Pathogenesis of Endemic Pemphigus Foliaceus

Pemphigus refers to a group of human autoimmune blistering diseases involving skin and/or mucous membranes. Endemic pemphigus foliaceus (EPF), or fogo selvagem is an organ-specific autoimmune blistering disease, first reported in the beginning of the 20th century in rural areas of Brazil. The disease follows the course of streams and creeks, and vanishes after urbanization of the endemic areas. The auto-antigen related to EPF is desmoglein 1, a 160 kDa glycoprotein of the desmossomal core, targeted by in situ and circulating IgG autoantibodies, mainly of the IgG4 subclass.

Detection and molecular characterization of a canine piroplasm from Brazil

In the beginning of the 20th century, a new canine disease was reported in Brazil under the name ""nambiuvu"", whose etiological agent was called Rangelia vitalii, a distinct piroplasm that was shown to parasitize not only erythrocytes, but also leucocytes and endothelial cells. In this new century, more publications on R. vitalii were reported from Brazil, including an extensive study on its ultrastructural analysis, in addition to clinical, pathological, and epidemiological data on nambiuvu. However, a molecular analysis of R. vitalii has not been performed to date. In the present study, we performed molecular phylogenetic analyses of R. vitalii based on fragments of the genes 18S rRNA and the heat shock protein 70 (hsp70), amplified by PCR performed on blood samples derived from five clinical cases of dogs presumably infected with R. vitalii in southern Brazil. In addition, we examined Giemsa-stained thin blood smears from these same dogs. DNA sequences (604-bp) of the 18S rRNA gene obtained from the five dogs were identical to each other, and by Blast analysis, this sequence shared the highest degree of sequence identity (95%) with Babesia sp. China-BQ1. DNA sequences (1056-bp) of the hsp70 gene obtained from the five dogs were identical to each other, and by Blast analysis, this sequence shared the highest degree of sequence identity (87%) with Babesia bigemina. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from either of the two genes resulted in the newly genotype being placed in the Babesia spp.sensu stricto clade with very high bootstrap support (95-100%) in three analyses (Neighbor-Joining, Maximum parsimony, and Maximum likelihood). Giemsa-stained thin blood smears from the dogs were shown to contain piroplasm organisms within erythrocytes, monocytes and neutrophils (individual forms), and schizont-like forms within neutrophils, in accordance with literature reports of R. vitalii. Based on these results, we conclude that R. vitalii, the etiological agent of ""nambiuvu"" in southern Brazil, is a valid species of piroplasm. Further studies are required to evaluate the validity of the genus Rangelia. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Popular understandings of 'UnAustralian': an investigation of the un-national

In social science the 'national' has been studied extensively, but comparatively little attention has been given to the 'un-national'. The article takes up this challenge in an Australian context. Drawing on the work of Raymond Williams, investigation is centred around the keyword 'UnAustralian'. Participants in focus groups were asked to nominate and account for what they thought of as 'UnAustralian' people, places, values, activities, groups and organizations. Analysis of the data revealed that two factors underpinned an attribution: incivility and foreign influence. Contemporary uses revolve around outcomes from globalization and can be contrasted with the centrality of class politics to deployments of the concept in the first part of the 20th century.

Cancer culture: Epidemics, human behaviour and the dubious search for new risk factors

The rise of melanoma and the almost complete decline of stomach cancer clearly reflect disturbances of human culture during the 20th century. Environmental factors play a dominant role in the epidemiology of melanoma and many other malignancies.

How should pathogen transmission be modelled?

Host-pathogen models are essential for designing strategies for managing disease threats to humans, wild animals and domestic animals. The behaviour of these models is greatly affected by the way in which transmission between infected and susceptible hosts is modelled. Since host-pathogen models were first developed at the beginning of the 20th century, the 'mass action' assumption has almost always been used for transmission. Recently, however, it has been suggested that mass action has often been modelled wrongly. Alternative models of transmission are beginning to appear, as are empirical tests of transmission dynamics.

Advances in neurotrauma in Australia 1970-2000

The management of neurotrauma in Australia has been one of the significant public health triumphs during the last 30 years of the 20th century. State and national government agencies act in a coordinated fashion to collect data and to promote research on how to manage neurotrauma patients. Between 1970 and 1995, fatalities from road accidents decreased by 47%. Hospital admissions have decreased by 40% despite a 40% increase in the population and a 120% increase in registered vehicles. Fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles were 8.05% in 1970 and they fell to 1.84% per vehicles in 1995, while fatalities per 10;000 population were 3 in 1970 falling to 1.11 in 1995. Hospitalization from road crashes decreased 23% between March 1988 and March 1997. Public education has steadily improved, backed by the state public health sources. A uniform code of road safety laws has been adopted, backed by legislation and legal penalties and increasing police enforcement. Clinical care of patients has improved as a result of faster communications, tele-medicine, trauma systems, the CT scanner; intensive care units, and improved monitoring. Patient rehabilitation and counseling are now carried out at units accredited by the Australian Council on Health Care Standards.

A dimensão urbana da arquitetura : ambientes de transição

The present work aims to discuss the urban dimension of architecture and to investigate the role of the architectural spaces in the quality of life in between buildings and their environments. It investigates the transitional spaces between building and thoroughfare; building, thoroughfare and built environments located on the ground level of the buildings, and the potential they have to modify (individually or in groups) the environment where they are. For that, the research studies aspects of the architecture that urban buildings (individually or in groups) have and the inference of the morphology, building type and urban environment quality within the extended context of the Brazilian contemporary city. The analysis of the relation between building, thoroughfare and adjacent surroundings will be performed by the lights of, the evolution they have suffered since European urban spatial interventions that took place in the 19th Century; the morphological rupture on the traditional modern city of the 20th Century; the Brazilian experience focused on edifices, by showing analysis of a group of buildings, in their majority, iconic examples of Brazilian architecture from the 1930s onwards; and finally by an extensive investigation on the micro areas that have been selected in the Camburi region, in the city of Vitória-ES, focused on the characteristics of their architectural complex. As a preliminary conclusion, it can be stated that architecture cannot determine the quality in urban life and in its environments by itself, but because of its architectural and urban configuration of space, it may contribute to quality of environment in its surroundings

The portuguese insurance industry: basis for strategic process decision

Nowadays, the Portuguese insurance industry operates in a market with a much more aggressive structure than a few decades ago. Markets and the economy have become globalised since the last decade of the 20th century. Market forces have gradually shifted – power is now mainly on the demand side. In order to meet the new requirements, the insurance industry must develop a strong strategic ability to respond to constant changes of the new international economic order.One of the basic aspects of this strategic development will focus on the ability to predict the future. We introduce the subject by briefly describing the sector, its organisational structure in the Portuguese market, and challenges arising from the development of the European Union. We then analyse the economic and financial structure of the sector. From this point of view, we aim at the possibility of designing models that could explain the demand for insurance, claims and technical reserves evolution. Such models, (even if based on the past), would resolve, at least partly, one of the greatest difficulties experienced by insurance companies when estimating the budget. Thus, we examine the existence of variables that explain the previous points, which are capable of forming a basis for designing models that are simple but efficient, and can be used for strategic planning.

Rise and fall in ischemic heart disease mortality: it may have happened before

The rise in ischemic heart disease(IHD) mortality occurring mostly during the first half of the 20th century is usually associated with economic development and its consequences for people's lifestyles. On the basis of historical evidence, it is postulated that a previous IHD epidemic cycle may have occurred in England and Wales towards the turn of the nineteenth century. The implications of this on causal theories and current etiological research on atherosclerosis are discussed.

Genotoxic effects of exposure to formaldehyde in two different occupational settings

Formaldehyde (CH2O), the most simple and reactive aldehyde, is a colorless, reactive and readily polymerizing gas at room temperature (National Toxicology Program [NTP]. It has a pungent suffocating odor that is recognized by most human subjects at concentrations below 1 ppm. Aleksandr Butlerov synthesized the chemical in 1859, but it was August Wilhelm von Hofmann who identified it as the product formed from passing methanol and air over a heated platinum spiral in 1867. This method is still the basis for the industrial production of formaldehyde today, in which methanol is oxidized using a metal catalyst. By the early 20th century, with the explosion of knowledge in chemistry and physics, coupled with demands for more innovative synthetic products, the scene was set for the birth of a new material–plastics. According to the Report on Carcinogens, formaldehyde ranks 25th in the overall U.S. chemical production, with more than 5 million tons produced each year. Formaldehyde annual production rises up to 21 million tons worldwide and it has increased in China with 7.5 million tons produced in 2007. Given its economic importance and widespread use, many people are exposed to formaldehyde environmentally and/or occupationally. Commercially, formaldehyde is manufactured as an aqueous solution called formalin, usually containing 37% by weight of dissolved formaldehyde. This chemical is present in all regions of the atmosphere arising from the oxidation of biogenic and anthropogenic hydrocarbons. Formaldehyde concentration levels range typically from 2 to 45 ppbV (parts per billion in a given volume) in urban settings that are mainly governed by primary emissions and secondary formation.

Folk culture and political power: practices and representations of moliceiro culture in Portugal, cultural sociology

This article analyses the painted panels of the moliceiro boat, a traditional working boat of the Ria de Aveiro region of Portugal. The article examines how the painted panels have been invented and reinvented over time. The boat and its panels are contextualized both within the changing socio-economic conditions of the Ria de Aveiro region, and the changing socio-political conditions of Portugal throughout the 20th century and until the present day. The article historically analyses the social significance of ‘moliceiro culture’, examining in particular the power relations it expresses and its ambiguous past and present relationships with the political and the economic powers of the Portuguese state. The article unpacks some of the complexity of the relations that have pertained between public and private, local and national, folk culture and ‘art’, and popular and institutional in the Ria de Aveiro region in particular, and Portugal more generally.

Multilingualism and interpreting: training for the EU

AGM and Conference in Mechelen 27 – 30 April 2010

Dragões de Olivença

RESUMO: É analisada nesta pesquisa a evolução histórica e a heráldica de uma unidade de Cavalaria do Exército Português cujas origens remontam à instalação ainda no século XVIII de um Regimento de Cavalaria na cidade de Olivença, sendo a designação “Dragões de Olivença” recuperada no Estado Novo.

A formação da heráldica do exército no Estado Novo

RESUMO: É analisada nesta pesquisa a evolução da Heráldica do Exército Português ao longo do Estado Novo, sendo referida a importante reforma da década de 60 que lhe veio a conferir uma qualidade excepcional.