Neuromorphometric characterization with shape functionals

This work presents a procedure to extract morphological information from neuronal cells based on the variation of shape functionals as the cell geometry undergoes a dilation through a wide interval of spatial scales. The targeted shapes are alpha and beta cat retinal ganglion cells, which are characterized by different ranges of dendritic field diameter. Image functionals are expected to act as descriptors of the shape, gathering relevant geometric and topological features of the complex cell form. We present a comparative study of classification performance of additive shape descriptors, namely, Minkowski functionals, and the nonadditive multiscale fractal. We found that the proposed measures perform efficiently the task of identifying the two main classes alpha and beta based solely on scale invariant information, while also providing intraclass morphological assessment

Galhas De Insetos Da Serra Geral, Caetité, Bahia, Brasil

We inventoried and characterized the kinds of gall, gall-inducing insects and host plants from Serra Geral between August 2013 and July 2014. Two phytophysiognomies, cerrado sensu stricto and caatinga-cerrado, were examined monthly along transects during ca. 4 hours per visit, totaling 48 hours of sampling effort. A total of 49 gall morphotypes were found on 14 species of host plants in 18 genera and 13 families. Fabaceae and Malpighiaceae were the families with the most galls, with 22 and 10 gall morphotypes, respectively. The genera of host plant with the greatest richness of galls were Copaifera L. (n=10), Bauhinia Benth. (n=6), and Mimosa L. (n=5). Galls were found on leaves, buds and stems. The majority of the galls were globoid, glabrous, isolated, and one-chambered. The inducers belong to Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) being the most frequent and diverse gall-inducers. The associated fauna included parasitoids (Hymenoptera), successors (Formicidae), and predators (Pseudoscorpiones), obtained from 13, 2, and 1 gall morphotypes, respectively. Five plant taxa are recorded as hosts of gall-inducing insects for the first time. © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16111

Tratamientos de consolidación aplicados en materiales cerámicos: ¿Son homogéneos?

The mass consolidation treatment of azulejos is necessary when ceramic biscuits show signs of disaggregation. Such treatment is often used as a complementary conservation technique to the reestablishment of weakened glaze-ceramic bonds. In this research, two commonly used consolidants (ethyl silicate and acrylic resin) were tested on artisanal ceramic tiles via mass consolidation and the resulting impregnation profiles were evaluated. The results indicated that after consolidation, hard zones frequently formed due to localized consolidant concentration after the polymerization and curing processes. These inhomogeneous hard zones subsequently influenced the results obtained through conventional mechanical strength testing (i.e. flexural and compression), creating a false impression of success. This research demonstrated that by using the Drilling Resistance Measuring System, impregnation characteristics such as penetration depth and distribution of consolidant could be observed that otherwise could not be discerned through the more common testing methods. As such, a more extensive evaluation of consolidation effects was achieved.En la conservación de los azulejos alterados se utilizan productos con acción consolidante a fin de recuperar la cohesión del cuerpo cerámico disgregado. En este trabajo se investiga el efecto de la consolidación de dos productos muy utilizados en la práctica de la conservación de los azulejos (un silicato de etilo comercial y una resina acrílica), aplicados en un material cerámico artesanal. Los resultados obtenidos indican que pueden producirse zonas con resistencias mayores debido a la concentración local del producto y, a la vez de un material consolidado homogéneo, resulta un material heterogéneo. Por otro lado, la existencia de estas zonas puede conducir a falsos resultados en los ensayos destructivos (resistencia mecánica a la flexión y compresión) utilizados frecuentemente en la evaluación de la acción de consolidación. Se demuestra que mediante el uso de la resistencia a la perforación (DRMS) es posible definir las características, la distribución y el patrón de impregnación, los cuales no pueden ser observadas por los métodos comúnmente utilizados

Potencial Antibacteriano De Plantas Nativas Do Bioma Caatinga Frente A Staphylococcus Spp.: Isolados De Mastite Em Pequenos Ruminantes

The aim of the present study is to assess the antibacterial potential of plants from the Caatinga biome of the semi-arid region of Pernambuco, against Staphylococcus spp. isolates from cases of subclinical mastitis in small ruminants, such as goats and ewes. Ethanolic extracts of the following plants from the Caatinga biome were used: Encholirium spectabile Mart., Bromelia laciniosa Mart., Neoglaziovia variegata Mez., Amburana cearensis (Fr. Allem.) A.C.Smith, Hymenaea martiana Hayne, and Selaginella convoluta Spring. The presence of phenolic components, flavonoids, steroids, and terpenoids was verified for all the tested extracts. The mean minimal bactericide concentrations of the extracts of E. spectabile, B. laciniosa, and N. variegate were 11,379, 11,405, and 11,995 μg/mL, respectively. The highest inhibitory activities were observed for A. cearensis and H. martiana, which inhibited 88.1 and 99.4% of the isolates, respectively. Other studies focusing on in vitro and in vivo activities should be undertaken. © 2016, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Arid. All Rights Reserved.29375876

Continuous Percolation Phase Transitions of Two-dimensional Lattice Networks under a Generalized Achlioptas Process

The percolation phase transitions of two-dimensional lattice networks under a generalized Achlioptas process (GAP) are investigated. During the GAP, two edges are chosen randomly from the lattice and the edge with minimum product of the two connecting cluster sizes is taken as the next occupied bond with a probability $p$. At $p=0.5$, the GAP becomes the random growth model and leads to the minority product rule at $p=1$. Using the finite-size scaling analysis, we find that the percolation phase transitions of these systems with $0.5 \le p \le 1$ are always continuous and their critical exponents depend on $p$. Therefore, the universality class of the critical phenomena in two-dimensional lattice networks under the GAP is related to the probability parameter $p$ in addition.Comment: 7 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

First Microsatellite Markers Developed From Cupuassu Ests: Application In Diversity Analysis And Cross-species Transferability To Cacao

The cupuassu tree (Theobroma grandiflorum) (Willd. ex Spreng.) Schum. is a fruitful species from the Amazon with great economical potential, due to the multiple uses of its fruit's pulp and seeds in the food and cosmetic industries, including the production of cupulate, an alternative to chocolate. In order to support the cupuassu breeding program and to select plants presenting both pulp/seed quality and fungal disease resistance, SSRs from Next Generation Sequencing ESTs were obtained and used in diversity analysis. From 8,330 ESTs, 1,517 contained one or more SSRs (1,899 SSRs identified). The most abundant motifs identified in the EST-SSRs were hepta-And trinucleotides, and they were found with a minimum and maximum of 2 and 19 repeats, respectively. From the 1,517 ESTs containing SSRs, 70 ESTs were selected based on their functional annotation, focusing on pulp and seed quality, as well as resistance to pathogens. The 70 ESTs selected contained 77 SSRs, and among which, 11 were polymorphic in cupuassu genotypes. These EST-SSRs were able to discriminate the cupuassu genotype in relation to resistance/susceptibility to witches' broom disease, as well as to pulp quality (SST/ATT values). Finally, we showed that these markers were transferable to cacao genotypes, and that genome availability might be used as a predictive tool for polymorphism detection and primer design useful for both Theobroma species. To our knowledge, this is the first report involving EST-SSRs from cupuassu and is also a pioneer in the analysis of marker transferability from cupuassu to cacao. Moreover, these markers might contribute to develop or saturate the cupuassu and cacao genetic maps, respectively. The cupuassu tree (Theobroma grandiflorum) (Willd. ex Spreng.) Schum. is a fruitful species from the Amazon with great economical potential, due to the multiple uses of its fruit's pulp and seeds in the food and cosmetic industries, including the production of cupulate, an alternative to chocolate. In order to support the cupuassu breeding program and to select plants presenting both pulp/seed quality and fungal disease resistance, SSRs from Next Generation Sequencing ESTs were obtained and used in diversity analysis. From 8,330 ESTs, 1,517 contained one or more SSRs (1,899 SSRs identified). The most abundant motifs identified in the EST-SSRs were hepta-And trinucleotides, and they were found with a minimum and maximum of 2 and 19 repeats, respectively. From the 1,517 ESTs containing SSRs, 70 ESTs were selected based on their functional annotation, focusing on pulp and seed quality, as well as resistance to pathogens. The 70 ESTs selected contained 77 SSRs, and among which, 11 were polymorphic in cupuassu genotypes. These EST-SSRs were able to discriminate the cupuassu genotype in relation to resistance/susceptibility to witches' broom disease, as well as to pulp quality (SST/ATT values). Finally, we showed that these markers were transferable to cacao genotypes, and that genome availability might be used as a predictive tool for polymorphism detection and primer design useful for both Theobroma species. To our knowledge, this is the first report involving EST-SSRs from cupuassu and is also a pioneer in the analysis of marker transferability from cupuassu to cacao. Moreover, these markers might contribute to develop or saturate the cupuassu and cacao genetic maps, respectively. © 2016 Ferraz dos Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.11

Immunoproteomic analysis of Plasmodium falciparum antigens using sera from patients with clinical history of imported malaria.

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A comparative study of optical character recognition in health information system

MHealth Institutes are transitioning between documents in physical format and digital format. It is pertinent and important to develop applications that helps health professionals on this transition. An application that would aid the process of digitalization of documents was developed using a Python library. To help with the decision of which library to use, a study was made regarding the precision and speed of execution of PyOCR, PyTesseract and TesseOCR.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (undefined

Effects Of Thermocycling And Light Source On The Bond Strength Of Metallic Brackets To Bovine Teeth

This study evaluated the effects of thermocycling and different light sources on the bond strength of metallic brackets to bovine tooth enamel using an adhesive resin. Bovine teeth were etched with 35% phosphoric acid gel for 20 s. After application of primer, metallic brackets were bonded to the buccal surface using Transbond XT, forming 8 groups (n=20), depending on the light source used for photoactivation (AccuCure 3000 argon laser - 20 s, Apollo 95E plasma arc - 12 s, UltraLume 5 LED - 40 s and XL2500 halogen light - 40 s) and experimental conditions without (Groups 1 to 4) or with thermocycling (Groups 5 to 8). Shear bond testing was carried out after 24 h of distilled water storage (Groups 1 to 4) or storage and thermocycling in distilled water (groups 5 to 8; 1,500 cycles - 5°/55°C). Data were subjected to two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (α=0.05). The Adhesive Remnant Index (ARI) was evaluated at ×8 magnification. No significant differences (p>0.05) in bond strength were found when the conditions without and with thermocycling were compared for any of the light sources. No significant differences (p>0.05) in bond strength were found among the light sources, irrespective of performing or not thermocycling. There was a predominance of ARI scores 1 in all groups. In conclusion, light sources and thermocycling had no influence on the bond strength of brackets to bovine enamel.226486489Sfondrini, M.F., Cacciafesta, V., Scribante, A., Klersy, C., Plasma arc versus halogen light curing of orthodontic brackets: A 12-month clinical study of bond failures (2004) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 125, pp. 342-347Dall'igna, C.M., Marchioro, E.M., Spohr, A.M., Mota, E.G., Effect of curing time on the bond strength of a bracket-bonding system cured with a light-emitting diode or plasma arc light (2011) Eur J Orthod, 33, pp. 55-59Correr, A.B., Sinhoreti, M.A., Sobrinho, L.C., Tango, R.N., Schneider, L.F., Consani, S., Effect of the increase of energy density on Knoop hardness of dental composites light-cured by conventional QTH, LED and xenon plasma arc (2005) Braz Dent J, 16, pp. 218-224Cekic-Nagas, I., Egilmez, F., Ergun, G., The effect of irradiation distance on microhardness of resin composites cured with different light curing units (2010) Eur J Dent, 4, pp. 440-446Thind, B.S., Stirrups, D.R., Lloyd, C.H., A comparison of tungsten- quartz halogen, plasma arc and light-emitting diode light sources for the polymerization of an orthodontic adhesive (2006) Eur J Orthod, 28, pp. 78-82Filipov, I.A., Vladimirov, S.B., Residual monomer in a composite resin after light-curing with different sources, light intensities and spectra of radiation (2006) Braz Dent J, 17, pp. 34-38Park, J.K., Hur, B., Ko, C.C., García-Godoy, F., Kim, H.I., Kwon, Y.H., Effect of light-curing units on the thermal expansion of resin nanocomposites (2010) Am J Dent, 23, pp. 331-334Price, R.B., Labrie, D., Rueggeberg, F.A., Felix, C.M., Irradiance differences in the violet (405 nm) and blue (460 nm) spectral ranges among dental light-curing units (2010) J Esthet Restor Dent, 22, pp. 363-377Gonçalves, P.R.A., Moraes, R.R., Costa, A.R., Correr, A.B., Nouer, P.R.A., Sinhoreti, M.A.C., Effect of etching time and light source on the bond strength of metallic brackets to ceramic (2011) Braz Dent J, 22, pp. 245-248Swanson, T., Dunn, W.J., Childers, D.E., Taloumis, L.J., Shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets bonded with light-emitting diode curing units at various polymerization times (2004) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 125, pp. 337-341Usumez, S., Buyukyilmaz, T., Karaman, A.I., Effect of light-emitting diode on bond strength of orthodontic brackets (2004) Angle Orthod, 74, pp. 259-263Talbot, T.Q., Blankenau, R.J., Zobitz, M.E., Weaver, A.L., Lohse, C.M., Rebellato, J., Effect of argon laser irradiation on shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets: An in vitro study (2000) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 118, pp. 274-279Klocke, A., Korbmacher, H.M., Huck, L.G., Kahl-Nieke, B., Plasma arc curing lights for orthodontic bonding (2002) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 122, pp. 643-648Bishara, S.E., Ostby, A.W., Laffoon, J.F., Warren, J., Shear bond strength comparison of two adhesive systems following thermocycling (2007) Angle Orthod, 77, pp. 337-341Faltermeier, A., Müssig, D., A comparative evaluation of bracket bonding with 1-, 2-, and 3-component adhesive systems (2007) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 132, pp. 144.e1-144.e5Gale, M.S., Darvell, B.W., Thermal cycling procedures for laboratory testing of dental restorations (1999) J Dent, 27, pp. 89-99Trites, B., Foley, T.F., Banting, D., Bond strength comparison of 2 self-etching primers over a 3-month storage period (2004) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 126, pp. 709-716Yuasa, T., Iijima, M., Ito, S., Muguruma, T., Saito, T., Mizoguchi, I., Effects of long-term storage and thermocycling on bond strength of two self-etching primer adhesive systems (2010) Eur J Orthod, 32, pp. 285-290Artun, J., Berglund, S., Clinical trials with crystal growth conditioning as an alternative to acid-etch enamel pretreatment (1984) Am J Orthod, 85, pp. 333-340Oesterle, L.J., Newman, S.M., Shellhart, W.C., Rapid curing of bondingcomposite with a xenon plasma arc light (2001) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 119, pp. 610-616Staudt, C.B., Mavropoulos, A., Bouil, L.S., Kiliaridis, S., Krejcid, I., Light-curing time reduction with a new high-power halogen lamp (2005) Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop, 128, pp. 749-754Yu, H.S., Lee, K.J., Jin, G.C., Baik, H.S., Comparison of the shear bond strength of brackets using the LED curing light and plasma arc curing light: Polymerization time (2007) World J Orthod, 8, pp. 129-135Rueggeberg, F., Contemporary issues in photocuring (1999) Compend Contin Educ Dent Suppl, pp. 4-15de Munck, J., van Landuyt, K., Peumans, M., Poitevin, A., Lambrechts, P., Braem, M., A critical review of the durability of adhesion of tooth tissue: Methods and results (2005) J Dent Res, 84, pp. 118-132Reynolds, I.R., Composite filling materials as adhesives in Orthodontics (1975) Br Dent J, 138, p. 8