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The objective of this study was to fit growth curves using nonlinear and linear functions to describe the growth of ostriches in a Brazilian popula-tion. The data set consisted of 112 animals with BW measurements from hatching to 383 d of age. Two non-linear growth functions (Gompertz and logistic) and a third-order polynomial function were applied. The parameters for the models were estimated using the least-squares method and Gauss-Newton algorithm. The goodness-of-fit of the models was assessed using R2 and the Akaike information criterion. The R2 calculat-ed for the logistic growth model was 0.945 for hens and 0.928 for cockerels and for the Gompertz growth model, 0.938 for hens and 0.924 for cockerels. The third-order polynomial fit gave R2 of 0.938 for hens and 0.924 for cockerels. Among the Akaike information criterion cal-culations, the logistic growth model presented the low-est values in this study, both for hens and for cockerels. Nonlinear models are more appropriate for describing the sigmoid nature of ostrich growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We identified variants E5 HPV31 corroborating with previous studies in Brazil. • Epitopes MHC I/II were related to the mutations identified in the 31E5 variants. • Selection pressure showed that 31E5 protein may be under diversifying selection. • Investigated the effect of the E5 variants on the NF-κB. Persistent infections caused by high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) are important, for the development of cervical lesions, but environmental and genetic factors are also related in the process of carcinogenesis. Among the genetic factors, the genetic variants of HR-HPV appear to be related to the risk of persistent infections. Therefore, the present study investigates variants of HPV31 E5 oncogene in cervical scraping samples from Brazilian women to assess their functional and structural effects, in order to identify possible repercussions of these variants on the infectious and carcinogenic process. Our results detected nucleotide changes previously described in the HPV31 E5 oncogene, which may play a critical role in the development of cancer due to its ability to promote cell proliferation and signal transmission. In our study, the interaction percentage of the 31E5 sequence generated by the Immune Epitope Server database and the Analysis Resource (IEDB) allowed us to include possible immunogenic epitopes with the MHC-I and MHC-II molecules, which may represent a possible relationship between protein suppression of the immune system. In the structural analysis of the HPV31 E5 oncoprotein, the N5D, I48 V, P56A, F80I and V64I polymorphisms can be found inserted within transmembrane regions. The P56A mutation has been predicted to be highly stabilizing and, therefore, can cause a change in protein function. Regarding the interaction of the E5 protein from HPV31 with the signaling of NF-kB pathway, we observed that in all variants of the E5 gene from HPV-31, the activity of the NF-kB pathway was increased compared to the prototype. Our study contributes to a more refined design of studies with the E5 gene from HPV31 and provides important data for a better understanding of how variants can be distinguished under their clinical consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Artisanal fishing involves 2 million people in Brazil in a poorly regulated setting. • Safety depends on fishermen's knowledge, expertise and sensemaking. • Safety II perspective and FRAM improve understanding on how safety is created. • Enabling the development of useful, practical and applied safety measures. Artisanal fishing with rafts is responsible for most of the Brazilian Northeastern region fishing production. Fishing is done in open sea, with very small boats in the unpredictable and often hostile maritime environment. Safety is achieved through the fishermen's expertise to adjust their performance to cope with the demands and disturbances. Under this environment, safety should be improved by constraining the way people do things, based on traditional safety management principles or Safety I. This research describes a Safety II approach to improve raft fishing safety in a typical Brazilian beach community. Safety II main focus is on fishermen activities and strategies to construct safety during their fishing expeditions. The methods, following the action research iterative procedure, are workplace empirical studies to uncover knowledge, expertise, and artifacts that inform fishermen sensemaking and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method FRAM to model the fishing capture expeditions. Results indicated that the fishermen's safety related trade-offs during fishing expeditions depends on their sensemaking, and to improve safety there is a need of a broader, systemic and continuous approach, involving not only objective measures and devices to inform and to support sensemaking for safer decisions, but also ways improve survival conditions of fishermen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide support to the issue of defining Functional Urban Regions (FURs). We carried out an exploratory study in which both commuting trips and population data were used in a combined setting. To do this, Bivariate Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis was used, enabling permuted analyses of the variables considered. The municipalities of São Paulo state, Brazil, were used in the case study investigated in this research. We observed that this combined analysis has more satisfactory results when compared to the analyses of variables in an isolated way. There is also a greater correlation of the results obtained from bivariate analysis with the official delimitations. Considering the possible permuted analyses, which are travel data versus population or population versus travel data, the first showed more reliable results in terms of identifying municipalities with strong correlations between the two variables. This can be observed both in areas within official FURs and throughout the territory, highlighting the areas of regional influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]