Geographical information systems for indication of favorable areas to the sanitary landfill construction in Ouro Preto city (MG).

A disposi??o de Res?duos S?lidos Urbanos (RSU) em lugares inadequados, como nos lix?es, al?m de poluir o meio ambiente favorece a prolifera??o de vetores transmissores de doen?as. Apesar do atual sistema de disposi??o de res?duos s?lidos de Ouro Preto, o Aterro do Marzag?o, ter sido projetado e implantado corretamente, atualmente esse aterro controlado funciona semelhante a um lix?o. A fim de acabar com os danos sociais, econ?micos e ambientais causados pela disposi??o incorreta dos res?duos s?lidos, a LEI 12.305/2010 instituiu a Pol?tica Nacional de Res?duos S?lidos (PNRS). Esta lei estabelece dentre algumas san??es a que todos os munic?pios do Brasil devem transformar, at? 2014, seus dep?sitos inadequados de res?duos em aterros sanit?rios ambientalmente sustent?veis. Baseado na Pol?tica Nacional de Res?duos S?lidos e na situa??o atual do sistema de disposi??o de RSU do munic?pio, este trabalho tem como objetivo principal gerar um mapa identificando as ?reas favor?veis ? implanta??o de um novo aterro. Utilizando a an?lise multicrit?rios e o m?todo booleano, foi poss?vel realizar a sele??o e classifica??o de terrenos a partir de t?cnicas de geoprocessamento pautadas em crit?rios geoambientais. O resultado obtido gerou um mapa classificando ?reas como inaptas, restritas, moderadas e favor?veis ? implanta??o de um aterro sanit?rio no munic?pio de Ouro Preto.The disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in inappropriate places, like in the dumpsites, beyond pollute the environment favor the proliferation of disease-transmitting vectors. Despite the current solid waste disposal system of Ouro Preto, the Controlled Landfill Marzag?o, has been designed and implemented correctly, this landfill presently works like a dumpsite. In order to remove the social, economic and environmental damage caused by improper disposal of solid waste, the Law 12.305/2010 established the National Policy on Solid Waste (NPSW). This law establishes among some sanctions that all municipalities in Brazil should become, by 2014, your inadequate waste deposits in environmentally sustainable landfills. Based on NPSW and the current situation of the MSW system of the city, this work has as main objective to generate a map classifying areas favorable to the implementation of a new landfill. Using the Multicriteria Analysis and the Boolean method, it was possible to select and classify lands as of geographical information systems techniques guided on geo-environmental criteria. The result has generated a map classifying areas as unfit, restricted, moderated and favorable to the implementation of a landfill in Ouro Preto city

Microbiome profiling by Illumina sequencing of combinatorial sequence-tagged PCR products

We developed a low-cost, high-throughput microbiome profiling method that uses combinatorial sequence tags attached to PCR primers that amplify the rRNA V6 region. Amplified PCR products are sequenced using an Illumina paired-end protocol to generate millions of overlapping reads. Combinatorial sequence tagging can be used to examine hundreds of samples with far fewer primers than is required when sequence tags are incorporated at only a single end. The number of reads generated permitted saturating or near-saturating analysis of samples of the vaginal microbiome. The large number of reads al- lowed an in-depth analysis of errors, and we found that PCR-induced errors composed the vast majority of non-organism derived species variants, an ob- servation that has significant implications for sequence clustering of similar high-throughput data. We show that the short reads are sufficient to assign organisms to the genus or species level in most cases. We suggest that this method will be useful for the deep sequencing of any short nucleotide region that is taxonomically informative; these include the V3, V5 regions of the bac- terial 16S rRNA genes and the eukaryotic V9 region that is gaining popularity for sampling protist diversity.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure

Mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in aten years period

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>to evaluate mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rates and related factors in HIV-infected pregnant women from a tertiary hospital between 2000 and 2009.</p> <p>Subjects and method</p> <p>cohort of 452 HIV-infected pregnant women and their newborns. Data was collected from recorded files and undiagnosed children were enrolled for investigation. Statistical analysis: qui-square test, Fisher exact test, Student <it>t </it>test, Mann-Whitney test, ANOVA, risk ratio and confidence intervals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MTCT occurred in 3.74%. The study population displayed a mean age of 27 years; 86.5% were found to have acquired HIV through sexual contact; 55% were aware of the diagnosis prior to the pregnancy; 62% were not using HAART. Mean CD4 cell-count was 474 cells/ml and 70.3% had undetectable viral loads in the third trimester. HAART included nevirapine in 35% of cases and protease inhibitors in 55%; Zidovudine monotherapy was used in 7.3%. Mean gestational age at delivery was 37.2 weeks and in 92% by caesarian section; 97.2% received intravenous zidovudine. Use of AZT to newborn occurred in 100% of them. Factors identified as associated to MTCT were: low CD4 cell counts, elevated viral loads, maternal AIDS, shorter periods receiving HAART, other conditions (anemia, IUGR (intra uterine growth restriction), oligohydramnium), coinfecctions (CMV and toxoplasmosis) and the occurrence of labor. Use of HAART for longer periods, caesarian and oral zidovudine for the newborns were associated with a decreased risk. Poor adhesion to treatment was present in 13 of the 15 cases of transmission; in 7, coinfecctions were diagnosed (CMV and toxoplasmosis).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Use of HAART and caesarian delivery are protective factors for mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Maternal coinfecctions and other conditions were risk factors for MTCT.</p

Effect of cooking method on the formation of 7-ketocholesterol in Atlantic hake (Merluccius hubbsi) and smooth weakfish (Cynoscion leiarchus) fillets.

The levels of cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol were measured in raw Atlantic hake (Merluccius hubbsi) and smooth weakfish (Cynoscion leiarchus) fillets and in fillets subjected to the following cooking methods: baking in an electric or microwave oven; baking, grilling or stewing in a steam-convection oven; simmering on a stove; electric grilling; and deep frying. The raw samples from both fishes exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher cholesterol levels (62.71 ? 6.06 mg/100 ge74.16 ? 3.96 mg/ 100 g) than the processed fillets. In all of the samples, 7-ketocholesterol was detected at significantly (p < 0.05) different levels depending on the cooking method and the type of fish. Steam cooking keeping the surface of the product moist produced small decrease in the cholesterol content (26.65%e29.96%) and a low level of 7-ketocholesterol in the samples (6.90 ? 0.21 mg/ge6.47 ? 0.28 mg/g). Baking in electric or steam-convection ovens at high temperatures and long times greatly reduced the cholesterol content (52.77%e65.08%), which was associated with a large increase in 7-ketocholesterol levels (11.54 ? 0.45 mg/ge13.94 ? 1.17 mg/g). These results indicate the necessity of revising the baking procedures for fish to increase the healthiness of food

COMMD1-Mediated Ubiquitination Regulates CFTR Trafficking

The CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) protein is a large polytopic protein whose biogenesis is inefficient. To better understand the regulation of CFTR processing and trafficking, we conducted a genetic screen that identified COMMD1 as a new CFTR partner. COMMD1 is a protein associated with multiple cellular pathways, including the regulation of hepatic copper excretion, sodium uptake through interaction with ENaC (epithelial sodium channel) and NF-kappaB signaling. In this study, we show that COMMD1 interacts with CFTR in cells expressing both proteins endogenously. This interaction promotes CFTR cell surface expression as assessed by biotinylation experiments in heterologously expressing cells through regulation of CFTR ubiquitination. In summary, our data demonstrate that CFTR is protected from ubiquitination by COMMD1, which sustains CFTR expression at the plasma membrane. Thus, increasing COMMD1 expression may provide an approach to simultaneously inhibit ENaC absorption and enhance CFTR trafficking, two major issues in cystic fibrosis

Polymorphisms in regulatory regions of Cyclooxygenase-2 gene and breast cancer risk in Brazilians: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is up-regulated in several types of cancer, and it is hypothesized that COX-2 expression may be genetically influenced. Here, we evaluate the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the COX-2 gene (<it>PTGS2</it>) and the occurrence of breast cancer among Brazilian women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was conducted prospectively in two steps: First, we screened the promoter region and three fragments of the 3'-untranslated region of <it>PTGS2 </it>from 67 healthy Brazilians to identify SNPs and to select those with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of at least 0.10. The MAF of these selected SNPs was further characterized in 402 healthy volunteers to evaluate potential differences related to heterogeneous racial admixture and to estimate the existence of linkage disequilibrium among the SNPs. The second step was a case-control study with 318 patients and 273 controls designed to evaluate <it>PTGS2 </it>genotype- or haplotype-associated risk of breast cancer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The screening analysis indicated nine SNPs with the following MAFs: rs689465 (0.22), rs689466 (0.15), rs20415 (0.007), rs20417 (0.32), rs20419 (0.015), rs5270 (0.02), rs20424 (0.007), rs5275 (0.22) and rs4648298 (0.01). The SNPs rs689465, rs689466, rs20417 and rs5275 were further studied: Their genotypic distributions followed Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and the MAFs were not affected by gender or skin color. Strong linkage disequilibrium was detected for rs689465, rs20417 and rs5275 in the three possible pairwise combinations. In the case-control study, there was a significant increase of rs5275TC heterozygotes in cases compared to controls (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.01-2.06; P = 0.043), and the haplotype formed by rs689465G, rs689466A, rs20417G and rs5275C was only detected in cases. The apparent association with breast cancer was not confirmed for rs5275CC homozygotes or for the most frequent rs5275C-containing haplotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate no strong association between the four most frequent <it>PTGS2 </it>SNPs and the risk of breast cancer.</p

Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity in the Dentate Gyrus of Monkeys

The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory. Synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, short-term and long-term, is postulated to be a neural substrate of memory trace. Paired-pulse stimulation is a standard technique for evaluating a form of short-term synaptic plasticity in rodents. However, evidence is lacking for paired-pulse responses in the primate hippocampus. In the present study, we recorded paired-pulse responses in the dentate gyrus of monkeys while stimulating to the medial part of the perforant path at several inter-pulse intervals (IPIs) using low and high stimulus intensities. When the stimulus intensity was low, the first pulse produced early strong depression (at IPIs of 10–30 ms) and late slight depression (at IPIs of 100–1000 ms) of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) generated by the second pulse, interposing no depression IPIs (50–70 ms). When the stimulus intensity was high, fEPSPs generated by the second pulse were depressed by the first pulse at all IPIs except for the longest one (2000 ms). Population spikes (PSs) generated by the second pulse were completely blocked or strongly depressed at shorter IPIs (10–100 or 200 ms, respectively), while no depression or slight facilitation occurred at longer IPIs (500–2000 ms). Administration of diazepam slightly increased fEPSPs, while it decreased PSs produced by the first pulse. It also enhanced the facilitation of PSs produced by the second stimulation at longer IPIs. The present results, in comparison with previous studies using rodents, indicate that paired-pulse responses of fEPSPs in the monkey are basically similar to those of rodents, although paired-pulse responses of PSs in the monkey are more delayed than those in rodents and have a different sensitivity to diazepam