This research was developed in 1995-1996 in the Oliveira Pombo Health Center (CSOP), Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. The aim was to explore factors influencing non-adherence to tuberculosis treatment. Specific objectives were: dynamics of tuberculosis notification and treatment of non-adherence cases at the CSOP; demographic, social, economic, and cultural profiles of clientele (social actors); default reasons that interrupt treatment; and knowledge and perception of the disease. The methodological approach was based on descriptive epidemiology and on sociological interpretivism. A semi-structured interview was used for questions related to the social actors, such as: demographic, social, economic, cultural, and behavioral factors; knowledge and perceptions of tuberculosis and treatment; impact of the disease on patients' lives; and perspectives concerning health service attendance. Results show that treatment non-compliance involved multiple and complex interrelated factors.

Abstract-This letter introduces a matrix-based approach to connection unavailability estimation in shared backup path protection (SBPP). The proposed approach yields accurate results for networks of national size using simple matrix operations, being therefore suitable for online routing algorithms. The accuracy of the unavailability estimates is verified through simulations.

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. et al. Helmintoses intestinais. I -Conhecimentos, atitudes e percepção da população. Rev. Saúde públ., S. Paulo, 22:140-9, 1988. RESUMO:Com o objetivo de coletar subsídios que norteassem parte de um programa de intervenção em helmintoses intestinais, foi realizada uma pesquisa, no Município de São Carlos, SP (Brasil), sobre conhecimentos, atitudes e percepção da população local, sobre o assunto. A pesquisa foi realizada com responsáveis por escolares, no período de três meses (1984)(1985), por meio de questionário aplicado em uma amostra da população, correspondendo a 50% + 2 do universo de estudo. Os resultados mostraram que a população detém uma codificação para identificação de helmintoses, asssim como conceituação própria sobre sinais e sintomas, aspectos epidemiológicos e formas de tratamento. Esses achados são de fundamental importância para o planejamento das campanhas e projetos educacionais em verminoses. UNITERMOS:Conhecimentos, atitudes e práticas. Helmintíase, prevenção e controle. Educação em saúde.

We evaluate the impact of variable-code-rate transceivers on cost, capacity and survivability of wavelengthrouted optical networks. The transmission rate and reach tradeoff is quantified for two hypothetical coded modulation schemes (aggressive and conservative) in a wavelength routing network with 50-GHz-spaced channels. The aggressive scenario assumes the 64-QAM modulation format, a small gap to capacity, and a small excess bandwidth. The conservative scenario considers the 16-QAM modulation format, and a larger capacity gap and excess bandwidth. The performance of the conservative and aggressive technologies is evaluated in three representative networks. Transparent reaches are calculated by means of an existing analytical method which assumes the AWGN hypothesis for the nonlinear noise. It is shown that variable-code-rate transceivers enable the concept of soft protection, in which the protection lightpath operates at a data rate which is lower than the corresponding working lightpath, in a way to avoid regeneration. This is specially attractive in the transport of IP traffic, where capacity reduction (in average up to 25%) may be tolerable during a repair time. It is also shown that variable-code-rate transceivers have the potential to offer significant savings in terms of transceiver usage and wavelength occupation, when compared to current fixed-rate transceivers operating at 100, 200 or 400 Gb/s. Finally, practical variable-code-rate transceivers may achieve a discrete set of N code rates, yielding a quantized capacity-versus-reach curve. The system impact of N is evaluated for several network scenarios.

PEDRAZZANI, E.S. et al. Helmintoses intestinais. III -Programa de Educação e Saúde em Verminose.Rev. Saúde públ., S. Paulo, 23:189-95, 1989. RESUMO:No período de agosto/85 a junho/86 foi desenvolvido o Programa de Educação junto aos escolares e seus responsáveis, no subdistrito de Santa Eudóxia, São Carlos, SP (Brasil) para tentar exercitar a prática dos conhecimentos sobre intervenção em verminose, estimulando ações coletivas. Preparou-se um manual de orientação técnica para os coordenadores. Foram formados três grupos de pais ou responsáveis que discutiram, durante o Curso de "Educação e Saúde em Verminose", quatro temas básicos: 1. Como é a doença; 2. Os vermes que ocorrem no homem; 3. Importância da doença; 4. Medidas preventivas, cada grupo produziu manual sobre o conteúdo do Curso. O produto dos trabalhos dos alunos e dos responsáveis foram apresentados durante a "Feira de Educação e Saúde em Verminose", aberta à toda comunidade. Constatou-se pelas reuniões e material didático produzido pelos participantes, que estes se sentiam alertados para o problema da verminose na comunidade e para a necessidade da adoção de medidas efetivas para seu controle. DESCRITORES:Helmintíase, prevenção e controle. Educação em saúde. Conhecimentos, atitudes e práticas. Saúde escolar.

In optical networks, shared-backup path protection (SBPP) can optimize network resources utilization in scenarios where connection resilience requirements are not achieved without protection, but are exceeded with dedicated-path protection (DPP). However, savings in capacity allowed by backup capacity sharing are achieved at the cost of connection availability degradation. This paper presents a strategy for provisioning connections with guaranteed availability in a dynamic traffic scenario that attempts to minimize the allocation of spare capacity. Connections can be unprotected or protected by SBPP -which in some cases degenerate to DPP -depending on the connection availability requirements. This provisioning strategy employs the previously published matrix-based approach for connection unavailability estimation in SBPP protected networks which offers accurate results for networks of national size. We investigate the performance, in terms of blocking and resource sharing, of three availability classes (availability of 0.999, 0.9999 and 0.99999) that coexist in two representative network topologies without wavelength conversion. The results indicate that SBPP is a viable option for networks of national dimensions, but the backup sharing of high availability connections is strongly limited in networks of continental dimensions.

We investigate feedforward carrier recovery (FFCR) in coherent polarization diversity receivers where the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of polarization demultiplexed signals can be unequal, such as in polarization-dependent loss impaired systems. A joint-polarization FFCR mechanism for estimating the carrier phase noise based on samples from both polarizations is proposed and compared with three other plausible alternatives. We evaluated each architecture using Monte Carlo simulations and observed that the joint-polarization FFCR yields a 1.1 dB SNR penalty for a given laser linewidth x baud rate product, while the other three architectures offer 1.8 dB, 2.0 dB and 3.9 dB, for QPSK at BER = 10(-3) and 3 dB SNR imbalance.