Institutional Development for Good Governance: the role of intermediary NGOs in Pará state, Amazonia

The paper analyses the roles of intermediary NGOs for linkages between government and rural communities in carrying out socio-environmental development programs as a mean of institutional development for good governance. In particular, the paper focuses on the Proambiente program that was carried out in Pará State, Amazonia, Brazil. This program was the first experience of a socio-environmental development program in Brazilian Amazonia that took into account local communities' demands to link environmental conservation and small-scale family-based rural production. Methodologically, the research was based on qualitative analysis and used semi-structured interviews for data collection. The paper shows that NGOs as intermediaries between government and rural communities is a significant mechanism to promote the strengthening of the power of local communities, to create bridges between federal government and local communities; and to stimulate participatory processes by engaging rural communities' culture and knowledge in socio-environmental development program as Proambiente.

Vibrios among patients of good socioeconomic conditions during the cholera epidemic in Recife, Brazil

Between March and July, 1992, we screened for Vibrio all fecal samples submitted for bacteriologic diagnosis at a private clinical laboratory in Recife. Of 1435 cultures examined only 1 (0.07%) was positive for V.cholerae 01, biovar Eltor, serovar Inaba, but 17 (1.2%) yielded non-cholera Vibrio (V.cholerae non-01; V.fluvialis; V.furnissii, V.parahaemolyticus and Vibrio spp). Thus, V.cholerae 01, differently of other enteropathogenic vibrios, spared individuals of good socioeconomic conditions even during the cholera epidemic, which made hundreds of victims in the neighboring slums.

American cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis resistant to meglumine antimoniate, but with good response to pentamidine: a case report

This is a case report of a Brazilian soldier with cutaneous leishmaniasis. The lesion relapsed following two systemic treatments with meglumine antimoniate. The patient was treated with amphotericin B, which was interrupted due to poor tolerance. Following isolation of Leishmania sp., six intralesional infiltrations of meglumine antimoniate resulted in no response. Leishmania sp promastigotes were again isolated. The patient was submitted to intramuscular 4mg/kg pentamidine. Parasites from the first and second biopsies were identified as Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis; those isolated from the first biopsy were more sensitive to meglumine antimoniate in vitro than those isolated from the second biopsy. No relapse was observed.

Clozapine-induced severe eosinophilia: report of a case with good outcome

INTRODUCTION: Clozapine is the antipsychotic of choice in the treatment of refractory schizophrenia. However, its side effects, such as eosinophilia, may preclude its use. METHODS: Case report and literature review. RESULTS: Young woman, 19 years old, diagnosed with hebefrenic schizophrenia, admitted at Unicamp's psychiatry ward after psychotic symptoms relapse. Clozapine was started after unsuccessful attempts with risperidon and olanzapine. By the fourth week of clozapine use, eosinophils began to increase. Drug titration was stopped, but eosinophils counts continued to rise up, reaching the mark of 5200/mm³. Due to severity of psychotic symptoms and to the good response obtained with clozapine, we decided to investigate organs involvement before withdrawing the medication. As the patient had no organs involvement, clozapine was maintained and one month after eosinophils peak, it was already normalized. CONCLUSION: Eosinophilia should not necessarily lead to clozapine's withdrawal. Patients who present eosinophilia must be at rigorous observation for organs involvement, and if there is no such involvement, clozapine might be maintained, considering the possible benign and transitory nature of the eosinophils count elevation.

Estudos sobre a alimentação mineral do cafeeiro: VI Efeitos das deficiências de micronutrientes em Coffea arabica L. var. Mundo Novo cultivado em solução nutritiva

Young coffee plants (Coffea arabica L., var. Mundo Novo) were grown in nutrient solution purified from micronutrients contaminants by the method of MUNNS & JOHNSON (1960). All plants, except those in the control treatment, wer given all macronutrients and all micronutrients except one which was omitted in order to induce its shortage. Symptoms of deficiency were obtained for all known micronutrients but chlorine. Measurements, observations and chemical analysis of leaves allowed the following main conclusions to be drawn. 1. The relative influence of micronutrients in growth-measured by the fresh weight of the entire plant - was as follows: -Fe -Zn -Cu -Mo -Mn complete = -B = -CI. that is: the omission of iron from the nutrient solution caused the severest reduction in growth; lack of B and Cl had no effect. 2. Symptoms of deficiency of B, Fe, Mn, and Zn were found to be in good agreement with those in the literature. Effects of Cu and Mo shortage, however, had not been described so far: In the case of the Cu-deficient plants, the younger leaves were distorted, having an "S" shape, due probably to lack of growth of the veins; they lost their green color and developed rather large, necrotic patches near the margins. When molybdenum was omitted from the nutrient solution yellow spots develop near the margen of subterminal (fully mature) leaves; they became necrotic; there was a characteristic downward curling of the leaf blade along the mid rib so that the opposite edges touched each other underneath. 3. The levels of micronutrients found in normal and deficient leaves are given in Table 4. It is hoped that those values will serve as a basis of judgement of micronutrient contents found in leaves of field grown plants.

Good bug, bad bug: in the case of enteric inflammatory disease does the epithelium decide?

Many studies demonstrate that intestinal inflammation is either initiated or exaggerated by a component of the normal microbiota, most likely commensal bacteria or products derived from these organisms. We review the nature of human inflammatory bowel disease, the evidence for the involvement of the normal bacterial flora in these disorders and the relevance of maintaining the integrity of the epithelial barrier. Moreover, we, and others, have shown abnormal mitochondria structure in tissue resections from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and tissues from rodents that demonstrated psychological stress-induced increases in epithelial permeability. Thus, we also consider the possibility that a defect in epithelial mitochondrial function would predispose an individual to respond to their commensal bacteria flora - no longer considering them as a beneficial passive inhabitant, but rather perceiving them as a threatening and pro-inflammatory stimulus. In support of this postulate, we discuss our recent findings from an in vitro model showing that the human colon-derived T84 cell line exposed to the metabolic stressor, dinitrophenol, and the non-pathogenic, non-invasive, Escherichia coli (strain HB101) display a loss of barrier function, increased signal transduction and increased production of the chemokine, interleukin 8.

Good agreements between self and clinician-collected specimens for the detection of human papillomavirus in Brazilian patients

Women infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) are at a higher risk of developing cervical lesions. In the current study, self and clinician-collected vaginal and cervical samples from women were processed to detect HPV DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with PGMY09/11 primers. HPV genotypes were determined using type-specific PCR. HPV DNA detection showed good concordance between self and clinician-collected samples (84.6%; kappa = 0.72). HPV infection was found in 30% women and genotyping was more concordant among high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) than low-risk HPV (HR-HPV). HPV16 was the most frequently detected among the HR-HPV types. LR-HPV was detected at a higher frequency in self-collected; however, HR-HPV types were more frequently identified in clinician-collected samples than in self-collected samples. HPV infections of multiple types were detected in 20.5% of clinician-collected samples and 15.5% of self-collected samples. In this study, we demonstrated that the HPV DNA detection rate in self-collected samples has good agreement with that of clinician-collected samples. Self-collected sampling, as a primary prevention strategy in countries with few resources, could be effective for identifying cases of HR-HPV, being more acceptable. The use of this method would enhance the coverage of screening programs for cervical cancer.

She’s a femme fatale: low-density larval development produces good disease vectors

Two hypotheses for how conditions for larval mosquitoes affect vectorial capacity make opposite predictions about the relationship of adult size and frequency of infection with vector-borne pathogens. Competition among larvae produces small adult females. The competition-susceptibility hypothesis postulates that small females are more susceptible to infection and predicts frequency of infection should decrease with size. The competition-longevity hypothesis postulates that small females have lower longevity and lower probability of becoming competent to transmit the pathogen and thus predicts frequency of infection should increase with size. We tested these hypotheses for Aedes aegypti in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during a dengue outbreak. In the laboratory, longevity increases with size, then decreases at the largest sizes. For field-collected females, generalised linear mixed model comparisons showed that a model with a linear increase of frequency of dengue with size produced the best Akaike’s information criterion with a correction for small sample sizes (AICc). Consensus prediction of three competing models indicated that frequency of infection increases monotonically with female size, consistent with the competition-longevity hypothesis. Site frequency of infection was not significantly related to site mean size of females. Thus, our data indicate that uncrowded, low competition conditions for larvae produce the females that are most likely to be important vectors of dengue. More generally, ecological conditions, particularly crowding and intraspecific competition among larvae, are likely to affect vector-borne pathogen transmission in nature, in this case via effects on longevity of resulting adults. Heterogeneity among individual vectors in likelihood of infection is a generally important outcome of ecological conditions impacting vectors as larvae.

Fruits of Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc as good sources of β -carotene and provitamina

Butia capitata is a palm tree, widely found in the Brazilian savanna. Their fruits are largely used by local communities to prepare juices, jellies and ice-creams. The main objective of this work was to determine the carotenoids profile of Butia capitata fruits and their provitamin A values. Total carotenoids content ranged from 11.1 to 43.9 μg.g-1; β-carotene was the predominant carotenoid (5.2-22.8 μg.g-1), followed by γ-carotene, phytoene, phytofluene, ζ-carotene, α-cryptoxanthin (or zeinoxanthin) and α-carotene. Provitamin A values varied from 50 to 200 RAE.100g-1. This result suggests that B. capitata pulp may be a good source of β-carotene and provitamin A.

Profile of establishments in the supermarket sector with respect to good practices in the city of Santa Maria (RS), Brazil

The objective of this study was to verify the compliance of the supermarket sector with respect to the Good Practice Program standards of the city of Santa Maria (RS), Brazil. Sixty nine establishments were verified using a checklist of good practices for the supermarket sector in Santa Maria, RS (Brazil), from April to July 2011. The data were collected by a food safety and quality professional using this checklist. The results showed that the overall adequacy of the establishments surveyed was 29.07%. The highest percentage of compliance was found for storage at ambient temperature (64.13%). The lowest compliance percentage was also found in different sections and areas in the supermarkets such as bakery and confectionery (14.93%), water supply (18.30%), food handling (21.01%), sausage and cold meat (or deli meat) (36.38%), and documentation-related items (4.97%). None of the supermarkets evaluated had the necessary documentation for the implementation of good practices. The results of this study show the importance of effectively implementing a good practice program and quality systems by raising awareness among technicians and professionals of the importance of quality programs used in food companies and the need for more thorough inspection delivered by competent authorities to ensure food safety for consumers.