We determined the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the factors associated with infection and types of counseling received by men and women from health professionals in the City of São Paulo. The investigation consisted of a cross-sectional study conducted with men and women aged between 15 and 64 years living in the City of São Paulo. Of 4,057 individuals who had engaged in sexual activity, 6.3% reported previous history of a STI: 4.3% of women and 8.2% of men. The factors associated with STI were being aged over 34 years and not using a condom during first sexual intercourse, among men, and being aged over 25 years among women. Protective factors included not having had sexual intercourse with someone from the same sex, among men, and having initiated sexual activity after the age of 15 years and not having a casual sex partner over the last 12 months, among women. Counseling about the importance of HIV and syphilis testing was received by 72.1% and 64.7% of women, respectively, while fewer than half of the men received this type of counseling (40.2% and 38.6 %, respectively). The prevalence of previous history of a STI was high among the population of the City of São Paulo. The findings of this study informed the development, implementation, and evaluation of STI policies, including those directed at HIV, leading to a reduction in the barriers that hinder access to and use of condoms and the creation of STI prevention app.

This article describes the main features of the Brazilian Global Atmospheric Model (BAM), analyses of its performance for tropical rainfall forecasting, and its sensitivity to convective scheme and horizontal resolution. BAM is the new global atmospheric model of the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Research [Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos (CPTEC)], which includes a new dynamical core and state-of-the-art parameterization schemes. BAM’s dynamical core incorporates a monotonic two-time-level semi-Lagrangian scheme, which is carried out completely on the model grid for the tridimensional transport of moisture, microphysical prognostic variables, and tracers. The performance of the quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) from two convective schemes, the Grell–Dévényi (GD) scheme and its modified version (GDM), and two different horizontal resolutions are evaluated against the daily TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis over different tropical regions. Three main results are 1) the QPF skill was improved substantially with GDM in comparison to GD; 2) the increase in the horizontal resolution without any ad hoc tuning improves the variance of precipitation over continents with complex orography, such as Africa and South America, whereas over oceans there are no significant differences; and 3) the systematic errors (dry or wet biases) remain virtually unchanged for 5-day forecasts. Despite improvements in the tropical precipitation forecasts, especially over southeastern Brazil, dry biases over the Amazon and La Plata remain in BAM. Improving the precipitation forecasts over these regions remains a challenge for the future development of the model to be used not only for numerical weather prediction over South America but also for global climate simulations.

Anal Pap smears alone were not sensitive enough to rule out anal dysplasia. We recommend that high-resolution anoscopy-guided biopsy be incorporated as a complementary screening test for anal dysplasia in high-risk patients. Following baseline high-resolution anoscopy, these individuals could be followed with serial anal cytology to dictate the need for future high-resolution anoscopy-guided biopsies.

We present J and K imaging linear polarimetric adaptive optics observations of NGC 1068 using MMT-Pol on the 6.5-m MMT. These observations allow us to study the torus from a magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) framework. In a 0. 5 (30 pc) aperture at K , we find that polarisation arising from the passage of radiation from the inner edge of the torus through magnetically aligned dust grains in the clumps is the dominant polarisation mechanism, with an intrinsic polarisation of 7.0%±2.2%. This result yields a torus magnetic field strength in the range of 4−82 mG through paramagnetic alignment, and 139 +11 −20 mG through the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method. The measured position angle (P.A.) of polarisation at K is found to be similar to the P.A. of the obscuring dusty component at few parsec scales using infrared interferometric techniques. We show that the constant component of the magnetic field is responsible for the alignment of the dust grains, and aligned with the torus axis onto the plane of the sky. Adopting this magnetic field configuration and the physical conditions of the clumps in the MHD outflow wind model, we estimate a mass outflow rate 0.17 M yr −1 at 0.4 pc from the central engine for those clumps showing near-infrared dichroism. The models used were able to create the torus in a timescale of 10 5 yr with a rotational velocity of 1228 km s −1 at 0.4 pc. We conclude that the evolution, morphology and kinematics of the torus in NGC 1068 can be explained within a MHD framework.

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