University of São Paulo

About: University of São Paulo is a education organization based out in São Paulo, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 136513 authors who have published 272320 publications receiving 5127869 citations. The organization is also known as: USP & Universidade de São Paulo.

A descriptive epidemiology of leisure-time physical activity in Brazil, 1996-­1997

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence, frequency, type, motivation for, and demographic and socioeconomic distribution of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) among adults in Brazil. METHODS: The data source for our study was the Brazilian Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) (Pesquisa sobre Padroes de Vida), which was conducted in 1996 and 1997. This survey studied a multistage stratified probabilistic sample of 4 893 households, which included 11 033 persons who were 20 years of age or older. The surveyed households were selected in the two most populous Brazilian regions, the Northeast and the Southeast, where in total 70% of all Brazilians live. The selected persons responded to a series of questions concerning their leisure-time physical activities. RESULTS: Only 13% of the Brazilians surveyed reported performing at least a minimum of 30 minutes of LTPA on one or more days of the week, and only 3.3% reported doing the recommended minimum of 30 minutes on 5 or more days of the week. In younger age groups, men were more active than were women. However, this difference sharply decreased with increasing age, and by the age range of 40 to 45 years the prevalence of LTPA was similarly low in both genders. Men reported engaging in more team sports, and women reported more walking/jogging activities, but walking/jogging was relatively more common in both genders when physical activity was performed on 5 or more days of the week. Recreation was by far the leading reason given by men to engage in LTPA, while recreation, health concerns, and even esthetic concerns were all relevant for women. In both genders, health concerns tended to be relatively more important for those exercising more days of the week. Also in both genders, increasing age was associated with more frequent LTPA, more walking/jogging than team sports, and more health concerns reasons than reasons related to recreation. Among both men and women there was a strong association between LTPA and socioeconomic status, measured either by income or schooling, independent of age, region, and urban or rural place of residence. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of adult LTPA in Brazil was much lower than the levels that have been reported for developed countries. However, the demographic and social distribution of LTPA in Brazil followed a pattern similar to the one usually observed in developed nations, where men tend to be more active than women, increasing age limits LTPA, and higher socioeconomic status is associated with more LTPA. Our data will provide a baseline to evaluate the impact on LTPA of "Agita Brasil" ("Move, Brazil"), an initiative to encourage physical activity that was implemented in the country after 1997.

Maximal lactate steady state in rats submitted to swimming exercise

Abstract: The higher concentration during exercise at which lactate entry in blood equals its removal is known as 'maximal lactate steady state' (MLSS) and is considered an important indicator of endurance exercise capacity The aim of the present study was to determine MLSS in rats during swimming exercise Adult male Wistar rats, which were adapted to water for 3 weeks, were used After this, the animals were separated at random into groups and submitted once a week to swimming sessions of 20 min, supporting loads of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10% of body wt for 6 consecutive weeks Blood lactate was determined every 5 min to find the MLSS Sedentary animals presented MLSS with overloads of 5 and 6% at 55 mmol/l blood lactate There was a significant (P<005) increase in blood lactate with the other loads In another set of experiments, rats of the same strain, sex and age were submitted daily to 60 min of swimming with an 8% body wt overload, 5 days/week, for 9 weeks The rats were then submitted to a swimming session of 20 min with an 8% body wt overload and blood lactate was determined before the beginning of the session and after 10 and 20 min of exercise Sedentary rats submitted to the same acute exercise protocol were used as a control Physical training did not alter the MLSS value (P<005) but shifted it to a higher exercise intensity (8% body wt overload) Taken together these results indicate that MLSS measured in rats in the conditions of the present study was reproducible and seemed to be independent of the physical condition of the animals

Medium chain fatty acids are selective peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) γ activators and pan-PPAR partial agonists

Abstract: Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) act through peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) γ to increase insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetes (T2DM), but deleterious effects of these ligands mean that selective modulators with improved clinical profiles are needed. We obtained a crystal structure of PPARγ ligand binding domain (LBD) and found that the ligand binding pocket (LBP) is occupied by bacterial medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs). We verified that MCFAs (C8-C10) bind the PPARγ LBD in vitro and showed that they are low-potency partial agonists that display assay-specific actions relative to TZDs; they act as very weak partial agonists in transfections with PPARγ LBD, stronger partial agonists with full length PPARγ and exhibit full blockade of PPARγ phosphorylation by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5), linked to reversal of adipose tissue insulin resistance. MCFAs that bind PPARγ also antagonize TZD-dependent adipogenesis in vitro. X-ray structure B-factor analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggest that MCFAs weakly stabilize C-terminal activation helix (H) 12 relative to TZDs and this effect is highly dependent on chain length. By contrast, MCFAs preferentially stabilize the H2-H3/β-sheet region and the helix (H) 11-H12 loop relative to TZDs and we propose that MCFA assay-specific actions are linked to their unique binding mode and suggest that it may be possible to identify selective PPARγ modulators with useful clinical profiles among natural products.

Recent developments on the South American monsoon system

Abstract: Fil: Marengo, J. A.. Centro de Previsao de Tempo e Estudos Climaticos. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais; Brasil

Metodologia de pesquisa

Abstract: O objetivo deste texto e auxiliar os alunos da pos-graduacao a escolherem o tema, realizarem suas pesquisas e redigirem suas dissertacoes de mestrado.