Random amplified polymorphic DNA profiles as a tool for the characterization of Brazilian keratitis isolates of the genus Acanthamoeba

The genus Acanthamoeba comprises free-living amebae identified as opportunistic pathogens of humans and other animal species. Morphological, biochemical and molecular approaches have shown wide genetic diversity within the genus. In an attempt to determine the genetic relatedness among isolates of Acanthamoeba we analyzed randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles of 11 Brazilian isolates from cases of human keratitis and 8 American type culture collection (ATCC) reference strains. We found that ATCC strains belonging to the same species present polymorphic RAPD profiles whereas strains of different species show very similar profiles. Although most Brazilian isolates could not be assigned with certainty to any of the reference species, they could be clustered according to pattern similarities. The results show that RAPD analysis is a useful tool for the rapid characterization of new isolates and the assessment of genetic relatedness of Acanthamoeba spp. A comparison between RAPD analyses and morphological characteristics of cyst stages is also discussed.Universidade de São PauloUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UNIFESPSciEL

A new staggered algorithm for thermomechanical coupled problems

This study presents a new staggered coupled strategy to deal with thermomechanical problems. The proposed strategy is based on the isothermal split methodology, i.e. the mechanical problem is solved at constant temperature and the thermal problem is solved for a fixed configuration. Nevertheless, the procedure for this strategy is divided into two phases within each increment: the prediction and the correction phases, while the interchange of information is performed on both. This allows taking advantage of automatic time-step control techniques, previously implemented for the mechanical problem, which is the main feature that distinguishes it from the classical strategies. The aim of the proposed strategy is to reduce the computational cost without compromising the accuracy of the results. The new coupling strategy is validated using three numerical examples, comparing its accuracy and performance with the ones obtained with the classical (commonly employed) strategies for solving thermomechanical problems. Moreover, the influence of the time-step size on the accuracy is analysed. The results indicate that the proposed strategy presents accuracy close to the one obtained with the implicit coupling algorithm, while the computational cost is only slightly higher than the one required by the explicit strategy. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under projects P2020-PTDC/EMS-TEC/0702/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016779) and P2020-PTDC/EMS-TEC/6400/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016876) by UE/FEDER through the program COMPETE 2020. The second author is also grateful to the FCT for the Postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/101334/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Avaliação do impacto da suplementação alimentar a gestantes no cotrole do baixo peso ao nascer no município de São Paulo, SP (Brasil)

A partir de estudo realizado em oito grandes maternidades do Município de São Paulo, SP (Brasil) que atendem clientela predominantemente de baixo nível sócio-econômico, objetivou-se analisar o impacto da suplementação alimentar durante a assistência pré-natal sobre a incidência de recém-nascidos de baixo peso ao nascer (peso < 2.500 g). Foram envolvidos no estudo 1.060 recém-nascidos de mães que receberam suplementação e 664 recém-nascidos de mães que não a receberam. Ã incidência de baixo peso ao nascer foi de cerca de 11%, considerada elevada e semelhante em ambos os grupos de recém-nascidos. A análise multivariada, realizada para controlar eventuais diferenças entre os grupos, que não a condição de suplementação, descartou qualquer associação significativa entre suplementação e peso ao nascer e revelou, por outro lado, que tabagismo e morbidade na gestação e determinadas características antropométricas e reprodutivas da mãe, prévias à gestação, são importantes fatores de risco para o baixo peso ao nascer. A aparente explicação para a ausência de impacto da suplementação alimentar na população estudada parece residir não na quantidade insuficiente da suplementação alimentar oferecida (370 Kcal/dia), mas no predomínio de fatores não alimentares na determinação do baixo peso ao nascer. São formuladas recomendações quanto ao controle do baixo peso ao nascer no contexto estudado

Search for resonances decaying into photon pairs in 139 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for new resonances in the diphoton final state, with spin 0 as predicted by theories with an extended Higgs sector and with spin 2 using a warped extra-dimension benchmark model, are presented using 139 fb−1 of √s = 13 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. No significant deviation from the Standard Model is observed and upper limits are placed on the production cross-section times branching ratio to two photons as a function of the resonance mass