Cell death induced by the application of alternating magnetic fields to nanoparticle-loaded dendritic cells

In this work, the capability of primary, monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) to uptake iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is assessed and a strategy to induce selective cell death in these MNP-loaded DCs using external alternating magnetic fields (AMFs) is reported. No significant decrease in the cell viability of MNP-loaded DCs, compared to the control samples, was observed after five days of culture. The amount of MNPs incorporated into the cytoplasm was measured by magnetometry, which confirmed that 1 to 5 pg of the particles were uploaded per cell. The intracellular distribution of these MNPs, assessed by transmission electron microscopy, was found to be primarily inside the endosomic structures. These cells were then subjected to an AMF for 30 min, and the viability of the blank DCs (i.e., without MNPs), which were used as control samples, remained essentially unaffected. However, a remarkable decrease of viability from approximately 90% to 2-5% of DCs previously loaded with MNPs was observed after the same 30 min exposure to an AMF. The same results were obtained using MNPs having either positive (NH2+) or negative (COOH-) surface functional groups. In spite of the massive cell death induced by application of AMF to MNP-loaded DCs, the amount of incorporated magnetic particles did not raise the temperature of the cell culture. Clear morphological changes at the cell structure after magnetic field application were observed using scanning electron microscopy. Therefore, local damage produced by the MNPs could be the main mechanism for the selective cell death of MNP-loaded DCs under an AMF. Based on the ability of these cells to evade the reticuloendothelial system, these complexes combined with an AMF should be considered as a potentially powerful tool for tumour therapy.Comment: In Press. 33 pages, 11 figure

Microbial biomass carbon dynamics in soil under crop-livestock-forest in northern of Mato Grosso, Brazil.

The objective was to evaluate the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) dynamics in different managements: Crop-Livestock-Forest integration systems, soybean/pasture rotation and native forest, in Brazilian Cerrado

Probing neutrino mass with multilepton production at the Tevatron in the simplest R-parity violation model

We analyze the production of multileptons in the simplest supergravity model with bilinear violation of R parity at the Fermilab Tevatron. Despite the small R-parity violating couplings needed to generate the neutrino masses indicated by current atmospheric neutrino data, the lightest supersymmetric particle is unstable and can decay inside the detector. This leads to a phenomenology quite distinct from that of the R-parity conserving scenario. We quantify by how much the supersymmetric multilepton signals differ from the R-parity conserving expectations, displaying our results in the $m_0 \otimes m_{1/2}$ plane. We show that the presence of bilinear R-parity violating interactions enhances the supersymmetric multilepton signals over most of the parameter space, specially at moderate and large $m_0$.Comment: 26 pages, 23 figures. Revised version with some results corrected and references added. Conclusions remain the sam

Efeito dos restos culturais do arroz sobre a ocorrência da "mela" e produção de feijão em Rio Branco, AC.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar o comportamento vegetativo e produtivo de feijão Phaseolus vulgaris L. em cuiltivo a lanço e plantio direto, sopbre os restos culturais do arroz.bitstream/item/145763/1/1150.pd

Geochemistry of the Rio Espinharas hybrid complex, northeastern Brazil

The Rio Espinharas pluton, northeastern Brazil, belongs to the shoshonitic series and consists mainly of syenogranite, quartz-monzonite and porphyritic quartz-monzonite, but diorite, quartz-monzodiorite, quartz-syenite and microsyenogranite also occur containing microgranular enclaves, except for the diorite. Most variation diagrams of rocks, amphiboles, biotites and allanites show linear trends, but K, Zr, Sr and Ba of rocks display curved scattered trends. The rocks ranging from diorite to syenogranite define a pseudo-errorchron and have similar REE patterns. Syenogranite and microsyenogranite are derived from two distinct pulses of granite magma with initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7083±0.0003 and 0.7104±0.0007, respectively. Modelling of major and trace elements shows that the syenogranite evolved by fractional crystallization of plagioclase, microcline, edenite, biotite and titanite, whereas quartz-monzonite, porphyritic quartz-monzonite, quartz-monzodiorite and quartz-syenite resulted from simple mixing between an upper mantle-derived dioritic magma and the upper crust-derived syenogranite magma. Dioritic enclaves are globules of a mafic magma from the upper mantle.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V6J-46X86NR-5/1/0e5ce1dcc0c8fe91ebd680e6f2ac523

Critical phenomena of thick branes in warped spacetimes

We have investigated the effects of a generic bulk first-order phase transition on thick Minkowski branes in warped geometries. As occurs in Euclidean space, when the system is brought near the phase transition an interface separating two ordered phases splits into two interfaces with a disordered phase in between. A remarkable and distinctive feature is that the critical temperature of the phase transition is lowered due to pure geometrical effects. We have studied a variety of critical exponents and the evolution of the transverse-traceless sector of the metric fluctuations.Comment: revtex4, 4 pages, 4 figures, some comments added, typos corrected, published in PR

Anomalous Higgs Couplings

We review the effects of new effective interactions on the Higgs boson phenomenology. New physics in the electroweak bosonic sector is expected to induce additional interactions between the Higgs doublet field and the electroweak gauge bosons leading to anomalous Higgs couplings as well as to anomalous gauge-boson self-interactions. Using a linearly realized $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ invariant effective Lagrangian to describe the bosonic sector of the Standard Model, we review the effects of the new effective interactions on the Higgs boson production rates and decay modes. We summarize the results from searches for the new Higgs signatures induced by the anomalous interactions in order to constrain the scale of new physics in particular at CERN LEP and Fermilab Te vatron colliders.Comment: 35 pages, latex using epsfig.sty psfig.sty and axodraw.sty, 16 postscript figure

LHC phenomenology of supersymmetric models beyond the MSSM

We discuss various phenomenological aspects of supersymmetric models beyond the MSSM. A particular focus is on models which can correctly explain neutrino data and the possiblities of LHC to identify the underlying scenario.Comment: Contribution to the 16th International Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology (PASCOS 2010), Valencia (Spain), July 19-23, 201

Modelagem matemática da contração volumétrica de grãos de sorgo

A qualidade dos grãos de sorgo, bem como a dos demais produtos agrícolas é função dos fatores pré-colheita, da colheita propriamente dita e da pós-colheita. Na fase de pós-colheita a secagem é o processo mais utilizado para assegurar a qualidade e estabilidade dos produtos agrícolas. A secagem é definida como um processo simultâneo de transferência de calor e massa entre o produto e o ar de secagem. Um processo de secagem eficiente reduz a atividade de água do produto, aumenta seu potencial de conservação pós-colheita preservando suas características físicas e propriedades tecnológicas, possibilitando uma armazenagem segura. Porém se a secagem não for bem conduzida pode acarretar em perdas de qualidade, devido às alterações físicas químicas e sensoriais que pode provocar. A perda de água causa danos à estrutura celular do produto levando à mudanças na forma e ao decréscimo em suas dimensões, a redução do conteúdo de água durante o processo de secagem gera uma redução no tamanho do tecido celular, fenômeno este que usualmente é chamado de contração volumétrica. As variações volumétricas dos produtos, devido à sua desidratação, são relatadas como uma das principais causas de alterações nas principais propriedades físicas dos produtos agrícolas. Diante disso, objetivou-se com o presente trabalho avaliar e modelar a contração volumétrica de grãos de sorgo durante o processo de secagem. Foram utilizados grãos de sorgo (Sorghum bicolor) colhidos e debulhados manualmente das cultivares BRS 308 e Nidera A 9721, procedentes de um plantio experimental da Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril e de um cultivo comercial, respectivamente, ambos na cidade de Sinop (MT). A secagem dos grãos de sorgo foi realizada em uma estufa com circulação forçada de ar, nas temperaturas de 40, 50 e 60 °C, sendo o teor de água acompanhado por diferença de massa, conhecendo-se o teor de água inicial do produto. O volume da massa de grãos de sorgo foi medido ao longo do processo de secagem utilizando-se uma proveta graduada com volume de 1000 ± 5 mL. A avaliação dos modelos de contração volumétrica utilizados foi realizada mediante a determinação e análise do erro cometido na estimação dos dados observados (erro médio relativo e desvio padrão da estimativa), na magnitude do coeficiente de determinação e na significância dos parâmetros pelo teste ?t?. Baseando-se nos índices estatísticos propostos o modelo linear foi o que melhor descreveu a contração volumétrica da massa de grãos de sorgo ao longo do processo de secagem para as duas variedades e nas condições em que foi realizado o experimento