More than 80% of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] in Brazil is cultivated in no-till systems, and although cover crops benefit the soil, they may reduce the amount of residual herbicides reaching the soil, thereby decreasing herbicide efficacy. The objective of this study was to evaluate sulfentrazone applied alone, sequentially after glyphosate, and in a tank mixture with glyphosate before planting no-till soybean. Experiments were performed in two cover crop systems: (1) pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] and (2) forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench ssp. bicolor]. The treatments tested were: glyphosate (720 g ae ha−1) at 20 d before sowing (DBS) followed by sulfentrazone (600 g ai ha−1) at 10 DBS; glyphosate + sulfentrazone (720 g ae ha−1 + 600 g ai ha−1) for cover crop desiccation at 10 DBS; and sulfentrazone alone at 10 DBS without a cover crop. The accumulation of straw was 31% greater using sorghum rather than pearl millet. In the sorghum system, the concentration of sulfentrazone at 0 to 10 cm was 57% less with sequential application and 92% less with the tank mixture compared with the treatment without cover crop straw at 1 d after application (DAA). The same occurred in the pearl millet system, where the reduction was 33% and 80% for the sequential application and tank mixture, respectively. The absence of a cover crop resulted in greater sulfentrazone concentrations in the top layer of the soil when compared with the sequential application or tank mixture. At 31 and 53 DAA, the concentration of sulfentrazone at 10 to 20 and 20 to 40 cm did not differ among treatments. Precipitation of 90 mm was enough to remove the herbicide from the cover crop straw at 31 DAA when using sequential application. An additional 90-mm precipitation was necessary to promote the same result when using the tank mixture.

In areas endemic for Leishmania infantum, an asymptomatic infection may be an indicator of the extent of transmission. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the applicability of measuring circulating immunological biomarkers as an alternative strategy to characterize and monitor L. infantum asymptomatic infections in combination with serological methods. To this end, 179 children from a region endemic for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), aged 1–10 years old, selected from a cross-sectional study, were identified as asymptomatic (n = 81) or uninfected (n = 98) by qPCR and/or serological tests (ELISA using L. infantum soluble antigen and rK39), and, together with serum samples of children diagnosed with VL (n = 43), were subjected to avidity tests and cytokine levels measurement. Avidity rates (AR) ranging from 41 to 70% were found in 29 children (66%) from the asymptomatic group. On the other hand, high AR (above 70%) were observed in 27 children (64%) from the VL group. Logistic Regression and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analyses demonstrated that lower AR and IFN-γ production associated with higher IL-17A levels were hallmarks in asymptomatic L. infantum infections. Therefore, this study proposes an association of immunological biomarkers that can be used as a complementary strategy for the characterization and monitoring of asymptomatic VL infections in children living in endemic areas.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) in pregnancy and postpartum. Women were asked to fill in the BDI-II in their last trimester of pregnancy and at 3 months after delivery. A total of 331 pregnant women, with a mean age of 29.7 years (SD = 4.6), and 354 mothers, aged 30.6 years (SD = 4.6 years), answered the BDI-II. The first group was mainly nulliparas (65.6%) and the second group was mostly primiparas (57.4%). Factor analyses with principal components solution and varimax rotation were performed. Based on the scree test of Cattell a 2-factor solution and a 3-factor solution were explored. The 2-factor solution was identical in pregnancy and postpartum. Items loading in the Cognitive–Affective factor and in the Somatic–Anxiety factor were almost the same, though the Cognitive–Affective factor explained more of the BDI-II total variance in pregnancy, whereas in postpartum both factors explained similar total variances. The 3-factor solution of the BDI-II in pregnancy and postpartum slightly diverged. Besides the Cognitive–Affective and the Somatic–Anxiety factors, a third factor, Fatigue, was obtained in pregnancy while Guilt was the third factor identified in postpartum. This study reveals that the BDI-II 3-factor solution might be more appropriate to assess depressive symptoms in pregnancy and postpartum.

The care of patients with CHD remains a challenge in low- and middle-income countries. Their health systems have not been able to achieve consistently high performance in this field. The large volume of patients, manpower constraints, inconsistencies in the level and type of background training of the teams caring for this patient population, and the inadequate quality control systems are some of the barriers to achieving excellence of care. We describe three different international projects supporting the paediatric cardiac surgical and paediatric cardiac intensive care programmes in Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Different diets have distinct impacts on glucose homoeostasis, for which insulin sensitivity (IS) after a meal (postprandial IS) is highly relevant. Postprandial IS depends upon hepatic parasympathetic activation and glutathione content elevation. We tested the hypothesis that postprandial IS is compromised in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. Sprague–Dawley rats were fed a standard diet (STD, n 10), 1-week HFD (n 9) or 4-week HFD (n 8). IS was tested in postprandial state using the rapid IS test (RIST) before and after the blockade of the parasympathetic nerves (atropine, 1 mg/kg); parasympathetic-dependent IS was obtained from the difference between control and post-atropine RIST. Fasting IS was also assessed in the STD-fed rats (n 4) and 4-week HFD-fed rats (n 3) using the RIST. Whole-body fat and regional fat pads were heavier in the 1-week HFD-fed rats (79·8 (se 7·9) and 23·7 (se 1·0) g, respectively) or 4-week HFD-fed rats (106·5 (se 6·1) and 30·1 (se 1·4) g, respectively) than in the STD-fed rats (32·5 (se 3·7) and 13·7 (se 1·0) g, respectively; P < 0·001). Fasted-state IS was similar between the groups studied. Postprandial IS was higher in the STD-fed rats (185·8 (se 5·6) mg glucose/kg body weight (bw)) than in both the 1-week HFD-fed rats (108·8 (se 2·9) mg glucose/kg bw; P < 0·001) and 4-week HFD-fed rats (69·3 (se 2·6) mg glucose/kg bw; P < 0·001). Parasympathetic-dependent IS was impaired in both HFD-fed groups (STD, 108·9 (se 3·9) mg glucose/kg bw; 1-week HFD, 38·6 (se 4·2) mg glucose/kg bw; 4-week HFD, 5·4 (se 1·7) mg glucose/kg bw; P < 0·001). Total (postprandial) and parasympathetic-dependent IS correlated negatively with whole-body fat (R2 0·81 and 0·87) and regional adiposity (R2 0·85 and 0·79). In conclusion, fat accumulation induced by HFD is associated with postprandial insulin resistance, but not with fasting insulin resistance. HFD-associated postprandial insulin resistance is largely mediated by impairment of parasympathetic-dependent insulin action, which correlates with adiposity.

Genetic anticipation refers to an inheritance pattern within a pedigree showing a decrease in age of onset or an increase in disease severity or both in successive generations. This phenomenon has become the focus of important research in schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder. The results to date have been controversial and far from conclusive. To attempt to resolve some of the earlier findings, we compared age at onset and disease severity between two generations in 24 Portuguese families ascertained for genetic linkage studies of bipolar mood disorder. There was a significant decrease in age of onset (P<. 00001) and increase in frequency of episodes (P<.0001)from the first to the second generation. This difference was significant under each of the four data-sampling schemes, one of which excluded probands. The second generation experienced onset 12.4 to 15.9 years earlier and illness 2.3 to 2.6 times more severe than did the first generation. We found no evidence for a specific effect in anticipation related to the transmitting parent's sex. Results of the present study, analyzed carefully for a variety of possible biases, suggest evidence for genetic anticipation in these Portuguese bipolar families.