Uso do ultra-som em programas de reprodução de peixes nativos

bitstream/CPAP/56070/1/COT62.pdfFormato eletrônic

Molecular cloning, promoter analysis and SNP identification of Italian Nicastrese and Saanen lactoferrin gene

Lactoferrin (Lf) is an iron-binding glycoprotein found in exocrine secretions including milk. High levels of lactoferrin may have a role in the prevention of microbial infection of the mammary gland. In this report we sequenced and characterized goat lactoferrin cDNA and its promoter region in two different breeds of goat. The complete cDNA comprised 2356 nucleotides, including 38bp at the 5'-UTR and 194bp at the 3'-UTR. The open reading frame is 2127bp long and it encodes a mature protein of 689 aminoacids. A total of 19 nucleotide differences, 11 of them being responsible for 8 aminoacid changes, were identified through the comparison with French, Korean and Tibetan goat lactoferrin cDNAs. About 1700bp of the lactoferrin gene promoter were sequenced. Sequence analysis revealed a non-canonical TATA box, multiple SP1/GC elements, and other putative binding sites for transcription factors, such as NF-kappaB, STAT3 and AP2. Two SNPs were identified, one of which would seem to create a new putative AP2 consensus sequence. The presence of an additional AP2 binding site could be associated with quantitative differences of such protein fraction, which could enhance all the activities related to such protein, and improve mammary gland defence against bacterial infections

Predictive value of hematological and phenotypical parameters on postchemotherapy leukocyte recovery

Background: Grade IV chemotherapy toxicity is defined as absolute neutrophil count <500/μL. The nadir is considered as the lowest neutrophil number following chemotherapy, and generally is not expected before the 7th day from the start of chemotherapy. The usual prophylactic dose of rHu-G-CSF (Filgrastim) is 300 μg/day, starting 24-48 h after chemotherapy until hematological recovery. However, individual patient response is largely variable, so that rHu-G-CSF doses can be different. The aim of this study was to verify if peripheral blood automated flow cytochemistry and flow cytometry analysis may be helpful in predicting the individual response and saving rHu-G-CSF. Methods: During Grade IV neutropenia, blood counts from 30 cancer patients were analyzed daily by ADVIA 120 automated flow cytochemistry analyzer and by Facscalibur flow cytometer till the nadir. "Large unstained cells" (LUCs), myeloperoxidase index (MPXI), blasts, and various cell subpopulations in the peripheral blood were studied. At nadir rHu-G-CSF was started and 81 chemotherapy cycles were analyzed. Cycles were stratified according to their number and to two dose-levels of rHuG-CSF needed to recovery (300-600 vs. 900-1200 μg) and analyzed in relation to mean values of MPXI and mean absolute number of LUCs in the nadir phase. The linear regressions of LUCs % over time in relation to two dose-levels of rHu-G-CSF and uni-multivariate analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations, CD34+ cells, MPXI, and blasts were also performed. Results: In the nadir phase, the increase of MPXI above the upper limit of normality (>10; median 27.7), characterized a slow hematological recovery. MPXI levels were directly related to the cycle number and inversely related to the absolute number of LUCs and CD34 +/CD45+ cells. A faster hematological recovery was associated with a higher LUC increase per day (0.56% vs. 0.25%), higher blast (median 36.7/μL vs. 19.5/μL) and CD34+/CD45+ cell (median 2.2/μL vs. 0.82/μL) counts. Conclusions: Our study showed that some biological indicators such as MPXI, LUCs, blasts, and CD34 +/CD45+ cells may be of clinical relevance in predicting individual hematological response to rHu-G-CSF. Special attention should be paid when nadir MPXI exceeds the upper limit of normality because the hematological recovery may be delayed. © 2009 Clinical Cytometry Society

Ultrafast Dynamics of Massive Dirac Fermions in Bilayer Graphene

Bilayer graphene is a highly promising material for electronic and optoelectronic applications since it is supporting massive Dirac fermions with a tuneable band gap. However, no consistent picture of the gap's effect on the optical and transport behavior has emerged so far, and it has been proposed that the insulating nature of the gap could be compromised by unavoidable structural defects, by topological in-gap states, or that the electronic structure could be altogether changed by many-body effects. Here we directly follow the excited carriers in bilayer graphene on a femtosecond time scale, using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission. We find a behavior consistent with a single-particle band gap. Compared to monolayer graphene, the existence of this band gap leads to an increased carrier lifetime in the minimum of the lowest conduction band. This is in sharp contrast to the second sub-state of the conduction band, in which the excited electrons decay through fast, phonon-assisted inter-band transitions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Ramifications of Optical Pumping on the Interpretation of Time-Resolved Photoemission Experiments on Graphene

In pump-probe time and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) experiments the presence of the pump pulse adds a new level of complexity to the photoemission process in comparison to conventional ARPES. This is evidenced by pump-induced vacuum space-charge effects and surface photovoltages, as well as multiple pump excitations due to internal reflections in the sample-substrate system. These processes can severely affect a correct interpretation of the data by masking the out-of-equilibrium electron dynamics intrinsic to the sample. In this study, we show that such effects indeed influence TR-ARPES data of graphene on a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate. In particular, we find a time- and laser fluence-dependent spectral shift and broadening of the acquired spectra, and unambiguously show the presence of a double pump excitation. The dynamics of these effects is slower than the electron dynamics in the graphene sample, thereby permitting us to deconvolve the signals in the time domain. Our results demonstrate that complex pump-related processes should always be considered in the experimental setup and data analysis.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Cognitive theory development as we know it: specificity, explanatory power and the brain

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PREVALENCE OF 'BORDERLINE' VALUES OF CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN THE CLINICAL PRACTICE OF GENERAL MEDICINE IN ITALY: RESULTS OF THE BORDERLINE STUDY.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of patients with 'borderline' levels of cardiovascular risk factors has been rarely investigated, being often reported in studies evaluating abnormal values of these parameters. The BORDERLINE study represents a pilot experience to primarily identify the prevalence of 'high-normal' conditions, such as pre-hypertension, lipid and glucose levels in the upper range of normality in the setting of general practice in Italy. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of patients with 'borderline' values of cardiovascular risk factors in Italy. METHODS: Involved physicians were asked to evaluate the first 20 outpatients, consecutively seen in June 2009. Data were collected in a study-designed case-report form, in which physicians identified thresholds rather than reported absolute values of several clinical parameters. High-normal values were defined as follows: blood pressure (BP) 130-140/85-90 mmHg; total cholesterol 180-200 mg/dL; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) 130-150 mg/dL; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) 30-40 mg/dL in males and 40-50 mg/dL in females; triglycerides 130-150 mg/dL and fasting glucose 100-110 mg/dL. RESULTS: Fifty-three Italian physicians provided valuable clinical data on 826 individual outpatients, among which 692 (83.7%, 377 women, mean age 60.9 ± 13.2 years, body mass index 26.6 ± 5.0 kg/m2) were included in the present analysis. Prevalence of borderline values of systolic BP and total cholesterol levels were at least comparable with those in the normal limits of the corresponding parameters, whereas prevalence of borderline diastolic BP, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides and fasting glucose levels was significantly lower than that of normal values, but higher than that of abnormal values of the corresponding parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Using this sample of healthy subjects in the setting of general practice in Italy, our results demonstrated a relatively high prevalence of borderline values of cardiovascular risk factors, which was at least comparable with that of normal, but significantly higher than that of abnormal thresholds. These preliminary findings may prompt more extensive investigations in the area of 'borderline' cardiovascular risk. This information may, in fact, potentially enable the design of more effective prevention strategies in the future to limit the burden of cardiovascular disease in the general population in Italy

Masked suffix priming and morpheme positional constraints

Although masked stem priming (e.g., dealer\u2013DEAL) is one of the most established effects in visual word identification (e.g., Grainger et al., 1991), it is less clear whether primes and targets sharing a suffix (e.g., kindness\u2013WILDNESS) also yield facilitation (Giraudo & Grainger, 2003; Du\uf1abeitia et al., 2008). In a new take on this issue, we show that prime nonwords facilitate lexical decisions to target words ending with the same suffix (sheeter\uac\u2013TEACHER) compared to a condition where the critical suffix was substituted by another one (sheetal\u2013TEACHER) or by an unrelated non\u2013morphological ending (sheetub\u2013 TEACHER). We also show that this effect is genuinely morphological, as no priming emerged in non\u2013complex items with the same orthographic characteristics (sportel\u2013BROTHEL vs. sportic\u2013BROTHEL vs. sportur\u2013BROTHEL). In a further experiment, we took advantage of these results to assess whether suffixes are recognized in a position\u2013specific fashion. Masked suffix priming did not emerge when the relative order of stems and suffixes was reversed in the prime nonwords\u2014ersheet did not yield any time saving in the identification of teacher as compared to either alsheet or obsheet. We take these results to show that \u2013er was not identified as a morpheme in ersheet, thus indicating that suffix identification is position specific. This conclusion is in line with data on interference effects in nonword rejection (Crepaldi, Rastle, & Davis, 2010), and strongly constrains theoretical proposals on how complex words are identified. In particular, because these findings were reported in a masked priming paradigm, they suggest that positional constraints operate early, most likely at a pre\u2013lexical level of morpho\u2013orthographic analysi

Letter chunk frequency does not explain morphological masked priming: Affix frequency in masked priming

Research on visual word identification has extensively investigated the role of morphemes, recurrent letter chunks that convey a fairly regular meaning (e.g., lead-er-ship). Masked priming studies highlighted morpheme identification in complex (e.g., sing-er) and pseudo-complex (corn-er) words, as well as in nonwords (e.g., basket-y). The present study investigated whether such sensitivity to morphemes could be rooted in the visual system sensitivity to statistics of letter (co)occurrence. To this aim, we assessed masked priming as induced by nonword primes obtained by combining a stem (e.g., bulb) with (i) naturally frequent, derivational suffixes (e.g., -ment), (ii) non-morphological, equally frequent word-endings (e.g., -idge), and (iii) non-morphological, infrequent word-endings (e.g., -kle). In two additional tasks, we collected interpretability and word-likeness measures for morphologically-structured nonwords, to assess whether priming is modulated by such factors. Results indicate that masked priming is not affected by either the frequency or the morphological status of word-endings, a pattern that was replicated in a second experiment including also lexical primes. Our findings are in line with models of early visual processing based on automatic stem/word extraction, and rule out letter chunk frequency as a main player in the early stages of visual word identification. Nonword interpretability and word-likeness do not affect this pattern

The nature of semantic priming by subliminal spatial words: Embodied or disembodied?

Theories of embodied semantics (ES) suggest that a critical part of understanding what a word means consists of simulating the sensorimotor experience related to the word's referent. Some proponents of ES have suggested that sensorimotor activations are mandatory and highly automatic during semantic processing. Evidence supporting this claim comes from masked priming studies showing that unconsciously perceived spatial words (e.g., up, down) can directly modulate action performance on the basis of their meaning. However, a closer look reveals that such priming effects can be explained also in terms of symbolic (disembodied) semantic priming or nonsemantic mechanisms. In this study we sought to understand whether sensorimotor processing takes place during language understanding outside awareness. We used spatial words as a test bed and across 6 experiments we teased apart the possibility that action priming could be explained by: (a) nonsemantic mechanisms, (b) symbolic semantic priming, or (c) embodied semantic priming. The critical finding is that when symbolic and nonsemantic mechanisms were prevented, allowing only for a genuinely embodied semantic priming, no effect was found. Conversely, facilitation emerged in the same experimental paradigm when embodied priming was prevented and symbolic priming was allowed. Despite extensive testing, we found no evidence that unconsciously perceived words can activate sensorimotor processes, although these words are processed up to the semantic level. We thus conclude that sensorimotor activations might need conscious access to emerge during language understanding. (PsycINFO Database Recor