Isoenzymatic analysis of four Anopheles (Kerteszia) bellator Dyar & Knab (Diptera: Culicidae) populations

Anopheles bellator is a small silvatic bromelia-breeding mosquito and is a primary human malaria vector species in Southern Brazil. The bromelia-breeding habitat of the species should accompany the Atlantic forest coastal distribution, where bromeliads are abundant. Nonetheless, records on An. bellator collections show a gap in the species geographical distribution. An. bellator has been recorded in Southern Brazil and in the Brazilian states of Bahia and Paraíba. It appers again in the island of Trinidad, in Trinidad and Tobago. The aim of this work was to measure gene flow between different populations of An. bellator collected in the northern and southern extremes of the geographic distribution of this species. Mosquitoes were captured in forest borders in Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and Bahia states in Brazil and in the island of Trinidad in Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Genetic distances varied between 0.076 and 0.680, based on enzymatic profiles from 11 distinct isoenzymes. Results indicate the existence of low-level gene flow between Brazilian populations of An. bellator, and a gene flow was even lower between the Brazilian and the Trinidad populations. This finding lead us to hypothesize that An. bellator did not spread along the coast, but reached northeastern areas through inland routes.

Four decades of public health

Four decades of public health is a comprehensive history of public health in Northern Irelandfrom 1973-2009. The project collected an oral history from public health professionals.

Evaluation of four methods for detecting the beta-lactamase activity in Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in Cuba

Four methods (chromogenic, acidimetric, inhibition, and iodometric) for demonstration of the beta-lactamase production by 70 isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, were evaluated in Cuba. There was 100% correlation between all beta-lactamase methods and the standardized penicillin dilution susceptibility test for penicillinase-non-producing N. gonorrhoeae. For penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae strains, there was a perfect correlation between the chromogenic method and penicillin susceptibility testing, but one and two strains failed to give a positive result for beta-lactamase with the inhibition/acidimetric and the iodometric methods, respectively. There was a high concordance between the chromogenic method, considered as gold standard and the rest of penicillinase tests evaluated: Kappa Index (KI) = 0.98 for inhibition/acidimetric methods and KI = 0.97 for the iodometric method. The four methods evaluated were accurate, reproducible, easily readable, economical, and ease to use for screening primary isolates of N. gonorrhoeae in Cuba. We recommended the use of the inhibition method, when testing the penicillinase activity in gonococcal isolates in provincial and municipal reference laboratories.

Small changes, big benefits

Being overweight is a major health problem for Northern Ireland. This leaflet helps the public assess whether or not they are overweight and contains useful information on what to do about it, including identifying healthy options, setting targets, getting active and staying motivated.

Twenty-four-hour energy expenditure in pregnant and nonpregnant Gambian women, measured in a whole-body indirect calorimeter.

Twenty-four-hour energy expenditure (EE), daily and sleeping EE, and the energy cost of a standardized treadmill exercise were assessed in a respiration chamber in 41 young pregnant Gambian women at 12 (n = 11), 24 (n = 15), and 36 (n = 15) wk of gestation and compared with 13 nonpregnant nonlactating (NPNL) control women. The rate of 24-h EE was significantly higher (P less than 0.001) at 36 wk gestation (8443 +/- 243 kJ/d) than in the NPNL group (6971 +/- 172 kJ/d) or at 12 and 24 wk (7088 +/- 222 and 7188 +/- 192 kJ/d, respectively). Per unit body weight, no more differences in 24-h EE, daily and sleeping EE, or energy cost of walking were observed between pregnant and NPNL women. There was no statistical difference in the 24-h respiratory quotient among the groups. We conclude that the state of pregnancy in Gambian women induces a progressive rise in 24-h EE, which becomes significant in the third trimester and is proportional to body weight.

Epidemiology of Chagas disease in Jaguaruana, Ceará, Brazil. I. Presence of triatomines and index of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in four localities of a rural area

In order to assay the triatomine infestation and domiciliation in the rural area of Jaguaruana district, state of Ceará, Brazil, we studied, from November 2000 to April 2002, 4 localities comprising 158 domiciles as a whole, with an average of 4 inhabitants/house, who are dwelling in there for more than 7 years. Most houses have tile-covered roofs and the walls built with plaster-covered bricks (57%), followed by bricks without plaster (33%), and mud walls (7.5%). A total of 3082 triatomines were captured from different locations, according to the following capture plan: (a) intradomiciles: 238 Triatoma brasiliensis, 6 T. pseudomaculata, 9 Rhodnius nasutus, and 2 Panstrongylus lutzi; (b) peridomiciles (annexes): 2069 T. brasiliensis, 223 T. pseudomaculata, 121 R. nasutus, and 1 P. lutzi; (c) wild, in carnauba palms (Copernicia prunifera): 413 R. nasutus. From the captured triatomines, 1773 (57.5%) were examined. The natural index of Trypanosoma cruzi infection ranged from 10.8% to 30.2% (average of 17%), depending on the species and the location from where the triatomines were captured.

Food on a low income - Four households tell their story

The aim of this research was to investigate the everyday experiences of food on a low income among people in four household types on the island of Ireland (IOI). This research will inform safefood and other stakeholders targeting vulnerable groups. It should influence both policy and practical programmes such as community food initiatives and awareness campaigns.

Food on a Low Income: Four households tell their story

The aim of this research was to investigate the everyday experiences of food on a low income among people in four household types on the island of Ireland (IOI). This research will inform safefood and other stakeholders targeting vulnerable groups. It should influence both policy and practical programmes such as community food initiatives and awareness campaigns. Why do low-income groups suffer more from diet-related ill health than other groups? Is it because a healthy diet is too expensive? Or what other forces are there at work? safefood commissioned this qualitative research for four different low-income household types to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics behind food poverty. The research involved a qualitative approach to enable an exploration of the ‘why’ behind the statistics of food poverty. In total, thirteen focus groups were conducted amongst four household types: two parent household with children, single males, single older people and lone parents with children, on IOI in both rural and urban settings.

Isoenzimatic analysis of four Anopheles (Kerteszia) cruzii (Diptera: Culicidae) populations of Brazil

Anopheles cruzii is a small sylvatic mosquito and primary human Plasmodium vector in Southern Brazil. The distribution of this bromeliad-breeding mosquito follows the Atlantic forest coastal distribution, where bromeliads are abundant. Morphological, genetic, and molecular polymorphisms among different populations have been reported and it has recently been suggested that An. cruzii is a complex of cryptic species. The aim of this work is to analyze the gene flow between different populations of An. cruzii collected in four localities within the geographic distribution range of the species, and to examine if An. cruzii is a complex of cryptic species. The genetic distances show that populations of the states of Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro are genetically closer (0.032 to 0.083) than populations of Bahia (0.364 to 0.853) based on profiles from 10 distinct isoenzyme loci. The Fst was lower (0.077) when the Bahia population was excluded than when it was included (0.300) in the analyses. The inferred number of migrants per generation was 2.99 individuals among populations from the states of Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro and 0.58 migrants per generation among all populations. Results suggest that An. cruzii is a complex of species and that the specimes of state of Bahia can be considered as belonging to a species that is distinct from other three closely-related populations studied.

Evolution of vitellogenin genes: comparative analysis of the nucleotide sequences downstream of the transcription initiation site of four Xenopus laevis and one chicken gene.

Electron microscopic analysis of heteroduplexes between the most distantly related Xenopus vitellogenin genes (A genes X B genes) has revealed the distribution of homologous regions that have been preferentially conserved after the duplication events that gave rise to the multigene family in Xenopus laevis. DNA sequence analysis was limited to the region downstream of the transcription initiation site of the Xenopus genes A1, B1 and B2 and a comparison with the Xenopus A2 and the major chicken vitellogenin gene is presented. Within the coding regions of the first three exons, nucleotide substitutions resulting in amino acid changes accumulate at a rate similar to that observed in globin genes. This suggests that the duplication event which led to the formation of the A and B ancestral genes in Xenopus laevis occurred about 150 million years ago. Homologous exons of the A1-A2 and B1-B2 gene pairs, which formed about 30 million years ago, show a quite similar sequence divergence. In contrast, A1-A2 homologous introns seem to have evolved much faster than their B1-B2 counterparts.

Molecular risk assessment of BIG 1-98 participants by expression profiling using RNA from archival tissue.

Background: The purpose of the work reported here is to test reliable molecular profiles using routinely processed formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues from participants of the clinical trial BIG 1-98 with a median follow-up of 60 months. Methods: RNA from fresh frozen (FF) and FFPE tumor samples of 82 patients were used for quality control, and independent FFPE tissues of 342 postmenopausal participants of BIG 1-98 with ER-positive cancer were analyzed by measuring prospectively selected genes and computing scores representing the functions of the estrogen receptor (eight genes, ER_8), the progesterone receptor (five genes, PGR_5), Her2 (two genes, HER2_2), and proliferation (ten genes, PRO_10) by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) on TaqMan Low Density Arrays. Molecular scores were computed for each category and ER_8, PGR_5, HER2_2, and PRO_10 scores were combined into a RISK_25 score. Results: Pearson correlation coefficients between FF- and FFPE-derived scores were at least 0.94 and high concordance was observed between molecular scores and immunohistochemical data. The HER2_2, PGR_ 5, PRO_10 and RISK_25 scores were significant predictors of disease free-survival (DFS) in univariate Cox proportional hazard regression. PRO_10 and RISK_25 scores predicted DFS in patients with histological grade II breast cancer and in lymph node positive disease. The PRO_10 and PGR_ 5 scores were independent predictors of DFS in multivariate Cox regression models incorporating clinical risk indicators; PRO_10 outperformed Ki-67 labeling index in multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses. Conclusions: Scores representing the endocrine responsiveness and proliferation status of breast cancers were developed from gene expression analyses based on RNA derived from FFPE tissues. The validation of the molecular scores with tumor samples of participants of the BIG 1-98 trial demonstrates that such scores can serve as independent prognostic factors to estimate disease free survival (DFS) in postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.

Health Development Agency Delivery Plan 2003-06

This plan sets out the contribution the Health Development Agency (HDA) aims to make over the next three years to the cross-government objective of improving public health and reducing health inequalities. It reflects clear guidance given to the HDA by the minister for public health following the HDA۪s 2002 accountability review. The result is a smaller number of longer-term programmes fosused on four key delivery priorities: ۢ Underlying determinants of health ۢ The big killers coronary heart disease and cancer ۢ Children and young people ۢ Vulnerable adults

Immunisation for pre-school children three years and four months old (English and translations)

This booklet contains the facts about the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis) and polio, and the MMR booster given to children at the age of three years and four months.�

Four decades of public health

Four decades of public health is a comprehensive history of public health in Northern Ireland�from 1973-2009. The project collected an oral history from public health professionals.

Sixty to seventy-four? It's time you took the test for bowel cancer

This poster highlights the bowel cancer screening programme is being introduced for all 60 to 74 year olds. If you are in this age group a kit will be sent by post so you can do the test at home. You are encouraged to look out for the kit as it could save your life.