EXPRESSION OF GENES RELATED TO MYOSTATIN SIGNALING DURING RAT SKELETAL MUSCLE LONGITUDINAL GROWTH

In this study we investigated the gene expression of proteins related to myostatin (MSTN) signaling during skeletal muscle longitudinal growth. To promote muscle growth, Wistar male rats were submitted to a stretching protocol for different durations (12, 24, 48, and 96 hours). Following this protocol, soleus weight and length and sarcomere number were determined. In addition, expression levels of the genes that encode MSTN, follistatin isoforms 288 and 315 (FLST288 and FLST315), follistatin-like 3 protein (FLST-L3), growth and differentiation factor-associated protein-1 (GASP-1), activin IIB receptor (ActIIB), and SMAD-7 were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Prolonged stretching increased soleus weight, length, and sarcomere number. In addition, MSTN gene expression was increased at 12-24 hours, followed by a decrease at 96 hours when compared with baseline values. FLST isoforms, FLST-L3, and GASP-1 mRNA levels increased significantly over all time-points. ActIIB gene expression decreased quickly at 12-24 hours. SMAD-7 mRNA levels showed a late increase at 48 hours, which peaked at 96 hours. The gene expression pattern of inhibitory proteins related to MSTN signaling suggests a strong downregulation of this pathway in response to prolonged stretching. Muscle Nerve 40: 992-999, 2009

Care during the intensive phase: promotion of adherence

The standards in this chapter focus on maximising the patient`s ability to adhere to the treatment prescribed. Many people are extremely shocked when they are told they have TB, some refuse to accept it and others are relieved to find out what is wrong and that treatment is available. The reaction depends on many factors, including cultural beliefs and values, previous experience and knowledge of the disease. Even though TB is more common among vulnerable groups, it can affect anyone and it is important for patients to be able to discuss their concerns in relation to their own individual context. The cure for TB relies on the patient receiving a full, uninterrupted course of treatment, which can only be achieved if the patient and the health service work together. A system needs to be in place to trace patients who miss their appointments for treatment (late patients). The best success will be achieved through the use of flexible, innovative and individualised approaches. The treatment and care the patient has received will inevitably have an impact on his or her willingness to attend in the future. A well-defined system of late patient tracing is mandatory in all situations. However, when the rates are high (above 10%), any tracing system will be useless without also examining the service as a whole.

City tuberculosis control coordinators` perspectives of patient adherence to DOT in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, 2005

SETTING: Thirty-six priority cities in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, with a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) cases, deaths and treatment default. OBJECTIVE: To identify the perspectives of city TB control coordinators regarding the most important components of adherence strategies adopted by health care teams to ensure patient adherence in 36 priority cities in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. DESIGN: Qualitative research with semi-structured interviews conducted with the coordinators of the National TB Control Programme involved in the management of TB treatment services in the public sector. RESULTS: The main issues thought to influence adherence to directly observed treatment (DOT) by coordinators include incentives and benefits delivered to patients, patient-health care worker bonding and comprehensive care, the encouragement given by others to follow treatment (family, neighbours and health professionals), and help provided by health professionals for patients to recover their self-esteem. CONCLUSION: The main aspects mentioned by city TB control coordinators regarding patient adherence to treatment and to DOT in Sao Paulo are improvements in communications, relationships based on trust, a humane approach and including the patients in the decision-making process concerning their health.

Gait Pattern Adaptation for an Active Lower-Limb Orthosis Based on Neural Networks

This work deals with neural network (NN)-based gait pattern adaptation algorithms for an active lower-limb orthosis. Stable trajectories with different walking speeds are generated during an optimization process considering the zero-moment point (ZMP) criterion and the inverse dynamic of the orthosis-patient model. Additionally, a set of NNs is used to decrease the time-consuming analytical computation of the model and ZMP. The first NN approximates the inverse dynamics including the ZMP computation, while the second NN works in the optimization procedure, giving an adapted desired trajectory according to orthosis-patient interaction. This trajectory adaptation is added directly to the trajectory generator, also reproduced by a set of NNs. With this strategy, it is possible to adapt the trajectory during the walking cycle in an on-line procedure, instead of changing the trajectory parameter after each step. The dynamic model of the actual exoskeleton, with interaction forces included, is used to generate simulation results. Also, an experimental test is performed with an active ankle-foot orthosis, where the dynamic variables of this joint are replaced in the simulator by actual values provided by the device. It is shown that the final adapted trajectory follows the patient intention of increasing the walking speed, so changing the gait pattern. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011

A solid-like FEM for geometrically non-linear 3D frames

This study presents a solid-like finite element formulation to solve geometric non-linear three-dimensional inhomogeneous frames. To achieve the desired representation, unconstrained vectors are used instead of the classic rigid director triad; as a consequence, the resulting formulation does not use finite rotation schemes. High order curved elements with any cross section are developed using a full three-dimensional constitutive elastic relation. Warping and variable thickness strain modes are introduced to avoid locking. The warping mode is solved numerically in FEM pre-processing computational code, which is coupled to the main program. The extra calculations are relatively small when the number of finite elements. with the same cross section, increases. The warping mode is based on a 2D free torsion (Saint-Venant) problem that considers inhomogeneous material. A scheme that automatically generates shape functions and its derivatives allow the use of any degree of approximation for the developed frame element. General examples are solved to check the objectivity, path independence, locking free behavior, generality and accuracy of the proposed formulation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Study of soils by thermal analysis

The study of soils is very important in the geological and geological engineering researches. A study of ten samples of soils was carried out by thermal analysis, and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry to understand soil evolution in Angra dos Reis region, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The sample collection sites were chosen based on geological characteristics, the soil layer thickness, the soil composition pattern, and whether or not it was moved either by erosion or by gravitational shifts. Because of the humid tropical climatic condition, natural soils tend to show great thickness of weathered mantles with formation of saprolites and saprolite soils. Kaolinite is an important secondary mineral which can be formed from many different minerals, like k-mica and k-feldspar and can be weathered to gibbsite. The results from TG/DTG and DTA indicated which soils had more weathering, and the same results were obtained by XRF, when silica/aluminum ratios from samples are compared with thermal analysis results.

Molecular characterization of a miraculin-like gene differentially expressed during coffee development and coffee leaf miner infestation

The characterization of a coffee gene encoding a protein similar to miraculin-like proteins, which are members of the plant Kunitz serine trypsin inhibitor (STI) family of proteinase inhibitors (PIs), is described. PIs are important proteins in plant defence against insects and in the regulation of proteolysis during plant development. This gene has high identity with the Richadella dulcifica taste-modifying protein miraculin and with the tomato protein LeMir; and was named as CoMir (Coffea miraculin). Structural protein modelling indicated that CoMir had structural similarities with the Kunitz STI proteins, but suggested specific folding structures. CoMir was up-regulated after coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffella) oviposition in resistant plants of a progeny derived from crosses between C. racemosa (resistant) and C. arabica (susceptible). Interestingly, this gene was down-regulated during coffee leaf miner herbivory in susceptible plants. CoMir expression was up-regulated after abscisic acid application and wounding stress and was prominent during the early stages of flower and fruit development. In situ hybridization revealed that CoMir transcripts accumulated in the anther tissues that display programmed cell death (tapetum, endothecium and stomium) and in the metaxylem vessels of the petals, stigma and leaves. In addition, the recombinant protein CoMir shows inhibitory activity against trypsin. According to the present results CoMir may act in proteolytic regulation during coffee development and in the defence against L. coffeella. The similarity of CoMir with other Kunitz STI proteins and the role of CoMir in plant development and plant stress are discussed.

New prediction methods for CO2 evaporation inside tubes: Part I - A two-phase flow pattern map and a flow pattern based phenomenological model for two-phase flow frictional pressure drops

An updated flow pattern map was developed for CO2 on the basis of the previous Cheng-Ribatski-Wojtan-Thome CO2 flow pattern map [1,2] to extend the flow pattern map to a wider range of conditions. A new annular flow to dryout transition (A-D) and a new dryout to mist flow transition (D-M) were proposed here. In addition, a bubbly flow region which generally occurs at high mass velocities and low vapor qualities was added to the updated flow pattern map. The updated flow pattern map is applicable to a much wider range of conditions: tube diameters from 0.6 to 10 mm, mass velocities from 50 to 1500 kg/m(2) s, heat fluxes from 1.8 to 46 kW/m(2) and saturation temperatures from -28 to +25 degrees C (reduced pressures from 0.21 to 0.87). The updated flow pattern map was compared to independent experimental data of flow patterns for CO2 in the literature and it predicts the flow patterns well. Then, a database of CO2 two-phase flow pressure drop results from the literature was set up and the database was compared to the leading empirical pressure drop models: the correlations by Chisholm [3], Friedel [4], Gronnerud [5] and Muller-Steinhagen and Heck [6], a modified Chisholm correlation by Yoon et al. [7] and the flow pattern based model of Moreno Quiben and Thome [8-10]. None of these models was able to predict the CO2 pressure drop data well. Therefore, a new flow pattern based phenomenological model of two-phase flow frictional pressure drop for CO2 was developed by modifying the model of Moreno Quiben and Thome using the updated flow pattern map in this study and it predicts the CO2 pressure drop database quite well overall. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electro-optically sensitive diamond-like carbon thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering for electronic device applications

The goal of this work is to study and relate electrical and optical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films for applications in electronic devices. DLC films were deposited in a reactive RF magnetron sputtering system on p-type silicon and glass substrates. The target was a 99.9999% pure, 6 in. diameter graphite plate and methane was used as processing gas. Eight DLC films were produced for each substrate, varying deposition time, the reactor pressure between 5 mTorr and 10 mTorr while the RF power was applied at 13.56 MHz and varied between 100, 150, 200 and 250W. After deposition, the films were analyzed by I-V and C-V measurements (Cheng et al. (2004) [1]) in order to determine the electric resistivity, photo-current response and dielectric constant, optical transmittance, used to find the optical gap by the Tauc method; and by photoluminescence analysis to determine the photoemission and confirm the optical band gap. These characteristics are compared and the influence of the deposition parameters is discussed. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Nanostructured diamond-like carbon films characterization

In this work, we have studied the influence of the substrate surface condition on the roughness and the structure of the nanostructured DLC films deposited by high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition Four methods were used to modify the silicon wafers surface before starting the deposition processes of the nanostructured DLC films. micro-diamond powder dispersion, micro-graphite powder dispersion, and roughness generation by wet chemical etching and roughness generation by plasma etching. The reference wafer was only submitted to a chemical cleaning. It was possible to see that the final roughness and the sp(3) hybridization degree (that is related with the structure and chemical composition) strongly depend on the substrate surface conditions The surface roughness was observed by AFM and SEM and the hybridization degree of the DLC films was analyzed by Raman Spectroscopy Thus, the effects of the substrate surface on the DLC film structure were confirmed. These phenomena can be explained by the fact that the locally higher surface energy and the sharp edges may induce local defects promoting the nanostructured characteristics in the DLC films. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of substrate surface topography in the deposition of nanostructured diamond-like carbon films by high density plasma chemical vapor deposition

In this work, we have studied the influence of the substrate surface condition on the roughness and the structure of the nanostructured DLC films deposited by High Density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition. Four methods were used to modify the silicon wafers surface before starting the deposition processes of the nanostructured DLC films: micro-diamond powder dispersion, micro-graphite powder dispersion, and roughness generation by wet chemical etching and roughness generation by plasma etching. The reference wafer was only submitted to a chemical cleaning. It was possible to see that the final roughness and the sp(3) hybridization degree strongly depend on the substrate surface conditions. The surface roughness was observed by AFM and SEM and the hybridization degree of the DLC films was analyzed by Raman Spectroscopy. In these samples, the final roughness and the sp(3) hybridization quantity depend strongly on the substrate surface condition. Thus, the effects of the substrate surface on the DLC film structure were confirmed. These phenomena can be explained by the fact that the locally higher surface energy and the sharp edges may induce local defects promoting the nanostructured characteristics in the DLC films. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of plaque composition by intravascular ultrasound ""virtual histology"": the impact of dense calcium on the measurement of necrotic tissue

Aims: We aimed to evaluate if the co-localisation of calcium and necrosis in intravascular ultrasound virtual histology (IVUS-VH) is due to artefact, and whether this effect can be mathematically estimated. Methods and results: We hypothesised that, in case calcium induces an artefactual coding of necrosis, any addition in calcium content would generate an artificial increment in the necrotic tissue. Stent struts were used to simulate the ""added calcium"". The change in the amount and in the spatial localisation of necrotic tissue was evaluated before and after stenting (n=17 coronary lesions) by means of a especially developed imaging software. The area of ""calcium"" increased from a median of 0.04 mm(2) at baseline to 0.76 mm(2) after stenting (p<0.01). In parallel the median necrotic content increased from 0.19 mm(2) to 0.59 mm(2) (p<0.01). The ""added"" calcium strongly predicted a proportional increase in necrosis-coded tissue in the areas surrounding the calcium-like spots (model R(2)=0.70; p<0.001). Conclusions: Artificial addition of calcium-like elements to the atherosclerotic plaque led to an increase in necrotic tissue in virtual histology that is probably artefactual. The overestimation of necrotic tissue by calcium strictly followed a linear pattern, indicating that it may be amenable to mathematical correction.

Transport Barkhausen-like noise in uniaxially pressed Bi(1.65)Pb(0.35)Sr(2)Ca(2)Cu(3)O(10+delta) ceramic samples

We report on the detection of the transport Barkhausen-like noise (TBN) in polycrystalline samples of Bi(1.65)Pb(0.35)Sr(2)Ca(2) Cu(3)O(10+delta) (Bi-2223) which were subjected to different uniaxial compacting pressures. The transport Barkhausen-like noise was measured when the sample was subjected to an ac triangular-shape magnetic field (f similar to 1 Hz) with maximum amplitude B(max) approximate to 5.5 mT, in order to avoid the flux penetration within the superconducting grains. Analysis of the TBN signal, measured for several values of excitation current density, indicated that the applied magnetic field in which the noise signal first appears, B(a)(t(i)), is closely related to the magnetic-flux pinning capability of the material. The combined results are consistent with the existence of three different superconducting levels within the samples: (i) the superconducting grains; (ii) the superconducting clusters; and (iii) the weak-links. We finally argue that TBN measurements constitute a powerful tool for probing features of the intergranular transport properties in polycrystalline samples of high-T(c) superconductors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Resource use pattern analysis for predicting resource availability in opportunistic grids

This work presents a method for predicting resource availability in opportunistic grids by means of use pattern analysis (UPA), a technique based on non-supervised learning methods. This prediction method is based on the assumption of the existence of several classes of computational resource use patterns, which can be used to predict the resource availability. Trace-driven simulations validate this basic assumptions, which also provide the parameter settings for the accurate learning of resource use patterns. Experiments made with an implementation of the UPA method show the feasibility of its use in the scheduling of grid tasks with very little overhead. The experiments also demonstrate the method`s superiority over other predictive and non-predictive methods. An adaptative prediction method is suggested to deal with the lack of training data at initialization. Further adaptative behaviour is motivated by experiments which show that, in some special environments, reliable resource use patterns may not always be detected. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Direct regeneration of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) from leaf apices of Oncidium flexuosum Sims (Orchidaceae)

The present study describes the direct regeneration of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) in leaf explants of the tropical species Oncidium flexuosum. The explants were inoculated in a solid, modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with different concentrations of the growth regulator thidiazuron (TDZ) and with or without 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), and kept away from light or in a 16-h photoperiod. The presence of auxins, 2,4-D, and NAA inhibited the formation of PLBs. The highest frequency of explants that regenerated PLBs (80%) was obtained when they were maintained in a culture medium containing 1.5 mu M TDZ under dark conditions. In the same culture medium but under a 16-h photoperiod, 95% of the leaf explants presented necrosis. Therefore, darkness was crucial for the regeneration of PLBs in O. flexuosum leaf explants, which is in disagreement with the literature. PLBs developed from the division of epidermal and subepidermal cells mainly on the adaxial side of the apex region of the explant. Plants with well-developed leaves and roots grew after the PLBs were transferred to growth regulator-free medium under a 16-h photoperiod.