Utilização de extrato de própolis verde no resfriamento de sêmen equino

Seminal cooling aims to prolong spermatic lifespan and fertilizing capacity due to reduction in energy metabolism of spermatozoa, providing enough period for transportation from the stallion to the mare. Cooling process can result in ultraestructural, biochemical and functional alterations to spermatozoa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of green propolis hydroalcoholic extract (GPHE) added into equine semen extender and stored at 5ºC. For that, semen was collected from five stallions (Crioulo and Quarter horse) in four opportunities (n=20). These ejaculates were submitted to the following treatments: control group (skim milk glucose semen extender) and groups with the addition of green propolis extract in different concentrations (2,5μl/mL; 5μl/mL; 7,5μl/mL; 10μl/mL). Seminal analyses included motility, mitochondrial functionality, integrity of plasma membrane, DNA and acrossome, being used ejaculates with ≥70% of intact cells. Evaluation was performed at 0; 30; 60; 120; 180; 240; 300; 360 and 1440 minutes during cooled storage at 5ºC. Seminal parameters declined according to storage time in all treatments (P<0.05). Sperm motility reached 0% in 360 minutes in the groups with propolis. The addition of green propolis extract into the semen extender maintained structural characteristics of stallion sperm cell, however it was detrimental no functional characteristics.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPESO resfriamento seminal tem como intuito o prolongamento da viabilidade espermática e capacidade fecundante pela redução no metabolismo energético dos espermatozoides, proporcionando período hábil para transporte do sêmen do garanhão até a égua. O processo de resfriamento pode resultar em alterações ultraestruturais, bioquímicas e funcionais na célula espermática. O objetivo deste experimento foi avaliar o efeito do extrato de própolis verde adicionado ao diluente para resfriamento de sêmen equino a 5ºC. Para isso, foram coletados 4 ejaculados de 5 garanhões da raça Crioula e Quarto de Milha (n=20). Estes ejaculados foram submetidos aos seguintes tratamentos: controle (diluente a base de leite desnatado) e grupos com adição de extrato de própolis verde em diferentes concentrações (2,5μl/mL; 5μl/mL; 7,5μl/mL; 10μl/mL). As análises espermáticas incluíram motilidade, funcionalidade mitocondrial, integridade de membrana plasmática, DNA e acrossoma, sendo utilizados ejaculados contendo ≥70% de células íntegras ás 0h. As avaliações foram realizadas ás 0; 30; 60; 120; 180; 240; 300; 360 e 1440 minutos durante o resfriamento a 5ºC. Os parâmetros seminais diminuíram de acordo com o aumento do tempo em resfriamento em todos tratamentos (P<0,05). A motilidade espermática atingiu 0% em 360 minutos nos tratamentos com própolis. A adição de extrato de própolis verde ao diluente de resfriamento seminal manteve as características estruturais da célula espermática equina, no entanto prejudicou as caraterísticas funcionais

Experimentation with Accumulation

We study signal-dependent experimentation in the presence of accumulation and show that the passive-learner’s action surprisingly coincides with the experimentor’s when the unknown term is the one determining the decay rate of the stock, while they differ when the parameter being learned is the one measuring the accumulation rate. These results highlight the importance of the dynamic structure of the problem in signal-dependent experimentation. Moreover, they have important consequences for the pollutionaccumulation debate currently in progress.

Manifestações dermatológicas em pacientes portadores do vírus da imunodeficiência humana.

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Curso de Medicina, Florianópolis, 200

Is Λ\LambdaCDM an effective CCDM cosmology?

We show that a cosmology driven by gravitationally induced particle production of all non-relativistic species existing in the present Universe mimics exactly the observed flat accelerating $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with just one dynamical free parameter. This kind of scenario includes the creation cold dark matter (CCDM) model [Lima, Jesus & Oliveira, JCAP 011(2010)027] as a particular case and also provides a natural reduction of the dark sector since the vacuum component is not needed to accelerate the Universe. The new cosmic scenario is equivalent to $\Lambda$CDM both at the background and perturbative levels and the associated creation process is also in agreement with the universality of the gravitational interaction and equivalence principle. Implicitly, it also suggests that the present day astronomical observations cannot be considered the ultimate proof of cosmic vacuum effects in the evolved Universe because $\Lambda$CDM may be only an effective cosmology.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, changes in the abstract, introduction, new references and typo correction

Continuous Quantum Error Correction Through Local Operations

We propose local strategies to protect global quantum information. The protocols, which are quantum error correcting codes for dissipative systems, are based on environment measurements, direct feedback control and simple encoding of the logical qubits into physical qutrits whose decaying transitions are indistinguishable and equally probable. The simple addition of one extra level in the description of the subsystems allows for local actions to fully and deterministically protect global resources, such as entanglement. We present codes for both quantum jump and quantum state diffusion measurement strategies and test them against several sources of inefficiency. The use of qutrits in information protocols suggests further characterization of qutrit-qutrit disentanglement dynamics, which we also give together with simple local environment measurement schemes able to prevent distillability sudden death and even enhance entanglement in situations in which our feedback error correction is not possible.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Asteroseismology and Magnetic Cycles

Small cyclic variations in the frequencies of acoustic modes are expected to be a common phenomenon in solar-like pulsators, as a result of stellar magnetic activity cycles. The frequency variations observed throughout the solar and stellar cycles contain information about structural changes that take place inside the stars as well as about variations in magnetic field structure and intensity. The task of inferring and disentangling that information is, however, not a trivial one. In the sun and solar-like pulsators, the direct effect of the magnetic field on the oscillations might be significantly important in regions of strong magnetic field (such as solar- / stellar-spots), where the Lorentz force can be comparable to the gas-pressure gradient. Our aim is to determine the sun- / stellar-spots effect on the oscillation frequencies and attempt to understand if this effect contributes strongly to the frequency changes observed along the magnetic cycle. The total contribution of the spots to the frequency shifts results from a combination of direct and indirect effects of the magnetic field on the oscillations. In this first work we considered only the indirect effect associated with changes in the stratification within the starspot. Based on the solution of the wave equation and the variational principle we estimated the impact of these stratification changes on the oscillation frequencies of global modes in the sun and found that the induced frequency shifts are about two orders of magnitude smaller than the frequency shifts observed over the solar cycle.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, ESF Conference: The Modern Era of Helio- and Asteroseismology, to be published on 3 December 2012 at Astronomische Nachrichten 333, No. 10, 1032-103

Efficiency of the Portuguese metros. is it different from other European metros?

This research analyses the performance of Portuguese metros in the European context. By means of two non-parametric benchmarking techniques, respectively performance indicators and data envelopment analysis, we compute the efficiency of 37 European metros. In order to provide statistical inference and robustness to our results we apply the recent technique of bootstrap. We also use the partial frontiers (order-m) to identify outliers and the double bootstrap procedure in a second stage methodology to take into account the influence of the operational environment. The results show important levels of inefficiency both in the Portuguese metros and in other European metros.Metro; Efficiency; Portugal; Performance Indicator; Data Envelopment Analysis

Impact of stellar companions on precise radial velocities

Context: With the announced arrival of instruments such as ESPRESSO one can expect that several systematic noise sources on the measurement of precise radial velocity will become the limiting factor instead of photon noise. A stellar companion within the fiber is such a possible noise source. Aims: With this work we aim at characterizing the impact of a stellar companion within the fiber to radial velocity measurements made by fiber-fed spectrographs. We consider the contaminant star either to be part of a binary system whose primary star is the target star, or as a background/foreground star. Methods: To carry out our study, we used HARPS spectra, co-added the target with contaminant spectra, and then compared the resulting radial velocity with that obtained from the original target spectrum. We repeated this procedure and used different tunable knobs to reproduce the previously mentioned scenarios. Results: We find that the impact on the radial velocity calculation is a function of the difference between individual radial velocities, of the difference between target and contaminant magnitude, and also of their spectral types. For the worst-case scenario in which both target and contaminant star are well centered on the fiber, the maximum contamination for a G or K star may be higher than 10 cm/s, on average, if the difference between target and contaminant magnitude is $\Delta m$ < 10, and higher than 1 m/s if $\Delta m$ < 8. If the target star is of spectral type M, $\Delta m$ < 8 produces the same contamination of 10 cm/s, and a contamination may be higher than 1 m/sComment: Accepted for publication in A&A on 29/12/2019 - 14 page

Looking for a break in Spanish Inflation Data in the early eighties and assessing persistence

Using the Bai-Perron test, we look for a shift in the conditional mean of an AR representation of Spanish CPI inflation over the period: 1978-2006. It is clear that Spain, as most OECD economies, experienced an inflation slowdown in the early eithgties, which can be related to some policy measures undertook by the government coming out of the 1982 elections. It is shown, that when the break is accounted for, there are no signs of persistence in Spanish CPI inflation.inflation persistence; structural breaks; monetary policy

Doença renal crónica: uma abordagem fenomenológica das experiências de pessoas transplantadas

Dissertação de mestrado em EnfermagemA Doença Renal Crónica é um problema de saúde pública em todo o mundo que consiste na lesão renal e, geralmente, na perda progressiva e irreversível da função dos rins. Vivenciar uma transição saúde-doença, nomeadamente a Doença Renal Crónica (DRC), comporta alterações profundas na vida de quem experimenta um processo desta natureza. O número de horas que passam nas unidades de diálise altera a rotina de vida diária, os efeitos secundários dos tratamentos são sentidos como incapacitantes e todo o sistema familiar vive o sofrimento da pessoa com esta doença. A investigação de índole exploratória e fenomenológica visou explorar, descrever e interpretar o significado que as pessoas transplantadas atribuem às experiências vividas durante a frequência de um programa regular de hemodiálise. Participaram no estudo 6 pessoas submetidas a transplante renal após hemodiálise, tendo sido inquiridas através de entrevista não estruturada. As narrativas foram analisadas à luz da perspetiva de van Manen (2014). Da análise efetuada emergiram três temas principais e respetivos subtemas, os quais ajudam a compreender a estrutura da experiência em estudo: Disrupção da Vida, Adaptação e O (re)começo. Os resultados permitem uma compreensão mais abrangente das experiências vividas pelas pessoas com DRC e contribuem para a orientação das práticas dos enfermeiros no sentido de que mais e melhores cuidados possam ser prestados às pessoas que vivenciam transições saúdedoença motivadas pela DRC e, consequentemente, que as vivenciem de forma mais saudável.Chronic Kidney Disease is a worldwide public health problem, which consists of renal injury and, usually, progressive and irreversible loss of kidney function. Experiencing a transition health-disease, namely Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), involves profound changes in the lives of those who experience such a process. The number of hours spent in dialysis units changes the daily life routine, treatments’ side effects are felt as disabling and the entire family system lives the pain of people with CKD. The phenomenological and exploratory research’s nature has the purpose to study the meaning that people transplanted give to the experiences during the frequency of a regular haemodialysis program. 6 people submitted to renal transplantation after haemodialysis participated in the study, having been surveyed through unstructured interview. The narratives were analysed under Max van Manen’s (2014) perspective. From the analysis performed emerged three main themes and their respective subthemes, which helped to understand the structure of the experience under study: Disruption of Life, Adaptation and The (re) start. The results allow a more comprehensive understanding of the people with CKD’s experiences, and can make a contribution in guiding the practices of nurses by being able to provide more and better care to people who live transitions health-disease motivated by CKD and, thereafter, experience them in a healthier way