Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

A ocupação Guarani no Vale do Taquari / RS: notas prévias sobre as pesquisas arqueológicas

O objetivo principal do artigo é apresentar alguns dados sobre a pesquisa arqueológica de sítios horticultores guarani no Vale do Taquari/RS. A geomorfologia da região é rica em planícies de inundação e terraços fluviais, locais ideais para a existência de sítios de horticultores/ceramistas/guarani. Escolhemos para este estudo a várzea do rio Forqueta, um dos maiores afluentes do rio Taquari, pelo acesso facilitado e visibilidade arqueológica. Nos sítios encontrados nesta área, identificou-se algumas estruturas como áreas de captação de recursos, áreas de habitação e áreas de descarte (lixeiras). As evidências arqueológicas dos sítios em questão estão formadas por um conjunto de fragmentos composto de cerâmicas corrugadas, unguladas, pintadas, lisas, escovadas e evidências líticas como raspadores, núcleos bipolares, talhadores, lascas, machados polidos e restos faunísticos. Este trabalho encontra-se em fase inicial, porém, até o momento, as evidências têm mostrado bons indicadores de ocupação guarani permanente na região

Charcoal remains from a tonstein layer in the Faxinal Coalfield, Lower Permian, southern Paraná Basin, Brazil

Fossil charcoal has been discovered in the Faxinal Coalfield, Early Permian, Rio Bonito Formation, in the southernmost portion of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. Three types of pycnoxylic gymnosperm woods recovered from a single tonstein layer are described and confirm the occurrence of paleowildfire in this area. A decrease of the charcoal concentration from the base to the top within the tonstein layer indicates that the amount of fuel declined during the deposition probably due to the consumption of vegetation by the fire. The presence of inertinite in coals overlying and underlying the tonstein layer indicates that fire-events were not restricted to the ash fall interval. The integration of the new data presented in the current study with previously published data for the Faxinal Coalfield demonstrates that volcanic events that occurred in the surrounding areas can be identified as one potential source of ignition for the wildfires. The presence of charcoal in Permian sediments associated with coal levels at different localities demonstrates that wildfires have been relatively common events in the peat-forming environments in which the coal formation took place in the Paraná Basin

TL dating of pottery fragments from four archaeological sites in Taquari Valley, Brazil

Sixty-three pottery fragments from four archaeological sites, numbered RST110, RST101, RST114 and RST114, in the Taquari Valley, vicinity of the city of Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil, have been dated by the thermoluminescence method. Some of them from RST110 and RST101 are as old as 1400-1200 years, whereas those from RST114 and RST107 are younger than 800 years. This result indicates that RST101 and RST110 were peopled earlier than RST114 and RST107. The recent dates found are 302, 295 and 146 years and they are possible, since the first German immigrants who arrived in this region encountered Tupi-Guarani Indians still living there. One interesting result refers to the glow curves of quartz grains RST110, RST101 and RST114 that differ from the glow curves of RST107 quartz grains.FAPESPFAPESPCNPqCNP