The aquatic environment presents daily and/or seasonal variations in dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. Piava faces different DO levels in the water due to its distributional characteristics. The goal of ...this study was to describe the effects of low DO levels on plasma ion, biochemical and oxidative variables in piava juveniles. Fish were exposed to different DO levels, including 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 mg L-1 of DO for 96 h, after which blood and tissue samples (liver, kidney, gill and muscle) were collected. The decrease in DO levels decreased plasma Na+, Cl-, K+ and NH3 levels as well as protein and glycogen levels in the liver, kidney and muscle; increased Na+/K+-ATPase activity in the gills and kidney as well as glucose and ammonia levels in the liver, kidney and muscle; and increased lactate levels in the kidney and muscle. Thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances, catalase and non-protein thiol levels decreased in the tissues of piavas exposed to low DO levels. It is concluded that piava can apparently cope with hypoxic conditions; however, low DO levels are a stressor, and the tolerance of piava to hypoxia involves iono-regulatory, metabolic and oxidative adjustments.
By appealing to a long list of different nonlinear maps we review the characterization of time series arising from chaotic maps. The main tool for this characterization is the permutation Bandt-Pompe ...probability distribution function. We focus attention on both local and global characteristics of the components of this probability distribution function. We show that forbidden ordinal patterns (local quantifiers) exhibit an exponential growth for pattern-length range 3 ≤
D
≤ 8, in the case of finite time series data. Indeed, there is a minimum
D
min
-value such that forbidden patterns cannot appear for
D
<
D
min
. The system’s localization in an entropy-complexity plane (global quantifier) displays typical specific features associated with its dynamics’ nature. We conclude that a more “robust” distinction between deterministic and stochastic dynamics is achieved via the present time series’ treatment based on the global characteristics of the permutation Bandt-Pompe probability distribution function.
•A magnetic microscope using Hall effect sensors was built on a gradiometric configuration with spatial resolution equal to 620 µm.•The applied field intensity can be tuned by adjusting the magnet ...distance to the sample.•The microscope was automated using the LabVIEW® platform, making it versatile equipment accessible to laboratories on a low budget.•Its performance was tested on a basaltic sample from the Jurassic-Triassic magmatism occurring at the Parnaíba Basin, Brazil.
In this paper, a magnetic microscope using Hall effect sensors was built on a gradiometric configuration with spatial resolution equal to 620 µm and a magnetic moment sensitivity estimated in 80 nAm2. It can apply magnetic fields to samples employing a small permanent magnet. The applied field intensity can be tuned by adjusting the magnet distance to the sample. At a distance of 500 µm from the surface of sample, the spatial field uniformity reaches 99.7 % in a 5.0 mm radius. The microscope was automated using the LabVIEW® platform, making it versatile equipment accessible to laboratories on a low budget. Its performance was tested on a basaltic sample from the Jurassic-Triassic magmatism occurring at the Parnaíba Basin, Brazil.
Summary
Induction therapy with rabbit anti‐thymocyte globulin (rATG) in low‐risk kidney transplant recipients (KTR) remains controversial, given the associated increased risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) ...infection. This natural experiment compared 12‐month clinical outcomes in low‐risk KTR without CMV prophylaxis (January/3/13–September/16/15) receiving no induction or a single 3 mg/kg dose of rATG. We used logistic regression to characterize delayed graft function (DGF), negative binomial to characterize length of hospital stay (LOS), and Cox regression to characterize acute rejection (AR), CMV infection, graft loss, death, and hospital readmissions. Recipients receiving 3 mg/kg rATG had an 81% lower risk of AR (aHR 0.140.190.25, P < 0.001) but no increased rate of hospital readmissions because of infections (0.680.911.21, P = 0.5). There was no association between 3 mg/kg rATG and CMV infection/disease (aHR 0.861.101.40, P = 0.5), even when the analysis was stratified according to recipient CMV serostatus positive (aHR 0.941.251.65, P = 0.1) and negative (aHR 0.280.571.16, P = 0.1). There was no association between 3 mg/kg rATG and mortality (aHR 0.511.253.08, P = 0.6), and graft loss (aHR 0.340.731.55, P = 0.4). Among low‐risk KTR receiving no CMV pharmacological prophylaxis, 3 mg/kg rATG induction was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of AR without an increased risk of CMV infection, regardless of recipient pretransplant CMV serostatus.
Abstract Individualization of immunosuppressive therapy after solid organ transplantation is a goal that has been pursued for a long time. Nevertheless, in clinical practice, we are still stratifying ...patients in subgroups in which risk is assessed using demographic information and population analysis. Then, a combination of immunosuppressive drugs is chosen and doses are individualized to compensate for intra- and interindividual variabilities in drug pharmacokinetics, to obtain similar plasma/blood concentrations that are believed to be therapeutic, again based on data derived from population analysis. One step further in this strategy is to recognize, before initiation of immunotherapy, those patients at higher risk to be either under- or overexposed to currently used immunosuppressive drugs. Several studies have been undertaken to correlate single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes encoding transport proteins and metabolizing enzymes involved in the disposition of immunosuppressive drugs. Overall, the results from these studies have been mixed. The causes of these sometimes conflicting results include methodologic, genetic, or nongenetic factors. The degree of linkage disequilibrium, the measure of nonrandom associations between polymorphisms at different loci, not necessarily on the same chromosome, is perhaps the main genetic factor. The influence of the environment, physiology (such as kidney and liver functions), disease state, use of multidrug regimens, and inherent drug-to-drug interactions are present nongenetic factors. Moreover, it is also important to increase our knowledge of the genetic factors involved in the variabilities observed in drug responses of pharmacodynamics. True individualized therapy, with the ability to improve health outcomes of each transplant recipient, will depend on our knowledge of the genetic factors involved in immunological response and drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Paroxysmal dystonia and neuromyelitis optica Schmidt, Felipe R; Costa, Flavio Henrique R; Silva, Fernanda M L C ...
Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria,
04/2012, Volume:
70, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Paroxysmal dyskinesias (PD) are thought to be rare movement disorders. The overwhelming majority of reported cases are primary. Secondary PD has seen reported to occur in some conditions, mainly in ...multiple sclerosis and head trauma. The anatomic origin of the lesion is also rarely seen at the spinal cord. Our objective was to describe four patients with paroxysmal dystonia secondary to spinal lesions during the recovering phase of a neuromyelitis optica (NMO) bout. In the reviewed literature, we do not find any report of PD related to NMO.
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