Fractionation of Zn, Cd and Pb in a Tropical Soil After Nine-Year Sewage Sludge Applications

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Biomass and Stand Characteristics of a Highly Productive Mixed Douglas-Fir and Western Hemlock Plantation in Coastal Washington

Aboveground biomass predictive equations were developed for a highly productive 47-year-old mixed Douglas-fir and western hemlock stand in southwest Washington State to characterize the preharvest stand attributes for the Fall River Long-Term Site Productivity Study. The equations were developed using detailed biomass data taken from 31 Douglas-fir and 11 western hemlock trees within the original stand. The stand had an average of 615 live trees per hectare, with an average dbh of 35.6 cm (39.1 cm for Douglas-fir and 33.3 cm for western hemlock) and an average total tree height of 31.6 m (32.8 m for Douglas-fir and 30.2 m for western hemlock). Equations developed were of the form In Y = b(1) + b(2) In dbh, where Y = biomass in kg, dbh = diameter in cm at 1.3 m height, b(1) = intercept, and b(2) = slope of equation. Each tree part was estimated separately and also combined into total aboveground biomass. The total aboveground biomass estimation equations were In Y = -0.9950 + 2.0765 In dbh for Douglas-fir, and In Y = -1.6612 + 2.2321 In dbh for western hemlock. The estimate of the aboveground live-free biomass was of 395 Mg ha(-1) (235 Mg ha(-1) for Douglas-fir and 160 Mg ha(-1) for western hemlock), with 9.5, 29.3, 12.9, 308, and 32.7 Mg ha(-1) in the foliage, live branches, dead branches, stem wood, and stem hark, respectively. When compared with biomass estimates from six other studies, ranging in age from 22 to 110 years and from 96.3 to 636 Mg ha(-1), the biomass of the Fall River site was relatively high for its age, indicating very high productivity.

Spoligotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates from patients residents of 11 states of Brazil

One of the high tuberculosis (TB) incidence countries in the world, Brazil is characterized by considerable differences in TB incidence on regional and state level. In the present study, we describe Brazilian spoligotypes of 1991 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) clinical isolates from patients residents of 11 states from different regions of the country, diagnosed between 1996 and 2005. By performing spoligotyping on a large number of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, one of the main objectives of this study was to determine the major genotype families causing TB in Brazil and to verify the region-associated genotype distribution. We observed a total of 577 distinct spoligopatterns, 12.6% of these corresponded to orphan patterns while 87.4% belonged to 326 shared-types (SITs). Among the latter, 86 SITs (isolated from 178 patients) had been observed for the first time in this study, the most frequent being SIT2517 which belonged to the T3-ETH lineage and was exclusively found among patients residents of Belem, the capital of the state of Para (n = 8 isolates). Irrespective of shared-type labeling, a total of 19.5% strains were unique (unclustered) in our study as opposed to 80.5% clustered isolates (189 clusters, size range from 2 to 205 isolates). The three largest clusters were SIT42 of the Latin-America & Mediterranean (LAM) 9 clade (10.3%), SIT53 of the T clade (7.6%), and SIT50 of the Haarlem clade (5.4%). The predominant MTC lineages in Brazil in decreasing order belonged to the LAM (46%); the ill-defined T (18.6%); the Haarlem (12.2%), the X (4.7%), the S (1.9%), and the East African Indian (EAI) (0.85%) families. The rest of clades grouped together as Mycobacterium africanum, Mycobacterium bovis, Beijing, Central Asian (CAS), and the Manu types, represented less than 1% of the strains. Finally, about 15% of the isolates showed spoligotype signatures that were not yet classified among well-defined lineages. In conclusion, we provide hereby a first insight into the population structure of MTC isolates in Brazil, showing the predominance of both LAM and T family and the existence of region-associated genotypes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Helicobacter pylori and EBV in gastric carcinomas: Methylation status and microsatellite instability

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Association between distressing non-work-related events and occupational injuries

The following is a report on a case-control study whose objective was to investigate the association between distressing non-work-related events and occupational injures. Ninety three injured workers (cases) were matched with 372 non-injured controls in a large metallurgical factory in southeastern Brazil. Exposure to distressing non-work-related events was measured through a questionnaire focusing on situations pertaining to personal problems unrelated to work activities. The data were analyzed by adjusting a conditional logistic regression model, where occurrence of the work injury was the dependent dichotomous variable and answers from the questionnaire were independent continuous variables. The analysis showed an association between some distressing non-work-related events and occupational injuries. These findings imply expanding the horizon of preventive measures used in targeting. work injuries which have traditionally been focused on the control of strictly workplace risks.

Perivascular epithelioid cell tumor of the liver coexisting with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor

Approximately 10% of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) develop other neoplasms, either synchronously or metachronously. In this report we describe coexistence of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor and a hepatic perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa) in a 51-year-old woman with no evidence of tuberous sclerosis. A subcapsular hepatic nodule (0.8 cm in diameter) was found during surgery for symptomatic gastric neoplasm (15 cm in diameter) arising from the lesser curvature. Both tumors revealed histomorphological and immunohistochemical features confirming a diagnosis of a small incidental hepatic PEComa and a high risky extramural gastric GIST, respectively. The patient remained disease-free 25 mo after surgery with no evidence of tumor recurrence or new neoplasms. To our knowledge, this is the first report of PEComa in a patient with GIST. Hepatic lesions detected synchronously or metachronously in patients with GISTs may represent histogenetically distinct lesions and should be sampled to confirm or exclude metastatic GISTs. (C) 2008 WJG. All rights reserved.

Genetic Responses to Nanostructured Calcium-phosphate-coated Implants

Nanostructured calcium phosphate (CaP) has been histologically and biomechanically proven to enhance osseointegration of implants; however, conventional techniques were not sufficiently sensitive to capture its biological effects fully. Here, we compared the conventional removal torque (RTQ) evaluation and gene expression in tissues around nanostructured CaP-coated implants, using real-time RT-PCR, with those of uncoated implants, in a rabbit model. At 2 wks, RTQ values were significantly higher, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) expression was significantly higher, and runt-related transcription factor 2 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha expressions were significantly lower in the coated than in the uncoated implants. This indicates that inflammatory responses were suppressed and osteoprogenitor activity increased around the CaP-coated surface. At 4 wks, although RTQ values did not significantly differ between the 2 groups, ALP and osteocalcin (OCN) were significantly up-regulated in the coated group, indicating progressive mineralization of the bone around the implant. Moreover, an osteoclast marker, adenosine triphosphatase, which indicates acidification of the resorption lacunae, was significantly higher for the coated implants, suggesting gradual resorption of the CaP coating. This study reveals detailed genetic responses to nanostructured CaP-coated implants and provides evidence that the effect of nanotopography is significant during the osseointegration cascade.

Medicinal Mushroom Growth as Affected by Non-Axenic Casing Soil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Effects of meal size and proximal-distal segmentation on gastric activity

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Polymorphisms of the TLR2 and TLR4 genes are associated with risk of gastric cancer in a Brazilian population

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

An interactive environment for solid modeling based on free software

This paper describes an interactive environment built entirely upon public domain or free software, intended to be used as the preprocessor of a finite element package for the simulation of three-dimensional electromagnetic problems.

The force, power, and energy of the 100 meter sprint

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Commissioning and performance of the CMS silicon strip tracker with cosmic ray muons

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is described. The detector operates at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It was conceived to study proton-proton (and lead-lead) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 14 TeV (5.5 TeV nucleon-nucleon) and at luminosities up to 10(34)cm(-2)s(-1) (10(27)cm(-2)s(-1)). At the core of the CMS detector sits a high-magnetic-field and large-bore superconducting solenoid surrounding an all-silicon pixel and strip tracker, a lead-tungstate scintillating-crystals electromagnetic calorimeter, and a brass-scintillator sampling hadron calorimeter. The iron yoke of the flux-return is instrumented with four stations of muon detectors covering most of the 4 pi solid angle. Forward sampling calorimeters extend the pseudo-rapidity coverage to high values (vertical bar eta vertical bar <= 5) assuring very good hermeticity. The overall dimensions of the CMS detector are a length of 21.6 m, a diameter of 14.6 m and a total weight of 12500 t.

An application of the Element Free Galerkin Method to the analysis of quantum well structures

In order to obtain the quantum-mechanical properties of layered semicondutor structures (quantum well and superlattice structures, for instance), solutions of the Schrodinger equation should be obtained for arbitrary potential profiles. In this paper, it is shown that such problems may be also studied by the Element Free Galerkin Method.