Trends in method-specific suicide in Brazil from 2000 to 2017

Purpose: Understanding long-term patterns of suicide methods can inform public health policy and prevention strategies. In Brazil, firearm-related policies may be one salient target for suicide prevention. This study describes trends in method-specific suicide at the national and state-levels in Brazil, with a particular focus on firearm-related suicides. / Methods: Brazilian mortality data for suicide and undetermined intent among people aged 10 years and older between 2000 and 2017 were obtained from the National Mortality Information System. We examined national and state-level trends in age-standardised suicide rates for hanging, self-poisoning, firearms, jumping from a high place, other, and unspecified methods. We also compared total rates of mortality from suicide and undetermined intent over the period. Applying Joinpoint regression, we tested changes in trends of firearm-specific suicide rates. / Results: The total suicide rate increased between 2000 and 2017. Rates of hanging, self-poisoning by drugs or alcohol and jumping from a high place showed the largest increases, while firearm-specific suicide rates decreased over the study period. Trends in methods of suicide varied by sex and state. / Conclusion: It is of public health concern that suicide rates in Brazil have risen this millennium. Restricting access to firearms might be an effective approach for reducing firearm-specific suicides, especially in states where firearm availability remains particularly high. Treatment and management of substance misuse may also be an important target for suicide prevention policies. More work is needed to understand the causes of rising suicide rates in Brazil and to improve the mental health of the population

Association between homicide rates and suicide rates: a countrywide longitudinal analysis of 5507 Brazilian municipalities

Objective: To estimate the association between homicide and suicide rates in Brazilian municipalities over a period of 7 years. / Design: We conducted a longitudinal ecological study using annual mortality data from 5507 Brazilian municipalities between 2008 and 2014. Multivariable negative binomial regression models were used to examine the relationship between homicide and suicide rates. Robustness of results was explored using sensitivity analyses to examine the influence of data quality, population size, age and sex on the relationship between homicide and suicide rates. / Setting: A nationwide study of municipality-level data. / Participants: Mortality data and corresponding population estimates for municipal populations aged 10 years and older. / Primary and secondary outcome measures: Age-standardised suicide rates per 100 000. / Results: Municipal suicide rates were positively associated with municipal homicide rates; after adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic factors, a doubling of the homicide rate was associated with 22% increase in suicide rate (rate ratio=1.22, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.33). A dose–response effect was observed with 4% increase in suicide rates at the third quintile, 9% at the fourth quintile and 12% at the highest quintile of homicide rates compared with the lowest quintile. The observed effect estimates were robust to sensitivity analyses. / Conclusions: Municipalities with higher homicide rates have higher suicide rates and the relationship between homicide and suicide rates in Brazil exists independently of many sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors. Our results are in line with the hypothesis that changes in homicide rates lead to changes in suicide rates, although a causal association cannot be established from this study. Suicide and homicide rates have increased in Brazil despite increased community mental health support and incarceration, respectively; therefore, new avenues for intervention are needed. The identification of a positive relationship between homicide and suicide rates suggests that population-based interventions to reduce homicide rates may also reduce suicide rates in Brazil

Gastric Ulcer Associated with Cytomegalovirus in an Immunocompetent Patient: Method for Diagnosis

Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-associated gastric ulcers can be found not only in immunocompromised hosts but also in normal individuals. The accurate endoscopic diagnosis of CMV ulcers is not easy because of the absence of characteristic morphological features. We present a case of CMV-associated gastric ulcer in an immunocompetent patient. He was a 33-year-old male with epigastralgia. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed multiple erupted papules and a large irregularly shaped shallow ulcer. We did not find intracellular inclusion bodies characteristic of CMV in hematoxylin-eosin-stained gastric biopsy specimens, while CMV antigens corresponding to intracellular inclusion bodies were confirmed using an immunoperoxidase method with the monoclonal CMV antibody. If CMV ulcers are suspected, it is important to examine for inclusion bodies using not only hematoxylin-eosin staining, but also CMV immunohistochemistry for a sensitive diagnosis

Choice biases in no-sample and delay testing in pigeons (Columba livia)

In experimental tasks that involve stimuli that vary along a quantitative continuum, some choice biases are commonly found. Take, for instance, a matching-to-sample task where animals must, following the presentation of sample stimuli (that differ in duration), choose between two or more comparison stimuli. In tests where no sample is presented there is usually a bias towards the comparison that is correct following the shortest sample. To examine some aspects of these choice biases, pigeons were trained in a symbolic matching-to-sample task with two durations of keylight as samples, where key pecking had to be maintained during sample presentation. Firstly, even though animals were required to attend to the sample, a preference for the "short" comparison in no-sample testing was found. This result disproves an account where this effect was hypothesized to happen due to non-programmed learning resulting from the animals failing to attend to some trials. Secondly, even though a bias for "short" was found in both no-sample and delay testing, the extent of the biases differed between tasks, thus suggesting that forgetting the sample presented during a delay does not necessarily land the animal in a state similar to presenting no sample at all to begin with.The present study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds. It was also co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)-through COMPETE2020-under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)

Disentangling astroglial physiology with a realistic cell model in silico

Electrically non-excitable astroglia take up neurotransmitters, buffer extracellular K+ and generate Ca2+ signals that release molecular regulators of neural circuitry. The underlying machinery remains enigmatic, mainly because the sponge-like astrocyte morphology has been difficult to access experimentally or explore theoretically. Here, we systematically incorporate multi-scale, tri-dimensional astroglial architecture into a realistic multi-compartmental cell model, which we constrain by empirical tests and integrate into the NEURON computational biophysical environment. This approach is implemented as a flexible astrocyte-model builder ASTRO. As a proof-of-concept, we explore an in silico astrocyte to evaluate basic cell physiology features inaccessible experimentally. Our simulations suggest that currents generated by glutamate transporters or K+ channels have negligible distant effects on membrane voltage and that individual astrocytes can successfully handle extracellular K+ hotspots. We show how intracellular Ca2+ buffers affect Ca2+ waves and why the classical Ca2+ sparks-and-puffs mechanism is theoretically compatible with common readouts of astroglial Ca2+ imaging

Aharonov-Bohm interferences from local deformations in graphene

One of the most interesting aspects of graphene is the tied relation between structural and electronic properties. The observation of ripples in the graphene samples both free standing and on a substrate has given rise to a very active investigation around the membrane-like properties of graphene and the origin of the ripples remains as one of the most interesting open problems in the system. The interplay of structural and electronic properties is successfully described by the modelling of curvature and elastic deformations by fictitious gauge fields that have become an ex- perimental reality after the suggestion that Landau levels can form associated to strain in graphene and the subsequent experimental confirmation. Here we propose a device to detect microstresses in graphene based on a scanning-tunneling-microscopy setup able to measure Aharonov-Bohm inter- ferences at the nanometer scale. The interferences to be observed in the local density of states are created by the fictitious magnetic field associated to elastic deformations of the sample.Comment: Some bugs fixe

Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD