A hiperacusia e o zumbido representam alterações na percepção dos sons, estando freqüentemente associados. Ambos refletem um estado de hiperatividade da via auditiva, gerado por alterações na plasticidade neuronal geralmente associadas à super estimulação ou deprivação sensorial. A hiperacusia refere-se a uma disfunção na percepção da intensidade de sons externos, o zumbido refere-se à percepção de um som interno que não tem uma fonte geradora externa. Afetam adultos e crianças e podem ocasionar limitações na qualidade de vida. Ainda são muito negligenciados por otorrinolaringologistas e pediatras, apesar da sua presença não ser incomum na infância. Delineamos um estudo populacional transversal randomizado entre crianças de 5 a 12 anos cujo objetivo principal foi estimar a prevalência da hiperacusia e do zumbido. O objetivo secundário foi avaliar a associação a possíveis fatores de risco e a causalidade entre os sintomas. Foram avaliadas 506 crianças em ambiente escolar. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionário aos pais ou responsáveis, entrevista com as crianças, otoscopia e testes auditivos. A classificação dos resultados seguiu critérios previamente estabelecidos. Participaram 240 meninas (47,4%) e 266 meninos (52,6%), idade média 9.46 anos (DP= 2.09). Os limiares auditivos foram classificados como normais em 81%, disacusia de grau mínimo/leve em 14% e disacusia de grau moderado/ profundo em 4% das crianças. A prevalência da sensação de zumbido foi 37,5%, incômodo com zumbido 19,6% e hiperacusia 3,2%. Os fatores de risco foram analisados por um modelo de regressão multivariado. Em relação ao zumbido, os fatores associados foram: idade, gênero, perda auditiva, história de exposição aos sons e cinetose. Para a hiperacusia, o único fator de risco encontrado foi a perda auditiva leve na orelha esquerda. A presença de hiperacusia demonstrou ser o maior fator de risco associado ao incomodo com o zumbido / Hyperacusis and tinnitus are altered states of sound perception and are frequently associated. Both reflect a hyperactivity of the auditory pathway as an expression of neural plasticity which is often triggered by over stimulation or deprivation of sensorial stimuli. Hyperacusis is a dysfunction on loudness perception of external sounds and tinnitus a perception of an internal sound without an external source. They might affect adults and children causing interference on quality of life. They are still neglected by otolaryngologysts and pediatricians. A prospective cross sectional study was designed to estimate tinnitus and hyperacusis prevalence and evaluate association to possible risk factors and causality among them. Children from 5 to 12 years of age were evaluated in the school environment. Data was collected searching parental information, children\'s interview, otoscopy and audiometric tests. The symptoms were classified according to previous established criteria. The final sample counted on 240 girls and 266 boys, mean age 9.46 (SD= 2.09). Hearing thresholds were classified as normal in 81%, minimum to mild hearing loss in 14% and moderate to profound hearing loss in 4% of the children. Prevalence of tinnitus sensation was found to be 37.5%, tinnitus suffering 19.6% and hyperacusis 3.2%. Age, gender, hearing loss, history of noise exposure and motion sickness were risk factors to tinnitus. Left ear hearing loss was a risk factor for hyperacusis. The presence of hyperacusis demonstrated to be the highest risk factor to tinnitus suffering

Esta pesquisa apresenta a aplicação de uma nova metodologia de medição de carreamento de solo, que foi utilizada durante o período de um ano, na área urbana de Paranavaí, no estado do Paraná. Teve como objetivo avaliar a fragilidade do solo e analisar os processos de erosão e arenização. Durante o seu desenvolvimento foram analisados principalmente os dados climáticos que envolveram desde as temperaturas médias anuais, índices de pluviosidade até direção e velocidade dos ventos de superfície. A partir da análise dos dados obtidos foram elaboradas cartas temáticas que permitiram um melhor entendimento do fenômeno da arenização, cerne deste trabalho. Uma série de fotos obtidas no campo auxiliou na análise e avaliação desses processos, gerando uma discussão de resultados que possibilitou tecer considerações sobre a recuperação de certas áreas onde ocorrem esses fenômenos. / This research aims to present the application of a new methodology of measurement of soil carrying over used during one-year term in the urban area of Paranavaí, in the state of Paraná-Brazil. Aiming to evaluate the soil fragility and analyzing the erosion processes and arenization, it was analyzed during its development, the climatic data from the average annual temperatures, pluviometric rates and even the direction and speed of the winds. Starting from the analysis point of the data collected, thematic letters were elaborated allowing a better comprehension of the arenization phenomenon, core of this work. A series of pictures were taken in field that helped us in the analysis and evaluation of these processes, arousing a discussion of the results, which let us talk about the recovery of certain areas where these phenomena occur.

Os efeitos deletérios do excesso de peso sobre a saúde dos cães são bastante citados na literatura, mas pouco investigados. O termo hiperlipidemia refere-se ao aumento da concentração de lipídeos (colesterol, triglicérides ou ambos) séricos. As desordens lipídicas são relativamente comuns nos cães e estas condições podem ocorrer como resultado de um defeito primário no metabolismo de lipoproteínas ou como conseqüência de doença sistêmica subjacente. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a frequência de animais obesos que apresentam alterações nas concentrações de lipídios séricos e analisar a possível correspondência desta condição com grau de obesidade, sexo, idade e castração. Foram incluídos 30 cães obesos com escore de condição corporal (ECC) igual ou superior a 8 (em escala de um a nove, com nove representando obesidade acentuada) e um grupo controle de dez animais com ECC igual a cinco. Nos animais com ECC 9 (n=21), foi encontrada freqüência de 52,4% (n=11) de cães com hipercolesterolemia e 33,3% (n=7) com hipertrigliceridemia. Nos animais com EEC 8 (n=9) foi encontrada freqüência de 22,2% (n=2) de hipercolesterolemia e de 33,3% (n=3) de hipertrigliceridemia. Estas alterações também apresentaram correspondência com o sexo feminino, faixa etária entre quatro e sete anos e a castração. Todavia, a elevação destes metabólitos foi moderada e não se situou em faixa de reconhecido risco à saúde / The harmful effects of obesity on dog health are quite mentioned in the literature, but little investigated. The term hyperlipidemia refers to the increase of lipid and/or fat concentration (cholesterol, triglycerides or both) in serum. These disorders are relatively common in dogs and may happen as a result of a primary defect in metabolism of lipoproteins or as a consequence of a subjacent systemic disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of obese dogs that present alterations on cholesterol and triglycerides serum concentration, and to study the correlation of these disorders with obesity degree, sex, age and castration. Thirty obese dogs with body condition score (BCS) equal or superior to 8 (on a scale between one to nine, and nine representing severe obesity) and a control group of ten dogs with BCS of 5 were included. Animals with BCS of 9 (n=21 dogs) presented a frequency of 52.4% (n=11 dogs) of hypercholesterolemia and 33.3% (n=7) of hypertriglyceridemia. Dogs with BCS of 8 (n=9) presented a frequency of 22,2% (n=2) of hypercholesterolemia and 33,3% (n=3) of hypertriglyceridemia. These alterations also presented correspondence with female sex, age between 4 and 7 years and castration. However, the cholesterol and triglycerides increases were moderate, and not remained within the range of recognized health risk

In this thesis, a fully millimetre-wave (mm-wave) generation and transmission system is proposed for futuristic communications. Significant challenges have been dealt with regarding the proposed system, including designing the mm-wave generation and transmission technique, and its application in cellular networks. These challenges are presented through five main contributions and validated via Optiwave Design Software and MATLAB simulation tools. Firstly, three novel photonic generation methods are proposed and designed based on the characteristics of Brillouin fibre laser and the Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) effects with phase modulation. The mm-wave carriers are successfully generated with a tuning capability from 5 to 90 GHz. Also, these carriers are with good Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) up to 51 dB, and low noise signal power of about -40 dBm. The impact of these methods is obtaining stable mm-waves appropriate for Radio over Fibre (RoF) transmission systems in 5G optical networks. Secondly, a full-duplex RoF system with the generation of a 64 GHz mm-wave is proposed. Successful transmission of the mm-wave over a fibre link is achieved for up to 100 km of fibre with a data rate of 5 Gbits/s. The main impact of this system is cost reduction and performance improvement by simplifying mm-wave generation and transmission over fibre. Also, it ensures a useful communication link for small cell networks. Thirdly, a hybrid Fibre/Free-space optical (FSO) system for the generation and transmission of 64 GHz mm-wave is proposed. This optical system provides a low latency communication link and overcomes mm-wave high path losses. A successful mm-wave transmission is achieved over a 10 km fibre length, and 2 km FSO link length with a good Bit Error Rate (BER) of about 1.5×10-13 and a data rate of 10 Gbits/s. This system increases the network coverage area by transmitting the mm-wave over the FSO link to the areas with natural obstacles the laying of fibre cables impossible. Also, it can be used as an effective solution under emergency disaster conditions. Fourthly, a comprehensive study of the wireless propagation performance for different mm-wave bands (28, 60, and 73 GHz) as cellular networks is investigated and compared with the 2.4 GHz Ultra-High Frequency band (UHF). A map-based scenario is proposed for the deployment of Base Stations (BSs) within the Brunel University London Campus map to consider real blockage effects. This investigation involved specifying which mm-wave spectrum can enhance the futuristic cellular networks, by evaluating the coverage and rate trends. Comparative results show that the 73 GHz bands can achieve the higher rate with good coverage and the lowest interference effects than the other mm-wave bands. Finally, a simplified path loss model is proposed to estimate precisely the 28 GHz mm-wave performance, which is considered a key component in 5G networks in outdoor applications. The proposed path loss model captures the diffraction and specular reflection impacts on mm-wave wireless propagation.

Optical fibre has become the dominant theme of transmission in long haul, high data rate communication systems due to its tremendous bandwidth and low loss. Radio over Fibre (RoF) technology facilitates the seamless integration between wireless and optical communication systems and found to be the most promising solution to meet the exponential bandwidth demands expected for the upcoming years. However, the main bit-rate/distance limitation in RoF systems is the chromatic dispersion. In this thesis, the two generations of RoF technologies, namely Analogue RoF (ARoF) and Digital RoF (DRoF) are investigated. The overall aim of this research is to optimise the optical bandwidth utilisation of these two approaches for a typical transmission of the fronthaul link proposed in the next generation Centralised Radio Access Network (C-RAN). Consequently, a number of physical layer design scenarios for the optimised transmission of the Radio Frequency (RF) signals over a Standards Single Mode Fibre (SSMF) are demonstrated. Firstly, for an ARoF transmission, where the analogue RF signals are transported over SSMF using an optical carrier, a bidirectional link transmitting four Downlink/Uplink channels in a chromatic dispersion limited scenario is designed. Simulation results have shown a clear constellation diagram of a 2.5 Gb/s RF signal transmission over 120 km fibre length. Secondly, a DRoF system with reduced optical bandwidth occupancy is proposed. This system employs an optical Duobinary transmission to the digitised RF signal at the transmitter side to reduce its spectrum and to address the chromatic dispersion effect, simultaneously. Simulation results demonstrate the capability of the proposed system to maintain high-quality transmission of the digitised signals over 70 km of fibre distance without dispersion compensation requirements. Finally, an advanced DRoF transmission link based on integrating digital Optical Single Sideband (OSSB) transmission with Duobinary encoding scheme is designed. Simulation results have clearly verified system's robustness against transmission impairments and have better performances in terms of the obtained BER and EVM with respect to the 3GPP standardised values. Moreover, the results show that both transmission distance and power budget are furtherly improved in comparison with two other digital transmission scenarios.

Introduction : les effets indésirables associés à un traitement médicamenteux ou à la pose d'un dispositif médical implantable doivent être recherchés systématiquement après le début de leur commercialisation. Les études réalisées pendant cette phase sont des études observationnelles qui peuvent s'envisager à partir des bases de données hospitalières. L'objectif de ce travail est d'étudier l'intérêt de la ré-utilisation de données hospitalières pour la mise en évidence de tels effets indésirables.Matériel et méthodes : deux bases de données hospitalières sont ré-utilisées pour les années 2007 à 2013 : une première contenant 171 000 000 de séjours hospitaliers incluant les codes diagnostiques, les codes d'actes et des données démographiques, ces données étant chaînées selon un identifiant unique de patient ; une seconde issue d'un centre hospitalier contenant les mêmes types d'informations pour 80 000 séjours ainsi que les résultats de biologie médicale, les administrations médicamenteuses et les courriers hospitaliers pour chacun des séjours. Quatre études sont conduites sur ces données afin d'identifier d'une part des évènements indésirables médicamenteux et d'autre part des évènements indésirables faisant suite à la pose d'un dispositif médical implantable.Résultats : la première étude démontre l'aptitude d'un jeu de règles de détection à identifier automatiquement les effets indésirables à type d'hyperkaliémie. Une deuxième étude décrit la variation d'un paramètre de biologie médicale associée à la présence d'un motif séquentiel fréquent composé d'administrations de médicaments et de résultats de biologie médicale. Un troisième travail a permis la construction d'un outil web permettant d'explorer à la volée les motifs de réhospitalisation des patients ayant eu une pose de dispositif médical implantable. Une quatrième et dernière étude a permis l'estimation du risque thrombotique et hémorragique faisant suite à la pose d'une prothèse totale de hanche.Conclusion : la ré-utilisation de données hospitalières dans une perspective pharmacoépidémiologique permet l'identification d'effets indésirables associés à une administration de médicament ou à la pose d'un dispositif médical implantable. L'intérêt de ces données réside dans la puissance statistique qu'elles apportent ainsi que dans la multiplicité des types de recherches d'association qu'elles permettent. / Introduction:The adverse events associated with drug administration or placement of an implantable medical device should be sought systematically after the beginning of the commercialisation. Studies conducted in this phase are observational studies that can be performed from hospital databases. The objective of this work is to study the interest of the re-use of hospital data for the identification of such an adverse event.Materials and methods:Two hospital databases have been re-used between the years 2007 to 2013: the first contains 171 million inpatient stays including diagnostic codes, procedures and demographic data. This data is linked with a single patient identifier; the second database contains the same kinds of information for 80,000 stays and also the laboratory results and drug administrations for each inpatient stay. Four studies were conducted on these pieces of data to identify adverse drug events and adverse events following the placement of an implantable medical device.Results:The first study demonstrates the ability of a set of detection of rules to automatically identify adverse drug events with hyperkalaemia. The second study describes the variation of a laboratory results associated with the presence of a frequent sequential pattern composed of drug administrations and laboratory results. The third piece of work enables the user to build a web tool exploring on the fly the reasons for rehospitalisation of patients with an implantable medical device. The fourth and final study estimates the thrombotic and bleeding risks following a total hip replacement.Conclusion:The re-use of hospital data in a pharmacoepidemiological perspective allows the identification of adverse events associated with drug administration or placement of an implantable medical device. The value of this data is the amount statistical power they bring as well as the types of associations they allow to analyse.

A adubação verde no Brasil, apesar de ser comumente conhecida pelos seus benefícios, ainda é pouco utilizada no sistema de rotação de cultura na cana-de-açúcar. Dentre os fatores que ainda implicam na decisão de utilizar a tecnologia da adubação verde, esta o desconhecimento dos efeitos dos herbicidas residuais utilizados na cultura da cana, sobre as plantas utilizadas como adubação verde e a cultura da soja. Assim, esta pesquisa foi conduzida com o objetivo de avaliar: resíduos de herbicidas em solos arenoso e argiloso; efeitos dos resíduos sobre a biomassa fresca de Cajanus cajan, Canavalia ensiformis, Crotalaria juncea, C. spectabilis, C. ochroleuca e Mucuna pruriens; efeitos dos resíduos dos herbicidas na fototoxicidade e produção de grãos da cultura de soja cv. NA 5909 RG. Os experimentos foram desenvolvidos em áreas pertencentes a Usina São Martinho S/A, nos municípios de Iracemápolis/SP e Itirapina/SP, com os herbicidas amicarbazone, hexazinona, sulfentrazone e tebuthiuron, onde foram aplicadas cinco doses de cada herbicida em pré-emergência, aos 82 dias anteriores a semeadura das espécies. As doses utilizadas foram: 1/4D, 1/2D, 3/4D, D, 2D e testemunha sem aplicação; sendo D a dose recomendada de amicarbazone (1.050 g ha-1), ou de hexazinona (225 g ha-1), ou de tebuthiuron (1.200 g ha-1), ou de sulfentrazone (750 g ha-1). Todas as amostras foram enviadas e analisadas em laboratório, onde foi determinado os resíduos de cada herbicida em (μg Kg-1 solo). Os resíduos do herbicida amicarbazone detectados foram inferiores proporcionalmente, aos outros herbicidas testados, principalmente em solo arenoso. A maioria das espécies de adubos verdes estudadas, não apresentaram redução de biomassa onde foram aplicadas as doses comerciais de amicarbazone, hexazinona e sulfentrazone. O resíduo do herbicida tebuthiuron detectado no solo, foi superior proporcialmente, aos outros herbicidas testados, principalmente em solo argiloso. O herbicida tebuthiuron ocasionou a redução de biomassa para maioria das espécies a partir dos tratamento com a dose comercial. As espécies C. cajan e C. ensoformis foram as plantas mais tolerantes a maioria dos herbicidas testados. Para a maioria dos herbicidas testados, as espécies C. spectabilis e C. ocholeruca foram as espécies com maiores índices de redução, sendo a C. ochroleuca a espécie mais sensível. Na cultura da soja, o herbicida sulfentrazone não ocasionou redução, os herbicidas amicarbazone e hexazinona causaram redução de produtividade apenas nos tratamentos com maiores concentrações. O tebuthiuron foi o herbicida mais agressivo, causando reduções de produtividade principalmente com as maiores concentrações analisadas. / Green manure in Brazil, despite being commonly known for its benefits, is still little used in the crop rotation system in sugarcane. Among the factors even care in the decision to use the technology of green manure, is the lack of knowledge on the residual effects herbicides used during the crop, on the plants used as green manure and the soybean crop. Thus, this research was conducted with the propose of evaluating: herbicide residues in sandy and clayey soils; effects of residues on the fresh biomass weight of Cajanus cajan, Canavalia ensiformis, Crotalaria juncea, C. spectabilis, C. ochroleuca and Mucuna pruriens; residual effects on phototoxicity and grain yield of soybean crop cv. NA 5909 RG. The experiments were developed in areas of Sao Martinho S / A Plant, around Iracemapolis/SP and Itirapina/SP, using the herbicides amicarbazone, hexazinone, sulfentrazone and tebuthiuron, and applied five doses of each herbicide were applied in pre-emergence, at 82 days before planting of the species. The doses used were: 1/4D, 1/2D, 3/4D, D, 2D and a witness without application; with D being the recommended dose of amicarbazone (1,050 g ha-1), or hexazinone (225 g ha-1), or tebuthiuron (1,200 g ha-1), or sulfentrazone (750 g ha-1). All samples were sent and analyzed in laboratory, evaluating the residues of each herbicide were determined in (μg kg-1 soil). The residues of the amicarbazone herbicide detected, were proportionally lower than the other herbicides tested, mainly in sandy soil. Most of the green manure species, did not show any biomass reduction when applied commercial doses of amicarbazone, hexazinone and sulfentrazone were applied. The residual effects of tebuthiuron detected in the soil was higher proportionally, to the other herbicides tested, mainly in clayey soil. The herbicide tebuthiuron caused the reduction of biomass for most species from the commercial dose treatment. The species C. cajan and C. ensoformis were tolerant plants for most herbicides tested. For most of the tested herbicides, C. spectabilis and C. ocholeruca were the species with the highest reduction rates, C. ochroleuca being the most sensitive species. In the soybean crop, the herbicide sulfentrazone did not cause reduction, the herbicides amicarbazone and hexazinone caused a reduction of productivity only in the treatments with higher concentrations. Tebuthiuron was the most aggressive herbicide, causing productivity reductions mainly with the highest concentrations analyzed.

O planejamento da produção é uma atividade que avalia decisões para um melhor uso dos recursos disponíveis, visando satisfazer aos objetivos produtivos da empresa ao longo de um horizonte de planejamento. Este trabalho enfoca o problema de dimensionamento de lotes com restrições de capacidade (PDLC), que é uma das tarefas centrais envolvidas no planejamento da produção. O PDLC visa determinar o tamanho dos lotes a serem produzidos em períodos de tempo de um horizonte de planejamento. Os PDLC estudados neste trabalho contemplam duas características importantes: a presença de múltiplos itens e a existência de tempos de preparação para as máquinas. Além disso, são consideradas restrições de capacidade e situações onde o atraso para atender a demanda é permitido (backlogging). Alguns dos modelos estudados permitem que a preparação do ambiente de produção para um dado item possa ser mantida de um período para o seguinte, o que propiciaria a economia de até uma preparação a cada período. Esta característica é chamada de preservação de preparação (carry-over). Também existem situações onde a preparação de uma máquina começa em um período e termina no período seguinte. Na literatura, esta característica é chamada de set-up crossover. Este trabalho tem três metas centrais: a) avaliar diferentes configurações do software comercial ILOG CPLEX 11 para a solução dos PDLC estudados; b) estudar a influência na solução dos PDLC quando se acrescenta a possibilidade de atraso na demanda, de preservação de preparação e de set-up crossover; c) aplicar local branching para resolver os problemas estudados. Para resolver as instâncias propostas, foram utilizados o software comercial ILOG CPLEX 11 e um programa em C++ que foi desenvolvido neste trabalho. Foram utilizados exemplos encontrados na literatura para avaliar as propostas, e bons resultados foram obtidos / The production planning is an activity that evaluates the decision for a better use of the available resources, in order to satisfy the productive objectives of the company over a planning horizon. This work focuses on the capacitated lot-sizing problem (CLSP), which is one of the central tasks involved in production planning. The CLSP means to determine the size of the lots to be produced in time periods of a planning horizon. The CLSP studied in this work contemplate two complicating characteristics: the presence of multiple items and the existence of set-up times for the machines. Besides that, capacity constraints and situations where backlog of the demand is allowed are also considered (backlogging). Some of the studied models allow the set-up of the production environment for a given item to be carried over to the next period, which could result in economy of a set-up in each period (carry-over). There are situations where the set-up of a machine starts in one period and crosses over to the next period (set-up crossover). This work has three main goals: a) evaluate different configurations of the commercial software ILOG CPLEX 11 to solve the different kinds of CLSP studied; b) study the influence of the solution of the CLSP when you consider the possibility of backlogging, set-up carry-over and set-up crossover; c) apply local branching to solve the studied problems. To solve the proposed instances, we used the commercial solver ILOG CPLEX 11 and the program in C++ developed in this work. The examples used to test both programs are found in the literature, and good results were obtained

O presente trabalho trata das estratégias de agregação de tráfego IP nas redes óticas WDM. Utilizar todo um comprimento de onda para transportar um único fluxo de dados numa rede WDM é ineficiente. O problema conhecido como agregação de tráfego consiste na multiplexação de distintos fluxos de tráfego em um mesmo comprimento de onda sobre um caminho ótico. A alocação de múltiplos fluxos de tráfego em comprimentos de onda é realizada por protocolos de controle de admissão, roteamento e designação de comprimento de onda (RWA) e algoritmos de agregação de tráfego. Neste trabalho é simulado o comportamento dinâmico e elástico do tráfego IP diretamente sobre a camada ótica. Com base nos resultados das simulações determinam-se os efeitos da granularidade dos fluxos IP nos parâmetros de desempenho da rede. As topologias utilizadas durante as simulações são das redes NSFNET e Kyatera. É estabelecida também uma correlação entre a granularidade dos fluxos de tráfego e os parâmetros de desempenho da rede. / The present work covers the IP traffic grooming strategies in optical WDM networks. Using an entire wavelength to transport an individual traffic flow in a WDM network is inefficient. The problem known as traffic grooming consists in the multiplexing of different traffic flows in a single wavelength within a lightpath. The allocation of multiple traffic flows is performed by routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) and traffic grooming algorithms. In this work it is simulated the dynamic and elastic behavior of IP traffic directly on top of the optical layer. Based on the simulation results the effects of the IP traffic flow granularity on the network performance parameters are determined. The simulated topologies are the NSFNET and Kyatera. It is also established the correlation between the traffic flow granularity and the network performance parameters.

abstract: Advances in health care have resulted in an increase in life expectancy causing a rapid growth in the number of older adults at a global level. At the same time, socioeconomic development is transitioning family structures and social relationships. With reduced family engagement, many older adults are more at risk for physical and psychological health issues including loneliness, which is considered a public health issue affecting their quality of life and well-being. This descriptive, exploratory study aims to describe the significance of loneliness in three northern regions of the Sultanate of Oman. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and correlates of loneliness and the relationship of loneliness to health statuses among older Omani adults aged 60 years and above. A demographic data questionnaire, the UCLA loneliness scale, and SF-12-v-1 health status instruments were used for data collection. The sample includes 113 Omani older adults, male (n = 36) and female (n = 77), who experienced a mixture from low to high and severe levels of loneliness. Among these older adults, 34.5% perceived low level, 34.5% moderate level, 22.1% high, and 8.8% were severely lonely. The main demographic factors that were associated with the older adults level of loneliness were female gender, older age 80 years and above, living with others who were not a family member, and being unemployed. When controlling for demographic and environmental factors loneliness was a significant predictor (p < .001) for lower mental health status but not for physical health status (p > .05). / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Nursing 2019