Spatial distribution of schistosomiasis and geohelminthiasis cases in the rural areas of Pernambuco, Brazil

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence and intensity of geohelminth infections and schistosomiasis remain high in the rural areas of Zona da Mata, Pernambuco (ZMP), Brazil, where these parasites still represent a significant public health problem. The present study aimed to spatially assess the occurrences of schistosomiasis and geohelminthiasis in the ZMP. METHODS: The ZMP has a population of 1,132,544 inhabitants, formed by 43 municipalities. An ecological study was conducted, using secondary data relating to positive human cases and parasite loads of schistosomiasis and positive human cases of geohelminthiasis that were worked up in Excel 2007. We used the coordinates of the municipal headquarters to represent the cities which served as the unit of analysis of this study. The Kernel estimator was used to spatially analyze the data and identify distribution patterns and case densities, with analysis done in ArcGIS software. RESULTS: Spatial analysis from the Kernel intensity estimator made it possible to construct density maps showing that the northern ZMP was the region with the greatest number of children infected with parasites and the populations most intensely infected by Schistosoma mansoni. In relation to geohelminths, there was higher spatial distribution of cases of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura in the southern ZMP, and greater occurrence of hookworms in the northern/central ZMP. CONCLUSIONS: Despite several surveys and studies showing occurrences of schistosomiasis and geohelminthiasis in the ZMP, no preventive measures that are known to have been effective in decreasing these health hazards have yet been implemented in the endemic area.

Spatial distribution of trachoma cases in the City of Bauru, State of São Paulo, Brazil, detected in 2006: defining key areas for improvement of health resources

IntroductionThe objective of this study was to analyze the spatial behavior of the occurrence of trachoma cases detected in the City of Bauru, State of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2006 in order to use the information collected to set priority areas for optimization of health resources.Methodsthe trachoma cases identified in 2006 were georeferenced. The data evaluated were: schools where the trachoma cases studied, data from the 2000 Census, census tract, type of housing, water supply conditions, distribution of income and levels of education of household heads. In the Google Earth® software and TerraView® were made descriptive spatial analysis and estimates of the Kernel. Each area was studied by interpolation of the density surfaces exposing events to facilitate to recognize the clusters.ResultsOf the 66 cases detected, only one (1.5%) was not a resident of the city's outskirts. A positive association was detected of trachoma cases and the percentage of heads of household with income below three minimum wages and schooling under eight years of education.ConclusionsThe recognition of the spatial distribution of trachoma cases coincided with the areas of greatest social inequality in Bauru City. The micro-areas identified are those that should be prioritized in the rationalization of health resources. There is the possibility of using the trachoma cases detected as an indicator of performance of micro priority health programs.

Spatial distribution of disseminated histoplasmosis and AIDS co-infection in an endemic area of Northeastern Brazil

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: The spatial distribution of disseminated histoplasmosis (DH) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) co-infection in adult residents of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil was evaluated. METHODS: Socio-demographic data for the DH/AIDS cases were obtained from a reference hospital, and socio-environmental indicators were obtained from an official Brazilian institute. Kernel analysis and local indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) cluster maps were used to estimate the case density within the city. RESULTS: DH/AIDS cases were concentrated in the Northwestern and Southwestern peripheral areas of the city, related with low human development indices, but different from AIDS cases distribution. CONCLUSION: Risk factors other than AIDS infection must affect histoplasmosis development in this area.

An evaluation of fibrous structure and physical characteristics of Cutia nut (Couepia edulis Prance) shell

The Cutia-nut (Couepia edulis Prance), a species originally from the Amazon region, has a kernel with reasonable nutritional value and a hard and thick woody shell that constitute most of the fruit. After the kernel removal, the shells are regarded as waste. The possibility of using such shells, as raw material for burning or charcoal production, as well as milled residue for structural reinforcement materials is quite feasible, considering environmental and economical aspects. There is, however, a complete lack of characterization of the Cutia-nut shell and other similar species which can aggregate desirable qualities for application as engineering material. In this study some analyses are presented aiming at providing information for potential uses of these residues. In general, the shells follow a regular shape with certain dimensional proportionality to the kernel. The shell is a fibrous material with high lignin content, present low water absorption and high resistance to natural degradation.

Avaliação quantitativa da geodiversidade: desenvolvimento de instrumentos metodológicos com aplicação ao ordenamento do território

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências (Especialidade de Geologia)

Hybrid hypervisor partially deployed on FPGA

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia Eletrónica e Computadores.

Aplicação da metodologia ROC na avaliação de desempenho de índices de gravidade clínica em unidades de neonatologia de Portugal

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia Industrial e de Sistemas

Assessing the suitability of the minimum capture size and protection regimes in the gooseneck barnacle shellfishery

The suitability of a total-length-based, minimum capture-size and different protection regimes was investigated for the gooseneck barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes shellfishery in N Spain. For this analysis, individuals that were collected from 10 sites under different fishery protection regimes (permanently open, seasonally closed, and permanently closed) were used. First, we applied a non-parametric regression model to explore the relationship between the capitulum Rostro-Tergum (RT) size and the Total Length (TL). Important heteroskedastic disturbances were detected for this relationship, demon- strating a high variability of TL with respect to RT. This result substantiates the unsuitability of a TL-based minimum size by means of a mathematical model. Due to these disturbances, an alternative growth- based minimum capture size of 26.3 mm RT (23 mm RC) was estimated using the first derivative of a Kernel-based non-parametric regression model for the relationship between RT and dry weight. For this purpose, data from the permanently protected area were used to avoid bias due to the fishery. Second, the size-frequency distribution similarity was computed using a MDS analysis for the studied sites to evaluate the effectiveness of the protection regimes. The results of this analysis indicated a positive effect of the permanent protection, while the effect of the seasonal closure was not detected. This result needs to be interpreted with caution because the current harvesting based on a potentially unsuitable mini- mum capture size may dampen the efficacy of the seasonal protection regime.

Search for very high energy Gamma radiation from the Starburst Galaxy IC 342

This thesis describes a search for very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from the starburst galaxy IC 342. The analysis was based on data from the 2003 — 2004 observing season recorded using the Whipple 10-metre imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope located on Mount Hopkins in southern Arizona. IC 342 may be classed as a non-blazar type galaxy and to date only a few such galaxies (M 87, Cen A, M 82 and NGC 253) have been detected as VHE gamma-ray sources. Analysis of approximately 24 hours of good quality IC 342 data, consisting entirely of ON/OFF observations, was carried out using a number of methods (standard Supercuts, optimised Supercuts, scaled optimised Supercuts and the multivariate kernel analysis technique). No evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from IC 342 was found. The significance was 0.6 a with a nominal rate of 0.04 ± 0.06 gamma rays per minute. The flux upper limit above 600 GeV (at 99.9 % confidence) was determined to be 5.5 x 10-8 m-2 s-1, corresponding to 8 % of the Crab Nebula flux in the same energy range.

Sparse nonlinear discriminants

Kernel-Functions, Machine Learning, Least Squares, Speech Recognition, Classification, Regression

Discriminative classifiers for speaker recognition

Speaker Recognition, Speaker Verification, Sparse Kernel Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine

Temperaturüberwachung und Steuerung eines Heizund Kühlsystems mittels Daten-Austauschs über das GSM-Netz

In der heutigen Zeit wird das Handy immer mehr in verschiedenen Bereichen benutzt. Und die älteren Flüssigkeitsthermometer werden wegen ihrer Ungenauigkeit, Zerbrechlichkeit und Gefahr durch austretende Quecksilberdämpfe den Ansprüchen unserer modernen Technik längst nicht mehr gerecht und finden demzufolge keine Anwendung mehr. Deswegen wird im Rahmen dieser Masterarbeit ein Gerät entwickelt, welches die Temperatur messen und die Daten mit dem vorhandenen GSM-Netz verbinden und anzeigen kann.Ein an ein Mikrocontrollersystem, das Linux basiert arbeitet, angeschlossener Temperatursensor soll zur Überwachung der Umgebungstemperatur dimensioniert und entwickelt werden. Die zu messende Temperatur wird periodisch vom Mikrocontrollersystem aufgenommen und verarbeitet, anschließend auf eine LCD angezeigt. Aufgrund von einstellbaren Rahmenbedingungen werden die Rohdaten oder auch bereits vorverarbeitete Datensätze von diesem System mittels eines GSM-Moduls an ein Auswertesystem verschickt. Das Auswertesystem soll neben der Anzeige der empfangenden Daten in der Lage sein, zu definierende Steuersequenzen an das Mikrocontrollersystem mit angeschlossenem Sensor zu verschicken, und direkten zu steuern.

User-friendly parallel computations with econometric examples

This paper shows how a high level matrix programming language may be used to perform Monte Carlo simulation, bootstrapping, estimation by maximum likelihood and GMM, and kernel regression in parallel on symmetric multiprocessor computers or clusters of workstations. The implementation of parallelization is done in a way such that an investigator may use the programs without any knowledge of parallel programming. A bootable CD that allows rapid creation of a cluster for parallel computing is introduced. Examples show that parallelization can lead to important reductions in computational time. Detailed discussion of how the Monte Carlo problem was parallelized is included as an example for learning to write parallel programs for Octave.

Parametric and semiparametric estimation of sample selection models: an empirical application to the female labour force in Portugal

This comment corrects the errors in the estimation process that appear in Martins (2001). The first error is in the parametric probit estimation, as the previously presented results do not maximize the log-likelihood function. In the global maximum more variables become significant. As for the semiparametric estimation method, the kernel function used in Martins (2001) can take on both positive and negative values, which implies that the participation probability estimates may be outside the interval [0,1]. We have solved the problem by applying local smoothing in the kernel estimation, as suggested by Klein and Spady (1993).

ParallelKnoppix tutorial

This note shows how to set up a Linux cluster for MPI parallel processing using ParallelKnoppix, a bootable CD.