Regio- and stereoselective synthesis of (Z)-2-Arylsulfanyl allylic alcohols using anhydrous CeCl3 as catalyst under solvent free conditions

AbstractAnhydrous CeCl3 was successfully employed as catalyst for the synthesis of (Z)-2-Arylsulfanyl allylic alcohols from propargylic alcohols and thiols under solvent free conditions. The products were obtained in good to excellent yields

Os limites fiscais e or??ament??rios da reforma gerencial nos estados: o exemplo de Minas Gerais

O artigo analisa os resultados obtidos com a implanta????o do Choque de Gest??o em Minas Gerais, quanto ?? capacidade de produzir os resultados esperados nos aspectos or??ament??rio e fiscal e de sustent??-los no m??dio prazo. ?? analisada a evolu????o da execu????o or??ament??ria estadual, de 2004 a 2011, tendo como foco o percentual dos investimentos e a forma de financiamento das despesas estaduais, com base na reforma gerencial iniciada em 2003. Foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa para avalia????o da evolu????o de indicadores fiscais e or??ament??rios, tais como Resultado Prim??rio e Nominal, Resultado Prim??rio Marginal, Resultado Operacional L??quido, ??ndice de Investimento, Resultado Fiscal dos Recursos Ordin??rios, entre outros. Valendo-se da pesquisa, conclui-se que, quanto ?? situa????o fiscal do Estado de Minas Gerais, o panorama n??o se mostra muito favor??vel, apesar dos Resultados Or??ament??rios Fiscais positivos desde 2004. Destaca-se a redu????o das taxas de resultado prim??rio marginal obtidas, a amplia????o dos N??veis de Endividamento Estadual e a utiliza????o dos recursos de fontes vinculadas e diretamente arrecadadas como forma de garantir os super??vits fiscais or??ament??rios. Sob a ??tica da amplia????o das receitas estaduais, constatase, a partir de 2009, redu????o no ??ndice de arrecada????o estadual. Quanto ?? redu????o das despesas e ?? melhoria da qualidade do gasto p??blico, observa-se o ano de 2004 como um per??odo de ajuste; por??m, os resultados sugerem que as melhorias percebidas nos anos iniciais ap??s o denominado ???Choque de Gest??o??? n??o se perpetuaram e n??o podem ser considerados como duradouros e capazes de produzir resultados de m??dio prazo

Expedient Iodocyclization Approach Toward Polysubstituted 3H-Benzo[e]indoles

A facile and expedient iodocyclization of 4-(2-prop-1-ynylphenyl)-1H-pyrroles towards the synthesis of polysubstituted 3H-benzo[e]indoles is reported. The transformation was optimized and the best results were obtained by using iodine (1.2 equiv,) in dichloromethane, and potassium carbonate as base. The starting 1,2,3,4-tetrasubstituted pyrroles were efficiently obtained by means of a nickel(II) chloride-promoted four-component (nitromethane, amine, 2-alkynylbenzaldehyde and ethyl acetoacetate) reaction. Further functionalization of the resulting 5-iodoheterocycles was also explored.Fil: Martins, Guilherme M.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Departamento de Qu ímica; BrasilFil: Zeni, Gilson. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Departamento de Qu ímica; BrasilFil: Back, David F.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Departamento de Qu ímica; BrasilFil: Kaufman, Teodoro Saul. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Química Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Silveira, Claudio C.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Departamento de Qu ímica; Brasi

Assessment of fertility protection and ovarian reserve with GnRH antagonist in rats undergoing chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reproductive function following chemotherapy is of increasing importance given that survival rates are improving. We assessed whether a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist (GnRHant; cetrorelix) could promote ovarian protection against damage due to chemotherapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-two female Wistar rats were used in this study. Animals were divided into four groups: group I (n = 9) received placebo twice; group II (n = 12) received placebo + cyclophosphamide (CPA); group III (n = 12) received GnRHant + CPA; and group IV (n = 9) received GnRHant + placebo. After medication, the estrous cycle was studied through vaginal smears. Rats were mated, pregnancy was documented and the number of live pups evaluated. Afterwards, rat ovaries were removed and prepared for histological studies. The ovarian cross-sectional area was measured and follicles were counted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cyclic changes in vaginal smears were observed in all but one animal after treatment, but group II had a significantly lower rate of animals with proestrus or estrus (p < 0.01). The offspring was markedly reduced by CPA treatment (group II, 3.00 +/- 1.33 pups vs. group I, 11.44 +/- 0.78 pups, p < 0.01) and this effect was partly reversed by pre-treatment with GnRHant (group III, 7.00 +/- 1.31 pups). The ovarian cross-sectional area was not significantly different between groups, neither was the number of individual follicle types. However, rats in Group IV had a higher total number of ovarian follicles than those in the control group (17.1 +/- 1.22 vs. 10.9 +/- 0.70, p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The use of a GnRHant before CPA chemotherapy provided protection of fertility.</p

THE USE OF N400 IN STUDIES OF STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE: A REVIEW OF METHODS AND PARAMETERS

The N400 is defined as an event-related brain potential that is sensitive to the semantic relations between stimuli. For instance, when a pair of words belong to the same semantic domain (e.g., monkey-banana), the N400 will be significantly reduced in comparison to the N400 evoked by unrelated words (e.g., monkey-carburetor). Notably, the N400 responses are also sensitive to the arbitrary stimulus-stimulus relations formed by matching-to-sample procedures (MTS), supporting the notion that stimulus equivalence is a behavioristic model of semantic relations. In this study, we presented a methodological review of studies on stimulus equivalence that used the N400 as dependent measure of “equivalent” and “non-equivalent” stimulus-stimulus relations formed by MTS procedures. First, we searched on databases for studies that used the descriptive terms “equivalence relations”, “matching-to-sample”, “MTS”, “N400”, “relational learning”, and “derived relations” on the title and the abstract. Then, we categorized the number of experiments in each study, population, nature of stimuli, the event-related brain potential used as a dependent measure and whether the critical probes comprised baseline, reflexive, symmetric or transitive relations. We found that the MTS variables differed substantially from one study to another. Considering that most of these MTS variables may be critical to the establishment of stimulus equivalence, we encourage follow-up studies that aim at verifying whether and to what extent they can be related to the N400 outcomes.Key-words: Matching-to-sample, equivalence-relatedness-based-procedure, stimulus equivalence, N400, semantic relations, methodological review

Growth hormone 1 gene (GH1) polymorphisms as possible markers of the production potential of beef cattle using the Brazilian Canchim breed as a model

The growth hormone 1 gene (GH1) is a candidate gene for body weight and weight gain in cattle since it plays a fundamental role in growth regulation. We investigated the GH1 gene AluI and DdeI restriction enzyme polymorphisms, located 149 bp apart in the cattle genome, as possible markers of the production potential of Canchim crossbreed cattle, a 5/8 Charolais (Bos taurus) and 3/8 Nelore (Bos indicus) breed developed in Brazil, by evaluating the birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and plasma insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) concentration of 7 month to 10 months old Canchim calves (n = 204) of known genealogy and which had been genotyped for the AluI and DdeI markers. Our results showed significant effect (p < 0.05) between the homozygous DdeI+/DdeI+ polymorphism and the estimated breeding value for weaning weight (ESB-WW), while the AluI leucine homozygous (L/L) and leucine/valine (L/V) heterozygous polymorphisms showed no significant effect on the traits studied. The restriction sites of the two enzymes led to the formation of haplotypes which also exerted a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the ESB-WW, with the largest difference being 8.5 kg in favor of the homozygous L plus DdeI+/L plus DdeI+ genotype over the heterozygous L plus DdeI-/V plus DdeI+ genotype

Investigating dimensionality and measurement bias of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder in a representative sample of the largest metropolitan area in South America

Background: Given the recent launch of a new diagnostic classification (DSM-5) for alcohol use disorders (AUD), we aimed to investigate its dimensionality and possible measurement bias in a non-U.S. sample. Methods: The current analyses were restricted to 948 subjects who endorsed drinking at least one drink per week in the past year from a sample of 5037 individuals. Data came from São Paulo Megacity Project (which is part of World Mental Health Surveys) collected between 2005 and 2007. First, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out to test for the best dimensional structure for DSM-5-AUD criteria. Then, item response theory (IRT) was used to investigate the severity and discrimination properties of each criterion of DSM-5-AUD. Finally, differential criterion functioning (DCF) were investigated by socio-demographics (income, gender, age, employment status, marital status and education). All analyses were performed in Mplus software taking into account complex survey design features. Results: The best EFA model was a one-dimensional model. IRT results showed that the criteria “Time Spent” and “Given Up” have the highest discrimination and severity properties, while the criterion “Larger/Longer” had the lowest value of severity, but an average value of discrimination. Only female gender had DCF both at criterion- and factor-level, rendering measurement bias. Conclusion: This study reinforces the existence of a DSM-5-AUD continuum in the largest metropolitan area of South America, including subgroups that had previously higher rates of alcohol use (lower educational/income levels). Lower DSM-5-AUD scores were found in women

AtAREB1 overexpression in cotton enhances water use efficiency but not improve growth in response to mild drought.

Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to cope efficiently with drought. Abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive element binding (AREB) proteins are a family of ABA-dependent transcription factors that control the expression of stress-induced genes to improve drought tolerance. It has been hypothesized that overexpression of AREB1 constitutively active is able to increase plantwater deficit resistance

AtAREB1 overexpression in cotton enhances water use efficiency but not improve growth in response to mild drought.

Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to cope efficiently with drought. Abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive element binding (AREB) proteins are a family of ABA-dependent transcription factors that control the expression of stress-induced genes to improve drought tolerance. It has been hypothesized that overexpression of AREB1 constitutively active is able to increase plantwater deficit resistance