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Trypanosoma cruzi; Benznidazol; Estratègies terapèutiques Trypanosoma cruzi; Benznidazol; Estrategias terapéuticas Trypanosoma cruzi; Benznidazole; Therapeutic strategies As the development of new drugs for Chagas disease is not a priority due to its neglected disease status, an option for increasing treatment adherence is to explore alternative treatment regimens, which may decrease the incidence of side effects. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy of different therapeutic schemes with benznidazole (BNZ) on the acute and chronic phases of the disease, using mice infected with strains that have different BNZ susceptibilities. Our results show that the groups of animals infected by VL-10 strain, when treated in the chronic phase with a lower dose of BNZ for a longer period of time (40 mg/kg/day for 40 days) presented better treatment efficacy than with the standard protocol (100 mg/kg/day for 20 days) although the best result in the treatment of the animals infected by the VL-10 strain was with100 mg/kg/day for 40 days. In the acute infection by the Y and VL-10 strains of T. cruzi, the treatment with a standard dose, but with a longer time of treatment (100 mg/kg/day for 40 days) presented the best results. Given these data, our results indicate that for BNZ, the theory of dose and time proportionality does not apply to the phases of infection. Funding was provided by the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), research fellowships from CNPq (Carneiro CM, Correa-Oliveira R), CAPES—Science Without Borders and Senior Research Visitor (Molina I, Correa-Oliveira R), and BERENICE (Collaborative Project supported by the European Commission under the Health Innovation Work Programme of the 7th Framework Programme). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-29T08:40:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2022-04-01 Trường Đại học Kinh tế - Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh This study aims to unveil the heterogeneous impacts of import product diversification and institutional factors for achieving energy efficiency in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In doing so, the study employs robust econometric techniques such as Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) co-integration, pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), pool mean group regressions, fixed effects, and random effects for panel data from 1990 to 2015 for selected OECD countries. The detailed empirical outcomes suggest that import product diversification is conducive to reducing the energy and carbon intensity (improvement in energy efficiency) in OECD countries. The empirical conclusions provide various guidelines to achieve cleaner and greener growth and align with various Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy, SDG 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure, and SDG 13: Climate action) of OECD countries. The paper elaborates fruitful policy suggestions regarding the diversification of imports and energy use-carbon emission-nexus for the OECD member nations. Based on the findings, policymakers and environmental scientists should strengthen the trade-energy and import portfolio policies to attain energy efficiency. Department of Economics Suleyman Demirel University Department of Economics Federal University of Ouro Preto (DEECO-UFOP), Rua do Catete 166 – Centro, Mariana Innovation Economics Institute of Economics University of Hohenheim Department of Production Engineering School of Engineering of Bauru Campus Bauru São Paulo State University (UNESP) S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) UEH Institute of Innovation (UII) University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH), 59C Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, District 3, Vietnam Department of Production Engineering School of Engineering of Bauru Campus Bauru São Paulo State University (UNESP) Trường Đại học Kinh tế - Luật, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh: 2022-03-11-0887

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T10:14:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-12-01 This work investigates the dynamics of the Chua circuit with cubic polynomial nonlinearity using methods for stability analysis based on linearization and frequency response. Root locus technique maps eigenvalues of the linearized system in order to analyze the local stability, which allows to verify dynamic features, motion patterns, and attractor topologies. The method based on describing functions allows analyze effects of the cubic nonlinearity in the system, as well as predict equilibrium and fixed points, periodic and chaotic orbits, limit cycles, multistability and hidden dynamics, unstable states, and bifurcations. The stability of the Chua circuit with cubic polynomial nonlinearity is analyzed using both approaches in order to identify and map dynamics in parameter spaces. Numerical investigations based on computational simulations corroborate the theoretical results obtained using this stability analysis. This theoretical analysis and the numerical investigations present interesting insights about the dynamics of the Chua circuit with cubic polynomial nonlinearity and provides a design tool for electro-electronic implementations. Federal University of Ouro Preto - UFOP/EM/DEMEC Campus Morro do Cruzeiro Federal University of São Paulo - UNIFESP/DF Campus Diadema São Paulo State University - UNESP/IGCE/DF Campus Rio Claro São Paulo State University - UNESP/IGCE/DF Campus Rio Claro

Research in Data Envelopment Analysis has created rankings of the ecological efficiency of countries' economies. At the same time, research in economic complexity has provided new methods to depict productive structures and has analyzed how economic diversification and sophistication affect environmental pollution indicators. However, no research so far has compared the ecological efficiency of countries with similar productive structures and levels of economic complexity, combining the strengths of both approaches. In this article, we use data on 774 different types of exports, CO2 emissions, and the ecological footprint of 99 countries to create a relative ecological pollution ranking (REPR). Moreover, we use methods from network science to reveal a benchmark network of the best learning partners based on country pairs with a large extent of export similarity, yet significant differences in pollution values. This is important because it helps to reveal adequate benchmark countries for efficiency improvements and cleaner production, considering that countries may specialize in substantially different types of economic activities. Finally, the article (i) illustrates large efficiency improvements within current global output levels, (ii) helps to identify countries that can best learn from each other, and (iii) improves the information base in international negotiations for the sake of a clean global production system., Comment: 35 pages, 5 Figures, 5 tables

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T16:46:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-01-01 Managers of exploratory projects might face uncertainties over long timeframes at different levels (e.g., project, portfolio, organization, and network). Although literature offers some guidance on how to deal with uncertainties (mainly at the project level), there is a need for more empirical ground and theoretical development of a systemic approach to the management of uncertainties. To fill this gap, this article employs a multiple case approach in two established firms, investigating six exploratory projects. As main contributions, we identified new categories of uncertainties (primitive, structural, and elementary) and aspects related to managing these uncertainties. Operations Management Department School of Economics Business Administration and Accounting University of São Paulo Production Engineering Department Polytechnic School University of São Paulo Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus of Itapeva Production Engineering Department Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Campus of João Monlevade Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus of Itapeva

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T10:58:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-08-01 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Aim: There is growing evidence about the ability of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling and nonselective phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors on mitigate muscle atrophy. PDE4 accounts for the major cAMP hydrolyzing activity in skeletal muscles, therefore advances are necessary about the consequences of treatment with PDE4 inhibitors on protein breakdown in atrophied muscles. We postulated that rolipram (selective PDE4 inhibitor) may activate cAMP downstream effectors, inhibiting proteolytic systems in skeletal muscles of diabetic rats. Main methods: Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were treated with 2 mg/kg rolipram for 3 days. Changes in the levels of components belonging to the proteolytic machineries in soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were investigated, as well as cAMP effectors. Key findings: Treatment of diabetic rats with rolipram decreased the levels of atrogin-1 and MuRF-1 in soleus and EDL, and reduced the activities of calpains and caspase-3; these findings partially explains the low ubiquitin conjugates levels and the decreased proteasome activity. The inhibition of muscle proteolysis may be occurring due to phosphorylation and inhibition of forkhead box O (FoxO) factors, probably as a consequence of the increased cAMP levels, followed by the activation of PKA and Akt effectors. Akt activation may be associated with the increased levels of exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (EPAC). As a result, rolipram treatment spared muscle mass in diabetic rats. Significance: The antiproteolytic responses associated with PDE4 inhibition may be helpful to motivate future investigations about the repositioning of PDE4 inhibitors for the treatment of muscle wasting conditions. São Paulo State University (Unesp) School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Department of Clinical Analysis Department of Physiology Ribeirão Preto Medical School University of São Paulo Department of Biological Sciences Federal University of Ouro Preto Departments of Biochemistry and Immunology Ribeirão Preto Medical School University of São Paulo São Paulo State University (Unesp) School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Department of Clinical Analysis CNPq: 479817/2013-8

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:45:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-01-01 Several studies analyzed the importance of absorptive capacity (AC) to achieve economic development. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study compares the building blocks (BBs) of AC between developed and emergent economies. This paper aims to identify and analyze the impact of the BBs on AC under distinct levels of development (i.e., developed vs. emerging economies) using systematic literature review (SLR) and econometrics. Specifically, both linear and nonlinear analyses were employed. Our findings show that BBs in developed and emergent regions are different. For both groups, R&D, FDI (foreign direct investment), infrastructure, and HDI (human development index) variables are BBs of AC. For developed economies, BBs also contemplate secondary education enrollments, the higher education index, and the percentage of GDP spent on higher education. Moreover, the thresholds of BBs also differ between developed and emergent economies. This identification of BBs and possible AC thresholds is valuable, as it provides information to set goals and strategies before a foreign investment attraction policy. Thus, the results facilitate the development of more suitable strategies to enhance positive productivity spillovers and avoid negative spillovers whenever possible. These results show that policymakers cannot employ the same policies for the development of developed and emerging countries. Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) Department of Economics Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP) Department of Economics of Innovation University of Hohenheim Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP)

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:36:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-05-01 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) The activation of GABA, opioid or α2 adrenergic mechanisms in the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) facilitates hypertonic NaCl intake in rats. In the present study, we combined opioid or α2 adrenergic antagonists with GABA agonists into the LPBN in order to investigate if NaCl intake caused by GABAergic activation in normohydrated rats depends on opioid or α2-adrenergic mechanisms in this area. Male Holtzman rats with stainless steel cannulas implanted bilaterally in the LPBN were used. Bilateral injections of muscimol or baclofen (GABAA and GABAB agonists, respectively, 0.5 nmol/0.2 μl) into the LPBN induced strong ingestion of 0.3 M NaCl (45.8 ± 7.3 and 21.8 ± 4.8 ml/240 min, respectively) and water intake (22.7 ± 3.4 and 6.6 ± 2.5 ml/240 min, respectively). Naloxone (opioid antagonist, 150 nmol/0.2 μl) into the LPBN abolished 0.3 M NaCl and water intake to muscimol (2.0 ± 0.6 and 0.9 ± 0.2 ml/240 min, respectively) or baclofen (2.3 ± 1.1 and 0.8 ± 0.4 ml/240 min, respectively). RX 821002 (α2 adrenoceptor antagonist, 10 nmol/0.2 μl) into the LPBN reduced 0.3 M NaCl intake induced by the injections of muscimol or baclofen (26.6 ± 8.0 and 10.1 ± 4.9 ml/240 min, respectively). RX 821002 reduced water intake induced by muscimol (7.7 ± 2.9 ml/240 min), not by baclofen. The results suggest that sodium intake caused by gabaergic activation in the LPBN in normohydrated rats is totally dependent on the activation of opioid mechanisms and partially dependent on the activation of α2 adrenergic mechanisms in the LPBN. Department of Biological Sciences DECBI-NUPEB Federal University of Ouro Preto Department of Physiology and Pathology School of Dentistry São Paulo State University UNESP Department of Physiology and Pathology School of Dentistry São Paulo State University UNESP

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:44:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2022-01-01 Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province National Natural Science Foundation of China China faces the challenge of promoting high-tech industries and concomitantly reduces ecological footprints. This research analyzes the directional spillover impacts and connectedness for financial and trade globalization, high-tech industries, and environmental footprints of China. The authors used the data of financial globalization, trade globalization, economic complexity, middle and high-tech industrial contribution, and ecological footprint of China throughout 1996Q1 to 2019Q4. The empirics contribute to the debate on the impacts of the high technology industry, financial globalization for the environmental sustainably in the era of the digital economy. The study finds positive spillover effects from financial globalization (FGI), and economic complexity towards ecological footprints. Further, the high technology industrial contribution has a less significant impact on reducing environmental footprints. Overall, the findings are robust to the presence of structural change effects and the cleaner production objectives for China's case. Concomitantly, the empirical findings allow us to report innovative conclusions and implications regarding the sustainable development goals (SDG-7, 10), high-industry, and environmental sustainability in China. School of Statistics and Applied Mathematics Anhui University of Finance and Economics Innovation Economics Institute of Economics University of Hohenheim Department of Economics Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP) School of Banking University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City Center for Environmental Economics and Policy Anhui University of Finance and Economics Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP) Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province: No. 2108085Y24 National Natural Science Foundation of China: No. 71974001

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:43:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2022-01-01 Anhui University of Finance and Economics Shandong University The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies face the challenges of rising energy demand, urbanization, and growing environmental issues (rising ecological footprint and less biodiversity). The primary objective of this article is to explore the role of environmental taxes and economic growth on the growing ecological footprint in 29 OECD economies. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and the related intermediate estimators are used to attain the purpose. The two substitute single equation estimators, DOLS, FMOLS, and fixed effect, are also employed to check the robustness of the ARDL estimator. Empirical results reveal that environmental-related taxes, economic growth, foreign direct investment, energy use, urbanization, renewable energy, and industrialization significantly influence the long-term ecological footprint in OECD countries. The dynamics of the studied variables got changed when time is considered. In the short-term, these dynamics are mixed while staying similar in the long-term across the OECD countries. This is attributed to varying levels of renewable energy use and industrialization progress in OECD countries. The empirical conclusions suggest that OECD economies need careful monitoring of environmental regulations for energy usage policies and cleaner production goals. Center for Economic Research Shandong University, 27-Shanda Nanlu School of Economics and Management Huzhou University Innovation Economics Institute of Economics University of Hohenheim Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP) Department of Economics Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) Department of Production Engineering São Paulo State University (UNESP)

Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-01T07:58:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-11-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Petrobras The Lower Cretaceous Araripina Formation records deposition in a distributive fluvial system that is a part of the post-rift sequence of the Araripe Basin, NE Brazil. Following the opening of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin, the reactivation of regional faults of the Paleoproterozoic basement resulted in tectonic subsidence and formation of a regional-scale DFS. The Araripina Formation is an up to 40-m-thick succession of rhythmically interbedded sandstone and mudstone, organized in two depositional sequences separated by a regional disconformity. We recognized and grouped nine sedimentary facies into six facies associations that we interpreted as deposits of meandering channels, ribbon channels, minor channels, floodplain, lateral and terminal splays, and distal floodplain. The lower sequence facies associations suggest deposition in the medial to distal part of a distributive fluvial system in a tectonically active, interior basin subjected to episodic flooding. The periodic inundations were responsible for activating ephemeral channels and producing sheetfloods, followed by deposition of lateral and terminal splays in distal flooded areas. Syn-sedimentary deformation structures are present in rhythmite facies (truncating surfaces, load structures, injectite and convoluted folds) in the upper part of the lower sequence. The upper sequence was formed after a period of intense tectonic activity in a large distal floodbasin dominated by suspension. The deposition culminates in an interval with pedogenetic deposits cross-cut by a regional disconformity with the upper Exu Formation. Paleocurrent data from both depositional sequences indicate paleodepositional slope towards southeast and east with source-areas located to the northwest and west. This pattern is similar to that observed in the lower Santana Group and opposite to the westward direction of sedimentary transport in the overlying Exu Formation implying significant change of source region, basin topography and continental paleodrainage in the Araripe Basin after the Albian. Department of Geology IGCE São Paulo State University, Avenida 24A, 1515 Department of Geology School of Mines Federal University of Ouro Preto, Morro do Cruzeiro CECS Federal University of ABC, Avenida dos Estados, 5001 Geography Institute Federal University of Uberlândia, Rodovia LMG-746 Km 01 Department of Geology IGCE São Paulo State University, Avenida 24A, 1515

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T16:01:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-01-01 This work describes the development and tests of a new ultrasonic spectrometer for liquids based on the use of commercial cuvettes for sample handling. The spectrometer operates in the frequency range from 20 to 80 MHz and gathers some important characteristics, which are its high thermal stability (better than 0.01 °C), by the use of Peltier cells, and practical sample handling with small volume (≤3 ml) samples placed inside cuvettes which can be easily removed from the spectrometer, cleaned/sterilized, or simply discarded. Through-transmission operation is used to measure propagation velocity and attenuation coefficient, and the spectrometer was tested with mixtures of water and NaCl, which have attenuations smaller than that of distilled water, and higher attenuation samples of silicone and castor oil. Backscattering studies of polystyrene particles of 10-and 15-μ m diameters were also conducted, showing the versatility of the instrument. Department of Electrical Engineering Institute of Exact and Applied Sciences Federal University of Ouro Preto Department of Electrical Engineering School of Engineering Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP Campus of Ilha Solteira CSIC Instituto de Tecnologías Físicas y de la Información Institute of Physics Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso Do sul Department of Electrical Engineering School of Engineering Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP Campus of Ilha Solteira

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:32:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-04-01 Simultaneous use of cisplatin (CIS) and gemcitabine (GEN) for treating bladder cancer has increased because of their complementary effects. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the activities of these two antineoplastic drugs are not fully known. Here, molecular biology techniques and microscopy were used to investigate transcriptomic and morphological changes in low and high-grade urinary bladder transitional carcinoma cell lines [RT4 - wild type TP53; 5637 - two TP53 mutations, one in codon 72 (Arg-Pro) and other in codon 280 (Arg-Thr) and T24 - in-frame deletion of tyrosine 126 in the TP53 allele] simultaneously treated with CIS/GEN. Gene expression profile was evaluated by PCR arrays; cell morphology by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and apoptosis was analyzed using fluorescent dye. Results showed concomitantly upregulation of CDKN2B (G1/S transition), GADD45A (DNA repair and apoptosis) and SERTAD1 (regulation of transcription) gene, increased number of nuclear chamfers and apoptotic cells, and reduced number of microfilaments, organelles and in the size of the nucleus in 5637 and T24 cells after simultaneous treatment with CIS/GEN. In conclusion, independently of the TP53 mutation status and tumor grade, CIS/GEN induced gene modulation accompanied by changes in cell morphologies, which confirm the antiproliferative activity of the treatment protocol. These findings help to understand the pathways modulated by these antineoplastic agents and may provide insights for anti-cancer chemotherapy. School of Pharmacy UFOP – Federal University of Ouro Preto Escola de Farmácia Departamento de Análises Clínicas UFOP – Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto Institute of Physics USP – University of São Paulo Medical School UNESP – State University of São Paulo Medical School UNESP – State University of São Paulo

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:49:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2017-01-01 Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Humic substances (HS) are ubiquitous organic compounds able to affect mobility and availability of arsenic (As) in aquatic systems. Although it is known that associations between HS and As occur mainly via iron (Fe)-cationic bridges, the behaviour and distribution of this metalloid in HS- and Fe-rich environments is still not fully understood. In this paper, the quality of HS from different rivers in Brazil and Germany and its influence on the behaviour of As(V) under different Fe(III) concentrations were investigated. HS were extracted from four different rivers (Cascatinha, Holtemme, Selke and Warme Bode), characterised and fractionated into different molecular weight sizes (10, 5 and 1 kDa). Complexation tests were performed using an ultrafiltration system and 1 kDa membranes. All data was analysed using the Kohonen neural network (SOM – Self organising maps). All samples, except Selke, exhibited similar results of free As (10 kDa) and lower (

International audience; In this work, we present a generic fast hue-preserving histogram equalization method based on the RGB color space for image contrast enhancement and two instantiation of that generic process. The first method uses R-red, G-green, and B-blue 1D histograms to estimate a RGB 3D histogram to be equalized, whereas the second method uses RG, RB, and GB 2D histograms. The histogram equalization is performed using shift hue-preserving transformations, avoiding unrealistic colors. Our methods have linear time and space complexities with respect to the size of the image and do not need to apply conversions from a color space to another in order to perform the image enhancement. Such design complies with real-time applications requirements. An objective assessment comparing our methods and others is performed using a contrast measure and a color image quality measure, where the quality is established as a weighting of the naturalness and colorfulness indexes. We analyze 300 images from the dataset of the University of Berkeley. Experiments show that the value of the image contrast produced by our methods is in average 50% greater than the original image value, keeping the quality of the produced images close to the original one.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:41:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-06-01 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell cultures were grown on surfaces lithographed with periodic 3D hexagonal microcavity array morphology. The range of microcavity size (inscribed circle diameter) was from 12 μm to 560 μm. CHO cells were grown also on flat surfaces. The characterization was performed with respect to cell growth density (number of nuclei per unit area) by fluorescence optical microscopy and evaluated by correlation function analysis. We found that optimum microcavity radius was 80 μm, concerning to the maximum cell growth density, being even greater than the growth density on a flat (unstructured) substrate of the same material. This finding can be important for optimization of biotechnological processes and devices. Institute of Physics University of São Paulo, C.P. 66318 Pharmacy School UFOP Federal University of Ouro Preto Botucatu Medical School UNESP São Paulo State University Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road Botucatu Medical School UNESP São Paulo State University CNPq: CNPq-157021/2011-4

Submitted by Vitor Silverio Rodrigues (vitorsrodrigues@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2014-05-27T11:29:06Z No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2014-05-27T14:32:31Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 2-s2.0-84876976727.pdf: 581835 bytes, checksum: 89e04e8aa3827fba1d824fa0912c32b9 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-27T11:29:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-05-03 Background: Activation of GABAB receptors with baclofen into the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) induces ingestion of water and 0.3 M NaCl in fluid replete rats. However, up to now, no study has investigated the effects of baclofen injected alone or combined with GABAB receptor antagonist into the LPBN on water and 0.3 M NaCl intake in rats with increased plasma osmolarity (rats treated with an intragastric load of 2 M NaCl). Male Wistar rats with stainless steel cannulas implanted bilaterally into the LPBN were used.Results: In fluid replete rats, baclofen (0.5 nmol/0.2 μl), bilaterally injected into the LPBN, induced ingestion of 0.3 M NaCl (14.3 ± 4.1 vs. saline: 0.2 ± 0.2 ml/210 min) and water (7.1 ± 2.9 vs. saline: 0.6 ± 0.5 ml/210 min). In cell-dehydrated rats, bilateral injections of baclofen (0.5 and 1.0 nmol/0.2 μl) into the LPBN induced an increase of 0.3 M NaCl intake (15.6 ± 5.7 and 21.5 ± 3.5 ml/210 min, respectively, vs. saline: 1.7 ± 0.8 ml/210 min) and an early inhibition of water intake (3.5 ± 1.4 and 6.7 ± 2.1 ml/150 min, respectively, vs. saline: 9.2 ± 1.4 ml/150 min). The pretreatment of the LPBN with 2-hydroxysaclofen (GABAB antagonist, 5 nmol/0.2 μl) potentiated the effect of baclofen on 0.3 M NaCl intake in the first 90 min of test and did not modify the inhibition of water intake induced by baclofen in cell-dehydrated rats. Baclofen injected into the LPBN did not affect blood pressure and heart rate.Conclusions: Thus, injection of baclofen into the LPBN in cell-dehydrated rats induced ingestion of 0.3 M NaCl and inhibition of water intake, suggesting that even in a hyperosmotic situation, the blockade of LPBN inhibitory mechanisms with baclofen is enough to drive rats to drink hypertonic NaCl, an effect independent of changes in blood pressure. © 2013 Kimura et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Department of Basic Sciences School of Dentistry UNESP - Univ. Estadual Paulista, Rodovia Marechal Rondom, km 527, Araçatuba, São Paulo 16018-805 Department of Biological Sciences DECBI-NUPEB Federal University of Ouro Preto, UFOP, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais Department of Physiology and Pathology School of Dentistry UNESP, Araraquara, São Paulo Department of Basic Sciences School of Dentistry UNESP - Univ. Estadual Paulista, Rodovia Marechal Rondom, km 527, Araçatuba, São Paulo 16018-805 Department of Physiology and Pathology School of Dentistry UNESP, Araraquara, São Paulo

In the past few years, numerous methods for damage assessment for structural health monitoring were proposed in the literature. Several problems are raised for making these approaches practical for the engineer. The first concern is to determine whether a structure presents an abnormal behavior or not. Statistical inference is concerned with the implementation of algorithms that analyze the distribution of extracted features in an effort to make decisions on damage diagnosis. Learning algorithms have extensively been applied to classification and pattern recognition problems in the past years and deserve to be used for structural health monitoring. In addition, data acquisition campaigns of civil engineering structures can last from several minutes to years. Dealing with large amounts of data is not an easy task and suitable tools are required to correctly extract important features from them: symbolic data analysis (SDA) is such an approach. In this paper, some supervised learning methods (Bayesian decision trees, neural networks and support vector machines) are introduced to discriminate structural features and are developed within the concept of symbolic data analysis in order to compress data without losing its inherent variability. To highlight the different features of these techniques for structural health monitoring, this paper focuses attention on the monitoring of a railway bridge belonging to the high speed track between Paris and Lyon. During the month of June 2003, a strengthening procedure was carried out on this bridge. In so doing, vibration measurements were recorded under three different structural conditions: before, during strengthening. In the following years (2004, 2005 and 2006), new tests were performed to observe how the dynamic behavior of the bridge evolved, especially for the case of frequency changes. The objective was to verify whether the strengthening procedure was still effective or not, in other terms if the new data could be still assigned to the condition .after strengthening.. This paper reports the major results obtained and shows how the supervised learning techniques can be applied to cluster structural behaviors and classify new data. An original assignment approach is also presented: based on dissimilarity measures this approach shows that in fact the structural behavior of the bridge seems totally different of the initial behaviors used for training the supervised learning methods. Supervised learning algorithms