Rio de Janeiro State University

About: Rio de Janeiro State University is a education organization based out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 16631 authors who have published 30919 publications receiving 465753 citations. The organization is also known as: UERJ & Rio de Janeiro State University.

The threat of emerging and re-emerging pathogenic Sporothrix species

Abstract: Sporotrichosis is a neglected subcutaneous mycosis of humans and animals acquired by traumatic inoculation of soil and plant material (classical route) contaminated with infectious propagules of the pathogen or being bitten/scratched by infected cats (alternative route). Within a genus composed of 53 species displaying an essentially environmental core, there are only a few members which have considerable impacts on human or animal health. Infections are typically caused by S. brasiliensis, S. schenckii or S. globosa. Rare mammal pathogens include members of the S. pallida and S. stenocereus complexes. To illustrate the tremendous impact of emerging zoonotic sporotrichosis on public health, we discuss the main features of the expanding epidemics driven by S. brasiliensis in cats and humans. The cat entry in the transmission chain of sporotrichosis, causing epizooties (cat-cat) or zoonosis (cat-human), has contributed to the definition of new paradigms in Sporothrix transmission, reaching epidemic levels, making the disease a serious public health problem. Indeed, S. brasiliensis infection in humans and animals is likely to become even more important in the future, with projections of its expansion in biogeographic domains and host range, as well as greater virulence in mammals. Therefore, lessons from a long-standing outbreak in the state of Rio de Janeiro about the source and distribution of the etiological agents among outbreak areas can be used to create better control and prevention plans and increase awareness of sporotrichosis as a serious emerging zoonotic disease.

Measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in top quark-antiquark production in ppbar collisions using the lepton+jets channel

Abstract: We present a measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in top quark-antiquark production using the full Tevatron Run II data set collected by the D0 experiment at Fermilab. The measurement is performed in lepton + jets final states using a new kinematic fitting algorithm for events with four or more jets and a new partial reconstruction algorithm for events with only three jets. Corrected for detector acceptance and resolution effects, the asymmetry is evaluated to be A(FB) = (10.6 +/- 3.0)%. Results are consistent with the standard model predictions which range from 5.0% to 8.8%. We also present the dependence of the asymmetry on the invariant mass of the top quark-antiquark system and the difference in rapidities of the top quark and antiquark.

The Brazilian version of the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire to assess job stress

Abstract: The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model has been used to assess the health impact of job stress. We aimed at describing the cross-cultural adaptation of the ERI questionnaire into Portuguese and some psychometric properties, in particular internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial structure. We developed a Brazilian version of the ERI using a back-translation method and tested its reliability. The test-retest reliability study was conducted with 111 health workers and University staff. The current analyses are based on 89 participants, after exclusion of those with missing data. Reproducibility (interclass correlation coefficients) for the "effort", "'reward", and "'overcommitment"' dimensions of the scale was estimated at 0.76, 0.86, and 0.78, respectively. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) estimates for these same dimensions were 0.68, 0.78, and 0.78, respectively. The exploratory factorial structure was fairly consistent with the model's theoretical components. We conclude that the results of this study represent the first evidence in favor of the application of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the ERI scale in health research in populations with similar socioeconomic characteristics.

Identification and filtering of uncharacteristic noise in the CMS hadron calorimeter

Abstract: Commissioning studies of the CMS hadron calorimeter have identified sporadic uncharacteristic noise and a small number of malfunctioning calorimeter channels. Algorithms have been developed to identify and address these problems in the data. The methods have been tested on cosmic ray muon data, calorimeter noise data, and single beam data collected with CMS in 2008. The noise rejection algorithms can be applied to LHC collision data at the trigger level or in the offline analysis. The application of the algorithms at the trigger level is shown to remove 90% of noise events with fake missing transverse energy above 100 GeV, which is sufficient for the CMS physics trigger operation.