Skin glands, poison and mimicry in dendrobatid and leptodactylid amphibians

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

Brood Care Behavior in Ectatomma brunneum (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Ectatomminae) Under Laboratory Conditions

The objective of this work was to make an ethogram based on the brood care behavior of two nests of the ant Ectatomma brunneum under laboratory conditions, in order to determine the behavioral acts performed and their frequencies, comparing the results obtained with those of other species of poneromorph ants. Using the sample scanning method, activities of brood care behavior performed by workers were monitored for 150 hours, from February to August 2007. A total of 18 different behavioral acts were observed (n = 12,494). More than half of the brood care behaviors by E brunneum (52.07%) were related to care for larvae, and the same was observed by other researchers in ethograms of species of Ectatomminae and Ponerinae ants. This may be related to specific needs in this immature stage, since rills is the period when the brood receives all the food necessary to complete their development to the adult stage.

Epigenetic Silencing of CRABP2 and MX1 in Head and Neck Tumors

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

Friction losses in valves and fittings for liquid food products

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

Theoretical study of omeprazole behavior: Racemization barrier and decomposition reaction

omeprazole is a substituted benzimidazole which suppresses gastric-acid secretion by means of H+, K+-ATPase inhibition. It is an optically active drug with the sulfur of the sulfoxide being the chiral center. This pro-drug can be easily converted into its respective sulfenamide at low pH. In this work, omeprazole has been studied in relation to racemization barrier and decomposition reaction. Quantum chemistry coupled to PCA chemometric method were used to find all minimum energy structures. Conformational analysis and calculation of racemization barriers were carried out by PM3 semiempirical method (Gaussian 98). The average racemization energy barrier for all minimum energy structures (43.56 kcal mol(-1)) can be related to the velocity constant in Eyring's equation. The enormous half-life time at 100 degrees C (9.04 x 10(4) years) indicates that the process cannot be observed in human time scale. on the other hand, the difference of free energy change (Delta(Delta G) = -266.78 kcal mol(-1)) for the decomposition reaction shows that the process is favorable to the sulfenamide formation. The highly negative Delta(Delta G) obtained for the decomposition reaction shows that this process is extremely exothermic. This result explains why omeprazole decomposes and does not racemize. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The role of counterion on the thermotropic phase behavior of DODAB and DODAC vesicles

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Low dimensional behavior in three-dimensional coupled map lattices

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Sudden change in quantum and classical correlations and the Unruh effect

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

In-flight and collisional dissipation as a mechanism to suppress Fermi acceleration in a breathing Lorentz gas

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

Relaxor behavior in multiferroic BiMn2O5 ceramics

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

Strain and vacancy cluster behavior of vanadium and tungsten-doped Ba[Zr(0.10)Ti(0.90)]O(3) ceramics

Strain and vacancy clusters behavior of polycrystalline vanadium (V) and tungsten (W)-doped Ba[Zr(0.10)Ti(0.90)]O(3), (BZT:2%V) and (BZT:2%W) ceramics obtained by the mixed oxide method was evaluated. Substitution of V and W reduces the distortion of octahedral clusters, decreasing the Raman modes. Electron paramagnetic resonance data indicate that the addition of dopants leads to defects and symmetry changes in the BZT lattice. Remnant polarization and coercive field are affected by V and W substitution due the electron-relaxation mode. The unipolar strain E curves as a function of electric field reach its maximum value for BZT:2%V and BZT:2%W ceramics. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

WC-CoCr coatings sprayed by high velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) flame on AA7050 aluminum alloy: electrochemical behavior in 3.5% NaCl solution

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

Resistive-Switching Behavior in Polycrystalline CaCu3Ti4O12 Nanorods

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

Comparative electrical behavior at low and high current of SnO(2)- and ZnO-based varistors

The complete I-V characteristics of SnO(2)-based varistors, particularly of the Pianaro system SCNCr consisting in 98.9%SnO(2)+1%CoO+0.05%Nb(2)O(5)+0.05%Cr(2)O(3), all in mol%, have been seldom reported in the literature. A comparative study at low and high currents of the nonohmic behavior of SCNCr- and ZnO-based varistors (modified Matsuoka system) is proposed in this work. The SCNCr system showed higher nonlinearity coefficients in the whole range of measured current. The electrical breakdown field (E(b)) was twice as high for the SCNCr system (5400 V/cm) than for the ZnO varistor (2600 V/cm) due to a smaller average grain size of the former (4.5 mu m) with respect to the latter (8.5 mu m). Nevertheless, we consider that another important factor responsible for the high E(b) in the SCNCr system is the great number of electrically active interfaces (85%) as determined with electrostatic force microscopy (EFM). It was also established that the SCNCr system might be produced in disks of smaller dimensions than that of commercial ZnO-based product, with a 5.0 cm(-1) minimal area-volume (A/V) ratio. The SCNCr reached the saturation current in a short time because of the high resistivity of the grains, which is five times higher than that of the grains in ZnO-based varistors.

The role of the Eu3+ ions in structure and photoluminescence properties of SrBi2Nb2O9 powders

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)