PMMA with molecular weights of 4.2and 65.0 kg/mol. The different surface behavior of PS istraced back to a lower degree of cooperation and a largerfree volume fraction.

Theoretical and implementation aspects in the mechanization of the metatheory of programming languages

Interactive theorem provers are tools designed for the certification of formal proofs developed by means of man-machine collaboration. Formal proofs obtained in this way cover a large variety of logical theories, ranging from the branches of mainstream mathematics, to the field of software verification. The border between these two worlds is marked by results in theoretical computer science and proofs related to the metatheory of programming languages. This last field, which is an obvious application of interactive theorem proving, poses nonetheless a serious challenge to the users of such tools, due both to the particularly structured way in which these proofs are constructed, and to difficulties related to the management of notions typical of programming languages like variable binding. This thesis is composed of two parts, discussing our experience in the development of the Matita interactive theorem prover and its use in the mechanization of the metatheory of programming languages. More specifically, part I covers: - the results of our effort in providing a better framework for the development of tactics for Matita, in order to make their implementation and debugging easier, also resulting in a much clearer code; - a discussion of the implementation of two tactics, providing infrastructure for the unification of constructor forms and the inversion of inductive predicates; we point out interactions between induction and inversion and provide an advancement over the state of the art. In the second part of the thesis, we focus on aspects related to the formalization of programming languages. We describe two works of ours: - a discussion of basic issues we encountered in our formalizations of part 1A of the Poplmark challenge, where we apply the extended inversion principles we implemented for Matita; - a formalization of an algebraic logical framework, posing more complex challenges, including multiple binding and a form of hereditary substitution; this work adopts, for the encoding of binding, an extension of Masahiko Sato's canonical locally named representation we designed during our visit to the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of Randy Pollack.

Beurteilung der Eignung der NPEMFE-Methode (Natural Pulsed Electromagnetic Field of Earth) mit dem "Cereskop" in Rutschungen und in Locker- und Festgesteinen mit Spannungsänderungen im Mittel- und Hochgebirge

Spannungsumlagerungen in Mineralen und Gesteinen induzieren in geologisch aktiven Bereichen mikromechanische und seismische Prozesse, wodurch eine schwache natürliche elektromagnetische Strahlung im Niederfrequenzbereich emittiert wird. Die elektromagnetischen Emissionen von nichtleitenden Mineralen sind auf dielektrische Polarisation durch mehrere physikalische Effekte zurückzuführen. Eine gerichtete mechanische Spannung führt zu einer ebenso gerichteten elektromagnetischen Emission. Die Quellen der elektromagnetischen Emissionen sind bekannt, jedoch können sie noch nicht eindeutig den verschiedenen Prozessen in der Natur zugeordnet werden, weshalb im Folgenden von einem seismo-elektromagnetischen Phänomen (SEM) gesprochen wird. Mit der neuentwickelten NPEMFE-Methode (Natural Pulsed Electromagnetic Field of Earth) können die elektromagnetischen Impulse ohne Bodenkontakt registriert werden. Bereiche der Erdkruste mit Spannungsumlagerungen (z.B. tektonisch aktive Störungen, potenzielle Hangrutschungen, Erdfälle, Bergsenkungen, Firstschläge) können als Anomalie erkannt und abgegrenzt werden. Basierend auf dem heutigen Kenntnisstand dieser Prozesse wurden Hangrutschungen und Locker- und Festgesteine, in denen Spannungsumlagerungen stattfinden, mit einem neuentwickelten Messgerät, dem "Cereskop", im Mittelgebirgsraum (Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutschland) und im alpinen Raum (Vorarlberg, Österreich, und Fürstentum Liechtenstein) erkundet und die gewonnenen Messergebnisse mit klassischen Verfahren aus Ingenieurgeologie, Geotechnik und Geophysik in Bezug gesetzt. Unter Feldbedingungen zeigte sich großenteils eine gute Übereinstimmung zwischen den mit dem "Cereskop" erkundeten Anomalien und den mit den konventionellen Verfahren erkundeten Spannungszonen. Auf Grundlage der bisherigen Kenntnis und unter Einbeziehung von Mehrdeutigkeiten werden die Messergebnisse analysiert und kritisch beurteilt.