Essential hypertension is a disease multifactorially triggered by genetic and environmental factors. The contribution of genetic polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and clinical risk factors to the development of resistant hypertension was evaluated in 90 hypertensive patients and in 115 normotensive controls living in Southwestern Brazil. Genotyping for insertion/deletion of angiotensin-converting enzyme, angiotensinogen M235T, angiotensin II type 1 receptor A1166C, aldosterone synthase C344T, and mineralocorticoid receptor A4582C polymorphisms was performed by PCR, with further restriction analysis when required. The influence of genetic polymorphisms on blood pressure variation was assessed by analysis of the odds ratio, while clinical risk factors were evaluated by logistic regression. Our analysis indicated that individuals who carry alleles 235-T, 1166-A, 344-T, or 4582-C had a significant risk of developing resistant hypertension (P < 0.05). Surprisingly, when we tested individuals who carried the presumed risk genotypes A1166C, C344T, and A4582C we found that these genotypes were not associated with resistant hypertension. However, a gradual increase in the risk to develop resistant hypertension was detected when the 235-MT and TT genotypes were combined with one, two or three of the supposedly more vulnerable genotypes - A1166C (AC/AA), C344T (TC/TT) and A4582C (AC/CC). Analysis of clinical parameters indicated that age, body mass index and gender contribute to blood pressure increase (P < 0.05). These results suggest that unfavorable genetic renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system patterns and clinical risk variables may contribute to increasing the risk for the development of resistant hypertension in a sample of the Brazilian population.

A preparação de filme cerâmico granular compósito NiO-YSZ por deposição a jato de suspensão exige rigoroso controle das variáveis de processamento, especialmente a reologia da suspensão devido sua importância tanto na viabilização do processo de deposição como na definição da microestrutura do filme final. Neste trabalho foi estudado como as variáveis de formulação da suspensão afetam sua viscosidade e a microestrutura do filme granular. Foram escolhidas seis variáveis de formulação: teor de sólidos, razão em massa dos componentes NiO e YSZ, granulometria do NiO, teor de dispersante, tipo do modificador reologico e misturas de solventes. O efeito dessas variáveis sobre a reologia da suspensão foi avaliado com base no modelo de Mooney para suspensões concentradas. O planejamento fatorial fracionário foi escolhido como ferramenta estatística de avaliação dos efeitos das variáveis de formulação. Foi observado que os defeitos no filme granular são gerados durante o processo de secagem e ocorrem devido à seleção incorreta de aditivos de formulação da suspensão.

The preparation of granular composite NiO-YSZ ceramic films, prepared by slurry spraying, demands rigorous control of processing variables, specially the slurry rheology due to its influence on the deposition process as well as on the film microstructure. This paper studied the influence of suspension formulation on both rheological behavior and microstructure of granular film. The following variables were chosen to prepare the suspensions: solid concentration, the NiO/YSZ mass proportion, NiO particle size, dispersant amount, kind of rheological changer, and mixture of solvents. The effect of these variables on the suspension rheology was analyzed considering the Mooney’s model for concentrated suspension. By using factorial fractional design it was possible to evaluate the formulation variables effects. It was determined that the defects present on the granular film are generated during the drying process and they happen due to wrong addictive choice.

Using Monte Carlo simulations we have investigated the critical behavior of the classical fully frustrated XY model in two dimensions in a square lattice. There are two phase transitions in the model, one of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type and a Z2 transition at higher temperature. We show that the vortex anti-vortex density has a clear signature of the Z2 phase transition at exactly the percolation threshold.