We identified the species of Cicadellidae associated with rice fields from an agricultural experimental station of La Plata city, Argentina, and explored the diversity pattern of the leafhopper ...assemblage. Insects were obtained from rice and surrounding weeds between 2006 and 2010. Syncharina argentina (Berg) and Agalliana ensigera Oman were the most abundant species in rice and weeds, respectively. Diversity (H′), heterogeneity (D) and evenness (J) indices were estimated. There was a significant effect of crop cycle (2006 to 2010) and host plant (rice and weeds) on H′ and D, with the interaction between them being not significant. Evenness was similar in rice lots and weeds, but differed between crop cycles. The pattern of abundance of species within rice lots and weeds followed the logarithmic model. Possible explanations for this pattern are discussed. The importance of the presence of some species as vectors of plant pathogens is highlighted.
The purpose of the present study was to make an attempt to ascertain the etiology of transient global amnesia (TGA), which is still disputed more than 30 years after the first description of this ...clinical entity.
In a case-control study, we compared the prevalence of vascular risk factors in 64 TGA patients with 64 first-ever transient ischemic attack (TIA) control subjects and 108 normal community-based control subjects matched for age and sex. We prospectively studied the vascular events and mortality rates of the TGA cases and of the TIA control subjects. Then we compared the outcome of the two groups using actuarial analysis based on survival curves.
We did not find evidence of an increased risk of TGA associated with any vascular risk factor. In contrast to TIA control subjects, no TGA patient suffered stroke, myocardial infarction, or TIA during the follow-up period. Migraine was more common in TGA patients than in both normal and TIA control subjects. In three patients (4.5%), the TGA was eventually considered to be of epileptic origin.
The results of our case-control and longitudinal studies point to the conclusion that TGA and TIA do not share the same etiology. Since half of our patients had a precipitating event in their history, it is reasonable to hypothesize that spreading depression may play a role in TGA. The significant positive association between migraine and TGA may support this hypothesis. Epilepsy may mimic TGA in a minority of cases.
Objective: Genetic factors are largely implicated in predisposing to schizophrenia. Environmental factors contribute to the onset of the disorder in individuals at increased genetic risk. Cognitive ...deficits have emerged as endophenotypes and potential therapeutic targets for schizophrenia because of their association with functional outcome. The aims of this review were to analyse the joint effect of genetic and environmental (G×E) factors on liability to schizophrenia and to investigate relationships between genes and cognitive endophenotypes focusing on practical applications for prevention and rehabilitation.
Methods: Medline search of relevant studies published between 1990 and 2008.
Results: In schizophrenia, examples of G×E interaction include the catechol‐O‐methyl transferase (COMT) (Val158Met) polymorphism, which was found to moderate the onset of psychotic manifestations in response to stress and to increase the risk for psychosis related to cannabis use, and neurodevelopmental genes such as AKT1 (serine‐threonine kinase), brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), DTNBP1 (dysbindin) and GRM3 (metabotropic glutamate receptor 3), which were associated with development of schizophrenia in adulthood after exposure to perinatal obstetric complications. Neurocognitive deficits are recognised as core features of schizophrenia that facilitate the onset of the disorder and have a great impact on functional outcome. Neurocognitive deficits are also endophenotypes that have been linked to a variety of genes COMT, neuregulin (NRG1), BDNF, Disrupted‐In‐Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and dysbindin conferring susceptibility to schizophrenia. Recently, it has emerged that cognitive improvement during rehabilitation therapy was under control of COMT (Val158Met) polymorphism.
Conclusion: This review could indicate a pivotal role of psychiatric genetics in prevention and rehabilitation of schizophrenic psychoses.
Several lines of evidence suggest that RBFOX1 is a key regulator of transcriptional and splicing programs in neural cells during development, and that it is expressed in a neuronal module enriched ...for known autism susceptibility genes. We have investigated its expression by semiquantitative RT-PCR in accessible nonbrain resources in eighteen autism spectrum disorder sib-pairs belonging to the Italian Autism Network cohort. RBFOX1 gene expression was detected in lymphoblastoid cell lines but not in lymphocytes. No significant differences between autism spectrum disorders and non-affected brothers were found. We were not able to replicate in lymphoblastoid cell lines the previously reported RBFOX1 gene downregulation in autism, even if a trend was observed. This might be due to less pronounced transcription level differences in RBFOX1 gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines than in brain samples.
A elaboração de um mapa cartográfico social através da técnica da deriva, desenvolvida pelos mestrandos do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Agrícola (PPGEA/UFRuralRJ), foi apresentada neste ...artigo com a demonstração das metodologias aplicadas, técnicas desenvolvidas, resultados alcançados sob as perspectivas socioambiental e turística, ilustrada ao final por uma figura formada por linhas paralelas convergentes ao mesmo ponto de partida e chegada do traçado. Como este trabalho se propõe a realizar um estudo socioambiental através da cartografia social, optou-se pela metodologia de pesquisa qualitativa, pois a luz do entendimento dos atores envolvidos é a que consegue captar melhor os significados deste trabalho. A coleta de dados se deu de acordo com a área de formação de cada um dos integrantes do grupo, o qual foi composto por quatro docentes com formação em Administração, Geografia, Letras e Turismo, utilizando a técnica da deriva. Construir situações, a partir das observações, percepções agradáveis e desagradáveis, o viver a cidade passando por ambientes antes enquadrados na mesmice do cotidiano com um novo olhar. O que de início parece um “andar sem rumo”, revela-se como o “apreender o que está impresso na cidade”. A partir das observações realizadas por meio da técnica da deriva, para posterior elaboração do mapa apresentado nos resultados, foram visíveis as disparidades encontradas entre os registros orientados pelas duas abordagens norteadoras. As coletas de dados foram realizadas no 2° semestre de 2016, no município de Conceição do Araguaia (Pará).
The present exploratory phase II study was performed to evaluate the activity and tolerability of adding a second agent (gemcitabine) to the well-tolerated mitoxantrone/prednisone regimen in patients ...with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer no longer responsive to hormonal treatment.
Forty-three patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) were included in the study from May 2000 to April 2004. Their median age was 71 years (range, 56-81) and their median Karnofsky performance status (KPS) was 90 (range, 70-100). The treatment schedule consisted of intravenous (i.v.) mitoxantrone (8 mg/m2 on day 1), i.v. gemcitabine 800 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, recycled every 21 days and oral prednisone administered at a dose of 10 mg per day. Hormonal treatment with LHRH was continued in all patients. Up to six cycles of treatment were planned in the absence of progressive disease.
Sixteen patients had measurable disease (six patients only measurable disease, ten patients bone disease plus measurable disease) and 27 patients had only bone disease. Concerning the PSA levels, a partial response (PR) was observed in 15 patients (38%), stable disease (SD) in 16 patients (41%) and progressive disease (PD) in eight patients (21%). The objective response was evaluable in 16 patients; one patient was not evaluable because he had received only one cycle. Ten patients (63%) had SD and five patients (31%) PD. In the ten evaluable patients with objective SD, depending upon the PSA response, three PR, six SD and one PD were observed. Among the five patients who progressed, three PD and two SD were observed as a PSA response. Pain remission was recorded in 15/41 patients (36%) and the KPS remained stable in most patients. The median overall survival was 15 months (range, 1-41) (95% CI: 10-20 months). The 1-year survival rate was 61%. Hematological toxicity was mild: G 3-4 neutropenia was observed in five (12%) patients. There were no neutropenic, fevers. No significant non-hematological toxicity was observed.
The mitoxantrone, gemcitabine and prednisone combination, in accordance with the present regimen, was feasible, had a palliative effect, good tolerance and antitumor activity. Nonetheless, our results do not seem to be superior to those previously described for mitoxantrone plus prednisone.
Living coccolithophore distributions from the Gulf of Manfredonia (Southern Adriatic Sea) were investigated and compared with the coccolith assemblages in the underlying surface sediments. In total, ...55 samples from 13 stations in four transects collected at the end of October 2000 were analyzed to determine spatial and vertical distribution of individual taxa in the coastal environment. At all stations, the maximum coccosphere densities were between 10m and 30m of water depth (maximum values were $\sim 4\times10^{4}$ coccospheres per litre of seawater). Coccolithophore absolute abundances show a vertical stratification and spatial variation, as well as variable species diversity, increasing from the coast to the open sea and decreasing with depth. Different coccolithophore communities are recorded in the shallow and deep photic zone. Emiliania huxleyi, Syracosphaera spp., Rhabdosphaera spp., Coronosphaera spp., Umbellosphaera tenuis and holococcolithophores are present mainly in the surface waters, above the thermocline between 25-30m depth. In the deeper water samples, there is a significant increase in coccospheres of Florisphaera profunda. The coccolithophore cell density variability is compared with in situ measurements of environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, nitrates and phosphates). Cell densities of all dominant taxa are most highly correlated with temperature variability. The low correlations of cell densities with nitrates and phosphates may be caused by insufficient sampling resolution, nutrient levels close to detection limits, or both. The comparison of the living assemblage with surface sediment records shows significant differences in the presence and abundance of some species. The recognised fossil record in the surface sediments is mainly represented by Cretaceous-Pleistocene reworked species, showing stronger dynamic processes at the bottom, such as terrigenous input and resuspension, than phytoplankton growth. Most marked correspondence between living and fossil assemblages has been found in the deeper and open sea sediments.
Cytogenetic evidence suggests that the haploinsufficiency of > or =1 gene located in 8p23 behaves as a dominant mutation, impairing heart differentiation and leading to a wide spectrum of congenital ...heart defects (CHDs), including conotruncal lesions, atrial septal defects, atrioventricular canal defects, and pulmonary valve stenosis. An 8p heart-defect-critical region was delineated, and the zinc finger transcription factor GATA4 was considered a likely candidate for these defects. We narrowed this region and excluded a major role of GATA4 in these CHDs.
We studied 12 patients (7 had CHD and 5 did not) with distal 8p deletions from 9 families by defining their chromosome rearrangements at the molecular level by fluorescent in situ hybridization and short-tandem repeat analysis. Subjects with 8p deletions distal to D8S1706, at approximately 10 cM from the 8p telomere, did not have CHD, whereas subjects with a deletion that included the more proximal region suffered from the spectrum of heart defects reported in patients with 8p distal deletions. The 5-cM critical region is flanked distally by D8S1706 and WI-8327, both at approximately 10 cM, and proximally by D8S1825, at 15 cM. Neither GATA4 nor angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT2; a gene in 8p23 involved in blood vessel formation) were found to be deleted in some of the critical patients. We also found that CHDs are not related to the parental origin of deletion.
Haploinsufficiency for a gene between WI-8327 and D8S1825 is critical for heart development. A causal relationship does not seem to exist between GATA4 and ANGPT2 haploinsufficiency and CHDs.
To investigate possible associations between serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter genotypic variants (l/l, l/s, and s/s) and differential regulation of platelet 5-HTT functionality parameters in a ...group of drug-naive depressed children and adolescents and healthy controls.
Children and adolescents with major depression (n = 18) defined by DSM-III-R criteria and normal controls (n = 21) were assessed both for platelet serotonin functionality and for genotypic variants on 5-HTT promoter region. Four parameters were considered: (1) serotonin uptake rate (Vmax); (2) serotonin dissociation constant (K(m)); (3) paroxetine binding and density of site (Bmax); and (4) paroxetine dissociation constant (Kd).
Depressed children had lower Vmax and K(m). Control subjects with l/l genotype had significantly higher Vmax than control subjects with l/s and s/s genotype. Control subjects with l/l genotype also had significantly higher Vmax than their depressed homologs. In contrast, Vmax was not significantly different between depressed and nondepressed subjects who carried the other 2 genotypes. The 5-HTT promoter genotype, diagnoses, or their interaction had no effect on the other serotonin parameters.
While showing a significant decrease of Vmax and K(m) in a group of drug-naive depressed children and adolescents, these data suggest that l/l genotype has a substantial effect on the decrease of Vmax during a depressive episode.
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