MUC1 gene polymorphism in three Nelore lines selected for growth and its association with growth and carcass traits

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Femur biometry, densitometry and chemical composition from Moxoto goats supplemented with concentrate in a semiarid region

The aim of study was to investigate if different intake levels of concentrate (supplementation levels) would have an influence on chemical composition, biometric aspects and bone mineral density (BMD) of femurs from Moxoto growing goats in the Brazilian semiarid region. Thirty-two castrated kids (15.69 +/- 0.78 kg initial BW) were used allocated randomly to one of the four levels of supplementation (SL) (treatments groups: 0: 5; 10 and 15 g/kg BW). When the animals of treatment group 15 g/kg BW reached 25 kg BW, the animals in the others treatments groups were also slaughtered. The increase SL resulted in linear increase (P<0.001) in the performance of animals as well as in fresh and dry weight of the femur and decrease of relative weight of the femur. The dry matter contents (g/kg) of femur increased linearly, however, the amounts of MM, ether extract, Ca, P. Mg, Na and K were not affected by the treatments. The values found in this study ranged from 134.84 to 155.90g of Ca, 48.14 to 55.95g of P. 1.69 to 1.87g of Mg, 2.87 to 3.24g of Na and 1.42 to 1.61 g of K/kg of bone in natura for animals with smaller and higher slaughter weight, respectively. The biometric and densitometric variables increased linearly with increasing treatments, except for the thickness of the sponge layer of the proximal and distal epiphysis and BMD measured in the distal epiphysis. The supplementation with concentrate did not affect the chemical composition of the femur, although it has positively influenced the structure and the bone mineral density. A BMD estimated via radiographic bone aluminum equivalent did not have correspondence with bone mineral content measured chemically. (C) 2011 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.

Caracterização numérica de antenas para aplicações RFID utilizando o método das ondas - WCIP

In recent years, the radio frequency identification technology (RFID) has gained great interest both industrial communities as scientific communities. Its ability to locate and monitor objects, animals and persons with active or passive tags allows easy development, with good cost-benefice and still presents undeniable benefits in applications ranging from logistics to healthcare, robotics, security, among others. Within this aspect what else comes excelling are RFID tags and the antennas used in RFID readers. Most tags have antennas omnidirectional and are usually manufactured as dipoles modified printed. The primary purpose of a project of antenna for tag is to achieve the required input impedance to perform a good marriage impedance with the load impedance of the chip. Already the objective principal in project of antennas for readers is to achieve reduced sizes and structures with good data transmission capacity. This work brings the numerical characterization of antennas for RFID applications, being these divided into tags RFID and antennas for RFID readers. Three tags RFID and two antennas for RFID readers, found in literature, are analyzed. The analysis of these structures is made using the Method of Waves - WCIP. Initial results found in the literature are compared with those obtained through simulations in WCIP with objective to show that the Method of Waves is able to analyze such structures. To illustrate the results obtained in simulations is presented the behavior of electric and magnetic fields. It also performed a literature review on the characteristics and principles of RFID technology. Suggestions for continuity to this work are presented

Food restriction and refeeding induces changes in lipid pathways and fat deposition in the adipose and hepatic tissues in rats with diet-induced obesity

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Exposure to chronic stress increases the locomotor response to cocaine and the basal levels of corticosterone in adolescent rats

Repeated exposure to stress results in augmentation in the locomotor response to psychostimulant drugs. We investigated the locomotor response to a novel environment or cocaine [ 10 mg/kg, intraperitoneally (i.p.)] and basal corticosterone levels in male adolescent rats exposed to chronic restraint or variable stress. Animals in the chronic restraint group were restrained for 1 hour daily. The chronic variable stress protocol consisted of exposure to different stressors twice a day in random order. Chronic restraint and variable stress regimens began simultaneously on postnatal day (P) 25 and were applied for 10 days. During this period the control group was left undisturbed except for cleaning the cages. Three days after the last exposure to stress, cocaine- and novelty-induced locomotion were recorded in an activity cage. Plasma corticosterone levels were determined in a subset of stress and control animals. Exposure to both chronic restraint and variable stress increased cocaine- induced locomotion and basal corticosterone plasma levels, while no change was observed in the response to a novel environment. Moreover, rats exposed to variable stress displayed the greatest locomotor response following a challenge dose with cocaine when compared to control and chronic restraint stress groups. This observation indicates that the stress regimen is relevant to the degree of stress-induced sensitization to cocaine.

Semipreparative enantioseparation of methamidophos by HPLC-UV and preliminary in vitro study of butyrylcholinesterase inhibition

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

An efficient neural approach to economic load dispatch in power systems

A neural approach to solve the problem defined by the economic load dispatch in power systems is presented in this paper, Systems based on artificial neural networks have high computational rates due to the use of a massive number of simple processing elements and the high degree of connectivity between these elements the ability of neural networks to realize some complex nonlinear function makes them attractive for system optimization the neural networks applyed in economic load dispatch reported in literature sometimes fail to converge towards feasible equilibrium points the internal parameters of the modified Hopfield network developed here are computed using the valid-subspace technique These parameters guarantee the network convergence to feasible quilibrium points, A solution for the economic load dispatch problem corresponds to an equilibrium point of the network. Simulation results and comparative analysis in relation to other neural approaches are presented to illustrate efficiency of the proposed approach.

Influência da densidade de estocagem sobre o crescimento, ciclo de muda e o comportamento em juvenis do camarão marinho Litopenaeus vannamei

One of the factors that may interfere with the cultivation of Litopenaeus vannamei is the population density. This study aimed to assess the effect of density on growth, mortality, physical integrity and behavior of shrimp. The study was divided into two stages. At first, the shrimp were placed in tanks at densities of 50, 75 and 100 shrimp m-2. The animals were monitored in relation to the degree of proventricular filling, the stage of the molt cycle and physical integrity three times a week and in relation to the weight and length once a week. Mortality, growth and proventricular filling were not influenced by the density; frequency of records in specific stages of the molt cycle varied according to the density. The lower proportion of broken appendages and higher frequency of necrotic lesions occurred in lower density. The second stage of the research, conducted in aquaria, was divided into two parts. The first described social or feeding behavioral categories: slow displacement by contact, slow displacement by approximation, abrupt displacement by contact, abrupt displacement by approximation, reactivity, cannibalism, occupying the tray, get feed in the tray and get feed outside the tray. In the second part, these and other behavioral categories, described in the literature, were recorded in densities of 50, 75 and 100 shrimp m-2. Mortality was more frequent in higher density. The frequency of most behaviors mentioned above was very low, not differing between densities or being too low to determine differences between them. The behavioral profile of animals in different densities was, in general, very similar, with no difference in exploration, digging and cleaning between the densities. Even so, inactivity, feeding, crawling, burrowing, swimming, and proximity between animals were influenced by the density. These results suggest that some behaviors suffer greater interference from population density. However, the density may not have a broader influence on the animals when other factors, such as physico-chemical parameters of water and feed offering, are adequate

Efeitos de diferentes tipos estressores sobre a memória e aprendizagem de ratas

The exposure to stressors produces physiological changes of the organism in order to adapt the individual to the environment. Depending on the type, intensity and duration, stress can affect some cognitive functions, particularly processes of learning and memory. Several studies have also proposed that some level of anxiety would be necessary for memory formation. In this context, memories of previously aversive experiences may determine the manner and intensity with which are expressed fear responses, which explains the great interest in analyzing both anxiety and memory in animals. In addition, males and females demonstrate different reactions in relation to stressful stimuli, showing different levels of anxiety and differences in processing of the acquisition, retention and recall of information. Based on this information, the present study aimed to verify the effect of stress on learning, memory and anxiety behavioral parameters in rats exposed at different types of stressors of long duration (seven consecutive days): restraint (4h/day), overcrowding (18h/day) and social isolation (18h/day) in the different phases of the estrous cycle. Our results showed that the stress induced by restraint and social isolation did not cause changes in the acquisition process, but impaired the recall of memory in rats. Furthermore, it is suggested a protective effect of sex hormones on retrieval of aversive memory, since female rats in proestrus or estrus phase, characterized by high estrogen concentrations, showed no aversive memory deficits. Furthermore, despite the increased plasma levels of corticosterone observed in female rats subjected to restraint stress and social isolation, anxiety levels were unaltered, compared to those various stress conditions. Animal models based on psychological and social stress have been extensively discussed in the literature. Correlate behavioral responses, physiological and psychological have contributed in increasing the understanding of stress-induced psychophysiological disorders

A DOE based approach for the design of RBF artificial neural networks applied to prediction of surface roughness in AISI 52100 hardened Steel turning

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Reforma a vapor catalítica do metano: Otimização da produção e seletividade em hidrogênio por absorção in situ do CO2 produzido

Topics of research related to energy and environment have significantly grown in recent years, with the need of its own energy as hydrogen. More particularly, numerous researches have been focused on hydrogen as energy vector. The main portion of hydrogen is presently obtained by reforming of methane or light hydrocarbons (steam, oxy, dry or auto reforming). During the methane steam reforming process the formation of CO2 undesirable (the main contributor to the greenhouse effect) is observed. Thus, an oxide material (sorbent) can be used to capture the CO2 generated during the process and simultaneously shifting the equilibrium of water gas shift towards thermodynamically more favorable production of pure hydrogen. The aim of this study is to develop a material with dual function (catalyst/sorbent) in the reaction of steam reforming of methane. CaO is well known as CO2 sorbent due to its high efficiency in reactions of carbonation and easy regeneration through calcination. However the kinetic of carbonation decreases quickly with time and carbonation/calcination cycles. A calcium aluminate (Ca12Al14O33) should be used to avoid sintering and increase the stability of CaO sorbents for several cycles. Nickel, the industrial catalyst choice for steam reforming has been added to the support from different manners. These bi-functional materials (sorbent/catalyst) in different molar ratios CaO.Ca12Al14O33 (48:52, 65:35, 75:25, 90:10) were prepared by different synthesis methodologies, among them, especially the method of microwave assisted self-combustion. Synthesis, structure and catalytic performances of Ni- CaO.Ca12Al14O33 synthesized by the novel method (microwave assisted selfcombustion) proposed in this work has not being reported yet in literature. The results indicate that CO2 capture time depends both on the CaO excess and on operating conditions (eg., temperature and H2O/CH4 ratio). To be efficient for CO2 sorption, temperature of steam reforming needs to be lower than 700 °C. An optimized percentage corresponding to 75% of CaO and a ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 provides the most promising results since a smaller amount of water avoids competition between water and CO2 to form carbonate and hydroxide. If this competition is most effective (H2O/CH4 = 3) and would have a smaller amount of CaO available for absorption possibly due to the formation of Ca(OH)2. Therefore, the capture time was higher (16h) for the ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 than H2O/CH4 = 3 (7h) using as catalyst one prepared by impregnating the support obtained by microwave assisted self-combustion. Therefore, it was demonstrated that, with these catalysts, the CO2 sorption on CaO modifies the balance of the water gas-shift reaction. Consequently, steam reforming of CH4 is optimized, producing pure H2, complete conversion of methane and negligible concentration of CO2 and CO during the time of capture even at low temperature (650 °C). This validates the concept of the sorption of CO2 together with methane steam reforming

In vivo genotoxicity assessment of nerolidol

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Clinical and Histological Effects of the Intrathecal Administration of Methylprednisolone in Dogs

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Graft versus host disease in a rat small bowel transplant model after T-cell depleted donor specific bone marrow infusion

Baixas doses de irradiação associadas à infusão de células da medula óssea não previnem a ocorrência da reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro após o transplante intestinal. OBJETIVO: Neste estudo foi avaliado a potencial vantagem em estender o regime imunossupressor associado a infusão de células de medula óssea do doador depletadas de células T na prevenção da reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro após o transplante intestinal. MÉTODOS: Transplante heterotópico de intestino delgado foi realizado em ratos Lewis como receptores e da como doadores, distribuídos em cinco grupos de acordo com a duração da imunossupressão, irradiação e do uso de medula óssea normal ou depletada: G1 (n=6), sem irradiação e G2 (n=9), G3 (n=4), G4 (n=5) e G5 (n=6) foram irradiados com 250 rd. Grupos1, 2, 4 e G3 e 5 foram infundidos com 100 x 10(6) células da medula normal e depletada respectivamente. Animais no G1,2,3 foram imunossuprimidos com 1mg/kg/FK506/ IM por cinco dias e G4 e cinco por 15 dias. Anticorpos monoclonais contra células CD3 e colunas magnéticas foram utilizadas para a depleção da medula óssea. Os animais foram examinados para a presença de rejeição, reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro, chimerismo e biópsias intestinais e da pele. RESULTADOS: Rejeição mínima foi observada em todos os grupos; entretanto, a reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro somente nos animais irradiados. Extensão da imunossupressão alterou a gravidade da reação nos animais dos G4 e 5. Rejeição foi a causa mortis no G1 e a reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro nos Grupos 2,3,4 e 5, não controlada com a infusão de medula óssea depletada. O chimerismo total e de células T do doador foi estatisticamente maior nos grupos irradiados em comparação ao G1. CONCLUSÃO: A extensão do regime de imunossupressão associado a baixas doses de irradiação diminui a gravidade da reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro, não abolida pelo uso de medula óssea depletada.

Chimerism induction by nonmyeloablactive preconditioning and bone marrow infusion in rat small bowel transplantation

Em estudo recente demonstramos que a infusão de células da medula óssea do doador após o transplante intestinal não aumentou a sobrevida do enxerto quando se utilizou series curtas de drogas imunossupressoras. OBJETIVO: Neste estudo avaliamos se a utilização de diferentes regimes de irradiação em associação com a infusão de medula óssea altera a sobrevida do enxerto e a morbidade sobre receptor. MÉTODOS: Realizou-se o transplante heterotópico de intestino delgado, utilizando-se ratos Lewis como receptores e da como doadores, imunossuprimidos com FK 506 na dose de 1mg/kg/dia por 5 dias e distribuídos em 4 grupos: G1 (n= 4), não irradiado e sem infusão de medula óssea; G2 (n= 6), G3 (n= 9) e G4 (n= 6) foram infundidos com 100 x 10(6) células de medula após o transplante. Grupos 3 e 4 foram irradiados com 250 e 400 rd respectivamente. Os animais foram examinados diariamente para a detecção de rejeição e reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro, tendo sido colhidas amostras semanais de sangue para estudos de quimerismose biopsias quinzenais da estomia. RESULTADOS: Animais nos G1 e G2 apresentaram rejeição mínima no 15º pós-operatório, enquanto a reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro foi caracterizada nos G3 e G4. Os níveis de quimerismo total e de células T foram maiores nos grupos irradiados em comparação aos não irradiados. A causa mortis nos G1 e G2 foi a rejeição enquanto que nos G3 e G4 foi a reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro. CONCLUSÃO: Concluímos que a utilização de baixas doses de irradiações retardam o aparecimento da rejeição, mas não previne a ocorrência da reação do enxerto versus hospedeiro.