Mães de crianças com deficiência visual: dificuldades e facilidades enfrentadas no cuidado

Objetivou-se conhecer as dificuldades e facilidades enfrentadas pelas mães de crianças com deficiência visual (DV) no cuidado. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, descritiva, realizada no segundo semestre de 2011, com dez mães de crianças com deficiência visual, de um Centro de Educação para deficientes visuais, no sul do Brasil. Foram realizadasentrevistas semiestruturadas e análise de conteúdo temática das informações. Foram verificados como dificuldades o desconhecimento acerca da doença e da forma de cuidar da criança, a falta de acesso aos serviços de saúde, a sobrecarga pela dependência da criança, a falta de apoio e o preconceito na própria família. Quanto às facilidades, foram referidos a vontade do desenvolvimento saudável das crianças, a convivência com profissionais qualificados para sua educação e o contato com outras crianças com DV. Faz-se importante a instrumentalização da família para o cuidado à criança com DV como forma de garantir a aquisição de habilidades e competências, possibilitando-a um viver com qualidade

A proof-of-concept study of short-cycle intermittent antiretroviral therapy with a once-daily regimen of didanosine, lamivudine, and efavirenz for the treatment of chronic HIV infection

Background. We previously demonstrated that short-cycle structured intermittent therapy ( SIT; 7 days without therapy followed by 7 days with antiretroviral therapy [ART]) with a ritonavir-boosted, indinavir-based, twice-daily regimen maintained suppression of plasma HIV viremia while reducing serum levels of lipids. Adherence to such a regimen may be problematic for certain patients. Methods. Eight patients with a history of receiving combination ART that maintained suppression of plasma HIV RNA to Results. For 7 patients, suppression of plasma HIV RNA to Conclusion. A once-daily short-cycle SIT regimen maintained suppression of plasma HIV RNA while preserving CD4(+) T cell counts. Such a regimen may have importance in resource-limited settings where the monetary cost of continuous ART is prohibitive

Analysing the performance of managed funds using the wavelet multiscaling method

Performance measure, Wavelet analysis, Sharpe ratio, Australian managed funds, G23, G21, G10,

Dual and opposing roles of primary cilia in medulloblastoma development

Recent work has shown that primary cilia are essential for Hh signaling during mammalian development1–9. It is also known that aberrant Hedgehog (Hh) signaling can lead to cancer10, but the role of primary cilia in oncogenesis is not known. Cerebellar granule neuron precursors (GNPs) can give rise to medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor in children11,12. The primary cilium and Hh signaling are required for GNPs proliferation8,13–16. We asked whether primary cilia in GNPs play a role in medulloblastoma growth in mice. Genetic ablation of primary cilia blocked medulloblastoma growth when this tumor was driven by a constitutively active Smoothened (Smo), an upstream activator of Hh signaling. In contrast, removal of cilia was required for medulloblastoma growth by a constitutively active Gli2, a downstream transcription factor. Thus, primary cilia are required for, or inhibit medulloblastoma formation, depending on the initiating oncogenic event. Remarkably, presence or absence of cilia were associated with specific variants of human medulloblastomas; primary cilia were found in medulloblastomas with activation in HH or WNT signaling, but not in most medulloblastomas in other distinct molecular subgroups. Primary cilia could serve as a diagnostic tool and provide new insights into the mechanism of tumorigenesis

Gray matter heterogeneity in Asperger syndrome assessed by MR texture analysis and its impact on regional gray matter volume

Brain imaging studies contribute to the neurobiological understanding of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Herein, we tested the prediction that distributed neurodevelopmental abnormalities in brain development impact on the homogeneity of brain tissue measured using texture analysis (TA; a morphological method for surface pattern characterization). TA was applied to structural magnetic resonance brain scans of 54 adult participants (24 with Asperger syndrome (AS) and 30 controls). Measures of mean gray-level intensity, entropy and uniformity were extracted from gray matter images at fine, medium and coarse textures. Comparisons between AS and controls identified higher entropy and lower uniformity across textures in the AS group. Data reduction of texture parameters revealed three orthogonal principal components. These were used as regressors-of-interest in a voxelbased morphometry analysis that explored the relationship between surface texture variations and regional gray matter volume. Across the AS but not control group, measures of entropy and uniformity were related to the volume of the caudate nuclei, whereas mean gray-level was related to the size of the cerebellar vermis. Similar to neuropathological studies, our study provides evidence for distributed abnormalities in the structural integrity of gray matter in adults with ASC, in particular within corticostriatal and corticocerebellar networks. Additionally, this in-vivo technique may be more sensitive to fine microstructural organization than other more traditional magnetic resonance approaches and serves as a future testable biomarker in AS and other neurodevelopmental disorders