Comparing open wound measuring methods popularly used in experimental studies

O reparo tecidual surge em resposta às lesões e constitui-se de um processo dinâmico para manutenção da integridade do organismo. Nos estudos sobre cicatrização de feridas, tem se utilizado várias técnicas buscando-se uma avaliação da eficácia de meios de tratamento local. Sendo assim, o presente trabalho objetivou comparar três métodos de avaliação experimental de áreas de feridas, sendo eles: o método do relógio, papel milimetrado e avaliação computadorizada. Para realização do experimento, foram utilizados 30 ratos Wistar em condições de bem-estar. Após realizada a anestesia, foram confeccionadas duas lesões no dorso de cada animal com punch de 8 mm, sendo as feridas avaliadas após quatro, sete e 14 dias de tratamento. Observou-se que aos quatro dias de tratamento, todos os métodos apresentaram o mesmo desempenho, enquanto aos sete e 14 dias, o método do relógio, apresentou maior média de área, perdendo precisão, e aos 14 dias, a avaliação computadorizada apresentou resultados mais precisos em relação a ambos os outros métodos. Concluiu-se que a avaliação computadorizada através de software de áreas de feridas cutâneas apresenta resultados mais precisos em relação aos métodos do relógio e papel milimetrado, principalmente em lesões menores.Tissue repair is a response reaction to lesions and aggressions that constitutes a dynamic process to maintain the integrity of the organism. Wound healing experiments have used several approaches in order to assess and compare treatment methods, and these discrepancies hamper comparisons among assays. This study assessed three different methods of wound measurement commonly used in healing assays: clock method, graph paper method, and computer-assisted image analysis. We used 30 Wistar rats, kept in appropriate conditions for animal well-being. After anesthesia, and using an eight-millimeter punch, two lesions were made in the back region of each rat. The wounds were assessed on days four, seven, and 14 after infliction. At four days, all methods generated similar results. By day seven, the clock method had lost precision, likely due to wound shrinkage, and yielded greater means compared to the other two methods. On the last assessment, the computer-assisted method appeared to have more precise results, with the other two generating statistically higher means. Computer-assisted image analysis seems to have maintained wound measuring precision throughout this experiment, even when faced with small lesions. Considering these results, the authors recommend the use of computer-assisted measurements in future experiments

Padronização de ELISA indireto para a detecção de anticorpos anti-Leptospira em soros bovinos / Indirect ELISA standardization for the detection of antibodies anti-Leptospira in bovine serum

A leptospirose bovina está distribuída em todo o mundo, e o sorovar hardjo é o maior causador da enfermidade. O teste de soroaglutinação microscópica (MAT) é recomendado para o diagnóstico laboratorial da leptospirose, mas possui limitações. Diante disso, um ELISA indireto, utilizando o sorovar Hardjo como antígeno, foi comparado ao MAT, em uma avaliação inicial para o diagnóstico individual da leptospirose bovina. Dos 60 soros bovinos analisados, 13 (21,6%; IC95% 13,3-33,6) foram reagentes no MAT. Os titulos variaram de 1:100 a 1:1600 para os sorovares Canicola, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Hardjo e Grippotyphosa. No ELISA, seis (10%; IC95% 4,6-20,1) soros foram considerados reagentes. De acordo com a análise estatística realizada foi possível detectar uma alta especificidade no teste (97,87%), mas uma sensibilidade baixa (38,46%). Assim, o ELISA indireto descrito é promissor, mas apresenta limitações quanto à sensibilidade. Futuras avaliações para aumentar o espectro de detecção de anticorpos anti-Leptospira em soros bovinos serão realizadas. 

Padronização de Dot-ELISA para detecção de anticorpos anti-Leptospira em soro bovino / Dot-ELISA standardization for the detection of antibodies anti-Leptospira in bovine serum

A leptospirose é reconhecida como uma importante causa de abortos em bovinos no mundo. Bovinos assintomáticos podem eliminar leptospiras através da urina por longos períodos. O teste de soroaglutinação microscópica (MAT) é recomendado como a principal ferramenta de diagnóstico no rebanho, mas não é adequado para a detecção de portadores. Diante disso, um Dot-ELISA foi comparado ao MAT, em uma avaliação inicial para o diagnóstico individual e rápido da leptospirose bovina. Trinta e quatro soros bovinos, sendo 17 reagentes e 17 não reagentes no MAT, foram usados. Os títulos de anticorpos variaram de 100 a 1600 para os sorovares Canicola, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Hardjo e Grippotyphosa. De acordo com os resultados obtidos neste estudo, o Dot-ELISA foi capaz de detectar anticorpos anti-Leptospira em 16 (94%) soros bovinos reagentes no MAT. Embora os resultados sejam promissores, ensaios adicionais são necessários a fim de padronizar a técnica para uso em larga escala, visando a triagem rápida de casos de leptospirose em bovinos a campo. 

Avaliação da formação de biofilme por cepas de Salmonella spp. Isoladas de linguiça frescal / Evaluation of the biofilm formation by strains of Salmonella spp. Isolated from fresh sausage

Biofilmes são ecossistemas complexos. Eles consistem em um ponto de contaminação constante, causando grandes problemas para as indústrias alimentícias. As salmonelas são consideradas como um dos principais agentes patogênicos de produtos alimentares. Produtos cárneos em geral, são comumente implicados com a transmissão desse patógeno aos suscetíveis. Devido a essa importância, este estudo objetivou avaliar a formação de biofilme por cepas de Salmonella spp. nas temperaturas de 25°C e 37°C. Foram avaliadas 9 cepas, as quais foram isoladas, previamente, de linguiça frescal oriundas de diferentes marcas adquiridas no comércio da região de Pelotas-RS. A quantificação foi realizada utilizando um espectofotômetro de placas de microtitulação. Todas as cepas quando testadas a 25°C mostraram-se incapazes de formar biofilmes. Por outro lado, quando testadas a 37 °C, 33,33% (n=3) foram capazes de formar biofilme. Bactérias formadoras de biofilme são um ponto de contaminação constante e um potencial problema para as indústrias alimentícias e para a saúde pública, por isso os procedimentos de limpeza nas superfícies de equipamentos e utensílios devem ser rigorosos a fim de diminuir o risco de transmissão do agente aos alimentos

HARMONIZAÇÃO OROFACIAL NA ACADEMIA: UM OLHAR SOBRE O CONHECIMENTO DE DOCENTES E DISCENTES DE ODONTOLOGIA

The present study aimstoanalyzethecurrentstateofknowledgeofdentistrystudentsandteachers in relationto orofacial harmonizationandinvestigatetheintegrationof this specialtyintothe curricular structuresofundergraduateandpostgraduatecourses. To this end, anintegrative review wascarried out with a qualitative approach ofanexploratory nature. Tosurveyarticles in theliterature, a searchwascarried out in thefollowingdatabases: 1) Virtual Health Library; 2) CAPES Journaland 3) Google Scholar. The analysisoftheselectedstudies, in relationtotheresearch design, wasbasedonPolit, Beck andHunglerandLoBiondo-Wood and Haber, andboththeanalysisandsynthesisof data extracted from thearticleswerecarried out in a descriptiveway, enabling observe, count, describeandclassifythe data, with theaimofgatheringtheknowledgeproducedonthetopicexplored in the review. Regardingtheresults, thesearch in thedatabasesidentified 4317 articles: 10 capturedby VHL, 06 by Capes and 4333 by Google Scholar. Afteranalyzingtitlesand abstracts, 128 articleswereselected for reading in full. Basedontheinclusionandexclusioncriteriaofthepresent study, 07 articleswereselected for the final sample. In viewof this, this study highlightsthegrowingimportanceof Orofacial Harmonization (HOF) in dentistry, approaching formal recognition as a specialty in 2019. Despite this progress, there are challenges in theknowledgeoflegislationonthepartofteachersandstudents, highlightingtheurgentneed for training for ethicalpractice. The researchreveals a positive perceptionabouttheinclusionof HOF in the curricular matrix, emphasizing its relevance in academic training. The training ofdentistsat HOF is crucial toguaranteethequalityandsafetyofaestheticandfunctional procedures. The inclusionofspecific disciplines sincegraduation prepares professionals for anintegrated approach to oral health. The study recognizeslimitations, suggestingthat future research explore theimpactofincluding HOF in curriculaandintegratingethicaland legal knowledge. In conclusion, it highlightstheneed for educationalandregulatorymeasurestostrengthentheethicaland legal practiceof HOF in dentistry.O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar o estado atual do conhecimento dos discentes e docentes de odontologia em relação à harmonização orofacial e investigar a integração dessa especialidade nas estruturas curriculares dos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão integrativa com abordagem qualitativa de natureza exploratória. Para o levantamento dos artigos na literatura, realizou-se uma busca nas seguintes bases de dados: 1) Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde; 2) Periódico CAPES e 3) Google Acadêmico. A análise dos estudos selecionados, em relação ao delineamento de pesquisa, pautou-se em Polit, Beck e Hunglere LoBiondo-Wood e Haber, sendo que tanto a análise quanto a síntese dos dados extraídos dos artigos foram realizadas de forma descritiva, possibilitando observar, contar, descrever e classificar os dados, com o intuito de reunir o conhecimento produzido sobre o tema explorado na revisão. Com relação aos resultados, a busca nas bases de dados identificou 4317 artigos: 10 capturados pela BVS, 06 pela Capes e 4333 pelo Google Acadêmico. Após a análise de títulos e resumos, 128 artigos foram selecionados para a leitura na integra. Com base nos critérios de inclusão e exclusão do presente estudo foram selecionados 07 artigos para a amostra final. Diante disso, este estudo destaca a importância crescente da Harmonização Orofacial (HOF) na odontologia, abordando o reconhecimento formal como especialidade em 2019. Apesar desse avanço, há desafios no conhecimento das legislações por parte de docentes e discentes, evidenciando a necessidade urgente de capacitação para uma prática ética. A pesquisa revela a percepção positiva sobre a inclusão da HOF na matriz curricular, enfatizando sua relevância na formação acadêmica. A capacitação dos dentistas na HOF é crucial para garantir a qualidade e segurança dos procedimentos estéticos e funcionais. A inclusão de disciplinas específicas desde a graduação prepara os profissionais para uma abordagem integrada na saúde bucal. O estudo reconhece limitações, sugerindo que futuras pesquisas explorem o impacto da inclusão da HOF nas grades curriculares e integração de conhecimentos éticos e legais. Em conclusão, destaca a necessidade de medidas educacionais e regulatórias para fortalecer a prática ética e legal da HOF na odontologia

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD 2017 provides a comprehensive assessment of cause-specific mortality for 282 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2017. Methods The causes of death database is composed of vital registration (VR), verbal autopsy (VA), registry, survey, police, and surveillance data. GBD 2017 added ten VA studies, 127 country-years of VR data, 502 cancer-registry country-years, and an additional surveillance country-year. Expansions of the GBD cause of death hierarchy resulted in 18 additional causes estimated for GBD 2017. Newly available data led to subnational estimates for five additional countries Ethiopia, Iran, New Zealand, Norway, and Russia. Deaths assigned International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for non-specific, implausible, or intermediate causes of death were reassigned to underlying causes by redistribution algorithms that were incorporated into uncertainty estimation. We used statistical modelling tools developed for GBD, including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODErn), to generate cause fractions and cause specific death rates for each location, year, age, and sex. Instead of using UN estimates as in previous versions, GBD 2017 independently estimated population size and fertility rate for all locations. Years of life lost (YLLs) were then calculated as the sum of each death multiplied by the standard life expectancy at each age. All rates reported here are age-standardised. Findings At the broadest grouping of causes of death (Level 1), non-communicable diseases (NC Ds) comprised the greatest fraction of deaths, contributing to 73.4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 72.5-74.1) of total deaths in 2017, while communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) causes accounted for 186% (17.9-19.6), and injuries 8.0% (7.7-8.2). Total numbers of deaths from NCD causes increased from 2007 to 2017 by 22.7% (21.5-23.9), representing an additional 7.61 million (7. 20-8.01) deaths estimated in 2017 versus 2007. The death rate from NCDs decreased globally by 7.9% (7.08.8). The number of deaths for CMNN causes decreased by 222% (20.0-24.0) and the death rate by 31.8% (30.1-33.3). Total deaths from injuries increased by 2.3% (0-5-4-0) between 2007 and 2017, and the death rate from injuries decreased by 13.7% (12.2-15.1) to 57.9 deaths (55.9-59.2) per 100 000 in 2017. Deaths from substance use disorders also increased, rising from 284 000 deaths (268 000-289 000) globally in 2007 to 352 000 (334 000-363 000) in 2017. Between 2007 and 2017, total deaths from conflict and terrorism increased by 118.0% (88.8-148.6). A greater reduction in total deaths and death rates was observed for some CMNN causes among children younger than 5 years than for older adults, such as a 36.4% (32.2-40.6) reduction in deaths from lower respiratory infections for children younger than 5 years compared with a 33.6% (31.2-36.1) increase in adults older than 70 years. Globally, the number of deaths was greater for men than for women at most ages in 2017, except at ages older than 85 years. Trends in global YLLs reflect an epidemiological transition, with decreases in total YLLs from enteric infections, respirator}, infections and tuberculosis, and maternal and neonatal disorders between 1990 and 2017; these were generally greater in magnitude at the lowest levels of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI). At the same time, there were large increases in YLLs from neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases. YLL rates decreased across the five leading Level 2 causes in all SDI quintiles. The leading causes of YLLs in 1990 neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections, and diarrhoeal diseases were ranked second, fourth, and fifth, in 2017. Meanwhile, estimated YLLs increased for ischaemic heart disease (ranked first in 2017) and stroke (ranked third), even though YLL rates decreased. Population growth contributed to increased total deaths across the 20 leading Level 2 causes of mortality between 2007 and 2017. Decreases in the cause-specific mortality rate reduced the effect of population growth for all but three causes: substance use disorders, neurological disorders, and skin and subcutaneous diseases. Interpretation Improvements in global health have been unevenly distributed among populations. Deaths due to injuries, substance use disorders, armed conflict and terrorism, neoplasms, and cardiovascular disease are expanding threats to global health. For causes of death such as lower respiratory and enteric infections, more rapid progress occurred for children than for the oldest adults, and there is continuing disparity in mortality rates by sex across age groups. Reductions in the death rate of some common diseases are themselves slowing or have ceased, primarily for NCDs, and the death rate for selected causes has increased in the past decade. Copyright (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362