Memory effects on the statistics of fragmentation

We investigate through extensive molecular dynamics simulations the fragmentation process of two-dimensional Lennard-Jones systems. After thermalization, the fragmentation is initiated by a sudden increment to the radial component of the particles' velocities. We study the effect of temperature of the thermalized system as well as the influence of the impact energy of the ``explosion'' event on the statistics of mass fragments. Our results indicate that the cumulative distribution of fragments follows the scaling ansatz $F(m)\propto m^{-\alpha}\exp{[-(m/m_0)^\gamma]}$, where $m$ is the mass, $m_0$ and $\gamma$ are cutoff parameters, and $\alpha$ is a scaling exponent that is dependent on the temperature. More precisely, we show clear evidence that there is a characteristic scaling exponent $\alpha$ for each macroscopic phase of the thermalized system, i.e., that the non-universal behavior of the fragmentation process is dictated by the state of the system before it breaks down.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

Plurality Voting: the statistical laws of democracy in Brazil

We explore the statistical laws behind the plurality voting system by investigating the election results for mayor held in Brazil in 2004. Our analysis indicate that the vote partition among mayor candidates of the same city tends to be "polarized" between two candidates, a phenomenon that can be closely described by means of a simple fragmentation model. Complex concepts like "government continuity" and "useful vote" can be identified and even statistically quantified through our approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

O papel da comunicação interna na Gestão Pública Legislativa: um estudo de caso da Câmara Legislativa do DF

O Poder Legislativo vem acordando para a necessidade de modernizar sua gestão, como mostram as iniciativas de algumas casas legislativas que vêm adotando o planejamento estratégico como meio para melhorar sua administração interna, os serviços prestados à população e a própria produção parlamentar. Estudo encomendado pela Assembleia Legislativa de Minas Gerais, entre outros, mostra que essa é uma tendência internacional, aliada à maior transparência no exercício da atividade legislativa e a uma melhor interlocução entre a sociedade e seus representantes no Parlamento. Este trabalho relata a experiência de uma profissional de comunicação como membro do comitê que elaborou o planejamento estratégico da Câmara Legislativa do Distrito Federal, ao mesmo tempo fazendo a comunicação do processo, com objetivo de obter a mais ampla possível participação dos servidores da Casa. É um estudo de caso resultante da técnica da observação participante e de ampla pesquisa bibliográfica sobre comunicação pública, comunicação organizacional e comunicação interna, com a finalidade de averiguar como a comunicação interna pode contribuir com o sucesso do planejamento estratégico e com a qualificação da gestão legislativa e da gestão pública de modo geral. Ao final do trabalho, a pesquisadora propõe diretrizes e um plano de comunicação interna para a Câmara Legislativa, uma das primeiras casas legislativas a buscar modernizar sua gestão por meio do planejamento estratégico, processo obrigatório, hoje, em todos os tribunais de Justiça e adotado em larga escala pelos tribunais de contas do País. O plano de comunicação interna se propõe a motivar os servidores para atender às demandas de um Poder Legislativo mais participativo e aberto à fiscalização da sociedade. Por meio desse plano, do estudo de caso e da pesquisa bibliográfica, a autora espera ter contribuído para os debates sobre a modernização do Poder Legislativo e mostrado como a comunicação interna pode ter um papel importante nesse processo

The Effects of Infection on Mosquito Rhythmic Behavior

Most organisms live in a rhythmic world, where daily environmental variation has a profound effect on their behavior and physiology. In addition to abiotic influence, interactions with other organisms that have their own particular cycles are also part of circadian rhythm formation. In this chapter, we present aspects of the biology of mosquito vectors, more precisely Aedes aegypti, which is a vector of arboviruses of great epidemiological importance, like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. The successful transmission of the virus depends on the coordination of several behavioral and physiological traits involved in the virus-vector-host interaction. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of endogenous control of rhythmic traits of the mosquito vector and the impact that both environmental variation and virus infection can have on this regulation is key for a reliable estimate of the vectorial capacity. We discuss the infection-driven changes in traits used to calculate parameters of the vectorial capacity, and finally, we review the current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms underlying vector rhythmic behavior and the potential cellular targets of arbovirus infection

L’effet des hormones sexuelles sur l’efficacité de VSVΔ51 en tant que virus oncolytique pour le traitement du cancer du sein

Le cancer du sein est le type de cancer le plus commun chez les femmes, toutefois, certaines tumeurs demeurent difficilement traitables; le développement de métastases et la résistance aux traitements offerts diminuent davantage l’espérance de vie des patients. Il est donc impératif de trouver de nouvelles méthodes pour combattre le cancer. Les virus oncolytiques sont une solution très prometteuse. Ce traitement révolutionne l’oncologie notamment par sa spécificité aux cellules cancéreuses (peu toxique) et l’implication du système immunitaire du patient (protection contre les récidives). Notre virus modèle est un mutant du virus de la stomatite vésiculaire qui cible et détruit les cellules cancéreuses tout en épargnant les cellules saines. Le défi actuel est d’identifier les facteurs influençant l’efficacité du traitement, car ce ne sont pas tous les cancers qui répondent de manière optimale aux virus oncolytiques. De nombreux facteurs présents dans le micro-environnement tumoral ont le potentiel d’influencer la réplication virale et pourraient donc être manipulés au bénéfice de la thérapie, comme les hormones produites par le corps. De nombreux résultats obtenus par notre laboratoire démontrent que l'estrogène promeut la réplication virale et la mort cellulaire des cellules tumorales en sensibilisant la cellule cancéreuse à l’infection virale, et que l’expression du récepteur d’estrogène indique un pronostique positif pour la virothérapie du cancer du sein. Par ailleurs, des résultats cliniques ont démontré le potentiel d’un traitement combinant la testostérone et un inhibiteur d’aromatase (enzyme qui transforme la testostérone en estrogène) dans lequel la tumeur a diminué après seulement deux semaines de traitement et des résultats de notre laboratoire démontrent que la testostérone améliore notre virothérapie. Notre hypothèse est que certaines hormones ont la capacité de moduler l’infection virale et pourront être exploitées pour favoriser la thérapie du cancer par les virus oncolytiques. Nos résultats pourront guider de futures combinaisons de virus oncolytiques avec des traitements ou supplémentations hormonaux afin de maximiser les bénéfices cliniques.Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in Canada and yet, the treatments that are currently available are aggressive and won’t treat the disease completely, a lot of tumours remain incurable. Therefore, it’s crucial to find new innovative alternatives to fight aggressive forms of breast cancer that remain hardly treatable by current standards of care, and oncolytic viruses are very promising assets. This treatment revolutionizes cancer therapy by directly killing tumour cells (with a high safety profile) and harnesses the patient’s immune system, avoiding future relapses. Unfortunately, not all cancers are sensitive to oncolytic virotherapy, and one important current challenge is to identify factors influencing treatment efficacy. As such, many factors, like hormones, present in the tumour microenvironment have the potential to impact viral replication and could potentially be manipulated to the benefit of the therapy. Data obtained in our laboratory demonstrate that estrogen promotes viral replication and tumour cell killing and that the expression of the estrogen receptor predicts successful outcome upon viral therapy in breast cancer. Furthermore, clinical studies have shown the potential of a combination of testosterone and aromatase inhibitor (inhibits the transformation of testosterone in estrogen), in which significant tumour regression was observed after 2 weeks of treatment and we have data showing that testosterone improves oncolytic virotherapy. Different hormones have been shown to have an impact on either breast cancer or viral replication and could possibly affect our virotherapy’s efficacy. Here, our hypothesis is that different hormones have viral-modulating effects and that these effects could be exploited to improve the efficacy of oncolytic virotherapy against breast cancer

Fine-scale genetic mapping of a hybrid sterility factor between Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana: the varied and elusive functions of "speciation genes"

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hybrid male sterility (HMS) is a usual outcome of hybridization between closely related animal species. It arises because interactions between alleles that are functional within one species may be disrupted in hybrids. The identification of genes leading to hybrid sterility is of great interest for understanding the evolutionary process of speciation. In the current work we used marked <it>P</it>-element insertions as dominant markers to efficiently locate one genetic factor causing a severe reduction in fertility in hybrid males of <it>Drosophila simulans </it>and <it>D. mauritiana</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our mapping effort identified a region of 9 kb on chromosome 3, containing three complete and one partial coding sequences. Within this region, two annotated genes are suggested as candidates for the HMS factor, based on the comparative molecular characterization and public-source information. Gene <it>Taf1 </it>is partially contained in the region, but yet shows high polymorphism with four fixed non-synonymous substitutions between the two species. Its molecular functions involve sequence-specific DNA binding and transcription factor activity. Gene <it>agt </it>is a small, intronless gene, whose molecular function is annotated as methylated-DNA-protein-cysteine S-methyltransferase activity. High polymorphism and one fixed non-synonymous substitution suggest this is a fast evolving gene. The gene trees of both genes perfectly separate <it>D. simulans </it>and <it>D. mauritiana </it>into monophyletic groups. Analysis of gene expression using microarray revealed trends that were similar to those previously found in comparisons between whole-genome hybrids and parental species.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The identification following confirmation of the HMS candidate gene will add another case study leading to understanding the evolutionary process of hybrid incompatibility.</p

Trajetória : um Olhar Fotográfico Sobre Imagem Identidade

Orientação: Gisele Klieman

Relibrim : memórias em quadrinhos

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Comunicação, Departamento de Audiovisuais e Publicidade, Habilitação em Publicidade e Propaganda, 2019.O presente memorial foi realizado como forma de documentar as etapas de elaboração de uma história em quadrinhos, enquanto produto comunicacional, envolvendo as temáticas da avosidade, memória e laços intergeracionais em sua narrativa. Foram investigados os conceitos supracitados e o emprego das ferramentas e linguagens da arte sequencial. O produto final originado foi a HQ Relibrim, cuja construção gira em torno da protagonista Ana em uma jornada de reconexão com sua memórias de infância.This memorial was written as a way to document the phases of a comic book elaboration as a communication product, involving memora subjects and intergenerational bonds between grandmother and grandchild in it’s narrative. The concepts above mentioned, were investigated together with the application of tools and language common in sequential art. The final product originated by this study was the comic book Relibrim, wich the narrative revolves around the protagonist Ana and her journey through a reconnection with her childhood memories

A Sex-Ratio Meiotic Drive System in Drosophila Simulans. I: An Autosomal Suppressor

Sex ratio distortion (sex-ratio for short) has been reported in numerous species such as Drosophila, where distortion can readily be detected in experimental crosses, but the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here we characterize an autosomal sex-ratio suppressor from D. simulans that we designate as not much yang (nmy, polytene chromosome position 87F3). Nmy suppresses an X-linked sex-ratio distorter, contains a pair of near-perfect inverted repeats of 345 bp, and evidently originated through retrotransposition from the distorter itself. The suppression is likely mediated by sequence homology between the suppressor and distorter. The strength of sex-ratio is greatly enhanced by lower temperature. This temperature sensitivity was used to assign the sex-ratio etiology to the maturation process of the Y-bearing sperm, a hypothesis corroborated by both light microscope observations and ultrastructural studies. It has long been suggested that an X-linked sex-ratio distorter can evolve by exploiting loopholes in the meiotic machinery for its own transmission advantage, which may be offset by other changes in the genome that control the selfish distorter. Data obtained in this study help to understand this evolutionary mechanism in molecular detail and provide insight regarding its evolutionary impact on genomic architecture and speciation.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

A proteção ao trade dress no direito brasileiro

A presente monografia pretende definir e contextualizar o trade dress no ordenamento jurídico pátrio, se presta à análise dos aspectos atinentes à sua proteção, e classifica sua infração como um ato de concorrência desleal, mediante a ausência de outros dispositivos legais específicos. Assim, conveniente se faz, neste primeiro momento, esclarecer que por trade dress entende-se o conjunto de características peculiares que identificam determinado produto ou serviço, diferenciando-o dos demais disponíveis no mercado, em razão de seu caráter notadamente distintivo e não funcional. Pode ser a cor ou a embalagem de um produto, layout, elementos visuais, configuração dos bens, estilização e tamanho de letras, gráficos, texturas, enfeites em geral . Cuida-se de tema controverso, ainda não positivado no direito brasileiro, razão pela qual o estudo em foco busca brevemente compilar o entendimento de nossos tribunais brasileiros quanto ao tratamento devido à infração ao trade dress e qual a via mais adequada