Luciana Martins

To assess the prevalence of middle ear alterations in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In this descriptive study, 120 CF patients aged 5 months to 18 years were assessed by clinical history, otoscopy, and tympanometry. Data on P. aeruginosa colonization and parenteral and/or inhaled aminoglycoside use were also collected from medical charts. Clinical history revealed absence of previous otitis media in 57% of patients. Tympanic membranes were normal in 94% of patients who underwent otoscopic evaluation; chronic otitis media was suggested in about 1% of the cases, otitis media with effusion (OME) in 2%, and Eustachian tube dysfunction in 3%. As for tympanometry, 91% of patients who underwent the exam showed normal results, OME was suggested in 2% of the cases, and Eustachian tube dysfunction in 7%. There was a low prevalence rate of middle ear alterations in our series of CF patients. The use of aminoglycosides and colonization by P. aeruginosa did not influence the prevalence of middle ear alterations. Our results suggest that a detailed clinical history and a routine otoscopy evaluation may confirm or rule out most middle ear alterations in CF patients.

... The significance ofthe millen? nial moment (00:00h, January 1, 2000) stems more directly from a papal decision in 1582 to reform the Christian calendar. ... Those deeper and more complex cultural connections are perhaps more explicitly revealed in millen? niai celebrations. ...

This paper considers how European voyagers both engaged with and reconstructed the tropical landscapes they encountered. By examining visions of the Brazilian landscape produced by Charles Darwin during his Beagle voyage, the paper aims to explore the complex interaction between prior knowledge, aesthetic convention and the experience of travelling in the construction of his geographical imagination. While the resulting images necessarily shared a set of scientific and aesthetic codes integral to the visual culture of nineteenth-century Europe, as well as being evidence of Britain's global imperial project, they were more than simply an “expression” of these wider historical realities. Darwin's visual impressions were shaped through a constant process of negotiation between translocated images: brought by his mind's eye, found in the landscapes presented to his body, and tracked over. The very materiality of Darwin's vision contains traces of his spatial and embodied practices.

This paper examines the spatial dynamics of urbanism in Rio de Janeiro during the early nineteenth century. Conventional narratives of modernisation fail to capture the complexities of this moment, between 1808 and 1821, when the city replaced Lisbon as the capital of the Portuguese empire. The position of colony and metropolis were inverted, Portuguese absolutism was bolstered by British liberalism,

This paper offers a prospectus for a version of historical geography that puts the seas and oceans at the centre of its concerns. This is pursued in three ways. First, via a discussion of the epistemological and historiographic perspectives that might be taken on geographies of the sea, which argues that the view from the ocean can develop geographies of spaces beyond the local and the national, and can attend to the relationships between the human and natural worlds. Second, through a consideration of the imaginative, aesthetic and sensuous geographies of the sea that contends that maritime worlds open up new experiential dimensions and new forms of representation. Finally, in a survey of the material and social worlds of the oceans that suggests that new life can thereby be breathed into current concerns with global political economy, material geographies, the relationship between knowledge and located practice, and the intersections of social and spatial difference. The paper also provides an introduction to a special issue on the historical geography of the sea.

In 1830, the British frigate HMS Thetis was wrecked at Cabo Frio, on the Brazilian coast. A British naval force was subsequently despatched to undertake a major salvage operation which lasted for well over a year. The substantial textual and visual archive associated ...

... The significance ofthe millen? nial moment (00:00h, January 1, 2000) stems more directly from a papal decision in 1582 to reform the Christian calendar. ... Those deeper and more complex cultural connections are perhaps more explicitly revealed in millen? niai celebrations. ...

The work overload, relationship and comunication problems, institution's characteristics and ambiental pollution were the stressing organization agents with the greatest pontuation in this study composed by 30 nurses. The work planning, work humanization, suitable human resourses, improving comunication and continued education were the suggestions given by nurses to minimize these stressing organizational agents. Analysing the stressing extra organizational agents, economic

The photon-counts of two series of wheat seedlings growing in landfill's leachate solutions are studied in respect to germination efficiency and spontaneous photon (biophoton) emission, evidencing the relation between biophotonic emission and the seedling's development and also the its variability.

ABSTRACT In this article, we describe the challenges encountered in creating a digital archive for Andean textiles.1 Developed at Birkbeck, University of London, within a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project (2009–2012) titled “Weaving Communities of Practice. Textiles, Culture and Identity in the Andes: A Semiotic and Ontological Approach,” this archive goes beyond providing a mere repository for digital documents. Our focus has been to improve accessibility by enriching the data related to textiles' production (consisting of texts, images, and videos) with information describing the social, historical, and cultural contexts. This allows researchers in the area of textile studies to gain new insights that go beyond the immediate functional utility of cloth. We have also addressed practical aspects, such as providing a platform for museums to manage and showcase their collections, introducing local weaving repertoires into educational curricula, and offering regional weavers a venue to protect their cultural patrimony from piracy.At the heart of the system is a knowledge base, the core of which is an ontology mapping the knowledge of domain experts into a machine-readable format. The development of the ontology is crucial for the provision of contextual information, which on this scale is new for Andean textiles. Other important components of the system, the editors Sawu-3D and InaSawu, are tools for modeling, visualizing, and capturing the semantics of the complex patterns found in Andean textiles. While traditionally art historians have focused their analysis on the iconography of textiles, this project's emphasis on local weavers' techniques opens up new ways of understanding and classifying textiles. This system is our contribution to preserving the rich cultural heritage of Andean weaving.

We report on a novel electrical current-sensing principle based on wavelength-encoded modulation of the ultrabright green (at 525 nm) light-emitting diode (LED) transducers. It complies with the optical subsystem of a hybrid current transformer . Real-time wavelength demodulation is performed with the passive spectral edge filter OG 530. Linear calibration plots were achieved with -0.33 nm/mA for dc and +0.99 mA-1 for ac current sensitivity, respectively. A measurement accuracy of 1.3% for 28.4-mA ac peak current range is achieved. A simple theoretical model is outlined. Issues such as electronic and thermal effects on stability performance are also addressed.

The work overload, relationship and comunication problems, institution's characteristics and ambiental pollution were the stressing organization agents with the greatest pontuation in this study composed by 30 nurses. The work planning, work humanization, suitable human resourses, improving comunication and continued education were the suggestions given by nurses to minimize these stressing organizational agents. Analysing the stressing extra organizational agents, economic and familiar problems, work distance and transportation to work , were the most pointed.

The pain is a frequent sympton during the postoperative period and results in suffering and unnecessary risks for the patient. Studies show the inadequate pain relief after surgery and the relationship with erroneous assessment and non-acquaintance about analgesics methods. The article discuss the postoperative pain management wich includes the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, opioids, cognitive-behavior interventions and high-tech like epidural catheter and patient-controlled analgesia systems. Besides the adequate pain control includes the discussion about ethical and economic aspects.

The present study has the following objectives: to identify the significance of the quality of life people with chronic illness and verify its interference in their quality of life. We have studied 71 people of both sexes, attended in the clinical settings of 2 public hospitals. The most common diagnoses were high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus. The significance of quality of life to interviewed people was related mainly to material comfort (40,9%); physical comfort (23,9%) and emotional comfort (11,2%). Chronic illness interfered in their quality of life because it has changed, especially, their physical capacity (67,6%), their work/study/home activities (64,8%) and their serf-esteem (53,5%). Based on the results, we emphasize the importance of nursing in the adaptation process of people and their relatives considering the limitations of chronic illness.