Ultrastructural features of the fat body and oenocytes of Rhinocricus padbergi Verhoeff (Diplopoda, Spirobolida)

The fat body of the diplopod Rhinocricus padbergi is located in two preferential areas of its body: a) immediately below the tegument, denominated parietal, and b) filling the body cavity, close to the viscera, mainly the ovaries and alimentary canal, denominated perivisceral.Ultrastructurally, its cells, the adipocytes, presented varied morphology and contained organelles indicating that they are cells that mainly produce and store lipids and proteins. The presence of cells similar to the oenocytes found in insects was observed for the first time in diplopods, associated to the fat body of R. padbergi. Our observations suggest that this tissue probably maintains activity cycles, since the presence of cells undergoing apoptosis was detected.

Ultramorphological features of the egg of Telmatoscopus albipunctatus (Williston) (Diptera, Psychodidae)

Aspectos ultramorfológicos do ovo de Telmatoscopus albipunctatus (Williston) (Diptera, Psychodidae). As moscas da família Psychodidae, também conhecidas como moscas de banheiro, são de importância médica e veterinária. Informações gerais sobre ciclo de vida e hábitos do adulto são facilmente encontradas, mas pouco se sabe sobre a morfologia do ovo. Dessa forma, neste estudo, a ultramofologia do ovo de Telmatoscopus albipunctatus (Williston, 1893) foi analisada por microscopia eletrônica de varredura com o objetivo de descrever sua estrutura, provendo importantes dados para futuras comparações entre moscas de diferentes espécies e gêneros. O aspecto geral do ovo de T. albipunctatus é similar a outros Psychodidae, medindo aproximadamente 0.4 mm de comprimento e 0.1 mm de largura. Entretanto, baseado nas esculturas contínuas e descontínuas do exocórion, as quais podem ser espécie-específicas, podemos inferir que os ovos de T. albipunctatus podem sobreviver sob condições de muita umidade ou seca, dificultando o controle da espécie. Nossos resultados ressaltam a importância do uso da microscopia eletrônica como uma ferramenta no estudo dos padrões do exocórion. A morfologia externa do ovo de T. albipunctatus pode ser usada como base para futuros estudos e como ferramenta para comparação de diferentes espécies de moscas do gênero Psychodidae.

Ultrastructure features of the midgut of the female adult Amblyomma cajennense ticks Fabricius, 1787 (Acari: Ixodidae) in several feeding stages and subjected to three infestations

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

Histopathology and Ultrastructure Features of the Midgut of Adult Females of the Tick Amblyomma cajennense Fabricius, 1787 (Acari: Ixodidae) in Various Feeding Stages and Submitted to Three Infestations

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

Ultrastructural features of the hypopharyngeal glands in the social wasp Polistes versicolor (Hymenoptera : Vespidae)

The wasps of the genus Polistes have been considered the key to understanding the evolution of social behavior in Hymenoptera. Several studies have shown that the development of organized insect societies was accompanied by the evolution of structures like exocrine glands, which became specialized to perform specific functions. This article investigates the ultrastructural and cytochemical features of the hypopharyngeal glands of Polistes versicolor. These glands have been studied in depth in social bees, where they occur only in nurses and produce the royal jelly. Our results revealed that these glands basically did not vary among individuals or between sexes. They are constituted by spherical cells, each with a large nucleus and well-developed rough endoplasmic reticulum. Secretion vesicles are abundant, but lipid droplets were not observed, indicating that these glands may not have a role in pheromone synthesis. Acid phosphatase was detected in lysosomes, and also free in the cytosol, but did not seem to be related with cell death. Thus, our results suggest that the hypopharyngeal glands of P. versicolor may not have a specialized social role, but could produce digestive enzymes.

Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome in Machado Joseph Disease: Core Clinical Features

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

Soil profile, relief features and their relation to structure and distribution of Brazilian Atlantic rain forest trees

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

Floral development in Potamogeton (Potamogetonaceae, Alismatales) with emphasis on gynoecial features

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Psychopathological features in patients with Parkinson's disease and related caregivers' burden

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effects of postural threat on walking features of Parkinson's disease patients

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

The Xmnl polymorphic site 5 ' to the gene G gamma in a Brazilian patient with sickle cell anaemia - fetal haemoglobin concentration, haematology and clinical features

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Classification and characterization of places for mapping of environment using hierarchical neural network and omnivision

Mobile robots need autonomy to fulfill their tasks. Such autonomy is related whith their capacity to explorer and to recognize their navigation environments. In this context, the present work considers techniques for the classification and extraction of features from images, using artificial neural networks. This images are used in the mapping and localization system of LACE (Automation and Evolutive Computing Laboratory) mobile robot. In this direction, the robot uses a sensorial system composed by ultrasound sensors and a catadioptric vision system equipped with a camera and a conical mirror. The mapping system is composed of three modules; two of them will be presented in this paper: the classifier and the characterizer modules. Results of these modules simulations are presented in this paper.

Conformational features of cepacian: the exopolysaccharide produced by clinical strains of Burkholderia cepacia

Conformational energy calculations and molecular dynamics investigations, both in water and in dimethyl sulfoxide, were carried out on the exopolysaccharide cepacian produced by the majority of the clinical strains of Burkholderia cepacia, an opportunistic pathogen causing serious lung infection in patients affected by cystic fibrosis, the investigation was aimed at defining the structural and conformational features, which might be relevant for clarification of the structure-function relationships of the polymer. The molecular dynamics calculations were carried out by Ramachandran-type energy plots of the disaccharides that constitute the polymer repeating unit. The dynamics of an oligomer composed of three repeating units were investigated in water and in Me2SO, a non-aggregating solvent. Analysis of the time persistence of hydrogen bonds showed the presence of a large number of favourable interactions in water, which were less evident in Me2SO. The calculations on the cepacian chain indicated that polymer conformational features in water were affected by the lateral chains, but were also largely dictated by the presence of solvent. Moreover, the large number of intra-chain hydrogen bonds in water disappeared in Me2SO solution, increasing the average dimension of the polymer chains. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Actinic cheilitis: Clinical and histological features

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical and histological features of actinic cheilitis (AC).Patients and Methods: A total of 29 patients with AC were clinically evaluated, and incisional biopsies were performed to confirm the clinical diagnosis. Histological features were analyzed, and dysplasia was classified as mild, moderate, or severe. The chi(2) test was used for the following variables: gender, age, race, and smoking habits. The degree of dysplasia was related to these variables (Fisher's test) to test for independence between them (P <.05).Results: of the patient group, 72.41% were male, 75.86% were overage 40 years, 93.10% were white, and 72.41% were nonsmokers. Clinically, all patients presented with multifocal lesions. The following manifestations were seen: dryness, atrophy, scaly lesions, swelling of the lip, erythema, ulceration, blurred demarcation between the lip vermilion border and the skin, marked folds along the lip vermilion, white spots or plaques, crusts, blotchy areas, and areas of pallor. Keratosis, granulosis, hyperplasia, acanthosis, or atrophy and dysplasia were found in the epithelial tissue; elastosis, inflammatory infiltrate, and vasodilatation were found in the connective tissue. Dysplasia was mild in 10.34% of the patients, moderate in 27.59%, and severe in 62.07%. Absence of sample homogeneity was observed in regard to gender, age, race, and smoking habits. It was not possible to reject the hypothesis of independence between mild, moderate, or severe dysplasia and gender, age, race, and smoking habits.Conclusions: Dryness, atrophy, and scaly lesions were the most common clinical findings observed. Dysplasia, inflammatory infiltrate, and vasodilatation, as well as elastosis, were the most common histological findings observed. Gender, age, race, or smoking habits were not related to the degree of dysplasia in the sample. (c) 2008 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

Noether and topological currents equivalence and soliton/particle correspondence in affine sl(2)((1)) Toda theory coupled to matter

A submodel of the so-called conformal affine Toda model coupled to the matter field (CATM) is defined such that its real Lagrangian has a positive-definite kinetic term for the Toda field and a usual kinetic term for the (Dirac) spinor field. After spontaneously broken the conformal symmetry by means of BRST analysis, we end up with an effective theory, the off-critical affine Toda model coupled to the matter (ATM). It is shown that the ATM model inherits the remarkable properties of the general CATM model such as the soliton solutions, the particle/soliton correspondence and the equivalence between the Noether and topological currents. The classical solitonic spectrum of the ATM model is also discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.