Understanding political divisiveness using online participation data from the 2022 French and Brazilian presidential elections.

Digital technologies can augment civic participation by facilitating the expression of detailed political preferences. Yet, digital participation efforts often rely on methods optimized for elections involving a few candidates. Here we present data collected in an online experiment where participants built personalized government programmes by combining policies proposed by the candidates of the 2022 French and Brazilian presidential elections. We use this data to explore aggregates complementing those used in social choice theory, finding that a metric of divisiveness, which is uncorrelated with traditional aggregation functions, can identify polarizing proposals. These metrics provide a score for the divisiveness of each proposal that can be estimated in the absence of data on the demographic characteristics of participants and that explains the issues that divide a population. These findings suggest that divisiveness metrics can be useful complements to traditional aggregation functions in direct forms of digital participation.

On usage of artificial intelligence for predicting mortality during and post-pregnancy: a systematic review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Care during pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium are fundamental to avoid pathologies for the mother and her baby. However, health issues can occur during this period, causing misfortunes, such as the death of the fetus or neonate. Predictive models of fetal and infant deaths are important technological tools that can help to reduce mortality indexes. The main goal of this work is to present a systematic review of literature focused on computational models to predict mortality, covering stillbirth, perinatal, neonatal, and infant deaths, highlighting their methodology and the description of the proposed computational models. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of literature, limiting the search to the last 10 years of publications considering the five main scientific databases as source. RESULTS: From 671 works, 18 of them were selected as primary studies for further analysis. We found that most of works are focused on prediction of neonatal deaths, using machine learning models (more specifically Random Forest). The top five most common features used to train models are birth weight, gestational age, sex of the child, Apgar score and mother's age. Having predictive models for preventing mortality during and post-pregnancy not only improve the mother's quality of life, as well as it can be a powerful and low-cost tool to decrease mortality ratios. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this SRL, we can state that scientific efforts have been done in this area, but there are many open research opportunities to be developed by the community.

Alteração da biodistribuição do MDP-99mTc na cintilografia óssea após o uso de pamidronato: relato de caso / MDP-99mTc Biodistribution Alteration on a Bone Scan after Pamidronate Therapy: Case Report / Alteración de la Biodistribución del MDP-99mTc en la Cintilografía Ósea tras el Uso de Pamidronato: Informe de un Caso

O pamidronato dissódico, bifosfonato utilizado no tratamento de diversas condições, como hipercalcemia oncogênica, osteoporose e Doença de Paget, pode alterar a biodistribuição do MDP-99mTc na cintilografia óssea. Relata-se um caso de importante redução da fixação óssea e aumento da captação em partes moles e pulmões em paciente neoplásico com metástases ósseas e hipercalcemia oncogênica tratado recentemente com pamidronato intravenoso. O provável mecanismo responsável pela alteração descrita seria a competição do MDP pelo mesmo sítio de ligação do pamidronato nos cristais de hidroxiapatita. Já o acúmulo do radiotraçador nos pulmões pode ser atribuído à provável formação de microcalcificações decorrente da hipercalcemia apresentada pelo paciente. Vale ressaltar, portanto, a importância do conhecimento dessas possíveis alterações pelos especialistas em medicina nuclear, a fim de se evitar erros diagnósticos.

Disodium pamidronate therapy is often instituted for the treatment of various conditions, such as oncogenic hypercalcemia, osteoporosis and Paget’s disease, and could interfere in the biodistribution of MDP-99mTc on bone scan. The authors report a case of important decrease of bone uptake and increase of soft tissues and lungs uptake in a neoplastic patient presenting oncogenic hypercalcemia, who had just been treated with intravenous pamidronate. The more likely mechanism to be responsible for these alterations is the competition of MDP for the same binding site as the pamidronate in hydroxiapatite crystals. Increased lung uptake probably resulted from microcalcifications caused by hypercalcemia presented by the patient. Nuclear medicine physicians should, therefore, be aware of this potential pitfall in order to avoid misdiagnosis.

El pamidronato disódico, bifosfonato utilizado en el tratamiento de varias condiciones, como la hipercalcemia oncogénica, la osteoporosis y la enfermedad de Paget, puede alterar la biodistribución del MDP-99mTc en la cintolografía ósea. Se relata un caso de una importante reducción de fijación ósea y aumento de la captación en partes blandas y pulmones, en paciente neoplásico con metástasis óseas e hipercalcemia oncogénica tratados recientemente con pamidronato intravenoso. El probable mecanismo responsable por la alteración descrita sería la competencia del MDP para el mismo sitio de unión del pamidronato en los cristales de hidroxiapatita. Entretanto, la acumulación del radiotrazador en los pulmones puede atribuirse a la probable formación de microcalcificaciones, como consecuencia de la hipercalcemia manifestada por el paciente. Por lo tanto, vale resaltar la importancia del conocimiento de esas posibles alteraciones por los especialistas en medicina nuclear, a fin de evitar errores diagnósticos.

Radioiodine concentration by the thymus in differentiated thyroid carcinoma: report of five cases.

The radioactive iodine has been used with great value as a diagnostic and therapeutic method in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma previously submitted to total thyroidectomy. False-positive whole-body scans may occur due to misinterpretation of the physiologic distribution of the radioisotope or lack of knowledge on the existence of other pathologies that could eventually present radioiodine uptake. Thymic uptake is an uncommon cause of false-positive whole-body scan, and the mechanism through which it occurs is not completely understood. The present paper reports five cases of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who presented a mediastinum uptake of radioiodine in a whole-body scan during follow-up. The patients had either histological or radiological confirmation of the presence of residual thymus gland. It is very important to know about the possibility of iodine uptake by the thymus in order to avoid unnecessary treatment, such as surgery or radioiodine therapy.

Radioiodine concentration by the thymus in differentiated thyroid carcinoma: report of five cases / Captação do radioiodo pelo timo no carcinoma diferenciado de tireoide: relato de cinco casos

The radioactive iodine has been used with great value as a diagnostic and therapeutic method in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma previously submitted to total thyroidectomy. False-positive whole-body scans may occur due to misinterpretation of the physiologic distribution of the radioisotope or lack of knowledge on the existence of other pathologies that could eventually present radioiodine uptake. Thymic uptake is an uncommon cause of false-positive whole-body scan, and the mechanism through which it occurs is not completely understood. The present paper reports five cases of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who presented a mediastinum uptake of radioiodine in a whole-body scan during follow-up. The patients had either histological or radiological confirmation of the presence of residual thymus gland. It is very important to know about the possibility of iodine uptake by the thymus in order to avoid unnecessary treatment, such as surgery or radioiodine therapy.

O iodo radioativo tem sido utilizado com grande valia como método diagnóstico e terapêutico em pacientes com carcinoma diferenciado de tireoide previamente submetidos à tireoidectomia total. Resultados falso-positivos na pesquisa de corpo inteiro (PCI) podem ocorrer por má interpretação da distribuição fisiológica do radioisótopo ou por não conhecimento da existência de outras patologias que podem eventualmente captar o radioiodo. Captação pelo timo é uma causa incomum de resultado falso-positivo e o mecanismo pelo qual ocorre não é totalmente esclarecido. O presente trabalho relata cinco casos que apresentaram PCI positiva em mediastino durante o seguimento, com comprovação histológica ou tomográfica sugestiva de timo. Ressalta-se a importância do conhecimento dessa possível causa de falso-positivo a fim de se evitar tratamentos desnecessários.