Endothelial Progenitors Exist within the Kidney and Lung Mesenchyme

The renal endothelium has been debated as arising from resident hemangioblast precursors that transdifferentiate from the nephrogenic mesenchyme (vasculogenesis) and/or from invading vessels (angiogenesis). While the Foxd1-positive renal cortical stroma has been shown to differentiate into cells that support the vasculature in the kidney (including vascular smooth muscle and pericytes) it has not been considered as a source of endothelial cell progenitors. In addition, it is unclear if Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells in other organs such as the lung have the potential to form endothelium. This study examines the potential for Foxd1-positive cells of the kidney and lung to give rise to endothelial progenitors. We utilized immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to co-label Foxd1-expressing cells (including permanently lineage-tagged cells) with endothelial markers in embryonic and postnatal mice. We also cultured FACsorted Foxd1-positive cells, performed in vitro endothelial cell tubulogenesis assays and examined for endocytosis of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL), a functional assay for endothelial cells. Immunofluorescence and FACS revealed that a subset of Foxd1-positive cells from kidney and lung co-expressed endothelial cell markers throughout embryogenesis. In vitro, cultured embryonic Foxd1-positive cells were able to differentiate into tubular networks that expressed endothelial cell markers and were able to endocytose Ac-LDL. IF and FACS in both the kidney and lung revealed that lineage-tagged Foxd1-positive cells gave rise to a significant portion of the endothelium in postnatal mice. In the kidney, the stromal-derived cells gave rise to a portion of the peritubular capillary endothelium, but not of the glomerular or large vessel endothelium. These findings reveal the heterogeneity of endothelial cell lineages; moreover, Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells of the developing kidney and lung are a source of endothelial progenitors that are likely critical to patterning the vasculature. © 2013 Sims-Lucas et al

Os crimes de responsabilidade : o julgamento do presidente da república pelo senado federal

Orientador: João Gualberto Garcez RamosMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Curso de Graduação em DireitoO presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o papel do Senado Federal- conferido pelo artigo 86 da Constituição da República- no processamento e julgamento dos crimes de responsabilidade cometidos pelo Presidente da República- no processamento e julgamento dos crimes de responsabilidade cometidos pelo Presidente da República,refletindo sobre os aspectos jurídicos, políticos e históricos de um dos principais mecanismos de responsabilização da mais alta autoridade política do país. O tema tratado atenta para a importância da construção do Estado Democrático de Direito,cujas instituições devem ser providas de meios político-legais que lhes garantam a devida lisura e correção. Assim,serão enfocadas ,além de questões teóricas fundamentais à compreensão do instituto,as implicações práticas relativas ao processo de julgamento do Chefe de Estado

Dirty history versus clean expectations: Can energy policies provide momentum for growth?

We study the impact of economic policy on the importance of history and expectations for the macroeconomic performance of an economy. In our model the energy mix is based on the conversion of heterogeneous energy sources. Markups over marginal costs are endogenous so that the marginal revenue product of capital becomes non-monotonic in capital. We derive multiple steady states and identify regions in which initial conditions are insufficient as a selection criterion for development. In these situations, pure expectations determine the equilibrium selection process which is crucial for long-run performance. Energy policy affects the interplay between history and expectations by shifting the region where expectations matter and by affecting the location of the equilibria in the dirty and the clean economy. We find that taxes and subsidies should be used simultaneously to guide an energy transition. We argue that expectations and momentum effects are important for the energy transition because they decrease policy costs and thus raise political acceptance

Sistema colaborativa para monitoramento e geolocalização de problemas sociais e urbanos

Este artigo apresenta um sistema colaborativo para monitoramento de problemas sociais e urbanos. O trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver um sistema que mapeie os problemas sociais e urbanos através de geolocalização e disponibilizar estas informações para os usuários que se encontram na região. Os problemas encontrados são relacionados a falta de segurança e informação a respeito das áreas urbanas. Para o desenvolvimento do trabalho foram utilizados conceitos da colaboração, como a gestão de informação colaborativa, pois são os usuários da aplicação que irão gerar as ocorrências e cadastrá-las. Ainda, durante o desenvolvimento foram observadas as características voltadas a percepção de um sistema colaborativo para dispositivos móveis

The Complexity of Computing Minimal Unidirectional Covering Sets

Given a binary dominance relation on a set of alternatives, a common thread in the social sciences is to identify subsets of alternatives that satisfy certain notions of stability. Examples can be found in areas as diverse as voting theory, game theory, and argumentation theory. Brandt and Fischer [BF08] proved that it is NP-hard to decide whether an alternative is contained in some inclusion-minimal upward or downward covering set. For both problems, we raise this lower bound to the Theta_{2}^{p} level of the polynomial hierarchy and provide a Sigma_{2}^{p} upper bound. Relatedly, we show that a variety of other natural problems regarding minimal or minimum-size covering sets are hard or complete for either of NP, coNP, and Theta_{2}^{p}. An important consequence of our results is that neither minimal upward nor minimal downward covering sets (even when guaranteed to exist) can be computed in polynomial time unless P=NP. This sharply contrasts with Brandt and Fischer's result that minimal bidirectional covering sets (i.e., sets that are both minimal upward and minimal downward covering sets) are polynomial-time computable.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Ablation of the renal stroma defines its critical role in nephron progenitor and vasculature patterning

The renal stroma is an embryonic cell population located in the cortex that provides a structural framework as well as a source of endothelial progenitors for the developing kidney. The exact role of the renal stroma in normal kidney development hasn't been clearly defined. However, previous studies have shown that the genetic deletion of Foxd1, a renal stroma specific gene, leads to severe kidney malformations confirming the importance of stroma in normal kidney development. This study further investigates the role of renal stroma by ablating Foxd1-derived stroma cells themselves and observing the response of the remaining cell populations. A Foxd1cre (renal stroma specific) mouse was crossed with a diphtheria toxin mouse (DTA) to specifically induce apoptosis in stromal cells. Histological examination of kidneys at embryonic day 13.5-18.5 showed a lack of stromal tissue, mispatterning of renal structures, and dysplastic and/or fused horseshoe kidneys. Immunofluorescence staining of nephron progenitors, vasculature, ureteric epithelium, differentiated nephron progenitors, and vascular supportive cells revealed that mutants had thickened nephron progenitor caps, cortical regions devoid of nephron progenitors, aberrant vessel patterning and thickening, ureteric branching defects and migration of differentiated nephron structures into the medulla. The similarities between the renal deformities caused by Foxd1 genetic knockout and Foxd1DTA mouse models reveal the importance of Foxd1 in mediating and maintaining the functional integrity of the renal stroma. © 2014 Hum et al

Profiling Volatile Emissions from Sewage Sludge Land-Applied Across Washington State (USA) Using Headspace Sampling with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Determination

https://scholar.dsu.edu/research-symposium/1012/thumbnail.jp

Cândida auris: características clínicas de uma levedura nosocomial emergente resistente a medicamentos / Candida auris: clinical characteristics of an emerging drug-resistant nosocomial yeast

Introdução: A Candida auris é uma espécie de levedura multirresistente e emergente que causa infecções invasivas graves com alto índice de mortalidade. Foi descrita pela primeira vez em 2009 e, desde então, casos individuais ou surtos foram relatados em mais de 20 países nos cinco continentes. Possuí a capacidade de causar surtos nosocomiais em ambientes de saúde, resistência ao sistema imune inato e a múltiplos fármacos antifúngicos e sobrevida as medidas de higiene e controle de infecção. Objetivos: Realizar um levantamento sobre o gênero Candida, destacando os fatores de características gerais, fatores de risco, epidemiologia e tratamento, bem como os mecanismos de resistência do gênero aos medicamentos que estão relacionados com a falha terapêutica das infecções causadas por este fungo. Metodologia: Através de revisão bibliográfica, de caráter sistemático, tendo em vista finalidade integrativa. Conclusão: As infecções por Candida auris ocorrem com maior prevalência em países em desenvolvimento do que em países desenvolvidos, e a razão subjacente é que as ferramentas de diagnóstico eficientes ainda estão fora do alcance de muitos laboratórios de microbiologia nesses países