Depositional model of the Ipixuna Formation (Late Cretaceous-?Early Tertiary), Rio Capim area, northern Brazil

Exposures along open quarries located in the eastern Cametá Sub-Basin provide an opportunity of further discussing the depositional environments of the Upper Cretaceous-?Lower Tertiary Ipixuna Formation. The lower part of this unit emphasized herein, known as the "soft kaolin", consists mostly of kaolinitized sandstones and mudstones with well preserved sedimentary structures that are particularly favorable for facies analysis and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The sandstones are chiefly cross-stratified, typically with low angle, locally reverse orientated foresets with reactivation surfaces and/or mud drapes. These characteristics, together with a trace fossil assemblage consisting of Ophiomorpha, Thalassinoides, Planolites, Teichichnus, Taenidium and Skolithos, conform to deposition in a coastal setting influenced by tidal processes. Although a previous study has documented tidal processes during deposition of the soft kaolin (Santos Jr. and Rossetti, 2003), this paper shows that the influence of tidal currents was much more important than initially proposed. Hence, the kaolinitized deposits are attributed to tidally influenced fluvial channel (Facies Association A), tidal channel (Facies Association B), tidal flat/mangrove (Facies Association C), and tidal sandy bar/tidal sandy flat (Facies Association D), all together comprising a tide-dominated estuarine system

DNA methylation analysis of the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2B in Brazilian leukemia patients

The aim of this work was to evaluate the methylation profile of the p15 (CDKN2B) gene in Brazilian patients with leukemia and to correlate the CDKN2B gene expression with the percentage of methylated CpG dinucleotides in its promoter region. Thirty-one samples from six patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), four with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and 21 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were evaluated by MSP (Methylation-Specific PCR). The CDKN2B gene was found to be methylated in four (67%) of the six ALL samples and in 16 (76%) of the 21 AML samples, but in none of the four CML samples analyzed. We observed a correlation between the CDKN2B mRNA expression (RT-PCR) and the percentage of methylated CpG dinucleotides. Therefore, this study in Brazilian patients confirms that the CDKN2B gene is methylated in the majority of leukemia patients

One Health: The global challenge of epidemic and endemic leishmaniasis

'One Health' proposes the unification of medical and veterinary sciences with the establishment of collaborative ventures in clinical care, surveillance and control of cross-species disease, education, and research into disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, therapy and vaccination. The concept encompasses the human population, domestic animals and wildlife, and the impact that environmental changes ('environmental health') such as global warming will have on these populations. Visceral leishmaniasis is a perfect example of a small companion animal disease for which prevention and control might abolish or decrease the suffering of canine and human patients, and which aligns well with the One Health approach. In this review we discuss how surveillance for leishmaniases is undertaken globally through the control of anthroponootic visceral leishmaniasis (AVL) and zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL). The ZVL epidemic has been managed to date by the culling of infected dogs, treatment of human cases and control of the sandfly vector by insecticidal treatment of human homes and the canine reservoir. Recently, preventive vaccination of dogs in Brazil has led to reduction in the incidence of the canine and human disease. Vaccination permits greater dog owner compliance with control measures than a culling programme. Another advance in disease control in Africa is provided by a surveillance programme that combines remote satellite sensing, ecological modelling, vector surveillance and geo-spatial mapping of the distribution of vectors and of the animal-to-animal or animal-to-human pathogen transmission. This coordinated programme generates advisory notices and alerts on emerging infectious disease outbreaks that may impede or avoid the spreading of visceral leishmaniasis to new areas of the planet as a consequence of global warming