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The growing number of vehicles and the evolving behaviour of road users present new and additional challenges to road safety. Study on the variables that influence the frequency of crash occurrences such as road geometry, junction, speed and land use are needed as they have proven effects on the number and severity of crashes. In this paper, we identify and assess the variables, namely road geometry, vehicle speed, traffic volume, land use and junction type, and develop accident frequency prediction models for a main urban transport corridor in São Paulo, Brazil. Crash data was provided by the traffic management company of the city, other datasets were obtained from a mix of primary and secondary sources including roadside cameras, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital mapping tools. The studied road was segmented and the coefficients associated with variables in the segments were obtained using Poisson regression through a stepwise variable selection procedure. Two models with junctions density per type (access/km, T-junction unsignalised/km, T-junction signalised/km and crossroads/km) and junction density per merged type (signalised/km and unsignalised/km) along with land use per type (commercial and residential) are developed. The junction density and land use are found to be significant and positively correlated with crash frequency. The models were evaluated by statistical means for their accuracy of predicting the crashes, and validated with additional information obtained from field observation.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about management and mitigation of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities (LTCF) for older adults in Latin America. OBJECTIVE: To describe how the management of LTCF in Hispanic American countries plan and adapt their routines for coping with COVID-19 and whether they have been able to fulfill recommendations published by the World Health Organization (WHO). METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted by online survey of managers of LTCF located in Hispanic American countries. A 46-item questionnaire (adopting the WHO principles) was sent to participants. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. RESULTS: Twenty-three care home managers replied, responsible for a total of 874 older people (range: 5 - 270). One questionnaire was excluded because of missing responses. Fourteen LTCF (63.60%) were private, for-profit facilities. The rate of compliance with WHO recommendations exceeded 70% for the majority of items. Just over half of the institutions had developed a strategic management plan, or had identified strategies for dealing with deaths of suspected cases. Difficulty acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE) was reported by 59.10% of the LTCF surveyed. The homes' capacity for SARS-Cov-2 testing was limited (36.36% of the institutions did not have any tests). CONCLUSIONS: The rate of compliance with recommendations published by the WHO for dealing with COVID-19 was greater than 70% at the majority of the LTCF surveyed. More than half of the institutions had strategic management plans. Availability of PPE and SARS-Cov-2 testing capacity were very unsatisfactory.

Background: COVID-19 has further burdened the Brazilian healthcare system, especially emergencies. Patients may have delayed seeking care for surgical abdominal pain. Delays in the approach may have impacted clinical evolution and outcomes. This study evaluated appendectomies and their complications performed by the public system during one-year follow-up of COVID-19 in a hospital in southern Brazil. Materials and methods: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, we included adult patients who underwent appendectomy from March 2019 to April 2021 (n = 162). Patients were divided into pre-pandemic (n = 78) and pandemic (n = 84) groups based on the surgery date. The analyzed variables included hospitalization duration, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, surgical approach, histopathological findings, COVID-19 testing, patient outcomes, and 30-day survival rate. Results: The cohorts exhibited similar epidemiology, with the sex ratio and average age being maintained. No statistical difference was found in the 30-day survival rate and clinical outcomes. Of the four patients admitted to the ICU, three belonged to the pandemic cohort and tested negative for COVID-19. Only 47.6 % of the patients in the pandemic cohort underwent COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction examination; one tested positive (2.5 %). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that there was no increased risk for appendectomies during the first wave of the pandemic. Surgeries were safe during this period. Patients continued to access the emergency service despite surgical abdominal pain and restrictive measures imposed by health authorities. The similar results observed across cohorts are attributed to the readiness of the teams and the availability of medical surgical equipment in safe quantities.

Background: The scientific literature has studies that assess the influence of erosive challenges with citric acidic drinks and substances on the adhesive bond strength to enamel and dentin, but does not contain information about the influence of regional components of an acidic diet on this process. Thus, this study evaluated the erosive influence of Amazonian tucupi on enamel and dentin microshear bond strength. Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixty-eight healthy bovine incisors teeth were used, divided into 12 groups (n = 14). For erosive cycling, distilled water (negative control), cola-based soft drink (positive control), or tucupi were used, followed by adhesive strategies of (1) etch-and-rinse (conventional) (Adper™ Single Bond 2) and (2) self-etching (Clearfil SE Bond). All specimens were subjected to erosive cycling for 5 days and, after 24 h, composite resin cylinders were built up for the microshear bond strength test. The data showed normal distribution and were analyzed by two-way ANOVA, followed by the Tukey post and test (P ≤ 0.05). Results: There were no significant differences in enamel (P > 0.05). In dentin, only the groups exposed to cola-based soft drink showed significant differences (P < 0.01). The failure mode showed that Type II (mixed) was predominant (95%). Conclusion: The erosive challenge with tucupi did not influence the bond strength to enamel and dentin, regardless of the adhesive strategy used.

Abstract Background Premenopausal, high-risk, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients are often treated with ovarian suppression in combination with aromatase inhibitors (AI). This combination has important adverse effects, particularly in sexual function, such as vaginal dryness and loss of libido. There is no effective therapy for reduced sexual function in this setting. Our study aimed to determine the efficacy and safety, particularly regarding sexual function, of a low-dose, topical testosterone gel administration. Methods This is a pilot, single-center study, designed to evaluate the efficacy of topical testosterone gel (3 mg/day) in improving sexual function in 29 premenopausal patients on ovarian suppression in combination with an AI. The primary safety endpoint was to assess serum estradiol elevation. The primary efficacy endpoint was sexual function improvement, assessed by the Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire. Results We report the results on 29 patients. Twenty-two patients (75%) completed the 3-month treatment, and seven discontinued treatment before completion, mostly due to logistical difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic. All patients maintained the value of baseline mass spectrometry assay for estradiol of less than 2.7 pg/mL during the undertaken measurements. We observed a significant improvement in Female Sexual Function Index measures over the visits, with an increase from a mean of 11.7 at baseline to 19.1 in the third month (p

Abstract Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations produce a substantial volume of high-dimensional data, and traditional methods for analyzing these data pose significant computational demands. Advances in MD simulation analysis combined with deep learning-based approaches have led to the understanding of specific structural changes observed in MD trajectories, including those induced by mutations. In this study, we model the trajectories resulting from MD simulations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2, specifically the receptor-binding domain (RBD), as interresidue distance maps, and use deep convolutional neural networks to predict the functional impact of point mutations, related to the virus’s infectivity and immunogenicity. Our model was successful in predicting mutant types that increase the affinity of the S protein for human receptors and reduce its immunogenicity, both based on MD trajectories (precision = 0.718; recall = 0.800; $$\hbox {F}_1$$ = 0.757; MCC = 0.488; AUC = 0.800) and their centroids. In an additional analysis, we also obtained a strong positive Pearson’s correlation coefficient equal to 0.776, indicating a significant relationship between the average sigmoid probability for the MD trajectories and binding free energy (BFE) changes. Furthermore, we obtained a coefficient of determination of 0.602. Our 2D-RMSD analysis also corroborated predictions for more infectious and immune-evading mutants and revealed fluctuating regions within the receptor-binding motif (RBM), especially in the $$\beta _{1}^{\prime }/\beta _{2}^{\prime }-C$$ loop. This region presented a significant standard deviation for mutations that enable SARS-CoV-2 to evade the immune response, with RMSD values of 5Å in the simulation. This methodology offers an efficient alternative to identify potential strains of SARS-CoV-2, which may be potentially linked to more infectious and immune-evading mutations. Using clustering and deep learning techniques, our approach leverages information from the ensemble of MD trajectories to recognize a broad spectrum of multiple conformational patterns characteristic of mutant types. This represents a strategic advantage in identifying emerging variants, bypassing the need for long MD simulations. Furthermore, the present work tends to contribute substantially to the field of computational biology and virology, particularly to accelerate the design and optimization of new therapeutic agents and vaccines, offering a proactive stance against the constantly evolving threat of COVID-19 and potential future pandemics.

Abstract Background Laboratory diagnosis of American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) requires a tool amenable to the epidemiological status of ACL in Brazil. Montenegro skin test (MST), an efficient immunological tool used for laboratory diagnosis of ACL, induces delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to the promastigote antigens of Leishmania; however, human immune responses against infection are modulated by the amastigote of the parasite. Leishmania (V.) lainsoni induces strong cellular immunity in humans; therefore, the antigenic reactivity of its axenic amastigote (AMA antigen) to MST was evaluated for the laboratory diagnosis of ACL. Methods Among 70 individuals examined, 60 had a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of ACL; 53 had localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (LCL), and 7 had mucosal leishmaniasis (ML). Patients were treated at the Evandro Chagas Institute’s leishmaniasis clinic, Pará State, Brazil. Ten healthy individuals with no history of ACL (control group) were also examined. Leishmania (V.) braziliensis promastigote antigen (PRO) was used to compare the reactivity with that of AMA antigen. Paired Student’s t-test, kappa agreement, and Spearman test were used to evaluate the reactivity of AMA and PRO. Results The mean reactivity of AMA in ACL patients was 19.4 mm ± 13.3, which was higher (P

The development of autonomous agricultural robots using a global navigation satellite system aided by real-time kinematics and an inertial measurement unit for position and orientation determination must address the accuracy, reliability, and cost of these components. This study aims to develop and evaluate a robotic platform with autonomous navigation using low-cost components. A navigation algorithm was developed based on the kinematics of a differential vehicle, combined with a proportional and integral steering controller that followed a point-to-point route until the desired route was completed. Two route mapping methods were tested. The performance of the platform control algorithm was evaluated by following a predefined route and calculating metrics such as the maximum cross-track error, mean absolute error, standard deviation of the error, and root mean squared error. The strategy of planning routes with closer waypoints reduces cross-track errors. The results showed that when adopting waypoints every 3 m, better performance was obtained compared to waypoints only at the vertices, with maximum cross-track error being 44.4% lower, MAE 64.1% lower, SD 39.4% lower, and RMSE 52.5% lower. This study demonstrates the feasibility of developing autonomous agricultural robots with low-cost components and highlights the importance of careful route planning to optimize navigation accuracy.

RESUMO Neste artigo defendemos a introdução de uma política agrícola mais estável, particularmente em termos de intervenções governamentais no funcionamento dos diversos mercados de produtos agrícolas em comparação com o padrão de tais intervenções no passado recente. Essa maior estabilidade é caracterizada em dois níveis. Primeiro, uma política de preços para as safras nacionais, incluindo estoques reguladores, preços mínimos e preços tetos que indicassem os momentos de aquisição e venda de estoques. Em segundo lugar, para as culturas exportadas, uma nova abordagem para a prática da política comercial, especialmente envolvendo exportações menos sujeitas a restrições governamentais.

RESUMO Neste artigo, analisamos o processo de crescimento da agricultura da região Centro-Oeste do Brasil durante o período 1977/84 em comparação com o das antigas regiões Sul e Sudeste. Foi dada ênfase aos fatores causais da composição das culturas no passado recente, bem como às variáveis econômicas que provavelmente serão importantes no futuro próximo. Nossa conclusão indicou as dificuldades enfrentadas pela produção de alimentos nacionais em relação aos exportáveis e cana-de-açúcar na região Centro-Oeste, principalmente por causa de um padrão desequilibrado de inovações técnicas e uma política cambial muito favorável. Uma política compensatória seria então necessária para alcançar o objetivo de aumentar a produção doméstica de alimentos.

Abstract Long COVID is characterized by persistent that extends symptoms beyond established timeframes. Its varied presentation across different populations and healthcare systems poses significant challenges in understanding its clinical manifestations and implications. In this study, we present a novel application of text mining technique to automatically extract unstructured data from a long COVID survey conducted at a prominent university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Our phonetic text clustering (PTC) method enables the exploration of unstructured Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) data to unify different written forms of similar terms into a single phonemic representation. We used n-gram text analysis to detect compound words and negated terms in Portuguese-BR, focusing on medical conditions and symptoms related to long COVID. By leveraging text mining, we aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of this chronic condition and its implications for healthcare systems globally. The model developed in this study has the potential for scalability and applicability in other healthcare settings, thereby supporting broader research efforts and informing clinical decision-making for long COVID patients.

Abstract The increasing demand for sustainable agricultural practices necessitates innovative solutions for soil fertilization. This study aimed to assess the viability of using limestone mining co-products from the Irati and Corumbataí Formations as multi-nutrient sources for Glycine max cultivation. The experiment utilized a double factorial design (7 × 2) with five replications, randomly arranged and placed in pots within a greenhouse. The factors examined were the type of co-product (sedimentary rocks from the Irati Formation: rhythmite and bituminous shale; and the Corumbataí Formation: clayey siltstone) and the soil type (Haplic Arenosol and Rhodic Ferralsol). Soil ion content was assessed at 21 and 140 days after treatment application. Each pot housed four G. max plants, with leaf harvest occurring after 42 days of growth. Macronutrient content, leaf production, and soil ion availability were determined thereafter. Overall, co-product application led to increased soil pH and availability of essential ions, including K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, P, S-SO4 2−, and Si. At 140 days, rhythmite was notably effective in increasing pH, Ca2+, and Mg2+ in Haplic Arenosol, with respective increases of 22%, 224%, and 696%. Bituminous shale, on the other hand, significantly increased S-SO4 2− content by 67% and 426% in Rhodic Ferralsol and Haplic Arenosol, respectively. Moreover, the application of co-products resulted in enhanced accumulation of K, Ca, Mg, and S in G. max plants, alongside increased leaf production. In conclusion, the utilization of mining co-products positively influenced soil and plant chemical attributes, particularly enhancing leaf production in G. max. These findings highlight the potential of co-products as environmentally friendly solutions for soil fertilization, supporting sustainable agricultural practices. This research highlights a significant step towards sustainable agriculture by recycling mining waste into valuable soil amendments, which can improve crop yields and reduce the environmental impact of both mining and agricultural activities. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Objectives The two oyster species studied hold considerable economic importance for artisanal harvest (Crassostrea rhizophorae) and aquaculture (Crassostrea gasar). Their draft genomes will play an important role in the application of genomic methods such as RNAseq, population-based genomic scans aiming at addressing expression responses to pollution stress, adaptation to salinity and temperature variation, and will also permit investigating the genetic bases and enable marker-assisted selection of economically important traits like shell and mantle coloration and resistance to temperature and disease. Data description The draft assembly size of Crassostrea gasar is 506 Mbp, and of Crassostrea rhizophorae is 584 Mbp with scaffolds N50 of 11,3 Mbp and 4,9 Mbp, respectively. The general masked bases by RepeatMasker in both genomes were highly similar using different datasets. The masked bases varied from 9.41% in C. gasar to 10.05% in C. rhizophorae and 42.85% in C. gasar to 44.44% in C. rhizophorae using Dfam and RepeatModeler datasets, respectively. Functional annotation with eggNog resulted in 34,693 annotated proteins in C. rhizophorae and 26,328 in C. gasar. BUSCO analysis shows that almost 99% of genes (5,295) are complete in relation to the mollusk orthologous genes dataset (mollusca_odb10).

Objetivo. Apresentar a experiência de um serviço de resposta rápida para apoiar a tomada de decisão em saúde. Método São descritos os processos e resultados de um serviço de produção de revisões rápidas e mapas de evidências para apoiar a tomada de decisão no âmbito da Política Nacional de Promoção da Saúde, bem como a percepção dos autores sobre o processo de trabalho. Resultados O serviço de resposta rápida teve início em 2020. Até dezembro de 2023, foram produzidas 54 revisões rápidas e cinco mapas de evidências, abrangendo nove temáticas de Promoção da Saúde. Estes produtos foram desenvolvidos em quatorze etapas por uma equipe composta por coordenador, supervisoras, revisores e bibliotecária. O desenvolvimento das respostas rápidas se configurou um processo de tradução do conhecimento e envolveu a interação contínua entre as equipes demandantes e de produção. O estabelecimento de comunicação efetiva foi um fator crítico para que os produtos fossem entregues em tempo oportuno e alinhados às necessidades dos tomadores de decisão e seus apoiadores. Conclusão Os serviços de resposta rápida podem contribuir para melhorar o uso de evidências na tomada de decisão nas políticas e sistemas de saúde.

Developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly inhibitor remains an essential and challenging goal for corrosion control. Here, different extracts from the same biomass (Juçara - Euterpe edulis) were applied as a new inhibitor for mild steel in different corrosive medium: 1 mol L−1 HCl (pH 0) and simulated CO2-saturated formation water (pH 5). Depending on the extraction process, the anticorrosive capacity of extracts may increase, a fact verified in gravimetric tests, reaching 94.4% maximum inhibition efficiency for the acidic medium (1000 mg L−1 of Juçara pulp in 48 h of immersion) and 86.1% inhibition efficiency for the saline medium (600 mg L−1 of Juçara pulp extract assisted by ultrasound in 24 h of immersion). Gravimetric tests, electrochemical tests, and surface and biochemical characterization analyses were carried out to better understand these extracts' performance. This work provides an interesting application of the same biomass effectively acting in different corrosive medium, depending on the extraction method.

Objective: This study aimed to review literature from the past five years, focusing on the use of educational videos as a guidance tool for parents and guardians of children with lip and palate clefts. Source of data: Conducted between April and July 2022, this integrative literature review was framed around the question: 'What is the evidence regarding the use of videos in health education for parents/guardians of children with cleft lip and palate? PICO strategy was used to develop the research. A literature search was undertaken across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Virtual Health Library databases. Of the eight articles included in this review, four were sourced from the PubMed database, with three published in 2021. Summary of the findings: The findings indicated that YouTube videos were moderately satisfactory and met the needs of parents or legal guardians to a partial extent. The majority of the videos analyzed in this review were characterized by a moderate level of informational content. One study particularly underscored that the content of these videos only partially satisfies the requirements of the parents or legal guardians of the children. Conclusions: Nevertheless, such videos are considered viable alternatives for health education, offering numerous benefits yet facing challenges, primarily due to the scarcity of information on orofacial malformations.

Objective: To analyze the voice of patients with lung diseases, compared with healthy individuals, to detect patterns capable of assessing dyspnea using artificial neural networks (ANNs). Patients and Methods: This research consists of a cross-sectional prospective pilot study performed in a reference tertiary center, which included a group of patients with lung diseases, compared with a group of healthy individuals. Each patient’s voice was recorded in controlled rooms. The following techniques were applied to extract and select signals’ features: statistical analysis, fast Fourier transform, discrete wavelet transform and Mel-Cepstral analysis. In addition, data augmentation was used to avoid overfitting and improve the ANNs accuracy. Results: A total of 195 voices were recorded: 131 from lung disease patients and 64 from healthy individuals, separated according to gender and age. Using data augmentation, 751 additional audio samples were generated: 501 from healthy individuals and 445 from patients with lung disease. Among male participants, 133 samples were related to lung diseases and 197 were related to healthy ones. From them, 264 audios were used for ANNs training, obtaining an accuracy of 89%. In the female group, 312 had lung diseases and 304 were healthy. Among them, 492 audios were used for training, resulting in an accuracy of 87.6%. Conclusion: Spectral analysis techniques applied to voice recordings using ANNs have reported high accuracy in the efficient diagnosis of lung diseases when compared with healthy individuals.

The perspective of telework is reinvigorated during the pandemic and with the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), added to flexibility, it calls for organizational change, especially from the performance of People Management (PM). In this sense, this article proposes to analyze the state of the art in the subject of people management practices in the context of telecommuting. This is a study with descriptive purposes, of a qualitative nature, using bibliometric analyses, to support the systematic review of the literature proposed here. A survey was carried out on the Web of Science database, with no time frame. After the implementation of the protocol, it was decided to use the RStudio and VOSviewer software to perform the bibliometric analyses. Three distinct research clusters were grouped: (1) the relationship between people management practices and new flexible work arrangements; (2) the individual-organization paradox when telecommuting is experienced; and (3) the role of people management practices in the context of telework. It was found that the field of studies on people management practices in the context of telework is marked by the urgency of updating research and proposals that produce transformations and prioritize the reality experienced by teleworkers, organizations, and society. If before the global pandemic crisis, new flexible work arrangements already announced auspicious scenarios, although challenging for management, from now on they have come to establish themselves as effective alternatives for work rearrangement, safeguarding the cultural specificities of each organization.

Abstract Background Patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases (IMRDs) have been prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination to mitigate the infection severity risks. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at a high risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, especially those under immunosuppression or with associated comorbidities. However, few studies have assessed the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine in patients with RA. Objective To evaluate the safety of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with RA. Methods This data are from the study “Safety and Efficacy on COVID-19 Vaccine in Rheumatic Diseases,” a Brazilian multicentric prospective phase IV study to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine in IMRDs in Brazil. Adverse events (AEs) in patients with RA of all centers were assessed after two doses of ChAdOx1 (Oxford/AstraZeneca) or CoronaVac (Sinovac/Butantan). Stratification of postvaccination AEs was performed using a diary, filled out daily and returned at the end of 28 days for each dose. Results A total of 188 patients with RA were include, 90% female. CoronaVac was used in 109 patients and ChAdOx1 in 79. Only mild AEs were observed, mainly after the first dose. The most common AEs after the first dose were pain at the injection (46,7%), headache (39,4%), arthralgia (39,4%), myalgia (30,5%) and fatigue (26,6%), and ChAdOx1 had a higher frequency of pain at the injection (66% vs 32 %, p

This study aimed to do a short and single survey of the diversity of mosquitoes found in tree holes within a fragment of Atlantic Forest in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Larvae were collected through active search, inspecting tree cavities and collecting water and larvae using a homemade siphon on a single day. Eight species of Culicidae were recorded from the surveyed tree holes. Haemagogus leucocelaenus (Dyar & Shannon, 1924) and Haemagogus janthinomys Dyar, 1921 were the most abundant species, accounting for 63.1% of the total specimens collected, followed by Culex (Microculex) sp. (12.20%), Aedes terrens (Walker, 1856) (5.26%) and Aedes fulvithorax (Lutz, 1904) (1.75 %). Although there are other breeding sites in nature (bromeliads and bamboos), tree holes in native trees play a fundamental role in maintaining and conserving the culicid fauna due to their water storage capacity, especially in wild species, such as species of the genus Haemagogus Williston, 1896.