[Dosimetry in scintimammography by (99m)Tc-MIBI, (99m)Tc-Tetrofosmin, (99m)Tc-(V)DMSA and 201TlCl compared with X-rays mammography].

Scintimammography is sometimes referred as a complementary diagnostic method to X-rays mammography and is the optimum examination for some patients to check suspected breast tumors. A dosimetric comparison of these diagnostic examinations is important. Estimation of the absorbed dose was achieved by calculations of internal dosimetry by Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) models and by calculations from the patients' scintigraphic images data using the MIRDOSE 3 program.

Toxicological reproductive study of Cassia occidentalis L. in female Wistar rats.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Cassia occidentalis L. (Leguminosae) has long been used as natural medicine in rainforests and other tropical regions for the treatment of inflammation, fever, liver disorders, constipation, worms, fungal infections, ulcers, respiratory infections, snakebite and as a potent abortifacient.

Aim Of The Study: This study has investigated the effects of oral sub-acute administration of Cassia occidentalis during pregnancy in female Wistar rats.

Complex patterns of genetic variability in populations of the New World screwworm fly revealed by mitochondrial DNA markers.

Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), the New World screwworm fly, is an important agent of traumatic myiasis, which is endemic in the Neotropical region and which has great economic impact on the development of the livestock industry. International efforts have been aimed at designing programmes to control and eradicate this species from endemic areas. Thorough knowledge of the population genetics of an insect pest is a fundamental component to ensuring the success of a pest management strategy because it enables the determination of an appropriate geographic scale for carrying out effective treatments.

Wing morphometry as a tool for correct identification of primary and secondary New World screwworm fly.

Cochliomyia hominivorax and Cochliomyia macellaria are endemic Neotropical Calliphoridae species. The former causes severe myiasis in hosts while the latter is Sarcosaprophagous, but commonly found as a second invader in wounds. Due to the morphological similarity between them and the potential losses that C.

Free-electron gas in the Apollonian network: multifractal energy spectrum and its thermodynamic fingerprints.

We study the free-electron gas in an Apollonian network within the tight-binding framework. The scale-free and small-world character of the underlying lattice is known to result in a quite structured energy spectrum with deltalike singularities, gaps, and minibands. After an exact numerical diagonalization of the corresponding adjacency matrix of the network with a finite number of generations, we employ a scaling analysis of the moments of the density of states to characterize its multifractality and report the associated singularity spectrum.

Feasibility of balloon dilatation in endoscopic sinus surgery simulator.

Objective: Assess the feasibility of the use of a life-size model for ESS to perform balloon catheter dilatation of the paranasal sinus ostia.

Study Design And Setting: Four validated sinus models were enrolled in this study. One experienced endoscopic surgeon performed all the dilatations of the paranasal sinus ostia.

Novel compact laptop-based image-guidance system: preliminary study.

Objectives: To describe a novel portable laptop-based image-guidance system and its preliminary navigational results.

Methods: An optic-based, specially developed navigational system and a life-size endoscopic sinus anatomic model were used. The model was submitted to computer tomography (CT), and predefined anatomic landmarks were used to test the image-guidance accuracy according to the real model.

Development of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the human botfly, Dermatobia hominis (Diptera: Oestridae).

In this report, we describe the development of 17 polymorphic microsatellite markers for the human botfly, Dermatobia hominis, an obligatory parasite of mammals of great veterinary importance in Latin America. The number of alleles ranged from 5 to 21 per locus, with a mean of 12.2 alleles per locus.

Finite-size scaling and disorder effect on the transmissivity of multilayered structures with metamaterials.

We investigate the influence of metamaterials on the scaling laws of the transmission on multilayered structures composed of random sequences of ordinary dielectric and metamaterial layers. The spectrally averaged transmission in a frequency range around the fully transparent resonant mode is shown to decay with the total number of layers as 1/N. Such thickness dependence is faster than the 1/N(1/2) decay recently reported to take place in random sequences of ordinary dielectric slabs.

Selective hepatic arterial infusion of In-111-DTPA-Phe1-octreotide in neuroendocrine liver metastases.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of (111)In-DTPA-Phe(1)-octreotide infusions after selective catheterization of the hepatic artery in inoperable metastasised liver, sst(2) receptor-positive neuroendocrine tumours due to the effect of (111)In Auger electron emission, minimising in parallel the toxicity of non-target tissue.

Methods: The average dose per session administered monthly to each patient (17 cases in total) was 6.3+/-2.

Homeotropic surface anchoring and the layer-thinning transition in free-standing films.

In this work, we investigate the interplay between surface anchoring and finite-size effects on the smectic-isotropic transition in free-standing smectic films. Using an extended McMillan model, we study how a homeotropic anchoring stabilizes the smectic order above the bulk transition temperature. In particular, we determine how the transition temperature depends on the surface ordering and film thickness.

Interspecies variation of Kitasatospora recifensis endophytic from yam bean producing thermostable amylases in alternative media.

An endophytic actinomycete isolated from tubers of yam beam (Pachyrhizus erosus L. Urban) was classified as a novel species nominated Kitasatospora recifensis based in phenotypic and genotypic analysis (16S rDNA gene sequence). Monosporic culture using specific ISP2 media revealed three interspecies, which were identified by DNA southern hybridization (Wild strain 13817 W, Aerial Mycelium strain 13817 AM and Vegetative Mycelium strain 13817 VM).

Criticality of a contact process with coupled diffusive and non-diffusive fields.

We investigate the critical behavior of a model with two coupled critical densities, one of which is diffusive. The model simulates the propagation of an epidemic process in a population, which uses the underlying lattice to leave a track of the recent disease history. We determine the critical density of the population above which the system reaches an active stationary state with a finite density of active particles.

A toxicological evaluation of the effect of Carapa guianensis Aublet on pregnancy in Wistar rats.

The effects of the administration of Carapa guianensis Aublet (Meliaceae) seed oil were investigated during pregnancy in female Wistar rats. Five groups of pregnant rats (n=5-9 per group) were treated orally from the 7th to the 14th day of pregnancy (organogenic period), at doses of: 0, 0.375, 0.

Surface effects on the relaxation dynamics of hexatic-B liquid-crystal films.

Based in a linearized hydrodynamic model, we study the relaxation dynamics of hexatic-B liquid-crystal films in two distinct cases. First, we investigate the hexatic order relaxing through a purely diffusive process for which the particles velocity field is assumed to be negligible. In this case, the asymptotic relaxation of deformations in the hexatic order presents a pronounced dependence on the boundary conditions.

Toxicological studies on hydroalcohol extract of Calendula officinalis L.

The hydroalcohol extract (HAE) of Calendula officinalis L. was evaluated for its acute toxicity by the oral route in rats and mice and for the subacute effect on hematological, biochemical and morphologic parameters in rats. In the acute toxicity test, HAE failed to cause death in the animals after administration of oral doses up to 5.

Parallel and orthogonal stimulus in ultradiluted neural networks.

Extending a model due to Derrida, Gardner, and Zippelius, we have studied the recognition ability of an extreme and asymmetrically diluted version of the Hopfield model for associative memory by including the effect of a stimulus in the dynamics of the system. We obtain exact results for the dynamic evolution of the average network superposition. The stimulus field was considered as proportional to the overlapping of the state of the system with a particular stimulated pattern.

Mass treatment for intestinal helminthiasis control in an Amazonian endemic area in Brazil.

The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis and evaluate the sanitary conditions and the role of a mass treatment campaign for control of these infections in Santa Isabel do Rio Negro. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in 2002, to obtain data related to the sanitary conditions of the population and fecal samples for parasitological examination in 308 individuals, followed by a mass treatment with albendazole or mebendazole with coverage of 83% of the city population in 2003. A new survey was carried out in 2004, involving 214 individuals, for comparison of the prevalences of intestinal parasitosis before and after the mass treatment.

Inactivation of the Sinorhizobium fredii HH103 rhcJ gene abolishes nodulation outer proteins (Nops) secretion and decreases the symbiotic capacity with soybean.

It has been postulated that nodulation outer proteins (Nops) avoid effective nodulation of Sinorhizobium fredii USDA257 to nodulate with American soybeans. S. fredii HH103 naturally nodulates with both Asiatic (non-commercial) and American (commercial) soybeans.

Temperature dependence of the Casimir-like force in free-standing smectic films.

The thermal Casimir-like force in free-standing liquid crystal films close to the smectic-A-nematic transition temperature is computed using a quadratic functional approach. In the framework of a microscopic mean-field model of free-standing smectic-A films, the temperature dependence of the order parameter profiles is computed and later used to estimate the elastic coupling variability in the vicinity of first- and second-order bulk smectic-A-nematic phase transitions. The strong nonuniformity of the coupling constant profiles promotes a significant increase of the fluctuation-induced force over three orders of magnitude, especially in thin films.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA variability and genetic structure in populations of New World screwworm flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) from Uruguay.

The New Word screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel 1858) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), is one of the most important insect pests of livestock in the Neotropical region. In this work, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was used to study the diversity and population structure of seven geographically distinct populations of C. hominivorax from most of the important livestock areas in Uruguay.

Fractality of largest clusters and the percolation transition in power-law diluted chains.

Relying on the fractal character of the largest clusters at criticality, we employ a finite-size scaling analysis to obtain an accurate phase-diagram of the percolation transition in chains with bond concentration decaying as a power-law on the form 1/ r(1+sigma) . For the particular case of sigma=1, no percolation transition is observed to occur at a finite dilution, in contrast with the finite temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition exhibited in Ising and Potts chains with inverse square-law couplings. The fractal dimension of the critical percolation cluster is found to follow distinct dependencies on the decay exponent being numerically fitted by d(f) =0.

Evaluation of the therapeutic response to In-111-DTPA octreotide-based targeted therapy in liver metastatic neuroendocrine tumors according to CT/MRI/US findings.

Thirteen (13) patients with liver neuroendocrine carcinomas metastases, positive for somatostatin receptors, confirmed by scintigraphy were infused with 4070-7030 MBq per session of In-111-octreotide after selective hepatic catheterization, exploiting the catastrophic activity of Indium Auger and Internal Conversion electron emission on cell DNA. Evaluation of the treatment was assessed by ultrasonography (US) as well as by computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging scans. US appears to be the imaging procedure of choice because the examination is sensitive for evaluating lesions' edema and cystic components, provides precise measurement of tumor size, and is inexpensive.

Nucleotide correlations and electronic transport of DNA sequences.

We use a tight-binding formulation to investigate the transmissivity and wave-packet dynamics of sequences of single-strand DNA molecules made up from the nucleotides guanine G , adenine A , cytosine C , and thymine T . In order to reveal the relevance of the underlying correlations in the nucleotides distribution, we compare the results for the genomic DNA sequence with those of two artificial sequences: (i) the Rudin-Shapiro one, which has long-range correlations; (ii) a random sequence, which is a kind of prototype of a short-range correlated system, presented here with the same first-neighbor pair correlations of the human DNA sequence. We found that the long-range character of the correlations is important to the persistence of resonances of finite segments.