Contributions from the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

4, no.52-76

Hipertensão arterial e estilo de vida em Sinop, Município da Amazônia Legal

FUNDAMENTO: A hipertensão arterial apresenta alta prevalência e é um importante fator de risco cardiovascular. OBJETIVO: Estimar a prevalência da hipertensão arterial e sua associação com o estilo de vida. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal, de base populacional, por meio de inquérito domiciliar realizado em Sinop-MT (n = 690). A amostra da pesquisa foi obtida por amostragem simples em duas etapas. A pressão arterial foi aferida três vezes e para a análise, a média das duas últimas medidas. Considerou-se hipertensos aqueles que apresentaram PA > 140/90 mmHg e/ou que referiram uso de drogas anti-hipertensivas. A análise de regressão logística múltipla hierarquizada foi utilizada para testar a associação entre a hipertensão e as variáveis independentes. RESULTADOS: A prevalência de hipertensão arterial foi de 23,2% (IC 95%: 20,1 - 26,6). A única variável relacionada ao estilo de vida associada à hipertensão arterial foi o consumo de bebidas alcoólicas, sendo protetor para as mulheres que consumiam até 15 g de etanol/dia (OR = 0,49; IC 95%: 0,26 - 0,93) e deletério para os homens que consumiam mais de 30 g de etanol/dia (OR = 2,94; IC 95%: 1,28 - 6,77). CONCLUSÃO: A hipertensão arterial associou-se independentemente com o consumo de bebidas alcoólicas, entre homens e mulheres.

Approved Drug Products with Theurapeutic Equivalence Evaluation - 34th edition

The publication, Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (the List, commonly known as the Orange Book), identifies drug products approved on the basis of safety and effectiveness by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act). Drugs on the market approved only on the basis of safety (covered by the ongoing Drug Efficacy Study Implementation [DESI] review [e.g., Donnatal® Tablets and Librax® Capsules] or pre-1938 drugs [e.g., Phenobarbital Tablets]) are not included in this publication. The main criterion for the inclusion of any product is that the product is the subject of an application with an effective approval that has not been withdrawn for safety or efficacy reasons. Inclusion of products on the List is independent of any current regulatory action through administrative or judicial means against a drug product. In addition, the List contains therapeutic equivalence evaluations for approved multisource prescription drug products. These evaluations have been prepared to serve as public information and advice to state health agencies, prescribers, and pharmacists to promote public education in the area of drug product selection and to foster containment of health care costs. Therapeutic equivalence evaluations in this publication are not official FDA actions affecting the legal status of products under the Act.

Cardiovascular Research Publications from Latin America between 1999 and 2008. A Bibliometric Study

Background:Cardiovascular research publications seem to be increasing in Latin America overall.Objective:To analyze trends in cardiovascular publications and their citations from countries in Latin America between 1999 and 2008, and to compare them with those from the rest of the countries.Methods:We retrieved references of cardiovascular publications between 1999 and 2008 and their five-year post-publication citations from the Web of Knowledge database. For countries in Latin America, we calculated the total number of publications and their citation indices (total citations divided by number of publications) by year. We analyzed trends on publications and citation indices over time using Poisson regression models. The analysis was repeated for Latin America as a region, and compared with that for the rest of the countries grouped according to economic development.Results:Brazil (n = 6,132) had the highest number of publications in1999-2008, followed by Argentina (n = 1,686), Mexico (n = 1,368) and Chile (n = 874). Most countries showed an increase in publications over time, leaded by Guatemala (36.5% annually [95%CI: 16.7%-59.7%]), Colombia (22.1% [16.3%-28.2%]), Costa Rica (18.1% [8.1%-28.9%]) and Brazil (17.9% [16.9%-19.1%]). However, trends on citation indices varied widely (from -33.8% to 28.4%). From 1999 to 2008, cardiovascular publications of Latin America increased by 12.9% (12.1%-13.5%) annually. However, the citation indices of Latin America increased 1.5% (1.3%-1.7%) annually, a lower increase than those of all other country groups analyzed.Conclusions:Although the number of cardiovascular publications of Latin America increased from 1999 to 2008, trends on citation indices suggest they may have had a relatively low impact on the research field, stressing the importance of considering quality and dissemination on local research policies.

Multivariate Analysis for Animal Selection in Experimental Research

Background: Several researchers seek methods for the selection of homogeneous groups of animals in experimental studies, a fact justified because homogeneity is an indispensable prerequisite for casualization of treatments. The lack of robust methods that comply with statistical and biological principles is the reason why researchers use empirical or subjective methods, influencing their results. Objective: To develop a multivariate statistical model for the selection of a homogeneous group of animals for experimental research and to elaborate a computational package to use it. Methods: The set of echocardiographic data of 115 male Wistar rats with supravalvular aortic stenosis (AoS) was used as an example of model development. Initially, the data were standardized, and became dimensionless. Then, the variance matrix of the set was submitted to principal components analysis (PCA), aiming at reducing the parametric space and at retaining the relevant variability. That technique established a new Cartesian system into which the animals were allocated, and finally the confidence region (ellipsoid) was built for the profile of the animals’ homogeneous responses. The animals located inside the ellipsoid were considered as belonging to the homogeneous batch; those outside the ellipsoid were considered spurious. Results: The PCA established eight descriptive axes that represented the accumulated variance of the data set in 88.71%. The allocation of the animals in the new system and the construction of the confidence region revealed six spurious animals as compared to the homogeneous batch of 109 animals. Conclusion: The biometric criterion presented proved to be effective, because it considers the animal as a whole, analyzing jointly all parameters measured, in addition to having a small discard rate.

Network Meta-analysis to Synthesize Evidence for Decision Making in Cardiovascular Research

Abstract Clinical decision-making requires synthesis of evidence from literature reviews focused on a specific theme. Evidence synthesis is performed with qualitative assessments and systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials, typically covering statistical pooling with pairwise meta-analyses. These methods include adjusted indirect comparison meta-analysis, network meta-analysis, and mixed-treatment comparison. These tools allow synthesis of evidence and comparison of effectiveness in cardiovascular research.

Negotiating cultural values in bi-national relationships : a comparative research on children from German-Chinese families

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Geistes-, Sozial- und Erziehungswiss., Diss., 2012

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 20 (2001)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 7 (1988)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 2 (1982)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 17, no. 1-3 (1998)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 3 (1983)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 4 (1984)

Journal of shellfish research.

v. 6 (1987)