Auras in temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis: Relation to seizure focus laterality and post surgical outcome

We examined the relationship between presence and frequency of different types of auras and side of lesion and post surgical outcomes in 205 patients with medically intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS). With respect to the number of auras, multiple auras were not associated with side of lesion (p=0.551). the side of HS was not associated with the type of auras reported. One hundred fifty-seven patients were operated. the occurrence of multiple auras was not associated with post-surgical outcome (p=0.740). the presence of extratemporal auras was significantly higher in patients with poor outcome. in conclusion, this study suggests that the presence of extratemporal auras in patients with MTLE-HS possibly reflects extratemporal epileptogenicity in these patients, who otherwise showed features suggestive of TLE. Therefore, TLE-HS patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation and presenting clinical symptoms suggestive of extratemporal involvement should bemore extensively evaluated to avoid incomplete resection of the epileptogenic zone. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Neurol & Neurocirurgia, BR-04024002 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Diagnost Imagem, BR-04024002 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Neurol & Neurocirurgia, BR-04024002 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Diagnost Imagem, BR-04024002 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Análise dos Indicadores de Neoplasia Maligna de Estômago no Brasil, no Período entre 2013 e 2023

INTRODUCTION: Stomach malignancy, or gastric cancer, refers to the disordered growth of malignant cells in the lining of the stomach, resulting in a tumor that can invade adjacent tissues and spread to other parts of the body. Considered one of the main causes of cancer mortality worldwide, this condition is especially prevalent in developing countries. This article will analyze the hospitalizations, deaths and mortality rates associated with this condition, highlighting the importance of early diagnosis and advanced therapeutic interventions. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to quantify and analyze the rates of hospitalizations, deaths and mortality rates due to stomach malignancy in Brazil. METHODOLOGY: This is a retrospective study with a quantitative approach, carried out from data collection by the SUS Hospital Information System (SIH/SUS), made available by the secondary database of the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System (TABNET /DATASUS). The data studied referred to hospitalizations, deaths and the mortality rate due to malignant neoplasia of the stomach in Brazil in the period between January 2013 and December 2023. The analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, tabulation in an electronic spreadsheet using the Microsoft Excel program 2016 arranged in tables using Microsoft Word 10. RESULTS: From January 2013 to December 2023, 316,228 hospitalizations for malignant stomach neoplasia were recorded in Brazil. The Southeast Region had the highest percentage of hospitalizations (43.25%), followed by the South Region (24.02%). In the same period, there were 48,785 deaths, with the highest concentration also in the Southeast Region (48.28%). The mortality rate varied between 12.16 in the South Region and 22.39 in the North Region. CONCLUSION: Therefore, the analysis highlights significant regional disparities in the management of stomach malignancy in Brazil, highlighting the urgent need for public policies to improve access to early diagnosis and treatment, especially in regions with high mortality rates, such as the North. Specific regional strategies are crucial to reducing inequalities in the care and treatment of this condition, promoting a more equitable distribution of healthcare resources and improving outcomes for patients across the country.INTRODUÇÃO: A neoplasia maligna de estômago, ou câncer gástrico, refere-se ao crescimento desordenado de células malignas no revestimento do estômago, resultando em um tumor que pode invadir tecidos adjacentes e se disseminar para outras partes do corpo. Considerada uma das principais causas de mortalidade por câncer mundialmente, essa condição é especialmente prevalente em países em desenvolvimento. Este artigo analisará as internações, óbitos e taxa de mortalidade associados a essa condição, destacando a importância do diagnóstico precoce e das intervenções terapêuticas avançadas. OBJETIVO: Este estudo visa quantificar e analisar as taxas de internações, óbitos e taxa de mortalidade por neoplasia maligna de estômago no Brasil. METODOLOGIA: Trata-se de um estudo retrospectivo com abordagem quantitativa, realizado a partir de coleta de dados pelo Sistema de Informações Hospitalares do SUS (SIH/SUS), disponibilizados pela base de dados secundária do Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde (TABNET/DATASUS). Os dados estudados referiam-se às internações, aos óbitos e à taxa de mortalidade por neoplasia maligna de estômago no Brasil no período entre janeiro de 2013 e dezembro de 2023. A análise foi realizada por estatística descritiva, tabulação em planilha eletrônica do programa Microsoft Excel 2016 disposta em tabelas pelo Microsoft Word 10. RESULTADOS: No período de janeiro de 2013 a dezembro de 2023, foram registradas 316.228 internações por neoplasia maligna de estômago no Brasil. A Região Sudeste apresentou a maior porcentagem de internações (43,25%), seguida pela Região Sul (24,02%). No mesmo período, ocorreram 48.785 óbitos, com a maior concentração também na Região Sudeste (48,28%). A taxa de mortalidade variou entre 12,16 na Região Sul e 22,39 na Região Norte. CONCLUSÃO: Portanto, a análise evidencia disparidades regionais significativas no manejo da neoplasia maligna de estômago no Brasil, destacando a necessidade urgente de políticas públicas para melhorar o acesso ao diagnóstico precoce e tratamento, especialmente nas regiões com altas taxas de mortalidade, como o Norte. Estratégias regionais específicas são cruciais para reduzir as desigualdades no cuidado e tratamento dessa condição, promovendo uma distribuição mais equitativa dos recursos de saúde e melhorando os resultados para os pacientes em todo o país

Comunicação, Saúde e Pluralidade: novos olhares e abordagens em pauta

Propomos um passeio acadêmico por 11 textos de pesquisadores afinados com a temática Health Communication na versão brasileira, mostrando a riqueza de assuntos, metodologias e enfoques que os estudos dessa área permitem na academia. Trata-se de uma visão multidisciplinar, às vezes com a Comunicação no foco principal, por outras a Saúde no estetoscópio dos pesquisadores.O livro Comunicação, Saúde e Pluralidade: novos olhares e abordagens em pauta compõe a Coleção Comunicação & Inovação, que, entre outros volumes, pretende discutir reflexões sobre processos e produtos comunicacionais cujos aspectos de inovação sejam marcantes nas interfaces com diversos conceitos e abordagensUniversidade Municipal de São Caetano do Su

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Unraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology

In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important constraints via predictions using least biased probability distributions. We apply it to over two thousand hectares of Amazonian tree inventories across seven forest types and thirteen functional traits, representing major global axes of plant strategies. Results show that constraints formed by regional relative abundances of genera explain eight times more of local relative abundances than constraints based on directional selection for specific functional traits, although the latter does show clear signals of environmental dependency. These results provide a quantitative insight by inference from large-scale data using cross-disciplinary methods, furthering our understanding of ecological dynamics

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MAim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio