Intervenções educativas com usuários de medicamentos como estratégias terapêuticas

A review and analysis of the literature on educative interventions (EI) for medicine users was carried out. For this purpose, databases were searched by employing descriptors related to pharmaceutical care, education and health, covering the period from 1997 to early 2011. A set of 21 articles related to EI with medicine users were selected, 18 (85.7%) of which referred to studies on basic health care. The EI most commonly reported in the articles were: talks, group discussions and educative material. The positive outcomes reported were: improvement in quality of life (better acceptance of the disease), economic advantages (reduction in number of medical consultations) and clinical improvement (risk reduction, prevention of complications).

Structural characteristics of P123-modified supercritical drying and hydrophobic ambient pressure drying aerogels

Supercritical drying (SCD) and hydrophobic ambient pressure drying (APD) aerogels were prepared from hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane in solutions of poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (P123) in the range of composition below the threshold for the ordered mesoporous silica precipitation. APD was carried out after silylation of wet gels with trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) or hexamethyldisilazane (HMDZ). The samples were analyzed by small-angle X-ray scattering and nitrogen adsorption. Wet gels are formed by mass-fractal domains, with fractal dimension close to 2, and larger pores superposing the pores belonging to the fractal structure in case of high P123 concentrations. Aerogels exhibit smaller-sized mass-fractal domains with larger mass-fractal dimension accounting for some porosity elimination on drying. The pore volume of the aerogels increases significantly with the P123 amount and it is even larger in the APD aerogels than in the SCD aerogels. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A rank aggregation framework for video multimodal geocoding

This paper proposes a rank aggregation framework for video multimodal geocoding. Textual and visual descriptions associated with videos are used to define ranked lists. These ranked lists are later combined, and the resulting ranked list is used to define appropriate locations for videos. An architecture that implements the proposed framework is designed. In this architecture, there are specific modules for each modality (e.g, textual and visual) that can be developed and evolved independently. Another component is a data fusion module responsible for combining seamlessly the ranked lists defined for each modality. We have validated the proposed framework in the context of the MediaEval 2012 Placing Task, whose objective is to automatically assign geographical coordinates to videos. Obtained results show how our multimodal approach improves the geocoding results when compared to methods that rely on a single modality (either textual or visual descriptors). We also show that the proposed multimodal approach yields comparable results to the best submissions to the Placing Task in 2012 using no extra information besides the available development/training data. Another contribution of this work is related to the proposal of a new effectiveness evaluation measure. The proposed measure is based on distance scores that summarize how effective a designed/tested approach is, considering its overall result for a test dataset. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Structure and kinetics of formation of APTS/GPTS-derived organic/inorganic hybrids

The structure and the kinetics of formation of APTS/GPTS-derived organic/inorganic hybrids were studied in situ by small-angle-X-ray scattering. The data were interpreted in terms of a process of primary particles formation and growth of mass-fractal clusters. At the very early stage, the population of the nonfractal primary particles (D = 3) increases with time. As the mass-fractal clusters appear (D < 3) as a result of the aggregation process, the radius of gyration, Rg, of the clusters increases on average. At advanced stages of aggregation, the clusters grow in a mechanism in which the number of particles per clusters increases while the number of clusters diminishes with time, in such a way that the correlation volume of the clusters, Vc, fulfills the relationship Vc â̂ R g D, in agreement with a mass-fractal character of the clusters. These results supporting a cluster-cluster aggregation process, together with the typically very low value found for the mass-fractal dimension D, are in favor of a diffusion-controlled cluster aggregation mechanism. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Parâmetros genéticos entre caracteres quantitativos no girassol como critério de seleção para produtividade de aquênios

Two experiments were conducted in southern Brazil in no-tillage system, in order to estimate genetic parameters and the direct and indirect effects of components for achene yield as a selection criterion in sunflower. We analyzed eight sunflower hybrids at two locations, in a randomized complete block design with four replicates, determined through quantitative descriptors: insertion height of the head, and head stem diameter, weight of 1000 achenes, number of achenes per head, mass by achene head and yield achene. Estimates of genetic parameters were based on combined analysis, decomposing interactions in genetic and environmental components. Considering the coefficient of genetic variation, indirect effects of components and heritability, there are higher possibilities for responses to selection in sunflower achenes by descriptors mass and mass of achenes per head, with its indirect association interrelated pathways for the increase in the achenes of yield.

HTS: A new shape descriptor based on Hough Transform

In this paper we propose a novel method for shape analysis called HTS (Hough Transform Statistics), which uses statistics from Hough Transform space in order to characterize the shape of objects in digital images. Experimental results showed that the HTS descriptor is robust and presents better accuracy than some traditional shape description methods. Furthermore, HTS algorithm has linear complexity, which is an important requirement for content based image retrieval from large databases. © 2013 IEEE.

Integrated quality assessment of sediments from harbour areas in Santos-São Vicente Estuarine System, Southern Brazil

Santos-São Vicente Estuarine System is a highly populated coastal zone in Brazil and where it is located the major port of Latin America. Historically, port activities, industrial and domestic effluents discharges have constituted the main sources of contaminants to estuarine system. This study aimed to assess the recent status of sediment quality from 5 zones of Port of Santos by applying a lines-of-evidence approach through integrating results of: (1) acute toxicity of whole sediment and chronic toxicity of liquid phases; (2) grain size, organic matter, organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, linear alkylbenzenes and butyltins; (3) benthic community descriptors. Results revealed a gradient of increasing contamination for metals and organic compounds, alongside with their geochemical carriers. Sediment liquid phases were more toxic compared to whole sediment. Low number of species and individuals indicated the impoverishment of benthic community. The use of site-specific sediment quality guidelines was more appropriate to predict sediment toxicity. The integration of results through Sediment Quality Triad approach and principal component analysis allowed observing the effects of natural stressors and dredging on sediment quality and benthic distribution. Even with recent governmental efforts to control, pollution is still relevant in Port of Santos and a threat to local ecosystems. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Validity and feasibility of qualitative behavior assessment for the evaluation of Nellore cattle temperament

The aims of this study were to assess the validity and the feasibility of the qualitative behavior assessment (QBA) method as indicator of Nellore cattle temperament under field conditions, evaluating its associations with four other traditional methods and weight gain. The temperament and live weight of 2229 Nellore cattle was assessed at approximately 550 days of age. Five measurements of cattle temperament were recorded: flight speed test (FS, in m/s), visual scores of movement in the crush (MOV), crush score (CS), temperament score (TS), and the qualitative behavior assessment method (QBA), by using a list of 12 behavioral based adjectives as descriptors of temperament. Average daily weight gain (ADG) was calculated for each animal. For statistical analysis of QBA data, the Principal Component Analysis was used. A temperament index (TI) was defined for each animal using the scores for the first principal component. Pearson's correlation coefficients were estimated between TI with FS and ADG. A mixed model ANOVA was used to analyze the TI variation as a function of TS, CS, and MOV. The score plot for the first and second principal components was used to classify the cattle in four groups (from very bad to very good temperament). The first principal component explained 49.50% of the variation in the data set, with higher positive loadings for the adjectives 'agitated' and 'active', and higher negative loadings for 'calm' and 'relaxed'. TI was significantly correlated with FS (r=0.49; P<0.01) and ADG (r=-0.10; P<0.01). The means of ADG, FS, and the temperament scores (CS, TS, MOV) differed significantly (P<0.01) among the four groups, from very bad to very good temperament. The QBA method could discriminate different behavioral profiles of Nellore cattle and were in agreement with other traditional methods used as indicators of cattle temperament. Additional studies are needed to assess the inter- and intra-observers reliability and to study its association with physiological parameters. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Dynamical properties for a mixed Fermi accelerator model

The behavior of the decay of velocity in a semi-dissipative one-dimensional Fermi accelerator model is considered. Two different kinds of dissipative forces were considered: (i) F-v and; (ii) F-v2. We prove the decay of velocity is linear for (i) and exponential for (ii). During the decay, the particles move along specific corridors which are constructed by the borders of the stable manifolds of saddle points. These corridors organize themselves in a very complicated way in the phase space leading the basin of attraction of the sinks to be seemingly of fractal type. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automatic segmentation and classification of human intestinal parasites from microscopy images

Human intestinal parasites constitute a problem in most tropical countries, causing death or physical and mental disorders. Their diagnosis usually relies on the visual analysis of microscopy images, with error rates that may range from moderate to high. The problem has been addressed via computational image analysis, but only for a few species and images free of fecal impurities. In routine, fecal impurities are a real challenge for automatic image analysis. We have circumvented this problem by a method that can segment and classify, from bright field microscopy images with fecal impurities, the 15 most common species of protozoan cysts, helminth eggs, and larvae in Brazil. Our approach exploits ellipse matching and image foresting transform for image segmentation, multiple object descriptors and their optimum combination by genetic programming for object representation, and the optimum-path forest classifier for object recognition. The results indicate that our method is a promising approach toward the fully automation of the enteroparasitosis diagnosis. © 2012 IEEE.

Efeitos do treinamento resistido sobre a variabilidade da frequência cardíaca, capacidade funcional e força muscular periférica na DPOC

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Exercício resistido em cardiopatas: revisão sistemática da literatura e análise do comportamento autonômico em recuperação pós-exercício resistido aplicado de forma aguda

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Respiração freno labial em indivíduos com doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica: revisão da literatura e influência sobre a modulação autonômica cardíaca

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Síntese e caracterização de partículas esféricas de poli(álcool vinílico) e poli(acetato vinílico) para utilização em embolização

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Anurofauna em uma área de ecótono entre Cerrado e Floresta Estacional: diversidade, distribuição e a influência de características ambientais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)