Contribuição para o conhecimento das indústrias líticas mais antigas do território português: as jazidas com «Pebble Culture» da formação de Belverde - Península de Setúbal (Vilafranquiano médio)

Separata de "Setúbal Arqueológica", Vol. V de 1979As peças talhadas descritas neste trabalho fazem parte de um conglomerado constituído por calhaus rolados de quartzito (70%) e quartzo (30%) tendo sido encontradas à superfície do terreno, quando se procedia ao levantamento cartográfico dessa formação e no seu interior, no decorrer das operações necessárias à análise de imbricação, com vista à determinação das paleocorrentes responsáveis pela sua deposição

Acritarcos Anormais: Um Caso Teratológico no Limite Llandovery/Wenlock na Bacia do Amazonas, Brasil

Abnormal acritarchs include forms that present morphological anomalies. They occur in several intervals of the Silurian System, but become particularly abundant around the Llandovery/Wenlock Series boundary. The documentation of abnormal acritarchs is still relatively poor in the palynological literature. The first mention of a possible case of acritarch malformation in Veryhachium europaeum was from the Silurian Maplewood Shale of New York, although not assigned to any chronostratigraphic or paleoecological significance to it. Posteriorly, a study of the Silurian acritarchs from the Visby and Slite Formations of Gotland (Sweden), different hypotheses were considered in order to explain anomalies observed in the processes of some species. It was concluded that variations in water luminosity and temperature could have brought about pathological effects on the Gotland acritarchs. Furthermore, it was suggested that the noticeable occurrence of abnormal acritarchs near the Llandovery/Wenlock boundary could be related to such global phenomena as widespread volcanic activity, paleomagnetic inversions, or the impact of extraterrestrial bolides. In the present work, abnormal acritarchs are recorded for the first time in Llandovery/Wenlock boundary sediments of the Pitinga Formation (Trombetas Group) in the Amazon Basin, northern Brazil, reliably dated by chitinozoans. This new documentation includes some species described from Gotland, like Veryhachium sp., Ammonidium microcladum, and Salopidium granuliferum.Teratological representatives of these taxa share common features, as they all bear unusually thin walls and inflated, deformed processes. Such anomalies in Amazon Basin Silurian acritarchs are interpreted as the effect of stressing environmental conditions on the marine organic-walled microphytoplankton. Possible causes may include changes in seawater temperature and salinity, probably related to the sharp sea-level fluctuations that characterize the Llandovery/Wenlock transition on a global scale.Acritarcos anormais são indivíduos portadores de anomalias morfológicas e que são encontrados em diversos níveis ao longo da série siluriana, mas particularmente abundantes dentro do limite Llandovery/Wenlock. São poucos os trabalhos que fazem referências a acritarcos anormais. Na primeira citação foi descrito um Veryhachium europaeum “hiperatrofiado”, atribuído como uma forma “monstruosa” porém, sem conotação cronoestratigráfica ou paleoecológica. Posteriormente, em estudo sobre os acritarcos silurianos de Gotland, Formação Visby e Slite, Suécia, foram discutidas hipóteses para explicar a origem das anomalias nos processos de certas espécies. Concluiu-se que a variação de luminosidade e temperatura, poderia explicar os efeitos patológicos verificados nos acritarcos de Gotland. Atribuiu-se ainda, que a relação entre a distribuição de acritarcos anormais no limite Llandovery/Wenlock, provém de fenômenos globais como atividades vulcânicas, inversões paleomagnéticas ou queda de material extraterrestre. Neste trabalho são registrados, pela primeira vez, em sedimentos da Formação Pitinga (limite Llandovery/Wenlock), na Bacia do Amazonas algumas espécies descritas em Gotland, entre as quais: Veryhachiun sp., Ammonidium microcladum e Salopidium granuliferum. Essas espécies apresentam como característica comum parede fina e processos inflados e deformados. Considera-se essas anomalias registradas em acritarcos silurianos da Bacia do Amazonas como produtos de fatores ambientais estressantes tais como variação de temperatura e salinidade resultantes das oscilações do nível do mar, próprias neste intervalo de tempo

Immunohistochemical approach to the pathogenesis of clinical cases of Bovine Herpesvirus type 5 infections

Meningoencephalitis by Herpesvirus type 5 (BoHV-5) in cattle has some features that are similar to those of herpetic encephalitis in humans and other animal species. Human Herpesvirus 3 (commonly known as Varicella-zoster virus 1), herpes simplex viruses (HSV), and equid Herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) induce an intense inflammatory, vascular and cellular response. In spite of the many reports describing the histological lesions associated with natural and experimental infections, the immunopathological mechanisms for the development of neurological disorder have not been established. A total of twenty calf brains were selected from the Veterinary School, University of São Paulo State, Araçatuba, Brazil, after confirmation of BoHV-5 infection by virus isolation as well as by a molecular approach. The first part of the study characterized the microscopic lesions associated with the brain areas in the central nervous system (CNS) that tested positive in a viral US9 gene hybridization assay. The frontal cortex (Fc), parietal cortex (Pc), thalamus (T) and mesencephalon (M) were studied. Secondly, distinct pathogenesis mechanisms that take place in acute cases were investigated by an immunohistochemistry assay. This study found the frontal cortex to be the main region where intense oxidative stress phenomena (AOP-1) and synaptic protein expression (SNAP-25) were closely related to inflammatory cuffs, satellitosis and gliosis, which represent the most frequently observed neurological lesions. Moreover, MMP-9 expression was shown to be localized in the leptomeninges, in the parenchyma and around mononuclear infiltrates (p < 0.0001). These data open a new perspective in understanding the role of the AOP-1, MMP-9 and SNAP-25 proteins in mediating BoHV-5 pathogenesis and the strategies of host-virus interaction in order to invade de CNS

Susceptibility of neuron-like cells derived from bovine Wharton’s jelly to bovine herpesvirus type 5 infections

Background: Bovine herpesvirus type 5 (BoHV-5), frequently lethal in cattle, is associated with significant agricultural economic losses due to neurological disease. Cattle and rabbits are frequently used as models to study the biology and pathogenesis of BoHV-5 infection. In particular, neural invasion and proliferation are two of the factors important in BoHV-5 infection. The present study investigated the potential of bovine Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stromal cells (bWJ-MSCs) to differentiate into a neuronal phenotype and support robust BoHV-5 replication.Results: Upon inducing differentiation within a defined neuronal specific medium, most bWJ-MSCs acquired the distinctive neuronal morphological features and stained positively for the neuronal/glial markers MAP2 (neuronal microtubule associated protein 2), N200 (neurofilament 200), NT3 (neutrophin 3), tau and GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein). Expression of nestin, N200, beta-tubulin III (TuJI) and GFAP was further demonstrated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Following BoHV-5 inoculation, there were low rates of cell detachment, good cell viability at 96 h post-infection (p.i.), and small vesicles developed along neuronal branches. Levels of BoHV-5 antigens and DNA were associated with the peak in viral titres at 72 h p.i. BoHV-5 glycoprotein C mRNA expression was significantly correlated with production of progeny virus at 72 h p.i. (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The results demonstrated the ability of bWJ-MSCs to differentiate into a neuronal phenotype in vitro and support productive BoHV-5 replication. These findings constitute a remarkable contribution to the in vitro study of neurotropic viruses. This work may pave the way for bWJ-MSCs to be used as an alternative to animal models in the study of BoHV-5 biology

Enhancing Network Slicing Architectures with Machine Learning, Security, Sustainability and Experimental Networks Integration

Network Slicing (NS) is an essential technique extensively used in 5G networks computing strategies, mobile edge computing, mobile cloud computing, and verticals like the Internet of Vehicles and industrial IoT, among others. NS is foreseen as one of the leading enablers for 6G futuristic and highly demanding applications since it allows the optimization and customization of scarce and disputed resources among dynamic, demanding clients with highly distinct application requirements. Various standardization organizations, like 3GPP's proposal for new generation networks and state-of-the-art 5G/6G research projects, are proposing new NS architectures. However, new NS architectures have to deal with an extensive range of requirements that inherently result in having NS architecture proposals typically fulfilling the needs of specific sets of domains with commonalities. The Slicing Future Internet Infrastructures (SFI2) architecture proposal explores the gap resulting from the diversity of NS architectures target domains by proposing a new NS reference architecture with a defined focus on integrating experimental networks and enhancing the NS architecture with Machine Learning (ML) native optimizations, energy-efficient slicing, and slicing-tailored security functionalities. The SFI2 architectural main contribution includes the utilization of the slice-as-a-service paradigm for end-to-end orchestration of resources across multi-domains and multi-technology experimental networks. In addition, the SFI2 reference architecture instantiations will enhance the multi-domain and multi-technology integrated experimental network deployment with native ML optimization, energy-efficient aware slicing, and slicing-tailored security functionalities for the practical domain.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Gut Bacterial Communities in the Giant Land Snail Achatina fulica and Their Modification by Sugarcane-Based Diet

The invasive land snail Achatina fulica is one of the most damaging agricultural pests worldwide representing a potentially serious threat to natural ecosystems and human health. This species is known to carry parasites and harbors a dense and metabolically active microbial community; however, little is known about its diversity and composition. Here, we assessed for the first time the complexity of bacterial communities occurring in the digestive tracts of field-collected snails (FC) by using culture-independent molecular analysis. Crop and intestinal bacteria in FC were then compared to those from groups of snails that were reared in the laboratory (RL) on a sugarcane-based diet. Most of the sequences recovered were novel and related to those reported for herbivorous gut. Changes in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were observed when the snails were fed a high-sugar diet, suggesting that the snail gut microbiota can influence the energy balance equation. Furthermore, this study represents a first step in gaining a better understanding of land snail gut microbiota and shows that this is a complex holobiont system containing diverse, abundant and active microbial communities

Determination of βS haplotypes in patients with sickle-cell anemia in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

βS haplotypes were studied in 47 non-related patients with sickle-cell anemia from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Molecular analysis was conducted by PCR/RFLP using restriction endonucleases XmnI, HindIII, HincII and HinfI to analyze six polymorphic sites from the beta cluster. Twenty-seven patients (57.5%) were identified with genotype CAR/CAR, 9 (19.1%) CAR/BEN, 6 (12.8%) CAR/CAM, 1 (2.1%) BEN/BEN, 2 (4.3%) CAR/Atp, 1 (2.1%) BEN/Atp and 1 (2.1%) with genotype Atp/Atp. The greater frequency of Cameroon haplotypes compared to other Brazilian states suggests the existence of a peculiarity of African origin in the state of Rio Grande do Norte