Tetanus and diphtheria immunity in adolescents from São Paulo, Brazil

Tetanus and diphtheria vaccines are of special concern in adolescents because boosters are necessary for adequate maintenance of protection and are often omitted. We assessed serum levels of tetanus and diphtheria antibodies in adolescents and their association with vaccination status. From May to October 2001, we evaluated the vaccination records of 208 adolescents aged 10 to 20 years in São Paulo, Brazil. Antibodies to tetanus and diphtheria were detected using double-antigen ELISA and vaccination records were analyzed according to the guidelines of the Brazilian National Immunization Program. All adolescents had received complete primary vaccinations against tetanus and diphtheria, but 23.1% of them had not received a booster dose in the last 10 years. All adolescents were immune to tetanus and 88.9% were fully protected (antibodies ³0.1 IU/mL). One individual (0.5%) was non-immune to diphtheria and 86% were fully protected against the disease. Adolescents with up-to-date vaccination records had higher antibody levels than those with not up-to-date records for tetanus (0.763 vs 0.239 IU/mL, t-test: P < 0.0001) and diphtheria (0.366 vs 0.233 IU/mL, t-test: P = 0.014). Full immunity against tetanus (antibodies ³0.1 IU/mL) was higher among individuals with up-to-date vaccination (93.1%) when compared to those with not up-to-date records (75%, Fisher's exact test: P = 0.001). All adolescents had received basic immunization in childhood and were protected against tetanus and diphtheria. However, these data indicate that more emphasis should be placed on the tetanus-diphtheria booster in order to avoid a decay in antibody levels

Management of Montados and Dehesas for High Nature Value: an interdisciplinary pathway

Mediterranean oak woodlands, Montados in Portugal and Dehesas in Spain have long been acknowledged as potential land use systems of high nature and social value providing relevant ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, these systems are now under severe threat, both due to abandonment in certain areas and overuse in others, extremes that may be limited by appropriate management practices and strategies. The High Nature Value concept can be a pathway for the understanding and assessment of management practices best adapted to the balance of the Montado and Dehesa, and also to the assessment of the thresholds of change, so that the long term sustainability of the Montado systems is preserved. This special issue aims to contribute for the understanding of how the Montado and Dehesa classification as High Nature Value may be a path for sustainable management. This classification can be achieved by different ways and implies different components of the Montado, and thus the first four papers of this special issue address different approaches and methodologies for the identification of HNV Dehesas and Montados, the following seven papers deal mostly with the effect of management practices on biodiversity and other Dehesas and Montados values and finally the last two papers address the causes for Montado decline and suggest mitigation measures for that decline

A survey of energy loss calculations for heavy ions between 1 and 100 keV

The original Lindhard-Scharff-Schi{\o}tt (LSS) theory and the more recent Tilinin theory for calculating the nuclear and electronic stopping powers of slow heavy ions are compared with predictions from the SRIM code by Ziegler. While little discrepancies are present for the nuclear contribution to the energy loss, large differences are found in the electronic one. When full ion recoil cascade simulations are tested against the elastic neutron scattering data available in the literature, it can be concluded that the LSS theory is the more accurate.Comment: Presented at the 10th International Symposium on Radiation Physics, 17-22 September, 2006, Coimbra, Portugal; style corrections, small change to fig.

A model of the reflection distribution in the vacuum ultra violet region

A reflection model with three components, a specular spike, a specular lobe and a diffuse lobe is discussed. This model was successfully applied to describe reflection of xenon scintillation light (175 nm) by PTFE and other fluoropolymers and can be used for Monte Carlo simulation and analysis of scintillation detectors. The measured data favors a Trowbridge-Reitz distribution function of ellipsoidal micro-surfaces. The intensity of the coherent reflection increases with increasing angle of incidence, as expected, since the surface appears smoother at grazing angles. The total reflectance obtained for PTFE is about 70% for VUV light at normal incidence in vacuum and estimated to be up to 100% in contact with liquid xenon

Scintillation efficiency of liquid xenon for nuclear recoils with the energy down to 5 keV

The scintillation efficiency of liquid xenon for nuclear recoils has been measured to be nearly constant in the recoil energy range from 140 keV down to 5 keV. The average ratio of the efficiency for recoils to that for gamma-rays is found to be 0.19+-0.02.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Effect of pH and dissolved organic matter on the photochemical fate of acetamiprid

Trabalho apresentado em 9th European Conference on Pesticides and Related Organic Micropolluants in the Environment, 4-7 de outubro 2016, Santiago de Compostela, EspanhaIn this study the effect of pH and dissolved organic matter (DOM) on the photodegradation rate of acetamiprid (ACT) was studied. Observed photodegradation rate constants in the range of 0.0010 – 0.0026 h-1 and 24 – 36 h-1 were obtained using a solar simulator (290-800 nm) and a medium pressure mercury (MP Hg) lamp, respectively. In both experiments an increase in pH from 5 to 9 did not significantly change the photodegradation rate constant of ACT. A different behaviour was found for ACT degradation in the presence of DOM. When samples were irradiated with MP Hg lamp the observed photodegradation rate constant of ACT decreased with an increase of DOM concentration.N/

Imbalance of naive and memory T lymphocytes with sustained high cellular activation during the first year of life from uninfected children born to HIV-1-infected mothers on HAART

The immune consequences of in utero HIV exposure to uninfected children whose mothers were submitted to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) during gestation are not well defined. We evaluated 45 HIV-exposed uninfected (ENI) neonates and 45 healthy unexposed control (CT) neonates. All HIV-infected mothers received HAART during pregnancy, and the viral load at delivery was <50 copies/mL for 56.8%. Twenty-three ENI neonates were further evaluated after 12 months and compared to 23 unexposed healthy age-matched infants. Immunophenotyping was performed by flow cytometry in cord and peripheral blood. Cord blood lymphocyte numbers did not differ between groups. However, ENI neonates had a lower percentage of naive T cells than CT neonates (CD4+, 76.6 vs 83.1%, P < 0.001; CD8+, 70.9 vs 79.6%, P = 0.003) and higher percentages of central memory T cells than CT neonates (CD4+, 13.9 vs 8.7%, P < 0.001; CD8+, 8.6 vs 4.8%, P = 0.001). CD38 mean fluorescence intensity of T cells was higher in ENI neonates (CD4+, 62.2 vs 52.1, P = 0.007; CD8+, 47.7 vs 35.3, P < 0.001). At 12 months, ENI infants still had higher mean fluorescence intensity of CD38 on T cells (CD4+, 34.2 vs 23.3, P < 0.001; CD8+, 26.8 vs 19.4, P = 0.035). Despite effective maternal virologic control at delivery, HIV-exposed uninfected children were born with lower levels of naive T cells. Immune activation was present at birth and remained until at least 12 months of age, suggesting that in utero exposure to HIV causes subtle immune abnormalities.FAPESPCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES

LUX Cryogenics and Circulation

We report the effciency of a thermosyphon-based cooling system for a liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber (TPC), as well as the effciency of a unique internal heat exchanger with standard gas phase purification using a heated getter, which allows for very high flow purification without requiring large cooling power.Peer Reviewe

Radioactivity Backgrounds in ZEPLIN-III

We examine electron and nuclear recoil backgrounds from radioactivity in the ZEPLIN-III dark matter experiment at Boulby. The rate of low-energy electron recoils in the liquid xenon WIMP target is 0.75$\pm$0.05 events/kg/day/keV, which represents a 20-fold improvement over the rate observed during the first science run. Energy and spatial distributions agree with those predicted by component-level Monte Carlo simulations propagating the effects of the radiological contamination measured for materials employed in the experiment. Neutron elastic scattering is predicted to yield 3.05$\pm$0.5 nuclear recoils with energy 5-50 keV per year, which translates to an expectation of 0.4 events in a 1-year dataset in anti-coincidence with the veto detector for realistic signal acceptance. Less obvious background sources are discussed, especially in the context of future experiments. These include contamination of scintillation pulses with Cherenkov light from Compton electrons and from $\beta$ activity internal to photomultipliers, which can increase the size and lower the apparent time constant of the scintillation response. Another challenge is posed by multiple-scatter $\gamma$-rays with one or more vertices in regions that yield no ionisation. If the discrimination power achieved in the first run can be replicated, ZEPLIN-III should reach a sensitivity of $\sim 1 \times 10^{-8}$ pb$\cdot$year to the scalar WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-section, as originally conceived.Peer Reviewe

Measurement and simulation of the muon-induced neutron yield in lead

A measurement is presented of the neutron production rate in lead by high energy cosmic-ray muons at a depth of 2850m water equivalent (w.e.) and a mean muon energy of 260GeV. The measurement exploits the delayed coincidences between muons and the radiative capture of induced neutrons in a highly segmented tonne scale plastic scintillator detector. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations reproduce well the measured capture times and multiplicities and, within the dynamic range of the instrumentation, the spectrum of energy deposits. By comparing measurements with simulations of neutron capture rates a neutron yield in lead of (5.78_-_0_._2_8^+^0^.^2^1) x10^-^3neutrons/muon/(g/cm^2) has been obtained. Absolute agreement between simulation and data is of order 25%. Consequences for deep underground rare event searches are discussed.Peer Reviewe