Innovative instrumentation to strong reduction of the noise levels inside newborn incubators used in the neonatal intensive care units.

In spite of the advent of medical technology, modern newborn incubators (NIs) do not protect them from high noise levels in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Allied to bibliographical research carried out measurements were made inside the dome of a NIs and the results show that the sound pressure levels, or noises, are much more intense than the levels stipulated by the norm NBR IEC 60.601.2.19 of ABNT. These measurements revealed that the NIs air convection system motor is the main source of excess noise. In view of the above, a project was developed with the objective of significantly reducing the noise level inside the dome by modifying the air convection system. Thus, a quantitative study was developed, based on the experimental method, where a ventilation mechanism was designed, constructed and tested, which operated from the network of medical compressed air, present in the NICUs and maternity rooms. Respectively, before and after the modification of the air convection system, the data of relative humidity, air velocity, atmospheric pressure, air temperature and noise [(64.9% ur/33.1% ur); (0.27 m s-1/0.28 m s-1); (1.013.98 hPa/1.013, 60 hPa); (36.5 °C/36.3 °C); (45.9 dBA/30.2 dBA], were collected by electronic meters that registered the conditions of the external and internal environment of the dome of an NI with a passive humidification system. The noise measurements in the environment showed that there was a strong reduction of 15.7 dBA, or 34.2% of internal noise, measured after the modification of the ventilation system, showing a significative performance of the modified NI. Therefore, our results may be a good choose to improve NI acoustics to enable optimal care of the neonate in the neonatal intensive care units.

Phase transitions may explain why SARS-CoV-2 spreads so fast and why new variants are spreading faster.

The novel coronavirus SARS CoV-2 responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic and SARS CoV-1 responsible for the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003 share an ancestor yet evolved to have much different transmissibility and global impact 1. A previously developed thermodynamic model of protein conformations hypothesized that SARS CoV-2 is very close to a new thermodynamic critical point, which makes it highly infectious but also easily displaced by a spike-based vaccine because there is a tradeoff between transmissibility and robustness 2. The model identified a small cluster of four key mutations of SARS CoV-2 that predicts much stronger viral attachment and viral spreading compared to SARS CoV-1. Here we apply the model to the SARS-CoV-2 variants Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.617.2)3 and predict, using no free parameters, how the new mutations will not diminish the effectiveness of current spike based vaccines and may even further enhance infectiousness by augmenting the binding ability of the virus.

Detrended Multiple Cross-Correlation Coefficient applied to solar radiation, air temperature and relative humidity.

Due to the importance of generating energy sustainably, with the Sun being a large solar power plant for the Earth, we study the cross-correlations between the main meteorological variables (global solar radiation, air temperature, and relative air humidity) from a global cross-correlation perspective to efficiently capture solar energy. This is done initially between pairs of these variables, with the Detrended Cross-Correlation Coefficient, ρDCCA, and subsequently with the recently developed Multiple Detrended Cross-Correlation Coefficient, [Formula: see text]. We use the hourly data from three meteorological stations of the Brazilian Institute of Meteorology located in the state of Bahia (Brazil). Initially, with the original data, we set up a color map for each variable to show the time dynamics. After, ρDCCA was calculated, thus obtaining a positive value between the global solar radiation and air temperature, and a negative value between the global solar radiation and air relative humidity, for all time scales. Finally, for the first time, was applied [Formula: see text] to analyze cross-correlations between three meteorological variables at the same time. On taking the global radiation as the dependent variable, and assuming that [Formula: see text] (which varies from 0 to 1) is the ideal value for the capture of solar energy, our analysis finds some patterns (differences) involving these meteorological stations with a high intensity of annual solar radiation.

Más Allá de La Filogenética: Evolución Darwiniana de La Actina / Beyond Phylogenetics: Darwinian Evolution of Actin

Resumen La actina es una proteína que se polimeriza para formar citoesqueletos y cuya función es estabilizar y dirigir el movimiento de las paredes celulares. Es una de las proteínas más estables, habiendo evolucionado poco a partir de algas y levaduras, y muy poco desde los peces. Aquí analizamos la evolución de la actina usando las teorías modernas de las interacciones de conformación proteína-agua, y cómo estas han evolucionado para optimizar las funciones de la proteína. Llegamos a la conclusión de que el fracaso del análisis filogenético para identificar positivamente la evolución darwiniana de las proteínas ha sido causado por las limitaciones técnicas propias del siglo XX. Estas limitaciones pueden ser superadas mediante el escalamiento termodinámico y el promedio modular ambos llevados a niveles técnicos del siglo XXI. Los resultados para la actina son especialmente llamativos y reflejan estructuras duales estables, globulares y polimerizadas.

Abstract Actin polymerizes to form cytoskeletons which stabilize and direct motion of cellular walls. It is one of the most stable proteins, having evolved little from algae and yeast, and very little from fish. Here we analyze actin evolution using modern theories of water-protein shaping interactions, and how these have evolved to optimize protein functions. We conclude that the failure of phylogenetic analysis to identify positive Darwinian evolution has been caused by 20th century technical limitations. These are overcome using 21st century thermodynamic scaling and modular averaging. The results for actin are especially striking, and reflect dual stable structures, globular and polymerized.

Auto-correlation in the motor/imaginary human EEG signals: A vision about the FDFA fluctuations.

In this paper we analyzed, by the FDFA root mean square fluctuation (rms) function, the motor/imaginary human activity produced by a 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG). We utilized the Physionet on-line databank, a publicly available database of human EEG signals, as a standardized reference database for this study. Herein, we report the use of detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) method for EEG analysis. We show that the complex time series of the EEG exhibits characteristic fluctuations depending on the analyzed channel in the scalp-recorded EEG. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, we analyzed four distinct channels represented here by F332, F637 (frontal region of the head) and P349, P654 (parietal region of the head). We verified that the amplitude of the FDFA rms function is greater for the frontal channels than for the parietal. To tabulate this information in a better way, we define and calculate the difference between FDFA (in log scale) for the channels, thus defining a new path for analysis of EEG signals. Finally, related to the studied EEG signals, we obtain the auto-correlation exponent, αDFA by DFA method, that reveals self-affinity at specific time scale. Our results shows that this strategy can be applied to study the human brain activity in EEG processing.

Propagating free-space nonparaxial beams.

We use a method based on the simultaneous combination of the propagation operator and the Fourier transform with arbitrary index in propagating the transverse component of a nonparaxial beam in free space from an arbitrary initial transverse field structure. Being an iterative method, this approach can easily be implemented computationally. As an example of its efficiency, we derive the closed-form nonparaxial corrections to a Bessel-Gaussian beam, showing that our results differ strongly from those reported previously. The validity of our approach is supported by an analysis of the paraxiality estimator recently introduced in the literature.