Gender and health in Brazil: considerations based on the National Household Sampling Survey]

As in the principal industrial countries, Brazilian women have lived longer than men. However, paradoxically, women present higher morbidity indicators than men. Knowledge of the Brazilian pattern regarding this matter could be a useful contribution to an understanding of their determinants in our specific reality, as well as enabling us to foresee future trends that would make it possible to plan adjustment in the health system. A morbidity study based on data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD/IBGE), was undertaken in ten Brazilian states in 1986 with this in view. Coefficients of the prevalence of perceived morbidity, demand for and utilization of health services according to sex, standardized by age and using the direct method, were built up. As a measurement of the differentials, sex ratios were calculated. The excess of perceived morbidity in women was constant in all the regions. The sex differential in the utilization of health services showed regional variations, suggesting a relationship with the health services supply. Sex differentials were not observed in childhood; the highest values were found during the woman's reproductive period, decreasing sharply after 60 years of age. The pattern is very similar in all regions. In the present study, the findings could be partially explained by the methodology adopted, but they are similar to the findings reported in other countries. The intense transformations in the reproductive pattern and in the social status of Brazilian women probably have a considerable impact on the health status and on the recourse to health services, not as yet evaluated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Bis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride supported on zeolites for ethylene polymerization

Y zeolites with different sodium contents and a sodium mordenite were evaluated as support for bis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride as catalyst for ethylene polymerization. The results showed that, although the activities of the supported catalysts were lower than that of the homogeneous system, the average molecular weight of the polyethylene produced from the former was in general much higher than that of the polymer produced in solution. Contrary to the expected trend if the specific area was the dominant factor for catalyst activity, the best catalyst was the one supported on NaM zeolite. Thus, our results indicate that the concentration of framework aluminium atoms is the dominant factor, but that the contribution of the external surface is also important.     

Comparative studies on the expression of Fc-receptors, Ia antigens, and beta 2-microglobulin following in vitro herpes simplex virus infection of human lymphoid cells.

Characteristics of the specificity and affinity of surface Fc-receptors induced on Raji (a Burkitt's lymphoma derived B cell line) and Molt-4 (a T cell line derived from a leukaemic patient) after herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection were studied, together with the expression of other surface markers. Inhibition experiments of EA-rosetting suggested that Raji cells infected by HSV had a higher affinity for soluble aggregated IgG than for IgG serologically adsorbed onto erythrocytes; an opposite pattern was noted with Molt-4, a non-Burkitt's lymphoma cell line. Using radiometric and microspectrofluorometric techniques, the expression of Fc-receptors, as detected by their capacity to fix aggregated IgG, paralleled the expression of serologically detectable Fc-receptors and Ia determinants. In contrast to beta 2-microglobulin, both Fc-receptor and Ia antigen expression increased following Hsv infection: this suggests a specific induction of these markers on human lymphoid cells following HSV infection. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing a specific induction of both Fc-receptors and Ia antigens by HSV following in vitro infection of human lymphoid cells.     

DADOS-Survey: an open-source application for CHERRIES-compliant Web surveys

Background  

The Internet has been increasingly utilized in biomedical research. From online searching for literature to data sharing, the Internet has emerged as a primary means of research for many physicians and scientists. As a result, Web-based surveys have been employed as an alternative to traditional, paper-based surveys. We describe DADOS-Survey, an open-source Web-survey application developed at our institution that, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to be compliant with the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). DADOS-Survey was designed with usability as a priority, allowing investigators to design and execute their own studies with minimal technical difficulties in doing so.