Multicenter randomized controlled trial of a home walking intervention after outpatient cardiac rehabilitation on health-related quality of life in women

BACKGROUND: Poor health-related quality of life (HRQL) has been shown to be predictive of adverse outcomes in cardiac patients. As women with coronary heart disease have been shown to have lower HRQL than men with coronary heart disease, women are at greater risk of a poor clinical outcome. This study tested the effect of a 12-week home walking intervention after completion of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (OCR) on HRQL and maintenance of physical activity among women. DESIGN: Multicenter two-group randomized trial. METHODS: After completion of OCR, participants were randomly allocated to the intervention or usual care groups. The outcomes were HRQL (assessed using the MacNew Heart Disease HRQL instrument) and self-reported physical activity (assessed using the Stages of Change model of exercise behavior) at 3, 6, and 12 months after OCR. RESULTS: Seventy-two women were randomized to the intervention and 81 to usual care. Attrition was greater in the treatment group (13 vs. 1%). HRQL scores increased relative to the base level in both arms and were significantly higher in the intervention group at 6 months, but not at 3 or 12 months. Maintenance of physical activity declined over time in both groups, however, this decline was significantly reduced among women in the intervention group. CONCLUSION: HRQL improved in both groups, but seemed to increase earlier among women in the intervention group. As maintenance of physical activity was higher among women in the intervention group, this minimal intervention could be used to facilitate women's progression from supervised to independent exercise.

Point of View: Going Home: Far and Near

Nikky-Guninder K. Singh on going home to Punjab.

Fatores-chave na qualidade de sistemas de home broker : uma análise teórico-empírica

This work has as main objective the development of a key factors¿ model for the quality of Home Broker systems. An explanatory research was performed, based on a quantitative approach. To achieve this goal, some theoretical models of technology acceptance (TAM, TRA, TPB and IDT), reliability and quality of service were reviewed. It was proposed an extended key factors¿ model and developed a questionnaire, which was the research instrument used in this study. The questionnaire was applied over the Internet, from which was obtained a participation of 113 valid respondents, all of them users of Home Broker system. Once performed the data collection, statistical tests were used for the Factorial Analysis in order to achieve a definitive model. The key factors found were Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Subjective Norms, Compatibility, Reliability and Relative Advantage. Some hypotheses from the model were also tested to investigate the relationship between the importance given to the factors and the resulting degree of satisfaction about quality of service. As a result of the study, a key factors¿ model for the quality of Home Broker systems was established, and identified that the factor Compatibility" has more explanatory power than the others."

R&D investment, international trade, and home market and competitiveness efects

We analyze the effects of R&D investment on international trade. The importance of studying this comes from the fact that one of the most important characteristics of modern industrial organization is that firms try to influence market behavior through strategic variables as R&D. Moreover international competition between firms is, more and more, also centered in R&D competition (besides output and price competition). With this in mind, we develop an oligopolist reciprocal-markets model where firms engage in R&D investment to achieve future reductions in marginal costs. We find ‘home market effects’ at the level of R&D investment, i.e.: firms located in countries that host a higher share of skilled-labor perform higher levels of R&D investment. As consequence, firms in these countries are more competitive than firms in other countries, and as such they can penetrate more easily foreign markets. As result of this ‘competitiveness effect’, countries where these firms are located run trade surplus, while countries where firms perform lower levels of R&D investment incur in trade deficits.

Home bias no mercado de capitais brasileiro : um estudo sobre a custódia de investidores em ações

A presente dissertação apresenta uma análise da concentração do portfólio de a-ções de investidores brasileiros nas próprias empresas onde trabalham com o intuito de observar se o Home Bias se aplica à amostra analisada. Nosso estudo foi reali-zado com uma amostra extraída da custódia de 86 clientes de uma corretora de va-lores mobiliários, sendo estes dados reais de mercado. Restringimos a seleção da amostra de forma que metade fosse de clientes que trabalham em empresas de ca-pital aberto e a outra metade não. Foi feita análise cross section de quanto os inves-tidores alocam em ações das empresas para a qual trabalham e verificou-se qual o percentual desta participação em seus portfólios, em comparação a uma amostra de controle de investidores que não trabalham nesta mesma empresa. Além destas a-nálises, separamos a amostra pelo valor total do portfólio e realizamos os mesmos estudos com estes dois grupos diferentes da amostra. Como uma análise de robus-tez, identificamos empresas listadas que não adotam a remuneração com ações como uma sub-amostra do estudo. Como resultado, encontramos evidências de que os funcionários investem significativamente mais (seja em proporção do portfólio ou em valores) em ações das empresas onde trabalham em relação aos demais inves-tidores, evidenciando um viés de familiaridade na tomada de decisão de investimen-tos.

GPON / FTTH: FTTH_fiber to the home

As redes de comunicação de nova geração, onde se incluem as tecnologias de fibra óptica, têm sido uma área na qual tem havido imensa investigação e desenvolvimento. As tecnologias de FTTx, em especial a FTTH, já são uma realidade em milhares de habitações em variadíssimos países. A presente dissertação descreve um estudo da tecnologia GPON - Gigabit Passive Optical Network - nas instalações da EMACOM, Telecomunicações da Madeira, Unipessoal, Lda. Inicialmente são enumerados os requisitos necessários, quer seja por parte dos clientes como dos fornecedores. Em seguida apresenta-se o padrão do ITU-T G.984, contendo as várias camadas, tais como a camada física e a camada de convergência de transmissão, abordando também a estrutura das tramas e as principais características do referido padrão. Depois é dado a conhecer ao leitor os elementos que constituem uma rede GPON, sejam estes equipamentos passivos ou activos. Seguidamente foi descrito o planeamento para o projecto proposto onde foram estudados os vários tipos de arquitectura utilizados pelo FTTH e definiu-se qual seria a melhor opção para a zona urbana considerada. Utilizou-se o ArcMap da ESRI Portugal - Sistemas e Informação Geográfica, S.A, criando uma base de dados e um esquema da própria rede num mapa da freguesia de São Martinho. Utilizou-se o AutoCad, onde foram elaborados vários sinópticos da rede da área escolhida, nos quais englobam a rede de alimentação, e a rede de distribuição. Toda a informação ilustrada nos sinópticos foi colocada numa folha de cálculo de Excel sendo mais rápida a sua pesquisa. Posteriormente, criou-se uma lista de material com as quantidades necessárias a utilizar para a sua implementação. Para verificar a viabilidade do projecto em termos de potência óptica foi efectuado um cálculo do balanço de potência. Assim, é considerada a ligação mais distante para averiguar se existe potência óptica suficiente para cobrir essa ligação. Caso seja viável, então os outros pontos de distribuição ópticos com distâncias inferiores também estarão suficientemente alimentados em termos ópticos. São ainda abordados os vários tipos de perdas nas fibras ópticas, as definições de link power e link loss budgets. Finalmente, foram efectuados testes de simulação com o programa OptiSystem simulando a ligação usada para o cálculo de potência podendo-se assim comparar valores e verificar o desempenho do sistema através do diagrama de olho obtido.

Low cost non-intrusive home energy monitoring

This thesis presents a low cost non-intrusive home energy monitor built on top of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) concepts and techniques. NILM solutions are already considered low cost alternatives to the big majority of existing commercial energy monitors but the goal here is to make its cost even lower by using a mini netbook as a whole in one solution. The mini netbook is installed in the homes main circuit breaker and computes power consumption by reading current and voltage from the built-in sound card. At the same time, feedback to the users is provided using the 11’’ LCD screen as well as other built-in I/O modules. Our meter is also capable of detecting changes in power and tries to find out which appliance lead to that change and it is being used as part of an eco-feedback platform that was build to study the long terms of energy eco-feedback in individuals. In this thesis the steps that were taken to come up with such a system are presented, from the basics of AC power measurements to the implementation of an event detector and classifier that was used to disaggregate the power load. In the last chapter results from some validation tests that have been performed are presented in order to validate the experiment. It is believed that such a system will not only be important as an energy monitor, but also as an open system than can be easily changed to accommodate and test new or existing nonintrusive load monitoring techniques.

Home range and habitat use by the roadside hawk, Rupornis magnirostris (Gmelin, 1788) (Aves: Falcaniformes) in southeastern Brazil

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