A constant flow of various pathogens enters the respiratory system on daily basis through the involuntary mechanism of breathing. Respiratory viral infections are common yet can be fatal in vulnerable populations. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the first and most common viruses that the human population acquire in the first two years of life. Despite the ability of most infants to recover from a RSV infection, many require hospitalization and, in few cases, die from such an infection. The pattern of seasonality of respiratory viruses also applies to RSV. In this work the temperature dependence of infectivity was studied in Hep-2 cells infected with RSV that had been incubated with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. The results indicate a temperature dependence of infectivity. Inhibition of the viral infectivity was observed at three different temperatures 37 ̊C, 40 ̊C and 42 ̊C. The inhibition appears to be linked to the appearance of large agglutinates that appear to reduce the infectivity of RSV. Such a study found that viral neutralization is dependent on a temperature-dependent agglutination reaction. The causality of agglutination formation requires further investigation in order to conclusively confirm the immunological component(s) of this reaction, and how temperature is contributing to this reaction.

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react with Cl and OH radicals and the resulting radicals combine with oxygen to form peroxy radicals RO2. Organic peroxy radicals can then react with NO to form NO2, a precursor of tropospheric ozone. The work presented here explored the initial reaction between Cl and thujone, a VOC emitted by Great Basin sagebrush. The rate constant for the reaction of thujone + Cl at 296 K was measured with the method of relative rates with FTIR for detection of reactants. LEDs were used to photolyze Cl2 to generate Cl in the reaction cell. Thujone was also photolyzed by the LEDs and therefore the relative rates model was revised to account for this photolysis. With toluene as the reference compound, the rate constant for thujone + Cl at 296 K is 2.62 ± 1.90 × 10-12 molecules-1 s-1, giving an atmospheric lifetime of 0.5--2.6 minutes for thujone. Cline et al. showed that the rate of the self-reaction of HO2CH2CH2O2 (β-HEP) increases in the presence of water vapor. This enhancement has a strong temperature dependence with a greater enhancement observed at colder temperatures. The observed rate enhancement has been attributed to the formation of a β-HEP--H2O complex. In this work, the equilibrium constant for the formation of the β-HEP--H2O complex was calculated by ab initio calculations. Given the energy available at room temperature, the complex will populate three local minimum geometries and β-HEP will populate two local minimum geometries. The partition function for each of these geometries was calculated and used to calculate the equilibrium constant for complex formation as a function of temperature. Based on these computational results, the observed temperature dependence for the rate enhancement can be attributed to the strong temperature dependence for the rate constant of the reaction of β-HEP--H2O + β-HEP rather than the temperature dependence of complex formation.

Yes / Background. The roles of diffusely-adherent Escherichia coli (DAEC) and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) in disease are not well understood, in part because of the limitations of diagnostic tests for each of these categories of diarrhoea-causing E. coli. A HEp-2 adherence assay is the Gold Standard for detecting both EAEC and DAEC but DNA probes with limited sensitivity are also employed. Results. We demonstrate that the daaC probe, conventionally used to detect DAEC, cross-reacts with a subset of strains belonging to the EAEC category. The cross hybridization is due to 84% identity, at the nucleotide level, between the daaC locus and the aggregative adherence fimbriae II cluster gene, aafC, present in some EAEC strains. Because aaf-positive EAEC show a better association with diarrhoea than other EAEC, this specific cross-hybridization may have contributed to an over-estimation of the association of daaC with disease in some studies. We have developed a discriminatory PCR-RFLP protocol to delineate EAEC strains detected by the daaC probe in molecular epidemiological studies. Conclusions. A PCR-RFLP protocol described herein can be used to identify aaf-positive EAEC and daaC-positive DAEC and to delineate these two types of diarrhoeagenic E. coli, which both react with the daaC probe. This should help to improve current understanding and future investigations of DAEC and EAEC epidemiology.

No / Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) are considered to be extracellular pathogens, inducing attaching and effacing lesions following their attachment to the surface of eukaryotic cells; however, in vitro and in vivo invasion by EPEC has been reported in several studies. A cloned 4.6 kb fragment of EPEC plasmid pLV501 has been shown to facilitate invasion of E. coli K-12, and here we further investigate the nature of this process. Two of the three complete open reading frames contained within the plasmid fragment have been cloned to E. coli, and in HEp-2 adherence assays both tniA2 and pecM were shown to be expressed during the first 3 h of infection from a plac promoter. Escherichia coli transformants carrying pecM alone or in combination with tniA2 were able to both survive intracellularly and escape eukaryotic cells to re-establish themselves within the medium, whereas those bacterial cells carrying tniA2 alone could not be isolated from within HEp-2 cells after 24 h of infection, but were present in the previously sterile medium surrounding the cells. Bacteria carrying pecM and tniA2 adhered to HEp-2 cells with sites of adhesion characterized by underlying actin polymerization. The invasive potential conferred by these genes may give EPEC strains a survival advantage during prolonged infection.

The coupling of the Standard Model top quark to the Higgs boson is O(1), which leads to large quantum corrections in the perturbative expansion of the Higgs boson mass. Possible solutions to this so-called naturalness problem include supersymmetric models with gluinos and stop squarks whose masses are at the electroweak scale, O(1 TeV). If supersymmetry is realised in nature at this scale, these particles are expected to be accessible with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. A search for gluino pair production with decays mediated by stop- and sbottom-squark loops in the initial 14.8 ifb of the ATLAS run 2 dataset is presented in terms of a pair of simplified models, which targets extreme regions of phase space using jet substructure techniques. No excess is observed and limits are set which greatly extend the previous exclusion region of this search, up to 1.9 TeV (1.95 TeV) for gluinos decaying through light stop (sbottom) squarks to the lightest neutralinos. A performance study of top tagging algorithms in the 20.3 ifb 2012 dataset is also presented, which includes the first measurements of substructure-based top tagging efficiencies and fake rates published by ATLAS, as well as a detailed comparison of tagger performance in simulation. A benchmarking study which compares commercially available cloud computing platforms for applications in High Energy Physics, and a summary of ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter data quality work focused on monitoring and characterising the sporadic phenomena of Mini Noise-Bursts in the electromagnetic barrel calorimeter are also included. / Graduate / 0798 / matt.leblanc@cern.ch

Iron is an essential trace element for almost all living organisms. Iron overload in cells and tissues, however, leads to their disruption. Most oftenly damaged are parenchymatic organs such as the liver, pancreas and heart. The aim of this thesis was to create cellular in vitro models for the investigation of effects of excess iron on hepatocytes and pancreatic beta cells and on these models to investigate cellular processes which lead to cellular damage during iron overload. We focused on examining the presence of oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress and the activation of apoptotic cell death. For our experiments, we used HEP-G2 cell line which represents human hepatocytes and NES2Y cell line which represents human pancreatic beta cells. To study the mechanisms of cellular damage during iron overload, we used two approaches by which we observed both acute and long-term effects of high levels of iron on damage of the tested cell lines. When studying the acute effect of excess iron on the cells, we applied high doses of iron (using 15 mM ferric citrate in medium) that led to the activation of cell death in hours. Long-term effects of iron overload were tested on cells regularly cultivated in the presence of 50 μM and 100 μM ferric citrate over a period of several months. Iron concentrations...

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2018-02-21T12:12:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA CAMILA BUARRAJ GOMES.pdf: 2256336 bytes, checksum: e2300d9703c01b099b33e117998cc86a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-21T12:12:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA CAMILA BUARRAJ GOMES.pdf: 2256336 bytes, checksum: e2300d9703c01b099b33e117998cc86a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-06 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas ? PUC Campinas / Childhood obesity is a public health problem, with increasing prevalence worldwide. In addition to the associated genetic and environmental aspects, psychosocial and economic factors have been studied by influencing dietary choices and lifestyle. Among complications of childhood obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is an important cause of liver disease in childhood, significantly increasing cardiovascular risk in this population. Currently, it is considered the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. The NAFLD treatment aims primarily weight loss and an active lifestyle; depending, therefore, on adhesion to dietary guidance and proposed physical activities. In this context, the treatment motivation is essential. This study identified and analyzed biochemical, anthropometric, dietary, psychosocial and motivational variables and attitude for treatment, in overweight and obese children and adolescents, in their relationship with the NAFLD diagnosis. This is a prospective, transversal, descriptive and correlational study with 45 children and adolescents (5-17 years old), diagnosed with excess weight according to the World Health Organization criteria, attending the Child Obesity Clinic of an university hospital in a city of S?o Paulo State. The following tools were applied individually after the routine medical appointment: a) A Characterization Record of the Participants, with personal, family, anthropometric and dietary data and laboratory tests, including abdominal ultrasound; b) Psychosocial Assessment Tool 2.0 (PAT 2.0), for the evaluation of the family psychosocial risk; c) four questions about the motivation and attitudes about the dietetic treatment and physical activities. Statistical tests were applied: t-Student, Chi-Square and Fisher's exact test, with a significance level of 5%. Obesity was observed in 82,2% of the sample. There was a 33,3% prevalence of NAFLD, of which showed significantly higher triglyceride levels, higher severe obesity diagnosed by Body Mass Index (IBM/Age) Z-score, greater waist circumference and greater neck circumference. The dietary aspects of the NAFLD patients also showed higher carbohydrate intake compared to total caloric amount of the diet and lower total fat intake. In general, these children and adolescents reported ultra-processed foods and high energetic density food intake above the recommendation and dietary fiber source and low energy density foods intake below the recommendation. Families were at clinical level psychosocial risk (40,0%), especially in areas of child problems and family structure and resources. The families of the NAFLD patients also had significantly higher levels of psychosocial risk ("clinical"). The practice of physical activities and the motivation for the treatment were not different among the participants with and without NAFLD. Although 93,3% of the participants reported being motivated for treatment, 72,7% acknowledged doing "nothing" or "little" of what was proposed. These findings reaffirm the importance of understanding the family context and motivation and attitude for treatment as guiding elements for the multidisciplinary team, when defining strategies and conducting the conventional treatment of childhood obesity and NAFLD. / A obesidade infantil ? um problema de sa?de p?blica, com preval?ncia crescente em todo o mundo. Al?m dos aspectos gen?ticos e ambientais associados, os fatores psicossociais e econ?micos t?m sido estudados por influenciar as op??es alimentares e o estilo de vida. Entre as complica??es da obesidade infantil, a esteatose hep?tica n?o alco?lica (EHNA) ? uma importante causa de doen?as hep?ticas na inf?ncia, aumentando significativamente o risco cardiovascular nessa popula??o. Atualmente, ? considerada a manifesta??o hep?tica da s?ndrome metab?lica. O tratamento da EHNA visa principalmente a perda de peso e um estilo de vida ativo; dependendo, portanto, da ades?o ?s orienta??es diet?ticas e ?s atividades f?sicas propostas. Nesse sentido, a motiva??o para o tratamento tem se mostrado fundamental. Este estudo identificou e analisou vari?veis bioqu?micas, antropom?tricas, diet?ticas, psicossociais e de motiva??o e atitude para o tratamento, em crian?as e adolescentes com sobrepeso e obesidade (SOB), em suas rela??es com o diagn?stico de EHNA. ? um estudo prospectivo, transversal, descritivo e correlacional, com 45 crian?as e adolescentes (5-17 anos), com diagn?stico de SOB pelos crit?rios da Organiza??o Mundial de Sa?de, sendo atendidos no Ambulat?rio de Obesidade Infantil de um hospital universit?rio de uma cidade do Estado de S?o Paulo. Foram aplicados individualmente, ap?s a consulta de rotina no ambulat?rio: a) uma Ficha de Caracteriza??o dos Participantes, com dados pessoais, familiares, antropom?tricos, diet?ticos e exames laboratoriais, incluindo o ultrassom abdominal; b) Psychosocial Assessment Tool 2.0 (PAT 2.0), para avalia??o do risco psicossocial familiar; c) quatro quest?es sobre a motiva??o e atitude em rela??o ao tratamento diet?tico e ?s atividades f?sicas. Foram aplicados os testes estat?sticos: t-Student, Qui-Quadrado e teste exato de Fisher, com n?vel de signific?ncia de 5%. Apresentaram obesidade 82,2% da amostra. Houve preval?ncia de 33,3% da amostra com EHNA, os quais apresentaram significativamente maiores n?veis de triglic?rides, maior gravidade da obesidade diagnosticada pelo Escore-Z do ?ndice de Massa Corporal (IMC/Idade), maior circunfer?ncia da cintura e maior circunfer?ncia do pesco?o. No aspecto diet?tico, os casos com EHNA apresentaram tamb?m maior ingest?o de carboidratos em rela??o ao valor cal?rico total da dieta e menor ingest?o de gorduras totais. No geral, essas crian?as e adolescentes relataram consumo acima da recomenda??o de alimentos ultraprocessados e de alta densidade energ?tica e consumo abaixo da recomenda??o de alimentos ricos em fibras e de baixa densidade energ?tica. As fam?lias estavam em risco psicossocial em n?vel cl?nico (40,0%), especialmente nas ?reas problemas da crian?a e estrutura familiar e recursos. As fam?lias dos participantes com EHNA tamb?m apresentaram significativamente maior n?vel de risco psicossocial (?cl?nico?). A pr?tica de atividades f?sicas e a motiva??o para o tratamento n?o diferenciou os participantes com e sem EHNA. Embora 93,3% dos participantes tenham relatado estarem motivados para o tratamento, 72,7% reconheceram fazer ?nada? ou ?pouco? do que era proposto. Tais achados reafirmam a import?ncia da compreens?o do contexto familiar e da motiva??o e atitude para o tratamento como elementos norteadores para a equipe multidisciplinar, na defini??o de estrat?gias e condu??o do tratamento convencional da obesidade infantil e da EHNA.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:34:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 418376.pdf: 1759547 bytes, checksum: abe3efb07dc975e78ecba705690c7f76 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-16 / Introdu??o: O ?nico tratamento curativo dispon?vel atualmente para pacientes cirr?ticos ? o transplante hep?tico. Existem, entretanto, limita??es na aplica??o desta terap?utica, tornando necess?rio o desenvolvimento de novos m?todos. Evid?ncias crescentes t?m demonstrado que o transplante de c?lulas-tronco pode tornar-se uma terapia eficaz em hepatopatias cr?nicas. O objetivo deste estudo ? avaliar o potencial do transplante intraportal de c?lulas mononucleares de medula ?ssea em modelo de cirrose induzida em ratos. Metodologia: Vinte e quatro ratos Wistar f?meas, quatorze dias ap?s a ligadura de ducto biliar comum, foram randomizados para realiza??o de transplante de 1x107 c?lulas mononucleares de medula ?ssea de ratos Wistar machos ou infus?o salina atrav?s da veia porta, orientada por ecografia. No 28? dia do experimento os ratos foram sacrificados, com quantifica??o de albumina, bilirrubinas e aminotransferases s?ricas, al?m da aferi??o quantitativa da ?rea de fibrose hep?tica atrav?s do picrossirius e identifica??o das c?lulas derivadas da medula ?ssea com a realiza??o de imunohistoqu?mica com Anti-Sox 18. Resultados: Ap?s o transplante verificou-se forte repovoamento hep?tico com c?lulas da medula ?ssea do doador em 75% dos ratos. Houve redu??o significativa da ?rea de fibrose no grupo da terapia celular (P=0,036), sem altera??o nos par?metros bioqu?micos. Quando, entretanto, avaliaram-se os grupos pela incorpora??o de c?lulas da medula ?ssea, al?m da redu??o da fibrose (P=0,043) houve aumento dos n?veis s?ricos de albumina (P=0,008) no grupo que apresentou repopula??o. Conclus?o: O transplante intraportal de c?lulas mononucleares de medula ?ssea pode ser uma terap?utica eficaz para repopula??o hep?tica, redu??o da fibrose e aumento da albumina s?rica, podendo torna-se alternativa para o tratamento de cirrose em humanos.

Submitted by Sandra Pereira (srpereira@ufrrj.br) on 2016-08-30T17:45:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Janh Carlo de Amorim Ferreira.pdf: 452426 bytes, checksum: 152fed7ea96dd8772e716b4b9f21b433 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-30T17:45:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Janh Carlo de Amorim Ferreira.pdf: 452426 bytes, checksum: 152fed7ea96dd8772e716b4b9f21b433 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-26 / This study was performed at Hospital de Cl?nicas Veterin?rias do Centro Universit?rio Pl?nio Leite Itabora?, Rio de Janeiro (Veterinary Hospital of Pl?nio Leite University, Itabora?, Rio de Janeiro) to monitor the hepatic biochemical profile of cats and their clinical parameters when submitted to continuous infusion of propofol at a 0,3 mg/kg/min dosage, for 90 minutes, and comparing to results obtained from cats who received continuous infusion of saline solution. Both groups were analyzed during a pre-determined period of time totalizing 28 days of observation and analysis. The following enzymes activity levels were determined: Aminotransferase (AST), Alanina-Aminotransferase (ALT), Gamma Glutamyl Transpeptidase (GGT) and Alkaline Fosfatasis (FA); serum levels of Albumin (A), Total Bilirrubin (BT) and Total Serum Proteins (PT), yet registering Respiratory (FR) and Heart Rate (FC), Systolic Blood Pressure (PAS), Mean Arterial Blood Pressure (PAM), Diastolic Blood Pressure (PAD) and Oxygen Partial Saturation (SPO2). Twenty healthy cats were analyzed on this study, their weights varying from two to four kilos and ages between three to five years old, submitted to experimental procedures performed during the months of January and February, 2010. The analysis of these results showed a major difference (p<0,05) between the ALT serum activities at the following positions: T2 (30 minutes), T3 (60 minutes), T5 (12 hours) and T9 (28 days); AST serum activities at T2, FA serum activities at T2, T6 (seven days) and T8 (21 days), emphasizing the fact only at this last position the GP levels were greater than GC; in the heart rate at T1 position (the beginning of this experiment), without compromising animals physical condition. None of the animals presented averages above parameters of normality. The other parameters examined did not present any significant differences, concluding that total intravenous anesthesia using continuous infusion of propofol was safe to contain cats in invasive surgical procedures, therefore providing more information regarding the safe use of this drug in animals. / O trabalho foi desenvolvido no Hospital de Cl?nicas Veterin?rias do Centro Universit?rio Pl?nio Leite, em Itabora?, RJ, com o intuito de monitorar perfil bioqu?mico hep?tico e par?metros cl?nicos de gatos submetidos ? infus?o cont?nua de propofol (GP) na dose de 0,3 mg/kg/min, durante 90 minutos, e comparando-se com resultados observados em gatos do grupo controle (GC), que receberam infus?o cont?nua de solu??o fisiol?gica. Os dois grupos foram avaliados em espa?os de tempo pr?-determinados, totalizando 28 dias de observa??es e an?lises. Foram determinadas as atividades s?ricas de aspartatoaminotransferase (AST), alanina-aminotransferase (ALT), gama-glutamil transpeptidase (GGT) e fosfatase alcalina (FA), determinadas as concentra??es s?ricas de Albumina (A), Bilirrubina total (BT) e Prote?nas Totais s?ricas (PT), registrando-se ainda as Frequ?ncias Respirat?rias (FR) e Card?acas (FC), Temperatura Retal (T), Press?es Arteriais Sist?licas (PAS), M?dias (PAM) e Diast?licas (PAD) e Satura??o parcial de O2 (SPO2). Foram utilizados no estudo 20 gatos h?gidos, com pesos variando entre dois e quatro kg e idades entre tr?s e cinco anos, que foram submetidos aos procedimentos experimentais no per?odo compreendido entre janeiro e fevereiro de 2010. A an?lise dos resultados demostraram que houve diferen?a significativa (p<0,05) nas atividades s?ricas de ALT nos momentos T2 (30 minutos), T3 (60 minutos), T5 (12 horas) e T9 (28 dias); nas atividades s?ricas de AST no momento T2; nas atividades s?ricas de FA nos momentos T2, T6 (7 dias) e T8 (21 dias), sendo que, somente neste ultimo momento as dosagens do GP foram maiores que no GC; na frequ?ncia card?aca no momento T1 (in?cio do experimento), sem causar qualquer comprometimento ? sa?de dos animais. Nenhum dos animais apresentou m?dias acima dos par?metros de normalidade. Os outros par?metros analisados n?o tiveram diferen?as significativas, concluindo-se que a anestesia intravenosa total com uso de propofol em infus?o cont?nua foi segura para conten??o de gatos em procedimentos incruentos, contribuindo assim para maiores informa??es em rela??o ao uso desse f?rmaco nesses animais

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:03:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RoseCPA.pdf: 565962 bytes, checksum: 1a689250021861f92b149a94b8da62bb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-03-09 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The vitamin A is essential to animals because of its participation in a great number of biological functions. The investigation of this vitamin s concentrations is important to serve as reference to normality parameters. This study had as aim to analyse the serics and hepatics concentrations of vitamin A in two groups of bovines and to compare the hepatics concentrations to the present requeriments of vitamin A for pregnant women. It was also appraised the consume habit of bovine liver by pregnant women through of the alimentary frequency quest. Two groups of bovine were studied and the first was formad by Nelore bovine breed and the second by bovine without defined breed (WDB). It was analysed 120 samples: 60 of liver and 60 of serum. The method used to dose retinol was High Performance Liquid Cromatography (HPLC). The average (+ sd) of retinol concentrations in Nelore breed bovine and WDB liver were 16947,8 + 6866,9 and 5213,1 + 2517,2 ?g of retinol/100g and at serum 39,6 + 17,9 e 28,6 + 9,4 ?g of retinol/dL, respectively. No statistically significant correlation was found between hepatic and the serum retinol. The bovines in this study had adequate vitamin A levels. Independently of animal breed, the daily ingestion of bovine liver is not advised for pregnant women who show adequate support of vitamin A. The consume of bovine liver by pregnant women consulted on school maternity hospital Janu?rio Cicco, UFRN, Natal RN, was considered high / A vitamina A ? essencial aos animais devido sua participa??o em uma s?rie de fun??es biol?gicas. A investiga??o das concentra??es desta vitamina ? importante para servir como refer?ncia para par?metros de normalidade. O objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar as concentra??es s?ricas e hep?ticas de vitamina A em dois grupos de bovinos e comparar as concentra??es hep?ticas com os atuais requerimentos desta vitamina para gestantes. Avaliou-se tamb?m o h?bito de consumo de f?gado bovino por mulheres gestantes atrav?s do question?rio de freq??ncia alimentar. Dois grupos de bovinos foram estudados sendo o primeiro formado por bovinos da ra?a Nelore e o segundo por bovinos sem ra?a definida (SRD). Analisou-se 120 amostras: 60 de f?gado e 60 de soro. O m?todo utilizado para dosar retinol foi a Cromatografia L?quida de Alta Efici?ncia (CLAE). As m?dias (+ dp) das concentra??es de retinol no f?gado dos bovinos da ra?a Nelore e SRD foram 16947,8 + 6866,9 e 5213,1 + 2517,2 ?g de retinol/100g e no soro 39,6 + 17,9 e 28,6 + 9,4 ?g de retinol/dL, respectivamente. N?o foi encontrada correla??o estatisticamente significativa entre o retinol hep?tico e o s?rico. Os bovinos do presente estudo se encontravam com aportes adequados de vitamina A. Independentemente da ra?a do animal, a ingest?o di?ria de f?gado bovino ? desaconselhada para mulheres gr?vidas que apresentam aportes adequados de vitamina A. O consumo de f?gado bovino por mulheres gestantes atendidas na Maternidade Escola Janu?rio Cicco, UFRN, Natal RN, foi considerado alto