Fecal androgen levels in common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) males living in captive family groups

In captive common marmoset groups, the reproductive inhibition observed in subordinate female seems to be a result of olfactory, visual and behavioral cues from the dominant female. However, few studies have examined the relationship among adult males living in the same social group. These studies have shown that reproductive failure among peer males seems to be based on hormonal and behavioral mechanisms. New insights on sexual strategies in primates have been shown using fecal steroids, but so far no information is available for common marmoset males. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of light-dark cycle, age and reproductive condition on the profile of fecal androgens in males living in the same family group. Feces were collected from six fathers and six sons for androgen determination during the light phase of the 24-h cycle for eight days randomly distributed over a 4-week period. Androgen levels were determined by enzyme immunoassay technique. Adult sons showed higher androgen levels (166.97 ± 22.95 ng/g) than fathers (80.69 ± 44.38 ng/g) and juveniles (49.06 ± 23.15 ng/g; P < 0.05). No diurnal variation (P > 0.05) in fecal androgen profile was observed in adults or juveniles. No indication of androgen-mediated social competition between fathers and adult sons was demonstrable. These results provide basic information on fecal androgen profile useful to investigate the socioendocrinology of free-ranging common marmoset males and verify that, in contrast to daughters, the reproductive suppression of sons is not based on physiological inhibition of their gonads

Efetividade da terapia fisica descongestiva na cicatrização de úlceras venosas

A venous ulcer is the most serious clinical manifestation of chronic venous failure, and the most frequent in lower limbs, accounting for 70% of all ulcers. Patients may suffer from this infirmity for several years without healing of the lesion if treatment is inadequate. The aim of this investigation was to verify the effectiveness of decongestive physical therapy in the healing of venous ulcers. This is a quasi-experimental, interventionist study, with paired, non-probabilistic sampling, composed of 50 patients divided into two groups: control and intervention, each composed of 25 patients. Both groups were identically treated for six months with daily dressings and the latter also underwent complex physical therapy consisting of a combination of the following techniques: manual lymphatic drainage, compression bandaging, lower limb elevation, myolymphokinetic exercises and skin care. The study was approved (Protocol no. 59/2007) by the Ethics Committee of the State University of Southeast Bahia. The Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests were applied for data analysis. After statistical analysis the patients who underwent therapy showed a statistically significant difference with respect to wound contraction starting in the second month of treatment. Compared to the control, the intervention group showed a greater reduction in both pain and edema starting in the third and fourth month of therapy, respectively. To reinforce these findings, the mean percentage of tissue present at the base of the ulcer (granulation/fibrin ratio) was calculated. The intervention group showed greater granulation at the base of the ulcer compared to the control, significant from the second month of treatment on. It was observed in this study that lymphotherapy, when compared between the intervention and control groups, accelerated the healing process, and reduced pain and edema in the affected limbs. It is expected, therefore, that these results widen scientific knowledge and we suggest that this therapy be used 78 not only to reduce lymphedema, but also as a treatment option for venous ulcers, given its easy application and low cost. The data, therefore, demonstrated the importance of basic care on the part of a multiprofessional and transdisciplinary health team involved in the healing process of these infirmities, thereby contributing to better quality of life in these individuals

Avaliação da dor oncológica: estudo comparativo com pacientes internados em um hospital de referência em Natal/RN

Quasi-experimental study, with prospective data, comparative with quantitative approach, performed in a reference hospital, aiming to identify the effectiveness of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and McGill Pain Questionnaire, used simultaneously, to evaluate a group of patients with oncologic pain (Experimental Group); to identify the effectiveness of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) to evaluate a group of patients with oncologic pain (Control Group); to identify the resolution of pain according to prescribed medication, considering the result of the rating scales, and to compare it between the two groups of patients in the study. The population consisted of 100 patients, with both the experimental and control groups being composed of 50 people, with data collected from February to April 2010. The results show that in the experimental group, 32% of the patients were aged 60 to 69, 80% were female; 30% had a primary tumor in the breast, 58% had metastasis, and on 70% the disease was localized. In the first pain evaluation, 26% identified it as light; 46%, moderate; and 28%, severe; with an average of 5.50. In the second pain evaluation, 2% reported no pain; 70%, light; 26%, moderate. and 2%, severe, with an average of 3.30. On those with moderate pain, 60% used non-opioid medicine, 25% under severe pain were medicated with non-opioids and 41.67% with weak opioids. Regarding the Pain Management Index (PMI), 44.0% were rated as "-1". In the control group, 28% were aged 40 to 49, and 54% were male; 20% had primary tumor in the breast and genital-urinary system, consecutively; 56% presented metastasis; on 64% the disease was localized. In the first pain evaluation, 14% considered it light; 42%, moderate; and 44%, severe; with an average of 6.26. In the second pain evaluation, 18% did not signal pain; on 38% pain was light; 40%, moderate; and 4%, severe; with an average of 3.0. Regarding medicine therapy, 71.43% with moderate pain used non-opioids, 22.73% with severe pain used non-opioids and 27.27% weak opioids. Considering PMI, 42% were rated "-1"; and 42%, rated "0". We conclude that, despite the importance of pain as the 5th vital sign, it is still under-identified and under-treated by professionals. Nevertheless, studied oncologic patients had a tendency to report pain more easily when evaluated with the NRS instrument than with the combined use of NRS and MPQ. We believe, however, that the combination of these two instruments represents a more effective evaluation of pain, as it allows comprehension of its quantitative and qualitative aspects. We recommend, however, the replication of this study on a larger population, for a longer span of time, and consequently generating more evaluations, so this can confirm or deny the hypothesis that NRS and MPQ can, together, better evaluate pain on the oncologic patient

Uma nova proposta de antenas Quasi-Yagi banda larga para comunicação sem fio

ln this work, planar quasi- Y agi antennas are investigated based on the concept of the classic Y agi_Uda antennas. These antennas represent improvements on the topologies of the antennas existing printed because they present characteristics of broad bandwidth, excellent radiation diagrams and simple construction. New configurations are adapted for the driver of the antennas, introducing patches elements into the driver. These new configurations are named Patches Elements Anteonas (PEA). This adaptation is obtained from simulations that are executed usiog the software C8T Microwave 8tudio 5. After doing the optimizations, procedures for construction and measurement ofthe prototypes are executed in order to improve the performance of the antennas in such way that they could be used in wireless communication applications, such as Bluetooth, WLAN' s and Wi-Fi. Next, the quasi- Y agi antennas are studied in order to implement them in arrangements. The arrangements construction is based 00 the best driver configuration of the antenna developed in this work. First, a linear arrangement composed by two elements of quasi¬Yagi antennas is constructed in such way that the radiation characteristics and the mutual coupling effects could be analyzed. After that, a 90° angle arrangement composed by two elements is studied to observe the effect of circular polarization. Experiments are executed in order to evaluate the arrangements performance. The experimental results show that the analysis made in this work is efficient and accurate. The numerical values obtained for the analyzed parameters of each structure developed are compared with the experimental values. 80, it is possible to observe a good concordance between them. Finally, some future works proposals are presented

Espectro de Polariton de Plasmons e Ondas de Luz em Quasi-Cristais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Ondas de spin em quasi-cristais magnônicos

In this paper we investigate the spectra of band structures and transmittance in magnonic quasicrystals that exhibit the so-called deterministic disorders, specifically, magnetic multilayer systems, which are built obeying to the generalized Fibonacci (only golden mean (GM), silver mean (SM), bronze mean (BM), copper mean (CM) and nickel mean (NM) cases) and k-component Fibonacci substitutional sequences. The theoretical model is based on the Heisenberg Hamiltonian in the exchange regime, together with the powerful transfer matrix method, and taking into account the RPA approximation. The magnetic materials considered are simple cubic ferromagnets. Our main interest in this study is to investigate the effects of quasiperiodicity on the physical properties of the systems mentioned by analyzing the behavior of spin wave propagation through the dispersion and transmission spectra of these structures. Among of these results we detach: (i) the fragmentation of the bulk bands, which in the limit of high generations, become a Cantor set, and the presence of the mig-gap frequency in the spin waves transmission, for generalized Fibonacci sequence, and (ii) the strong dependence of the magnonic band gap with respect to the parameters k, which determines the amount of different magnetic materials are present in quasicrystal, and n, which is the generation number of the sequence k-component Fibonacci. In this last case, we have verified that the system presents a magnonic band gap, whose width and frequency region can be controlled by varying k and n. In the exchange regime, the spin waves propagate with frequency of the order of a few tens of terahertz (THz). Therefore, from a experimental and technological point of view, the magnonic quasicrystals can be used as carriers or processors of informations, and the magnon (the quantum spin wave) is responsible for this transport and processing

Sistemas Nanoestruturados: Heteroestruturas Quasi-Periódicas de Nitretos e Cálculos Ab initio em Polimorfos CaCO3

The physical properties and the excitations spectrum in oxides and semiconductors materials are presented in this work, whose the first part presents a study on the confinement of optical phonons in artificial systems based on III-V nitrides, grown in periodic and quasiperiodic forms. The second part of this work describes the Ab initio calculations which were carried out to obtain the optoeletronic properties of Calcium Oxide (CaO) and Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) crystals. For periodic and quasi-periodic superlattices, we present some dynamical properties related to confined optical phonons (bulk and surface), obtained through simple theories, such as the dielectric continuous model, and using techniques such as the transfer-matrix method. The localization character of confined optical phonon modes, the magnitude of the bands in the spectrum and the power laws of these structures are presented as functions of the generation number of sequence. The ab initio calculations have been carried out using the CASTEP software (Cambridge Total Sequential Energy Package), and they were based on ultrasoft-like pseudopotentials and Density Functional Theory (DFT). Two di®erent geometry optimizations have been e®ectuated for CaO crystals and CaCO3 polymorphs, according to LDA (local density approximation) and GGA (generalized gradient approximation) approaches, determining several properties, e. g. lattice parameters, bond length, electrons density, energy band structures, electrons density of states, e®ective masses and optical properties, such as dielectric constant, absorption, re°ectivity, conductivity and refractive index. Those results were employed to investigate the confinement of excitons in spherical Si@CaCO3 and CaCO3@SiO2 quantum dots and in calcium carbonate nanoparticles, and were also employed in investigations of the photoluminescence spectra of CaCO3 crystal

Efeitos do treino em esteira com suporte parcial de peso e do método de facilitação neuromuscular proprioceptiva na marcha hemiparética: estudo comparativo

Objective: To compare the effects of the treadmill training with partial body-weight support (TPBWS) and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) method on gait of subjects with chronic stroke. Design: Quasi-experimental study. Setting: Laboratorial research. Participants: Twenty-three subjects (13 men and 10 women), with a mean age of 56,7 ± 8,0 years and a mean time since the onset of the stroke of 27,7 ± 20,3 months, and able to walk with personal assistance or assistive devices. Interventions: Two experimental groups underwent gait training based on PNF method (PNF group, n=11) or using the TPBWS - Gait Trainer System 2, Biodex, USA (TPBWS group, n=12), for three weekly sessions, during four weeks. Measures: Evaluation of motor function - using the Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM) and the motor subscale of the Functional Independence Measure (motor FIM) -, and kinematic gait analyze with the Qualisys System (Qualisys Medical AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) were carried out before and after the interventions. Results: Increases in the STREAM scores (F=49.189, P<0.001) and in motor FIM scores (F=7.093, P=0.016), as well as improvement in symmetry ratio (F=7.729, P=0.012) were observed for both groups. Speed, stride length and double-support time showed no change after training. Differences between groups were observed only for the maximum ankle dorsiflexion over the swing phase (F=6.046, P=0.024), which showed an increase for the PNF group. Other angular parameters remain unchanged. Conclusion: Improvement in motor function and in gait symmetry was observed for both groups, suggesting similarity of interventions. The cost-effectiveness of each treatment should be considered for your choice