Male sex rather than socioeconomic vulnerability as a determinant for COVID-19 death in Sao Paulo: A population-based study.

Objectives: To determine the role of the male sex as a risk factor for coronavirus disease deaths in Sao Paulo and to what extent socioeconomic vulnerability and individual health issues can interfere in such risk.

Methods: The primary cause of death, age, sex, comorbidities, and code of the Human Development Units of the residence of 37,583 individuals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, were obtained from the records on confirmed coronavirus disease resident hospitalizations of the city of Sao Paulo from the National Influenza Surveillance Information System. A social vulnerability index was assigned to each Human Development Unit.

Hepatitis E virus infection increases the risk of diabetes and severity of liver disease in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Objectives: Co-infection with hepatitis A or B viruses may aggravate liver injury in patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, few studies have assessed co-infection with hepatitis E virus (HEV) and HCV. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and impact of HEV infection among Brazilian patients with chronic HCV infection.

Spatial-temporal variability of metal pollution across an industrial district, evidencing the environmental inequality in São Paulo.

Although air pollution decreased in some cities that shifted from an industrial to a service-based economy, and vehicular emission regulation became more restrictive, it is still a major risk factor for mortality worldwide. In central São Paulo, Brazil, air quality monitoring stations and tree-ring analyses revealed a decreasing trend in the concentrations of particulate matter and metals. Such trends, however, may not be observed in industrial districts located in the urban periphery, where the usual mobile sources may be combined with local stationary sources.

Psychological characteristics are associated with healthcare worker adherence to infection control practices.

Background: Most bloodstream infections related to vascular catheters can be avoided if evidence-based practices are applied during insertion and maintenance. In practice, adherence by health care workers (HCWs) is unsatisfactory and is the main current challenge. The objective of this study is to investigate associations between adherence to infection control practices and performance in psychological tests.

Random changepoint segmented regression with smooth transition.

We consider random changepoint segmented regression models to analyse data from a study conducted to verify whether treatment with stem cells may delay the onset of a symptom of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in genetically modified mice. The proposed models capture the biological aspects of the data, accommodating a smooth transition between the periods with and without symptoms. An additional changepoint is considered to avoid negative predicted responses.

Evaluation of the discrepancy between clinical diagnostic hypotheses and anatomopathological diagnoses resulting from autopsies.

Objectives: An objective of clinical autopsies is to determine the final cause of death and the pathological changes that may have triggered it. Despite advances in Medicine, the level of discrepancy between clinical and autopsy diagnoses remains significant. The aim of this study was to compare the data obtained from autopsies carried out at the São Bernardo do Campo/SP Death Verification Section with clinical diagnostic hypotheses proposed during medical care.

Exposure to fine particles increases blood pressure of hypertensive outdoor workers: A panel study.

Background: Hypertension and air pollution are two important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although several studies suggest that air pollution has a significant impact on blood pressure, studies on long-term effects are sparse and still controversial.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of exposure of outdoor workers to different levels of traffic-generated PM on blood pressure.

Association of Malaria Infection During Pregnancy With Head Circumference of Newborns in the Brazilian Amazon.

Importance: Malaria during pregnancy is associated with adverse events for the fetus and newborn, but the association of malaria during pregnancy with the head circumference of the newborn is unclear.

Objective: To investigate the association of malaria during pregnancy with fetal head growth.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Two cohort studies were conducted at the general maternity hospital of Cruzeiro do Sul (Acre, Brazil) in the Amazonian region.

Pleural anthracosis as an indicator of lifetime exposure to urban air pollution: An autopsy-based study in Sao Paulo.

Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the association between air pollution and adverse health effects using a wide variety of methods to assess exposure. However, the assessment of individual long-term exposure to ambient air pollution is a challenging task and has not been evaluated in a large autopsy study. Our goal was to investigate whether exposure to urban air pollution is associated to the degree of lung anthracosis, considering modifying factors such as personal habits, mobility patterns and occupational activities.

The role of air pollution and climate on the growth of urban trees.

The urban environment features poor air quality and harsher climate conditions that affect the life in the cities. Citizens are especially vulnerable to climate change, because heat island and impervious exacerbates extreme climate events. Urban trees are important tools for mitigation and adaptation of cities to climate change because they provide ecosystem services that increase while trees grow.

Tree rings reveal the reduction of Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb pollution in the central region of São Paulo, Brazil.

The concern about environmental pollution has risen in the last decades because of its effects on human's health. However, evaluation of the exposure to certain pollutants is currently hampered by the availability of past environmental data. Tree rings are an alternative to reconstruct environmental variability of pre-instrumental periods.

Pericytes Extend Survival of ALS SOD1 Mice and Induce the Expression of Antioxidant Enzymes in the Murine Model and in IPSCs Derived Neuronal Cells from an ALS Patient.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most common adult-onset motor neuron disease causing a progressive, rapid and irreversible degeneration of motor neurons in the cortex, brain stem and spinal cord. No effective treatment is available and cell therapy clinical trials are currently being tested in ALS affected patients. It is well known that in ALS patients, approximately 50% of pericytes from the spinal cord barrier are lost.

Simple linear regression with interval censored dependent and independent variables.

We consider a simple linear regression model that accommodates situations where both the dependent and the independent variables are interval censored. We obtain maximum likelihood estimators of its parameters and compare their performance with that of estimators derived under ordinary linear regression models. We also develop prediction intervals for the response and illustrate the results with data from an audiometric study designed to evaluate the possibility of prediction of behavioural thresholds from physiological thresholds.

Overt Primary Hypothyroidism in an Industrial Area in São Paulo, Brazil: The Impact of Public Disclosure.

: Primary hypothyroidism (PH) is the most common thyroid pathology. : to evaluate the impact of public disclosure of an unexpected number of PH cases on the frequency of patients seeking medical evaluation for endocrinological diseases. : data on 6306 subjects (3356 living in the surroundings of a petrochemical complex and 2950 in a control region) were collected over a 15-year time span.

Association between Traffic Air Pollution and Reduced Forced Vital Capacity: A Study Using Personal Monitors for Outdoor Workers.

Background: The effects of outdoor air pollution on lung function in adults are still controversial.

Objective: Evaluate the effects of exposure to different levels of traffic-generated PM2.5 on workers' lung functions in São Paulo, Brazil.

Sample size for estimating the mean concentration of organisms in ballast water.

We consider the computation of sample sizes for estimating the mean concentration of organisms in ballast water. Given the possible heterogeneity of their distribution in the tank, we adopt a negative binomial model to obtain confidence intervals for the mean concentration. We show that the results obtained by Chen and Chen (2012) in a different set-up hold for the proposed model and use them to develop algorithms to compute sample sizes both in cases where the mean concentration is known to lie in some bounded interval or where there is no information about its range.

Implications of heterogeneous distributions of organisms on ballast water sampling.

Ballast water sampling is one of the problems still needing investigation in order to enforce the D-2 Regulation of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship Ballast Water and Sediments. Although statistical "representativeness" of the sample is an issue usually discussed in the literature, neither a definition nor a clear description of its implications are presented. In this context, we relate it to the heterogeneity of the distribution of organisms in ballast water and show how to specify compliance tests under different models based on the Poisson and negative binomial distributions.

Intra- and interobserver agreement in the diagnosis of malocclusion in sleep-disordered breathing.

Unlabelled: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is often related to malocclusion, and dentists should be able to recognize occlusal changes that may be associated with the development, onset, or persistence of SDB. Although clinical examination is routinely used by specialists in orthodontics and functional jaw orthopedics, differences in diagnosis are very common.

Method: Two observers, both dentists specializing in functional jaw orthopedics, examined 56 children aged 7 to 9 years.

Competing regression models for longitudinal data.

The choice of an appropriate family of linear models for the analysis of longitudinal data is often a matter of concern for practitioners. To attenuate such difficulties, we discuss some issues that emerge when analyzing this type of data via a practical example involving pretest-posttest longitudinal data. In particular, we consider log-normal linear mixed models (LNLMM), generalized linear mixed models (GLMM), and models based on generalized estimating equations (GEE).

Design-based random permutation models with auxiliary information.

We extend the random permutation model to obtain the best linear unbiased estimator of a finite population mean accounting for auxiliary variables under simple random sampling without replacement (SRS) or stratified SRS. The proposed method provides a systematic design-based justification for well-known results involving common estimators derived under minimal assumptions that do not require specification of a functional relationship between the response and the auxiliary variables.

Prediction with measurement errors in finite populations.

We address the problem of selecting the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) of the latent value (e.g., serum glucose fasting level) of sample subjects with heteroskedastic measurement errors.

A model for psychiatric questionnaires with embarrassing items.

We propose an item response theory model to analyse psychiatric questionnaires that contain embarrassing items. We use Bayesian methods to estimate its parameters and consider a simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed estimators. The results are illustrated with the analysis of data collected to evaluate teenager depression, highlighting the gender difference in the probabilities of 'crying crisis', a trait known to embarrass some male populations.

Predicting Random Effects with an Expanded Finite Population Mixed Model.

Prediction of random effects is an important problem with expanding applications. In the simplest context, the problem corresponds to prediction of the latent value (the mean) of a realized cluster selected via two-stage sampling. Recently, Stanek and Singer (JASA, 2004) developed best linear unbiased predictors (BLUP) under a finite population mixed model that outperform BLUPs from mixed models and superpopulation models.

Spatial analysis of urban violence based on emergency room data.

Objective: To estimate the spatial intensity of urban violence events using wavelet-based methods and emergency room data.

Methods: Information on victims attended at the emergency room of a public hospital in the city of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, from January 1, 2002 to January 11, 2003 were obtained from hospital records. The spatial distribution of 3,540 events was recorded and a uniform random procedure was used to allocate records with incomplete addresses.