Two-year follow-up study of elderly residents in S. Paulo, Brazil: methodology and preliminary results.

INTRODUCTION: Previous cross-sectional studies have shown a high prevalence of chronic disease and disability among the elderly. Given Brazil's rapid aging process and the obvious consequences of the growing number of old people with chronic diseases and associated disabilities for the provision of health services, a need was felt for a study that would overcome the limitations of cross-sectional data and shed some light on the main factors determining whether a person will live longer and free of disabling diseases, the so-called successful aging. The methodology of the first follow-up study of elderly residents in Brazil is presented. METHOD: The profile of the initial cohort is compared with previous cross-sectional data and an in-depth analysis of nonresponse is carried out in order to assess the validity of future longitudinal analysis. The EPIDOSO ('Epidemiologia do Idoso') Study conducted a two-year follow-up of 1,667 elderly people (65+), living in S. Paulo. The study consisted of two waves, each consisting of household, clinical, and biochemical surveys. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In general, the initial cohort showed a similar profile to previous cross-sectional samples in S. Paulo. There was a majority of women, mostly widows, living in multigenerational households, and a high prevalence of chronic illnesses, psychiatric disturbances, and physical disabilities. Despite all the difficulties inherent in follow-up studies, there was a fairly low rate of nonresponse to the household survey after two years, which did not actually affect the representation of the cohort at the final household assessment, making unbiased longitudinal analysis possible. Concerning the clinical and blood sampling surveys, the respondents tended to be younger and less disabled than the nonrespondents, limiting the use of the clinical and laboratory data to longitudinal analysis aimed at a healthier cohort. It is worth mentioning that gender, education, family support, and socioeconomic status were not important determinants of nonresponse, as is often the case.

Gender relations, the gendered division of labour and health: the case of the women factory workers of Rio Tinto, northeast Brazil, 1924-91.

PIP: This article examines gendered work-health relationships among female factory workers in Rio Tinto, a textile factory town in Brazil. The author draws on her own and her parents' experiences as factory workers and as residents of Rio Tinto. In addition, she gathered research during 1982-86 and 1988-93, interviewing 30 female and 12 male workers. Findings from 1924-58 and 1959-91 indicate that the family structure and work process were interlinked. Self-images are construed to be the intersection of social relations of sex and class, psychopathology, and the concept of work positions. Gendered relations are a social construction, and awareness of these relations is based on a hierarchy and form of power based on a gendered division of labor. Gendered relations arise out of a specific historical context. Social practices reflect the relationship between sexual division of labor and gendered social relations, their modalities, shape, and periodization. The work-health relationship is expressed in the gendered technical organization of work, the gendered socialization of work, and domestic labor. The period of 1917-58 reflects the capitalist influences. When women became wage earners, their management of household tasks was changed. Men took over the heavy tasks, and women performed tasks that required skill and patience. Work-related health impacts, such as deformed knees or severed fingers, and accidents varied with the task. Women adapted to work conditions. During the 1940s, female workers refused to join the collective protests of men for better wages and conditions. The dream of progress faded by 1964. After 1959, new gendered relations of production and reproduction emerged. Labor laws were passed; new machines were introduced. During 1965-70, the health issues were headaches, irritability, and anxiety. 1970-91 brought a hollowness of spirit and the search for an explanation for the violence they had experienced.^ieng

HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 haplotype frequencies in Piauí's volunteer bone marrow donors enrolled at the Brazilian registry.

This study aimed to report the antigen and haplotype frequencies (HFs) of volunteer bone marrow donors (VBMDs) from the state of Piauí who were enrolled in the National Volunteer Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDOME). The research subjects were 21,943 volunteer bone marrow donors, predominantly young adult women (53.3%). The most frequent allelic group was HLA-A2, followed by -DRB1*13, -DRB1*04, -DRB1*07, -B*15, -B∗35, -B*44, -A*24 and -A*03. Of the 2,704 haplotypes observed, the three most frequent haplotypes were A*29 B*44 DRB1*07 (1.45%), A*01 B*08 DRB1*03 (1.4%) and A*03 B*07 DRB1*15 (0.92%). These three haplotypes were in linkage disequilibrium. PCA showed that 98% of the VBMDs have HLA allele frequencies that are very similar to those from Teresina, the capital city of Piauí. According to the PCA results, these municipalities are distributed with a close proximity to Teresina, which in turn has a close genetic proximity to the Hispanic ethnicity, intermediate proximity to Caucasians and Africans and a distant kinship to Amerindians. The hierarchical proximity of the population of Piauí to the Portuguese and Hispanic populations to shows the strong influence of the latter on the former.

Corn oil favours protease production by Streptomyces viridosporus T7A

Besides of being largely used for antibiotic production, streptomyces have also been pointed out as good producers of enzymes with industrial interest such as protease. In this work, the effect of corn oil on protease production by S. virisdoporus T7A was investigated as part of a wide project for microbial protease production. Culture media contained 0.65(per cent) yeast as nitrogen source, corn oil or corn oil combined with 0.65(per cent) glucose as carbone source, plus mineral salts. In both cases, corn oil used in three differents concentrations, 0.1, 0.5 and 1(per cent) (p/V). All experiments were carried out in agitated flasks at 37§C for 105 hours. Higher protease activty (52 U/L) was obtained in medium containing 0.65(per cent) glucose and 1.0(per cent) corn oil as carbon sources. Protease activity responded positively to the increase in the medium C/N ratio, i.e., to the increment in oil concentration. Our results also suggested that corn oil favours enzyme stability during the fermentation.