Efeitos dos esteroides anabólicos androgênicos sobre o útero e parâmetros reprodutivos de ratas adultas

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

As quatro operações básicas: uma compreensão dos procedimentos algorítmicos

The current research had as main objective to analyze the possibility of knowledge elaboration/re-elaboration about ideas and algorithmic procedures related to basic operations by pupils of the 6th degree fundamental teaching in a significant learning process. This way the study had as basis a methodological intervention developed in a 6th degree class of a Fundamental Teaching Municipal School in the city of João Pessoa, PB. The research had as central steps the application of pre-tests (1 and 2); the execution of semi-structured interviews with the pupils involved in the theme deep studies; the elaboration and development of teaching activities, having as referential the significant learning and the application of a pre-test. The data collected in the pre-tests (1 and 2) showed a low level of the pupils comprehension about the contents related to the four operations. The answers to the post-test questions were analyzed mainly from the qualitative point of view based on the mathematic concepts comprehension theory proposed by Skemp (1980) having as complementary subsidy data collected through interviews. The analysis of the results obtained in the post-test showed that the major part of pupils reached a relational comprehension about the ideas and algorithmic procedures related to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Such results showed us that the application of a teaching methodology that privileges the content comprehension, considering the pupils previous knowledge and the reflection about the action along the activities proposed, made possible the elaboration or re-elaboration of knowledge by pupils regarding to contents adopted as theme for our research

Cloning and molecular characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi U2, U4, U5, and U6 small nuclear RNAs

Small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) are important factors in the functioning of eukaryotic cells that form several small complexes with proteins; these ribonucleoprotein particles (U snRNPs) have an essential role in the pre-mRNA processing, particularly in splicing, catalyzed by spliceosomes, large RNA-protein complexes composed of various snRNPs. Even though they are well defined in mammals, snRNPs are still not totally characterized in certain trypanosomatids as Trypanosoma cruzi. For this reason we subjected snRNAs (U2, U4, U5, and U6) from T. cruzi epimastigotes to molecular characterization by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription-PCR. These amplified sequences were cloned, sequenced, and compared with those other of trypanosomatids. Among these snRNAs, U5 was less conserved and U6 the most conserved. Their respective secondary structures were predicted and compared with known T. brucei structures. In addition, the copy number of each snRNA in the T. cruzi genome was characterized by Southern blotting.

Efeitos da inclinação da esteira na marcha de crianças com síndrome de down

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic alteration characterized by being a nonprogressive congenital encephalopathy. Children with DS have hypotonia and developmental delays that interfere in the movement`s acquisition for these children. Objective: Analyze the effects of treadmill inclination on angle and spatiotemporal gait characteristics of these individuals. Methodology: We studied 23 subjects of both sexes, with ages ranged between 05 and 11 years, they presented ability to walk on level 5 classified according to the Functional Ambulation Category (FAC). Initially held a subjective evaluation of balance through a questionnaire (Berg Balance Scale-BBS) then the kinematic gait analysis was realized on a treadmill first, without inclination and then, with inclination of 10%, using the motion system analysis Qualisys System. Data analysis was done using BioStat 5.0 attributing significance level of 5%. Normality of data was verified using D'Agostino test and later was applied paired t-test to compare data in two experimental conditions. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the spatiotemporal variables: reduction in the cadence (from 108.92 ± 39.07 to 99.11 ± 27.51, p <0.04), increase in cycle time (from 1.24 ± 0.27 to 1.36 ± 0.34, p = 0.03 ) and increase in time to take stock (from 0.77 ± 0.15 to 0.82 ± 0.18, p <0.001). Angular variables that showed statistically significant increasing were: the hip in the initial contact (12.23 ± 4.63 to 18.49 ± 5.17, p <0.0001) and max. flexion in balance (12.96±4:32 to 19.50 ± 4.51, p <0.0001 ), knee in the initial contact (15.59 to ± 6.71 to 21.63 ± 6.48, p <0.0001), the ankle in the initial contact (-2.79 ± 9.8 to 2.25 ± 8.79, p <0.0001), max dorsiflexion in stance (4.41 ± 10.07 to 7.13 ± 11.58, p <0.0009), maximum plantar flexion in the pre-assessment of the ankle joint (increase of -6.33 ± 8.77 to -2.69 ± 8.62, p <0.0004).Conclusions: The inclination acts in a positive way for angular and spatiotemporal features gait of children with Down syndrome, demonstrating possible benefit of using this surface in the gait rehabilitation of children with Down Syndrome

Cisto dentígero: estudo epidemiológico, correlação clinicopatológica e caracterização de uma possível variante inflamatória

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and pathological features of cases diagnosed as dentigerous cyst by the Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentristy at the Federal University of Rio grande do Norte, attempting the possible correlation between histomorphological findings and epidemiological data contained at the files of the patients, in order to define a suggested variation of lesion named inflammatory dentigerous cyst. It was verified that dentigerous cyst are more frequently present in the earfy three decades of life, with the majority of cases occuring in the second decade (40,740/0 ), and also male (57,41%) and white patients (68,52%) were most affected. In relation to anatomic site, the dentigerous cyst was more prevalent at anterior maxila and posterior mandible, showing, usually, a slow growth pattem. The majority of lesions were asymptomatic and the radiographic observed was frequently na unilocular radiolucency. In regard to the histomorphological analysis, it was noticed that the lesions showed commonly a thin epithelium, with a capsule of fibrous connective tissue, richly vascularized and collagenized with an intense mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate. Finally, clinicopathological was performed and it was find out that cysts that showed a thick epithelium, with a high degree of vascularization and collagenization, intense inflammatory infiltrate in the cystic capsule, were located in the pre-molares region, in patients under 12 years old and the majority showing painfull sintomatology, properly, compatible with inflammatory dentigerous cyst. The findings of the present study indicate that, probably, there is a variant of the dentigerous cyst, and therefore, we suggest the denomination inflammatory follicular cyst for this entity

Análise da influência dos diferentes tempos de polimerização por luz incandescente sobre a resistência ao desgaste abrasivo de resinas compostas

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

Suplementacao de zinco orgânico na racão de frangos de corte alojados em cama nova ou reutilizada

Abstract: Several factors can affect the development of the broiler, among them we can highlight nutrition and management. In the context nutritional, mineral supplementation is a necessary practice because, in general, the diets did not contain these elements in sufficient quantity to meet the needs of poultry. Zinc is a trace mineral essential to life, participating in several important functions in the body. Generally zinc is added to diets of birds in inorganic forms (oxides, carbonates or sufatos), however in its organic form or chelated presents more bioavailable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of levels of organic zinc (ZnO) in the diet of broilers from 1 to 42 days, housed in new or reused litter. The experiment was conducted in the poultry sector of the Special Unit for Agricultural Sciences EAJ / UFRN. 576 chicks were used 1 day of commercial strain Cobb, distributed in a completely randomized in a 4x2 factorial arrangement with four levels of ZnO 0, 40, 80 and 120 ppm and two environments, new bed (COn) and reused litter (CRE) resulting in eight treatments with six replications of 12 birds. In the pre-initial responses were linearly increasing levels of ZnO on feed intake and quadratic effect on body weight and weight gain. The levels of 72.41 and 70.05 ppm of ZnO in the diet of chicks improved body weight and weight gain, respectively. There was interaction between ZnO and the type of bedding used. The ZnO did not affect broiler performance in the growing phase. There was an interaction between levels of ZnO and type of bed used. The levels of 61.50 and 85.30 ppm organic zinc improves immunity and increases the deposition of zinc in tibia of broilers at 42 days, respectively. ZnO also increases the resistance of the skin of broilers at 42 days of age. Using Cre improves performance of broilers from 1 to 42 days old

Efeitos da cafeína sobre a memória de saguis (Callithrix jacchus)

Caffeine is considered the most consumed psychostimulant in the world, presenting several central and peripheral effects. In the Central Nervous System the major effect occur by its antagonistic activity at the A1 and A2a subtypes of the adenosine receptors. These receptors are responsible for the slow-wave sleep induction, and their binding, caused by the consumption of foods and beverages that contain caffeine, cause behaviors like increase of alertness, mood and locomotion. The effects of caffeine on memory are still discussed because of the diversity of experimental protocols. Also, it does not have the same effects on all stages of the processing of memory - acquisition, consolidation and recall. Thus, using the marmoset (Callitrhix jacchus) as subject, we aim to evaluate the effects of caffeine on the memory of this primate through the conditioned place preference paradigm, where the animal selects a context by presence of food. This cognitive task consists of five phases. The first phase was two sessions of pre-exposure, in which they were evaluated for preference for any compartment of the apparatus. Then, we proceeded the training, conditioning the animals to the food-present context for 8 days. Then, there was administration of caffeine or placebo (10mg/kg) for 8 consecutive days, during the pre-sleep phase, where the 20 animals were distributed in two groups: placebo and repeated. The forth phase was one day of retraining, a re-exposure of the apparatus to the marmosets followed by the administration of caffeine (for the repeated group and a new group called abstinence) or placebo (for placebo and abstinence groups). Finally, was the test where we evaluated if the subjects learned where the food was present. Moreover, in this work we evaluate the existence of differences between females and males on the task, and the locomotor activity for the experimental groups. The results showed that in the pre-exposure phase the animals were habituated on the apparatus and did not present differences for any contexts. In training, they were able to learn the conditioning task, independent of gender. For the retraining, the two groups exhibited more interactions in rewarded context than that in non-rewarded context. Nevertheless, in the locomotor activity, the repeated group moved similarly in contact with the apparatus and outside of it. In the other hand, the animals of the placebo group moved more when in contact with the apparatus. In the test phase, the marmosets under influence of caffeine presented an increase in the locomotor activity when compared with the placebo group, corroborating works that show this increase in locomotion. In the learning evaluation, the continuous and abstinence groups had a bad performance in the task in relation to the placebo and acute groups. This suggests that the prolonged administration of caffeine disrupts the memories because it affected sleep, which is largely responsible offline processing of memories

Parâmetros reprodutivo e metabólico de vacas da raça Guzerá suplementadas no pré e pós-parto

Foram utilizadas 30 vacas da raça Guzerá (10 por tratamento), suplementadas no pré-parto (PRE), pós-parto (POS) e sem suplementação (SS) com os objetivos de avaliar no pós-parto as variações do peso corporal (PC), do escore de condição corporal (ECC) (1 = muito magra a 9 = muito gorda) e dos níveis plasmáticos de colesterol total (NPCT), o índice de prenhez (IP) até 112 dias pós-parto e a viabilidade econômica dos tratamentos PRE e POS, que constou de 1 kg/dia/animal de concentrado (16% PB; 3000 kcal ED/kg). O PC e o ECC foram obtidos a cada 28 dias, e colheitas de sangue semanalmente para análise dos NPCT até 112 dias pós-parto. O PC e o ECC tiveram interação dias pós-parto x tratamento. O tratamento PRE aumentou o PC e o ECC das vacas ao parto: 477,80 kg e 6,20 respectivamente, em comparação com os tratamentos POS e SS de 453,37 kg e 5,5; 447,57 kg e 5,28, respectivamente. O PC e o ECC do tratamento PRE foi superior de 28 a 84 dias comparado ao SS, enquanto o tratamento POS foi superior apenas de 84 a 112 dias pós-parto. O tratamento POS não diferiu do PRE no PC de 56 a 112 dias pós-parto e no ECC de 28 a 112 dias pós-parto. O tratamento POS proporcionou aumento do PC e ECC das vacas, já os tratamentos PRE e SS perderam PC e ECC até 112 dias pós-parto. O PC e ECC dos tratamentos PRE, POS e SS aos 112 dias pós-parto foram de 457,79 kg e 5,38; 461,87 kg e 5,66; 436,57 kg e 4,78, respectivamente. Os NPCT tiveram efeito dos dias pós-parto, mas não de tratamento, aumentando com os dias pós-parto. Os IP não foram influenciados pelos tratamentos PRE, POS e SS com 50,00; 62,20 e 57,14%, respectivamente. Economicamente a suplementação não foi viável.

Qualidade de vida de pacientes com deformidade dentofacial

In the last decade, an increasing number of studies focusing on the impact of oral deformities on quality of life have been published. However, the evaluation of patients at different phases of the treatment has not been performed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact that dentofacial deformities have on patients` quality of life, as well as the influence exerted by social, economic, demographic and orthodontic factors, type and severity of malocclusion. A bicentric study - of the cross-sectional type of repeated panels - involving two cities - Natal and Rio de Janeiro - was carried out. A total of 227 patients participated in the study: 71 patients in the initial phase of the treatment (before any orthosurgical procedure), 115 patients in the pre-surgical (with braces) phase and 41 patients in the postoperative phase. The quality of life was measured using the Orthognatic Quality of Life Questionnnaire - OQLQ, translated and validated into Portuguese. The normative and aesthetic need for treatment was assessed with the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) and the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI); the social, economic and demographic factors, the type of service and malocclusion were also assessed. The data were analyzed through χ2/ Fisher`s exact test to seek the association between the nominal categorical variables in the three phases of treatment, Mann Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test for gauging the existence of significant differences between two and three groups regarding each domain of OQLQ, respectively. For all tests, it was adopted a significance level of 5%. There was a statistically significant difference (p <0.001) in the general scores of OQLQ and in the domains of social aspects, facial aesthetics and oral function, when the "postoperative group" was compared to the "initial" and "orthodontic preparation" groups. Women, single, aged between 31 and 59 and living in Natal had the greatest impact on quality of life among patients in the "orthodontic preparation" group. Only the variable "income" (2 to 3 minimum wages), for the "initial" group, and gender (female) for the "postoperative" group, showed significant association with quality of life. The normative variable IOTN (DHC and AC) showed significant association with the OQLQ for the "initial" group, and the IOTN-AC-auto in the group of orthodontic preparation, being less important to women. We conclude that the ortho-surgical therapy has positive effects on quality of life after orthognathic surgery

Ação educativa sobre queimaduras infantis para familiares de crianças hospitalizadas

OBJETIVO: Analisar o potencial informativo de uma ação educativa sobre queimaduras infantis com responsáveis por crianças internadas em ambiente hospitalar. MÉTODOS: Foram aplicados questionários estruturados, antes e imediatamente após a ação educativa, que incluiu intervenções verbais e folheto educativo, em 37 acompanhantes de crianças e adolescentes internados no Setor Público de Pediatria de dois hospitais de uma cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo. As informações obtidas antes e após a ação educativa foram comparadas, utilizando-se o teste estatístico do quiquadrado e considerando-se significante p<0,05. RESULTADOS: Na comparação pré- e pós-ação educativa, notou-se aumento de 95% para 100% na indicação da residência como local mais propício para ocorrência de queimaduras infantis; de 46% para 78% na indicação da faixa etária mais acometida (zero a três anos); de 76% para 78% no gênero mais acometido (masculino); de 43% para 78% na indicação do principal agente agressor (água quente); de 32% para 78% na região corporal mais atingida (tórax); e de 89% para 97% na possibilidade de prevenção da queimadura infantil. CONCLUSÕES: A ação educativa mostrou bom potencial informativo pela elevação do percentual de respostas corretas em todos os aspectos apresentados, sugerindo sua utilidade no contexto hospitalar e em outros locais, como unidades de atenção primária e secundária à saúde e instituições de educação infantil e superior.

Treinamento de habilidades fonológicas e correspondência grafema-fonema em crianças de risco para dislexia

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Contribuições para a detecção e identificação de faltas em inversores Multiníveis

This work presents contributions in the detection and identication of faults in multilevel inverters through the study of the converters behavior under these operation conditions. Basically, the approached fault consists of an open-circuit in any switch of a three-level clamped diode inverter. The converter operation is characterized in the pre and post-fault states. A wave form behavior analysis of the pole voltage, phase current and dc-bus current is also done, which highlights characteristics that allow the detection of failure and, even, under favorable conditions, the identication of the faulty device. A compensation strategy of the approached fault (open-switch) is also investigated with the purpose of maintaining the driving system operational when a failure occurs. The proposed topology uses SCRs in parallel with the internal switches of the inverter, which allows, in some occasions, the full utilization of the dc-bus

Antimutagenic effects of the mushroom Agaricus blazei Murrill extracts on V79 cells

Agaricus blazei Murrill, a native mushroom in Brazil, has been widely consumed in different parts of the world due to its medicinal power. Its anticarcinogenic activity has been shown in experimental animals, and antimutagenic activity has been demonstrated only in Salmonella. In this work, the multagenic and antimutagenic activities of mushroom teas of strains AB96/07, AB96/09 and AB97/11 were evaluated in Chinese hamster V79 cells, using the comet assay and the micronucleus test. The cells were treated with three different concentrations (0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) of teas prepared from a 2.5% aqueous solution, under three different temperatures: (1) room (20-25 degreesC); (2) ice-cold (2-8 degreesC); and (3) warm (60 degreesC). The teas were applied in co-, pre- and post-treatments in combination with the mutagen methyl methanesulfonate (MMS; 1.6 x 10(-4) and 4 x 10(-4) M). The duration of the treatment was 1 h in the comet assay and 2 h in the micronucleus test. The results showed that the mushroom was not mutagenic itself. Nevertheless, the mushroom is an efficient antimutagen against the induction of micronuclei by MMS in all concentrations and preparations tested. The observed reductions in the frequencies of micronuclei ranged from 61.5 (room temperature 0.1% tea in post-treatment) to 110.3% (co-treatment with warm and ice-cold 0.15% tea). In the comet assay, the antimutagenic activity was detected only when the cells were pre-treated with the following teas: warm 0.1 and 0.15%, room temperature 0.05% and ice-cold 0.1%. The results indicate that the mushroom A. blazei extracts are antimutagenic when tested in V79 cells. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Inclusão do ovo desidratado em rações peletizadas ou fareladas para frangos de corte

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)