Traces of the (m)other: deconstructing hegemonic historical narrative in Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona's Os Sertões

This article focuses on the way in which renowned São Paulo-based theatre company Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona deconstructs hegemonic historical narrative in their 2000 - 2007 25 hour-long production of Euclides da Cunha’s seminal Brazilian novel Os sertões (“Rebellion in the Backlands”), an account of the War of Canudos (1896-1897), the first major act of State terrorism carried out by the nascent Brazilian Federal Government on the country’s subaltern population. The Teat(r)o Oficina’s epic adaptation fuses events from the colonial period, the military dictatorship and contemporary 21st Century São Paulo to relate the repetitive cycles of misappropriation, oppression and resistance that have characterized the history of Brazil and its people over the centuries. However, any fatalistic view of victimhood as an essential aspect of Brazilian subjectivity is radically challenged by the vibrant, rhythmic, material impact of the theatrical super-signs underpinning the performance text. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic - the pre-linguistic, illogical, rhythmical materialism of language intimately related to a primordial relationship with the abject mother – I shall suggest that it is the rhythmic, libidinal force of the performance and its extensive use of the cultural manifestations of Brazil’s subaltern population that imbues Os Sertões with the silent presence-as-absence of the abject Brazilian (M)Other – the Black, Indigenous and Mestiza matriarchal line whose alternative discourse is often barred from hegemonic accounts of Brazilian historiography. Her silent heritage is embodied on stage by the members of the Oficina, who reclaim an alienating national heritage for themselves by transforming the often tragic tale of Brazil’s past into a joyous celebration of tenacious vitality

Differential right and left ventricular diastolic tolerance to acute afterload and NCX gene expression in Wistar rats

This study evaluated right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) diastolic tolerance to afterload and SERCA2a, phospholamban and sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX) gene expression in Wistar rats. Time constant tau and end-diastolic pressure-dimension relation (EDPDR) were analyzed in response to progressive RV or LV afterload elevations, induced by beat-to-beat pulmonary trunk or aortic root constrictions, respectively. Afterload elevations decreased LV-tau, but increased RV-tau. Whereas LV-tau analyzed the major course of pressure fall, RV-tau only assessed the last fourth. Furthermore, RV afterload elevations progressively upward shifted RV-EDPDR, whilst LV afterload elevations did not change LV-EDPDR. SERCA2a and phospholamban mRNA were similar in both ventricles. NCX-mRNA was almost 50% lower in RV than in LV. Left ventricular afterload elevations, therefore, accelerated the pressure fall and did not induce diastolic dysfunction, indicating high LV diastolic tolerance to afterload. On the contrary, RV afterload elevations decelerated the late RV pressure fall and induced diastolic dysfunction, indicating small RV diastolic tolerance to afterload. These results support previous findings relating NCX with late Ca2+ reuptake, late relaxation and diastolic dysfunction

Removal Of Cyanobacteria Toxins From Drinking Water By Adsorption On Activated Carbon Fibers

Natural fibers from macadamia nut shell, dried coconut shell endocarp, unripe coconut mesocarp, sugarcane bagasse and pine wood residue were used to prepare activated carbon fibers (ACF) with potential application for removing microcystins. The ACF from pine wood and sugar cane bagasse were used to remove [D-Leucine1 MCYST-LR from water. After 10 minutes of contact time, more than 98% of toxin was removed by the ACF. The microcystin adsorption monolayer, qm, in the ACF recovered 200 and 161 μg.mg-1, with the Langmuir adsorption constant, KL, of 2.33 and 1.23 L.mg-1. Adsorption of [D-Leucine1]MCYST-LR in continuous process was studied for a fixed-bed ACF prepared from coconut shell and sugar cane bagasse and for two commercial activated carbon samples from treatment water plants of two Brazilian hemodialysis centers. Saturation of the beds occurred after 80 to 320 minutes, and the adsorption capacity for that toxin varied from 4.11 to 12.82 μg.mg-1.113371380Honda RY, Mercante CTJ, Vieira JMS, Esteves KE, Cabianca MAA, Azevedo MTP. Cianotoxinas em pesqueiros da região metropolitana de São Paulo. In: Esteves KE, Sant'Anna CL. (Org.). Pesqueiros sob uma visão integrada de meio ambiente, saúde pública e manejo. São Carlos: Rima2006. p. 105-120Sant'anna, C.L., Azevedo, M.T.D., Contribution to the knowledge of potentially toxic Cyanobacteria from Brazil (2000) Nova Hedwigia, 71 (3-4), pp. 359-385Landsberg, J.H., The effects of harmful algal blooms on aquatic organisms (2002) Reviews in Fisheries Science, 10 (2), pp. 113-390Hoffman, J.R.H., Removal of Microcystis toxins in water purification process (1976) Water S.A, 2 (2), pp. 58-60Keijola, A.M., Himberg, K., Esala, A.L., Sivonen, K., Hiisvirta, L., Removal of cyanobacterial toxins in water-treatment processes - laboratory and pilot-scale experiments (1988) Toxicity Assessment, 3 (5), pp. 643-656Falconer, I.R., Runnegar, M.T.C., Buckley, T., Huyn, V.L., Bradshaw, P., Use of powdered and granular activated carbon to remove toxicity from drinking water containing cyanobacterial toxins (1989) Journal American Water Works Association, 18 (2), pp. 102-105Himberg, K., Keijola, A.M., Hiisvirta, L., Pyysalo, H., Sivonen, K., The effect of water treatment processes on the removal of hepatotoxins from Microcystis and Oscillatoria cyanobacteria: A laboratory study (1988) Water Research, 23 (8), pp. 979-984Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior do Brasil (2005) Importation and exportation of activated carbon from Brazil, , http://aliceweb.desenvolvimento.gov.br, BRASIL, Available from:, Accessed on: JanuaryMatthiensen, A., Beattie, K.A., Yunes, J.S., Kaya, K., Codd, G.A., D-Leu(1) microcystin-LR, from the cyanobacterium Microcystis RST 9501 and from a Microcystis bloom in the Patos Lagoon estuary, Brazil (2000) Phytochemistry, 55 (5), pp. 383-387Oliveira, A.C.R., Magalhães, S.V.F., Soares, R.M., Azevedo, S.M.F.O., Influence of drinking water composition on quantitation and biological activity of dissolved microcystin (Cyanotoxin) (2005) Environmental toxicology, 20 (2), pp. 126-130Albuquerque-Jr, E.C., Mendez, M.O., Coutinho, A.R., Franco, T.T., Production and characterization of activated carbon from Brazilian agricultural residues (2005) Proceedings of the third Brazilian Carbono Congress, pp. 401-410. , Castro AT ed, November 7-11Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Department of Science and Thecnology and Thecnological Center of the Brazilian Army;Webb, P.A., Orr, C., Surface area and pore structure by gas adsorption (1997) Analytical methods in fine particle technology, , Atlanta: Micromeritics Instrument Corp. Atlanta;, 301 pKuroda EK, Albuquerque-Jr EC, Di Bernardo L, Trofino JC. Caracteriza&ão e escolha do tipo de carvão ativado a ser empregado no tratamento de aguas contendo microcistinas. In: Brazilian Association of Sanitation and Environmental Engineering (ed.). Brazilian Environmental Sanitation: utopia or reality? Proceedings of the twentieth third Brazilian Congrees of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering2005 18-23Mato Grosso, Brazil. Campo Grande: Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering2005. p. 1-10Albuquerque-Jr EC, Melo LFC, Franco TT. Use of solid-phase extraction, high-performance liquid chromatography, and MALDI-TOF identification for [D-Leu1]MCYST-LR analysis in treated water: Validation of the analytical methodology. Canadian Journal of Analytical Sciences & Spectroscopy. 200752(1). (in press)Ruthven, D.M., Goddard, M., Sorption and diffusion of C-8 aromatic-hydrocarbons in faujasite type zeolites. 1. equilibrium isotherms and separation factors (1986) Zeolites, 6 (4), pp. 275-282Ho, Y.S., McKay, G., Pseudo-second order model for sorption processes (1999) Process. Biochem, 34 (5), pp. 451-465Ho, Y.S., McKay, G., Kinetic models for the sorption of dye from aqueous solution by wood (1998) J. Environ. Sci. Health Part B: Process Safety Environ. Protect, 76 (B2), pp. 183-191Low, M.J.D., Kinetics of chemisorption of gases on solids (1960) Chem. Rev, 60 (3), pp. 267-312Chien, S.H., Clayton, W.R., Application of Elovich equation to the kinetics of phosphate release and sorption in soils (1980) Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J, 44 (2), pp. 265-268Santos, E.S., Guirardello, R., Franco, T.T., Preparative chromatography of xylanase using expanded bed adsorption (2002) Journal of chromatography A, 944 (1-2), pp. 217-224Barros, M.A.S.D., Zola, A.S., Arroyo, P.A., Aguiar, E.F.S., Tavares, C.R.G., Equilibrium and dynamic ion exchange studies of Cr3+ on zeolites NaA and NaX (2002) Acta Scientiarum, 24 (6), pp. 1619-1625Geankoplis, C.J., (2003) Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles, , 4 ed. USA: PTR Prentice Hall;Quinlivan, P.A., Li, L., Knappe, D.R.U., Effects of activated carbon characteristics on the simultaneous adsorption of aqueous organic micropollutants and natural organic matter (2005) Water Research, 39 (8), pp. 1663-1673Donati, C., Drikas, M., Hayes, R., Newcombe, G., Microcystin-LR adsorption by powdered activated carbon (1994) Water Research, 28 (8), pp. 1735-1742Pendleton, P., Schumann, R., Wong, S.H., Microcystin-LR adsorption by activated carbon (2001) Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 240 (1), pp. 1-8Toles, C.A., Marshall, W.E., Johns, M.M., Surface functional groups on acid-activated nutshell carbons (1999) Carbon, 37 (8), pp. 1207-1214Mcdermott, C.M., Feola, R., Plude, J., Detection of cyanobacterial toxins (microcystins) in waters of northeastern Wisconsin by a new immunoassay technique (1995) Toxicon, 33 (11), pp. 1433-1442Ueno, Y., Nagata, S., Tsutsumi, T., Hasegawa, A., Yoshida, F., Suttajit, M., Mebs, D., Vasconcelos, V., Survey of microcystins in environmental water by a highly sensitive immunoassay based on monoclonal antibody (1996) Natural toxins, 4 (6), pp. 271-276Sivonen, K., Jones, G., Cyanobacterial toxins (1999) Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water, pp. 55-124. , A guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management, and, ed, Routledge, UK: E&FN Spon;Robillot, C., Vinh, J., Puiseux-Dao, S., Hennion, M.C., Hepatotoxin Production Kinetics of the Cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7820, as Determined by HPLC-Mass Spectrometry and Protein Phosphatase Bioassay (2000) Environmental Science & Technology, 34 (16), pp. 3372-3378Pyo, D., Moon, D., Adsorption of microcystin LR by activated carbon fibers (2005) Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 26 (12), pp. 2089-2092Yan, H., Gong, A., He, H., Zhou, J., Wei, Y., Lv, L., Adsorption of microcystins by carbon nanotubes (2006) Chemosphere, 62 (1), pp. 142-148Mohamed, Z.A., Carmichael, W.W., An, J., El-Sharouny, H.M., Activated carbon removal efficiency of microcystins in an aqueous cell extract of Microcystis aeruginosa and Oscillatoria tenuis strains isolated from Egyptian freshwaters (1999) Environmental toxicology, 14 (1), pp. 197-20

As disputas regionais no Brasil do ponto de vista de São Paulo

Resenha de: WEISTEIN, Bárbara. A cor da modernidade: a branquitude e a formação da identidade paulista. São Paulo: Edusp, 2022. 655 p

Differential right and left ventricular diastolic tolerance to acute afterload and NCX gene expression in Wistar rats

This study evaluated right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) diastolic tolerance to afterload and SERCA2a, phospholamban and sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX) gene expression in Wistar rats. Time constant tau and end-diastolic pressure-dimension relation (EDPDR) were analyzed in response to progressive RV or LV afterload elevations, induced by beat-to-beat pulmonary trunk or aortic root constrictions, respectively. Afterload elevations decreased LV-tau, but increased RV-tau. Whereas LV-tau analyzed the major course of pressure fall, RV-tau only assessed the last fourth. Furthermore, RV afterload elevations progressively upward shifted RV-EDPDR, whilst LV afterload elevations did not change LV-EDPDR. SERCA2a and phospholamban mRNA were similar in both ventricles. NCX-mRNA was almost 50% lower in RV than in LV. Left ventricular afterload elevations, therefore, accelerated the pressure fall and did not induce diastolic dysfunction, indicating high LV diastolic tolerance to afterload. On the contrary, RV afterload elevations decelerated the late RV pressure fall and induced diastolic dysfunction, indicating small RV diastolic tolerance to afterload. These results support previous findings relating NCX with late Ca2+ reuptake, late relaxation and diastolic dysfunction

UNIVERSIDADE: UMA ORGANIZAÇÃO BUROCRÁTICA OU UM SISTEMA POLÍTICO ?

O estudo da gestão universitária tem suscitado nos meios acadêmicos uma grande controvérsia. Muitos gestores tentam implementar estruturas, sistemas e métodos utilizados na gestão empresarial. Os defensores dessa orientação entendem a universidade como uma organização burocrática, de forma semelhante a empresas e órgãos públicos. Este artigo pretende questionar essa concepção e propor uma alternativa para se conceber a universidade que demanda estruturas, sistemas de gestão e métodos organizacionais e de trabalho diferenciados dos dominantes nas burocracias, tanto públicas como privadas e tanto tradicionais como modernas. A universidade, ainda que pese seu caráter de aparelho ideológico do Estado e, particularmente no Brasil, a influência de uma cultura marcada pela submissão e dependência, é a instituição que melhor pode, democraticamente, promover a produção e disseminação do conhecimento e assumir, no mais alto nível, um papel crítico na sociedade. Estas unidades sociais com finalidades científicas e educacionais assumem o caráter de uma organização burocrática. A universidade é vista como um tipo singular de organização que exige uma concepção própria, diferenciada da maioria das organizações que são empresariais. A universidade exige uma concepção organizacional específica diferenciada das demais organizações empresariais ou burocracias públicas, bem como, que existe um corpo de fundamentos conceituais que permitem o delineamento de uma estrutura organizacional diferenciada. As universidades são organizações que possuem estruturas complexas, nas quais as pressões exercidas para a tomada de decisão estão diluídas em todos os níveis da organização, através de vários conselhos e colegiados. O caráter pedagógico do processo de produção e disseminação do conhecimento acarreta em termos organizacionais para a universidade a valorização do corpo operacional. A especificidade da universidade faz com que a mesma assemelhe-se muito mais a um sistema político do que com uma organização burocrática. Conclui-se, portanto que as universidades demandam estruturas, sistemas e métodos diferenciados daqueles desenvolvidos nas burocracias tradicionais. Seus dirigentes, além das competências para gestão, comuns às demais organizações necessitam de conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes inerentes a sistemas políticos, porque a universidade, como aqui procurou-se demonstrar, é muito mais um sistema político do que uma organização burocrática

Ventricular BNP gene expression in acute cardiac overload

INTRODUCTION:B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) plasma levels have important diagnostic and prognostic implications in heart failure (HF). Recently, aside from its natriuretic effect, antiproliferative and antifibrotic actions of BNP on the cardiovascular system have been described. Under physiological conditions the atria are the main source of this peptide, while its ventricular expression is still controversial. The aim of this work was to evaluate, in an animal model, the ventricular expression of BNP in normal hearts, at baseline and under acute cardiac overload.METHODS:Anesthetized open chest male Wistar rats (n=18) were instrumented with a micromanometer in the right ventricular cavity for pressure assessment. Randomization for three different protocols was then performed: (i) pressure overload for a period of 6 hours (SPr; n = 6), by pulmonary trunk banding, in order to double basal right ventricular systolic pressure; (ii) volume overload with a six-hour perfusion of Dextran 40 (SVol; n = 6), to raise end-diastolic right ventricular pressure fourfold; (iii) sham operated rats (n = 6). Transmural samples from the right ventricular free wall were then obtained for quantification of BNP mRNA by RT and quantitative real-time PCR. The results are expressed as mean+/-SEM (number molecules of mRNA BNP)/(ng total mRNA); p < 0.05.RESULTS:A basal expression of BNP was identified in the sham group (3.6x10(7) +/- 1.7x10(7)). BNP mRNA levels were elevated in both the SPr and SVol groups (+123.1 +/- 46.3% SPr and +171.6 +/- 87.7% SVol).CONCLUSIONS:Acute cardiac pressure and volume overload are associated with increased ventricular BNP gene expression. Our results suggest that BNP may be involved in early ventricular remodeling