HLA-Bw4-B*57 and Cw*18 alleles are associated with plasma viral load modulation in HIV-1 infected individuals in Salvador, Brazil

Host genetic factors play an important role in mediating resistance to HIV-1 infection and may modify the course of infection. HLA-B alleles (Bw4 epitope; B*27 and B*57) as well as killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors have been associated with slow progression of HIV-1 infection. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between serological epitopes HLA-Bw4 and HLA-Bw6 and prognostic markers in AIDS. METHODS: 147 HIV-infected individuals in Bahia, Northeast Brazil, were genotyped for HLA class I locus. HLA class I genotyping was performed by hybridization with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes following amplification of the corresponding HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-C genes. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's exact and ANOVA tests for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. RESULTS: We detected a significant association (χ2 = 4.856; p = 0.018) between the presence of HLA-Bw4 and low levels of viremia. Eighteen out of the 147 HIV-infected individuals presented viremia <1,800 copies/mL and 129 presented viremia > 2,000 copies/mL. Ninety and four percent (17/18) of all individuals with viremia < 1,800 copies/mL carried HLA-Bw4, compared to 67.4% (87/129) of individuals with viremia > 2,000 copies/mL. Additionally, we found a significantly higher frequency of B*57 (OR = 13.94; 95% CI = 4.19-46.38; p < 0.0001) and Cw*18 (OR = 16.15; 95% CI = 3.46-75.43; p < 0.0001) alleles, favoring the group with lower viremia levels, in comparison with those with higher viral load. CONCLUSION: HLA-Bw4-B*57 and Cw*18 alleles are associated with lower level of viral load in HIV-infected Brazilian patients. These findings may help us in understanding the determinants of HIV evolution in Brazilian patients, as well as in providing important information on immune response correlates of protection for such population.

Supressão de interferência em sistemas de banda ultra larga e classificação automática de modulação

Esta tese apresenta duas contribuições distintas na área de sistemas de comunicações sem fi o. Primeiro, é apresentada uma formulação analítica para a análise de desempenho de sistemas utilizando multiplexação multibanda por divisão ortogonal na frequência (MB-OFDM, do inglês Multi-Band Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing ) com um ltro notch para mitigar a interferência em banda estreita causada por outros sistemas que operam dentro da faixa de frequências alocada para sistemas UWB. Em seguida, um novo front end para classificação automática de modulações com o uso de aprendizado discriminativo é proposto. Esse front end pode ser utilizado por qualquer classi cador discriminativo e consiste em ordenar magnitude e fase do símbolos recebidos. Os resultados obtidos pelo classi cador proposto mostraram-se competitivos com outros algoritmos já existentes na literatura.

Wavelength assignment using a hybrid evolutionary computation to reduce cross-phase modulation

In this paper, we propose a hybrid methodology based on Graph-Coloring and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve the Wavelength Assignment (WA) problem in optical networks, impaired by physical layer effects. Our proposal was developed for a static scenario where the physical topology and traffic matrix are known a priori. First, we used fixed shortest-path routing to attend demand requests over the physical topology and the graph-coloring algorithm to minimize the number of necessary wavelengths. Then, we applied the genetic algorithm to solve WA. The GA finds the wavelength activation order on the wavelengths grid with the aim of reducing the Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM) effect; the variance due to the XPM was used as a function of fitness to evaluate the feasibility of the selected WA solution. Its performance is compared with the First-Fit algorithm in two different scenarios, and has shown a reduction in blocking probability up to 37.14% when considered both XPM and residual dispersion effects and up to 71.42% when only considered XPM effect. Moreover, it was possible to reduce by 57.14% the number of wavelengths.

The influence of resistance exercise with emphasis on specific contractions (concentric vs. eccentric) on muscle strength and post-exercise autonomic modulation: a randomized clinical trial

Contextualização:Ações concêntricas apresentam maior estresse cardiovascular quando comparadas às excêntricas. Entretanto, não se sabe a influência desses tipos de ações no comportamento da modulação autonômica cardíaca durante o processo de recuperação pós-esforço.Objetivo:Comparar o efeito de um treinamento resistido para o grupo extensor do joelho realizado com ênfase concêntrica vs excêntrica sobre a força muscular e a recuperação pós-exercício considerando índices de variabilidade de frequência cardíaca (VFC) em jovens saudáveis.Método:Cento e cinco homens, com idades entre 18 e 30 anos, foram randomizados em quatro grupos: controle concêntrico (CCONC), controle excêntrico (CEXC), treinamento concêntrico (TCONC) e treinamento excêntrico (TEXC). Os grupos CCONC e CEXC realizaram uma sessão de exercício reduzido (ER) para o grupo extensor do joelho [três séries de uma repetição a 100% de uma repetição máxima (1RM)], e os grupos TCONC e TEXC realizaram dez sessões de treinamento. A VFC foi analisada no momento basal e na recuperação após as sessões (T1, T2, T3 e T4).Resultados:Observou-se aumento da força muscular para o grupo TEXC. Em relação à modulação autonômica cardíaca, observou-se, em comparação ao momento basal, aumento dos índices SDNN e SD2 no momento T1 nos grupos CCONC e CEXC e aumento dos índices RMSSD, SD1 e AF (ms2) nos momentos T1, T2 e T4 no grupo TEXC.Conclusões:Conclui-se que o treinamento resistido realizado com ênfase em contrações excêntricas promoveu ganho de força e aumento da modulação vagal cardíaca durante o processo de recuperação em relação à condição basal.

Resveratrol improves bone repair by modulation of bone morphogenetic proteins and osteopontin gene expression in rats

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Serotonergic modulation in neuropathy induced by oxaliplatin: Effect on the 5HT(2C) receptor

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Modulation of cell proliferation, survival and gene expression by RAGE and TLR signaling in cells of the innate and adaptive immune response: role of p38 MAPK and NF-KB

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Differential modulation of sympathetic and respiratory activities by cholinergic mechanisms in the nucleus of the solitary tract in rats

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Zeros of classical orthogonal polynomials of a discrete variable

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A Favard type theorem for orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle from a three term recurrence formula

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Stieltjes functions and discrete classical orthogonal polynomials

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Effect of Pursed-Lip Breathing in Patients With COPD: Linear and Nonlinear Analysis of Cardiac Autonomic Modulation

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of pursed-lip breathing (PLB) on cardiac autonomic modulation in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) while at rest. Methods: Thirty-two individuals were allocated to one of two groups: COPD (n = 17; 67.29 +/- 6.87 years of age) and control (n = 15; 63.2 +/- 7.96 years of age). The groups were submitted to a two-stage experimental protocol. The first stage consisted of the characterization of the sample and spirometry. The second stage comprised the analysis of cardiac autonomic modulation through the recording of R-R intervals. This analysis was performed using both nonlinear and linear heart rate variability (HRV). In the statistical analysis, the level of significance was set to 5% (p = 0.05). Results: PLB promoted significant increases in the SD1, SD2, RMSSD and LF (ms(2)) indices as well as an increase in alpha(1) and a reduction in alpha(2) in the COPD group. A greater dispersion of points on the Poincare plots was also observed. The magnitude of the changes produced by PLB differed between groups. Conclusion: PLB led to a loss of fractal correlation properties of heart rate in the direction of linearity in patients with COPD as well as an increase in vagal activity and impact on the spectral analysis. The difference in the magnitude of the changes produced by PLB between groups may be related to the presence of the disease and alterations in the respiration rate.

Analysis of cardiac autonomic modulation of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Autonomic modulation and its relation with body composition in swimmers

This study compared autonomic modulation in swimmers and non-athletes in relation to body composition. A total of 28 athletes with a mean age of 19.7 +/- 2.9 years were evaluated who had at least 2 years of swimming training, trained approximately 7,000 m per day, with a frequency of 5 days per week, and who competed at national level. The control group was made up of 21 volunteers (23.0 +/- 2.5 years), who did not practice regular physical activity (<2 hours per week). Body composition was estimated using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and autonomic modulation was assessed by heart rate variability (HRV). The results show that there were significant differences in autonomic modulation and body composition between the groups, and that the athletes had a higher overall variability (standard deviation of all normal intervals between consecutive heart beats [SDNN]: 78.1 [72.5-93.5] x 61.1 [56.4-75.7], p = 0.022) and greater autonomic balance (LF/HF: 0.96 [0.88-1.35] x 0.71 [0.56-0.93], p = 0.023), compared with the non-athletes, respectively. In addition, a moderate and positive relation was obtained between fat-free mass and the square root of the squared differences between consecutive heartbeat intervals (RMSSD: r = 0.526, p = 0.004 x r = 0.456, p = 0.038), (SDNN: r = 0.617, p = 0.001 x r = 0.571, p = 0.007) and low frequency (LFms(2): r = 0.517, p = 0.005 3 r = 0.600, p = 0.004) in the athletes and non-athletes, respectively, without a correlation between fat mass (FM). The conclusion is that young highly trained swimmers had lower FM, increased fat-free mass, and better HRV than young adult non-athletes and suggests that a lower quantity of FM and, especially, a greater fat-free mass (FFM) are linked to better autonomic modulation. Thus, this study could contribute to coaches and trainers establishing greater performance by better autonomic modulation and greater quantity of FFM.