Avaliação da atividade sexual pré-zigótica de populações de Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedmann, 1830) (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Neste trabalho foi avaliada a competitividade sexual pré-zigótica das populações de A. fraterculus: 1) selvagem; 2) laboratório (78° geração) e 3) laboratório esterilizadas

Competitividade sexual pré-zigótica em Mosca-das-frutas Anastrepha Fraterculus (Wiedmann, 1830) (Diptera: Tephritidae).

A mosca-das-frutas Anastrepha fraterculus é a principal praga da maçã e a técnica do inseto estéril seria uma alternativa para seu controle. O presente trabalho avaliou a competitividade sexual pré-zigótica entre três populações de A. fraterculus: selvagens, de laboratório e laboratório esterilizadas. O estudo foi conduzido em gaiolas teladas na Estação Experimental de Fruticultura de Clima Temperado (EEFCT), Vacaria, RS. A população selvagem foi obtida dos frutos de Feijoa sellowiana e as de laboratório obtidas da criação experimental do Laboratório de Entomologia da EEFTC, criadas artificialmente. O processo de esterilização foi realizado pelo Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Piracicaba, SP, em pupas 24 horas antes da emergência, a uma taxa de 135,65 Gy/h. Logo após a emergência os adultos foram separados por sexo e alimentados de acordo com o sistema de criação. No dia anterior ao teste foram identificados com tinta. Os ensaios foram conduzidos às 8:00 da manhã liberando-se 30 machos de cada população e 30 minutos depois as respectivas fêmeas. Para população de laboratório foram usados adultos de 8 a 10 dias de idade e para selvagem de 15 a 18 dias. Para cada combinação foram realizadas oito repetições. Foram observados e capturados os casais formados registrando a cor e a duração das cópulas. Todas as observações foram realizadas do interior da gaiola durante 3 horas. Os casais foram separados em gaiolas de acordo com sua combinação para avaliação da viabilidade dos ovos. Os resultados foram analisados de acordo com o Índice de Isolamento Sexual (ISI) e os relativos à viabilidade de ovos foram comparados ao padrão da espécie. Os resultados indicaram que há compatibilidade sexual entre as populações, mas que o processo de radioesterilização afetou a competitividade sexual. Os ovos obtidos de cópulas envolvendo a população esterilizada geraram ovos inviáveis e as fêmeas estéreis não produziram ovos

Influence of hepatitis delta virus infection on morbidity and mortality in compensated cirrhosis type B

BACKGROUND—The effect of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection on the clinical course of cirrhosis type B is poorly defined.
AIMS—To investigate the impact of HDV status on morbidity and mortality in cirrhosis type B.
PATIENTS/METHODS—Retrospective cohort study of 200 Western European patients with compensated cirrhosis type B followed for a median period of 6.6( )years.
RESULTS—At diagnosis, 20% of patients had antibodies to HDV (anti-HDV); median age was lower in anti-HDV positive cirrhotics (34 v 48 years respectively). Kaplan-Meier five year probability of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was 6, 10, and 9% in anti-HDV positive/HBeAg negative, anti-HDV negative/HBeAg negative, and anti-HDV negative/HBeAg positive cirrhotics respectively; the corresponding figures for decompensation were 22, 16, and 19% and for survival they were 92, 89, and 83% respectively. Cox regression analysis identified age, albumin concentration, γ-globulin concentration, and HDV status as significant independent prognostic variables. After adjustment for clinical and serological differences at baseline, the risk (95% confidence interval) for HCC, decompensation, and mortality was increased by a factor of 3.2 (1.0 to 10), 2.2 (0.8( )to 5.7), and 2.0 (0.7 to 5.7) respectively in anti-HDV positive relative to HDV negative cirrhotic patients. The adjusted estimated five year risk for HCC was 13, 4, and 2% for anti-HDV positive/HBeAg negative, anti-HDV negative/HBeAg negative, and anti-HDV negative/HBeAg positive cirrhotics respectively; the corresponding figures for decompensation were 18, 8, and 14% and for survival 90, 95, and 93% respectively.
CONCLUSIONS—HDV infection increases the risk for HCC threefold and for mortality twofold in patients with cirrhosis type B.


Keywords: delta hepatitis; prognosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; decompensation; surviva

High prevalence of radiological vertebral fractures in adult patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Previous studies have reported an increased prevalence of osteoporosis in Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (EDS), but these were limited by a small number of patients and lack of information on fragility fractures. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the prevalence of radiological vertebral fractures (by quantitative morphometry) and bone mineral density (BMD, at lumbar spine, total hip and femoral neck by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) in 52 consecutive patients with EDS (10 males, 42 females; median age 41 years, range: 21–71; 12 with EDS classic type, 37 with EDS hypermobility type, 1 with classic vascular-like EDS, and 2 without specific classification) and 197 control subjects (163 females and 34 males; median age 49 years, range: 26–83) attending an outpatient bone clinic. EDS patients were also evaluated for back pain by numeric pain rating scale (NRS-11).Vertebral fractures were significantly more prevalent in EDS as compared to the control subjects (38.5% vs. 5.1%; p < 0.001) without significant differences in BMD at either skeletal sites. In EDS patients, the prevalence of vertebral fractures was not significantly (p = 0.72) different between classic and hypermobility types. BMD was not significantly different between fractured and non-fractured EDS patients either at lumbar spine (p = 0.14), total hip (p = 0.08), or femoral neck (p = 0.21). Severe back pain (≥ 7 NRS) was more frequent in EDS patients with vertebral fractures as compared to those without fractures (60% vs. 28%; p = 0.04). In conclusion, this is the first study showing high prevalence of vertebral fractures in a relatively large population of EDS patients. Vertebral fractures were associated with more severe back pain suggesting a potential involvement of skeletal fragility in determining poor quality of life. The lack of correlation between vertebral fractures and BMD is consistent with the hypothesis that bone quality may be impaired in EDS

Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Octreotide on Tumor Mass in Acromegaly

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The long-acting somatostatin analogue octreotide is used either as an adjuvant or primary therapy to lower growth hormone (GH) levels in patients with acromegaly and may also induce pituitary tumor shrinkage.</p> <h3>Objective</h3><p>We performed a meta-analysis to accurately assess the effect of octreotide on pituitary tumor shrinkage.</p> <h3>Data Sources</h3><p>A computerized Medline and Embase search was undertaken to identify potentially eligible studies.</p> <h3>Study Eligibility Criteria</h3><p>Eligibility criteria included treatment with octreotide, availability of numerical metrics on tumor shrinkage and clear definition of a clinically relevant reduction in tumor size. Primary endpoints included the proportion of patients with tumor shrinkage and mean percentage reduction in tumor volume.</p> <h3>Data Extraction and Analysis</h3><p>The electronic search identified 2202 articles. Of these, 41 studies fulfilling the eligibility criteria were selected for data extraction and analysis. In total, 1685 patients were included, ranging from 6 to 189 patients per trial. For the analysis of the effect of octreotide on pituitary tumor shrinkage a random effect model was used to account for differences in both effect size and sampling error.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>Octreotide was shown to induce tumor shrinkage in 53.0% [95% CI: 45.0%–61.0%] of treated patients. In patients treated with the LAR formulation of octreotide, this increased to 66.0%, [95% CI: 57.0%–74.0%). In the nine studies in which tumor shrinkage was quantified, the overall weighted mean percentage reduction in tumor size was 37.4% [95% CI: 22.4%–52.4%], rising to 50.6% [95% CI: 42.7%–58.4%] with octreotide LAR.</p> <h3>Limitations</h3><p>Most trials examined were open-label and had no control group.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Octreotide LAR induces clinically relevant tumor shrinkage in more than half of patients with acromegaly.</p> </div

Spectral signatures of many-body localization with interacting photons

Statistical mechanics is founded on the assumption that a system can reach thermal equilibrium, regardless of the starting state. Interactions between particles facilitate thermalization, but, can interacting systems always equilibrate regardless of parameter values\,? The energy spectrum of a system can answer this question and reveal the nature of the underlying phases. However, most experimental techniques only indirectly probe the many-body energy spectrum. Using a chain of nine superconducting qubits, we implement a novel technique for directly resolving the energy levels of interacting photons. We benchmark this method by capturing the intricate energy spectrum predicted for 2D electrons in a magnetic field, the Hofstadter butterfly. By increasing disorder, the spatial extent of energy eigenstates at the edge of the energy band shrink, suggesting the formation of a mobility edge. At strong disorder, the energy levels cease to repel one another and their statistics approaches a Poisson distribution - the hallmark of transition from the thermalized to the many-body localized phase. Our work introduces a new many-body spectroscopy technique to study quantum phases of matter

Realistic loophole-free Bell test with atom-photon entanglement

The establishment of nonlocal correlations, obtained through the violation of a Bell inequality, is not only important from a fundamental point of view, but constitutes the basis for device-independent quantum information technologies. Although several nonlocality tests have been performed so far, all of them suffered from either the locality or the detection loopholes. Recent studies have suggested that the use of atom-photon entanglement can lead to Bell inequality violations with moderate transmission and detection efficiencies. In this paper we propose an experimental setup realizing a simple atom-photon entangled state that, under realistic experimental parameters available to date, achieves a significant violation of the Clauser-Horn-Shimony-Holt inequality. Most importantly, the violation remains when considering typical detection efficiencies and losses due to required propagation distances.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 3 table, to appear in Nature Com