Atherosclerosis in young Brazilians suffering violent deaths: a pathological study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke, which can cause sudden death in adulthood. In general, the clinical manifestations of cardiovascular diseases are caused by atherosclerosis, which is a process that starts during middle age. More recent studies indicate that the atherosclerotic process begins during childhood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To evaluate the extent of atherosclerotic disease in young Brazilians, we conducted a study of the pathological alterations in the major arteries of victims of violent death. Samples of the right carotid artery, left coronary artery, and thoracic aorta of young victims of violent death were analyzed and graded in accordance with the histological atherosclerotic lesion types proposed by the American Heart Association. Samples were collected from 100 individuals who had died from external causes, aged from 12 to 33 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of cases (83%) were male, and 66% of deaths were homicides caused by firearms. The median age was 20.0 years and mean body mass index was 20.9 kg/m². Of the right carotid artery specimens, 3% were normal, 55% had type I, 40% had type II, 1% had type III, and 1% had type IV atherosclerotic lesions. Of the left coronary artery specimens, 5% were normal, 48% had type I, 41% had type II, 3% had type III, and 3% had type IV lesions. Of the thoracic aorta specimens, none were normal, 13% had type I, 64% had type II, 22% had type III, and 1% had type IV lesions. Overall, 97.34% of arteries examined had some degree of atherosclerosis. The most common histological type was type II (foam cells). No thoracic aorta specimens were normal, and the coronary artery specimens had the most atherosclerosis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show a high prevalence of atherosclerotic lesions among young people in Brazil. Intervention should be undertaken to decrease the rate of sudden cardiac death in the adult population.</p

Towards Developing Interactive Content for Enhancing Life Skills Education in Tanzania: Possibilities and Pitfalls

Part 4: Sustainable ICT, Informatics, Education and Learning in a Turbulent World - “Doing the Safari Way”International audienceFeasibility study is the first and important stage in any planning of introducing a new solution for overcoming existing challenges. It saves a lot of resources that could be lost if such solution fails to solve the intended problem. On the other hand, it gives a proper way to go ahead with the plan of introducing the solution. The purpose of this study is to establish necessary and basic requirements as possibilities and pitfalls for deploying cost effective interactive multimedia content for enhancing an ineffective provision life skills education at primary school level in Tanzania. Ten primary schools were randomly selected and surveyed from which 65 teachers and 407 pupils participated in the study. Questionnaires, interviews, and documentary reviews were used as data collection tools. It was found that the Internet penetration is 45% of the population with 82.6% of Internet users are smartphones users. Number of computers and tablets at schools are still limited to 1:1036 computer pupils ratio, 96% of pupils had access of computers and smartphones from parents. Moreover, 77% of teachers used conventional and lecturing style in teaching, 100% of life skills content was static found in inadequate textbooks. Based on these results, deployment of self-learning enabled interactive multimedia content is possible and will bring positive impact if it will be developed to operate in ICT devices available in both primary schools and pupils’ parents as well. This study informs the proper way of introducing cost-effective interactive multimedia content at primary school level in Tanzania

The bipolar assembly domain of the mitotic motor kinesin-5

An outstanding unresolved question is how does the mitotic spindle utilize microtubules and mitotic motors to coordinate accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis? This process depends upon the mitotic motor, kinesin-5, whose unique bipolar architecture, with pairs of motor domains lying at opposite ends of a central rod, allows it to crosslink microtubules within the mitotic spindle and to coordinate their relative sliding during spindle assembly, maintenance and elongation. The structural basis of kinesin-5’s bipolarity is, however, unknown, as protein asymmetry has so far precluded its crystallization. Here we use electron microscopy of single molecules of kinesin-5 and its subfragments, combined with hydrodynamic analysis plus mass spectrometry, circular dichroism and site-directed spin label electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, to show how a staggered antiparallel coiled-coil ‘BASS’ (bipolar assembly) domain directs the assembly of four kinesin-5 polypeptides into bipolar minifilaments