Novel Devices for Haptics Repurposing (From Metaverses Towards a Mechanobiological Cancer Treatment)

In the pharmaceutics and drug research fields, the term “repurposing ”refers to the practice of testing the effects of an already assessed drug and its molecules on pathologies different from the one for which the medicine was created. Sometimes, repurposing allows researchers to discover new ways to treat serious pathologies and diseases. For example, thalidomide, initially marketed as a sedative, was later found to be effective in treating multiple myeloma, a type of cancer. Similarly, AZT (Zidovudine), originally developed as a cancer drug, became the first approved treatment for HIV/AIDS. Additionally, technologies can also be repurposed. Extended Realities and their graphic engines, typically used for producing video games, are now being utilized in medicine to visualize 3D models of organs, in factories for training and instructing workers, and in communication to render the body language of companions through avatars, among other applications. In this thesis, the repurposing of haptic technologies will be discussed, drawing from a study of state-of-the-art haptics and notable examples of reusing tactile displays for various applications. Devices for rendering the sense of touch provided by interaction with virtual objects will be presented for their potential applications in enhancing the user experience of metaverses. Tactile displays for kinesthetic and cutaneous stimulation are designed and redesigned to tailor rehabilitation and manual treatment of trauma and chronic pain in human extremities. Finally, a completely innovative use of haptic methods and technologies is proposed as a tool to investigate new therapies for cancer inhibition based on mechanobiology theories. Here, the role of ad-hoc soft haptic technologies as instruments to dissect the relationship between the low recurrence of cancer in the cardiac muscle and the mechanical load of a heartbeat is investigated. All these new application fields will be presented and categorized based on their level of novelty, progressing from haptic technologies enriching metaverse-mediated dialogs with humans and surroundings to the exploration of new treatments for superficial tumors, such as melanoma or breast cancer, based on mimicking the heart pulse on the skin. This work aims to expand the application fields of haptics toward new frontiers of digitality and reality

Meio século de tensões na formação de professores de ciências no Brasil

As orientações que a formação de professores na área de ciências naturais recebeu ao longo dos últimos 50 anos, são focalizadas na perspectiva de explicitar as tensões entre grupos que compõem esse campo social. Para fins de análise foram consideradas basicamente três posições dentro deste campo ocupadas pelas instituições governamentais – tais como o Ministério da Educação e Cultura, os Conselhos de Educação e as Secretarias de Educação –; pela instituição científica representada tanto pela comunidade científica em geral, como por um de seus subgrupos constituído pelos pesquisadores da área de ensino de ciências naturais. A tese que defendemos é que o campo da formação de professores, tomado como campo social em acordo com Bourdieu, caracteriza-se por uma tensão constante entre esses agentes que disputam a prerrogativa de estabelecer as diretrizes para o campo

Tensões na elaboração e implementação do currículo interdisciplinar da licenciatura em ciências na UFPR litoral

Analisa-se a implementação de um currículo interdisciplinar inovador na formação docentes de Ciências. Focam-se as tensões que se estabelecem entre o fundador da instituição, o coordenador e os docentes do curso em três momentos: no primeiro há intenção do diretor e do coordenador para que a proposta seja efetivada, contudo os docentes não estavam a favor de abrir mão de seus conteúdos específicos. No segundo os docentes foram capturados pelo diretor na perspectiva de desenvolver a proposta, porém a proposta elaborada foi rejeitada pelas instâncias superiores da universidade. No terceiro todos alinharam-se, o que deu força para que um projeto novo e mais articulado fosse discutido e redigido e houvesse esforço para sua aprovação

Laboratory instruction and subjectivity

The specific aspects which determined the way some groups of students conducted their work in a university laboratory, made us understand the articulation of these groups´s dynamics, from elements that were beyond the reach of cognition. In more specific terms the conduction and the maintenance of the groups student´s dynamics were explicited based on a intergame between the non conscious strategies, shared anonymously, and the efforts of the individuals in working based on their most objective task. The results and issues we have reached so far, using a reference the work developed by W.R.Bion, with therapeutical groups, gave us the possibility for understanding the dynamics of the student´s experimental work through a new approach that approximates the fields of cognition and subjectivity. This approximation led us to a deeper reflection about the issues which may be involved in the teaching process, particularly in situations which the teacher deals with the class, organised in groups

The experience of a Chemistry teacher educator: analyzing their actions and reflections in a continuing education course

Objetivou-se analisar a experiência de uma formadora num curso de formação continuada para professores de Química, ocorrido numa universidade pública do estado de São Paulo, em 2004. Os dados apresentados surgiram da observação da prática da formadora e de suas reflexões, nas quais ela própria evidencia ideias, conflitos, angústias e impressões sobre suas ações durante o curso. Entre a prática da formadora e suas reflexões, surgem contrastes que irão se tornar nosso foco de investigação. Interpretamos esses contrastes como a atuação de elementos inconscientes que ora favorecem ora dificultam a sua prática e nos mostram que nem sempre a reflexão e a ação atuam na mesma direção. Defendemos uma prática reflexiva mais profunda e questionadora dos sujeitos como possibilidade para produzir melhores efeitos na formação e na atividade docente. Conceitos do referencial teórico psicanalítico de Freud e Lacan serviram de base para a análise dos dados.This paper is meant to analyze a teacher educator's experience when giving a continuing education course for chemistry teachers, held at a public university in São Paulo, in 2004. The information here has resulted from the observation of the teacher educator's performance and her reflections on their own ideas, conflicts, anguish and impressions concerning her actions throughout the course. The contrasts between the educator's practice and her reflections are the focus of this study. Such contrasts are regarded as a result of the presence of unconscious elements that either favor or hinder practice, and show that reflection and action not always lead to the same direction. We believe individuals should be encouraged to take a more questioning and more reflective attitude, enabling better results in teachers' education as well as more effective performance. Data analysis was based on concepts belonging to Freud's and Lacan's psychoanalytic theories

A construção do habitus institucional: história do Instituto de Química da UNESP/Araraquara.

Apresentamos neste texto as principais fases de desenvolvimento do Instituto de\ud Química da UNESP/Araraquara, cuja trajetória tem início com a proposta de\ud atendimento à demanda por formação de professores de química. Ao longo de 50 anos\ud de história a Instituição enfrentou diversos desafios por meio de estratégias que revelam\ud seu habitus. Eles contribuíram para a institucionalização e consolidação de um grande\ud centro de pesquisa, ensino e extensão, embora a formação de professores e a pesquisa\ud em Ensino de Ciências nem sempre tenha encontrado espaço para se desenvolver\ud plenamente. Além de analisar em detalhes o desenvolvimento de uma grande Instituição\ud nossa pesquisa aponta para possibilidades futuras

The Evolution of a Teacher during a training of future-teachers in Chemistry in a socio-environmental perspective

The research aims to interpret the changes in teacher’s beliefs and teaching practice: she was committed to encourage her future teachers to adopt the socio-environmental issues for the development of scientific content in classrooms. The work is an action research conducted by a teacher at a private institution of Higher Education (IHE), in collaboration with other researchers over four years. The analysis used as a reference some concepts of Melanie Klein and the Teacher’s Discourses, drawn from analogies with Lacan’s Discourses. Data analysis allowed raising the difficulties, dilemmas and successes she encountered along the experience, as well as some changes in her educational beliefs and teaching practice. As a result of the process some social and environmental indicators were established which allowed to assess both the evolution of the teacher and the teaching projects of the students

An analysis of a didactical experience in science teacher preparation

What follows is the description of a didactical experience whose results were considered more successful than expected. Future biology teachers not only became involved in the course and learned scientific and pedagogical knowledge, but also changed their relationship with it, assuming the responsability to solve a problem with all they creativity. The experience will be analized and interpreted by means of “quasi-psychoanalytical” categories which consider the changes in the relation between student, teacher and knowledge and the instruments the teacher used to foster them