WHITE-NECKED HAWK (AMADONASTUR LACERNULATUS) FEEDING ON AMPHISBAENIDAE

The White-necked Hawk (Amadonastur lacernulatus) is an Atlantic Forest endemic bird of prey with a poorly known diet. Here, we describe three different predatory interactions between White-necked Hawks and worm lizards (Amphisbaenidae) from Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. During these events, hawks were recorded grasping, killing and consuming amphisbaenids. Due to their fossorial life, worm lizards are uncommon prey items for most birds of prey and such predator-prey interaction can be related to flooded amphisbaenians galleries after heavy rain episodes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of White-necked Hawks preying on amphisbaenids

Natural history of the marsupial frog Gastrotheca albolineata (Anura: Hemiphractidae) in lowland Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Natural history of the marsupial frog Gastrotheca albolineata (Anura: Hemiphractidae) in lowland Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Gastrotheca albolineata is a marsupial frog endemic to the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil. It remains poorly studied in nature and is uncommon in herpetological collections. We studied the natural history of G. albolineata during a four-year period (2015 to 2019), in Ubatuba, São Paulo state, Brazil, at its southernmost distribution. Our results show that G. albolineata is arboreal, perches from low to medium heights, and breeds during the dry season without chorus aggregation. Calling activity occurs during the day but is more intense during the first half of the night. We used dorsal body markings to identify individuals. Six individuals were recaptured during the study, indicating site fidelity during the active season. The defensive repertory of G. albolineata contains seven different behaviors, including a high-pitched distress call. Egg development in the female’s dorsal pouch took at least 87 days, and fully formed froglets were born with a snout–vent length of 16 mm. Our data substantially add to the knowledge of the natural history of Brazilian marsupial frogs and can be helpful to delineate conservation strategies for elusive species such as G. albolineata.História natural da perereca marsupial Gastrotheca albolineata (Anura: Hemiphractidae) na Mata Atlântica brasileira de baixada. Gastrotheca albolineata é uma perereca marsupial endêmica da Mata Atlântica do sudeste do Brasil. Essa espécie permanece pouco estudada na natureza e é incomum em coleções herpetológicas. Estudamos a história natural de G. albolineata durante um período de quatro anos (2015 a 2019), em Ubatuba, estado de São Paulo, Brasil, em sua distribuição mais austral. Nossos resultados mostram que G. albolineata é uma espécie arborícola, que se empoleira em alturas baixo-médias e se reproduz durante a estação seca sem agregação de coro. A atividade de canto ocorre durante todo o dia, mas é mais intensa na primeira metade da noite. Utilizamos marcações dorsais naturais como identificação individual e recapturamos seis indivíduos durante o estudo, o que indicou fidelidade de sítio durante a temporada de atividade. O repertório defensivo de G. albolineata contém sete comportamentos diferentes, incluindo um canto de socorro estridente. O desenvolvimento do ovo na bolsa dorsal da fêmea levou pelo menos 87 dias, e os filhotes totalmente formados nasceram com 16 mm de comprimento rostro-cloacal. Nossos dados aumentam substancialmente o conhecimento da história natural das pererecas marsupiais brasilei

684 The <i>in vitro</i> effects of 5-Azacitidine on the immunophenotype of monocyte-derived dendritic cells from patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes

BackgroundMyelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are the most common acquired cause of bone marrow failure. Though DNA hypomethylating agents (HMAs) such as 5-Azacitidine (5-Aza) may increase survival of patients with higher-risk MDS, their mechanistic effects on hematopoiesis and immune cell function remain unclear. Using whole exome sequencing analysis, we previously identified MDS-related mutations within monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) from patients with higher-risk MDS. Here we examine the effect of 5-Aza on the phenotype of moDCs from the same cohort of patients with higher-risk MDS.MethodsPurified CD14+ cells were magnetically isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 6 patients with IPSS-R Intermediate/High/Very High-risk MDS (herein collectively referred to as higher-risk MDS). Cells were cultured in complete medium with IL-4 (800 U/mL) and GM-CSF (1200 U/mL) for 5 days. Freshly prepared 5-Aza or dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) vehicle was added to cultures every 24 hours for a total of three 1 μM doses starting on Day 1. Immature moDCs were then stimulated with poly(I:C) (20 ng/mL), IL-1β (25 ng/mL), IFN-α (3000 U/mL), IFN-γ (1000 U/mL), and TNF-α (50 ng/mL) for 48 hours to generate moDCs. Flow cytometry analyses were performed with Guava easyCyte 8HT before and after addition of maturation cocktail.ResultsBased on trypan blue staining, in vitro addition of 5-Aza to CD14+ cells from 6 patients with higher-risk MDS did not result in a significant reduction in the percentage of cell survival on Day 5 and Day 7 in culture (figure 1a, p=0.8765 and p=0.7109, respectively). Treatment with 5-Aza significantly reduced the percentage of CD14-CD209+ moDCs on Day 7 following the addition of maturation cocktail (figure 1b, p<0.0001). Flow cytometry assessment showed comparable expression of common maturation and co-stimulatory markers such as CD80, CD83, CD86, HLA-DR, CD209, CD141, CD40, and CCR7 between 5-Aza and DMSO-treated immature moDCs on Day 5 (figure 1c). Similarly, 5-Aza treatment had no significant effect on marker expression on mature moDCs generated with maturation cocktail on Day 7.ConclusionsThere was no significant difference in maturation and co-stimulatory marker expression of immature and mature moDCs from patients with higher-risk MDS following in vitro treatment with 5-Aza. Though recent studies have identified important immunoregulatory effects of 5-Aza, functional changes that may occur within the dendritic cell population are not fully understood. Further studies are planned, including cytokine analyses and transcriptome sequencing of mature moDCs, and may help elucidate the immunological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of 5-Aza in patients with higher-risk MDS.Ethics ApprovalThe study is being conducted as per the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the University of California San Diego Institutional Review Board (#161345) and registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02667093). All patients were provided written informed consent.Abstract 684 Figure 15-Aza and DMSO vehicle-treated moDCs from patients with higher-risk MDS were evaluated for phenotypic markers before and after stimulation with maturation cocktail. Purified CD14+ cells were magnetically isolated from PBMC from 6 higher-risk MDS patients and cultured with IL-4 and GM-CSF for 5 days followed by addition of poly(I:C), IL-1β, IFN-α, IFN-γ, and TNF-α for 48 hours at 37°C in a 5% CO2 incubator. Freshly prepared 5-Aza or DMSO vehicle was added to cultures every 24 hours for a total of three 1 μM doses starting on Day 1. (A) Cultured cells were stained with trypan blue to determine the percentage of cell survival on Day 5 and Day 7 in culture. (B) Treatment with 5-Aza significantly reduced the percentage of CD14-CD209+ moDCs on Day 7 following addition of maturation cocktail (p<0.0001). (C) The percentage of CD14-CD83+ cells is comparable between 5-Aza and vehicle-treated immature moDCs on Day 5 and mature moDCs on Day 7 (p=0.2434 and p=0.5846, respectively). (D) Cultured cells were stained with fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies to determine the expression of common maturation and co-stimulatory markers using flow cytometry. Cells were gated on CD14-CD11c+ to distinguish moDCs, and scatterplots represent the geometric mean fluorescence intensity (gMFI) of marker expression pre- and post-maturation. Individual dots represent one of three experimental replicates performed for the 6 higher-risk MDS patient samples. Each dot is labeled by MDS patient sample. Statistical analysis was performed by Welch's t-test using GraphPad Prism

Age Scale for Assessing Activities of Daily Living

The purpose of this study was to develop an age scale for assessing activities of daily living (ADL) among community-dwelling adults aged 75 years or older. Participants were 1006 older Japanese: 312 men (79.6 ± 4.3 years) and 694 women, (79.9 ± 5.5 years). Participants completed a battery of 8 performance tests related to ADL and the Barthel index (BI) questionnaire. Spearman rank-order correlation analysis was applied to obtain the correlation of the 8 ADL performance tests with the total BI score. Three variables were high rank-order correlated with BI, secondly those items were subjected to the principal component analysis. The weighted combination of the principal component scores was summed. Resulting in an ADL score (ADLS), women = 0.075 X1 - 0.082 X2 - 0.063 X3 + 0.124, men = 0.051 X1 - 0.105 X2 - 0.099 X3 + 0.249, where X1 = hand-grip strength, X2 = timed up and go, X3 = five-chair sit to stand. Individual ADLS was transformed to an ADL age scale (ADLA). The estimation was - 5.493 ADLS + 79.90 for women, and - 4.272 ADLS + 79.57 for men. Due to the distortion at the regression edges, the equation was corrected as suggested by Dubina et al. ADLA women after correction was = 0.447 (chronological age: CA) - 5.49ADLS + 44.17, men = 0.519CA - 4.27ADLS + 38.26. ADLA can be used to identify or monitor the characteristics of the ADL levels of physical abilities in older Japanese aged 75 years or older

Effect of anticomplement agent K-76 COOH in hamster-to-rat and guinea pig- to-rat xenotransplantation

In normal rats, the xenobiotic K76 inhibited the C5 and probably the C2 and C3 steps of complement and effectively depressed classical complement pathway activity, alternative complement pathway activity, and the C3 complement component during and well beyond the drug's 3-hr half-life. It was tested alone and with intramuscular tacrolimus (TAC) and/or intragastric cyclophosphamide (CP) in rat recipients of heterotopic hearts from guinea pig (discordant) and hamster (concordant) donors. Single prevascularization doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg increased the median survival time of guinea pig hearts from 0.17 hr in untreated controls to 1.7 hr and 10.2 hr, respectively; with repeated injections of the 200-mg dose every 9-12 hr, graft survival time was increased to 18.1 hr. Pretreatment of guinea pig heart recipients for 10 days with TAC and CP, with or without perioperative splenectomy or infusion of donor bone marrow, further increased median graft survival time to 24 hr. Among the guinea pig recipients, the majority of treated animals died with a beating heart from respiratory failure that was ascribed to anaphylatoxins. Hamster heart survival also was increased with monotherapy using 200 mg/kg b.i.d.i.v. K76 (limited by protocol to 6 days), but only from 3 to 4 days. Survival was prolonged to 7 days with the addition to K76 of intragastric CP at 5 mg/kg per day begun 1 day before operation (to a limit of 9 days); it was prolonged to 4.5 days with the addition of intramuscular TAC at 2 mg/kg per day beginning on the day of transplantation and continued indefinitely. In contrast to the limited efficacy of the single drugs, or any two drugs in combination, the three drugs together (K76, CP, and TAC) in the same dose schedules increased median graft survival time to 61 days. Antihamster antibodies rapidly increased during the first 5 days after transplantation, and plateaued at an abnormal level in animals with long graft survival times without immediate humoral rejection. However, rejection could not be reliably prevented, and was present even in most of the xenografts recovered from most of the animals dying (usually from infection) with a beating heart. Thus, although effective complement inhibition with K76 was achieved in both guinea pig- and hamster-to-rat heart transplant models, the results suggest that effective interruption of the complement cascade will have a limited role, if any, in the induction of xenograft acceptance

Estudo de cenários de precificação da operação de triagem e análise organizacional em cooperativas de reciclagem: estudo de caso da COOPIDEAL

Apesar de serem um elo de extrema importância da cadeia de logística reversa de recicláveis, os catadores constituem um grupo social marcado historicamente pela exclusão social. No intuito de valorizar o serviço prestado por esses agentes ambientais, o presente trabalho tem como objetivos a proposição de uma metodologia de contabilização de custos e a construção de cenários de precificação do serviço de triagem baseados no estudo de caso de uma cooperativa carioca. A pesquisa de campo foi conduzida por meio de entrevistas e experimentos visando obter informações relacionadas às análises organizacional e financeira desse modelo de empreendimento, com o mapeamento de limitações físicas e operacionais e seus reflexos no dia a dia dos cooperados. Outros atores, como a COMLURB e empresas de Créditos de Logística Reversa (CLR) também foram consultadas para complementar as informações usadas de base para a construção dos cenários. Foram propostos dois cenários de Pagamentos por Serviços Ambientais (PSA). O primeiro descreve itens previstos pelas Leis de Cooperativismo e o segundo estabelece premissas de ampliação de fundos cooperativos de modo a contemplar retiradas assimiláveis concedidas em regime de trabalho CLT. O resultado dessas simulações endossa a insuficiência das receitas obtidas com a comercialização dos resíduos e com PSA via CLR privados existentes que garantam um pagamento de acordo com os requisitos mínimos do sistema cooperativista. O déficit financeiro mensal foi estimado em uma faixa de R$22.000 a R$ 36.000, que correspondem respectivamente a 78% e 151% da receita média mensal atual

FINDPROJ - encontre o projeto certo para você

Orientador: Paulo Vitor dos Santos ZeferinoMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Educação Profissional e Tecnológica, Curso de Tecnologia em Análise e Desenvolvimento de Sistemas

Anatomical and physiological responses of citrus trees to varying boron availability are dependent on rootstock

In Citrus, water, nutrient transport and thereby fruit production, are influenced among other factors, by the interaction between rootstock and boron (B) nutrition. This study aimed to investigate how B affects the anatomical structure of roots and leaves as well as leaf gas exchange in sweet orange trees grafted on two contrasting rootstocks in response to B supply. Plants grafted on Swingle citrumelo or Sunki mandarin were grown in a nutrient solution of varying B concentration (deficient, adequate, and excessive). Those grafted on Swingle were more tolerant to both B deficiency and toxicity than those on Sunki, as revealed by higher shoot and root growth. In addition, plants grafted on Sunki exhibited more severe anatomical and physiological damages under B deficiency, showing thickening of xylem cell walls and impairments in whole plant leaf -specific hydraulic conductance and leaf CO2 assimilation. Our data revealed that trees grafted on Swingle sustain better growth under low B availablitlity in the root medium and still respond positively to increased B levels by combining higher B absorption and root growth as well as better organization of xylem vessels. Taken together, those traits improved water and B transport to the plant canopy. Under B toxicity, Swingle rootstock would also favor plant growth by reducing anatomical and ultrastructural damage to leaf tissue and improving water transport compared with plants grafted on Sunki. From a practical point of view, our results highlight that B management in citrus orchards shall take into account rootstock varieties, of which the Swingle rootstock was characterized by its performance on regulating anatomical and ultrastructural damages, improving water transport and limiting negative impacts of B stress conditions on plant growth7CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPnão tem2010/52154-3; 2011/21226-