Human red blood cells have an enhancing effect on the relative expansion of CD8+ T lymphocytes in vitro

Cell Prolif. 2001 Dec;34(6):359-67. Human red blood cells have an enhancing effect on the relative expansion of CD8+ T lymphocytes in vitro. Porto B, Fonseca AM, Godinho I, Arosa FA, Porto G. Laboratory of Cytogenetics, Abel Salazar Institute for the Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract The present study was designed to analyse the effect of red blood cells on T-cell proliferation and expansion. A comparative study was done in peripheral blood cell cultures stimulated with phytohemagglutinin, with or without red blood cells. The presence of red blood cells had a consistent enhancing effect on T lymphocyte proliferation, as determined by an increase in both the mitotic index and thymidine uptake. Phenotypic characterization of T cell blasts by flow cytometry revealed that, in the presence of red blood cells, expanding cells were preferentially CD8+ cells. Accordingly, proliferation of CD8+ lymphocytes from two patients with CD8+ hyperlymphocytosis was dependent on the presence of red blood cells. In contrast, proliferation of CD4+ lymphocytes from two patients with CD4+ hyperlymphocytosis was strongly inhibited by the presence of red blood cells. This is the first reported evidence that human red blood cells have an enhancing effect on the expansion of CD8+ lymphocytes in vitro. PMID: 11737000 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Kink Confinement and Supersymmetry

We analyze non-integrable deformations of two-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric quantum field theories with kink excitations. As example, we consider the multi-frequency Super Sine Gordon model. At weak coupling, this model is robust with respect to kink confinement phenomena, in contrast to the purely bosonic case. If we vary the coupling, the model presents a sequence of phase transitions, where pairs of kinks disappear from the spectrum. The phase transitions fall into two classes: the first presents the critical behaviors of the Tricritical Ising model, the second instead those of the gaussian model. In the first case, close to the critical point, the model has metastable vacua, with a spontaneously supersymmetry breaking. When the life-time of the metastable vacua is sufficiently long, the role of goldstino is given by the massless Majorana fermion of the Ising model. On the contrary, supersymmetry remains exact in the phase transition of the second type.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figure

Spatial and temporal concentration of tourism demand in northern Portugal: regional policy recommendations to promote tourism competition and portofolio diversity

The northern region of Portugal, in the last years, has experienced a growing number of visitors from different countries, which may indicate the emergence of an overtourism phenomenon in some particular municipalities or specific spaces. This phenomenon may cause significant destruction of the living conditions of residents, landscapes, seascapes, air and water quality, causing economic inequalities and social exclusion. The concentration of tourism activity in different municipality regions can be measured with a well know concentration measured, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Using as variables the number and nationality of visitors and their expenditures it is possible to follow the concentration of tourism visitors and expenditure, all over the 8 NUTIII regions located in the Northen of Portugal, and describe the routes of distribution of the tourism indicators from urban to rural areas following a more nature-oriented tourism. The results serve as a dipping compass for more oriented and well-targeted tourism policies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

First record of anelosimus jucundus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896) (araneae, theridiidae) in the state of Ceara, Brazil

We present the first record for Anelosimus jucundus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 for the state of Ceará, Brazil. We collected 22 individuals in three different ecosystems: (1) Mangrove swamps, (2) Caatinga-type desert vegetation, and (3) Montane semi-deciduous tropical forest. We corrected the misinformation of Levi’s 1963 Ceará record, was actually from the state of Pernambuco. Anelosimus jucundus presents a wide altitudinal distribution, which indicates that this species can tolerate a variety climatic conditions and can colonize a variety of sites with different vegetation155933936CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPnão temnão temnão temThis study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES), Finance Code 001 (G.A. Villanueva-Bonilla). We were also financially supported by the Instituto Na-cional de Ciência e Tecnologia dos Hymenoptera Para-sitoides (HYMPAR/Sudeste – CNPq/FAPESP/CAPES), FUNCAP-BPI proc. BP3- 00139- 00186.01.00/18 (research grants to J.F. Sobczak

Demand and supply of outdoor tourism activities in Northern Portugal: a survey-based approach

This paper focuses on the North of Portugal, as a diversified region with unique natural resources, to create information regarding both resources and equipment and business dynamics; the evolution of tourism supply and demand.This research is a part of a project title “TURNOUT: Desenvolvimento do Turismo Outdoor da Região Norte de Portugal”, with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032289; funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (through the Operational Programme ‘Innovation and competitiveness’) and by the Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology (FCT), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. This work is, also, funded by National Funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UIDB/04752/2020. The SABI database was made available by the Applied Management Research Unit (UNIAG), according to the protocol between UNIAG and COFACE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Physiological and thermographic response to heat stress in zebu cattle

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate the heat tolerance of five zebu breeds using physical, physiological and hematological traits as well as thermographic responses. Forty cows of the Gir, Girolando, Nelore, Sindhi and Indubrasil breeds (eight cows each), approximately three years of age, were evaluated. Body weight, withers and hump heights as well as thoracic circumference were recorded. The density and length of the hair was obtained by collecting one square centimeter in the rump region and skin color using the CIELAB system. Rectal temperature, heart and respiratory rates were evaluated during the morning at 4:30h, and in the afternoon, at 14:30h, with six repetitions. Blood samples were collected for hematological evaluation. The surface temperature was obtained using an infrared camera FLIR® T400. Two images were taken from each animal, one laterally of the whole body and the other of the head region. Air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity were obtained from a mobile weather station. The statistics analysis included an analyzes of variance, principal factors, as well as cluster, discriminant and canonical analyzes, logistic regression and calculation of odds ratio. There were significant differences in the rectal temperature, heart and respiratory rates between breeds. Gir and Indubrasil breeds had the highest rectal temperatures. Breed was significant for surface temperatures and showed that physical and physiological factors affected breeds in different ways. Eye and brain surface temperatures were the most affected by environmental parameters. Also, environmental parameters affected packed cell volume and red cell number. Odds ratio test showed that the Gir breed was three times more likely to have higher rectal temperature compared with Sindhi as confirmed by the logistic regression. When the black globe temperature approached 35°C, the probability of the Gir animals having rectal temperatures above normal was approximately 70%. Gir was the breed least adapted to climate conditions of the experiment while the Sindhi and Girolando breeds showed the best physiological response to thermal stress

Trophic models and short-term dynamic simulations for benthic-pelagic communities at Banco Chinchorro Biosphere Reserve (Mexican Caribbean): a conservation case

Banco Chinchorro is the largest reef in the Mexican Caribbean. Historically, spiny lobster, queen conch and over 20 other reef species have been exploited here. Multispecies intervention management from an ecosystem perspective has been developed in this area; however, an assessment of the effects of such practices on ecosystem health is required. Five quantitative trophic models were constructed using Ecopath with Ecosim. The results show that, in terms of biomass, benthic autotrophs are the dominant group in all communities. Ecosystem Network Analysis indices showed that Cueva de Tiburones was the most mature, developed, complex and healthy subsystem, but, El Colorado and La Baliza were the subsystems most resistant to disturbances. The fisheries mainly concentrate on primary (La Baliza and Cueva de Tiburones sites) and secondary consumers (La Caldera, Chancay, and El Colorado). The greatest propagation of direct and indirect effects, estimated by Mixed Trophic Impacts and Ecosim simulations, were generated by the benthic autotrophs, small benthic epifauna, benthic-pelagic carnivorous fish and benthic carnivorous fish, among others. In contrast, the System Recovery Time showed different patterns among subsystems, indicating several compartments that reduce resilience. Considering the structure, dynamics, trophic functioning and ecosystem health of Banco Chinchorro, its ecological heterogeneity highlights the need for the design of a specific (by subsystem) management strategy, particularly because different species or functional groups present greater sensitivity to human interventions in each community

4D gravity on a non-BPS bent dilatonic brane

We investigate the localization of metastable four-dimensional gravity around a bent dilatonic brane, embedded into a five-dimensional space, that exists only up to distances sufficiently small compared to a crossover scale. Far from such scale, five-dimensional effects strongly deviate the Newtonian potential. We study this effect by considering localization of massive gravity on a non-BPS bent dilatonic 3-brane solution of a five-dimensional supergravity. Our results show that the cosmological constant on the bent brane controls the size of the crossover scale. For sufficiently small positive cosmological constant, that is in accord with the present observations, the crossover scale becomes very large.Comment: 7 pages, version to appear in JCA

Stationary solutions for the parity-even sector of the CPT-even and Lorentz-covariance-violating term of the standard model extension

In this work, we focus on some properties of the parity-even sector of the CPT-even electrodynamics of the standard model extension. We analyze how the six non-birefringent terms belonging to this sector modify the static and stationary classical solutions of the usual Maxwell theory. We observe that the parity-even terms do not couple the electric and magnetic sectors (at least in the stationary regime). The Green's method is used to obtain solutions for the field strengths E and B at first order in the Lorentz- covariance-violating parameters. Explicit solutions are attained for point-like and spatially extended sources, for which a dipolar expansion is achieved. Finally, it is presented an Earth-based experiment that can lead (in principle) to an upper bound on the anisotropic coefficients as stringent as $(\widetilde{\kappa}_{e-}) ^{ij}<2.9\times10^{-20}.$Comment: 8 pages, revtex style, revised published version, to appear in EPJC (2009