Discriminação baseada no peso: representações sociais de internautas sobre a gordofobia

The concept of fat phobia has been usually used to define ways of discrimination towards overweight bodies. The present work aimed to know the social representations of fat phobia elaborated by internet users. A documental research was conducted based on internet comments on an article about fat phobia published by the Superinteressante magazine. Selected opinions comprised a textual corpus which was submitted to a lexical analysis through IRAMUTEQ, revealing five thematic classes: (i) "Health as discourse to justify discrimination", (ii) "Fat versus Slim: instituting differences", (iii) "Weight loss: reinforcement versus deconstruction of the standard", (iv) "Fat phobia: invention or reality?" and (v) "Fat phobia and the (in)appropriateness of affirmative actions". Anchored on the technical and scientific argument which affirms that obesity is an epidemic disease, the representations of internet users legitimized discrimination and prejudice processes against overweight people. Moreover, ironic propositions against quota policy for overweight people showed a dissatisfaction about the existence of affirmative actions that promote equality among social groups, ratifying the idea that the privileges cannot be granted to “inferior groups” or depreciated groups, and these groups, in order to be respected by society, should try to fit their bodies into the refined standard. In this context, aiming to make fat phobia an irrelevant topic, disqualifying the magazine’s approach on this topic, representational strategies directed to deny its existence by comparing suffering between groups or setting differences (fats x thins) was observed. Considering the lack of researches about discrimination against overweight in Brazil, other studies on this topic are suggested

Avaliação da atividade antimicrobiana do óleo da macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd. ex. Mart) / Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of macaúba oil (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd. ex. Mart)

Desde o início da civilização, o homem dedicou-se a aprender a cultivar e domesticar espécies de vegetais que pudessem ajudá-lo. A utilização de frutos para extração de óleos vegetais tem aumentado gradativamente e vem substituindo parte do consumo de gorduras animais. Os óleos vegetais são substâncias líquidas insolúveis em água, extraídas de plantas oleaginosas e muito utilizados por vários setores industriais. A macaúba é uma das palmeiras mais promissoras no Brasil como fonte de óleo para indústria farmacêutica, alimentícia e de combustíveis. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a potencialidade do óleo da polpa de macaúba como agente antimicrobiano. Para estudos, foram utilizados 30 frutos coletados na cidade de Parintins, comunidade Zé Açu, Amazonas. Foram realizadas análises biométricas do fruto, composição centesimal da polpa, determinação de características físico-químicas do óleo da polpa e avaliação de atividade antimicrobiana em difusão em ágar para Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli e Candida albicans, todas as análises foram realizadas seguindo normas oficiais.  Os valores para as análises biométricas, composição centesimal e características do óleo encontram-se de acordo com a literatura. O óleo de macaúba apresentou atividade antimicrobiana positiva para E. coli e C. albicans, com diâmetros do halo de 34 mm e 60 mm, respectivamente, e não apresentou inibição frente a S. aureus. Este trabalho demonstrou que não há diferença elevada quanto as características fenotípicas dos frutos e propriedades físico-química da polpa. Quanto as características do óleo, notou-se que este possui grandes aplicações e tem sido alvo de frequentes estudos, apresentando alta potencialidade antimicrobiana, principalmente antifúngica para o micro-organismo utilizado. 

Potencial da extração de óleo essencial assistida por enzimas a partir do Jambu (Spilanthes Oleracea L.)

O jambu é também como agrião-do-para, agrião- do-norte, agrião-do-brasil que é uma planta autóctone (flor nativa da região) encontrada por toda América do Sul onde pode ser encontrada cultivada ou de forme subespontânea, como a folha e os talos são utilizados na culinária, principalmente na região norte, tem um ciclo em cerca de 40 a 75 dias, exige pouca tecnologia para seu manuseio e é muito cultivado por pequenos agricultores. Sua germinação ocorre entre 5 a 7 dias aproximadamente, a colheita na região norte é realizada entre 35 a 50 dias após o plantio. São encontrados óleos essenciais na composição dessa matéria-prima, que são substâncias naturais, ou seja, substâncias sintetizadas, armazenadas e liberadas pelas plantas que podem ser extraídos das folhas, flores, raízes, sementes, frutos e outras partes das plantas. Esses óleos podem ser utilizados como método de controle eficaz, com a redução dos custos, preservação do ambiente e dos alimentos da contaminação química, tornando-se prática adequada à agricultura sustentável. A utilização de enzimas específicas tem função no processo de romper a parede celular do vegetal, facilitando o processo de extração do óleo contido nas “bolsas”, por conta disso, espera-se um aumento no rendimento do óleo essencial. O produto final da extração de óleos essenciais resulta em um produto constituído de material resinoso volátil contendo o princípio ativo característico de cada óleo essencial. Existem vários meios de obter-se o óleo essencial de uma planta em especifica, via destilação a vapor, prensagem a frio, extração por solvente, enfleurage, extração por fluidos supercríticos, e hidrodestilação, onde são formas de extração dependendo do tipo de material que irá utilizar, mas que possuem o mesmo objetivo. O potencial dessa matéria-prima para a bioeconomia é de extrema relevância, e os testes com o uso de enzimas para aumentar o rendimento da extração pode impulsionar os resultados encontrados na literatura

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter