O impacto do trabalho infantil no setor agrícola sobre a saúde

The aim of this dissertation is to identify the causal relation between rural child labour and health. The analysis utilized the PNAD, a Brazilian household survey, from 1998 and 2003. The econometric modeling was based on the pseudo-panel approach and was considered the children from 5 to 15 years old in 1998 and from 10 to 20 years old in 2003. The results show that work and work in risky jobs in the agricultural sector do not differ from those impacts of other sectors. It was also presented, for all individuals that work in the agricultural sector does not impact the health capital and work in the non rural sector impact negatively the health capital. So, the government intervention in rural areas should be different from the one implemented on the urban area to mitigate the impact of child labour on health and also, the government intervention should be implemented in parallel with the improvement of the access to the health system, drugs policies, maternal health education program.child labor, health, pseudo-panel, Agribusiness, I12, R21, C23,

Fungal infections diagnosis - Past, present and future

Despite the scientific advances observed in the recent decades and the emergence of new methodologies, the diagnosis of systemic fungal infections persists as a problematic issue. Fungal cultivation, the stan-dard method that allows a proven diagnosis, has numerous disadvantages, as low sensitivity (only 50% of the patients present positive fungal cultures), and long growth time. These are factors that delay the patient's treatment and, consequently, lead to higher hospital costs. To improve the accuracy and quickness of fungal infections diagnosis, several new methodologies attempt to be implemented in clinical microbiology laboratories. Most of these innovative methods are independent of pathogen isolation, which means that the diagnosis goes from being considered proven to probable. In spite of the advantage of being culture-independent, the majority of the methods lack standardization. PCR-based methods are becoming more and more commonly used, which has earned them an important place in hospital laboratories. This can be perceived now, as PCR-based methodologies have proved to be an essential tool fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. This review aims to go through the main steps of the diagnosis for systemic fungal infection, from diagnostic classifications, through methodologies considered as "gold standard", to the molecular methods currently used, and finally mentioning some of the more futuristic approaches.(c) 2021 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) and UID/BIA/04050/2019 strategic programs, which is funded by national funds through the FCT-Fundacao para a Ciência e Tecnologia, and by the ERDF-European Regional Devel-opment Fund through the COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI) and Sistema de Apoio à Investigacao Cientifica e Tecnol?ogica (SAICT)

Optimization of a quantitative PCR methodology for detection of Aspergillus spp. and Rhizopus arrhizus

Introduction Multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods for the detection of Aspergillus spp. based only on SYBR Green and melting curve analysis of PCR products are difficult to develop because most targets are located within ITS regions. The aim of this study was to adapt our previously developed methodology based on a multiplex PCR assay coupled with GeneScan analysis to provide a qPCR method. Methods A SYBR Green-based real-time PCR assay was optimized to detect A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger, A. terreus, and R. arrhizus in a multiplex assay and applied to cultured fungi and spiked plasma. Results Different melting temperatures allowed identification of all five pathogens and discrimination between them, even in samples with low amounts of fungal gDNA (from 1.3 to 33.0 pg/mu L), which has been reported previously as problematic. No false-positive results were obtained for non-target species, including bacteria and human DNA. This method allowed detection of fungal pathogens in human plasma spiked with fungal DNA and in coinfections of A. niger/R. arrhizus. Discussion This work provides evidence for the use of a qPCR multiplex method based on SYBR Green and melting curve analysis of PCR products for the detection of A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. niger, A. terreus, and R. arrhizus. The proposed method is simpler and less expensive than available kits based on fluorescent probes and can be used for aiding diagnosis of the most relevant invasive filamentous fungi, particularly in low-income health care institutions

Study of the Influence of Localized Vibrational Modes in Charge Transport Properties at Nanoscale Systems.

In molecular and atomic devices the interaction between electrons and ionic vibrations has an important role in electronic transport. The electron-phonon coupling can cause the loss of the electron's phase coherence, the opening of new conductance channels and the suppression of purely elastic ones. From the technological viewpoint phonons might restrict the efficiency of electronic devices by energy dissipation, causing heating, power loss and instability. The state of the art in electron transport calculations consists in combining ab initio calculations via Density Functional Theory (DFT) with Non-Equilibrium Green's Function formalism (NEGF). In order to include electron-phonon interactions, one needs in principle to include a self-energy scattering term in the open system Hamiltonian which takes into account the effect of the phonons over the electrons and vice versa. Nevertheless this term could be obtained approximately by perturbative methods. In the First Born Approximation one considers only the first order terms of the electronic Green's function expansion. In the Self-Consistent Born Approximation, the interaction self-energy is calculated with the perturbed electronic Green's function in a self-consistent way. In this work we describe how to incorporate the electron-phonon interaction to the SMEAGOL program (Spin and Molecular Electronics in Atomically Generated Orbital Landscapes), an ab initio code for electronic transport based on the combination of DFT + NEGF. This provides a tool for calculating the transport properties of materials' specific system, particularly in molecular electronics. Preliminary results will be presented, showing the effects produced by considering the electron-phonon interaction in nanoscale devices

Enhancing prospective memory in mild cognitive impairment: The role of enactment

Introduction: Prospective memory (PM) is a fundamental requirement for independent living which might be prematurely compromised in the neurodegenerative process, namely in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a typical prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) phase. Most encoding manipulations that typically enhance learning in healthy adults are of minimal benefit to AD patients. However, there is some indication that these can display a recall advantage when encoding is accompanied by the physical enactment of the material. The aim of this study was to explore the potential benefits of enactment at encoding and cue-action relatedness on memory for intentions in MCI patients and healthy controls using a behavioral PMexperimental paradigm. Method: We report findings examining the influence of enactment at encoding for PM performance in MCI patients and age- and education-matched controls using a laboratory-based PM task with a factorial independent design. Results: PM performance was consistently superior when physical enactment was used at encoding and when target–action pairs were strongly associated. Importantly, these beneficial effects were cumulative and observable across both a healthy and a cognitively impaired lifespan as well as evident in the perceived subjective difficulty in performing the task. Conclusions: The identified beneficial effects of enacted encoding and semantic relatedness have unveiled the potential contribution of this encoding technique to optimize attentional demands through an adaptive allocation of strategic resources. We discuss our findings with respect to their potential impact on developing strategies to improve PM in AD sufferers

Diversification across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec explains the phylogeographic arrangement of the widespread bright-rumped Attila (Attila spadiceus; Tyrannidae) and reveals the existence of two major lineages

We describe the phylogeographic structure of Attila spadiceus, a neotropical bird with 12 recognized subspecies, through the analysis for partial Cytb amplicon region obtained from 11 subspecies. The topology recovered from the analysis indicated the existence of two principal molecular lineages and that the morphological variation underlying the designation of subspecies is not reflected in the mitochondrial gene tree. Based on these findings, we infer that the diversification of A. spadiceus began at the Pleistocene (similar to 1.5 Mya), with the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region as the main factor driving the formation of two molecular lineages, one to the west and the other one to the east of this geographic barrier.Peer reviewe

Effect of technique of disinfection by ultrasonic nebulization on accuracy of vinyl polysiloxane impressions

Introduction: To prevent cross-contamination, impressions should be properly disinfected after removing from the mouth. To be efficacious, a successful disinfection must maintain the physico-chemical properties of the impression materials and should not interfere negatively in the fabrication of stone casts. Aim: To evaluate the effect of different disinfection techniques on the accuracy of dental impressions made of vinyl polysiloxane. Materials and Methods: 40 test samples made of vinyl polysiloxane were obtained using a pattern cylinder. The samples were randomly divided into 5 experimental conditions: I-Control, impressions without any disinfection, II-Immersion in 2% glutaraldehyde for 10 minutes, III-Immersion in 0.2% peracetic acid for 10 minutes, IV-ultrasonic nebulization for 10 minutes in 2% glutaraldehyde and V-ultrasonic nebulization for 10 minutes in 0.2% peracetic acid. The impressions obtained were poured in type IV gypsum and both the height and diameter of the stone casts were measured. For this purpose a profile projector joined to a digital measurement system was used. The data were submitted to statistical analysis using Bioestat 5.3 software. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to assess normal data distribution. Data were analysed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test for comparisons of the means of the different groups, p-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Groups I, II and III did not differ statistically among themselves, both in diameter and height. Group IV presented statistically different results from the others for diameter. Whereas for height, the results were shown to be similar among groups I, II, III and IV. For Group V, the results obtained were statistically different for both height and diameter from those of the other groups. Conclusion: The immersion technique did not interfere in the accuracy of the stone casts however the ultrasonic nebulization with 2% glutaraldehyde solution did not show significant differences for height and presented better values of dimensional accuracy in diameter, when compared to the control group. The ultrasonic nebulization method associated with 2% peracetic acid solution presented the worst dimensional accuracy values for height and better values for the diameter compared to the other groups.138ZC01ZC04COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESSem informaçã

Human alveolar macrophage metabolism is compromised during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

Pulmonary macrophages have two distinct ontogenies: long-lived embryonically-seeded alveolar macrophages (AM) and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM). Here, we show that after infection with a virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv), primary murine AM exhibit a unique transcriptomic signature characterized by metabolic reprogramming distinct from conventional BMDM. In contrast to BMDM, AM failed to shift from oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to glycolysis and consequently were unable to control infection with an avirulent strain (H37Ra). Importantly, healthy human AM infected with H37Ra equally demonstrated diminished energetics, recapitulating our observation in the murine model system. However, the results from seahorse showed that the shift towards glycolysis in both AM and BMDM was inhibited by H37Rv. We further demonstrated that pharmacological (e.g. metformin or the iron chelator desferrioxamine) reprogramming of AM towards glycolysis reduced necrosis and enhanced AM capacity to control H37Rv growth. Together, our results indicate that the unique bioenergetics of AM renders these cells a perfect target for Mtb survival and that metabolic reprogramming may be a viable host targeted therapy against TB