Chaetoglobosins produced by Chaetomium globosum, endophytic fungus found in association with Viguiera robusta Gardn (Asteraceae)

Endophytes live in association with host plants during all or part of their life cycle without causing any apparent disease. They are considered outstanding and underexploited sources of novel bioactive compounds. Chaetomium globosum was isolated as an endophytic fungus from the healthy leaves of Viguiera robusta. C.globosum is a remarkable producer of chaetoglobosins, which are typically cytotoxic. In this work, chaetoglobosins B (1), D (2) and E (3) have been produced by the endophytic C. globosum strain. Chaetoglobosin B was evaluated against Jurkat (leukemia) and B16F10 (melanoma) tumoral cells and showed 89.55% and 57.10% of inhibition at 0.1 mg mL-1, respectively. Chaetoglobosin B also showed weak antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 120 µg/mL) and Escherichia coli (MIC 189 µg/mL).Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

The Chitin Connection

Chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, is an essential component of the fungal cell wall. Chitosan, a deacetylated form of chitin, is also important in maintaining cell wall integrity and is essential for Cryptococcus neoformans virulence. In their article, Gilbert et al. [N. M. Gilbert, L. G. Baker, C. A. Specht, and J. K. Lodge, mBio 3(1):e00007-12, 2012] demonstrate that the enzyme responsible for chitosan synthesis, chitin deacetylase (CDA), is differentially attached to the cell membrane and wall. Bioactivity is localized to the cell membrane, where it is covalently linked via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. Findings from this study significantly enhance our understanding of cryptococcal cell wall biology. Besides the role of chitin in supporting structural stability, chitin and host enzymes with chitinase activity have an important role in host defense and modifying the inflammatory response. Thus, chitin appears to provide a link between the fungus and host that involves both innate and adaptive immune responses. Recently, there has been increased attention to the role of chitinases in the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation, especially asthma. We review these findings and explore the possible connection between fungal infections, the induction of chitinases, and asthma

Granular Impact: A Grain-scale Approach

This work summarizes a series of studies on two-dimensional granular impact, where an intruding object strikes a granular material at high speed. Many previous studies on granular impact have used a macroscopic force law, which is dominated by an inertial drag term proportional to the intruder velocity squared. The primary focus here is on the microscopic force response of the granular material, and how the grain-scale effects give rise to this inertial drag term. We show that the inertial drag arises from intermittent collisions with force-chain-like structures. We construct a simple collisional model to explain the inertial drag, as well as off-axis instability and rotations. Finally, we show how the granular response changes when the intruder speed approaches $d/t_c$, leading to a failure of the inertial drag description in this regime. Here, $d$ is the mean particle diameter and $t_c$ the characteristic momentum-transfer time between two grains.Comment: This is draft version of a book chapter appearing in "Rapid Penetration into Granular Media" (eds. Iskander et al.

Violência por parceiro íntimo à gestante: perfil sociodemográfico e características das agressões

Objetivo: Identificar o perfil sociodemográfico e as principais características da violência por parceiros íntimos em gestantes de São Paulo, Brasil.Método: Estudo transversal realizado por meio das notificações de casos suspeitos ou confirmados de violência interpessoal do Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação realizadas entre 2016 e 2019. A coleta foi feita entre março e junho de 2020. Realizado teste qui-quadrado ou exato de Fischer na análise estatística.Resultados: Foram obtidas 4.269 notificações e o perfil prevalente foi de mulheres entre 20 e 34 anos (62,5%), pardas ou negras (51,3%), com ensino médio completo (22,5%) no primeiro trimestre da gestação (44,2%). A violência física foi a mais frequente (48,3%), ocorrida em domicílio (59,1%), motivada por sexismo (22,29%). Na violência sexual, o estupro foi o mais frequente (85,4%) com aborto nos casos previstos na lei (39%).Conclusão: Mulheres adultas, pardas ou negras, no primeiro trimestre gestacional apresentaram maior frequência de violência física.Palavras-chave: Violência por parceiro íntimo. Gravidez. Saúde da mulher. Vigilância em saúde pública. Enfermagem

Parallaxes of southern extremely cool objects III : 118 L and T dwarfs

We present new results from the Parallaxes of Southern Extremely Cool dwarfs program to measure parallaxes, proper motions and multiepoch photometry of L and early T dwarfs. The observations were made on 108 nights over the course of 8 yr using the Wide Field Imager on the ESO 2.2m telescope. We present 118 new parallaxes of L and T dwarfs of which 52 have no published values and 24 of the 66 published values are preliminary estimates from this program. The parallax precision varies from 1.0 to 15.5mas with a median of 3.8mas. We find evidence for two objects with long term photometric variation and 24 new moving group candidates. We cross-match our sample to published photometric catalogues and find standard magnitudes in up to 16 pass-bands from which we build spectral energy distributions and H-R diagrams. This allows us to confirm the theoretically anticipated minimum in radius between stars and brown dwarfs across the hydrogen burning minimum mass. We find the minimum occurs between L2 and L6 and verify the predicted steep dependence of radius in the hydrogen burning regime and the gentle rise into the degenerate brown dwarf regime. We find a relatively young age of ~2 Gyr from the kinematics of our sample.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A computationally inspired in-vivo approach identifies a link between amygdalar transcriptional heterogeneity, socialization and anxiety

Pharmaceutical breakthroughs for anxiety have been lackluster in the last half-century. Converging behavior and limbic molecular heterogeneity has the potential to revolutionize biomarker-driven interventions. However, current in vivo models too often deploy artificial systems including directed evolution, mutations and fear induction, which poorly mirror clinical manifestations. Here, we explore transcriptional heterogeneity of the amygdala in isogenic mice using an unbiased multidimensional computational approach that segregates intra-cohort reactions to moderate situational adversity and intersects it with high content molecular profiling. We show that while the computational approach stratifies known features of clinical anxiety including nitric oxide, opioid and corticotropin signaling, previously unrecognized druggable biomarkers emerge, such as calpain11 and scand1. Through ingenuity pathway analyses, we further describe a role for neurosteroid estradiol signaling, heat shock proteins, ubiquitin ligases and lipid metabolism. In addition, we report a remarkable behavioral pattern that maps to molecular features of anxiety in mice through counterphobic social attitudes, which manifest as increased, yet spatially distant socialization. These findings provide an unbiased approach for interrogating anxiolytics, and hint toward biomarkers underpinning behavioral and social patterns that merit further exploration

A disputa pela liderança no setor brasileiro de supermercados: o caso do grupo Pão de Açúcar: The dispute for leadership in the Brazilian supermarket sector: the case of the Pão de Açúcar group

Desbancado pelo Carrefour da primeira posição há alguns anos, o Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) reagiu e voltou a ocupar o primeiro lugar. Essa disputa tem muito a ver com estratégias de firmas francesas no além-mar, pois o Carrefour brasileiro é subsidiário integral da empresa francesa e o Pão de Açúcar, desde 1999, tem importante participação acionária do grupo francês Casino. Este artigo analisa, por meio dos resultados operacionais do setor supermercadista brasileiro e dos números financeiros do GPA, as várias ações estratégicas que foram desenvolvidas pelo grupo e que permitiram que ele atingisse, de acordo com os critérios da ABRAS – Associação Brasileira de Supermercados, a liderança do setor em 2000. O artigo destaca principalmente o período entre 1991 e 2001, no qual, a partir de uma condição agonizante experimentada no início dos anos 90, o GPA se transformou em modelo de gestão em seu setor, concorrendo com importantes grupos nacionais e internacionais, em um período de grande turbulência econômica. O trabalho termina com algumas questões sobre quais poderão ser as perspectivas futuras deste importante grupo empresarial brasileiro

Phenotypic Plasticity Determines Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutic Resistance in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

This work was funded by the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) Grant G0900799/1 and Fellowship NC/K500495/1 and the Norwegian Research Council (NFR- 178601)

Electron-Phonon interaction and electronic decoherence in molecular conductors

We perform a brief but critical review of the Landauer picture of transport that clarifies how decoherence appears in this approach. On this basis, we present different models that allow the study of the coherent and decoherent effects of the interaction with the environment in the electronic transport. These models are particularly well suited for the analysis of transport in molecular wires. The effects of decoherence are described through the D'Amato-Pastawski model that is explained in detail. We also consider the formation of polarons in some models for the electron-vibrational interaction. Our quantum coherent framework allows us to study many-body interference effects. Particular emphasis is given to the occurrence of anti-resonances as a result of these interferences. By studying the phase fluctuations in these soluble models we are able to identify inelastic and decoherence effects. A brief description of a general formulation for the consideration of time-dependent transport is also presented.Comment: 32 pages, 11 eps figures. To appear in Chemical Physics (Special Molecular Electronics Number