Burkholderia pseudomallei Is Spatially Distributed in Soil in Northeast Thailand

Melioidosis is a severe infection caused by the environmental bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Soil sampling is important to identify geographic regions where humans and animals are at risk of exposure. The purpose of this study was to examine a factor that has a major bearing on the accuracy of soil sampling: the spatial distribution of B. pseudomallei in soil of a specified sampling site. Soil sampling was performed using a fixed-interval grid of 100 sampling points in each of two sites (disused land and rice field) in northeast Thailand, and the presence and amount of B. pseudomallei determined using culture. Mapping of the presence and B. pseudomallei count demonstrated that samples taken from areas adjacent to sampling points that were culture positive (negative) for B. pseudomallei were also likely to be culture positive (negative), and samples taken from areas adjacent to sampling points with a high (low) B. pseudomallei count were also likely to yield a high (low) count (spatial autocorrelation). These data were used as the basis for highlighting several pitfalls in current approaches to soil sampling, together with a discussion of the suitability of a range of sampling strategies in different geographical locations and for different study objectives

From Responsible Research and Innovation to Responsibility by Design

open access articleDrawing on more than eight years working to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Human Brain Project, a large EU-funded research project that brings together neuroscience, computing, social sciences, and the humanities, and one of the largest investments in RRI in one project, this article offers insights on RRI and explores its possible future. We focus on the question of how RRI can have long-lasting impact and persist beyond the time horizon of funded projects. For this purpose, we suggest the concept of “responsibility by design” which is intended to encapsulate the idea of embedding RRI in research and innovation in a way that makes it part of the fabric of the resulting outcomes, in our case, a distributed European Research Infrastructure

PREVALENCE OF Entamoeba histolytica/Entamoeba dispar IN THE CITY OF CAMPINA GRANDE, IN NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL

There is a clear need to perform epidemiological studies to find the true prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica around the world. The evaluation of this prevalence has been hindered by the existence of two different species which are morphologically identical, but genetically different, namely E. histolytica, which causes amebiasis, and E. dispar, which is non-pathogenic. In Brazil, the E. dispar has been detected in communities in the Southeastern (SE) and Northeastern (NE) regions with poor sanitation. However, individuals infected with E. histolytica have been identified in other regions. There is an absence of reports on the prevalence of these parasites in the state of Paraíba, which also has areas with poor sanitary conditions where a high prevalence of the E. histolytica/E. dispar complex has been detected in children from urban slums. The present study evaluated the prevalence of E. histolytica and E. dispar in 1,195 asymptomatic children between two and 10 years of age, living in a sprawling urban slum in Campina Grande, in the state of Paraíba, in Northeastern Brazil. These children were examined and their feces samples were analyzed microscopically. A total of 553 children tested positive for the E. histolytica/E. dispar complex, and 456 of the positive samples were tested with the E. histolytica II® ELISA kit. All 456 samples were negative for the presence of the adhesin E. histolytica specific antigen. The evidence suggests that in this community E. histolytica is absent and E. dispar is the dominant species

Contribuições da consciência fonológica e nomeação seriada rápida para a aprendizagem inicial da escrita

RESUMO Objetivo: investigar a contribuição da consciência fonológica e nomeação seriada rápida para a aprendizagem inicial da escrita. Métodos: participaram do estudo 100 crianças, na faixa etária de três a seis anos e onze meses, matriculadas na educação infantil de uma creche e uma escola municipal da cidade do Recife. Utilizou-se como instrumentos de avaliação o Teste de Consciência Fonológica, a tarefa de Nomeação Seriada Rápida e um roteiro de avaliação da escrita. Os dados foram transcritos e analisados conforme a estatística descritiva e inferencial. Resultados: observou-se que o aumento da faixa etária está diretamente relacionado ao desenvolvimento dos níveis de consciência fonológica, assim como com a diminuição dos erros e do tempo para execução das tarefas de NSR. Verificou-se que as crianças com mais de quatro anos, tiveram um desempenho em consciência fonológica aquém do esperado para sua idade. Dentre as habilidades de consciência fonológica, a consciência silábica obteve melhores índices de pontuações, podendo-se observar grande dificuldade dos participantes nas tarefas de consciência fonêmica. Com relação a escrita, a maioria das crianças estavam na fase pré-silábica. Foi possível verificar correlações significantes entre as habilidades de consciência fonológica com a nomeação seriada rápida e escrita. Conclusão: a consciência fonológica e nomeação seriada rápida contribuem para a aprendizagem inicial da escrita, sendo importante o estímulo destas habilidades antes do ciclo de alfabetização, o que pode favorecer este processo e sinalizar, precocemente, eventuais problemas de aprendizagem. O baixo desempenho nas tarefas pode ser sugestivo da influência de fatores socioeducacionais, devendo-se considerar o contexto de vida da criança e as experiências educativas vivenciadas na família e escola