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Leishmaniasis is one of the world's most neglected diseases, and it has a worldwide prevalence of 12 million. There are no effective human vaccines for its prevention, and treatment is hampered by outdated drugs. Therefore, research aiming at the development of new therapeutic tools to fight leishmaniasis remains a crucial goal today. With this purpose in mind, we present 20 arylaminoketone derivatives with a very interesting in vitro and in vivo efficacy against Trypanosoma cruzi that have now been studied against promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania infantum, Leishmania donovani and Leishmania braziliensis strains. Six out of the 20 Mannich base-type derivatives showed Selectivity Index between 39 and 2337 times higher in the amastigote form than the reference drug glucantime. These six derivatives affected the parasite infectivity rates; the result was lower parasite infectivity rates than glucantime tested at an IC25 dose. In addition, these derivatives were substantially more active against the three Leishmania species tested than glucantime. The mechanism of action of these compounds has been studied, showing a greater alteration in glucose catabolism and leading to greater levels of iron superoxide dismutase inhibition. These molecules could be potential candidates for leishmaniasis chemotherapy.

In this paper, we discuss a new stochastic diffusion process in which the trend function is proportional to the Lomax density function. This distribution arises naturally in the studies of the frequency of extremely rare events. We first consider the probabilistic characteristics of the proposed model, including its analytic expression as the unique solution to a stochastic differential equation, the transition probability density function together with the conditional and unconditional trend functions. Then, we present a method to address the problem of parameter estimation using maximum likelihood with discrete sampling. This estimation requires the solution of a non-linear equation, which is achieved via the simulated annealing method. Finally, we apply the proposed model to a real-world example concerning adolescent fertility rate in Morocco.

The main goal of this paper is to study the possibility of using a stochastic non-homogeneous (without exogenous factors) diffusion process to model the evolution of CO2 emissions in Morocco and concretely using a new process, in which the trend function is proportional to the modified Lundqvist-Korf growth curve. First, the main characteristics of the process are studied, then we establish a computational statistical methodology based on the maximum likelihood estimation method and the trend functions. When we are estimating the parameters of the process, a non-linear equation is obtained and the simulated annealing method is proposed to solve it after bounding the parametric space by a stagewise procedure. Also, to validate this methodology, we include the results obtained from several examples of simulation. Finally, the process and the methodology established are applied to real data corresponding to the evolution of CO2 emissions in Morocco.

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Introduction: Brazil has high levels of TB-AIDS co-infection.Objective: To analyse differences and similarities, with respect to each State in Brazil and to the Federal District, concerning the stage at which TB-AIDS co-infection treatment is discontinued. The study period was 2008-13. Methods:Cross-sectional, quantitative study, using data from the Diseases and Notification Information System administered by the Brazilian Health Ministry. The data were analysed using the statistics program R, and the results are represented graphically by dotplots and dendrograms.Results: 58,704 cases of tuberculosis-AIDS co-infection were recorded. Rates of cure were under 30%. In the States of Paraíba and Pernambuco, treatment dropout was almost 50%.Mortality levels were high, at 70-90% in some States. Multiresistant TB was observed in less than 20%of cases. The rate of non-treated/non-resolved cases was 70% in Bahia. Transfer rates varied widely, with the highest level being recorded in Alagoas (80% of cases). Conclusion:Global goals are far from being met. There is considerable operational diversity in the public health policies of the different States. TB-AIDS co-infection should be monitored continuously and the epidemiological information system regularly updated in order to control this double epidemic.

Setting: The situation of tuberculosis in Brazil, in each of its States and in the Federal District, with respect to patients' level of education. Objective: To assess the strength of the relation between new cases of tuberculosis and treatment outcomes and rates of abandonment, with respect to the patients' level of education, in 2013. Design: Transversal-quantitative study, using data from the Brazilian Disease and Notification Information System related to notified cases of tuberculosis, taking into account the patients' level of education. Data were analyzed by the hierarchical classification method (heat maps and dendrograms). Results: In relation to numbers of new cases of tuberculosis and rates of healing and treatment abandonment, the lower the patients' level of education (less than 9 years' formal education), the higher the numbers of new cases of tuberculosis and the higher the rates of healing and treatment abandonment, throughout the country. Levels of schooling of 1-5 years and of 6-9 years are especially strongly related to a high incidence of treatment abandonment, in all the States. This nding was con rmed by clustering techniques. Treatment abandonment is especially prevalent in the States of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro, according to both analytic methods. In the States of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Mato Grasso do Sul and Paraná, have the problem more similarly, but mixed with other groups of States. Conclusion: Knowledge of the level of education of tuberculosis patients is of vital importance to health care managers, enabling them