Fertility Rates Following Fixed-Time Artificial Insemination in Dairy Heifers in a Practical Progesterone-Based Protocol

Background: In bovines, more efficient management practices are important for maximizing profitability. In order to increase the pregnancy rates in artificial insemination (AI) programs, several hormonal protocols were developed to synchronize the follicular wave and the moment of ovulation in beef and dairy cattle. In dairy cattle, detection of estrus can be difficult due to a number of factors including the incidence of silent estrus. Hormonal treatments designed to control both luteal and follicular function has permitting efficient synchronizations of time of ovulation. Thus, the AI can be performed in a large number of animals on a fixed schedule without the need for detection of estrus. Using these management techniques, the fixed-time artificial insemination (TAI) can overcome the problem of accurate estrus detection and help in reducing the incidence of repeat breeding. In addition, with TAI in cattle operations, it is possible to facilitate management practices and commercialization, and to reduce the time and semen wasting with animals inseminated at incorrect times. The investigation of practical and efficient TAI protocols is important for reducing the labor and animal handling of TAI in dairy cattle, as well as for increasing the profitability of the cattle management system. This study was carried out in order to investigate the effectiveness of TAI in dairy heifers treated with a practical progesterone-based protocol.Materials, Methods & Results: This experiment was conducted at the university farm located in southwestern Brazil, during May 2009. Thirty-nine cycling crossbred dairy heifers were employed in this study. All animals received a single intramuscular injection of estradiol benzoate and intravaginal progesterone releasing device in a random stage of the estrous cycle (Day 0). on day 7 the animals were treated with PGF2a analogue and on day 9 the device was removed. Forty-eight hours after the device removal (day 11) a synthetic analogue of GnRH was administered and the animals were fixed-time artificially inseminated at the time of GnRH injection. The inseminations were performed using four different batches from the same Holstein bull. Among the heifers that were synchronized (87.2%), 30.8% ovulated until 24 h after TAI and 56.4% ovulated between 24 and 32 h after TAI. The conception rate was 61.5%. No effects of ovulation time in conception rates were detected. The conception rate from heifers that ovulated until 24 h after TAI was 58.3% and from heifers that ovulated between 24 and 32 h after TAI was 77.3%. The mean of ovulatory follicle in heifers that ovulated until 24 h was 14.3 mm and in heifers that ovulated between 24 and 32 h was 11.9 mm.Discussion: Taking together, the findings of the present study, along with those of others, emphasize the concept that development of practical methods for TAI offers significant advantages to dairy producers if conception rates are close or greater to those obtained after breeding at detected estrus. Thus, the results of the present study reinforce the possibility of making dairy cattle production more cost-effective using TAI. In conclusion, with the progesterone-based TAI protocol of the present experiment all synchronized animals ovulated up to 32 h after GnRH+TAI and no effects of ovulation time related to conception rate was detected. The exogenous control of luteal and follicular development facilitated the reproductive management and animal handling. Also, inseminating the heifers at the moment of GnRH injection in a progesterone-based TAI protocol is a practical strategy and provided satisfactory results regarding ovulation and conception rates in dairy heifers.

Polymorphism analysis of the hsp70 stress gene in Broiler chickens (Gallus gallus) of different breeds

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

Inclusão e deficiência: em busca das representações sociais na mídia impressa em Natal/RN

This thesis is the result of an extensive research on print media discourse on the inclusion of disabled people in society. Articles published in the newspapers Diário de Natal/O Poti and Tribuna do Norte from 1992 to 2002 have been analyzed. Beginning with the very same questions that moved Moscovici (1978) in his classic study La Psychalyse son image et son public , according to which the media play a predominant role in the formation and propagation of social representations as well as in the construction of human behaviors, we have chosen this mass media as our investigation field. Understanding the importance of the communication theory, we intend to associate it to the social representation theory, since communication, as an aspiration, relates to the fundamentals of all humanity (WOLTON, 2004, p. 56). Moreover, means of communication represent an important space for symbolic production and representational process, allowing the analysis of the circulating discourses on social inclusion and disability. Based on these questions, we have determined social representations present in print media on the subject to be our study object. This objective was elected due to the fact that the thematic of disability and inclusion is scarcely and sporadically found in journalistic speech. The research questions have been: which is the representation of disabled people s condition in print media? What changes have occurred during the analyzed period and which was the role played by print media in this process? The research corpus was composed of newspaper articles about various aspects concerning disability and of free word association by reporters. We have analysed: 1) graphical language promoted by the picture of the substances propagated in the period from 1992 a 2002; 2) free word association experiments carried out with reporters of both newspapers; and 3) texts published from 1996 to 1997 using the high-tech program ALCESTE (Contextual Lexical Analysis of a Set of Segments of Texts). The results revealed that the print media in Natal/RN refer to the topic in a discontinuous way, and depend on specific events to highlight disabled people s fight for their rights. Social inclusion is still a great challenge for these people in all levels. We believe that this incapacity to overcome all kinds of obstacles is established in a dialectic relation between society and the media: society remains silent (the manifestation of interest for the cause only attracts some people s or groups attention) and the media, which selects which information is to be broadcasted, gives no evidence to the issue. This representation may be noticed in the infrequency in which articles about the subject are published, as well as in the emphasis to sports, a more important issue for the media. An implication of this study is that a new perspective is opened for analysis and reflection: the Paralympics games as both an inclusive and a segregating social phenomenon. It would be beautiful to have all of us together!

Dinâmica da Plasticidade Sináptica em neurônios do hipocampo durante ciclos de sono: um estudo computacional

Several research lines show that sleep favors memory consolidation and learning. It has been proposed that the cognitive role of sleep is derived from a global scaling of synaptic weights, able to homeostatically restore the ability to learn new things, erasing memories overnight. This phenomenon is typical of slow-wave sleep (SWS) and characterized by non-Hebbian mechanisms, i.e., mechanisms independent of synchronous neuronal activity. Another view holds that sleep also triggers the specific enhancement of synaptic connections, carrying out the embossing of certain mnemonic traces within a lattice of synaptic weights rescaled each night. Such an embossing is understood as the combination of Hebbian and non-Hebbian mechanisms, capable of increasing and decreasing respectively the synaptic weights in complementary circuits, leading to selective memory improvement and a restructuring of synaptic configuration (SC) that can be crucial for the generation of new behaviors ( insights ). The empirical findings indicate that initiation of Hebbian plasticity during sleep occurs in the transition of the SWS to the stage of rapid eye movement (REM), possibly due to the significant differences between the firing rates regimes of the stages and the up-regulation of factors involved in longterm synaptic plasticity. In this study the theories of homeostasis and embossing were compared using an artificial neural network (ANN) fed with action potentials recorded in the hippocampus of rats during the sleep-wake cycle. In the simulation in which the ANN did not apply the long-term plasticity mechanisms during sleep (SWS-transition REM), the synaptic weights distribution was re-scaled inexorably, for its mean value proportional to the input firing rate, erasing the synaptic weights pattern that had been established initially. In contrast, when the long-term plasticity is modeled during the transition SWSREM, an increase of synaptic weights were observed in the range of initial/low values, redistributing effectively the weights in a way to reinforce a subset of synapses over time. The results suggest that a positive regulation coming from the long-term plasticity can completely change the role of sleep: its absence leads to forgetting; its presence leads to a positive mnemonic change

Surface-enhanced raman scattering: metal nanostructures coated with langmuir-blodgett films

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

A dupla poética do silêncio: uma análise de Fogo morto e Cartilha do silêncio.

This research presents a reading of the poetics of silence in the profile and actions of characters in Fogo morto, by Paraiba s novelist José Lins do Rego and Cartilha do silêncio, by Sergipe s writer José Francisco Costa Dantas. As a starting point, we intend to demonstrate, through analysis, how the traditional issue of patriarchy, installed in rural areas of Northeast Brazil, live their momentum of rise and decline in different social spaces within narratives. This article shows how man lives tensions caused by the socio-political changes that will gradually be deployed in their environment due to the process of transition from traditional to modern life. From this perspective, this reading encourages a critical reflection on the social space of the mills and farms at the time of their rise and decay, as well as the various gender relationships between the feminine and the masculine world. The analysis indicates that all the changes both in family and social space unfold a world of silent variants and this paper takes as its theoretical basis the concept of silence built from the reflections of Eni Puccinelli Orlandi (2002), Barros Lourival Holland (1990 ), Luiz Costa Lima (1974) and Marisa Simons (1999).

Sujeitos e atores sociais nas representações discursivas de docentes da rede estadual de ensino em Sergipe: uma análise crítica em tempos de Ideb

According to the studies in Applied Linguistics, this thesis is based on an interdisciplinary perspective (Critical Discourse Analysis, Sociology towards Social Change, Cultural Studies and Systemic-Functional Linguistics). The overall objective of the research was to analyze the discourses of Elementary School teachers in the state of Sergipe, by means of the discursive representations of the social actors, the processes of subjectivity and their fragmented identities in the context of standardized evaluations before the requirements of globalized pedagogical practices, based on the result-based management. The critical analysis of such discourses was motivated by the rapid pace with which the demands of innovation become part of the classroom, aiming at reaching the target in what concerns the indexes of the rankings which characterize the globalized discourse of the national education management, like Ideb (Basic Education Development Index), which makes teachers change their discourses, become silent or keep resistant. The work was initially endorsed by the theoretical lines of the Critical Discourse Analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2006), and poses a proposal for such purpose: the ASCD Discourse Sociological and Communicative Approach (PEDROSA, 2012, 2013). This is an interpretative-qualitative study of the Critical Discourse Analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2003; RAMALHO ; RESENDE, 2011) and to carry it out, semi-structured interviews were used as instruments of data generation (BAUER; GASKELL, 2011; GILL, 2011). Its corpus is composed of thirteen accounts of teachers from the Elementary school who teach Portuguese and work in the fifteen schools which were chosen to be the universe of the research at the Regional Board of Education (02) in the state of Sergipe. Such narratives are related to their impressions, expectations and actions which favor the management of results to which they have to submit themselves. The analytical overview of sociological and discursive line comes from the pan-semiotic categories (Inclusion and Exclusion) which appear in the theory of Representation of Social Actors (VAN LEEUWEN, 1997, 2008). To present the processes of subjectivity of these teachers, this work is based on the socio-analytical proposal of the classification of the subjects, which stems from the individual s work in the Gestão Relacional de Si , which comes from the Applied Sociology (towards) Social Change (BAJOIT, 2006, 2009). The discursive analyses were guided word for word, in their majority, by having the Systemic Functional Grammar as their theoretical basis, specifically by the processes of the Transitivity System postulated by Halliday, (1985); Halliday and Mathiessen, (2004); Eggins (2004); Cunha and Souza (2011). The work makes the field of Cultural Studies emerge towards the dialogue and the presentation of the fragmented identities of the teachers in the context of late modernity (GIDDENS, 2002; HALL, 2011). The thesis promoted a reflection over the teacher s condition, who is immerse in this context of knowledge construction of the present Brazilian educational system, the standardized evaluations, the indexes of development, the targets and the rankings. The considerations and outcomes of such a research dealt with the teachers emerging social practices and the need of planned initial and continuing teacher education towards the new moment which is foreseeable

O (in)imaginável elefante mal-ajambrado: a questão de limites entre o Ceará e o Rio Grande do Norte e o exame da formação espacial e identitária norte-rio-grandense na Primeira República

This study s main goal is to analyze the way the limits between Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte states, the so called Grossos matter, has been associated to the norte-rio-grandense spacial and identity formation during the first republic period. Thus, a consistet number of sources: RN and CE old newspapers, as well as a república from Natal and Fortaleza and o mossoroense ; historical drafts from the historical and geographical institute associated and historical, gographical and anthropological institute of Ceará; the Ação Cível Originária de nº 6 from the supreme federal tribunal and many other cartographies. The documents haven t been hierarchized, neither accepted as proof effects, but understood as the base matter for this text composition by the deconstruction of the analyzed discusses. In order to do that the ablação or bricolagem method, without quotations marks or long quotations themselves, has been used. Along the three analyzed charpters: the two phases the litigious was found, since its beginning yet in the XVIII century until 1888 and its return within the republic proclamation, in the 1920 resolution; the development of the documental, historical and identity dispute between IHGA-CE and IHG-RN; and, at last, the political game existing between the Albuquerque Maranhão oligarchy , Manuel Pereira Reis and Rui Barbosa, explaining the intentions, silent and miths built along the time by these intellectual participations

Indicadores de cálcio e de voltagem codificados geneticamente na detecção de potenciais de ação e inputs sinápticos em cultura de neurônios hipocampais

Recently, genetically encoded optical indicators have emerged as noninvasive tools of high spatial and temporal resolution utilized to monitor the activity of individual neurons and specific neuronal populations. The increasing number of new optogenetic indicators, together with the absence of comparisons under identical conditions, has generated difficulty in choosing the most appropriate protein, depending on the experimental design. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to compare three recently developed reporter proteins: the calcium indicators GCaMP3 and R-GECO1, and the voltage indicator VSFP butterfly1.2. These probes were expressed in hippocampal neurons in culture, which were subjected to patchclamp recordings and optical imaging. The three groups (each one expressing a protein) exhibited similar values of membrane potential (in mV, GCaMP3: -56 ±8.0, R-GECO1: -57 ±2.5; VSFP: -60 ±3.9, p = 0.86); however, the group of neurons expressing VSFP showed a lower average of input resistance than the other groups (in Mohms, GCaMP3: 161 ±18.3; GECO1-R: 128 ±15.3; VSFP: 94 ±14.0, p = 0.02). Each neuron was submitted to current injections at different frequencies (10 Hz, 5 Hz, 3 Hz, 1.5 Hz, and 0.7 Hz) and their fluorescence responses were recorded in time. In our study, only 26.7% (4/15) of the neurons expressing VSFP showed detectable fluorescence signal in response to action potentials (APs). The average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained in response to five spikes (at 10 Hz) was small (1.3 ± 0.21), however the rapid kinetics of the VSFP allowed discrimination of APs as individual peaks, with detection of 53% of the evoked APs. Frequencies below 5 Hz and subthreshold signals were undetectable due to high noise. On the other hand, calcium indicators showed the greatest change in fluorescence following the same protocol (five APs at 10 Hz). Among the GCaMP3 expressing neurons, 80% (8/10) exhibited signal, with an average SNR value of 21 ±6.69 (soma), while for the R-GECO1 neurons, 50% (2/4) of the neurons had signal, with a mean SNR value of 52 ±19.7 (soma). For protocols at 10 Hz, 54% of the evoked APs were detected with GCaMP3 and 85% with R-GECO1. APs were detectable in all the analyzed frequencies and fluorescence signals were detected from subthreshold depolarizations as well. Because GCaMP3 is the most likely to yield fluorescence signal and with high SNR, some experiments were performed only with this probe. We demonstrate that GCaMP3 is effective in detecting synaptic inputs (involving Ca2+ influx), with high spatial and temporal resolution. Differences were also observed between the SNR values resulting from evoked APs, compared to spontaneous APs. In recordings of groups of cells, GCaMP3 showed clear discrimination between activated and silent cells, and reveals itself as a potential tool in studies of neuronal synchronization. Thus, our results indicate that the presently available calcium indicators allow detailed studies on neuronal communication, ranging from individual dendritic spines to the investigation of events of synchrony in neuronal networks genetically defined. In contrast, studies employing VSFPs represent a promising technology for monitoring neural activity and, although still to be improved, they may become more appropriate than calcium indicators, since neurons work on a time scale faster than events of calcium may foresee

Uma insólita visita: Fidel Castro no Chile de Allende

Este artigo busca expor sinteticamente o que foi a viagem que Fidel Castro realizou ao Chile em novembro de 1971, e também refletir a respeito tanto das estratégias políticas evidenciadas por Castro em sua estadia no Chile, quanto sobre as conseqüências que derivaram dessas estratégias para o processo conhecido como a experiência chilena. Conclui afirmando que, se não se pode atribuir à visita de Fidel toda a confrontação que mais tarde iria se estabelecer no Chile, também não se pode isentar integralmente o dirigente cubano de uma certa responsabilidade quanto à situação que se impôs. Esta viagem de Fidel ao Chile de Allende foi uma viagem incomum, distinta de qualquer padrão diplomático, e abrigou silenciosamente uma profunda disputa política no interior da esquerda latino-americana que permaneceu por muito tempo desconhecida.

Effects of hearing protector devices on speech intelligibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hearing protection devices (HPDs) on the understanding of speech in young adults with normal hearing, both in a silent situation and in the presence of ambient noise. The experimental research was carried out with the following variables: five different conditions of HPD use (without protectors, with two earplugs and with two earmuffs); a type of noise (pink noise); 4 test levels (60, 70, 80 and 90 dB[A]); 6 signal/noise ratios (without noise, + 5, + 10, zero, - 5 and - 10 dB); 5 repetitions for each case, totalling 600 tests with 10 monosyllables in each one. The variable measure was the percentage of correctly heard words (monosyllabic) in the test. The results revealed that, at the lowest levels (60 and 70 dB), the protectors reduced the intelligibility of speech (compared to the tests without protectors) while, in the presence of ambient noise levels of 80 and 90 dB and unfavourable signal/noise ratios (0, -5 and -10 dB), the HPDs improved the intelligibility. A comparison of the effectiveness of earplugs versus earmuffs showed that the former offer greater efficiency in respect to the recognition of speech, providing a 30% improvement over situations in which no protection is used. As might be expected, this study confirmed that the protectors' influence on speech intelligibility is related directly to the spectral curve of the protector's attenuation. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cerebral ischemia as initial neurological manifestation of atrial myxoma: case report

Infartos cerebrais de etiologia cardíaca são observados em cerca de 20% dos pacientes com acidente vascular cerebral isquêmico. Infarto cerebral ocorre como manifestação clínica inicial em um terço dos casos de mixoma atrial. Embora quase metade dos pacientes com mixoma atrial apresente alteração ao exame neurológico, infarto cerebral não hemorrágico é visto na tomografia computadorizada em praticamente todos os casos. Os autores apresentam o caso de uma paciente, cuja primeira manifestação clínica do mixoma atrial foi um acidente vascular cerebral isquêmico e chamam a atenção para a possibilidade de infarto cerebral silencioso em pacientes portadores de mixoma atrial.

Lesions (ulcers and/or erosions) and desquamations location in the gastric mucosa from asymptomatic Quarter Horse foals: endoscopic survey

A úlcera gástrica figura como uma importante causa de desconforto abdominal em eqüinos jovens. de acordo com a localização das lesões na mucosa gástrica, a presença ou ausência de sinais clínicos e possíveis complicações resultantes de sua ocorrência, quatro síndromes clínicas são freqüentemente descritas em potros: 1) Úlceras assintomáticas ou silenciosas; 2) Úlceras sintomáticas ou ativas; 3) Úlceras perfuradas; e 4) Obstruções gástrica ou duodenal. Com o objetivo de se verificar a distribuição de lesões gástricas (úlceras e/ou erosões) e descamações do epitélio aglandular no estômago de eqüinos jovens assim como uma possível relação entre as alterações mencionadas (lesão/descamação) sessenta potros da raça Quarto de Milha não-portadores de sinais clínicos compatíveis com úlceras gástricas foram submetidos à gastroscopia. Os potros foram divididos em quatro faixas etárias de 15 animais cada uma, sendo: 1 a 30 dias, 31 a 60 dias, 61 a 90 dias e 91 a 120 dias de idade. As lesões ocorreram em ordem decrescente de freqüência nas regiões aglandular próximo ao margo plicatus ao longo da curvatura maior, aglandular próximo à cárdia ao longo da curvatura menor, fundo glandular e aglandular e antro. As descamações do epitélio aglandular ocorreram de forma similar nas regiões de fundo e margo plicatus. Não houve associação entre a ocorrência de lesões e descamações.

Immunocytochemical characterization of the pregeniculate nucleus and distribution of retinal and neuropeptide Y terminals in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the Cebus monkey

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

Sequence characterization of coding regions of the myostatin gene (GDF8) from Brazilian Murrah buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) and comparison with the Bos taurus sequence

Within about 30 years the Brazilian buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) herd will reach approximately 50 million head as a result of the great adaptive capacity of these animals to tropical climates, together with the good productive and reproductive potential which make these animals an important animal protein source for poor and developing countries. The myostatin gene (GDF8) is important in the physiology of stock animals because its product produces a direct effect on muscle development and consequently also on meat production. The myostatin sequence is known in several mammalian species and shows a high degree of amino acid sequence conservation, although the presence of non-silent and silent changes in the coding sequences and several alterations in the introns and untranslated regions have been identified. The objective of our work was to characterize the myostatin coding regions of B. bubalis (Murrah breed) and to compare them with the Bos taurus regions looking for variations in nucleotide and protein sequences. In this way, we were able to identify 12 variations at DNA level and five alterations on the presumed myostatin protein sequence as compared to non double-muscled bovine sequences.