The central region of the Fornax cluster -- II. Spectroscopy and radial velocities of member and background galaxies

Radial velocities of 94 galaxies brighter than about V_tot = 20 mag in the direction of the central Fornax cluster have been measured. Except for 8 Fornax members, all galaxies lie in the background. Among the 8 members, there are 5 nucleated dwarf ellipticals that are already listed in the FCC (Ferguson 1989, AJ 98, 367). Two of the 3 ``new'' members are very compact and have surface brightnesses comparable to globular clusters, however their luminosities are in the range of dwarf elliptical nuclei. The measured line indices (especially Mg2, H beta, and iron) of the brighter of the compact objects suggest a solar metallicity, whereas the fainter compact object as well as the dE,Ns have line indices that are similar to those of old metal-poor globular clusters (GCs). However, with these data it is not possible to clearly classify the compact objects either as very bright globular clusters, isolated nuclei of dE,Ns, or even compact ellipticals. A background galaxy cluster at z = 0.11 has been found just behind the center of the Fornax cluster. This explains the excess population of galaxies reported in Paper I. The brightest galaxy of the background cluster lies only 1.1 arcmin south of NGC 1399 and is comparable in absolute luminosity with the central Fornax galaxy itself.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e, uses aa.cls, including 9 PostScript figures; accepted for publication in A&AS, also available at http://www.astro.puc.cl/~mhilker/publication.htm

Peripheral brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a biomarker in bipolar disorder: a meta-analysis of 52 studies

Background: The neurotrophic hypothesis postulates that mood disorders such as bipolar disorder (BD) are associated with a lower expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). However, its role in peripheral blood as a biomarker of disease activity and of stage for BD, transcending pathophysiology, is still disputed. In the last few years an increasing number of clinical studies assessing BDNF in serum and plasma have been published. Therefore, it is now possible to analyse the association between BDNF levels and the severity of affective symptoms in BD as well as the effects of acute drug treatment of mood episodes on BDNF levels. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of all studies on serum and plasma BDNF levels in bipolar disorder. Results: Through a series of meta-analyses including a total of 52 studies with 6,481 participants, we show that, compared to healthy controls, peripheral BDNF levels are reduced to the same extent in manic (Hedges' g = -0.57, P = 0.010) and depressive (Hedges' g = -0.93, P = 0.001) episodes, while BDNF levels are not significantly altered in euthymia. In meta-regression analyses, BDNF levels additionally negatively correlate with the severity of both manic and depressive symptoms. We found no evidence for a significant impact of illness duration on BDNF levels. In addition, in plasma, but not serum, peripheral BDNF levels increase after the successful treatment of an acute mania episode, but not of a depressive one. Conclusions: In summary, our data suggest that peripheral BDNF levels, more clearly in plasma than in serum, is a potential biomarker of disease activity in BD, but not a biomarker of stage. We suggest that peripheral BDNF may, in future, be used as a part of a blood protein composite measure to assess disease activity in BD.BSF is supported by a postdoctoral scholarship and by a research grant MCTI/CNPQ/Universal 14/2014461833/2014-0, both from CNPq, Brazil. CAK is a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from CAPES, Brazil. JCS is supported by NIMH grant R01 085667, the Dunn Foundation and the JQ are supported by research fellowship awards from CNPq (Brazil, level IA). AFC is the recipient of a research fellowship from CNPq (Brazil, level II). MB is supported by a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship 1059660. None of these agencies had any role in the design and conduct of the study, or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. We thank all authors of the included papers, particularly Drs. Natalie L. Rasgon, Deniz Ceylan, Camilla Langan, Pedro Magalhaes, Antonio L. Teixeira, Yuan-Hwa Chou, Iria Grande, Chenyu Ye, Izabela Barbosa, Menan Rabie, Ru-Band Lu, Ana Gonzales-Pinto, Reiji Yoshimura, Flavio Kapczinski, and Christoph Laske, who kindly provided unpublished data for the paper

Microbacia hidrográfica do Ribeirão Canchim: um modelo real de laboratório ambiental.

Sistemas intensivos de produção de proteína (carne e leite) bovina podem causar impactos ambientais negativos, como degradação de recursos naturais, contaminação por produtos químicos, acumulo de dejetos e outros. Desta maneira, ha a necessidade de se identificar alguns indicadores de sustentabilidade, em especial os ecológicos, para a avaliaqao destes impactos. Para isso, é necessário conhecer as características da base de recursos naturais afetados pelos sistemas de produção. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram caracterizar, detalhadamente: a) os fatores abioticos ou recursos naturais da microbacia hidrografica (MBH) do ribeiräo Canchim (clima, hidrologia, recursos hidricos e energéticos, geologia, geomorfologia, relevo, solos, caracteristicas fisicas,quimicas e uso atual dos solos) e seu manejo; b) os recursos bioticos (flora e fauna) e seu manejo; c) o uso e manejo de residuos, ao nivel da microbacia; d) verificar a importåncia economica das atividades de produqäo de leite e carne bovinos, na regiäo, bem como o historico da evoluqäo das atividades economicas realizadas na MBH em estudo. Os dados das variaveis de caracterizaqäo georeferenciada foram estruturados em um sistema de informaqoes geograficas (SIG) para facilitar sua recuperaqäo e agrupamentos. Os dados levantados permitiram verificar a grande variabilidade espacial do ambiente na microbacia hidrografica, constituindo assim um modelo real de laboratorio ambiental complexo, representando grande extensäo do ambiente edafico, das regiöes Sudeste e Centro-Oeste, no qual ocorre o manejo intensivo de pastagens e de areas agricolas, sob condiqoes de clima tropical, em especial sobre solos distroficos com textura média. Foi verificada a importancia economica da pecuaria bovina de carne e leite, mesmo no cenario economico atual. Desta forma, trabalhos nesta MBH poderäo gerar respostas de impacto ambiental e de manejo sustentavel bastante significativos para a socio-economia e a qualidade de vida humana das regioes.bitstream/CPPSE/12988/1/PROCIBolPesq5OP1998.03139LV.pdf; bitstream/item/37358/1/BoletimPesq05.pd

DESENVOLVIMENTO E CARACTERIZAÇÃO DE NANOCÁPSULAS DE PACLITAXEL ASSOCIADO AO LUPEOL REVESTIDAS COM QUITOSANA

Introdução e Objetivos: A nanotecnologia farmacêutica tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento,caracterização e aplicação de sistemas terapêuticos em escala nanométrica ou micrométrica. Ossistemas de liberação controlada de fármacos apresentam inúmeras vantagens, dentre elas aredução da toxicidade de fármacos e o direcionamento dos mesmos aos sítios-alvo. A quitosana éum polímero biodegradável que pode ser usado no revestimento de nanopartículas a fim deaumentar a biocompatibilidade com as células e favorecer o direcionamento às mesmas. Opresente trabalho teve o objetivo de desenvolver e caracterizar nanocápsulas de paclitaxelassociado ao lupeol revestidas com quitosana. Metodologia: As nanocápsulas revestidas foramobtidas a partir de dois métodos diferentes: o primeiro consistiu em gotejar a dispersão denanocápsulas previamente preparadas em uma solução de quitosana a 1% enquanto o segundoconsistiu em adicionar a solução de quitosana durante o preparo das nanocápsulas. Para estudode estabilidade as nanocápsulas foram avaliadas em um período de 15 dias quanto ao tamanho,PDI, potencial zeta e pH. Resultados e Discussão: As nanocápsulas mostraram-se estáveis aofinal do ensaio de 15 dias, havendo pequenas variações nos parâmetros analisados. A adsorção dequitosana foi bem sucedida segundo ambos os métodos. Conclusão: O método 1 foi eleito comosendo o melhor avaliando-se a relação adsorção/estabilidade pois foi o método que apresentoumenor variação quanto ao tamanho, PDI e pH da formulação

NOROVIRUS IN FAECES OF HEALTHY PIGS IN NORTH-EAST ITALY

Introduction Norovirus (NoV) has emerged has one of the major causative agents of non-bacterial, food- and water-borne gastroenteritis in humans all over the world. NoVs are classified into six groups (G), from GI to GVI, which are further subdivided into 30 genotypes. NoVs identified in human gastroenteritis cases are only GI, GII, and GIV. NoVs have also been isolated from several animal species, including pigs, dogs, cattle, rodents and lions. The detection of GII NoV from pigs in Japan and Europe, and GII NoV antibodies in US swine have raised public health concerns about the zoonotic potential of porcine NoVs. Material & Methods Faeces were collected at slaughterhouse in 2017 in two regions of North-East Italy. Forty-six samples originated from Veneto and thirty-three from Friuli Venezia Giulia regions, covering seven and three provinces, respectively, were analysed for presence of Calicivirus. A two-step RT-PCR targeting the RdRP gene using the p290-p110 primer pairs was used. Sanger sequence was conducted on samples presenting enough amount of the target amplified DNA. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out using the neighbour-joining method and Kimura two-parameter substitution model using MEGA7 software. Results Fourteen samples collected in Veneto region, were PCR positive. Nucleotide sequence of about 300bp were obtained from only two samples. BLAST analysis showed a homology between 89 and 92% with swine NoV detected in Europe. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Italian strains belong to the GII.11 and cluster with other swine NoV from USA and Asia. Discussion and Conclusion This study identified GII.11 NoVs in the swine population of North-East Italy, similarly to a previous report in 2011. Further molecular analysis on the VP1 gene are ongoing on positive samples. The real distribution and the role of NoVs in swine needs to be further investigated by proper sampling approach and full genome analysis

Nuclear Reaction Modeling for RIA SIOL Target Design

Los Alamos scientists are collaborating with researchers at Argonne and Oak Ridge on the development of improved nuclear reaction physics for modeling radionuclide production in ISOL targets. This is being done in the context of the MCNPX simulation code, which is a merger of MCNP and the LAHET intranuclear cascade code, and simulates both nuclear reaction cross sections and radiation transport in the target. The CINDER code is also used to calculate the time-dependent nuclear decays for estimating induced radioactivities. They give an overview of the reaction physics improvements they are addressing, including intranuclear cascade (INC) physics, where recent high-quality inverse-kinematics residue data from GSI have led to INC spallation and fission model improvements; and preequilibrium reactions important in modeling (p,xn) and (p,xnyp) cross sections for the production of nuclides far from stability

Milho de alto valor nutricional.

Suplemento. Edição dos resumos do 41º Congresso Nacional de Genética, Caxambu, MG, 1995