191 research outputs found
Cortisol and Anxiety Response to a Relaxing Intervention on Pregnant Women Awaiting Amniocentesis
Background: Stress and anxiety during pregnancy have been associated with premature and low birth weight babies, presumably through fetus over exposion to glucocorticoids. Antenatal stress
also seems to have long-term effects upon infant development and adult health. However,
medication for stress may carry risks to the expectant mother, therefore the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions should be investigated.
Methods: Pregnant women (n = 154) awaiting amniocentesis, were randomly assigned in the
morning and the afternoon to three groups for 30 min: (1) listening to relaxing music, (2) sitting and reading magazines, and (3) sitting in the waiting-room. Before and after that period, they completed the Spielberger’s State and Trait anxiety inventory and provided blood samples for
cortisol. The groups were then compared regarding change in cortisol levels and anxiety.
Results: Maternal cortisol and state anxiety were correlated (r = 0.25, p = 0.04) in the afternoon, but not in the morning. The larger decreases in cortisol occurred in the music group ( 61.8 nmol/L, ANOVA: p = 0.01), followed by magazine, being differences among groups more pronounced in the morning. Women in the music group also exhibited the greater decreases in state anxiety
( p < 0.001). Younger mothers with less gestational age were on average the most anxious, and also the ones with greater decreases in cortisol and anxiety levels after relaxation.
Conclusion: A relaxing intervention as short as 30 min, especially listening to music, decreases plasma cortisol and self-reported state anxiety score. Pregnant women might benefit from the routine practice of relaxation in the imminence of clinical stressful events
GLP-1 Increases Circulating Leptin Levels in Truncal Vagotomized Rats
GLP-1 is a gastro-intestinal hormone acting within the gut/brain axis for energy balance regulation. We aimed to evaluate the role of the vagus nerve in whole-body energy homeostasis and in mediating GLP-1 effects. For this, rats submitted to truncal vagotomy and sham-operated controls underwent a comprehensive evaluation, including eating behavior, body weight, percentage of white (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT), resting energy expenditure (REE) and acute response to GLP-1. Truncal vagotomized rats had significantly lower food intake, body weight, body weight gain, WAT and BAT, with a higher BAT/WAT ratio, but no significant difference in REE when compared to controls. Vagotomized rats also had significantly higher fasting ghrelin and lower glucose and insulin levels. After GLP-1 administration, vagotomized rats depicted a blunted anorexigenic response and higher plasma leptin levels, as compared to controls. However, in vitro stimulation of VAT explants with GLP-1 resulted in no significant changes in leptin secretion. In conclusion, the vagus nerve influences whole-body energy homeostasis by modifying food intake, body weight and body composition and by mediating the GLP-1 anorectic response. The higher leptin levels in response to acute GLP-1 administration observed after truncal vagotomy suggest the existence of a putative GLP-1-leptin axis that relies on the integrity of gut-brain vagal pathway
Contributos da intervenção de enfermagem de cuidados de saúde primários para a promoção do aleitamento materno
O presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar os contributos das intervenções de enfermeiras
de Cuidados de Saúde Primários, com primíparas, na promoção do aleitamento materno.
Trata-se de um desenho quase-experimental, longitudinal, com amostra de 151 primíparas,
com menos de 28 semanas de gravidez, entre 15 de outubro de 2007 e 29 de fevereiro de
2008, com filhos vivos aos seis meses após o parto. A quase totalidade das mulheres iniciou
o aleitamento materno, verificando-se quebra acentuada da prevalência até os seis meses. A
duração média do aleitamento materno foi 123,8±68,9 dias. A intervenção que se iniciou no
pré-parto e se prolongou para o pós-parto, com diversidade de estratégias (consulta individual;
curso de preparação para a parentalidade/parto e visita domiciliária) e contextos de intervenção
(serviços de saúde e domicílio), teve efeitos significativos na duração do aleitamento materno,
não se verificando na prevalência.This study aimed to analyze the contributions of the Primary Healthcare nursing interventions,
with primiparae in the promotion of breastfeeding. This is a quasi-experimental, longitudinal
study, with a sample consisting of 151 primiparae, who had less than 28 weeks of pregnancy,
with the child living for at least six months after the birth, performed between 15 October
2007 and 29 February 2008. Almost all the women initiated breastfeeding, with a sharp
decline verified in the prevalence at six months. The mean duration of breastfeeding was
123.8±68.9 days. The intervention that began in the prepartum and continued into the
postpartum period, using various strategies (individual consultation, preparation courses
for parenting/childbirth, and domicile visits) and intervention contexts (health services and
domicile) had significant effects on the duration of breastfeeding, which was not verified in
the prevalence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Coordinated optimization of visual cortical maps (I) Symmetry-based analysis
In the primary visual cortex of primates and carnivores, functional
architecture can be characterized by maps of various stimulus features such as
orientation preference (OP), ocular dominance (OD), and spatial frequency. It
is a long-standing question in theoretical neuroscience whether the observed
maps should be interpreted as optima of a specific energy functional that
summarizes the design principles of cortical functional architecture. A
rigorous evaluation of this optimization hypothesis is particularly demanded by
recent evidence that the functional architecture of OP columns precisely
follows species invariant quantitative laws. Because it would be desirable to
infer the form of such an optimization principle from the biological data, the
optimization approach to explain cortical functional architecture raises the
following questions: i) What are the genuine ground states of candidate energy
functionals and how can they be calculated with precision and rigor? ii) How do
differences in candidate optimization principles impact on the predicted map
structure and conversely what can be learned about an hypothetical underlying
optimization principle from observations on map structure? iii) Is there a way
to analyze the coordinated organization of cortical maps predicted by
optimization principles in general? To answer these questions we developed a
general dynamical systems approach to the combined optimization of visual
cortical maps of OP and another scalar feature such as OD or spatial frequency
preference.Comment: 90 pages, 16 figure
Coverage, Continuity and Visual Cortical Architecture
The primary visual cortex of many mammals contains a continuous
representation of visual space, with a roughly repetitive aperiodic map of
orientation preferences superimposed. It was recently found that orientation
preference maps (OPMs) obey statistical laws which are apparently invariant
among species widely separated in eutherian evolution. Here, we examine whether
one of the most prominent models for the optimization of cortical maps, the
elastic net (EN) model, can reproduce this common design. The EN model
generates representations which optimally trade of stimulus space coverage and
map continuity. While this model has been used in numerous studies, no
analytical results about the precise layout of the predicted OPMs have been
obtained so far. We present a mathematical approach to analytically calculate
the cortical representations predicted by the EN model for the joint mapping of
stimulus position and orientation. We find that in all previously studied
regimes, predicted OPM layouts are perfectly periodic. An unbiased search
through the EN parameter space identifies a novel regime of aperiodic OPMs with
pinwheel densities lower than found in experiments. In an extreme limit,
aperiodic OPMs quantitatively resembling experimental observations emerge.
Stabilization of these layouts results from strong nonlocal interactions rather
than from a coverage-continuity-compromise. Our results demonstrate that
optimization models for stimulus representations dominated by nonlocal
suppressive interactions are in principle capable of correctly predicting the
common OPM design. They question that visual cortical feature representations
can be explained by a coverage-continuity-compromise.Comment: 100 pages, including an Appendix, 21 + 7 figure
Coordinated optimization of visual cortical maps (II) Numerical studies
It is an attractive hypothesis that the spatial structure of visual cortical
architecture can be explained by the coordinated optimization of multiple
visual cortical maps representing orientation preference (OP), ocular dominance
(OD), spatial frequency, or direction preference. In part (I) of this study we
defined a class of analytically tractable coordinated optimization models and
solved representative examples in which a spatially complex organization of the
orientation preference map is induced by inter-map interactions. We found that
attractor solutions near symmetry breaking threshold predict a highly ordered
map layout and require a substantial OD bias for OP pinwheel stabilization.
Here we examine in numerical simulations whether such models exhibit
biologically more realistic spatially irregular solutions at a finite distance
from threshold and when transients towards attractor states are considered. We
also examine whether model behavior qualitatively changes when the spatial
periodicities of the two maps are detuned and when considering more than 2
feature dimensions. Our numerical results support the view that neither minimal
energy states nor intermediate transient states of our coordinated optimization
models successfully explain the spatially irregular architecture of the visual
cortex. We discuss several alternative scenarios and additional factors that
may improve the agreement between model solutions and biological observations.Comment: 55 pages, 11 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1102.335
A nontoxic polypeptide oligomer with a fungicide potency under agricultural conditions which is equal or greater than that of their chemical counterparts
Research ArticleThere are literally hundreds of polypeptides described in the literature which exhibit fungicide
activity. Tens of them have had attempted protection by patent applications but none,
as far as we are aware, have found application under real agricultural conditions. The reasons
behind may be multiple where the sensitivity to the Sun UV radiation can come in first
place. Here we describe a multifunctional glyco-oligomer with 210 kDa which is mainly composed
by a 20 kDa polypeptide termed Blad that has been previously shown to be a stable
intermediary product of β-conglutin catabolism. This oligomer accumulates exclusively in
the cotyledons of Lupinus species, between days 4 and 12 after the onset of germination.
Blad-oligomer reveals a plethora of biochemical properties, like lectin and catalytic activities,
which are not unusual per si, but are remarkable when found to coexist in the same protein
molecule. With this vast range of chemical characteristics, antifungal activity arises
almost as a natural consequence. The biological significance and potential technological
applications of Blad-oligomer as a plant fungicide to agriculture, its uniqueness stems from
being of polypeptidic in nature, and with efficacies which are either equal or greater than the
top fungicides currently in the market are addressedinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
IDENTIFICATION OF CANINE VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS IN A PREVIOUSLY UNAFFECTED AREA BY CONVENTIONAL DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES AND CELL-BLOCK FIXATION
After the report of a second case of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in São Bento da Lagoa, Itaipuaçu, in the municipality of Maricá, Rio de Janeiro State, an epidemiological survey was carried out, through active search, totaling 145 dogs. Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and rapid chromatographic immunoassay based on dual-path platform (DPP(r)) were used to perform the serological examinations. The parasitological diagnosis of cutaneous fragments was performed by parasitological culture, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry. In the serological assessment, 21 dogs were seropositive by IFA, 17 by ELISA, and 11 by DPP(r), with sensitivity of 66.7%, 66.7% and 50%, and specificity of 87.2%, 90.2% and 94%, respectively for each technique. The immunohistochemistry of bone marrow using the cell-block technique presented the best results, with six positive dogs found, three of which tested negative by the other parasitological techniques. Leishmania sp. was isolated by parasitological culture in three dogs. The detection of autochthonous Leishmania infantum in Itaipuaçu, and the high prevalence of seropositive dogs confirm the circulation of this parasite in the study area and alert for the risk of expansion in the State of Rio de Janeiro
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