Evidence for a Very Large-Scale Fractal Structure in the Universe from Cobe Measurements

In this work, we analyse the temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background radiation observed by COBE and show that the distribution can be fitted by a fractal distribution with a fractal dimension $D= 1.43 \pm 0.07$. This value is in close agreement with the fractal dimension obtained by Coleman and Pietronero (1992) and Luo and Schramm (1992) from galaxy-galaxy and cluster-cluster correlations up to $\sim 100 h^{-1} Mpc$. The fact that the observed temperature fluctuations correspond to scales much larger than $100 h^{-1} Mpc$ and are signatures of the primordial density fluctuations at the recombination layer suggests that the structure of the matter at the early universe was already fractal and thus non-homogeneous on those scales. This result may have important consequences for the theoretical framework that describes the universe.Comment: 11 pages, postscript file, 2 figures available upon request. To appear in ApJ Letter

Controle da artrite encefalite caprina através do uso de tecnologias reprodutivas aplicadas às fêmeas.

[ALICE ANDRIOLI PINHEIRO]bitstream/CNPC/20872/1/cot86.pd

Caracterização física, química e toxicológica da água de lavagem gerada na produção de biodiesel

Durante a etapa de purificação do biodiesel são retirados resíduos de glicerina, sabões, alcoóis, ácidos graxos, outros contaminantes e água que necessitam ser tratadas e purificadas. As águas de lavagem do biodiesel foram caracterizadas por meio físicos, químicos, cromatográficos e também foi avaliado o grau de toxicidade desses efluentes utilizando sementes de alface. Foram encontrados altos valores de turbidez, DQO, DBO e óleos e graxas. O perfil de eluição mostrou a presença de ácido linoleico, ácido oleico e ácido palmítico O método do bioensaio implementado neste estudo com sementes de alface foi rápido, simples e viável, mostrando que estes efluentes podem causar efeitos nocivos sobre o desenvolvimento das plantas e germinação de sementes. Levando-se em consideração que a etapa de lavagem do biodiesel é uma das mais importantes e também uma das mais críticas, fica clara a importância de se caracterizar e tratar essas águas, a fim de serem descartadas sem causar efeitos danosos aos corpos hídricos

A SURVEY of CHRONIC GVHD and OTHER OUTCOMES - A SNAPSHOT of BRAZILIAN ALLOGENEIC HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION (HCT) CENTERS

Univ Fed Parana, BR-80060000 Curitiba, Parana, BrazilNatl Canc Inst, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilState Univ São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Estadual Campinas, Campina, BrazilUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilAmaral Carvalho Hosp, Jau, BrazilAmaral Carvalho Hosp, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilAlbert Einstein Hosp, São Paulo, BrazilCanc Hosp Barretos, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilPernambuco Blood Bank, Recife, PE, BrazilUniv Fed Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUniv State Univ São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, BrazilFred Hutchinson Canc Res Ctr, Seattle, WA 98104 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Subversion of early innate antiviral responses during antibody-dependent enhancement of Dengue virus infection induces severe disease in immunocompetent mice

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease caused by one of four serotypes of Dengue virus (DENV-1–4). Epidemiologic and observational studies demonstrate that the majority of severe dengue cases, dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS), occurs predominantly in either individuals with cross-reactive immunity following a secondary heterologous infection or in infants with primary DENV infections born from dengue-immune mothers, suggesting that B-cell-mediated and antibody responses impact on disease evolution. We demonstrate here that B cells play a pivotal role in host responses against primary DENV infection in mice. After infection, μMT[superscript −/−] mice showed increased viral loads followed by severe disease manifestation characterized by intense thrombocytopenia, hemoconcentration, cytokine production and massive liver damage that culminated in death. In addition, we show that poly and monoclonal anti-DENV-specific antibodies can sufficiently increase viral replication through a suppression of early innate antiviral responses and enhance disease manifestation, so that a mostly non-lethal illness becomes a fatal disease resembling human DHF/DSS. Finally, treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin containing anti-DENV antibodies confirmed the potential enhancing capacity of subneutralizing antibodies to mediate virus infection and replication and induce severe disease manifestation of DENV-infected mice. Thus, our results show that humoral responses unleashed during DENV infections can exert protective or pathological outcomes and provide insight into the pathogenesis of this important human pathogen