Hereditary angioedema: quality of life in Brazilian patients

OBJECTIVE: Hereditary angioedema is a serious medical condition caused by a rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder and it is associated with deficient production or dysfunction of the C1 esterase inhibitor. In most cases, affected patients experience unexpected and recurrent crises of subcutaneous, gastrointestinal and laryngeal edema. The unpredictability, intensity and other factors associated with the disease impact the quality of life of hereditary angioedema patients. We evaluated the quality of life in Brazilian hereditary angioedema patients. METHODS: Patients older than 15 years with any severity of hereditary angioedema and laboratory confirmation of C1 inhibitor deficiency were included. Two questionnaires were used: a clinical questionnaire and the SF-36 (a generic questionnaire). This protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. RESULTS: The SF-36 showed that 90.4% (mean) of all the patients had a score below 70 and 9.6% had scores equal to or higher than 70. The scores of the eight dimensions ranged from 51.03 to 75.95; vitality and social aspects were more affected than other arenas. The internal consistency of the evaluation was demonstrated by a Cronbach's alpha value above 0.7 in seven of the eight domains. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, Brazilian patients demonstrated an impaired quality of life, as measured by the SF-36. The most affected domains were those related to vitality and social characteristics. The generic SF-36 questionnaire was relevant to the evaluation of quality of life; however, there is a need for more specific instruments for better evaluation

Brazilian Agroforestry Systems for Cattle and Sheep

Agroforestry systems for animal husbandry, including integrated crop-livestock-forest systems (ICLF) are rather diversified in the five Brazilian regions. They present several technical, environmental and socioeconomic benefits. However they are not broadly adopted, mainly because of their higher complexity compared with traditional systems as well as a certain lack of understanding by farmers regarding their benefits. To change this situation, in the last five years, the Brazilian government has directed financial resources for credit as well as for research and technology transfer addressing ICLF systems, including good agricultural practices and mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions. The goal is to improve competitiveness of the Brazilian agribusiness sector

The seesaw mechanism at TeV scale in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos

We implement the seesaw mechanism in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos. This is accomplished by the introduction of a scalar sextet into the model and the spontaneous violation of the lepton number. We identify the Majoron as a singlet under $SU_L(2)\otimes U_Y(1)$ symmetry, which makes it safe under the current bounds imposed by electroweak data. The main result of this work is that the seesaw mechanism works already at TeV scale with the outcome that the right-handed neutrino masses lie in the electroweak scale, in the range from MeV to tens of GeV. This window provides a great opportunity to test their appearance at current detectors, though when we contrast our results with some previous analysis concerning detection sensitivity at LHC, we conclude that further work is needed in order to validate this search.Comment: about 13 pages, no figure

Efeito alelopático do extrato bruto de Brachiaria decumbens na germinação e no vigor de sementes e de plântulas de Brachiaria brizantha.

Objetivou-se identificar os possíveis efeitos alelopáticos produzidos pelo extrato bruto de um acesso da coleção de Brachiaria spp da Embrapa Gado de Corte, denominado Brachiaria decumbens BRA001996 na germinação, no vigor de sementes e no vigor de plântulas de três cultivares de B. brizantha (cvs. Marandu, BRS Piatã e Xaraés). As sementes das cultivares foram semeadas em papel germitest, colocadas em gerbox e incubadas em câmara climática com fotoperíodo controlado. Utilizaram-se quatro repetições de 100 sementes para os testes de germinação e vigor e 25 sementes para o teste de vigor de plântulas. O extrato bruto foi obtido das folhas da gramínea, por meio de técnica laboratorial utilizada para detecção e quantificação de avaliação de saponinas esteroidais. Foram avaliadas duas testemunhas: uma somente com água destilada e outra com água destilada e acrescida de 1% de DMSO e quatro concentrações: 1,85g/mL (10%); 3,7g/mL (20%); 5,55g/mL (30%) e 9,25 mg/mL (50%), totalizando seis tratamentos. Observou-se efeito ?dose-resposta? inibitório significativo (P<0,05) em todos as variáveis avaliadas, nas sementes das três cultivares estudadas. Sabendo-se que os compostos hormonais agem estimulando ou inibindo o metabolismo celular, sugere-se que os efeitos alelopáticos observados no presente trabalho possam estar relacionados ao efeito direto das saponinas esteroidais nas células das sementes e das plântulas das B. brizantha avaliadas. Conclui-se que o extrato bruto de Brachiaria decumbens BRA001996 reduz o vigor e a germinação das sementes, bem como o vigor das plântulas de Brachiaria brizantha, cultivares Xaraés, Piatã e Marandu.bitstream/item/68749/1/DOC188.pd

Teor e estoque de carbono e nitrogênio do solo em área sob sistema silvipastoril na Zona da Mata, MG.

Os sistemas integrados de produção apresentam-se como tecnologia auspiciosa para a preservação da qualidade do solo e, consequentemente, o desenvolvimento da agricultura de baixo carbono. O objetivo do trabalho foi determinar o teor, o estoque de carbono e de nitrogênio do solo em áreas de pastagem sob diferentes manejos. Para este trabalho, foram coletadas amostras em diferentes áreas sob pastagem no campo experimental da Embrapa Gado de Leite, Município de Coronel Pacheco, MG, em áreas de pastagem em sistema silvipastoril (SSP), monocultivo de pastagem manejada (PM) e uma área de pastagem degradada (PD), estabelecidos há 20 anos. As amostras indeformadas para a determinação da Ds e deformadas para os teores totais e estoque de C e N foram coletadas nas profundidades de 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm e 30-40 cm. O teor de C na camada de 0-10 cm foi influenciado pelo manejo na seguinte ordem: PM = SSP > PD, enquanto os estoques totais de C (0-40 cm) não foram diferenciados e com tendência de maiores estoques na PM e no SSP

Current and novel therapeutic opportunities for systemic therapy in biliary cancer

none24Biliary tract cancers (BTCs) are a group of rare and aggressive malignancies that arise in the biliary tree within and outside the liver. Beyond surgical resection, which is beneficial for only a small proportion of patients, current strategies for treating patients with BTCs include chemotherapy, as a single agent or combination regimens, in the adjuvant and palliative setting. Increased characterisation of the molecular landscape of these tumours has facilitated the identification of molecular vulnerabilities, such as IDH mutations and FGFR fusions, that can be exploited for the treatment of BTC patients. Beyond targeted therapies, active research avenues explore the development of novel therapeutics that target the crosstalk between cancer and stroma, the cellular pathways involved in the regulation of cell death, the chemoresistance phenotype and the dysregulation of RNA. In this review, we discuss the therapeutic opportunities currently available in the management of BTC patients, and explore the strategies that can support the implementation of precision oncology in BTCs, including novel molecular targets, liquid biopsies and patient-derived predictive tools.openMarin J.J.G.; Prete M.G.; Lamarca A.; Tavolari S.; Landa-Magdalena A.; Brandi G.; Segatto O.; Vogel A.; Macias R.I.R.; Rodrigues P.M.; Casta A.L.; Mertens J.; Rodrigues C.M.P.; Fernandez-Barrena M.G.; Da Silva Ruivo A.; Marzioni M.; Mentrasti G.; Acedo P.; Munoz-Garrido P.; Cardinale V.; Banales J.M.; Valle J.W.; Bridgewater J.; Braconi C.Marin, J. J. G.; Prete, M. G.; Lamarca, A.; Tavolari, S.; Landa-Magdalena, A.; Brandi, G.; Segatto, O.; Vogel, A.; Macias, R. I. R.; Rodrigues, P. M.; Casta, A. L.; Mertens, J.; Rodrigues, C. M. P.; Fernandez-Barrena, M. G.; Da Silva Ruivo, A.; Marzioni, M.; Mentrasti, G.; Acedo, P.; Munoz-Garrido, P.; Cardinale, V.; Banales, J. M.; Valle, J. W.; Bridgewater, J.; Braconi, C

Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of dihadron correlations in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV: Jet-quenching and the response of partonic matter

Azimuthal angle \Delta\phi correlations are presented for charged hadrons from dijets for 0.4 < p_T < 10 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. With increasing p_T, the away-side distribution evolves from a broad to a concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the away-side can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at Delta\phi ~ \pi, and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta\phi ~ \pi +/- 1.1. The p_T spectrum for the "head" region softens toward central collisions, consistent with the onset of jet quenching. The spectral slope for the "shoulder" region is independent of centrality and trigger p_T, which offers constraints on energy transport mechanisms and suggests that the "shoulder" region contains the medium response to energetic jets.Comment: 420 authors from 58 institutions, 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Transverse momentum dependence of J/psi polarization at midrapidity in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV

We report the measurement of the transverse momentum dependence of inclusive J/psi polarization in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV performed by the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC. The polarization is studied in the helicity, Gottfried-Jackson, and Collins-Soper frames for p_T < 5 GeV/c and |y| < 0.35. The J/psi polarization in the helicity and Gottfried-Jackson frames is consistent with zero for all transverse momenta, with a slight (1.8 sigma) trend towards longitudinal polarization for transverse momenta above 2 GeV/c. No conclusion is allowed due to the limited acceptance in the Collins-Soper frame and the uncertainties of the current data. The results are compared to observations for other collision systems and center of mass energies and to different quarkonia production models.Comment: 384 authors from 62 institutions, 11 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. v2 is expanded version submitted to Physical Review D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures are available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Azimuthal anisotropy of neutral pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV: Path-length dependence of jet quenching and the role of initial geometry

We have measured the azimuthal anisotropy of pi0's for 1 < pT < 18 GeV/c for Au+Au collisions at sqrt s_NN = 200 GeV. The observed anisotropy shows a gradual decrease in 3 < pT < 7 - 10 GeV/c, but remains positive beyond 10 GeV/c. The magnitude of this anisotropy is under-predicted, up to at least 10 GeV/c, by current perturbative QCD (pQCD) energy-loss model calculations. An estimate of the increase in anisotropy expected from initial-geometry modification due to gluon saturation effects and initial-geometry fluctuations is insufficient to account for this discrepancy. Calculations which implement a path length dependence steeper than what is implied by current pQCD energy-loss models, show reasonable agreement with the data.Comment: 384 authors, 6 pages text, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Conceptual Design Report Volume 2: The Physics Program for DUNE at LBNF

The Physics Program for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) is described