Quality Of Life Assessment In Children With Cerebral Palsy

Objectives: Evaluate the QoL of children with CP followed at Núcleo de Tratamento e Estimulação Precoce, in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil; identify the most affected domains of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, of which target population consisted of parents of children with CP (N = 62). Data collection was carried out by applying the socioeconomic questionnaire and the Health-related Quality of Life tool – HRQoL-PedsQL version 4.0, module applied to parents. Data analysis was performed with SPSS statistical software, version 23.0. Results: The results after transformation of scores into a scale of 0 to 100 in PedsQL, the data showed statistical difference between QOL domains except for physical capacity and social aspect and in descending order of impairment, the domains were related to school activity, the emotional aspect, physical capacity and the social aspect. Conclusions: Given the above, to attain improvement in QoL indicators, it is reasonable to propose interdisciplinary intervention among healthcare professionals in order to develop improved strategies aiming to promote early integration of children with CP in schools, to obtain significant results

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Gene expression pattern contributing to prognostic factors in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The present study evaluated the expression profile of 19 genes previously reported in microarray studies and associated with resistance or sensitivity to vincristine (RPLP2, CD44, TCFL5, KCNN1, TRIM24), prednisolone (F8A, CDK2AP1, BLVRB, CD69), daunorubicin (MAP3K12, SHOC2, PCDH9, EGR1, KCNN4) and L-asparaginase (GPR56, MAN1A1, CLEC11A, IGFBP7, GATA3). We studied 140 bone marrow samples at diagnosis from children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated according to the Brazilian Childhood Leukemia Treatment Group (GBTLI) ALL-99 protocol. the expression profiles of the genes listed above were analyzed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then related to the clinical and biological prognostic factors. the results showed significant associations (p <= 0.05) between the expression levels of genes GPR56, BLVRB, IGFBP7 and white blood cell (WBC) count at diagnosis; GATA3, MAN1A1, CD44, MAP3K12, CLEC11A, SHOC2 and CD10 B-lineage ALL; TCFL5 and bone marrow status at day 14; MAP3K12 and TRIM24 and bone marrow status at day 28; and CD69, TCFL5 and TRIM24 genes and ETV6/RUNX1 positive ALL. the up-regulation of SHOC2 was also associated with better 5-year event-free survival (EFS) in univariate and multivariate analysis (p = 0.02 and p = 0.03, respectively). These findings highlight genes that could be associated with clinical and biological prognostic factors in childhood ALL, suggesting that these genes may characterize and play a role in the treatment outcome of some ALL subsets.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FAEPA (Brazil)Univ São Paulo, Fac Med Ribeirao Preto, Dept Pediat, BR-14049900 Ribeirao Preto, SP, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Fac Med Ribeirao Preto, Dept Genet, BR-14049900 Ribeirao Preto, SP, BrazilBoldrini Inst, Campinas, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Pediat Oncol, São Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Estadual Campinas, Campinas, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Inst Pediat Oncol, São Paulo, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 2001/13206-9FAPESP: 2002/03182-8FAPESP: 2005/50731-5Web of Scienc

<i>In vivo</i> flow cytometry analyses from popliteal lymph node cells and <i>ex vivo</i> splenocyte antigen stimulation after <i>L</i>. <i>muelleri</i> treatment.

<p>AIA mice were treated as described before in Material and Methods. Twenty-four hours after joint challenge, the popliteal lymph node was collected and cells were isolated for quantifying the total cells numbers (Neubauer chamber) and assaying activated CD4 and DCs populations by cellular staining with labeled antibodies and FACS analysis. Results are expressed as numbers of total (A) or activated CD4⁺CD25⁺ (B), CD11c⁺CD86⁺ (C) cells in each population. In D-F, splenocytes were stimulated <i>ex vivo</i> with RPMI medium, 2 μg.mL⁻¹ of Con-A or 100 μg.mL⁻¹ of <i>L</i>. <i>muelleri</i> and culture supernatants were harvested 48 hours later for IFN-γ, IL-17 and IL-10 measurement by ELISA. Results are expressed as pg.mL⁻¹ of culture supernatant. Bars show the mean and SEM results from 5 mice per group. * <i>P</i> <0.05 versus control mice; # for <i>P</i> < 0.05 versus vehicle-treated arthritic mice.</p

CaCO₃ treatment of AIA mice has no anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects.

<p>AIA mice were treated as described in Material and Methods. The numbers of neutrophils in the synovial cavity (A), and the relative units of neutrophils in periarticular tissue, as determined by myeloperoxidase assay (B) were assessed 24 hours after injection of 10 μg mBSA or sterile saline (control) in knee joint of immunized mice. Hypernociception is presented as the change (Δ) in withdrawal threshold (in grams) (C). Representative H&E images of control (D), AIA + Vehicle (E), AIA + <i>L</i>. <i>muelleri</i> (F), AIA + CaCO₃ (G) mice. AIA+ vehicle and AIA + CaCO₃ groups (E and G, respectively) presented histopathological evidence of joint inflammation (inflammatory infiltrate [arrows], synovia hyperplasia [arrowheads], alteration of tissue architecture) compared with the other groups (D, F). Scale bars: 100 μm. Other parameters were evaluated as follows: (H), quantification of AIA arthritis index (described in Materials and Methods); and (I), quantification of proteoglycan loss, expressed in %. Results are presented as the mean and SEM results from 5 mice per group. * <i>P</i> <0.05 versus control mice; # for <i>P</i> < 0.05 versus vehicle-treated arthritic mice.</p

Comparative analysis between different days of <i>L</i>.<i>muelleri</i> treatment on the reduction of inflammatory response in AIA.

<p>The treatments with L. muelleri (100mg/kg) were performed twice a day during 5 or 10 consecutive days. The results are presented as the mean and SEM from 7 mice per group.</p><p>* <i>P</i> <0.05 <i>versus</i> control mice;</p><p># for <i>P</i> < 0.05 <i>versus</i> vehicle-treated arthritic mice.</p><p>Comparative analysis between different days of <i>L</i>.<i>muelleri</i> treatment on the reduction of inflammatory response in AIA.</p