Gender differences in serum CK-MB mass levels in healthy Braziliansubjects

The creatine kinase-isoenzyme MB (CK-MB) mass assay is one of the laboratory tests used for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. It is recommended, however, that reference limits should take gender and race into account. In the present study, we analyzed the plasma CK-MB mass and troponin levels of 244 healthy volunteers without a personal history of coronary artery disease and with no chronic diseases, muscular trauma or hypothyroidism, and not taking statins. The tests were performed with commercial kits, CK-MB mass turbo kit and Troponin I turbo kit, using the Immulite 1000 analyzer from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostic. The values were separated according to gender and showed significant differences by the Mann-Whitney test. Mean (± SD) CK-MB mass values were 2.55 ± 1.09 for women (N = 121; age = 41.20 ± 10.13 years) and 3.49 ± 1.41 ng/mL for men (N = 123; age = 38.16 ± 11.12 years). Gender-specific reference values at the 99th percentile level, according to the Medicalc statistical software, were 5.40 ng/mL for women and 7.13 ng/mL for men. The influence of race was not considered because of the high miscegenation of the Brazilian population. The CK-MB values obtained were higher than the 5.10 mg/mL proposed by the manufacturer of the laboratory kit. Therefore, decision limits should be related to population and gender in order to improve the specificity of this diagnostic tool, avoiding misclassification of patient

Potential to use Cyperus rotundus in areas of industrial waste disposal

A fitorremediação é um processo promissor de descontaminação de solos em que a planta é utilizada como um mecanismo de alocação do agente contaminante e indesejável ao sistema tratado. Plantas de Cyperus rotundus, colhidas em área onde ocorreram descartes de resíduos industriais, foram avaliadas utilizando microscopia óptica (MO) e plasma de argônio indutivamente acoplado (ICP-AES). O trabalho objetivou avaliar as alterações causadas pelos poluentes químicos na estrutura morfológica do corpo epígeo de plantas juvenis de C. rotundus e seu potencial fitorremediador em comparação a plantas colhidas em região não poluída do mesmo solo (testemunha). As alterações anatômicas estruturais identificadas demonstram o potencial efeito poluidor dos contaminantes e também sugerem o comportamento hiperacumulador da planta avaliada.Phytoremediation is a promising process of soil decontamination when the plant is used as a mechanism of allocation of the undesirable contaminant agent in the treated system. Samples of Cyperus rotundus collected in a contaminated area with industrial residues were evaluated through optical microscopy and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP - AES). This work aimed to evaluate the phytoremediator potential and the morphological alterations in young epigeous body of C. rotundus caused by pollutant chemicals in comparison with plants collected in the same soil with no contamination (witness). The observed anatomic alterations compared with the witnesses demonstrated the potential polluting effect of contaminants and also indicated the hyperaccumulating behavior of the analyzed plants.FAPES

Estado Da Arte Da Literatura Científica Sobre Hancornia Speciosa: Tendências E Lacunas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)The economic and scientific interest in Hancornia speciosa (mangabeira) has been growing in recent years, mainly due to the marketing of fruit and extraction of natural compounds with high pharmacological potential. In this study, a scientometric survey about mangabeira was carried out in order to promote and direct future studies on the species. As a result, low scientific productivity associated with this species was found, with only 131 articles published in the last 69 years. In addition, this study identified some trends in bibliographic production on mangabeira, among them: the increasing number of articles over the years; scientific dissemination in nationwide journals; the main focus of this study is associated with agronomic studies; the experimental approach is more frequent and usually associated with populations of restricted geographical distribution; and the scientific production is mainly from education institutions. Furthermore, this study also allowed the identification of some gaps in knowledge about mangabeira, among them the difficulty in describing and characterizing botanical lines; lack of analysis of the genetic diversity of widely distributed populations; lack of management and conservation projects for the species; lack of description of cultivation, collection and preservation techniques of fruits; and lack of identification of natural compounds responsible for its pharmacological activity. It is expected that the data generated in this study will serve to direct future studies on H. speciosa. © 2016, Sociedade Brasileira de Fruticultura. All rights reserved.384CAPES, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorCNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoFAPEG, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de GoiásFINEP, Financiadora de Estudos e ProjetosCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Halperin-Lubensky-Ma effect in type-I superconducting films

In this note we employ concurrently techniques of generalized $zeta$-functions and compactification methods introduced in previous publications, to study the Halperin-Lubensky-Ma theory of induced weak first-order phase transitions applied to type-I superconducting films. We obtain closed formulas to the critical temperature and to the size temperature as functions of the film thickness.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex

Social capital and factors associated with the caries experience in adults : a population-based study in Brazil

The objective of this study was to investigate the experience of caries related to social capital and associated factors in adults in large-scale population-based study. A Cross-sectional study was performed in 163 municipalities in the State of São Paulo, Brazil (SBSP-2015). 17,560 people were evaluated, of which 6051 were adults aged 35-44 years. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was proposed. Outcome variables (decayed teeth, missing teeth and DMFT) and independent variables were included in the model, considering the distal (income and schooling); intermediate (social capital) and proximal levels (sex and ethnicity). Results showed that income up to 1,500 reais - US$ 367.6 in 11/11/2019 - (OR = 1.91;1.75-2.08), schooling up to 8 years (OR = 1.32;1.12-1.56) and non-white ethnicity (OR = 1.54;1.35-1.76) were more likely to have decayed teeth. Income up to 1500 reais (OR = 1.29;1.15-1.44), schooling up to 8 years (OR = 2.13;1.90-2.38), low social capital (OR = 1.84;1.65-2.04), medium social capital (OR = 1.15;1.01-1.30) and females were more likely to have lost teeth (OR = 1.13;1.03-1.23). Schooling up to 8 years (OR = 1.51;1.35-1.69), low social capital (OR = 1.25; 1.14-1.37) and female (OR = 1.40,1.19-1.53) were associated with DMFT. It was concluded that sociodemographic factors and low social capital were associated with the experience of caries, which should be taken into account in the formulation of public policies3

Flexible and dynamic replication control for interdependent distributed real-time embedded systems

Replication is a proven concept for increasing the availability of distributed systems. However, actively replicating every software component in distributed embedded systems may not be a feasible approach. Not only the available resources are often limited, but also the imposed overhead could significantly degrade the system’s performance. This paper proposes heuristics to dynamically determine which components to replicate based on their significance to the system as a whole, its consequent number of passive replicas, and where to place those replicas in the network. The activation of passive replicas is coordinated through a fast convergence protocol that reduces the complexity of the needed interactions among nodes until a new collective global service solution is determined

Dirofilaria immitis parasite infection in cats: first case reported in the Legal Amazon region, Brazil - case report

ABSTRACT A case of infection with Dirofilaria immitis in a cat is reported here with clinical signs of apathy, anorexia, dyspnea, polypnea, slight dehydration and pale mucus membranes. The radiographic examination showed cardiomegaly, lobar arteries dilation of the cranial lobes and tortuosity, enlargement of the caudal lobar arteries. In the right lobe of the lung parenchyma, interstitial pulmonary opacification tending to alveolar opacification was seen. The clinical signs, the movements, and the morphology of the microfilariae in the direct examination of fresh blood, peripheral blood smear and Knott’s modified test supported the diagnosis. We alert to the need for clinicians to consider feline heartworm diseases as a differential diagnosis in endemic areas when cats show respiratory signs