Erratum To: Functional And Evolutionary Analyses Of The Mir156 And Mir529 Families In Land Plants.

1

Pain in Parkinson's disease - Analysis of 50 cases in a clinic of movement disorders

Introduction: Pain is a common symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), and is often related to the illness itself. Objective: To prospectively establish the ocurrence of pain in PD patients. Method: This study was conducted within a population composed of 50 patients with PD to evaluate the presence of pain. Results: Twenty-eight patients reported pain; comparing the group with pain and the group without pain, there were no differences related to the beginning of the illness and the motor symptoms of PD. However, many patients related an improvement of pain when antiparkinsonian therapy was initiated or adjusted. Conclusion: The use of techniques for analgesia and the adjustment of PD medication contribute to improve the manifestations of pain and the life quality of patients with PD.661262

Vascular parkinsonism - Analysis of seven cases

Introduction: Neuroimaging studies of elderly individuals reveal alterations in the white matter that are incompatible with the patient's parkinsonism, mistakenly classified as vascular parkinsonism (VP). Method: This study was conducted on a population composed of 20 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) whose neuroimaging exams revealed vascular alterations in the white matter and seven patients with VP in order to compare diagnostic criteria. Results: Age at disease onset of patients with PD was 55 +/- 12 years and patients with VP it was 62 +/- 13 years. Twelve patients with PD and five patients with VP presented arterial hypertension; three patients with VP and two patients with PD presented gait impairment; all patients with VP presented rigidity and bradykinesia, six of them presented resting tremor; 19 patients with PD presented tremor and 19 of them presented rigidity, while 17 presented bradykinesia. When the symptoms and evolution of both diseases were compared, the vascular alterations in the white matter were considered unspecific. Conclusion: Since clinical symptoms are unspecific, a differential diagnosis requires neuroimaging, good response to levodopa and clinical evolution.643A56857

Effect of maturity and harvest season on antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds and ascorbic acid of Morinda citrifolia L. (noni) grown in Mexico (with track change)

Antioxidant activity diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH), the ferric-reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP), nitric oxide (NO)], total polyphenols, phenolic compounds and ascorbic acid of Morinda citrifolia L. fruits were investigated as a function of maturity and three seasons patterns in Mexico. Maturity was evaluated in early, middle, sub-mature and mature stages (1 to 4) according to color and firmness. Significant differences were observed in the antioxidant activities and chemical composition of the fruits at different maturity and seasons. During February-March and May- June, fruits from middle and mature stages exhibited the highest antioxidant activities and total polyphenol content compared to other stages, while in November, ripe fruits reached the greatest antioxidant efficacy, total phenolic and ascorbic acid contents. Total polyphenols and ascorbic acid reached the highest amounts during May-June, although antioxidant activities were moderate compared to greater values in February-March or November depending upon maturity. The ability of M. citrifolia fruits to inhibit NO production by LPSactivated RAW 264.7 cells was quite comparable to or higher than N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (LNAME). This work shows that season and maturity stages have a profound effect on the antioxidant capacity, phenols and ascorbic acid of M. Citrifolia fruits.Keywords: Morinda citrifolia, diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, maturity, seasons, total polyphenol and phenolics compounds, reducing power, ascorbic acid, scavenging nitric oxide.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4630-463

Solving the Uncapacitated Single Allocation p-Hub Median Problem on GPU

A parallel genetic algorithm (GA) implemented on GPU clusters is proposed to solve the Uncapacitated Single Allocation p-Hub Median problem. The GA uses binary and integer encoding and genetic operators adapted to this problem. Our GA is improved by generated initial solution with hubs located at middle nodes. The obtained experimental results are compared with the best known solutions on all benchmarks on instances up to 1000 nodes. Furthermore, we solve our own randomly generated instances up to 6000 nodes. Our approach outperforms most well-known heuristics in terms of solution quality and time execution and it allows hitherto unsolved problems to be solved

A strontium optical lattice clock with 1 × 10‾¹⁷uncertainty and measurement of its absolute frequency

We present a measurement of the absolute frequency of the 5 s2 1S0 to 5s5p 3P0 transition in 87Sr which is a secondary representation of the SI second. We describe the optical lattice clock apparatus used for the measurement, and we focus in detail on how its systematic frequency shifts are evaluated with a total fractional uncertainty of 1 × 10−17. Traceability to the International System of Units is provided via comparison to International Atomic Time (TAI). Gathering data over 5- and 15-day periods, with the lattice clock operating on average 74% of the time, we measure the frequency of the transition to be 429 228 004 229 873.1 (5) Hz, which corresponds to a fractional uncertainty of 1 × 10−15. We describe in detail how this uncertainty arises from the intermediate steps linking the optical frequency standard, through our local time scale UTC(NPL), to an ensemble of primary and secondary frequency standards which steer TAI. The calculated absolute frequency of the transition is in good agreement with recent measurements carried out in other laboratories around the world

Profile of small interfering RNAs from cotton plants infected with the polerovirus Cotton leafroll dwarf virus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In response to infection, viral genomes are processed by Dicer-like (DCL) ribonuclease proteins into viral small RNAs (vsRNAs) of discrete sizes. vsRNAs are then used as guides for silencing the viral genome. The profile of vsRNAs produced during the infection process has been extensively studied for some groups of viruses. However, nothing is known about the vsRNAs produced during infections of members of the economically important family <it>Luteoviridae</it>, a group of phloem-restricted viruses. Here, we report the characterization of a population of vsRNAs from cotton plants infected with Cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV), a member of the genus <it>Polerovirus</it>, family <it>Luteoviridae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Deep sequencing of small RNAs (sRNAs) from leaves of CLRDV-infected cotton plants revealed that the vsRNAs were 21- to 24-nucleotides (nt) long and that their sequences matched the viral genome, with higher frequencies of matches in the 3- region. There were equivalent amounts of sense and antisense vsRNAs, and the 22-nt class of small RNAs was predominant. During infection, cotton <it>Dcl </it>transcripts appeared to be up-regulated, while Dcl2 appeared to be down-regulated.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first report on the profile of sRNAs in a plant infected with a virus from the family <it>Luteoviridae</it>. Our sequence data strongly suggest that virus-derived double-stranded RNA functions as one of the main precursors of vsRNAs. Judging by the profiled size classes, all cotton DCLs might be working to silence the virus. The possible causes for the unexpectedly high accumulation of 22-nt vsRNAs are discussed. CLRDV is the causal agent of Cotton blue disease, which occurs worldwide. Our results are an important contribution for understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in this and related diseases.</p

Pyomyositis in a Young Patient with Diabetes Mellitus

É descrito o caso clínico de um doente do sexo masculino de 25 anos de idade, com Diabetes mellitus tipo 1, internado para esclarecimento de quadro febril associado a tumefação dolorosa da parede torácica à direita. Tinha, nos antecedentes pessoais, tuberculose pulmonar tratada durante 12 meses. A observação e os exames complementares de diagnóstico (ecografia, ressonância magnética nuclear, biopsia aspirativa) conduziram ao diagnóstico de piomiosite a Staphylococcus aureus meticilina sensível, tendo o doente melhorado rapidamente com a terapêutica instituída. Esta entidade nosológica, pouco frequente nos climas temperados, deve fazer parte do diagnóstico diferencial de massas intramusculares de natureza inflamatória, sobretudo em doentes com pertubações da imunidade2. Neste caso, a história prévia de tuberculose pulmonar aumentou a complexidade diagnóstica, tendo sido excluída a sua reactivação