Abstract INTRODUCTION: Patients with Chagas disease (CD), caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, present a higher risk of developing other chronic diseases, which may contribute to CD severity. Since CD is underreported in the southern state of Paraná, Brazil, we aimed to characterize clinical and epidemiological aspects of individuals chronically infected with T. cruzi in Southern Brazil. METHODS: A community hospital-based study was performed, recording clinical/demographic characteristics of 237 patients with CD from Southern Brazil. To estimate the association between different forms of CD and sociodemographic and clinical variables, multiple logistic regression models were built using the Akaike information criterion. RESULTS: Mean age was 57.5 years and 59% were females. Most patients’ (60%) place of origin/birth was within Paraná and they were admitted to the CD outpatient clinic after presenting with cardiac/digestive symptoms (64%). The predominant form of CD was cardiac (53%), followed by indeterminate (36%), and digestive (11%). The main electrocardiographic changes were in the right bundle branch block (39%) and left anterior fascicular block (32%). The average number of comorbidities per patient was 3.9±2.3; systemic arterial hypertension was most common (64%), followed by dyslipidemia (34%) and diabetes (19%); overlapping comorbidities were counted separately. Male sex was associated with symptomatic cardiac CD (OR=2.92; 95%CI: 1.05-8.12; p=0.040). CONCLUSIONS: This study provided greater understanding of the distribution and clinical profile of CD patients in Southern Brazil, indicating a high prevalence of comorbidities among these patients who are a vulnerable group due to advanced age and substantial risk of morbidity.

Resumo Com base no estudo do processo criador dos diários cinematográficos de David Perlov, e detendo-se sobretudo na sua experiência brasileira, o artigo analisa como a escritura fílmica do cineasta faz das imagens da memória uma superfície de dupla face – como a banda de Moebius – que passa do interior ao exterior, do dentro ao fora, da experiência subjetiva à experiência social e histórica.

Abstract The paper analyzes the creative process of David Perlov’s cinematographic diaries and focuses mainly on his Brazilian experience. The paper analyzes how the filmmaker’s script makes a doublesided surface of the images of memory - such as the Moebius band - that goes from the inside to the outside, from the subjective experience to the social and historical experience.

Bioinseticidas fúngicos são aplicados com pulverizadores convencionais e algumas características destes equipamentos podem não ser adequadas e afetar a eficiência dos bioinseticidas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar se pressões usuais, em aplicações com o pulverizador de barra, podem afetar a ação inseticida de conídios de Beauveria bassiana e Metarhizium anisopliae, componentes de produtos comerciais brasileiros. Para isso, suspensões aquosas de três bioinseticidas foram submetidas à passagem pelo equipamento em três pressões (20, 40 e 60 lbf pol-2) e avaliadas quanto ao rompimento, à viabilidade e à virulência dos conídios. Avaliou-se a viabilidade em lâminas de microscopia cobertas com meio de cultura, após incubação a 26±0,5ºC e fotoperíodo de 12 horas. A concentração foi determinada por meio de contagens em câmara de Neubauer e a virulência foi avaliada para lagartas de Diatraea saccharalis. Não foram encontradas, nos três produtos, influências significativas em nenhum dos parâmetros. Nas pressões avaliadas, a aplicação com o pulverizador de barra não reduz a viabilidade e nem a virulência dos conídios dos bioinseticidas testados, tampouco provoca destruição dos conídios.

Fungal biopesticides are applied with conventional sprayers and this equipment may be inappropriate, and therefore affect field control efficacy of biopesticides. The objective of this research was to find out if the usual pressures used in the boom sprayers can affect the conidia pesticide activity of the Brazilian commercial entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. Water fungi suspensions were passed through the equipment under three pressures (20, 40 and 60 psi) and evaluated for viability, virulence and conidia disruption. The viability was evaluated in slides covered by culture media after incubation at 26±0.5ºC and 12 hours photophase. The concentration was determined through Neubauer chamber count and the virulence to Diatraea saccharalis caterpillars was evaluated. In the three tested biopesticides no significant effect was found in any parameters. For the tested pressures, the boom sprayer does not affect the viability or virulence and does not destroy the conidia of the evaluated commercial biopesticides.

O ARTIGO sugere que, com a vitória dos Estados Unidos na Guerra Fria, sua política de expansão adquiriu uma dinâmica mais fácil e mais acelerada. Contudo, a velha noção de "contenção" do comunismo perdeu seu caráter de legitimação da política externa norte-americana. O conceito de "primazia" passou a fazer parte das análises sobre o novo contexto; mas é evidente que a realidade da primazia requeria alguma legitimidade. O governo Clinton foi uma bem-sucedida experiência de primazia. Em comparação, a política externa do atual governo significa um retrocesso, por sua ênfase militar, sua constante demonstração de "arrogância do poder" e pelas conseqüências repressivas internas. Trata-se de um extremismo e é provável que a elite norte-americana não o tolere por muito tempo.

THE ARTICLE suggests that, with the victory of the United States in the Cold War, its expansion acquired an easier and more vigorous dynamics. The notion of "primacy" entered into the vocabulary of the analysis of the new context. However, it became obvious that the reality of primacy required legitimacy. Clinton's government was a well-succeeded experience of "primacy". By contrast, the foreign policy of George W. Bush implies a retrocession, because of its military policies, its "arrogance of power" and its internal repressive consequences. It is an extremism: the american elite will not tolerate it for a long time.