Epidemiological aspects of ageing.

A major societal challenge is to improve quality of life and prevent or reduce disability and dependency in an ageing population. Increasing age is associated with increasing risk of disability and loss of independence, due to functional impairments such as loss of mobility, hearing and vision; a major issue must be how far disability can be prevented. Ageing is associated with loss of bone tissue, reduction in muscle mass, reduced respiratory function, decline in cognitive function, rise in blood pressure and macular degeneration which predispose to disabling conditions such as osteoporosis, heart disease, dementia and blindness. However, there are considerable variations in different communities in terms of the rate of age-related decline. Large geographic and secular variations in the age-adjusted incidence of major chronic diseases such as stroke, hip fracture, coronary heart disease, cancer, visual loss from cataract, glaucoma and macular degeneration suggest strong environmental determinants in diet, physical activity and smoking habit. The evidence suggests that a substantial proportion of chronic disabling conditions associated with ageing are preventable, or at least postponable and not an inevitable accompaniment of growing old. Postponement or prevention of these conditions may not only increase longevity, but, more importantly, reduce the period of illnesses such that the majority of older persons may live high-quality lives, free of disability, until very shortly before death. We need to understand better the factors influencing the onset of age-related disability in the population, so that we have appropriate strategies to maintain optimal health in an ageing population.     

Epidemiological aspects of strongyloidiasis in Brazil

The objective of this review was to outline an epidemiological profile of Strongyloides stercoralis by parasitological and serological diagnosis in inhabitants, and to associate this profile with different immunosupression situations, in Brazil, over 20 years (1990-2009). The occurrence of S. stercoralis using parasitological methods was 5·5%, being 4·8% in rural and 5·0% in urban areas, characterizing the country as hyperendemic. There was a diversity of techniques used as a diagnostic tool and only 39·1% of the studies presented results based on at least 1 specific method. The occurrence increased with age, being 12·1%, for those over 60 that suggests an epidemiological condition of concern for the elderly population. Of the seroepidemiological studies in the general population the mean positivity in serum samples was 21·7% and 29·2%, using an immunofluorescence antibody test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The occurrence of strongyloidiasis in immunosuppressed individuals was 11·8% by parasitological methods and 19·5% using immunological methods. Considering that Brazil is a tropical country and that the character of chronicity and autoinfection of the parasite that can result in severe forms of hyperinfection or dissemination makes strongyloidiasis an important medically and socially neglected problem.     

Maximum-entropy principle: ecological organization and evolution

In the present paper, we have first studied the role of the maximum-entropy principle to explain the concept of organization of a physical system in the decreasing law of entropy with the increase of external constraints imposed on the system. We have then considered an open ecosystem (living) and determined a quantitative measure of ecological organization from the consideration of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. Finally, we have tried to explain the evolution of the ecosystem in the light of Prigogine’s principle of “order through fluctuation.”     

基于多源遥感数据的生态保护修复项目区监测方法评述

回顾了山水林田湖草生态保护修复项目的实施背景,针对生态保护修复项目监测监管范围广、技术难等问题,强调了基于多源遥感数据开展项目遥感监测的重要性与必要性。从监测指标拟定、遥感地物信息提取、多源遥感数据融合、动态变化检测等方面评述了基于多源遥感数据的生态保护修复项目区监测方法,包括基于中高空间分辨率遥感数据的地物信息提取、融合机器学习的非线性混合像元分析、基于混合像元分析的时空融合等。在总结技术和工作推进方面的优势、局限基础上,提出要结合实际工作,持续优化国土空间生态保护修复监测指标;充分挖掘遥感数据解析的相关算法潜力,提升地物信息提取和混合像元分析的精度;加强时空融合算法与变化检测方法的研究探索,加强相关方法的实践应用;以“山水林田湖草生态保护修复工程试点”项目为平台,建立稳定的国土空间生态保护修复遥感监测运行机制,加强科技创新,形成技术标准,指导工作开展。     

Epidemiological aspects of deep mycoses in Venezuela

Summary The tropical situation of Venezuela is a favorable condition to the development of fungi and contributes to the varied pathology in which numerous species are the agents. All the known deep human mycoses have been found on the Venezuelan territory. Studies of skin sensibility to histoplasmin and the analysis of the origin of cases of histoplasmosis and paracoccidioidomycosis indicate that both are very frequent in our country and are found preferentially in humid places of leafy vegetation, while coccidioidomycosis is limited to a dry area with predominant xerophyte vegetation and scarce rain fall, located in the northwestern region of the country, near the central North.Histoplasma capsulatum has been isolated from soils, among them the one of a cave where several excursionists had acquired the infection. It has been possible to pinpoint in these cases of primary pulmonary infection that the incubation period oscillated between 8 and 16 days and in one of them the appearance of the skin sensitivity to histoplasmin could be observed 18 days after the exposure to the fungus.In the most part of cases of chromoblastomycosis the agent is a different species from those frequently found in other countries and it seems to be abundant in dry regions with xerophyte vegetation.A National Coordinating Commission for the Study of Mycoses has been established in order to facilitate the elucidation of diverse problems that mycoses brought up and to stimulate the interest in medical mycology in the country.

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Zusammenfassung Die tropische Lage von Venezuela schafft eine günstige Bedingung für die Entwicklung von Pilzen und trägt zu einer vielfältigen Pathologie bei, in welcher eine grosse Anzahl dieser Pilze die Ursache ist. Alle bekannten, systematischen, tiefen Mykosen sind im Gebiete von Venezuela gefunden worden. Untersuchungen der Hautempfindlichkeit gegen Histoplasmin und die Analyse der Herkunft der Fälle von Histoplasmosis und Paracoccidioidomycosis zeigen, dass beide Infektionen im Lande weit verbreitet sind und dass sie vorzugsweise in feuchten Gegenden mit Laubvegetation vorzufinden sind, während Coccidioidomycosis in trockenen Gegenden mit einer vorzugsweise xerophyten Vegetation, mit mangelndem Regen, im Nordwesten des Landes, nahe dem Centralen Norden vorkommt.Histoplasma capsulatum ist von verschiedenen Böden gezüchtet worden, unter anderem, im Boden einer Höhle, wo mehrere Ausflügler die Infektion erworben haben. Es war möglich in diesen Fällen primärer Lungeninfektion festzustellen, dass die Inkubation zwischen 8 und 16 Tagen liegt, und dass in einem der Fälle die Erscheinung der Hautsensibilität zu Histoplasmin 18 Tage nach der Infektion erfolgte.In den meisten Fällen von Chromoblastomykosis ist die ursächliche Pilzspecies eine andere, als diejenige, die in anderen Gegenden gefunden worden ist. Sie ist reichlich vorhanden in trockenen Gegenden mit einer xerophyten Vegetation.Eine Nationale Koordinierende Kommission für die Untersuchung von Pilzerkrankungen ist gegründet worden, um die Aufklärung der mannigfaltigen Probleme, die die Mykosen hervorgerufen haben, zu erleichteren und um das Interesse für die Medizinische Mykologie im Lande zu fördern.

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Read in the meeting of the International Society of Human and Animal Mycology during the VI. International Congress of Tropical Medicine and Malaria, LISBON, September 5–12, 1958.     

The evolutionary and ecological roots of human social organization

Social organization among human foragers is characterized by a three-generational system of resource provisioning within families, long-term pair-bonding between men and women, high levels of cooperation between kin and non-kin, and relatively egalitarian social relationships. In this paper, we suggest that these core features of human sociality result from the learning- and skill-intensive human foraging niche, which is distinguished by a late age-peak in caloric production, high complementarity between male and female inputs to offspring viability, high gains to cooperation in production and risk-reduction, and a lack of economically defensible resources. We present an explanatory framework for understanding variation in social organization across human societies, highlighting the interactive effects of four key ecological and economic variables: (i) the role of skill in resource production; (ii) the degree of complementarity in male and female inputs into production; (iii) economies of scale in cooperative production and competition; and (iv) the economic defensibility of physical inputs into production. Finally, we apply this framework to understanding variation in social and political organization across foraging, horticulturalist, pastoralist and agriculturalist societies.     

Comparative aspects of DNA organization in metazoa

Data on sequence organization in metazoa are reviewed and tabulated. It is shown that the features of sequence organization previously observed in Xenopus DNA are extremely widespread. At least 70% of DNA fragments 2,000-3,000 nucleotides long contain both single copy and repetitive sequence in all the organisms examined except Drosophila.