Universidade de Pernambuco

About: Universidade de Pernambuco is a education organization based out in Recife, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Artificial neural network. The organization has 6147 authors who have published 6948 publications receiving 73648 citations.

A Comprehensive Study on the Energy Efficiency of Java’s Thread-Safe Collections

Abstract: Java programmers are served with numerous choices of collections, varying from simple sequential ordered lists to sophisticated hashtable implementations. These choices are well-known to have different characteristics in terms of performance, scalability, and thread-safety, and most of them are well studied. This paper analyzes an additional dimension, energy efficiency. We conducted an empirical investigation of 16 collection implementations (13 thread-safe, 3 non-thread-safe) grouped under 3 commonly used forms of collections (lists, sets, and mappings). Using micro-and real world-benchmarks (Tomcat and Xalan), we show that our results are meaningful and impactful. In general, we observed that simple design decisions can greatly impact energy consumption. In particular, we found that using a newer hashtable version can yield a 2.19x energy savings in the micro-benchmarks and up to 17% in the real world-benchmarks, when compared to the old associative implementation. Also, we observed that different implementations of the same thread-safe collection can have widely different energy consumption behaviors. This variation also applies to the different operations that each collection implements, e.g, a collection implementation that performs traversals very efficiently can be more than an order of magnitude less efficient than another implementation of the same collection when it comes to insertions.

Flora da Paraíba, Brasil: Erythroxylaceae Kunth

Abstract: A taxonomic treatment of the Erythroxylaceae family was undertaken as part of the project "Flora da Paraiba" which aims to identify and catalogue the species of the local flora. Botanical identification and illustrations were supported by morphological studies and bibliography, analysis of the types and specimens from national and international herbaria, complemented by field observations. Thirteen species of Erythroxylaceae belonging to the genus Erythroxylum were found in Paraiba state: Erythroxylum caatingae Plowman, E. citrifolium A. St.-Hil, E. nummularia Peyr., E. pauferrense Plowman, E. passerinum Mart., E. pulchrum A. St.-Hil., E. pungens O.E. Schulz, E. revolutum Mart., E. rimosum O.E. Schulz, E. simonis Plowman, E. suberosum var. denudatum O.E. Schulz and E. subrotundum A. St.-Hil. Six of these species are new records for the state.

Influence of neurotoxoplasmosis characteristics on real-time PCR sensitivity among AIDS patients in Brazil

Abstract: Cerebral toxoplasmosis among individuals with AIDS may be difficult to diagnose and needs to be differentiated from other neurological diseases. A validation study was performed on real-time PCR for detecting the B1 gene of Toxoplasma gondii in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of AIDS patients with cerebral toxoplasmosis. The study included 135 AIDS patients divided into two groups: Group I comprised 85 patients with neurotoxoplasmosis; and Group II comprised 50 patients with non-toxoplasmic neurological diseases. Real-time PCR on blood showed a sensitivity of 1.5%, specificity of 100.0%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 100.0% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 36.5%. CSF testing produced better results, with a sensitivity of 35.3%, specificity of 100.0%, PPV of 100.0% and NPV of 44.7%. The group presenting with pleocytosis and four or more encephalic lesions was associated with greater CSF positivity on PCR. In conclusion, real-time PCR on blood was not useful for diagnosis. CSF testing showed low sensitivity but high specificity. Greater numbers of lesions and greater CSF cellularity may improve the sensitivity of the method.

Risk factors for neonatal mortality among children with low birth weight

Abstract: OBJETIVO: Analisar os fatores de risco associados aos obitos neonatais em criancas com baixo peso ao nascer. METODOS: Realizou-se um estudo de coorte, composto pelos nascidos vivos com peso entre 500 g e 2.499 g, residentes no Recife (PE), entre 2001 e 2003, produtos de gestacao unica e sem anencefalia. Os dados sobre os 5.687 nascidos vivos e 499 obitos neonatais, provenientes do Sistema de Informacoes sobre Nascidos Vivos e do Sistema de Informacoes sobre Mortalidade, foram integrados pela tecnica de linkage. Em modelo hierarquizado, as variaveis dos niveis distal (fatores socioeconomicos), intermediario (fatores de atencao a saude) e proximal (fatores biologicos) foram submetidas a analise univariada e regressao logistica multivariada. RESULTADOS: Com o ajuste das variaveis na regressao logistica multivariada, as variaveis do nivel distal que permaneceram significantemente associadas com o obito neonatal foram: a coabitacao dos pais, numero de filhos vivos e tipo de hospital de nascimento; no nivel intermediario: numero de consultas no pre-natal, complexidade do hospital de nascimento e tipo de parto; e no nivel proximal: sexo, idade gestacional, peso ao nascer, indice de Apgar e presenca de malformacao congenita. CONCLUSOES: Os principais fatores associados a mortalidade neonatal nos nascidos vivos com baixo peso estao relacionados com a atencao a gestante e ao recem-nascido, redutiveis pela atuacao do setor saude.

Fatores associados ao abandono do tratamento de tuberculose em indivíduos acompanhados em unidades de saúde de referência na cidade do Recife, Estado de Pernambuco, Brasil, entre 2005 e 2010

Abstract: Objective: identify tuberculosis treatment default-associated factors in individuals attending referral services in Recife, 2005-2010. Methods: control and case studies using information system data on tuberculosis complications recorded between 2005 and 2010. Treatment default cases were compared with cured control cases. Logistic regression models were adjusted. Results: 610 individuals were studied, 104 cases (17%) and 506 controls (93%). Multivariate analysis showed a higher probability of treatment default among individuals with no education (OR: 4.9, 95%CI: 1.416.7) and with less than incomplete elementary education (OR: 2.5; 95%CI: 1.1-6.1) compared to those with secondary or university level and among individuals with a history of previous default compared to those with no such history (OR: 7.4, 95% CI: 2.3-23.7). Conclusion: low educational level and previous default were the default-associated factors.