The protective and destructive critical processes of female labor in small-scale fishing in coast Pernambuco, Brazil. / Processos críticos protetores e destrutivos no trabalho das pescadoras artesanais do litoral Pernambucano, Brasil.

This study aims to analyze the protective and destructive critical processes of 34 water women in the municipalities of Cabo de Santo de Agostinho and Ipojuca, Pernambuco, Brazil, from February/21 to August/22. The work process stages were systematized by the work flowchart, and we employed Breilh's critical processes matrix to organize the data. The destructive processes identified in the general domain were injustice and socio-environmental vulnerability, such as the economic development model, the Suape Industrial Port Complex, the 2019 oil spill crime disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the difficult access to public policies; in the particular domain: overloads and extended working hours, use of rudimentary equipment and tools, and unequal gender, class, and race relationships; in the singular domain: physical and mental illnesses and deaths. The protective processes identified in the general domain were sustainable development objectives, public health, and social assistance policies; in the particular domain, group work and processing, consumption for subsistence; in the singular domain, fishing as a therapeutic, pleasurable, and sharing process. The study highlighted the central issues of the water women and the need to establish public policies targeting their care.

Objetivou-se analisar os processos críticos, protetores e destrutivos do trabalho de 34 mulheres das águas nos municípios de Cabo de Santo de Agostinho e Ipojuca (PE), de fevereiro de 2021 a agosto de 2022. As etapas do processo de trabalho foram sistematizadas pelo fluxograma do trabalho e organizadas na matriz de processos críticos de Breilh. Os processos destrutivos, no domínio geral, foram: injustiça e vulnerabilização socioambiental como modelo de desenvolvimento econômico, o Complexo Industrial Portuário de Suape, o desastre-crime de petróleo ocorrido em 2019, a pandemia de COVID-19 e dificuldade de acesso às políticas públicas; no particular: jornadas e sobrecargas de trabalho, uso de equipamentos e ferramentas rudimentares e relações desiguais de gênero, classe e raça; no singular: adoecimentos físicos, mentais e mortes. Os processos protetores, no domínio geral: os objetivos de desenvolvimento sustentável, políticas públicas de saúde e assistência social; no particular: trabalho e beneficiamento em grupo, consumo para subsistência; no singular: a pesca como processo terapêutico, prazeroso e de partilha. O estudo destacou os problemas centrais das mulheres das águas e a necessidade do estabelecimento de políticas públicas voltadas ao seu cuidado.

Redox-associated changes in healthy individuals at risk of Alzheimer's disease. A ten-year follow-up study.

Carrying an allele 4 of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is the best-established genetic risk factor to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fifty percent of ApoE4/4 individuals develop the disease at 70 years of age. ApoE3/4 carriers have a lower risk of developing the disease, still 50% of them suffer AD at around 80 years. In a previous study we showed that healthy young individuals, who had a parent with AD and were carriers of at least one ApoE4 allele displayed reductive stress. This was evidenced as a decrease in oxidative markers, such as oxidized glutathione, p-p38, and NADP+/NADPH ratio, and an increase of antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase (Gpx1) and both the catalytic and regulatory subunits of glutamyl-cysteinyl (GCLM and GCLC). Moreover, we found an increase in stress-related proteins involved in tau physiopathology. Now, 10 years later, we have conducted a follow-up study measuring the same parameters in the same cohort. Our results show that reductive stress has reversed, as we could now observe an increase in lipid peroxidation and in the oxidation of glutathione along with a decrease in the expression of Gpx1 and SOD1 antioxidant enzymes in ApoE4 carriers. Furthermore, we found an increase in plasma levels of IL1ß levels and in PKR (eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 alpha kinase 2) gene expression in isolated lymphocytes. Altogether, our results suggest that, in the continuum of Alzheimer's disease, people at risk of developing the disease go through different redox phases, from stablished reductive stress to oxidative stress.

When Does Alzheimer's Disease Really Start? The Role of Biomarkers.

(Appeared originally in Int J Mol Sci 2019, 20 5536).

Is Sleep Disruption a Cause or Consequence of Alzheimer's Disease? Reviewing Its Possible Role as a Biomarker.

In recent years, the idea that sleep is critical for cognitive processing has gained strength. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide and presents a high prevalence of sleep disturbances. However, it is difficult to establish causal relations, since a vicious circle emerges between different aspects of the disease. Nowadays, we know that sleep is crucial to consolidate memory and to remove the excess of beta-amyloid and hyperphosphorilated tau accumulated in AD patients' brains. In this review, we discuss how sleep disturbances often precede in years some pathological traits, as well as cognitive decline, in AD. We describe the relevance of sleep to memory consolidation, focusing on changes in sleep patterns in AD in contrast to normal aging. We also analyze whether sleep alterations could be useful biomarkers to predict the risk of developing AD and we compile some sleep-related proposed biomarkers. The relevance of the analysis of the sleep microstructure is highlighted to detect specific oscillatory patterns that could be useful as AD biomarkers.

When Does Alzheimer's Disease Really Start? The Role of Biomarkers.

While Alzheimer's disease (AD) classical diagnostic criteria rely on clinical data from a stablished symptomatic disease, newer criteria aim to identify the disease in its earlier stages. For that, they incorporated the use of AD's specific biomarkers to reach a diagnosis, including the identification of Aß and tau depositions, glucose hypometabolism, and cerebral atrophy. These biomarkers created a new concept of the disease, in which AD's main pathological processes have already taken place decades before we can clinically diagnose the first symptoms. Therefore, AD is now considered a dynamic disease with a gradual progression, and dementia is its final stage. With that in mind, new models were proposed, considering the orderly increment of biomarkers and the disease as a continuum, or the variable time needed for the disease's progression. In 2011, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) created separate diagnostic recommendations for each stage of the disease continuum-preclinical, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. However, new scientific advances have led them to create a unifying research framework in 2018 that, although not intended for clinical use as of yet, is a step toward shifting the focus from the clinical symptoms to the biological alterations and toward changing the future diagnostic and treatment possibilities. This review aims to discuss the role of biomarkers in the onset of AD.