Insights into solute carriers: physiological functions and implications in disease and pharmacokinetics

SLCs transport many endogenous and exogenous compounds including drugs; SLCs dysfunction has implications in pharmacokinetics, drug toxicity or lack of efficacy

Anatomical Characteristics and Leaf Blade Digestibility of Five \u3cem\u3ePanicum\u3c/em\u3e Genotypes under Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest System

Integrated crop-livestock-forest systems (ICLF) are intended to increase land use efficiency and to harvest benefits from interactions among the components involved. Thus, cattle husbandry success on such systems depends on the suitability and adaptability of the forages used. Shadow causes stress to plants growing in the understory of ICLF systems due to limitation of photo synthetically active radiation, whose intensity varies with location, time of the year and the tree component. Reduction of light incidence on forage leads to limited growth rates as a function of energy restriction necessary to the photosynthetic processes, requiring a number of morphological, physiological, structural and anatomical adaptations from the plant, called acclimatization (Gobbi et al., 2011). In this context, this work aimed to evaluate anatomical characteristics of tropical Panicum grasses under an ICLF system in the Brazilian Cerrado

Ecology and parasitism of the lizard Tropidurus jaguaribanus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) from northeastern Brazil

Ecology and parasitism of the lizard Tropidurus jaguaribanus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) from northeastern Brazil. Specimens of Tropidurus jaguaribanus were collected as part of a study of their use of microhabitats, activity period, body temperature, diet, foraging, sexual dimorphism (in size and in form), reproductive biology, and parasite community composition. The preferential microhabitat of the species is the surface of rocks (saxicolous habit). The species has a bimodal diurnal activity period and a seasonal reproductive cycle. The diet is composed mainly of beetles and ants in adults and juveniles. The species is a sit-and-wait forager; the lizards scarcely move and feed on sedentary, immobile prey. The helminth community associated with these lizards is composed of fve species: Oochoristica travassosi, Parapharyngodon alvarengai, Physaloptera sp., Spauligodon sp., and Strongyluris oscari. The prevalence, intensity of infection, and parasite abundance is the same in both sexes.Ecologia e parasitismo do lagarto Tropidurus jaguaribanus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) do nordeste do Brasil. Espécimes de Tropidurus jaguaribanus foram coletados como parte de um estudo de uso de micro-hábitats, período de atividade, temperatura corporal, dieta, forrageamento, dimorfsmo sexual (tamanho e forma), biologia reprodutiva e composição da comunidade parasitária. O micro-hábitat preferencial da espécie é a superfície das rochas (hábito saxícola). A espécie possui um período de atividade diurna bimodal e um ciclo reprodutivo sazonal. A dieta é composta principalmente por besouros e formigas em adultos e juvenis. A espécie é um forrageador senta-eespera; os lagartos movem-se pouco e alimentam-se de presas sedentárias e imóveis. A comunidade de helmintos associada a esses lagartos é composta por cinco espécies: Oochoristica travassosi, Parapharyngodon alvarengai, Physaloptera sp., Spauligodon sp. e Strongyluris oscari. A prevalência, a intensidade da infecção e a abundância de parasitas são as mesmas em ambos os sexos

Nitric Oxide Detection Using Electrochemical Third-generation Biosensors - Based on Heme Proteins and Porphyrins

Nitric oxide radical (NO) is a signalling molecule involved in virtually all forms of life. Its relevance has been leading to the development of different analytical methodologies to assess the temporal and spatial fluxes of NO under the complex biological milieu. Third‐generation electrochemical biosensors are promising tools for in loco and in vivo NO quantification and, over the past years, heme proteins and porphyrins have been used in their design. Since there are some limitations with the biorecognition element directly adsorbed onto the electrode surface, nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, etc.) and polymers (cellulose, chitosan, nafion®, polyacrylamide, among others) have been explored to achieve high kinetics and better biosensor performance. In this review, a broad overview of the field of electrochemical third‐generation biosensors for NO electroanalysis is presented, discussing their main characteristics and aiming new outlooks and advances in this field.FG and LBM thank FCT/MCTES for the fellowship grants SFRH/BD/52502/2014 and SFRH/BPD/111404/ 2015, respectively, which are financed by national funds and co-financed by FSE. CMC acknowledges FCTMCTES funding through project PTDC/BBB-BQB/ 0129/2014 (FCT/MCTES). This work was supported by the PTDC/BB-BQB/0129/2014 project (FCT/MCTES) and also by the Associate Laboratory Research Unit for Green Chemistry – Technologies and Processes Clean – LAQV, financed by national funds from FCT/MEC (UID/QUI/50006/2013) and co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007265). Funding through REQUIMTE project entitled “NOR-based biosensor for nitric oxide detection in biological and environmental samples” is also acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Some interesting features of new massive gravity

A proof that new massive gravity - the massive 3D gravity model proposed by Bergshoeff, Hohm and Townsend (BHT) - is the only unitary system at the tree level that can be constructed by augmenting planar gravity through the curvature-squared terms, is presented. Two interesting gravitational properties of the BHT model, namely, time dilation and time delay, which have no counterpart in the usual Einstein 3D gravity, are analyzed as well.Comment: Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

Growth Characteristics of Kikuyu Grass with Different Sources and Doses of Phosphorus

Growth is defined as the increase in size, volume and mass as a function of time. Growth analysis allows evaluating the final growth of the plant as a whole and the contribution of the different organs in total growth (Benincasa, 1988). The experiment had as objective to evaluate specific leaf area (SLA), leaf area per unit of leaf DM, leaf area ratio (LAR), leaf area per unit of whole plant DM, leaf weight ratio (LWR), leaf weight per unit of plant weight, leaf area index (LAI), leaf area per unit of soil area, leaf/stem ratio (LSR), leaf weight per unit stem weight, of 35 days old kikuyu grass with different sources and doses of P

Seasonality of Forage Production of Coastcross-1 with Different Sources and Applications of Phosphorus

Brazil presents high potential for meat production from pastures. However, the feeding of ruminants depends on the conditions and the climate. Approximately 80% of the annual production of dry matter (DM) occurs in the period October to March (spring - summer). In the autumn and winter production is low associated with high humidity and low temperatures in the south and low rainfall in the tropical north. The situation is exacerbated by inadequate management practices and low soil fertility, particularly low levels of phosphorus (P). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the seasonality of production of DM of coastcross-1 (Cynodon dactylon) with different sources and applications of P for two consecutive years