Murine (endemic) Typhus In Brazil: Case Report And Review

Murine typhus has been increasingly recognized worldwide and is becoming a relevant differential diagnosis in febrile conditions. In Brazil, murine typhus has never received much attention. We present a recently diagnosed case and a literature review that suggests that the disease could be more prevalent in Southeastern Brazil than acknowledged until now.465283285Anadão, A., A alta incidência do tifo murino no município de São Sebastião da Grama (São Paulo) (1954) Rev. Paul. Med., 44, p. 431Azad, A.F., Epidemiology of murine typhus (1990) Ann. Rev. Entomol., 35, pp. 553-569Azad, A.F., Beard, C.B., Rickettsial pathogens and their arthropod vectors (1998) Emerg. Infect. Dis., 4, pp. 179-186Dias, E., Martins, A.V., Spotted fever in Brazil: A summary (1939) Amer. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 19, pp. 103-108Gomes, L.S., Sobre a presença do tifo exantemático do tipo murino ou endêmico em São Paulo. Estudo de quatro casos prováveis (1941) Rev. Inst. Adolfo Lutz, 1 (1), pp. 21-39Magalhães, O., Moreira, J.A., Typho exanthematico em Minas Gerais (1939) Brasil-Méd., 53, pp. 882-891Magalhães, O., Rocha, A., Tifo exanthematico do Brasil (em Minas Gerais) (1941) Brasil-Méd., 55, pp. 773-777Meira, J.A.S., Jamra, M., Lodovici, J., Moléstia de Brill (recrudescéncia do tifo epidêmico) (1955) Rev. Hosp. Clin. Fac. Med. S. Paulo, 10, pp. 237-246(1999) Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias. Aspectos Clinicos, Vigilância Epidemiológica e Medidas de Controle, , Brasília, Ministério da Saúde/Fundação Nacional de SaúdeMonteiro, J.L., Fonseca, F., Typho exanthematico de S. Paulo. XII. Sobre um "virus" isolado de ratos da zona urbana da cidade e de suas relações com o do typho exanthematico de S. Paulo (1932) Brasil-Méd., 46, pp. 1029-1033Pereira, H.G., Travassos, J., Vasconcelos, J.V., Tifo murino no Rio de Janeiro, I. Ocorrência de ratos naturalmente infectados (1949) Hospital (Rio de J.), 35, pp. 679-687Piza, J.T., Meyer, J.R., Gomes, L.S., (1932) Typho Exanthematico de São Paulo, , São Paulo, Sociedade Impressora PaulistaSilveira, J.C.B., Maestrini, A.A., Tifo murino: A propósito de um caso (1985) An. Fac. Med. Univ. Fed. Minas Gerais, 34, pp. 103-106Tiriba, A.C., Geografia médica das riquetsioses (1972) Introdução à Geografia Médica do Brasil, pp. 388-397. , Lacaz, C.S.Baruzzi, R.G. & Siqueira Jr., W., ed. São Paulo, Edgard Blücher/EduspTravassos, J., Rodrigues, P.M., Carrijo, L.N., Tifo murino em São Paulo. Identificação da Rickettsia mooseri isolada de um caso humano (1949) Mem. Inst. Butantã, 21, pp. 77-10

Strategy for selection of soybean genotypes tolerant to drought during germination

Water deficit is the main reason for instability in the context of soybean culture. The development of strategies for the selection of more tolerant genotypes is necessary. These strategies include the use of polyethylene glycol 6000 solutions (PEG-6000) for conducting the germination test under conditions of water restriction. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the osmotic potential and the main characteristics that promote the discrimination of soybean genotypes with regard to water stress tolerance during germination and the vigor test. Thirteen soybean cultivars were used. The seeds were allowed to germinate on sheets of germitest paper moistened in solution with PEG-6000, simulating different levels of water availability, which is expressed as osmotic potential (0.0, -0.2, -0.4, and -0.6 MPa). We assessed germination, length, and dry mass for seedlings and seeds, as well as reserve dynamics. Germination and variables related to the dynamics of reservation have great influence on the expression of variability in environments under stress. Among the different osmotic potentials, the -0.2 MPa was the most efficient for the expression of genetic variability among the cultivars. Conducting the germination test with PEG-6000 solution to -0.2 MPa was efficient for selecting soybean cultivars tolerant to water stress. This was accomplished by evaluating the percentage of germination, along with variables related to the dynamics of reservation

Water buffalo production in the Brazilian Amazon Basin: a review

The Brazilian Amazon has witnessed, in the last decades, an increase in the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) inventory, with interesting productivity results. As the Brazilian Amazon contains the main water buffalo population in the Americas, the aim of this work is to review its most relevant production systems and some peculiarities about meat and milk production in this territory. The opening section describes the Amazon Basin, the most common water buffalo breeds, a brief history of the local livestock farming beginning in 1644. Also, it presents how water buffaloes gradually replaced bovine herds, especially where the latter had a lower productive performance. The use of extensive or more intensified models is pointed out and the ecosystems in which buffaloes are raised are detailed since native or cultivated pastures can be used in floodplains or drylands. Buffalo raising is favored in the Amazon due to the climate, soil, genetic variability of forages, animal adaptability, and physical space. Thus, it is clear that buffaloes have a high potential for meat and milk production and are an alternative in the use of altered areas of the Amazon; and, in the recent past, the low profitability of buffalo farming in traditional production systems in the Amazon was the reason which made this activity economically unattractive. Most recent technologies as outdoor confinements and silvopastoral systems are pointed out as more suitable regarding land-use policies, and buffalo farming for meat and milk production fits perfectly in this context, with productivity and beneficial socioeconomicinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

In vivo and in vitro heat shock proteins gene expression in cattle.

The main purpose for this study was the quantification of the heat shock proteins HSPA1A and HSP90AA1, in cow lymphocytes, when subjected to heat stress directly - in vivo, or indirectly - in vitro. The aim was to identify differences between HSP expression in vitro and in vivo. The experiment was conducted in the Biometeorology and Ethology Laboratory of FZEA-USP. Were used three female Holstein Frisian, which were subjected to heat stress, by sun exposure. The blood samples were collected after sun exposure, with a temperature of 40 ± 2 º C, during three days. For in vitro tests, blood of the same animals was collected and placed for a period of 4 hours in a water bath at 40 º C, thus simulating the thermal stress. Total RNA of lymphocytes was extracted, treated with DNase I and submitted to cDNA synthesis for gene expression quantification of HSPA1A and HSP90AA1, by real time PCR (qRT-PCR). The data were tested for normality by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and for homocedasticity by Levene test. Data were analyzed according to a general linear model procedure with 2 fixed factors treatment and genes expression. Significantly different means were submitted to post-hoc comparisons of means (LSD test) and regarded as significantly different when P<0.05. The results showed that there are no significant differences between the in vitro and the in vivo treatments

Avaliação Da Estabilidade De Tensão Do Sistema Brasileiro - Um Caso De Estudo

This paper presents results of a study of the Brazilian system operation in respect to voltage stability criteria. The analyses are applied using real-life data from the operation and planning. The system is divided in 4 regions: North, Northeast, South and Southeast/West Center. System stability margin is evaluated for each one of these areas. The results show that Brazilian system has stability margin much lower than the existing voltage stability criteria, limited by the Southeast/West Center region. A detailed analysis of this critical area is performed. This paper also presents the stability margin behavior during a typical weekday curve and a contingency analysis. The contingency severity is verified by using the modal analysis technique assessing each contingency impact classifying as local, area or systemic.193327336Affonso, C.M., Da Silva, L.C.P., Lima, F.G.M., Soares, S., MW and MVar Management on Supply and Demand Side for Meeting Voltage Stability Margin Criteria (2004) IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 19 (3), pp. 1538-1545Affonso, C.M., Da Silva, L.C.P., Voltage Stability Improvement by Optimizing Reactive Power Reserves (2004) Proceedings of the Fourth IASTED International Conference - Power and Energy Systems, pp. 394-399. , Rhodes, Greece, ppAmjady, N., A Framework of Reliability Assessment With Consideration Effect of Transient and Voltage Stabilities (2004) IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 19 (2), pp. 1005-1014Bao, L., Huang, Z., Xu, W., Online Voltage Stability Monitoring Using Var Reserves (2003) IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 18 (4), pp. 1461-1469CEPEL (2004). Programa de Análise de Redes / ANAREDE - Manual do Usuário Versão 08-8/2004. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BrasilCorsi, S., Sabelli, C., General Blackout in Italy Sunday September 28, 2003, h. 03:28:00 (2004) Proceedings of IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2, pp. 1691-1702Da Silva, L.C.P., Wang, Y., Da Costa, V.F., Xu, W., Assessment of generator impact on system power transfer capability using modal participation factors (2002) Proc. IEE Gener. Transm. Distrib, 149Tarefa, F., Critérios e Metodologias Estabelecidos no âmbito da Força - Tarefa Colapso de Tensão do GTAD/SCEL/GCOI para Estudos de Estabilidade de Tensão nos Sistemas Interligados Norte/Nordeste, Sul/Sudeste e Norte/Sul Brasileiros (1999) Anais do XV SNP-TEE, , Foz do Iguaçu, PR, BrasilDefinition and Classification of Power System Stability (2004) IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 19 (2), pp. 1387-1401. , IEEE/CIGRE Joint Task Force on Stability Terms and DefinitionsKabouris, J., Vournas, C.D., Efstathiou, S., Manos, G.A., Contaxis, G.C., Voltage Security Considerations in an Open Power Market (2000) Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation and Restructuring and Power Technologies, pp. 278-283Kamalasadan, S., Srivastava, A.K., Thukaram, D., Novel Algorithm for Online Voltage Stability Assessment Based on Feed Forward Neural Network (2006) Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, pp. 1-7Kundur, P. (1994). Power System Stability and Control. Ed. New York: McGraw-HillONS (2002) Procedimentos de Rede Módulo 21: Estudos Especiais. Submódulo 21.5: Estudos de Estabilidade de Tensão. http://www.ons.org.brTaylor, C.W., (1994) Power System Voltage Stability, , New York: McGraw-Hill IncU.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force (Apr., 2004). Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations. http://www.iwar.org.uk/cip/resources/blackout-03/WECC Reactive Power Reserve Work Group (1998). Final Report: Voltage Stability Criteria, Undervoltage Load Shedding Strategy, and Reactive Power Reserve Monitoring Methodology. http://www.wecc.bi

Socio- demographic profile of whole body donors registered with Department of Anatomy, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Objectives: Knowledge of gross anatomy has evolved through and continues to be dependent on the human cadaveric dissections. The aims of this study were to identify the characteristics of individuals who bequeathed to donate their body to Department of Anatomy, the source of information on bequest program and the reasons for donation.Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was done among all the donors registered with Department of Anatomy, University of Sri Jayewardenepura in a selected year. Data was collected by using a pre tested interviewer administered questionnaire via telephone interviews and analyzed using SPSS software.Results: Response rate was 83.3% (145/175). Mean age was 59.7 years (SD=14.6 years). Of the participants, 99.3% were Sinhalese (n=144); 97.9% Buddhists (n=142); 66.2% married (n=96); 32.4% employed (n=47); 53.1% educated above G.C.E (O/L) (n=77) with a median income of Rs.15,000.00 (IQR=Rs. 15,000/=). Of the participants, 82.8% had decided to donate as an altruism (n=120), 68.3% had been educated about donation from non medical source (n=99) and 16.6% & 42.2% has a known person who was working in this field (n=24) & had donated (n=62) respectively. There were significantly more participants educated above O/L had got information from a medical sources (p=<0.01) and had someone working in the field of medicine (p=0.02).Similarly, those having higher income had someone working in the field of medicine (p=0.01).Conclusions: Sinhalese, Buddhists, with higher levels of education in the view of altruism registered for body donation. Level of income and education were associated with source of information that influences the decision of body donation.

Sludge Treatment Evaluation: 1992 Technical progress

This report documents Fiscal Year 1992 technical progress on the Sludge Treatment Evaluation Task, which is being conducted by Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The objective of this task is to develop a capability to predict the performance of pretreatment processes for mixed radioactive and hazardous waste stored at Hanford and other US Department of Energy (DOE) sites. Significant cost savings can be achieved if radionuclides and other undesirable constituents can be effectively separated from the bulk waste prior to final treatment and disposal. This work is initially focused on chemical equilibrium prediction of water washing and acid or base dissolution of Hanford single-shell tank (SST) sludges, but may also be applied to other steps in pretreatment processes or to other wastes. Although SST wastes contain many chemical species, there are relatively few constituents -- Na, Al, NO[sub 3], NO[sub 2], PO[sub 4], SO[sub 4], and F -- contained in the majority of the waste. These constituents comprise 86% and 74% of samples from B-110 and U-110 SSTS, respectively. The major radionuclides of interest (Cs, Sr, Tc, U) are present in the sludge in small molal quantities. For these constituents, and other important components that are present in small molal quantities, the specific ion-interaction terms used in the Pitzer or NRTL equations may be assumed to be zero for a first approximation. Model development can also be accelerated by considering only the acid or base conditions that apply for the key pretreatment steps. This significantly reduces the number of chemical species and chemical reactions that need to be considered. Therefore, significant progress can be made by developing all the specific ion interactions for a base model and an acid dissolution model

Nutritional Evaluation Of Children With Chronic Cholestatic Disease

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)To evaluate the nutritional status of children with persistent cholestasis and to compare the anthropometric indices between children with and without liver cirrhosis and children with and without jaundice. Methods Children with persistent cholestasis, i.e. increased direct bilirrubin or changes in the canalicular enzyme gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), were included. The anthropometric measures were weight (W), height or length (H), arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold thickness (TST), arm muscle circumference (AMC), and body mass index (BMI). Results Ninety-one children with cholestasis, with current median age of 12 months, were evaluated. W/age (A) and H/A indices below -2 Z-scores were observed in 33% and 30.8% of patients, respectively. Concerning the W/H index and BMI, only 12% and 16% of patients, respectively, were below -2 Z-scores. Regarding AC, 43.8% of 89 evaluated patients had some depletion. Observing the TST, 64% of patients had depletion, and 71.1% of the 45 evaluated patients had some degree of depletion regarding the ACM index. Conclusion Evaluation using weight in patients with chronic liver diseases may overestimate the nutritional status due to visceromegaly, subclinical edema, or ascites. Indices that correlate weight and height, such as W/H and BMI, may also not show depletion because of the chronic condition in which there are depletion of both weight and height. TST, AC, and ACM are parameters that better estimate nutritional status and should be part of the management of patients with liver diseases and cholestasis. © 2015 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria.922197205CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq