Integrated Vocal Deviation Index (IVDI): A Machine Learning Model to Classifier of the General Grade of Vocal Deviation.

Objective: To develop a multiparametric index based on machine learning (ML) to predict and classify the overall degree of vocal deviation (GG).

Method: The sample consisted of 300 dysphonic and non-dysphonic participants of both sexes. Two speech tasks were sustained vowel [a] and connected speech (counting numbers from 1 to 10).

Assessment of Volumetric Dense Tissue Segmentation in Tomosynthesis Using Deep Virtual Clinical Trials.

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging requires careful evaluation of machine-learning algorithms. We propose the use of a "deep virtual clinical trial" (DeepVCT) method to effectively evaluate the performance of AI algorithms. In this paper, DeepVCTs have been proposed to elucidate limitations of AI applications and predictions of clinical outcomes, avoiding biases in study designs.

Glutathione effect on functional and histological recovery after spinal cord injury in rats.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the GSH effect on functional and histological recovery after experimental spinal cord injury in rats.

Methods: Forty Wistar rats were subjected to spinal cord injury through the Multicenter Animal Spinal Cord Injury Study (MASCIS) Impactor system. The rats were sorted and divided into four groups, as follows: Group 1 ‒ Laminectomy and spinal cord injury; Group 2 ‒ Laminectomy, spinal cord injury and Saline Solution (SS) 0.

Gait Analysis of Amputee Dogs Using a Pressure-Sensitive Walkway.

Objective:  The aim of this study was to perform gait analysis using a pressure-sensitive walkway in dogs submitted to high (total) or low amputation (partial) of one forelimb or hindlimb.

Study Design:  A total of 39 dogs met the inclusion criteria. The reasons for the amputations were motor vehicle accidents in 38 dogs and possible limb malformation in 1 dog.

Impact of Tomosynthesis Acquisition on 3D Segmentations of Breast Outline and Adipose/Dense Tissue with AI: A Simulation-Based Study.

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) reconstructions introduce out-of-plane artifacts and false-tissue boundaries impacting the dense/adipose and breast outline (convex hull) segmentations. A virtual clinical trial method was proposed to segment both the breast tissues and the breast outline in DBT reconstructions. The DBT images of a representative population were simulated using three acquisition geometries: a left-right scan (conventional, I), a two-directional scan in the shape of a "T" (II), and an extra-wide range (XWR, III) left-right scan at a six-times higher dose than I.

Evaluation of the effect of intrathecal GM1 in 24, 48, and 72 hours after acute spinal cord injury in rats.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the best timing and feasibility of intrathecal application of sodium monosialoganglioside (GM1) after spinal cord contusion in Wistar rats as an experimental model.

Methods: Forty Wistar rats were submitted to contusion spinal cord injury after laminectomy. The animals were randomized and divided into four groups: Group 1 - Intrathecal application of GM1 24 hours after contusion; Group 2 - Intrathecal application of GM1 48 hours after contusion; Group 3 - intrathecal application of GM1 72 hours after contusion; Group 4 - Sham, with laminectomy and intrathecal application of 0.

Complete Genome Sequences of Avian Metapneumovirus Subtype B Vaccine Strains from Brazil.

Avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) causes a highly contagious upper respiratory and reproductive disease in chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Here, complete genome sequences of aMPV-B vaccine strains BR/1890/E1/19 (PL21, Nemovac; Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, Brazil) and BR/1891/E2/19 (1062; Hipraviar, France) were sequenced and compared with the pathogenic field strain VCO3/60616.

Interactions between carbon nanotubes and external structures of SARS-CoV-2 using molecular docking and molecular dynamics.

Molecular modeling techniques are used to describe the process of interaction between nanotubes and the main structures of the Covid-19 virus: the envelope protein, the main protease, and the Spike glycoprotein. Molecular docking studies show that the ligands have interaction characteristics capable of adsorbing the structures. Molecular dynamics simulations provide information on the mean squared deviation of atomic positions ​​between 0.

Prediction of intensive care admission and hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients using demographics and baseline laboratory data.

Introduction: Optimized allocation of medical resources to patients with COVID-19 has been a critical concern since the onset of the pandemic.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the authors used data from a Brazilian tertiary university hospital to explore predictors of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and hospital mortality in patients admitted for COVID-19. Our primary aim was to create and validate prediction scores for use in hospitals and emergency departments to aid clinical decisions and resource allocation.

Ergodicity and slow relaxation in the one-dimensional self-gravitating system.

We show that homogeneous and nonhomogeneous states of the one-dimensional self-gravitating sheets models have different ergodic properties. The former are nonergodic and the one-particle distribution function has a zero collision term if a proper limit is taken for the periodic boundary conditions. As a consequence, homogeneous states of the sheets model are nonergodic and do not relax to the equilibrium state, while nonhomogeneous states are ergodic in a time window of the order of the relaxation time to equilibrium, as similarly observed in other systems with a long range interaction.

Emergence and molecular characterization of the avian infectious bronchitis virus GI-23 in commercial broiler farms from South America.

Avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is the etiological agent of a highly contagious disease in the poultry industry. The spike protein (S1 subunit) is responsible for the molecular diversity of the virus and many genetic types, and lineages are described worldwide. IBV genetic type I-strain 23 (GI-23) has spread across different continents (including Asia, Europe and Africa), causing multiple outbreaks and severe economic losses throughout the poultry industry in the last decade.

Planning and Optimization of Software-Defined and Virtualized IoT Gateway Deployment for Smart Campuses.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is based on objects or "things" that have the ability to communicate and transfer data. Due to the large number of connected objects and devices, there has been a rapid growth in the amount of data that are transferred over the Internet. To support this increase, the heterogeneity of devices and their geographical distributions, there is a need for IoT gateways that can cope with this demand.

A Transnational and Transregional Study of the Impact and Effectiveness of Social Distancing for COVID-19 Mitigation.

We present an analysis of the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and a social distancing metric from data for all the states and most populous cities in the United States and Brazil, all the 22 European Economic Community countries and the United Kingdom. We discuss why the infection rate, instead of the effective reproduction number or growth rate of cases, is a proper choice to perform this analysis when considering a wide span of time. We obtain a strong Spearman's rank order correlation between the social distancing metric and the infection rate in each locality.

Immunosuppressive CD14/HLA-DR monocytes in patients with Chagas Disease.

Chagas Disease (CD) is a neglected illness whose immunopathological mechanisms have not yet been plainly elucidated. The asymptomatic (indeterminate) form of CD is a long-term condition and approximately 20% to 35% of the individuals with this form evolve into one of the three chronic symptomatic clinical forms of CD, namely: cardiac, digestive or cardio-digestive (mixed). A variant of blood monocytes characterized by low expression of the HLA-DR antigen (CD14/HLA-DR) constitutes a subtype of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) whose main function is to regulate exacerbated inflammatory processes.

Attack rate and the price of SARS-CoV-2 herd immunity in Brazil.

We introduce a compartmental model with age structure to study the dynamics of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. The contagion matrix in the model is given by the product of a probability per contact with a contact matrix explicitly taking into account the contact structure among different age groups. The probability of contagion per contact is considered as time dependent to represent non-pharmaceutical interventions, and is fitted from the time series of deaths.

A Standard-Based Internet of Things Platform and Data Flow Modeling for Smart Environmental Monitoring.

The environment consists of the interaction between the physical, biotic, and anthropic means. As this interaction is dynamic, environmental characteristics tend to change naturally over time, requiring continuous monitoring. In this scenario, the internet of things (IoT), together with traditional sensor networks, allows for the monitoring of various environmental aspects such as air, water, atmospheric, and soil conditions, and sending data to different users and remote applications.

Molecular Docking of Azithromycin, Ritonavir, Lopinavir, Oseltamivir, Ivermectin and Heparin Interacting with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Main and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 3C-Like Proteases.

In the current pandemic situation raised due to COVID-19, drug reuse is emerging as the first line of treatment. The viral agent that causes this highly contagious disease and the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) share high nucleotide similarity. Therefore, it is structurally expected that many existing viral targets are similar to the first SARS-CoV, probably being inhibited by the same compounds.

Classical Goldstone modes in long-range interacting systems.

For a classical system with long-range interactions, a soft mode exists whenever a stationary state spontaneously breaks a continuous symmetry of the Hamiltonian. Besides that, if the corresponding coordinate associated to the symmetry breaking is periodic, then the same energy of the different stationary states and finite N thermal fluctuations result in a superdiffusive motion of the center of mass for total zero momentum, that tends to a normal diffusion for very long times. As examples of this, we provide a two-dimensional self-gravitating system, a free electron laser, and the Hamiltonian mean-field (HMF) model.

Assessment of the Accuracy of the AO Spine-TL Classification for Thoracolumbar Spine Fractures Using the AO Surgery Reference Mobile App.

Study Design: Cohort study.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the AO Surgery Reference mobile app in the diagnosis of thoracolumbar fractures of the spine according to the AO TL classification, and to discuss the usefulness of this app in the teaching and training of the resident physicians in orthopedics and traumatology area.

Methods: The 24 residents of Orthopedic and Traumatology program assessed 20 cases of thoracolumbar fractures selected from the hospital database on 2 different occasions, with a 30-day interval, and they classified these cases with and without using the AO Surgery Reference app.

Relaxation processes in long-range lattices.

The relaxation to equilibrium of lattice systems with long-range interactions is investigated. The timescales involved depend polynomially on the system size, potentially leading to diverging equilibration times. A kinetic equation for long-range lattices is proposed, which explain these timescales as well as a threshold in the interaction range reported in [Phys.

Double-Blind Clinical Trial of Arginine Supplementation in the Treatment of Adult Patients with Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Background: Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is the most prevalent monogenic disease in Brazil. In SCA, haemoglobin S (HbS) is formed, which modifies red blood cell morphology. Intravascular haemolysis occurs, in which free Hb and free radicals degrade nitric oxide (NO) and release arginase, which reduces arginine levels.

Clinicopathological study of oral focal mucinosis: a retrospective case series.

Background: Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is a rare soft tissue lesion of unknown etiology that exhibits tumor-like growth. It is considered the oral counterpart of cutaneous focal mucinosis or cutaneous myxoid cyst. This is a retrospective study of oral OFM diagnosed over a period of 42 years at an oral pathology service.

Role of APOE Gene in Bone Mineral Density and Incidence of Bone Fractures in Brazilian Postmenopausal Women.

Osteoporosis is one of the major diseases that affects mostly postmenopausal women. Despite being a multifactorial disease, some genes have been shown to play an important role in osteoporosis. Bone mineral density (BMD) is still largely used to diagnose it, although many other biomarkers are used to better follow the disease onset.

Endoscopic gastrostomy: critical analysis in a regional referral hospital.

Introduction: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is a safe and effective endoscopic surgical procedure for enteral access and gastrointestinal decompression, and it is an excellent alternative to surgical gastrostomy. There are various clinical indications and these mainly include the need for prolonged enteral nutritional support due to complications from neurological, geriatric and oncological diseases and decompression of the gastrointestinal tract. Although safe and effective, a number of possible complications relating to the time (early or late complications) and severity (minor or major complications) may occur.