Polymorphisms in the ACE I/D (4646994) and ACE2 G8790A (2285666) in Young Children Living in the Amazon Region and SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 continues to cause significant mortality and morbidity. ACE2 is a key regulator of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Differences in COVID-19 severity are thought to be due to the imbalance of RAAS/ACE mutations.

Chance-constrained stochastic optimal control of epidemic models: A fourth moment method-based reformulation.

This work proposes a methodology for the reformulation of chance-constrained stochastic optimal control problems that ensures reliable uncertainty management of epidemic outbreaks. Specifically, the chance constraints are reformulated in terms of the first four moments of the stochastic state variables through the so-called fourth moment method for reliability. Moreover, a spectral technique is employed to obtain surrogate models of the stochastic state variables, which enables the efficient computation of the required statistics.

G6P[8] Rotavirus a Possessing a Wa-like VP3 Gene from a Child with Acute Gastroenteritis Living in the Northwest Amazon Region.

The introduction of rotavirus A (RVA) vaccines has considerably reduced the RVA-associated mortality among children under 5 years of age worldwide. The ability of RVA to reassort gives rise to different combinations of surface proteins G (glycoprotein, VP7) and P (protease sensitive, VP4) RVA types infecting children. During the epidemiological surveillance of RVA in the Northwest Amazon region, an unusual rotavirus genotype G6P[8] was detected in feces of a 2-year-old child with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) that had been vaccinated with one dose of Rotarix (RV1).

Wind velocity field estimation from aircraft derived data using Gaussian process regression.

Wind velocity field knowledge is crucial for the future air traffic management paradigm and is key in many applications, such as aircraft performance studies. This paper addresses the problem of spatio-temporal windc velocity field estimation. The north and east wind components within a given air space are estimated as a function of time.

Robust optimal control of compartmental models in epidemiology: Application to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this paper, a spectral approach is used to formulate and solve robust optimal control problems for compartmental epidemic models, allowing the uncertainty propagation through the optimal control model to be represented by a polynomial expansion of its stochastic state variables. More specifically, a statistical moment-based polynomial chaos expansion is employed. The spectral expansion of the stochastic state variables allows the computation of their main statistics to be carried out, resulting in a compact and efficient representation of the variability of the optimal control model with respect to its random parameters.

Unravelling the ecological impacts of large-scale offshore wind farms in the Mediterranean Sea.

The need for alternative energy systems like offshore wind power to move towards the Green Deal objectives is undeniable. However, it is also increasingly clear that biodiversity loss and climate change are interconnected issues that must be tackled in unison. In this paper we highlight that offshore wind farms (OWF) in the Mediterranean Sea (MS) pose serious environmental risks to the seabed and the biodiversity of many areas due to the particular ecological and socioeconomic characteristics and vulnerability of this semi-enclosed sea.

Optimal control-based vaccination and testing strategies for COVID-19.

Background And Objective: Assuming the availability of a limited amount of effective COVID-19 rapid tests, the effects of various vaccination strategies on SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission are compared for different vaccination scenarios characterized by distinct limitations associated with vaccine supply and administration.

Methods: The vaccination strategies are defined by solving optimal control problems of a compartmental epidemic model in which the daily vaccination rate and the daily testing rate for the identification and isolation of asymptomatic subjects are the control variables. Different kinds of algebraic constraints are considered, representing different vaccination scenarios in which the total amount of vaccines available during the time period under consideration is limited or the number of daily available vaccines is limited.

Molecular Epidemiology of Sapovirus in Children Living in the Northwest Amazon Region.

Sapovirus is an important etiological agent of acute gastroenteritis (AGE), mainly in children under 5 years old living in lower-income communities. Eighteen identified sapovirus genotypes have been observed to infect humans. The aim of this study was to identify sapovirus genotypes circulating in the Amazon region.

Epidemiology of enteric virus infections in children living in the Amazon region.

Objectives: To verify the frequency of viruses causing acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in association with the histo-blood group antigen (HBGA) and Rotarix™ vaccination coverage in children from the Amazon region.

Design: Fecal and saliva samples were collected from children with AGE (n = 485) and acute respiratory infection (ARI) (n = 249) clinical symptoms. Rotavirus A (RVA), norovirus, human adenovirus (HAdV), and sapovirus (SaV) were verified in feces by molecular detection.

Uncertainty quantification of a mathematical model of COVID-19 transmission dynamics with mass vaccination strategy.

In this paper, the uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of a mathematical model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission dynamics with mass vaccination strategy has been carried out. More specifically, a compartmental epidemic model has been considered, in which vaccination, social distance measures, and testing of susceptible individuals have been included. Since the application of these mitigation measures entails a degree of uncertainty, the effects of the uncertainty about the application of social distance actions and testing of susceptible individuals on the disease transmission have been quantified, under the assumption of a mass vaccination program deployment.

First report of human astrovirus MLB2 in Brazil detected in feces of children with acute gastroenteritis living in the state of Roraima, Northern Brazil.

Human astrovirus (HAstV) 1-8 and highly divergent HAstVMLB1-3 genotypes have been detected in children both with and without acute gastroenteritis (AGE). One hundred and seventy fecal samples from children (≤5 years old) living in the Amazon region were evaluated for the presence of HAstV1-8, HAstV MLB1-3 and HAstVVA1-3, using an usual RT-PCR protocol and a new protocol with specific primers designed to detect HAstVMLB1-3. HAstVMLB1 and HAstV MLB2, as well as the HAstV3 and 5 genotypes were detected.

Human Bocavirus genotypes 1 and 2 detected in younger Amazonian children with acute gastroenteritis or respiratory infections, respectively.

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the frequency, genotypes, and etiological role of Human Bocavirus (HBoV) in younger Amazonian children with either acute gastroenteritis (AGE) or respiratory infections (ARI). The influence of Rotarix™ vaccination and co-infection status was also investigated.

Design: HBoV quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing was done on both fecal and saliva (1468 samples) from 734 children < 5 months old living in the Amazon (Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela).

Maturation trade-offs in octopus females and their progeny: energy, digestion and defence indicators.

Sexual maturation and reproduction influence the status of a number of physiological processes and consequently the ecology and behaviour of cephalopods. Using as a study model, the present work was focused in the changes in biochemical compound and activity that take place during gonadal maturation of females and its consequences in embryo and hatchlings characteristics. To do that, a total of 31 adult females of were sampled to follow metabolites (ovaries and digestive gland) and digestive enzyme activities (alkaline and acidic proteases) during physiological and functional maturation.

Phenotyping of Lewis and secretor HBGA from saliva and detection of new FUT2 gene SNPs from young children from the Amazon presenting acute gastroenteritis and respiratory infection.

The Histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) are host genetic factors associated with susceptibility to rotavirus (RV) and human norovirus (HuNoV), the major etiological agents of viral acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide. The FUT2 gene expressing the alpha-1, 2-L- fucosyltransferase enzyme is important for gut HBGA expression, and also provides a composition of the phenotypic profile achieved through mutations occurring in populations with different evolutionary histories; as such, it can be considered a genetic population marker. In this study, Lewis and secretor HBGA phenotyping was performed using 352 saliva samples collected from children between three months and five years old born in the Amazon (Brazil, Venezuela and English Guyana) presenting AGE or acute respiratory infection (ARI), the latter considered as control samples.

Quantification of gait parameters with inertial sensors and inverse kinematics.

Unlabelled: Measuring human gait is important in medicine to obtain outcome parameter for therapy, for instance in Parkinson's disease. Recently, small inertial sensors became available which allow for the registration of limb-position outside of the limited space of gait laboratories. The computation of gait parameters based on such recordings has been the subject of many scientific papers.

Digestive Physiology of and : Temporality of Digestion and Assimilation Processes.

Digestive physiology is one of the bottlenecks of octopus aquaculture. Although, there are successful experimentally formulated feeds, knowledge of the digestive physiology of cephalopods is fragmented, and focused mainly on . Considering that the digestive physiology could vary in tropical and sub-tropical species through temperature modulations of the digestive dynamics and nutritional requirements of different organisms, the present review was focused on the digestive physiology timing of and , two promising aquaculture species living in tropical (22-30°C) and sub-tropical (15-24°C) ecosystems, respectively.

Using frequency analysis to improve the precision of human body posture algorithms based on Kalman filters.

With the advent of miniaturized inertial sensors many systems have been developed within the last decade to study and analyze human motion and posture, specially in the medical field. Data measured by the sensors are usually processed by algorithms based on Kalman Filters in order to estimate the orientation of the body parts under study. These filters traditionally include fixed parameters, such as the process and observation noise variances, whose value has large influence in the overall performance.

Towards the automatic scanning of indoors with robots.

This paper is framed in both 3D digitization and 3D data intelligent processing research fields. Our objective is focused on developing a set of techniques for the automatic creation of simple three-dimensional indoor models with mobile robots. The document presents the principal steps of the process, the experimental setup and the results achieved.

Gated Sensor Fusion: A way to Improve the Precision of Ambulatory Human Body Motion Estimation.

Human body motion is usually variable in terms of intensity and, therefore, any Inertial Measurement Unit attached to a subject will measure both low and high angular rate and accelerations. This can be a problem for the accuracy of orientation estimation algorithms based on adaptive filters such as the Kalman filter, since both the variances of the process noise and the measurement noise are set at the beginning of the algorithm and remain constant during its execution. Setting fixed noise parameters burdens the adaptation capability of the filter if the intensity of the motion changes rapidly.

Real time QRS detection based on M-ary likelihood ratio test on the DFT coefficients.

This paper shows an adaptive statistical test for QRS detection of electrocardiography (ECG) signals. The method is based on a M-ary generalized likelihood ratio test (LRT) defined over a multiple observation window in the Fourier domain. The motivations for proposing another detection algorithm based on maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation are found in the high complexity of the signal model proposed in previous approaches which i) makes them computationally unfeasible or not intended for real time applications such as intensive care monitoring and (ii) in which the parameter selection conditions the overall performance.

Acute oral toxicity and anti-inflammatory activity of hydroalcoholic extract from Lampaya medicinalis Phil in rats.

Background: Algesia and inflammation are related with several pathological conditions. It is known that many drugs available for the treatment of these problems cause unwanted side effects. This study was aimed at evaluating acute toxicity and anti-inflammatory activity of Lampaya medicinalis Phil.

Automatic determination of validity of input data used in ellipsoid fitting MARG calibration algorithms.

Ellipsoid fitting algorithms are widely used to calibrate Magnetic Angular Rate and Gravity (MARG) sensors. These algorithms are based on the minimization of an error function that optimizes the parameters of a mathematical sensor model that is subsequently applied to calibrate the raw data. The convergence of this kind of algorithms to a correct solution is very sensitive to input data.

Ambient assisted living devices interoperability based on OSGi and the X73 standard.

The need for interoperability among devices is an issue of vital importance in current telemedicine systems. Although a completely standardized system is an ideal solution, most commercially available devices include their own software and communication protocols, which cause serious problems and hinder the application of a standard. Patients' telemonitoring at home requires a wide variety of biometric and ambient sensors and devices that usually present a set of very specific features and characteristics.

Detection of (in)activity periods in human body motion using inertial sensors: a comparative study.

Determination of (in)activity periods when monitoring human body motion is a mandatory preprocessing step in all human inertial navigation and position analysis applications. Distinction of (in)activity needs to be established in order to allow the system to recompute the calibration parameters of the inertial sensors as well as the Zero Velocity Updates (ZUPT) of inertial navigation. The periodical recomputation of these parameters allows the application to maintain a constant degree of precision.