Urophyseal control of plasma ionic concentration in Oreochromis mossambicus (Pisces) exposed to osmotic stress

Freshwater-and seawater-adapted Oreochromis mossambicus were submitted to 5 different treatments (urophysectomy, sham operation, urophyseal extract injection, saline injection and control) and transferred to brackish water. In freshwater – adapted fish transfarred to brackish water, urophysectomy increases plasma Na+, K+, Ca+ and osmotic concentrations. In seawater-adapted fish transferred to brackish water, plasma Na+ and K+ concentration were lower in control than other treatment group. The utophysis seems to act only in the “fine tuning” of osmoregulatory processes. Adaptations to changes in the salinity of the medium probably are regulated mainly by prolactin and cortisol.Exemplares de Oreochromis mossambicus adaptados à água doce e à água salgada foram submetidos a 5 tratamentos diferentes (urofisectomia, operação testemunho, injeção de extrato urofisário, injeção de salina e controle) e transferidos para água salobra. os peixes adaptados à água doce transferidos para água salobra a urofisectomia aumenta as concentrações de Na+, K+, Ca++ e osmótica do plasma. Em peixes adaptados à água salgada transferidos para água salobra as concentrações plasmáticas de Na+ e K+ são mais baixas no grupo controle do que nos outros grupos experimentais. A urófise parece atuar apenas no "ajuste fino" dos processos osmorregulatórios. A adaptação às mudanças de salinidade do meio provavelmente são reguladas principalmente pela prolactina e pelo cortisol

Removal of S. Mansoni in patients with hepatosplenig schistosomiasis: An estimate of the Parasitological load by means of quantitative coproscopy

32 Patients with an average age of 18.9 years suffering from schistosomiasis mansoni in its compensated hepatosplenic from who never taken schistosomicidal drugs 'were studied. All the patients were submitted to splenectorrry and filtration of the portal blood for the removal of S. mansoni. A study was made of the relationship between the average number of eggs per gram of faeces obtained from the ana{ysis of 10 successive samples of each patient's faeces b¡r the Kato.,Ifutz method and the number of worms removed from the portal blood. The statistical procedure used revealed a significant relationship between the parameters studied, permitting the establishment of the respective regression equations designed to estimate the numbers of female worms, pairs of ,worms and total worms. From the results and the application of a technique for the constitution of extremé subgroups, the authors propose a classification of the intensity of infection; a) light parasitic load: average number of eggs per gram of faeces less than B0B, corresponding to an estimated parasitic load of less than 226 female worms; b) moderate parasitic load: average number of eggs per gram of faeces between B0B and 3968, corresponding to an estimated. parasitic load. of between 226 and.528 female worms; c) Íntense parasitic load: average number of eggs per gram of faeces greater than 3968, corresponding to an estimated parasitic load greater than 528 female worms. On the basis of the proposed. classification the Authors discuss the indication of specific treatment for schistosomiasis mansoni in patients with the hepatosplenic form of the disease

Molecular Electrostatic Potential and Chemometric Techniques as Tools to Design Bioactive Compounds

In this chapter, firstly, we briefly review aspects of the approximation of quantum chemistry, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), and chemometrics techniques, which are accredited as important tools in the development of chemical science and are frequently used in the study and design of bioactive compounds. Ultimately, we use MEP and pattern recognition (PR) techniques as tools to design nitrofuran compounds with biological activity against Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). PR models (PCA, HCA, KNN, SDA, and SIMCA) were constructed and demonstrated that 23 nitrofurans can be classified into two classes or groups: more active and less active according to their degrees of activity against T. cruzi. Properties such as charge on the N atom of the nitro group (QN1); the difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy (GAP energy); molecular representation of structure based on electron diffraction code of signal 5, unweighted (Mor05u); and Moriguchi water–octanol partition coefficient (MlogP) are responsible for the classification into more active and less active studied nitrofurans. It is interesting to notice that these properties represent three distinct classes of interactions between the nitrofurans and the biological receptor: electronic (QN1 and GAP energy), steric (Mor05u), and hydrophobic (MlogP). The results of the application of PR models on the validation set evidenced two nitrofuran compounds (compounds 25 and 30) as more promising for synthesis and biological assays, which in the future can be used to validate our PR models

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Desenvolvimento do fruto da lichieira (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) 'Bengal'

Estudou-se o desenvolvimento do fruto da lichieira (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) 'Bengal'. Realizaram-se amostragens semanais, com início aos 35 dias após a antese e término no início da senescência dos frutos. A partir do 77º dia após a antese, os frutos foram decompostos em pericarpo, semente e arilo. A antese ocorreu na primeira semana de setembro. Foram ajustados modelos sigmoidais simples para acúmulo de matéria seca, comprimento e diâmetro. Para o acúmulo de matéria seca, uma fase inicial, de crescimento lento, prolongou-se até o 63º dia após a antese e coincidiu com um período de intensa queda natural de frutos. Do 63º ao 98º dia após a antese, houve uma fase de rápido acúmulo de matéria seca. Até o 77º dia, pericarpo e semente foram os principais responsáveis pelo acúmulo de matéria seca. Oitenta e oito por cento do comprimento e 65% do diâmetro máximos foram atingidos nesse período. Do 84º ao 98º dia após a antese, o desenvolvimento do fruto foi determinado basicamente pelo arilo. As dimensões e a matéria seca do fruto estabilizaram-se a partir do 98º dia após a antese. O ponto de colheita comercial dos frutos, caracterizado pela coloração avermelhada do pericarpo, ocorreu a partir do 112º dia após a antese. Verificou-se um quadro senescente nos frutos a partir do 119º dia após a antese.It was studied the fruit development in 'Bengal' litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.). The samples were taken weekly 35 days after anthesis until the beginning of fruit senescence. From the 77th day after anthesis, fruits were decomposed in pericarp, aril and seed. Anthesis occurred in the first week of September. The fruit dry matter, length and diameter followed a single-sigmoid pattern. For dry matter accumulation, an initial phase, of slow growth, ended the 63rd day after anthesis and was coincident with a period of intense fruit drop. The next phase occurred from the 63rd to the 98th day and showed a rapid dry matter accumulation. Until the 77th day, the main increment in fruit dry matter was due to pericarp and seed growth. Eighty eight percent of the maximum length and 65% of the maximum diameter were reached at the end of this phase. From the 84th until the 98th day after anthesis, fruit growth was determined, basically, by aril. Fruit dimensions and dry matter were stabilized after the 98th day. The commercial harvest of the fruits, characterized by the reddish color of the pericarp, occurred at the 112th day after anthesis. Fruits at the 119th day after anthesis were senescent