Environmental Variables And Intertidal Beach Annelids Of São Sebastião Channel (state Of São Paulo, Brazil).

Benthic annelid communities were studied during a one-year period (August/95 to July/96) in two sectors of the beaches Engenho d'Agua and São Francisco, São Sebastião Channel (São Paulo, Brazil), where the substrate is composed by a mixture of sand and rock fragments. Abiotic parameters such as salinity of interstitial water and sediment properties were used to characterize the environment. The polychaetes were well represented in the two sectors and their distribution was related with sediment type. The density of individuals and the number of taxa was higher at São Francisco, while the diversity and the evenness were higher at Engenho d'Agua. This difference can be a consequence of organic enrichment caused by domestic input, and of the lower and more variable salinity at São Francisco. Due to these factors, the high density of opportunistic species, like Capitella capitata ssp., Scolelepis squamata, Laeonereis acuta and several oligochaetes, represented 75.5% of total abundance at this sector.49849-5

Synchronous Endometrioid Endometrial and Ovarian Cancer in a 34-Year-Old Woman

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynaecological malignancy in developed countries. Synchronous endometrioid endometrial and ovarian cancer in patients appears with different clinical characteristics compared to patients with isolated endometrial cancer. A 34-year-old woman with lower abdominal pain of 1 year duration presented at the emergency department. On gynaecological examination, she had a left and midline pelvic mass. A transvaginal ultrasound showed it to be a complex hypervascularised mass, with cystic and solid components on left adnexal region. Ectopic pregnancy and pelvic inflammatory disease were excluded. Serum levels of tumour marker CA125 and ROMA were increased. The MR showed a complex mass, suggestive of primary fallopian tube or ovarian tumour. The patient underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection and subcolonic omentectomy. Histopathology revealed a synchronous endometrioid endometrial and ovarian cancer.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Activated sludge monitoring of a wastewater treatment plant using image analysis and partial least squares

The wastewater treatment plant activated sludge is a complex ecosystem mainly of bacteria and protozoa. Bacteria agglomerate as settleable robust aggregates leading to low organic matter and turbidity final effluents. However, when the operating conditions are not perfect some malfunctions may occur leading to bulking problems. Classical methods to survey the bacteria aggregation and contents resided on manual counting which are, rather tiring, imprecise and time-consuming urging the development of faster automated image analysis methods. Therefore, the prime objective of this work resided on surveying the activated sludge filamentous bacteria and aggregates contents and morphology, and establish relationships between the biomass and some operating parameters by multivariable statistical techniques. One of the main conclusions of this work resided on the determination of a filamentous, rather than a zoogleal, bulking problem in the course of this survey. This conclusion could be withdrawn by the strong resemblance between the sludge volume index and the filaments/aggregates contents ratio behaviour throughout the experiment time and by the high filamentous bacteria/suspended solids ratio (above 10000 mm/mg) which clearly indicates the existence of a filamentous bulking problem. Furthermore, an in-depth statistical analysis revealed that the filamentous bacteria/suspended solids ratio parameter may be used, at some extent, to monitor the SVI behaviour in a wastewater treatment plant aeration tank, whereas the suspended solids could be satisfactory monitored by the total aggregates area parameter. However, these results refer only to a wastewater treatment plant experiencing a bulking phenomenon and further studies should be developed in normal plants

Activated sludge monitoring of a wastewater treatment plant using image analysis and partial least squares regression

The biomass present in awastewater treatment plantwas surveyed and their morphological properties related with operating parameters such as the total suspended solids (TSS) and sludge volume index (SVI). For that purpose image analysis was used to provide the morphological data subsequently treated by partial least squares regression (PLS) multivariable statistical technique. The results denoted the existence of a severe bulking problem of non-zoogleal nature and the PLS analysis revealed a strong relationship between the TSS and the total aggregates area as well as a close correlation between the filamentous bacteria per suspended solids ratio and the SVI.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) – PRAXIS XXI/BD/20325/99

Higher-Derivative Two-Dimensional Massive Fermion Theories

We consider the canonical quantization of a generalized two-dimensional massive fermion theory containing higher odd-order derivatives. The requirements of Lorentz invariance, hermiticity of the Hamiltonian and absence of tachyon excitations suffice to fix the mass term, which contains a derivative coupling. We show that the basic quantum excitations of a higher-derivative theory of order 2N+1 consist of a physical usual massive fermion, quantized with positive metric, plus 2N unphysical massless fermions, quantized with opposite metrics. The positive metric Hilbert subspace, which is isomorphic to the space of states of a massive free fermion theory, is selected by a subsidiary-like condition. Employing the standard bosonization scheme, the equivalent boson theory is derived. The results obtained are used as a guideline to discuss the solution of a theory including a current-current interaction.Comment: 23 pages, Late

Extended-release niacin increases anti-apolipoprotein A-I antibodies that block the antioxidant effect of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol: the EXPLORE clinical trial.

Extended-release niacin (ERN) is the most effective agent for increasing high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C). Having previously identified anti-HDL antibodies, we investigated whether ERN affected the antioxidant capacity of HDL and whether ERN was associated with the production of antibodies against HDL (aHDL) and apolipoprotein A-I (aApoA-I). METHODS: Twenty-one patients older than 18 years, with HDL-C ≤40 mg dl-1 (men) or ≤50 mg dl-1 (women) were randomly assigned to receive daily ERN (n = 10) or placebo (n = 11) for two sequential 12-week periods, with 4 weeks of wash-out before cross-over. Primary outcome was change of paraoxonase-1 (PON1) activity and secondary outcomes were changes in aHDL and aApoA-I antibodies. Clinical Trial Unique Identifier: EudraCT 2006-006889-42. RESULTS: The effect of ERN on PON1 activity was nonsignificant (coefficient estimate 20.83 U l-1 , 95% confidence interval [CI] -9.88 to 51.53; P = 0.184). ERN was associated with an increase in HDL-C levels (coefficient estimate 5.21 mg dl-1 , 95% CI 1.16 to 9.25; P = 0.012) and its subclasses HDL2 (coefficient estimate 2.46 mg dl-1 , 95% CI 0.57 to 4.34; P = 0.011) and HDL3 (coefficient estimate 2.73 mg dl-1 , 95% CI 0.47 to 4.98; P = 0.018). ERN was significantly associated with the production of aApoA-I antibodies (coefficient estimate 0.25 μg ml-1 , 95% CI 0.09-0.40; P = 0.001). aApoA-I titres at baseline were correlated with decreased PON activity. CONCLUSIONS: The rise in HDL-C achieved with ERN was not matched by improved antioxidant capacity, eventually hampered by the emergence of aApoA-I antibodies. These results may explain why Niacin and other lipid lowering agents fail to reduce cardiovascular risk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estudo da condutividade hidráulica dos solos na area do entorno do projeto de irrigação salitre

bitstream/CNPS-2010/14865/1/doc92-2007est-condut-hidraulica.pd