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With the objective of analyzing the efficacy of directly observed treatment (DOT) of HIV infection in the management of severely immunodepressed patients, this method was examined in individuals cared for in two social welfare facilities for HIV-infected persons and compared to self-administered therapy in outpatients. Forty-seven patients with registered H IV infection, stage C, were assigned to DOT for 9 months, the majority of whom had previously received antiretroviral therapy. A group of 51 HIV-infected outpatients, who attended day clinics attached to the reference hospitals, served as a comparison group. Together with increases in weight (9.2 ±7.5 kg) and Karnofsky scores (16.9±12.2) in the DOT group, a significant improvement of surrogate markers, such as CD4+ T-cell counts (increase in DOT group, 113.4 ±151.0 cells/µl; control group, -2.8±114.1 cells/µl; P<0.001) and HIV load (decrease in DOT group, -1.7 ±2.3 log10 copies/ml; control group, -0.4±1.5 log10 copies/ml; P<0.01) was detected in the DOT group. Morbidity and mortality were similar in both groups. The results indicate that such welfare facilities provide a useful framework not only for social objectives but also for healthcare purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian poultry industry is an activity in constant development due to the high indices of productive efficiency. The accelerated evolution of poultry production has allowed to obtain early and very efficient broilers able to convert different foods into animal protein. However, due to this intensive breeding system, a series of metabolic and management problems appeared, with emphasis on thermal stress. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physiological responses of broiler chickens in the final stage of breeding (21 to 42 days of life), submitted to two thermal conditions, one representative of the thermoneutrality situation (T1) and one giving a situation of cyclic stress by heat (T2). For each experimental thermal condition, the birds were submitted to different levels of metabolizable energy of 3,050, 3,125, 3,200, 3,275 kcal kg-1. At 28, 35 and 42 days, the birds and the feed leftovers were weighed to measure the performance variables: CR (feed intake), GP (weight gain) and CA (feed conversion), viability of the rearing (Vb), productive efficiency index (PEI). As conclusions, the GP was 13.6% higher for the birds maintained at the thermoneutrality situation T1. The PEI was 32.5% higher for the birds maintained in T1 condition, when compared to those kept in T2. However, both in thermoneutral and in heat stress conditions, the increase in the level of metabolizable energy in the diet did not influence the performance and the productive efficiency index of broiler chickens aged between 21 and 42 days of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 1,000 one-day-old Japanese quails were distributed at random, with 5 digestible lysine levels, in 10 replicates and with 20 birds per experimental unit. The basal diet was formulated based on corn and soybean, with 200.6 g CP/kg, 2900.00 kcal/kg ME, and 8.8 g digestible lysine/kg. This basal diet was supplemented with L-lysine HCl (784 g/kg), replacing glutamic acid, and corresponding to digestible lysine levels of 8.8 g/kg, 9.8 g/kg, 10.8 g/kg, 11.8 g/kg, and 12.8 g/kg. The increase in the levels of digestible lysine produced a greaterweight gain in birds with up to 12.2 and 12.1 g of lysine/kg at 40 d of age. Carcass weight increased as levels were increased to up to 11.85 g of lysine/kg, and, similarly, egg production per bird housed increased up to 12.03 g of lysine/kg. A linear increase took place in the growing phase for feathering, fat, and crude protein deposits in the carcass, feed intake, and lysine intake. Egg production and egg mass per bird per d increased linearly in the laying phase with the weight gain of birds decreasing linearly until 100 d of age, and, similarly, the feed conversion per egg mass linearly improved in function of the lysine levels. A level of 11.85 g of digestible lysine/kg in the diet, which corresponded to a lysine intake of 120.5 mg/bird/d, provided better carcass weight at the end of the growing phase and better performance at the beginning of the laying phase for the Japanese quails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomic force microscopes and optical tweezers are widely used to probe the mechanical properties of individual molecules and molecular interactions, by exerting mechanical forces that induce transitions such as unfolding or dissociation. These transitions often occur under nonequilibrium conditions and are associated with hysteresis effects—features usually taken to preclude the extraction of equilibrium information from the experimental data. But fluctuation theorems allow us to relate the work along nonequilibrium trajectories to thermodynamic free-energy differences. They have been shown to be applicable to single-molecule force measurements and have already provided information on the folding free energy of a RNA hairpin. Here we show that the Crooks fluctuation theorem can be used to determine folding free energies for folding and unfolding processes occurring in weak as well as strong nonequilibrium regimes, thereby providing a test of its validity under such conditions. We use optical tweezers to measure repeatedly the mechanical work associated with the unfolding and refolding of a small RNA hairpin and an RNA three-helix junction. The resultant work distributions are then analysed according to the theorem and allow us to determine the difference in folding free energy between an RNA molecule and a mutant differing only by one base pair, and the thermodynamic stabilizing effect of magnesium ions on the RNA structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]