Ekstrak Bawang Putih (Allium Sativum) dan Ekspresi Insulin Serta Derajat Insulitis Pankreas Tikus Sprague-Dawley yang Diinduksi Streptozotocin

Allium sativum, insulin expression and insulitis degree of pancreas Sprague-Dawley rat induced by streptozotocinBackground: The organic-sulphur content in Allium sativum has been scientifically proven to be a potent insulin-mimetic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammation agent by inhibiting the activity of NF-κβ. This research is aimed at finding out the effect of Allium sativum extract towards insulitis level and insulin expression in pancreas of Sprague-Dawley male rats.Method: This research used a randomized post test only controlled group design. There were 28 rats, two were randomly selected for the initial blood glucose test prior to treatment, two were selected on the tenth day after streptozotocin induction to ensure that all rats were in hyperglycaemia condition, and the remains as many as 24 rats were grouped into four groups: three treatmentgroups were administered with Allium sativum in levelled doses of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 grams/kgBW/day for 14 days, and one group were act as control negative. Kruskall Wallis test continued with Mann Whitney test were used, with significance level of p<0.05.Results: The insulitis level and insulin expression of rats\u27 pancreas in the three treatment groups showed significant difference compared with the group without treatment showing dose-dependent result. However, it was not able to completely restore the damage pancreas.Conclusion: Allium sativum extract may play important role in restoring damage pancreas

Reprogramming of lysosomal gene expression by interleukin-4 and Stat6.

BACKGROUND: Lysosomes play important roles in multiple aspects of physiology, but the problem of how the transcription of lysosomal genes is coordinated remains incompletely understood. The goal of this study was to illuminate the physiological contexts in which lysosomal genes are coordinately regulated and to identify transcription factors involved in this control. RESULTS: As transcription factors and their target genes are often co-regulated, we performed meta-analyses of array-based expression data to identify regulators whose mRNA profiles are highly correlated with those of a core set of lysosomal genes. Among the ~50 transcription factors that rank highest by this measure, 65% are involved in differentiation or development, and 22% have been implicated in interferon signaling. The most strongly correlated candidate was Stat6, a factor commonly activated by interleukin-4 (IL-4) or IL-13. Publicly available chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) data from alternatively activated mouse macrophages show that lysosomal genes are overrepresented among Stat6-bound targets. Quantification of RNA from wild-type and Stat6-deficient cells indicates that Stat6 promotes the expression of over 100 lysosomal genes, including hydrolases, subunits of the vacuolar H⁺ ATPase and trafficking factors. While IL-4 inhibits and activates different sets of lysosomal genes, Stat6 mediates only the activating effects of IL-4, by promoting increased expression and by neutralizing undefined inhibitory signals induced by IL-4. CONCLUSIONS: The current data establish Stat6 as a broadly acting regulator of lysosomal gene expression in mouse macrophages. Other regulators whose expression correlates with lysosomal genes suggest that lysosome function is frequently re-programmed during differentiation, development and interferon signaling

Numerical simulation of the road bus structure submitted a offset frontal impact against a rigid wall

Neste trabalho se apresenta um estudo paramétrico do impacto semifrontal em um ônibus, no qual se avalia independentemente a influência de cada variável envolvida neste tipo acidente. O cenário de impacto semifrontal é sem dúvida um dos mais severos acidentes envolvendo ônibus, pois parte da lateral do ônibus é totalmente danificada, podendo deixar um elevado número de vítimas. A simulação numérica utiliza um modelo de análise explícita formado por elementos de vigas que utiliza uma lei constitutiva elasto‐plástica, a qual leva em conta a influência da taxa de deformação. Com este modelo se realiza um estudo paramétrico das variáveis globais que permitem caracterizar este tipo de cenário. Também são avaliados de forma qualitativa acidentes deste tipo acontecidos nas estradas brasileiras. A discussão dos resultados é finalmente apresentada e serve como um primeiro passo na busca de melhorias a serem introduzidas nas estruturas dos ônibus, objetivando minimizar os danos.This paper presents a parametric study of the offset frontal impact on a bus, in which is assessed independently an influence of each variable involved in this accident type. The scenario of offset frontal impact is surely one of the most severe accidents involving buses, once the same has part of your lateral totally damaged and can leave a large number of victims. The numerical simulation model uses an explicit analysis formed by beams elements which uses elastic‐plastic constitutive law, which takes into account the influence of strain rate. With this model a parametric study of global variables that can characterize this type of scenario is realized. Also are evaluated qualitatively real accidents happened on Brazilian roads. The discussion is finally presented, and serves as a first step in the search for improvements to be made to the structures of the bus, aiming to minimize the damage.Peer Reviewe

Novas metodologias para a identificação de adulterações de produtos cárneos com carne de cavalo

O consumo de carne de cavalo depende, principalmente, dos hábitos alimentares das populações que habitam em algumas regiões. Regra geral, este animal é mais consumido nos países onde é produzido [1]. Ao longo dos tempos, o seu consumo tem variado amplamente de acordo com as dife-renças culturais e económicas da sociedade. Este animal fornece uma fonte, relativamente barata, de proteína ani-mal em países onde os cavalos são extensivamente utiliza-dos como animais de trabalho e transporte humano [2]. A textura da carne de cavalo é relativamente firma, e o seu sabor adocicado é-lhe atribuído pelo seu elevado teor em glicogénio, em comparação com outras espécies [1]. Esta carne contém um elevado teor em água, proteínas, ferro e vitaminas, que são solúveis em água. O seu menor teor em lípidos e elevado em fibras musculares e vitaminas insolú-veis em água torna-a diferente, em comparação com a carne bovina e suína [3]. Muitas vezes a ingestão de carne de ca-valo esteve associada a épocas de escassez de alimentos. Contudo, o consumo deste animal é relativamente popular nos países nórdicos e asiáticos, bem como na Itália [4]. Nos países membros da UE, o consumo médio por habitante é de apenas 0,4 kg por ano, mas devido a uma produção insu-ficiente a importação abrange 66,7% das necessidades do mercado [3].Os autores agradecem o apoio financeiro da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) através do projeto PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preparation of plasmonic Au-TiO2 thin films on a transparent polymer substrate

In this work, plasmonic thin films composed of Au nanoparticles embedded in a TiO2 matrix were prepared in a transparent polymer substrate of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The thin films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering, and then subjected to heat treatment up to 150 °C in order to promote the growth of the Au nanoparticles throughout the TiO2 matrix. The transmittance spectrum of the thin films was monitored in situ during the heat treatment, and the minimum time required to have a defined localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band was about 10 min. The average size of Au nanoparticles was estimated to be about 21 nm—the majority of them are sized in the range 10–40 nm, but also extend to larger sizes, with irregular shapes. The refractive index sensitivity of the films was estimated by using two test fluids (H2O and DMSO), and the average value reached in the assays was 37.3 ± 1.5 nm/RIU, resulting from an average shift of 5.4 ± 0.2 nm. The results show that it is possible to produce sensitive plasmonic Au-TiO2 thin films in transparent polymer substrates such as PDMS, the base material to develop microfluidic channels to be incorporated in LSPR sensing systems.This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the Strategic Funding, grant number UID/FIS/04650/2019; also by the project NANOSENSING, grant number POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016902 and FCT reference PTDC/FIS-NAN/1154/2014; and by the project NANO4BIO, grant number POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032299 and FCT reference PTDC/FIS-MAC/32299/2017.Joel Borges acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for his Researcher Contract from project NANO4BIO (grant number POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032299 and FCT reference PTDC/FIS-MAC/32299/2017). Diana I. Meira acknowledges FCT for her PhD Scholarship, SFRH/BD/143262/2019. Marco S. Rodrigues acknowledges FCT for his PhD Scholarship, SFRH/BD/118684/2016. Cláudia Lopes acknowledges her post-doctoral fellowship from project NANOSENSING (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016902 and FCT reference PTDC/FIS-NAN/1154/2014)

Nonparametric estimation of conditional transition probabilities in a non-Markov illness-death model

One important goal in multi-state modeling is the estimation of transition probabilities. In longitudinal medical studies these quantities are particularly of interest since they allow for long-term predictions of the process. In recent years signi ficant contributions have been made regarding this topic. However, most of the approaches assume independent censoring and do not account for the influence of covariates. The goal of the paper is to introduce feasible estimation methods for the transition probabilities in an illness-death model conditionally on current or past covariate measures. All approaches are evaluated through a simulation study, leading to a comparison of two di erent estimators. The proposed methods are illustrated using real a colon cancer data set.This research was nanced by FEDER Funds through Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade COMPETE and by Portuguese Funds through FCT - Funda ção para a Cência e a Tecnologia, within Projects Est-C/MAT/UI0013/2011 and PTDC/MAT/104879/2008. We also acknowledge nancial support from the project Grants MTM2008-03129 and MTM2011-23204 (FEDER support included) of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci on and 10PXIB300068PR of the Xunta de Galicia. Partial support from a grant from the US National Security Agency (H98230-11-1-0168) is greatly appreciated

Coherent states of non-relativistic electron in magnetic-solenoid field

We construct coherent states of a nonrelativistic electron in the magnetic-solenoid field, which is a superposition of the Aharonov-Bohm field and a collinear uniform magnetic field. In the problem under consideration there are two kind of coherent states, the first kind corresponds to classical trajectories which embrace the solenoid and the second one to trajectories which do not. Mean coordinates in the constructed coherent states are moving along classical trajectories, the coherent states maintain their form under the time evolution, and represent a complete set of functions, which can be useful in semi classical calculations. In the absence of the Aharonov-Bohm filed these states are reduced to the well-known in the case of uniform magnetic field Malkin-Man'ko coherent states.Comment: 11 pages, version accepted for publication in J. Phys. A, 3 figures adde

Proposta de arquitetura para a integração de sistemas de informação baseados na web com a tecnologia wiki.

Este trabalho propõe uma arquitetura para SI´s baseados na web que visa integrar o conceito de conteúdo descritivo e colaborativo proveniente dos wikis à tradicional visão de conteúdo indexado dos SGBDR´s. A metodologia de integração vale-se de uma plataforma de wiki já implementada e a utiliza como um módulo interno ao SI web tradicional

INICIATIVAS COLECTIVAS DE CONSUMO ECOLÓXICO EN GALICIA: panorama actual, modelos e acción socioeducativa

As iniciativas colectivas de consumo ecolóxico teñen unha presencia relativamente arraigada e, ata certo punto, consolidada en Galicia. Estas poden constituír unha avanzada sociocultural alternativa e actuar como axentes socioeducativos para promover entre a cidadanía a adopción de dietas sustentables que acompasen a configuración de sistemas agroalimentarios acordes que as abastezan, contribuíndo deste xeito ao desenvolvemento e difusión da cultura da sustentabilidade a través do consumo como ámbito de acción colectiva. Mediante un deseño de estudo de casos múltiple, neste traballo preséntanse os resultados dunha análise descritiva dun conxunto de 37 iniciativas colectivas de consumo ecolóxico presentes actualmente en Galicia, ofrecendo unha clasificación por tipos e modelos, a súa distribución territorial e a evolución e cambio de modelo nalgúns casos salientables, así como algunhas das súas características principais, como a súa antigüidade, figura xurídica, motivacións de orixe, composición, grao de implicación das persoas que as compoñen e aspectos referidos á loxística de distribución e os espazos empregados para tal efecto ou á gobernanza. Por último, achéganse unhas liñas xerais da dimensión socioeducativa das iniciativas estudadas, destacando as principais actividades desenvolvidas, os temas máis recorrentes, os obxectivos prioritarios e as dificultades que as iniciativas enfrontan á hora de desenvolver esta dimensión da súa acción colectiva. En resumo, preténdese achegar unha panorámica actual do estado xeral do consumo ecolóxico colectivo en Galicia, así como un esbozo do potencial socioeducativo deste tipo de iniciativas á hora de difundir e facer extensivo ao conxunto da cidadanía os valores e prácticas asociados á Agroecoloxía