Attaching and effacing lesions in the large intestine of an eight-month-old heifer associated with Escherichia coli O26 infection in a group of animals with dysentery

Escherichia coli O26:K60, with genetic attributes consistent with a potentially human enterohaemorrhagic E coli was isolated from the faeces of an eight-month-old heifer with dysentery. Attaching and effacing lesions were identified in the colon of a similarly affected heifer examined postmortem, and shown to be associated with E coli O26 by specific immunolabelling.

Computing the Cassels–Tate pairing on the 3-Selmer group of an elliptic curve

We extend the method of Cassels for computing the Cassels-Tate pairing on the 2-Selmer group of an elliptic curve, to the case of 3-Selmer groups. This requires significant modifications to both the local and global parts of the calculation. Our method is practical in sufficiently small examples, and can be used to improve the upper bound for the rank of an elliptic curve obtained by 3-descent.

THE FUNDAMENTAL GROUP OF THE SPACE OF MAPS FROM A SURFACE INTO THE PROJECTIVE PLANE

In this work we compute the fundamental group of each connected component of the function space of maps from it closed surface into the projective space

ALTERNATING UNITS AS FREE FACTORS IN THE GROUP OF UNITS OF INTEGRAL GROUP RINGS

Let G be a group of odd order that contains a non-central element x whose order is either a prime p >= 5 or 3(l), with l >= 2. Then, in U(ZG), the group of units of ZG, we can find an alternating unit u based on x, and another unit v, which can be either a bicyclic or an alternating unit, such that for all sufficiently large integers m we have that < u(m), v(m)> = < u(m)> * < v(m)> congruent to Z * Z.

A group topology on the free abelian group of cardinality c that makes its square countably compact

Under p = c, we prove that it is possible to endow the free abelian group of cardinality c with a group topology that makes its square countably compact. This answers a question posed by Madariaga-Garcia and Tomita and by Tkachenko. We also prove that there exists a Wallace semigroup (i.e., a countably compact both-sided cancellative topological semigroup which is not a topological group) whose square is countably compact. This answers a question posed by Grant.

Immobilized analogues of sunflower trypsin inhibitor-1 constitute a versatile group of affinity sorbents for selective isolation of serine proteases

Sunflower trypsin inhibitor-1 (SFI-1), a natural 14-residue cyclic peptide, and some of its synthetic acyclic variants are potent protease inhibitors displaying peculiar inhibitory profiles. Here we describe the synthesis and use of affinity sorbents prepared by coupling SFTI-1 analogues to agarose resin. Chymotrypsinand trypsin-like proteases could then be selectively isolated from pancreatin; similarly, other proteases were obtained from distinct biological sources. The binding capacity of [Lys5]-SFTI-1-agarose for trypsin was estimated at over 10 mg/mL of packed gel. SFTI-1-based resins could find application either to improve the performance of current purification protocols or as novel protease-discovery tools in different areas of biological investigation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A group of Litho students at the New York Trade School

A group of students from the New York Trade School studying lithography pose for a group photo. Black and white photograph mounted on paper.

Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, causal factors and evolution of a group of patients with chronic urticaria-angioedema

CONTEXTO E OBJETIVO: Urticária-angioedema crônico é enfermidade freqüente, complexa e multicausal. O objetivo foi estudar as características sociodemográficas, clínicas, os fatores causais, agravantes e a evolução da enfermidade. TIPO DE ESTUDO E LOCAL: Descritivo e prospectivo, realizado no ambulatório de Dermatologia da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados pacientes com diagnóstico de urticária-angioedema crônico através de dados sociodemográficos, anamnese, exames dermatológico, clínico e laboratorial, com ênfase nos fatores causais, agravantes e na evolução da enfermidade. RESULTADOS: 125 pacientes foram incluídos, 95 mulheres e 30 homens. Predominaram mulheres de 30 a 40 anos e homens de 10 a 20 anos. A idade média foi de 35 anos para as mulheres e 32 anos para os homens. Predominaram pacientes de raça branca, residentes em zona urbana e casados. O tempo médio de doença foi de 45,6 meses e de cada lesão foi de 5,6 horas. A metade dos casos tinha surtos diariamente e associação de urticária com angioedema. Não houve horário preferencial de aparecimento dos surtos, mas o noturno foi o horário de piora mais citado. A causa foi esclarecida em 37,6%, predominando as infecções. O estresse foi o agravante mais referido. O tempo médio de acompanhamento foi de 11,7 meses e 60% evoluíram para o controle, 32% melhoraram, 9% mantiveram-se inalterados e um caso piorou. CONCLUSÕES: Urticária-angioedema ocorreu mais em mulheres de meia-idade. A causa foi esclarecida em um terço dos pacientes e metade deles teve controle da doença em aproximadamente um ano.

Incidence of high blood pressure in a group of tannery workers in Brazil

O objetivo deste estudo foi medir a incidência de hipertensão arterial sistêmica em um curtume de médio porte em Botucatu, São Paulo, Sudeste do Brasil, onde havia sido observada, em estudo prévio, uma correlação positiva entre tempo de trabalho e níveis pressóricos, bem como uma alta prevalência de hipertensão. Para tanto, uma coorte de trabalhadores desse curtume foi acompanhada durante sete anos. Ao final do seguimento, estimou-se a taxa de incidência de hipertensão arterial como 0,0964.ano-1, valor considerado elevado se comparado com o encontrado em outros grupos profissionais.

Diversity and evolution of macrohabitat use, body size and morphology in a monophyletic group of Neotropical pitvipers (Bothrops)

The Neotropical pitviper genus Bothrops comprises about 40 species, which occur in all main ecosystems of cis-Andean South America. We explored the relationships of body size and form (tail length and stoutness) with macrohabitat use in 20 forms of Bothrops. Sen-ii-arboreal habits appeared only in forest forms. Semi-arboreals are significantly more slender and have longer tails than terrestrials; body size is not significantly different between terrestrials and semi-arboreals. Within Bothrops, independent contrasts for macrohabitat use were significantly correlated with contrasts of tail size (positively) and stoutness (negatively); thus, the more arboreal the species, the longer its tail and the more slender its body. Contrasts of adult body size seems to remain constant over the lower range of macrohabitat use, but to decrease in species of Bothrops which are more arboreal. Reconstructions of character states indicate that: (1) the ancestor of Bothrops was a small, stout, terrestrial species; (2) semi-arboreal habits appeared one to three times in the genus; (3) a decrease in stoutness and an increase in tail length occurred along with an increase in arboreality in some clades. Although macrohabitat use seems to be important in determining body form in Bothrops, our results also indicate that tail size, stoutness and body size may also be affected by selective agents other than macrohabitat use. The selective agents responsible for the shifts in macrohabitat use in Bothrops are still uncertain, although they may have included prey availability and/or predation pressure. The plasticity of macrohabitat use, morphology and body size described in this study may have been key features that facilitated the highly successful ecological diversification of Bothrops in South America.

Gene and species trees of a Neotropical group of treefrogs: Genetic diversification in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and the origin of a polyploid species

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