Visualization of clusters in geo-referenced data using three-dimensional self-organizing maps

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação

Malaria at Humaita county, Amazonas state, Brazil: XVII — immune response in patients with Plasmodium falciparum according to gametocytes

In August 1983 the Authors studied 36 patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria and 14 normal individuals born in Humaita region who had never had malaria, had no spleen enlargement and had negative parasitemia as well as passive hemagglutination. Medical histories were obtained and complete physical examination were performed in all of them just as blood tests, parasite density and lymphocyte typing. The lymphocytes were separated and then frozen in liquid nitrogen for later typing by rosette formation. The patients were divided in two groups according to the presence (13 patients) or abscence (23 patients) of gametocytes before treatment. Severe malaria was predominant in the group without gametocytes. The results showed a decrease in the T-cell numbers in Plasmodium falciparum acute malaria patients both with or without gametocytes before the treatment, while B-cell numbers were normal only in the patients with gametocytes. These observations as like as those previously reported by the Authors, permit to associate the presence of gametocytes in peripheral blood and normal number of B-cells in patients with mild Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

CARTO-SOM - Cartogram creation using self-organizing maps

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Exploratory geospatial data analysis using self-organizing maps

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Cryptosporidiosis among patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the county of São Paulo, Brazil

Stool samples of 157 patients with AIDS, living in the county of São Paulo, were submitted to several techniques in the search for Cryptosporidium sp.. Among the various techniques tested for slide preparation (direct smear, spontaneous sedimentation method, and formol-ether concentration), the latter, formol-ether concentration, offered the best results, clearly outdoing all the others. Nineteen samples out of 157 prepared by this technique, after dyeing by the Kinyoun method or by carbol fuchsin dimethyl sulfoxide, were found to be positive for Cryptosporidium sp..

Enhanced PCA-based localization using depth maps with missing data

In this paper a new method for self-localization of mobile robots, based on a PCA positioning sensor to operate in unstructured environments, is proposed and experimentally validated. The proposed PCA extension is able to perform the eigenvectors computation from a set of signals corrupted by missing data. The sensor package considered in this work contains a 2D depth sensor pointed upwards to the ceiling, providing depth images with missing data. The positioning sensor obtained is then integrated in a Linear Parameter Varying mobile robot model to obtain a self-localization system, based on linear Kalman filters, with globally stable position error estimates. A study consisting in adding synthetic random corrupted data to the captured depth images revealed that this extended PCA technique is able to reconstruct the signals, with improved accuracy. The self-localization system obtained is assessed in unstructured environments and the methodologies are validated even in the case of varying illumination conditions.

Abelian kernels of monoids of order-preserving maps and of some of its extensions

Semigroup Forum vol. 68 (2004), p. 335–356

Artificial Intelligence in geospatial analysis: applications of self-organizing maps in the context of geographic information science.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems.

Borrelia burgdorferi antibodies in dogs from Cotia county, São Paulo State, Brazil

Dogs sera samples collected from Cotia County, São Paulo were tested using indirect immunoenzymatic test (ELISA) in order to study Lyme disease serology in dogs. ELISA method was standardized and G39/40 North American strain of Borrelia burgdorferi was used as antigen. Positive results were confirmed employing the Western blotting technique. Because of the possibility of cross-reactions, sera were also tested for different serological strains of Leptospira interrogans and L. biflexa using microscopic sera agglutination test. Twenty-three of 237 (9.7%) serum samples were positive in the ELISA; 20 of them (86.9%) were confirmed by the Western blotting, what suggests that Cotia may be a risk area for Lyme disease. Although 4 samples (1.7%) were positive for Lyme disease and leptospirosis, no correlation was found between the results (X² = 0.725; p = 0.394) what suggests absence of serological cross reactivity.

Comparative analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis maps (2-DE) of Helicobacter pylori from Brazilian patients with chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcer: a preliminary report

Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium recognized as the major cause of peptic ulcer and chronic gastritis. Recently, a proteome-based approach was developed to investigate pathogenic factors related to H. pylori. In this preliminary study, H. pylori strains were isolated from gastric biopsies of patients with chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcers. A partial proteomic analysis of H. pylori strains was performed by bacterial lyses and proteins were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). A comparative analysis was performed to verify a differential protein expression between these two 2-DE maps. These data should be useful to clarify the role of different proteins related to bacterial pathogenesis. This study will be completed using a larger number of samples and protein identification of H. pylori by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

Feeding sources and trypanosome infection index of Rhodnius pallescens in a Chagas disease endemic area of Amador County, Panama

The sylvatic triatomine Rhodnius pallescens is considered to be the most important and widespread vector of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli in Panama. However, its behavior and biological characteristics have only been partially investigated. Thus, to achieve sustainable and efficient control over Chagas disease in Panama, a better understanding of the ecology and biology of R. pallescens is essential. In this study we evaluated R. pallescens host feeding sources using a dot-blot assay, and the trypanosome infection index by PCR analysis in a Chagas disease endemic area of central Panama. It was found that in peridomestic palm trees, 20.3% of the examined bugs had fed on opossums (Didelphis marsupialis). However, we observed an increased anthropophagy (25.4%) for those bugs collected inside houses. Considering the domestic and peridomestic habitats as a whole, the proportion of collected R. pallescens infected with trypanosomes was 87.4%. In the two habitats the predominant infection was with T. cruzi (80-90%). Between 47-51% of the analyzed triatomines were infected with T. rangeli. Mixed infections (40-51%) were also detected. These findings provide a better basis for the implementation of a rational control and surveillance program for Chagas disease in regions where R. pallescens is endemic.

Post-MAPS: An interactive acquisition platform for gastroenterology

Post-MAPS is a web platform that collects gastroenterological exam data from several european hospital centers, to be used in future clinical studies and was developed in partnership with experts from the gastroenterological area and information technology (IT) technicians. However, although functional, this platform has some issues that are crucial for its functioning, and can render user interaction unpleasant and exhaustive. Accordingly, we proposed the development of a new web platform, in which we aimed for an improvement in terms of usability, data uni cation and interoperability. Therefore, it was necessary to identify and study different ways of acquiring clinical data and review some of the existing clinical databases in order to understand how they work and what type of data they store, as well as their impact and contribution to clinical knowledge. Closely linked to the data model is the ability to share data with other systems, so, we also studied the concept of interoperability and analyzed some of the most widely used international standards, such as DICOM, HL7 and openEHR. As one of the primary objectives of this project was to achieve a better level of usability, practices related to Human Computer-Interaction, such as requirement analysis, creation of conceptual models, prototyping, and evaluation were also studied. Before we began the development, we conducted an analysis of the previous platform, from a functional point of view, which allowed us to gather not only a list of architectural and interface issues, but also a list of improvement opportunities. It was also performed a small preliminary study in order to evaluate the platform's usability, where we were able to realize that perceived usability is different between users, and that, in some aspects, varies according to their location, age and years of experience. Based on the information gathered during the platform's analysis and in the conclusions of the preliminary study, a new platform was developed, prepared for all potential users, from the inexperienced to the most comfortable with technology. It presents major improvements in terms of usability, also providing several new features that simplify the users' work, improving their interaction with the system, making their experience more enjoyable.

Comparison of Methods and Co-Registration Maps of EEG and fMRI in Occipital Lobe Epilepsy

Clinically childhood occipital lobe epilepsy (OLE) manifests itself with distinct syndromes. The traditional EEG recordings have not been able to overcome the difficulty in correlating the ictal clinical symptoms to the onset in particular areas of the occipital lobes. To understand these syndromes it is important to map with more precision the epileptogenic cortical regions in OLE. Experimentally, we studied three idiopathic childhood OLE patients with EEG source analysis and with the simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fMRI, to map the BOLD effect associated with EEG spikes. The spatial overlap between the EEG and BOLD results was not very good, but the fMRI suggested localizations more consistent with the ictal clinical manifestations of each type of epileptic syndrome. Since our first results show that by associating the BOLD effect with interictal spikes the epileptogenic areas are mapped to localizations different from those calculated from EEG sources and that by using different EEG/fMRI processing methods our results differ to some extent, it is very important to compare the different methods of processing the localization of activation and develop a good methodology for obtaining co-registration maps of high resolution EEG with BOLD localizations.

Unsupervised classification of remote sensing images combining Self Organizing Maps and segmentation techniques

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

Biology of Triatominae (Reduviidae Hemiptera) from North of Formosa County (Goiás-Brazil) I. Length of life cycle of Triatoma sordida (Stal. 1859)

In the present paper the life cycle of Triatoma sordida was studied. The mean length from egg to adult was 213 days. The mean length in days from each stage was: 24.3 (± 1.30) for the first. 32.8 (± 1.45) (2nd), 36.1 (± 1.50) (3rd), 44.6 (± 1.85) (4th) and 52.0 (± 1.92) (5th). The mean egg incubation períod was 23.2 (± 1.40). Overall mortality was 18.8% and egg viability was 82.5%.