Therapeutic itineraries and explanations for tuberculosis: an indigenous perspective

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze explanations for tuberculosis and therapeutic itineraries of Brazilian indigenous people. METHODS Case study with a qualitative-descriptive approach. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 Munduruku indigenous, including direct observation of treatment for tuberculosis in the municipality of Jacareacanga, south-western region of the state of Para, Brazil. To identify explanations for tuberculosis and therapeutic itineraries, we performed thematic content analysis. RESULTS Traditional medicine was the first therapeutic option chosen by the indigenous. However, biomedicine was also employed, which indicates a circulation between different therapeutic contexts and health concepts among the Munduruku. The explanations provided ranged from recognition of the signs and symptoms specific to tuberculosis to the attribution of the disease to a spirit that leaves the body and wanders in the woods, returning ill into the body. Unlike the biomedical model, which links tuberculosis transmission strictly to interpersonal contact, in closed spaces without natural lighting and ventilation (preferably domestic environments), the Munduruku associate the disease to an indirect contact between people socially distant (enemies or adversaries) in public and open places. CONCLUSIONS The explanations made by the indigenous are unique and deserve the attention of those who are responsible for developing health public policies, as well as of the teams who work on the villages. To guarantee an efficient control of tuberculosis in these regions, it is necessary that the developed actions integrate biomedicine knowledge and the traditional medicine of the indigenous people, in addition to respecting and welcoming local culture manifestations.

ERICA: patterns of alcohol consumption in Brazilian adolescents

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe the patterns of alcohol consumption in Brazilian adolescents. METHODS We investigated adolescents who participated in the Study of Cardiovascular Risks in Adolescents (ERICA). This is a cross-sectional, national and school-based study, which surveyed adolescents of 1,247 schools from 124 Brazilian municipalities. Participants answered a self-administered questionnaire with a section on alcoholic beverages consumption. Measures of relative frequency (prevalence), and their 95% confidence intervals, were estimated for the following variables: use of alcohol beverages in the last 30 days, frequency of use, number of glasses or doses consumed in the period, age of the first use of alcohol, and most consumed type of drink. Data were estimated for country and macro-region, sex, and age group. The module survey of the Stata program was used for data analysis of complex sample. RESULTS We evaluated 74,589 adolescents, who accounted for 72.9% of eligible students. About 1/5 of adolescents consumed alcohol at least once in the last 30 days and about 2/3 in one or two occasions during this period. Among the adolescents who consumed alcoholic beverages, 24.1% drank it for the first time before being 12 years old, and the most common type of alcoholic beverages consumed by them were drinks based on vodka, rum or tequila, and beer. CONCLUSIONS There is a high prevalence of alcohol consumption among adolescents, as well as their early onset of alcohol use. We also identified a possible change in the preferred type of alcoholic beverages compared with previous research.

ERICA: intake of macro and micronutrients of Brazilian adolescents

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe food and macronutrient intake profile and estimate the prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intake of Brazilian adolescents. METHODS Data from 71,791 adolescents aged from 12 to 17 years were evaluated in the 2013-2014 Brazilian Study of Cardiovascular Risks in Adolescents (ERICA). Food intake was estimated using 24-hour dietary recall (24-HDR). A second 24-HDR was collected in a subsample of the adolescents to estimate within-person variability and calculate the usual individual intake. The prevalence of food/food group intake reported by the adolescents was also estimated. For sodium, the prevalence of inadequate intake was estimated based on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). The Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) method used as cutoff was applied to estimate the prevalence of inadequate nutrient intake. All the analyses were stratified according to sex, age group and Brazilian macro-regions. All statistical analyses accounted for the sample weight and the complex sampling design. RESULTS Rice, beans and other legume, juice and fruit drinks, breads and meat were the most consumed foods among the adolescents. The average energy intake ranged from 2,036 kcal (girls aged from 12 to 13 years) to 2,582 kcal (boy aged from14 to 17 years). Saturated fat and free sugar intake were above the maximum limit recommended (< 10.0%). Vitamins A and E, and calcium were the micronutrients with the highest prevalence of inadequate intake (> 50.0%). Sodium intake was above the UL for more than 80.0% of the adolescents. CONCLUSIONS The diets of Brazilian adolescents were characterized by the intake of traditional Brazilian food, such as rice and beans, as well as by high intake of sugar through sweetened beverages and processed foods. This food pattern was associated with an excessive intake of sodium, saturated fatty acids and free sugar.

Alcohol and atherosclerosis

Observational studies have attributed a protective effect to alcohol consumption on the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Alcohol intake in the amount of one to two drinks per day results in an estimated 20-40% reduction in cardiovascular events. An additional protective effect, according to major cohort studies, has been attributed to wine, probably due to antioxidant effects and platelet antiaggregation agents. On the other hand, the influence of different patterns of alcohol consumption and environmental factors may explain a great part of the additional effect of wine. Protection may be mediated by modulation of other risk factors, because alcohol increases HDL-C, produces a biphasic response on blood pressure, and modulates the endothelial function, while it neither increases body weight nor impairs glucose-insulin homeostasis. Alcohol may also have a direct effect on atherogenesis. Despite these favorable effects, the current evidence is not enough to justify prescribing alcohol to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Characterization and drying of caja bagasse (Spondias mombin L.) in a tray dryer using a factorial planning

The caja (Spondias mombin L.) is used in the manufacture of ice-cream, jams, pulps, beverages being also consumed in natura. One of the most important procedures in food conservation is drying, considering that most fresh fruits contain approximately 80% of water. Food drying is used to obtain two basic aspects: (1) the economic factor; in the shipping and handling of the product; (2) at the manipulation; once dried and grinded, the material is rehydrated, at desirable levels, to formulate a new product as in ice cream, jams, yoghurts and drinks and may also be added to pasta, biscuits and other industrialized products. The aim of this study was to investigate the kinetics of caja bagasse drying in a fixed-bed tray dryer, using central composite factorial planning. The following factors were evaluated: temperature (55, 65 and 75 ºC), dryer inlet air velocity (3.2, 4.6 and 6.0 m.s-1) and cake thickness (0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 cm) where the response of the considered variable was caja bagasse moisture content (b.s.) and the results showed that the main effects and their interactions were significant at a 95% confidence level being the best condition obtained at temperature of 75 ºC, velocity of 6.0 m.s-1 and cake thickness of 0.8 cm.

Método potenciométrico para determinação de cobre em cachaça

'Cachaça' is the Brazilian name for the spirit obtained from sugarcane. According to Brazilian regulations, it may be sold raw or with addition of sugar and may contain up to 5 mg/L of copper. Copper in "cachaça" was determined by titration with EDTA, using a homemade copper membrane electrode for end-point detection. It was found a pooled standard deviation of 0,057 mg/L and there was no significant difference between the results obtained by the potentiometric method and by flame atomic absorption spectrometry with standard addition. Among the 21 'cachaça' samples from 16 different brands analyzed, three overpassed the legal copper limit. For its characteristics of accuracy, precision, and speed, the potentiometric method may be employed advantageously in routine analysis, specially when low cost is a major concern.

Os primeiros desenvolvimentos do conceito helmontiano de gás: parte II

This paper focuses on the early interpretations of the concept of gas, originally created by J. B. Van Helmont (1579 ¾ 1644). Our main interest is on the ideas of English physicians and chemical philosophers of the seventeenth century. Gas was usually associated with the material cause of diseases, with the vital spirit, or with a volatile spirit produced in some kinds of material transformations. As a general trend, however, the authors who did not want to embrace the details of the medico-chemical system proposed by Van Helmont preferred to use more well-known words (such as vapours, exhalations, effluvia, odours, spirits), avoiding the use of the neologism.

Influência do material do destilador na composição química das aguardentes de cana: parte II

The quantitative chemical analysis of the Brazilian sugar cane spirit distilled from glass column packaged with copper, stainless steel, aluminum sponge, or porcelain balls is described. The main chemical compounds determined by gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization (FID) and flame photometric (FPD) detectors and liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector are aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, alcohols, esters and dimethylsulfite (DMS). The spirits produced either in columns filled with copper or aluminum pot still exhibits the lowest DMS contents but the higher sulfate and methanol contents, whereas spirits produced in stainless steel or porcelain showed higher DMS concentration and lower teors of sulfate ion and methanol. These observations are coherent with DMS oxidation to sulfate, with methanol as by product, in the presence of either copper or aluminum.

Identificação e quantificação do cristal violeta em aguardentes de mandioca (tiquira)

Tiquira is a traditional homemade alcoholic distillate produced in the Maranhão State (Brazil), gotten from cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz.). It can be normally found on street markets. Due to the addition of tangerine leaves, the original tiquira has a bluish color. Samples of this beverage were acquired in the local trade and analyzed from the spectroanalytical point of view. The results indicated that these drinks had been adulterated by the addition of crystal violet, a potencialy hazardous compound. The identification and quantification of crystal violet in 10 spiked samples was accomplished by UV-Vis spectrophotometry through the standard addition method. In order to verify the efficiency of the proposed method, experiments on the quantification and recovery were carried out and the results indicated a content of crystal violet in the 10-6 to 10-7 mol L-1 range.

Emprego do carvão ativado para remoção de cobre em cachaça

Copper content is of great concern among sugarcane-spirit producers. It is released from copper-made distillers, during the distillation process. Activated carbon has been used to remove copper. However, depending on the amount of carbon and the duration of reaction, it can also remove higher alcohols and esters, which are important in the final product. A sugarcane spirit with 9 mg L-1 of copper was shaken with 2 to 26 g L-1 of activated carbon, during 10 to 1440 minutes. Then, copper and organic compounds were measured. At least 12 g L-1 of carbon and 60 min shaking time were necessary to decrease copper bellow 5 mg L-1. However, other components of the product were also affected.

Análises quali- e quantitativa de cafés comerciais via ressonância magnética nuclear

Coffee is one of the beverages most widely consumed in the world and the "cafezinho" is normally prepared from a blend of roasted powder of two species, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. Each one exhibits differences in their taste and in the chemical composition, especially in the caffeine percentage. There are several procedures proposed in the literature for caffeine determination in different samples like soft drinks, coffee, medicines, etc but most of them need a sample workup which involves at least one step of purification. This work describes the quantitative analysis of caffeine using ¹H NMR and the identification of the major components in commercial coffee samples using 1D and 2D NMR techniques without any sample pre-treatment.

Determinação dos teores de cobre e grau alcoólico em aguardentes de cana produzidas no estado de Minas Gerais

The objective of this work was to investigate if producers of sugar cane spirits in Minas Gerais, Brazil, have improved the copper content of their products and also if they have adjusted to the new standards of identity for 'cachaça' and 'aguardente'. Seventy-one samples, obtained from May 2003 until March 2004, were analyzed. Mean copper content was 2.30 mg/L, which indicates a significant reduction in levels. The mean alcohol content was 45.6 % v/v. All of the 'aguardente' but only 79% of the 'cachaça' attended to the standard of identity for alcohol content for these products.

Teores de carbamato de etila e outros componentes secundários em diferentes cachaças produzidas em três regiões do estado de Minas Gerais: Zona da mata, sul de minas e vale do jequitinhonha

Minas Gerais is the highest producer of handmade spirits. Research has been carried out aiming to contribute to progress. Thus, the goal of this work is to evaluate the quality of spirits in three different regions of Minas Gerais state. We analyzed ethyl carbamate, alcoholic grade, volatile acidity, higher alcohols, aldehyde, esters, methanol, furfural and copper. The values obtained for ethyl carbamate varied from undetectable to 643.5 µg L-1, with only one region not following the legislation (150 µg L-1). Most of the compounds in the spirits were present within the limits estabilished by the legislation.

Efeito da presença e concentração de compostos carbonílicos na qualidade de vinhos

Studies on identification of compounds that make up the aroma and flavor in wines involve research evaluating mainly the influence of terpenes, esters, lactones and alcohols upon these sensory characteristics. However, carbonylic compounds (CC) play an important role concerning the substances that impact aroma to these drinks. Their origin is reported to be linked to the grape's chemical composition, must fermentation or micro-oxidation occurring during storage in barrels. Some CCs, like E-ionone, E-damascenone, siryngaldehyde, can contribute a pleasant aroma and improve the wine quality whereas others are responsible for unpleasant characteristics (acetaldehyde, furfural, 5-hydroxy-methyl furfural, diacetil, E-non-2-enal, etc). A fraction of CCs present is associated with bisulfite ions in the form of hydroxyalkylsulfonic acids. Some of them are stable and play an important role in determining wine quality. The reaction involving the formation of this aduct commonly occurs with CCs of low molar mass, such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. The reaction involving CCs with more than three carbon atoms demands further studies.

Demonstrando os fundamentos, potencialidades e limitações da análise por injeção seqüencial

The sensitivity and accuracy of sequential injection methods are dependent on efficient overlapping of reagent and sample zones as they are propelled toward the detector cell. The formation of the reduced phosphomolybdic acid is used to demonstrate that the overlapping efficiency in a fixed reaction coil relies on a suitable choice of reagent to sample volume ratio. Additionally, under poor mixing conditions or highly concentrated samples, the reaction extension is strongly dependent on the reagent concentration. The zone-sampling concept is exploited to determine phosphate in cola-based soft drinks after in-line dilution in an auxiliary coil.