A critical review of obesity in healthcare systems in brazil and portugal: Pathways, guidelines and strategies

Background: Obesity and its associated diseases in the 21st century has led to new public policies with international commitments. Objective: The objective of this review was to examine public initiatives and policies to tackle obesity in Brazil and Portugal over the past two decades, identifying frameworks, guidelines and strategic actions. Methods: Official documents Brazilian and Portuguese public health policies were analyzed for international guidelines from 1999 to 2019. The documents were organized and analyzed by date. Additionally, they were evaluated for frameworks and actions proposed for individuals, communities, and the population across all levels of healthcare. Conclusion: This study shows that Portugal and Brazil have taken different paths when it comes to the creation and implementation of their strategies to manage obesity. In Brazil, actions aimed at promoting healthy eating have been introduced to children and are implemented by many government agencies. Portugal, on the other hand, has provided greater access to individualized healthcare services and has involved different sectors in addressing these issues. (c) 2021 da Graça da Costa et al

The antiestrogen ICI 182,780 decreases the expression of estrogen receptor-alpha but has no effect on estrogen receptor-beta and androgen receptor in rat efferent ductules

BACKGROUND: The antiestrogen ICI 182,780 has been used successfully as an alternative experimental model for the study of estrogen action in the rodent adult male reproductive tract. Although ICI 182,780 causes severe alterations in testicular and efferent ductule morphology and function, the effects on the expression of estrogen and androgen receptors in the male have not been shown. METHODS: In the present study, adult male rats were treated with ICI 182,780 for 7 to 150 days, to evaluate the time-response effects of the treatment on the pattern of ERα, ERβ and AR protein expression in the efferent ductules. The receptors were localized using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: ERα, ERβ and AR have distinct cellular distribution in the testis and efferent ductules. Staining for ERα is nearly opposite of that for ERβ, as ERα shows an increase in staining intensity from proximal to distal efferent ductules, whereas ERβ shows the reverse. Androgen receptor follows that of ERα. ICI 182,780 caused a gradual but dramatic decrease in ERα expression in the testis and efferent ductules, but no change in ERβ and AR expression. CONCLUSIONS: The differential response of ERα and ERβ proteins to ICI 182,780 indicates that these receptors are regulated by different mechanisms in the male reproductive tract

Real-Time decision support using data mining to predict blood pressure critical events in intensive medicine patients

Patient blood pressure is an important vital signal to the physicians take a decision and to better understand the patient condition. In Intensive Care Units is possible monitoring the blood pressure due the fact of the patient being in continuous monitoring through bedside monitors and the use of sensors. The intensivist only have access to vital signs values when they look to the monitor or consult the values hourly collected. Most important is the sequence of the values collected, i.e., a set of highest or lowest values can signify a critical event and bring future complications to a patient as is Hypotension or Hypertension. This complications can leverage a set of dangerous diseases and side-effects. The main goal of this work is to predict the probability of a patient has a blood pressure critical event in the next hours by combining a set of patient data collected in real-time and using Data Mining classification techniques. As output the models indicate the probability (%) of a patient has a Blood Pressure Critical Event in the next hour. The achieved results showed to be very promising, presenting sensitivity around of 95%

Intraspecfic variation in cold-temperature metabolic phenotypes of Arabidopsis lyrata ssp petraea

Atmospheric temperature is a key factor in determining the distribution of a plant species. Alongside this, plant populations growing at the margin of their range may exhibit traits that indicate genetic differentiation and adaptation to their local abiotic environment. We investigated whether geographically separated marginal populations of Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea have distinct metabolic phenotypes associated with exposure to cold temperatures. Seeds of A. petraea were obtained from populations along a latitudinal gradient, namely Wales, Sweden and Iceland and grown in a controlled cabinet environment. Mannose, glucose, fructose, sucrose and raffinose concentrations were different between cold treatments and populations, especially in the Welsh population, but polyhydric alcohol concentrations were not. The free amino acid compositions were population specific, with fold differences in most amino acids, especially in the Icelandic populations, with gross changes in amino acids, particularly those associated with glutamine metabolism. Metabolic fingerprints and profiles were obtained. Principal component analysis (PCA) of metabolite fingerprints revealed metabolic characteristic phenotypes for each population and temperature. It is suggested that amino acids and carbohydrates were responsible for discriminating populations within the PCA. Metabolite fingerprinting and profiling has proved to be sufficiently sensitive to identify metabolic differences between plant populations at different atmospheric temperatures. These findings show that there is significant natural variation in cold metabolism among populations of A. l. petraea which may signify plant adaptation to local climates

The impact of low erythrocyte density in human blood on the fitness and energetic reserves of the African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

Background Anaemia is a common health problem in the developing world. This condition is characterized by a reduction in erythrocyte density, primarily from malnutrition and/or infectious diseases such as malaria. As red blood cells are the primary source of protein for haematophagous mosquitoes, any reduction could impede the ability of mosquito vectors to transmit malaria by influencing their fitness or that of the parasites they transmit. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of differences in the density of red blood cells in human blood on malaria vector (Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto) fitness. The hypotheses tested are that mosquito vector energetic reserves and fitness are negatively influenced by reductions in the red cell density of host human blood meals commensurate with those expected from severe anaemia. Methods Mosquitoes (An. gambiae s.s.) were offered blood meals of different packed cell volume(PCV) of human blood consistent with those arising from severe anaemia (15%) and normalPCV (50%). Associations between mosquito energetic reserves (lipid, glucose and glycogen)and fitness measures (reproduction and survival) and blood meal PCV were investigated. Results The amount of protein that malaria vectors acquired from blood feeding (indexed by haematin excretion) was significantly reduced at low blood PCV. However, mosquitoes feeding on blood of low PCV had the same oviposition rates as those feeding on blood of normal PCV, and showed an increase in egg production of around 15%. The long-term survival of An. gambiae s.s was reduced after feeding on low PCV blood, but PCV had no significant impact on the proportion of mosquitoes surviving through the minimal period required to develop and transmit malaria parasites (estimated as 14 days post-blood feeding). The impact of blood PCV on the energetic reserves of mosquitoes was relatively minor. Conclusions These results suggest that feeding on human hosts whose PCV has been depleted due to severe anaemia does not significantly reduce the fitness or transmission potential of malaria vectors, and indicates that mosquitoes may be able exploit resources for reproduction more efficiently from blood of low rather than normal PCV

The development of computational biology in South Africa: successes achieved and lessons learnt

Bioinformatics is now a critical skill in many research and commercial environments as biological data are increasing in both size and complexity. South African researchers recognized this need in the mid-1990s and responded by working with the government as well as international bodies to develop initiatives to build bioinformatics capacity in the country. Significant injections of support from these bodies provided a springboard for the establishment of computational biology units at multiple universities throughout the country, which took on teaching, basic research and support roles. Several challenges were encountered, for example with unreliability of funding, lack of skills, and lack of infrastructure. However, the bioinformatics community worked together to overcome these, and South Africa is now arguably the leading country in bioinformatics on the African continent. Here we discuss how the discipline developed in the country, highlighting the challenges, successes, and lessons learnt