Efeitos de dois procedimentos educacionais sobre os sintomas musculoesqueléticos em trabalhadores administrativos

Objective: To investigate the effect of applying two educational programs (one using a self-instructional approach and the other using a traditional approach similar to educational workshops), on the perceived frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in 94 office workers in a public company. The participants were divided into three groups through simple randomized sampling with no replacement, The first group (32 employees) underwent a traditional/workshop program, the second (28) used a self-instructional manual and the third (34) was a Control Group. The frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms was measured by means of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, at the beginning of the program and 30 days after its completion. The statistical analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, a nonparametric analysis of variance technique for a repeated measure model in three independent groups and the Goodman test. Results: From the data collected in pre and post-test comparisons, it was observed that the traditional/workshop educational program significantly reduced the frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms over the final seven days. For the self-instructional manual group and control group, no difference was observed in the frequency of musculoskeletal symptoms, Conclusions: It could be concluded that the interventions. particularly the traditional approach using educational workshops, had a positive effect on the individuals' actions. Despite the complexity of some of the preventive measures needed, there was a reduction in musculoskeletal symptoms of the participants during work.

Statistics and kinetics of single-molecule electron transfer dynamics in complex environments: A simulation model study

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise do alinhamento dos membros inferiores em crianças com excesso de peso

O sobrepeso e a obesidade (SO) têm atingido proporções epidêmicas, principalmente, em idade escolar, tornando-se um problema mundial de saúde. Muitas adaptações podem ocorrer na organização postural de crianças com SO, provocando, graves consequências. A avaliação postural pode colaborar para o entendimento destas alterações. O objetivo do presente estudo foi verificar alterações na postura dos membros inferiores de crianças com SO, através de metodologia específica. Vinte e dois indivíduos, sendo distribuídos de acordo com o sexo: 9 do feminino e 13 do masculino, com faixa etária entre 5-9 anos, participaram do estudo. Na avaliação postural, foram utilizados a fotogrametria e o software SAPo. Foram analisados os ângulos articulares dos membros inferiores e a projeção plantar do centro de gravidade. Foi utilizada estatística não-paramétrica descritiva, além dos testes de Kruskal-Wallis e de Mann-Whitney (p<0,05), para comparação entre os sexos. Ambos os sexos apresentaram anteroversão e leve rotação pélvica, à direita para o feminino e à esquerda para o masculino hiperextensão e valgismo de joelhos e valgismo tornozelos. O centro de gravidade apresentou 26,95% de anteriorização. Conclui-se que a avaliação postural nessa população foi congruente aos achados da literatura e a metodologia utilizada possibilitou quantificar os dados para futuras comparações.

Second-order statistics for equal gain and maximal ratio diversity-combining reception

Exact and closed-form expressions for the level crossing rate and average fade duration are presented for equal gain combining and maximal ratio combining schemes, assuming an arbitrary number of independent branches in a Rayleigh environment. The analytical results are thoroughly validated by simulation.

Second-order statistics for diversity-combining, techniques in Nakagami-fading channels

Exact and closed-form expressions for the level crossing rate and average fade duration are presented for the M branch pure selection combining (PSC), equal gain combining (EGC), and maximal ratio combining (MRC) techniques, assuming independent branches in a Nakagami environment. The analytical results are thoroughly validated by reducing the general case to some special cases, for which the solutions are known, and by means of simulation for the more general case. The model developed here is general and can be easily applied to other fading statistics (e.g., Rice).

Long-term effectiveness and treatment timing for bionator therapy

The aim of the present investigation was to provide information about the long-term effects and optimal timing for class-II treatment with the Bionator appliance. Lateral cephalograms of 23 class-II patients treated with the Bionator were analyzed at three time periods: T1, start of treatment; T2, end of Bionator therapy; and T3, long-term observation (after completion of growth). T3 includes a phase with fixed appliances. The treated sample was divided into two groups according to their skeletal maturity as evaluated by the cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method. The early-treated group (13 subjects) initiated treatment before the peak in mandibular growth, which occurred after completion of Bionator therapy. The late-treated group (10 subjects) received Bionator treatment during the peak. The T1-T2, T2-T3, and T1-T3 changes in the treated groups were compared with changes in control groups of untreated class-II subjects by nonparametric statistics (P < .05). The findings of the present study on Bionator therapy followed by fixed appliances indicate that this treatment protocol is more effective and stable when it is performed during the pubertal growth spurt. Optimal timing to start treatment with the Bionator is when a concavity appears at the lower borders of the second and the third cervical vertebrae (CVMS 11). In the long term, the amount of significant supplementary elongation of the mandible in subjects treated during the pubertal peak is 5.1 mm more than in the controls, and it is associated with a backward direction of condylar growth. Significant increments in mandibular ramus height also were recorded.

NUCLEAR DENSITIES AND THE STATISTICS OF NUCLEONIC CONSTITUENTS

In the quark model of the nucleon, the Fermi statistics of the elementary constituents can influence significantly the properties of multinucleon bound systems. In the Skyrme model, on the other hand, the basic quanta are bosons, so that qualitatively different statistics effects can be expected a priori. In order to illustrate this point, we construct schematic one-dimensional quark and soliton models which yield fermionic nucleons with identical baryon densities. We then compare the baryon densities of a two-nucleon bound state in both models. Whereas in the quark model the Pauli principle for quarks leads to a depletion of the density in the central region of the nucleus, the soliton model predicts a slight increase of the density in that region, due to the bosonic statistics of the meson-field quanta.

Tsallis statistics and gradually truncated Levy flight - distribution of an economical index

Tsallis postulated a generalized form for entropy and give rise to a new statistics now known as Tsallis statistics. In the present work, we compare the Tsallis statistics with the gradually truncated Levy flight, and discuss the distribution of an economical index-the Standard and Poor's 500-using the values of standard deviation as calculated by our model. We find that both statistics give almost the same distribution. Thus we feel that gradual truncation of Levy distribution, after certain critical step size for describing complex systems, is a requirement of generalized thermodynamics or similar. The gradually truncated Levy flight is based on physical considerations and bring a better physical picture of the dynamics of the whole system. Tsallis statistics gives a theoretical support. Both statistics together can be utilized for the development of a more exact portfolio theory or to understand better the complexities in human and financial behaviors. A comparison of both statistics is made. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V.

Size limiting in Tsallis statistics

Power law scaling is observed in many physical, biological and socio-economical complex systems and is now considered an important property of these systems. In general, power law exists in the central part of the distribution. It has deviations from power law for very small and very large variable sizes. Tsallis, through non-extensive thermodynamics, explained power law distribution in many cases including deviation from the power law. In case of very large steps, the used the heuristic crossover approach. In the present we present an alternative model in which we consider that the entropy factor 9 decreases with variable size due to the softening of long range interactions or memory. We apply this model for distribution of citation index of scientists and examination scores and are able to explain the distribution for entire variable range. In the present model, we can have very sharp cut-off without interfering with power law in its central part as observed in many cases. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment and statistics of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants: Dam areas versus installed and firm power

The Brazilian relief, predominantly composed by small mountains and plateaus, contributed to formation of rivers with high amount of falls. With exception to North-eastern Brazil, the climate of this country are rainy, which contributes to maintain water flows high. These elements are essential to a high hydroelectric potential, contributing to the choice of hydroelectric power plants as the main technology of electricity generation in Brazil. Though this is a renewable source, whose utilized resource is free, dams must to be established which generates a high environmental and social impact. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact caused by these dams through the use of environmental indexes. These indexes are ratio formed by installed power with dam area of a hydro power plant, and ratio formed by firm power with this dam area. In this study, the greatest media values were found in South, Southeast, and Northeast regions respectively, and the smallest media values were found in North and Mid-West regions, respectively. The greatest encountered media indexes were also found in dams established in the 1950s. In the last six decades, the smallest indexes were registered by darns established in the 1980s. These indexes could be utilized as important instruments for environmental impact assessments, and could enable a dam to be established that depletes an ecosystem as less as possible.

Elicitation of multivariate prior distributions: A nonparametric Bayesian approach

In the context of Bayesian statistical analysis, elicitation is the process of formulating a prior density f(.) about one or more uncertain quantities to represent a person's knowledge and beliefs. Several different methods of eliciting prior distributions for one unknown parameter have been proposed. However, there are relatively few methods for specifying a multivariate prior distribution and most are just applicable to specific classes of problems and/or based on restrictive conditions, such as independence of variables. Besides, many of these procedures require the elicitation of variances and correlations, and sometimes elicitation of hyperparameters which are difficult for experts to specify in practice. Garthwaite et al. (2005) discuss the different methods proposed in the literature and the difficulties of eliciting multivariate prior distributions. We describe a flexible method of eliciting multivariate prior distributions applicable to a wide class of practical problems. Our approach does not assume a parametric form for the unknown prior density f(.), instead we use nonparametric Bayesian inference, modelling f(.) by a Gaussian process prior distribution. The expert is then asked to specify certain summaries of his/her distribution, such as the mean, mode, marginal quantiles and a small number of joint probabilities. The analyst receives that information, treating it as a data set D with which to update his/her prior beliefs to obtain the posterior distribution for f(.). Theoretical properties of joint and marginal priors are derived and numerical illustrations to demonstrate our approach are given. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Near-infrared Raman spectroscopy to detect anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody in blood sera of domestic cats: quantitative analysis based on partial least-squares multivariate statistics

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Statistics on tropical convective storms observed by radar

Convective storm rainfall is of special importance to urban hydrological studies due to its temporal and spatial variability. Although dense networks of recording rain gauges can be employed to characterize such rainfall, very few investigations of this type have been undertaken due to their prohibitive cost. This paper reports some data on characteristics of tropical convective storms obtained from radar at Bauru in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Periods of convective precipitation were identified by exclusion of those related to frontal activity with the help of synoptic maps and the radar screen record. The occurrence and evolution of convective storms were observed in two 28 km × 28 km windows obtaining information on the life history of convective cells and the magnitude of rainfall. Frequency distributions of the time of occurrence of convective rainfall, cell size, area covered, life duration and maximum and average rainfall observed in the experimental areas are presented and discussed.

HPLC determination of hemoglobins to establish reference values with the aid of statistics and informatics

The purpose of the present study was to establish reference values for hemoglobins (Hb) using HPLC, in samples containing normal Hb (AA), sickle cell trait without alpha-thalassemia (AS), sickle cell trait with alpha-thalassemia (ASH), sickle cell anemia (SS), and Hb SC disease (SC). The blood samples were analyzed by electrophoresis, HPLC and molecular procedures. The Hb A2 mean was 4.30 ± 0.44% in AS, 4.18 ± 0.42% in ASH, 3.90 ± 1.14% in SS, and 4.39 ± 0.35% in SC. They were similar, but above the normal range. Between the AS and ASH groups, only the amount of Hb S was higher in the AS group. The Hb S mean in the AS group was 38.54 ± 3.01% and in the ASH it was 36.54 ± 3.76%. In the qualitative analysis, using FastMap, distinct groups were seen: AA and SS located at opposite extremes, AS and ASH with overlapping values and intermediate distribution, SC between heterozygotes and the SS group. Hb S was confirmed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. The Hb values established will be available for use as a reference for the Brazilian population, drawing attention to the increased levels of Hb A2, which should be considered with caution to prevent incorrect diagnoses. ©FUNPEC-RP.