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Biowaste from slaughterhouses can be recovered to benefit food security and reduce contamination potential. More than 3 billion heads of livestock are consumed worldwide, which will increase by 17% by 2028, generating more biowaste, increasing infectious agents, and causing economic losses due to circular economy principles not being applied. This work evaluated the nutritional quality of four types of biowaste from bovine slaughter which were transformed into a meal for guinea pigs (rumen content (RCM), ears (EaM), blood (BM), and cheeks (CM)) according to their chemical composition, digestible components, energy contribution, and voluntary consumption. For the animal model, adult male guinea pigs were arranged in metabolic cages for feces collection without urinary contamination. Nine guinea pigs were used in each digestibility test. First, a direct digestibility test was conducted using a meal of barley as a reference diet (RD), the indigestibility coefficient of which allowed for the estimation of the digestibility of biowaste meals through indirect calculations; for this, diets composed of 80% of the RD and 20% of the corresponding biowaste meals were evaluated. The difference method was suitable for determining the digestibility of beef biowaste using the indigestibility coefficients of the reference diet to calculate the digestibility of ingredients which could not be offered as 100% of the meal but were incorporated as 20%. The digestible protein and metabolizable energy contents of RCM, EaM, BM, and CM were 10.2% and 2853 kcal/kg, 44.5% and 3325 kcal/kg, 70.7% and 2583 kcal/kg, and 80.8% and 3386 kcal/kg, respectively. The CM and BM feeds had the highest contributions of digestible protein due to their higher nitrogen content, and the CM and EaM feeds had the highest ME contents due to their higher fat contents. The biowaste meal consumption in descending order was CM > RCM > EaM > BM, which were consumed without problems. These results are indicative that these components can be part of guinea pigs' diets, and it is recommended to continue studies into guinea pig growth and fattening diets with different levels of these biowaste meals.
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In the wake of emergent natural and anthropogenic disasters, telehealth presents opportunities to improve access to healthcare when physical access is not possible. Yet, since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, lessons learned reveal that various populations in the United States do not or cannot adopt telehealth due to inequitable access. We explored the Digital Determinants of Health (DDoHs) for telehealth, characterizing the role of accessibility, broadband connectivity and electrical grids, and patient intersectionality. In addition to its role as an existing Social Determinant of Health, Policies and Laws directly and indirectly affect these DDoHs, making access more complex for marginalized populations. Digital systems lack the flexibility, accessibility, and usability to inclusively provide the essential services patients need in telehealth. We propose the following recommendations: (1) design technology and systems using accessibility and value sensitive design principles; (2) support a range of technologies and settings; (3) support multiple and diverse users; and (4) support clear paths for repair when technical systems fail to meet users' needs. Addressing these requires change not only from providers but also from the institutions providing these systems.
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Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields change rapidly and are increasingly interdisciplinary. Commonly, STEMM practitioners use short-format training (SFT) such as workshops and short courses for upskilling and reskilling, but unaddressed challenges limit SFT's effectiveness and inclusiveness. Education researchers, students in SFT courses, and organizations have called for research and strategies that can strengthen SFT in terms of effectiveness, inclusiveness, and accessibility across multiple dimensions. This paper describes the project that resulted in a consensus set of 14 actionable recommendations to systematically strengthen SFT. A diverse international group of 30 experts in education, accessibility, and life sciences came together from 10 countries to develop recommendations that can help strengthen SFT globally. Participants, including representation from some of the largest life science training programs globally, assembled findings in the educational sciences and encompassed the experiences of several of the largest life science SFT programs. The 14 recommendations were derived through a Delphi method, where consensus was achieved in real time as the group completed a series of meetings and tasks designed to elicit specific recommendations. Recommendations cover the breadth of SFT contexts and stakeholder groups and include actions for instructors (e.g., make equity and inclusion an ethical obligation), programs (e.g., centralize infrastructure for assessment and evaluation), as well as organizations and funders (e.g., professionalize training SFT instructors; deploy SFT to counter inequity). Recommendations are aligned with a purpose-built framework-"The Bicycle Principles"-that prioritizes evidenced-based teaching, inclusiveness, and equity, as well as the ability to scale, share, and sustain SFT. We also describe how the Bicycle Principles and recommendations are consistent with educational change theories and can overcome systemic barriers to delivering consistently effective, inclusive, and career-spanning SFT.
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Estudantes , Tecnologia , Humanos , Consenso , EngenhariaRESUMO
In-person undergraduate research experiences (UREs) promote students' integration into careers in life science research. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted institutions hosting summer URE programs to offer them remotely, raising questions about whether undergraduates who participate in remote research can experience scientific integration and whether they might perceive doing research less favorably (i.e., not beneficial or too costly). To address these questions, we examined indicators of scientific integration and perceptions of the benefits and costs of doing research among students who participated in remote life science URE programs in Summer 2020. We found that students experienced gains in scientific self-efficacy pre- to post-URE, similar to results reported for in-person UREs. We also found that students experienced gains in scientific identity, graduate and career intentions, and perceptions of the benefits of doing research only if they started their remote UREs at lower levels on these variables. Collectively, students did not change in their perceptions of the costs of doing research despite the challenges of working remotely. Yet students who started with low cost perceptions increased in these perceptions. These findings indicate that remote UREs can support students' self-efficacy development, but may otherwise be limited in their potential to promote scientific integration.
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COVID-19 , Estudantes , Humanos , PandemiasRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To test a real-life sample pooling screening strategy which contributes to increasing the diagnostic capacity of clinical laboratories and expanding access to massive screening of hepatitis C. METHODS: After evaluating the sensitivity of the pooling strategy for seven different commercial assays which are used to determine the concentration of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA in the plasma or serum, consecutive samples submitted for HCV diagnosis during the first 3 weeks of November 2021 were tested for HCV antibodies and, in parallel and in a blinded way, were pooled into 100 samples and tested for HCV-RNA. When the result was positive, a strategy to un-mask the positive(s) pool(s), which needed up to 15 total HCV-RNA tests, was used. RESULTS: All platforms were able to detect the presence of HCV-RNA in a single sample from a patient with viremic HCV present in pools of up to at least 10 000 HCV-RNA-free samples. A total of 1700 samples (17 pools) were analysed, with an overall prevalence of anti-HCV and HCV-RNA of 0.24%. After pooling, we could detect all samples previously detected using standard diagnosis tests (reflex testing) with a specificity and sensitivity of 100% (CI, 99.78-100%). Given the median current prices of anti-HCV and HCV-RNA on the market in Spain as well as personnel costs, testing using the pooling strategy would have resulted in a save of 3320. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we demonstrated that by improving cost effectiveness, with no loss of sensitivity and specificity, the strategy of pooling samples may serve as an appropriate tool for use in large-scale screening of HCV.
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Hepacivirus , Hepatite C , Humanos , Hepacivirus/genética , Programas de Rastreamento/métodos , Hepatite C/epidemiologia , Sensibilidade e Especificidade , Plasma , RNA Viral/genética , Anticorpos Anti-Hepatite CRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The implementation of reflex testing of active hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, together with the incorporation of informative alerts in the reports, has shown that it significantly reduces the number of patients who were not referred for therapeutic evaluation. METHODS: Since the implementation in 2018 of the DUSP in the Microbiology Services of the Galician Health Service hospitals (SERGAS), new diagnoses of active HCV infection have been retrospectively identified and characterized. RESULTS: In 2018, a total of 258 patients with unknown active HCV infection (70,2% men, middle age 52 years) were identified through by reflex testing from consultations of primary and specialized care units in 54.8% and 39.8% respectively, as well as from other locations by 5.4%. Of the 258 patients, 81.0% were referred for therapeutic evaluation, with a median of 54 days from their diagnosis. In 58.3% of the cases the reflex testing was determined by viral load, the predominant genotype was 1a (30,7%) and 52,1% were treated, observing sustained viral response (SVR) in 93.7 % of these. CONCLUSION: The generalized implementation of the HCV reflex testing together with informative alerts in Galicia has allowed us to obtain referral rates for treatment similar to those obtained in other studies. However, there is a wide variability between the different centers that require the incorporation of improvements, such as training or the use of rescue measures for optimization.
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Hepacivirus , Hepatite C , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Masculino , Humanos , Feminino , Hepacivirus/genética , Estudos Retrospectivos , Hepatite C/diagnóstico , Hepatite C/tratamento farmacológico , Carga Viral , ReflexoRESUMO
Here, we report the genome sequences of Rhizobium gallicum M101, Rhizobium sp. strain C104, and Rhizobium sp. strain K102. These bacteria were isolated from three locations in Manitoba, Canada. The M101 genome meets the criteria for R. gallicum based on average nucleotide identity and DNA-DNA hybridization; the genomes of C104 and K102 are below the thresholds to be matched to known type strains.
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Circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) are important components of the HIV-1 pandemic. Those derived from recombination between subtype B and subsubtype F1, with 18 reported, most of them of South American origin, are among the most diverse. In this study, we identified a HIV-1 BF1 recombinant cluster that is expanding in Spain, transmitted mainly via heterosexual contact, which, analyzed in near full-length genomes in four viruses, exhibited a coincident BF1 mosaic structure, with 12 breakpoints, that fully coincided with that of two viruses (10BR_MG003 and 10BR_MG005) from Brazil, previously classified as CRF72_BF1. The three remaining Brazilian viruses (10BR_MG002, 10BR_MG004, and 10BR_MG008) previously identified as CRF72_BF1 exhibited mosaic structures highly similar, but not identical, to that of the Spanish viruses and to 10BR_MG003 and 10BR_MG005, with discrepant subtypes in two short genome segments, located in pol and gp120env. Based on these results, we propose that the five viruses from Brazil previously identified as CRF72_BF1 actually belong to two closely related CRFs, one comprising 10BR_MG002, 10BR_MG004, and 10BR_MG008, which keep their CRF72_BF1 designation, and the other, designated CRF122_BF1, comprising 10BR_MG003, 10BR_MG005, and the viruses of the identified Spanish cluster. Three other BF1 recombinant genomes, two from Brazil and one from Italy, previously identified as unique recombinant forms, were classified as CRF72_BF1. CRF122_BF1, but not CRF72_BF1, was associated with protease L89M substitution, which was reported to contribute to antiretroviral drug resistance. Phylodynamic analyses estimate the emergence of CRF122_BF1 in Brazil around 1987. Given their close phylogenetic relationship and similar structures, the grouping of CRF72_BF1 and CRF122_BF1 in a CRF family is proposed.
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The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the United States. A group of 23 colleges, universities, and research institutes hosted remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during Summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote programs, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate them. Using structured templates, we documented how programs were designed and implemented, including who participated. Through focus groups and surveys, we identified programmatic strengths and shortcomings as well as recommendations for improvements from students' perspectives. Strengths included the quality of mentorship, opportunities for learning and professional development, and a feeling of connection with a larger community. Weaknesses included limited cohort building, challenges with insufficient structure, and issues with technology. Although all programs had one or more activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, these topics were largely absent from student reports even though programs coincided with a peak in national consciousness about racial inequities and structural racism. Our results provide evidence for designing remote Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) that are experienced favorably by students. Our results also indicate that remote REUs are sufficiently positive to further investigate their affordances and constraints, including the potential to scale up offerings, with minimal concern about disenfranchising students.
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COVID-19 , Humanos , Pandemias , SARS-CoV-2 , Estudantes , Racismo Sistêmico , Estados UnidosRESUMO
Over a typical lifespan, the amount of time people spend each day sleeping decreases. Sleep patterns also change as people age. Sleep disorders are common among persons of all ages, and older adults are particularly vulnerable. Development of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, is associated with pronounced sleep disruption. This article provides evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and clinical management of sleep disorders that occur during the course of treatment of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The article presents novel interventions and future directions for clinical practice and sleep research, and addresses diversity and inclusivity.
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Doença de Alzheimer/complicações , Demência/complicações , Transtornos do Sono-Vigília/etiologia , Doença de Alzheimer/epidemiologia , Demência/epidemiologia , Humanos , Transtornos do Sono-Vigília/epidemiologiaRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The implementation of reflex testing of active hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, together with the incorporation of informative alerts in the reports, has shown that it significantly reduces the number of patients who were not referred for therapeutic evaluation. METHODS: Since the implementation in 2018 of the DUSP in the microbiology services of the Galician Health Service hospitals (SERGAS), new diagnoses of active HCV infection have been retrospectively identified and characterized. RESULTS: In 2018, a total of 258 patients with unknown active HCV infection (70,2% men, middle age 52 years) were identified through by reflex testing from consultations of primary and specialized care units in 54.8% and 39.8% respectively, as well as from other locations by 5.4%. Of the 258 patients, 81.0% were referred for therapeutic evaluation, with a median of 54 days from their diagnosis. In 58.3% of the cases the reflex testing was determined by viral load, the predominant genotype was 1a (30,7%) and 52,1% were treated, observing sustained viral response in 93.7% of these. CONCLUSION: The generalized implementation of the HCV reflex testing together with informative alerts in Galicia has allowed us to obtain referral rates for treatment similar to those obtained in other studies. However, there is a wide variability between the different centers that require the incorporation of improvements, such as training or the use of rescue measures for optimization.
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OBJECTIVE: Information gaps that accompany hurricanes and floods limit researchers' ability to determine the impact of disasters on population health. Defining key use cases for sharing complex disaster data with research communities and facilitators, and barriers to doing so are key to promoting population health research for disaster recovery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods needs assessment with 15 population health researchers using interviews and card sorting. Interviews examined researchers' information needs by soliciting barriers and facilitators in the context of their expertise and research practices. Card sorting ranked priority use cases for disaster preparedness. RESULTS: Seven barriers and 6 facilitators emerged from interviews. Barriers to collaborative research included process limitations, collaboration dynamics, and perception of research importance. Barriers to data and technology adoption included data gaps, limitations in information quality, transparency issues, and difficulty to learn. Facilitators to collaborative research included collaborative engagement and human resource processes. Facilitators to data and technology adoption included situation awareness, data quality considerations, adopting community standards, and attractive to learn. Card sorting prioritized 15 use cases and identified 30 additional information needs for population health research in disaster preparedness. CONCLUSIONS: Population health researchers experience barriers to collaboration and adoption of data and technology that contribute to information gaps and limit disaster preparedness. The priority use cases we identified can help address information gaps by informing the design of supportive research tools and practices for disaster preparedness. Supportive tools should include information on data collection practices, quality assurance, and education resources usable during failures in electric or telecommunications systems.
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Tempestades Ciclônicas , Planejamento em Desastres , Inundações , Pesquisa sobre Serviços de Saúde/organização & administração , Análise de Dados , Humanos , Saúde da População , PesquisadoresRESUMO
Bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was incorporated into the childhood vaccination calendar in Galicia, Spain in 2008. The objectives of this study were to estimate direct, indirect and total effectiveness of HPV vaccine and to identify sexual habits changes in the post-vaccination period in Galicia, Spain.Endocervical scrapings of 745 women attending 7 Health Areas of the Galician Public Health Service were collected in the post-vaccination period, from 2014-2017. Two groups were studied: women born between 1989 and 1993 (n = 397) and women born in 1994 or later (n = 348). Twelve high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) genotypes were detected by Cobas® 4800 HPV test (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). The Linear Array® HPV Genotyping Test (Roche Diagnostics) was used for HR-HPV genotype detection other than HPV 16/18. Information about sexual habits was collected by a self-filled questionnaire. Post-vaccination data were compared to previously published pre-vaccination data obtained between 2008 and 2010 in Galicia from women of the same age (18-26 years old, n = 523). The Stata 14.2 software was employed for statistical analyses.Data from 392 unvaccinated and 353 vaccinated women were compared. For unvaccinated and vaccinated women, HPV 16/18 prevalence was 9.2% and 0.8%, respectively, and HPV 31/33/45 prevalence was 8.4% and 1.1%, respectively. Direct, indirect and total effectiveness of the HPV vaccine were (%, 95% CI): 94 (72-99), 30 (-11-56) and 95 (79-99), respectively, for HPV 16/18 and 83 (46-94), -10 (-88-33) and 84 (54-94), respectively, for HPV 31/33/45. The number of women with first intercourse before 17 years old and 3 or more sexual partners along life was higher in the post-vaccination period (p < 0.05). A positive impact of bivalent HPV vaccine was observed, both on direct and cross protection. Sexual habits could have changed in the post-vaccination period.
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Alphapapillomavirus/classificação , Técnicas de Genotipagem/métodos , Infecções por Papillomavirus/epidemiologia , Vacinas contra Papillomavirus/administração & dosagem , Avaliação de Programas e Projetos de Saúde/métodos , Adulto , Alphapapillomavirus/genética , Alphapapillomavirus/isolamento & purificação , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Feminino , Humanos , Vacinação em Massa , Infecções por Papillomavirus/prevenção & controle , Gravidez , Prevalência , Kit de Reagentes para Diagnóstico , Comportamento Sexual , Espanha , Inquéritos e Questionários , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Sinorhizobium meliloti is a Gram-negative alphaproteobacterium that can enter into a symbiotic relationship with Medicago sativa and Medicago truncatula Previous work determined that a mutation in the tkt2 gene, which encodes a putative transketolase, could prevent medium acidification associated with a mutant strain unable to metabolize galactose. Since the pentose phosphate pathway in S. meliloti is not well studied, strains carrying mutations in either tkt2 and tal, which encodes a putative transaldolase, were characterized. Carbon metabolism phenotypes revealed that both mutants were impaired in growth on erythritol and ribose. This phenotype was more pronounced for the tkt2 mutant strain, which also displayed auxotrophy for aromatic amino acids. Changes in pentose phosphate pathway metabolite concentrations were also consistent with a mutation in either tkt2 or tal The concentrations of metabolites in central carbon metabolism were also found to shift dramatically in strains carrying a tkt2 mutation. While the concentrations of proteins involved in central carbon metabolism did not change significantly under any conditions, the levels of those associated with iron acquisition increased in the wild-type strain with erythritol induction. These proteins were not detected in either mutant, resulting in less observable rhizobactin production in the tkt2 mutant. While both mutants were impaired in succinoglycan synthesis, only the tkt2 mutant strain was unable to establish symbiosis with alfalfa. These results suggest that tkt2 and tal play central roles in regulating the carbon flow necessary for carbon metabolism and the establishment of symbiosis.IMPORTANCESinorhizobium meliloti is a model organism for the study of plant-microbe interactions and metabolism, especially because it effects nitrogen fixation. The ability to derive the energy necessary for nitrogen fixation is dependent on an organism's ability to metabolize carbon efficiently. The pentose phosphate pathway is central in the interconversion of hexoses and pentoses. This study characterizes the key enzymes of the nonoxidative branch of the pentose phosphate pathway by using defined genetic mutations and shows the effects the mutations have on the metabolite profile and on physiological processes such as the biosynthesis of exopolysaccharide, as well as the ability to regulate iron acquisition.
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Carbono/metabolismo , Mutação , Via de Pentose Fosfato/genética , Sinorhizobium meliloti/genética , Proteínas de Bactérias/metabolismo , Eritritol/metabolismo , Medicago sativa/microbiologia , Medicago truncatula/microbiologia , Fixação de Nitrogênio , Fenótipo , Raízes de Plantas/microbiologia , Sinorhizobium meliloti/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Sinorhizobium meliloti/metabolismo , Simbiose , Transcetolase/genéticaAssuntos
Esporotricose/diagnóstico , Doença Relacionada a Viagens , Idoso , Braço , Feminino , Humanos , Esporotricose/patologiaRESUMO
The high frequency data in intensive care unit is flashed on a screen for a few seconds and never used again. However, this data can be used by machine learning and data mining techniques to predict patient outcomes. Learning finite-state transducers (FSTs) have been widely used in problems where sequences need to be manipulated and insertions, deletions and substitutions need to be modeled. In this paper, we learned the edit distance costs of a symbolic univariate time series representation through a stochastic finite-state transducer to predict patient outcomes in intensive care units. The Nearest-Neighbor method with these learned costs was used to classify the patient status within an hour after 10 h of data. Several experiments were developed to estimate the parameters that better fit the model regarding the prediction metrics. Our best results are compared with published works, where most of the metrics (i.e., Accuracy, Precision and F-measure) were improved.
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Many laboratories are working to develop in vitro models that will replace in vivo tests, but occasionally there remains a regulatory expectation of some in vivo testing. Historically, cigarettes have been tested in vivo for 90 days. Recently, methods to reduce and refine animal use have been explored. This study investigated the potential of reducing animal cigarette smoke (CS) exposure to 3 or 6 weeks, and the feasibility of separate lung lobes for histopathology or the Comet assay. Rats were exposed to sham air or CS (1 or 2 h) for 3 or 6 weeks. Respiratory tissues were processed for histopathological evaluation, and Alveolar type II cells (AEC II) isolated for the Comet assay. Blood was collected for Pig-a and micronucleus quantification. Histopathological analyses demonstrated exposure effects, which were generally dependent on CS dose (1 or 2 h, 5 days/week). Comet analysis identified that DNA damage increased in AEC II following 3 or 6 weeks CS exposure, and the level at 6 weeks was higher than 3 weeks. Pig-a mutation or micronucleus levels were not increased. In conclusion, this study showed that 3 weeks of CS exposure was sufficient to observe respiratory tract pathology and DNA damage in isolated AEC II. Differences between the 3 and 6 week data imply that DNA damage in the lung is cumulative. Reducing exposure time, plus analyzing separate lung lobes for DNA damage or histopathology, supports a strategy to reduce and refine animal use in tobacco product testing and is aligned to the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement).
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Pulmão/efeitos dos fármacos , Nicotiana/toxicidade , Fumaça/efeitos adversos , Testes de Toxicidade/métodos , Animais , Ensaio Cometa , Dano ao DNA , Feminino , Pulmão/patologia , Masculino , Proteínas de Membrana/metabolismo , Testes para Micronúcleos , Mutação , Ratos Sprague-Dawley , Projetos de Pesquisa , Produtos do Tabaco/toxicidadeRESUMO
We recently reported the rapid expansion of an HIV-1 subtype F cluster among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the region of Galicia, Northwest Spain. Here we update this outbreak, analyze near full-length genomes, determine phylogenetic relationships, and estimate its origin. For this study, we used sequences of HIV-1 protease-reverse transcriptase and env V3 region, and for 17 samples, near full-length genome sequences were obtained. Phylogenetic analyses were performed via maximum likelihood. Locations and times of most recent common ancestors were estimated using Bayesian inference. Among samples analyzed by us, 100 HIV-1 F1 subsubtype infections of monophyletic origin were diagnosed in Spain, including 88 in Galicia and 12 in four other regions. Most viruses (n = 90) grouped in a subcluster (Galician subcluster), while 7 from Valladolid (Central Spain) grouped in another subcluster. At least 94 individuals were sexually-infected males and at least 71 were MSM. Seventeen near full-length genomes were uniformly of F1 subsubtype. Through similarity searches and phylogenetic analyses, we identified 18 viruses from four other Western European countries [Switzerland (n = 8), Belgium (n = 5), France (n = 3), and United Kingdom (n = 2)] and one from Brazil, from samples collected in 2005-2011, which branched within the subtype F cluster, outside of both Spanish subclusters, most of them corresponding to recently infected individuals. The most probable geographic origin and age of the Galician subcluster was Ferrol, Northwest Galicia, around 2007, while the Western European cluster probably emerged in Switzerland around 2002. In conclusion, a recently expanded HIV-1 subtype F cluster, the largest non-subtype B cluster reported in Western Europe, continues to spread among MSM in Spain; this cluster is part of a larger cluster with a wide geographic circulation in diverse Western European countries.
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Infecções por HIV/epidemiologia , Infecções por HIV/virologia , HIV-1/classificação , HIV-1/genética , Homossexualidade Masculina , Filogenia , Filogeografia , Terapia Antirretroviral de Alta Atividade , Teorema de Bayes , Surtos de Doenças , Farmacorresistência Viral , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Genótipo , Infecções por HIV/tratamento farmacológico , Infecções por HIV/transmissão , HIV-1/efeitos dos fármacos , Humanos , Masculino , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Prevalência , Espanha/epidemiologiaRESUMO
Smoking is a cause of serious diseases, including lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and heart disease. DNA damage is thought to be one of the mechanisms by which cigarette smoke (CS) initiates disease in the lung. Indeed, CS induced DNA damage can be measured in vitro and in vivo. The potential of the Comet assay to measure DNA damage in isolated rat lung alveolar type II epithelial cells (AEC II) was explored as a means to include a genotoxicity end-point in rodent sub-chronic inhalation studies. In this study, published AEC II isolation methods were improved to yield viable cells suitable for use in the Comet assay. The improved method reduced the level of basal DNA damage and DNA repair in isolated AEC II. CS induced DNA damage could also be quantified in isolated cells following a single or 5 days CS exposure. In conclusion, the Comet assay has the potential to determine CS or other aerosol induced DNA damage in AEC II isolated from rodents used in sub-chronic inhalation studies.
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Separação Celular/métodos , Dano ao DNA/efeitos dos fármacos , Alvéolos Pulmonares/citologia , Alvéolos Pulmonares/efeitos dos fármacos , Fumaça/efeitos adversos , Produtos do Tabaco/efeitos adversos , Animais , Ensaio Cometa/métodos , Reparo do DNA/efeitos dos fármacos , Feminino , Pulmão/citologia , Pulmão/efeitos dos fármacos , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-Dawley , Fumar/efeitos adversosRESUMO
Sperm analysis is one of the end points in reproductive toxicology studies. Different methods for quantitative sperm analysis have been described. For qualitative morphological sperm analysis, either such techniques or smears of sperm and histological sperm staging are in use. Any of these methods provides morphological results on a light microscopy level. Laser scanning microscopy is a technique using a focused laser for scanning an object. The Olympus 3D Laser Scanning Microscope LEXT OLS4000 with optional possibilities of differential interference contrast provides a microscopic method for visualizing microasperities, which are far beyond the resolving power of a typical light or laser microscope. This technique was applied to sperm of mice, rats, rabbits, and cynomolgus monkeys at magnifications up to ×17 090. The obtained images are comparable to those of a scanning electron microscope under relatively low-power magnifications. Measurements on sperm parameters were taken by an integrated image analysis software tool. Abnormalities were easily detectable.