Efeito do tratamento por plasma na proliferação de fibroblastos e esterilização de membranas de quitosana

Chitosan is being studied for use as dressing due their biological properties. Aiming to expand the use in biomedical applications, chitosan membranes were modified by plasma using the following gases: nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4), argon (Ar), oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2). The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle, surface energy and water absorption test. Biological Tests were also performed, such as: test sterilization and proliferation of fibroblasts (3T3 line). Through SEM we observed morphological changes occurring during the plasma treatment, the formation of micro and nano-sized valleys. MFA was used to analyze different roughness parameters (Ra, Rp, Rz) and surface topography. It was found that the treated samples had an increase in surface roughness and sharp peaks. Methane plasma treatment decreased the hydrophilicity of the membranes and also the rate of water absorption, while the other treatments turned the membranes hydrophilic. The sterilization was effective in all treatment times with the following gases: Ar, N2 and H2. With respect to proliferation, all treatments showed an improvement in cell proliferation increased in a range 150% to 250% compared to untreated membrane. The highlights were the treatments with Ar 60 min, O2 60 min, CH4 15 min. Observing the results of the analyzes performed in this study, it appears that there is no single parameter that influences cell proliferation, but rather a set of ideal conditions that favor cell proliferation

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in a Patient With Congenital Mirror Movement Disorder and Colpocephaly

Introduction: Congenital mirror movement disorder designates involuntary movements on one side of the body that occur as mirror of the intentional movements on the contralateral side. Colpocephaly is described as persistence of fetal configuration of lateral ventricles. Case Presentation: A two-month old male infant was brought to the hospital due to bilateral identical movements of the hands. Except for bilateral involuntary synkinetic imitative movements in hands, neurological and physical examination was normal. Cranial MRI showed corpus callosum dysgenesis, hypogenesis and dilation of bilateral lateral ventricular posterior horns (colpocephaly). At the age of 7 years, he was started to use metylphenydate to mitigate attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. The mirror movements were decreasing in amplitude by years and were not so serious to affect normal life activities. Conclusions: Mirror movements, diagnosed usually during childhood, may be congenital or secondary to neurological diseases. Although they generally do not affect normal life activities, in some cases severity of mirror movements causes a real debilitating disease. In our case the patient was diagnosed at the age of 2 months and on follow-up no debilitating problems were observed. This is the first case to describe the association of colpocephaly and mirror movements. The exact mechanism of this association is not known. Although it is known that mirror movements may be in relation with some pychiatric pathologies, this is the first report of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in conjunction with mirror movements and/or colpocephaly. Managing comorbidities, either physical or psyhchological, will help the patient to live in good health without trying to cope with other pathological diseases.

Estados Unidos e Síria : do final da guerra fria à contemporaneidade

O artigo trata do relacionamento entre Estados Unidos entre o encerramento da Guerra Fria e os dias atuais. Em todo o período, as relações são caracterizadas por tensão, haja vista a diferença de regime político. Todavia, em função do crescimento do extremismo, há a possibilidade de uma aproximação involuntária e temporária. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT

Star drawings and intersections

Star Drawings and Intersections (an experimental installation) With the camera attached directly to my body extended exposures of stars were made. The images were therefore subject to the physicality of the body and it’s movements. They represent the act of photography as an extension of the body and the lens as a replacement or extension of the eye (by utilizing the camera the primary and initial a point of visualisation). The final images render the movements of the body (during the time of the extended exposures) and traces of starlight imparted during these enacted and involuntary movements. Presented as a large scale (horizontal life/figurative size) grid of images the audience is afforded the ability to view and compare the individual images and to consider them as an experimental form of phenomenological data. The work also aims to be considered as a representation of an embodied relationship to both the medium of photography and the sublime cosmos, which captured during these gestural performances. During the exhibition audience members are encouraged the engage with the grid of images by placing various objects, such as timber dowel rods, against the images as a way of invoking an extended connection - a physical line of sight and as an act of pointing to and delineating single moments within the continuum of the rendered exposure. These interactions are also a way of engaging both the physicality of the gallery and temporality of the exhibition as the timber rods cast shadows across the images which shift over time with the ever changing angle of the Sunlight as it enters though the circular arched windows of the gallery.

'A gender for change'

Women’s imprisonment campaigns gathered momentum in Victoria, Australia from the late 1970s onwards. Advocates and activists, operating from feminist and often prison abolition principles, used direct action, public education, lobbying and legal tools to create pressure for change in the women’s prison system. Campaigns focused on challenging various harmful and dangerous practices and conditions affecting women in prison, including forced sterilization and the use of prescription drugs for control; lack of access to children and family; excessive strip-searching; the punitive transfer of women to men’s high-security prisons and more (Carnaby, 1998; Cerveri et al., 2005; Cotter, 2008; George, 1993, 1995; Hampton, 1993; Hancock, 1982; Hannon, 2006). Whilst some of these practices have ceased over the past few decades, many of the issues persist, albeit in different forms, and new problems have emerged for anti-prison activists. This paper offers a reflection on some of the complexities present in anti-prison activism focused on ameliorating some of the immediate harms imprisoned women face and the necessary negotiations with the penal state.

Memórias autobiográficas voluntárias e involuntárias: Relações com a vinculação, as relações interpessoais e a ansiedade

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no ISPA – Instituto Universitário para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica

Paciente bruxómano e as suas opções terapêuticas

O bruxismo caracteriza-se por um ato involuntário de apertar e/ou ranger os dentes sendo este hábito um fator de risco que pode comprometer a função do sistema estomatognático com várias sequelas associadas (dor dentária e muscular, desgaste dentário, etc.). Esta pesquisa bibliográfica pretende rever as possibilidades terapêuticas que se podem apresentar como soluções no controlo desta parafunção. A bibliografia ainda é inconclusiva sobre qual o melhor tratamento a seguir sugerindo uma abordagem multidisciplinar, tendo em conta a etiologia e a sintomatologia para a definição de um plano de tratamento mais completo e adequado. Têm surgido cada vez mais alternativas terapêuticas e cada uma delas, ao longo do tempo, tem desenvolvido novas metodologias mais eficazes no tratamento do bruxismo.

Mental health legislation (civil) in Australia and China: a comparative study

This comparative review of statutory provisions of Australian and Chinese law focuses on accessibility of mental health care, diagnosis, admission and treatment orders for involuntary patients in civil cases as well as discharge procedures. The introduction contextualises the object of the comparative study, including key rights and principles that are used as the basis for analysis. Such factors as different political and legal systems, history, culture, and infrastructure resources of China and Australia form the background for the legal examination. Not surprisingly, these five factors, rather than statutory texts per se, are found to be the most important drivers of each country’s approach to the law of mental health. Two cases, XX v WW [2014] VSC 564 in Australia and Xu Lixin v Xu Canxing, Qingchun Psychiatric Rehabilitation Hospital of Shanghai [2015], known as the Right to Liberty Case, in China illustrate practical differences in legal approach to involuntary treatment. The comparative analysis concludes by identifying the most problematic aspects of the legislation in each country.

Controlled surface nanotopography and oxygen plasma treatment of PEEK to improve cellular response

Poly(aryl-ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) is a semi crystalline polymer which exhibits properties that make it an attractive choice for use as an implant material. It displays natural radiolucency, and MRI compatibility, as well as good chemical and sterilization resistance, both of which make it of particular interest in orthopaedic implants. However, PEEK has demonstrated poor cellular adhesion both in vitro and in vivo. This is problematic as implant surfaces that do not develop a layer of adhesive cells are at risk of undergoing fibrous encapsulation, which in turn leads to lack of a strong interface between the implant device and the patient tissue, which can in turn lead to failure of the implant and revision surgery . As incorporating nanotopography into a polymer surface has been demonstrated to be able to direct the differentiation behaviour of stem cells, a possible solution to PEEKs underlying issues with poor cellular response would be to incorporate specific nanoscale topography into the material surface through injection moulding, and then analysing if this is a viable method for addressing PEEKs issues with cellular response. In addition to nanoscale topography, the experimental PEEK surfaces were treated with oxygen plasma to address the underlying cytophobicity of the material. As this type of treatment has been documented to be capable of etching the PEEK surface, experiments were carried out to quantify the effect of this treatment, both on the ability of cells to adhere to the PEEK surface, as well as the effect it has upon the nanotopography present at the PEEK surface. The results demonstrated that there were a range of plasma treatments which would significantly improve the ability of cells to adhere to the PEEK surface without causing unacceptable damage to the nanotopography. Three different types of cells with osteogenic capacity were tested with the PEEK surfaces to gauge the ability of the topography to alter their behaviour: SAOS-2, osteoprogenitors and 271+ MSCs. Due to PEEKs material properties (it is non transparent, exhibits birefringence and is strongly autofluorescent) a number of histological techniques were used to investigate a number of different stages that take place in osteogenesis. The different cell types did display slightly different responses to the topographies. The SAOS-2 cells cultured on surfaces that had been plasma treated for 2 minutes at 200W had statistically significantly higher levels of von Kossa staining on the NSQ surface compared to the planar surface, and the same experiment employing alizarin red staining, showed a statistically significantly lower level of staining on the SQ surface compared to the planar surface. Using primary osteoprogenitor cells designed to look into if whether or not the presence of nanotopography effected the osteogenic response of these cells, we saw a lack of statistically significant difference produced by the surfaces investigated. By utilising HRP based immunostaining, we were able to investigate, in a quantitative fashion, the production of the two osteogenic markers osteopontin and osteocalcin by cells. When stained for osteocalcin, the SQ nanotopography had total percentage of the surface with stained material, average area and average perimeter all statistically significantly lower than the planar surface. For the cells that were stained for osteopontin, the SQ nanotopgraphy had a total percentage of the surface with stained material, average area and average perimeter all highly statistically significantly lower than those of the planar surface. Additionally, for this marker the NSQ nanotopography had average areas and average perimeters that were highly significantly higher than those of the planar surface. There were no significant differences for any of the values investigated for the 271+ MSC’s When plasma treatment was varied, the SAOS-2 cells demonstrated an overall trend i.e. increasing the energy of plasma treatment in turn leads to an increase in the overall percentage of staining. A similar experiment employing stem cells isolated from human bone marrow instead of SAOS-2 cells showed that for polycarbonate surfaces , used as a control, mineralization is statistically significantly higher on the NSQ nanopattern compared to the planar surface, whereas on the PEEK surfaces we observe the opposite trend i.e. the NSQ nanotopography having a statistically significantly lower amount of mineralization compared to the planar surface at the 200W 2min and 30W 1min plasma treatments. The standout trend from the PEEK results in this experiment was that the statistically significant differences on the PEEK substrates were clustered around the lower energy plasma treatments, which could suggest that the plasma treatment disrupted a function of the nanotopograhy which is why, as the energy increases, there are less statistically significant differences between the NSQ nanotopography and the Planar surface This thesis documents the response of a number of different types of cells to specific nanoscale topographies incorporated into the PEEK surface which had been treated with oxygen plasma. It outlines the development of a number of histological methods which measure different aspects of osteogenesis, and were selected to both work with PEEK, and produce quantitative results through the use of Cell Profiler. The methods that have been employed in this body of work would be of interest to other researchers working with this material, as well as those working with similarly autofluorescent materials.

The wealth effects of commercial bank securities issuances announcement

Banks are often excluded in corporate finance research mainly because of the regulatory concerns. Compares to non-bank firms, banks are heavily regulated due to its special economic role of money and the uncertainty. Heavy regulation on banks could reduce the information asymmetry between the managers and investor by limiting the behaviour of banks at the time of the Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO), and by increasing the incentive for banks to avoid excessive risk-taking. Therefore, the market may be less likely to assume that bank issued securities signal information that the bank is overvalued compared to their non-bank counterparts. The objective of this thesis is therefore to examine commercial banks issued securities announcement effect. Three interrelated research questions are addressed in this thesis: 1) What is the difference in convertible bond announcement effect between banks and non-banks firm? 2) What is the difference in SEO announcement effect between banks and non-banks? 3) How do the stringency levels of bank regulation impact on the announcement effects of bank issued SEO? By using the U.S. convertible bond and SEO data from 1982 to 2012, I find that the bank issued a convertible bond and SEO announcement experience higher cumulative abnormal return than non-bank. This is consistent with the view that bank regulation reveals positive information about banks. Since banks are heavily regulated, the market is less likely to assume that the issuance of the convertible bond and SEO by banks signals information that is overvalued. These results are robust after controlling for a number of firm-, issue-, and market-specific characteristics. These results are robust by considering the different categories of non-bank industries by undertaking tests in relation to the differences in the CARS upon convertible bond/ SEO across industries, as well as the unbalanced sample between banks and non-banks by using the matched sample analysis. However, the relation between the stringency level of bank regulation and bank issued securities announcement effect may be nonlinear. As hypothesised, I find that bank regulation has an inverted U-shaped relation with the announcement effect of bank SEO by using the SEO data across 21 countries from 2001 to 2012. Under a less bank regulation environment, the market reacts more positively to the bank SEO announcement for an increase in the level of bank regulation. However, the bank SEO announcement effects become more negative if the bank regulation becomes too stringent. This inverted U-shaped relationship is robust after I use the exogenous cross-country, cross-year variation in the timing of the Basel II adoption as the instrument to assess the causal impact of bank regulation on SEO announcement effects. However, the stringency of regulation does not have a significant impact on the announcement effects of involuntary bank equity issuance.

Efectos de una intervención educativa en la promoción de la actividad física, otros comportamientos saludables y los conocimientos para la prevención del cáncer de pulmón en jóvenes del colegio La Merced en Bogotá D.C., Colombia

Introducción: El cáncer de pulmón es el tipo de cáncer más mortal a nivel mundial, al cual se atribuyen una de cada cinco muertes anualmente. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar los efectos de una intervención educativa en la promoción de la actividad física, otros comportamientos saludables y los conocimientos para la prevención del cáncer de pulmón en jóvenes estudiantes de una institución educativa pública en Bogotá, Colombia. Métodos: Estudio experimental no controlado en 243 estudiantes de sexo femenino (Edad 14±1,5 años). La intervención educativa se desarrolló en tres momentos: una sesión educativa con una duración de 60 minutos acorde a la Guía para la Comunicación Educativa en el Marco del Control del Cáncer, en Colombia. Segundo, se enviaron tres correos electrónicos con información acerca del cáncer pulmonar; finalmente se desarrollaron actividades grupales. Para la toma de datos se utilizaron el cuestionario Cáncer Awareness Measure (CAM) y el Sistema de Vigilancia de Factores de Riesgo del Comportamiento (BRFSS). La evaluación se realizó en un período de seguimiento a 1, 3 y 6 meses post-intervención. Resultados: La intervención educativa incrementó significativamente los conocimientos de las jóvenes sobre los signos de alarma del cáncer pulmonar y los principales factores de riesgo modificables, tales como el consumo de cigarrillo, la exposición al humo del mismo y el sedentarismo, al sexto mes post-intervención. Las mejoras en el cambio comportamental no lograron significancia estadística. Conclusiones: Una intervención educativa mejora los conocimientos acerca de la detección temprana y la prevención del cáncer de pulmón, así como los comportamientos saludables en jóvenes estudiantes en Bogotá, Colombia. Se requiere de estudios controlados aleatorizados.

Assessment of Injuries Caused by Anastrepha fraterculus (Wied.) (Diptera: Tephritidae) on the Incidence of Bunch Rot Diseases in Table Grape.

Resumo: Anastrepha fraterculus (. Wied) é a principal praga de uvas de mesa (Vitis vinifera) na Região Sul do Brasil. Neste estudo, o objetivo foi investigar o efeito da punção de frutas por fêmeas adultas e infestação larvária por A. fraterculus na ocorrência da doença podridões na uva (cultivar "Itália"). Abstract: Anastrepha fraterculus (Wied.) is the main insect pest of table grapes (Vitis vinifera) in the Southern Region of Brazil. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of fruit puncturing by adult females and larval infestation by A. fraterculus on the occurrence of bunch rot disease in the grape (cultivar ?Itália?) by evaluating grapes (a) punctured for oviposition by females of A. fraterculus, sterilized in laboratory with novaluron (40 mg L−1) and further spray-inoculated separately with Botrytis cinerea (1 × 106 conidia mL−1), Glomerella cingulata (1 × 106 conidia mL−1), and bacteria and yeast that cause sour rot (1 × 105 cells mL−1), (b) grapes punctured for oviposition by non-sterilized females with pathogen spraying, (c) grapes with mechanical wounds and pathogen spraying, (d) grapes with no wounds and with pathogen spraying, (e) grapes punctured for oviposition by A. fraterculus chemically sterilized in laboratory with novaluron, (f) grapes punctured for oviposition by A. fraterculus non-sterilized in laboratory with novaluron, (g) grapes with mechanical wounds, and (h) grapes with no sterilization or pathogen spraying. Our data indicated that the mechanical and oviposition wounds caused by A. fraterculus increased the percentage of grapes infected by B. cinerea, G. cingulata, and microorganisms of acid rot. The grape puncturing by A. fraterculus and the mechanical wound allows the penetration of B. cinerea and microorganisms leading to acid rot. We conclude that the fruit fly A. fraterculus may facilitate phytopathogens penetration leading to bunch rots in the table grape Itália.