Ultrastructural aspects of lingual papillae in squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus)

Saimiri sciureus is one of the smallest Cebidae native of Amazon region and also found at the biological reserve of northeast Atlantic forest. It is an omnivore animal, with diversified diet that directly influences the lingual mucosa, which includes certain types of papillae with different organization levels. The present study attempted to describe the morphological and ultrastructure aspects of the dorsal surface of the S. sciureus. Five tongues of de S. sciureus were analyzed from three males and two females who died from natural causes and were obtained from breeding colonies of CENP-Ananindeua-PA. Main macroscopic features were a general triangular shape with a craniocaudal elongation pointed apex. Tissue samples--apex, body, and root of tongue--were fixed in modified Karnovsky solution, following standard scanning protocol, mounted in stubs, coated by gold, and analyzed by Scanning Electron Macroscopy (SEM). Four types of papillae were described: filiform (along all tissue extension with 154 μm of diameter), fungiform (along all tissue extension with 272 μm of diameter), vallate [just three units in caudal (dorsal) portion with 830 μm of diameter] and foliate (one pair at caudolateral surface with ～ 13 projections and 3000 μm in length). Data analysis indicates that the distribution and ultra structural morphology of the S. sciureus lingual papillae are some similar to other primates.     

Practitioners’ perceptions of the Brazilian environmental impact assessment system: results from a survey

Practitioners play a key role in implementing environmental impact assessment (EIA) policies. Gauging their perception can help in designing legislation or regulation reforms and signals what needs more attention in research. The Brazilian EIA system is under review by lawmakers, but there is scant information about the views of professionals. A survey was conducted to inquiry on practitioners’ perception of the Brazilian EIA system regarding: (1) quality of the process, (2) quality of the environmental impact studies (EIS), and (3) proposals to change the system. Four hundred and fourteen professionals participated in an online survey responding to 44 questions. Results show positive perceptions about some aspects of current practice, but there is a clear predominance of negative appraisal both about the quality of the process and the quality of EIS. The poorest practices are the consideration of cumulative impacts and determination of impact significance. As for proposals to change the system, respondents defend the continuity of specific characteristics of the Brazilian system. Essentially, practitioners are calling for incremental changes that do not require any modification in the legislation.     

Toward location-aware Web: extraction method,applications and evaluation

Location-based services (LBS) belong to one of the most popular types of services today. However, a recurring issue is that most of the content in LBS has to be created from scratch and needs to be explicitly tagged to locations, which makes existing Web content not directly usable for LBS. In this paper, we aim at making Web sites location-aware and feed this information to LBS. Our approach toward location-aware Web is threefold: First, we present a location extraction method: SALT. It receives Web sites as input and equips them with location tags. Compared to other approaches, SALT is capable of extracting locations with a precision up to the street level. Performance evaluations further show high applicability for practice. Second, we present three applications for SALT: Webnear.me, Local Browsing and Local Facebook. Webnear.me offers location-aware Web surfing through a mobile Web site and a smartphone app. Local Browsing adds the feature to browse by nearby tags, extracted from Web sites delivered by SALT. Local Facebook extends location tagging to social networks, allowing to run SALT on one’s own and one’s friends’ timeline. Finally, we evaluate SALT for technology acceptance of Webnear.me through a formative user study. Through real user data, collected during a 3 months pilot field deployment of Webnear.me, we assess whether SALT is a proper instance of “location of a Web site”.     

A comparative study of chemical attributes and levels of amines in defective green and roasted coffee beans

Differences in chemical attributes (proximate composition, water activity, sucrose, acidity and pH levels) and amine levels between defective and healthy coffee beans were studied. Before roasting, significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed for the ash contents of the coffee samples, with the highest values found for black beans. Moisture content was higher for non-defective beans in comparison to defective beans. Non-defective coffee beans had higher lipids contents than both sour and black beans. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) for protein levels between defective and non-defective beans. After roasting, protein levels remained constant, there was a small decrease in ash contents and a slight increase in oil contents of black and sour beans. Both black and sour beans had higher acidity levels than immature and non-defective beans. Acidity levels decreased after roasting. Water activity levels also decreased with roasting, with slightly higher levels for defective beans in comparison to non-defective ones. Sucrose levels were much higher in non-defective beans, and the lowest values were in black beans, prior to roasting. After roasting, only traces of sucrose were found. Total amine levels were much lower for black beans, in comparison to the other coffee samples. Putrescine was the prevailing amine in all samples. Histamine was only detected in the defective coffee samples. Small amounts of serotonin, cadaverine and tryptamine were found in some of the samples. After roasting to a light degree, only traces of serotonin were detected and no amines were detected after roasting to medium and dark degrees.     

Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory efficacy of Lotus corniculatus

The anti-inflammatory effects of the crude extract (CE) of Lotus corniculatus var. São Gabriel and its derived hexane (HEX), ethyl acetate (AcOEt), n-butanol (BuOH) and aqueous (Aq) fractions and isolated compounds kaempferitrin, oleanolic acid and β-sitosterol, in a mouse model of pleurisy induced by carrageenan were investigated. Swiss mice were used in the in vivo experiments. The crude extract of L. corniculatus and its derived fractions, and also its isolated compounds, inhibited leukocytes, exudation, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) and adenosine-deaminase (ADA) activities, as well as nitrite/nitrate concentration and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) level (p < 0.05). L. corniculatus showed important anti-inflammatory activity by inhibition not only of leukocytes and/or exudation, but also of pro-inflammatory enzymes and mediators such as MPO, ADA, and IL-1β. The constituent’s kaempferitrin, oleanolic acid and β-sitosterol may well account for it.     

Role of the rubber particle and polybutadiene cis content on the toughness of high impact polystyrene

High impact polystyrene (HIPS) is a classical reactor polymer blend produced by in situ polymerization of styrene in solution with polybutadiene rubber. The importance of the particle size and rubber crosslink density on the particle cavitation capability and the controlling of toughening mechanisms in the styrenic matrix is well established in current literature. In the present work, the role of the rubber particle on the HIPS toughness has been investigated for two commercial grades with low and high cis polybutadiene. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed for observation of particle size distribution and digital imaging applied for quantitative analysis of the micrographs. Measurements of apparent volume fraction and average particle size were determined in TEM images for both grades, while the gel content and swelling index were employed to evaluate the effect of the polybutadiene cis isomer on the rubber crosslink density. Grade morphology and crosslink effects on mechanical properties were assessed by slow three-point bending and uniaxial tensile testing. The results illustrate that polybutadiene cis content in HIPS grades has strong influence on the mechanical properties, particularly affecting yielding and energy to failure. Accordingly, it was observed that HIPS grades with equivalent average particle size and apparent volume fractions present a much higher energy to failure and a lower yield stress with high cis content polybutadiene when compared to their lower cis polybutadiene counterparts.     

Sdo1p,the yeast orthologue of Shwachman–Bodian–Diamond syndrome protein,binds RNA and interacts with nuclear rRNA‐processing factors

The Shwachman–Bodian–Diamond syndrome protein (SBDS) is a member of a highly conserved protein family of not well understood function, with putative orthologues found in different organisms ranging from Archaea, yeast and plants to vertebrate animals. The yeast orthologue of SBDS, Sdo1p, has been previously identified in association with the 60S ribosomal subunit and is proposed to participate in ribosomal recycling. Here we show that Sdo1p interacts with nucleolar rRNA processing factors and ribosomal proteins, indicating that it might bind the pre‐60S complex and remain associated with it during processing and transport to the cytoplasm. Corroborating the protein interaction data, Sdo1p localizes to the nucleus and cytoplasm and co‐immunoprecipitates precursors of 60S and 40S subunits, as well as the mature rRNAs. Sdo1p binds RNA directly, suggesting that it may associate with the ribosomal subunits also through RNA interaction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antiangiogenic properties of carotenoids: A potential role of maize as functional food

Several human disorders are associated with neovascularization. The current in vivo study examines the effect in the blood vessel formation of a xanthophyll-rich seed extract of maize. The angiostatic effects of treatment with maize seed carotenoid extract (0.1–10 μM of zeaxanthin equivalent/implant) were evaluated in the chick yolk sac membrane (YSM) (12–50% inhibition, P < 0.05) as well as in the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay (23–52% inhibition, P < 0.05) as compared to control group. A similar inhibitory action was found by treatments with the retinoic acid (10 μM/embryo, 49% and 57% inhibition) and commercial lutein (10 μM/embryo, 65% and 55% inhibition) (positive controls) performed in the YSM and CAM, respectively. Results point to maize seeds as interesting sources of xanthophylls which effectively inhibited the process of vessel formation, suggesting a potential role of such compounds in the prevention of diseases associated with vascular dysfunction.     

A cluster analysis of the relationship between sucking habits,consistency of food ingested,and taste sensitivity in children

As sucking habits and eating behavior may be interrelated and also associated with taste, body composition, and sociodemographic factors, the objective was to perform an exploratory analysis to identify groups of children with a high degree of association between intragroup subjects, providing explanation and interpretation of the data. The study initially included 352 prepubertal children (197 girls; 7‐ to 11‐year‐old), from whom information about sociodemographic characteristics, duration of breastfeeding, past bottle‐feeding and non‐nutritive sucking habits, taste sensitivity, body mass index (BMI), and consistency of food ingested were collected. Salivary concentrations of amylase and total protein were also determined. Data were submitted to cluster analysis (hierarchical analysis, K‐means, and silhouette plot), one‐way ANOVA and correlation tests. Cluster analysis included 159 children, generating three reliable and meaningful clusters: Cluster 1 (labeled “good tasters”), was characterized by older children and higher taste sensitivity; Cluster 2 (“softer food consistency”) by longer bottle‐feeding duration and children who eat food with lower consistency, and Cluster 3 (“breastfed”) by longer breastfeeding duration (silhouette coefficient = 0.61). Cluster 3 also showed the higher percentage of normal‐weight children, normal delivery, maternal schooling, and lower rate of past non‐nutritional sucking habit. No correlation was found between salivary amylase and total protein concentrations, taste sensitivity and BMI, although taste sensitivity showed to be higher among girls (p = 0.002; power = 88%). The study identified three clusters, highlighting the relationship between nutritional sucking habits, consistency of food ingested, and sociodemographic characteristics. Most importantly, a close relation between bottle‐feeding and consumption of soft food consistency was observed.