Causas de mortalidade perinatal em Pelotas, RS (Brasil): utilização de uma classificação simplificada

The causes of perinatal mortality among the 7,392 hospital births which occurred in Pelotas, RS, Brazil, during 1982, were analysed using the simplified classification described by Wigglesworth. The main advantage of this classification is that it can be used even in places where post-mortems are seldom performed. The perinatal deaths were classified into five groups: a) macerated fetuses without malformations, b) congenital malformations, c) immaturity, d) asphyxia and e) other causes of death. The perinatal mortality rate was 33.7 per 1,000 births, nearly equally divided between fetal and early neonatal deaths, and 8.8% of the babies were of low birthweight. Thirty-six percent of the perinatal deaths were antepartum stillbirths, and 60% of these weighed 2,000 g. or more. The second most important cause was immaturity, which accounted for 31% of the deaths. In this latter group 21% weighed 2,000 g or more at birth. These findings, as well as the high birthweight-specific perinatal mortality rates, strongly suggest that there are deficiencies in the antenatal and delivery care in Pelotas that need to be promptly corrected. Policies that should be implemented by health planners include: decentralization of antenatal care clinics; utilization in these clinics of the "at-risk concept" to identify women at high risk of delivering low birthweight babies, efforts to increase community participation and home visits in order to attract those pregnant women who do not attend the clinics. In addition, it is mandatory that well trained doctors (obstetricians and paediatricians) should to be available 24 hours a day at the maternity hospitals to assist mothers and babies identified as at high risk. Uniterms: Perinatal mortality. Prenatal care. Fetal death. Low birth weight. Hospitals, maternity

Migration of Apicomplexa Across Biological Barriers: The Toxoplasma and Plasmodium Rides

The invasive stages of Apicomplexa parasites, called zoites, have been largely studied in in vitro systems, with a special emphasis on their unique gliding and host cell invasive capacities. In contrast, the means by which these parasites reach their destination in their hosts are still poorly understood. We summarize here our current understanding of the cellular basis of in vivo parasitism by two well-studied Apicomplexa zoites, the Toxoplasma tachyzoite and the Plasmodium sporozoite. Despite being close relatives, these two zoites use different strategies to reach their goal and establish infection

Risk factors for malnutrition in Brazilian children: the role of social and environmental variables.

The article reports the effects of several socioeconomic and environmental indicators on the nutritional status (stunting, underweight, and wasting) of a sample of 802 children aged 12-35.9 months in urban and rural areas of southern Brazil. Of the social variables studied, family income and father's education level were the two risk factors that showed the strongest associations with nutritional status. The mother's education level, employment status of the head of the family, number of siblings, and family's ethnic background also showed some degree of association, but these were less significant when family income was included in the analysis. Environmental variables, particularly the type of housing, degree of crowding, and type of sewage disposal, were also strongly associated with malnutrition. The effects of having access to piped or treated water were only apparent on stunting and wasting

A Microsoft HoloLens Mixed Reality Surgical Simulator for Patient-Specific Hip Arthroplasty Training

Surgical simulation can offer novice surgeons an opportunity to practice skills outside the operating theatre in a safe controlled environment. According to literature evidence, nowadays there are very few training simulators available for Hip Arthroplasty (HA). In a previous study we have presented a physical simulator based on a lower torso phantom including a patient-specific hemi-pelvis replica embedded in a soft synthetic foam. This work explores the use of Microsoft HoloLens technology to enrich the physical patient-specific simulation with the implementation of wearable mixed reality functionalities. Our HA multimodal simulator based on mixed reality using the HoloLens is described by illustrating the overall system, and by summarizing the main phases of the design and development. Finally, we present a preliminary qualitative study with seven subjects (5 medical students, and 2 orthopedic surgeons) showing encouraging results that suggest the suitability of the HoloLens for the proposed application. However, further studies need to be conducted to perform a quantitative test of the registration accuracy of the virtual content, and to confirm qualitative results in a larger cohort of subjects

Robust and Fast Whole Brain Mapping of the RF Transmit Field B1 at 7T

In-vivo whole brain mapping of the radio frequency transmit field B1+ is a key aspect of recent method developments in ultra high field MRI. We present an optimized method for fast and robust in-vivo whole-brain B1+ mapping at 7T. The method is based on the acquisition of stimulated and spin echo 3D EPI images and was originally developed at 3T. We further optimized the method for use at 7T. Our optimization significantly improved the robustness of the method against large B1+ deviations and off-resonance effects present at 7T. The mean accuracy and precision of the optimized method across the brain was high with a bias less than 2.6 percent unit (p.u.) and random error less than 0.7 p.u. respectively

Mitochondrial and nuclear genes suggest that stony corals are monophyletic but most families of stony corals are not (Order Scleractinia, Class Anthozoa, Phylum Cnidaria)

Modern hard corals (Class Hexacorallia; Order Scleractinia) are widely studied because of their fundamental role in reef building and their superb fossil record extending back to the Triassic. Nevertheless, interpretations of their evolutionary relationships have been in flux for over a decade. Recent analyses undermine the legitimacy of traditional suborders, families and genera, and suggest that a non-skeletal sister clade (Order Corallimorpharia) might be imbedded within the stony corals. However, these studies either sampled a relatively limited array of taxa or assembled trees from heterogeneous data sets. Here we provide a more comprehensive analysis of Scleractinia (127 species, 75 genera, 17 families) and various outgroups, based on two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome b), with analyses of nuclear genes (ßtubulin, ribosomal DNA) of a subset of taxa to test unexpected relationships. Eleven of 16 families were found to be polyphyletic. Strikingly, over one third of all families as conventionally defined contain representatives from the highly divergent "robust" and "complex" clades. However, the recent suggestion that corallimorpharians are true corals that have lost their skeletons was not upheld. Relationships were supported not only by mitochondrial and nuclear genes, but also often by morphological characters which had been ignored or never noted previously. The concordance of molecular characters and more carefully examined morphological characters suggests a future of greater taxonomic stability, as well as the potential to trace the evolutionary history of this ecologically important group using fossils

The Relationship Between Anthropometric Measures, Blood Gases, and Lung Function in Morbidly Obese White Subjects

# The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Obesity may cause adverse effects on the respiratory system. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how various measures of obesity are related to arterial blood gases and pulmonary function. Methods This is a cross-sectional study of consecutive morbidly obese patients with normal lung function. Blood gas samples were taken from the radial artery after 5 min of rest with subjects sitting upright. Lung function measurements included dynamic spirometry, static lung volumes, and gas diffusing capacity. Results The 149 patients (77 % women) had a mean (SD) age of 43 years (11 years) and BMI of 45.0 kg/m 2 (6.3 kg/m 2). The mean expiratory reserve volume (ERV) was less than half (49%) of predicted value, whilst most other lung function values were within predicted range. Forty-two patients had an abnormally low pO2 value (<10.7 kPa [80 mmHg]), while eight patients had a high pCO2 value (>6.0 kPa [45 mmHg])

Ocean acidification through the lens of ecological theory

Ocean acidification, chemical changes to the carbonate system of seawater, is emerging as a key environmental challenge accompanying global warming and other human-induced perturbations. Considerable research seeks to define the scope and character of potential outcomes from this phenomenon, but a crucial impediment persists. Ecological theory, despite its power and utility, has been only peripherally applied to the problem. Here we sketch in broad strokes several areas where fundamental principles of ecology have the capacity to generate insight into ocean acidification's consequences. We focus on conceptual models that, when considered in the context of acidification, yield explicit predictions regarding a spectrum of population- and community-level effects, from narrowing of species ranges and shifts in patterns of demographic connectivity, to modified consumer–resource relationships, to ascendance of weedy taxa and loss of species diversity. Although our coverage represents only a small fraction of the breadth of possible insights achievable from the application of theory, our hope is that this initial foray will spur expanded efforts to blend experiments with theoretical approaches. The result promises to be a deeper and more nuanced understanding of ocean acidification and the ecological changes it portends

The Role of Innate APOBEC3G and Adaptive AID Immune Responses in HLA-HIV/SIV Immunized SHIV Infected Macaques

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Incidence rate trends of histological subtypes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hong Kong

The overall decline in incidence rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hong Kong during 1988–2002 was limited primarily to a decrease in keratinising carcinoma, which could be explained by the decline in cigarette smoking. Genetic and Epstein–Barr virus interactions may explain the relatively stable incidence rate of non-keratinising carcinoma