8,971 research outputs found
Colheita de frutas e hortaliças: a utilização de plataformas de auxílio à colheita.
bitstream/CNPDIA-2009-09/11894/1/CT97_2008.pd
Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists eplerenone and spironolactone modify adrenal cortex morphology and physiology
Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) are a class of anti-hypertensive drugs that act by blocking aldosterone action. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the MRAs spironolactone and eplerenone influence adrenal cortical physiology and morphology. Spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR, n = 18) and normotensive rats (WKY, n = 18) were randomly exposed to a daily dose of spironolactone (n = 6), eplerenone (n = 6), or no drug (n = 6) over 28 days. After that, aldosterone, corticosterone, and 11-deoxycorticosterone plasma concentrations were quantified. Adrenal glands were subjected to morphological analysis to assess lipid droplets content, capsular width, cell proliferation, and steroidogenic proteins expression. The adrenal cortex in untreated SHR showed higher lipid droplet content as than in WKY. In SHR, MRA treatment was associated with higher circulating aldosterone levels and Ki-67 expression in aldosterone-secreting cells. In WKY, the only difference observed after MRA spironolactone treatment was a narrower capsule. There was no difference in abundance of steroidogenic enzyme between groups. In conclusion, MRAs modify adrenal gland function and morphology in SHR. The effects observed within the adrenal glomerulosa with aldosterone-secreting cell proliferation and higher circulating aldosterone levels suggests that MRA treatment provokes activation of the renin angiotensin system. The prognostic value of hyperaldosteronism secondary to MRAs blockade requires further investigation.Funding: This research was funded by the Associação dos Amigos do Serviço de Endocrinologia do Hospital de São João (2020–2021). Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine (UMIB) is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)-Portugal (UIDB/00215/2020 and UIDP/00215/2020—approval date: 2019)
Nutrient composition of Algerian strawberry-tree fruits (Arbutus unedo L.)
Arbutus unedo L. (strawberry-tree fruit) is indigenous plant in North Africa with few published works about the composition of its fruits. For their valorization, morphological and chemical characterizations were carried out for two harvesting seasons of four different areas of Algeria. Materials and methods. Wild strawberry-tree fruits were collected in four different sites located in Tell Atlas, and two different seasons. Fruit size and shape, pH, titratable acidity, moisture, total available carbohydrate (TAC), soluble sugars, dietary fiber, protein, lipid, ash, fatty acids and mineral composition (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Ni and Cd) were determined. Results and discussion. Fruit contents (in g kg−1) varied between 637.3 ± 33.8 to 741.3 ±12.0, 126.8 ± 11.1 to 189.3 ± 4.1, 22.6 ± 2.2 to 35.5 ± 2.1, 5.1 ± 0.3 to 8.8 ± 0.5 for moisture, TAC, protein and lipid, respectively. For iron, fruit weight and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), the contents varied between 7.01 ± 0.15 to 17.24 ± 0.74 mg kg−1 of fruit, 4.91 ± 1.58 to 6.76 ± 2.04 g and 56.34 ± 1.37 to 68.18 ± 0.14% of lipid, respectively. Conclusion. This study provides original data about the morphological and chemical composition of strawberry-tree fruits from Algeria. The results show that the fruits can be essentially a potential source of dietary fiber, PUFA and iron.The authors are grateful to the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
for funding the study; to ALIMNOVA research group (UCMGR35/10A) for financial support
and to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to
CIMO (Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2015) and L. Barros (SFRH/BPD/107855/2015)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Point-charge electrostatics in disordered alloys
A simple analytic model of point-ion electrostatics has been previously
proposed in which the magnitude of the net charge q_i on each atom in an
ordered or random alloy depends linearly on the number N_i^(1) of unlike
neighbors in its first coordination shell. Point charges extracted from recent
large supercell (256-432 atom) local density approximation (LDA) calculations
of Cu-Zn random alloys now enable an assessment of the physical validity and
accuracy of the simple model. We find that this model accurately describes (i)
the trends in q_i vs. N_i^(1), particularly for fcc alloys, (ii) the magnitudes
of total electrostatic energies in random alloys, (iii) the relationships
between constant-occupation-averaged charges and Coulomb shifts
(i.e., the average over all sites occupied by either or atoms) in the
random alloy, and (iv) the linear relation between the site charge q_i and the
constant- charge-averaged Coulomb shift (i.e., the average over all sites with
the same charge) for fcc alloys. However, for bcc alloys the fluctuations
predicted by the model in the q_i vs. V_i relation exceed those found in the
LDA supercell calculations. We find that (a) the fluctuations present in the
model have a vanishing contribution to the electrostatic energy. (b)
Generalizing the model to include a dependence of the charge on the atoms in
the first three (two) shells in bcc (fcc) - rather than the first shell only -
removes the fluctuations, in complete agreement with the LDA data. We also
demonstrate an efficient way to extract charge transfer parameters of the
generalized model from LDA calculations on small unit cells.Comment: 15 pages, ReVTeX galley format, 7 eps figures embedded using psfig,
to be published in Phys. Rev.
Study on antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles synthesized by gamma irradiation method using different stabilizers
In order to observe the microbiological status of CMT positive samples, 734 apparently health mammary quarters from buffalo cows were submitted to physical evaluation, strip cup test and CMT. After milk samples inoculation in 10% ovine blood agar base media and in MacConkey agar and incubation under aerobic condition for 72 hours at 37 degrees C, identification was proceeded. According to CMT, 227 quarters (30,93%) were positive, among them 73 (32,16%) presented 1+ reaction, 53 (23,35%) were 2+ and 101 (44,49%) were 3+. Microbiological exams of such samples were positive in 147 (64,76%) out of 227 CMT positive samples and among the remaining 72 (31,72%) were negative and 8 (3,52) were contaminated. In the 147 microbiological positive samples 204 bacteria were found in pure or associated growth and the most frequent agents were: Corynebacterium sp (59,25%); Staphylococcus sp (17,65%) among which 86,11% were coagulase negative and 13,89% were coagulase positive; and Micrococcus sp (6,37%). The results revealed that, excluding the eight contaminated samples, 147 (67,12%) quarters out of 219 CMT positive could be considered as bacteria-carrier and that even in a smaller percentage false-positive results can cause problems in a sanitary program for mastitis control in dairy buffalo cows
Experimental and theoretical electron-scattering cross- section data for dichloromethane
We report on a combination of experimental and theoretical investigations into the elastic differential cross sections (DCSs) and integral cross sections for electron interactions with dichloromethane, CH₂Cl₂, in the incident electron energy over the 7.0-30 eV range. Elastic electron-scattering cross-section calculations have been performed within the framework of the Schwinger multichannel method implemented with pseudopotentials (SMCPP), and the independent-atom model with screening-corrected additivity rule including interference-effects correction (IAM-SCAR+I). The present elastic DCSs have been found to agree reasonably well with the results of IAM-SCAR+I calculations above 20 eV and also with the SMC calculations below 30 eV. Although some discrepancies were found for 7 eV, the agreement between the two theoretical methodologies is remarkable as the electron-impact energy increases. Calculated elastic DCSs are also reported up to 10000 eV for scattering angles from 0⁰ to 180⁰ together with total cross section within the IAM-SCAR+I framework
Power-law solutions for TeVeS
The dynamics of TeVeS in a homogeneous and isotropic universe is shown to be
equivalent to the dynamics of an interacting two-component system, consisting
of a scalar field and a "fluid", related to the matter part, with explicitly
given coupling term. Scaling solutions (solutions with a constant ratio of the
energy densities of both components) in the "Einstein frame" are found which
are exponentially expanding or contracting with no remaining freedom for
Bekenstein's function. In the "physical frame" these solutions are of the
power-law type. An equivalent General Relativity (GR) picture of the dynamics
suggests that it is the scalar field which plays the role of dark matter, while
the "matter" has to mimic (phantom-type) dark energy.Comment: 24 pages, presentation improved, acepted for publication in
Class.Quantum Grav
Cation- and vacancy-ordering in Li_xCoO_2
Using a combination of first-principles total energies, a cluster expansion
technique, and Monte Carlo simulations, we have studied the Li/Co ordering in
LiCoO_2 and Li-vacancy/Co ordering in CoO_2. We find: (i) A ground state search
of the space of substitutional cation configurations yields the (layered) CuPt
structure as the lowest-energy state in the octahedral system LiCoO_2 (and
CoO_2), in agreement with the experimentally observed phase. (ii) Finite
temperature calculations predict that the solid-state order- disorder
transitions for LiCoO_2 and CoO_2 occur at temperatures (~5100 K and ~4400 K,
respectively) much higher than melting, thus making these transitions
experimentally inaccessible. (iii) The energy of the reaction E(LiCoO_2) -
E(CoO_2) - E(Li) gives the average battery voltage V of a Li_xCoO_2/Li cell.
Searching the space of configurations for large average voltages, we find that
CuPt (a monolayer superlattice) has a high voltage (V=3.78 V), but that
this could be increased by cation randomization (V=3.99 V), partial disordering
(V=3.86 V), or by forming a 2-layer Li_2Co_2O_4 superlattice along
(V=4.90 V).Comment: 12 Pages, RevTeX galley format, 5 figures embedded using epsf Phys.
Rev. B (in press, 1998
Entropy and Spin Susceptibility of s-wave Type-II Superconductors near
A theoretical study is performed on the entropy and the spin
susceptibility near the upper critical field of s-wave
type-II superconductors with arbitrary impurity concentrations. The changes of
these quantities through may be expressed as , for example, where is the average flux density
and denotes entropy in the normal state. It is found that the
slopes and at T=0 are identical, connected
directly with the zero-energy density of states, and vary from 1.72 in the
dirty limit to in the clean limit. This mean-free-path dependence
of and at T=0 is quantitatively the same as that
of the slope for the flux-flow resistivity studied
previously. The result suggests that and near
T=0 are convex downward (upward) in the dirty (clean) limit, deviating
substantially from the linear behavior . The specific-heat
jump at also shows fairly large mean-free-path dependence.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
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