Prenatal Lipopolysaccharide Exposure Affects Maternal Behavior and Male Offspring Sexual Behavior in Adulthood

Objective: This study investigates the effects of prenatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure on the maternal behavior of pregnant rats and the physical development and sexual behavior of their male offspring in adulthood. Methods: For two experiments, pregnant rats were injected with LPS (250 mu g/kg, i.p.) on gestation day (GD) 21. In the first experiment, the maternal behavior (postnatal day, PND, 6) and the dam`s open-field general activity (PND7) were evaluated. In the second experiment, the maternal pre- and postnatal parameters, the pup`s development, the offspring`s sexual behavior in adulthood, and the pup`s organ weights were assessed. Results: Compared to the control group, the LPS-treated dams presented reduced maternal behavior, decreased general activity, a smaller body weight difference between GD21 and PND1, a greater number of perinatal deaths, and smaller litters. For the male pups, LPS treatment resulted in a decreased body weight on PND2, whereas the anogenital distance and the day of testis descent were not modified. The male sexual behavior was impaired by prenatal LPS. Particularly the number of ejaculating animals was reduced. The testis weight was also lower in the prenatally LPS-treated rats than in the control rats. Conclusion: We propose that prenatal LPS exposure on GD21 acts as an imprinting factor that interferes with the programming of brain sexual determination in offspring. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel

Effects of individual housing on behavior and resistance to Ehrlich tumor growth in mice

This study analyzed in Balb/C mice the effects of individual housing on behavior, serum corticosterone and resistance to Ehrlich tumor growth. Mice (60 days old) were individually (IH) or grouped housed (G) (10-12 animals/cage) for 14-21 days. The 1st day of the housing condition was considered experimental day 1 (ED1). Results showed that on ED21, IH mice, when compared to G mice, presented no differences on corticosterone serum levels when kept undisturbed; however, an increased level of this hormone was observed in IH mice after an immobilization stress challenge. An increased time spent in the plus-maze closed arms and a decreased time in the open arms were also observed in IH mice. When compared to G animals, after inoculation with 105 Ehrlich tumor cells on ED1, IH mice presented an increase in volume of ascitic fluid and number of tumor cells. The survival time of IH mice was also shorter than that measured in G animals. Furthermore, IH mice injected with a different number of tumor cells on ED1 always presented increased Ehrlich tumor cells than G group. Interestingly. these effects were not observed when the tumor cells injection was done on ED4. These results suggest that individual-housing conditions induce an altered immune-endocrine response and, at the same time, decrease animals` resistance to Ehrlich tumor growth. It is proposed that the neural link between the behavioral and immunological changes observed after the stress of individual housing might involve the activation of the HPA axis. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Thermal characterization of copolymers obtained by radiation grafting of styrene onto poly(tetrafluoroethyleneperfluoropropylvinylether) substrates: thermal decomposition, melting behavior and low-temperature transitions

Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) have been used to study the thermal decomposition, the melting behavior and low-temperature transitions of copolymers obtained by radiation-induced grafting of styrene onto poly (tetrafluoroethylene- perfluoropropylvinylether) (PFA) substrates. PFA with different contents of perfluoropropylvinylether (PPVE) as a comonomer have been investigated. A two step degradation pattern was observed from TGA thermograms of all the grafted copolymers, which was attributed to degradation of PSTY followed by the degradation of the PFA backbone at higher temperature. One broad melting peak can be identified for all copolymers, which has two components in the samples with higher PPVE content. The melting peak, crystal-crystal transition and the degree of crystallinity of the grafted copolymers increases with radiation grafting up to 50 kGy, followed by a decrease at higher doses. No such decrease was observed in the ungrafted PFA samples after irradiation. This indicated that the changes in the heats of transitions and crystallinity at low doses are due to the radiation effects on the microstructure of PFA (chain scission), whereas at higher doses the grafted PSTY is the driving force behind these changes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating Two-Stage Models for Genetic Influences on Alcohol, Tobacco or Drug Use Initiation and Dependence Vulnerability in Twin and Family Data

Genetic research on risk of alcohol, tobacco or drug dependence must make allowance for the partial overlap of risk-factors for initiation of use, and risk-factors for dependence or other outcomes in users. Except in the extreme cases where genetic and environmental risk-factors for initiation and dependence overlap completely or are uncorrelated, there is no consensus about how best to estimate the magnitude of genetic or environmental correlations between Initiation and Dependence in twin and family data. We explore by computer simulation the biases to estimates of genetic and environmental parameters caused by model misspecification when Initiation can only be defined as a binary variable. For plausible simulated parameter values, the two-stage genetic models that we consider yield estimates of genetic and environmental variances for Dependence that, although biased, are not very discrepant from the true values. However, estimates of genetic (or environmental) correlations between Initiation and Dependence may be seriously biased, and may differ markedly under different two-stage models. Such estimates may have little credibility unless external data favor selection of one particular model. These problems can be avoided if Initiation can be assessed as a multiple-category variable (e.g. never versus early-onset versus later onset user), with at least two categories measurable in users at risk for dependence. Under these conditions, under certain distributional assumptions., recovery of simulated genetic and environmental correlations becomes possible, Illustrative application of the model to Australian twin data on smoking confirmed substantial heritability of smoking persistence (42%) with minimal overlap with genetic influences on initiation.

«Corruption» and social and economic criminal law: criminology, criminal policy, political science and law&economics - a new idea about criminal liability of legal entities

Abstract: If we think there is a significant number of legal offshore in the globalized world, then there is not even a global consensus about what «corruption» is. The «illegal corruption» in a country may be legal in another. Moreover, the great global corruption is above the law or above democratic States. And not all democratic States are «Rule of Law». Therefore, the solution is global earlier in time and space law, democratic, free and true law. While the human being does not reach a consensus of what «corruption» really is, the discussion will not go further than a caricature. One of the other problems about «corruption» is that it is very difficult to establish the imputation of crimes, including «corruption» (v.g. Portugal) on some «companies», corporations. We have a juridical problem in the composition of the art. 11. of the Portuguese Penal Code.

Synthesis, characterization, electrochemical behavior and in vitro protein tyrosine kinase inhibitory activity of the cymene-halogenobenzohydroxamato [Ru(eta(6)-cymene)(bha)Cl] complexes

The ruthenium(II)-cymene complexes [Ru(eta(6)-cymene)(bha)Cl] with substituted halogenobenzohydroxamato (bha) ligands (substituents = 4-F, 4-Cl, 4-Br, 2,4-F-2, 3,4-F-2, 2,5-F-2, 2,6-F-2) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, cyclic voltammetry and controlled-potential electrolysis, and density functional theory (DFT) studies. The compositions of their frontier molecular orbitals (MOs) were established by DFT calculations, and the oxidation and reduction potentials are shown to follow the orders of the estimated vertical ionization potential and electron affinity, respectively. The electrochemical E-L Lever parameter is estimated for the first time for the various bha ligands, which can thus be ordered according to their electron-donor character. All complexes exhibit very strong protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) inhibitory activity, even much higher than that of genistein, the clinically used PTK inhibitory drug. The complex containing the 2,4-difluorobenzohydroxamato ligand is the most active one, and the dependences of the PTK activity of the complexes and of their redox potentials on the ring substituents are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health-related behavior and quality of life among the elderly: a population-based study

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between health-related behaviors and quality of life among the elderly. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out including 1,958 elderly living in four areas in the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil, 2001/2002. Quality of life was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study SF-36-Item Short Form Health Survey instrument. This instrument's eight subscales and two components were the dependent variables. Independent variables were physical activity, weekly frequency of alcohol consumption and smoking. Multiple linear regression models were used to control for the effect of gender, age, schooling, work, area of residence and number of chronic conditions. RESULTS: Physical activity was positively associated with the eight SF-36 subscales. The stronger associations were found for role-physical (β=11.9), physical functioning (β=11.3) and physical component. Elderly individuals who consumed alcohol at least once a week showed a better quality of life than those did not consume alcohol. Compared to non-smokers, smokers had a poorer quality of life for the mental component (β=-2.4). CONCLUSIONS: The study results showed that physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption and no smoking are positively associated with a better quality of life in the elderly.

Buying behavior and competition in the software market

In the actual world, the impact of the software buying decisions has a rising relevance in social and economic terms. This research tries to explain it focusing on the organizations buying decisions of Operating Systems and Office Suites for personal computers and the impact on the competition between incumbent and alternative players in the market in these software categories, although the research hypotheses and conclusions may extend to other software categories and platforms. We concluded that in this market beside brand image, product features or price, other factors could have influence in the buying choices. Network effect, switching costs, local network effect, lock-in or consumer heterogeneity all have influence in the buying decision, protecting the incumbent and making it difficult for the competitive alternatives, based mainly on product features and price, to gain market share to the incumbent. This happens in a stronger way in the Operating Systems category.

The Dark Side of Organizational Change: The Moderating Role of Political Behavior and Organizational Cynicism

Workplace aggression is a factor that shapes the interaction between individuals and their work environment and produces many undesirable outcomes, sometimes introducing heavy costs for organizations. Only through a comprehensive understanding of the genesis of workplace aggression is possible to develop strategies and interventions to minimize its nefarious effects. The existent body of knowledge has already identified several individual, situational and contextual antecedents of workplace aggression, although this is a research area where significant gaps occur and many issues were still not addressed Dupré and Barling (2006). According to Baron and Neuman (1998) one of these predictors is organizational change, since certain changes in the work environment (e.g., changes in management) can lead to increased aggression. This paper intends to contribute to workplace aggression research by studying its relationship with organizational change, considering a moderating role of political behaviors and organizational cynicism (Ammeter et al., 2002, Ferris et al., 2002). The literature review suggests that mediators and moderators that intervene in the relationships between workplace aggression and its antecedents are understudied topics. James (2005) sustains that organizational politics is related to cynicism and the empirical research of Miranda (2008) has identified leadership political behavior as an antecedent of cynicism but these two variables were not yet investigated regarding their relationship with workplace aggression. This investigation was operationalized using several scales including the Organizational Change Questionnaire-climate of change, processes, and readiness (Bouckenooghe, Devos and Broeck, 2009), a Workplace Aggression Scale (Vicente and D’Oliveira, 2008, 2009, 2010), an Organizational Cynicism Scale (Wanous, Reichers and Austin, 1994) and a Political Behavior Questionnaire (Yukl and Falbe, 1990). Participants representing a wide variety of jobs across many organizations were surveyed. The results of the study and its implications will be presented and discussed. This study contribution is also discussed in what concerns organizational change practices in organizations.

Mechanical behavior and localized failure modes in a porous basalt from the Azores

Basaltic rocks are the main component of the oceanic upper crust, thus of potential interest for water and geothermal resources, storage of CO2 and volcanic edifice stability. In this work, we investigated experimentally the mechanical behavior and the failure modes of a porous basalt, with an initial connected porosity of 18%. Results were acquired under triaxial compression experiments at confining pressure in the range of 25-200 MPa on water saturated samples. In addition, a purely hydrostatic test was also performed to reach the pore collapse critical pressure P*. During hydrostatic loading, our results show that the permeability is highly pressure dependent, which suggests that the permeability is mainly controlled by pre-existing cracks. When the sample is deformed at pressure higher than the pore collapse pressure P*, some very small dilatancy develops due to microcracking, and an increase in permeability is observed. Under triaxial loading, two modes of deformation can be highlighted. At low confining pressure (Pc < 50 MPa), the samples are brittle and shear localization occurs. For confining pressure > 50 MPa, the stress-strain curves are characterized by strain hardening and volumetric compaction. Stress drops are also observed, suggesting that compaction may be localized. The presence of compaction bands is confirmed by our microstructure analysis. In addition, the mechanical data allows us to plot the full yield surface for this porous basalt, which follows an elliptic cap as previously observed in high porosity sandstones and limestones.

Power Law Behavior and Self-similarity in Modern Industrial Accidents

Advances in technology have produced more and more intricate industrial systems, such as nuclear power plants, chemical centers and petroleum platforms. Such complex plants exhibit multiple interactions among smaller units and human operators, rising potentially disastrous failure, which can propagate across subsystem boundaries. This paper analyzes industrial accident data-series in the perspective of statistical physics and dynamical systems. Global data is collected from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) during the time period from year 1903 up to 2012. The statistical distributions of the number of fatalities caused by industrial accidents reveal Power Law (PL) behavior. We analyze the evolution of the PL parameters over time and observe a remarkable increment in the PL exponent during the last years. PL behavior allows prediction by extrapolation over a wide range of scales. In a complementary line of thought, we compare the data using appropriate indices and use different visualization techniques to correlate and to extract relationships among industrial accident events. This study contributes to better understand the complexity of modern industrial accidents and their ruling principles.

Lutzomyia longipalpis behavior and control at an urban visceral leishmaniasis focus in Argentina

During the earlier stages of visceral leishmaniasis transmission in Posadas City, Misiones, both the night activity and attraction to humans of Lutzomyia longipalpis were assessed, in order to provide preliminary recommendations. The impact of peridomestic deltamethrin spraying performed by local officials was also evaluated. Although Lu. longipalpis were found in traps located over a dog the entire night, 90% of the females were captured from 20.30h to 1.30h, and only landed on a human when he was at a distance of 1.5 m from the dog. Peridomestic spraying of deltamethrin (25 mg/m²) reduced the sand fly capture up to seven days post-intervention without dispersion in the border of the sprayed areas. These results support the recommendations about time-space focus of the protection measures: first half of the night, in the backyard, with pets and domestic animals kept at least 5 m from humans. The deltamethrin as it was used did not seem very effective in this scenario; neither did the eventual use of bed nets, at least in adults, due to the place/hour of sand fly higher activity. This study strengthens the need for a multidisciplinary approach to develop prevention strategies based both on biological and anthropological studies.

Correlation between the mechanical cycling behavior and microstructure in laser welded joints using NiTi memory shape alloys

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Materiais