Avaliação tridimensional da via aérea superior de pacientes com apneia obstrutiva do sono que utilizaram aparelho de avanço mandibular

Os objetivos deste estudo foram avaliar o efeito do aparelho de avanço mandibular (Twin block - TB) no volume das vias aéreas superiores, por meio de tomografia computadorizada cone beam (CBCT); analisar, por meio da polissonografia, as mudanças no índice de apneia e hipopneia (IAH) e índice de apneia por hora de sono (IA), saturação de oxi-hemoglobina e eficiência do sono; e correlacionar o volume na CBCT e as polissonografias. Dezesseis pacientes portadores de apneia obstrutiva do sono, idade média de 47,06 anos, participaram deste estudo prospectivo, com acompanhamento médio de 7 meses. Foram feitas polissonografias iniciais (T1) e de acompanhamento (T2) com o TB em posição, e CBCT sem e com TB em posição. A segmentação e obtenção dos volumes das vias aéreas superiores foram realizadas e utilizados os testes t de Student pareado, de Wilcoxon e o índice de correlação de Spearman, com 5% de significância. Os resultados das polissonografias mostraram diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre T1 e T2 apenas para IAH (p<0,05). Houve aumento do volume da via aérea superior com TB quando comparado com o volume sem TB (p<0,05). Foi possível estabelecer-se correlação positiva entre volume da via aérea superior sem TB e IAH e IA em T1 (p<0,05), mas não houve correlação entre o volume da via aérea com TB e índices polissonográficos em T2. Pode-se concluir que, houve aumento de volume da via aérea superior com o TB e houve redução do IAH em T2 porém, sem correlação entre estes dados.

Revegetation of the burnt area in Isabela

Summary in Spanish.

Cointegration analysis of money demand in the Euro Area

The analysis of the evolution of the M3 money aggregate is an important element in the definition and implementation of monetary policy for the ECB. A well-defined and stable long run demand function is an essential requisite for M3 to be a valid monetary tool. Therefore, this paper analyzes based in cointegration techniques the existence of a long run money demand, estimating it and testing its stability for the Euro Area and for ten of its member countries. Specifically, bearing in mind the high degree of monetary instability that the current economic crisis has created in the Euro Area, we also test whether this has had a noticeable impact in the cointegration among real money demand and its determinants. The analysis gives evidence of the existence of a long run relationship when the aggregated Euro Area and six of the ten countries are considered. However, these relationships are highly instable since the outbreak of the financial crisis, leading in some cases to even rejecting cointegration. All this suggests that the ECB’s strategy of focusing in the M3 monetary aggregates could not be a convenient approach under the current circumstances

The family of chironomids or midges - Chironomidae. Keys to larvae and pupae [Translation from: Guide to the freshwater invertebrates of the European area of the USSR (Plankton and benthos) (ed. L. A. Kutikova and Ya. I. Starobogatov), p.371-431. Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat, 1977]

The translation of this section of the larger publication ”Opredelitel' presnovodnykh bespozvonochnykh evropeiskoi chasti SSSR. (Plankton i bentos)” provides identification keys to the larvae and pupae of chironomids that occur in the Soviet Union. The morphology of the larvae of Chironomidae is described in the introductory part.

Geology of the Pacoima Area, Los Angeles County, California

The Pacoima area is located on an isolated hill in the northeast section of the San Fernando, the northeast portion of the Pacoima Quadrangle, Los Angeles County, California. Within it are exposed more than 2300 feet of Tertiary rocks, which comprise three units of Middle Miocene (?) age, and approximately 950 feet of Jurassic (?) granite basement. The formations are characterized by their mode of occurrence, marine and terrestial origin, diverse lithology, and structural features.

The basement complex is composed of intrusive granite, small masses of granodiorite and a granodiorite gneiss with the development of schistosity in sections. During the long period of erosion of the metamorphics, the granitic rocks were exposed and may have provided clastic constituents for the overlying formations.

As a result of rapid sedimentation in a transitional environment, the Middle Miocene Twin Peaks formation was laid down unconformably on the granite. This formation is essentially a large thinning bed of gray to buff pebble and cobble conglomerate grading to coarse yellow sandstone. The contact of conglomerate and granite is characterized by its faulted and depositional nature.

Beds of extrusive andesite, basalt porphyry, compact vesicular amygdaloidal basalts, andesite breccia, interbedded feldspathic sands and clays of terrestial origin, and mudflow breccia comprise the Pacoima formation which overlies the Twin Peaks formation unconformably. A transgressing shallow sea accompanied settling of the region and initiated deposition of fine clastic sediments.

The marine Topanga (?) formation is composed of brown to gray coarse sandstone grading into interbedded buff sandstones and gray shales. Intrusions of rhyolitedacite and ash beds mark continued but sporatic volcanism during this period.

The area mapped represents an arch in the Tertiary sediments. Forces that produced the uplift of the granite structural high created stresses that were relieved by jointing and faulting. Vertical and horizontal movement along these faults has displaced beds, offset contacts and complicated their structure. Uplift and erosion have exposed the present sequence of beds which dip gently to the northeast. The isolated hill is believed to be in an early stage of maturity.

Geology of the Tick Canyon Area

The eastern part of the Ventura Basin contains great thicknesses of non-marine Tertiary sediments. The lower formations of the Tertiary strata outcrop in the Tick Canyon Area and are described in this report. Emphasis is placed on the description of the Vasquez formation which is the lowest Tertiary unit in the Tick Canyon Area and which contains the only Tertiary lavas found in the East Ventura Basin.

The Pacoima Area

The Pacoima area consists of Miocene (sediments and basalts) rocks underlain by a quartz diorite basement complex of Jurassic age. The stratigranhic units range from 25 feet to more than 600 feet in thickness. The lower sediments are arkosic land- laid deposits while the Modelo formation, shallow marine in origin, consists of thinly bedded sandstones, shales, volcanic ash and calcareous members. An andesitic mass, possibly a volcanic plug, outcrops near the summit of one of the hills.

An anticline, and possibly an associated syncline, has been developed by compressional folding. Small scale contortion is locally exposed. Regional dip is northward, decreasing from south to north in the area. Faulting is common, most faults trending nearly north-south. Movement along these faults ranges from a few feet to several hundred feet.

There are no important mineral deposits in the area. Quarrying of the basement rocks has been abandoned.

A Geologic Report on the Pacoima Area

The region treated in the following report is a small area of about one square mile near Pacoima, California. It consists of a group of small hills that that form the western abutment of the Hansen Dam. It is underlain by a section of intrusives, sediments, and extrusives, which may be subdivided into four groups.

The oldest rocks form the Dimebere complex of Jurassic (?) plutonic rocks, pegmatites, and schists. Lying uncomformably on this is a series of alternating terrestrial sandstones and bassalts of Tertiary age. These are unconformably overlain in turn by the Hansen Dam formation, a series of marine shales and sandstone correlated with the Temblor by the fossil contact. Finally into these strata was intruded the Munglish andesite.

These strata form a shallow, plunging anticline, whose axis trends slightly east of north and lies in the center of the hills. The unconformities have been offset in several places by a series of faults apparently related to the anticline.

A complete outline of the geologic history is included in the report.

Profile soundings in lakes of the younger morainal area of Sleswick-Holstein with a sediment-echo-sounder of 30 kHz [Translation from: Wass.Boden 26, 135-138, 1974]

To be able to carry out physical, chemical and biological investigations on a lake, one needs a thorough knowledge of the volume of water and the shape of the lake basin. Little is known about the about the morphology of the lakes in Schleswig-Holstein and its ecological consequences. For this research a 30 KHz echo sounder with sediment transceiver was used to carry out profile determinations (echo soundings). This apparatus continuously records on paper the different reflexions and absorptions of the sediment and water body in the corresponding depth. By this, acoustically noticeable layers and different densities in the sediment and 'scattering layers' in the water body due to physical, chemical and biological reasons (e.g. plans and single fish) are made visible. Result are summarised here regarding the echo soundings in Blunker See.

BAMS: A Tool for Supervised Burned Area Mapping Using Landsat Data

A new supervised burned area mapping software named BAMS (Burned Area Mapping Software) is presented in this paper. The tool was built from standard ArcGIS (TM) libraries. It computes several of the spectral indexes most commonly used in burned area detection and implements a two-phase supervised strategy to map areas burned between two Landsat multitemporal images. The only input required from the user is the visual delimitation of a few burned areas, from which burned perimeters are extracted. After the discrimination of burned patches, the user can visually assess the results, and iteratively select additional sampling burned areas to improve the extent of the burned patches. The final result of the BAMS program is a polygon vector layer containing three categories: (a) burned perimeters, (b) unburned areas, and (c) non-observed areas. The latter refer to clouds or sensor observation errors. Outputs of the BAMS code meet the requirements of file formats and structure of standard validation protocols. This paper presents the tool's structure and technical basis. The program has been tested in six areas located in the United States, for various ecosystems and land covers, and then compared against the National Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) Burned Area Boundaries Dataset.

A large-area photolithography technique based on surface plasmons leakage modes

An atomic force microscope (AFM) assisted surface plasmons leakage radiation photolithography technique has been numerically demonstrated by using two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (2D-FDTD) method. With the aid of a metallic AFM tip, particular characteristic of the Kretstchmann configuration to excite surface plasmons (SPs) is utilized to achieve large-area patterns with high spatial resolution and contrast, the photoresist could be exposed with low power laser due to the remarkable local field enhancement at the metal/dielectric interface and the resonant localized SPs modes near the tip. Good tolerance on the film thickness and incident angle has been obtained, which provides a good practicability for experiments. This photolithography technique proposed here can realize large-area, high-resolution, high-contrast, nondestructive, arbitrary-structure fabrication of nanoscale devices. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.