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This paper analyzes the patterns of health biotechnology publications in six Latin American countries from 2001 to 2015. The countries studied were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico. Before our study, there were no data available on HBT development in half of the Latin-American countries we studied, i.e., Argentina, Colombia and Chile. To include these countries in a scientometric analysis of HBT provides fuller coverage of HBT development in Latin America. The scientometric study used the Web of Science database to identify health biotechnology publications. The total amount of health biotechnology production in the world during the period studied was about 400,000 papers. A total of 1.2% of these papers, were authored by the six Latin American countries in this study. The results show a significant growth in health biotechnology publications in Latin America despite some of the countries having social and political instability, fluctuations in their gross domestic expenditure in research and development or a trade embargo that limits opportunities for scientific development. The growth in the field of some of the Latin American countries studied was larger than the growth of most industrialized nations. Still, the visibility of the Latin American research (measured in the number of citations) did not reach the world average, with the exception of Colombia. The main producers of health biotechnology papers in Latin America were universities, except in Cuba were governmental institutions were the most frequent producers. The countries studied were active in international research collaboration with Colombia being the most active (64% of papers co-authored internationally), whereas Brazil was the least active (35% of papers). Still, the domestic collaboration was even more prevalent, with Chile being the most active in such collaboration (85% of papers co-authored domestically) and Argentina the least active (49% of papers). We conclude that the Latin American countries studied are increasing their health biotechnology publishing. This strategy could contribute to the development of innovations that may solve local health problems in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometric morphometrics offer effective methods to obtain information about shape and shape variability. In ostracodology, landmark-based methods are, however, not well established. To test the applicability of geometric morphometric analyses for ostracods, we investigated shape variation among recent and fossil populations of the genus Cytheridella using a combination of landmarks and semilandmarks. The study focuses on the species' intraspecific morphological variability on a supra-regional scale, comparing living populations from Florida, Yucatán, Colombia and Brazil. We performed Generalized least-squares Procrustes Analysis on 508 adult and juvenile specimens (valves) including stages A-1 to A-4. The analyses show that the primary pattern in shape variation is ontogenetic allometry, supporting a clear separation of adults and juveniles. Shape changes are relatively small during ontogeny from A-4 to A-1. Greatest modification of valve shape occurs during the last molt phase. Insufficient differentiation of sexes is caused by females with less developed brood pouches. Disentangling size- and non-size-dependent shape changes reveals regional differences between populations of the species C. ilosvayi and supports its taxonomic distinction from a fossil relative (C. danielopoli). The distribution of regional morphotypes of C. ilosvayi in Florida, Mexico, and Brazil are congruent with fly ways of water birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Data on maternal deaths occurring after the 42 days postpartum reference time is scarce; the objective of this analysis is to explore the trend and magnitude of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes in the Americas between 1999 and 2013, and to recommend including these deaths in the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Methods: Exploratory data analysis enabled analyzing the magnitude and trend of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes for seven countries of the Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and the United States. A Poisson regression model was developed to compare trends of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes between two periods of time: 1999 to 2005 and 2006 to 2013; and to estimate the relative increase of these deaths in the two periods of time. Findings: The proportion of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes ranged between 2.40% (CI 0.85% – 5.48%) and 18.68% (CI 17.06% – 20.47%) in the seven countries. The ratio of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes per 100,000 live births has increased by two times in the region of the Americas in the period 2006-2013 compared to the period 1999-2005. The regional relative increase of late maternal death was 2.46 (p<0.0001) times higher in the second period compared to the first. Interpretation: Ascertainment of late maternal deaths and deaths from sequelae of obstetric causes has improved in the Americas since the early 2000’s due to improvements in the quality of information and the obstetric transition. Late and obstetric sequelae maternal deaths should be included in the monitoring of the SDGs as well as in the revision of the International Classification of Diseases’ 11th version (ICD-11). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging pathogen Cryptococcus gattii causes life-threatening disease in immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. Of the four major molecular types (VGI-VGIV), the molecular type VGIII has recently emerged as cause of disease in otherwise healthy individuals, prompting a need to investigate its population genetic structure to understand if there are potential genotype-dependent characteristics in its epidemiology, environmental niche(s), host range and clinical features of disease. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of 122 clinical, environmental and veterinary C. gattii VGIII isolates from Australia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, USA and Venezuela, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 60 isolates representing all established MLST types identified four divergent sub-populations. The majority of the isolates belong to two main clades, corresponding either to serotype B or C, indicating an ongoing species evolution. Both major clades included clinical, environmental and veterinary isolates. The C. gattii VGIII population was genetically highly diverse, with minor differences between countries, isolation source, serotype and mating type. Little to no recombination was found between the two major groups, serotype B and C, at the whole and mitochondrial genome level. C. gattii VGIII is widespread in the Americas, with sporadic cases occurring elsewhere, WGS revealed Mexico and USA as a likely origin of the serotype B VGIII population and Colombia as a possible origin of the serotype C VGIII population. Serotype B isolates are more virulent than serotype C isolates in a murine model of infection, causing predominantly pulmonary cryptococcosis. No specific link between genotype and virulence was observed. Antifungal susceptibility testing against six antifungal drugs revealed that serotype B isolates are more susceptible to azoles than serotype C isolates, highlighting the importance of strain typing to guide effective treatment to improve the disease outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]