Ambulatory blood pressure and Doppler echocardiographic indexes of borderline hypertensive men presenting an exaggerated blood pressure response during dynamic exercise

Borderline hypertension (BH) has been associated with an exaggerated blood pressure (BP) response during laboratory stressors. However, the incidence of target organ damage in this condition and its relation to BP hyperreactivity is an unsettled issue. Thus, we assessed the Doppler echocardiographic profile of a group of BH men (N = 36) according to office BP measurements with exaggerated BP in the cycloergometric test. A group of normotensive men (NT, N = 36) with a normal BP response during the cycloergometric test was used as control. To assess vascular function and reactivity, all subjects were submitted to the cold pressor test. Before Doppler echocardiography, the BP profile of all subjects was evaluated by 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring. All subjects from the NT group presented normal monitored levels of BP. In contrast, 19 subjects from the original BH group presented normal monitored BP levels and 17 presented elevated monitored BP levels. In the NT group all Doppler echocardiographic indexes were normal. All subjects from the original BH group presented normal left ventricular mass and geometrical pattern. However, in the subjects with elevated monitored BP levels, fractional shortening was greater, isovolumetric relaxation time longer, and early to late flow velocity ratio was reduced in relation to subjects from the original BH group with normal monitored BP levels (P<0.05). These subjects also presented an exaggerated BP response during the cold pressor test. These results support the notion of an integrated pattern of cardiac and vascular adaptation during the development of hypertension.

Caffeine effect on mortality and oviposition in successive generations of Aedes aegypti

OBJECTIVE: Previous experiments showed that caffeine blocks the development of Aedes aegypti (Diptera, Culicidae) in the larval stage, consequently inhibiting the production of adults. This study aimed at obtaining data suggestive of caffeine resistance by these mosquitoes. METHODS: Experiments were carried out in successive generations to assess adult production from eggs laid in previous generation and oviposition rate in every generation using 200 and 500 µg/mL caffeine. Tap water was used as control. Experiments were conducted in the city of São José do Rio Preto, Southeastern Brazil between 2002 and 2005. Statistical tests consisted of exploratory data analysis and smoothing algorithms. RESULTS: Increasing reduction in productivity of adults occurred among generations at both caffeine concentrations but the differences were only significant at 200µg/mL caffeine. As for the oviposition rate, there was a decrease in the mean number of eggs per female over generations at both caffeine concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: There was no evidence of caffeine resistance over generations. The study results corroborate caffeine as an alternative as an important Ae. Aegypti control agent to avoid resistance.

Fractional dynamics in financial indexes

The goal of this study is the analysis of the dynamical properties of financial data series from 32 worldwide stock market indices during the period 2000–2009 at a daily time horizon. Stock market indices are examples of complex interacting systems for which a huge amount of data exists. The methods and algorithms that have been explored for the description of physical phenomena become an effective background in the analysis of economical data. In this perspective are applied the classical concepts of signal analysis, Fourier transform and methods of fractional calculus. The results reveal classification patterns typical of fractional dynamical systems.

Dynamics of the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ stock indexes

The goal of this study is the analysis of the dynamical properties of financial data series from worldwide stock market indices. We analyze the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ∧ DJI) and the NASDAQ Composite ( ∧ IXIC) indexes at a daily time horizon. The methods and algorithms that have been explored for description of physical phenomena become an effective background, and even inspiration, for very productive methods used in the analysis of economical data. We start by applying the classical concepts of signal analysis, Fourier transform, and methods of fractional calculus. In a second phase we adopt a pseudo phase plane approach.

Peroxidase antibody test for mucocutaneous leishmaniasis serology performance indexes and comparison with a fluorescent antibody test: Comparação com o desempenho da reação de imunofluorescência

Performance indexes of the peroxidase antibody test were compared to that of the fluorescent antibody test. The peroxidase antibody test had a statistically higher sensitivity and negative predictive value and a higher efficiency than the fluorescent antibody test but its specificity and positive predictive value were within the 95% confidence limits for the values found for the fluorescent antibody test. Such differences did not change when Chagas' disease and visceral leishmaniasis sera were included in index calculations. Statistical analysis showed that the two tests have a substantial degree of agreement but the immunofluorescent test had a specificity index and a positive predictive value equal to 100.0% when Chagas' disease and visceral leishmaniasis sera were not included in the calculations of the performance index; in this instance, a positive test result equals a disclosure of the disease attribute due to the inexistence of false positive results. The enzyme/ protein ratio of the peroxidase conjugate, resulting in heavy or light-labeled conjugates may pose technical problems to its use in serology tests.

Performance indexes of a dot-enzime-linked immunosorbent assay (dot-ELISA) and an ezyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgG-ELISA) for field surveys of new world leishmaniasis

Diagnostic performance indexes of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and efficiency were determined for dot-ELISA and IgG-ELISA tests in 340 leishmaniasis sera. Sensitivity of the dot-ELISA was significantly lower than IgG-ELISA's; the two tests had indexes of specificity and positive predictive value of the same magnitude. Seventy-eight sera gave a negative dot-ELISA test result and a positive IgG-ELISA test result. When sera were classified according to different criteria as how to interpret this diversity, the kappa statistic did not corroborate the classification indicating that the two tests display a substantial strength of agreement. The results presented indicate that performance indexes accrued in a survey where variables arc well known may be extrapolated to other population studies if the disease presents itself as highly prevalent (due to a selection bias or not) and may be expected to discriminate a disease status among test positives.

Interrupting Chagas disease transmission in Venezuela

The interruption of vectorial transmission of Chagas disease in Venezuela is attributed to the combined effects of ongoing entomoepidemiological surveillance, ongoing house spraying with residual insecticides and the concurrent building and modification of rural houses in endemic areas during almost five decades. The original endemic areas which totaled 750,000 km², have been reduced to 365,000 km². During 1958-1968, initial entomological evaluations carried out showed that the house infestation index ranged between 60-80%, the house infection index at 8-11% and a house density index of 30-50 triatomine bugs per house. By 1990-98, these indexes were further reduced to 1.6-4.0%, 0.01-0.6% and 3-4 bugs per house respectively. The overall rural population seroprevalence has declined from 44.5% (95% C.I.: 43.4-45.3%) to 9.2% (95% C.I.: 9.0-9.4%) for successive grouped periods from 1958 to 1998. The annual blood donor prevalence is firmly established below 1%. The population at risk of infection has been estimated to be less than four million. Given that prevalence rates are stable and appropriate for public health programmes, consideration has been given to potential biases that may distort results such as: a) geographical differences in illness or longevity of patients; b) variations in levels of ascertainment; c) variations in diagnostic criteria; and d) variations in population structure, mainly due to appreciable population migration. The endemic areas with continuous transmission are now mainly confined to piedmonts, as well as patchy foci in higher mountainous ranges, where the exclusive vector is Rhodnius prolixus. There is also an unstable area, of which landscapes are made up of grasslands with scattered broad-leaved evergreen trees and costal plains, where transmission is very low and occasional outbreaks are reported.

A Random Access Protocol incorporating Multi-Packet Reception, Retransmission Diversity and Successive Interference Cancellation

8th International Workshop on Multiple Access Communications (MACOM2015), Helsinki, Finland.

Multidimensional Scaling Analysis of Stock Market Indexes

This paper applies multidimensional scaling techniques and Fourier transform for visualizing possible time-varying correlations between 25 stock market values. The method is useful for observing clusters of stock markets with similar behavior.

Construction of Lean and Green indexes to measure companies’ performance

The demand for costs and time reductions in companies’ processes, in order to increase efficiency, leads companies to seek innovative management paradigms to support their needs for growth and continuous improvement. The Lean paradigm has great relevance in companies’ need for waste reduction, particularly in manufacturing companies. On the other hand the demand of companies for waste reduction has gained a new dimension not only at the material level, but also at the environmental level with the introduction of the Green paradigm. As such, manufacturing companies have been adopting practices that reduce the impact of their activities on the environment. Although nowadays many manufacturing companies already implement waste reduction practices related to Lean and Green paradigms, many of them are unable to understand specifically if their efforts are enough for the application of these practices to be successful or even if their actual performance in implementing Lean or Green practices reflects the self-assessment that they have of themselves. Thus, besides the study of the development of Lean and Green paradigms in recent years, the present dissertation has the important objective of the construction of two indexes (the Lean Index and the Green Index) enabling the measurement of the performance of Portuguese manufacturing companies relating the implementation of Lean and Green practices. The data used to create the Lean and Green indexes where obtained from the implementation of the European Manufacturing Survey 2012 in Portugal. The survey questions related to the implementation of Lean and Green practices are used as variables in the development of the model for the two indexes. For the construction of representative expressions of Lean Index and Green Index it was applied the Factorial Analysis for assigning the variables weights and aggregation.

Ehrhart polynomials, successive minima, and an Ehrhart theory for rational dilates of a rational polytope

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Mathematik, Diss., 2011

Official lists and indexes of names and works in zoology / edited by R.V. Melville and J.D.D. Smith.

1987

Effects of competition over quality-adjusted price indexes: an application to the Spanish automobile market

Using a newly constructed data set, we calculate quality-adjusted price indexes after estimating hedonic price regressions from 1988 to 2004 in the Spanish automobile market. The increasing competition was favoured by the removal of trade restrictions and the special plans for the renewal of the Spanish automobile fleet. We find that the increasing degree of competition during those years led to an overall drop in automobile prices by 20 percent which implied considerable consumer gains thanks to higher market efficiency. Additionally, our results indicate that loyalty relevance and discrepancies in automobile reliability declined during those years. This is captured.

Variation in the intensity of inbreeding depression among successive life-cycle stages and generations in gynodioecious Silene vulgaris (Caryophyllaceae).

Inbreeding depression is one of the hypotheses explaining the maintenance of females within gynodioecious plant populations. However, the measurement of fitness components in selfed and outcrossed progeny depends on life-cycle stage and the history of inbreeding. Comparative data indicate that strong inbreeding depression is more likely to occur at later life-cycle stages. We used hermaphrodite individuals of Silene vulgaris originating from three populations located in different valleys in the Swiss Alps to investigate the effect of two generations of self- and cross-fertilization on fitness components among successive stages of the life cycle in a glasshouse experiment. We detected significant inbreeding depression for most life-cycle stages including: the number of viable and aborted seeds per fruit, probability of germination, above ground biomass, probability of flowering, number of flowers per plant, flower size and pollen viability. Overall, the intensity of inbreeding depression increased among successive stages of the life cycle and cumulative inbreeding depression was significantly stronger in the first generation (delta approximately 0.5) compared with the second generation (delta approximately 0.35). We found no evidence for synergistic epistasis in our experiment. Our finding of more intense inbreeding depression during later stages of the life cycle may help to explain the maintenance of females in gynodioecious populations of S. vulgaris because purging of genetic load is less likely to occur.

Validation of two echocardiographic indexes to improve the diagnosis of complex coarctations

Rapport de synthèse: Enjeux et contexte de recherche : la coarctation de l'aorte, rétrécissement de l'aorte thoracique descendante, est une des malformations cardiaques congénitales les plus fréquentes. Son diagnostic reste cependant difficile surtout lorsqu'elle est associée à la présence d'un canal artériel ou à une malformation cardiaque plus complexe. Dans ces contextes, les signes échographiques classiques qui posent habituellement le diagnostic (visualisation d'un rétrécissement juxtaductal et accélération au Doppler au niveau de l'isthme aortique) peuvent faire défaut ou être difficile à imager. La validation d'index basé sur des mesures anatomiques faciles à acquérir par échographie cardiaque, indépendantes de l'âge, de la situation hémodynamique et des malformations cardiaques associées représente une aide significative dans le diagnostic de la coarctation de l'aorte. Nous avons donc voulu valider par une étude rétrospective la fiabilité de deux index dans cette indication : l'index des artères carotido-sous-clavière (index CSA; rapport du diamètre de l'arc aortique transverse distal sur la distance entre les artères carotide et sous-clavière gauches) et l'index de l'aorte isthmique-descendante (index I/D; rapport des diamètres de l'aorte isthmique sur celui de l'aorte descendante). Notre article : nous avons rétrospectivement calculé la valeur des deux index (CSA et I/D) chez un groupe de 68 enfants avec coarctation et un groupe 24 cas contrôles apparenté pour l'âge et le sexe. Les enfants avec coarctation ont un index CSA et I/D significativement plus bas que le groupe contrôle (Index CSA : 0.84 ± 0.39 vs. 2.65 ± 0.82, p<0.0001 - Index I/D : 0.58 ± 0.18 vs. 0.98 ± 0.19, p<0.0001). Pour les deux index, ni la présence d'une autre malformation cardiaque, ni l'âge n'ont un impact sur la différence significative entre les deux groupes. Conclusions: notre recherche à permis de valider qu'un index CSA de moins de 1,5 est fortement suggestif d'une coarctation, indépendamment de l'âge du patient et de la présence d'une autre malformation cardiaque. L'index I/D (valeur limite 0,64) est moins spécifique que l'index CSA. L'association des deux index augmente la sensibilité et permet rétrospectivement le diagnostic de tous les cas de coarctation seulement sur la base d'une échographie cardiaque standard faite au lit du patient. Perspectives : cette étude rétrospective mérite d'être vérifiée par une étude prospective afin de confirmer la contribution de ces index à la prise en charge des patients suspects d'une coarctation de l'aorte. Cependant, la situation dans laquelle ces index pourraient avoir le plus grand impact reste encore à explorer. En effet, si le diagnostic postnatal de la coarctation est parfois difficile, son diagnostic prénatal l'est nettement plus. La présence obligatoire du canal artériel et l'existence d'une hypoplasie isthmique physiologique chez le foetus obligent le cardiologue foetale à observer des signes indirects, peu sensibles, d'une possible coarctation (prépondérance des cavités droites). La validation de l'index CSA et/ou de l'index I/D chez le foetus constituerait donc une avancée majeure dans le diagnostic prénatal de la coarctation de l'aorte.