Popularization actions of food science and technology in south and metropolitan regions of Rio de Janeiro state.

The ignorance on concepts and practices in Food Science and Technology (FS&T) and the lack of specialized staff in agricultural educational institutions are factors that limit the interest of future technical on this topic. Such limitations may be overcome through actions to awaken curiosity and motivate the training technical to care for all matters of FS&T, constituting current educational techniques and encouraging the interest by potential agribusiness activity. Thus, was established a partnership between Embrapa Food Technology, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro - Campus Nilo Peçanha (IFRJ) and the Technical College of Rural University (CTUR). It was carried out a diagnosis of physical and educational structure of these institutions and localities conditions. Subsequently, the popularization of FS&T gave through five courses of capacitance, construction of web page and a discussion forum. It was constructed a network of relationships and communication that includes the actors concerned development in these localities and produced materials to disseminate these information. The point of views of the participants of courses and of the event were evaluated. The data showed that the activities were mostly positive and which are necessary new actions

Science popularization actions for teaching food science and technology in Rio de Janeiro state.

Over the last few years several initiatives have been undertaken in Brazil and worldwide for the popularization of science, especially by research institutions and interactive museums that have sought to broaden their operation scope. Embrapa Food Technology, located in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro / Brazil has developed several actions to 13th International Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference 5-8 May 2014, Salvador, Brazil disseminate their activities which focus on popularizing aimed at Food Science and technology (FS&T). Aiming to develop dissemination actions and cooperate with new dynamic learning, Embrapa established a partnership with Technical College of Federal Rural University (CTUR) and Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro - Campus Pinheiral financing by FAPERJ - Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Foundation to produced animations related to food processing and held a symposium to discuss the teaching of Food S&T in Rio de Janeiro state. These animations were intended to be used as supplementary education to fix concepts of FS&T. The symposium "Teaching of FS&T in the state of Rio de Janeiro: is there anything to innovate?" was focused on teaching professionals and those who are willing to spread knowledge in this area, bringing together 60 professionals from all over the State. The experience gained with this project was presented and raised suggestions for collaboration between institutions of FS&T. There was a great acceptance by the participants of the format of the event (lectures)

Evidence of Simultaneous Circulation of West Nile and Usutu Viruses in Mosquitoes Sampled in Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) in 2009

BACKGROUND: In recent years human diseases due to mosquito-borne viruses were increasingly reported in Emilia-Romagna region (Italy), from the chikungunya virus in 2007 to the West Nile virus (WNV) in 2008. An extensive entomological survey was performed in 2009 to establish the presence and distribution of mosquito arboviruses in this region, with particular reference to flaviviruses. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: From May 6 to October 31, a total of 190,516 mosquitoes were sampled in georeferenced stations, grouped in 1,789 pools according date of collection, location, and species, and analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect the presence of RNA belong to Flavivirus genus. WNV was detected in 27 mosquito pools, producing sequences similar to those of birds and human strains obtained in 2008 outbreak, pointed out the probable virus overwintering. Isolation of WNV was achieved from one of these pools. Moreover 56 pools of mosquitoes tested positive for Usutu virus (USUV). Most PCR positive pools consisted of Culex pipiens, which also was the most analyzed mosquito species (81.4% of specimens); interestingly, USUV RNA was also found in two Aedes albopictus mosquito pools. Simultaneous circulation of WNV and USUV in the survey area was highlighted by occurrence of 8 mosquito WNV- and USUV-positive pools and by the overlaying of the viruses "hot spots", obtained by kernel density estimation (KDE) analysis. Land use of sampled stations pointed out a higher proportion of WNV-positive Cx. pipiens pool in rural environments respect the provenience of total sampled pool, while the USUV-positive pools were uniformly captured in the different environments. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Obtained data highlighting the possible role of Cx. pipiens mosquito as the main vector for WNV and USUV in Northern Italy, and the possible involvement of Ae. albopictus mosquito in USUV cycle. The described mosquito-based surveillance could constitute the foundation for a public health alert system targeting mosquito borne arboviruses

Distance to high-voltage power lines and risk of childhood leukemia:An analysis of confounding by and interaction with other potential risk factors

We investigated whether there is an interaction between distance from residence at birth to nearest power line and domestic radon and traffic-related air pollution, respectively, in relation to childhood leukemia risk. Further, we investigated whether adjusting for potential confounders alters the association between distance to nearest power line and childhood leukemia. We included 1024 cases aged <15, diagnosed with leukemia during 1968-1991, from the Danish Cancer Registry and 2048 controls randomly selected from the Danish childhood population and individually matched by gender and year of birth. We used geographical information systems to determine the distance between residence at birth and the nearest 132-400 kV overhead power line. Concentrations of domestic radon and traffic-related air pollution (NOx at the front door) were estimated using validated models. We found a statistically significant interaction between distance to nearest power line and domestic radon regarding risk of childhood leukemia (p = 0.01) when using the median radon level as cut-off point but not when using the 75th percentile (p = 0.90). We found no evidence of an interaction between distance to nearest power line and traffic-related air pollution (p = 0.73). We found almost no change in the estimated association between distance to power line and risk of childhood leukemia when adjusting for socioeconomic status of the municipality, urbanization, maternal age, birth order, domestic radon and traffic-related air pollution. The statistically significant interaction between distance to nearest power line and domestic radon was based on few exposed cases and controls and sensitive to the choice of exposure categorization and might, therefore, be due to chance

Pregnancy Outcome and Placenta Pathology in Plasmodium berghei ANKA Infected Mice Reproduce the Pathogenesis of Severe Malaria in Pregnant Women

Pregnancy-associated malaria (PAM) is expressed in a range of clinical complications that include increased disease severity in pregnant women, decreased fetal viability, intra-uterine growth retardation, low birth weight and infant mortality. The physiopathology of malaria in pregnancy is difficult to scrutinize and attempts were made in the past to use animal models for pregnancy malaria studies. Here, we describe a comprehensive mouse experimental model that recapitulates many of the pathological and clinical features typical of human severe malaria in pregnancy. We used P. berghei ANKA-GFP infection during pregnancy to evoke a prominent inflammatory response in the placenta that entails CD11b mononuclear infiltration, up-regulation of MIP-1 alpha chemokine and is associated with marked reduction of placental vascular spaces. Placenta pathology was associated with decreased fetal viability, intra-uterine growth retardation, gross post-natal growth impairment and increased disease severity in pregnant females. Moreover, we provide evidence that CSA and HA, known to mediate P. falciparum adhesion to human placenta, are also involved in mouse placental malaria infection. We propose that reduction of maternal blood flow in the placenta is a key pathogenic factor in murine pregnancy malaria and we hypothesize that exacerbated innate inflammatory responses to Plasmodium infected red blood cells trigger severe placenta pathology. This experimental model provides an opportunity to identify cell and molecular components of severe PAM pathogenesis and to investigate the inflammatory response that leads to the observed fetal and placental blood circulation abnormalities