Prokaryotic communities of acidic peatlands from the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest

The acidic peatlands of southern Brazil are ecosystems essential for the maintenance of the Atlantic Forest, one of the 25 hot-spots of biodiversity in the world. In this work, we investigated the composition of prokaryotic communities in four histosols of three acidic peatland regions by constructing small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene libraries and sequencing. SSU rRNA gene sequence analysis showed the prevalence of Acidobacteria (38.8%) and Proteobacteria (27.4%) of the Bacteria domain and Miscellaneous (58%) and Terrestrial (24%) groups of Crenarchaeota of the Archaea domain. As observed in other ecosystems, archaeal communities showed lower richness than bacterial communities. We also found a limited number of Euryarchaeota and of known methanotrophic bacteria in the clone libraries.

Diversity of 16S rRNA genes from bacteria of sugarcane rhizosphere soil

Sugarcane is an important agricultural product of Brazil, with a total production of more than 500 million tons. Knowledge of the bacterial community associated with agricultural crops and the soil status is a decisive step towards understanding how microorganisms influence crop productivity. However, most studies aim to isolate endophytic or rhizosphere bacteria associated with the plant by culture-dependent approaches. Culture-independent approaches allow a more comprehensive view of entire bacterial communities in the environment. In the present study, we have used this approach to assess the bacterial community in the rhizosphere soil of sugarcane at different times and under different nitrogen fertilization conditions. At the high taxonomic level, few differences between samples were observed, with the phylum Proteobacteria (29.6 percent) predominating, followed by Acidobacteria (23.4 percent), Bacteroidetes (12.1 percent), Firmicutes (10.2 percent), and Actinobacteria (5.6 percent). The exception was the Verrucomicrobia phylum whose prevalence in N-fertilized soils was approximately 0.7 percent and increased to 5.2 percent in the non-fertilized soil, suggesting that this group may be an indicator of nitrogen availability in soils. However, at low taxonomic levels a higher diversity was found associated with plants receiving nitrogen fertilizer. Bacillus was the most predominant genus, accounting for 19.7 percent of all genera observed. Classically reported nitrogen-fixing and/or plant growth-promoting bacterial genera, such as Azospirillum, Rhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, and Burkholderia were also found although at a lower prevalence.

Citodiagnostico en la patologia tumoral dermatologica / Citodiagnosis in tumoral cutaneous pathology

Fue el objetivo de este estudio realizar la comapración entre la citología y la histología de lesiones dermatológicas a efectos de determinar si el citodiagnóstico es válido para ser aplicado en la patología cutánea. Fueron incluidos dentro del protocolo 150 casos con diagnóstico clínico presuntivo de patología tumoral maligna. Los resultados fueron evaluados de acuerdo a la patología en general, a cada patología en particular y a la forma en que fue obtenida la toma. Para evaluar la utilidad desde el punto de vista dermatológico se recurrió a pruebas de discriminancia, tomando como base diagnóstica de certeza aquella arrojada por la histopatología, con los siguientes resultados: Sensibilidad: 63,26%, Especificidad: 88,46%, Valor Predictivo +: 91,18% y Valor Predictivo-: 56,10%. Los resultados fueron exitosos en el caso de los epiteliomas basocelulares, altamente orientadores en las metástasis de melanoma e insatisfactorios en epiteliomas espinocelulares. Si se considera la frecuencia de os epitelios basocelulares dentro de la patología tumoral dermatológica, el citodiagnóstico se constituye en un recurso rápido y económico, que ocasionando un mínimo de incomodidad al paciente puede agilizar el plan de estudio establecido. No excluye ni invalida la realización de la anatomía patológica tisular

Esclerose tuberosa: estudo multidisciplinar de 15 casos / Tuberose esclerosis: a multidisciplinary study of 15 cases

Sao apresentados os resultados de estudo multidisciplinar de 15 pacientes con esclerose tuberosa, 8 do sexo masculino e 7 do sexo feminino, com idades entre 19 meses e 23 anos; 11 foram considerados como casos esporadicos e, em 4, nao foi possivel precisar os antecedentes familiares.Foram observadas as seguintes manifestacoes cutaneas: adenoma de Pringle em 9 casos; manchas acromicas em 9 casos; fibroma periungueal em 3 casos. Dos 15 casos 13 apresentaram D.M., deficiencia mental, enquanto os outros 2 tinham inteligencia limitrofe. Com excecao de 2 pacientes, todos tinham crises epilepticas e os tipos de crises mais frequentemente observados foram as ausencias atipicas e as crises tonicas. Espasmos infantis estavam presentes em 3 casos e em apenas um caso o eletrencefalograma apresentou aspecto hipsarritmico. A tomografia axial computadorizada, realizada em 7 casos, revelou calcificacoes periventriculares em todos, mesmo naqueles que apresentaram RX simples de cranio normal (4 casos)

Clinical applications of Doppler echocardiography combined with two-dimensional cardiac imaging - a review.

No presente artigo procuramos descrever os conceitos basicos bem como demonstrar os padroes normais de fluxo atraves das diferentes valvas cardiacas obtidos por meio da ecocardiografia Doppler combinada com imagem cardiaca obtida atraves da ecocardiografia bidimencional. Tambem descrevemos as mais recentes aplicacoes clinicas desta nova modalidade diagnostica. Enfoque especial foi dado a quantificacao de fluxo, isto e, medida estimativa do debito cardiaco e "shunts" esquerda - direita, bem como estimativa nao invasiva de gradientes pressoricos em pacientes acometidos de lesoes valvares tipo estenose. Enquanto maior experiencia se faz necessaria para aquisicao de conceitos definitivos, esta recente metodologia parece oferecer um novo campo para obtencao de dados de grande aplicabilidade clinica