Neonatal BCG Immunization Followed by DNAhsp65 Boosters: Highly Immunogenic but not Protective Against Tuberculosis - a Paradoxical Effect of the Vector?

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

Larval development of Apiomithrax violaceus (A. Milne Edwards, 1868) (Decapoda : Brachyura : Majoidea : Pisidae) reared in laboratory conditions, and a review of larval characters of Pisidae

Apiomithrax violaceus (A. Milne Edwards, 1868 ) is a pisid majoid crab occurring in tropical and subtropical coastal waters of the eastern and western South Atlantic. Larval development consists of two zoeal stages and a megalopa. Beginning with the first zoea, the duration of each larval stage at 24degreesC was 3-8 (5+/-1), 3-5 (4+/-0.5) and 9-15 (11+/-2) days, the megalopa and first crab instar appearing 9-11 (10+/-1) and 20-27 (23+/-2) days after hatching, respectively. Larval characters agree with those proposed for the Majoidea, in having nine or more setae on the scaphognathite in the first zoea and well-developed pleopods in the second zoea. However, larvae of A . violaceus do not fit larval pisid features. Zoeal stages differ from most other Pisidae in having lateral spines, a long rostral spine extending beyond the antenna, two spines per telson fork and a dorsolateral process on the third abdominal somite. The megalopa differs in having a spine dorsally on the carapace and on the basial segment of the second pereiopod. Two characters that are potentially unique to Apiomithrax include a zoeal antenna with an exopod that is much longer than the protopod, and a rostral spine that is longer than the dorsal spine. These characters should facilitate the identification of this taxon and could also be useful for phylogenetic studies. A review of larvae of 28 species among 14 genera indicated that there is no apparent single larval character that differentiates the Pisidae, with more limited phylogenetic analyses suggesting that this is a paraphyletic group. Apiomithrax , Eurynolambrus , Pisoides , Rochinia and Scyra have the most divergent morphological characters within the family. The analysis and inclusion of additional taxa is likely to shed more light on the sister-group relationships of the Pisidae. However, based on the extent of morphological interspecific variability of known larvae it is likely that the group, as presently defined by adult morphology, is not monophyletic.

Is The amphibian tree of life really fatally flawed?

Wiens (2007, Q. Rev. Biol. 82, 55-56) recently published a severe critique of Frost et al.'s (2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 297, 1-370) monographic study of amphibian systematics, concluding that it is a disaster and recommending that readers simply ignore this study. Beyond the hyperbole, Wiens raised four general objections that he regarded as fatal flaws: (1) the sampling design was insufficient for the generic changes made and taxonomic changes were made without including all type species; (2) the nuclear gene most commonly used in amphibian phylogenetics, RAG-1, was not included, nor were the morphological characters that had justified the older taxonomy; (3) the analytical method employed is questionable because equally weighted parsimony assumes that all characters are evolving at equal rates; and (4) the results were at times clearly erroneous, as evidenced by the inferred non-monophyly of marsupial frogs. In this paper we respond to these criticisms. In brief: (1) the study of Frost et al. did not exist in a vacuum and we discussed our evidence and evidence previously obtained by others that documented the non-monophyletic taxa that we corrected. Beyond that, we agree that all type species should ideally be included, but inclusion of all potentially relevant type species is not feasible in a study of the magnitude of Frost et al. and we contend that this should not prevent progress in the formulation of phylogenetic hypotheses or their application outside of systematics. (2) Rhodopsin, a gene included by Frost et al. is the nuclear gene that is most commonly used in amphibian systematics, not RAG-1. Regardless, ignoring a study because of the absence of a single locus strikes us as unsound practice. With respect to previously hypothesized morphological synapomorphies, Frost et al. provided a lengthy review of the published evidence for all groups, and this was used to inform taxonomic decisions. We noted that confirming and reconciling all morphological transformation series published among previous studies needed to be done, and we included evidence from the only published data set at that time to explicitly code morphological characters (including a number of traditionally applied synapomorphies from adult morphology) across the bulk of the diversity of amphibians (Haas, 2003, Cladistics 19, 23-90). Moreover, the phylogenetic results of the Frost et al. study were largely consistent with previous morphological and molecular studies and where they differed, this was discussed with reference to the weight of evidence. (3) The claim that equally weighted parsimony assumes that all characters are evolving at equal rates has been shown to be false in both analytical and simulation studies. (4) The claimed strong support for marsupial frog monophyly is questionable. Several studies have also found marsupial frogs to be non-monophyletic. Wiens et al. (2005, Syst. Biol. 54, 719-748) recovered marsupial frogs as monophyletic, but that result was strongly supported only by Bayesian clade confidence values (which are known to overestimate support) and bootstrap support in his parsimony analysis was < 50%. Further, in a more recent parsimony analysis of an expanded data set that included RAG-1 and the three traditional morphological synapomorphies of marsupial frogs, Wiens et al. (2006, Am. Nat. 168, 579-596) also found them to be non-monophyletic.Although we attempted to apply the rule of monophyly to the naming of taxonomic groups, our phylogenetic results are largely consistent with conventional views even if not wth the taxonomy current at the time of our writing. Most of our taxonomic changes addressed examples of non-monophyly that had previously been known or suspected (e.g., the non-monophyly of traditional Hyperoliidae, Microhylidae, Hemiphractinae, Leptodactylidae, Phrynobatrachus, Ranidae, Rana, Bufo; and the placement of Brachycephalus within Eleutherodactylus, and Lineatriton within Pseudoeurycea), and it is troubling that Wiens and others, as evidenced by recent publications, continue to perpetuate recognition of non-monophyletic taxonomic groups that so profoundly misrepresent what is known about amphibian phylogeny. (C) The Willi Hennig Society 2007.

Hung Out to Dry: Choice of Priority Ecoregions for Conserving Threatened Neotropical Anurans Depends on Life-History Traits

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

General structures of Hamiltonian hierarchies

Three dimensional exactly solvable quantum potentials for which an extra term of form 1/r(2) has been added are shown to maintain their functional form which allows the construction of the Hamiltonian hierarchy and the determination of the spectra of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions within the Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics formalism. For the specific cases of the harmonic oscillator and the Coulomb potentials, known as pseudo-harmonic oscillator and pseudo-Coulomb potentials, it is shown here that the inclusion of the new term corresponds to rescaling the angular momentum and it is responsible for maintaining their exact solvability.

Testing color evaporation in photon-photon production of J/psi at CERN LEP II

The DELPHI Collaboration has recently reported the measurement of J/psi production in photon-photon collisions at CERN LEP II. These newly available data provide additional proof of the importance of colored c (c) over bar pairs for the production of charmonium, because these data can be explained only by considering resolved photon processes. We show here that the inclusion of color octet contributions to J/psi production in the framework of the color evaporation model is able to reproduce these data. In particular, the transverse-momentum distribution of the J/psi mesons is well described by this model.

3D calculation of Tucson-Melbourne 3NF effect in triton binding energy

As an application of the new realistic three-dimensional (3D) formalism reported recently for three-nucleon (3N) bound states, an attempt is made to study the effect of three-nucleon forces (3NFs) in triton binding energy in a non partial wave (PW) approach. The spin-isospin dependent 3N Faddeev integral equations with the inclusion of 3NFs, which are formulated as function of vector Jacobi momenta, specifically the magnitudes of the momenta and the angle between them, are solved with Bonn-B and Tucson-Melbourne NN and 3N forces in operator forms which can be incorporated in our 3D formalism. The comparison with numerical results in both, novel 3D and standard PW schemes, shows that non PW calculations avoid the very involved angular momentum algebra occurring for the permutations and transformations and it is more efficient and less cumbersome for considering the 3NF.

Solutions of the bound-state Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations in three dimensions by using NN and 3N potential models

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

Measurement of energy flow at large pseudorapidities in pp collisions at root s=0.9 and 7 TeV

The energy flow, dE/d eta, is studied at large pseudorapidities in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, for centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV. The measurements are made using the CMS detector in the pseudorapidity range 3:15 < vertical bar eta vertical bar < 4.9, for both minimum-bias events and events with at least two high-momentum jets. The data are compared to various pp Monte Carlo event generators whose theoretical models and input parameter values are sensitive to the energy-flow measurements. Inclusion of multiple-parton interactions in the Monte Carlo event generators is found to improve the description of the energy-flow measurements.

Effect of organic selenium and zinc on the performance and egg quality of Japanese quails

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

Traceability of animal meals in Japanese quail eggs using the technique of 13C e 15N* stable isotopes

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

Performance of UASB reactors in two stages under different HRT and OLR treating residual waters of swine farming

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

Indoor NO2 air pollution and lung function of professional cooks

Studies of cooking-generated NO2 effects are rare in occupational epidemiology. In the present study, we evaluated the lung function of professional cooks exposed to NO2 in hospital kitchens. We performed spirometry in 37 cooks working in four hospital kitchens and estimated the predicted FVC, FEV1 and FEF25-75, based on age, sex, race, weight, and height, according to Knudson standards. NO2 measurements were obtained for 4 consecutive days during 4 different periods at 20-day intervals in each kitchen. Measurements were performed inside and outside the kitchens, simultaneously using Palm diffusion tubes. A time/exposure indicator was defined as representative of the cumulative exposure of each cook. No statistically significant effect of NO2 exposure on FVC was found. Each year of work as a cook corresponded to a decrease in predicted FEV1 of 2.5% (P = 0.046) for the group as a whole. When smoking status and asthma were included in the analysis the effect of time/exposure decreased about 10% and lost statistical significance. on predicted FEF25-75, a decrease of 3.5% (P = 0.035) was observed for the same group and the inclusion of controllers for smoking status and asthma did not affect the effects of time/exposure on pulmonary function parameter. After a 10-year period of work as cooks the participants of the study may present decreases in both predicted FEV1 and FEF25-75 that can reach 20 and 30%, respectively. The present study showed small but statistically significant adverse effects of gas stove exposure on the lung function of professional cooks.

Carcass characteristics of broilers at 42 days receiving diets with phytase in different energy and crude protein levels

Objetivou-se, com este trabalho, estudar as características de carcaça e qualidade da carne do peito depois da inclusão de fitase em dietas para frangos de corte, com diferentes níveis de energia metabolizável aparente corrigida para nitrogênio (EMAn) e proteína bruta (PB) reduzida, suplementadas com aminoácidos essenciais seguindo o conceito de proteína ideal. Foram utilizados 1.500 frangos machos Cobb dos 22 aos 42 dias de idade com peso inicial de 833 ± 7 g e final de 2741 ± 48 g distribuídos em delineamento inteiramente casualizado em esquema fatorial 3x3+1 (três níveis de EMAn - 2950, 3100 e 3250 kcal/kg - e três de PB - 14, 16 e 18% - e um tratamento adicional - controle, sem fitase, com 3100 kcal/kg EMAn, 19,2% de PB e 0,4% de fósforo disponível) em seis repetições com 25 aves cada. Ao final do experimento, duas aves de cada parcela foram sacrificadas para a mensuração do rendimento de carcaça e de cortes e determinação da composição química da carne do peito. Os níveis de energia e proteína em rações com fitase influenciaram (P<0,05) os rendimentos de carcaça, peito e gordura abdominal a porcentagem de umidade, proteína e lipídios no músculo pectoralis major das aves, sendo os níveis de 3100 kcal EMAn/kg e 18% de PB os que proporcionaram maiores rendimentos de carcaça e de peito e menor deposição de gordura abdominal, mas em maior teor de lipídios na carne do peito. Conclui-se que a manipulação da energia em rações com reduzido teor de proteína e suplementadas com aminoácidos e fitase influencia o rendimento de cortes e a qualidade da carne do peito de frangos aos 42 dias.

Reduction of the nutritional values of diets for hens through supplementation with phytase

Objetivou-se avaliar os efeitos da redução dos níveis nutricionais de dietas para poedeiras marrons em pico de postura sobre o desempenho das aves, a qualidade dos ovos e os parâmetros ósseos. No total foram avaliadas oito dietas, cada uma com cinco repetições de oito aves: 1. controle: formulada para suprir as exigências das aves; 2) controle + 0,03% ou 600 FTU; 3) 15% PB; 2.800 kcal de EM; 3,8% Ca e 0,28% Pd; 4) dieta 3 + 0,03% ou 600 FTU; 5) 14% PB; 2.750 kcal de EM; 3,4% Ca e 0,23% Pd; 6) dieta 5 + 0,03% ou 600 FTU; 7) 13% PB; 2.700 kcal de EM; 3,0% Ca e 0,18% Pd; e 8) dieta 7 + 0,03% ou 600 FTU. A redução dos níveis nutricionais prejudicou o desempenho das aves, principalmente a produção e massa de ovos, que melhorou com a inclusão de fitase nas dietas. Os parâmetros de qualidade dos ovos, no entanto, não se alteraram com a redução até o nível de 15% de PB; 2.800 kcal de EM/kg; 3,80% Ca e 0,280% Pd, o que não se repetiu nos níveis com menor densidade nutricional. Não houve efeito da redução dos níveis nutricionais sobre os parâmetros ósseos avaliados, exceto a resistência, que melhorou com a suplementação de fitase no nível de 600 FTU. A redução nos níveis nutricionais da dieta para 15% de PB, 2.800 kcal/kg de EM, 3,8% de Ca e 0,280% de Pd com a adição de 600 FTU não prejudica a produção nem a massa de ovos e melhora a saúde óssea das aves.