Psychometric properties and latent structure of the Portuguese version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.

Two studies evaluated the psychometric properties and the latent structure of the Portuguese version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in a large Brazilian college student sample. Results indicated that PSWQ had an adequate internal consistency. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a two-factor solution. One factor was related to the worry presence and incorporated all the non-reversed items. The other factor was associated to worry absence and incorporated all the reversed items. Confirmatory factor analysis leaded to a three-factor solution. One factor included all the PSWQ items whereas the two other factors were linked to the reversed and non-reversed worded items. Correlations coefficients of these two reversed and non-reversed factors with the total scores of the PSWQ and the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory suggest that PSWQ has a single meaningful construct.

Classification of containers with Aedes aegypti pupae using a Neural Networks model.

INTRODUCTION: This paper discusses the presence of Aedes aegypti pupae in different types of containers considering: volume, pH of the container, among other variables. METHODS: A nonlinear method for selection was applied, based on Mutual Information, by placing in order of importance the most appropriate variables for identifying containers with and without Aedes aegypti pupae. Such variables were used for input into a Neural Network in layers for classification. RESULTS: Among the experiments carried out, the best result obtained used the first eight variables selected by order of importance. The percentage of hits for containers which had no Aedes aegypti pupae was 73.3%, and 80.9% for those which did have Aedes aegypti pupae in the containers. This Neural Network method, a model with the capacity to emulate non-linear data, got better results in comparison with the discriminant power of the Logistic Regression model. Thus, the outcomes of using the Neural Networks method achieved better separability in classifying the containers with pupae and those with no pupae. CONCLUSION: This type of analysis will aid in the efforts to design an efficient program to control Aedes aegypti that can concentrate principally on containers which present the greatest productivity.

A non-linear morphometric feature selection approach for breast tumor contour from ultrasonic images.

Ultrasound breast images have been used to improve diagnostics and decrease the number of unneeded biopsies. Malignant breast tumors tend to present irregular and blurred contours while benign ones are usually round, smooth and well-defined. Accordingly, investigating the tumor contour may help in establishing diagnosis. Herein, Mutual Information and Linear Discriminant Analysis were implemented to rank morphometric features in discriminating breast tumors in ultrasound images. Seven features were extracted from Convex Polygon and the Normalized Radial Length techniques. By applying a Mutual Information based approach, it was possible to identity features with possibly non-linear contributions to the outcome.

New decision support tool for treatment intensity choice in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common cancer in childhood, has its treatment modulated by the risk of relapse. An appropriate estimation of this risk is the most important factor for the definition of treatment strategy. In this paper, we build up a new decision support tool to improve treatment intensity choice in childhood ALL. Our procedure was applied to a significant cohort of Brazilian children with ALL, the majority of the cases treated in the last decade in the two main University Hospitals of Rio de Janeiro. Some intrinsically difficulties of this dataset introduce an assortment of challenges, among those the need of a proper selection of features, clinical and laboratorial data. We apply a mutual information-based methodology for this purpose and a Neural Network to estimate the risk. Among the relapsed patients, 98.2% would have been identified as high-risk by the proposed methodology. The proposed procedure showed significantly better results when compared to the BFM95, a widely used classification protocol.

Aedes aegypti immature forms distribution according to type of breeding site.

More than 2.5 billion people, in more than 100 countries, are estimated to live in risk areas for the transmission of dengue. We investigated the production of Aedes aegypti immature forms in different types of containers. Larvae and pupae presence were inspected in 747 containers in 300 dwellings in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. The statistical significance of the differences of immature forms was calculated for different groups of recipients and classified according to the type of use, volume, and material. Containers used to store water and those classified as garbage enclosed 90.2% of the larvae and 88.9% of the pupae. We concluded that a wider covering of more regular water supply, as well as regular garbage collection, are decisive factors for an effective control of dengue vector.

Psychometric properties and latent structure of the portuguese version of the penn state worry questionnaire

Two studies evaluated the psychometric properties and the latent structure of the Portuguese version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in a large Brazilian college student sample. Results indicated that PSWQ had an adequate internal consistency. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a two-factor solution. One factor was related to the worry presence and incorporated all the non-reversed items. The other factor was associated to worry absence and incorporated all the reversed items. Confirmatory factor analysis leaded to a three-factor solution. One factor included all the PSWQ items whereas the two other factors were linked to the reversed and non-reversed worded items. Correlations coefficients of these two reversed and non-reversed factors with the total scores of the PSWQ and the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory suggest that PSWQ has a single meaningful construct (AU)

Dos estudios evaluaron las propiedades psicométricas y la estructura latente de la versión portuguesa del Penn Worry State Questionnaire (PSWQ) en una muestra de gran tamaño de estudiantes universitarios de Brasil. Los resultados indicaron que el PSWQ tenía una adecuada consistencia interna. Un análisis factorial exploratorio ofreció una solución de dos factores. Un factor estaba relacionado con la presencia de preocupación e incluía todos los ítems no invertidos. El otro factor estaba asociado a la ausencia de preocupación e incluía todos los ítems invertidos. Un análisis factorial confirmatorio condujo a una solución de tres factores. Un factor incluía todos los elementos del PSWQ mientras que los otros dos factores estaban relacionados con los ítems redactados de forma directa e inversa. Los coeficientes de correlación de estos dos factores (de los ítems invertidos y no invertidos) con las puntuaciones totales del PSWQ y la versión rasgo del Inventario de Ansiedad Estado-Rasgo (STAI) sugieren que un único constructo subyace a la estructura del PSWQ (AU)