Descriptions of two new species of Eunice Cuvier, 1817 (Polychaeta: Eunicidae) from coastal islands of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Two new species of Eunice from coastal islands of the state of São Paulo are described, both of them living in colonies of the coral Mussismilia hispida. One species was also collected from a sandy beach. Eunice insularis has short palps and antennae in a horseshoe, without articulations; most of the specimens studied are abranchiate, but some have one branchial filament in a few parapodia. Eunice marconii also has palps and antennae without articulations, in a horseshoe, and 1-3 long slender branchial filaments from the anterior to posteriormost chaetigers. These new species are compared with the morphologically closest congeners.No disponibl

Evaluation of the spreading of isolated bacterias from dental consulting-room using RAPD technique

The aim of this study was to investigate the spreading of isolates recovered in dental office environment using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA technique (RAPD). The bacteria isolated and identificated from the surfaces of different dental consulting-room and staff were obtained in two moments (47 isolates total). For Klebsiella sp, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli isolates, groups with high coefficient of similarity (Sab) were obtained. Proteus vulgaris and Hafnia alvei showed lower Sab, showing however greater relationships between individual species. It was possible to determine that the majority of the isolates of individual species were closely related.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

An Approach to the POS Tagging Problem Using Genetic Algorithms

The automatic part-of-speech tagging is the process of automatically assigning to the words of a text a part-of-speech (POS) tag. The words of a language are grouped into grammatical categories that represent the function that they might have in a sentence. These grammatical classes (or categories) are usually called part-of-speech. However, in most languages, there are a large number of words that can be used in different ways, thus having more than one possible part-of-speech. To choose the right tag for a particular word, a POS tagger must consider the surrounding words’ part-of-speeches. The neighboring words could also have more than one possible way to be tagged. This means that, in order to solve the problem, we need a method to disambiguate a word’s possible tags set. In this work, we modeled the part-of-speech tagging problem as a combinatorial optimization problem, which we solve using a genetic algorithm. The search for the best combinatorial solution is guided by a set of disambiguation rules that we first discovered using a classification algorithm, that also includes a genetic algorithm. Using rules to disambiguate the tagging, we were able to generalize the context information present on the training tables adopted by approaches based on probabilistic data. We were also able to incorporate other type of information that helps to identify a word’s grammatical class. The results obtained on two different corpora are amongst the best ones published

Chromosomal polymorphism in 12 populations of Mikania micrantha (Compositae)

Mikania micrantha is a climbing perennial weed of the family Asteraceae, with a vast distribution from South America to south of the United States. This species is widely distributed throughout Brazil, where it shows little morphological variation. Mitotic chromosomes of 12 populations of M. micrantha derived from several Brazilian sites were studied using Feulgen staining and C-banding. The populations included eight diploid (2n = 36 and 42) and four tetraploid (2n = 72) cytotypes. Chromosome numbers of 2n = 36 and 2n = 42 are reported for the first time for M. micrantha. These populations had a secondary constriction in the middle of the larger arm of chromosome pair 1, following the same pattern described for all Mikania species analyzed so far. Numerical and structural variation of the chromosomes was quite common among the karyotypes and nearly all cytotypes differed from each other in some aspect. Most of the chromosomal differentiation may be attributed to inversions and addition or deletion of DNA fragments. C-banding, applied to three of the 12 populations, also revealed polymorphism in the distribution of heterochromatin. Additionally, one to 14 supernumerary or B-chromosomes were observed. The Bs were detected in six of the 12 populations and varied in size, number, and structure among karyotypes and also among cells of the same root meristem. The B chromosomes were also heterochromatic, showing a C-banding pattern similar to the A chromosomes, and suggesting that they may be derived from the chromosomes of the A complement.<br>Mikania micrantha é uma planta herbácea perene, da família Asteraceae, amplamente distribuída através de todo o continente americano. No Brasil, M. micrantha tem distribuição irrestrita, ocupando os mais variados ambientes, sem no entanto apresentar variação morfológica. Neste trabalho, usando o método de coloração de Feulgen e bandamento C, foram analisados os cromossomos mitóticos de 12 populações de M. micrantha, obtidos de diferentes localidades do Brasil. Citótipos numéricos e estruturais foram identificados, incluindo oito diplóides (2n = 36 e 42) e quatro tetraplóides (2n = 72). Os números cromossômicos de 2n = 36 e 2n = 42 são mostrados pela primeira vez para M. micrantha. Todos os cariótipos apresentaram o primeiro par de cromossomos com uma constrição secundária na região mediana do braço maior, seguindo o mesmo padrão observado em todas as espécies de Mikania já estudadas. A análise cromossômica revelou que todos os citótipos variam em algum aspecto. A origem desta variação é atribuída principalmente a ocorrência de inversões e deleção ou adição de fragmentos de DNA. Análise de banda C em três das 12 populações investigadas revelou polimorfismo na distribuição de heterocromatina. Cromossomos extranumerários, variando em número e morfologia, foram também identificados em seis citótipos de M. micrantha. O bandamento C mostrou que os cromossomos Bs apresentaram-se com o mesmo padrão heterocromático dos cromossomos do complemento normal, sugerindo uma possível origem a partir dos cromossomos A

Global Impact of COVID-19 on Stroke Care and IV Thrombolysis

OBJECTIVE: To measure the global impact of COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of IV thrombolysis (IVT), IVT transfers, and stroke hospitalizations over 4 months at the height of the pandemic (March 1 to June 30, 2020) compared with 2 control 4-month periods. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective study across 6 continents, 70 countries, and 457 stroke centers. Diagnoses were identified by their ICD-10 codes or classifications in stroke databases. RESULTS: There were 91,373 stroke admissions in the 4 months immediately before compared to 80,894 admissions during the pandemic months, representing an 11.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] -11.7 to -11.3, p &lt; 0.0001) decline. There were 13,334 IVT therapies in the 4 months preceding compared to 11,570 procedures during the pandemic, representing a 13.2% (95% CI -13.8 to -12.7, p &lt; 0.0001) drop. Interfacility IVT transfers decreased from 1,337 to 1,178, or an 11.9% decrease (95% CI -13.7 to -10.3, p = 0.001). Recovery of stroke hospitalization volume (9.5%, 95% CI 9.2-9.8, p &lt; 0.0001) was noted over the 2 later (May, June) vs the 2 earlier (March, April) pandemic months. There was a 1.48% stroke rate across 119,967 COVID-19 hospitalizations. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was noted in 3.3% (1,722/52,026) of all stroke admissions. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a global decline in the volume of stroke hospitalizations, IVT, and interfacility IVT transfers. Primary stroke centers and centers with higher COVID-19 inpatient volumes experienced steeper declines. Recovery of stroke hospitalization was noted in the later pandemic months. © 2021 American Academy of Neurology