Polyclonal endemicity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a teaching hospital from Brazil: molecular typing of decade-old strains

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

Assessment of genetic relationship between Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca samples isolated from a dental office

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES OF SOME SPECIES OF THE GENUS COFFEA .1. NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF FLAVONOID COMPOUNDS

Flavonoid compounds were analyzed in ripe fruit pulp of ten species of Coffea, including two cultivars of C. arabica and two of C. canephora. Three coefficients of similarity: Simple-Matching, Jaccard and Ochiai and three different clustering methods, Single Linkage, Complete Linkage and Unweighted Pair Group, Using Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA), were used to analyze the data.Jaccard and Ochiai's coefficients of association showed a more coherent result, when compared with taxonomic and hybridization studies. Inclusion of Psilanthopsis kapakata in the genus Coffea, as C. kapakata, is justified by the similarity of this species with other studied species, and clusters clearly approximate the species C. arabica and C. eugenioides. The latter is one of the possible parents of the allotetraploid species C. arabica, C. congensis is the only species whose position remains ambiguous, probably due to the fact that the plants of this species that were introduced into the Campinas collections, were hybrids and not typical of C. congensis.

PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES OF SOME SPECIES OF THE GENUS COFFEA .2. NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF ISOENZYMATIC DATA

Thirteen species of Coffea were studied for five enzymes systems, including alpha and beta esterase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, malate dehydrogenase and acid dehydrogenase. Three coefficients of similarity: Simple Matching, Jaccard and Ochiai and three different clustering methods: Single Linkage, Complete Linkage and Unweighted Pair Group, using Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA) were used to analyse the data.The phylogenetic relationships among the twelve diploid species and between them and the tetraploid species C. arabica showed that similarity among species of the same subsection is not always greater than among species of different subsections. In addition, although there are several similarity groups in common, established by isoenzymatic polymorphism, morphological characteristics, chemical data, crossability and geographic distribution, there is no common trend among the phylogenetic relationships as indicated by all these different evaluating procedures.

CENSUS HISTOGRAMS: A SIMPLE FEATURE EXTRACTION and MATCHING APPROACH FOR FACE RECOGNITION

Most face recognition approaches require a prior training where a given distribution of faces is assumed to further predict the identity of test faces. Such an approach may experience difficulty in identifying faces belonging to distributions different from the one provided during the training. A face recognition technique that performs well regardless of training is, therefore, interesting to consider as a basis of more sophisticated methods. In this work, the Census Transform is applied to describe the faces. Based on a scanning window which extracts local histograms of Census Features, we present a method that directly matches face samples. With this simple technique, 97.2% of the faces in the FERET fa/fb test were correctly recognized. Despite being an easy test set, we have found no other approaches in literature regarding straight comparisons of faces with such a performance. Also, a window for further improvement is presented. Among other techniques, we demonstrate how the use of SVMs over the Census Histogram representation can increase the recognition performance.

A simple spectrophotometric method for the determination of captopril in pharmaceutical preparations using ammonium molybdate

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

A Simple Method Based on ICP-MS for Estimation of Background Levels of Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, Manganese, Nickel, Lead, and Selenium in Blood of the Brazilian Population

Throughout the world, biomonitoring has become the standard for assessing exposure of individuals to toxic elements as well as for responding to serious environmental public health problems. However, extensive biomonitoring surveys require rapid and simple analytical methods. Thus, a simple and high-throughput method is proposed for the determination of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in blood samples by using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Prior to analysis, 200 l of blood samples was mixed with 500 l of 10% v/v tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution, incubated for 10 min, and subsequently diluted to 10 ml with a solution containing 0.05% w/v ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) + 0.005% v/v Triton X-100. After that, samples were directly analyzed by ICP-MS (ELAN DRC II). Rhodium was selected as an internal standard with matrix-matching calibration. Method detection limits were 0.08, 0.04, 0.5, 0.09, 0.12, 0.04, and 0.1 g//L for As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se, respectively. Validation data are provided based on the analysis of blood samples from the trace elements inter-\comparison program operated by the Institut National de Sante Publique du Quebec, Canada. Additional validation was provided by the analysis of human blood samples by the proposed method and by using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The method was subsequently applied for the estimation of background metal blood values in the Brazilian population. In general, the mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se in blood were 1.1, 0.4, 890, 9.6, 2.1, 65.4, and 89.3 g/L, respectively, and are in agreement with other global populations. Influences of age, gender, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and geographical variation on the values were also considered. Smoking habits influenced the levels of Cd in blood. The levels of Cu, Mn, and Pb were significantly correlated with gender, whereas Cu and Pb were significantly correlated with age. There were also interesting differences in Mn and Se levels in the population living in the north of Brazil compared to the south.

L'etude des signaux de 13C PAR microordinateur un programme simple et rapide

We present an unsophisticated and prompt software for the study of the spectroscopic properties of natural products. The main program searches substructures into the data set, selects the matching substructures and tests the selectivity of its chemical shifts for each skeleton. Some applications are presented. © 1990.

A simple solution for the flavor question

We consider a simple way of solving the flavor question by embedding the three-family standard model in a semisimple gauge group extending minimally the weak isospin factor. Quantum chiral anomalies between families of fermions cancel with a matching of the number of families and the number of color degrees of freedom. Our demonstration shows how the theory leads to determination of families structure when the standard model is the input at low energies. The new physics is limited to start below a few TeVs within the reach of the next generation colliders.

Estimativas do coeficiente de herdabilidade entre e dentro de famílias F5 de soja

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A simple method based on ICP-MS for estimation of background levels of arsenic, cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, and selenium in blood of the Brazillian population

Throughout the world, biomonitoring has become the standard for assessing exposure of individuals to toxic elements as well as for responding to serious environmental public health problems. However, extensive biomonitoring surveys require rapid and simple analytical methods. Thus, a simple and high-throughput method is proposed for the determination of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in blood samples by using inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICPMS). Prior to analysis, 200 ml of blood samples was mixed with 500 ml of 10% v/v tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution, incubated for 10 min, and subsequently diluted to 10 ml with a solution containing 0.05% w/v ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) + 0.005% v/v Triton X-100. After that, samples were directly analyzed by ICP-MS (ELAN DRC II). Rhodium was selected as an internal standard with matrix-matching calibration. Method detection limits were 0.08, 0.04, 0.5, 0.09, 0.12, 0.04, and 0.1 mg//L for As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se, respectively. Validation data are provided based on the analysis of blood samples from the trace elements inter-\comparison program operated by the Institut National de Santé Publique du Quebec, Canada. Additional validation was provided by the analysis of human blood samples by the proposed method and by using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The method was subsequently applied for the estimation of background metal blood values in the Brazilian population. In general, the mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se in blood were 1.1, 0.4, 890, 9.6, 2.1, 65.4, and 89.3 mg/L, respectively, and are in agreement with other global populations. Influences of age, gender, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and geographical variation on the values were also considered. Smoking habits influenced the levels of Cd in blood. The levels of Cu, Mn, and Pb were significantly correlated with gender, whereas Cu and Pb were significantly correlated with age. There were also interesting differences in Mn and Se levels in the population living in the north of Brazil compared to the south.