Universidade Estadual de Londrina

About: Universidade Estadual de Londrina is a education organization based out in Londrina, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 13052 authors who have published 19291 publications receiving 212123 citations.

Familial spongiform encephalopathy associated with a novel prion protein gene mutation

Abstract: Human prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, fatal familial insomnia, and kuru. Each of these diseases has a specific clinical presentation while spongiform encephalopathy, neuronal loss, and gliosis are their neuropathological hallmarks. We studied a Brazilian family with an autosomal dominant form of dementia. Nine members of the family were affected by a dementia with frontotemporal clinical features, with a mean age at onset of 44.8 ± 3.8 years and a mean duration of symptoms of 4.2 ± 2.4 years. Neuropathological examination of 3 patients showed severe spongiform change and neuronal loss in the deep cortical layers and in the putamen, but minimal gliosis in the most severely affected areas. The putamen and cerebellum, but not other areas of the affected brain, displayed prion protein immunoreactivity. A novel prion protein gene mutation causing a nonconservative substitution at codon 183 was identified in 2 neuropathologically confirmed affected individuals (mother and son). The mutation was transmitted in a mendelian fashion to 12 members of the family. Therefore, we identified a novel prion disease variant characterized by an early onset and long duration of the symptoms, severe spongiform change with minimal gliosis, associated with a prion protein gene mutation at codon 183.

Pathophysiology of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Abstract: Gastroesophageal reflux disease pathophysiology is multifactorial and linked to a misbalance between the aggressiveness of the refluxate into the esophagus or adjacent organs and the failure of protective mechanisms associate or not to a defective valvular mechanism at the level of the esophagogastric junction incapable of dealing with a transdiaphragmatic pressure gradient. Antireflux mechanisms include the lower esophageal sphincter and abdominal esophagus, the diaphragm, the angle of His, the Gubaroff valve, and the phrenoesophageal membrane. Protective mechanisms include esophageal motility, saliva production, and epithelial protection. Disruption of this balance occurs most commonly due to the presence of a hiatal hernia, esophageal dysmotility, a rise in abdominal pressure (obesity), and decrease in thoracic pressure (chronic lung diseases).

Rates of decay to weak thermoelastic Bresse system

Abstract: We consider the Bresse system with temperature and we show that there exist exponential stability if and only if the wave propagation is equal. We show that, in general, the system is not exponentially stable but that there exists polynomial stability with rates that depend on the wave propagations and the regularity of the initial data. Moreover, we introduce a necessary condition to dissipative semi-group decay polynomially. This result allows us to show some optimality to the polynomial rate of decay.

SANTOS, Boaventura de Souza; AVRITZER, Leonardo. Para ampliar o cânone democrático. In: SANTOS, Boaventura de Souza (Org.). Democratizar a Democracia: os caminhos da democracia participativa. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2002.

Abstract: SANTOS, Boaventura de Souza; AVRITZER, Leonardo. Para ampliar o cânone democratico. In: SANTOS, Boaventura de Souza (Org.). Democratizar a Democracia: os caminhos da democracia participativa. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizacao Brasileira, 2002.