Manifestações neurológicas em ribeirinhos de áreas expostas ao mercúrio na Amazônia brasileira

No presente estudo, foram avaliados comparativamente os níveis atuais de exposição ao mercúrio e as manifestações neurológicas em ribeirinhos residentes em comunidades situadas no Estado do Pará, Brasil. Participaram do estudo 78 ribeirinhos de Barreiras (bacia do rio Tapajós), 30 de São Luiz do Tapajós (bacia do rio Tapajós) e 49 do Furo do Maracujá (bacia do rio Tocantins). As concentrações de mercúrio total foram quantificadas, em cabelo, pela espectrofotometria de absorção atômica, e a avaliação neurológica foi realizada por meio de testes de rotina. As concentrações de mercúrio nas comunidades do Tapajós foram maiores que as do Tocantins (p < 0,01). A avaliação das alterações neurológicas não mostrou diferença significativa entre as comunidades das áreas expostas e controle para os resultados observados pelo exame neurológico convencional, exceto para desvio da marcha (p < 0,05). Concluiu-se que, apesar dos níveis de exposição ao mercúrio, houve uma baixa frequência de alterações somatossensoriais encontradas por meio de exames neurológicos convencionais.

Interações modais não ressonantes em vigas cantilever flexíveis

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEG

Diversidade genética, sistema de reprodução e fluxo de pólen e sementes em uma população fragmentada de Myracrodruon urundeuva (F.F. & M.F. Allemão) para fins de conservação genética

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Composição faunística, ecologia e história natural de serpentes em uma região no sudoeste da Amazônia, Rondônia, Brasil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Diversidade genética em coleções amazônicas de germoplasma de cupuaçuzeiro [Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) Schum.]

This study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity and relatedness of 24 accessions of Theobroma grandiflorum, originating from three units of Embrapa, aiming their use as parents in hybridization specie programs. The genetic markers used were heterologous microsatellite loci developed for cocoa. In the population studied 45 alleles were found. The effective average number of alleles per locus (2.33) was less than the average number of alleles per locus (3.21), indicating that many alleles have low frequency. The observed heterozygosity at polymorphic loci ranged from 0.33 to 1.00 with a mean of 0.54 and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.48 to 0.76 with a mean of 0.54. The fixation index medium between loci (0.003) was not significantly different from zero. The estimate of relatedness between pairs of individuals indicates that some may be relatives, including half-brothers and clones. The results suggest that the accesses of T. grandiflorum analyzed contain a moderate level of genetic diversity and absence of inbreeding and therefore great potential for use in breeding programs.

The effects of auditory stimulation with music on heart rate variability in healthy women

OBJECTIVES: There are no data in the literature with regard to the acute effects of different styles of music on the geometric indices of heart rate variability. In this study, we evaluated the acute effects of relaxant baroque and excitatory heavy metal music on the geometric indices of heart rate variability in women. METHODS: We conducted this study in 21 healthy women ranging in age from 18 to 35 years. We excluded persons with previous experience with musical instruments and persons who had an affinity for the song styles. We evaluated two groups: Group 1 (n = 21), who were exposed to relaxant classical baroque musical and excitatory heavy metal auditory stimulation; and Group 2 (n = 19), who were exposed to both styles of music and white noise auditory stimulation. Using earphones, the volunteers were exposed to baroque or heavy metal music for five minutes. After the first music exposure to baroque or heavy metal music, they remained at rest for five minutes; subsequently, they were re-exposed to the opposite music (70-80 dB). A different group of women were exposed to the same music styles plus white noise auditory stimulation (90 dB). The sequence of the songs was randomized for each individual. We analyzed the following indices: triangular index, triangular interpolation of RR intervals and Poincaré plot (standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability, standard deviation of the long-term RR interval, standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability and standard deviation of the long-term RR interval ratio), low frequency, high frequency, low frequency/high frequency ratio, standard deviation of all the normal RR intervals, root-mean square of differences between the adjacent normal RR intervals and the percentage of adjacent RR intervals with a difference of duration greater than 50 ms. Heart rate variability was recorded at rest for 10 minutes. RESULTS: The triangular index and the standard deviation of the long-term RR interval indices were reduced during exposure to both music styles in the first group and tended to decrease in the second group whereas the white noise exposure decreased the high frequency index. We observed no changes regarding the triangular interpolation of RR intervals, standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability and standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability/standard deviation in the long-term RR interval ratio. CONCLUSION: We suggest that relaxant baroque and excitatory heavy metal music slightly decrease global heart rate variability because of the equivalent sound level.

Anticorpos contra Leptospira spp. e Brucella spp. em equiídeos da região Sul do Brasil abatidos em matadouro-frigorífico

Pós-graduação em Medicina Veterinária - FCAV

Novas configurações de interferômetros de quadratura e de técnicas de detecção de fase óptica baseadas em phase unwrapping

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Systemic immunotoxicity reactions induced by adjuvanted vaccines

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Insights on the HLA-G Evolutionary History Provided by a Nearby Alu Insertion

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Autonomic modulation and its relation with body composition in swimmers

This study compared autonomic modulation in swimmers and non-athletes in relation to body composition. A total of 28 athletes with a mean age of 19.7 +/- 2.9 years were evaluated who had at least 2 years of swimming training, trained approximately 7,000 m per day, with a frequency of 5 days per week, and who competed at national level. The control group was made up of 21 volunteers (23.0 +/- 2.5 years), who did not practice regular physical activity (<2 hours per week). Body composition was estimated using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and autonomic modulation was assessed by heart rate variability (HRV). The results show that there were significant differences in autonomic modulation and body composition between the groups, and that the athletes had a higher overall variability (standard deviation of all normal intervals between consecutive heart beats [SDNN]: 78.1 [72.5-93.5] x 61.1 [56.4-75.7], p = 0.022) and greater autonomic balance (LF/HF: 0.96 [0.88-1.35] x 0.71 [0.56-0.93], p = 0.023), compared with the non-athletes, respectively. In addition, a moderate and positive relation was obtained between fat-free mass and the square root of the squared differences between consecutive heartbeat intervals (RMSSD: r = 0.526, p = 0.004 x r = 0.456, p = 0.038), (SDNN: r = 0.617, p = 0.001 x r = 0.571, p = 0.007) and low frequency (LFms(2): r = 0.517, p = 0.005 3 r = 0.600, p = 0.004) in the athletes and non-athletes, respectively, without a correlation between fat mass (FM). The conclusion is that young highly trained swimmers had lower FM, increased fat-free mass, and better HRV than young adult non-athletes and suggests that a lower quantity of FM and, especially, a greater fat-free mass (FFM) are linked to better autonomic modulation. Thus, this study could contribute to coaches and trainers establishing greater performance by better autonomic modulation and greater quantity of FFM.

Efficacy of fipronil (1.0 mg/kg) against Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus strains resistant to ivermectin (0.63 mg/kg)

The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of fipronil (1 mg/kg) against three strains of ivermectin-resistant Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (R. (B.) microplus), naturally infesting cattle from different states of Brazil. Three rural properties with a history of macrocyclic lactones ineffectiveness against the cattle tick, and low frequency use of fipronil in the herd, were selected for the study. The animals were randomized according to the mean tick counts, performed on days 3, 2 and I, into three groups with 10 animals each: T01, control (saline solution); T02, subcutaneous ivermectin (0.63 mg/kg) and T03, topical fipronil (1 mg/kg). Treatment was performed on day 0. Counts of partially engorged female ticks were performed on days 3,7 and 14 post-treatment (DPT), and then every 7 days until the 49th DPT. In all three experiments, it was possible to diagnose resistance of R. (B.) microplus to ivermectin (0.63 mg/kg). The maximum efficacy (arithmetic mean) obtained for ivermectin was 64% in experiment II. On the other hand, the formulation containing fipronil (1 mg/kg) reached high efficacy values (>= 97%) in all three experiments. The results from all experiments in this study demonstrate the high efficacy of 1 mg/kg fipronil, administered pour-on in naturally infested cattle, against strains of R. (B.) microplus that are resistant to 630 mcg/kg ivermectin. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Controle autonômico do coração e fração de ejeção na fase crônica do acidente vascular encefálico

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

Desempenho de escolares com dislexia e transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade nos processos de leitura

This study aimed to characterize and to compare the performance of students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in students with good academic performance on the reading processes. Sixty students from both genders, from 2nd to 4th grades of municipal public schools in Marília - SP participated in this study, they were distributed as follows: GI, 20 students with interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia; GII, 20 students with ADHD and GIII, 20 students with good academic performance, paired according to gender, age and grade level with GI and GII. The students were submitted to the application of the assessment of reading processes (PROLEC) composed by four processes: letters identification, lexical, syntactical and semantic. The results highlighted that the students of GIII showed superior performance comparing with GI and GII. There was difference between GI and GII only in low frequency word reading and non words reading of the lexical process. The inferior performance from GI and GII in the PROLEC tests can be justified by the difficulty on the coding and decoding abilities. In ADHD students this difficulty was due to impaired interaction between the visual, linguistic, attention and auditory processing and in the dyslexic students was due to failure at the phonological mediation process, which depends on the knowledge of rules of grapheme - phoneme conversion to the acquisition of word reading. These changes affect the reading achievement and the comprehension of the read text.

Fractal dynamics of heart rate variability for short term

The fractal analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has been associated to the chaos theory. We evaluated the association of the fractal exponents of HRV with the time and frequency domain and geometric indices of HRV for short period. HRV was analyzed with a minimal number of 256 RR intervals in the time (SDNN-standard deviation of normal-to-normal R-R intervals, pNN50-percentage of adjacent RR intervals with a difference of duration greater than 50ms and RMSSD-root-mean square of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals in a time interval) and frequency (LF-low frequency, HF-high frequency and LF/HF ratio) domains. The geometric indexes were also analyzed (RRtri-triangular index, TINN-triangular interpolation of RR intervals and Poincaré plot) as well as short and long-term fractal exponents (alpha-1 and alpha-2) of the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). We observed strong correlation of the alpha-1 exponent with RMSSD, pNN50, SDNN/RMSSD, LF (nu), HF (nu), LF/HF ratio, SD1 and SD1/Sd2 ratio. In conclusion, we suggest that the alpha-1 exponent could be applied for HRV analysis with a minimal number of 256 RR intervals.