"Ictioproveta" para a biometria indireta do peso de surubins (pintado e cachara) utilizando seu volume e densidade.

Atualmente o Brasil é considerado como o país de maior potencial para a aqüicultura no mundo. Contribuem, para isso, o clima quente o ano todo na maior parte do país, os abundantes recursos hídricos, as grandes safras de graãos e a grande diversidade de espécies com potencial para criação, dentre as quais se destacam o pintado (Pseudophatystoma corruscans) e o cachara (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum), pertencentes à ordem Siluriformes e amplamente conhecidos como surubins. Com ocorrência no Pantanal e em outras bacias hidrográficas do território brasileiro, os surubins são os peixes de água doce de maior valor comercial, devido a carne saborosa sem espinhos intramusculares. Também são muito apreciados pela pesca esportiva e reúnem atributos favoráveis para a criação de forma industrial: crescimento rápido, eficiente conversão alimentar, alto valor econômico, grande aceitação no mercado nacional, filé sem espinhos e com padrão para exportação. Entretanto, mesmo possuindo grande importância econômica, os sistemas de produção destes peixes ainda são pouco estudados. Para o sucesso no cultivo destas espécies é preciso buscar maiores informações sobre o crescimento e desenvolvimento em cativeiro a fim de se conhecer o seu potencial produtivo em termos econômicos e ambietais. Para tanto, torna-se necessária a utilização de equipamentos adequados nas medições a campo devido à nova tendência das pesquisas serem de caráter mais aplicado e realizadas em parceria com a iniciativa privada, principalmente nas áreas de produção e manejo, não admitindo, portanto, perdas significativas dos peixes devido ao manuseio realizado no acompanhamento e mensuração durante os experimentos, conciliando, assim, dois aspectos importantes, que são a precisão e a praticidade. Certamente, para que estes aspectos possam ser agrupados, será necessário um menor rigos nas biometrias para a obtenção das medidas de campo (p. ex.: peso e comprimento), pois as mensurações mais precisas necessitam de equipamentos eleétricos e/ou eletrônicos, que geralmente não são a prova d´água, e um manuseio mais intenso, podendo prejudicar a produção devido às injúrias provocadas nos peixes. Além desses aspectos, é necessaria a redução dos riscos de acidentes relacionados ao uso de equipamentos elétricos dentro da água ou em locais úmidos, devido à possibilidade de choque elétrico pelo operador. Este aparelho também pode ser amplamente utilizado nas biometrias das diferentes fases de produção, tanto nas pisciculturas de reprodução como das de engorda, facilitando a obtenção do peso para o cálculo da biomassa, da quantidade de alimento a ser fornecido e da capacidade de suporte do ambiente de cultivo. Assim, este Comunicado Técnico tem por objetivo divulgar aos pisciculturores, pesquisadores e estudiosos da área da piscicultura um novo e prático equipamento que visa auxiliar na medição indireta do peso de surubins, promovendo um melhor desempenho e padroinização do procedimento de biometria quando realizado a campo.bitstream/item/79522/1/COT42.pd

Predicting clinically signficant change in an inpatient program for people with severe mental illness

Objective: The first aim of this study was to assess the proportion of patients who achieved reliable and clinically significant change over the course of treatment in an inpatient psychosocial rehabilitation program. The second aim was to determine whether age, gender, length of stay, and diagnosis and co-morbid diagnosis predicted those who were classified as improved or not improved, using clinical significance criteria. Method: Three hundred and thirty-seven patients from inpatient units at Bloomfield Hospital, Orange, New South Wales, Australia were assessed at admission, 3-month reviews and discharge using the expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales and the Kessler 10. Results: Reliable and clinically significant improvement was found for 32.4% of inpatients on psychiatric symptomatology, 19.5% on psychosocial functioning and 20.2% on psychological distress. Logistic regression analyses found that the predictor variables collectively predicted those who made reliable and clinically significant improvement on psychiatric symptomatology, but not on psychosocial functioning or psychological distress. Those with a primary diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder had higher rates of improvement in psychiatric symptomatology compared to those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Those with co-morbid substance abuse disorders showed a trend towards greater improvement. Conclusions: Inpatient treatment is associated with clinically significant improvements for some patients with a severe mental illness. Patients with schizo-affective disorders are proportionally more likely to make improvement

Cellular-Defined Microenvironmental Internalization of Exosomes

The extracellular environment exhibits a potent effect on cellular growth and development. Exosomes secreted into this milieu carry functional proteins and nucleic acids from the cell of origin to recipient cells, facilitating intercellular communication. This interaction is particularly influential in the tumor microenvironment, transporting oncogenes and oncoproteins within a tumor and to distant sites. The mechanisms by which cells internalize exosomes vary greatly and the factors dictating this process are still unknown. Most cancers show evidence of exosomal transfer of material, but differences in cell type can dictate the effectiveness and extent of the process. Improving therapeutics requires addressing specific cellular functions, illustrating the need to better understand the forces involved in exosome-cell interactions. This review summarizes what is known about the different types of cells that play a role in exosome internalization

Humor appreciation of captionless cartoons in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background: It seems that the core neural regions and cognitive processes implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) pathophysiology may overlap with those involved in humor appreciation. However, to date, there have been no studies that have explored humor appreciation in OCD. The purpose of the present work was to investigate humor appreciation in a group of patients with OCD.Methods: We examined 25 patients with OCD and 25 healthy controls, matched by age, education, and gender. We administered Penn's Humor Appreciation Test (PHAT), a computerized test comprising captionless cartoons by Mordillo. Each set of stimuli consisted of two almost identical drawings, one of which was funny due to the alteration of a detail in the cartoon, whereas the other was not funny. Severity of psychopathology was evaluated with the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS).Results: No significant effect for group, gender or group × gender interaction was found on the PHAT scores. In OCD patients, humor appreciation was not significantly associated with age of onset, duration of illness, and obsessions, but correlated significantly with compulsions.Conclusions: Humor appreciation, based on captionless cartoons in OCD, does not seem to be deficient compared to healthy subjects but may be related to illness characteristics. © 2011 Bozikas et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Skeletal muscle satellite cells cultured in simulated microgravity

Satellite cells are postnatal myoblasts responsible for providing additional nuclei to growing or regenerating muscle cells. Satellite cells retain the capacity to proliferate and differentiate in vitro and therefore provide a useful model to study postnatal muscle development. Most culture systems used to study postnatal muscle development are limited by the two-dimensional (2-D) confines of the culture dish. Limiting proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells in 2-D could potentially limit cell-cell contacts important for developing the level of organization in skeletal muscle obtained in vivo. Culturing satellite cells on microcarrier beads suspended in the High-Aspect-Ratio-Vessel (HARV) designed by NASA provides a low shear, three-dimensional (3-D) environment to study muscle development. Primary cultures established from anterior tibialis muscles of growing rats (approximately 200 gm) were used for all studies and were composed of greater than 75 % satellite cells. Different inoculation densities did not affect the proliferative potential of satellite cells in the HARV. Plating efficiency, proliferation, and glucose utilization were compared between 2-D flat culture and 3-D HARV culture. Plating efficiency (cells attached - cells plated x 100) was similar between the two culture systems. Proliferation was reduced in HARV cultures and this reduction was apparent for both satellite cells and non-satellite cells. Furthermore, reduction in proliferation within the HARV could not be attributed to reduced substrate availability since glucose levels in media from HARV and 2-D cell culture were similar. Morphologically, microcarrier beads within the HARVS were joined together by cells into three-dimensional aggregates composed of greater than 10 beads/aggregate. Aggregation of beads did not occur in the absence of cells. Myotubes were often seen on individual beads or spanning the surface of two beads. In summary, proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells on microcarrier beads within the HARV bioreactor results in a three dimensional level of organization that could provide a more suitable model to study postnatal muscle development

Comparison of the diagnostic accuracy of three current guidelines for the evaluation of asymptomatic pancreatic cystic neoplasms.

Asymptomatic pancreatic cysts are a common clinical problem but only a minority of these cases progress to cancer. Our aim was to compare the accuracy to detect malignancy of the 2015 American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the 2012 International Consensus/Fukuoka (Fukuoka guidelines [FG]), and the 2010 American College of Radiology (ACR) guidelines.We conducted a retrospective study at 3 referral centers for all patients who underwent resection for an asymptomatic pancreatic cyst between January 2008 and December 2013. We compared the accuracy of 3 guidelines in predicting high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or cancer in resected cysts. We performed logistic regression analyses to examine the association between cyst features and risk of HGD or cancer.A total of 269 patients met inclusion criteria. A total of 228 (84.8%) had a benign diagnosis or low-grade dysplasia on surgical pathology, and 41 patients (15.2%) had either HGD (n = 14) or invasive cancer (n = 27). Of the 41 patients with HGD or cancer on resection, only 3 patients would have met the AGA guideline\u27s indications for resection based on the preoperative cyst characteristics, whereas 30/41 patients would have met the FG criteria for resection and 22/41 patients met the ACR criteria. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value of HGD, and/or cancer of the AGA guidelines were 7.3%, 88.2%, 10%, and 84.1%, compared to 73.2%, 45.6%, 19.5%, and 90.4% for the FG and 53.7%, 61%, 19.8%, and 88% for the ACR guidelines. In multivariable analysis, cyst size \u3e3 cm, compared to ≤3 cm, (odds ratio [OR] = 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11, 4.2) and each year increase in age (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.11) were positively associated with risk of HGD or cancer on resection.In patients with asymptomatic branch duct-intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms or mucinous cystic neoplasms who underwent resection, the prevalence rate of HGD or cancer was 15.2%. Using the 2015 AGA criteria for resection would have missed 92.6% of patients with HGD or cancer. The more inclusive FG and ACR had a higher sensitivity for HGD or cancer but lower specificity. Given the current deficiencies of these guidelines, it will be important to determine the acceptable rate of false-positives in order to prevent a single true-positive

How possible is the development of an operational psychometric method to assess the presence of the 5-HTTLPR s allele? Equivocal preliminary findings

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The s allele of the 5-hydroxytryptamine transporter-linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene has been found to be associated with neuroticism-related traits, affective temperaments and response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. The aim of the current study was to develop a psychometric tool that could at least partially substitute for laboratory testing and could predict the presence of the s allele.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study included 138 women of Caucasian origin, mean 32.20 ± 1.02 years old. All subjects completed the Hungarian standardised version of the Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) instrument and were genotyped for 5-HTTLPR using PCR. The statistical analysis included the calculation of the Index of Discrimination (D), Discriminant Function Analysis, creation of scales on the basis of the above and then item analysis and calculation of sensitivity and specificity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four indices were eventually developed, but their psychometric properties were relatively poor and their joint application did not improve the outcome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We could not create a scale that predicts the 5-HTTLPR genotype with sufficient sensitivity and specificity, therefore we could not substitute a psychometric scale for laboratory genetic testing in predicting genotype, and also possibly affective disorder characterisation and treatment.</p