Mothers from the 1982, 1993 and 2004 Pelotas birth cohorts were compared across biological, socioeconomic, demographic and reproductive characteristics. Women in the 2004 cohort had higher levels of education, gained more weight during pregnancy, and were heavier at the beginning and end of their pregnancy than mothers who gave birth in 1993 and 1982. There was an important increase in obesity rates (body mass index > 30kg/m²) over the 22 years of the study. Mean parity decreased from 1.3 in 1982 to 1.1 in 2004, with a growing proportion of primiparas and a decline in the proportion of women with > 4 children. The mean birth interval increased from 33.5 months in 1982 to 65.7 in 2004. Smoking during pregnancy decreased from 35.6% in 1982 to 25.1% in 2004. As with other characteristics, the change in smoking status differed according to income, with higher reductions among the wealthiest (from 24.9% to 8.7%) than among the poorest mothers (from 43.7% to 33.6%). In general terms, between 1993 and 2004 there was a decrease in the prevalence of maternal risk factors for unfavorable perinatal outcomes.

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Barnacles are animals characteristic and abundant of intertidal region on marine and estuarine environments worldwide, but they are little known in the areas of tropical mangroves. This study was done with the aim to know the barnacles' species of the estuary of the Paripe River (Pernambuco, Brazil), indicating some characteristics of its distribution throughout the estuary. In dry season of 2006, the animals were collected in three stations of the estuary, in all hard substrata available, observing their vertical distribution. In polihaline station (salinities varying from 28.7 to 36.1), it was found eight species: Amphibalanus amphitrite, A. improvisus, A. reticulatus, A. venustus, Chthamalus proteus, C. bisinuatus Resumen: Los cirrípedos son animales característicos y abundantes en la región intermareal de los ambientes marinos y estuarinos de todo el mundo, pero son poco conocidos en las áreas de manglares tropicales. El presente estudio fue realizado con el objetivo de conocer las especies de cirrípedos en el estuario del Río Paripe (Pernambuco -Brasil), señalando algunas características de su distribución a lo largo del estuario. En la estación de estiaje de 2006, los animales fueron colectados en tres estaciones del estuario, en todos los substratos duros disponibles, observando su distribución vertical en los mismos. En la estación polihalina (salinidades variando de 28,7 hasta 36,1), se encontraron ocho especies: Amphibalanus amphitrite, A. improvisus, A. reticulatus, A. venustus, Chthamalus proteus, C. bisinuatus, Microeuraphia rhizophorae y Striatobalanus amaryllis. Las especies clasifi cadas como eurihalinas, encontradas hasta la región mesohalina del estuario (salinidades variando de 10,8 hasta 19,6) fueran: Amphibalanus amphitrite, A. improvisus, A. reticulatus, Chthamalus proteus y Microeuraphia rhizophorae, mientras que en la región oligohalina (salinidades variando de 0,2 hasta 5,2), solamente M. rhizophorae estuvo presente, sendo por tanto, clasifi cada como componente estuarino. Una zonación horizontal de especies de cirrípedos fue claramente observada a partir de la desembocadura hasta al montante del río, con disminución gradual del número de especies y fue confi rmado su padrón de distribución vertical en relación a las alturas de mareas, observadas las respectivas valencias ecológicas. Las especies exóticas introducidas en Brasil, Amphibalanus reticulatus y Striatobalanus amaryllis, estaban bien adaptadas en los substratos naturales y artifi ciales del estuario.

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Brazil was the first country to provide unrestricted, cost-free access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicine for AIDS treatment. However, there is little data about the benefits of such a policy for these patients. We evaluated the duration of benefit obtained with the introduction of ARVs, defined as the durability of the first ARV regiment. We reviewed the medical charts of patients attended from 1996-2000, at the outpatient clinics of the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. A total of 120 drug-naive HIV-1 infected patients were eligible to participate in the study. About half of the individuals (53%) presented with disease symptoms; 59% of them had CD(4) count below 200 cells/mm(3). Mean estimated duration of the benefit of therapy was 14.1 months. The most used regimen in this cohort was Zidovudine/3TC/Indinavir (26%), followed by Zidovudine/DDI (17%), and Zidovudine/3TC/Nelfinavir (13%). The most frequent cause of interruption of therapy was gastrointestinal intolerance. Use of treatment regimens with three drugs was more effective than with two drugs, but only for patients with CD(4)<200 cells/mm(3) or CV>100,000 copies RNA/mL. However, the use of triple therapy was associated with a significantly higher probability of reaching maximum viral suppression, during a longer period (p<0.05). The patients enrolled in the study benefitted from therapy for a limited time, after the introduction of double or triple antiretroviral therapy. The incidence of adverse events was significantly associated with loss of the benefits provided by the initial therapeutic regimen.

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Aliphatic polyesters, like PGA, PLA, PCL and PDO, among others, are biodegradable materials that find applications in many biomedical devices, from fibers for subcutaneous sutures to other regenerative surgery implants. The main concept among these applications is to use a biodegradable device that temporarily replace the biomechanical functions, avoiding this way the chirurgical procedures to remove the device. However, the dimensioning of these devices is complex, not only because the mechanical properties evolve during degradation, but also because these biodegradable materials cannot be assumed as elastic materials. In more precise terms, the response of an elastic material implies that the loading and unloading paths coincide, the material responds instantaneously to an applied load, its behavior is time-independent and the material returns to its former unloaded configuration upon the removal of external loads. In this work, fibers of non-degraded PLA-PCL were submitted to tensile testing at different rates, to load-unloading cycles at different load levels and with or without delay before reloading, creep and fatigue tests at different levels of load. These results elucidate the viscoelastic/viscoplastic nature of this class of materials. The load-unloading cyclic test results allow determining the different components of the strain: elastic, plastic and viscous. The visco-plastic nature was also reflected on the creep and fatigue results. The findings discussed in this work must be taken into account when designing biomedical devices, to avoid common causes of failure such as laxity or premature rupture.