Electivities and resource use by an assemblage of lizards endemic to the dunes of the São Francisco River, northeastern Brazil

This study describes the pattern of resource use by one assemblage of lizards inhabiting a desert-like dune field in the Brazilian Caatinga. We evaluated food and microhabitat availability and phases of lizard activity, as well as use of, and electivities for, food and microhabitats. Six of the seven most abundant species are endemic to the dunes, and their diets under-represented arthropods possessing chemical defenses. The two fossorial gymnophthalmids were similar in presenting no electivities for microhabitat but differed in diet, electivities for food and phase of activity. The five species of epigeous lizards include one group presenting positive electivities for protected and shaded microhabitats (Procellosaurinus erythrocercus, Briba brasiliana, and Tropidurus psammonastes) and another presenting negative electivities for such microhabitats (Eurolophosaurus divaricatus and Cnemidophorus spec. nov.). The tropidurid T. psammonastes presented the earliest activity in the morning, the strongest positive electivities for protected and shaded areas and negative electivity for exposed areas, and was the only species to present high positive electivity for ants. The only other tropidurid in the area, E. divaricatus, also ate ants but presented positive electivity for flowers. The medium-sized teiid Cnemidophorus spec. nov. showed the highest negative electivity for shaded areas, high positive electivity for open areas, and high negative electivity for protected areas. This pattern leads to use of microhabitat that is similar to that of E. divaricatus, which has a very different diet, and different from that of T. psammonastes, whose diet is comparable in the consumption of insect larvae and large-sized items. We discuss the evolution of the detected patterns of resource electivities.Este estudo descreve o padrão de uso de recursos por uma assembléia de lagartos de um campo de dunas da Caatinga. Avaliamos a disponibilidade de recursos e as fases de atividade dos lagartos, bem como seu uso e suas eletividades por alimento e micro-hábitats. Seis das sete espécies mais abundantes são endêmicas das dunas, e suas dietas sub-representaram artrópodes com defesas químicas. Os dois gimnoftalmídeos fossórios mostraram-se semelhantes por não apresentar eletividades por micro-hábitats, mas diferiram quanto à dieta, às eletividades por alimentos e à fase de atividade. As cinco espécies de lagartos epígeos incluem um grupo com eletividade positiva por micro-hábitats protegidos e sombreados (Procellosaurinus erythrocercus, Briba brasiliana e Tropidurus psammonastes) e outro com eletividades negativas pelos mesmos (Eurolophosaurus divaricatus e Cnemidophorus spec. nov.). O tropidurídeo T. psammonastes apresentou atividade mais precocemente pela manhã, as eletividades positivas mais fortes por áreas protegidas e sombreadas e eletividades negativas por áreas expostas, sendo a única espécie com eletividade positiva alta por formigas. O outro tropidurídeo da área, E. divaricatus, também alimentou-se de formigas mas apresentou eletividade positiva por flores. O teiídeo de médio porte Cnemidophorus spec. nov. apresentou as maiores eletividades negativas por áreas sombreadas e a maior eletividade positiva por áreas abertas, bem como uma alta eletividade negativa por áreas protegidas. Assim, seu padrão de uso de micro-hábitat é similar ao de E. divaricatus, que possui uma dieta muito distinta, e diferente do padrão de T. psammonastes, cuja dieta é semelhante (larvas de insetos e itens de maior tamanho). Discutimos a evolução dos padrões detectados de eletevidades por recursos

Criação de componente de fôrma industrializada de pilar através de uma plataforma BIM

In the Brazilian industry, few construction companies have very detailed and accurate formwork projects, resulting in waste, lack of planning, and delays. Thereupon, the objective of this paper was to incorporate the precepts of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the industrialized column formwork product, that, because of its complexity, the graphic representation in 2D CAD lacks information and requires a lot of time in its development. It can be said that the most immediate benefits of BIM are the greater efficiency and productivity in the project documentation, which through the parameters, project information is generated automatically and more accurately. The modeling process prioritized the component's performance over its appearance, regarding some national and international manuals and standards. Before the actual modeling, family planning was carried out, then a parametric program was used, so that the nested families, parameters, rules, and links could be inserted into the family editor. The BIM project proved to be effective in terms of its automation and generation of quantitative in the project, however, as it is still a new product in the Brazilian industry, lacking in the attribution of information for 4D planning, maintenance, and logistics.No mercado brasileiro, são poucas as construtoras que possuem um projeto bem detalhado e preciso de fôrmas, resultando em desperdícios, falta de planejamento e atrasos. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho foi incorporar os preceitos da Modelagem da Informação da Construção (BIM) no produto fôrma industrializada de pilar, que devido a sua complexidade, a sua representação gráfica no CAD 2D é carente de informações e requer muito tempo no seu desenvolvimento. Pode-se dizer que os benefícios mais imediatos do BIM é a maior eficiência e produtividade na documentação do projeto, que através dos parâmetros, informações do projeto são geradas de forma automática e mais precisa. O processo de modelagem priorizou o desempenho do componente em vez da sua aparência, tendo como referência alguns manuais e normas nacionais e internacionais. Antes da modelagem propriamente dita, foi realizado um planejamento da família, em seguida, utilizou-se um programa paramétrico, para que se pudesse inserir as famílias aninhadas, parâmetros, regras e vínculos no editor de famílias. O projeto em BIM se mostrou eficaz quanto a sua automatização e geração de quantitativos no projeto, porém, por ser ainda um produto novo no mercado brasileiro, carente quanto a atribuição de informações para planejamento 4D, para manutenção e para logística

ER stress activation in the intestinal mucosa but not in mesenteric adipose tissue is associated with inflammation in Crohn’s disease patients

Chronic/abnormal activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is linked to the exacerbation of the inflammatory process and has been recently linked to Crohn’s disease (CD) pathophysiology. We investigated the intestinal mucosa and the mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT) collected from CD patients with active disease (CD group) and from non-IBD patients (CTR group) to study ER stress activation and to address tissue-specific modulation in CD. The intestinal mucosa of CD patients showed an upregulation in the expression of ER stress related genes, including ATF3, DNAJC3, STC2, DDIT3, CALR, HSPA5 and HSP90B1. Results showed that EIF2AK3 gene was upregulated, along with increased protein expression of p-eIF2α and p-eIF2α/eIF2α ratio. Additionally, ERN1 gene expression was upregulated, along with an increased spliced/activated form sXBP1 protein. Despite the upregulation of ATF6 gene expression in the intestinal mucosa of CD patients, no differences were found in ATF6 protein expression. Lastly, the analysis of MAT revealed unchanged levels of ER stress markers along with no differences in the activation of UPR. However, chaperone gene expression was modulated in the MAT of CD patients. To conclude, our results address tissue-specific differences in UPR activation in CD and point the ER stress as an important pro-inflammatory mechanism in CD, specifically in the intestinal mucosa149CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP401270/2016-502-P-28707/20122016/01638-

Local minimal energy landscapes in river networks

The existence and stability of the universality class associated to local minimal energy landscapes is investigated. Using extensive numerical simulations, we first study the dependence on a parameter $\gamma$ of a partial differential equation which was proposed to describe the evolution of a rugged landscape toward a local minimum of the dissipated energy. We then compare the results with those obtained by an evolution scheme based on a variational principle (the optimal channel networks). It is found that both models yield qualitatively similar river patterns and similar dependence on $\gamma$. The aggregation mechanism is however strongly dependent on the value of $\gamma$. A careful analysis suggests that scaling behaviors may weakly depend both on $\gamma$ and on initial condition, but in all cases it is within observational data predictions. Consequences of our resultsComment: 12 pages, 13 figures, revtex+epsfig style, to appear in Phys. Rev. E (Nov. 2000

Explaining the Higgs Decays at the LHC with an Extended Electroweak Model

We show that the recent discovery of a new boson at the LHC, which we assume to be a Higgs boson, and the observed enhancement in its diphoton decays compared to the SM prediction, can be explained by a new doublet of charged vector bosons from an extended electroweak gauge sector model with SU(3)_C\otimesSU(3)_L\otimesU(1)_X symmetry. Our results show a good agreement between our theoretical expected sensitivity to a 126--125 GeV Higgs boson and the experimental significance observed in the diphoton channel at the 8 TeV LHC. Effects of an invisible decay channel for the Higgs boson are also taken into account, in order to anticipate a possible confirmation of deficits in the branching ratios into $ZZ^*$, $WW^*$, bottom quarks, and tau leptons.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

IKKβ targeting reduces KRAS-induced lung cancer angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo: A potential anti-angiogenic therapeutic target

Objectives: The ability of tumor cells to drive angiogenesis is an important cancer hallmark that positively correlates with metastatic potential and poor prognosis. Therefore, targeting angiogenesis is a rational therapeutic approach and dissecting proangiogenic pathways is important, particularly for malignancies driven by oncogenic KRAS, which are widespread and lack effective targeted therapies. Based on published studies showing that oncogenic RAS promotes angiogenesis by upregulating the proangiogenic NF-κB target genes IL-8 and VEGF, that NF-κB activation by KRAS requires the IKKβ kinase, and that targeting IKKβ reduces KRAS-induced lung tumor growth in vivo, but has limited effects on cell growth in vitro, we hypothesized that IKKβ targeting would reduce lung tumor growth by inhibiting KRAS-induced angiogenesis. Materials and methods: To test this hypothesis, we targeted IKKβ in KRAS-mutant lung cancer cell lines either by siRNA-mediated transfection or by treatment with Compound A (CmpdA), a highly specific IKKβ inhibitor, and used in vitro and in vivo assays to evaluate angiogenesis. Results and conclusions: Both pharmacological and siRNA-mediated IKKβ targeting in lung cells reduced expression and secretion of NF-κB-regulated proangiogenic factors IL-8 and VEGF. Moreover, conditioned media from IKKβ-targeted lung cells reduced human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) migration, invasion and tube formation in vitro. Furthermore, siRNA-mediated IKKβ inhibition reduced xenograft tumor growth and vascularity in vivo. Finally, IKKβ inhibition also affects endothelial cell function in a cancer-independent manner, as IKKβ inhibition reduced pathological retinal angiogenesis in a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy. Taken together, these results provide a novel mechanistic understanding of how the IKKβ pathway affects human lung tumorigenesis, indicating that IKKβ promotes KRAS-induced angiogenesis both by cancer cell-intrinsic and cancer cell-independent mechanisms, which strongly suggests IKKβ inhibition as a promising antiangiogenic approach to be explored for KRAS-induced lung cancer therapy

Metastable States in Spin Glasses and Disordered Ferromagnets

We study analytically M-spin-flip stable states in disordered short-ranged Ising models (spin glasses and ferromagnets) in all dimensions and for all M. Our approach is primarily dynamical and is based on the convergence of a zero-temperature dynamical process with flips of lattice animals up to size M and starting from a deep quench, to a metastable limit. The results (rigorous and nonrigorous, in infinite and finite volumes) concern many aspects of metastable states: their numbers, basins of attraction, energy densities, overlaps, remanent magnetizations and relations to thermodynamic states. For example, we show that their overlap distribution is a delta-function at zero. We also define a dynamics for M=infinity, which provides a potential tool for investigating ground state structure.Comment: 34 pages (LaTeX); to appear in Physical Review