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Objectives: To present the data available and discuss the progress, current advances and challenges of the initiatives, current policies and guidance implemented by the Health and Education Ministries in Brazil to target transformation of health teaching in order to improve the health care offered by the Brazilian National Health System. Study design: Literature review. Methods: Documentary analysis and review of articles identified in a search of electronic databases, along with reports and documents acquired from the Health and Education Ministries between 1988 and 2013. Results: This study identified some important initiatives, including the Programme for the Encouragement of Curricular Changes in Medical Courses (PROMED), implemented in 2002 for medical courses alone. Inspired by PROMED and covering a wider range of graduate courses, the National Programme for Re-orientation of Health Professionals was implemented in 2005. This initiative launched its third edition in 2012, covering 14 health professional areas. Another relevant innovation was the National Policy of Permanent Health Education, implemented in 2007, with the goal of transforming public health services into a locus of teaching-learning through working. The Unified Health System Open University was also implemented. Conclusions: There is general concern and ongoing actions involving different sectors in Brazil in an attempt to improve the health of the Brazilian population in the future. However, the changes pursued involve deep transformations and may take considerable time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Blood analogue fluids should match the rheology of blood at both macro and microscale level. • Development of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microparticles with similar properties to RBCs. • The deformability of PDMS microparticles are compared against RBCs. • The proposed particles replicate RBCs in terms of deformability, steady shear viscosity and cell-free layer phenomenon. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications due to its mechanical and rheological properties in a range similar to the living tissues. In this study, we demonstrate that PDMS can be used to produce deformable microparticles to be integrated in the development of particulate blood analogue fluids. The difficulties associated with the use of in vitro blood make it necessary to perform in vitro experiments of blood flow with blood analogue fluids. However, an ideal analogue must match the rheology of blood at several points, and for that, blood analogue fluids should be a suspension of microparticles with similar properties (size, shape and flexibility) to blood cells, in particular to the red blood cells (RBCs). The microparticles used in this study were produced from a transparent PDMS with crosslinking ratios of 10:1, 8:2 and 6:4; from a black PDMS with a ratio of 1:1 and from a red-pigmented PDMS. Each PDMS microparticles sample was suspended in Dextran 40 to perform deformability assays and cell-free layer analysis in a hyperbolic-shaped microchannel and steady shear viscosity measurements in a rheometer. The proposed microparticles suspensions show a great potential to mimic the structural and rheological properties of RBC suspensions and consequently to develop blood analogue fluids with rheological properties similar to real blood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), due to its remarkable properties, is one of the most widely used polymers in many industrial and medical applications. In this work, a technique based on a flow focusing technique is used to produce PDMS spherical particles with sizes of a few microns. PDMS precursor is injected through a hypodermic needle to form a film/reservoir over the needle's outer surface. This film flows towards the needle tip until a liquid ligament is steadily ejected thanks to the action of a coflowing viscous liquid stream. The outcome is a capillary jet which breaks up into PDMS precursor droplets due to the growth of capillary waves producing a micrometer emulsion. The PDMS liquid droplets in the solution are thermally cured into solid microparticles. The size distribution of the particles is analyzed before and after curing, showing an acceptable degree of monodispersity. The PDMS liquid droplets suffer shrinkage while curing. These microparticles can be used in very varied technological fields, such as biomedicine, biotechnology, pharmacy, and industrial engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gulosibacter molinativorax ON4T is the only known organism to produce molinate hydrolase (MolA), which catalyses the breakdown of the thiocarbamate herbicide into azepane-1-carboxylic acid (ACA) and ethanethiol. A combined genomic and transcriptomic strategy was used to fully characterize the strain ON4T genome, particularly the molA genetic environment, to identify the potential genes encoding ACA degradation enzymes. Genomic data revealed that molA is the only catabolic gene of a novel composite transposon (Tn6311), located in a novel low copy number plasmid (pARLON1) harbouring a putative T4SS of the class FATA. pARLON1 had an ANI value of 88.2% with contig 18 from Agrococcus casei LMG 22410T draft genome. Such results suggest that pARLON1 is related to genomic elements of other Actinobacteria, although Tn6311 was observed only in strain ON4T. Furthermore, genomic and transcriptomic data demonstrated that the genes involved in ACA degradation are chromosomal. Based on their overexpression when growing in the presence of molinate, the enzymes potentially involved in the heterocyclic ring breakdown were predicted. Among these, the activity of a protein related to caprolactone hydrolase was demonstrated using heterologous expression. However, further studies are needed to confirm the role of the other putative enzymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nociceptive transmission from the spinal cord is controlled by supraspinal pain modulating systems that include the caudal ventrolateral medulla (CVLM). The neuropeptide angiotensin II (Ang II) has multiple effects in the CNS and at the medulla oblongata. Here we evaluated the expression of angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptors in spinally-projecting CVLM neurons, and tested the effect of direct application of exogenous Ang II in the CVLM on nociceptive behaviors. Although AT1-immunoreactive neurons occurred in the CVLM, only 3% of AT1-positive neurons were found to project to the dorsal horn, using double-immunodetection of the retrograde tracer cholera toxin subunit B. In behavioral studies, administration of Ang II (100 pmol) in the CVLM gave rise to hyperalgesia in both the tail-flick and formalin tests. This hyperalgesia was significantly attenuated by local administration of the AT1 antagonist losartan. The present study demonstrates that Ang II can act on AT1 receptors in the CVLM to modulate nociception. The effect on spinal nociceptive processing is likely indirect, since few AT1-expressing CVLM neurons were found to project to the spinal cord. The renin-angiotensin system may also play a role in other supraspinal areas implicated in pain modulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is a continuous search for better and more complete in vitro models with mechanical properties closer to in vivo conditions. In this work a manufacturing process, based on a lost core casting technique, is herein reported to produce aneurysm biomodels to perform experimental hemodynamic studies. By using real artery images combined with a lost core casting technique, three materials were tested: paraffin, beeswax and glycerin-based soap. All in vitro biomodels were compared according to their transparency and final structure. Additionally, comparisons between experimental and numerical flow studies were also performed. The results have shown that the biomodels produced with beeswax and glycerine-based soap were the most suitable in vitro models to perform direct flow visualizations of particulate blood analogue fluids. The biomodels proposed in this works, have the potential to provide further insights into the complex blood flow phenomena happening at different kinds of pathologies and answer to important hemodynamics questions that otherwise cannot be tackled with the existing in vitro models. • Manufacture PDMS biomodels with low-cost lost core casting materials. • These materials allow to manufacture channels with diameters less than 2 mm. • Lost core casting materials can be removed from PDMS biomodels using water. • PDMS biomodels with high level of transparency to be used experimentally. • The PDMS biomodels are used to validate numerical simulations. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify and evaluate the decay capability of fungi that occur naturally in eucalyptus plantations of three cities in Espírito Santo state, Brazil. Hence, discs from deteriorated stumps were collected and samples isolatied to obtain pure fungal cultures. An experiment using Petri dishes with malt-agar medium and eucalyptus sapwood was performed in order to test the decay of each isolate. The experiment was evaluated by mass loss every four weeks during a total of 20 weeks. Fungi with decay capability were selected and identified via extraction of genomic DNA. Seven isolates were identified: Penicillium implicatum, Resinicium confertum, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Cladosporium sp., Penicillium sp., Trichoderma citrinoviride and Acremonium sp. Isolation and identification of fungi from eucalyptus stumps provided naturally occurring decay fungi that inhabit the eucalyptus plantations that were adapted for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cariniana estrellensis and Cedrela fissilis are native forest species from Brazil that are widely used for arborization of parks and recuperation of degraded areas. The production of seedlings from these two forest trees in nurseries is severely affected by fungal diseases. Morphological identification, sequencing analysis of three gene regions ( TEF+ ACT+ ITS or TEF+ TUB2 + ITS) and pathogenicity tests confirmed that fungi belonging to Botryosphaeriales are the aetiological agent of the diseases. This is the first report of Phyllosticta capitalensis causing leaf spots on C. estrellensis and Botryosphaeria dothidea causing canker on C. fissilis in forest nurseries in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades, several kinds of particulate blood analogue fluids have been proposed, but none of those were able to mimic the multiphase effects of real blood. Hence, it is clear that it is crucial to develop a simple multiphase blood analogue to be used for in vitro experiments at both macro- and microscale level. To the best of our knowledge, the present work shows for the first time a straightforward and extremely stable blood analogue fluid able to mimic multiphase blood flow phenomena. The present work proposes a simple, low-cost and stable multiphase blood analogue with the ability to mimic microscale blood flow phenomena. The proposed analogue fluid is composed of Brij L4 surfactant micelles suspended in pure water and is extremely easy to be produced. To investigate the ability of this analogue to mimic microscale blood flow phenomena, flow visualizations were performed in a microchannel constriction. In vitro blood phenomena were compared with the measurements performed with the proposed analogue fluid. Additionally, rheological measurements of the multiphase blood analogue were acquired by means of a stress-controlled rheometer and compared with in vitro blood sample viscosity curves. Overall, the results indicate that it is possible to produce a stable particulate fluid with geometrical, mechanical and flow properties similar to in vitro blood. Hence, the proposed analogue has a great potential to be used in flow experiments from macro- to nanoscale levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the detection of the fungus Cercospora appii as the cause of leaf spot diseases on Capsicum chinense, a species of hot peppers, in Brazil.