Sao Paulo State University

About: Sao Paulo State University is a education organization based out in São Paulo, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 55715 authors who have published 100436 publications receiving 1375332 citations.

Targeting Plasmodium ligands on mosquito salivary glands and midgut with a phage display peptide library

Abstract: Despite vast efforts and expenditures in the past few decades, malaria continues to kill millions of persons every year, and new approaches for disease control are urgently needed. To complete its life cycle in the mosquito, Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria, has to traverse the epithelia of the midgut and salivary glands. Although strong circumstantial evidence indicates that parasite interactions with the two organs are specific, hardly any information is available about the interacting molecules. By use of a phage display library, we identified a 12-aa peptide—salivary gland and midgut peptide 1 (SM1)—that binds to the distal lobes of the salivary gland and to the luminal side of the midgut epithelium, but not to the midgut surface facing the hemolymph or to ovaries. The coincidence of the tissues with which parasites and the SM1 peptide interact suggested that the parasite and peptide recognize the same surface ligand. In support of this hypothesis, the SM1 peptide strongly inhibited Plasmodium invasion of salivary gland and midgut epithelia. These experiments suggest a new strategy for the genetic manipulation of mosquito vectorial capacity.

Search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Abstract: A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb^(−1) recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The search is sensitive to both the standard model Higgs boson and to the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM). No excess of events is observed in the tau-pair invariant-mass spectrum. For a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range of 110–145 GeV upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on the production cross section are determined. We exclude a Higgs boson with m_H=115 GeV with a production cross section 3.2 times of that predicted by the standard model. In the MSSM, upper limits on the neutral Higgs boson production cross section times branching fraction to tau pairs, as a function of the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass, m_A, sets stringent new bounds in the parameter space, excluding at 95% CL values of tan β as low as 7.1 at m_A=160 GeV in the m^(max)_h benchmark scenario.

Branch and bound algorithm for transmission system expansion planning using a transportation model

Abstract: A method for optimal transmission network expansion planning is presented. The transmission network is modelled as a transportation network. The problem is solved using hierarchical Benders decomposition in which the problem is decomposed into master and slave subproblems. The master subproblem models the investment decisions and is solved using a branch-and-bound algorithm. The slave subproblem models the network operation and is solved using a specialised linear program. Several alternative implementations of the branch-and-bound algorithm have been tested. Special characteristics of the transmission expansion problem have been taken into consideration in these implementations. The methods have been tested on various test systems available in the literature.

Evaluation of skin absorption of drugs from topical and transdermal formulations

Abstract: The skin barrier function has been attributed to the stratum corneum and represents a major challenge in clinical practice pertaining to cutaneous administration of drugs. Despite this, a large number of bioactive compounds have been successfully administered via cutaneous administration because of advances in the design of topical and transdermal formulations. In vitro and in vivo evaluations of these novel drug delivery systems are necessary to characterize their quality and efficacy. This review covers the most well-known methods for assessing the cutaneous absorption of drugs as an auxiliary tool for pharmaceutical formulation scientists in the design of drug delivery systems. In vitro methods as skin permeation assays using Franz-type diffusion cells, cutaneous retention and tape-stripping methods to study the cutaneous penetration of drugs, and in vivo evaluations as pre-clinical pharmacokinetic studies in animal models are discussed. Alternative approaches to cutaneous microdialysis are also covered. Recent advances in research on skin absorption of drugs and the effect of skin absorption enhancers, as investigated using confocal laser scanning microscopy, Raman confocal microscopy, and attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, are reviewed.