Vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus: A tale of multiple outcomes

Globally, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects approximately 130 million people and 3 million new infections occur annually. HCV is also recognized as an important cause of chronic liver disease in children. The absence of proofreading properties of the HCV RNA polymerase leads to a highly error prone replication process, allowing HCV to escape host immune response. The adaptive nature of HCV evolution dictates the outcome of the disease in many ways. Here, we investigated the molecular evolution of HCV in three unrelated children who acquired chronic HCV infection as a result of mother-to-child transmission, two of whom were also coinfected with HIV-1. The persistence of discrete HCV variants and their population structure were assessed using median joining network and Bayesian approaches. While patterns of viral evolution clearly differed between subjects, immune system dysfunction related to HIV coinfection or persistent HCV seronegativity stand as potential mechanisms to explain the lack of molecular evolution observed in these three cases. In contrast, treatment of HCV infection with PegIFN, which did not lead to sustained virologic responses in all 3 cases, was not associated with commensurate variations in the complexity of the variant spectrum. Finally, the differences in the degree of divergence suggest that the mode of transmission of the virus was not the main factor driving viral evolution. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Crônicas de Graciliano Ramos em Cultura política (1941- 1944): estudo crítico

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAS

Ocorrência de tabagismo e dependência nicotínica em universitários

In Brazil, smoking incidence varies between 9.5% and 21.2% and it is more common among men. In college students incidence can reach 14% depending on the region, which is quite disturbing. Joining college is a crucial period for the commencement or maintenance of smoking. The Knowledge among college students about tobacco use is critical to devise strategies for intervention in this population. The objectives were to establish the occurrence of smoking and risk factors, nicotine dependence in college students and college goers. We interviewed students, teachers and administrative personnel from the Philosophy and Science School at UNESP at Marilia, from both sexes, regardless their age, which visited the First Week Against Tobacco event. The sociodemographic data, smoking status, time as a smoker, cigarettes smoked, date when they started smoking, history of smoking in the family, friends or associates were questioned. We also assessed the degree of motivation to quit smoking and the degree of nicotine dependence. Data were presented using descriptive statistics. Comparisons between categorical variables were made using the chi-square test (p <0.05). A total of 432 people, 180 men and 252 women, average aged 22.6 ± 6.9 years were researched. From the volunteers studied, 267 (61.8) had tried cigarettes and 171 of them (64%) reported that they were offered by friends. As a whole, 79 (18.3%) of these people were smokers, 52 (65.8%) reported intending to quit smoking and in 37 of them (46.8%), the degree of nicotine dependence was very low. Of all the smokers, 63 had smokers in the family and all of them had friends who smoked. 28.9% of all men were smokers and 10.7%of all women. The occurrence of smoking was 18.3% and the risk factor associated to smoking habit is related to friendship and family, and very low nicotine dependence.

Gramsci e a Teoria Crítica das Relações Internacionais

This text has the following aims: a) to discuss Gramsci and Horkheimer’s epistemological status, joined authors in an theoretical approach known as Critical Theory of International Relations; b) to draft an analysis in order to show the mentioned and joined authors’ different epistemological statuses in the theoretical approach in discussion; c) to begin a reflection pointing the absence of accuracy in this approach - whose beginning happened with Canadian political scientist Robert W. Cox – due to joining different epistemological statuses and ignoring the theoretical consequences put by respective central Gramsci and Horkheimer’s concepts: hegemony and emancipation.

Síntese e caracterização do compósito SnO2/TiO2 nanoestruturado

Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais - FC

Next-generation sequencing reveals large connected networks of intra-host HCV variants

Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) allows for sampling numerous viral variants from infected patients. This provides a novel opportunity to represent and study the mutational landscape of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) within a single host.Results: Intra-host variants of the HCV E1/E2 region were extensively sampled from 58 chronically infected patients. After NGS error correction, the average number of reads and variants obtained from each sample were 3202 and 464, respectively. The distance between each pair of variants was calculated and networks were created for each patient, where each node is a variant and two nodes are connected by a link if the nucleotide distance between them is 1. The work focused on large components having > 5% of all reads, which in average account for 93.7% of all reads found in a patient. The distance between any two variants calculated over the component correlated strongly with nucleotide distances (r = 0.9499; p = 0.0001), a better correlation than the one obtained with Neighbour-Joining trees (r = 0.7624; p = 0.0001). In each patient, components were well separated, with the average distance between (6.53%) being 10 times greater than within each component (0.68%). The ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous changes was calculated and some patients (6.9%) showed a mixture of networks under strong negative and positive selection. All components were robust to in silico stochastic sampling; even after randomly removing 85% of all reads, the largest connected component in the new subsample still involved 82.4% of remaining nodes. In vitro sampling showed that 93.02% of components present in the original sample were also found in experimental replicas, with 81.6% of reads found in both. When syringe-sharing transmission events were simulated, 91.2% of all simulated transmission events seeded all components present in the source.Conclusions: Most intra-host variants are organized into distinct single-mutation components that are: well separated from each other, represent genetic distances between viral variants, robust to sampling, reproducible and likely seeded during transmission events. Facilitated by NGS, large components offer a novel evolutionary framework for genetic analysis of intra-host viral populations and understanding transmission, immune escape and drug resistance.

Taxonomia molecular e filogeografia de Hypostomus strigaticeps (Teleostei: loricariidae) na bacia do alto rio Paraná

Buscando identificar marcadores populacionais que indiquem supostos mecanismos de isolamento entre as populações, no presente trabalho foram realizadas análises filogenéticas e filogeográficas em populações de Hypostomus strigaticeps, com base em sequências de DNA mitocondrial do gene ATPase 8/6. Um total de 32 exemplares provenientes de 11 populações de quatro sub-bacias: rio Mogi-Guaçu (duas), rio Paranapanema (cinco), rio Tietê (três) e Rio do Peixe (um), tiveram DNA extraído e o gene ATPase 8/6 completamente amplificado (840 pares de base) e sequenciado. As sequências obtidas foram alinhadas com o programa Bioedit, as análises filogenéticas foram realizadas no programa MEGA 5.0 através do método de Neighbor-Joining, Máxima Parcimônia e Minimun-Evolution, com 1000 réplicas de boostrap. Para as análises filogeográficas as sequências foram analisadas no programa TCS. As análises filogenéticas mostraram que a espécie forma uma unidade monofilética composta por duas linhagens: “TG” com representantes das populações dos rios Tietê, Mogi-Guaçu e Rio do Peixe, e “PC” com representantes dos rios Paranapanema e reservatório de Chavantes. A divergência genética da linhagem “TG” é de 0,1% e da linhagem “PP” é de 0,2%, enquanto a divergência genética entre as duas linhagens é de cerca de 1%. Na análise filogeográfica observou-se a existência de seis haplótipos (A-H), sendo o haplótipo A considerado ancestral para as populações analisadas. Apenas os representantes da bacia do Tietê possuem o haplótipo ancestral. Os haplótipos A, B e F possuem a maior frequência (18,51%). Os resultados obtidos para uma população do Mogi-guaçu (Cachoeira de Emas), mostram que estes peixes são muito distantes das demais populações de H. strigaticeps, tanto no ponto de vista filogenético quanto no ponto de vista fitogeográfico... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)

Variabilidade genética e filogeografia de populações de Prochilodus lineatus (Pisces: prochilodontidae) das bacias dos rios Paraguai-Paraná e da bacia Amazônica: bases para programas de conservação e de psicultura

A espécie Prochilodus lineatus, considerada um migrador por excelência, possui intensa ocorrência durante a migração reprodutiva. São peixes de elevado valor econômico e a sua adaptação em cativeiro os tornam altamente interessantes para desenvolvimento de programas de piscicultura. O monitoramento regular das variações genéticas nos estoques é importante em programas de conservação, evitando o declínio da variabilidade genética, essencial para a conservação das espécies. No entanto, os poucos dados moleculares populacionais para Prochilodus lineatus justificam a presente proposta. Nesse sentido, tivemos como objetivo caracterizar a variabilidade genética e estabelecer as relações filogeográficas entre 6 populações de P. lineatus das bacias dos rios Paraguai (2 do rio Paraguai e 3 do rio Cuiabá, MT) e Paraná (1 do rio Mogi-Guaçu, SP), num total de 34 indivíduos. Outros 16 indivíduos dos rios: da Prata, Uruguai, Paraná, Bermejo, Paraguai, Amazonas e Madeira, cujas sequências foram obtidas do National Center for Biotechnology Information (Genbank), foram analisados, totalizando assim, 50 indivíduos. Como grupo externo foi utilizado Salminus brasiliensis. O estudo foi realizado através das análises das sequências do gene mitocondrial ATPase 8/6. O interesse do uso de um gene mitocondrial está na vasta literatura que esse possui em análises filogenéticas e na confiança que existe nos dados gerados de tais análises. O gene citado foi completamente sequenciado (842pb), as análises filogenéticas foram conduzidas pelos métodos “Neighbor Joining (NJ)”, “Minimum Evolution (ME)” e “Máxima Parcimônia (MP)”, com 1000 réplicas de bootstrap no programa MEGA 5.0. Para análises filogeográficas as sequências foram analisadas no programa TCS e no programa Arlequin. Os resultados auxiliarão em uma melhor compreensão da história evolutiva, migração... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)

Tuberculose e sua importância para a pecuária brasileira

Tuberculosis due the large number of victims that come attacking in recent years has become a major concern in the World Health Organization. It is caused by a bacterium that is becoming increasingly resistant to drugs, because it requires long periods in treatment that are not always followed correctly. AIDS has contributed much in recent years with increased morbidity and mortality of Mycobacterium. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) of Brazil in 2001 created the National Program of Control and Eradication of Animal Brucellosis and Tuberculosis (PNCEBT) establishing guidelines such as: sets the method to diagnose, control and certify herds free of disease. Joining the program is voluntary

Estudo da eficiência de reforços estruturais em vigas de concreto armado com o uso de chapas de aço coladas com resina epóxi: uma análise qualitativa

In civil engineering, a structure is the whole sustainment of a construction and, thus, it is important that it remains intact throughout its lifetime. An engineering construction must last for decades without losing its functionality. However its purpose may be altered and several times the original structure does not meet the new needs of use. Still, in new buildings, the functionality is altered due to possible flaws in execution and the structure, invariably does not reach the desired solicitation needs. In cases like this, the commonly adopted solutions are, basically, the demolishment followed by the reconstruction of the desired mold or the structural reinforcement. This second option, for long years, has not been put to practice due to certain factors such as the high costs for its implantation, use of inadequate reinforcement execution techniques, and the culture of people involved in the area regarding its use and, in this case, the option would always be the reconstruction. Thoughtout the years, some techniques were developed to allow the execution of structural reinforcements with low costs and in efficient ways. An interesting, fast, efficient and economical technique is the structural reinforcement through metal sheets put together with epoxy resin that can be applied in beams, slabs and pillars. In the present work the different behavior of beams reinforced with this technique. Steel is a very recommended material for these reinforcements due to its characteristics related to traction, compression and the effectiveness of the technique related to its cost. For the attachment the epoxy resin is recommended, since it allows the joining of two materials, in this case, steel and concrete. The efficiency of this union is so considerably high that it rarely produces any flaws in adherence and, normally, when it happens it is due to problems in the execution process, not in the union of materials

Experimentação e educação ambiental: contribuições metodológicas

During the last centuries, the human being have been considered the center of the universe. The man believed that nature was at his disposal. Appropriated their processes, their cycles changed, redefined their spaces. Today, when faced with an environmental crisis which threatens the planet life, including the human life, the Science Education can contribute to a reconstruction of man-nature relationship in other terms. The transformation of teaching practices in the school environment, to be reflective, it is still a process that challenges the vast majority of teachers. As has been indicated by Guerra (2004), among others, the traditional teaching of content delivery is still very strong and certainly more deeply embedded in ideas and activities of the teachers who focus on environmental education. With it, a theory and pedagogical discourses in critical-reflexive actions is still a major obstacle. Therefore, new proposals for education and continuing education activities need to be formulated and presented based on the characteristics and needs breathing. Therefore propose changes in the way of teaching, where there is more room for a theory and praxis alone or with a only scientific truth. The scenery of society requires that knowledge is constructed to interconnect all disciplines, joining theory and practice so we can understand the whole and their relations in an integrated manner. It was proposed here a way to build a school and applying theoretical and practical activities involving experimental and seeking to meet the principles of Environmental Education for the training of citizens aware and critical. At the same time cares to use textbooks very rich in its pedagogical character that are present in schools and often are, forgotten and unused by teachers. From this way, I chose to Experimentoteca, ...(Complete abstract click electronic access below)

A leitura na perspectiva de Bakhtin e suas possibilidades na formação do leitor: na educação infantil e no primeiro ano do ensino fundamental

Overall, in Brazilian schools, the concept of reading does not take into account its possibilities and its meaning for life. But read is assigning meaning to something , make sense, interact with the text read. Thus, the present study addresses the mechanical reading, that without contextualization, performed on a technique by joining letters and syllables loose and also reading social use, consisting of statements, dialogism , polyphony and heteroglossy. It is known that the mechanical reading brings undesirable consequences, including learning problems, such as lack of attention, concentration, memory, imagination. When the reading is taught in a systematic way, with only the goal of the code decoding of written language, destroys social perspectives and intellectual development. It is common, when you offer the children a book, there the difficult disinterest of textual interpretation, because there is no attribute meaning to the content, and even the ability to interact with the text. With the interest in studying the dialogic reading this and the statements and genres, the present study was based on several authors: Bakhtin (1988, 2000), Schneuwly and Dolz (2000), Faraco (2009) and Ponzio (2009) Jolibert (1994), Bajard (2002; 2007) Foucambert (1997) Martins ( 1985) and Smith ( 1999). Aim for this study the following research question: what are the contributions of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory to the teaching of reading from kindergarten through the first grade of elementary school? Our hypothesis is that if they are guaranteed to pre -school and elementary school beginners diversified materials and new approaches in teaching reading and encouragement to her, will be developed in children a taste for the act of reading, so that they can assign meaning and significance, making reading part of their lives...

Projeto Meraki

We realize this days a spacing of individuals, on what concerns their relationships with others. At the same time, the technologies and the possibilities of virtual interaction are more and more present and developed. At this point, we draw a connection between the virtual immersion and the detachment from personal and face to face relationships. Wear this reality, this project proposes a discussion of the communications while transmitting messages and content, as well as a basis for social relations developed between individuals in a given society. From this analysis, we depart for the development of an action joining the Public Relations and Design, while communication areas that when involved, enable the development of an empirical theory for the increased use of social relations, through the feelings

Pirossequenciamento de alta cobertura da região hipervariável 1 do Vírus da Hepatite C

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

MR-Radix: a multi-relational data mining algorithm

Background: Once multi-relational approach has emerged as an alternative for analyzing structured data such as relational databases, since they allow applying data mining in multiple tables directly, thus avoiding expensive joining operations and semantic losses, this work proposes an algorithm with multi-relational approach. Methods: Aiming to compare traditional approach performance and multi-relational for mining association rules, this paper discusses an empirical study between PatriciaMine - an traditional algorithm - and its corresponding multi-relational proposed, MR-Radix. Results: This work showed advantages of the multi-relational approach in performance over several tables, which avoids the high cost for joining operations from multiple tables and semantic losses. The performance provided by the algorithm MR-Radix shows faster than PatriciaMine, despite handling complex multi-relational patterns. The utilized memory indicates a more conservative growth curve for MR-Radix than PatriciaMine, which shows the increase in demand of frequent items in MR-Radix does not result in a significant growth of utilized memory like in PatriciaMine. Conclusion: The comparative study between PatriciaMine and MR-Radix confirmed efficacy of the multi-relational approach in data mining process both in terms of execution time and in relation to memory usage. Besides that, the multi-relational proposed algorithm, unlike other algorithms of this approach, is efficient for use in large relational databases.