In vitro amphotericin B effects on growth, viability and dimorphism of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis: reversal of the treatment

The reversed dermal graft has been employed in reconstructive plastic surgery for almost 80 years. It is recommended that the dermatologic surgeon use this graft technique whenever a case calls for the combined advantages of the split-thickness skin graft for poorly vascularized areas and the axial pedicle flap appropriate to areas subject to marked mechanical strain. We present cases in which defects on the scalp, sole, palm, and great toe have been covered by reversed dermal graft and split-thickness skin graft in a single operation with excellent results. Our modification of the technique has proved that simultaneous grafting with reversed dermis and split-thickness skin graft produces satisfactory results, reduces postoperative care by 2 weeks, and obviates repeated anesthesia.     

Psychological factors in abortion: A review.

Psychological research is increasingly involved in debates regarding abortion. While recognizing the diversity of ethical and moral issues intertwined with abortion, the American Psychological Association (APA) has focused its involvement on psychological factors, most recently by appointing an expert panel to review the literature on psychological effects. This article notes the history of APA involvement and reports on the panel's conclusions. It presents evidence that abortion is not likely to be followed by severe psychological responses and that psychological aspects can best be understood within a framework of normal stress and coping rather than a model of psychopathology. Correlates of more negative responses following abortion are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of curaua fibers in pullout tests

Natural lignocellulosic fibers are successfully replacing synthetic fibers as the reinforcement phase of composite materials in many engineering applications, including automobile parts. In addition to well-known conventional lignocellulosic fibers, others with promising properties, like that obtained from the leaves of the curaua plant (Ananas erectifolius) found in the Amazon region of Brazil, are now being considered. The present work investigated microstructural aspects associated with the performance of curaua fibers in pullout tests carried out to characterize the fibers interfacial strength with a polyester matrix. The results have shown that the naturally bonded filaments that constitute a curaua fiber present interspatial voids between them. These voids play an important role in providing adherence of the fiber surface to a polyester matrix, resulting in an effective reinforcement for a curaua-strengthened composite.     

Bitumen spreading on calcareous aggregates at high temperature

In hot asphalt applications, the adhesion between bitumen and mineral aggregate is usually described in terms of bitumen surface tension and contact angle of the bitumen over the aggregate. However, the quantification of the physico-chemical bond between bitumen and aggregate under realistic conditions is a nontrivial task. In this work, we designed a high-temperature goniometer to measure the contact angle of liquid bitumen on mineral aggregate substrates. The drop deposition was conducted once the thermal equilibrium between liquid bitumen and aggregate was attained. We monitored the spreading of sessile drops of viscous naphthenic bitumen and asphaltic bitumen on polished sheets of calcareous aggregates at high temperature (70–100 °C). A near complete wetting with very low contact angles (13– \(24^{\circ }\) ) was reproduced regardless of the bitumen origin and temperature. Furthermore, the coating degree of the naphthenic and asphaltic bitumens on the calcareous aggregates at high temperature was apparently similar. We found that the bitumen-aggregate adhesion is adequately described by dynamic spreading rather than by equilibrium wettability. Spreading kinetics was ruled by the particular properties of each bitumen such as viscosity and acid index. We found evidences of acid etching of the naphthenic bitumen on the calcareous aggregates during spreading at high temperature.     

Unusual broadening of the NIR luminescence of Er-doped Nb2O5 nanocrystals embedded in silica host: Preparation and their structural and spectroscopic study for photonics applications

This paper reports on the preparation of novel sol-gel erbium-doped SiO₂-based nanocomposites embedded with Nb₂O₅ nanocrystals fabricated using a bottom-up method and describes their structural, morphological, and luminescence characterization. To prepare the glass ceramics, we synthesized xerogels containing Si/Nb molar ratios of 90:10 up to 50:50 at room temperature, followed by annealing at 900, 1000, or 1100 °C for 10 h. We identified crystallization accompanying host densification in all the nanocomposites with orthorhombic (T-phase) or monoclinic (M-phase) Nb₂O₅ nanocrystals dispersed in the amorphous SiO₂ phase, depending on the niobium content and annealing temperature. A high-intensity broadband emission in the near-infrared region assigned to the ⁴I_13/2 → ⁴I_15/2 transition of the Er³⁺ ions was registered for all the nanocomposites. The shape and the bandwidth changed with the Nb₂O₅ crystalline phase, with values achieving up to 81 nm. Er³⁺ ions were located mainly in Nb₂O₅-rich regions, and the complex structure of the different Nb₂O₅ polymorphs accounted for the broadening in the emission spectra. The materials containing the T-phase, displayed higher luminescence intensity, longer ⁴I_13/2 lifetime and broader bandwidth. In conclusion, these nanostructured materials are potential candidates for photonic applications like optical amplifiers and WDM devices operating in the S, C, and L telecommunication bands.     

PetFMM—A dynamically load‐balancing parallel fast multipole library

Fast algorithms for the computation of N‐body problems can be broadly classified into mesh‐based interpolation methods, and hierarchical or multiresolution methods. To this latter class belongs the well‐known fast multipole method (FMM ), which offers ??(N) complexity. The FMM is a complex algorithm, and the programming difficulty associated with it has arguably diminished its impact, being a barrier for adoption. This paper presents an extensible parallel library for N‐body interactions utilizing the FMM algorithm. A prominent feature of this library is that it is designed to be extensible, with a view to unifying efforts involving many algorithms based on the same principles as the FMM and enabling easy development of scientific application codes. The paper also details an exhaustive model for the computation of tree‐based N‐body algorithms in parallel, including both work estimates and communications estimates. With this model, we are able to implement a method to provide automatic, a priori load balancing of the parallel execution, achieving optimal distribution of the computational work among processors and minimal inter‐processor communications. Using a client application that performs the calculation of velocity induced by N vortex particles in two dimensions, ample verification and testing of the library was performed. Strong scaling results are presented with 10 million particles on up to 256 processors, including both speedup and parallel efficiency. The largest problem size that has been run with the P etFMM library at this point was 64 million particles in 64 processors. The library is currently able to achieve over 85% parallel efficiency for 64 processes. The performance study, computational model, and application demonstrations presented in this paper are limited to 2D. However, the software architecture was designed to make an extension of this work to 3D straightforward, as the framework is templated over the dimension. The software library is open source under the PETS c license, even less restrictive than the BSD license; this guarantees the maximum impact to the scientific community and encourages peer‐based collaboration for the extensions and applications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast Automated Determination of Total Tocopherol Content in Virgin Olive Oil Using a Single Multicommuted Luminescent Flow Method

Tocopherols are natural fluorophores of great importance for the characterization and authentication of virgin olive oil. Herein, a single automatic multicommuted flow method has been developed for the determination of total tocopherol content as well as the semi-quantitative estimation of α-tocopherol in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) samples. Only appropriate dilution of samples with 2-propanol was necessary for their direct analysis by a multicommuted flow injection (MCFIA) manifold based on three solenoid valves with fluorescence detection. The peak height at λ _em = 330 nm (emission) with λ _exc at 296 nm was used as analytical signal. Linear response was observed within the range from 50 to 350 mg of tocopherols (expressed as α-tocopherol kg^?1 olive oil), suitable to cover the usual range for tocopherols in (extra) virgin olive oil ((E)VOO)). The results were consistent with those obtained by reversed-phase HPLC reference method, whereas the analysis time was significantly reduced. The sample frequency of the proposed automatic method was close to 40 samples h^?1, in contrast to typically 15–30 min required by HPLC. The method is fast, straightforward, cost-effective, and easy to implement in routine laboratories for screening purposes.     

An ultrastructural study of spermiogenesis in two species of Sitophilus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

The spermiogenesis of Sitophilus zeamais and Sitophilus oryzae, the maize and the rice weevil, respectively, was studied by light microscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Sitophilus spp. is the most widespread and destructive primary pest of stored cereals in the world. The spermiogenesis occurs within cysts. There are approximately 256 germ line cells per cyst. Inside each cysts, all the spermatids are in the same stage of maturation. The ultrastructure of the spermatozoa of S. zeamais and S. oryzae is similar to that described for other beetles. The head is formed by a three-layered acrosome with the perforatorium, the acrosomal vesicle, the extra-acrosomal layer and the nucleus. The flagellum has the typical axoneme formed by a 9+9+2 microtubules arrangement, two mitochondrial derivatives and two accessory bodies. The typical pattern for Curculionidae spermatozoa described here may provide useful information for future phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily Curculionoidea.     

Does the Pi strip method allow assessment of the available soil P?: Comparison against the reference isotope method

Experiments have been carried out in acid soils developed under tropical climates with and without phosphate rock (PR) addition to assess the ability of the Pi strip method to extract available soil P compared with the Isotopic Exchange Kinetics method (IEK). In the Pi strip method strips of filter paper, previously impregnated with iron hydroxide acting as a sink for phosphate ions from soil components, are added to an aqueous soil suspension. The extracted phosphate ions are eluted in diluted sulfuric acid and quantified by a colorimetric method. Available soil P, defined as the amount of phosphate ions that can move from the soil particles to soil solution, is described by three factors: an intensity factor, a quantity factor and a capacity factor. These three factors were determined by the IEK-method. Following the addition of carrier-free ³²PO₄-ions to soil, the ability of the Pi strip to extract available soil P was assessed: (i) by comparing the quantity of instantaneously exchangeable P (E₁) to the quantity extracted with the Pi strip; (ii) by determining the fraction of ³²P extracted with the Pi strip, and (iii) by comparing the specific activity (SA) of P present as phosphate ions extracted by the Pi strip to the specific activity of P in the soil solution. It was observed that (i) E₁ and the amount extracted with the Pi strip are highly correlated, (ii) the recovery of ³²P extracted by the Pi strip varies between 17 and 66%, and (iii) the specific activity of P extracted by the Pi strip is of the same order of magnitude as that of P in the soil solution. In acid soils low in available P, part of the P in aqueous KCl-extracts is presumably not only present as free phosphate ions but also occluded in the form of a soluble complex, whose isotopic exchangeability is significantly lower than that of phosphate ions transferred to the Pi strip. It is concluded from the results that the Pi strip method can be recommended in routine analysis for the determination of the quantity factor. However, this method cannot provide intensity or capacity factors and therefore needs to be complemented by the IEK-method for full characterization of the available soil P status.     

Tuning the pKa of the antihistaminic drug chlorpheniramine maleate by supramolecular interactions with water-soluble polymers

The interaction of the pharmacologically important chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM) with polyanions containing sulfonate groups such as poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS), poly(sodium vinylsulfonate) (PVS), and the more hydrophobic poly(sodium 2-(N-acrylamido)-2-methyl-propanesulfonate) (PAMPS) has been studied by ¹H NMR. It was found that the pK_a of the low-molecular weight molecule (LMWM) may be modified by its interaction with the polyanions, changing from 3 to 5, due to electric charge compensation. Interestingly, the interaction of CPM with PSS produces changes in CPM resonances, such as a general broadening and upfield shifts of the signals, and NOE effects between the LMWM and the water-soluble polymer (WSP) that indicate the presence of π-π interactions.