Sex and socioeconomic inequalities of lung cancer mortality in Barcelona, Spain and Sao Paulo, Brazil

The objective of this paper was to assess sex and socioeconomic inequalities in lung cancer mortality in two major cities of Europe and South America. Official information on mortality and population allowed the estimation of sex- and age-specific death rates for Barcelona, Spain and Sao Paulo, Brazil (1995-2003). Mortality trends and levels were independently assessed for each city and subsequently compared. Rate ratios assessed by Poisson regression analysis addressed hypotheses of association between the outcome and socioeconomic covariates (human development index, unemployment and schooling) at the inner-city area level. Barcelona had a higher mortality in men (76.9/100000 inhabitants) than Sao Paulo (38.2/100 000 inhabitants); although rates were decreasing for the former (-2%/year) and levelled-off for the [after. Mortality in women ranked similarly (9.1 for Barcelona, 11.5 for Sao Paulo); with an increasing trend for women aged 35-64 years (+ 7.7%/year in Barcelona and + 2.4%/year in Sao Paulo). The socioeconomic gradient of mortality in men was negative for Barcelona and positive for Sao Paulo; for women, the socioeconomic gradient was positive in both cities. Negative gradients indicate that deprived areas suffer a higher burden of disease; positive gradients suggest that prosmoking lifestyles may have been more prevalent in more affluent areas during the last decades. Sex and socioeconomic inequalities of lung cancer mortality reinforce the hypothesis that the epidemiologic profile of cancer can be improved by an expanded access to existing technology of healthcare and prevention. The continuous monitoring of inequalities in health may contribute to the concurrent promotion of well-being and social justice.

Efficiency of uniparental male and female care against egg predators in two closely related syntopic harvestmen

Although the benefits of maternal care have been investigated in many species, the caring role of males in species with exclusive paternal care has received less attention. We experimentally quantified the protective role of paternal care in the harvestman Iporangaia pustulosa. Additionally, we compared the effectiveness of paternal care against predation in this species with a syntopic harvestman with maternal care, Acutisoma proximum. We demonstrated that nearly one-third of the unprotected Iporangaia clutches disappeared entirely in 12 days, while the other two-thirds suffered a mean reduction of 55% in egg number. Conversely, 50% of the control clutches did not suffer any reduction, and only one was entirely consumed by predators. We also demonstrated that the mucus coat that covers Iporangaia clutches has an important deterrent role against predation by conspecifics: 58.3% of the clutches without mucus were attacked and three of them were entirely consumed, whereas only three clutches with mucus were attacked, suffering a reduction of up to three eggs. Iporangaia males were as efficient as Acutisoma females in protecting eggs. However, unattended Acutisoma eggs were attacked 20% more frequently than unattended Iporangaia eggs. Unattended Iporangaia eggs are protected by a mucus coat that prevents or decreases predation rate, whereas Acutisoma eggs are more susceptible to predation, probably because they lack this mucus coat. Thus, besides the fact that Iporangaia males efficiently protect the offspring against egg predators, females also contribute to egg protection by providing a mucus coat that deters egg predators. (C) 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Habitat fragmentation reduces genetic diversity and connectivity among toad populations in the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal Forest

Tropical rainforests are becoming increasingly fragmented and understanding the genetic consequences of fragmentation is crucial for conservation of their flora and fauna. We examined populations of the toad Rhinella ornata, a species endemic to Atlantic Coastal Forest in Brazil, and compared genetic diversity among small and medium forest fragments that were either isolated or connected to large forest areas by corridors. Genetic differentiation, as measured by F(ST), was not related to geographic distance among study sites and the size of the fragments did not significantly alter patterns of genetic connectivity. However, population genetic diversity was positively related to fragment size, thus haplotype diversity was lowest in the smallest fragments, likely due to decreases in population sizes. Spatial analyses of genetic discontinuities among groups of populations showed a higher proportion of barriers to gene flow among small and medium fragments than between populations in continuous forest. Our results underscore that even species with relatively high dispersal capacities may, over time, suffer the negative genetic effects of fragmentation, possibly leading to reduced fitness of population and cases of localized extinction. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Potentially bioavailable metals in sediment from a tropical polymictic environment-Rio Grande Reservoir, Brazil

Background, aim and scope Although many recent studies have focused on sediment potential toxicity, few of them were performed in tropical shallow aquatic environments. Those places can suffer short-time variations, especially due to water column circulations generated by changes in temperature and wind. Rio Grande reservoir is such an example; aside from that, it suffers various anthropogenic impacts, despite its multiple uses. Materials and methods This work presents the first screening step for understanding sediment quality from Rio Grande reservoir by comparing metal content using three different sediment quality guidelines. We also aimed at verifying any possible spatial heterogeneity. Results and discussion We found spatial heterogeneity varying according to the specific metal. Results showed a tendency for metals to remain as insoluble as metal sulfide (potentially not bioavailable), since sulfide was in excess and sediment physical-chemical characteristics contribute to sulfide maintenance (low redox potential, neutral pH, low dissolved oxygen, and high organic matter content). On the other hand, metal concentrations were much higher than suggested by Canadian guidelines and regional background values, especially Cu, which raises the risk of metal remobilization in cases of water circulation. Further study steps include the temporal evaluation of AVS/SEM, a battery of bioassays and the characterization of organic compounds.

Fragmentation drives tropical forest fragments to early successional states: A modelling study for Brazilian Atlantic forests

Land use leads to massive habitat destruction and fragmentation in tropical forests. Despite its global dimensions the effects of fragmentation on ecosystem dynamics are not well understood due to the complexity of the problem. We present a simulation analysis performed by the individual-based model FORMIND. The model was applied to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world`s biodiversity hot spots, at the Plateau of Sao Paulo. This study investigates the long-term effects of fragmentation processes on structure and dynamics of different sized remnant tropical forest fragments (1-100 ha) at community and plant functional type (PFT) level. We disentangle the interplay of single effects of different key fragmentation processes (edge mortality, increased mortality of large trees, local seed loss and external seed rain) using simulation experiments in a full factorial design. Our analysis reveals that particularly small forest fragments below 25 ha suffer substantial structural changes, biomass and biodiversity loss in the long term. At community level biomass is reduced up to 60%. Two thirds of the mid- and late-successional species groups, especially shade-tolerant (late successional climax) species groups are prone of extinction in small fragments. The shade-tolerant species groups were most strongly affected; its tree number was reduced more than 60% mainly by increased edge mortality. This process proved to be the most powerful of those investigated, explaining alone more than 80% of the changes observed for this group. External seed rain was able to compensate approximately 30% of the observed fragmentation effects for shade-tolerant species. Our results suggest that tropical forest fragments will suffer strong structural changes in the long term, leading to tree species impoverishment. They may reach a new equilibrium with a substantially reduced subset of the initial species pool, and are driven towards an earlier successional state. The natural regeneration potential of a landscape scattered with forest fragments appears to be limited, as external seed rain is not able to fully compensate for the observed fragmentation-induced changes. Our findings suggest basic recommendations for the management of fragmented tropical forest landscapes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

XERODERMA PIGMENTOSUM: LIVING IN THE DARK BUT WITH HOPE IN THERAPY

Xeroderma pigmentosum patients suffer from extreme photosensitivity caused by a genetic defect in DNA repair pathways. This condition obliges them to live in darkness and avoid sunshine. Although the molecular basis of the defect has been known for more than 40 years now, the treatment possibilities are very limited, and to date all have been focused on the skin. Herein, we summarize the effects of sunlight and the molecular mechanisms implicated in the defects that lead to this syndrome, as well as the strategies that have been tested to alleviate skin manifestations, including cancer. Preclinical attempts to correct genetic defects by means of different gene therapy approaches are also described. All these efforts are now bringing hope and some light into the life of patients and their families.

Aggregation susceptibility on phototransformation of hematoporphyrin derivatives

Photosensitizers used in PDT suffer degradation by light. In this work, photobleaching of Photogem((R)) (PG), Photofrin((R)) (PF), and Photosan((R)) (PS), hematoporphyrin derivatives, were induced by light in the presence or absence of 1% Triton X-100. The degradation efficiency in the absence of 1% Triton X-100 follows the sequence: Pf > PF > Ps, which means that PF presented a greater degradation than PF and PS. Forever, in the presence of the surfactant the degradation efficiency is different: PF congruent to PS > PF. Besides aggregation susceptibility, studies in cell culture (tumor and non tumor cells) and in animals (depth of necrosis) were performed, trying to correlate the stability of these photosensitizers with their photodynamic effect. The results suggest that PF presents higher light induced photo-cytotoxicity than PF and PS for both types of cells. For the depth of necrosis studies, more aggregated photosensitizer showed a longer time to accumulate in liver (30 min for PG, 120 h for PF and 720 h for PS). The, to establish an ideal dosimetry in PDT, one must consider the intrinsic physical chemistry characteristics of the photosensitizer as well as their ability to undergo photobleaching.

Dithiocarbazate complexes with the [M(PPh(3))](2+) (M=Pd or Pt) moiety Synthesis, characterization and anti-Tripanosoma cruzi activity

New neutral Pd(II) and Pt(II) complexes of the type [M(L)(PPh(3))] (M Pd or Pt) were prepared in crystalline form in high-yield synthesis with the S-benzyldithiocarbazates and S-4-nitrobenzyldithiocarbazates derivatives from 2-hydroxyacetophenone, H(2)L(1a) and H(2)L(1b), and benzoylacetone, H(2)L(2a) and H(2)L(2b). The new complexes [Pt(L(1a))(PPh(3))] (1), [Pd(L(1a))(PPh(3))] (2), [Pt(L(1b))(PPh(3))] (3), [Pd(L(1b))(PPh(3))] (4), [Pt(L(2a))(PPh(3))] (5), [Pd(L(2a))(PPh(3))] (6), [Pt(L(2b))(PPh(3))] (7) and [Pd(L(2b))(PPh(3))] (8) were characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, conductivity measurements, UV-visible, IR, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), NMR ((1)H and (31)P) and by X-ray diffraction studies. The studies showed that differently from what was observed for the H(2)L(1a) and H(2)L(1b) ligands, H(2)L(2a) and H(2)L(2b) assume cyclic forms as 5-hydroxypyrazolinic. Upon coordination, H2L2a and H2L2b suffer ring-opening reaction, coordinating in the same manner as H(2)L(1a) and H(2)L(1b), deprotonated and in O,N,S-tridentate mode to the (MPPh(3))(2+) moiety. All complexes show a quite similar planar fourfold environment around the M(II) center. Furthermore, these complexes exhibited biological activity on extra and intracellular forms of Trypanosoma cruzi in a time- and concentration-dependent manner with IC(50) values ranging from 7.8 to 18.7 mu M, while the ligand H(2)L(2a) presented a trypanocidal activity on trypomastigote form better than the standard drug benznidazole. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multilevel Training of Binary Morphological Operators

The design of binary morphological operators that are translation-invariant and locally defined by a finite neighborhood window corresponds to the problem of designing Boolean functions. As in any supervised classification problem, morphological operators designed from a training sample also suffer from overfitting. Large neighborhood tends to lead to performance degradation of the designed operator. This work proposes a multilevel design approach to deal with the issue of designing large neighborhood-based operators. The main idea is inspired by stacked generalization (a multilevel classifier design approach) and consists of, at each training level, combining the outcomes of the previous level operators. The final operator is a multilevel operator that ultimately depends on a larger neighborhood than of the individual operators that have been combined. Experimental results show that two-level operators obtained by combining operators designed on subwindows of a large window consistently outperform the single-level operators designed on the full window. They also show that iterating two-level operators is an effective multilevel approach to obtain better results.

Selective Sulfenylative Desulfonylation or Decarbalkoxylation of -Sulfonyl Malonates with DABCO or Bu3N: Reactivity and Conformational Analysis

The study on reactivity of several -substituted -sulfonyl malonates toward 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) and Bu3N is described. The reactivity with DABCO revealed the possible competition between decarbalkoxylation and unexpected desulfonylation, depending on the -substituent, because of sterical hindrance around the electrophilic centers (SO2 and CO2R). The derivatives with crowded -substituents suffer selective desulfonylation, and a novel and efficient desulfonylation method can be proposed. The dependence of the reactivity of -sulfonyl malonates on the sterical hindrance around the electrophilic centers is confirmed by conformational analysis (Macromodel/MM2* and Mopac/MP3). The carbanionic mechanism is proved because the corresponding protonated, deuterated, and sulfenylated products were obtained by addition of the corresponding electrophilic agents. Bu3N showed itself to be a novel selective decarbalkoxylation agent for any -substituted -sulfonyl malonate.