GOOD WATER, BUT FOR WHOM? A STUDY ON THE PERCEPTION OF WATER QUALITY BY AMAZONIAN POPULATIONS

In Brazil different regions have inadequate water and sewage treatment facilities, which can be made worse by the installation of large enterprises. The perception of these populations about the scenario in which they live is of great relevance in this context, the present study has the objective of analyzing the socioenvironmental profile and the perception of the water quality and its relation to health damage by populations resident from the area of Belo Monte hydropower plant. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 268 residents of two cities in the interior of Pará-Brazil and the data were obtained from the application of a semi-structured questionnaire. The results showed that the interviewees had minimal education and were low income. Most interviewees reported having running water in their home. However, 63.1% of the interviewees considered the water provided as organoleptically altered and of poor quality. Of the interviewees, 92.5% stated that their water is mainly from wells; 94.8% perceived a relationship between decreasing water quality and increasing health problems. Of these, 85.2% related to the decrease in water quality with renal problems, 75% with liver problems and 28% with hypertension. About 61.6% of respondents reported concerns about lack of basic sanitation. It is concluded that the populations studied understand the importance of quality water consumption and relate water quality to health problems. Therefore, these results serve as an alert to managers regarding the urgent need to improve the quality of life of this population. Keywords: Pará, sewage systems, drinking water, health, chronic disease.    RESUMO :No Brasil, diferentes regiões têm instalações inadequadas de tratamento de água e esgoto, o que pode ser agravado pela instalação de grandes empresas. A percepção dessas populações sobre o cenário em que vivem é de grande relevância neste contexto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar o perfil socioambiental e a percepção da qualidade da água e sua relação com danos à saúde por populações residentes da área. da usina hidrelétrica de Belo Monte. Um estudo transversal foi realizado com 268 moradores de duas cidades do interior do Pará-Brasil e os dados foram obtidos a partir da aplicação de um questionário semiestruturado. Os resultados mostraram que os entrevistados tinham educação mínima e baixa renda. A maioria dos entrevistados relatou ter água encanada em casa. No entanto, 63,1% dos entrevistados consideraram a água fornecida como organoléptica- mente alterada e de má qualidade. Dos entrevistados, 92,5% afirmaram que a água é proveniente principalmente de poços; 94,8% perceberam uma relação entre diminuir a qualidade da água e aumentar os problemas de saúde. Destes, 85,2% relacionaram-se à diminuição da qualidade da água com problemas renais, 75% com problemas hepáticos e 28% com hipertensão. Cerca de 61,6% dos entrevistados relataram preocupações sobre a falta de saneamento básico. Conclui-se que as populações estudadas entendem a importância do consumo de água de qualidade e relacionam a qualidade da água a problemas de saúde. Portanto, esses resultados servem de alerta para os gestores quanto à necessidade urgente de melhorar a qualidade de vida dessa população. Palavras-chave: Pará, sistemas de esgoto, água potável, saúde, doença crônic

Polymorphisms of Intron 1 and the Promoter Region at the PRNP Gene in BSE-Free Caracu Cattle.

201

Paraplexia Enzoótica dos ovinos: características gerais da Scrapie.

A scrapie, enfermidade que acomete ovinos, faz parte do grupo de doenças priônicas denominadas como encefalopatias espongiformes transmissíveis (EETs), na qual estão incluídas a encefalopatia espongiforme bovina (EEB) e, em humanos, a kuru, doença de Gerstmann-Straussle-Scheinker (GSS), e doença de Cretzfeldt-Jakob (CJD). Estas enfermidades são fatais, caracterizadas por sintomas neurodegenerativos incluindo demência e mudança de comportamento, ataxia, incoordena ção muscular, prurido, entre outros. As doenças priônicas são causadas pelo acúmulo indiscriminado da proteína PrPC que por alteração em seu sítio de codificação, sofre modificações químicas, transformando sua estrutura inicialmente primária (PrPc), em estrutura terciária, denominada PrPSc, forma protease-resistente de difícil metabolização. Até o momento, foram descritas origens esporádicas, genéticas e infecciosas da doença, que pode ser transmitida verticalmente durante o parto ou por via oral, caracterizada por ingestão de placenta de animais acometidos. A enfermidade não possui tratamento sendo que animais acometidos devem ser eutanasiados bem como os rebanhos a que fazem parte. O diagnóstico clínico-diferencial é muito importante na determinação da doença e exames laboratoriais post-mortem como histopatologia e imunohistoquímica são utilizados para confirmação da presença do agente. Em ovinos vários estudos indicam a associação de determinados genótipos à suscetibilidade à scrapie em que mutações do gene prnp já estudadas, podem interferir na tradução dos códons 136, 154 e 171 e estão associadas à ocorrência da doença. O conhecimento da frequência de alelos resistentes e suscetíveis à scrapie poderá ser a primeira etapa de um trabalho direcionado à erradicação, uma vez que permitirá a elaboração de estratégias de seleção assistida para cada raça com a utilização destes potenciais marcadores.bitstream/item/92008/1/DOC197.pd

Análise de polimorfismos no gene prnp, códon 211, em raças bovinas no Brasil.

Comissão organizadora: Grácia Maria Soares Rosinha, Alexandra Rocha de Oliveir, Rodrigo Carvalho Alva

Transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at s=900\sqrt{s} = 900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC

The inclusive charged particle transverse momentum distribution is measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 900$ GeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region $(|\eta|<0.8)$ over the transverse momentum range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10$ GeV/$c$. The correlation between transverse momentum and particle multiplicity is also studied. Results are presented for inelastic (INEL) and non-single-diffractive (NSD) events. The average transverse momentum for $|\eta|<0.8$ is $\left<p_{\rm T}\right>_{\rm INEL}=0.483\pm0.001$ (stat.) $\pm0.007$ (syst.) GeV/$c$ and \left_{\rm NSD}=0.489\pm0.001 (stat.) $\pm0.007$ (syst.) GeV/$c$, respectively. The data exhibit a slightly larger $\left<p_{\rm T}\right>$ than measurements in wider pseudorapidity intervals. The results are compared to simulations with the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/390

Phospholipase gene expression during Paracoccidioides brasiliensis morphological transition and infection

Phospholipase is an important virulence factor for pathogenic fungi. In this study, we demonstrate the following: (i) the Paracoccidioides brasiliensis pld gene is preferentially expressed in mycelium cells, (ii) the plb1 gene is mostly up-regulated by infection after 6 h of co-infection of MH-S cells or during BALB/c mice lung infection, (iii) during lung infection, plb1, plc and pld gene expression are significantly increased 6-48 h post-infection compared to 56 days after infection, strongly suggesting that phospholipases play a role in the early events of infection, but not during the chronic stages of pulmonary infection by P. brasiliensis

Polymorphisms in the prion protein gene of cattle breeds from Brazil.

One of the alterations that occur in the PRNP gene in bovines is the insertion/deletion (indel) of base sequences in specific regions, such as indels of 12-base pairs (bp) in intron 1 and of 23- bp in the promoter region. The deletion allele of 23 bp is associated with susceptibility to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as well as the presence of the deletion allele of 12 bp. In the present study, the variability of nucleotides in the promoter region and intron 1 of the PRNP gene was genotyped for the Angus, Canchim, Nellore and Simmental bovine breeds to identify the genotype profiles of resistance and/or susceptibility to BSE in each animal. Genomic DNA was extracted for amplification of the target regions of the PRNP gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and specific primers. The PCR products were submitted to electrophoresis in agarose gel 3% and sequencing for genotyping. With the exception of the Angus breed, most breeds exhibited a higher frequency of deletion alleles for 12 bp and 23 bp in comparison to their respective insertion alleles for both regions. These results represent an important contribution to understanding the formation process of the Brazilian herd in relation to bovine PRNP gene polymorphisms.201

Rapid tests for the toxicity evaluation of soil contaminated by lead-acid batteries manufacture

Lead-acid battery manipulation is one of the major sources of environmental contamination of lead in developing and underdeveloped countries. For the preliminary investigation of the soil ecotoxicological potential of a mechanical workshop with deposit of lead-acid battery tailings, the avoidance behavior response test with Eisenia andrei and the phytotoxicity test with Lactuca sativa were made. The quantification of cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, iron and arsenic, was also performed. The level of lead found in the test soil was 56 times higher than the permitted value in Brazilian legislation, but the soil only showed toxicity in the avoidance behavior response test with earthworms. None of the phytotoxicity tests showed toxicity to lettuce seeds in germination rate and seedling length. This preliminary study confirms the contamination of these sites by lead and indicates that this contamination can cause damages to the edaphic fauna, suggesting further studies in areas contaminated by tailings of lead-acid batteries