Astrocytes provide an optimal surface for attachment, migration, and growth of CNS neurons. Nonetheless, not all astrocytes are alike: our previous work demonstrated a heterogeneity in the ability of cultured astrocyte monolayers to support neuronal growth. Areas displaying a fibrous, uneven surface ("rocky" astrocytes) were shown to be restrictive substrates, whereas surrounding, flat areas we...

Introduction: Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a tick-borne disease that can be potentially lethal if left untreated. Its causative agent Rickettsia rickettsii is a gram negative intracellular bacterium that is known to have a tropism for vascular endothelial cells. Classic symptoms of RMSF include fever; which is almost always present, headaches and rash. However, all of these diagnostic...

The observed Hot Jupiters exhibit a wide range of physical properties. For a given mass, many planets have inflated radii, while others are surprisingly compact and may harbor large central cores. Motivated by this observational sample, this thesis considers the possible effects from collisions between Jovian planets and smaller rocky planets, and investigates whether these radius anomalies cou...

Odonate larvae were collected at 127 sites in the Enoree River and nine of its tributaries in the summers of 1999 and 2000. Mean odonate abundance, species richness, and Simpson’s diversity were compared across tributaries and the main channel of the Enoree River with one-way ANOVA. These indices were significantly lower in Brushy Creek, Rocky Creek, and the Upper Enoree than in the other strea...

Understanding the influence of habitat alteration on population structure and persistence is critical for effective conservation strategies. Timber harvest and wildfire are two of the most prevalent disturbances across temperate forests, yet the long-term effects of these two forces on population connectivity have rarely been studied. We studied populations of the Rocky Mountain tailed frog (As...

The integration of fossil and molecular data can provide a synthetic understanding of the ecological and evolutionary history of an organism. We analysed range-wide maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA and paternally inherited chloroplast DNA sequence data with coalescent simulations and traditional population genetic methods to test hypotheses of population divergence generated from the foss...

Introduction: The dwarf planet Ceres has a diameter of ~950 km, and it is the largest object in the asteroid belt. Ceres has a density of ~2040-2250 kg m, and a dark non-icy surface with signs of hydrated minerals [1-5]. The low density implies that Ceres contains a significant fraction of voids and/or low-density compounds. These compounds could be presented by hydrated and OH-bearing minerals...

1. Divisão de Pneumologia, Instituto do Coração, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (SP) Brasil. In the last 20 years, there has been a significant, progressive decline in the prevalence of smoking in both genders, worldwide(1) and in Brazil,(2) where that decline has been more pronounced. From 1980 to 2012, the worldwide prevalence declined from 41.2% to 31.1% in men...

1. Laboratório do Sono, Disciplina de Pneumologia, Instituto do Coração, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (SP) Brasil. Sleep medicine is a relatively new discipline that has begun to consolidate as an important area of activity for pulmonologists, in Brazil as well as in the rest of the world. The JBP has been a part of this transformation, as e...