Alessandra Alaniz Macedo

Automatically sharing web experiences through a hyperdocument recommender system

As an approach that applies not only to support user navigation on the Web, recommender systems have been built to assist and augment the natural social process of asking for recommendations from other people. In a typical recommender system, people provide suggestions as inputs, which the system aggregates and directs to appropriate recipients. In some cases, the primary computation is in the aggregation; in others, the value of the system lies in its ability to make good matches between the recommenders and those seeking recommendations.In this paper, we discuss the architectural and design features of WebMemex, a system that (a) provides recommended information based on the captured history of navigation from a list of people well-known to the users --- including the users themselves, (b) allows users to have access from any networked machine, (c) demands user authentication to access the repository of recommendations and (d) allows users to specify when the capture of their history should be performed.

An infrastructure for open latent semantic linking

The more the web grows, the harder it is for users to find the information they need. As a result, it is even more difficult to identify when documents are related. To find out that two or more documents are in fact related, users have to navigate by the documents in carry out an analysis about their content. This paper presents an infrastructure allowing the use of latent semantic analysis and open hypermedia concepts in the automatic identification of relationships among web pages. Latent Semantic Analysis has been proposed by the information retrieval community as an attempt to organize automatically text objects into a semantic structure appropriate for matching. In open hypermedia systems, links are managed and stored in a special database, a linkbase, which allows the addition of hypermedia functionality to a document without changing the original structure and format of the document. We first present two complementary link-related efforts: an extensible latent semantic indexing service and an open linkbase service. Leveraging off those efforts, we present an infrastructure that identifying latent semantic links within web repositories and makes them available in an open linkbase. To demonstrate by example the utility of our open infrastructure, we built an application presenting a directory of semantic links extracted from web sites.The more the web grows, the harder it is for users to find the information they need. As a result, it is even more difficult to identify when documents are related. To find out that two or more documents are in fact related, users have to navigate by the documents in carry out an analysis about their content. This paper presents an infrastructure allowing the use of latent semantic analysis and open hypermedia concepts in the automatic identification of relationships among web pages. Latent Semantic Analysis has been proposed by the information retrieval community as an attempt to organize automatically text objects into a semantic structure appropriate for matching. In open hypermedia systems, links are managed and stored in a special database, a linkbase, which allows the addition of hypermedia functionality to a document without changing the original structure and format of the document. We first present two complementary link-related efforts: an extensible latent semantic indexing service and an open linkbase service. Leveraging off those efforts, we present an infrastructure that identifying latent semantic links within web repositories and makes them available in an open linkbase. To demonstrate by example the utility of our open infrastructure, we built an application presenting a directory of semantic links extracted from web sites.

Estado nutricional e adequação da ingestão de energia e nutrientes em pacientes com insuficiência cardíaca

SUMMARY: Increased knowledge about nutritional status and energy and nutrient intakes is required to improve the treatment of patients with heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES: To verify the nutritional status and evaluate the adequacy of energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes in patients with HF in outpatient clinical settings. METHODS: We collected anthropometric and habitual dietary intake data of 125 patients (72% men, 52.1 ± 9.8 years, BMI 26.9 ± 4.4 kg/m2). Anthropometric variables were compared between genders, and the adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes was analyzed according to current recommendations. RESULTS: Muscle depletion or risk of depletion was present in 38.4% of patients (association with male gender, p <0.0001). In 69.6% of cases the mean energy intake was lower than the one required (p <0.0001). Among the micronutrients evaluated in this study, there was an important prevalence of inadequacy in magnesium, zinc, iron and thiamine intakes, and most patients had calcium and potassium intakes below the adequate levels, and sodium intake above the adequate levels. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatients with HF showed muscle depletion, and inadequate energy and nutrient intakes. There was no significant association between habitual dietary energy intake and nutritional status. Multidisciplinary care should be encouraged to better assess the general condition of these patients.SUMMARY Increased knowledge about nutritional status and energy and nutrient intakes is required to improve the treatment of patients with heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES To verify the nutritional status and evaluate the adequacy of energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes in patients with HF in outpatient clinical settings. METHODS We collected anthropometric and habitual dietary intake data of 125 patients (72% men, 52.1 +/- 9.8 years, BMI 26.9 +/- 4.4 kg/m2). Anthropometric variables were compared between genders, and the adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes was analyzed according to current recommendations. RESULTS Muscle depletion or risk of depletion was present in 38.4% of patients (association with male gender, p <0.0001). In 69.6% of cases the mean energy intake was lower than the one required (p <0.0001). Among the micronutrients evaluated in this study, there was an important prevalence of inadequacy in magnesium, zinc, iron and thiamine intakes, and most patients had calcium and potassium intakes below the adequate levels, and sodium intake above the adequate levels. CONCLUSIONS Outpatients with HF showed muscle depletion, and inadequate energy and nutrient intakes. There was no significant association between habitual dietary energy intake and nutritional status. Multidisciplinary care should be encouraged to better assess the general condition of these patients.

Nutritional status and adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes among heart failure patients

SUMMARY: Increased knowledge about nutritional status and energy and nutrient intakes is required to improve the treatment of patients with heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES: To verify the nutritional status and evaluate the adequacy of energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes in patients with HF in outpatient clinical settings. METHODS: We collected anthropometric and habitual dietary intake data of 125 patients (72% men, 52.1 ± 9.8 years, BMI 26.9 ± 4.4 kg/m2). Anthropometric variables were compared between genders, and the adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes was analyzed according to current recommendations. RESULTS: Muscle depletion or risk of depletion was present in 38.4% of patients (association with male gender, p <0.0001). In 69.6% of cases the mean energy intake was lower than the one required (p <0.0001). Among the micronutrients evaluated in this study, there was an important prevalence of inadequacy in magnesium, zinc, iron and thiamine intakes, and most patients had calcium and potassium intakes below the adequate levels, and sodium intake above the adequate levels. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatients with HF showed muscle depletion, and inadequate energy and nutrient intakes. There was no significant association between habitual dietary energy intake and nutritional status. Multidisciplinary care should be encouraged to better assess the general condition of these patients.SUMMARY Increased knowledge about nutritional status and energy and nutrient intakes is required to improve the treatment of patients with heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVES To verify the nutritional status and evaluate the adequacy of energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes in patients with HF in outpatient clinical settings. METHODS We collected anthropometric and habitual dietary intake data of 125 patients (72% men, 52.1 +/- 9.8 years, BMI 26.9 +/- 4.4 kg/m2). Anthropometric variables were compared between genders, and the adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes was analyzed according to current recommendations. RESULTS Muscle depletion or risk of depletion was present in 38.4% of patients (association with male gender, p <0.0001). In 69.6% of cases the mean energy intake was lower than the one required (p <0.0001). Among the micronutrients evaluated in this study, there was an important prevalence of inadequacy in magnesium, zinc, iron and thiamine intakes, and most patients had calcium and potassium intakes below the adequate levels, and sodium intake above the adequate levels. CONCLUSIONS Outpatients with HF showed muscle depletion, and inadequate energy and nutrient intakes. There was no significant association between habitual dietary energy intake and nutritional status. Multidisciplinary care should be encouraged to better assess the general condition of these patients.

Latent semantic linking over homogeneous repositories

We present a framework for the automatic generation of links based on salient semantic structures extracted from homogeneous web repositories, and discuss an imple-mentation of the framework. For this study, we consider homogeneous the repositories of the eClass, an instrumented environment that automatically captures details of a lecture and provides effective multimedia-enhanced web-based in-terfaces for users to review the lecture, and the CoWeb, a web-based service for collaborative authoring of web-based material. We exploited Latent Semantic Analysis over data indexed by a general public license search engine. We exper-imented our service with data from a graduate course sup-ported by both eClass and CoWeb repositories. We present the results of the Latent Semantic Analysis linking service in the light of results previously obtained with our previous works.

Automatically linking live experiences captured with a ubiquitous infrastructure

Ubiquitous computing aims at providing services to users in everyday environments such as the home. One research theme in this area is that of building capture and access applications which support information to be recorded (captured) during a live experience toward automatically producing documents for review (accessed). The recording demands instrumented environments with devices such as microphones, cameras, sensors and electronic whiteboards. Since each experience is usually related to many others (e.g. several meetings of a project), there is a demand for mechanisms supporting the automatic linking among documents relative to different experiences. In this paper we present original results relative to the integration of our previous efforts in the Infrastructure for Capturing, Accessing, Linking, Storing and Presenting information (CALiSP).

Perfil nutricional de pacientes candidatos ao transplante de pulmão

OBJECTIVE To determine the nutritional profile of lung transplant candidates. METHODS A retrospective cross-sectional study involving lung transplant candidates at a public hospital in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Data related to gender, age and underlying lung disease were compiled for the participants. For the assessment of the nutritional profile of the patients, body mass index (BMI), mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC), waist circumference and triceps skinfold thickness (TST) were determined during the first outpatient visit. RESULTS We included 117 patients, 69 of which (59%) were male. The mean age of the participants was 42.5 +/- 15.2 years. The most prevalent underlying disease, seen in 29 patients (24.8%), was pulmonary emphysema. The nutritional profile was considered normal in 48.3% of the patients with pulmonary emphysema, 55% of those with cystic fibrosis, 56% of those with bronchiectasis and 50% of those with other lung diseases. The majority (51.7%) of the patients with pulmonary fibrosis were classified as overweight. The TSTs indicated that the risk of depletion was highest (64.7%) among the patients with cystic fibrosis, followed by those with bronchiectasis (52.6%). CONCLUSIONS Patients with pulmonary fibrosis presented the highest BMIs, although the corresponding TSTs and MAMCs were normal. Patients with cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis presented the highest prevalence of nutritional depletion, based on TST and MAMC.

Using Machine Learning Classifiers to Assist Healthcare-Related Decisions: Classification of Electronic Patient Records

Surveillance Levels (SLs) are categories for medical patients (used in Brazil) that represent different types of medical recommendations. SLs are defined according to risk factors and the medical and developmental history of patients. Each SL is associated with specific educational and clinical measures. The objective of the present paper was to verify computer-aided, automatic assignment of SLs. The present paper proposes a computer-aided approach for automatic recommendation of SLs. The approach is based on the classification of information from patient electronic records. For this purpose, a software architecture composed of three layers was developed. The architecture is formed by a classification layer that includes a linguistic module and machine learning classification modules. The classification layer allows for the use of different classification methods, including the use of preprocessed, normalized language data drawn from the linguistic module. We report the verification and validation of the software architecture in a Brazilian pediatric healthcare institution. The results indicate that selection of attributes can have a great effect on the performance of the system. Nonetheless, our automatic recommendation of surveillance level can still benefit from improvements in processing procedures when the linguistic module is applied prior to classification. Results from our efforts can be applied to different types of medical systems. The results of systems supported by the framework presented in this paper may be used by healthcare and governmental institutions to improve healthcare services in terms of establishing preventive measures and alerting authorities about the possibility of an epidemic.

A look at some issues during textual linking of homogeneous web repositories

Interacting with services that create links automatically via Web users are able to identify relationships among documents stored in different repositories. The fact that automatic linking services do not use queries performed by a human user has impact in the use of information retrieval techniques for the identification of relationships. Information retrieval techniques can lead to the identification of relationships that should not have been generated (generating non-relevant links) at the same time that fail to identify all relevant relationships (poor recall). Towards improving the quality of the relationships identified we have investigated some design issues considered during the automatic linking of textual repositories. The investigations have used a collection of documents from online Brazilian Newspapers and the Cystic Fibrosis Collection. The results of the investigations have defined procedures infrastructures and consequently the requirements for a configurable linking service made also available as a contribution of this work.

A multi-label approach using binary relevance and decision trees applied to functional genomics

Many classification problems, especially in the field of bioinformatics, are associated with more than one class, known as multi-label classification problems. In this study, we propose a new adaptation for the Binary Relevance algorithm taking into account possible relations among labels, focusing on the interpretability of the model, not only on its performance. Experiments were conducted to compare the performance of our approach against others commonly found in the literature and applied to functional genomic datasets. The experimental results show that our proposal has a performance comparable to that of other methods and that, at the same time, it provides an interpretable model from the multi-label problem.