The use of Waist-to-Height Ratio for nutritional assessment in the first phase of adolescence

Objective: This study evaluated the performance of the Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHR) as an additional indicator of nutritional status in the first phase of adolescence. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, developed in 2016/2017, with 148 adolescents (10 to 13 years old) from two public schools of Macaé, a municipality in Rio de Janeiro, Southeast Brazil. We collected information on sexual maturation, weight, height, and waist circumference (WC). The Kappa Test was performed to verify the accordance among Body Mass Index-for-Age (BMI/A), WC, and WHR in relation to health risk screening. The maximum limits of sensitivity and specificity of WHR according to BMI/A were analyzed by ROC curve (Receiver Operating Characteristics). Results: Among the participants, 51.4% were girls, and more than 60% were in the first two stages of sexual maturation. The prevalence of excess weight (overweight+obesity) was 31.8%, obesity 17.6%, and high WHR 20.3%, with no difference according to sex and sexual maturation. WHR showed good agreement with excess weight (Kappa=0.707) and obesity (Kappa=0.780). The agreement between BMI/A and WC was poor. The value 0.45 was the most appropriate WHR cutoff point to identify adolescents with excess weight. Conclusions: This study suggests that WHR performs better than WC as an additional indicator of nutritional status in early adolescence. WHR brings information on central adiposity weighted by height, does not require a comparison curve, and has a cutoff point, which may facilitate screening in health services and epidemiological studies

DIAGNOSIS OF DIOCTOPHYMA RENALE USING ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND MICROSCOPY - A CASE REPORT

Dioctophyma renale is classified as a cosmopolitan zoonotic helminth, belonging to Nematoda class and Dioctophymoidea superfamily. Dogs are considered definitive hosts, suffering with large kidney damage, and the disease diagnosis can be done through ultrasound, x-ray and light microscopy. The aim in this paper was to report the sonographic and microscopic aspects of a canine affected by Dioctophyma renale. Dark colored urine evolving to hematuria and abdominal pain was the main symptoms observed in the animal. Performing urinalysis it was verified D. renale eggs. Ultrasonography could observe total destruction of the right renal parenchyma, hyperechoic structures of cylindrical and rounded shape bounded by the renal capsule, suggesting the presence of the parasite, while the left kidney had normal size. The animal was submitted to nephrectomy, confirming the worm presence, measuring 31.8 cm long. It can be stated that ultrasound and light microscopy are highly effective to establish a definitive diagnosis of Dioctophyma renale

Isolation and functional characterization of a cotton ubiquitination-related promoter and 5'UTR that drives high levels of expression in root and flower tissues

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cotton (<it>Gossypium </it>spp.) is an important crop worldwide that provides raw material to 40% of the textile fiber industry. Important traits have been studied aiming the development of genetically modified crops including resistance to insect and diseases, and tolerance to drought, cold and herbicide. Therefore, the characterization of promoters and regulatory regions is also important to achieve high gene expression and/or a specific expression pattern. Commonly, genes involved in ubiquitination pathways are highly and differentially expressed. In this study, we analyzed the expression of a cotton ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (E2) family member with no previous characterization.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nucleotide analysis revealed high identity with cotton <it>E2 </it>homologues. Multiple alignment showed a premature stop codon, which prevents the encoding of the conserved cysteine residue at the <it>E2 </it>active site, and an intron that is spliced in <it>E2 </it>homologues, but not in <it>GhGDRP85</it>. The <it>GhGDRP85 </it>gene is highly expressed in different organs of cotton plants, and has high transcript levels in roots. Its promoter (uceApro2) and the 5'UTR compose a regulatory region named uceA1.7, and were isolated from cotton and studied in <it>Arabidopsis thaliana</it>. uceA1.7 shows strong expression levels, equaling or surpassing the expression levels of CaMV35S. The uceA1.7 regulatory sequence drives GUS expression 7-fold higher in flowers, 2-fold in roots and at similar levels in leaves and stems. GUS expression levels are decreased 7- to 15-fold when its 5'UTR is absent in uceApro2.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>uceA1.7 is a strong constitutive regulatory sequence composed of a promoter (uceApro2) and its 5'UTR that will be useful in genetic transformation of dicots, having high potential to drive high levels of transgene expression in crops, particularly for traits desirable in flower and root tissues.</p

Immunization with purine salvation pathway recombinant enzymes induces the production of anti- Schistosoma mansoni immunoglobulines

Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by the trematodes of the Schistosoma genus, affects about 240 million people worldwide. The Praziquantel (PZQ) is the drug used to treat this disease. However, reports of resistant strains reinforce the need to develop a new schistosomicidal drug. The study of new drugs and vaccines that can contribute to the control of this pathology becomes urgent. A new approach can be held by the study of the following Schistosoma mansoni enzymes: purine nucleoside phosphorilase 1 (PNP), hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) and adenylate kinase 1 (ADK). The parasite, incapable of synthetizing purine nucleotides through the de novo pathway, has multiple mechanisms to incorporate purine bases through the purine salvage pathway. Our goal was to assess, through immunoenzimatic assay (ELISA-indirect), the production of total IgG, IgE and IgG2a in the plasma after immunization with the PNP, HGPRT and ADK enzymes, using the S. mansoni cercariae - infected murine model. Our results showed that the immunization in Balb/c mice with the enzymes mentioned above induced production of the immunoglobulines at the 48th and 85th days, post-infection. Thereby, new assays must be made for a better assessment on how these enzymes modulate an immune response.CNPqFAPES

Cuidados, prevenção e controle da infecção puerperal: uma revisão integrativa

This article aims to highlight care, prevention and control measures for puerperal infection. Through an integrative literature review after using the guiding question “What are the care, prevention and control measures for puerperal infection? ”, to direct the search in the databases indexed in the VHL by crossing the descriptors “Puerperal infection”, “prevention”, “infection control” and “Women's health”, using the Boolean operator “AND”. To compose the review, 19 articles were analyzed. Puerperal infection (PI) is characterized by any infection of the genital tract developed during childbirth or postpartum and can occur within 30 days postpartum, a major public health problem as it is an infection related to healthcare during pregnancy. puerperal. Multidisciplinary assessment and health education at all levels of health care are of utmost importance for the prevention, control and care against IP.Este artigo tem por objetivo evidenciar medidas de Cuidados, prevenção e controle da infecção puerperal. Através da revisão integrativa da literatura após utilizar a pergunta norteadora “Quais são as medidas de cuidados, prevenção e controle da infecção puerperal? ”, para direcionar a pesquisa nas bases de dados indexadas na BVS, por meio de cruzamentos dos descritores “Infecção puerperal”, “prevenção”, “controle de infecções” e “Saúde da mulher”, através do operador booleano “AND”. Para compor a revisão, foram analisados 19 artigos. A infecção puerperal (IP) é caracterizada por qualquer infecção do trato genital desenvolvida durante o parto ou puerpério podendo ocorrer em até 30 dias pós-parto, um grande problema de saúde pública tratando-se de uma infecção relacionada à assistência à saúde no período grávido puerperal. A avaliação multiprofissional e a educação em saúde em todos os níveis de assistência à saúde são de suma importância para a prevenção, controle e cuidados contra a IP

Requirement of dual stimulation by homologous recombinant IL-2 and recombinant IL-12 for the in vitro production of interferon gamma by canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Submitted by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2014-09-30T17:25:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Pereira A Requirement of dual stimulation.........pdf: 724685 bytes, checksum: d93ffeee109acbadf1748e48f588bb43 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2014-09-30T17:26:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Pereira A Requirement of dual stimulation.........pdf: 724685 bytes, checksum: d93ffeee109acbadf1748e48f588bb43 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-30T17:59:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pereira A Requirement of dual stimulation.........pdf: 724685 bytes, checksum: d93ffeee109acbadf1748e48f588bb43 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, BrasilInstituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Doenças Tropicais. INCT-DT. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz. Laboratório de Patologia e Biointervenção. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Doenças Tropicais. INCT-DT. Salvador, BA, BrasilBACKGROUND: Very few studies have been carried out so far aiming at modulating cellular immune responses in dogs. In this study, we evaluated the ability of recombinant canine IL-2 (rcaIL-2) and IL-12, in the form of a single-chain fusion protein (rsccaIL-12), to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of healthy mongrel dogs. RESULTS: Recombinant canine IL-2 purified from Escherichia coli or present in the supernatant of COS-7 cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-caIL-2 (COS-7 caIL-2 supernatant) was able to induce proliferation of CTLL-2 cells, thus showing their functional activity. In addition, purified rcaIL-2 and COS-7 caIL-2 supernatant stimulated resting canine PBMC proliferation to a level higher than baseline level. Neither COS-7 sccaIL-12 supernatant nor COS-7 caIL-2 supernatant alone was able to induce significant production of interferon gamma by resting PBMC. However, COS-7 sccaIL-12 supernatant in combination with COS-7 caIL-2 supernatant induced production of IFN-γ by those cells. CONCLUSIONS: The data shown herein suggest that the combination of canine recombinant IL-12 and IL-2 can be useful to promote cellular immune responses in dogs

Antiviral and Antioxidant Activities of Sulfated Galactomannans from Plants of Caatinga Biome

Dengue represents a serious social and economic public health problem; then trying to contribute to improve its control, the objective of this research was to develop phytoterapics for dengue treatment using natural resources from Caatinga biome. Galactomannans isolated from Adenanthera pavonina L., Caesalpinia ferrea Mart., and Dimorphandra gardneriana Tull were chemically sulfated in order to evaluate the antioxidant, and antiviral activities and the role in the inhibition of virus DENV-2 in Vero cells. A positive correlation between the degree of sulfation, antioxidant and antiviral activities was observed. The sulfated galactomannans showed binding to the virus surface, indicating that they interact with DENV-2. The sulfated galactomannans from C. ferrea showed 96% inhibition of replication of DENV-2 followed by D. gardneriana (94%) and A. pavonina (77%) at 25 µg/mL and all sulfated galactomannans also showed antioxidant activity. This work is the first report of the antioxidant and antiviral effects of sulfated galactomannans against DENV-2. The results are very promising and suggest that these sulfated galactomannans from plants of Caatinga biome act in the early step of viral infection. Thus, sulfated galactomannans may act as an entry inhibitor of DENV-2