Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a tool to assess parental satisfaction in pediatric intensive care units

Abstract Objective To verify the performance of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a tool to assess parental satisfaction in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Methods The authors conducted an observational cross-sectional multicenter study in the PICUs of 5 hospitals in Brazil. Eligible participants were all parents or legal guardians of PICU-admitted children, aged 18 years or over. The NPS was administered together with the EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care (EMPATHIC-30), used as the gold standard, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. For analysis, the results were dichotomized into values greater than or equal to the median of the tests. The associations between the 2 tools were evaluated and the distribution of their results was compared. Results The parents or legal guardians of 78 PICU-admitted children were interviewed. Of the respondents, 85% were women and 62% were in a private hospital. The median NPS was 10 (IQR, 10-10), and the median EMPATHIC-30 score was 5.7 (IQR, 5.4-5.9). Compared with the gold standard, the NPS had a sensitivity of 100% at all cutoff points, except at cutoff 10, where the sensitivity was slightly lower (97.5%). As for specificity, NPS performance was poorer, with values ranging from 0% (NPS ≥ 5) to 47.4% (NPS = 10). Conclusions NPS proved to be a sensitive tool to assess parental satisfaction, but with poor ability to identify dissatisfied users in the sample.

Analysis of psychological crisis vulnerability among rural college students and its related factors / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand vulnerability to psychological crisis among rural college students and its related factors, so as to provide reference for the prevention or intervention of psychological crisis among rural college students.@*Methods@#A total of 3 560 rural college students from grade one to grade three from five universities were selected using convenient cluster sampling method from January to September 2022 in Nanyang City. General information, vulnerability to psychological crisis, parenting style and Scale of Perceived Social Self efficacy (PSSE) were collected and analyzed through questionnaire.@*Results@#Among the investigated rule college students, the score of psychological crisis vulnerability and spoiling dimension of parenting style were (10.76± 3.46 ) points and (2.68±0.55) points, while the score of trust encouragement dimension of parenting style and PSSE were (2.52± 0.62 ) points and (3.29±0.61) points. Pearson correlation analysis showed that vulnerability to psychological crisis of rural students was positively correlated with spoiling and neglect ( r =0.32, 0.49), and was negatively correlated with trust encouragement, emotional warmth and PSSE ( r =-0.38, -0.53, -0.51)( P <0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that single parent family or other families, poor students, left behind experience, high score of spoiling and high score of neglect revealed high psychological crisis vulnerability ( P <0.05). High score of trust encouragement, high score of emotional warmth and PSSE were associated with low vulnerability to psychological crisis ( P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#Vulnerability to psychological crisis among rural college students is higher, which is related to the family structure, students whether they are poor, leftover experience, parenting style and PSSE. Mental health among rural college students should be promoted by strengthening communication with students parents and cultivating students social self efficacy.

Preliminary application of artificial intelligence in the pathological diagnosis of periapical cysts / 口腔疾病防治

Objective@#To study the effect of artificial intelligence in the pathological diagnosis of periapical cysts and to explore the application of artificial intelligence in the field of oral pathology.@*Methods@#Pathological images of eighty-seven periapical cysts were selected as subjects to read, and a neural network with a U-net structure was constructed. The 87 HE images and labeled images of periapical cysts were divided into a training set (72 images) and a test set (15 images), which were used in the training model and test model, respectively. Finally, the target level index F1 score, pixel level index Dice coefficient and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to evaluate the ability of the U-net model to recognize periapical cyst epithelium.@*Results @# The F1 score of the U-net network model for recognizing periapical cyst epithelium was 0.75, and the Dice index and the areas under the ROC curve were 0.685 and 0.878, respectively.@*Conclusion@#The U-net network model constructed by artificial intelligence has a good segmentation result in identifying periapical cyst epithelium, which can be preliminarily applied in the pathological diagnosis of periapical cysts and is expected to be gradually popularized in clinical practice after further verification with large samples.

Network meta-analysis of five Chinese patent medicines in the treatment of coronary microvascular disease / 国际中医中药杂志

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy rate, vascular endothelial relaxation factor NO and safety of five different Chinese patent medicines combined with western medicine in the treatment of coronary microvascular disease (CMVD).Methods:Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Shexiang Baoxin Pills, Tongxinluo Capsules, Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, Yindan Xinnaotong Soft Capsules, and Xinkeshu Tablets combined with conventional western medicine therapy in the treatment of CMVD were retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Academic Journal Database (Wanfang Data), Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database (Chongqing VIP), China Biomedical Literature Service System (SinoMed), PubMed, Cochrance Library and Embase databases from the establishment of the database to June 2022. The literature was imported and screened by EndNote software, and the risk quality of literature bias was evaluated by Revman 5.4 software. StataSE16 (64-bit) software was used for reticular meta analysis to compare the differences in clinical efficacy and drug safety of five proprietary Chinese medicines combined with western medicine.Results:A total of 24 RCT studies were included, 24 of which were double-arm studies, and five kinds of proprietary Chinese medicine combined with western medicine were compared. The results of reticular meta analysis: in terms of improving the clinical effective rate, the order of the five proprietary Chinese medicine combination groups was as follows: Yindan Xinnaotong Soft Capsules group > Shexiang Baoxin Pills group > Tongxinluo Capsules group > Xinkeshu Tablets group > Compound Danshen Dripping Pills group. In terms of regulating vasodilation factor NO, the order of the four proprietary Chinese medicine combination groups is as follows: Yindan Xinnaotong Soft Capsules group > Compound Danshen Dripping Pills group > Tongxinluo Capsules group > Shexiang Baoxin Pills group. In terms of safety, there were 3 reports of adverse reactions in the research literature of the five proprietary Chinese medicines.Conclusions:The clinical efficacy rate of five kinds of proprietary Chinese medicine combined with western medicine routine regimen is better than that of western medicine routine regimen alone, and the combination group of four kinds of proprietary Chinese medicine is superior to western medicine in regulating vasodilation factor NO, and Yindan Xinnaotong Soft Capsules group is superior in clinical efficacy rate and regulation of vasodilation factor NO. However, the quality and samples of this study are different, and the comparison of the curative effect of the combined group of proprietary Chinese medicine still needs a large sample and high-quality RCT study to demonstrate.

Abnormal changes in gray matter volume and structural covariate network in patients with chronic pontine infarction / 国际脑血管病杂志

Objective:To investigate the changes in gray matter volume (GMV) and abnormalities in structural covariant network (SCN) patterns in patients with chronic pontine infarction (PI).Methods:Patients with unilateral chronic PI (case group) with the first onset admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from October 2014 to June 2021 were prospectively included. At the same time, healthy subjects matched with age, gender and education years (normal control group) were included. High-resolution three-dimensional T 1 structural MRI images and behavioral scores of the subjects were collected. The voxel-based morphometry and two-sample t test were used to explore the differences in GMV between the groups. Using GMV differential brain regions as seed points, SCN was constructed to explore the abnormality of structural covariant patterns in patients with PI. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between GMV in differential brain regions and behavioral scores. Results:A total of 60 patients with PI were enrolled, including 33 left PI and 27 right PI, while 34 healthy controls were also enrolled. Compared with the normal control group, the GMV in bilateral posterior cerebellar lobe decreased significantly in the left PI group, and the GMV in left anterior and posterior cerebellar lobes and the right posterior cerebellar lobe decreased significantly in the right PI group (Gaussian random field correction with voxel level P<0.001 and cluster level P<0.05, cluster voxel >20), and there was a significant correlation between GMV values in the left anterior and posterior cerebellar lobes and the right posterior cerebellar lobe and the motor function score ( P<0.05). In addition, compared with the normal control group, the right PI group had broader covariate brain regions and a significant increase in the number of structural connections between covariate brain regions (family-wise error correction with voxel level P<0.05, cluster voxel >20). Conclusions:The GMV in bilateral posterior cerebellar lobe decreases significantly in patients with chronic PI, and were secondary to broader covariate brain regions and structural connections. This may be the neural mechanism of impaired behavioral function in patients with PI.

Diffusion tensor field estimation based on 3D U-Net and diffusion tensor imaging model constraint / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To propose a diffusion tensor field estimation network based on 3D U-Net and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model constraint (3D DTI-Unet) to accurately estimate DTI quantification parameters from a small number of diffusion-weighted (DW) images with a low signal-to-noise ratio.@*METHODS@#The input of 3D DTI-Unet was noisy diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) data containing one non-DW image and 6 DW images with different diffusion coding directions. The noise-reduced non-DW image and accurate diffusion tensor field were predicted through 3D U-Net. The dMRI data were reconstructed using the DTI model and compared with the true value of dMRI data to optimize the network and ensure the consistency of the dMRI data with the physical model of the diffusion tensor field. We compared 3D DTI-Unet with two DW image denoising algorithms (MP-PCA and GL-HOSVD) to verify the effect of the proposed method.@*RESULTS@#The proposed method was better than MP-PCA and GL-HOSVD in terms of quantitative results and visual evaluation of DW images, diffusion tensor field and DTI quantification parameters.@*CONCLUSION@#The proposed method can obtain accurate DTI quantification parameters from one non-DW image and 6 DW images to reduce image acquisition time and improve the reliability of quantitative diagnosis.

A semi-supervised material quantitative intelligent imaging algorithm for spectral CT based on prior information perception learning / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To propose a semi-supervised material quantitative intelligent imaging algorithm based on prior information perception learning (SLMD-Net) to improve the quality and precision of spectral CT imaging.@*METHODS@#The algorithm includes a supervised and a self- supervised submodule. In the supervised submodule, the mapping relationship between low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) data was constructed through mean square error loss function learning based on a small labeled dataset. In the self- supervised sub-module, an image recovery model was utilized to construct the loss function incorporating the prior information from a large unlabeled low SNR basic material image dataset, and the total variation (TV) model was used to to characterize the prior information of the images. The two submodules were combined to form the SLMD-Net method, and pre-clinical simulation data were used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the traditional model-driven quantitative imaging methods (FBP-DI, PWLS-PCG, and E3DTV), data-driven supervised-learning-based quantitative imaging methods (SUMD-Net and BFCNN), a material quantitative imaging method based on unsupervised learning (UNTV-Net) and semi-supervised learning-based cycle consistent generative adversarial network (Semi-CycleGAN), the proposed SLMD-Net method had better performance in both visual and quantitative assessments. For quantitative imaging of water and bone materials, the SLMD-Net method had the highest PSNR index (31.82 and 29.06), the highest FSIM index (0.95 and 0.90), and the lowest RMSE index (0.03 and 0.02), respectively) and achieved significantly higher image quality scores than the other 7 material decomposition methods (P < 0.05). The material quantitative imaging performance of SLMD-Net was close to that of the supervised network SUMD-Net trained with labeled data with a doubled size.@*CONCLUSIONS@#A small labeled dataset and a large unlabeled low SNR material image dataset can be fully used to suppress noise amplification and artifacts in basic material decomposition in spectral CT and reduce the dependence on labeled data-driven network, which considers more realistic scenario in clinics.

Malaria control knowledge and behaviors and their influencing factors among residents in Banlao Township, Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Objective To investigate the awareness of malaria-related knowledge, the use of mosquito nets and their influencing factors among residents in Banlao Township, Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province.. Methods In August 2020, 19 settlement sites in Banlao Township, Cangyuan County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province were selected as study areas, and permanent residents at ages of 10 years and older were enrolled for a questionnaire survey, including residents’ demographics, family economic status, malaria control knowledge and use of mosquito nets. In addition, the factors affecting the use of mosquito nets in the night prior to the survey were identified using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 320 questionnaires were allocated, and all were recovered (a 100% recovery rate). There were 316 valid questionnaires, with an effective recovery rate of 98.75%. The 316 respondents included 152 men and 164 women and 250 Chinese respondents and 66 foreign respondents. The awareness of clinical syndromes of malaria was significantly higher among Chinese residents (71.60%) than among foreign residents (50.00%) (χ2 = 11.03, P < 0.01), and the proportions of Chinese and foreign residents sleeping under mosquito nets were 46.00% and 69.70% on the night prior to the survey, respectively (χ2 = 11.73, P < 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified ethnicity group and type of residence as factors affecting the use of mosquito nets in the night prior to the survey. Conclusions The awareness of malaria control knowledge, the coverage and the use of mosquito nets were low among residents in Banlao Township, Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province. Targeted health education is recommended to improve the awareness of malaria control knowledge and self-protection ability. In addition, improving the allocation of long-lasting mosquito nets and health education pertaining to their uses and increasing the proportion of using mosquito nets correctly is needed to prevent re-establishment of imported malaria.

Novel Pulmonary Nodule Position Detection Method Based on Multiscale Convolution / 中国医疗器械杂志

OBJECTIVE@#In order to improve the accuracy of the current pulmonary nodule location detection method based on CT images, reduce the problem of missed detection or false detection, and effectively assist imaging doctors in the diagnosis of pulmonary nodules.@*METHODS@#Propose a novel method for detecting the location of pulmonary nodules based on multiscale convolution. First, image preprocessing methods are used to eliminate the noise and artifacts in lung CT images. Second, multiple adjacent single-frame CT images are selected to be concatenate into multi-frame images, and the feature extraction is carried out through the artificial neural network model U-Net improved by multi-scale convolution to enhanced feature extraction capability for pulmonary nodules of different sizes and shapes, so as to improve the accuracy of feature extraction of pulmonary nodules. Finally, using point detection to improve the loss function of U-Net training process, the accuracy of pulmonary nodule location detection is improved.@*RESULTS@#The accuracy of detecting pulmonary nodules equal or larger than 3 mm and smaller than 3 mm are 98.02% and 96.94% respectively.@*CONCLUSIONS@#This method can effectively improve the detection accuracy of pulmonary nodules on CT image sequence, and can better meet the diagnostic needs of pulmonary nodules.

Segmentation of prostate region in magnetic resonance images based on improved V-Net / 生物医学工程学杂志

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is an important tool for prostate cancer diagnosis, and accurate segmentation of MR prostate regions by computer-aided diagnostic techniques is important for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. In this paper, we propose an improved end-to-end three-dimensional image segmentation network using a deep learning approach to the traditional V-Net network (V-Net) network in order to provide more accurate image segmentation results. Firstly, we fused the soft attention mechanism into the traditional V-Net's jump connection, and combined short jump connection and small convolutional kernel to further improve the network segmentation accuracy. Then the prostate region was segmented using the Prostate MR Image Segmentation 2012 (PROMISE 12) challenge dataset, and the model was evaluated using the dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and Hausdorff distance (HD). The DSC and HD values of the segmented model could reach 0.903 and 3.912 mm, respectively. The experimental results show that the algorithm in this paper can provide more accurate three-dimensional segmentation results, which can accurately and efficiently segment prostate MR images and provide a reliable basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Fatores associados à saúde mental de alunos do internato interprofissional de enfrentamento à COVID-19: um estudo transversal / Factors associated with the mental health of students participating in an interprofessional COVID-19 internship: a cross-sectional study

Objetivo: analisar os fatores associados a sintomas ansiosos e depressivos de alunos do internato interprofissional da Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte. Analisou-se também a autopercepção de aprendizagem e satisfação. Método: estudo transversal no qual analisou-se os fatores associados a sintomas ansiosos e depressivos estimados pelo Transtorno de Ansiedade Generalizada (GAD-7) e pelo Questionário de Saúde do Paciente (PHQ-9) em alunos de um internato interprofissional de enfrentamento à COVID-19. Ao final do internato, analisou-se a percepção do alcance dos objetivos de aprendizagem e a experiência do aluno utilizando Net Promoter Score (NPS). Resultado: entre os 92 alunos analisados, 22 (23,9%) apresentaram escores elevados para sintomas ansiosos e 26 (28,3%) para sintomas depressivos. A frequência de sintomas ansiosos foi maior entre alunos de farmácia quando comparados aos de medicina ou enfermagem (42,9%, 28,9%, 9,7%, respectivamente, p=0,035). Sintomas ansiosos foram menos frequentes entre alunos que sempre tiveram acesso a equipamento de proteção individual (EPI) quando comparados aos demais (17,7% vs. 36,7%; p=0,046). Alunos que tiveram sintomas de COVID-19, quando comparados aos demais, apresentaram maior frequência de sintomas ansiosos (44,1% vs. 12,1%; p=0,001) e depressivos (41,2% vs. 20,7%; p=0,035). O atendimento a pacientes com COVID-19 não esteve associado a sintomas depressivos nem ansiosos. Observou-se alto nível de percepção do alcance dos objetivos de aprendizagem, maior entre estudantes de enfermagem. O escore geral do NPS foi de 70, com maior frequência de promotores entre alunos de enfermagem (90%), quando comparados aos de farmácia (67%) e medicina (62%). Conclusão: sintomas ansiosos estiveram associados à categoria profissional, acesso a EPI e história prévia de sintomas de COVID-19.A percepção do alcance de objetivos propostos foi elevada e o escore NPS foi satisfatório, com maior proporção de promotores na enfermagem

Objective: to analyze the factors associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression among interprofessional students at Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte. Self-perception of learning and satisfaction were also analyzed. Methods: cross-sectional study that analyzed the factors associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression estimated by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). At the end of the internship, the perception of achievement of learning objectives and the student's experience were analyzed using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Results: among the 92 students analyzed, 22 (23,9%) had high scores for anxiety symptoms and 26 (28,3%) for depressive symptoms. The frequency of anxious symptoms was higher among pharmacy students when compared to medicine or nursing students (42.9%, 28.9%, 9.7%, respectively, p=0.035). Anxiety symptoms were less frequent among students who always had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) when compared to the others (17.7% vs. 36.7%; p=0.046). Students who had symptoms of Covid-19, when compared to the others, had a higher frequency of anxiety (44.1% vs. 12.1%; p=0.001) and depressive symptoms (41.2% vs. 20.7%; p =0.035). Caring for Covid-19 patients was not associated with depression or anxiety. There was a high level of perception of achievement of learning objectives, higher among nursing students. Overall NPS score was 70, with a higher frequency of promoters among nursing students (90%), when compared to those in pharmacy (67%) or medicine (62%). Conclusion: anxiety symptoms were associated with the professional category, access to PPE, and previous history of Covid-19. The perception of achievement of learning objectives was high and the NPS score was satisfactory, with more promoters among nursing students

Patterns in composition and occurrence of the fish fauna in shallow areas of the São Francisco River mouth / Padrões de composição e ocorrência da ictiofauna em áreas rasas da foz do rio São Francisco

Abstract The construction of dams causes changes in river variables, as a result of direct changes in their hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. One of the most notable changes is the flow regulation, which reduces seasonal events and the hydrostatic pressure exerted by freshwater, increasing the saltwater wedge intrusion into the system. Changing the salinity regime causes modifications in downstream ecosystems as well as in the distribution and composition of the fish fauna. In Brazil, the São Francisco River stands out, which has a system of cascading dams, built between the 70's and 90's. Because of these changes caused in the natural course of the river, this study aimed to analyze the patterns of composition and occurrence of the ichthyofauna at the mouth of the São Francisco River and relate them to the physical and chemical variables of the region. In order to evaluate the patterns of composition and occurrence of the fish fauna at the mouth of the São Francisco River, monthly trawls were conducted along the bank and physical and chemical variables were analyzed in the river channel over a period of one year. The relationship between abundance and species richness with environmental variables was verified using Generalized Linear Models. A total of 101,958 fish belonging to 87 taxa were caught, with emphasis on marine fish, both in number of individuals (99.92%) and in biomass (99.31%). A spatial gradient was detected, in which sites 1 and 2 were under marine influence, sites 3 and 4 represented the transition between the environments and site 5 was under the influence of brackish and freshwater. In general, the effect of the São Francisco River dams on the fish fauna was observed, with a predominance of fauna with more estuarine and less freshwater characteristics.

Resumo A construção de barragens provoca alterações nas variáveis dos rios, em decorrência de mudanças diretas em seus ciclos hidrológicos e biogeoquímicos. Uma das mudanças mais notáveis é a regulação do fluxo, que reduz os eventos sazonais e a pressão hidrostática exercida pela água doce, aumentando a intrusão das cunhas da água salgada no sistema. Mudar o regime de salinidade causa modificações nos ecossistemas a jusante, bem como na distribuição e composição da ictiofauna. No Brasil, destaca-se o Rio São Francisco, que possui um sistema de barragens em cascata, construído entre as décadas de 70 e 90. Por causa dessas alterações causadas no curso natural do rio, o presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar os padrões de composição e ocorrência da ictiofauna da foz do rio São Francisco e relacioná-los com as variáveis físicas e químicas da região. Para avaliar os padrões de composição e ocorrência da ictiofauna foram realizados arrastos mensais ao longo da margem e analisadas as variáveis físicas e químicas no canal do rio ao longo de um ano. A relação entre abundância e riqueza de espécies de peixes com as variáveis ambientais foi verificada por meio de Modelos Lineares Generalizados. Foram capturados 101.958 peixes pertencentes a 87 táxons, com destaque para peixes marinhos, tanto em número de indivíduos (99,92%) quanto em biomassa (99,31%). Um gradiente espacial foi detectado, em que os pontos 1 e 2 estavam sob influência marinha, os pontos 3 e 4 representavam a transição entre os ambientes e o ponto 5 estava sob a influência de água doce e salobra. De maneira geral, foi observado o efeito das barragens do rio São Francisco sobre a ictiofauna, com predomínio de fauna com características mais estuarinas e menos dulcícolas.

Voleibol escolar: caracterização das escolas/municípios participantes dos jogos escolares de Santa Catarina / School volleyball: characterization of the schools/municipalities participating in the Santa Catarina school games

RESUMO O ambiente escolar tem contribuído no processo de desenvolvimento esportivo, especialmente pela oferta diversificada de atividades nas aulas de Educação Física e em projetos extracurriculares voltados às modalidades esportivas. O trabalho realizado com as equipes escolares de voleibol no estado de Santa Catarina tem sido altamente reconhecido ao longo dos anos, porém há poucas evidências sobre as escolas que têm contribuído na formação de jogadores de voleibol no cenário catarinense. Assim, o objetivo do estudo foi caracterizar as escolas participantes dos Jogos Escolares de Santa Catarina (JESC) de voleibol. Realizou-se a análise documental dos boletins dos JESC disponibilizados pela Fundação Catarinense de Esporte (FESPORTE). As evidências revelaram que os estabelecimentos de ensino com maiores participações e conquistas, em ambas as categorias investigadas, são escolas de educação básica da rede estadual, seguidas pelas instituições de ensino da rede privada e, em menor número, por escolas municipais. Enquanto na categoria feminina as escolas estão localizadas em sua grande maioria nas regiões Leste-Norte e Sul, na categoria masculina concentram-se na região Centro-oeste, especialmente em cidades de pequeno e médio porte, com elevado Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH).

ABSTRACT The school environment has contributed to the sports development process, especially due to the diversified offer of activities in Physical Education classes and extracurricular projects focused on sports. The work done with school volleyball teams in the state of Santa Catarina has been highly recognized over the years, but there is little evidence about schools that have contributed to the training of volleyball players in the Santa Catarina scenario. Thus, this study aimed to characterize the schools participating in the Jogos Escolares de Santa Catarina (JESC, Santa Catarina School Games) of volleyball. The documentary analysis of the JESC bulletins provided by the Fundação Catarinense de Esporte (FESPORTE, Santa Catarina Sports Foundation) was carried out. The evidence revealed that the educational establishments with the highest participation and achievements in both categories investigated were basic education schools of the state school system, followed by private educational institutions and, to a lesser extent, municipal schools. While in the women's group, the schools were mostly located in the East-North and South regions, in the men's group, they were concentrated in the Midwest region, especially in small and medium-sized cities with high Human Development Indices (HDIs).

Population size regulation is density-dependent in Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) through an irritability mechanism

BACKGROUND Physical factors can determine the level of triatomine abundance, but do not regulate their population densities, and neither do natural enemies. OBJECTIVES To identify the processes associated with density-dependent triatomine population regulation. METHODS We set-up a laboratory experiment with four interconnected boxes; the central box harbored Rhodnius prolixus bugs and one hamster. Stage 5 and adult densities of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 bugs per hamster, were replicated four times (except the density of 60 bugs). Hamster's irritability and several triatomine responses were measured: feeding, development time and longevity, mortality, fecundity, dispersal, and the net reproductive value (R o ). FINDINGS Density had a statistically significant effect on irritability, but not on the percent of bugs feeding. Density was significant on blood meal size ingested in bugs that did not move between boxes, but not significant when the bugs moved. Density and irritability affected the proportion of stage 5 nymphs molting, and the proportion of adult bugs dying per day and over a three-week period. There was a highly significant effect of density and irritability on R o . MAIN CONCLUSIONS We showed that a density-dependent mechanism, acting through the irritability of the host, seems the most plausible process regulating populations in triatomines.

Intervention effects and mechanism of Toddalia asiatica on cardiovascular damage in rats with collagen-induced arthritis / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE To investigate the intervention effects and potential mechanism of Miao medicine Toddalia asiatica on cardiovascular damage in rats with collagen-induced arthritis （CIA） based on vitamin D （VD） and neutrophil extracellular traps （NETs）. METHODS SD rats were randomly divided into the normal group （9 rats） and the modeling group （61 rats）. CIA model was prepared by multi-point injection of type Ⅱ bovine collagen+Fisher’s incomplete adjuvant； the model rats were randomly divided into the model group， methotrexate group （positive control， 1.5 mg/kg， twice a week）， vitamin D group [pathway validation， 1 000 IU/（kg·d）， once a day]， T. asiatica low-dose， medium-dose and high-dose groups [0.54， 1.08， 2.16 g/（kg·d）， calculated by crude drug， once a day]， with 9 rats in each group； they were given relevant medicine intragastrically for 4 consecutive weeks. Arthritis index scoring was performed after modeling and before administration， and plantar thickness was measured before and after the last administration； the histopathological changes of ankle joint， heart and abdominal aorta were observed in rats； the serum contents of myeloperoxidase （MPO）， interleukin-6 （IL-6） and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25（OH）D3] were detected； the expressions of peptidylarginine deiminase 4 （PAD4）， NETs markers [citrullinated histone H3（CitH3）， MPO]， VD-related indicators [vitamin D receptor （VDR）， 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase （CYP27B1）] and IL-6 were determined in cardiac tissue. RESULTS Compared with the normal group， the plantar thickness of the arthritis index increased significantly in the model group （P＜0.01）. The obvious inflammatory cell infiltration and fibrous tissue hyperplasia were found in the ankle joint， the obvious myocardial fiber （No.2019YFC171250101） vacuoles and thickening of some surrounding blood vessel walls were found in the heart tissue， and the endothelial detachment was found in the abdominal aorta. The contents of MPO and IL-6 in serum increased significantly（P＜0.01），while the level of 25（OH）D3 decreased significantly （P＜0.01）； the protein expressions of PAD4， CitH3， MPO and IL-6 in myocardial tissue up-regulated significantly （P＜0.01）， while protein expression of VDR and CYP27B1 changed to acertain extent without significance （P＞0.05）. Compared with the model group， the pathological changes of ankle joints and cardiac tissue in rats were significantly improved in administration groups， and the above indicators were generally reversed （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. CONCLUSIONS T. asiatica can improve rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and cardiovascular damage by inhibiting the formation of NETs and inflammatory response， the mechanism of which may be associated with the regulation of VD expression.

LAND USE PATTERN AND LAND USE EFFICIENCY OF THE KURNOOL DISTRICT, ANDHRA PRADESH

The Present study aims to discuss the Land use pattern and Land use Efficiency of the Kurnool District. Land Resource are limited, it can be said that non- renewable Resources. The key task is in their rational use, which hangs from their effectiveness. Agricultural land use efficiency is the main factor that has a significant impact on the socio-economic situation both in individual regions and in the country as a whole. Land use data is important in analysis of environmental process and understanding its problems, if the living conditions and standards to be improved or maintained at current level and to avoid the adverse development. The Kurnool district has at typical geographical aspects and climatic variation comparatively from the other districts of Rayalaseema region. The district is rich in regur, ferruginous soils which constitute about 60 and 40 percentages respectively. The crops mainly raised are paddy, jower, Pulses, cotton, Ground nut. The annual average precipitation of the district is 653 mm. Its land use components are Net sown area, forest, current fallows, Land put to the non-agricultural use, Barren & Uncultivable land, other fallow lands, cultivable waste land, Permanent Pasture and other grazing lands, misc. tree crops and groves. The depth to water level ranges from 2.20 to 12.67 m bgl. The Increasing population puts enormous pressure on the land in the district. As a result, the land use pattern of the district keeps on changing. The agricultural lands are being acquired for human settlements and various Developmental activities. The forest land has been increased due enhancement of social forestry. The district is predominantly farmed via Rain fed agriculture. Low rainfall, labour scarcity and lack of irrigation facilities have had its impacts on the land; many areas formerly under cultivation have been transformed in to waste lands and uncultivable lands.

Segmentation of OCT and OCT-A Images using Convolutional Neural Networks / Segmentación de imágenes de OCT y OCT-A por medio de Redes Neuronales Convolucionales

ABSTRACT Segmentation is vital in Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) images. The separation and distinction of the different parts that build the macula simplify the subsequent detection of observable patterns/illnesses in the retina. In this work, we carried out multi-class image segmentation where the best characteristics are highlighted in the appropriate plexuses by comparing different neural network architectures, including U-Net, ResU-Net, and FCN. We focus on two critical zones: retinal vasculature (RV) and foveal avascular zone (FAZ). The precision obtained from the RV and FAZ segmentation over 316 OCT-A images from the OCT-A 500 database at 93.21% and 92.59%, where the FAZ was segmented with an accuracy of 99.83% for binary classification.

RESUMEN La segmentación juega un papel vital en las imágenes de angiografía por tomografía de coherencia óptica (OCT-A), ya que la separación y distinción de las diferentes partes que forman la mácula simplifican la detección posterior de patrones/enfermedades observables en la retina. En este trabajo, llevamos a cabo una segmentación de imágenes multiclase donde se destacan las mejores características en los plexos apropiados al comparar diferentes arquitecturas de redes neuronales, incluidas U-Net, ResU-Net y FCN. Nos centramos en dos zonas críticas: la segmentación de la vasculatura retiniana (RV) y la zona avascular foveal (FAZ). La precisión para RV y FAZ en 316 imágenes OCT-A de la base de datos OCT-A 500 se obtuvo en 93.21 % y 92.59 %. Cuando se segmentó la FAZ en una clasificación binaria, con un 99.83% de precisión.

A Siddha Literature Review on Parallel Analysis of Netriculai Vatam with Frontal Sinusitis

The poetic medical philosophies of Siddha were presented in palm scripts cannot be easily interpreted by common man. According to this system, the disease classification is based on the concepts of Tridosha pathology (Vatham, Pitham and Kabham). The Siddha concept of tri-humoural theory seems poles apart from those of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) when viewed afar. This review article is an attempt to correlate clinically, the symptoms of “Net?ic?laivatam”, a disease given in the Siddha text Y?ki vaittiya cint?ma?i - 800 with that of the common ailment Sinusitis mentioned in contemporary science. Through meticulous interpretation and parallel analysis of the condition it can be concluded that the signs and symptoms of ‘Net?ic?laivatam’ can be correlated well with that of Sinusitis. This parallel analysis would further pave way for better perceptive, diagnosis and management of the disease ‘Net?ic?laivatam’ as mentioned in Siddha literature

A STUDY OF MUTUAL FUND ACCOUNTING IN PERSPECTIVE OF BUILDING NATION

Mutual Fund is a fund establishment in the form of a trust to raise money through the sale of units to the public or a section of the public under one or more schemes for investing in securities, including money market instrument. The investors want to know about the present and past performance of the selected mutual funds. This information must be supported by certi?ed documents. The system of accounting for Mutual Fund is different from conventional system of accounting which is followed in industrial sectors. Hence, only proper accounting for mutual funds can show the real picture of risk and return of a speci?c mutual fund. An investor may compare accounting information relating to a mutual fund with its benchmark return. He can do the comparison with con?dence on the basis of audited report of a particular fund. Moreover proper system of mutual fund accounting leads the fund manager to minimize cost

A Garantia dos Direitos Infantojuvenis a partir da Concepção de Infância e Adolescência / The Guarantee of Children's and Youth Rights from the Conception of Childhood and Adolescence / La Garantia de los Derechos de la Niñez y la Juventude desde la Concepción de la Niñez y la Adolescencia

Este artigo objetiva analisar como a concepção de infância e adolescência adotada pelos atores sociais da Rede de Proteção norteia a atuação na garantia dos direitos das crianças e dos adolescentes. Adota-se, neste artigo, a teoria histórico-cultural de Vygotsky. Participaram 10 atores sociais que fazem parte do Sistema de Garantias de Direitos de uma cidade no Tocantins. Este é um estudo exploratório, em que se optou por uma abordagem qualitativa, utilizando-se da entrevista semiestruturada para coleta de dados. Para análise dos dados, utilizou-se a Análise de Conteúdo Temática de Bardin. Os resultados mostraram que o conceito de infância e adolescência está arraigado a uma concepção naturalizante e de desenvolvimento por etapas. Os sujeitos são tratados de maneira homogênea, desconsiderando-se suas particularidades. Percebe-se que o critério peculiar de sujeito em desenvolvimento é questionado e visto como um erro da lei, e que esta deveria considerar adultos e crianças com as mesmas obrigações e penalizações.

This article aims to analyze how the conception of childhood and adolescence adopted by the social actors of the Protection Network guides the performance in guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents. In this article, Vygotsky's historical-cultural theory is adopted. 10 social actors that are part of the System of Guarantees of Rights of a city in Tocantins participated. This is an exploratory study, in which a qualitative approach was chosen, using semi-structured interviews for data collection. For data analysis, Bardin's Thematic Content Analysis was used. The results showed that the concept of childhood and adolescence is rooted in a naturalizing and developmental conception. The subjects are treated in a homogeneous manner, disregarding their particularities. It is noticed that the peculiar criterion of the developing subject is questioned and seen as an error of the law, and that it should consider adults and children with the same obligations and penalties.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar cómo la concepción de la infancia y la adolescencia adoptada por los actores sociales de la Red de Protección guía el desempeño para garantizar los derechos de los niños, niñas y adolescentes. En este artículo, se adopta la teoría histórico-cultural de Vygotsky. Participaron 10 actores sociales que forman parte del Sistema de Garantías de Derechos de una ciudad en Tocantins. Este es un estudio exploratorio, en el que se eligió un enfoque cualitativo, utilizando entrevistas semiestructuradas para la recopilación de datos. Para el análisis de datos, se utilizó el Análisis de contenido temático de Bardin. Los resultados mostraron que el concepto de infancia y adolescencia tiene sus raíces en un concepto de naturalización y desarrollo en etapas. Los sujetos son tratados de manera homogénea, sin tener en cuenta sus particularidades. Se observa que el criterio peculiar del sujeto en desarrollo es cuestionado y visto como un error de la ley, y que debe considerar a adultos y niños con las mismas obligaciones y sanciones.