Abstract: OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the association of individual and neighborhood environment characteristics and objectively measured physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (ST) in adults from Curitiba, Brazil. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted through face-to-face household interviews in 2010. The analytic sample included 305 adults aged 20-65 years recruited from 32 census tracts selected according to neighborhood walkability and socioeconomic status. Individual and environmental PA correlates were evaluated through standardized and valid self-reported measures, including the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale. Minutes per week of PA and ST were assessed through accelerometry. Multi-level regression models were used in the analyses. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders the strongest individual and environmental correlates associated with ST was residential density (B = 0.14; p = 0.008), light-intensity PA was being a father/mother (B = 35.71; p = 0.025) and moderate-to-vigorous PA was sex (B = 0.91; p < 0.001) and number of cars (one car, B = -1.05; two cars, B = -1.14; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The associations found with individual and environmental correlates varied accordingly across all outcomes. Future changes in policies and infrastructure should consider the social context of the community and improvements to promote a safer environment in the neighborhood.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Low levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) during pregnancy have been shown in studies conducted worldwide. Surveillance is extremely important to monitor the progress of physical activity patterns over time and set goals for effective interventions to decrease inactivity among pregnant women. The aim of this study was to evaluate time changes in LTPA among Brazilian pregnant women in an 11-year period (2004-2015) by comparing data from two birth cohort studies. METHODS: Two population-based birth cohort studies were carried out in the city of Pelotas, southern Brazil, in 2004 and 2015. A total of 4244 and 4271 mothers were interviewed after delivery. Weekly frequency and duration of each session of LTPA in a typical week were reported for the pre-pregnancy period and for each trimester of pregnancy. Trends in both recommended LTPA (>/=150 min/week) and any LTPA (regardless of weekly amount) were analysed overtime. Changes were also calculated separately for subgroups of maternal age, schooling, family income, parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index and pre-pregnancy LTPA. RESULTS: The proportion of women engaged in recommended levels of LTPA pre-pregnancy increased from 11.2% (95%CI 10.0-12.2) in 2004 to 15.8% (95%CI 14.6-16.9) in 2015. During pregnancy, no changes were observed over the period for the first (10.6 to 10.9%) and second (8.7 to 7.9%) trimesters, whereas there was a decrease from 3.4% (95%CI 2.9-4.0) to 2.4% (95%CI 1.9-2.8) in the last trimester. Major decreases in LTPA in the last trimester were observed among women who were younger, with intermediate to high income, high schooling, primiparous, pre-pregnancy obese and, engaged in LTPA before pregnancy. Changes in any LTPA practice followed the same patterns described for recommended LTPA. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increase in the proportion of women engaged in LTPA before pregnancy between 2004 and 2005, LTPA levels remained stable during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy and declined during the third gestational trimester over the period. Interventions to encourage the maintenance of LTPA practice throughout pregnancy are urgently needed.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) continues to devastate patients and outfox investigators and clinicians despite the preponderance of research directed at its biology, pathogenesis and therapeutic advances. GBM routinely outlasts multidisciplinary treatment protocols, almost inevitably recurring in a yet more aggressive and resistant form with distinct genetic differences from the original tumor. Attempts to glean further insight into GBM point increasingly toward a subpopulation of cells with a stem-like phenotype. These cancer stem cells, similar to those now described in a variety of malignancies, are capable of tumorigenesis from a population of susceptible cells. CONCLUSIONS: Glioma stem cells have thus become a prevalent focus in GBM research for their presumed role in development, maintenance and recurrence of tumors. Glioma stem cells infiltrate the white matter surrounding tumors and often evade resection. They are uniquely suited both biochemically and environmentally to resist the best therapy currently available, intrinsically and efficiently resistant to standard chemo- and radiotherapy. These stem cells create an extremely heterogenous tumor that to date has had an answer for every therapeutic question, with continued dismal patient survival. Targeting this population of glioma stem cells may hold the long-awaited key to durable therapeutic efficacy in GBM.