Geographical information systems for indication of favorable areas to the sanitary landfill construction in Ouro Preto city (MG).

A disposi??o de Res?duos S?lidos Urbanos (RSU) em lugares inadequados, como nos lix?es, al?m de poluir o meio ambiente favorece a prolifera??o de vetores transmissores de doen?as. Apesar do atual sistema de disposi??o de res?duos s?lidos de Ouro Preto, o Aterro do Marzag?o, ter sido projetado e implantado corretamente, atualmente esse aterro controlado funciona semelhante a um lix?o. A fim de acabar com os danos sociais, econ?micos e ambientais causados pela disposi??o incorreta dos res?duos s?lidos, a LEI 12.305/2010 instituiu a Pol?tica Nacional de Res?duos S?lidos (PNRS). Esta lei estabelece dentre algumas san??es a que todos os munic?pios do Brasil devem transformar, at? 2014, seus dep?sitos inadequados de res?duos em aterros sanit?rios ambientalmente sustent?veis. Baseado na Pol?tica Nacional de Res?duos S?lidos e na situa??o atual do sistema de disposi??o de RSU do munic?pio, este trabalho tem como objetivo principal gerar um mapa identificando as ?reas favor?veis ? implanta??o de um novo aterro. Utilizando a an?lise multicrit?rios e o m?todo booleano, foi poss?vel realizar a sele??o e classifica??o de terrenos a partir de t?cnicas de geoprocessamento pautadas em crit?rios geoambientais. O resultado obtido gerou um mapa classificando ?reas como inaptas, restritas, moderadas e favor?veis ? implanta??o de um aterro sanit?rio no munic?pio de Ouro Preto.The disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in inappropriate places, like in the dumpsites, beyond pollute the environment favor the proliferation of disease-transmitting vectors. Despite the current solid waste disposal system of Ouro Preto, the Controlled Landfill Marzag?o, has been designed and implemented correctly, this landfill presently works like a dumpsite. In order to remove the social, economic and environmental damage caused by improper disposal of solid waste, the Law 12.305/2010 established the National Policy on Solid Waste (NPSW). This law establishes among some sanctions that all municipalities in Brazil should become, by 2014, your inadequate waste deposits in environmentally sustainable landfills. Based on NPSW and the current situation of the MSW system of the city, this work has as main objective to generate a map classifying areas favorable to the implementation of a new landfill. Using the Multicriteria Analysis and the Boolean method, it was possible to select and classify lands as of geographical information systems techniques guided on geo-environmental criteria. The result has generated a map classifying areas as unfit, restricted, moderated and favorable to the implementation of a landfill in Ouro Preto city

Microbiome profiling by Illumina sequencing of combinatorial sequence-tagged PCR products

We developed a low-cost, high-throughput microbiome profiling method that uses combinatorial sequence tags attached to PCR primers that amplify the rRNA V6 region. Amplified PCR products are sequenced using an Illumina paired-end protocol to generate millions of overlapping reads. Combinatorial sequence tagging can be used to examine hundreds of samples with far fewer primers than is required when sequence tags are incorporated at only a single end. The number of reads generated permitted saturating or near-saturating analysis of samples of the vaginal microbiome. The large number of reads al- lowed an in-depth analysis of errors, and we found that PCR-induced errors composed the vast majority of non-organism derived species variants, an ob- servation that has significant implications for sequence clustering of similar high-throughput data. We show that the short reads are sufficient to assign organisms to the genus or species level in most cases. We suggest that this method will be useful for the deep sequencing of any short nucleotide region that is taxonomically informative; these include the V3, V5 regions of the bac- terial 16S rRNA genes and the eukaryotic V9 region that is gaining popularity for sampling protist diversity.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure

COMMD1-Mediated Ubiquitination Regulates CFTR Trafficking

The CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) protein is a large polytopic protein whose biogenesis is inefficient. To better understand the regulation of CFTR processing and trafficking, we conducted a genetic screen that identified COMMD1 as a new CFTR partner. COMMD1 is a protein associated with multiple cellular pathways, including the regulation of hepatic copper excretion, sodium uptake through interaction with ENaC (epithelial sodium channel) and NF-kappaB signaling. In this study, we show that COMMD1 interacts with CFTR in cells expressing both proteins endogenously. This interaction promotes CFTR cell surface expression as assessed by biotinylation experiments in heterologously expressing cells through regulation of CFTR ubiquitination. In summary, our data demonstrate that CFTR is protected from ubiquitination by COMMD1, which sustains CFTR expression at the plasma membrane. Thus, increasing COMMD1 expression may provide an approach to simultaneously inhibit ENaC absorption and enhance CFTR trafficking, two major issues in cystic fibrosis

Polymorphisms in regulatory regions of Cyclooxygenase-2 gene and breast cancer risk in Brazilians: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is up-regulated in several types of cancer, and it is hypothesized that COX-2 expression may be genetically influenced. Here, we evaluate the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the COX-2 gene (<it>PTGS2</it>) and the occurrence of breast cancer among Brazilian women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was conducted prospectively in two steps: First, we screened the promoter region and three fragments of the 3'-untranslated region of <it>PTGS2 </it>from 67 healthy Brazilians to identify SNPs and to select those with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of at least 0.10. The MAF of these selected SNPs was further characterized in 402 healthy volunteers to evaluate potential differences related to heterogeneous racial admixture and to estimate the existence of linkage disequilibrium among the SNPs. The second step was a case-control study with 318 patients and 273 controls designed to evaluate <it>PTGS2 </it>genotype- or haplotype-associated risk of breast cancer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The screening analysis indicated nine SNPs with the following MAFs: rs689465 (0.22), rs689466 (0.15), rs20415 (0.007), rs20417 (0.32), rs20419 (0.015), rs5270 (0.02), rs20424 (0.007), rs5275 (0.22) and rs4648298 (0.01). The SNPs rs689465, rs689466, rs20417 and rs5275 were further studied: Their genotypic distributions followed Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and the MAFs were not affected by gender or skin color. Strong linkage disequilibrium was detected for rs689465, rs20417 and rs5275 in the three possible pairwise combinations. In the case-control study, there was a significant increase of rs5275TC heterozygotes in cases compared to controls (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.01-2.06; P = 0.043), and the haplotype formed by rs689465G, rs689466A, rs20417G and rs5275C was only detected in cases. The apparent association with breast cancer was not confirmed for rs5275CC homozygotes or for the most frequent rs5275C-containing haplotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate no strong association between the four most frequent <it>PTGS2 </it>SNPs and the risk of breast cancer.</p

Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity in the Dentate Gyrus of Monkeys

The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory. Synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, short-term and long-term, is postulated to be a neural substrate of memory trace. Paired-pulse stimulation is a standard technique for evaluating a form of short-term synaptic plasticity in rodents. However, evidence is lacking for paired-pulse responses in the primate hippocampus. In the present study, we recorded paired-pulse responses in the dentate gyrus of monkeys while stimulating to the medial part of the perforant path at several inter-pulse intervals (IPIs) using low and high stimulus intensities. When the stimulus intensity was low, the first pulse produced early strong depression (at IPIs of 10–30 ms) and late slight depression (at IPIs of 100–1000 ms) of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) generated by the second pulse, interposing no depression IPIs (50–70 ms). When the stimulus intensity was high, fEPSPs generated by the second pulse were depressed by the first pulse at all IPIs except for the longest one (2000 ms). Population spikes (PSs) generated by the second pulse were completely blocked or strongly depressed at shorter IPIs (10–100 or 200 ms, respectively), while no depression or slight facilitation occurred at longer IPIs (500–2000 ms). Administration of diazepam slightly increased fEPSPs, while it decreased PSs produced by the first pulse. It also enhanced the facilitation of PSs produced by the second stimulation at longer IPIs. The present results, in comparison with previous studies using rodents, indicate that paired-pulse responses of fEPSPs in the monkey are basically similar to those of rodents, although paired-pulse responses of PSs in the monkey are more delayed than those in rodents and have a different sensitivity to diazepam

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration