O Cristianismo no Japão e o Episcopado de D. Luís Cerqueira

Dissertação de doutoramento em História dos Descobrimentos e da Expansão Portuguesa

The presence of antibodies for hepatitis a virus in amazonia Didelphis marsupialis (Vertebrata, Marsupialia)

Anti-HAV was detected by enzyme - immunoassay in sera collected from 6 (18,75%) of 32 Didelphis marsupialis trapped in the Amazon region. No anti-HAV were found in the sera from 136 other wild animals, including small rodents, reptiles and other marsupials.

Seroepidemiology of hepatitis a and b in two urban communities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hepatitis B markers were determined in 397 individuals from Niterói and 680 from Nova Iguaçu and prevalences of 9.1% (1.0% of HBsAg and 8.1% of anti HBs) and 11.1% (1.8% of HBsAg and 9.3% of antiHBs) were found, respectively. The comparative prevalence of both markers in relation to age showed a higher prevalence of HBsAg in the group 21-50 years old. Considering the antiHBs antibody, it was demostrated a gradual increase with age, reaching 14.9% in Niterói and 29.1% in Nova Iguaçu in individuals over 51 years old. For hepatitis A, in 259 samples from Niterói, equally distributed by age groups, an overall prevalence of 74.5% of anti-HAV antibodies was found. This prevalence increases gradually reaching 90.0% at age over thirty. In 254 samples from Nova Iguaçu analysed, a prevalence of 90.5% of antibodies was encountered when the same criteria of distribution of samples were used. This level of prevalence reached 90.0% already in the age over ten years old. The tests were performed by enzyme immunoassay with reagents prepared in our laboratory.

Antibody response to heat-inactivated hepatitis B vaccine (CLB-3mg) in hemodialysis patients and occupational risk personnel: a one year follow-up

Immune response against hepatitis B vaccine (CLB 3mg) was evaluated in 59 hemodialysis patients and 20 occupational risk personnel. Seroconversion was induced in 52.5% and 70.0% respectively. Twelve months after the first dose, 37.5% of patients and 60.0% of occupational risk personnel had detectable anti-HBs level. Antibody level was expressed in sample ratio units (SRU). Considering only the responders, in the patients group 38.7% had a low anti-HBs response (2.1-9.9 SRU) 32.3% a medium response (10-99.9 SRU) and 29.0% a high response (>100 SRU) while in occupational risk personnel these values were 14.3%, 64.3% and 21.4% respectively. The authors suggest the use of HBV vaccines with more elevated HBsAg concentration or a reinforced immunization schedule to improve the anti-HBs response not only for patients but also for healthy persons.

Difficultés d'adaptation de questionaire sur les transmissions entre famille et écoles en contextes linguistiques et culturels différents

Les résultats des études PISA – aussi bien en ce qui concerne celle de 2000 comme celle de 2003 - n’ont guêre été satisfaisants pour de nombreux pays de l’OCDE (ce n’est pas le cas pour la Belgique!). Par exemple Portugal, s’il présente des résultats comparables à la moyenne des pays européens ou même supérieurs pour la région de Lisbonne et la vallée du Tage, présente des résultats inférieurs pour l’ensemble du territoire. La Suisse est, curieusement, un autre pays qui se situe en deçà des expectatives. Selon le rapport 2003 (Ramalho, 2004 :50), les études comparatives en littéracie (lecture) et en numéracie n’ont pas démontré de différence significative par rapport aux résultats de 2000. Nous avons pris connaissance d’une étude suisse qui avait pris pour point de départ des résultats également défavorables, pour ce pays, au même rapport PISA : cette recherche analyse l’insertion socio-économique des familles comme également l’influence des transmissions familiales sur les parcours scolaires des élèves.

Indicadores das condições nutricionais na região Polonoroeste: V. Desnutrição protéico-energética e parasitoses intestinais em um grupo de crianças de 3 a 72 meses de idade da cidade de Mirassol D'Oeste, Mato Grosso, Brasil

Este trabalho tem por objetivo caracterizar a desnutrição protéico-energética associada a parasitose intestinal em grupo de 149 crianças de ambos os sexos, na faixa etária de 3 a 72 meses, da cidade de Mirassol D'Oeste, na região do Projeto Polonoroeste em Mato Grosso. De cada criança foram coletados os seguintes dados: sexo, peso, idade e amostra de fezes para exame parasitológico. Os dados peso/idade obtidos foram analisados pelos critérios de GOMEZ. Utilizou-se como padrão de referência o National Center for Health Statistic (NCHS). Para diagnóstico dos parasitas intestinais executou-se o método de Hoffman, Pons e Janer. O grupo estudado constitui-se em sua maioria de crianças desnutridas, sendo a forma leve de desnutrição mais comum que as formas moderada e grave. As enteroparasitoses foram encontradas em 69% das amostras examinadas. A "Giardia lamblia" foi o protozoário mais comum e o "Ancilostomídeo" o helminto mais encontrado. O teste X² não mostrou relação de dependência entre o estado nutricional e a freqüência de enteroparasitoses.

Télédetection en milieu périurbain. Détection et localisation du changement de l'occupation du sol par intégration des donnés-satellite SPOT HRV dans un système d'information géographique

Thèse pour obtenir le grade de DOCTEUR DE L' UNIVERSITÉ PARIS XII, Discipline: Urbanisme Aménagement

Social network analysis applied to knowledge creation and transfer in the portuguese agricultural R&D field: an exploratory study

Paper presented at the 9th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Southampton Solent University, Southampton, UK, 4-5 Sep. 2008. URL: http://academic-conferences.org/eckm/eckm2008/eckm08-home.htm

Active immunization against hepatitis B virus (HBV) with low-doses of plasma-derived vaccine by intradermal route

Schedule for vaccination against HBV infection has usually been based on three separate injections of 20 meg of the vaccine by intramuscular route. One of the main shortcomings to its use in large scale programs has been its high cost. Ninety out of 300 health workers were submitted to three injections of 2 meg of plasma-derived vaccine (PDV) by intradermal (ID) route on days 0, 30, and 180. Anti-HBs was detected in 74 (82.2%) after the second dose and in 80 (88.9%) after the third dose, a non-significant difference. However, levels above 10 times the cut-off were observed in 29 (32.2%) and 77 (85.5%), respectively (p < 0.001). The results showed that a low-dose schedule is effective when used in health workers and should be tried with other risk groups.

Relationship between the prevalence of antibodies to arbovirus and hepatitis B virus in the Vale do Ribeira region, Brazil

280 students, between 6 and 14 years old, residents in the Iguape county, southern coast of the State of São Paulo, were studied in order to identify the existence of a possible association between the prevalence of specific antibodies to the hepatitis B virus and the exposure to haematophagous mosquitoes, evaluated indirectly through the prevalence of antibodies to 17 arboviruses isolated in Brazil. The children were from 4 areas with different topographical characteristics: 89 of the children were from the urban zone of the town of Iguape, 89 were from the periurban zone, 30 were from the rural area with extensive banana plantations, and 72 were from the jungle zone. Previous studies had shown significantly higher prevalence of antibodies to different arboviruses in the cultivated zone and the jungle zone, when compared to the urban and periurban zones of Iguape. The detection of antibodies to the HBV surface antigen (HBs Ag) was done through the radioimmunoassay (Ausab, Abbott Laboratory). The cases considered positive were confirmed through the presence of anti-core HBV antibodies (anti-HBc-EIA Roche). A significantly higher prevalence of anti-HBV antibodies was observed in children from the jungle zone (26/72 = 36,1% ) when compared to those from the urban zone (5/89 = 5,6%), peri-urban (6/89 = 6,7%) or from the cultivated zone (0/30 = 0%). The result suggest the existence of a common factor in the dissemination of the arboviruses and the hepatitis B virus, supporting the hypothesis that mosquitoes may play an important role in the HBV transmission in tropical forested region.

Fulminant hepatitis: a clinical review of 11 years

24 cases of fulminant hepatitis (FH) hospitalized in the Clínica de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo during the period from January 1976 to December 1986 were reviewed from their clinical, epidemiological and laboratorial aspects. 88% of the patients died; 20 patients (83%) presented hemorrhages and, of these, 19 died. Bacterial infections occurred in 14 patients (58%) all of whom died. Ascitis was noted in 3 cases; cerebral edema was present in 16 cases. Maximal ALT levels for each patient during hospitalization ranged widely from 81 to 4,460 UI/l. Thirteen patients presented high creatinine levels (54%). Prothrombin time activity ranged from 2.1% to 67%. Fever was present in 20 cases (83%). Encephalopathy occurred within the first 2 weeks of illness in 72% of the cases. In 7 cases other illnesses were present. The etiology could not be determined in 13 cases. In 3 cases it was due to yellow fever and 6 cases were caused by viruses other than yellow fever. In one case the cause was drug usage and in another case, possibly alcohol. The authors believe that the clinical definition of FH requires further discussion before it is established. In this study FH is a young person's disease. The mortality found was similar to that by other authors. Factors that contributed to death were: hemorrhages and bacterial infection. Factors that worsened the prognosis of hepatitis were: associated illnesses and surgical procedure. The levels of ALT during hospitalization did not correlate well with the severity of the hepatitis. The authors believe that yellow fever should be considered a cause of FH where the clinical picture meets the criteria for such, although its mechanisms of encephalopathy remain obscure. The clinical details of the 3 cases of yellow fever are presented.

Comparison of serum hepatitis B virus replication markers in patients with chronic hepatitis B: studies on HBeAg/Anti-HBe system, viral dna polymerase and HBV-DNA

The detection of HBV-DNA in serum by molecular hybridization is the most sensitive and specific marker of replication and infectivity of hepatitis B virus and currently is proposed as a routine diagnostic technique in the follow-up of HBV - related diseases. Comparing different techniques already described, we found that direct spotting of serum samples on nitrocellulose membranes under vacuum filtration, followed by denaturing and neutralizing washes is more practical, simple, sensible and reproducible. DNA polymerase assay using phosphonoformic acid as specific viral inhibitor has shown 86.8% of concordance with HBV-DNA detection, and so, it is an useful alternative in the follow-up of hepatitis B chronic patients. We found 19.2% HBeAg positive samples with no other markers of viral replication and no anti-HBe positive sample had detectable HBV-DNA. Discordance between the 2 systems have been extensively described, and we confirm this for the first time in our country. Molecular biological techniques are essential to determine the replication status of chronic hepatitis B patients.

B and Delta hepatitis virus infection in a population of West Africa

Among the 424 serum samples examined, the prevalence of hepatitis virus infection turned out to be 89.6%, with 15.6% of HBsAg positivity. Some of the samples belonged to an afferent population and some other to workers of a West Africa rural hospital (Pop. Rep. of Benin). 27.3% of the positive subjects presented active replication of the virus, shown by the presence of HBeAg. Among the HBcAb positive subjects the anti-delta antibodies showed a positivity frequency of 19.7%. HBsAg presence in 15% of pregnant women suggested the importance of HBV mother-foetal transmission in the district. The examined results can be compared with those obtained in other African areas, with similar socio-economic conditions.

Relationship between the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen and arbovirus in fishermen from the Ribeira Valley, Brazil

Sera from 299 fishermen 16 to 80 years old, residents in Cananeia and Iguape counties, southern cost of São Paulo State, Brazil, were studied in order to identify a possible association between the prevalence of specific antibodies to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and exposure to haematophagus mosquitoes evaluated by the prevalence of arbovirus antibodies. This professional group presented the highest prevalence of arbovirus antibodies (54.1%) in past investigations carried out in this heavily forested region. Detection of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) in the sera was done by enzyme immunoassay (Roche). Prevalence of anti-HBc antibodies in this group was 31.4% (94/299) which is very high compared with 7.2% to 15.0% for different groups of healthy adults in State of São Paulo. No significant difference is observed between the prevalences of HBV antibodies in Iguape and Cananeia. Prevalence of anti-HBc and anti-arbovirus antibodies increases with age. There is a concordance in the distribution according to age groups of the frequency of anti-HBc and anti-arbovirus positive sera. Ag HBs was detected in 4% of the studied sera. These results support the hypothesis that the transmission of the hepatitis B virus and the arboviruses may be due to the same factor, one of the possibilities would be by anthropophilic mosquitoes.