Evaluation of the immune humoral response of Brazilian patients with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome

Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RTS) is a rare developmental disorder characterized by craniofacial dysmorphisms, broad thumbs and toes, mental and growth deficiency, and recurrent respiratory infections. RTS has been associated with CREBBP gene mutations, but EP300 gene mutations have recently been reported in 6 individuals. In the present study, the humoral immune response in 16 RTS patients with recurrent respiratory infections of possible bacterial etiology was evaluated. No significant differences between patients and 16 healthy controls were detected to explain the high susceptibility to respiratory infections: normal or elevated serum immunoglobulin levels, normal salivary IgA levels, and a good antibody response to both polysaccharide and protein antigens were observed. However, most patients presented high serum IgM levels, a high number of total B cell and B subsets, and also high percentiles of apoptosis, suggesting that they could present B dysregulation. The CREBBP/p300 family gene is extremely important for B-cell regulation, and RTS may represent an interesting human model for studying the molecular mechanisms involved in B-cell development

Magnetization-induced second harmonic generation of light by exchange-coupled magnetic layers

International audienceA longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect and magnetization-induced second-harmonic generation (MSHG) of light (at 2v) have been measured in a SiO2/Fe96Si4/Dy30Fe58Co12/glass exchange-coupled magnetic bilayer system with competitive anisotropies. Theoretical MSHG predictions in this structure that give rise to an effect proportional to magnetization components and that are allowed by an electric dipole mechanism are reported and discussed. The magnitude of the MSHG effect depends on the electric field of the incoming radiation at each interface and on the corresponding incoming (at v) and outgoing (at 2v) Fresnel coefficients. It is demonstrated that transverse pp MSHG selectively probes the magnetization of the first SiO2/Fe96Si4 interface, while transverse sp and longitudinal ps MSHG is sensitive, but less selectively, to the Fe96Si4/Dy30Fe58Co12 interface that supports a planar magnetic domain wall. (p and s are the usual parallel and perpendicular polarizations to the plane of incidence.) The contribution to MSHG by gradient magnetization terms is negligibl

Soil biochemistry and microbial activity in vineyards under conventional and organic management at Northeast Brazil.

The São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that orgThe São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that organic fertilization can improve soil quality, we compared the effects of conventional and organic soil management on microbial activity and mycorrhization of seedless grape crops. We measured glomerospores number, most probable number (MPN) of propagules, richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species, AMF root colonization, EE-BRSP production, carbon microbial biomass (C-MB), microbial respiration, fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic activity (FDA) and metabolic coefficient (qCO2). The organic management led to an increase in all variables with the exception of EE-BRSP and qCO2. Mycorrhizal colonization increased from 4.7% in conventional crops to 15.9% in organic crops. Spore number ranged from 4.1 to 12.4 per 50 g-1 soil in both management systems. The most probable number of AMF propagules increased from 79 cm-3 soil in the conventional system to 110 cm-3 soil in the organic system. Microbial carbon, CO2 emission, and FDA activity were increased by 100 to 200% in the organic crop. Thirteen species of AMF were identified, the majority in the organic cultivation system. Acaulospora excavata, Entrophospora infrequens, Glomus sp.3 and Scutellospora sp. were found only in the organically managed crop. S. gregaria was found only in the conventional crop. Organically managed vineyards increased mycorrhization and general soil microbial activity

Black hole thermodynamical entropy

As early as 1902, Gibbs pointed out that systems whose partition function diverges, e.g. gravitation, lie outside the validity of the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) theory. Consistently, since the pioneering Bekenstein-Hawking results, physically meaningful evidence (e.g., the holographic principle) has accumulated that the BG entropy $S_{BG}$ of a $(3+1)$ black hole is proportional to its area $L^2$ ($L$ being a characteristic linear length), and not to its volume $L^3$. Similarly it exists the \emph{area law}, so named because, for a wide class of strongly quantum-entangled $d$-dimensional systems, $S_{BG}$ is proportional to $\ln L$ if $d=1$, and to $L^{d-1}$ if $d>1$, instead of being proportional to $L^d$ ($d \ge 1$). These results violate the extensivity of the thermodynamical entropy of a $d$-dimensional system. This thermodynamical inconsistency disappears if we realize that the thermodynamical entropy of such nonstandard systems is \emph{not} to be identified with the BG {\it additive} entropy but with appropriately generalized {\it nonadditive} entropies. Indeed, the celebrated usefulness of the BG entropy is founded on hypothesis such as relatively weak probabilistic correlations (and their connections to ergodicity, which by no means can be assumed as a general rule of nature). Here we introduce a generalized entropy which, for the Schwarzschild black hole and the area law, can solve the thermodynamic puzzle.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJ