Social vulnerability: The connection between psychiatric disorders and thiamine deficiency in pregnant women.

The evaluation of thiamine and its derivative phosphate esters levels in pregnant women in rural communities can contribute not only for understanding the specific characteristics of this population regarding nutritional aspects, but also for clarifying the relations of psychiatric manifestations and a vitamin deficit. In the present work we assessed sociodemographic variables, psychiatric parameters and thiamine and its derivative in the whole blood of women in a rural, low-income community in Brazil. A case-control study was done. 94 women were divided in groups using the trimesters of pregnancy as a criterion: each trimester, 1st, 2nd and 3rd had 17, 37 and 38 women, respectively. A control group of non-pregnant women (n-39) was also included. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed using the HAMA Scale and Beck Inventory, respectively. The thiamine and its phosphorylated derivatives concentrations were determined in whole blood samples using the HPLC method. The results suggest that physiological mechanisms linked to the metabolic pathways of thiamine may play a role in some neurobiological substrate involved in the regulation of emotional state. Thus, social vulnerability is identified as an important factor to be considered in the evaluation of the mental health of pregnant women living in rural communities.

Effects of Vaccination Against the H1N1 Virus on BDNF and TNF-α Plasma Levels in Pregnant Women.

BACKGROUND: Vaccination is a widespread strategy to protect women and their children during fetal development. However, there is a lack of knowledge about potential effects of H1N1 vaccination on concentration of cytokines that are important to mother's central nervous system functions and fetal neurodevelopment. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of the present study was to evaluate such interaction. The specific goals were to study the effects of vaccination against the H1N1 virus on plasma levels of the Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF), Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) and TNF-α Receptors 1 and 2 (sTNFR1; sTNFR2), in different periods of gestation. METHODS: Data were obtained during the period of 6 months in 2010, from a sample of 94 pregnant women who were using the health care service of Conceição do Mato Dentro, a rural area in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Seventeen women were in the first trimester of pregnancy, forty were in the second trimester and 37 were in the third trimester. Each of these groups was divided into two subgroups as follows: immunized against the H1N1 virus (I) and non-immunized (NI). Plasma concentrations of BDNF, TNF-α, sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 were measured using the sandwich ELISA. RESULTS: There was no difference in cytokine or neurotrophic factor levels evaluated between groups I and NI in any trimesters. CONCLUSION: These results show that the recommendation of vaccination against the H1N1 virus for all pregnant women as a public health measure could be considered safe, regarding aspects related to the role played by neurotrophin and cytokine, such as those of CNS development and immunological functions.

Consistent declining trends in stroke mortality in Brazil: mission accomplished?

Stroke mortality rates are declining in Brazil, but diferences among regions need to be better investigated. The age-adjusted stroke mortality trends among adults (30-69 years-old) from Brazilian regions were studied between 1996 and 2011. Method Data were analyzed after: 1) reallocation of deaths with non-registered sex or age; 2) redistribution of garbage codes and 3) underreporting correction. A linear regression model with autoregressive errors and a state space model were fitted to the data, aiming the estimation of annual trends at every point in time. Results Although there were high values, a steady decrease of rates was observed. The decreasing trends among all regions were statistically significant, with higher values of decline among the Northeast and Northern regions, where rates were the highest. Conclusion Standardized methodology use is mandatory for correct interpretation of mortality estimates. Although declining, rates are still extremely high and efforts must be made towards prevention of stroke incidence, reduction of case-fatality rates and prevention of sequelae.

Consistent declining trends in stroke mortality in Brazil: mission accomplished? / Tendências decrescentes constantes na mortalidade por AVE no Brasil: missão cumprida?

ABSTRACT Stroke mortality rates are declining in Brazil, but diferences among regions need to be better investigated. The age-adjusted stroke mortality trends among adults (30-69 years-old) from Brazilian regions were studied between 1996 and 2011. Method Data were analyzed after: 1) reallocation of deaths with non-registered sex or age; 2) redistribution of garbage codes and 3) underreporting correction. A linear regression model with autoregressive errors and a state space model were fitted to the data, aiming the estimation of annual trends at every point in time. Results Although there were high values, a steady decrease of rates was observed. The decreasing trends among all regions were statistically significant, with higher values of decline among the Northeast and Northern regions, where rates were the highest. Conclusion Standardized methodology use is mandatory for correct interpretation of mortality estimates. Although declining, rates are still extremely high and efforts must be made towards prevention of stroke incidence, reduction of case-fatality rates and prevention of sequelae.

RESUMO Objetivos As taxas de mortalidade por acidente vascular encefálico (AVE) estão em declínio no Brasil, mas diferenças entre as regiões precisam ser melhor investigadas. Foram analisadas as tendências de mortalidade por AVE ajustadas por idade em adultos (30-69 anos) de regiões do Brasil, entre 1996 e 2011. Método Análise realizada após realocação dos óbitos sem registro de sexo ou idade; redistribuição de códigos mal definidos e correção do subregistro. Modelos de regressão linear e de espaço de estados foram utilizados visando estimativas de tendências anuais em todos pontos no tempo. Resultados Observou-se redução de cerca de 50% nas taxas de mortalidade em todas as regiões, para homens e mulheres, com maiores declínios nas regiões Norte e Nordeste, onde as taxas eram as mais elevadas. Conclusão Usar metodologia padronizada é fundamental para interpretação correta das estimativas de mortalidade. Esforços devem ser feitos para prevenção da incidência de AVE, redução das taxas de letalidade e prevenção de sequelas.

KOMODO: a web tool for detecting and visualizing biased distribution of groups of homologous genes in monophyletic taxa.

The enrichment analysis is a standard procedure to interpret 'omics' experiments that generate large gene lists as outputs, such as transcriptomics and protemics. However, despite the huge success of enrichment analysis in these classes of experiments, there is a surprising lack of application of this methodology to survey other categories of large-scale biological data available. Here, we report Kegg Orthology enrichMent-Online DetectiOn (KOMODO), a web tool to systematically investigate groups of monophyletic genomes in order to detect significantly enriched groups of homologous genes in one taxon when compared with another. The results are displayed in their proper biochemical roles in a visual, explorative way, allowing users to easily formulate and investigate biological hypotheses regarding the taxonomical distribution of genomic elements. We validated KOMODO by analyzing portions of central carbon metabolism in two taxa extensively studied regarding their carbon metabolism profile (Enterobacteriaceae family and Lactobacillales order). Most enzymatic activities significantly biased were related to known key metabolic traits in these taxa, such as the distinct fates of pyruvate (the known tendency of lactate production in Lactobacillales and its complete oxidation in Enterobacteriaceae), demonstrating that KOMODO could detect biologically meaningful differences in the frequencies of shared genomic elements among taxa. KOMODO is freely available at http://komodotool.org.

Pregnancy is associated with psychiatric symptoms in a low-income countryside community of Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric symptoms during pregnancy induce an increase in morbidity and also in the mortality levels among women and children. However, the real association between pregnancy and psychiatric disorders and the peculiarities of the phenomenology of symptoms in underprivileged countryside communities remain uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To verify the association between psychiatric disorder, symptoms, and pregnancy among women from a low-income countryside community and to determine the specific cutoff points for major depression diagnosis according to Beck Depression Inventory for the different trimesters of pregnancy in this population. METHODS: Ninety-four pregnant women and 38 healthy women from the Conceição do Mato Dentro health service, a rural low-income community in Brazil, participated in the present study. Psychiatric examination included a structured clinical interview for psychiatric disorders according to Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and psychometric scales such as the Yale-Brown Obsessive Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. The cutoff points for Beck Depression Inventory were determined through the application of receiver operating characteristic curves considering the diagnosis of major depression according to Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. RESULTS: The pregnant women had a higher frequency of psychiatric disorders and depression and anxiety symptoms. All cutoff points of Beck Depression Inventory were equal or higher than 12 with high sensitivity and specificity. Although the modified cutoff was selected based on both high sensitivity and high specificity, they were lower than when the cutoff was applied to nonpregnant women. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy was associated with the occurrence of psychiatric disorders and depressive and anxiety symptoms. In comparison to the literature, the present results indicate that there are different cutoff points in the Beck Depression Inventory for pregnant women from different cultures and in different pregnancy trimesters.

Correlations among central serotonergic parameters and age-related emotional and cognitive changes assessed through the elevated T-maze and the Morris water maze.

Emotion and spatial cognitive aspects were assessed in adult and middle-aged rats using the elevated T-maze (ETM) and the Morris water maze (MWM) tasks. Both adult and middle-aged rats were able to acquire inhibitory avoidance behaviour, though the middle-aged subjects showed larger latencies along the trials, including the baseline, which was significantly longer than that showed by adult rats. Further, compared to adult rats, middle-aged rats had longer escape latency. In spite of the worse performance in the second session of the spatial cognitive task, the middle-aged rats were able to learn the task and remember the information along the whole probe trial test. Both thalamic serotonin (5-HT) concentration and amygdala serotonergic activity (5-HIAA/5-HT) are significantly correlated, respectively, to escape latency and behavioural extinction in the MWM only for middle-aged rats. A significant correlation between the 5-HIAA/5-HT ratio in the amygdala and behavioural extinction for middle-aged, but not for adult, rats was observed. This result suggests that serotonergic activity in the amygdala may regulate behavioural flexibility in aged animals. In addition, a significant negative correlation was found between hippocampal 5-HIAA/5-HT ratio and the path length at the second training session of the MWM task, although only for adult subjects. This was the only session where a significant difference between the performance of middle-aged and adult rats has occurred. Although the involvement of the hippocampus in learning and memory is well established, the present work shows, for the first time, a correlation between a serotonergic hippocampal parameter and performance of a spatial task, which is lost with ageing.

Cursos diurnos e noturnos: fatores de aprovação no vestibular da UFMG / Daytime and night time courses: factors that led to approval in 2004 entrance examination from Federal University of Minas Gerais

Esse estudo analisa dados do vestibular da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais de 2004, mediante um modelo de regressão não paramétrico, o Classification and Regression Trees. Seu objetivo foi identificar os principais fatores de aprovação e, também, verificar se esses fatores eram os mesmos para os cursos diurnos e noturnos. A resposta a essas questões permitiria verificar se a expansão do turno noturno feita por essa universidade vinha promovendo maior inserção social. Observou-se que, em geral, a conclusão do ensino médio em escolas públicas federais ou particulares, o conhecimento de língua estrangeira e o pertencimento a um grupo socioeconômico alto são fatores fortemente associados à aprovação do candidato. Verificou-se, ainda, que nos cursos noturnos as variáveis socioeconômicas têm maior relevância, enquanto nos cursos diurnos a formação do candidato adquire maior peso. Finalmente, o fator socioeconômico médio tende a ser maior para os candidatos aprovados.(AU)

This study analyses data from 2004 Federal University of Minas Gerais' general entrance examination, making use of a non-parametrical regression model: the Classification and Regression Trees. Its aims were to identify the main factors of college approval and, also, to verify if these factors were the same for both daytime and nighttime courses, in order to be able to affirm that the expansion of nighttime courses was promoting, in this university, a higher social insertion. In general, it was observed that the attendance to a federal or private high school, the knowledge of foreign languages and a higher socioeconomic status were factors strongly associated with candidates' approval. In nighttime courses, it was found that socioeconomics variables had a higher importance, while variables related to the quality of previous schooling had more weight in daytime courses. The average socioeconomic factor tended to be higher in the group of the approved candidates.(AU)

Identificação das características associadas com a aprovação de candidatos de escolas públicas e privadas, Vestibular-2004, UFMG / Identification of the factors associated with the approval of candidates from public and private schools, Vestibular-2004, UFMG

Este trabalho visa a conhecer melhor o perfil dos candidatos oriundos de escolas das redes públicas e privadas de ensino que tentaram ingressar na UFMG em 2004. Busca-se identificar quais das características definidas no questionário socioeconômico e cultural aplicado no ato da inscrição do candidato podem estar mais associadas com a aprovação no vestibular. Conclui-se que o local de moradia e o conhecimento de língua estrangeira são as variáveis mais fortemente associadas com a aprovação do candidato de escolas particulares e escolas públicas, respectivamente. Verificou-se que, entre os candidatos que concluíram o ensino médio em escolas públicas, os que estudaram em escolas públicas federais tendem a se concentrar nos grupos com maiores chances de aprovação.

This paper aims to better understand the profile of the candidates for the UFMG entrance examination in 2004, coming from public and private schools. The objective is to identify which of the characteristics defined through a socioeconomic and cultural questionnaire answered by the candidates upon their application for the entrance examination may be associated with their approval at the University exams. It was found that the place where the candidates live and their knowledge of a foreign language are the variants more strongly related to the approval of the candidates of private schools and public schools, respectively. It was also found that, among the candidates who concluded high school at public schools that attained the highest chances of approval, there was a large percentage of candidates that attended high school in federal establishments.

Age-related deficit in behavioural extinction is counteracted by long-term ethanol consumption: correlation between 5-HIAA/5HT ratio in dorsal raphe nucleus and cognitive parameters.

We investigated age-related changes in learning and memory performance and behavioural extinction in the water maze; and in endogenous levels of serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) in the neocortex, hippocampus, thalamus and dorsal raphe nucleus of Wistar rats. Another aim was to assess the correlation between behavioural and biochemical parameters, which were measured in rodents of two different ages: 5 months (adults) and 16 months (middle-aged). The middle-aged subjects succeeded in learning the behavioural task, albeit with significantly worse performance when compared to adult animals. Aging also had significant main effects on memory and extinction. An age-dependent decrease in 5-HIAA levels was observed in both hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). The decrease in DRN 5-HIAA was paralleled by a decrease in 5-HIAA/5-HT ratio in this brain area, which was significantly correlated to the animals' spatial memory performance and behavioural extinction. In addition, using middle-aged rats, a 2x2 factorial study was carried out to examine the effects of food restriction and chronic ethanol consumption on rat's performance in a spatial behavioural task and on central serotonergic parameters. None of these two treatments had a significant effect on the behavioural and biochemical parameters assessed, with the exception of extinction index, which was significantly affected by ethanol consumption. Long-term ethanol ameliorated the impairment in behavioural flexibility caused by aging. In conclusion, long-term ethanol consumption may have a role in protecting against age-related deficit in behavioural extinction. Moreover, the present results also indicate that DRN serotonergic system is involved in spatial memory and behavioural extinction.

Bayesian analysis for the meiosis I non-disjunction fraction in numerical chromosomal anomalies.

The main causes of numerical chromosomal anomalies, including trisomies, arise from an error in the chromosomal segregation during the meiotic process, named a non-disjunction. One of the most used techniques to analyze chromosomal anomalies nowadays is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which counts the number of peaks or alleles in a polymorphic microsatellite locus. It was shown in previous works that the number of peaks has a multinomial distribution whose probabilities depend on the non-disjunction fraction F. In this work, we propose a Bayesian approach for estimating the meiosis I non-disjunction fraction F. in the absence of the parental information. Since samples of trisomic patients are, in general, small, the Bayesian approach can be a good alternative for solving this problem. We consider the sampling/importance resampling technique and the Simpson rule to extract information from the posterior distribution of F. Bayes and maximum likelihood estimators are compared through a Monte Carlo simulation, focusing on the influence of different sample sizes and prior specifications in the estimates. We apply the proposed method to estimate F. for patients with trisomy of chromosome 21 providing a sensitivity analysis for the method. The results obtained show that Bayes estimators are better in almost all situations.

Dietary restriction protects against chronic-ethanol-induced changes in exploratory behavior in Wistar rats.

Chronic ethanol intake causes various types of neural damage and behavioral impairments, probably acting through oxidative stress and excitotoxicity, while dietary restriction is considered by some authors to protect the central nervous system from these kinds of damage. In the present study, a factorial experimental design was used to investigate the effects of chronic ethanol and dietary restriction treatments, associated or not, on Wistar rats' exploratory behavior, spatial memory aspects and cortical and hippocampal acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. Dietary restriction lasted for the whole experiment, while ethanol treatment lasted for only 3 weeks. Despite the short ethanol treatment duration, for two behavior categories assessed, moving and rearing, an interaction was observed between the effects of chronic ethanol and dietary restriction. There were no significant differences in AChE activities among the groups. Cerebellar neural nitric oxide synthase (nNOs) activity was measured as a first step to assess oxidative stress. Dietary restriction significantly reduced NO formation. The present results indicate that dietary restriction might exert a protective effect against chronic-ethanol-induced changes in exploratory behavior. It is hypothesized that the mechanisms underlying this protection can involve prevention of oxidative stress.

Efficient secondary database driven annotation using model organism sequences.

The use of sequences from specific organisms for annotation requires that it does not represent great loss of information and that the sequences available suffice for annotation. In order to investigate whether or not sequences from model organisms may suffice for annotation of sequences from the trematode Schistosoma mansoni, we performed local BLAST searches of S. mansoni sequences against other organisms sequences present in the NCBI database nr. Results have been inserted into a relational database and hits to sequences from three model organisms, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens have been computed and compared to hits to sequences from other organisms present in nr; score values of each alignment have also been registered. Our observations have shown that a large fraction of orthologous proteins exists in the set of sequences from the three model organisms selected, and therefore a similar fraction of transcripts can be annotated when using either nr or model organism datasets. Moreover, hits to model organisms' sequences are largely as informative as nr. Results suggest that model organisms provide a reliable set of sequences to use as a reference database for S. mansoni sequence annotation, showing the clear possibility of using a restricted dataset of expected better quality for functional annotation and therefore supporting secondary database driven annotation approaches.

Cholinergic parameters and the retrieval of learned and re-learned spatial information: a study using a model of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

This is a factorial (2 x 2 x 2) spatial memory and cholinergic parameters study in which the factors are chronic ethanol, thiamine deficiency and naivety in Morris water maze task. Both learning and retention of the spatial version of the water maze were assessed. To assess retrograde retention of spatial information, half of the rats were pre-trained on the maze before the treatment manipulations of pyrithiamine (PT)-induced thiamine deficiency and post-tested after treatment (pre-trained group). The other half of the animals was only trained after treatment to assess anterograde amnesia (post-trained group). Thiamine deficiency, associated to chronic ethanol treatment, had a significant deleterious effect on spatial memory performance of post-trained animals. The biochemical data revealed that chronic ethanol treatment reduced acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the hippocampus while leaving the neocortex unchanged, whereas thiamine deficiency reduced both cortical and hippocampal AChE activity. Regarding basal and stimulated cortical acetylcholine (ACh) release, both chronic ethanol and thiamine deficiency treatments had significant main effects. Significant correlations were found between both cortical and hippocampal AChE activity and behaviour parameters for pre-trained but not for post-trained animals. Also for ACh release, the correlation found was significant only for pre-trained animals. These biochemical parameters were decreased by thiamine deficiency and chronic ethanol treatment, both in pre-trained and post-trained animals. But the correlation with the behavioural parameters was observed only for pre-trained animals, that is, those that were retrained and assessed for retrograde retention.

A probability model for the meiosis I non-disjunction fraction in numerical chromosomal anomalies.

Numerical chromosome abnormalities (aneuploidies) are among the most common known causes of mental retardation and the leading cause of pregnancy loss in humans. They primarily arise by the process of meiotic non-disjunction. We still know very little about the contribution of genetic and environmental causes for non-disjunction in humans. In order to increase our understanding of the epidemiology of human trisomies, it is necessary to establish the proportion of cases occurring in the first or second division of meiosis. Trisomic patients will display, in study of microsatellite typed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), three fragment peaks of equal intensity, two fragments at an average 2:1 dosage or one individual fragment. In this work we describe a statistical approach for estimation of the fraction of meiosis I non-disjunctions (F) in the absence of the parental information. First we determine a probability model for the number of peaks in a polymorphic microsatellite locus, which is a function of F. Based on this model, we obtain a maximum likelihood estimator for F, using the observed proportion of one, two and three allele patterns in trisomic individuals. Relying on the properties of maximum likelihood theory, we also calculate the asymptotic variance and confidence intervals for F. Owing to the fact that the samples of trisomic patients are limited in number, the use of asymptotic theory may be compromised. Thus, we employ the bootstrap technique to build confidence intervals for F and compare the results with those obtained from the normal theory. This estimator that dispenses the need to study parents opens the possibility of using archival material for comparative epidemiological studies of Down's syndrome and other aneuploidies. In this paper we propose a probability model to estimate the fraction of meiosis I non-disjunction, F, by only using the proportion of allele patterns of trisomy individuals, while traditional methods require typing pericentromeric markers from those affected and their parents.