Characterization of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes in patients from Rondônia, Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be classified into nine genotypes (A-I) defined by sequence divergence of more than 8% based on the complete genome. This study aims to identify the genotypic distribution of HBV in 40 HBsAg-positive patients from Rondônia, Brazil. A fragment of 1306 bp partially comprising surface and polymerase overlapping genes was amplified by PCR. Amplified DNA was purified and sequenced. Amplified DNA was purified and sequenced on an ABI PRISM^®377 Automatic Sequencer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). The obtained sequences were aligned with reference sequences obtained from the GenBank using Clustal X software and then edited with Se-Al software. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted by the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach using BEAST v.1.5.3.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The subgenotypes distribution was A1 (37.1%), D3 (22.8%), F2a (20.0%), D4 (17.1%) and D2 (2.8%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results for the first HBV genotypic characterization in Rondônia state are consistent with other studies in Brazil, showing the presence of several HBV genotypes that reflects the mixed origin of the population, involving descendants from Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.</p

The 2021 mutual phenomena involving the Galilean satellites of Jupiter and the inner satellite Thebe

Astrometric studies and orbital modeling of planetary moons have contributed significantly to advancing our understanding of their orbital dynamics. These studies require precise positions measured over extended periods. In this paper, we present the results of the 2021 Brazilian Jovian mutual phenomena campaign. The data correspond to eight events between Galilean satellites, in addition to a rare eclipse of Thebe, an inner satellite, totaling nine events. A geometric model along with the DE440/JUP365 ephemerides was used to reproduce the events and simulate the light curves. A Monte Carlo method and chi-squared statistics were used to fit the simulated light curves to the observations. The reflectance model adopted for our simulations was the complete version of the Oren-Nayer model. The average uncertainty of the relative positions of the Galilean satellites was 5 mas (15 km) and for the inner Thebe satellite 32 mas (96 km). The seven mutual events (nine independent observations) here analyzed represent and addition of 17% events (10% light curves) with respect to the PHEMU21 international campaign. Furthermore, our result of Thebe eclipse is only the second measurement published to date. Our results contribute to the ephemeris database, being fundamental to improving satellite orbits and thus minimizing their uncertainties.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure