Instability zones for satellites of asteroids: The example of the (87) Sylvia system

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

Allelic imbalance studies of chromosome 9 suggest major differences in chromosomal instability among nonmelanoma skin carcinomas

CONTEXTO: Vários estudos de perda de heterozigozidade na região 9p21-p22, que abriga os genes supressores tumorais CDKN2a/p16INK4a, p19ARF e p15INK4b, têm sido realizados em uma ampla série de tumores humanos, incluindo os melanomas familiares. Perdas e ganhos em outras regiões do cromossomo 9 também têm sido observados com freqüência e podem indicar mecanismos adicionais no processo de tumorigênese dos carcinomas basocelulares da pele. OBJETIVO: Investigar o equilíbrio alélico existente na região 9p21-p22 em carcinomas basocelulares. TIPO DE ESTUDO: Análise molecular de marcadores de microssatélites em tumores e controles. LOCAL: Dois serviços de dermatologia de atendimento terciário em universidades públicas de São Paulo e o Laboratório de Genética Molecular do Câncer da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brasil. PARTICIPANTES: Examinamos 13 casos benignos, incluindo 4 queratoses solares, 3 queratoacantomas, 3 nevos melanocíticos, 2 doenças de Bowen e 1 neurofibroma cutâneo, além de 58 tumores malignos da pele: 14 de células escamosas, 40 carcinomas basocelulares e 4 melanomas; em pacientes consecutivamente encaminhados à clínica de Dermatologia da Unicamp e que concordaram em participar do estudo. VARIÁVEIS ESTUDADAS: O tumor principal e uma porção normal de pele não-adjacente foram removidos cirurgicamente de pacientes que consecutivamente procuraram os ambulatórios de dermatologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) e da Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (Unesp), São Paulo, por causa de lesões cutâneas. Extraímos DNA tanto de tecido tumoral como do correspondente tecido normal de cada paciente. Para amplificar regiões de repetição polimórfica de microssatélites do cromossomo 9, foram utilizados quatro pares de primers, sendo dois deles destinados à região 9p21-p22. RESULTADOS: Identificamos oito casos (20%) de desequilíbrio alélico entre os carcinomas basocelulares, sendo dois casos de perda de heterozigozidade e seis casos de instabilidade de microssatélite na região 9p21-p22. Outros marcadores também mostravam anormalidades em três destes tumores, enquanto nenhuma alteração foi detectada entre os casos benignos e nos outros tumores malignos. CONCLUSÃO: Esta dependência fenotípica sugere que existem diferenças importantes no comportamento das formas mais comuns de tumores cutâneos não-melanocíticos em relação à sua tendência para instabilidade de microssatélite no cromossomo 9. Considerando-se que os genes CDKN2a/p16INK4a, p19ARF e p15INK4b não parecem responsáveis pelas anormalidades observadas, outros genes em 9p21-p22 podem estar envolvidos na etiopatogenia e na progressão dos carcinomas basocelulares.

Influence of hygrothermal conditioning on the elastic properties of carall laminates

The influence of hygrothermal conditioning on mechanical properties of Carall laminates have been investigated by tensile and compression tests. The environmental factors can limit the applications of composites by deteriorating the mechanical properties during service. The importance of temperature at the time of conditioning plays an important role in environmental degradation of such composite materials. In this work, the results show that for carbon fiber/epoxy composites tensile and compression values decrease after hygrothermal conditioning. However, the changes on mechanical properties of Carall are negligible, regardless the hygrothermal conditioning.

The applicability of hematoxylin-eosin staining plus fluorescence or confocal laser scanning microscopy to the study of elastic fibers in cartilages

This study focuses on the use of hemotoxylin-eosin staining plus fluorescence microscopy for the investigation of elastic fibers in some elastic cartilages. We have observed that elastic fibers are consistently imaged by the proposed procedure and the resolution attained is similar to that obtained with the classical Weigert's fuchsin-resorcin. The results also demonstrate that elastin autofluorescence gives little or no contribution to the final fluorescence and that the use of the confocal laser scanning microscope adds to the resolution, permits the use of thicker sections and reveals of minute structural features. We conclude that this is a relevant tool in elastin research.

GENETIC INSTABILITY IN NERVE SHEATH CELL TUMORS

After in vitro culture, we analyzed cytogenetically four acoustic nerve neurinomas, one intraspinal neurinoma and one neurofibroma obtained from unrelated patients. Monosomy of chromosomes 22 and 16 was an abnormality common to all cases, followed in frequency by loss of chromosomes 18 (three cases) and chromosomes 8, 17 and 19 (two cases). Trisomy of chromosome 20 was also detected in two cases. Structural rearrangements were detected at low frequencies, with del(10)(p12) being present in two cases. In addition, we observed cell subpopulations showing a certain degree of genetic instability, reflected by the presence of polyploid cells with inconsistent abnormalities, endoreduplications and telomeric associations resulting in dicentric chromosomes. It is probable that these cytogenetic abnormalities represent some kind of evolutionary advantage for the in vitro progression of nerve sheath tumors.

Elastic system of the rat ventral prostate and its modifications following orchiectomy

BACKGROUND. The extracellular matrix (ECM) has important roles in prostatic development, and marked stromal changes take place in the rat ventral prostate (VP) after androgen deprivation. However, little knowledge exists about individual ECM components.METHODS. The distribution of elastic fibers (EF) and elastic-related fibers (ERF) in the VP of castrated and control rats was investigated, using histochemistry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).RESULTS. EF are barely detected in the prostatic stroma, but ERF are relatively abundant. Castration results in a relative increase in the number and thickness of ERF. TEM showed an open network of ECM microfibrils throughout the stroma and thin and short EF, which increase in number and thickness after orchiectomy.CONCLUSIONS. The presence of elastic system components in the rat VP warrants the deformability required for the secretion exclusion under the action of smooth muscle cells, and the castration-induced modification may be related to the contraction of the tissue and maintenance of peculiar arrangements of other ECM components. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A probabilistic model for elastic-plastic fracture analysis of plane and axisymmetric structures

This work presents a methodology for elastic-plastic fracture reliability analysis of plane and axisymmetric structures. The structural reliability analysis is accomplished by means of the FORM analytical method. The virtual crack extension technique based on a direct minimization of potencial energy is utililized for the calculation of the energy release rate. Results are presented to illustrate the performance of the adopted methodology.

Fluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging of elastic fibers in hematoxylin-eosin stained sections

We have studied the possibility of associating fluorescence microscopy and hematoxylin-eosin staining for the identification of elastic fibers in elastin-rich tissues. Elastic fibers and elastic laminae were consistently identified by the proposed procedure, which revealed itself to be easy and useful for the determination of such structures and their distribution. The fluorescence properties of stained elastic fibers are due to eosin staining as revealed by fluorescence analysis of the dye in solution, with no or only minor contribution by the elastin autofluorescence. The main advantage of this technique resides in the possibility of studying the distribution of elastic fibers in file material without further sectioning and staining. The use of the confocal laser scanning microscope greatly improved the resolution and selectivity of imaging elastic fibers in different tissues. The determination of the three-dimensional distribution and structure of elastic fiber and laminae using the confocal laser scanning microscope was evaluated and also produced excellent results.

Hardness and elastic modulus of carbon-germanium alloys

This work reports on the mechanical properties of germanium-rich amorphous carbon-germanium alloys prepared by RF sputtering of a germanium/graphite target under an argon/hydrogen atmosphere. Nano-hardness, elastic modulus and stress were investigated as a function of the carbon content. The stress, which is reduced by the incorporation of carbon, was related to the film structure and to the difference in the Ge-Ge and Ge-C bond length. Contrary to what was expected, the hardness and elastic modulus of the alloys are lower than the corresponding values for pure amorphous hydrogenated germanium film, which in turn has both properties also smaller than those of crystalline germanium. These properties are analyzed in terms of the structural properties of the films. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. B.V All rights reserved.

Elastic scattering and the proton form factor

We use the QCD pomeron model proposed by Landshoff and Nachtmann to compute the differential and the total cross-sections for pp scattering in order to discuss a QCD-based approach to the proton form factor. This model is quite dependent on the experimental electromagnetic form factor, and it is not totally clear why this form factor gives good results even at moderate transferred momentum. We exchange the electromagnetic form factor by the asymptotic QCD proton form factor determined by Brodsky and Lepage (BL) plus a prescription for its low energy behavior dictated by the existence of a dynamically generated gluon mass. We fit the data with this QCD inspired form factor and a value for the dynamical gluon mass consistent with the ones determined in the literature. Our results also provide a determination of the proton wave function at the origin, which appears in the BL form factor.

On a regular convex solver potential for an elastic-damage constitutive model: a theoretical analysis

This work is related with the proposition of a so-called regular or convex solver potential to be used in numerical simulations involving a certain class of constitutive elastic-damage models. All the mathematical aspects involved are based on convex analysis, which is employed aiming a consistent variational formulation of the potential and its conjugate one. It is shown that the constitutive relations for the class of damage models here considered can be derived from the solver potentials by means of sub-differentials sets. The optimality conditions of the resulting minimisation problem represent in particular a linear complementarity problem. Finally, a simple example is present in order to illustrate the possible integration errors that can be generated when finite step analysis is performed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.