An ultrafiltration membrane, prepared with MSU-type mesoporous silica: Preparation and specific filtration behavior

We report preparation and the singular filtration properties of an ultrafiltration membrane made with MSU-type mesoporous silica that exhibits cylindrical pores aligned mostly normal to the support. This membrane supported on tubular commercial macroporous alumina supports was prepared by the interfacial growth mechanism between stable silica-surfactant hybrid micelles made of the association of silica oligomers with polyethyleneoxide-based (PEO) surfactants and sodium fluoride, a well-known silica condensation catalyst. It appears that the combined effect of the silica nature of the membrane, whose surface charge can be easily adjusted by changing the pH and the non-connected cylindrical shape of the pores provides a new behavior in the retention properties, as proved by the filtration of polyoxyethylene polymers (PEO) with different molecular weights. Depending on the filtration conditions, a rejection rate of 80 % and a steep cut-off at 2,000 Da can be obtained or, on the reverse, polymers three times bigger than the pore diameter can diffuse through the membrane. This new filtration mechanism, which opens up new modes of separation modes, is explained in the light of both topology of the porous network and pH-dependent interactions between PEO polymers and silica porous media. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bio-safety technology in production of bovine herpesvirus type 5 (BoHV-5) using an alternative serum-free medium

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

Anisotropy in the transport properties of type II superconducting films with periodic pinning

Using numerical simulations, we analyze the anisotropy effects in the critical currents and dynamical properties of vortices in a thin superconducting film submitted to hexagonal and Kagomé periodical pinning arrays. The calculations are performed at zero temperature, for transport currents parallel and perpendicular to the main axis of the lattice, and parallel to the diagonal axis of the rhombic unit cell. We show that the critical currents and dynamic properties are anisotropic for both pinning arrays and all directions of the transport current. The anisotropic effects are more significant just above the critical current and disappear with higher values of current and both pinning arrays. The dynamical phases for each case and a wide range of transport forces are analyzed. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Frequency of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 in a group of patients with pituitary adenoma: genetic study and familial screening

The purpose of this study it was to evaluate the frequency of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) in patients with pituitary adenoma and to perform genetic analysis and familial screening of those individuals afflicted with MEN1. 144 patients with pituitary adenoma at Botucatu Medical School, UNESP-Univ Estadual Paulista, were assessed retrospectively for MEN1 during the years of 2005-2011. The patients were evaluated for the presence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) and enteropancreatic tumors. Genetic analysis was performed for the individuals with clinically diagnosed MEN1. Thirteen patients met the diagnostic criteria for MEN1, but three individuals belong to the same family and they were considered as a single MEN1 event, revealing 7.7 % frequency of MEN1 in this patient group. Genetic analysis showed MEN1 mutations in four index cases: IVS4+1 G>A, IVS3-6 C>T, c.1547insC and a new D180A mutation. One patient did not agree to participate in the genetic study and another one was referred for follow up in other hospital. Only polymorphisms were found in the other individuals, one of which was novel. We identified a high frequency of MEN1 in pituitary adenoma patients. Since PHP is one of the most common MEN1 tumor and patients are mostly asymptomatic, we suggest that all pituitary adenoma patients have their calcium profile analyzed. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Caracterização morfológica, patogênica, de Mating-type e genética de isolados de Cylindrocladium spp. e cylindrocladiella spp

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mycelial growth of two Lentinula edodes strains in culture media prepared with sawdust extracts from seven eucalyptus species and three eucalyptus clones

The in vitro mycelial growth of Lentinula edodes strains LE-95/01 and LE-96/18 were evaluated in solid culture media prepared with sawdust extracts from seven eucalyptus species (E. saligna, E. grandis, E. urophylla, E. pellita, E. paniculata, E. citriodora, and E. camaldulensis) and three eucalyptus clones (E. grandis × E. urophylla hybrids). Evaluations were made every 48 hours by means of colony diameter measurements (mean of four transversely-oriented measurements), during ten days of incubation in the dark at 25ºC ±1°C. The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks, and treatment means were compared by Tukey test. The culture medium prepared from E. citriodora sawdust extract was the most promising to grow L. edodes strains LE-96/18 and LE-95/01. L. edodes strain LE-96/18 presented the fastest mycelial growth after incubation for ten days, regardless of sawdust extract type used in the culture medium.

Roughness and morphology of composites: influence of type of material, fluoride solution, and time

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Storage media for avulsed teeth: a literature review

Dental avulsion is the most severe type of traumatic tooth injuries because it causes damageto several structures and results in the complete displacement of the tooth from its socketin the alveolar bone. The ideal situation is to replant an exarticulated tooth immediatelyafter avulsion because the extraoral time is a determinant factor for treatment successand for a good prognosis. However, it is not always possible. The success of replantationdepends on a number of factors that may contribute to accelerate or minimize theoccurrence of root resorption or ankylosis, among which is the type and characteristicsof the medium used for temporary storage during the time elapsed between avulsionand replantation. Maintaining the tooth in an adequate wet medium that can preserve,as longer as possible, the vitality of the periodontal ligament cells that remain on rootsurface is the key to success of replantation. Recent research has led to the developmentof storage media that produce conditions that closely resemble the original socketenvironment, with adequate osmolality (cell pressure), pH, nutritional metabolites andglucose, and thus create the best possible conditions for storage. Although these storagemedia can now be purchased in the form of retail products, the most common scenariois that such a product will not be readily available at the moment of the accident Thispaper reviews the literature on the different storage media that have been investigatedfor avulsed teeth based on full-length papers retrieved from PubMed/Medline, Lilacs, BBOand SciELO electronic databases using the key words storage medium , transportationmedium , avulsion , tooth avulsion , replantation , tooth replantation , milk and propolis .After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 39 papers were selected and criticallyreviewed with respect to the characteristics, efficacy and ease of access of the storagemedium. The review of the lite

Angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) is associated with increased tolerance of the hyperthyroid heart to ischemia-reperfusion

Background Thyroid hormone induces cardiac hypertrophy and preconditions the myocardium against Ischemia/Reperfusion (I/R) injury. Type 2 Angiotensin II receptors (AT2R) are shown to be upregulated in cardiac hypertrophy observed in hyperthyroidism and this receptor has been reported to mediate cardioprotection against ischemic injury. Methods The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of AT2R in the recovery of myocardium after I/R in isolated hearts from T3 treated rats. MaleWistar rats were treated with triiodothyronine (T3; 7 μg/100 gBW/day, i.p.) in the presence or not of a specific AT2R blocker (PD123,319; 10 mg/Kg) for 14 days, while normal rats served as control. After treatment, isolated hearts were perfused in Langendorff mode; after 30 min of stabilization, hearts were subjected to 20 min of zero-flow global ischemia followed by 25 min, 35 min and 45 min of reperfusion. Results T3 treatment induced cardiac hypertrophy, which was not changed by PD treatment. Post-ischemic recovery of cardiac function was increased in T3-treated hearts after 35 min and 45 min of reperfusion as compared to control and the ischemic contracture was accelerated and intensified. AT2R blockade was able to return the evaluated functional parameters of cardiac performance (LVDP, +dP/dtmáx and −dP/dtmin) to the control condition. Furthermore, AT2R blockade prevented the increase in AMPK expression levels induced by T3, suggesting its possible involvement in this process. Conclusion AT2R plays a significant role in T3-induced cardioprotection.

Alcances y limitaciones actuales de la actividad experimental en escuelas de Enseñanza Media de la provincia Santiago de Cuba: criterios de alumnos y profesores

El propósito de este estudio es explorar el estado actual de desarrollo de las actividades experimentales en la asignatura de Física en escuelas de Enseñanza Media de la provincia de Santiago de Cuba ya que constituye un aspecto medular en la construcción del conocimiento científico. Para la recogida de la información se utilizaron dos instrumentos: una encuesta y una entrevista que fueron aplicadas a 268 alumnos y 18 profesores de cinco escuelas con entornos socioculturales diferentes. Los datos obtenidos de las encuestas de ambos sujetos están referidos a: la existencia o no de infraestructura de laboratorio en las escuelas, las características de sus participaciones en los laboratorios y la frecuencia de realización de los mismos. Complementan esta información sus opiniones expresadas en las respuestas a las entrevistas, donde se destaca el papel que atribuyen a los experimentos en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Los resultados indican un incremento en la motivación y en la asimilación de los contenidos por parte de los alumnos que participaron en las demostraciones experimentales en las escuelas con infraestructura de laboratorio. Se manifiestan también limitaciones en el orden material con énfasis en las escuelas más alejadas del centro de la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba y de preparación de los profesores para una eficiente utilización del instrumental que poseen en función de la docencia.

Rich media content adaptation in e-learning systems

The wide use of e-technologies represents a great opportunity for underserved segments of the population, especially with the aim of reintegrating excluded individuals back into society through education. This is particularly true for people with different types of disabilities who may have difficulties while attending traditional on-site learning programs that are typically based on printed learning resources. The creation and provision of accessible e-learning contents may therefore become a key factor in enabling people with different access needs to enjoy quality learning experiences and services. Another e-learning challenge is represented by m-learning (which stands for mobile learning), which is emerging as a consequence of mobile terminals diffusion and provides the opportunity to browse didactical materials everywhere, outside places that are traditionally devoted to education. Both such situations share the need to access materials in limited conditions and collide with the growing use of rich media in didactical contents, which are designed to be enjoyed without any restriction. Nowadays, Web-based teaching makes great use of multimedia technologies, ranging from Flash animations to prerecorded video-lectures. Rich media in e-learning can offer significant potential in enhancing the learning environment, through helping to increase access to education, enhance the learning experience and support multiple learning styles. Moreover, they can often be used to improve the structure of Web-based courses. These highly variegated and structured contents may significantly improve the quality and the effectiveness of educational activities for learners. For example, rich media contents allow us to describe complex concepts and process flows. Audio and video elements may be utilized to add a “human touch” to distance-learning courses. Finally, real lectures may be recorded and distributed to integrate or enrich on line materials. A confirmation of the advantages of these approaches can be seen in the exponential growth of video-lecture availability on the net, due to the ease of recording and delivering activities which take place in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, the wide use of assistive technologies for learners with disabilities injects new life into e-learning systems. E-learning allows distance and flexible educational activities, thus helping disabled learners to access resources which would otherwise present significant barriers for them. For instance, students with visual impairments have difficulties in reading traditional visual materials, deaf learners have trouble in following traditional (spoken) lectures, people with motion disabilities have problems in attending on-site programs. As already mentioned, the use of wireless technologies and pervasive computing may really enhance the educational learner experience by offering mobile e-learning services that can be accessed by handheld devices. This new paradigm of educational content distribution maximizes the benefits for learners since it enables users to overcome constraints imposed by the surrounding environment. While certainly helpful for users without disabilities, we believe that the use of newmobile technologies may also become a fundamental tool for impaired learners, since it frees them from sitting in front of a PC. In this way, educational activities can be enjoyed by all the users, without hindrance, thus increasing the social inclusion of non-typical learners. While the provision of fully accessible and portable video-lectures may be extremely useful for students, it is widely recognized that structuring and managing rich media contents for mobile learning services are complex and expensive tasks. Indeed, major difficulties originate from the basic need to provide a textual equivalent for each media resource composing a rich media Learning Object (LO). Moreover, tests need to be carried out to establish whether a given LO is fully accessible to all kinds of learners. Unfortunately, both these tasks are truly time-consuming processes, depending on the type of contents the teacher is writing and on the authoring tool he/she is using. Due to these difficulties, online LOs are often distributed as partially accessible or totally inaccessible content. Bearing this in mind, this thesis aims to discuss the key issues of a system we have developed to deliver accessible, customized or nomadic learning experiences to learners with different access needs and skills. To reduce the risk of excluding users with particular access capabilities, our system exploits Learning Objects (LOs) which are dynamically adapted and transcoded based on the specific needs of non-typical users and on the barriers that they can encounter in the environment. The basic idea is to dynamically adapt contents, by selecting them from a set of media resources packaged in SCORM-compliant LOs and stored in a self-adapting format. The system schedules and orchestrates a set of transcoding processes based on specific learner needs, so as to produce a customized LO that can be fully enjoyed by any (impaired or mobile) student.

Annexins as cell-type-specific markers in the developing chicken chorionallantoic membrane

Between day E8 and E12 of embryonic development, the chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) undergoes massive structural rearrangement enabling calcium-uptake from the eggshell to supply the growing embryo. However, the contribution of the various cell types of the chorionic epithelium including the capillary covering (CC) cells, villus cavity (VC) cells, endothelial-like cells, and basal cells to this developmental program is largely unknown. In order to obtain markers for the different cell types in the chorionic epithelium, we determined the expression patterns of various calcium-binding annexins in the developing chicken CAM. By reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction with primers deduced from nucleotide sequences available in various databases, the presence of annexin (anx)-1, anx-2, anx-5, and anx-6 was demonstrated at days E8 and E12. Quantitative immunoblotting with novel antibodies raised against the recombinant proteins revealed that anx-1 and anx-5 were significantly up-regulated at day E12, whereas anx-2 and anx-6 expression remained almost unchanged in comparison to levels at day E8. Immunohistochemistry of paraffin-embedded sections of E12 CAM revealed anx-1 in CC cells and VC cells. Anx-2 was localized in capillaries in the chorionic epithelium and in basal cells of the allantoic epithelium, whereas anx-6 was detected in basal cells or endothelial-like cells of the chorionic epithelium and in the media of larger vessels in the mesenchyme. A 2-day exposure of the CAM to a tumor cell spheroid resulted in strong proliferation of anx-1-expressing CC cells suggesting that these cells participate in the embryonic response to experimental intervention. Thus, annexins exhibit complementary expression patterns and represent appropriate cell markers for the further characterization of CAM development and the interpretation of results obtained when using CAM as an experimental model.

The Role of Online Platforms for Media Markets – Two‐Dimensional Spatial Competition in a Two‐Sided Market

We analyze the market for online and offline media in a model of two-dimensional spatial competition where media outlets sell content and advertising space. Consumer preferences are distributed along the style and type of news coverage where the distance costs may vary across dimensions. For integrated provision of online and offline platforms we show that entering the online market reduces average profits and may even constitute a prisoner's dilemma. Specialized provision may yield polarization in the style and type dimensions. This is in contrast to the maximum–minimum differentiation result previously established in the literature on multidimensional horizontal competition. We show that maximal differentiation in both dimensions occurs due to the discrete nature of the type dimension and asymmetric advertising markets.