25-Hydroxyivitamin D3 levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its association with clinical parameters and laboratory tests.

Introduction: The immunoregulatory role of vitamin D has been the object of a growing number of studies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Objectives: To determine the serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH) D] in patients with SLE, and to assess the association of 25(OH)D insufficiency/deficiency with clinical parameters and laboratory tests.

Methods: Cross-sectional, prospective study performed at the SLE Clinic, Department of Rheumatology, Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco with convenience sampling, including 78 patients with SLE and 64 volunteers (comparison group), matched by gender and age.

Immunological's host profile for HPV and Chlamydia trachomatis, a cervical cancer cofactor.

Over 100 different genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) have been isolated to date, while Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually-transmitted pathogen. This review considers evidence that C. trachomatis infection became a cofactor for HPV establishment and the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

Visan miospore biostratigraphy and correlation of the Poti Formation (Parnaba Basin, northern Brazil).

The Poti Formation, which consists mainly of sandstones with minor proportions of carbonaceous shales and other siliciclastic lithologies, represents all the Viséan strata thus far recorded in the Parnaíba Basin, northern Brazil.Well-preserved miospores featuring species with both Southern Euramerican and Gondwanan affinities have been recovered from this formation in four well sections. The most characteristic species are listed in this paper, and brief systematic descriptions are presented for the most significant species, along with comments on their biostratigraphy.

Radiizonates arcuatus, a distinctive new miospore species from the Lower Carboniferous of Western Gondwana.

A new species of trilete zonate miospores, Radiizonates arcuatus, is established for Lower Carboniferous Western Gondwanan forms hitherto ascribed misguidedly to Radiizonates genuinus (Jushko) Loboziak and Alpern (1978), a Russian Lower Carboniferous species. The latter binomen is, moreover, not a valid combination and is more correctly designated as Vallatisporites genuinus (Jushko) Byvsheva, 1980. R.