Gene expression alterations in the postmortem hippocampus from older patients with bipolar disorder - A hypothesis generating study.

Bipolar disorder (BD) presents with a progressive course in a subset of patients. However, our knowledge of molecular changes in older BD is limited. In this study, we examined gene expression changes in the hippocampus of BD from the Biobank of Aging Studies to identify genes of interest that warrant further exploration. RNA was extracted from the hippocampus from 11 subjects with BD and 11 age and sex-matched controls. Gene expression data was generated using the SurePrint G3 Human Gene Expression v3 microarray. Rank feature selection was performed to identify a subset of features that can optimally differentiate BD and controls. Genes ranked in the top 0.1% with log2 fold change >1.2 were identified as genes of interest. Average age of the subjects was 64 years old; duration of disease was 21 years and 82% were female. Twenty-five genes were identified, of which all but one was downregulated in BD. Of these, CNTNAP4, MAP4, SLC4A1, COBL, and NEURL4 had been associated with BD and other psychiatric conditions in previous studies. We believe our findings have identified promising targets to inform future studies aiming to understand the pathophysiology of BD in later life.

Desidratação da polpa de tamarindo pelo método de camada de espuma / Dehydration of tamarind pulp through the foam-mat drying method

Objetivou-se, no presente trabalho, estudar a cinética de secagem da polpa de tamarindo pelo método de camada de espuma (foam-mat), a 50, 60, 70 e 80 ºC, e avaliar o efeito dessas temperaturas no teor de ácido ascórbico, acidez total titulável e na cor, expressa pelo parâmetro luminosidade (L*) matiz (hº). Para a representação dos dados experimentais da secagem, três modelos matemáticos de camada fina foram aplicados adotando-se como critérios de seleção o coeficiente de determinação (R²) e o desvio quadrático médio (DQM). De acordo com os resultados obtidos, tem-se que a temperatura é um fator determinante no processo de desidratação e que o modelo de Midilli e Kucuk foi o que melhor representa o comportamento das curvas de desidratação. Os melhores resultados para o teor de ácido ascórbico, acidez titulável e cor foram obtidos para as temperaturas de 60 e 70 ºC.

The foam-mat drying process was studied for the tamarind pulp at 50, 60, 70 and 80ºC and the temperature effect on the tamarind powder were evaluated as regards to ascorbic acid content, total titratable acidity and colour, expressed by luminosity (L*) and hue (hº). For the representation of the drying process three models for thin-layer were applied and the criterion of evaluation used were the coefficient of determination (R²) and root mean square error (DQM). According to the results the temperature is a determinant parameter in the drying process, and the Midilli and Kucuk model was the best one to represent the behavior of the drying curves. The best results for ascorbic acid content, titritable acidity and colour were obtained at the temperatures of 60 and 70 ºC.