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IVIA is a joint initiative of at least 8 Latin-American countries plus Portugal and Spain to make good use of large telecommunications antennas that are out of service in these countries, because most international communications are now using submarine cables. The first step will be to refurbish the antennas and then to start doing single dish observations of radiosources. In a second step the antennas will be equipped with VLBI (Very Long Base Interferometry) equipment, to establish a VLBI network. This project will be able to effectively promote scientific integration in Ibero-America. The work is starting in several countries; here we present several scientific cases for the use of the antennas, and we report on the first Brasilian activities.

Introduction: Relations between heart failure and clinically manifested stroke are well known, but the associations between heart and brain early abnormalities are not totally clear., Aims: We explore relations of subclinical brain abnormalities with early cardiac dysfunction in a large healthy middle-aged biracial cohort., Methods: The CARDIA study enrolled 5115 young adults aged 18-30 years at baseline (1985-1986). We assessed 719 Caucasian and African American participants of the CARDIA study, with echocardiograms and brain MRI at follow-up year 25 (2010-2011). Echocardiography assessed aortic root diameter; LVEF; circumferential, longitudinal, and radial deformation. Cerebral MRI DTI, and, on a subset, ASL perfusion sequences were used to assess white matter fractional anisotropy and gray matter cerebral blood flow (CBF). Linear regression explored relations between cardiac parameters and cerebral measures, adjusting for anthropometrics, risk factors, and brain constitutional variation., Results: Mean age 50 ± 4 years, SBP 118 ± 15 mm Hg; 60% white, and 48% men. Mean CBF was 46 ± 9 mL/100 g/min, and white matter fractional anisotropy was 0.31 ± 0.02. Worse circumferential deformation and larger aortic root were related to worse white matter fractional anisotropy. Worse radial systolic deformation was related to worse CBF in multivariable models. LVEF did not relate to early brain abnormalities., Conclusions: In spite of no apparent effect of LV ejection fraction, early subclinical cardiac dysfunction and brain abnormalities are present and associated in middle-aged generally healthy individuals., (© 2017, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: Framingham risk score (FRS) underestimates risk in young adults. Left ventricular mass (LVM) relates to cardiovascular disease (CVD), with unclear value in youth. In a young biracial cohort, we investigate how FRS predicts CVD over 20 years and the incremental value of LVM. We also explore the predictive ability of different cut-points for hypertrophy., Methods: We assessed FRS and echocardiography-derived LVM (indexed by body surface area or height2.7) from 3980 African-American and white Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) participants (1990-1991); and followed over 20 years for a combined endpoint: cardiovascular death; nonfatal myocardial infarction, heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral artery disease. We assessed the predictive ability of FRS for CVD and also calibration, discrimination, and net reclassification improvement for adding LVM to FRS., Results: Mean age was 30±4 years, 46% males, and 52% white. Event incidence (n=118) across FRS groups was, respectively, 1.3%, 5.4%, and 23.1% (p<0.001); and was 1.4%, 1.3%, 3.7%, and 5.4% (p<0.001) across quartiles of LVM (cut-points 117 g, 144 g, and 176 g). LVM predicted CVD independently of FRS, with the best performance in normal weight participants. Adding LVM to FRS modestly increased discrimination and had a statistically significant reclassification. The 85th percentile (≥116 g/m2 for men; ≥96 g/m2 for women) showed event prediction more robust than currently recommended cut-points for hypertrophy., Conclusion: In a biracial cohort of young adults, FRS and LVM are helpful independent predictors of CVD. LVM can modestly improve discrimination and reclassify participants beyond FRS. Currently recommended cut-points for hypertrophy may be too high for young adults., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)