Methods and Participant Characteristics of a Randomized Intervention to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Among Brazilian High School Students: The Saude na Boa Project

Background: A cross-cultural, randomized study was proposed to observe the effects of a school-based intervention designed to promote physical activity and healthy eating among high school students in 2 cities from different regions in Brazil: Recife and Florianopolis. The objective of this article is to describe the methodology and subjects enrolled in the project. Methods: Ten schools from each region were matched and randomized into intervention and control conditions. A questionnaire and anthropometry were used to collect data in the first and last month of the 2006 school year. The sample (n = 2155 at baseline; 55.7% females; 49.1% in the experimental group) included students 15 to 24 years, attending nighttime classes. The intervention focused on simple environmental/organizational changes, diet and physical activity education, and personnel training. Results: The central aspects of the intervention have been implemented in all 10 intervention schools. Problems during the intervention included teachers' strikes in both sites and lack of involvement of the canteen owners in schools. Conclusions: The Saude no Boa study provides evidence that public high schools in Brazil represent an important environment for health promotion. Its design and simple measurements increase the chances of it being sustained and disseminated to similar schools in Brazil.

Activation of Neural and Pluripotent Stem Cell Signatures Correlates with Increased Malignancy in Human Glioma

The presence of stem cell characteristics in glioma cells raises the possibility that mechanisms promoting the maintenance and self-renewal of tissue specific stem cells have a similar function in tumor cells. Here we characterized human gliomas of various malignancy grades for the expression of stem cell regulatory proteins. We show that cells in high grade glioma co-express an array of markers defining neural stem cells (NSCs) and that these proteins can fulfill similar functions in tumor cells as in NSCs. However, in contrast to NSCs glioma cells co-express neural proteins together with pluripotent stem cell markers, including the transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Nanog and Klf4. In line with this finding, in high grade gliomas mesodermal-and endodermal-specific transcription factors were detected together with neural proteins, a combination of lineage markers not normally present in the central nervous system. Persistent presence of pluripotent stem cell traits could only be detected in solid tumors, and observations based on in vitro studies and xenograft transplantations in mice imply that this presence is dependent on the combined activity of intrinsic and extrinsic regulatory cues. Together these results demonstrate a general deregulated expression of neural and pluripotent stem cell traits in malignant human gliomas, and indicate that stem cell regulatory factors may provide significant targets for therapeutic strategies.

Fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopy for identification of atherosclerosis in human carotid arteries using principal components analysis

Objectives: The aim of this work was to verify the differentiation between normal and pathological human carotid artery tissues by using fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopy in the 400- to 700-nm range and the spectral characterization by means of principal components analysis. Background Data: Atherosclerosis is the most common and serious pathology of the cardiovascular system. Principal components represent the main spectral characteristics that occur within the spectral data and could be used for tissue classification. Materials and Methods: Sixty postmortem carotid artery fragments (26 non-atherosclerotic and 34 atherosclerotic with non-calcified plaques) were studied. The excitation radiation consisted of a 488-nm argon laser. Two 600-mu m core optical fibers were used, one for excitation and one to collect the fluorescence radiation from the samples. The reflectance system was composed of a halogen lamp coupled to an excitation fiber positioned in one of the ports of an integrating sphere that delivered 5 mW to the sample. The photo-reflectance signal was coupled to a 1/4-m spectrograph via an optical fiber. Euclidean distance was then used to classify each principal component score into one of two classes, normal and atherosclerotic tissue, for both fluorescence and reflectance. Results: The principal components analysis allowed classification of the samples with 81% sensitivity and 88% specificity for fluorescence, and 81% sensitivity and 91% specificity for reflectance. Conclusions: Our results showed that principal components analysis could be applied to differentiate between normal and atherosclerotic tissue with high sensitivity and specificity.

Genotypic Characteristics of HIV Type 1 Based on gp120 Hypervariable Region 3 of Isolates from Southern Brazil

The aim of this study was to investigate HIV-1 molecular diversity and the epidemiological profile of HIV-1-infected patients from Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. A nested PCR followed by sequencing of a 302-base pair fragment of the env gene (C2-V3 region) was performed in samples from HIV-1-positive patients. A total of 45 sequences were aligned with final manual adjustments. The phylogenetic analyses showed a higher prevalence of HIV-1 subtype B in the studied population (97.8%) with only one sample yielding an F1 subtype. The viral genotyping prediction showed that CCR5 tropism was the most prevalent in the studied cohort. Geno2pheno analysis showed that R5 and CXCR4 prediction were 69% and 31%, respectively. There was no statistical significance, either in viral load or in CD4(+) T cell count when R5 and X4 prediction groups were compared. Moreover, the GPGR tetramer was the most common V3 loop core motif identified in the HIV-1 strains studied (34.1%) followed by GWGR, identified in 18.1% of the samples. The high level of B subtype in this Brazilian population reinforces the nature of the HIV epidemic in Brazil, and corroborates previous data obtained in the Brazilian HIV-infected population.

Identification of COL6A1 as a differentially expressed gene in human astrocytomas

Diffuse infiltrating gliomas are the most common tumors of the central nervous system. Gliomas are classified by the WHO according to their histopathological and clinical characteristics into four classes: grade I (pilocytic astrocytoma), grade II (diffuse astrocytoma), grade III (anaplastic astrocytoma), and grade IV (glioblastoma multiforme). Several genes have already been correlated with astrocytomas, but many others are yet to be uncovered. By analyzing the public SAGE data from 21 patients, comprising low malignant grade astrocytomas and glioblastomas, we found COL6A1 to be differentially expressed, confirming this finding by real time RT-PCR in 66 surgical samples. To the best of our knowledge, COL6A1 has never been described in gliomas. The expression of this gene has significantly different means when normal glia is compared with low-grade astrocytomas (grades I and II) and high-grade astrocytomas (grades III and IV), with a tendency to be greater in higher grade samples, thus rendering it a powerful tumor marker.

Generation and characterization of human insulin-releasing cell lines

Background: The in vitro culture of insulinomas provides an attractive tool to study cell proliferation and insulin synthesis and secretion. However, only a few human beta cell lines have been described, with long-term passage resulting in loss of insulin secretion. Therefore, we set out to establish and characterize human insulin-releasing cell lines. Results: We generated ex-vivo primary cultures from two independent human insulinomas and from a human nesidioblastosis, all of which were cultured up to passage number 20. All cell lines secreted human insulin and C-peptide. These cell lines expressed neuroendocrine and islets markers, confirming the expression profile found in the biopsies. Although all beta cell lineages survived an anchorage independent culture, none of them were able to invade an extracellular matrix substrate. Conclusion: We have established three human insulin-releasing cell lines which maintain antigenic characteristics and insulin secretion profiles of the original tumors. These cell lines represent valuable tools for the study of molecular events underlying beta cell function and dysfunction.

Human gait recognition using extraction and fusion of global motion features

This paper proposes a novel computer vision approach that processes video sequences of people walking and then recognises those people by their gait. Human motion carries different information that can be analysed in various ways. The skeleton carries motion information about human joints, and the silhouette carries information about boundary motion of the human body. Moreover, binary and gray-level images contain different information about human movements. This work proposes to recover these different kinds of information to interpret the global motion of the human body based on four different segmented image models, using a fusion model to improve classification. Our proposed method considers the set of the segmented frames of each individual as a distinct class and each frame as an object of this class. The methodology applies background extraction using the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), a scale reduction based on the Wavelet Transform (WT) and feature extraction by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We propose four new schemas for motion information capture: the Silhouette-Gray-Wavelet model (SGW) captures motion based on grey level variations; the Silhouette-Binary-Wavelet model (SBW) captures motion based on binary information; the Silhouette-Edge-Binary model (SEW) captures motion based on edge information and the Silhouette Skeleton Wavelet model (SSW) captures motion based on skeleton movement. The classification rates obtained separately from these four different models are then merged using a new proposed fusion technique. The results suggest excellent performance in terms of recognising people by their gait.

Tension regulation during lengthening and shortening actions of the human soleus muscle

In the present study we investigated tension regulation in the human soleus (SOL) muscle during controlled lengthening and shortening actions. Eleven subjects performed plantar flexor efforts on an ankle torque motor through 30 degrees of ankle displacement (75 degrees-105 degrees internal ankle angle) at lengthening and shortening velocities of 5, 15 and 30 degrees s(-1). To isolate the SOL from the remainder of the triceps surae, the subject's knee was flexed to 60 degrees during all trials. Voluntary plantar flexor efforts were performed under two test conditions: (1) maximal voluntary activation (MVA) of the SOL, and (2) constant submaximal voluntary activation (SVA) of the SOL. SVA trials were performed with direct visual feedback of the SOL electromyogram (EMG) at a level resulting in a torque output of 30% of isometric maximum. Angle-specific (90 degrees ankle angle) torque and EMG of the SOL, medial gastrocnemius (MG) and tibialis anterior (TA) were recorded. In seven subjects from the initial group, the test protocol was repeated under submaximal percutaneous electrical activation (SEA) of SOL (to 30% isometric maximal effort). Lengthening torques were significantly greater than shortening torques in all test conditions. Lengthening torques in MVA and SVA were independent of velocity and remained at the isometric level, whereas SEA torques were greater than isometric torques and increased at higher lengthening velocities. Shortening torques were lower than the isometric level for all conditions. However, whereas SVA and SEA torques decreased at higher velocities of shortening, MVA torques were independent of velocity. These results indicate velocity- and activation-type-specific tension regulation in the human SOL muscle.

Integrating attribute and space characteristics in choropleth display and spatial data mining

This paper develops an interactive approach for exploratory spatial data analysis. Measures of attribute similarity and spatial proximity are combined in a clustering model to support the identification of patterns in spatial information. Relationships between the developed clustering approach, spatial data mining and choropleth display are discussed. Analysis of property crime rates in Brisbane, Australia is presented. A surprising finding in this research is that there are substantial inconsistencies in standard choropleth display options found in two widely used commercial geographical information systems, both in terms of definition and performance. The comparative results demonstrate the usefulness and appeal of the developed approach in a geographical information system environment for exploratory spatial data analysis.

Biologically active conformer of the effector region of human C5a and modulatory effects of N-terminal receptor binding determinants on activity

A conformationally biased decapeptide agonist of human C5a (C5a(65-74)Y65,F67,P69,P71,D-Ala73 or YSFKPMPLaR) was used as a functional probe of the C5a receptor (C5aR) in order to understand the conformational features in the C-terminal effector region of C5a that are important for C5aR binding and signal transduction. YSFKPMPLaR was a potent, full agonist of C5a, but at higher concentrations had a superefficacious effect compared to the natural factor. The maximal efficacy of this analogue was 216 +/- 56% that of C5a in stimulating the release of beta-glucuronidase from human neutrophils. C5aR activation and binding curves both occurred in the same concentration range with YSFKPMPLaR, characteristics not observed with natural C5a or more conformationally flexible C-terminal agonists. YSFKPMPLaR was then used as a C-terminal effector template onto which was synthesized various C5aR binding determinants from the N-terminal core domain of the natural factor. In general, the presence of N-terminal binding determinants had little effect on either potency or binding affinity when the C-terminal effector region was presented to the C5aR in this biologically active conformation. However, one peptide, C5a(12-20)-Ahx-YSFKPMPLaR, expressed a 100-fold increase in affinity for the neutrophil C5aR and a 6-fold increase in potency relative to YSFKPMPLaR. These analyses showed that the peptides used in this study have up to 25% of the potency of C5a in human fetal artery and up to 5% of the activity of C5a in the PMN enzyme release assay.

Relative dispersion of intravascular transit times during isolated human limb perfusions for recurrent melanoma

Aims We have characterized the relative dispersion of vascular and extravascular markers in the limbs of three patients undergoing isolated limb perfusions with the cytotoxic melphalan for recurrent malignant melanoma both before and after melphalan dosing. Methods A bolus of injectate containing [Cr-51] labelled red blood cells, [C-14]-sucrose and [H-3]-water was injected into an iliac or femoral artery and outflow samples collected at 1 s intervals by a fraction collector. The radioactivity due to each isotype was analysed by either gamma [Cr-51] or beta [C-14 and H-3] counting. The moments of the outflow fraction-time profiles were estimated by a nonparametric (numerical integration) method and a parametric model (sum of two inverse Gaussian functions). Results The availability, mean transit time and normalised variance (CV2) obtained for labelled red blood cells, sucrose and water were similar before and after melphalan dosing and with the two methods of calculation but varied between the patients. Conclusions The vascular space is not well-stirred but characterized by a CV2 similar that reported previously for in situ rat hind limb and rat liver perfusions. A flow-limited blood-tissue exchange was observed for the permeating indicators. Administration of melphalan did not influence the distribution characteristics of the indicators.

Expression of constitutively activated human c-Kit in myb transformed early myeloid cells leads to factor independence, histiocytic differentiation, and tumorigenicity

The cDNAs encoding wild type (WT) human receptor tyrosine kinase c-Kit and a constitutively activated mutant, V816Kit, were introduced into granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-dependent early murine hemopoietic cells, which had been transformed with activated Myb, WTKit cells were able to grow in the presence of the human ligand for Kit, stem cell factor (SCF), but displayed reduced growth and clonogenic potential in either SCF or GM-CSF compared with the parental cells in GM-CSF. In contrast, V816Kit cells grew without factor at a higher rate than the parental cells in GM-CSF and displayed increased clonogenicity. Dissection of the growth characteristics in liquid culture showed that in the presence of appropriate factors, the different populations had similar proliferation rates, but that V816Kit profoundly increased cell survival compared with WTKit or parental cells, This suggests that the signals transduced by WTKit activated with SCF, and by V816Kit, were not identical. Also, WTKit and V816Kit-expressing cells both varied from the early myeloid progenitor phenotype of the parental cells and gave rise to a small number of large to giant adherent cells that expressed macrophage (alpha-naphthyl acetate) esterase and neutrophil (naphtol-AS-D-chloroacetate) esterase, were highly phagocytic and phenotypically resembled histiocytes. Thus, WTKit activated by SCF and V816Kit were able to induce differentiation in a proportion of Myb-transformed myeloid cells. The factor independent V816Kit cells, unlike the parental and WTKit expressing cells, were shown to produce tumors of highly mitotic, invasive cells at various stages of differentiation in syngeneic mice. These results imply that constitutively activated Kit can promote the development of differentiated myeloid tumors and that its oncogenic effects are not restricted to lineages (mast cell and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia), which have been reported previously. Furthermore, the mixed populations of cells in culture and in the tumors phenotypically resembled the leukemic cells from patients with monocytic leukemia with histiocytic differentiation (acute myeloid leukemia-M5c), a newly proposed subtype of myeloid leukemia. (C) 1997 by The American Society of Hematology.

Bioinformatics construction of the human cell surfaceome

Cell surface proteins are excellent targets for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. By using bioinformatics tools, we generated a catalog of 3,702 transmembrane proteins located at the surface of human cells (human cell surfaceome). We explored the genetic diversity of the human cell surfaceome at different levels, including the distribution of polymorphisms, conservation among eukaryotic species, and patterns of gene expression. By integrating expression information from a variety of sources, we were able to identify surfaceome genes with a restricted expression in normal tissues and/or differential expression in tumors, important characteristics for putative tumor targets. A high-throughput and efficient quantitative real-time PCR approach was used to validate 593 surfaceome genes selected on the basis of their expression pattern in normal and tumor samples. A number of candidates were identified as potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets for colorectal tumors and glioblastoma. Several candidate genes were also identified as coding for cell surface cancer/testis antigens. The human cell surfaceome will serve as a reference for further studies aimed at characterizing tumor targets at the surface of human cells.

Human choriogonadotropin prior to controlled ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization improves implantation, and pregnancy rates

Our purpose was to retrospectively compare controlled ovarian stimulation(COH) in IVF cycles with administration of hCG on the day of menses (D1-hCG) with women not receiving hCG at day 1 of menses (Control). Data on maternal age, endocrine profile, amount of rFSH required, embryo characteristics, implantation and pregnancy rates were recorded for comparison between D1-hCG (n = 36) and Control (n = 64). Dose of rFSH required to accomplish COH was significantly lower in D1-hCG. Following ICSI, more top-quality embryos were available for transfer per patient in the D1-hCG and biochemical pregnancy rates per transfer were significantly higher in the D1-hCG. Significantly higher implantation and on-going pregnancy rates per embryo transfer were observed in D1-hCG (64%) compared to Control (41%). Administration of D1-hCG prior to COH reduces rFSH use and enhances oocyte developmental competence to obtain top quality embryos, and improves implantation and on-going pregnancy rates. At present it is not clear if the benefit is related to producing an embryo that more likely to implant or a more receptive uterus, or merely fortuitous and related to the relatively small power of the study.

Toxoplasma gondii isolates: Multi locus RFLP-PCR genotyping from human patients in Sao Paulo State, Brazil identified distinct genotypes

This study investigated the genetic characteristics of Toxoplasma gondii samples collected from 62 patients with toxoplasmosis in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. DNA samples were isolated from blood, cerebrospinal fluid and amniotic fluids of 25 patients with cerebral toxoplasmosis and AIDS, two patients with acute toxoplasmosis, 12 patients with ocular toxoplasmosis, six newborns with congenital toxoplasmosis and 17 pregnant women with acute infection. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis was based in clinical, radiological and laboratory features. Genotyping was performed using multilocus PCR-RFLP genetic markers including SAG1, SAG2, 5`- and 3`-SAG2, alt.SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, C22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1 and Apico. Among the 62 clinical samples, 20 (32%) were successfully genotyped at eight or more genetic loci and were grouped to three distinct genotypes. Eighteen samples belonged to ToxoDB Genotype #65 and the other two samples were identified as ToxoDB Genotypes #6 and #71, respectively (http://toxodb.org/toxo/). Patients presenting Genotypes #6 and #71 had severe and atypical cerebral toxoplasmosis, characterized by diffuse encephalitis without extensive brain lesions. These results indicate that T. gondii Genotype #65 may have a high frequency in causing human toxoplasmosis in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. This unusual finding highlights the need to investigate the possible association of parasite genotypes with human toxoplasmosis. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.