Influence of intra-articular injections of sodium hyaluronate on clinical features and synovial fluid nitric oxide levels of temporomandibular osteoarthritis

Objective: This study was designed to assess the effect of intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate (SH) on clinical findings of temporomandibular osteoarthritis (OA) and on synovial fluid (SF) levels of nitric oxide (NO). Methods: Twenty seven patients (7 men, 20 women, mean (SD) age 53.9 (11.8) years) with OA of the temporomandibular joint were randomly allocated to receive an injection of either SH (2ml, Hyalgan®, Fidia SpA, Abano T., P.M. 500-700.000, 20mg/2ml; once a week for 5 weeks) or a Ringer's lactate solution (once a week for 3 weeks). Clinical evaluation was done before each procedure, and at 1 week, 1, 3 and 6 months post-injection. Intensity of temporomandibular joint pain, jaw function, maximal mouth opening and lateral jaw movements were recorded at each visit. NO was measured on SF collected by rinsing the joint with saline 1 ml before the treatment. Results: Injection of SH caused significant improvement in the main clinical symptoms until the last follow-up which was carried out 6 months after last injection. Among patients who received SH injection, those who reached a good outcome showed the lowest basal levels of NO. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that intra-articular injections of SH lead to a lasting improvement in the clinical symptoms of temporomandibular OA. Furthermore, our findings suggest that low NO levels in SF are related to a better outcome of temporomandibular OA among patients treated with SH intra-articular injection

Oral bacterial microbiota and traumatic injuries of free-ranging Phrynops geoffroanus (Testudines, Chelidae) in southeastern Brazil

During 2006 and 2007, we collected free-ranging Phrynops geoffroanus, from two anthropogenically altered rivers in southeastern Brazil. Oral microbiological samples were taken for isolation of aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria; a physical examination was performed;and we evaluated possible effects on the turtles’ health. Twenty-nine species of bacteria were isolated in Piracicaba River turtles (n=10), and twenty-four species in Piracicamirim stream turtles (n=8), most of them gram-negative. In both sites, potential pathogens for reptiles were: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter agglomerans, Citrobacter freundii, and Bacillus sp. Although boatpropeller lesions were common on the carapace of the turtles, we have not found turtles with signs of clinical diseases. The oral bacterial microbiota of P. geoffroanus inhabiting the Piracicaba River basin are composed of a diverse microbe spectrum, and long-term studies of the effects of pollution and traumatic injuries on this population and its microbial flora are warranted

Robust Dropping Criteria for F-norm Minimization Based Sparse Approximate Inverse Preconditioning

Dropping tolerance criteria play a central role in Sparse Approximate Inverse preconditioning. Such criteria have received, however, little attention and have been treated heuristically in the following manner: If the size of an entry is below some empirically small positive quantity, then it is set to zero. The meaning of "small" is vague and has not been considered rigorously. It has not been clear how dropping tolerances affect the quality and effectiveness of a preconditioner $M$. In this paper, we focus on the adaptive Power Sparse Approximate Inverse algorithm and establish a mathematical theory on robust selection criteria for dropping tolerances. Using the theory, we derive an adaptive dropping criterion that is used to drop entries of small magnitude dynamically during the setup process of $M$. The proposed criterion enables us to make $M$ both as sparse as possible as well as to be of comparable quality to the potentially denser matrix which is obtained without dropping. As a byproduct, the theory applies to static F-norm minimization based preconditioning procedures, and a similar dropping criterion is given that can be used to sparsify a matrix after it has been computed by a static sparse approximate inverse procedure. In contrast to the adaptive procedure, dropping in the static procedure does not reduce the setup time of the matrix but makes the application of the sparser $M$ for Krylov iterations cheaper. Numerical experiments reported confirm the theory and illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the dropping criteria.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

Considerações teórico-metodológicas sobre o processo de valoração dos recursos naturais.

Uma forma de mostrar e avaliar a importância dos recursos naturais para a sociedade é a partir da sua valoração e avaliação. No entanto, a valoração dos recursos naturais tem se mostrado um desafio para a ciência econômica em função da complexidade da dinâmica ecossistêmica e da existência de valores ecológicos e sociais. Desse modo, nós apresentamos alguns pontos relacionados à concepção de valor dos recursos naturais e apresentar em linhas gerais os principais métodos de valoração. Contudo, ressalta-se que não se pretende aqui realizar uma discussão detalhada sobre os métodos e suas aplicações, mas apenas identificar como essas técnicas podem ser úteis na avaliação de situações práticas como as observadas em nosso dia a dia.Capítulo 14

Understanding the extent of phenotypic variability in accessions of Paspalum urvillei Steud. from the USDA NPGS.

ABSTRACT - The objective of this study was to investigate the phenotypic variability in Paspalum urvillei Steud. related to twelve zootechnical traits to better understand the diversity of 41 accessions from the USDA GRIN platform from seven countries. First, we performed a structure inference based on the phenotypic data, identifying two structure groups, and the majority of Brazilian accessions belonged to the first group. Then, we performed principal component analysis and principal coordinate analysis, making Violin plots for each trait within each structure group. Next, we performed spatial clustering of the accessions and utilized an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean clustering. In brief, the Brazilian P. urvillei breeding programs may be successful by importing USDA germplasm resources from the second phenotypic structure group. Keywords: cluster analysis, germplasm bank, forag

Mapeamento de coletas antigas de acessos de espécies forrageiras nativas do Sul do Brasil.

O trabalho consistiu na análise de cadernetas de coleta de campo antigas da Embrapa Pecuária Sul, compilando os dados de longitude, atitude e altitude de 205 acessos de Bromus auleticus, Paspalum dilatatum, P. notatum, P. pumilum e P. urvillei.Zootec