Truncus arteriosus with aortic arch interruption: cardiovascular magnetic resonance findings in the unrepaired adult

Truncus arteriosus (TA) is a rare congenital condition defined as a single arterial vessel arising from the heart that gives origin to the systemic, pulmonary and coronary circulations. We discuss the unique case of a 28 year-old female patient with unrepaired TA and interruption of the aortic arch who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FOOD CONSUMPTION AS PREDICTOR OF CARDIOVASCULAR RISK AND WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE INCREASE IN TEENAGERS

Introduction: the eating habits of young people have changed significantly over the last few decades. Teenagers tend to have less than desirable intake of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and wholegrain products, and higher intake of foods high in saturated and trans fats, leading to increased waist circumference and consequent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Objective: to analyse the relationship between dietary intake as predictor of and increased abdominal circumference in teenagers. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 818 teenagers aged between 10 and 14 years, of both genders, enrolled in state public schools in the metropolitan region of Vitória, Espirito Santo, Brazil, from August 2012 to October 2013. Waist circumference (WC) measurements were carried out in duplicate and the arithmetic mean was calculated. The dietary intake was identified from a simplified food questionnaire containing foods whose consumption is high or that present excessive risk of coronary heart disease in teenagers. The statistical analysis was done through Pearson’s chi-squared test. Results: a proportion of 55.9% of the sample had an adequate food intake, 15.6% a high intake and 28.5% an excessive intake. Among teenagers who had an adequate, high and excessive dietary intake, 5.6% (N = 46), 1.1% (N = 9) and 2.6% (N = 21) had increased WC, respectively. The result of the chi-squared test indicated no association between dietary intake as predictor of cardiovascular risk and WC, p-value = 0.576. Conclusion: there was no association between dietary intake presenting cardiovascular risk and increased waist circumference

Estudo retrospectivo de melanomas cutâneos e mucosos na população do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil

Introdução e objetivos: O melanoma é uma neoplasia maligna que pode acometer a pele e as mucosas. A taxa de incidência do melanoma cutâneo de forma geral tem aumentado nos últimos anos. Esta pesquisa realizou uma análise retrospectiva de melanomas cutâneos e mucosos no período de 30 anos em um serviço do Rio Grande do Norte, enfatizando características clínicas, conduta e evolução dos melanomas mucosos orais. Material e método: Nos prontuários clínicos, foram coletadas informações sobre idade, raça, sexo, localização o tipo de comprometimento da lesão, se primária ou metastática. Resultados: Um total de 397 casos de melanoma foi diagnosticado, sendo 332 cutâneos (83,6%) e 46 mucosos (11,6%). O tronco foi mais acometido (27,7%), seguido por membros inferiores (24,7%) e cabeça e pescoço (18,9%). Entre os melanomas mucosos, a maioria era de cabeça e pescoço (76,1%). De forma geral, 52,4% ocorreram em indivíduos do sexo masculino e 47,6%, no feminino. A idade média foi de 54,9 anos. Nos homens esteve mais presente nas sétima e oitava décadas de vida, e nas mulheres, nas quinta e sexta décadas. Seis casos (1,5%) acometeram a mucosa oral e estes ocorreram mais em indivíduos do sexo feminino, acima de 55 anos. Conclusão: O perfil epidemiológico dos casos de melanomas avaliados se assemelha aos poucos estudos epidemiológicos publicados, apesar de alguns dados, no tocante a sexo e idade em determinadas localizações anatômicas, terem variado e a incidência de melanomas orais ter sido bem mais baixa do que a relatada na maioria das pesquisas

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Revis?o taxon?mica e an?lise clad?stica de Omalonyx d'Origny, 1837 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Succineidae)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:09:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 432092.pdf: 4321589 bytes, checksum: 51aa9d7b8303d7b480f97239ba486b89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-15O g?nero Omalonyx d'Orbigny, 1837 (do grego omal: plano, achatado e onyx: unha, garra) compreende lesmas hermafroditas com um padr?o de colora??o do tegumento com duas linhas longitudinais escuras, manchas dispersas sobre o corpo, manto encobrindo a massa visceral e a concha em diferentes extens?es e p? aulac?pode. A concha ? reduzida, fr?gil, achatada, unguiforme, possui aproximadamente uma volta, a abertura corresponde a aproximadamente 90% da altura da concha e n?o abriga o animal dentro dela. S?o animais que ocorrem em ambientes de ec?tone, em vegeta??es adjacentes de plan?cie de inunda??o de rios, em lagos e brejos. T?m distribui??o restrita ? regi?o Neotropical, com ocorr?ncia nas ilhas das pequenas Antilhas no mar do Caribe e na Am?rica do Sul. Historicamente, os estudos taxon?micos em Omalonyx foram baseados nas caracter?sticas da concha, dos dentes da r?dula, na mand?bula e mais recentemente na anatomia do sistema reprodut?rio. Esta tese utilizou o maior n?mero poss?vel de lotes de Omalonyx de uma ampla ?rea de distribui??o do g?nero, obtidas atrav?s de coletas e empr?stimos de cole??es cient?ficas. A morfologia da concha, anatomia do sistema reprodut?rio e histologia do ovariotestis e dueto hermafrodita foram estudados objetivando identificar as estruturas que t?m valor para a diagnose das esp?cies do g?nero. A relev?ncia dos dentes da r?dula e mand?bula na diagnose espec?fica s?o discutidas baseadas no estudo da bibliografia do grupo e em estudos relacionados. Ap?s a revis?o taxon?mica e sistem?tica, foram consideradas v?lidas seis esp?cies previamente descritas e s?o propostas quatro esp?cies novas, bem como a cria??o do subg?nero Supertholus. As esp?cies v?lidas do g?nero s?o Omalonyx (Omalonyx) unguis (d'Orbigny, 1837), O. (O.) matheron? (Potiez & Michaud, 1835), O. (S.) convexus (Heynemann, 1868), O. (O.) brasiliensis (Simroth, 1896), O. (O.) geayi Tillier, 1980 e O. (O.) pattersonae Tillier, 1981, Omalonyx (O.) elguru n.sp., Omalonyx (O.) malabarbai n.sp., Omalonyx (O.) carioca n.sp. e Omalonyx (S.) saoborjensis nsp. A an?lise clad?stica baseada no Princ?pio da Parcim?nia e utilizando 26 caracteres morfo-anat?micos resultou em dois cladogramas igualmente parcimoniosos de 69 passos, ?ndice de consist?ncia 0,76 e ?ndice de reten??o 0,77. Em ambas as hip?teses, as rela??es filogen?ticas das esp?cies de Omalonyx encontram-se totalmente resolvidas. As rela??es entre as esp?cies do g?nero s?o [[O. (C.) convexus + Omalonyx (S.) saoborjensis n.sp.] [Omalonyx (O.) elguru n.sp. [[O. (O.) geayi + O. (O.) pattersonae] [Omalonyx (C.) malabarbai n.sp. [O. (O.) matheron? [Omalonyx (C.) carioca n.sp. [O. (O.) unguis + O. (O.) brasiliensis]]]]]]