Developmental consequences of perinatal cannabis exposure: behavioral and neuroendocrine effects in adult rodents

Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug among pregnant women. Since the endocannabinoid system plays a crucial role in brain development, maternal exposure to cannabis derivatives might result in long-lasting neurobehavioral abnormalities in the exposed offspring. It is difficult to detect these effects, and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms, in clinical cohorts, because of their intrinsic methodological and interpretative issues. The present paper reviews relevant rodent studies examining the long-term behavioral consequences of exposure to cannabinoid compounds during pregnancy and/or lactation. Maternal exposure to even low doses of cannabinoid compounds results in atypical locomotor activity, cognitive impairments, altered emotional behavior, and enhanced sensitivity to drugs of abuse in the adult rodent offspring. Some of the observed behavioral abnormalities might be related to alterations in stress hormone levels induced by maternal cannabis exposure. There is increasing evidence from animal studies showing that cannabinoid drugs are neuroteratogens which induce enduring neurobehavioral abnormalities in the exposed offspring. Several preclinical findings reviewed in this paper are in line with clinical studies reporting hyperactivity, cognitive impairments and altered emotionality in humans exposed in utero to cannabis. Conversely, genetic, environmental and social factors could also influence the neurobiological effects of early cannabis exposure in humans

Efeito residual de herbicidas mimetizadores de auxinas no teor de clorofila da lab-lab

Todos os textos, informa??es e resultados apresentados s?o de inteira responsabilidade dos autores.Parte da disserta??o do segundo autor, financiado pelo Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq), Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) e Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES).Objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar o efeito residual dos herbicidas triclopyr, 2,4-D e a mistura 2,4-D + picloram no teor de clorofila total de plantas de lab-lab. O experimento foi dividido em duas etapas. A primeira parte foi conduzida em uma ?rea de pastagem infestada por plantas daninhas pertencente ? UFVJM, em Couto de Magalh?es de Minas ? MG. A segunda etapa foi realizada em casa de vegeta??o no Campus JK da UFVJM, em Diamantina ? MG. O delineamento experimental adotado foi inteiramente ao acaso, com quatro repeti??es. Os tratamentos foram tr?s herbicidas: triclopyr (960 g ha-1 do equivalente ?cido triclopyr); 2,4-D (1340 g ha-1 do equivalente ?cido 2,4-D) e a mistura 2,4-D + picloram (720 + 192 g ha-1 do equivalente ?cido 2,4-D + picloram) aplicados na dose recomendada pelos fabricantes, mais testemunha sem aplica??o. Foi utilizado o Dolichos lablab (lab-lab) como esp?cie indicadora. As aplica??es dos herbicidas foram realizadas em condi??es ambientais adequadas, utilizando um pulverizador costal, com bico de jato plano (leque) TT 110 02 e press?o constante de 200 kPa. Aos 40 e 280 dias ap?s a aplica??o do herbicida (DAA) foram coletados aleatoriamente, em cada parcela, amostras de solo na profundidade de 0 a 20 cm. Aos 20, 27, 34 e 40 dias ap?s a semeadura (DAS), foram determinados os teores de clorofila total. Aos 40 DAA, foi observada redu??o nos teores de clorofila total aos 20 DAS nas plantas de lab-lab cultivadas em solos tratados com os herbicidas estudados. O tratamento com aplica??o da mistura 2,4-D + picloram aos 40 DAA resultou na morte das plantas de lab-lab a partir dos 20 DAS. Entretanto, os solos coletados aos 280 DAA indicam uma redu??o do res?duo da mistura 2,4- D + picloram, pois, foram observados menores teores de clorofila na lab-lab. Os herbicidas 2,4-D e triclopyr apresentaram baixo efeito residual nas plantas de lab-lab, entretanto, foi observado longo efeito residual no solo para a mistura 2,4-D + picloram.The aim of the study was to evaluate the residual effect of the herbicides triclopyr, 2,4-D, and the combination of 2,4-D + picloram on the total chlorophyll content of the lablab bean plants. The experiment was divided in two parts. The first part was conducted on a pasture area infested by weeds that belongs to the UFVJM, in Couto de Magalh?es de Minas ? MG. The second part was managed in a greenhouse in the Campus JK of the UFVJM, in Diamantina ? MG. The experimental design was in randomized block, with four repetitions. The treatments were three herbicides: triclopyr (960 g ha-1 of the acid triclopyr equivalent); 2,4-D (1340 g ha-1 do of the 2,4-D acid equivalent), and the combination 2,4-D + picloram (720 + 192 g ha-1 of the acid 2,4-D + picloram acid equivalent) applied on the dose recommended by the manufacturer, one more witness without application. It was utilized the Dolichos lablab (lablab bean) as the indicator species. The application of the herbicides were conducted on adequate environmental conditions, using a costal spray, with a flat fan nozzle (fan) TT 110 02, and constant pressure of 200 kPa. At 40 and 280 days after application of the herbicide (DAA) were randomly collected, in each portion, soil samples on the width of 0 to 20 cm. At 20, 27, 34, and 40 days after sowing (DAS), were determined the total chlorophyll content. At 40 DAA, was observed a reduction on the total chlorophyll content at 20 DAS on the lablab bean plants cultivated on soils treated with the studied herbicides. The treatment with application of the combination of 2,4-D + picloram at 40 DAA resulted on the death of the lablab bean plants starting at the 20 DAS. However, the soils collected at 280 DAA indicate a reduction of the residue of the combination 2,4-D + picloram, were observed lower chlorophyll content in the lablab bean. The herbicides 2,4-D and triclopyr presented small residual effect on the lablab bean plants, however was observed long residual effect on the soil for the combination 2,4-D + picloram

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Compressed representation of a partially defined integer function over multiple arguments

In OLAP (OnLine Analitical Processing) data are analysed in an n-dimensional cube. The cube may be represented as a partially defined function over n arguments. Considering that often the function is not defined everywhere, we ask: is there a known way of representing the function or the points in which it is defined, in a more compact manner than the trivial one

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results