The use of genes for performance enhancement: doping or therapy?

Recent biotechnological advances have permitted the manipulation of genetic sequences to treat several diseases in a process called gene therapy. However, the advance of gene therapy has opened the door to the possibility of using genetic manipulation (GM) to enhance athletic performance. In such ‘gene doping’, exogenous genetic sequences are inserted into a specific tissue, altering cellular gene activity or leading to the expression of a protein product. The exogenous genes most likely to be utilized for gene doping include erythropoietin (EPO), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), insulin-like growth factor type 1 (IGF-1), myostatin antagonists, and endorphin. However, many other genes could also be used, such as those involved in glucose metabolic pathways. Because gene doping would be very difficult to detect, it is inherently very attractive for those involved in sports who are prepared to cheat. Moreover, the field of gene therapy is constantly and rapidly progressing, and this is likely to generate many new possibilities for gene doping. Thus, as part of the general fight against all forms of doping, it will be necessary to develop and continually improve means of detecting exogenous gene sequences (or their products) in athletes. Nevertheless, some bioethicists have argued for a liberal approach to gene doping

Resolving conflicts in clinical guidelines using argumentation

Automatically reasoning with conflicting generic clinical guidelines is a burning issue in patient-centric medical reasoning where patient-specific conditions and goals need to be taken into account. It is even more challenging in the presence of preferences such as patient's wishes and clinician's priorities over goals. We advance a structured argumentation formalism for reasoning with conflicting clinical guidelines, patient-specific information and preferences. Our formalism integrates assumption-based reasoning and goal-driven selection among reasoning outcomes. Specifically, we assume applicability of guideline recommendations concerning the generic goal of patient well-being, resolve conflicts among recommendations using patient's conditions and preferences, and then consider prioritised patient-centered goals to yield non-conflicting, goal-maximising and preference-respecting recommendations. We rely on the state-of-the-art Transition-based Medical Recommendation model for representing guideline recommendations and augment it with context given by the patient's conditions, goals, as well as preferences over recommendations and goals. We establish desirable properties of our approach in terms of sensitivity to recommendation conflicts and patient context

Arborização de pastagens: tecnologia para assegurar o bem-estar animal e a sustentabilidade das pastagens.

bitstream/item/107178/1/arborizacao-Tadario.pd

Adubação nitrogenada em milho e capim-xaraés sob plantio direto e preparo convencional em sistema agrossilvipastoril.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho agronômico das culturas do milho e do capim-xaraés (Urochloa brizantha 'Xaraés') em consórcio, cultivadas em plantio direto e convencional, em sistema agrossilvipastoril, com a aplicação de diferentes doses de nitrogênio em cobertura. O experimento foi conduzido em área de cultivo de milho com a espécie florestal mulateiro (Calycophyllum spruceanum). Utilizou-se o delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, com arranjo em parcelas subdivididas, com dois sistemas de manejo do solo (plantio direto e convencional com grade pesada) alocados nas parcelas e com cinco doses de adubação nitrogenada em cobertura (0, 50, 100, 150 e 200 kg ha-1 de N), nas subparcelas, o que totalizou dez tratamentos. A produtividade de grãos de milho respondeu linearmente à aplicação de N em área de plantio convencional. Em área de plantio direto, a dose de 165 kg ha-1 de N em cobertura foi necessária para a obtenção de produtividades satisfatórias. A adubação nitrogenada em cobertura na cultura do milho, até a dose de 200 kg ha-1 de N, não influencia o rendimento do capim-xaraés em consórcio nas entrelinhas, após a colheita do milho

The art of HIV elimination: past and present science

Introduction: Remarkable strides have been made in controlling the HIV epidemic, although not enough to achieve epidemic control. More recently, interest in biomedical HIV control approaches has increased, but substantial challenges with the HIV cascade of care hinder successful implementation. We summarise all available HIV prevention methods and make recommendations on how to address current challenges. Discussion: In the early days of the epidemic, behavioural approaches to control the HIV dominated, and the few available evidence-based interventions demonstrated to reduce HIV transmission were applied independently from one another. More recently, it has become clear that combination prevention strategies targeted to high transmission geographies and people at most risk of infections are required to achieve epidemic control. Biomedical strategies such as male medical circumcision and antiretroviral therapy for treatment in HIV-positive individuals and as preexposure prophylaxis in HIV-negative individuals provide immense promise for the future of HIV control. In resourcerich settings, the threat of HIV treatment optimism resulting in increased sexual risk taking has been observed and there are concerns that as ART roll-out matures in resource-poor settings and the benefits of ART become clearly visible, behavioural disinhibition may also become a challenge in those settings. Unfortunately, an efficacious vaccine, a strategy which could potentially halt the HIV epidemic, remains elusive. Conclusion: Combination HIV prevention offers a logical approach to HIV control, although what and how the available options should be combined is contextual. Therefore, knowledge of the local or national drivers of HIV infection is paramount. Problems with the HIV care continuum remain of concern, hindering progress towards the UNAIDS target of 90-90-90 by 2020. Research is needed on combination interventions that address all the steps of the cascade as the steps are not independent of each other. Until these issues are addressed, HIV elimination may remain an unattainable goal

New evidence for lack of CMB power on large scales

A digitalized temperature map is recovered from the first light sky survey image published by the Planck team, from which an angular power spectrum is derived. The amplitudes of the low multipoles measured from the preliminary Planck power spectrum are significantly lower than that reported by the WMAP team. Possible systematical effects are far from enough to explain the observed low-l differences.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure