Ontogenetic variation of plastral spotting pattern in Phrynops hilarii (Testudines, Chelidae)

The plastral spotting variation in the chelid turtle Phrynops hilarii (Duméril & Bibron, 1835) in relation to sex, size, and geographic procedence of individuals was analyzed. States for qualitative characters were analyzed using non-parametric tests. Quantitative characters (shell and scute measurements) were standardized for body size by linear regression against carapace length, and were subjected to principal components analysis and canonical discriminant function analysis. Results suggest that increased plastral spotting is a polymorphic ontogenetic trait in P. hilarii. Neither hatchlings nor juveniles have plastral pattern moderately or heavily pigmented. The simplest pattern, however, may persist without changes in some adults. There are no differences between sexes. The spatial distribution of the plastral pattern is not ordered latitudinally or longitudinally, showing no relationship with gradients of elevation, temperature, or precipitation. This pattern trait lacks of taxonomic significance. The morphometric analysis failed to reveal any character of diagnostic utility in the plastron to support the possibility that these patterns correspond to different sympatric taxa.

HETEROTIC GROUP FORMATION IN PSIDIUM GUAJAVA L. BY ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK AND DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT The present study aimed at evaluating the heterotic group formation in guava based on quantitative descriptors and using artificial neural network (ANN). For such, we evaluated eight quantitative descriptors. Large genetic variability was found for the eight quantitative traits in the 138 genotypes of guava. The artificial neural network technique determined that the optimal number of groups was three. The grouping consistency was determined by linear discriminant analysis, which obtained classification percentage of the groups, with a value of 86 %. It was concluded that the artificial neural network method is effective to detect genetic divergence and heterotic group formation.

Skull morphometrics of adult male Antartic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, and South American fur seal A. australis

The skull morphometrics of adult male Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella (Peters, 1875) and South American fur seal, A. australis (Zimmermann, 1783) were investigated using a collection of 45 and 38 skulls, respectively. Eighteen measurements were taken for each specimen. Comparative univariate and multivariate statistical analyses included standard statistics, one-way analysis of variance, principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. Individual variation was relatively high for some variables, as expressed by the coefficient of variation. Skulls of A. gazella were larger than those of A. australis for all but two variables: squamosal jugal suture and rostral length. Both species differed significantly as shown by both univariate and multivariate analyses. The discriminant function correctly classified all specimens. The standardized canonical coefficients showed that the variables which most contribute to the differentiation between species were, in decreasing order, the rostral length, palatal length, palatal width at postcanine 5 and braincase width. The present study corroborates that A. gazella and A. australis are phenotipically distinct species.

Morphometric variability in populations of Palaemonetes spp. (Crustacea, Decapoda, Palaemonidae) from the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon Basin

Morphometric variability among shrimp populations of the genus Palaemonetes Heller, 1869 from seven lakes (Huanayo and Urcococha, in Peru; Amanã, Mamirauá, Camaleão, Cristalino e Iruçanga, in Brasil) in the Amazon Basin, presumably belonging to Palaemonetes carteri Gordon, 1935 and Palaemonetes ivonicus Holthuis, 1950, were studied. The morphometric studies were carried out from the ratios obtained from the morphometric characters. Multivariated analysis (Principal Components Analysis-PCA, Discriminant Function Analysis and Cluster Analysis) were applied over the ratios. Intra- and interpopulation variations of the rostrum teeth, and the number of spines in the male appendix, were analyzed through descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis (Spearman Rank Correlation test). Results indicated a wide plasticity and overlapping in the studied ratios between populations. The Principal Components Analysis was not able to separate different populations, revealing a large intrapopulation plasticity and strong interpopulation similarity in the studied ratios. Although the Discriminant Functions Analysis was not able to fully discriminate populations, they could be allocated in three subgroups: 1) Cristalino and Iruçanga; 2) Huanayo, Urcococha and Camaleão and 3) Mamirauá and Amanã. The first two groups were morphometrically separated from each other, whereas the third one presented a strong overlap with the former two. The Cluster Analysis confirmed the first two subgroups separation, and indicated that the first and third groups were closely related. Rostrum teeth and number of spines in the appendix masculina showed a large intrapopulation variation and a strong overlapping among the studied populations, regardless of the species.

Estimation of field capacity from ring infiltrometer-drainage data

Field capacity (FC) is a parameter widely used in applied soil science. However, its in situ method of determination may be difficult to apply, generally because of the need of large supplies of water at the test sites. Ottoni Filho et al. (2014) proposed a standardized procedure for field determination of FC and showed that such in situ FC can be estimated by a linear pedotransfer function (PTF) based on volumetric soil water content at the matric potential of -6 kPa [θ(6)] for the same soils used in the present study. The objective of this study was to use soil moisture data below a double ring infiltrometer measured 48 h after the end of the infiltration test in order to develop PTFs for standard in situ FC. We found that such ring FC data were an average of 0.03 m³ m- 3 greater than standard FC values. The linear PTF that was developed for the ring FC data based only on θ(6) was nearly as accurate as the equivalent PTF reported by Ottoni Filho et al. (2014), which was developed for the standard FC data. The root mean squared residues of FC determined from both PTFs were about 0.02 m³ m- 3. The proposed method has the advantage of estimating the soil in situ FC using the water applied in the infiltration test.

Hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos (HPAS) em cachaça, rum, uísque e álcool combustível

The concentration of 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 57 samples of distillates (cachaça, rum, whiskey, and alcohol fuel) has been determined by HPLC-Fluorescence detection. The quantitative analytical profile of PAHs treated by Partial Least Square - Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) provided a good classification of the studied spirits based on their PAHs content. Additionally, the classification of the sugar cane derivatives according to the harvest practice was obtained treating the analytical data by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), using naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, benz[b]fluoranthene, and benz[g,h,i]perylene, as a chemical descriptors.

ANÁLISE EXPLORATÓRIA DAS CONCENTRAÇÕES DOS METAIS NA, CA, MG, SR E FE EM EXTRATO AQUOSO DE PETRÓLEO, DETERMINADOS POR ICP OES, APÓS OTIMIZAÇÃO EMPREGANDO PLANEJAMENTO DE EXPERIMENTOS

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the best operating conditions of ICP OES for the determination of Na, Ca, Mg, Sr and Fe in aqueous extract of crude oil obtained after hot extraction with organic solvents (ASTM D 6470-99 modified). Thus, the full factorial design and central composite design were used to optimize the best conditions for the flow of nebulization gas, the flow of auxiliary gas, and radio frequency power. After optimization of variables, a study to obtain correct classification of the 18 samples of aqueous extract of crude oils (E1 to E18) from three production and refining fields was carried out. Exploratory analysis of these extracts was performed by principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), using the original variables as the concentration of the metals Na, Ca, Mg, Sr and Fe determined by ICP OES.

Histopathological diagnosis of intra- and extrahepatic neonatal cholestasis

The histopathology of the liver is fundamental for the differential diagnosis between intra- and extrahepatic causes of neonatal cholestasis. However, histopathological findings may overlap and there is disagreement among authors concerning those which could discriminate between intra- and extrahepatic cholestasis. Forty-six liver biopsies (35 wedge biopsies and 11 percutaneous biopsies) and one specimen from a postmortem examination, all from patients hospitalized for neonatal cholestasis in the Pediatrics Service of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, were prospectively studied using a specially designed histopathological protocol. At least 4 of 5 different stains were used, and 46 hepatic histopathological variables related to the differential diagnosis of neonatal cholestasis were studied. The findings were scored for severity on a scale from 0 to 4. Sections which showed less than 3 portal spaces were excluded from the study. Sections were examined by a pathologist who was unaware of the final diagnosis of each case. Bile tract permeability was defined by scintigraphy of the bile ducts and operative cholangiography. The F test and discriminant analysis were used as statistical methods for the study of the hepatic histopathological variables. The chi-square method with Yates correction was used to relate the age of the patients on the date of the histopathological study to the discriminatory variables between intra- and extrahepatic cholestasis selected by the discriminant function test. The most valuable hepatic histopathological variables for the discrimination between intra- and extrahepatic cholestasis, in decreasing order of importance, were periportal ductal proliferation, portal ductal proliferation, portal expansion, cholestasis in neoductules, foci of myeloid metaplasia, and portal-portal bridges. The only variable which pointed to the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholestasis was myeloid metaplasia. Due to the small number of patients who were younger than 60 days on the date of the histopathological study (N = 6), no variable discriminated between intra- and extrahepatic cholestasis before the age of 2 months and all of them, except for the portal expansion, were discriminatory after this age. In infants with cholestasis, foci of myeloid metaplasia, whenever present in the liver biopsy, suggested intrahepatic cholestasis. Periportal ductal proliferation, portal ductal proliferation, portal expansion, cholestasis in neoductules, portal cholestasis and portal-portal bridges suggested extrahepatic obstructive cholestasis.

Differential gene expression profiles of hepatocellular carcinomas associated or not with viral infection

Chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) virus infections are the most important factors associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but tumor prognosis remains poor due to the lack of diagnostic biomarkers. In order to identify novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets, the gene expression profile associated with viral and non-viral HCC was assessed in 9 tumor samples by oligo-microarrays. The differentially expressed genes were examined using a z-score and KEGG pathway for the search of ontological biological processes. We selected a non-redundant set of 15 genes with the lowest P value for clustering samples into three groups using the non-supervised algorithm k-means. Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis was then applied in an exhaustive search of trios of genes that could be used to build classifiers for class distinction. Different transcriptional levels of genes were identified in HCC of different etiologies and from different HCC samples. When comparing HBV-HCC vs HCV-HCC, HBV-HCC/HCV-HCC vs non-viral (NV)-HCC, HBC-HCC vs NV-HCC, and HCV-HCC vs NV-HCC of the 58 non-redundant differentially expressed genes, only 6 genes (IKBKβ, CREBBP, WNT10B, PRDX6, ITGAV, and IFNAR1) were found to be associated with hepatic carcinogenesis. By combining trios, classifiers could be generated, which correctly classified 100% of the samples. This expression profiling may provide a useful tool for research into the pathophysiology of HCC. A detailed understanding of how these distinct genes are involved in molecular pathways is of fundamental importance to the development of effective HCC chemoprevention and treatment.

Gene trio signatures as molecular markers to predict response to doxorubicin cyclophosphamide neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancerpatients

In breast cancer patients submitted to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (4 cycles of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, AC), expression of groups of three genes (gene trio signatures) could distinguish responsive from non-responsive tumors, as demonstrated by cDNA microarray profiling in a previous study by our group. In the current study, we determined if the expression of the same genes would retain the predictive strength, when analyzed by a more accessible technique (real-time RT-PCR). We evaluated 28 samples already analyzed by cDNA microarray, as a technical validation procedure, and 14 tumors, as an independent biological validation set. All patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (4 AC). Among five trio combinations previously identified, defined by nine genes individually investigated (BZRP, CLPTM1,MTSS1, NOTCH1, NUP210, PRSS11, RPL37A, SMYD2, and XLHSRF-1), the most accurate were established by RPL37A, XLHSRF-1based trios, with NOTCH1 or NUP210. Both trios correctly separated 86% of tumors (87% sensitivity and 80% specificity for predicting response), according to their response to chemotherapy (82% in a leave-one-out cross-validation method). Using the pre-established features obtained by linear discriminant analysis, 71% samples from the biological validation set were also correctly classified by both trios (72% sensitivity; 66% specificity). Furthermore, we explored other gene combinations to achieve a higher accuracy in the technical validation group (as a training set). A new trio, MTSS1, RPL37 and SMYD2, correctly classified 93% of samples from the technical validation group (95% sensitivity and 80% specificity; 86% accuracy by the cross-validation method) and 79% from the biological validation group (72% sensitivity and 100% specificity). Therefore, the combined expression of MTSS1, RPL37 and SMYD2, as evaluated by real-time RT-PCR, is a potential candidate to predict response to neoadjuvant doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide in breast cancer patients.

Morphometric analysis of feedforward pathways from the primary somatosensory area (S1) of rats

We used biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) to anterogradely label individual axons projecting from primary somatosensory cortex (S1) to four different cortical areas in rats. A major goal was to determine whether axon terminals in these target areas shared morphometric similarities based on the shape of individual terminal arbors and the density of two bouton types: en passant (Bp) and terminaux (Bt). Evidence from tridimensional reconstructions of isolated axon terminal fragments (n=111) did support a degree of morphological heterogeneity establishing two broad groups of axon terminals. Morphological parameters associated with the complexity of terminal arbors and the proportion of beaded Bp vs stalked Bt were found to differ significantly in these two groups following a discriminant function statistical analysis across axon fragments. Interestingly, both groups occurred in all four target areas, possibly consistent with a commonality of presynaptic processing of tactile information. These findings lay the ground for additional work aiming to investigate synaptic function at the single bouton level and see how this might be associated with emerging properties in postsynaptic targets.

Simulating maize phenology as a function of air temperature with a linear and a nonlinear model

The objective of this study was to adapt a nonlinear model (Wang and Engel - WE) for simulating the phenology of maize (Zea mays L.), and to evaluate this model and a linear one (thermal time), in order to predict developmental stages of a field-grown maize variety. A field experiment, during 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 was conducted in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, in two growing seasons, with seven sowing dates each. Dates of emergence, silking, and physiological maturity of the maize variety BRS Missões were recorded in six replications in each sowing date. Data collected in 2005/2006 growing season were used to estimate the coefficients of the two models, and data collected in the 2006/2007 growing season were used as independent data set for model evaluations. The nonlinear WE model accurately predicted the date of silking and physiological maturity, and had a lower root mean square error (RMSE) than the linear (thermal time) model. The overall RMSE for silking and physiological maturity was 2.7 and 4.8 days with WE model, and 5.6 and 8.3 days with thermal time model, respectively.

Obesity Preserves Myocardial Function During Blockade of the Glycolytic Pathway

Background: Obesity is defined by excessive accumulation of body fat relative to lean tissue. Studies during the last few years indicate that cardiac function in obese animals may be preserved, increased or diminished. Objective: Study the energy balance of the myocardium with the hypothesis that the increase in fatty acid oxidation and reduced glucose leads to cardiac dysfunction in obesity. Methods: 30-day-old male Wistar rats were fed standard and hypercaloric diet for 30 weeks. Cardiac function and morphology were assessed. In this paper was viewed the general characteristics and comorbities associated to obesity. The structure cardiac was determined by weights of the heart and left ventricle (LV). Myocardial function was evaluated by studying isolated papillary muscles from the LV, under the baseline condition and after inotropic and lusitropic maneuvers: myocardial stiffness; postrest contraction; increase in extracellular Ca2+ concentration; change in heart rate and inhibitor of glycolytic pathway. Results: Compared with control group, the obese rats had increased body fat and co-morbities associated with obesity. Functional assessment after blocking iodoacetate shows no difference in the linear regression of DT, however, the RT showed a statistically significant difference in behavior between the control and the obese group, most notable being the slope in group C. Conclusion: The energy imbalance on obesity did not cause cardiac dysfunction. On the contrary, the prioritization of fatty acids utilization provides protection to cardiac muscle during the inhibition of glycolysis, suggesting that this pathway is fewer used by obese cardiac muscle.

Assessment of Autonomic Function by Phase Rectification of RRInterval Histogram Analysis in Chagas Disease

Background:In chronic Chagas disease (ChD), impairment of cardiac autonomic function bears prognostic implications. Phase‑rectification of RR-interval series isolates the sympathetic, acceleration phase (AC) and parasympathetic, deceleration phase (DC) influences on cardiac autonomic modulation.Objective:This study investigated heart rate variability (HRV) as a function of RR-interval to assess autonomic function in healthy and ChD subjects.Methods:Control (n = 20) and ChD (n = 20) groups were studied. All underwent 60-min head-up tilt table test under ECG recording. Histogram of RR-interval series was calculated, with 100 ms class, ranging from 600–1100 ms. In each class, mean RR-intervals (MNN) and root-mean-squared difference (RMSNN) of consecutive normal RR-intervals that suited a particular class were calculated. Average of all RMSNN values in each class was analyzed as function of MNN, in the whole series (RMSNNT), and in AC (RMSNNAC) and DC (RMSNNDC) phases. Slopes of linear regression lines were compared between groups using Student t-test. Correlation coefficients were tested before comparisons. RMSNN was log-transformed. (α < 0.05).Results:Correlation coefficient was significant in all regressions (p < 0.05). In the control group, RMSNNT, RMSNNAC, and RMSNNDCsignificantly increased linearly with MNN (p < 0.05). In ChD, only RMSNNAC showed significant increase as a function of MNN, whereas RMSNNT and RMSNNDC did not.Conclusion:HRV increases in proportion with the RR-interval in healthy subjects. This behavior is lost in ChD, particularly in the DC phase, indicating cardiac vagal incompetence.

The Strategic Impact of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Nursing on the Managerial Function of Supervision

Clinical practice guidelines in nursing (CPG-N) are tools that allow the necessary knowledge that frequently remains specialist-internalised to be made explicit. These tools are a complement to risk adjustment systems (RAS), reinforcing their effectiveness and permitting a rationalisation of healthcare costs. This theoretical study defends the importance of building and using CPG-Ns as instruments to support the figure of the nursing supervisor in order to optimise the implementation of R&D and hospital quality strategies, enabling clinical excellence in nursing processes and cost-efficient reallocation of economic resources through their linear integration with SARs.