Molecular diagnostic methods for identifying Serrasalmid fish (Pacu, Pirapitinga, and Tambaqui) and their hybrids in the Brazilian aquaculture industry

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

Multiple nucleolus organizer regions in Leptodactylus mystacinus (Amphibia, Anura) and comments on its systematic position in the L fuscus group based on cytogenetic and molecular analyses

Specimens of Leptodactylus mystacinus from Brazil were karyotyped with conventional and differential staining. The 2n = 22 karyotype is similar to that found for the majority of the Leptodactylus, the karyotypic conservatism also confirmed by the similarity of the replication banding patterns with those previously described. L. mystacinus has a small amount of C-banded heterochromatin, located mainly at the centromeres, although telomeric or interstitial bands have also been noticed. With DA/CMA(3) some chromosome regions showed slightly bright fluorescence, and with DA/DAPI, no particular AT-rich repetitive region was observed. Silver staining showed an extensive inter- and intraindividual variation in the number and position of Ag-positive regions, in 1p, 4p, 8p, 8q, and 11p. Nevertheless, FISH using rDNA probes confirmed only the signals on the short arms of chromosomes 4 and 8 as true NORs. The remaining silver stained regions are probably due to the heterochromatin with some affinity to the Ag-staining. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial cytochrome b sequence revealed that L. mystacinus forms a basal branch, so that the presence of multiple NORs in pairs 4 and 8 in this species indicates an autapomorphy.

Noise and ultraviolet divergences in the dynamics of the chiral condensate in QCD

The time evolution of the matter produced in high energy heavy-ion collisions seems to be well described by relativistic viscous hydrodynamics. In addition to the hydrodynamic degrees of freedom related to energy-momentum conservation, degrees of freedom associated with order parameters of broken continuous symmetries must be considered because they are all coupled to each other. of particular interest is the coupling of degrees of freedom associated with the chiral symmetry of QCD. Quantum and thermal fluctuations of the chiral fields act as noise sources in the classical equations of motion, turning them into stochastic differential equations in the form of Ginzburg-Landau-Langevin (GLL) equations. Analytic solutions of GLL equations are attainable only in very special circumstances and extensive numerical simulations are necessary, usually by discretizing the equations on a spatial lattice. However, a not much appreciated issue in the numerical simulations of GLL equations is that ultraviolet divergences in the form of lattice-spacing dependence plague the solutions. The divergences are related to the well-known Rayleigh-Jeans catastrophe in classical field theory. In the present communication we present a systematic lattice renormalization method to control the catastrophe. We discuss the implementation of the method for a GLL equation derived in the context of a model for the QCD chiral phase transition and consider the nonequilibrium evolution of the chiral condensate during the hydrodynamic flow of the quark-gluon plasma.

Intense blue and green photoluminescence emissions at room temperature in barium zirconate powders

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

The role of structural order-disorder for visible intense photoluminescence in the BaZr0.5Ti0.5O3 thin films

The nature of the intense visible room temperature photoluminescence of BaZr0.5Ti0.5O3 non-crystalline thin films is discussed in the light of experimental results and theoretical calculations. The photoluminescence measurements reveal that the emission intensity changes with the degree of disorder in the BaZr0.5Ti0.5O3 lattice. First principles quantum mechanical techniques, based on density functional theory at B3LYP level, have been employed to study the electronic structure of a crystalline model and of structurally disordered models in order to detect the influence of disorder on the electronic structure. An analysis of the electronic charge distribution reveals local polarization in the disordered structures. The relevance of the present theoretical and experimental results on the photoluminescence behavior of BZT is discussed. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feasibility of internal standardization in the direct and simultaneous determination of As, Cu and Pb in sugar-cane spirits by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

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

Molecular determinants of binding of a wasp toxin (PMTXs) and its analogs in the Na+ channels proteins

The structural specificity of alpha-PMTX, a novel peptide toxin derived from wasp venom has been studied on the neuromuscular synapse in the walking leg of the lobster. alpha-PMTX is known to induce repetitive action potentials in the presynaptic axon due to sodium channel inactivation. We synthesized 29 analogs of alpha-PMTX by substituting one or two amino acids and compared threshold concentrations of these mutant toxins for inducing repetitive action potentials. In 13 amino acid residues of alpha-PMTX, Arg-1, Lys-3 and Lys-12 regulate the toxic activity because substitution of these basic amino acid residues with other amino acid residues greatly changed the potency. Determining the structure-activity relationships of PMTXs will help clarifying the molecular mechanism of sodium channel inactivation. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of CS2 to the coordinated azide in the cyclopalladated [Pd(bzan)(mu-N-3)](2). Crystal and molecular structure of di(mu-N,S-1,2,3,4-thiatriazole-5-thiolate)bis[(benzylideneaniline-C-2,N)palladium(II)]

The compound [Pd(bzan)(mu -N-3)](2) 1, bzan = benzylideneaniline, was prepared from [Pd(bzan) (mu -OOCCH3)](2) by an anion exchange reaction. The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of carbon disulfide to the bridged coordinated azide in the cyclometallated compound I was investigated. The species resulting from this reaction, di(mu -N,S-1,2,3,4-thiatriazol-5-thiolate)bis[(benzylideneaniline)palladium(II)] 2, was characterized by IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The compound 2 is a dimer containing two [Pd(benzylideneaniline)] moieties connected by two vicinal bridging N,S-1,2,3,4-thiatriazole-5-thiolate anions in a square-planar coordination geometry for the palladium atoms.

Structure, mobility and clustering of interstitial O in La2CuO4+delta in the limit of small delta

Anelastic spectra (elastic energy absorption as a function of temperature) are reported which provide evidence that excess O in La2CuO4+delta starts forming two different types of defects already at very low concentrations, where no phase separation or changes in the type of O intercalation are believed to occur. The absorption peak with the lowest activation enthalpy, H/k(B) = 5600 K, is visible at lowest values of delta and is attributed to the hopping of single interstitial O2- ions. The second process, with a slightly slower dynamics, appears at higher values of delta and soon becomes preponderant over the former process. The latter process is proposed to be due to stable pairs of O atoms and is put in connection with the formation of partially covalent bonds between interstitial and apical oxygen; such bonds would reduce the doping efficiency of excess O at increasing delta. The geometry of the interstitial O defect is discussed. O 1998 Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

New glasses in the system InF3-BaF2-ErPO4

New glasses have been obtained in the system InF3-BaF2-ErPO4. Glass compositions with up to 30% mol Er3+ were shown to exist and characterized by thermal analysis, x-ray: diffraction, IR absorption and electronic spectroscopy. The systems with high Er3+ content were studied recording IR and visible emission spectral characteristics. A specially elaborated technique allowed the preparation of a high purity phosphate precursor ErPO4. X-ray identification of the crystalline phases appearing during thermal treatment have been carried out and parameters of a mixed fluoride Ba4In3-nErnF17 calculated.

Expression and variability of molecular chaperones in the sugarcane expressome

Molecular chaperones perform folding assistance in newly synthesized polypeptides preventing aggregation processes, recovering proteins from aggregates, among other important cellular functions. Thus their study presents great biotechnological importance. The present work discusses the mining for chaperone-related sequences within the sugarcane EST genome project database, which resulted in approximately 300 different sequences. Since molecular chaperones are highly conserved in most organisms studied so far, the number of sequences related to these proteins in sugarcane was very similar to the number found in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. The Hsp70 family was the main molecular chaperone system present in the sugarcane expressome. However, many other relevant molecular chaperones systems were also present. A digital RNA blot analysis showed that 5'ESTs from all molecular chaperones were found in every sugarcane library, despite their heterogeneous expression profiles. The results presented here suggest the importance of molecular chaperones to polypeptide metabolism in sugarcane cells, based on their abundance and variability. Finally, these data have being used to guide more in deep analysis, permitting the choice of specific targets to study. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Arsenic as internal standard to correct for interferences in the determination of antimony by hydride generation in situ trapping graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

The feasibility of using internal standardization (IS) to correct for interferences in hydride generation with in situ trapping in graphite furnace was evaluated. Arsenic was chosen as internal standard for Sb determination and Ir was used as permanent modifier. Fluctuations in the main parameters that affect the analytical results were minimized by IS and an effective contribution was verified in the studies of liquid phase interferences. Cobalt and Ni2+ were selected to illustrate the potential use of IS on the correction of interference by transition metals. The application of IS allows the Sb determination in samples containing up to 20-fold higher concentration of the Co2+ and Ni2+ when compared to the procedure without IS. The relative standard deviation of measurements varied from 0.3% to 0.7% and from 1.1% to 3.2% with and without IS, respectively. Recoveries within 92% and 107% of spiked aqueous solution containing Sb(III) and Sb(V) were found. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Morphological and Molecular Variation in the Pumpkin Toadlet, Brachycephalus ephippium (Anura: Brachycephalidae)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Evaluation by Free Vibration Method of Moisture Absorption Effects in Polyamide/Carbon Fiber Laminates

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