A comparative study of lesions caused by different parasitic stages of Boophilus Microplus (Canestrini) in the skins of naturally infested taurine and zebuine hosts. The correlation of tick resistence with mast cell counts in the host's skin

Biópsias de pele lesada por larvas, ninfas e fêmeas engurgitadas de Boophilus microplus foram colhidas de cinco Bos taurus da raça Holandesa e de cinco Bos indicus da raça Gir, adquiridos na mesma propriedade, com aproximadamente 23 meses de idade, e colocados em convivência no mesmo pasto durante 90 dias que precederam este ensaio. O grau de susceptibilidade ao ácaro foi estimado previamente, sendo os zebuínos cerca de 15 vezes mais resistentes que os taurinos. As biópsias foram colhidas de modo que o parasito ficasse localizado no centro do fragmento de pele. Essas peças foram fixadas em formalina a 10% durante 24 h e processadas pelos métodos usuais em histologia seguindo-se a coloração pela técnica da Hematoxilin-Eosin ou do “tricrômico” de Masson. Não foram constatadas diferenças morfológicas que pudessem ser relacionadas aos diferentes graus de resistência ao parasito entre os taurinos e zebuinos. Biópsias foram colhidas de zonas não lesadas, na região da virilha dos cinco taurinos e dos cinco zebuínos, fixadas em subacetato de chumbo a 1% em solução de etanol 50%, contendo 1% de ácido acético, por 24 h. A seguir os fragmentos foram processados pelas técnicas usuais em histologia e corados pelo método do azul de toluidina 0,1%. Os mastócitos foram contados comparativamente em 80 campos microscópicos, em aumento de 100 vezes. Os resultados mostram que os zebuínos tem mais que o dobro do número de mastócitos dérmicos quando comparado com o encontrado nos taurinos. Esses resultados sugerem que os mastócitos dérmicos possam, pelo menos em parte, participar dos mecanismos de resistência dos bovinos ao Boophilus microplus.Biopsies of skin injuries caused by larvae, nymphs, unengorged and engorged females of Boophilus microplus were collected from five Bos taurus and five Bos indicus steers, which had been bom on the same ranch, aged about 23 months and had been grazing together in the same pasture during the preceding 90 days. Their susceptibilities to the tick had been previously estimated, being the taurine animals around fifteen times as susceptible as the zebuine ones. The biopsies were made in such a manner that the mouth pieces were in the center of the skin fragments. These were immersed for 24 hours in 10% formalin, then processed through usual histopathological techniques and stained either by the haematoxilin-eosin or by Masson’s “trichromic” procedures. No morphological differences were found capable of explaining the higher tick susceptibility observed for the taurine hosts as compared to the zebuine’s. Biopsies from non parasitized skin from the groin region of five B. taurus and five B. indicus steers were fixed in 1% lead subacetate, plus 50% ethanol, plus 1% acetic acid, for 24 hours, which they were histologically processed and stained in 0.1 % toluidin blue. The mast cells were comparatively counted in 80 microscope fields per sample with 100 diameters of magnification and the counts averaged more than twice as high in the zebuine than in the taurine host’s skins. These results strongly suggest that mast cells participate as important elements in the bovine host’s resistance to the cattle tick

Impacto de um curso de informática para trabalhadores mais velhos : análise de um caso

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Histórias e memórias : ressignificando as lembranças escolares de trabalhadores mais velhos

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Impact of a Tutored Theoretical-Practical Training to Develop Undergraduate Students’ Skills for the Detection of Caries Lesions: Study Protocol for a Multicenter Controlled Randomized Study

Background: Tutored laboratorial activities could be a manner of improving the competency development of students. However, its impact over conventional theoretical classes has not yet been tested. Additionally, different university contexts could influence this issue and should be explored. Objective: To assess the impact of a tutored theoretical-practical training for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions as compared with theoretical teaching activities. The impact of these teaching/learning activities will be assessed in terms of efficacy, cost/benefit, retention of knowledge/acquired competences, and student acceptability. Methods: Sixteen centers (7 centers from Brazil and 9 centers from other countries throughout the world) are involved in the inclusion of subjects for this protocol. A randomized controlled study with parallel groups will be conducted. One group (control) will be exposed to a 60- to 90-minute conventional theoretical class and the other group (test) will be exposed to the same theoretical class and also a 90-minute laboratory class, including exercises and discussions based on the evaluation of a pool of images and extracted teeth. The mentioned outcomes will be evaluated immediately after the teaching activities and also in medium- and long-term analyses. To compare the long-term outcomes, students who enrolled in the university before the participating students will be interviewed for data collection and these data will be used as a control and compared with the trained group. This stage will be a nonrandomized phase of this study, nested in the main study. Appropriate statistical analysis will be performed according to the aims of this study. Variables related to the centers will also be analyzed and used to model adjustment as possible sources of variability among results. Results: This ongoing study is funded by a Brazilian national funding agency (CNPq- 400736/2014-4). We expect that the tutored theoretical-practical training will improve the undergraduate students’ performance in the detection of caries lesions and subsequent treatment decisions, mainly in terms of long-term retention of knowledge. Our hypothesis is that tutored theoretical-practical training is a more cost-effective option for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions. Conclusions: If our hypothesis is confirmed, the use of laboratory training in conjunction with theoretical classes could be used as an educational strategy in Cariology to improve the development of undergraduate students’ skills in the detection of caries lesions and clinical decision-making

Planck intermediate results. VIII. Filaments between interacting clusters

About half of the baryons of the Universe are expected to be in the form of filaments of hot and low density intergalactic medium. Most of these baryons remain undetected even by the most advanced X-ray observatories which are limited in sensitivity to the diffuse low density medium. The Planck satellite has provided hundreds of detections of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect and is an ideal instrument for studying extended low density media through the tSZ effect. In this paper we use the Planck data to search for signatures of a fraction of these missing baryons between pairs of galaxy clusters. Cluster pairs are good candidates for searching for the hotter and denser phase of the intergalactic medium (which is more easily observed through the SZ effect). Using an X-ray catalogue of clusters and the Planck data, we select physical pairs of clusters as candidates. Using the Planck data we construct a local map of the tSZ effect centered on each pair of galaxy clusters. ROSAT data is used to construct X-ray maps of these pairs. After having modelled and subtracted the tSZ effect and X-ray emission for each cluster in the pair we study the residuals on both the SZ and X-ray maps. For the merging cluster pair A399-A401 we observe a significant tSZ effect signal in the intercluster region beyond the virial radii of the clusters. A joint X-ray SZ analysis allows us to constrain the temperature and density of this intercluster medium. We obtain a temperature of kT = 7.1 +- 0.9, keV (consistent with previous estimates) and a baryon density of (3.7 +- 0.2)x10^-4, cm^-3. The Planck satellite mission has provided the first SZ detection of the hot and diffuse intercluster gas.Comment: Accepted by A&

Potentiation of 5-fluorouracil encapsulated in zeolites as drug delivery systems for in vitro models of colorectal carcinoma

The studies of potentiation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a traditional drug used in the treatment of several cancers, including colorectal (CRC), were carried out with zeolites Faujasite in the sodium form, with different particle sizes (NaY, 700nm and nanoNaY, 150nm) and Linde type L in the potassium form (LTL) with a particle size of 80nm. 5-FU was loaded into zeolites by liquid-phase adsorption. Characterization by spectroscopic techniques (FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C and 27Al solid-state MAS NMR), chemical analysis, thermal analysis (TGA), nitrogen adsorption isotherms and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), demonstrated the successful loading of 5-FU into the zeolite hosts. In vitro drug release studies (PBS buffer pH 7.4, 37°C) revealed the release of 80-90% of 5-FU in the first 10min. To ascertain the drug release kinetics, the release profiles were fitted to zero-order, first-order, Higuchi, Hixson-Crowell, Korsmeyer-Peppas and Weibull kinetic models. The in vitro dissolution from the drug delivery systems (DDS) was explained by the Weibull model. The DDS efficacy was evaluated using two human colorectal carcinoma cell lines, HCT-15 and RKO. Unloaded zeolites presented no toxicity to both cancer cells, while all DDS allowed an important potentiation of the 5-FU effect on the cell viability. Immunofluorescence studies provided evidence for zeolite-cell internalization.RA is recipient of fellowship SFRH/BI/51118/2010 from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal). This work was supported by the FCT projects refs. PEst-C/QUI/UI0686/2011 and PEst-C/CTM/LA0011/2011 and the Centre of Chemistry and Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (University of Minho, Portugal). The NMR spectrometer is part of the National NMR Network (RNRMN), supported with funds from FCT/QREN (Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional)

Planck 2015 results. XXVII. The Second Planck Catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich Sources

We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest all-sky catalogue of galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data-sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing > $10^3$ confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the Y5R500 estimates are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y500 requires. the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical and X-ray data-sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under- luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc