Digital surveillance based on video CODEC System-on-a-Chip (SoC) platforms

Today, most conventional surveillance networks are based on analog system, which has a lot of constraints like manpower and high-bandwidth requirements. It becomes the barrier for today's surveillance network development. This dissertation describes a digital surveillance network architecture based on the H.264 coding/decoding (CODEC) System-on-a-Chip (SoC) platform. The proposed digital surveillance network architecture includes three major layers: software layer, hardware layer, and the network layer. The following outlines the contributions to the proposed digital surveillance network architecture. (1) We implement an object recognition system and an object categorization system on the software layer by applying several Digital Image Processing (DIP) algorithms. (2) For better compression ratio and higher video quality transfer, we implement two new modules on the hardware layer of the H.264 CODEC core, i.e., the background elimination module and the Directional Discrete Cosine Transform (DDCT) module. (3) Furthermore, we introduce a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) sub-system on the main bus of H.264 SoC platforms as the major hardware support system for our software architecture. Thus we combine the software and hardware platforms to be an intelligent surveillance node. Lab results show that the proposed surveillance node can dramatically save the network resources like bandwidth and storage capacity.

Middle -class immigrant identities: Dominican-Americans in South Florida

Identity studies of immigrants are complex because of multiple influences affecting identity reconstruction during immigration and acculturation: nationality, socio-cultural differences, occupations, education, spatial and geographic locations, age, gender, and personal attributes. Most immigrant identity studies deal with lower-income immigrants, who do not have the resources of middle- and upper-middle-class immigrants. South Florida is “home” to many middle-class immigrants, including Dominican-Americans. This dissertation interviewed sixty-six Dominican immigrants in South Florida, in order to determine their reconstructed identities after immigration/resettlement and to discover what influences contributed to these changes in identities. ^ The research design of this dissertation utilized an inductive, qualitative model, with the “grounded theory” method of data collection, categorization, and analysis. Participants were selected by a snowball sampling and interviewed with an informal questionnaire. Results were transcribed, categorized, tabulated, and analyzed for conclusions and theorization on immigrant identity. ^ The dissertation addressed numerous influences relating to identity reconstruction: the differing circumstances of immigration, the unique resources of middle- and higher-class immigrants, the nurturing environment of South Florida for immigrants with education and professional skills, and the boundary protection offered by suburban spaces. The interviewees displayed a wide range of age, length of residence in the United States, reasons for immigration, entry ports, settlement, relocations, occupations, and claimed identities. Identity was cross-tabulated with the various influences, as a means of invalidating certain influences and indicating possible trends. ^ The dissertation concluded that middle-class immigrant identities are diverse and multiple, as are the related influences. None of these immigrants had become totally assimilated, nor have they retained dual, non-overlapping attachments or frames of reference. Instead, many of the immigrants seemed to have developed or negotiated two or more identities, according to need, context, and personal interest. A cosmopolitan community such as South Florida seems to have encouraged such multiplicity of identity. However, rather than forming free-flowing identities, most of these immigrants eventually developed diverse and hybrid identities that have bounded attachments to various networks, groups, and places in South Florida. ^

Participation in a positive youth development program and multi -problem alternative high school students' transformative goals: An investigation of the theoretical and methodological utility and validity of the Transformative Goal Attainment (TGAS)

There is a growing body of literature that provides evidence for the efficacy of positive youth development programs in general and preliminary empirical support for the efficacy of the Changing Lives Program (CLP) in particular. This dissertation sought to extend previous efforts to develop and preliminarily examine the Transformative Goal Attainment Scale (TGAS) as a measure of participant empowerment in the promotion of positive development. Consistent with recent advances in the use of qualitative research methods, this dissertation sought to further investigate the utility of Relational Data Analysis (RDA) for providing categorizations of qualitative open-ended response data. In particular, a qualitative index of Transformative Goals, TG, was developed to complement the previously developed quantitative index of Transformative Goal Attainment (TGA), and RDA procedures for calculating reliability and content validity were refined. Second, as a Stage I pilot/feasibility study this study preliminarily examined the potentially mediating role of empowerment, as indexed by the TGAS, in the promotion of positive development. ^ Fifty-seven participants took part in this study, forty CLP intervention participants and seventeen control condition participants. All 57 participants were administered the study's measures just prior to and just following the fall 2003 semester. This study thus used a short-term longitudinal quasi-experimental research design with a comparison control group. ^ RDA procedures were refined and applied to the categorization of open-ended response data regarding participants' transformative goals (TG) and future possible selves (PSQ-QE). These analyses revealed relatively strong, indirect evidence for the construct validity of the categories as well as their theoretically meaningful structural organization, thereby providing sufficient support for the utility of RDA procedures in the categorization of qualitative open-ended response data. ^ In addition, transformative goals (TG) and future possible selves (PSQ-QE), and the quantitative index of perceived goal attainment (TGA) were evaluated as potential mediators of positive development by testing their relationships to other indices of positive intervention outcome within a four-step method involving both analysis of variance (ANOVA and RMANOVAs) and regression analysis. Though more limited in scope than the efforts at the development and refinement of the measures of these mediators, the results were also promising. ^

Text analytics of social media: Sentiment analysis, event detection and summarization

In the last decade, large numbers of social media services have emerged and been widely used in people's daily life as important information sharing and acquisition tools. With a substantial amount of user-contributed text data on social media, it becomes a necessity to develop methods and tools for text analysis for this emerging data, in order to better utilize it to deliver meaningful information to users. ^ Previous work on text analytics in last several decades is mainly focused on traditional types of text like emails, news and academic literatures, and several critical issues to text data on social media have not been well explored: 1) how to detect sentiment from text on social media; 2) how to make use of social media's real-time nature; 3) how to address information overload for flexible information needs. ^ In this dissertation, we focus on these three problems. First, to detect sentiment of text on social media, we propose a non-negative matrix tri-factorization (tri-NMF) based dual active supervision method to minimize human labeling efforts for the new type of data. Second, to make use of social media's real-time nature, we propose approaches to detect events from text streams on social media. Third, to address information overload for flexible information needs, we propose two summarization framework, dominating set based summarization framework and learning-to-rank based summarization framework. The dominating set based summarization framework can be applied for different types of summarization problems, while the learning-to-rank based summarization framework helps utilize the existing training data to guild the new summarization tasks. In addition, we integrate these techneques in an application study of event summarization for sports games as an example of how to better utilize social media data. ^

A model of school managerial control : the systematic analysis of managerial behaviors, processes, and indicators

The theoretical construct of control has been defined as necessary (Etzioni, 1965), ubiquitous (Vickers, 1967), and on-going (E. Langer, 1983). Empirical measures, however, have not adequately given meaning to this potent construct, especially within complex organizations such as schools. Four stages of theory-development and empirical testing of school building managerial control using principals and teachers working within the nation's fourth largest district are presented in this dissertation as follows: (1) a review and synthesis of social science theories of control across the literatures of organizational theory, political science, sociology, psychology, and philosophy; (2) a systematic analysis of school managerial activities performed at the building level within the context of curricular and instructional tasks; (3) the development of a survey questionnaire to measure school building managerial control; and (4) initial tests of construct validity including inter-item reliability statistics, principal components analyses, and multivariate tests of significance. The social science synthesis provided support of four managerial control processes: standards, information, assessment, and incentives. The systematic analysis of school managerial activities led to further categorization between structural frequency of behaviors and discretionary qualities of behaviors across each of the control processes and the curricular and instructional tasks. Teacher survey responses (N=486) reported a significant difference between these two dimensions of control, structural frequency and discretionary qualities, for standards, information, and assessments, but not for incentives. The descriptive model of school managerial control suggests that (1) teachers perceive structural and discretionary managerial behaviors under information and incentives more clearly than activities representing standards or assessments, (2) standards are primarily structural while assessments are primarily qualitative, (3) teacher satisfaction is most closely related to the equitable distribution of incentives, (4) each of the structural managerial behaviors has a qualitative effect on teachers, and that (5) certain qualities of managerial behaviors are perceived by teachers as distinctly discretionary, apart from school structure. The variables of teacher tenure and school effectiveness reported significant effects on school managerial control processes, while instructional levels (elementary, junior, and senior) and individual school differences were not found to be significant for the construct of school managerial control.

Text Analytics of Social Media: Sentiment Analysis, Event Detection and Summarization

In the last decade, large numbers of social media services have emerged and been widely used in people's daily life as important information sharing and acquisition tools. With a substantial amount of user-contributed text data on social media, it becomes a necessity to develop methods and tools for text analysis for this emerging data, in order to better utilize it to deliver meaningful information to users. Previous work on text analytics in last several decades is mainly focused on traditional types of text like emails, news and academic literatures, and several critical issues to text data on social media have not been well explored: 1) how to detect sentiment from text on social media; 2) how to make use of social media's real-time nature; 3) how to address information overload for flexible information needs. In this dissertation, we focus on these three problems. First, to detect sentiment of text on social media, we propose a non-negative matrix tri-factorization (tri-NMF) based dual active supervision method to minimize human labeling efforts for the new type of data. Second, to make use of social media's real-time nature, we propose approaches to detect events from text streams on social media. Third, to address information overload for flexible information needs, we propose two summarization framework, dominating set based summarization framework and learning-to-rank based summarization framework. The dominating set based summarization framework can be applied for different types of summarization problems, while the learning-to-rank based summarization framework helps utilize the existing training data to guild the new summarization tasks. In addition, we integrate these techneques in an application study of event summarization for sports games as an example of how to better utilize social media data.

A figuratividade nas histórias em quadrinhos: uma análise das construções metafóricas e metonímicas em V de vingança

The object of this study is the construction of metaphor and metonymy in comics. This work is inserted in the field of Embodied Cognitive Linguistics, specifically based on the Neural Theory of Language (FELDMAN, 2006) and, consistent with this theoretical and methodological framework, the notions of categorization (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1999), embodiment (GIBBS, 2005), figurativity (GIBBS, 1994; BERGEN, 2005), and mental simulation (BARSALOU, 1999; FELDMAN, 2006) have also been used. The hypothesis defended is that the construction of figurativity in texts consisting of verbal and nonverbal mechanisms is linked to the activation of neural structures related to our actions and perceptions. Thus, language is considered a cognitive faculty connected to the brain apparatus and to bodily experiences, in such a way that it provides samples of the continuous process of meaning (re)construction performed by the reader, whom (re)defines his or her views about the world as certain neural networks are (or stop being) activated during linguistic processing. The data obtained during the analysys shows that, as regards comics, the act of reading together the graphics and verbal language seems to have an important role in the construction of figurativity, including cases of metaphors which are metonymically motivated. These preliminary conclusions were drawn from the data analysis taken from V de Vingança (MOORE; LLOYD, 2006). The corpus study was guided by the methodology of introspection, i.e., the individual analysis of linguistic aspects as manifested in one's own cognition (TALMY, 2005).

A saúde do trabalhador na atenção básica: concepções e práticas dos enfermeiros

This study aims to analyze concepts and practices developed by nurses in occupational health in primary care, and it is justified by the need to expand knowledge of this thematic area. This is an analytical qualitative study carried out in primary care units of health districts of the city of Natal-RN, in one health unit in each neighborhood. Data collection was held from August to October 2014, through semistructured interviews, in the following order: Selection of respondents and scheduling of interview; interviews and application of data collection instrument in order to trace socio-demographic profile of the target population; transcription of interviews; categorization of information and analysis in light of hermeneutic-dialectic. The concept of Occupational Health reported by subjects investigated, although simplified with respect to specificities of workers, was revealed with a wide dimension, with perspective of workers’ approach in their physical, mental and social context, suggesting a good seizure according to the expanded concept of health. Furthermore, it was possible to affirm the recognition of an incipient performance of primary care nurses on Occupational Health, whose performance was appointed as defective. In general, some specific actions of Occupational Health, carried out in health facilities, were cited. Other activities showed up to be routine, being held by a minority of professionals aware of the importance and need to reach these users, in order to engage them in the routine of the health unit. Most professionals reported not having approached Occupational Health during undergraduate nursing, highlighting a lack in theoretical and practical aspects of the area

A preceptoria na estratégia saúde da família: o olhar dos profissionais de saúde

The proposal of teaching-service integration from work experience brings a challenge to the professionals involved in health services: to combine their healthcare practice to the preparation of new professionals in accordance with the national health model. In Recife, the assistance network is known as school network, since it provides all its health equipment for Higher Education Institutions, in special for professionals who work as preceptors, making this activity an important component of the services network. The objective of the present study was to analyze preceptorship experience herein Multidisciplinary Residences in Health in the look of health professionals. This is a qualitative descriptive study, involving physicians, dentists, and nurses that have worked as preceptors for at least two years in multidisciplinary residency linked to two Higher Education Institutions. A semistructured interview was used as research instrument and data were processed by using the software Alceste 4.9. Results indicated four semantic classes which were divided into two axis. Axis 1, composed of class 4, and Axis 2, composed of classes 3, 2 and 1. Categorization considered the relation between classes. It was observed that in class 4 work overload is a dilemma for professional participation in preceptorship. This is noted by the words manage, time, patient, give, and complicated. However, it is also observed that the preceptorship involves positive learning and teaching actions, reinforced by the words say, explain, and discuss. Class 2 shows the preceptorship as an experience exchange, a positive moment that provides theoretical upgrade to the preceptor, associated to the professional practices performed by the binominal preceptor-student in health services and communities. In this perspective, everyone is benefited since preceptorship is structured according to dynamic aspects of knowledge, experienced in settings permeated by people´s health necessities. In class 3, potentialities of this practice are shown, and personal compromise is the main reason of acting as a preceptor in this network of education/attention, demonstrated in the words reason, formation, to like and professionals. Last, but not the least, class 1 suggests the importance of preceptorship and one of the strategies to create the National Politics of Humanization, from the teachingservice-community integration, observed in the words: arrives, university, fundamental, manner, partnership, service, and student. Besides, it rates perspectives and challenges for the improvement of the preceptorship in health services. Integrating teaching and service can enhance the proposals of changes concerning the healthcare model practiced in services, but this relation is still superficial. The preceptor is an actor in action, playing real life roles, and that is when he becomes essential to seek training with the profile defended in the proposed training of a professional who is capable of learning to learn

A reforma psiquiátrica e a política de saúde mental do Rio Grande do Norte: papéis e funções de profissionais e gestores

This study arose from an interest in knowing the reality of mental health care in Rio Grande do Norte (RN) on the advances and challenges in the intersectoral agreements paths and consolidation of the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS) from the state. Considering problematic and concerns were defined as objectives: Identify the knowledge of managers of Rio Grande do Norte on the National Mental Health Policy (PNSM) in the RN State; Describe the activities developed by health professionals in the individual service offered in the CAPS from RN; Understanding the relationship of managers’ knowledge on national mental health policy in professionals’ practice working in the the CAPS from the countryside. It is a descriptive study with a quantitative and qualitative approach, carried out in 30 CAPS from RN’s countryside, where 183 professionals answered a structured questionnaire with closed questions about the activities they do in individual care; and 19 mental health coordinators of municipalities and the state coordinator of RAPS were interviewed about their knowledge on the Mental Health Policy. Data were collected after approval by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, with the number 508.430 CAAE: 25851913.7.0000.5537 from August through October of 2014 in 26 municipalities with CAPS from the state. Quantitative data were tabulated and analyzed using a descriptive statistics aided by the software Statistical Package for the Social Scienses (SPSS) version 20.0. The qualitative data were prepared in a corpus and analyzed through software Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d’um Ensemble de Segments de Texte (ALCESTE) that allow to perform textual statistical analysis and categorization from their comments, submitted to Bardin content analysis. Five categories were generated approaching the managers’ knowledge, namely: Back to society: leadership and users’ role and autonomy; The gap between policy and practice; Barriers that affect the service; Structuring the Psychosocial Care Network; Multidisciplinary team: attribuitios and activities. The CAPS professionals’ ages ranged from 20 to 58 years, prevailing females, with 76.5% of the total, the majority were social workers (16.8%), psychologists (15.3%), nurses (14.8%) and nursing technicians (14.8%). The results showed precariousness in care associated with physical workload regard to high workload and low wages of the CAPS professionals' and, also, it was possible to observe a large involvement of professionals in care delivery, despite the difficulties encountered in services. It was found little knowledge in managers regarding the National Mental Health Policy having as causes of this reality the poor education and training of these professionals. The responses of professionals working in care reveals strong consistency with what is expected of a psychosocial care service. Points up as a thesis of this study that the psychiatric reform and mental health policy in Rio Grande do Norte is following a structural expansion process, but with precariousness of services from a still unprepared management to act in a psychosocial context.

Acompanhamento do crescimento e desenvolvimento da criança: a participação das mães da área rural

The accompaniment of growth and development is the central thrust of child care in primary health care in order to contribute to the reduction of infant morbidity and mortality and promote healthy development. Despite its importance, the family health unit located in rural Parazinhocounty experiences the problem of frequent absences of children to follow-up consultations. Thus, this study aims to analyze the participation of mothers in the accompaniment of growth and development of children in the Family Health Strategy. This is an exploratory, descriptive study with a qualitative approach with the method action research, developed with mothers who are part of the monitoring of the growth and development of children in the rural area of the municipality of Parazinho/RN from May to October 2014. Data collection was performed using the focus group techniques, participant observation and individual interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis of categorization. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, under the opinion embodied 617,559 and CAAE 28598014.7.0000.5537. In step situation analysis, were conducted two focus groups, attended by a total of 14 mothers of different rural locations. From the speeches, one realizes that they have a satisfactory understanding of the monitoring of the growth and development of the childwas a learning moment. The nurse was mentioned as key professional that actionof accompaniment. The main reason that mothers to abandon consultations is access to health services, due to the distance from their homes to the basic unit, the shortage of public transport for the movement of users and delay between the service and the back home. As a strategy to try to tackle these problems, at the suggestion of their mothers was created Monitoring of Growth and Development Itinerant, where the FHS team moved to rural locations, performing activities related to children's health. Mothers who participated in the action approved the initiative as improving access and care of health needs, despite indicate dissatisfaction as the poor infrastructure and little privacy in consultations. Therefore, it is concluded that, despite the difficulties encountered often for lack of management support and involvement of some professionals, the monitoring of growth and development itinerant proved to be an important tool in solving the problem of access to services oriented to the health of child, in addition to functioning as a space for the realization of health education, becoming, since then, an activity inherent in family health team schedule.

Residência multiprofissional, desafios e compromissos na reorientação da formação para o SUS: um estudo na atenção primária

The Health Multiprofessional Residency Program of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PRMS/UFRN) adopts as guiding keystones the learning process of in-service teaching, the interdisciplinary multiprofessional work and the compliance with the principles and guidelines of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). Although PRMS/UFRN have been idealized with a focus on hospital care, the training process in the insertion of residents in the Primary Health Care (PHC) has an important role because they need to experience all levels of care, taking into account that the educational process through work proposed by the Residence is based on the comprehensiveness of health care. In light of the foregoing, the present research has sought to elucidate the insertion of these residents in PHC services, through a qualitative approach of case study, where data collection was held in two different moments: firstly, a questionnaire was accomplished, through an semi-structured script, with the residents of PRMS/UFRN, Natal Campus; subsequently, the focus group technique was accomplished with a group of nine residents, and data were analyzed from the categorical thematic content analysis. From the process of empirical categorization, categories and subcategories were raised, among which, the positive aspects and potentialities of insertion of residents in PHC. We detected the articulation of actions for promoting, preventing and recovering health; training in comprehensiveness of health care, multiprofessional activities and activities aimed at doing the integration among teaching-service-community. Regarding the difficulties found in this experience, we dealt with the organization and planning of rotation activities, the preceptorship, the process of work found in the Basic Health Units (BHU), in addition to factors external to educational practice, such as the issue of safety within these communities. Accordingly, with this situational diagnosis, we became able to realize that residents have identified the importance of this rotation for their vocational training, since these are inserted in post-graduate programs in hospital care. As an immediate product of this study, we will present a report that will provide a space for discussion and assessment of this rotation by the coordination bodies of PRMS/UFRN, in order to seek organizational and pedagogical adaptations, besides the proposition of qualification courses for the actors involved with this process, aiming the implementation of improvements in the rotation of PHC toward the qualified training of professionals for SUS.

Percepção da equipe de saúde, discentes e usuários sobre a comunicação com indivíduos surdos na atenção primária

The study aimed to identify in the professionals and students of health courses that work in a health Basic Unit in the city of Natal/RN their perceptions of the care of deaf patients, and with the population's needs with hearing loss in relation to health care. This is a cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive study, conducted between April to July 2014, with a population composed of 21 health professionals, 17 students and 8 deaf users. For data collection, we used a structured questionnaire with open and closed questions applied to groups composed of health professionals (doctors, dentists, nurses and health workers) and students of medical schools, nursing, physical education, nutrition and social service. The professionals/students answered a semi-structured questionnaire with open and closed questions concerning the possible difficulties the care of the deaf and hearing impaired. Data collection with deaf users was conducted through filmed interview for the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) could be interpreted as to the Portuguese by the researcher. With the latter it was conducted a survey of their reactions when looking for a care in the health service. Regarding the profile of identification of the subjects, it was analyzed by simple descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies). The open questions were analyzed through the content analysis technique which allowed the categorization process preserving all the points raised in the discussion so that the lines were representative of the whole. When asked about the professionals and students attitude used to communicate with deaf patients possible the following categories emerged: the "writing", the "gestures" and the "third party assistance". With regard of the deaf, when asked about their experiences in seeking care in health, the elucidated categories were: "quality of care to the hearing impaired", "communication with the hearing impaired adequacy" and "dependence on third parties." The closed questions were measured and adapted to the 5 degrees of variation Likert Scale, which comprised three of these issues: degree of difficulty in communication to meet a patient with hearing loss (minimum to great difficulty); feeling of comfort while using sign language (minimum to severe discomfort); and knowledge of the Law 10.436, which provides for the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) (low knowledge to entirely clear). The data collected with professionals and students revealed some misunderstanding and discomfort in health care for deaf patients, reality also evidenced in the opinion of the deaf participants. This study revealed problems in communication, resulting in negative consequences in serving this population. This diagnosis may be relevant to public policy development and curriculum guidelines essential to the training of health professionals, inclusion and improving assistance to deaf.

Construção e validação de instrumento de coleta de dados do casal grávido no âmbito da atenção básica

The research aimed to construct and validate a data collection instrument of pregnant couple as part of primary care. It was considered hypothesis that level of agreement from 70% among participants to validate the expert panel. The document has been based on the Theory of Human Needs by Horta and adjusted by Garcia and Cubas. It is a study of methodological type developed in four stages: identification of empirical indicators to pregnant women through an integrative literature review; evaluation of empirical indicators and their relation to human needs by focus group; structuring of the second version of instrument by categorization of indicators and appearance and content validation of the third version of instrument by judges, by use of Delphi technique. The collection of data was the first stage in months from August to October 2014 in the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health and Scopus, PubMed, Lilacs, CINAHL, Cochrane databases. The remaining steps were carried out from November 2014 to February 2015. For the focus group was counted with participation of six experts through two meetings. As for the judges, it was obtained a population of 63 and final sample of 51 judges divided into 46 basic health units of Municipal City Health Natal/RN, Brazil. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, under Protocol number 876.200. For data analysis of the first stage it was used descriptive statistics and results are presented in tables and charts. At that stage were identified 162 empirical indicators and, when they were related to human needs, 64 by them were on psycobiological, 97 on psychosocial and one (1) on psychospiritual needs. Regarding the second and third stages, data were treated by process of categorizing and analyzing the Content Validity Index. The indicators obtained a 100% validation index. In appearance and content validation phase of instrument non-validated items were excluded and other items obtained index above 70%. Furthermore, it obtained 99% content validity index in the second version and 95.7% in the third version of the instrument as a whole and, therefore, validated tool. This instrument contains Health Institution, pregnant woman and her partner identification data, information on the human needs of the pregnant and items pertaining to systematize the collection of pregnant couple data during prenatal care. By the conclusion of the study, nurse shall have an instrument to collect the data of pregnant couple in primary care innovative by considering psychobiological, psychosocial and psychospiritual pregnant needs and insert health and sociodemographic data of pregnant partner in the context of pregnancy. Also, the document will serve as a tool for teaching and research in obstetrical nursing.

A influência da perda de peso no perfil inflamatório de mulheres com síndrome dos ovários policísticos

The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is considered the most common endocrine disorder in reproductive age women, with a prevalence ranging from 15 to 20%. In addition to hormonal and reproductive changes, it is common in PCOS the presence of risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance (IR), visceral obesity, chronic low-grade inflammation and dyslipidemia. Due to the high frequency of obesity associated with PCOS, weight loss is considered as the first-line treatment for the syndrome by improving metabolic and normalizes serum androgens, restoring reproductive function of these patients. Objectives: To evaluate the inflammatory markers and IR in women with PCOS and healthy ovulatory with different nutritional status and how these parameters are displayed after weight loss through caloric restriction in with Down syndrome. Methods: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were assessed in serum samples from 40 women of childbearing age. The volunteers were divided into four groups: Group I (not eutrophic with PCOS, n = 12); Group II (not eutrophic without PCOS, n = 10), Group III (eutrophic with PCOS, n = 08) and Group IV (eutrophic without PCOS, n = 10). The categorization of groups was performed by body mass index (BMI), according to the World Health Organization (WHO) does not eutrophic, overweight and obesity (BMI> 25 kg / m²) and normal weight (BMI <24.9 kg / m²). IR was determined by HOMA-IR index. In the second phase of the study a controlled dietary intervention was performed and inflammatory parameters were evaluated in 21 overweight and obese women with PCOS, before and after weight loss. All patients received a low-calorie diet with reduction of 500 kcal / day of regular consumption with standard concentrations of macronutrients. Results: Phase 1: PCOS patients showed increased levels of CRP (p <0.01) and HOMAIR (p <0.01). When divided by BMI, both not eutrophic group with PCOS (I) as eutrophic with PCOS (III) showed increased levels of CRP (I = 2.35 ± 0,55mg / L and 2.63 ± III = 0,65mg / L; p <0.01) and HOMA-IR (I = 2.16 ± 2.54 and III = 1.07 ± 0.55; p <0.01). There were no differences in TNF-α and IL-6 between groups. Step 2: After the weight loss of 5% of the initial weight was reduced in all of the components of serum assessed inflammatory profile, PCR (154.75 ± 19:33) vs (78.06 ± 8.9) TNF α (10.89 ± 5.09) vs (6:39 ± 1:41) and IL6 (154.75 ± 19:33) vs (78.06 ± 08.09) (p <0:00) in association with improvement some hormonal parameters evaluated. Conclusion: PCOS contributed to the development of chronic inflammation and changes in glucose metabolism by increasing CRP, insulin and HOMA-IR, independent of nutritional status. The weight loss, caloric restriction has improved the inflammatory condition and hormonal status of the evaluated patients.