299 research outputs found

    A review on the formation of heteronuclear cold molecules

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    Is the characterization of biological systems as complex systems in the mathematical sense a fruitful assertion? In this paper we argue in the affirmative, although obviously we do not attempt to confront all the issues raised by this question. We use the fly's visual system as an example and analyse our experimental results of one particular neuron in the fly's visual system from this point of view. We find that the motion-sensitive ‘H1’ neuron, which converts incoming signals into a sequence of identical pulses or ‘spikes’, encodes the information contained in the stimulus into an alphabet composed of a few letters. This encoding occurs on multilayered sets, one of the features attributed to complex systems. The conversion of intervals between consecutive occurrences of spikes into an alphabet requires us to construct a generating partition. This entails a one-to-one correspondence between sequences of spike intervals and words written in the alphabet. The alphabet dynamics is multifractal both with and without stimulus, though the multifractality increases with the stimulus entropy. This is in sharp contrast to models generating independent spike intervals, such as models using Poisson statistics, whose dynamics is monofractal. We embed the support of the probability measure, which describes the distribution of words written in this alphabet, in a two-dimensional space, whose topology can be reproduced by an M-shaped map. This map has positive Lyapunov exponents, indicating a chaotic-like encoding.FAPESPCNP

    Semiquantitative analysis of mercury in landfill leachates using double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

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    Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-02T09:09:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PROCI17Semiquantitativeanalysisofmercury....pdf: 746927 bytes, checksum: b75c0ae6928400c1c1207ac3be058399 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-31bitstream/item/165918/1/PROCI-17-Semiquantitative-analysis-of-mercury....pd

    Single-cell RNA-sequencing of herpes simplex virus 1-infected cells connects NRF2 activation to an antiviral program

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    Herpesvirus infection initiates a range of perturbations in the host cell, which remain poorly understood at the level of individual cells. Here, we quantify the transcriptome of single human primary fibroblasts during the first hours of lytic infection with HSV-1. By applying a generalizable analysis scheme, we define a precise temporal order of early viral gene expression and propose a set-wise emergence of viral genes. We identify host cell genes and pathways relevant for infection by combining three different computational approaches: gene and pathway overdispersion analysis, prediction of cell-state transition probabilities, as well as future cell states. One transcriptional program, which correlates with increased resistance to infection, implicates the transcription factor NRF2. Consequently, Bardoxolone methyl and Sulforaphane, two known NRF2 agonists, impair virus production, suggesting that NRF2 activation restricts viral infection. Our study provides insights into early stages of HSV-1 infection and serves as a general blueprint for the investigation of heterogeneous cell states in virus infection

    value of mr venography for detection of internal jugular vein anomalies in multiple sclerosis a pilot longitudinal study

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    BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: CCSVI was recently described in patients with MS. CCSVI is diagnosed noninvasively by Doppler sonography and invasively by catheter venography. We assessed the role of conventional MRV for the detection of IJV anomalies in patients with MS diagnosed with CCSVI and in healthy controls who underwent MRV and Doppler sonography examinations during 6 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten patients with MS underwent TOF, TRICKS, Doppler sonography, and catheter venography at baseline. They were treated at baseline with percutaneous angioplasty and re-evaluated 6 months9 posttreatment with MRV and Doppler sonography. In addition, 6 healthy controls underwent a baseline and a 6-month follow-up evaluation by Doppler sonography and MRV. RESULTS: At baseline, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of Doppler sonography for detecting IJV abnormalities relative to catheter venography in patients with MS were calculated, respectively, at 82%, 100%, 99%, and 95%. The figures were 99%, 33%, 33%, 99% for TOF and 99%, 39%, 35%, and 99% for TRICKS. Venous anomalies included the annulus, septum, membrane, and malformed valve. No agreement was found between TOF and catheter venography in 70% of patients with MS and between TRICKS and catheter venography in 60% of patients with MS. At follow-up, 50% of the patients with MS presented with abnormalities on Doppler sonography but only 30% were diagnosed with restenosis. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional MRV has limited value for assessing IJV anomalies for both diagnostic and posttreatment purposes

    Image-Based Monte-Carlo Localisation without a Map

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    In this paper, we propose a way to fuse the image-based localisation approach with the Monte-Carlo localisation approach. The method we propose does not suffer of the major limitation of the two separated methods: the need of a metric map of the environment for the Monte-Carlo localisation and the failure of the image-based approach in environments with spatial periodicity (perceptual aliasing). The approach we developed exploits the properties of the Fourier Transform of the omnidirectional images and uses the similarity between the images to weights the beliefs about the robot position. Successful experiments in large indoor environment are presented in which we do not used a priory information on the metrical map of the environment

    BIOTRANSFORMAÇÃO IN VITRO DE UM COMPOSTO ANTITUMORAL (LQFM 018)

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    Introdução e objetivos: O composto LQFM 018 foi sintetizado no Laboratório de QuímicaFarmacêutica Medicinal/FF/UFG, é um potente agente antitumoral que em ensaiostoxicológicos agudos in vitro, no modelo de vermelho neutro, não apresentou efeito tóxicosignificativo para as células basais. Estudos do metabolismo são de grande importânciapara o desenvolvimento de novos fármacos. O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi aaplicação de metodologia utilizando fungos filamentosos para mimetizar o metabolismohumano do LQFM 018 e possibilitar a preparação in vitro de metabólitos. Metodologia:LQFM 018 solubilizado em etanol/DMSO foi adicionado ao meio reacional PDSM, napresença de fungos filamentosos e foi incubados por 96 h a 27ºC sob agitação de 200rpm. Acinética reacional foi realizada por Cromatografia em Camada Delgada (CCD). Osderivados obtidos foram extraídos com acetato de etila e purificados por Cromatografia emColuna (CC) com Sílica-gel, para em seguida serem caracterizados por RessonânciaMagnética Nuclear (RMN). Resultados e discussões: Foram identificados vários fungoscapazes de catalisar a reação dando origem a cinco prováveis metabólitos Mortierellaisabelina foi a cepa mais promissora. Quantidade suficiente dos metabólitos para ensaios deatividade antitumoral foram obtidos e serão realizados posteriormente. Conclusões: Osfungos filamentosos foram capazes de biotransformar o LQFM 018, produzindo prováveismetabólitos

    Improving diagnosis for rare diseases: the experience of the Italian undiagnosed Rare diseases network

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    Background For a number of persons with rare diseases (RDs) a definite diagnosis remains undiscovered with relevant physical, psychological and social consequences. Undiagnosed RDs (URDs) require other than specialised clinical centres, outstanding molecular investigations, common protocols and dedicated actions at national and international levels; thus, many "Undiagnosed RDs programs" have been gradually developed on the grounds of a well-structured multidisciplinary approach. Methods The Italian Undiagnosed Rare Diseases Network (IURDN) was established in 2016 to improve the level of diagnosis of persons with URD living in Italy. Six Italian Centres of Expertise represented the network. The National Centre for Rare Diseases at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita coordinates the whole project. The software PhenoTips was used to collect the information of the clinical cases. Results One hundred and ten cases were analysed between March 2016 and June 2019. The age of onset of the diseases ranged from prenatal age to 51 years. Conditions were predominantly sporadic; almost all patients had multiple organs involvements. A total of 13/71 family cases were characterized by WES; in some families more than one individual was affected, so leading to 20/71 individuals investigated. Disease causing variants were identified in two cases and were associated to previously undescribed phenotypes. In 5 cases, new candidate genes were identified, although confirmatory tests are pending. In three families, investigations were not completed due to the scarce compliance of members and molecular investigations were temporary suspended. Finally, three cases (one familial) remain still unsolved. Twelve undiagnosed clinical cases were then selected to be shared at International level through PhenomeCentral in accordance to the UDNI statement. Conclusions Our results showed a molecular diagnostic yield of 53,8%; this value is comparable to the diagnostic rates reported in other international studies. Cases collected were also pooled with those collected by UDNI International Network. This represents a unique example of global initiative aimed at sharing and validating knowledge and experience in this field. IURDN is a multidisciplinary and useful initiative linking National and International efforts aimed at making timely and appropriate diagnoses in RD patients who still do not have a confirmed diagnosis even after a long time
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