Guarda responsável de animais de estimação na área urbana do município de Pelotas, RS, Brasil / Responsible pet animal guardianship in the urban area of the municipality of Pelotas in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

O presente estudo teve por objetivo estimar a presença de cães e gatos em domicílios da zona urbana do município e avaliar a guarda responsável e seus fatores associados. Foi realizado um estudo transversal, de base populacional com processo de amostragem em múltiplos estágios e com os setores censitários do censo demográfico do ano de 2010, realizado pelo IBGE, utilizados como conglomerados. A unidade em estudo foi o domicílio. O desfecho foi a guarda responsável, definida por um escore que levou em consideração as seguintes variáveis: esterilização, vacinação antirrábica, consulta médica veterinária, controle de endoparasitas, acesso dos animais às áreas públicas e o recolhimento das fezes nestes locais e controle de ectoparasitas. Entre os 1.558 domicílios investigados, 58,9% possuíam animais de estimação (cão e/ou gato). O estudo revela que o escore de posse responsável aumenta com a escolaridade do chefe da família e é maior entre os moradores de apartamento. A maioria dos domicílios investigados atendeu apenas a metade dos critérios. Os resultados deste estudo apontam para a necessidade de políticas públicas que orientem a população sobre a guarda responsável e que ofertem serviços de imunizações e esterilização para os animais.

The study sought to estimate the presence of cats and dogs in households in the urban area of the city and assess responsible guardianship and associated factors. A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted using the multi-stage sampling process and the census sectors of the demographic census of the year 2010 carried out by IBGE were used as conglomerates. The unit under study was the household. The outcome was responsible guardianship, defined by a score that took into account the following variables: sterilization, anti-rabies vaccination, veterinary medical consultation, control of endoparasites, access of animals to public areas, control of ectoparasites and the collection of feces of animals in public areas. Of the 1,558 households investigated, 58.9% had pets (cat or dog). The study reveals that the score of responsible guardianship increases with the education level of the head of the household and is highest among apartment dwellers. The majority of the households investigated met only half of the criteria. The results of this study point to the need for public policies that instruct the population on responsible guardianship, and that offer immunizations and sterilization services for animals.

Silver artifacts protection by anticorrosive coatings

Many objects of cultural heritage constituted of bulk, plated silver or alloys are often displayed in museum show-cases or kept in depositories. The silverworks tarnish with time by reactions with atmospheric pollutant elements, namely sulfides forming silver sulfide. The blackish films thus formed make these artifacts inappropriate to display and have to be dealt with. Tarnish can be removed with a silver polish, by a chemical dip, an electrochemical reduction method or galvanic coupling with aluminum. Several methods have been developed to reduce silver tarnish such as silver alloying, surface treatment and coating. The protection system employed, has to follow the Venice Charter, to be removable and not to change the aesthetics of the object to be protected. In this study, silver alloys have been tested for corrosion under accelerated atmospheric corrosion conditions. A system of hexadecane-thiol [HOT] has been tried on silver coupons. An acrylic copolymer has also been used as the organic vehicle for dispersed nano-pigment of aluminum oxide. Several percentages of pigments have been tried to check on the system capabilities, without altering the visual effects of the surface. The different coating systems have been prepared and either brushed on the surface of the silver coupons or the silver coupons were immersed in the coating system. Alternate immersion testing in sulfide solution has been tried on the coupons. Electrochemical testing, visual observations and gloss measurements showed that the coating with 2% nano-AI2O3 and the hexadecane-thiol exhibit better protective properties than the plain acrylic

Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of some substituted 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole and other heterocycles derived from 4, 5-dimethoxy-2-nitrophenyl-thioacetic acid hydrazide

Anumber of substituted oxadiazoles, benzothiazinones and other heterocycles were synthesized from 4, 5-dimethoxy-2-nitrophenylthioacetic acid hydrazide. The structures of the prepared compounds were confirmed via their elemental analysis and the usual physical measurements. The prepared compounds have been screened for their antimicrobial activities against examples from gram positive, gram negative bacteria and fungi. Two of the tested compounds showed high activity comparable with the reference Levofloxacin while the others showed moderate to low activity

Increase in NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase activity by mercury in excised bean leaf segments.

Application of Hg to excised bean leaf segments increased the glutamate dehydrogenase (NADH-GDH) activity substantially. However, specific activity of the enzyme decreased at lower concentration of Hg, and increased to lesser extent at higher concentration of Hg. Mercury supply increased the glutamate synthase (NADH-GOGAT) activity also. Mercury supply increased the NADH-GDH activity in the presence of NH4NO3, but to a lesser extent than in the absence of NH4NO3. The specific activity of the enzyme decreased considerably at lower concentration of Hg, but increased significantly at higher concentration of Hg. An increase in NADH-GOGAT activity was observed in the presence of NH4NO3, but specific activity of the enzyme decreased marginally. Increase in GDH activity due to Hg remained unaffected by the supply of sucrose, but was reduced by glutamine and glutathione and enhanced by Al. The glutamate dehydrogenase (+Hg enzyme) from mercury treated leaf segments had higher value of S0.5 for NADH than the enzyme (-Hg enzyme) from material not treated with mercury indicating that Hg binding to enzyme prevented NADH binding to the enzyme possibly at thiol groups. However, + Hg enzyme has more reactivity, as apparent Vmax value was higher for it. It has been suggested that Hg activates the NADH-GDH enzyme in the bean leaf segments by binding to thiol groups of protein and pronounced increase in activity by Hg suggests a possible role of enzyme under Hg-stress.

Limited proteolysis by trypsin influences activity of maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase.

Maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) was rapidly and completely inactivated by very low concentrations of trypsin at 37 degrees C. PEP+Mg2+ and several other effectors of PEP carboxylase offered substantial protection against trypsin inactivation. Inactivation resulted from a fairly specific cleavage of 20 kDa peptide from the enzyme subunit. Limited proteolysis under catalytic condition (in presence of PEP, Mg2+ and HCO3) although yielded a truncated subunit of 90 kDa, did not affect the catalytic function appreciably but desensitized the enzyme to the effectors like glucose-6-phosphate glycine and malate. However, under non-catalytic condition, only malate sensitivity was appreciably affected. Significant protection of the enzyme activity against trypsin during catalytic phase could be either due to a conformational change induced on substrate binding. Several lines of evidence indicate that the inactivation caused by a cleavage at a highly conserved C-terminal end of the subunit.

Chemical modification of allosteric properties of enzymes

Chemical modification is usually employed to study enzyme active sites. Valuable information can also be obtained, however, when this technique is used to probe allosteric sites. This approach is discussed in this article, and it is exemplified in chemical modification studies of the allosteric enzyme phosphofructokinase

Reactions of 5-bromo-6-methoxy-5,6-dihydrouridine and its 2-thioanalogue with both of some guanidines and mercapto acrylicacid derivatives

5-bromo-6-methoxy-5,6-dihydrouridine and its 2-thioanalogue were allowed to react with some substituted guanidine tautomers and alpha- mercapto-beta-phenylacrylic acid. The products are 5,6-cyclized derivatives of both of uridine and 2-thiouridine

Conductometric determination of some pharmaceutically important thiol compounds

A simple and sensitive electro-analytical method was developed for the determination of five pharmaceutical compounds containing thiol group; namely, N-acetylcysteine, captopril, D-penicillamine, 6-mercaptopurine and thioguanine. By utilizing the reaction of the thiol group with silver ions, small amounts of the studied compounds were determined conductometrically in aqueous medium using silver nitrate as titrant. The mean percentage recoveries ranged from [100.3 +/- 0.9] to [100.84 +/- 0.74]. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the studied compounds in dosage forms, and the results were in good agreement with those obtained using the official methods

Nucleophilic scission of thioester linkages and conformational changes in human plasma low density lipoproteins.

A comparison between conformations of native and methylamine modified human plasma low density lipoproteins (hydrated density 1.032-1.043 g/ml) has been presented. Near UV circular dichroism and difference absorption spectra of modified low density lipoprotein have suggested substantial differences in the local environments of several aromatic amino acid side chains. Relatively lower ellipticity at 222 nm of modified lipoprotein indicated alterations in the secondary structures of its protein moiety. Nucleophilic reaction of methylamine did not cause the peptide bond scission but it brought conformational transition such that some of the buried hydrophobic domains of the protein moiety got exposed to the aqueous environment.