Molecular and serological diagnosis of toxoplasmosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Toxoplasmosis is an infection of vast worldwide distribution whose etiologic agent is Toxoplasma gondii. This disease can cause problems ranging from mild symptoms to serious conditions, such as encephalitis, miscarriage and blindness. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to perform a diagnosis with reproducible techniques in order to obtain a good prognosis. The aim of this review was to analyze the efficiency of toxoplasmosis diagnostic techniques based on sensitivity and specificity results. Five research platforms in English language were used (Eric, Elsevier, Google Scholar, PubMed and SciELO), which contained data on the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis. The search and selection were performed for studies published prior to June 2021. The search resulted in the inclusion of 13 articles published from 2005 to 2020. The data revealed the use of different samples in the standardization of techniques such as serum, total blood, colostrum and amniotic fluid. The flow cytometry, lateral flow immunoassay and qPCR techniques showed 100% sensitivity, whereas the ELISA, western blotting, qPCR and RE-LAMP techniques achieved 100% specificity. Significantly, the qPCR and LAMP techniques were more accurate when the likelihood ratio was assessed. The meta-analysis identified that ISAGA and western blotting have low sensitivity values and LIASON, ELFA and ELISA, using a silica bioconjugate, also have low specificity values. It was noted that a wide range of methods have high values of sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, the choice of the method will be based on the conditions and its financial viability

Doença de Gaucher: relato de caso de uma doença familiar/Gaucher's disease: Case report of a family disease

A doença de Gaucher (DG) é considerada um erro inato do metabolismo que ocorre devido a um depósito lisossomal. A deficiência da enzima beta-glicosidase ácida ocasiona o acúmulo de glucosilceramida, em macrófagos e mastócitos de órgãos como baço, fígado, medula óssea e pulmão, o que caracteriza os sinais e sintomas da doença. Foi feito um relato de caso de uma paciente do sexo feminino, 73 anos, com diagnóstico confirmado de doença de Gaucher, acompanhada na Unidade de Atenção Básica do município de Patos de Minas. Foi realizada pesquisa descritiva, através de entrevistas e pesquisa documental dos exames e prontuários da paciente. O presente projeto foi submetido ao Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa do Centro Universitário de Patos de Minas com aprovação, CAAE: 03674918.5.0000.5549. A paciente foi orientada sobre a pesquisa manifestando concordância, assinando um termo de consentimento livre e esclarecido. Foi realizada visita domiciliar onde coletou-se dados da paciente, a qual é portadora de Doença de Gaucher, diagnosticada em 2000, quando começou a fazer acompanhamento com hematologista. Em seus exames observamos a presença de leucopenia e plaquetopenia, o exame de 06/02/2018 comprova o diagnóstico da doença de Gaucher com um teste baseado em DNA mostrando a substituição de aspargina na posição 409 por serina, outro exame mostrou atividade da enzima beta-glicosidade diminuída. Com esse relato ampliou-se o conhecimento sobre essa patologia com a observação de suas principais manifestações, alterações laboratoriais e exame diagnóstico, tendo-a como um importante diagnóstico diferencial para doenças que também cursam com esplenomegalia, linfopenia e plaquetopenia

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

Alterações cognitivas na infecção pelo HIV: uma revisão sistemática: Cognitive changes in HIV infection: a systematic review

Provocada pelo vírus da imunodeficiência humana, com a síndrome da imunodeficiência adquirida, numa pessoa tem o seu sistema imunológico prejudicado, tornando-se suscetível a outras doenças e infecção. Tem-se a estimativa de que 50% dos infectados com o referido vírus podem sofrer alterações cognitivas. Diante disso, este estudo tem como objetivo refletir sobre mudanças estruturais cerebrais e comprometimento cognitivo em pacientes com HIV. Portanto, trata-se de uma revisão sistemática de literatura, desenvolvida a partir da seleção de estudos nas bases de dados Scielo, Pubmed e BVS/Medline a partir do uso de descritores DeCS/MeSH e aplicação de critérios de inclusão e exclusão. Após a análise e interpretação dos dados, concluiu-se que há uma significativa prevalência de HAND em adultos infectados por HIV, no que se refere a alterações cognitivas, especialmente entre pacientes do sexo feminino, de baixa escolaridade e renda, com diagnóstico tardio e baixa quantidade de linfócitos CD4 no início do tratamento. Entre essas pessoas, revelam-se comprometimentos quanto à memória, atenção, controle de impulsos, velocidade de processamento e motora, dentre outros

Educomunicação e suas áreas de intervenção: Novos paradigmas para o diálogo intercultural

oai:omp.abpeducom.org.br:publicationFormat/1O material aqui divulgado representa, em essência, a contribuição do VII Encontro Brasileiro de Educomunicação ao V Global MIL Week, da UNESCO, ocorrido na ECA/USP, entre 3 e 5 de novembro de 2016. Estamos diante de um conjunto de 104 papers executivos, com uma média de entre 7 e 10 páginas, cada um. Com este rico e abundante material, chegamos ao sétimo e-book publicado pela ABPEducom, em seus seis primeiros anos de existência. A especificidade desta obra é a de trazer as “Áreas de Intervenção” do campo da Educomunicação, colocando-as a serviço de uma meta essencial ao agir educomunicativo: o diálogo intercultural, trabalhado na linha do tema geral do evento internacional: Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

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 understanding 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,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 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 underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities 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 organism 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 neglected 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 lost