Electrohysterogram signal component cataloging with spectral and time-frequency methods

The Electrohysterogram (EHG) is a new instrument for pregnancy monitoring. It measures the uterine muscle electrical signal, which is closely related with uterine contractions. The EHG is described as a viable alternative and a more precise instrument than the currently most widely used method for the description of uterine contractions: the external tocogram. The EHG has also been indicated as a promising tool in the assessment of preterm delivery risk. This work intends to contribute towards the EHG characterization through the inventory of its components which are: • Contractions; • Labor contractions; • Alvarez waves; • Fetal movements; • Long Duration Low Frequency Waves; The instruments used for cataloging were: Spectral Analysis, parametric and non-parametric, energy estimators, time-frequency methods and the tocogram annotated by expert physicians. The EHG and respective tocograms were obtained from the Icelandic 16-electrode Electrohysterogram Database. 288 components were classified. There is not a component database of this type available for consultation. The spectral analysis module and power estimation was added to Uterine Explorer, an EHG analysis software developed in FCT-UNL. The importance of this component database is related to the need to improve the understanding of the EHG which is a relatively complex signal, as well as contributing towards the detection of preterm birth. Preterm birth accounts for 10% of all births and is one of the most relevant obstetric conditions. Despite the technological and scientific advances in perinatal medicine, in developed countries, prematurity is the major cause of neonatal death. Although various risk factors such as previous preterm births, infection, uterine malformations, multiple gestation and short uterine cervix in second trimester, have been associated with this condition, its etiology remains unknown [1][2][3].

Two decades of tuberculosis in a city in Northeastern Brazil: advances and challenges in time and space

Abstract: INTRODUCTION This study presents two decades of epidemiological data on tuberculosis (TB), in order to understanding the disease profile and its spatiotemporal dynamics. METHODS This descriptive study was performed in the City of Olinda/Pernambuco, Brazil, from 1991-2010, and it analyzed new patients with TB living in the city. We used the χ²-test with a p-value <0.05 to identify differences in trends. Incidence and cluster distribution were identified using spatial scan statistics. RESULTS In total, 6202 new cases were recorded during the two decades. The highest incidence occurred in 1995 (110 cases/100,000 inhabitants), and the lowest occurred in 2009 (65 cases/100,000 inhabitants) (β=-1.44; R²=0.43; p=0.0018). The highest mortality occurred in 1998 (16 deaths/100,000 inhabitants), and the lowest occurred in 2008 (5 deaths/100,000 inhabitants) (β=-0.19; R²=0.17; p=0.07). There was a male predominance (65%), and ages ranged from 20-49 years (65%). There was a substantial increase in the number of patients that were cured after treatment (60% to 67%; p<0.001) as well as those tested for HIV (1.9% to 58.5%; p<0.001). During the first decade, clusters with p-values <0.05 included 29% of the total notified cases, and in the second decade, that percentage was 12%. CONCLUSIONS We observed a decreasing trend in incidence, which was significant, and mortality rates, which was not significant. The increased number of laboratory tests performed reflects advances in surveillance, and a reduction in the proportion of cases in primary clusters suggests, among other things, that the disease is spreading across the region.

Real convergence in per capita output and growth in Eurozone: A time-series approach

The real convergence hypothesis has spurred a myriad of empirical tests and approaches in the economic literature. This Work Project intends to test for real output and growth convergence in all N(N-1)/2 possible pairs of output and output growth gaps of 14 Eurozone countries. This paper follows a time-series approach, as it tests for the presence of unit roots and persistence changes in the above mentioned pairs of output gaps, as well as for the existence of growth convergence with autoregressive models. Overall, significantly greater evidence has been found to support growth convergence rather than output convergence in our sample.

Has the time for renewables finally arrived? – An event study on EPA’s Clean Power Plan

The recent proposals presented by EPA aimed to reduce the dependency of fossil fuels and to lower current emissions levels, hoping to gradually shift electric generation units to renewable energy sources. Actually, the Final Rule Proposal announcement day exhibited a negative Abnormal Return on Fossil Fuels but the following days had positive Abnormal Returns, mostly due to legislative change perceived by financial markets which eased up implementation periods of the proposed measures in the Final Rule when compared to the Draft Rule. Oppositely, Renewables and Solar Portfolios exhibited negative Cumulative Abnormal Returns over the period surrounding the Final Rule.

The determinants of net interest margins & net interest spreads in the Russian & Japanese Commercial Banking sectors

This study presents an empirical investigation of the determinants of net interest margins and spreads in the Russian and Japanese banking sectors with a particular focus on commercial banks. Net interest mar-gins and spreads serve as indicators of financial intermediation efficiency. This paper employed a bank-level unbalanced panel dataset prolonging from 2005 to 2014. My main empirical results show that bank characteristics explain the most of the variation in not only net interest margins but also in spreads. Capi-talization, liquidity risk, inflation, economic growth, private and government debt are important determi-nants of margin in Russia. In Japan to the contrary loan and deposit market concentration along with bank size do predominate. Common significant variables in both countries are the substitution effect, cost effi-ciency and profitability. Turning to net interest spreads, micro- and macro-specific variables are the main significant drivers in Russia. I reach the conclusion that there are no significant determinants of net interest spreads in Japan within the original selection of variables, but operating efficiency and deposits to total funding seem to prevail. In both countries, there are solid differences in the net interest margins as well as spreads once the pre- and the post-crisis periods are considered.

Improving retail banking staff incentive systems

This Work Project seeks to analyze the viability, utility and best way of implementing mechanisms of double accounting and of insertion of low (or null) sales objectives in an incentives program. The main findings are that both processes are possible and to a certain extent advisable, although in very specific ways and with some limitations. Double accounting processes are especially effective between different segments and networks and should have a greater impact in the first evaluation periods of each case and the null objectives, albeit usable, are recommended to be always substituted by positive objectives, even if quite small. Moreover, it is concluded that the formal structure of the incentives program influences significantly these concepts, namely concerning the duration of the evaluation periods and the interaction of the objectives of different entities for both the vertical (hierarchic) and horizontal (individual and collective) levels.

Logoplaste: Conquering the world one bottle at a time

The “Logoplaste: Conquering the world one bottle at a time” case is based on the real story of the Botton family and their journey to build the globally known company Logoplaste. Famous for its “hole in the wall” strategy within the plastics industry, Logoplaste is not only one of the major plastic bottles manufacturers in the world, but also a company which has been proving us that a shared leadership system can be successful within a family business. This case intendeds to demonstrate the dynamics of a family business, illustrating the complexity of the decision making process and how they have successfully mastered dual management in a family firm. Moreover, it also aims to demonstrate that a family firm can be managed in such way that sustainable growth, as a key pillar, can be enabled through a strong focus on internationalization and innovation. A teaching note is available at the end of the case in order to guide students and teachers in their readings. Discussions questions, for debate in class environment, are also provided together with suggested answers drawn together to increase the critical sense and theoretical application of the themes studied in class.

FOOD CONCENTRATION AND TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON LIFE CYCLE CHARACTERISTICS OF TROPICAL CLADOCERA (Daphnia gessneri Herbst, Diaphanosoma sarsi Richard, Moina reticulata (Daday)): I. DEVELOPMENT TIME

The effects of food concentration and temperature on embryonic and postem-bryonic duration of three tropical species, Daphnia gessneri(1.5mm), Diaphanosoma sarsi(1.2mm) and Moina reticulata(0.8mm), were investigated as part of life cycle studies which included growth, body size and reproduction. These are the very first experimental studies undertaken on these species. The long-term growth experiments were performed under controlled laboratory conditions at all combinations of temperature (22"C, 27"C and 32"C) and constant food concentration (0.03, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50 and 1.00 mgC/L) of the unicellular green alga Scenedesmus acutus.Animals were examined twice daily throughout their life cycle from the neonate to third adult instar. In all three species, temperature exerted the most powerful influence on embryonic duration but there was also a smaller food effect. In D. gessneri,postembry-onic durations remained more or less the same at food levels 0.25 mgC/L but were influenced by temperature. At food concentrations of 0.1 mgC/L or lower, postembryonic durations became increasingly prolonged, particularly at high temperatures. This threshold concentration is affected by temperature: in D. gessneri,it was 0.1 mgC/L at 22oC and 27oC but higher at 32oC (between 0.25 and 0.50 mgC/L). At the same temperature of 27oC, the food threshold level varied between species: it was higher (0.25 mgC/L) for D. sarsiand lower (0.05 mgC/L) for M. reticulatacompared with D. gessneri(0.1 mgC/L). In both embryonic and postembryonic durations there is a body size effect as the absolute durations were longest in the largest species and shortest in the smallest species In all three species, prolongation of postembryonic duration at combinations of high temperature and lowered food levels was accompanied by increased number of juvenile instars.

Time-dependent flexural behaviour of cracked steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete panels

In the present work are described and discussed the results of an extensive experimental program that aims to study the long-term behaviour of cracked steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete, SFRSCC, applied in laminar structures. In a first stage, the influence of the initial crack opening level (wcr = 0.3 and 0.5 mm), applied stress level, fibre orientation/dispersion and distance from the casting point, on the flexural creep behaviour of SFRSCC was investigated. Moreover, in order to evaluate the effects of the creep phenomenon on the residual flexural strength, a series of monotonic tests were also executed. It was found that wcr = 0.5 mm series showed a higher creep coefficient comparing to the series with a lower initial crack opening. Furthermore, the creep performance of the SFRSCC was influenced by the orientation of the extracted prismatic specimens regarding the direction of the concrete flow within the cast panel.

Business intelligence in banking: A literature analysis from 2002 to 2013 using Text Mining and latent Dirichlet allocation

telligence applications for the banking industry. Searches were performed in relevant journals resulting in 219 articles published between 2002 and 2013. To analyze such a large number of manuscripts, text mining techniques were used in pursuit for relevant terms on both business intelligence and banking domains. Moreover, the latent Dirichlet allocation modeling was used in or- der to group articles in several relevant topics. The analysis was conducted using a dictionary of terms belonging to both banking and business intelli- gence domains. Such procedure allowed for the identification of relationships between terms and topics grouping articles, enabling to emerge hypotheses regarding research directions. To confirm such hypotheses, relevant articles were collected and scrutinized, allowing to validate the text mining proce- dure. The results show that credit in banking is clearly the main application trend, particularly predicting risk and thus supporting credit approval or de- nial. There is also a relevant interest in bankruptcy and fraud prediction. Customer retention seems to be associated, although weakly, with targeting, justifying bank offers to reduce churn. In addition, a large number of ar- ticles focused more on business intelligence techniques and its applications, using the banking industry just for evaluation, thus, not clearly acclaiming for benefits in the banking business. By identifying these current research topics, this study also highlights opportunities for future research.

Effect of variables on the thickness of an edible coating applied on frozen fish establishment of the concept of safe dipping time

Glazing is a technique used to retard fish deterioration during storage. This work focuses on the study of distinct variables (fish temperature, coating temperature, dipping time) that affect the thickness of edible coatings (water glazing and 1.5% chitosan) applied on frozen fish. Samples of frozen Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) at -15, -20, and -25 °C were either glazed with water at 0.5, 1.5 or 2.5 °C or coated with 1.5% chitosan solution at 2.5, 5 or 8 °C, by dipping during 10 to 60 s. For both water and chitosan coatings, lowering the salmon and coating solution temperatures resulted in an increase of coating thickness. At the same conditions, higher thickness values were obtained when using chitosan (max. thickness of 1.41±0.05 mm) compared to water (max. thickness of 0.84±0.03 mm). Freezing temperature and crystallization heat were found to be lower for 1.5% chitosan solution than for water, thus favoring phase change. Salmon temperature profiles allowed determining, for different dipping conditions, whether the salmon temperature was within food safety standards to prevent the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. The concept of safe dipping time is proposed to define how long a frozen product can be dipped into a solution without the temperature raising to a point where it can constitute a hazard.

Enrollment time as a requirement for biometric hand recognition systems

Biometric systems are increasingly being used as a means for authentication to provide system security in modern technologies. The performance of a biometric system depends on the accuracy, the processing speed, the template size, and the time necessary for enrollment. While much research has focused on the first three factors, enrollment time has not received as much attention. In this work, we present the findings of our research focused upon studying user’s behavior when enrolling in a biometric system. Specifically, we collected information about the user’s availability for enrollment in respect to the hand recognition systems (e.g., hand geometry, palm geometry or any other requiring positioning the hand on an optical scanner). A sample of 19 participants, chosen randomly apart their age, gender, profession and nationality, were used as test subjects in an experiment to study the patience of users enrolling in a biometric hand recognition system.

7to77, A new database querying experience

Nowadays, the vulgarization of information and communication technologies has reached to a level that the majority of people spend a lot of time using software to do regular tasks, ranging from games and ordinary time and weather utilities to some more sophisticated ones, like retail or banking applications. This new way of life is supported by the Internet or by specific applications that changed the image people had about using information and communication technologies. All over the world, the first cycle of studies of educational systems also has been addressed with the justification that this encourages the development of children. Taking this into consideration, we design and develop a visual explorer system for relational databases that can be used by everyone, from “7 to 77”, in an intuitive and easy way, getting immediate results – a new database querying experience. Thus, in this paper we will expose the main characteristics and features of this visual database explorer, showing how it works and how it can be used to execute the most current data manipulation operations over a database.

Comparison of different numerical methods for the solution of the time-fractional reaction-diffusion equation with variable diffusion coefficient

In this work we perform a comparison of two different numerical schemes for the solution of the time-fractional diffusion equation with variable diffusion coefficient and a nonlinear source term. The two methods are the implicit numerical scheme presented in [M.L. Morgado, M. Rebelo, Numerical approximation of distributed order reaction- diffusion equations, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 275 (2015) 216-227] that is adapted to our type of equation, and a colocation method where Chebyshev polynomials are used to reduce the fractional differential equation to a system of ordinary differential equations

Changes in population and land use over time in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This paper draws upon a detailed longitudinal survey of households living on agricultural plots in the northern three provinces of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the principal region of colonization by migrants in Ecuador since the 1970s. Following the discovery of petroleum in 1967 near what has subsequently come to be the provincial capital and largest Amazonian city of Lago Agrio, oil companies built roads to lay pipelines to extract and pump oil across the Andes for export. As a result, for the past 30 years over half of both Ecuador's export earnings and government revenues have come from petroleum extracted from this region. But the roads also facilitated massive spontaneous in-migration of families from origin areas in the Ecuadorian Sierra, characterized by minifundia and rural poverty. This paper is about those migrants and their effects on the Amazonian landscape. We discuss the data collection methodology and summarize key results on settler characteristics and changes in population, land use, land ownership, technology, labor allocation, and living conditions, as well as the relationships between changes in population and changes in land use over time. The population in the study region has been growing rapidly due to both natural population growth (high fertility) and in-migration. This has led to a dramatic process of subdivision and fragmentation of plots in the 1990's, which contrasts with the consolidation of plots that has occurred in most of the mature frontier areas of the Brazilian Amazon. This fragmentation has led to important changes in land tenure and land use, deforestation, cattle raising, labor allocation, and settler welfare.