Maria Molina

Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) measurement is an appropriate method for determining arterial stiffness and is a useful tool for early detection of cardiovascular disease. However, the lack of reference values due to the difficulty in accessing healthy child populations, among other causes, has limited its use in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to create reference cfPWV percentile curves for healthy children. The initial sample consisted of 350 girls and boys aged 8 to 11 years. The cfPWV per age and sex were generated using the lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) technique. The effects of sex, age, arterial pressure, and body mass index were taken into account. The main result of this study is the age- and height-specific cfPWV reference percentile curves for girls and boys. Curves were obtained for both sexes, since sexual differences were observed in growth and development rates that may affect cfPWV.

The main objective of the study was identify the prevalence and factors associated with leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in adult participants of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). The LTPA was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), long version. A hierarchical ecological model was built with the possible factors associated with LTPA distributed across blocks. We estimated crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) using logistic regression. In men, being more educated, having a high family income, living in environments with conditions and opportunities for PA, being retired and being overweight were positively associated, while current smoking, obesity and abdominal obesity were associated negatively with the LTPA. Among women, being over 60years old, being more educated, having a high family income, living in an environment with conditions and opportunities for PA practice and being retired were positively associated, while being overweight, obese and having abdominal obesity were associated negatively with the LTPA. The proposed ecological model explains the LTPA through the social, physical and personal environment and highlights gender differences in physical activity.

To quantify the antioxidant consumption (vitamins A, C and E and minerals selenium and zinc) and to identify factors associated to low consumption of these nutrients. Cross-sectional study with 14,660 participants (35 to 74 years-old) investigated in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) baseline. Consumption of antioxidants and energy was determined by a Food Frequency Questionnaire and analyzed using the NDSR software. Antioxidant consumption was adjusted to total energy and divided in quintiles. A logistic regression analysis was used to identify socioeconomic factors associated with low intake of these nutrients. Consumption of energy (kcal/day) was higher in men (3,152 ± 1,026 versus 2,613 ± 905; p < 0.001) whereas the consumption of all antioxidants (mainly vitamins A and E and selenium) was higher in females. Low antioxidant consumption was associated to male sex (OR = 3.5; 95%CI 3.11 - 4.0) and to lower education (OR = 3.1; 95%CI 2.42 - 3.87), inc...

... ' Mora Rojas, Rosa María. "Evolución y Resolución en el Servicio Social". Universidad de Costa Rica, 1976. Mimeografía. Romero, Mafia Cristina. "El taller de la Escuela de Trabajo Social de la Universidad de Costa Rica". Tesis de Maestría en Educa-ción. 1988. María Lorena ...

The food consumption of 15,071 public employees was analyzed in six Brazilian cities participating in the baseline for Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil, 2008-2010) with the aim of identifying eating patterns and their relationship to socio-demographic variables. Multiple correspondence and cluster analysis were applied. Four patterns were identified, with their respective frequencies: "traditional" (48%); "fruits and vegetables" (25%); "pastry shop" (24%); and "diet/light" (5%) The "traditional" and "pastry shop" patterns were more frequent among men, younger individuals, and those with less schooling. "Fruits and vegetables" and "diet/light" were more frequent in women, older individuals, and those with more schooling. Our findings show the inclusion of new items in the "traditional" pattern and the appearance of the "low sugar/low fat" pattern among the eati...

... socioeducativas y terapéuticas desde el paradigma de la complejidad M5 Cristina ROMERO S.* M~ Lorena MOLINA M.* Resumen Abstract ... Universidad Complutense. Madrid 1998 73 Page 2. M5 Cristina ROMERO S. y M~ Lorena MOLINA M. 1. Un preámbulo epistemolágico ...

Maternal education influences skeletal growth and offspring adult blood pressure (BP). Height components are negatively associated with BP in high-income countries. To evaluate the association between maternal education and offspring adult systolic and diastolic BP (SBP/DBP), assessing whether different height components might mediate such an association. Simple mediation modelling was used to evaluate the maternal education-offspring SBP/DBP association, estimating the contribution of offspring height components, in a cross-sectional sample of 13 571 Brazilians aged 34-75 from the ELSA-Brasil study. After full adjustment for confounders, and compared to participants whose mothers received low education, those whose mothers received high education had, on average, 0.2 mm Hg lower SBP (95% CI = -0.274, -0.132), as result of the link between maternal education and offspring adult height which, in turn, influenced SBP. Thus, 18-26% of the maternal education-SBP association occurred indirectly, through height, trunk and leg length, alternatively. Better maternal education might influence higher leg and trunk lengths in offspring, which, in turn, might contribute to prevent higher BP in adults. The negative height-BP association reported in high-income countries is also present in a middle-income country with more recent economic development.

Donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) are associated with increased cardiac graft loss. We applied a C1q solid-phase assay in parallel with the standard immunoglobulin G (IgG) single antigen bead (SAB) assay to examine the correlation of circulating complement-fixing donor-specific antibodies and the presence of C4d in endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) specimens. We retrospectively studied the relationship of C1q+ DSAs and C4d immunofluorescence (IF) in 49 EMB specimens from 44 heart transplant recipients who had concurrent EMB, C4d IF, and DSA measurements. We applied a C1q SAB in parallel with the standard IgG SAB assay to examine the DSA profiles in heart transplant patients posttransplant. A better concordance is observed between C1q+ DSAs with C4d IF+ compared with IgG DSAs with C4d IF + (40% vs 24%, P = .02). However, the correlation of C1q DSAs with C4d IF is not statistically significant (P = .24). Importantly, C1q+ DSAs were observed in 16 of 17 cases with C4d IF+; 24 cases had circul...

Sodium and potassium intake from different food sources is an important issue regarding cardiovascular physiology. Epidemiological assessment of the intake of these electrolytes intake is done through food frequency questionnaires or urinary excretion measurements. Our aim was to compare these methods using a sample of Brazilian civil servants. Cross-sectional baseline evaluation from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health. Sodium and potassium intake was obtained using two methods: a semi-quantitative questionnaire including 114 food items; and overnight 12-hour urinary excretion measurement. Sodium and potassium estimates obtained through the questionnaire were adjusted for energy intake using the residual method. Urinary excretion measurements were considered valid if they met three adequacy criteria: collection time, volume and total creatinine excretion. Mean nutrients were estimated, and Spearman correlations were calculated. Sodium and potassium intake was categorized into quintiles, and weighted kappa coefficients and percentage agreement were calculated. The significance level for all tests was 0.05. Data from 15,105 participants were analyzed, and significant differences between mean intakes of sodium (questionnaire: 4.5 ± 1.7 g; urine: 4.2 ± 2.1 g) and potassium (questionnaire: 4.7 ± 1.8 g; urine: 2.4 ± 1 g) were found. Weak agreement was found for sodium (K = 0.18) and potassium (K = 0.16). The percentage disagreement between methods ranged from 41.8 to 44.5%, while exact concordance ranged from 22.1% to 23.9%. The agreement between the food frequency questionnaire and urinary excretion measurements for assessment of sodium and potassium intakes was modest.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third most common cause of cancer death worldwide. Natural killer cells play an important role in the immune defense against transformed cells. They express the activating receptor NKG2D, whose ligands belong to the MIC and ULBP/RAET family. Although it is well established that these ligands are generally expressed in tumors, the association between their expression in the tumor and gastric mucosa and clinical parameters and prognosis of GC remains to be addressed. In the present study, MICA and MICB expression was analyzed, by flow cytometry, in 23 and 20 pairs of gastric tumor and adjacent non-neoplasic gastric mucosa, respectively. Additionally, ligands expression in 13 tumors and 7 gastric mucosa samples from GC patients were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The mRNA levels of MICA in 9 pairs of tumor and mucosa were determined by quantitative PCR. Data were associated with the clinicopathological characteristics and the patient outcome. MICA express...

Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been used as the gold standard method to estimate arterial stiffness. However, its use in clinical practice is still limited because reference values for specific groups, such as black children, remain unknown. The authors aimed to investigate predictors and to propose preliminary reference values of PWV in this population. Prepubertal schoolchildren (N=157; mean age, 9.36±1.41 year) from Luanda (Angola) with normal blood pressure values and without obesity were included. Mean PWV was 5.73±0.68 m/s, with no difference between the sexes. Univariate regression analysis showed a significant (P<.05) positive correlation between PWV and height, age, body weight, lean body weight, and blood pressure. In multivariate analysis, however, only height remained an independent predictor of PWV [PWV=0.018×height (cm)+3.230]. Curves of PWV percentiles as a function of height are proposed, thus identifying normal PWV in black children.

The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is the preferred instrument for obtaining dietary information in epidemiological studies. A short form of the FFQ was compared with the original version that was used in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), and also with three 24-hour dietary recalls. Cross-sectional study carried out in six Brazilian state capitals. Multiple linear regression was used to reduce the original food and drink list of the FFQ, which had contained 114 food items. The frequency of consumption and nutritional composition of the foods were also taken into consideration. To assess the validity of the shortened FFQ, the energy and nutrients values of the 24-hour dietary recalls were deattenuated and log-transformed. The list of the FFQ of ELSA-Brasil was reduced to 76 food items. The intraclass correlation coefficients in the validation study ranged from 0.17 (selenium) to 0.66 (calcium). The number of items was reduced by 33%, while still maintaining relatively good capacity to measure energy and selected nutrients.

Heterogenous datapaths maximize the utilization of functional units (FUs) by customizing their widths individually through fragmentation of wide operands. In comparison, slices in large functional units in a homogenous datapath could be spending many cycles not performing actual useful work. Various fragmentation techniques demonstrated benefits in minimizing the total functional unit area. Upon a closer look at fragmentation techniques, we

Lung involvement in rheumatologic diseases has a broad spectrum of clinical and radiological presentations, from acute and inflammatory predominance to chronic and fibrotic lung disorders. Therapy has to be guided by the type of rheumatologic disease, the kind of lung involvement and the risk associated with the clinical state of the patient and prognostic factors. Although several therapeutic approaches have been used, the best treatment is still not certain; clinical trials are mandatory, which would require a better knowledge of the pulmonary pathogenesis of immunologic diseases. The following review is focused on the therapeutic options for those rheumatologic disorders that could present as a predominant interstitial lung disease which may confer a bad or life-threatening prognosis.

ABSTRACT Angiotensin II (ANGII) has been identified as a proapoptotic and profibrotic factor in experimental lung fibrosis models, and patients with the ID/DD polymorphism of ANG converting enzyme (ACE), which confers higher levels of ACE, are predisposed to lung fibrosis (Hum. Pathol. 32:521-528, 2001). Previous work from this laboratory has shown that human lung myofibroblasts isolated from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) synthesize the ANGII precursor angiotensinogen (AGT) constitutively. In attempts to understand the mechanisms and consequences of constitutive AGT synthesis by myofibroblasts, we studied myofibroblast-rich primary cultures of lung fibroblasts from patients with IPF (HIPF isolates), primary fibroblasts from normal human lung (NLFs), the IMR90 and WI38 human lung fibroblasts cell lines, and paraffin sections of lung biopsies from patients with IPF. Compared to the normal NLF isolates, HIPF primary fibroblast isolates constitutively synthesized more AGT and TGF-β1 mRNA, and released more AGT protein, ANGII and active TGF-β1 protein into serum-free conditioned media (both p<0.01). Incubation of HIPF fibrotic isolates with the ANGII receptor antagonist saralasin reduced both TGF-β1 mRNA and active protein, suggesting that the constitutive expression of AGT drives the higher expression of TGF-β1 by the HIPF cells. Consistent with this premise, treatment of either the primary NLFs or the WI38 cell line with 10-7M ANGII increased both TGF-β1 mRNA and soluble active TGF-β1 protein. Moreover, induction of the myofibroblast transition in the IMR90 cell line with 2ng/ml TGF-??1 increased steady state AGT mRNA levels by realtime PCR (8-fold, p<0.01) and induced expression of an AGT promoterluciferase reporter construct by over 10-fold (p<0.001). Antisense oligonucleotides against TGF-β1 mRNA or TGF-β neutralizing antibodies, when applied to the fibrotic HIPF cells in serum-free medium, significantly reduced AGT expression. In lung sections from IPF patient biopsies, immunoreactive AGT/ANGI proteins were detected in myofibroblasts, epithelial cells and presumptive alveolar macrophages. Together, these data support the existence of an angiotensin/TGF- β1 “autocrine loop” in human lung myofibroblasts and also suggest ANG peptide expression by epithelia and macrophages in the IPF lung. These findings may explain the ability of ACE inhibitors and ANG receptor antagonists to block experimental lung fibrosis in animals, and support the need for evaluation of these agents for potential treatment of human IPF. This manuscript discusses the data described above and their implications regarding IPF pathogenesis.

Specification of the dorsal-ventral axis in the highly regulative sea urchin embryo critically relies on the zygotic expression of nodal, but whether maternal factors provide the initial spatial cue to orient this axis is not known. Although redox gradients have been proposed to entrain the dorsal-ventral axis by acting upstream of nodal, manipulating the activity of redox gradients only has modest consequences, suggesting that other factors are responsible for orienting nodal expression and defining the dorsal-ventral axis. Here we uncover the function of Panda, a maternally provided transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) ligand that requires the activin receptor-like kinases (Alk) Alk3/6 and Alk1/2 receptors to break the radial symmetry of the embryo and orient the dorsal-ventral axis by restricting nodal expression. We found that the double inhibition of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptors Alk3/6 and Alk1/2 causes a phenotype dramatically more severe than the B...

Conventional high-level synthesis algorithms usually employ multi-cycle operators to reduce the cycle length in order to improve the circuit performance. These operators need several cycles to execute one operation, but the entire functional unit is not used in any cycle. Additionally, the execution of operations over wider multi-cycle operators is unfeasible if their results must be available in a smaller number of cycles than the functional unit delay. This obliges to add new functional resources to the datapath even if multi-cycle operators are idle when the execution of the operation begins. In this paper a new design technique to overcome the restricted reusability of multi-cycle operators is presented. It reduces the area of these functional units allowing their internal reuse when executing one operation. It also expands the possibilities of common hardware sharing as it allows the partial use of multi-cycle operators to calculate narrower operations faster than the functional unit delay. This technique is applied as an optimization phase at the end of the high-level synthesis process, and can optimize the circuits synthesized by any high-level synthesis tool.

Previous studies have described an association with thyrotropin (TSH) levels, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. We performed a cross-sectional analysis to investigate the relationship between TSH levels, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome using baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Diabetics and individuals using medications that interfere in thyroid function were excluded, leaving 10,935 participants (54.3% women) for current analyses. Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) values above the 75th percentile was considered as indicative of presence of insulin resistance. Logistic regression models were built using HOMA-IR and metabolic syndrome as the dependent variable, and quintiles of TSH as the independent variable (first quintile as reference). Odds ratios (OR) were presented with multivariate adjustment for socioeconomic/cardiovascular risk factors for insulin resistance, and adjustment only for socioeconomic factors and smoking for metabolic syndrome. Age, body mass index, waist measurement, fasting glucose and fasting and post load insulin and HOMA-IR increased according to TSH quintiles. Subjects in the fifth TSH quintile presented an OR of association with insulin resistance of 1.86 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.26-2.75], regardless of gender. For the metabolic syndrome, subjects in the fifth quintile presented an OR of 1.21 (95% CI 1.01-1.45) and remained positive only for men (OR 1.37; 95% CI 1.07-1.76). Restricting the analysis to quintiles of TSH in the normal range did not change the results. In this cross-sectional evaluation, high TSH quintiles were associated to insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome.

There is growing interest in the development of cell culture assays that enable the rigidity of the extracellular matrix to be increased. A promising approach is based on three-dimensional collagen type I matrices that are stiffened by cross-linking through non-enzymatic glycation with reducing sugars. The present study evaluated the biomechanical changes in the non-enzymatically glycated type I collagen matrices, including collagen organization, the advanced glycation end products formation and stiffness achievement. Gels were glycated with ribose at different concentrations (0, 5, 15, 30 and 240 mM). The viability and the phenotypic changes of primary human lung fibroblasts cultured within the non-enzymatically glycated gels were also evaluated along three consecutive weeks. Statistical tests used for data analyze were Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, Student's t-test, two-way ANOVA, multivariate ANOVA, linear regression test and mixed linear model. Our findings indicated that ...

The present work describes a reliable improved gradient optical flow estimation system using FPGAs. This structure is based on space-temporal processing and the use of steerable filters. This model can be enhanced using psychophysical and bioinspired properties according to biological vision in order to mimic the singularity and the performance of mammalians. Experimental results and the resources used to analyze

The effort in advanced information system that many organizations have achieved to improve performance under foreseeable situations has increased organizational complexity decreasing the capacity to deal with unforeseen situations. At this respect, our research question is: what is the limit for this model of development? Once reached, what are the alternatives to improve? An explanation can be organized around semiotic. To do this, the aerial safety learning model and its collateral effects will be analyzed.

This paper presents a heuristic scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous specifications, those formed by operations of different types and widths. The algorithm extracts the common operative kernel of the operations, and binds afterwards operations to cycles with the aim of distributing uniformly the number of bits calculated per cycle. In consequence, operations may be fragmented and executed during a set of

Angiotensin II (ANGII) has been identified as a proapoptotic and profibrotic factor in experimental lung fibrosis models, and patients with the ID/DD polymorphism of ANG converting enzyme (ACE), which confers higher levels of ACE, are predisposed to lung fibrosis (Hum. Pathol. 32:521-528, 2001). Previous work from this laboratory has shown that human lung myofibroblasts isolated from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) synthesize the ANGII precursor angiotensinogen (AGT) constitutively. In attempts to understand the mechanisms and consequences of constitutive AGT synthesis by myofibroblasts, we studied myofibroblast-rich primary cultures of lung fibroblasts from patients with IPF (HIPF isolates), primary fibroblasts from normal human lung (NLFs), the IMR90 and WI38 human lung fibroblasts cell lines, and paraffin sections of lung biopsies from patients with IPF. Compared to the normal NLF isolates, HIPF primary fibroblast isolates constitutively synthesized more AGT and...

Background and aim: Most studies assessing the association between migraine and obesity have shown conflicting results. We aimed to evaluate the association between obesity and migraine in ELSA-Brasil, a cohort study of 15,105 individuals aged 35-74 years. Methods: We assessed migraine using a validated questionnaire based on International Headache Society criteria and anthropometric measurements using standard techniques. Migraine was categorized as daily and non-daily. World Health Organization criteria were used to categorize overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity (AbO). We performed a cross-sectional analysis using multivariate logistic regression models to study the association between migraine and obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m(2)), compared to controls without migraine. Results: We found an association between daily migraine and obesity (odds ratio (OR) 1.86; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.12-3.09). Although the presence of AbO was not associated with migrai...

To examine the utilization of health services and prescription patterns among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) followed by primary care physicians and rheumatologists in Puerto Rico. The insurance claims submitted by physicians to a health insurance company of Puerto Rico in 2003 were examined. The diagnosis of lupus was determined by using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, code for SLE (710.0). Of 552,733 insured people, 665 SLE patients were seen by rheumatologists, and 92 were followed by primary care physicians. Demographic features, selected co-morbidities, healthcare utilization parameters, and prescription patterns were examined. Fisher exact test, chi2 test, and analysis of variances were used to evaluate differences between the study groups. SLE patients followed by rheumatologists had osteopenia/osteoporosis diagnosed more frequently than did patients followed by primary care physicians. The frequency of high blood pressure, diab...

The goal of this study was to perform 5-alpha-reductase type 2 gene (SRD5A2) analysis in a male pseudohermaphrodite (MPH) patient with normal testosterone (T) production and normal androgen receptor (AR) gene coding sequences. A patient of Chinese origin with ambiguous genitalia at 14 months, a 46,XY karyotype, and normal T secretion under human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) stimulation underwent a gonadectomy at 20 months. Exons 1-8 of the AR gene and exons 1-5 of the SRD5A2 gene were sequenced from peripheral blood DNA. AR gene coding sequences were normal. SRD5A2 gene analysis revealed 2 consecutive mutations in exon 4, each located in a different allele: 1) a T nucleotide deletion, which predicts a frameshift mutation from codon 219, and 2) a missense mutation at codon 227, where the substitution of guanine (CGA) by adenine (CAA) predicts a glutamine replacement of arginine (R227Q). Testes located in the inguinal canal showed a normal morphology for age. The patient was a compoun...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the interference of acid and alkaline detergents employed in the cleaning of milking equipment of caprine dairy farms on the performance of microbial tests used in antibiotic control (BRT MRL, Delvotest MCS, and Eclipse 100). Eight concentrations of commercial detergents, five acid (0-0.25%) and five alkaline (0-1%) were add to antimicrobial-free goat's milk to evaluate the detergent effect on the response of microbial inhibitor tests. To evaluate the effect of detergents on the detection capability of microbial tests two detergents at 0.5 ml/l (one acid and one basic) and eight concentrations of four β-lactam antibiotics (ampicillin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin and benzylpenicillin) were used. Milk without detergents was used as control. The spiked samples were analysed twelve times by three microbial tests. The results showed that the presence of acid detergents did not affect the response of microbial tests for any of the concentrations teste...