Selecive improvement of strain-dependent performances of cognitive tasks by food restriction

Temporary food restriction affects strain differences for behavioral phenotypes in the inbred strains of mice C57BL/6 (C57) and DBA/2 (DBA). Since food restriction is a routine procedure to motivate learning, we evaluated its influence on differences for spatial and non-spatial discrimination between these strains of mice by using two non-associative tasks: the Spatial Novelty Test (SNT) and the Spontaneous Object Recognition Test (SORT). The results confirmed the poor performance of the DBA mice in SNT. Nonetheless, DBA mice were perfectly able to recognize the novel object in SORT. By contrast, C57 mice were good performers in SNT but failed to recognize a novel object in SORT. Finally, food restriction selectively improved C57 performance in SNT and DBA performance in SORT. These results support the view that a food restricting procedure enhances strain differences for discrimination of configurational information

Effects of ozone processing on chemical, structural and functional properties of whey protein isolate

High concentration of gaseous ozone was used to treat whey protein isolate (WPI) powder for different times ranging from 30 to 480. min. The aim of the present work was to study the changes in protein structure and evaluate their consequences on selected functional properties. Surface hydrophobicity, free sulphhydryl groups, turbidity, FTIR, SDS-PAGE, HPLC analysis are performed to evaluate the chemical and structural effects of ozone. The effect of ozonation on the solubility and the foaming properties of proteins are also determined. Results show a reduction of free sulphhydryl groups and an increase of surface hydrophobicity, indicating a self-rearrangement in the protein structure following ozonation. Thus, ozonation allows creation of a more flexible structure without formation of a strong network of disulphide bond or aggregations, which is corroborated by the turbidity analysis and SDS-PAGE. Ozone processing induces modifications that improve the foaming capacity and foam stability, however, a slight reduction in the solubility is encountere

Interrupções e seus efeitos sobre a dinâmica de trabalho do enfermeiro

RESUMO Objetivos Investigar a percepção de enfermeiros sobre as interrupções durante a dinâmica de trabalho e suas implicações no ambiente de prática profissional. Métodos Pesquisa survey conduzida junto a 133 enfermeiros de um hospital de ensino no interior do Estado de São Paulo nos meses de outubro de 2015 a março de 2016, mediante utilização de um questionário autoadministrado. Empregou-se os testes Qui-quadrado e Fisher para análise estatística. Resultados A maioria dos enfermeiros relatou interrupções constantes e recorrentes durante atividades de trabalho. Os processos interruptivos são mais frequentes durante o processo de documentação (n=118; 91,5%) e orientação ao paciente/família (n=58; 45%). São ocasionados por toque de telefone (n=114; 87%) e resolução de problemas na unidade (n=107; 81,7%). Conclusões No parecer dos enfermeiros, os processos interruptivos repercutem sobre a dinâmica de trabalho, o processo de cuidar e a segurança dos pacientes

A Structure‐Activity Investigation on Modified Analogues of an Argininocalixarene Based Non‐viral Gene Vector

AbstractThe tetra‐L‐arginino‐tetrahexyloxycalix[4]arene 1 has shown extraordinary abilities to compact and internalize different types of Nucleid Acid cargos (DNA, microRNA, PNA) into cells even known to be transfected with great difficulties by commercial non‐viral gene delivery systems. This activity, accompanied by negligible toxicity, makes this calixarene a rather promising prototype of vector for Gene Therapy. In this study we report how small structural changes like i) the lower rim alkyl substituents, ii) the type of the terminal cationic headgroups (guanidinium or primary ammonium), iii) the length of the linker between the macrocycle and the terminal cationic headgroup, iv) the presence/absence of the basic α‐amino group of Arg, and v) the stereochemistry (L or D) of Arg, might affect the ability of the novel calixarene vectors to compact DNA and to deliver its cargo into the cells

Advanced Molecular Probes for Sequence-Specific DNA Recognition

DNA detection can be achieved using theWatson-Crick base pairing with oligonucleotides or oligonucleotide analogs, followed by generation of a physical or chemical signal coupled with a transducer device. The nature of the probe is an essential feature which determines the performances of the sensing device. Many synthetic processes are presently available for “molecular engineering” of DNA probes, enabling label-free and PCR-free detection to be performed. Furthermore, many DNA analogs with improved performances are available and are under development; locked nucleic acids (LNA), peptide nucleic acids (PNA) and their analogs, morpholino oligonucleotides (MO) and other modified probes have shown improved properties of affinity and selectivity in target recognition compared to those of simple DNA probes. The performances of these probes in sensing devices, and the requirements for detection of unamplified DNA will be discussed in this chapter. Chemistry and architectures for conjugation of probes to reporter units, surfaces and nanostructures will also be discussed. Examples of probes used in ultrasensitive detection of unamplified DNA are listed