From Sub- to Super-Citizenship: Sex Hormones and the Body Politic in Brazil

Sex hormones in Brazil are mobilised as modes of regulatory control and to discipline subjectivites. Their packaging effectively differentiates between two forms of citizenship. The first, available to those with private health, is founded on notions of personal autonomy, individual choice and self-enhancement, while the second frames decisions in terms of the individual's moral responsibility to the wider collectivity. Here, technical and biomedical interventions on middle-class bodies have personalising tendencies, while those effected on the bodies of the urban poor can be read as modes of inclusion through standardisation. Personalisation, in the Brazilian sense, concerns the attribution of privileges which place a person above the undifferentiated mass of individuals. The paper critically engages with approaches to bio-citizenships developed in contexts where biological inclusion is predicated on patient activism and shows how, in Brazil, complying with medical regimes is an integral part of constituting oneself as a citizen     

Historical trends in frog populations in New Zealand based on public perceptions

Surveys were distributed to New Zealand land users in 1998 and 2008 to acquire information about New Zealand frogs with the aim of compiling and mapping their distribution and inferred population trends without costly and time-consuming field surveys. The overall frog population trend was reported as declining, with possible causes reported as an increase in agriculture, an increase in the distribution of predatory fish and disease. The resultant maps could be used for four main purposes: 1) to identify regions where Litoria populations are known to occur, which can be eliminated when considering suitable regions for translocation of Leiopelma; 2) to identify growing or stable populations of Litoria species, which may assist future disease surveys, population monitoring and to identify sources of genetic material that may serve as an Ark for declining Australian populations; 3) to highlight populations that are in decline to enable effective targeting of detailed disease studies; and 4) to approximate the stability of amphibian populations in the absence of more accurate, but costly, scientific monitoring.     

Direct and indirect photodynamic therapy effects on the cellular and molecular components of the tumor microenvironment

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel cancer treatment. It involves the activation of a photosensitizer (PS) with light of specific wavelength, which interacts with molecular oxygen to generate singlet oxygen and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) that lead to tumor cell death. When a tumor is treated with PDT, in addition to affect cancer cells, the extracellular matrix and the other cellular components of the microenvironment are altered and finally this had effects on the tumor cells survival. Furthermore, the heterogeneity in the availability of nutrients and oxygen in the different regions of a tridimensional tumor has a strong impact on the sensitivity of cells to PDT. In this review, we summarize how PDT affects indirectly to the tumor cells, by the alterations on the extracellular matrix, the cell adhesion and the effects over the immune response. Also, we describe direct PDT effects on cancer cells, considering the intratumoral role that autophagy mediated by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) has on the efficiency of the treatment.     

Dynamics of choice during estimation of subjective value

This study characterized preferential choice in binary trials and investigated intra-session variations in response time (RT). In Experiment 1, participants (N = 77) were asked to choose the preferred of two images of body wash; all unique combinations of 19 images were presented. The results showed: (a) marked and consistent individual preferences for specific stimuli; (b) RT decreased monotonically with increasing exposure to each stimulus; (c) RT decreased exponentially as a function of relative preference ranking of the 2 images in a trial; and (d) a regression model efficiently predicted trial RT as a function of exposure and relative preference. Experiment 2 (N = 112) explored the effect of amount of exposure on RT, and relative preference as a function of the type of choice task (a previously completed vs. a new choice task). The results showed that: (a) within a single choice task, amount of exposure and relative preference between the stimuli predicted the systematic changes in RT observed in Exp. 1; and (b) when the choice task changed, the effects of previous amount of exposure, and relative stimulus preference did not transfer to the new task.     

Toxicity of ethanolic extracts from Lippia origanoides and Gliricidia sepium to Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval) (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Botanical compounds with insecticidal and acaricidal activities have been used in pest management with different levels of success. Toxicity of ethanolic extracts obtained from wild oregano (Lippia origanoides) and gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) to Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval) were evaluated. Mite population was collected from black bean plants growing in Urachiche Municipality, Yaracuy State, Venezuela. Ethanolic extracts of wild oregano and gliricidia leaves were evaluated at different concentrations (5, 10, 15, and 20%) using the leaf disk immersion technique. The presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols and tannins, essential oils and saponins was verified in the plant material used in our study. Tetranychus cinnabarinus oviposition decreased at a rate of 43.7% or 57% when 5% oregano or gliricidia extracts were used, respectively. Also, 10% oregano or gliricidia extracts caused 42.2% or 72.5% of mortality to T. cinnabarinus, respectively. Ethanolic extracts showed acaricidal effects on T. cinnabarinus, as evidenced by maximum mortality (96.6% and 100% caused by wild oregano and gliricidia, respectively) when used at a concentration of 20%. Our results showed that gliricidia and wild oregano are promising for the management of T. cinnabarinus, although their field efficacy remains to be evaluated.     

Isolation and phenotypic characterization of tumor cells of patients with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. It causes approximately 125,000 deaths per year worldwide; its diagnosis is made in advanced stages resulting in a high mortality rate. The objective of the study was optimizing the isolation of cells obtained from the solid tumor and ascitic fluid of patients with ovarian cancer and the phenotype with markers related to the epithelial–mesenchymal transition. For this, the solid tumor tissue was disaggregated and cultivated with different methodologies. As a result, cell growth was obtained and epi-immunofluorescence was performed using antibodies against E-cadherin, EpCAM, N-cadherin, vimentin, CD133, and CD44. The primary culture from the solid tumor was obtained using Dispase II and DMEM/F12. Finally, heterogeneity was detected in terms of the expression of mesenchymal and epithelial type markers in the two types of isolated cells. Additionally, CD133 and CD44 expression was detected, proteins associated with the tumor stem cells phenotype.     

Macromolecular crowding and size effects on probe microviscosity

Development of biologically relevant crowding solutions necessitates improved understanding of how the relative size and density of mobile obstacles affect probe diffusion. Both the crowding density and relative size of each co-solute in a mixture will contribute to the measured microviscosity as assessed by altered translational mobility. Using multiphoton fluorescent correlation spectroscopy, this study addresses how excluded volume of dextran polymers from 10 to 500 kDa affect microviscosity quantified by measurements of calmodulin labeled with green fluorescent protein as the diffusing probe. Autocorrelation functions were fit using both a multiple-component model with maximum entropy method (MEMFCS) and an anomalous model. Anomalous diffusion was not detected, but fits of the data with the multiple-component model revealed separable modes of diffusion. When the dominant mode of diffusion from the MEMFCS analysis was used, we observed that increased excluded volume slows probe mobility as a simple exponential with crowder concentration. This behavior can be modeled with a single parameter, β, which depends on the dextran size composition. Two additional modes of diffusion were observed using MEMFCS and were interpreted as unique microviscosities. The fast mode corresponded to unhindered free diffusion as in buffer, whereas the slower agreed well with the bulk viscosity. At 10% crowder concentration, one finds a microviscosity approximately three times that of water, which mimics that reported for intracellular viscosity.     

From unicellularity to multicellularity - molecular speculations about early animal evolution

A morphological, physiological, developmental, and genetic organization of great complexity ineluctably unfolded from relatively simple phenomena invested with enormous potential. Sometime long ago in the Protererozoic times, parasitic invasions caused lower evolutionary levels to integrate into higher-level selection. Therefore, we have a multi-level selection problem that ultimately revolves around the question of how natural selection among lower-level units acts to create higher-level units of selection, in which Darwinian competition among replicators ceases to be the foremost force. The first level relinquishes its independence for the benefit of a higher-level cooperative force that is now the criterion of fitness for the new transition in the evolutionary process.