Use of monocular and binocular visual cues for postural control in children

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

Detection of Listeria sp in meat and meat products using TECRA Listeria visual immunoassay and biocontrol visual immunoprecipitate assay for Listeria immunoassays and a cultural procedure

The routine methods for detecting Listeria sp. in foods are time consuming and involve using selective enrichments and plating on agars. In this study, the presence of Listeria sp. in 120 meat and meat product samples was investigated by two rapid immunoassays (TECRA Listeria Visual Immunoassay [VIA] and BioControl Visual Immunoprecipitate Assay [VIP] for Listeria) and a cultural procedure. The cultural method of detecting Listeria sp. followed Canada's Health Protection Branch Method, and the rapid tests followed the manufacturers' instructions. The agreement between the cultural and the rapid tests was established at a confidence limit of 95%. Seventy-nine samples (65.8%) were Listeria sp. positive in at least one of the three tests. There was no statistically significant difference between the cultural procedure and any of the rapid immunoassays. The agreement rates between the VIA and the cultural method and between the VIP and the cultural method were 87 and 84%, respectively. Both tests - the VIA and VIP - proved to be rapid, efficient and easy to perform.

FLORAL ANATOMY of XYRIDS (POALES): CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEIR REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY, TAXONOMY, and PHYLOGENY

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Conceptual model for adaptable and extensible visual data exploration

Interactive visual representations complement traditional statistical and machine learning techniques for data analysis, allowing users to play a more active role in a knowledge discovery process and making the whole process more understandable. Though visual representations are applicable to several stages of the knowledge discovery process, a common use of visualization is in the initial stages to explore and organize a sometimes unknown and complex data set. In this context, the integrated and coordinated - that is, user actions should be capable of affecting multiple visualizations when desired - use of multiple graphical representations allows data to be observed from several perspectives and offers richer information than isolated representations. In this paper we propose an underlying model for an extensible and adaptable environment that allows independently developed visualization components to be gradually integrated into a user configured knowledge discovery application. Because a major requirement when using multiple visual techniques is the ability to link amongst them, so that user actions executed on a representation propagate to others if desired, the model also allows runtime configuration of coordinated user actions over different visual representations. We illustrate how this environment is being used to assist data exploration and organization in a climate classification problem.

A new proposed rodent model of chemically induced prostate carcinogenesis: Distinct time-course prostate cancer progression in the dorsolateral and ventral lobes

Background. Characterization of novel rodent models for prostate cancer studies requires evaluation of either spontaneous and carcinogen-induced tumors as well as tumor incidence in different prostatic lobes. We propose a new short-term rodent model of chemically induced prostate carcinogenesis in which prostate cancer progression occurs differentially in the dorsolateral and ventral lobes. Methods. Adult gerbils were treated with MNU alone or associated with testosterone for 3 or 6 months of treatment. Tumor incidence, latency, localization, and immunohistochemistry (AR, PCNA, smooth muscle α-actin, p63, MGMT, and E-cadherin) were studied in both lobes. Results. Comparisons between both lobes revealed that lesions developed first in the DL while the VL presented longer tumor latency. However, after 6 months, there was a dramatic increase in tumor multiplicity in the VL, mainly in MNU-treated groups. Lesions clearly progressed from a premalignant to a malignant phenotype over time and tumor latency was decreased by MNU + testosterone administration. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the prostatic complex showed that the DL developed tumors exclusively in the periurethral area and showed intense AR, PCNA, and MGMT immunostaining. Moreover, VL lesions emerged throughout the entire lobe. MNU-induced lesions presented markers indicative of an aggressive phenotype: lack of basal cells, rupture of the smooth muscle cell layer, loss of E-cadherin, and high MGMT staining. Conclusions. There are distinct pathways involved in tumor progression in gerbil prostate lobes. This animal provides a good model for prostate cancer since it allows the investigation of advanced steps of carcinogenesis with shorter latency periods in both lobes. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Caribbean enterprise for the production and distribution of printed and audio-visual materials: a pre-feasibility study

Includes bibliography

Division of labor between M and P visual pathways: different visual pathways minimize joint entropy differently

Visual perception and action are strongly linked with parallel processing channels connecting the retina, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and the input layers of the primary visual cortex. Achromatic vision is provided by at least two of such channels formed by the M and P neurons. These cell pathways are similarly organized in primates having different lifestyles, including species that are diurnal, nocturnal, and which exhibit a variety of color vision phenotypes. We describe the M and P cell properties by 3D Gábor functions and their 3D Fourier transform. The M and P cells occupy different loci in the Gábor information diagram or Fourier Space. This separation allows the M and P pathways to transmit visual signals with distinct 6D joint entropy for space, spatial frequency, time, and temporal frequency. By combining the M and P impacts on the cortical neurons beyond V1 input layers, the cortical pathways are able to process aspects of visual stimuli with a better precision than it would be possible using the M or P pathway alone. This performance fulfils the requirements of different behavioral tasks.

A New and Simple Visual Technique Based on Indigo Dye for Determination of Ozone in Ambient Air

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Unpredictable chronic mild stress exerts anxiogenic-like effects and activates neurons in the dorsal and caudal region and in the lateral wings of the dorsal raphe nucleus

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

mu(1)- and 5-HT1-dependent mechanisms in the anterior pretectal nucleus mediate the antinociceptive effects of retrosplenial cortex stimulation in rats

Aim: This study examines if injection of cobalt chloride (CoCl2) or antagonists of muscarinic cholinergic (atropine), mu(1)-opioid (naloxonazine) or 5-HT1 serotonergic (methiothepin) receptors into the dorsal or ventral portions of the anterior pretectal nucleus (APtN) alters the antinociceptive effects of stimulating the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in rats. Main method: Changes in the nociceptive threshold were evaluated using the tail flick or incision pain tests in rats that were electrically stimulated at the RSC after the injection of saline, CoCl2 (1 mM, 0.10 mu L) or antagonists into the dorsal or ventral APtN. Key findings: The injection of CoCl2, naloxonazine (5 mu g/0.10 mu L) or methiothepin (3 mu g/0.10 mu L) into the dorsal APtN reduced the stimulation-produced antinociception from the RSC in the rat tail flick test. Reduction of incision pain was observed following stimulation of the RSC after the injection of the same substances into the ventral APtN. The injection of atropine (10 ng/0.10 mu L) or ketanserine (5 mu g/0.10 mu L) into the dorsal or ventral APtN was ineffective against the antinociception resulting from RSC stimulation. Significance: mu(1)-opioid- and 5-HT1-expressing neurons and cell processes in dorsal and ventral APtN are both implicated in the mediation of stimulation-produced antinociception from the RSC in the rat tail flick and incision pain tests, respectively. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differential projections from the lateral habenula to the rostromedial tegmental nucleus and ventral tegmental area in the rat

The mesopontine rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) is a mostly ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic structure believed to be a node for signaling aversive events to dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The RMTg receives glutamatergic inputs from the lateral habenula (LHb) and sends substantial GABAergic projections to the VTA, which also receives direct projections from the LHb. To further specify the topography of LHb projections to the RMTg and VTA, small focal injections of the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin were aimed at different subdivisions of the LHb. The subnuclear origin of LHb inputs to the VTA and RMTg was then confirmed by injections of the retrograde tracer cholera toxin subunit b into the VTA or RMTg. Furthermore, we compared the topographic position of retrogradely labeled neurons in the RMTg resulting from VTA injections with that of anterogradely labeled axons emerging from the LHb. As revealed by anterograde and retrograde tracing, LHb projections were organized in a strikingly topographic manner, with inputs to the RMTg mostly arising from the lateral division of the LHb (LHbL), whereas inputs to the VTA mainly emerged from the medial division of the LHb (LHbM). In the RMTg, profusely branched LHb axons were found in close register with VTA projecting neurons and were frequently apposed to the latter. Overall, our findings demonstrate that LHb inputs to the RMTg and VTA arise from different divisions of the LHb and provide direct evidence for a disynaptic pathway that links the LHbL to the VTA via the RMTg. J. Comp. Neurol. 520:12781300, 2012. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.