SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF MALARIA VECTORS (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE) IN RURAL LOCALITIES OF PORTO VELHO, RONDÔNIA, BRAZILIAN AMAZON

We conducted a survey of the malaria vectors in an area where a power line had been constructed, between the municipalities of Porto Velho and Rio Branco, in the states of Rondônia and Acre, respectively. The present paper relates to the results of the survey of Anopheles fauna conducted in the state of Rondônia. Mosquito field collections were performed in six villages along the federal highway BR 364 in the municipality of Porto Velho, namely Porto Velho, Jaci Paraná, Mutum Paraná, Vila Abunã, Vista Alegre do Abunã, and Extrema. Mosquito captures were performed at three distinct sites in each locality during the months of February, July, and October 2011 using a protected human-landing catch method; outdoor and indoor captures were conducted simultaneously at each site for six hours. In the six sampled areas, we captured 2,185 mosquitoes belonging to seven Anopheles species. Of these specimens, 95.1% consisted of Anopheles darlingi, 1.8% An. triannulatus l.s., 1.7% An. deaneorum, 0.8% An. konderi l.s., 0.4 An. braziliensis, 0.1% An. albitarsis l.s., and 0.1% An. benarrochi. An. darlingi was the only species found in all localities; the remaining species occurred in sites with specific characteristics

Sialic Acid Glycobiology Unveils Trypanosoma cruzi Trypomastigote Membrane Physiology.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the flagellate protozoan agent of Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis, is unable to synthesize sialic acids de novo. Mucins and trans-sialidase (TS) are substrate and enzyme, respectively, of the glycobiological system that scavenges sialic acid from the host in a crucial interplay for T. cruzi life cycle. The acquisition of the sialyl residue allows the parasite to avoid lysis by serum factors and to interact with the host cell. A major drawback to studying the sialylation kinetics and turnover of the trypomastigote glycoconjugates is the difficulty to identify and follow the recently acquired sialyl residues. To tackle this issue, we followed an unnatural sugar approach as bioorthogonal chemical reporters, where the use of azidosialyl residues allowed identifying the acquired sugar. Advanced microscopy techniques, together with biochemical methods, were used to study the trypomastigote membrane from its glycobiological perspective. Main sialyl acceptors were identified as mucins by biochemical procedures and protein markers. Together with determining their shedding and turnover rates, we also report that several membrane proteins, including TS and its substrates, both glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, are separately distributed on parasite surface and contained in different and highly stable membrane microdomains. Notably, labeling for α(1,3)Galactosyl residues only partially colocalize with sialylated mucins, indicating that two species of glycosylated mucins do exist, which are segregated at the parasite surface. Moreover, sialylated mucins were included in lipid-raft-domains, whereas TS molecules are not. The location of the surface-anchored TS resulted too far off as to be capable to sialylate mucins, a role played by the shed TS instead. Phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase-C activity is actually not present in trypomastigotes. Therefore, shedding of TS occurs via microvesicles instead of as a fully soluble form

Nursing Diagnosis Risk for falls: prevalence and clinical profile of hospitalized patients

Objectives: to identify the prevalence of the Nursing Diagnosis (ND) Risk for falls in the hospitalizations of adult patients in clinical and surgical units, to characterize the clinical profile and to identify the risk factors of the patients with this ND. Method: a cross-sectional study with 174 patients. The data was collected from the computerized nursing care prescriptions system and on-line hospital records, and analyzed statistically. Results: the prevalence of the ND Risk for falls was 4%. The patients’ profile indicated older adults, males (57%), those hospitalized in the clinical units (63.2%), with a median length of hospitalization of 20 (10-24) days, with neurological illnesses (26%), cardio-vascular illnesses (74.1%) and various co-morbidities (3±1.8). The prevalent risk factors were neurological alterations (43.1%), impaired mobility (35.6%) and extremes of age (10.3%). Conclusion: the findings contributed to evidencing the profile of the patients with a risk of falling hospitalized in clinical and surgical wards, which favors the planning of interventions for preventing this adverse event

Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Predicting volume of distribution with decision tree-based regression methods using predicted tissue:plasma partition coefficients

Background: Volume of distribution is an important pharmacokinetic property that indicates the extent of a drug's distribution in the body tissues. This paper addresses the problem of how to estimate the apparent volume of distribution at steady state (Vss) of chemical compounds in the human body using decision tree-based regression methods from the area of data mining (or machine learning). Hence, the pros and cons of several different types of decision tree-based regression methods have been discussed. The regression methods predict Vss using, as predictive features, both the compounds' molecular descriptors and the compounds' tissue:plasma partition coefficients (Kt:p) - often used in physiologically-based pharmacokinetics. Therefore, this work has assessed whether the data mining-based prediction of Vss can be made more accurate by using as input not only the compounds' molecular descriptors but also (a subset of) their predicted Kt:p values. Results: Comparison of the models that used only molecular descriptors, in particular, the Bagging decision tree (mean fold error of 2.33), with those employing predicted Kt:p values in addition to the molecular descriptors, such as the Bagging decision tree using adipose Kt:p (mean fold error of 2.29), indicated that the use of predicted Kt:p values as descriptors may be beneficial for accurate prediction of Vss using decision trees if prior feature selection is applied. Conclusions: Decision tree based models presented in this work have an accuracy that is reasonable and similar to the accuracy of reported Vss inter-species extrapolations in the literature. The estimation of Vss for new compounds in drug discovery will benefit from methods that are able to integrate large and varied sources of data and flexible non-linear data mining methods such as decision trees, which can produce interpretable models. Figure not available: see fulltext. © 2015 Freitas et al.; licensee Springer

Experience of taking care of children exposed to HIV: a trajectory of expectations

OBJETIVO: conhecer a experiência do cuidador/mãe em relação ao cuidado para com a criança exposta ao vírus da imunodeficiência humana por transmissão vertical, na trajetória pós-natal. MÉTODO: pesquisa qualitativa, que utilizou o Interacionismo Simbólico como referencial teórico. Foram realizadas entrevistas com 39 cuidadores de crianças expostas ao vírus da imunodeficiência humana e em seguimento em um serviço especializado. Os dados foram analisados pela análise de conteúdo indutiva. RESULTADOS: apreenderam-se quatro categorias que reportam à experiência solitária de manuseio da terapia antirretroviral da criança, no que se refere principalmente à ausência ou incompletude de informações recebidas; estar atento aos cuidados, que incluem o uso da profilaxia para pneumonia, vacinas e outros restritos à interação mãe/criança; querer omitir a presença do vírus da imunodeficiência humana pelo medo do preconceito e olhar o futuro e temer a doença. CONCLUSÃO: a presença do vírus da imunodeficiência humana e a ameaça dessa infecção na criança são capazes de gerar apreensão e tantos outros sentimentos como medo, culpa e ansiedade no cuidador. Os profissionais de saúde precisam trabalhar conjuntamente com a mãe para o enfrentamento das demandas e sofrimentos. Assim, o tratamento para evitar a transmissão vertical será eficiente e a mãe, juntamente à criança, viverá essa trajetória com apoio, apesar da apreensão pelo resultado.OBJETIVO: conocer la experiencia del cuidador/madre en relación al cuidado de niño expuesto al VIH por transmisión vertical en la trayectoria posnatal. MÉTODO: investigación cualitativa, que utilizó el Interaccionismo Simbólico como referencial teórico. Fueron realizadas entrevistas con 39 cuidadores de niños expuestos al VIH y que eran acompañados en un servicio especializado. Los datos fueron analizados por el análisis de contenido inductivo. RESULTADOS: se encontraron cuatro categorías que informan sobre la experiencia solitaria de la administración de la terapia antirretroviral del niño, en lo que se refiere principalmente a: la ausencia o a informaciones incompletas recibidas; al estar atento a los cuidados, que incluyen el uso de la profilaxis para neumonía, vacunas y otros restringidos a la interacción madre-niño; al querer omitir la presencia del VIH por miedo al prejuicio; y al mirar al futuro y temer a la enfermedad. CONCLUSIÓN: la presencia del VIH y la amenaza de infectar al niño son capaces de generar preocupación y varios otros sentimientos en el cuidador, como miedo, culpa y ansiedad. Los profesionales de la salud precisan trabajar conjuntamente con la madre para el enfrentamiento de las demandas y sufrimientos. Así, el tratamiento para evitar la transmisión vertical será eficiente y la madre con el niño vivirán esa trayectoria con apoyo, a pesar de la preocupación por el resultado.'OBJECTIVE: to learn about the experience of caregivers/mothers providing care to infants exposed to HIV through vertical transmission. METHODS: this qualitative study used Symbolic Interactionism as the theoretical framework. A total of 39 caregivers of children exposed to HIV in follow-up at a specialized service were interviewed. Data were analyzed through inductive content analysis. RESULTS: four categories were identified that report on the lonely experience of handling the child's antiretroviral therapy, mainly due to a lack of information or incomplete information; being attentive to required care, such as the use of prophylaxis for pneumonia, vaccines, and other practices restricted to the mother-child interaction; the desire to omit the HIV out of fear of prejudice and fear of the disease, considering future prospects. CONCLUSION: the HIV and the threat this infection may affect the child cause apprehension and feelings such as fear, guilt and anxiety in the caregivers. Healthcare workers need to work together with mothers so they are able to cope with demands and distress. Only then will the treatment to avoid vertical transmission be efficient and will mother and child be supported during the process, despite apprehension with the outcome