Generation and characterization of function-blocking anti-ectodysplasin A (EDA) monoclonal antibodies that induce ectodermal dysplasia.

Development of ectodermal appendages, such as hair, teeth, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, and mammary glands, requires the action of the TNF family ligand ectodysplasin A (EDA). Mutations of the X-linked EDA gene cause reduction or absence of many ectodermal appendages and have been identified as a cause of ectodermal dysplasia in humans, mice, dogs, and cattle. We have generated blocking antibodies, raised in Eda-deficient mice, against the conserved, receptor-binding domain of EDA. These antibodies recognize epitopes overlapping the receptor-binding site and prevent EDA from binding and activating EDAR at close to stoichiometric ratios in in vitro binding and activity assays. The antibodies block EDA1 and EDA2 of both mammalian and avian origin and, in vivo, suppress the ability of recombinant Fc-EDA1 to rescue ectodermal dysplasia in Eda-deficient Tabby mice. Moreover, administration of EDA blocking antibodies to pregnant wild type mice induced in developing wild type fetuses a marked and permanent ectodermal dysplasia. These function-blocking anti-EDA antibodies with wide cross-species reactivity will enable study of the developmental and postdevelopmental roles of EDA in a variety of organisms and open the route to therapeutic intervention in conditions in which EDA may be implicated

Reação de esterificação de ácido graxos, empregando-se glicerol como agente de alcóolise: estudo comparativo entre diferentes catalisadores

Neste trabalho foi avaliada a síntese de acilglicerídeos a partir de ácidos graxos, empregando-se glicerole seis diferentes catalisadores. Empregou-se ácido caprílico, ácido linolêico e ácido olêico e os catalisadoresforam ácido sulfúrico, ácido p-toluenossulfônico, dibutil-estanho, enzima lipozyme RM IM , enzima lipozymeTL IM e o metóxido de sódio. Realizou-se um estudo das condições de reação, como temperatura, tempo,atmosfera, concentração dos reagentes e dos catalisadores. Os acilglicerídeos obtidos foram caracterizadospor absorção atômica, cromatografia gasosa, índice de iodo, índice de acidez, infravermelho e DSC.Através do delineamento experimental confirmou-se que a temperatura é o fator determinante para aobtenção dos ésteres de glicerol.Palavras-chave: ácidos graxos, glicerol, acilglicerídeos, catálise química e enzimática

Taxa de arraçoamento para jundiás cultivados no sistema de bioflocos / Feeding rates for silver catfish rearing in biofloc system

O sistema de bioflocos é um meio de cultivo importante na piscicultura, pois conceitualmente utiliza pouca água. Neste trabalho foram testadas taxas de arraçoamento para jundiás e seus possíveis efeitos no crescimento, composição corporal e parâmetros hematológicos e bioquímicos de peixes cultivados em sistema de bioflocos. O experimento, com duração de 45 dias, utilizou 108 jundiás (24,75 ± 3,16 g), distribuídos em 9 tanques de 30 L (12 peixes por tanque). Foram testadas três taxas de alimentação (1, 2 ou 3% da biomassa dia-1) em triplicata. Para os parâmetros zootécnicos, houve aumento significativo na biomassa e no TCE. Os níveis de hemoglobina apresentaram ajuste quadrático. Os demais parâmetros hematológicos não apresentaram variação em função das taxas testadas. Não ocorreu efeito nos valores de proteína, lipídios, matéria seca e matéria mineral. Conclui-se que a taxa de arraçoamento diária de 3% resultou em maior produtividade e melhor estado de saúde dos jundiás cultivados em sistema de bioflocos.

Interannual to Interdecadal variability of winter and summer southern African rainfall, and their teleconnections.

25 pagesInternational audienceThis study examines for the first time the changing characteristics of summer and winter southern African rainfall and their teleconnections with large-scale climate through the dominant time scales of variability. As determined by wavelet analysis, the austral summer and winter rainfall indices exhibit three significant time scales of variability over the twentieth century: interdecadal (15–28 years), quasi-decadal (8–13 years), and interannual (2–8 years). Teleconnections with global sea surface temperature and atmospheric circulation anomalies are established here but are different for each time scale. Tropical/subtropical teleconnections emerge as the main driver of austral summer rainfall variability. Thus, shifts in the Walker circulation are linked to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and, at decadal time scales, to decadal ENSO-like patterns related to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. These global changes in the upper zonal circulation interact with asymmetric ocean-atmospheric conditions between the South Atlantic and South Indian Oceans; together, these lead to a shift in the South Indian Convergence Zone and a modulation of the development of convective rain-bearing systems over southern Africa in summer. Such regional changes, embedded in quasi-annular geopotential patterns, consist of easterly moisture fluxes from the South Indian High, which dominate southerly moisture fluxes from the South Atlantic High. Austral winter rainfall variability is more influenced by midlatitude atmospheric variability, in particular the Southern Annular Mode. The rainfall changes in the southwestern regions of southern Africa are determined by asymmetrical changes in the midlatitude westerlies between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

PREVALÊNCIA DE USO DE MEDICAMENTOS E REMÉDIOS CASEIROS PARA PREVENÇÃO DE Covid-19: estudo de base populacional

Introduction: the Covid-19 pandemic brought a behavior of the population regarding the use of medicines without proven effectiveness. Objective: to measure the prevalence and profile of use of medicines and home remedies for the prevention of Covid-19 in the Vale do Rio Pardo region, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Method: a population-based cross-sectional study carried out in four stages, whose collection was carried out at home from August to October 2020. Questions were asked about the use of medicines and home remedies, and demographic, socioeconomic, clinical and behavioral data were also collected, with rapid test for IgM and IgG antibodies. Descriptive and bivariate analysis was performed between medication use and sociodemographic data. The linear trend and the heterogeneity of proportions were evaluated using the chi-square test, considering the value of p<0.05. Results: the sample consisted of 4252 individuals. The prevalence of use of medicines and home remedies was 7.8% (95%CI: 6.5-8.17). The most used medications were German Balm® (Vitamin E) (43.7%), ivermectin (26.6%) and other vitamins (17.9%). The most reported home remedies were propolis (70.4%) and teas (25.6%). Medication use was higher in individuals aged 60 years or over (8.1%), with higher education (10.4%), family income greater than R$6271.00 (10.3$6.271 (10,3%), moradores da zona rural (6,9%) e com pelo menos uma morbidade (8,0%) (p<0,05). Conclusão: apesar de baixo, destacou-se consumo de medicamentos e remédios caseiros sem comprovação científica para prevenção da Covid-19. É necessária uma discussão sobre o tipo de acesso às informações e a necessidade de uma assistência farmacêutica mais difusa e efetiva no cuidado da população, viabilizando o uso racional de medicamentos

Climate fluctuations of tropical coupled system: The role of ocean dynamics

The tropical oceans have long been recognized as the most important region for large-scale ocean–atmosphere interactions, giving rise to coupled climate variations on several time scales. During the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) decade, the focus of much tropical ocean research was on understanding El Niño–related processes and on development of tropical ocean models capable of simulating and predicting El Niño. These studies led to an appreciation of the vital role the ocean plays in providing the memory for predicting El Niño and thus making seasonal climate prediction feasible. With the end of TOGA and the beginning of Climate Variability and Prediction (CLIVAR), the scope of climate variability and predictability studies has expanded from the tropical Pacific and ENSO-centric basis to the global domain. In this paper the progress that has been made in tropical ocean climate studies during the early years of CLIVAR is discussed. The discussion is divided geographically into three tropical ocean basins with an emphasis on the dynamical processes that are most relevant to the coupling between the atmosphere and oceans. For the tropical Pacific, the continuing effort to improve understanding of large- and small-scale dynamics for the purpose of extending the skill of ENSO prediction is assessed. This paper then goes beyond the time and space scales of El Niño and discusses recent research activities on the fundamental issue of the processes maintaining the tropical thermocline. This includes the study of subtropical cells (STCs) and ventilated thermocline processes, which are potentially important to the understanding of the low-frequency modulation of El Niño. For the tropical Atlantic, the dominant oceanic processes that interact with regional atmospheric feedbacks are examined as well as the remote influence from both the Pacific El Niño and extratropical climate fluctuations giving rise to multiple patterns of variability distinguished by season and location. The potential impact of Atlantic thermohaline circulation on tropical Atlantic variability (TAV) is also discussed. For the tropical Indian Ocean, local and remote mechanisms governing low-frequency sea surface temperature variations are examined. After reviewing the recent rapid progress in the understanding of coupled dynamics in the region, this study focuses on the active role of ocean dynamics in a seasonally locked east–west internal mode of variability, known as the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). Influences of the IOD on climatic conditions in Asia, Australia, East Africa, and Europe are discussed. While the attempt throughout is to give a comprehensive overview of what is known about the role of the tropical oceans in climate, the fact of the matter is that much remains to be understood and explained. The complex nature of the tropical coupled phenomena and the interaction among them argue strongly for coordinated and sustained observations, as well as additional careful modeling investigations in order to further advance the current understanding of the role of tropical oceans in climate

A new class of Roche lobe–filling hot subdwarf binaries

We present the discovery of the second binary with a Roche lobe–filling hot subdwarf transferring mass to a white dwarf (WD) companion. This 56 minute binary was discovered using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility. Spectroscopic observations reveal an He-sdOB star with an effective temperature of T eff = 33,700 ± 1000 K and a surface gravity of log(g) = 5.54 ± 0.11. The GTC+HiPERCAM light curve is dominated by the ellipsoidal deformation of the He-sdOB star and shows an eclipse of the He-sdOB by an accretion disk as well as a weak eclipse of the WD. We infer a He-sdOB mass of M sdOB = 0.41 ± 0.04 M ⊙ and a WD mass of M WD = 0.68 ± 0.05 M ⊙. The weak eclipses imply a WD blackbody temperature of 63,000 ± 10,000 K and a radius R WD = 0.0148 ± 0.0020 R ⊙ as expected for a WD of such high temperature. The He-sdOB star is likely undergoing hydrogen shell burning and will continue transferring mass for ≈1 Myr at a rate of 10−9 M ⊙ yr−1, which is consistent with the high WD temperature. The hot subdwarf will then turn into a WD and the system will merge in ≈30 Myr. We suggest that Galactic reddening could bias discoveries toward preferentially finding Roche lobe–filling systems during the short-lived shell-burning phase. Studies using reddening-corrected samples should reveal a large population of helium core–burning hot subdwarfs with T eff ≈ 25,000 K in binaries of 60–90 minutes with WDs. Though not yet in contact, these binaries would eventually come into contact through gravitational-wave emission and explode as a subluminous thermonuclear supernova or evolve into a massive single WD