Entomofauna associada à cultura da mandioca na região sul de Mato Grosso do Sul.

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Effects of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor- activation in endothelin-dependent hypertension

Aims We analysed the chronic effects of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β/δ (PPAR-β) agonist GW0742 on the renin-independent hypertension induced by deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt. Methods and results Rats were treated for 5 weeks with: control-vehicle, control-GW0742 (5 or 20 mg kg−1 day−1), DOCA-vehicle, DOCA-GW0742 (5 or 20 mg kg−1 day−1), DOCA-GSK0660 (1 mg kg−1 day−1), and DOCA-GSK0660-GW0742. Rats receiving DOCA-vehicle showed increased systolic blood pressure, left ventricular and kidney weight indices, endothelin-1 (ET-1), and malondialdehyde plasma levels, urinary iso-PGF2α excretion, impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine, and contraction to ET-1 when compared with controls. Aortic reactive oxygen species content, NADPH oxidase activity, and p47phox, p22phox, NOX-4, glutathione peroxidase 1, hemeoxygenase-1, and preproET-1 expression were increased, whereas catalase and regulators of G protein-coupled signalling proteins (RGS)5 expression were decreased in the DOCA-vehicle group. GW0742 prevented the development of hypertension in a dose-dependent manner but the reduction of renal and cardiac hypertrophy, systemic and vascular oxidative stress markers, and improvement of endothelial dysfunction were only observed after the higher dose. GW0742, at 20 mg kg−1 day−1, attenuated ET-1 contraction by increasing RGS5 expression and restored the intracellular redox balance by reducing NADPH-oxidase activity, and by increasing the antioxidant genes expression. The PPAR-β antagonist GSK0660 prevented all vascular changes induced by GW0742 but not its antihypertensive effects. Conclusion Vascular protective effects of GW0742 operate via PPAR-β by interference with the ET-1 signalling as a result of increased expression of RGS5 and up-regulation of antioxidant genes and via PPAR-β-independent mechanisms to decrease blood pressure

Estudo longitudinal de um programa de reabilitação neuropsicológica dirigido a pacientes com doença de Alzheimer

Our aim was to study the duration of benefits derived from a neuropsychological rehabilitation program (NRP) for dementia patients. METHOD: The participants in this study were three patients diagnosed as probable Alzheimer's disease in the initial-to-moderate phase; the three were taking anticholinesterases. They were submitted to a neuropsychological evaluation (NE) before the NRP and then revaluated after 12 and 24 months of treatment. The aim of our intervention was to do practical work with implicit and explicit residual memory by training them in everyday life activities, and using compensatory strategies and their intact cognitive abilities. RESULTS: Analysis of quantitative NE data (descriptive measures) after the first year of NRP showed cognitive improvement, functional stabilization and fewer behavioral problems. However, this improvement did not continue in the second year, and the disease maintained its characteristic progression.OBJETIVO: Estudar a duração do beneficio de um programa de reabilitação neuropsicológica (PRN) dirigido a pacientes demenciados. MÉTODO: Participaram deste estudo, três pacientes com diagnóstico de provável doença de Alzheimer em fase inicial a moderada. Todos faziam uso de anti-colinesterásicos e passaram por uma avaliação neuropsicológica (AN) antes de começar o PRN e reavaliação após 12 e 24 meses do tratamento. O alvo de nossa intervenção foi trabalhar de forma prática a memória explicita residual e implícita, através do treino das atividades da vida diária, uso de estratégias compensatórias e habilidades cognitivas ainda preservadas. RESULTADOS: A análise dos dados quantitativos (medidas descritivas) da AN mostrou, que após o primeiro ano do PRN houve uma melhora cognitiva, estabilização funcional e redução dos problemas comportamentais nos pacientes. No entanto, observamos que essa melhora não se estendeu para o segundo ano, mostrando a doença sua característica progressiva.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Centro Paulista de NeuropsicologiaUNIFESP, EPM, Centro Paulista de NeuropsicologiaSciEL

Detection of forest degradation caused by fires in Amazonia from time series of MODIS fraction images

A new method is presented to detect and assess the extent of burned forests in a tropical ecosystem. Our study area is located in Mato Grosso state southern flank of the Brazilian Amazon region. MODIS images are used over the dry season of year 2010. The proposed method is based on (i) linear spectral mixing model applied to MODIS imagery to derive soil and shade fraction images and (ii) image segmentation and classification applied to a multi-temporal dataset of MODIS-derived images. In a first step, deforested areas are identified and mapped from the soil fraction images while burned areas are identified and mapped from the shade fraction images. Then, burned forest areas are mapped by combining a forest/non forest mask with the resulting burned area map. Our results show that 14,220 km2 of forests were degraded by fire in Mato Grosso during year 2010. Our approach can be potentially used operationally for detecting forest degradation due to fires. The proposed method can also be applied to time series of medium and high spatial resolution images for regional and local analysis.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Porous hydrogels from shark skin collagen crosslinked under dense carbon dioxide atmosphere

The possibility to fabricate marine collagen porous structures crosslinked with genipin under high pressure carbon dioxide is investigated. Collagen from shark skin is used to prepare prescaffolds by freeze-drying. The poor stability of the structures and low mechanical properties require crosslinking of the structures. Under dense CO2 atmosphere, crosslinking of collagen pre-scaffolds is allowed for 16 h. Additionally, the hydrogels are foamed and the scaffolds obtained present a highly porous structure. In vitro cell culture tests performed with a chondrocyte-like cell line show good cell adherence and proliferation, which is a strong indication of the potential of these scaffolds to be used in tissue cartilage tissue engineering.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. KBBE-2010-266033 (project SPECIAL) and from FEDER through POCTEP Project 0330_IBEROMARE_1_P. Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology is also gratefully acknowledged for post-doc grants of J. Moreira-Silva and T.H. Silva

Safety assessment and antioxidant activity of Lantana montevidensis leaves

Lantana camara, the widely studied species, and L. montevidensis, the less studied species of the genus Lantana are both used in traditional medicine for the same purpose (anti-asthma, anti-ulcer, anti-tumor, etc). However, little is known about the toxicity of L. montevidensis and there is limited information on its chemical constituents. Here, we investigated for the first time the genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of the ethanolic (EtOH) and aqueous extracts from the leaves of Lantana montevidensis in human leukocytes, as well as their ossible interaction with human erythrocyte membranes in vitro. The antioxidant activities of both extracts were also investigated in chemical and biological models. Treatment of leukocytes with EtOH or aqueous extracts (1-480 µg/mL) did not affect DNA damage index, but promoted cytotoxicity at higher concentrations (240-480 µg/mL). Both extracts did not modify the osmotic fragility of human erythrocytes. The extracts scavenged DPPH radical and prevented Fe2+-induced lipid peroxidation in rat’s brain and liver homogenates, and this was likely not attributed to Fe (II) chelation. The HPLC analysis of the extracts showed different amounts of polyphenolic compounds (isoquercitrin, gallic acid, catechin, ellagic acid, apigenin, kaempferol, caffeic acid, rutin, quercitrin, quercetin, chlorogenic acid, luteolin) that may have contributed to these effects. These results supported information on the functional use of L. mon-tevidensis in folk medicine

Sigma-lognormal modeling of speech

Human movement studies and analyses have been fundamental in many scientific domains, ranging from neuroscience to education, pattern recognition to robotics, health care to sports, and beyond. Previous speech motor models were proposed to understand how speech movement is produced and how the resulting speech varies when some parameters are changed. However, the inverse approach, in which the muscular response parameters and the subject's age are derived from real continuous speech, is not possible with such models. Instead, in the handwriting field, the kinematic theory of rapid human movements and its associated Sigma-lognormal model have been applied successfully to obtain the muscular response parameters. This work presents a speech kinematics based model that can be used to study, analyze, and reconstruct complex speech kinematics in a simplified manner. A method based on the kinematic theory of rapid human movements and its associated Sigma lognormal model are applied to describe and to parameterize the asymptotic impulse response of the neuromuscular networks involved in speech as a response to a neuromotor command. The method used to carry out transformations from formants to a movement observation is also presented. Experiments carried out with the (English) VTR TIMIT database and the (German) Saarbrucken Voice Database, including people of different ages, with and without laryngeal pathologies, corroborate the link between the extracted parameters and aging, on the one hand, and the proportion between the first and second formants required in applying the kinematic theory of rapid human movements, on the other. The results should drive innovative developments in the modeling and understanding of speech kinematics.Comment: Published in Open Acce

Infección por pseudomonas aeruginosa (bacilo piocianico)

Considerando la frecuencia de casos de infección por pseudomonas aeruginosa, la relativa ineficacia de medidas para su control y su gran capacidad de hacer resistencia a nuevos antibióticos, hemos querido resumir en el presente escrito los conocimientos dedicados a este microorganismo, acumulados en los últimos años, con el fin de dilucidar, en cuanto sea posible, los mecanismos implicados en su capacidad adaptativa al medio circundante, su establecimiento en el huésped susceptible, las características clínicas y paraclínicas y los nuevos enfoques para su control y tratamiento