The landforms and landscapes discussed in this book developed in a variety of terrains, which together express the diversity of the geological background of the Brazilian territory. Located essentially in the old and relatively stable nucleus of the South American plate (known as the South American platform), Brazil comprises seven major categories of tectonic units, which are as follows: crato...

Comorbidities are conditions that coexist with a disease of interest, and may lead to a delayed diagnosis, be confounders in analysis of clinical status and course, and increase morbidity and mortality. Therefore, it appears desirable to summarise efficiently one or multiple comorbidities into a single score in an efficient manner, using comorbidity indices and self-administered comorbidity que...

Studies of personality in nonhuman primates have usually relied on assessments by humans and seldom considered the function of the resulting "trait" classifications. In contrast, we applied exploratory principal component analysis to seven behaviors among 45 wild female baboons over 7 y to determine whether the personality dimensions that emerged were associated with measures of reproductive su...

Agronomic research suggests Australian farmers may increase wheat yields by 13 to 47% and reduce risk of crop failures by sowing crops earlier than is currently practiced. This study investigated the potential to use remote sensing to assist in evaluating changes in farmer sowing date practices in response to research recommendations, using study paddocks in the southern Australian cropping reg...

BACKGROUND Insomnia is one of the most common complaints faced by primary care practitioners after pain. Non-pharmacological management of Insomnia that is noninvasive is gaining interest among patients with insomnia. PURPOSE To determine the feasibility of recruiting and retaining participants in a clinical trial on shirodhara, Ayurvedic oil dripping therapy, for insomnia in the United State...

BACKGROUND Trauma registries offer distinct advantages and disadvantages when assessing the effectiveness of trauma systems. Detailed injury data and statistical comparisons that use TRISS methodology and the Major Trauma Outcome Study norms provide advantages over population-based or preventable death studies. However, miscodings and registry differences in injury severity coding limit the val...

BACKGROUND This study sought to map the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and symptom variables onto the EQ-5D. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adult US residents with self-reported sleep problems. Respondents provided demographic, comorbidity, and sleep-related information and had completed the ISI and the EQ-5D profile. Respondents were classified into ISI categories indica...

Although Gamblers Anonymous (GA) is a popular intervention for gamblers, many attendees later present for professional treatment. This study evaluated gambling and psychosocial problems in individuals seeking professional treatment for gambling and compared those with and without a history of GA attendance. At intake to treatment, 342 pathological gamblers completed the Addiction Severity Index...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effect of a teaching intervention designed to reduce undertriage rates in older ED patients. Further, to test the hypothesis that non-adherence to the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) triage algorithm is associated with undertriage. Additionally, to detect patient related risk factors for undertriage. METHODS Pre-post-test design...