Patterns of food acquisition in Brazilian households and associated factors: a population-based survey

Objective: To identify food acquisition patterns in Brazil and relate them to the sociodemographic characteristics of the household. Design: A cross-sectional national Household Budget Survey (HBS). Principal component factor analysis was used to derive food patterns (factors) on the basis of the acquisition of food classified into thirty-two food groups. Setting: The source of data originates from the 2002-2003 HBS carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics between June 2002 and July 2003 using a representative sample of all Brazilian households. Subject: A total of 48 470 households allocated into 443 strata of households that were geographically and socio-economically homogeneous as a study unit. Results: We identified two patterns of food acquisition. The first, named `dual`, was characterized by dairy, fruit, fruit juice, vegetables, processed meat, soft drinks, sweets, bread and margarine, and by inverse correlations with Brazilian staple foods. In contrast, the second pattern, named `traditional`, was characterized by rice, beans, manioc, flour, milk and sugar. The `dual` pattern was associated with higher household educational level, income and the average age of adults on the strata, whereas the `traditional` presented higher loadings in less-educated households and in the rural setting. Conclusions: Dietary patterns described here suggest that policies and programmes to promote healthy eating need to consider that healthy and non-healthy foods may be integral in the same pattern.

The embedded cluster DBSB 48 in the nebula Hoffleit 18: Comparison with Trumpler 14

We derive fundamental parameters of the embedded cluster DBSB 48 in the southern nebula Hoffleit 18 and the very young open cluster Trumpler 14, by means of deep JHK(s) infrared photometry. We build colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams to derive reddening and age, based on main sequence and pre-main sequence distributions. Radial stellar density profiles are used to study cluster structure and guide photometric diagram extractions. Field-star decontamination is applied to uncover the intrinsic cluster sequences in the diagrams. Ages are inferred from K-excess fractions. A prominent pre-main sequence population is present in DBSB 48, and the K-excess fraction f(K) = 55 +/- 6% gives an age of 1.1 +/- 0.5 Myr. A mean reddening of A(Ks) = 0.9 +/- 0.03 was found, corresponding to A(v) = 8.2 +/- 0.3. The cluster CMD is consistent with the far kinematic distance of 5 kpc for Hoffleit 18. For Trumpler 14 we derived similar parameters as in previous studies in the optical, in particular an age of 1.7 +/- 0.7 Myr. The fraction of stars with infrared excess in Trumpler 14 is f(K) = 28 +/- 4%. Despite the young ages, both clusters are described by a King profile with core radii R-core = 0.46 +/- 0.05 pc and R-core = 0.35 +/- 0.04 pc, respectively, for DBSB 48 and Trumpler 14. Such cores are smaller than those of typical open clusters. Small cores are probably related to the cluster formation and/or parent molecular cloud fragmentation. In DBSB 48, the magnitude extent of the upper main sequence is Delta K-s approximate to 2 mag, while in Trumpler 14 it is Delta K-s approximate to 5 mag, consistent with the estimated ages. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic tool to analyse colour-magnitude diagrams of poorly populated stellar concentrations

The dynamical processes that lead to open cluster disruption cause its mass to decrease. To investigate such processes from the observational point of view, it is important to identify open cluster remnants (OCRs), which are intrinsically poorly populated. Due to their nature, distinguishing them from field star fluctuations is still an unresolved issue. In this work, we developed a statistical diagnostic tool to distinguish poorly populated star concentrations from background field fluctuations. We use 2MASS photometry to explore one of the conditions required for a stellar group to be a physical group: to produce distinct sequences in a colour-magnitude diagram (CMD). We use automated tools to (i) derive the limiting radius; (ii) decontaminate the field and assign membership probabilities; (iii) fit isochrones; and (iv) compare object and field CMDs, considering the isochrone solution, in order to verify the similarity. If the object cannot be statistically considered as a field fluctuation, we derive its probable age, distance modulus, reddening and uncertainties in a self-consistent way. As a test, we apply the tool to open clusters and comparison fields. Finally, we study the OCR candidates DoDz 6, NGC 272, ESO 435 SC48 and ESO 325 SC15. The tool is optimized to treat these low-statistic objects and to separate the best OCR candidates for studies on kinematics and chemical composition. The study of the possible OCRs will certainly provide a deep understanding of OCR properties and constraints for theoretical models, including insights into the evolution of open clusters and dissolution rates.

VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV): The public ESO near-IR variability survey of the Milky Way

We describe the public ESO near-IR variability survey (VVV) scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. The survey will take 1929 h of observations with the 4-m VISTA telescope during 5 years (2010-2014), covering similar to 10(9) point sources across an area of 520 deg(2), including 33 known globular clusters and similar to 350 open clusters. The final product will be a deep near-IR atlas in five passbands (0.9-2.5 mu m) and a catalogue of more than 106 variable point sources. Unlike single-epoch surveys that, in most cases, only produce 2-D maps, the VVV variable star survey will enable the construction of a 3-D map of the surveyed region using well-understood distance indicators such as RR Lyrae stars, and Cepheids. It will yield important information on the ages of the populations. The observations will be combined with data from MACHO, OGLE, EROS, VST, Spitzer, HST, Chandra, INTEGRAL, WISE, Fermi LAT, XMM-Newton, GAIA and ALMA for a complete understanding of the variable sources in the inner Milky Way. This public survey will provide data available to the whole community and therefore will enable further studies of the history of the Milky Way, its globular cluster evolution, and the population census of the Galactic Bulge and center, as well as the investigations of the star forming regions in the disk. The combined variable star catalogues will have important implications for theoretical investigations of pulsation properties of stars. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Probing the Large Magellanic Cloud age gap at intermediate cluster masses

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has a rich star cluster system spanning a wide range of ages and masses. One striking feature of the LMC cluster system is the existence of an age gap between 3 and 10 Gyr. But this feature is not clearly seen among field stars. Three LMC fields containing relatively poor and sparse clusters whose integrated colours are consistent with those of intermediate-age simple stellar populations have been imaged in BVI with the Optical Imager (SOI) at the Southern Telescope for Astrophysical Research (SOAR). A total of six clusters, five of them with estimated initial masses M < 104 M(circle dot), were studied in these fields. Photometry was performed and colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) were built using standard point spread function fitting methods. The faintest stars measured reach V similar to 23. The CMD was cleaned from field contamination by making use of the three-dimensional colour and magnitude space available in order to select stars in excess relative to the field. A statistical CMD comparison method was developed for this purpose. The subtraction method has proven to be successful, yielding cleaned CMDs consistent with a simple stellar population. The intermediate-age candidates were found to be the oldest in our sample, with ages between 1 and 2 Gyr. The remaining clusters found in the SOAR/SOI have ages ranging from 100 to 200 Myr. Our analysis has conclusively shown that none of the relatively low-mass clusters studied by us belongs to the LMC age gap.

Chemically tagging the Hyades stream: does it partly originate from the Hyades cluster?

The Hyades stream has long been thought to be a dispersed vestige of the Hyades cluster. However, recent analyses of the parallax distribution, of the mass function, and of the action-space distribution of stream stars have shown it to be rather composed of orbits trapped at a resonance of a density disturbance. This resonant scenario should leave a clearly different signature in the element abundances of stream stars than the dispersed cluster scenario, since the Hyades cluster is chemically homogeneous. Here, we study the metallicity as well as the element abundances of Li, Na, Mg, Fe, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Nd and Eu for a random sample of stars belonging to the Hyades stream, and compare them with those of stars from the Hyades cluster. From this analysis: (i) we independently confirm that the Hyades stream cannot be solely composed of stars originating in the Hyades cluster; (ii) we show that some stars (namely 2/21) from the Hyades stream nevertheless have abundances compatible with an origin in the cluster; (iii) we emphasize that the use of Li as a chemical tag of the cluster origin of main-sequence stars is very efficient in the range 5500 K <= T(eff) <= 6200 K, since the Li sequence in the Hyades cluster is very tight, while at the same time spanning a large abundance range; (iv) we show that, while this evaporated population has a metallicity excess of similar to 0.2 dex with respect to the local thin-disc population, identical to that of the Hyades cluster, the remainder of the Hyades stream population has still a metallicity excess of similar to 0.06-0.15 dex, consistent with an origin in the inner Galaxy and (v) we show that the Hyades stream can be interpreted as an inner 4:1 resonance of the spiral pattern: this then also reproduces an orbital family compatible with the Sirius stream, and places the origin of the Hyades stream up to 1 kpc inwards from the solar radius, which might explain the observed metallicity excess of the stream population.

Possible signature of hypernova nucleosynthesis in a beryllium-rich halo dwarf

As part of a large survey of halo and thick disc stars, we found one halo star, HD106038, exceptionally overabundant in beryllium. In spite of its low metallicity, [Fe/H] = -1.26, the star has log(Be/H) = -10.60, which is similar to the solar meteoritic abundance, log(Be/H)=-10.58. This abundance is more than 10 times higher the abundance of stars with similar metallicity and cannot be explained by models of chemical evolution of the Galaxy that include the standard theory of cosmic ray spallation. No other halo star exhibiting such a beryllium overabundance is known. In addition, overabundances of Li, Si, Ni, Y and Ba are also observed. We suggest that all these chemical peculiarities, excepting the Ba abundance, can be simultaneously explained if the star was formed in the vicinity of a hypernova.

A Community-based Survey of Human Toxoplasmosis in Rural Amazonia: Seroprevalence, Seroconversion Rate, and Associated Risk Factors

IgG antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii were detected in, March-April 2004, in 65.8% (95% confidence interval, 60.8-70.8%) of 342 systematically sampled subjects 5-90 years of age (87.5% of the eligible) living in a rural settlement in Amazonia, with a seroconversion rate of 9% over I year of follow-up of 99 seronegative subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified age as the only significant independent predictor of seropositivity at the baseline. Each additional year of age increases the odds of being seropositive by 6%, and 76.8% of the subjects are expected to be seropositive at 30 years of age. A single high-prevalence spatial cluster, comprising 11.9% of the seropositive subjects, was detected in the area; households in the cluster were less likely to have dogs as pets and their heads had a lower education level, when compared with households located outside the cluster. The challenges for preventing human toxoplasmosis in tropical rural settings are discussed.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and personality disorder - Evidence from the British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity 2000

Background Previous studies indicate that most individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have comorbid personality disorders (PDs), particularly from the anxious cluster. However, the nature and strength of this association remains unclear, as the majority of previous studies have relied heavily on clinical populations. We analysed the prevalence of screen positive personality disorder in a representative sample of adults with OCD living in private households in the UK. Methods A secondary analysis of data from the 2000 British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity. The prevalence of PD, as determined by the SCID-II questionnaire, was compared in participants with OCD, with other neuroses and non-neurotic controls. Within the OCD group we also analysed possible differences relating to sex and subtypes of the disorder. Results the prevalence of any screen positive PD in the OCD group (N = 108) was 74%, significantly greater than in both control groups. The most common screen positive categories were paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, schizoid and schizotypal. Compared to participants with other neuroses, OCD cases were more likely to screen positively for paranoid, avoidant, schizotypal, dependent and narcissistic PDs. Men with OCD were more likely to screen positively for PDs in general, cluster A PDs, antisocial, obsessive-compulsive and narcissistic categories. The presence of comorbid neuroses in people with OCD had no significant effect on the prevalence of PD. Conclusions Personality pathology is highly prevalent among people with OCD who are living in the community and should be routinely assessed, as it may affect help-seeking behaviour and response to treatment.

Incidence of self-reported hearing loss and associated risk factors among the elderly in São Paulo, Brazil: the SABE survey

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

Aquatic macrophytes of Itaipu Reservoir, Brazil: Survey of species and ecological considerations

In a survey of the aquatic macrophytes of the Itaipu Reservoir, we identified 62 taxa in 25 families and 42 genera. The highest number taxa was observed for the emergent macrophytes (40 taxa). Reduced fluctuation in water level, increased light penetration, and sediment enrichment by nutrients and organic matter following the formation of the reservoir favored the appearance of a species-rich community of submerged macrophytes (23% of the taxa identified). The aquatic macrophytes were found mainly near the mouths of the main tributaries of the reservoir, in shallow area of depth less than 2 meters. In addition to the shallow depth, the greater nutrient input from the tributaries and relative protection from wind explained this distribution. Among the species found, Egeria najas merits mention for its occurrence in all localities sampled, with biomass values varying between 98 and 186 gDW/m2. Some potential nuisance species such as Eichhornia crassipes, Salvinia auriculata, and Pistia stratiotes also deserve attention, since they were also observed to be covering large areas of Itaipu Reservoir. © 1999, Paraná Institute of Technology Publication.

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2007-2008: Macroeconomic policy and volatility

Includes bibliography

Inovação no desenvolvimento de produtos em cluster industrial: Práticas do setor moveleiro de votuporanga

It is notorious that the cluster formation is a possibility for micro, small and medium companies to become more competitive. This research therefore aims to analyze leading practices for product innovation in companies belonging to the cluster of Votuporanga, which is the largest furniture industry in production and exporting of São Paulo state. Therefore, we conducted a survey research and data were collected from 61 furniture companies in the region of Votuporanga-SP. Among the main results it is observed that the incremental innovation of products is a central characteristic between the companies in cluster and there is little collaboration for the joint development of products from these companies with external agents such as research institutes, universities and even suppliers.

Lycopene-rich tomato oleoresin modulates plasma adiponectin concentration and mRNA levels of adiponectin, SIRT1, and FoxO1 in adipose tissue of obese rats

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

Innovation in industrial clusters: a survey of footwear companies in Brazil

The aim of this study is to characterize the relationships in innovation and business clustering processes in the productive chain of small and medium enterprises (SME) of Brazil. The object of study are SMEs the local procuctive cluster of the shoes in Franca, State of São Paulo. The conceptual model developed is based on the following constructs: vertical integration, innovation and characteristics of the cluster, and it is focused on identifying the agents that act predominantly in product innovation processes in the cluster. A survey was conducted. It was found that there is cooperation between the companies in the productive arrangement studied, and that shoe manufacturers are those who, predominantly, stimulate innovation within the cluster.