Abnormal neurovascular control during central and peripheral chemoreceptors stimulation in heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction.

Purpose: Central and peripheral chemoreceptors are hypersensitized in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Whether this autonomic alteration occurs in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains little known. We test the hypothesis that the central and peripheral chemoreflex control of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) is altered in HFpEF.

Impact of mass-screening on tuberculosis incidence in a prospective cohort of Brazilian prisoners.

Background: Globally, prison inmates are a high-risk population for tuberculosis (TB), but the specific drivers of disease and impact of mass screening interventions are poorly understood.

Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study to characterize the incidence and risk factors for tuberculosis infection and disease in 12 Brazilian prisons, and to investigate the effect of mass screening on subsequent disease risk. After recruiting a stratified random sample of inmates, we administered a questionnaire to ascertain symptoms and potential risk factors for tuberculosis; performed tuberculin skin testing (TST); collected sera for HIV testing; and obtained two sputum samples for smear microscopy and culture, from participants reporting a cough of any duration.

Nurses' attention demands in the work setting.

This descriptive study aimed to identify attention demand situations experienced by nurses in their workplace and to verify if these demands were judged differently depending on socio-demographic variables. Data were collected through the "Directed Attention Demands" instrument, translated and validated in Brazil. SAS statistics software was used for data analysis.

Persistent organic pollutants in atmospheric deposition and biomonitoring with Tillandsia usneoides (L.) in an industrialized area in Rio de Janeiro state, southeast Brazil--Part II: PCB and PAH.

Monitoring of immission of persistent organic pollutants in the industrialized area of Volta Redonda (V.R.) and in the National Park of Itatiaia (PNI) in southeast Brazil was performed using an endemic bromeliad species as biomonitor and measuring bulk deposition rates of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).