Medicinal products: regulation of biosynthesis in space and time

We live in a "Demon-Haunted World". Human health care requires the ever increasing resistance of pathogens to be confronted by a correspondingly fast rate of discovery of novel antibiotics. One of the possible strategies towards this objective involves the rational localization of bioactive phytochemicals. The conceptual basis of the method consists in the surprisingly little known gearings of natural products with morphology, ecology and evolution of their plant source, i. e. an introspection into the general mechanisms of nature.

A comparative evaluation of endemic and non-endemic region of visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) in India with ground survey and space technology

In visceral leishmaniasis, phlebotomine vectors are targets for control measures. Understanding the ecosystem of the vectors is a prerequisite for creating these control measures. This study endeavours to delineate the suitable locations of Phlebotomus argentipes with relation to environmental characteristics between endemic and non-endemic districts in India. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 25 villages in each district. Environmental data were obtained through remote sensing images and vector density was measured using a CDC light trap. Simple linear regression analysis was used to measure the association between climatic parameters and vector density. Using factor analysis, the relationship between land cover classes and P. argentipes density among the villages in both districts was investigated. The results of the regression analysis indicated that indoor temperature and relative humidity are the best predictors for P. argentipes distribution. Factor analysis confirmed breeding preferences for P. argentipes by landscape element. Minimum Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, marshy land and orchard/settlement produced high loading in an endemic region, whereas water bodies and dense forest were preferred in non-endemic sites. Soil properties between the two districts were studied and indicated that soil pH and moisture content is higher in endemic sites compared to non-endemic sites. The present study should be utilised to make critical decisions for vector surveillance and controlling Kala-azar disease vectors.

New tools for epidemiology: a space odyssey

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) facilitate access to epidemiological data through visualization and may be consulted for the development of mathematical models and analysis by spatial statistics. Variables such as land-cover, land-use, elevations, surface temperatures, rainfall etc. emanating from earth-observing satellites, complement GIS as this information allows the analysis of disease distribution based on environmental characteristics. The strength of this approach issues from the specific environmental requirements of those causative infectious agents, which depend on intermediate hosts for their transmission. The distribution of these diseases is restricted, both by the environmental requirements of their intermediate hosts/vectors and by the ambient temperature inside these hosts, which effectively govern the speed of maturation of the parasite. This paper discusses the current capabilities with regard to satellite data collection in terms of resolution (spatial, temporal and spectral) of the sensor instruments on board drawing attention to the utility of computer-based models of the Earth for epidemiological research. Virtual globes, available from Google and other commercial firms, are superior to conventional maps as they do not only show geographical and man-made features, but also allow instant import of data-sets of specific interest, e.g. environmental parameters, demographic information etc., from the Internet.

The Brazilian policy for reduction of accidents and violence aligns with international perspectives?

The study analyzed The Brazilian Policy for Reduction of Morbidity and Mortality from Accidents and Violence, in the socio-political perspective. We used as a base the chapter “Violence: a global public health problem” from the World Report on Violence and Health. The analysis revealed convergent and divergent elements of the Brazilian Policy in comparison with the international perspectives. We verified that the Brazilian Policy tried to converge to the international policies, however: it emphasizes the health promotion actions, but are limited to the context and behavior of individuals and individual communities; the performance of health professionals is expected without providing more structural investments, as the improvement in work conditions, the increase of financial and material resources; there are few clear definitions of the government and economical sector responsibilities.

Quality of life of caregivers for patients of cerebrovascular accidents: association of (socio-demographic) characteristics and burden

OBJECTIVE Investigating the association between quality of life with socio-demographic characteristics and the burden of caregivers for individuals with cerebrovascular accident sequelae. METHOD A descriptive, cross-sectional study with a sample composed of 136 caregivers. For data collection, a semi-structured questionnaire, the Barthel, Burden Interview and Short-Form-36 scales were used. Correlation analysis, t-Student test and F-test were used for the analysis in order to compare averages. RESULTS Significant averages in quality of life were demonstrated in association with female caregivers and those over 60 years in the field 'functional capacity,' and in the domains of 'mental health' and 'vitality' for those with higher income. Regarding burden association, the highlighted areas were 'functional capacity,' 'physical aspects,' 'emotional aspects' and 'pain.' CONCLUSION The creation of public policies and social support to effectively reduce the burden on caregivers is a necessity.

State-space approach to evaluate the relation between soil physical and chemical properties

The state-space approach is used to evaluate the relation between soil physical and chemical properties in an area cultivated with sugarcane. The experiment was carried out on a Rhodic Kandiudalf in Piracicaba, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Sugarcane was planted on an area of 0.21 ha i.e., in 15 rows 100 m long, spaced 1.4 m. Soil water content, soil organic matter, clay content and aggregate stability were sampled along a transect of 84 points, meter by meter. The state-space approach is used to evaluate how the soil water content is affected by itself and by soil organic matter, clay content, and aggregate stability of neighboring locations, in different combinations, aiming to contribute to a better understanding of the relation among these variables in the soil. Results show that soil water contents were successfully estimated by this approach. Best performances were found when the estimate of soil water content at locations i was related to soil water content, clay content and aggregate stability at locations i-1. Results also indicate that this state-space model using all series describes the soil water content better than any equivalent multiple regression equation.

Diagnosis of the nutrient compositional space of fruit crops

Tissue analysis is a useful tool for the nutrient management of fruit orchards. The mineral composition of diagnostic tissues expressed as nutrient concentration on a dry weight basis has long been used to assess the status of 'pure' nutrients. When nutrients are mixed and interact in plant tissues, their proportions or concentrations change relatively to each other as a result of synergism, antagonism, or neutrality, hence producing resonance within the closed space of tissue composition. Ternary diagrams and nutrient ratios are early representations of interacting nutrients in the compositional space. Dual and multiple interactions were integrated by the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) into nutrient indexes and by Compositional Nutrient Diagnosis into centered log ratios (CND-clr). DRIS has some computational flaws such as using a dry matter index that is not a part as well as nutrient products (e.g. NxCa) instead of ratios. DRIS and CND-clr integrate all possible nutrient interactions without defining an ad hoc interactive model. They diagnose D components while D-1 could be diagnosed in the D-compositional Hilbert space. The isometric log ratio (ilr) coordinates overcome these problems using orthonormal binary nutrient partitions instead of dual ratios. In this study, it is presented a nutrient interactive model as well as computation methods for DRIS and CND-clr and CND-ilr coordinates (CND-ilr) using leaf analytical data from an experimental apple orchard in Southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was computed the Aitchison and Mahalanobis distances across ilr coordinates as measures of nutrient imbalance. The effect of changing nutrient concentrations on ilr coordinates are simulated to identify the ones contributing the most to nutrient imbalance.