Treatment of eight dogs with nasal tumours with a alternating doses of doxorubicin and carboplatin in conjunction with oral piroxicam

Objective To determine the efficacy and toxicity of chemotherapy in the treatment of canine nasal tumours. Design Retrospective clinical study Procedure Eight dogs with histologically confirmed nasal tumours were staged by means of complete blood count, serum biochemical analysis, cytological analysis of fine needle aspirate of the regional lymph nodes, thoracic radiographs and computed tomography scan of the nasal cavity. All dogs were treated with alternating doses of doxorubicin, carboplatin and oral piroxicam. All dogs were monitored for side effects of chemotherapy and evaluated for response to treatment by computed tomography scan of the nasal cavity after the first four treatments. Results Complete remission was achieved in four dogs, partial remission occurred in two dogs and two had stable disease on the basis of computed tomography evaluation. There was resolution of clinical signs after one to two doses of chemotherapy in all dogs. Conclusions This chemotherapy protocol was efficacious and well tolerated in this series of eight cases of canine nasal tumours.

Canine intra-nasal squamous cell carcinoma treated with chemotherapy prior to surgical resection

A 12-year-old male castrated Samoyed dog was presented with left-sided epistaxis and sneezing. Diagnostic procedures included haematology and biochemistry testing, thoracic radiography, fine needle aspiration of regional lymph nodes, CT, rhinoscopy, incisional biopsy and histopathology. Squamous cell carcinoma of the rostral nasal cavity was diagnosed, with no evidence of metastatic disease. External beam radiation was not an accessible treatment option. Complete surgical resection of the tumour would have required a larger, more disfiguring resection of nasal planum and maxilla than the owner was prepared to accept and may have been associated with an unacceptable morbidity. As an alternative, the extent of disease was reduced using a combination of carboplatin, doxorubicin and piroxicam chemotherapy. This allowed a less extensive nasal planum removal to be performed to remove residual disease with clean margins. The patient achieved a 14 month disease free interval from the time of surgery to the time of local recurrence. Survival time from diagnosis to eventual euthanasia for progressive local disease was 18 months.

A Congregação Cristã no Brasil numa área de alta vulnerabilidade social no ABC paulista: aspectos de sua tradição e transmissão religiosa - a instituição e os sujeitos

Esta tese estuda a tradição e transmissão religiosa da Congregação Cristã no Brasil, numa área de maior vulnerabilidade social, a partir da instituição e dos sujeitos. A reprodução religiosa, na modernidade contemporânea, é dificultada pela capacidade diminuída das instituições religiosas de regular as crenças dos seus fiéis, e esta capacidade é analisada no caso da Congregação Cristã no Brasil, num bairro de alta vulnerabilidade social, na fronteira entre São Bernardo do Campo e Diadema. São estudadas as dimensões sociais da Congregação Cristã no Brasil, a partir de um olhar estatístico do campo pentecostal brasileiro. É analisada a realidade social local e elaborada a situação periférica específica do bairro estudado. Uma etnografia do culto da Congregação Cristã fornece os dados para análise dos atores no culto, do processo ritual, e da função do culto para a articulação da identidade religiosa. Finalmente é elaborada, a partir de entrevistas em profundidade e detida observação de campo, uma etnografia dos sujeitos membros da Congregação Cristã, homens e mulheres, em situações diferenciadas de vulnerabilidade. Analisa-se quais redes sociais, internas na Congregação Cristã no Brasil e externas, estes membros criam e até onde as doutrinas e práticas da Congregação, transmitidas no rito, dispositivo de reprodução institucional por excelência, conseguem formar a subjetividade dos seus fiéis, entendida como complexo conjunto de percepção, afeto, pensamento, desejo e medo.(AU)

TRANSMISSÃO GERACIONAL E A PRESENÇA DA ESCOLA NA FORMAÇÃO DA CONSCIÊNCIA AMBIENTAL Estudo exploratório de famílias que convivem em áreas de proteção aos mananciais

Este projeto de pesquisa trata sobre a influência de processos educacionais e de conscientização junto a dois grupos de famílias, em três gerações, que convivem em áreas de proteção dos mananciais da represa Billings, reservas de produção hídrica de alta importância estratégica para gestão de um ambiente e seus ecossistemas frágeis com uma acentuada necessidade preservacionista e estrutural para a manutenção de sua qualidade para as atuais e futuras gerações. A importância dos resultados obtidos pela pesquisa sobre o longo processo de conscientização destas comunidades são fundamentais para perceber o status em que se encontram, seja a partir das condições e de seu status quanto as relações da escola na formação da consciência ambiental através de observações das condições de vida no próprio habitat, pela questão da terra, da relação fundiária conquistada quanto à propriedade em que residem, pelo esgotamento sanitário, incluindo condição e destino dos dejetos e águas residuárias, origem da água para dessedentação e da gestão sobre as doenças. Além destas questões este trabalho buscou importantes relações quanto às condições das fontes hídricas e seus usos múltiplos pela comunidade local, seja para lazer e consumo de bens naturais, tipos de tratamento da poluição e contaminação ambiental, infra-estrutura e equipamentos públicos existentes como suporte sustentável a qualidade de vida dos cidadãos locais.

Determinação de medidas cefalométricas do espaço aéreo naso e bucofaríngeo em indivíduos com oclusão normal.

Diferenças no tamanho do espaço naso e bucofaríngeo são encontradas numa população em quase toda a sua totalidade devido a tendências hereditárias. Alterações funcionais causadas pela redução do espaço naso e bucofaríngeo ocasionadas por hipertrofia da adenóide têm sido associadas a desvios no padrão de crescimento esquelético-facial e a efeitos adversos no desenvolvimento da oclusão. Conseqüentemente, ortodontistas e fonoaudiólogos viram-se na necessidade de mensurar este espaço. O objetivo deste trabalho é postular um cefalograma faríngeo que seja utilizado pelo clínico como ferramenta segura para quantificar este espaço, auxiliando-o no diagnóstico e tratamento de pacientes. Para mensuração do espaço aéreo naso e bucofaríngeo utilizaram-se 66 telerradiografias laterais de indivíduos com idade entre 12 e 21 anos, brasileiros leucodermas, respiradores nasais, não submetidos a tratamento ortodôntico prévio e portadores de oclusão normal segundo ANDREWS (1972). O valor médio encontrado para o tamanho médio do limite superior do espaço aéreo foi de 17,27mm, e para a menor secção transversal do espaço aéreo o tamanho médio foi de 9,71mm. Considerando-se o limite inferior, o tamanho médio encontrado foi de 13,41mm. E, para a adenóide, o tamanho médio encontrado foi de 4mm.

Development of a novel in vitro system for nasal drug delivery development

There is currently, no ideal system for studying nasal drug delivery in vitro. The existing techniques such as the Ussing chamber and cell culture all have major disadvantages. Most importantly, none of the existing techniques accurately represent the interior of the nasal cavity, with its airflow and humidity; neither do they allow the investigation of solid dosage forms.The work in this thesis represents the development of an in vitro model system in which the interior characteristics of the nasal cavity are closely represented, and solid or minimal volume dosage forms can be investigated. The complete nasal chamber consists of two sections: a lower tissue, viability chamber and an upper nasal chamber. The lower tissue viability chamber has been shown, using existing tissue viability monitoring techniques, to maintain the viability of a number of epithelial tissues, including porcine and rabbit nasal tissue, and rat ileal and Payers' patch tissue. The complete chamber including the upper nasal chamber has been shown to provide tissue viability for porcine and rabbit nasal tissue above that available using the existing Ussing chamber techniques. Adaptation of the complete system, and the development of the necessary experimental protocols that allow aerosol particle-sizing, together with videography, has shown that the new factors investigated, humidity and airflow, have a measurable effect on the delivered dose from a typical nasal pump. Similarly, adaptation of the chamber to fit under a confocal microscope, and the development of the necessary protocols has shown the effect of surface and size on the penetration of microparticulate materials into nasal epithelial tissues. The system developed in this thesis has been shown to be flexible, in allowing the development of the confocal and particle-sizing systems. For future nasal drug delivery studies, the ability to measure such factors as the size of the delivered system in the nasal cavity, the depth of penetration of the formulation into the tissue are essential. Additionally, to have access to other data such as that obtained from drug transport in the same system, and to have the tissue available for histological examination represents a significant advance in the usefulness of such an in vitro technique for nasal delivery.

Biological barriers to the nasal delivery of peptide drugs

The nasal absorption of larger peptide and protein drugs is generally low. The importance of the mucus layer and enzymic degradation in reducing absorption were investigated. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods were developed to assay a variety of compounds. Pig gastric mucus (PGM) was selected to investigate the importance of the mucus layer. A method of treating and storing PGM was developed and evaluated which was representative of the gel in vivo. The nature of the mucus barrier was evaluated in vitro with three-compartment diffusion cells and a series of compounds with differing physicochemical properties. Mucus retarded the diffusion of all the compounds with molecular weight and charge exerting a marked effect. Binding to mucus was investigated by a centrifugation method. All of the compounds tested were found to bind to mucus with the exception of the negatively charged molecule benzoic acid. The small peptides did not demonstrate greater binding to mucus than any of the other compounds evaluated. The effect of some absorption enhancers upon the rate of diffusion of tryptophan through mucus was determined in vi tro. At the concentrations employed the enhancers EDTA, N-acetylcysteine and taurodeoxycholic acid exerted no effect, whilst taurocholic acid and cholic acid, were found to slightly reduce the rate of diffusion. The intracellular and luminal proteolytic activity of the nose was investigated in the sheep animal model with a nasal mucosal homogenate and a nasal wash preparation respectively and a series of chemically similar peptides. Hydrolysis was also investigated with the proteolytic enzymes carboxypeptidase A, cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase and microsomal leucine aminopeptidase. Sheep nasal mucosa possesses significant peptide hydrolase activity capable of degrading all the substrates tested. Considerable variation in susceptibility was observed. Degradation occurred excl us i ve ly at the pept ide bond between the aromatic amino ac id and glycine, indicating some specificity for aromatic amino acids. Hydrolysis profiles indicated the presence of both aminopeptidase and carboxypeptidase enzymes. The specific activity of the microsomal fraction was found to be greater than the cytosolic fraction. Hydrolysis in the nasal wash indicated the presence of either luminal or loosely-bound proteases, which can degrade peptide substrates. The same specificity for aromatic amino acids was observed and aminopeptidase activity demonstrated. The specific activity of the nasal wash was smaller than that of the homogenate.

Avaliação da pressão inspiratória nasal sniff na população obesa

Introdução: a avaliação da pressão inspiratória nasal (SNIP) é considerada uma manobra complementar da Pressão Inspiratória Máxima estática (PImax) em várias condições clínicas, porém não há relatos na obesidade. Por outro lado, a obesidade tem um importante impacto nos músculos respiratórios especialmente com maiores gordura abdominal o que provavelmente pode ser detectado na avaliação da SNIP que mensura mais precisamente a pressão diafragmática. Objetivo: analisar em obesos a relação entre SNIP e variáveis respiratórias e marcadores de adiposidade. Material e Método: num estudo transversal um total de 92 obesos (38.3±10.2 anos) sem história de doença respiratória ou cardíaca diagnosticada. Foram avaliados na espirometria (capacidade vital forçada-CVF; volume expiratório forçado no primeiro segundo-VEF1; volume de reserva expiratório-VRE) e pressões respiratórias estática (PImax, PEmax e SNIP) e dinâmica (ventilação voluntária máxima-VVM). Sendo considerados os marcadores de adiposidade: índice de adiposidade corporal-IAC; índice de massa corporal-IMC e circunferências do quadril (CQ), cintura (CC) e pescoço (CP). Resultados: 65 obesos mórbidos (IMC=50.8±8.1Kg/m2) e 27 obesos não mórbidos (IMC=35.6±2.7Kg/m2) foram homogêneos (p>0.05) na SNIP (99.1±24.5cmH2O, 87% do predito) e PImax (107.3±26.4cmH2O, 109% do predito). Existe correlação (r=0.5) entre SNIP e PImax somente no grupo de obesos mórbidos. De acordo com as correlações houve associação entre variáveis respiratórias (CVF r=0.48; VEF1 r=0.54; e VVM r=0.54), valores antropométricos (idade r=-0.44) e SNIP somente para os obesos mórbidos. Esses achados foram certificados quando também comparados a quantidade de gordura ao redor do pescoço (CP≥43cm). O modelo de regressão linear stepwise mostrou que a VVM parece ser o melhor preditor para explicar a SNIP nos obesos mórbidos. Nestes obesos a SNIP foi levemente mais baixa (87%predito) que os valores esperados para indivíduos brasileiros saudáveis. Conclusão: em obesos mórbidos a SNIP é moderadamente relacionada a PImax. A SNIP parece ser mais relacionada a VVM que à marcadores de adiposidade.

Micropartículas de quitosana estruturadas com aerosil®: estabilidade, adsorção, encapsulação e liberação de substâncias ativas

Biodegradable microspheres used as controlled release systems are important in pharmaceutics. Chitosan biopolymer represents an attractive biomaterial alternative because of its physicochemical and biological characteristics. Chitosan microspheres are expected to become promising carrier systems for drug and vaccine delivery, especially for non-invasive ways oral, mucosal and transdermal routes. Controlling the swelling rate and swelling capacity of the hydrogel and improving the fragile nature of microspheres under acidic conditions are the key challenges that need to be overcomed in order to enable the exploration of the full pharmaceutical potential use of these microparticles. Many studies have focused on the modification of chitosan microsphere structures with cross-linkers, various polymers blends and new organic-inorganic hybrid systems in order to obtain improved properties. In this work, microspheres made of chitosan and nanosized hydrophobic silica (Aerosil R972) were produced by a method consisting of two steps. First, a preparation of a macroscopically homogeneous chitosan-hydrophobic silica dispersion was prepared followed by spray drying. FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the microspheres. Also, the were conducted acid stability, moisture sorption capacity, release properties and biological assays. The chitosan-hydrophobic silica composite microspheres showed improved thermal degradation, lower water affinity, better acid stability and ability to retard rifampicin and propranolol hydrochloride (drug models) release under simulated physiological conditions. In vitro biocompatibility studies indicated low cytotoxicity and low capacity to activate cell production of the pro-inflammatory mediator nitric oxide. The results show here encourage further studies on the use of the new chitosan-hydrophobic silica composite microspheres as drug carrier systems via oral or nasal routes.

Automação residencial microcontrolada para transmissão de dados via rede elétrica

This work deals with the specification and the implementation of a protocol for controlling communication between two programmable interface microcontrollers (PIC), using power line communication (PLC), making communication more secure and economically viable. The Protocol was implemented in C language, with reference to some protocols developed for automotive use. A circuit to test the communication between the PLC and the Protocol was also implemented.

Mecanismos de transmissão de preços e parcelas de mercado: uma análise sobre as exportações brasileiras de manga

Climate and environmental conditions allowed Brazil to become one of the largest producers of tropical fruits in the world. The São Francisco Valley, over the years, has emerged as the main fruit-producing region of the country, especially mangos and grapes. The mango, which is produced in this region, has reached a good international position, especially in European and American markets. However, the domestic price has absorbed more and more the impact of fluctuations in the international market expectations affecting the production and marketing of producers. The objective of the study is to analyze the transmission ratio of export prices of the mango, with the American market prices and the European Union in the period from 2003 to 2013. It is intended also to analyze the factors affecting the fluctuations of exports Brazilian mango for the main import markets. To achieve the proposed objectives, we used, in the methodology, the autoregressive vector model, in order to find the price transmission mechanism and the mechanisms of impacts through the impulse response function. We also used, the Constant Market Share model, in order to observe the importance of the effects competitiveness, destination, and growth in world trade on the changes of Brazilian mango exports in the period. The data used were obtained from the database of the Ministry of Development and Foreign Trade - MIDIC and FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Among the results, it was found that the Brazilian domestic prices are influenced by the US market price, and that price shocks promoted this market can impact on the growth of the internal prices for several months. It was noted also that the competitiveness effect accounted for the largest portion of the effective growth of Brazilian exports, in other word, the country has improved its competitiveness among the other exporting countries.

Metodologia de estimação de estados para tratamento de medições errôneas e registros não sincronizados em algoritmos de localização de faltas em linhas de transmissão

The performance of algorithms for fault location i n transmission lines is directly related to the accuracy of its input data. Thus, fa ctors such as errors in the line parameters, failures in synchronization of oscillographic recor ds and errors in measurements of voltage and current can significantly influence the accurac y of algorithms that use bad data to indicate the fault location. This work presents a new method ology for fault location in transmission lines based on the theory of state estimation in or der to determine the location of faults more accurately by considering realistic systematic erro rs that may be present in measurements of voltage and current. The methodology was implemente d in two stages: pre-fault and post- fault. In the first step, assuming non-synchronized data, the synchronization angle and positive sequence line parameters are estimated, an d in the second, the fault distance is estimated. Besides calculating the most likely faul t distance obtained from measurement errors, the variance associated with the distance f ound is also determined, using the errors theory. This is one of the main contributions of th is work, since, with the proposed algorithm, it is possible to determine a most likely zone of f ault incidence, with approximately 95,45% of confidence. Tests for evaluation and validation of the proposed algorithm were realized from actual records of faults and from simulations of fictitious transmission systems using ATP software. The obtained results are relevant to show that the proposed estimation approach works even adopting realistic variances, c ompatible with real equipments errors.

Análise computacional do desempenho de estratégia para o religamento controlado de linhas de transmissão

The search for mitigation solutions, with respect to the effects of overvoltages linked to the energization and reclosing maneuvers of transmission lines include a challenging subject with strong impact on the insulation coordination of electrical systems. Although the recognition of classical and commercial proposals to mitigate these phenomena, other possibilities are certainly still worthwhile highlighting and investigations. In this context, the present work is grounded in the exposure of the physical and mathematical foundations of a strategy based on controlled switchings, whose moments to the line reclosing are pre-programmed. The computational evaluation of the effectiveness of the methodology is made using the ATP simulator, which are studies in a typical electrical system subjected to the action of short-circuits fallowed by shutdowns and subsequent reclosing, under the action of technology here focused and lack thereof.

Análise do perfil imunológico e citohistológico durante a transmissão vertical de Trypanosoma cruzi em diferentes estágios da infecção experimental

Trypanosma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease. This trypanosomiasis has become a global public health problem due to migration of Latin Americans to non-endemic countries. In Latin America with the succesful implementation of control domiciliated vector infestation and blood transfusion, the importance of congenital transmission has recently increased. Considering the tight regulation of immune system during gestation, we aimed to investigate the changes in the immune system caused by T.cruzi infection in the gestation outcome. T cruzi G and Y strain were used to infect female BALB/c mice before or after mating with non-infected male mice. The presence of vaginal plug was used as indicative of mating. Females were euthanized 8 days after confirmation of vaginal plug. We used three female control groups, only infected, only infected and non-infected and non-pregnant females. Two groups were infected before mating and other two were infected 4 days after confirmation of vaginal plug. The uterus and spleen were collected to immunochemistry, qPCR, immunofluorescence and cytokine analysis. Our results showed that despite the MMP’s identification being similarly among groups, T.cruzi higher virulent strain can impaire gestation outcome prior mating; the infection also increased cytokines like IFN-γ, IL-1β and IL-4; and leucocytes in uterine environment was altered, responding locally to systemic changes caused by T.cruzi infection. In conclusion this work suggests that T.cruzi infection can impaire gestation outcome and local response to sistemic infection was able to control the infection allowing pregnancy development in some conditions.