Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on mode use and mode captivity the city of Santo Domingo in Latin America.

This paper explores transportation mode choice patterns of a population in Latin America before and during the COVID-19 pandemic based on survey data from the city of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). An online survey consisting of two waves was conducted between April and June 2020 among randomly chosen transport system users. The survey consisted of both a stated choice experiment, revealed preference, and psychometric indicators. Hybrid choice models were developed and included two latent variables (1) satisfaction with public transport and (2) the response to COVID-19. The results indicate that there is a strong habit of private vehicle use in the Dominican population. The main deterrents for public transport use are limited capacity and reduced safety (including regarding social distancing). The findings particularly highlight the success of the metro as a public transport mode in the city of Santo Domingo. Both cost and time are significant factors in mode choice, before and during the pandemic, but more so for OMSA bus use than for metro use. One of the conclusions from this study is that ignorin covid-related latent effects on public transport service during the pandemic may yield biased (lower) estimations of Value of Travel Time Savings. Finally, the results also show that mode captivity for public transport users plays an important role during the pandemic. These users have no access to alternative transportation and are obliged to continue using public transport. This implies that governments would be wise to urge transport operators not to reduce capacity and frequency during the pandemic.

CD59 polymorphisms are associated with gene expression and different sexual susceptibility to pemphigus foliaceus.

Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is an autoimmune disease, endemic in Brazilian rural areas, characterized by acantholysis and accompanied by complement activation, with generalized or localized distribution of painful epidermal blisters. CD59 is an essential complement regulator, inhibiting formation of the membrane attack complex, and mediating signal transduction and activation of T lymphocytes. CD59 has different transcripts by alternative splicing, of which only two are widely expressed, suggesting the presence of regulatory sites in their noncoding regions. To date, there is no association study with polymorphisms in CD59 noncoding regions and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate if CD59 polymorphisms have a possible regulatory effect on gene expression and susceptibility to PF. Six noncoding polymorphisms were haplotyped in 157 patients and 215 controls by sequence-specific PCR, and CD59 mRNA levels were measured in 82 subjects, by qPCR. The rs861256-allele-G (rs861256*G) was associated with increased mRNA expression (p = .0113) and PF susceptibility in women (OR = 4.11, p = .0001), which were also more prone to develop generalized lesions (OR = 4.3, p = .009) and to resist disease remission (OR = 3.69, p = .045). Associations were also observed for rs831625*G (OR = 3.1, p = .007) and rs704697*A (OR = 3.4, p = .006) in Euro-Brazilian women, and for rs704701*C (OR = 2.33, p = .037) in Afro-Brazilians. These alleles constitute the GGCCAA haplotype, which also increases PF susceptibility (OR = 4.9, p = .045) and marks higher mRNA expression (p = .0025). In conclusion, higher CD59 transcriptional levels may be related with PF susceptibility (especially in women), probably due to the effect of genetic polymorphism and to the CD59 role in T cell signal transduction.

ADIPOQ single nucleotide polymorphism: Association with adiponectin and lipoproteins levels restricted to men.

Adiponectin is an adipokine inversely correlated with obesity, which has beneficial effect on insulin resistance and lipid metabolism. Considering its potential as a therapeutic target in the metabolic disorder contexts, and in order to add knowledge in the area, our study evaluated the ADIPOQ 276G > T polymorphism effect on adiponectin levels, and on lipoproteins of clinical interest in a population sample composed of 211 healthy individuals. Significant effects were observed only among men: the carriers of heterozygous genotype (GT) showed high levels of adiponectin (p = 0.018), while the rare homozygous genotype (TT) gave its carriers a negative phenotype, represented by higher levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (p = 0.004 and p = 0.005) and total cholesterol (TC) (p = 0.010 and p = 0.005) compared to carriers of other genotypes (GG and GT respectively), the independent effect of SNP on LDL-C and TC levels was confirmed by multiple regression analysis (p = 0.008 and p = 0.044). We found no evidence of correlation between circulating adiponectin levels and biochemical markers, which suggests, therefore, an SNP 276G > T independent effect on adiponectin levels and on lipoprotein metabolism in men enrolled in this study.