Universidade Federal de Santa Maria

About: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria is a education organization based out in Santa Maria, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Oxidative stress. The organization has 21178 authors who have published 35632 publications receiving 371665 citations.

Organoselenium and Organotellurium Compounds: Toxicology and Pharmacology

Abstract: The organoselenium and organotellurium compounds have been described as promising pharmacological agents in view of their unique biological properties. Glutathione peroxidase mimic, antioxidant activity and thioredoxin reductase inhibition are some of the properties reviewed here. On the other hand, little is known about the molecular toxicological effects of organoselenium and organotellurium compounds. Most of our knowledge arose from research on inorganic selenium and tellurium. However, the ability to oxidize sulfhydryl groups from biological molecules can be involved both in their pharmacological properties and in their toxicological effects. In fact, exposition to high doses of organoselenium or to low doses of organotellurium causes the depletion of endogenous reduced glutathione in a variety of tissues. Thus, the design of compounds that cause low depletion of glutathione and react with specific targeted proteins, controlling specific metabolic pathways, will represent an important progress in understanding the field of organochalcogen compounds. Furthermore, the development of new organochalcogens with higher thiol-peroxidase activity that can use other non-toxic thiol reducing agents, such as N-acetylcysteine instead of glutathione, will permit the investigation of the co-administration of organochalcogens and thiols as a formulation for antioxidant therapy.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies and the Distant Universe

Abstract: We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

Abstract: The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since 2014 July. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes the data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (2014-2016 July) public. Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey; the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data-driven machine-learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from the SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS web site (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020 and will be followed by SDSS-V.