Tool/Machine

This project intends to add the simplified filter paper-DNA extraction protocol to the portability of the Q3-Plus instrument and the ease of use of gelified 'ready to use' qPCR reactions to assemble a complete technological solution that can detect Plasmodium DNA in low-resource or remote areas, such as settlements and gold mining regions in the Amazon.

This study intends to address two important issues related to the asymptomatic P. vivax-infected individuals: diagnosing asymptomatic individuals with submicroscopic parasitemia in the field and defining whether low parasitemic patients transmit the infection to Anopheles darlingi. Following the belief that deploying a novel point-of-care rapid test (RDT) and understanding the importance of asymptomatic individuals in P.

The objective of this project is to develop data visualization tools and malaria outbreaks spreading simulation-based in machine learning methods, using demographic, epidemiological, climatic and clinical data related to malaria in the Brazilian Amazon. Such tools will be provided through a Web Platform with supporting tools to public administrators; the goal is for it to be ready for use in the short term. All the infrastructure for the creation and provision for a Web Platform had been developed.

With over 1/3rd of births unregistered in developing countries, the lack of reliable infant identification methods is a major bottleneck for governments, aid agencies, and NGOs in the delivery health services. The inability to link neonates to a health record means healthcare providers often have no idea if the child has been immunized. We propose to develop fingerprinting software and hardware capable of identifying newborns.

Uterine fibroids, the most common female pelvic tumour, cause suffering in 25% of women aged 15-49. They cause pain, bleeding and often infertility.The dominant treatment is hysterectomy, involving surgical removal of the uterus. These invasive surgeries cause infertility, scarring and long recovery times. They require a sterile operating and recovery room. Ureteral injury major side effects occur in 2.2% to 3% of cases. Hospital stay is 2-5 days and return to normal activity is 44 days.

Neonatal hypothermia affects an estimated 17M newborns annually in developing countries. (1) It is a comorbidity of hypoglycemia, infection, and hypoxia, and is a significant contributing factor to mortality. The early stages of hypothermia are invisible, so it is often undetected. (2) However, if caretakers recognize hypothermia and warm the babies, there is a markedly increased chance of survival. Early detection is paramount, and a tool to detect hypothermia is a critical part of the solution

In LMICs, over 3 million babies die each year simply because they do not have access to incubators that provide heat, phototherapy, and ventilation. This leads to billions of dollar in human and capital loses annually. Currently, there are no affordable, fully functional incubators for low-resource settings. Modern hospital incubators are stationary, large and heavy, and require a constant 110-240V electricity and are prohibitively expensive to purchase and complex to disinfect and to maintain.

Each year approximately 10 million babies do not breathe immediately at birth, of which about 6 million require basic neonatal resuscitation (1). It is estimated that there are 904,000 intrapartum-related neonatal deaths each year (2). The vast majority of these deaths occur in low-income settings, where health system capacity to provide neonatal resuscitation is inadequate (3). Delays to establish ventilation in a non-breathing newborn contribute to this mortality and morbidity.

In Rhesus D hemolytic disease of the newborn, fetal red blood cells are destroyed by the maternal immune system through the placenta, causing devastating consequences for fetus (e.g., severe anemia, neurologic injury, stillbirth, and neonatal death) [1-2]. In African hospitals, the dose of the drug (an expensive and a potentially scarce blood product) given to patients is ad hoc, preventing effective treatment, exacerbating affordability, and hindering broad access of the drug in Africa [3-5].