Interpretação da crise financeira mundial sob a perspectiva de David Harvey

Pós-graduação em Economia - FCLAR

Evolutionary optimization applied for fine-tuning parameter estimation in optical flow-based environments

Optical flow methods are accurate algorithms for estimating the displacement and velocity fields of objects in a wide variety of applications, being their performance dependent on the configuration of a set of parameters. Since there is a lack of research that aims to automatically tune such parameters, in this work we have proposed an evolutionary-based framework for such task, thus introducing three techniques for such purpose: Particle Swarm Optimization, Harmony Search and Social-Spider Optimization. The proposed framework has been compared against with the well-known Large Displacement Optical Flow approach, obtaining the best results in three out eight image sequences provided by a public dataset. Additionally, the proposed framework can be used with any other optimization technique.

Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid diagnosed as anaplastic carcinoma: failure in fine-needle aspiration cytology?

A case of primary squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) of the thyroid which had been initially diagnosed as an anaplastic carcinoma (ATC) is described: female, 73 years old, with a fast-growing cervical nodule on the left side and hoarseness for 3 months. Ultrasonography showed a 4.5 cm solid nodule. FNA was compatible with poorly differentiated carcinoma with immunoreactivity for AE1/AE3, EMA. Thyroidectomy was performed. Histopathological examination showed a nonencapsulated tumor. Immunohistochemistry disclosed positivity for AE1/AE3, p53,p63, and Ki67. The diagnosis was ATC. A second opinion reported tumor consisting of squamous cells, with intense inflammatory infiltrate both in tumor and in the adjacent thyroid, with final diagnosis of SCC, associated with Hashimoto thyroiditis. No other primary focus of SCC was found. Patient has shown a 48-month survival period. Clinically, primary SCCs of the thyroid and ATCs are similar. The distinction is often difficult particularly when based on the cytological analysis of FNA material.

Fine needle aspiration cytology of lobular breast carcinoma and its variants

Objective: To identify associations between cytological criteria in fine needle aspiration (FNA) specimens and histological subtypes of lobular breast carcinoma (classical and other types). Study Design: FNA cytology and mastectomy specimens from 72 cases of invasive lobular breast carcinoma were consecutively retrieved from the files of the Amaral de Carvalho Hospital, Jaú-São Paulo, Brazil. All cases were reviewed regarding five cytological criteria: cellularity, cellular cohesion, presence of inflammation, nucleoli and nuclear atypia. The χ2 test or Fisher's exact tests with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used. Results: The classical type showed lower initial cytological diagnosis of malignancy compared to the other variants (p = 0.017; odds ratio (OR) 0.26, 95% CI 0.89-0.80). Moderate/intense cellular cohesion (p = 0.011; OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.73) and mild atypia (p = 0.000; OR 16.15, 95% CI 3.20-81.48) were significantly associated with the classical type of lobular breast carcinoma, while the absence of inflammation (p = 0.082; OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.12-1.15) was marginally associated with the classical type. Conclusions: In cytology, the characterization of lobular carcinoma as malignant is difficult, especially the classical type. The association between cell cohesion and the classical type of lobular breast carcinoma may be one of the factors that complicate this diagnosis.

David Bancroft Johnson Travel Journals - Accession 32 - M9 (32)

The David Bancroft Johnson Travel Journals Collection consists of a diary of a trip taken by David Bancroft Johnson, Founder and First President of Winthrop, to Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland during October- December 1908. The journals contains descriptions of areas visited, social life and customs. Also included is a description of his trip to Denver, Colorado in July 1909 in which he describes the area and its people.

Book Review of Discovering North American Rock Art Edited by Lawrence L. Loendorf, Christopher Chippindale, and David S. Whitley

If readers of Great Plains Research are seeking a window on rock art research in North America, this book provides a few clear panes, a few that are hazy, and a few muddy ones. Like many edited volumes, the weaker contributions and lack of a consistent style limit the book's usefulness. Some authors target a general readership; others clearly are addressing colleagues. The book has two stated themes: the history of rock art research in North America and recent approaches to rock art analysis. Articles by Julie Francis and (jointly) David Whitley and Jean Clottes explore why rock art research has long been marginalized in North America. Unfortunately, both of these otherwise observant essays slip into advocacy of shamanism as a unifying or primary explanation for rock art, an interpretive model by no means universally accepted by today's rock art specialists.

Book Review of Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology by John F. Galliher, Wayne H. Brekhus, and David P. Keys

As an undergraduate sociology major, the only thing I learned about Oklahoman Laud Humphreys's classic, Tearoom Trade (1970) was how it violated standards of informed consent in social science research. As Galliher, Brekhus, and Keys recount in their biography, Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology, sociology graduate student Laud Humphreys needed to supplement his (quite likely, participant) observational research of men who had sex in public bathrooms (i.e., tearooms) in St. Louis in the mid-1960s with a formal questionnaire. Knowing that these men would never agree if they knew they were selected because of their participation in highly stigmatized and criminal behavior, Humphreys recorded their license plates, got their home addresses, and interviewed them as part of a "community health survey." Herein lies the deception and the major source of the controversy. What I didn't fully appreciate when I was a student, however, and what the authors so deftly illuminate is the importance of this work not only for debates around ethical issues of social science research, but more importantly, perhaps, for the study of sexuality, deviance, and urban life.

Analysis of plant LTR-retrotransposons at the fine-scale family level reveals individual molecular patterns

Background: Sugarcane is an important crop worldwide for sugar production and increasingly, as a renewable energy source. Modern cultivars have polyploid, large complex genomes, with highly unequal contributions from ancestral genomes. Long Terminal Repeat retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) are the single largest components of most plant genomes and can substantially impact the genome in many ways. It is therefore crucial to understand their contribution to the genome and transcriptome, however a detailed study of LTR-RTs in sugarcane has not been previously carried out. Results: Sixty complete LTR-RT elements were classified into 35 families within four Copia and three Gypsy lineages. Structurally, within lineages elements were similar, between lineages there were large size differences. FISH analysis resulted in the expected pattern of Gypsy/heterochromatin, Copia/euchromatin, but in two lineages there was localized clustering on some chromosomes. Analysis of related ESTs and RT-PCR showed transcriptional variation between tissues and families. Four distinct patterns were observed in sRNA mapping, the most unusual of which was that of Ale1, with very large numbers of 24nt sRNAs in the coding region. The results presented support the conclusion that distinct small RNA-regulated pathways in sugarcane target the lineages of LTR-RT elements. Conclusions: Individual LTR-RT sugarcane families have distinct structures, and transcriptional and regulatory signatures. Our results indicate that in sugarcane individual LTR-RT families have distinct behaviors and can potentially impact the genome in diverse ways. For instance, these transposable elements may affect nearby genes by generating a diverse set of small RNA's that trigger gene silencing mechanisms. There is also some evidence that ancestral genomes contribute significantly different element numbers from particular LTR-RT lineages to the modern sugarcane cultivar genome.

The Compositional Aesthetic of Rodolfo Coelho de Souza in Paradise Station: an analysis

This article focuses on the compositional aesthetics of Rodolfo Coelho de Souza (1952-), a Brazilian fine art composer and active researcher, whose concerns surpasses the musical composition isolated from the social communication aspect. This is particularly evident in his piece Paradise Station, which, when analyzed, features the structural depth of its compositional process without disregarding the dialog with the listener and the Brazilian character, according to pitch, rhythm, texture, timbre and dynamics. The present analysis reveals a modular structure based on set classes, worked through a transformation network, which follows the David Lewin model.

Endothelial dysfunction in the pulmonary artery induced by concentrated fine particulate matter exposure is associated with local but not systemic inflammation

Clinical evidence has identified the pulmonary circulation as an important target of air pollution. It was previously demonstrated that in vitro exposure to fine particulate matter (aerodynamic diameter <= 2.5 mu m, PM2.5) induces endothelial dysfunction in isolated pulmonary arteries. We aimed to investigate the effects of in vivo exposure to urban concentrated PM2.5 on rat pulmonary artery reactivity and the mechanisms involved. For this, adult Wistar rats were exposed to 2 weeks of concentrated Sao Paulo city air PM2.5 at an accumulated daily dose of approximately 600 mu g/m(3). Pulmonary arteries isolated from PM2.5-exposed animals exhibited impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine without significant changes in nitric oxide donor response compared to control rats. PM2.5 caused vascular oxidative stress and enhanced protein expression of Cu/Zn- and Mn-superoxide dismutase in the pulmonary artery. Protein expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) was reduced, while tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was enhanced by PM2.5 inhalation in pulmonary artery. There was a significant positive correlation between eNOS expression and maximal relaxation response (E-max) to acetylcholine. A negative correlation was found between vascular TNF-alpha expression and E-max to acetylcholine. Plasma cytokine levels, blood cells count and coagulation parameters were similar between control and PM2.5-exposed rats. The present findings showed that in vivo daily exposure to concentrated urban PM2.5 could decrease endothelium-dependent relaxation and eNOS expression on pulmonary arteries associated with local high TNF-alpha level but not systemic pro-inflammatory factors. Taken together, the present results elucidate the mechanisms underlying the trigger of cardiopulmonary diseases induced by urban ambient levels of PM2.5. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration in the suspicion of pancreatic metastases

Abstract Background Metastases to the pancreas are rare, and usually mistaken for primary pancreatic cancers. This study aimed to describe the histology results of solid pancreatic tumours obtained by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for diagnosis of metastases to the pancreas. Methods In a retrospective review, patients with pancreatic solid tumours and history of previous extrapancreatic cancer underwent EUS-FNA from January/1997 to December/2010. Most patients were followed-up until death and some of them were still alive at the end of the study. The performance of EUS-FNA for diagnosis of pancreatic metastases was analyzed. Symptoms, time frame between primary tumour diagnosis and the finding of metastases, and survival after diagnosis were also analyzed. Results 37 patients underwent EUS-FNA for probable pancreas metastases. Most cases (65%) presented with symptoms, especially upper abdominal pain (46%). Median time between detection of the first tumour and the finding of pancreatic metastases was 36 months. Metastases were confirmed in 32 (1.6%) cases, 30 of them by EUS-FNA, and 2 by surgery. Other 5 cases were non-metastatic. Most metastases were from lymphoma, colon, lung, and kidney. Twelve (32%) patients were submitted to surgery. Median survival after diagnosis of pancreatic metastases was 9 months, with no difference of survival between surgical and non-surgical cases. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of EUS-FNA with histology analysis of the specimens for diagnosis of pancreatic metastases were, respectively, 93.8%, 60%, 93.8%, 60% and 89%. Conclusion EUS-FNA with histology of the specimens is a sensitive and accurate method for definitive diagnosis of metastatic disease in patients with a previous history of extrapancreatic malignancies.

Fine-tuning of defensive behaviors in the dorsal periaqueductal gray by atypical neurotransmitters

This paper presents an up-to-date review of the evidence indicating that atypical neurotransmitters such as nitric oxide (NO) and endocannabinoids (eCBs) play an important role in the regulation of aversive responses in the periaqueductal gray (PAG). Among the results supporting this role, several studies have shown that inhibitors of neuronal NO synthase or cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) receptor agonists cause clear anxiolytic responses when injected into this region. The nitrergic and eCB systems can regulate the activity of classical neurotransmitters such as glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) that control PAG activity. We propose that they exert a ‘fine-tuning’ regulatory control of defensive responses in this area. This control, however, is probably complex, which may explain the usually bell-shaped dose-response curves observed with drugs that act on NO- or CB1-mediated neurotransmission. Even if the mechanisms responsible for this complex interaction are still poorly understood, they are beginning to be recognized. For example, activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1 channel (TRPV1) receptors by anandamide seems to counteract the anxiolytic effects induced by CB1 receptor activation caused by this compound. Further studies, however, are needed to identify other mechanisms responsible for this fine-tuning effect.

Iheringichthys syi (Siluriformes: Pimelodidae), a new pimelodid species from upper Paraná basin, Brazil

We describe a new species of pimelodid catfish of the genus Iheringichthys from the upper Paraná basin, Brazil. Iheringichthys syi n. sp. is distinguished by the comparatively fine serration along the anterior margin of the pectoral-fin spine, an adpressed dorsal-fin remote from the adipose-fin origin, a large eye (23.2-31.2% of head length), narrow interorbital (16.2-23.0% of head length), long snout (42.0-51.0% of head length), long postorbital length (30.6-34.0% of head length), low adipose fin (4.8-7.8% of standard length), eye diameter 97.0-140.0% of interorbital length, and body with numerous, small dots irregularly scattered on flanks, especially marked on anterior half of flank.