O papel dos mediadores em exposições: percepções dos visitantes na exposição “o admirável corpo humano” / The role of mediators in exhibitions: perceptions of visitors in the exhibition “the admirable human body”

A participação de mediadores em espaços de educação não formais como museus e exposições torna-se cada vez mais frequentes, visto que esses espaços nos últimos anos têm assumido o papel de espaço educacional, uma vez que são percebidos, por uma grande parte do público visitante, como uma extensão do espaço formal escolar, sendo utilizados para “complementar” o conhecimento adquirido na escola. Diante desse fato, a interação entre os visitantes e os objetos expostos, passa a ser realizado por intermédio dos mediadores, sendo esta função comparada com a função desempenhada pelos professores. Portanto, a importância do trabalho exercido pelos mediadores é cada vez maior, exigindo formação, aperfeiçoamento e dedicação constante. Com a montagem da exposição “O Admirável Corpo Humano” na biblioteca central da UFES campus Goiabeiras em Vitória ES, com o tema relacionado a anatomia do corpo humano, tivemos como principal objetivo descrito nesse trabalho, investigar a percepção dos visitantes com relação à contribuição dos mediadores na interação com as peças do acervo da exposição e compreensão das suas estruturas

Museu de ciências da vida da ufes: trajetória no âmbito da inclusão e acessibilidade de pessoas com deficiência: Museu de ciências da vida of ufes: trajectory in the area of inclusion and accessibility of persons with disabilities

O Museu de Ciências da Vida, primeiro museu de plastinação do Brasil, é um espa-ço de difusão e popularização científica de temas ligados ao corpo humano, origem e evolução do homem, e as ciências da vida. Desde sua idealização preza pela aces-sibilidade e inclusão de pessoas com deficiência ao acervo e ao espaço museal. Um grande passo a favor da inclusão foi o desenvolvimento da técnica de plastinação, que possibilita a transformação do acervo, de peças fixadas em formaldeído, para espécimes plastinados, manipuláveis e que não oferecem quaisquer riscos à saúde. Pretende-se aqui descrever a trajetória do museu no âmbito da inclusão e acessibili-dade de pessoas com deficiência. Para tanto, realizou-se levantamento de informa-ções de documentos do museu sobre o histórico de suas ações inclusivas, bem co-mo uma entrevista com o coordenador e curador do museu, dr. Athelson Stefanon Bittencourt, o qual relatou a iniciativa pessoal e da equipe em promover a acessibi-lidade e a transformação do acervo para atender as especificidades da deficiência, trazendo contribuições aos museus no âmbito da acessibilidade ao público. As mu-danças ocorridas no espaço museal, visando a acessibilidade em seu acervo e bus-cando a inclusão, foram iniciativas para atender os anseios da comunidade interna e externa à Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES). A maior parte do conte-údo do Museu é passível de manipulação e estudo por pessoas com deficiência vi-sual, sendo a técnica de plastinação importante para que a instituição seja acessível.The Museu de Ciências da Vida, the first plastination museum in Brazil, is a space for the dissemination and scientific popularization of topics related to the human body, the origin and evolution of man, and the life sciences. Since its idealization, it values accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities to the collection and museum space. A major step in favor of inclusion was the development of the plas-tination technique, which makes it possible to transform the collection from pieces fixed in formaldehyde to plastinated, manipulable specimens that do not pose any health risks. Here, we intended to describe the trajectory of the museum in the scope of inclusion and accessibility of people with disabilities. To this end, a sur-vey of information from museum documents about the history of its inclusive ac-tions was carried out, as well as an interview with the coordinator and curator of the museum, dr. Athelson Stefanon Bittencourt, who recounted the personal and team initiative to promote accessibility and the transformation of the collection to meet the specificities of disability, bringing contributions to museums in the scope of accessibility to the public. The changes that took place in the museum space, aiming at accessibility in its collection and seeking inclusion, were initiatives to meet the desires of the internal and external community of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES). Most of the museum’s content can be handled and stud-ied by people with visual impairments, and the plastination technique is of para-mount importance for it to be accessible

Correction: Testosterone deficiency reduces the effects of late cardiac remodeling after acute myocardial infarction in rats.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213351.]

Testosterone deficiency reduces the effects of late cardiac remodeling after acute myocardial infarction in rats.

Testosterone is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. This study evaluated cardiac remodeling 60 days after myocardial infarction (MI) in rats with testosterone deficiency. One week after castration, the animals underwent myocardial infarction. Rats were divided into four groups: orchidectomized (OCT); orchidectomized and infarcted (OCT+MI), MI and control (Sham). The myocyte cross-sectional area and the papillary muscle contractility were evaluated 8 weeks after MI. The coronary bed was perfused with Biodur E20 resin to evaluate the neovascularization after MI. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM followed by ANOVA. Castration reduced myocyte hypertrophy when compared to Sham and myocardial infarction alone as well as preserved the contraction force and activation time after myocardial infarction. After beta-adrenergic stimulation, activation and relaxation kinetics were less impaired in the OCT+MI group than in the MI group. Contraction force was preserved in the OCT+MI group after beta-adrenergic stimulation. Multiple scanning electronic microscope images were obtained to characterize changes in the coronary arteries. Capillary density index was increased in the MI and OCT+MI groups compared with control. The MI and OCT+MI groups were characterized by irregular vessel arrangements with distorted shape, abrupt changes in vessel direction, as well as abrupt changes in diameter after bifurcations when compared to Sham and OCT. The results indicated that testosterone deficiency attenuates adverse cardiac remodeling after MI. Novel findings in this study were that testosterone deficiency in rats, induced by castration, changes the later remodeling after MI, when compared with non castrated rats. The absence of this androgenous hormone seems to be benefic against pathological hypertrophy

Virtual Reconstruction and Three-Dimensional Printing of Blood Cells as a Tool in Cell Biology Education

<div><p>The cell biology discipline constitutes a highly dynamic field whose concepts take a long time to be incorporated into the educational system, especially in developing countries. Amongst the main obstacles to the introduction of new cell biology concepts to students is their general lack of identification with most teaching methods. The introduction of elaborated figures, movies and animations to textbooks has given a tremendous contribution to the learning process and the search for novel teaching methods has been a central goal in cell biology education. Some specialized tools, however, are usually only available in advanced research centers or in institutions that are traditionally involved with the development of novel teaching/learning processes, and are far from becoming reality in the majority of life sciences schools. When combined with the known declining interest in science among young people, a critical scenario may result. This is especially important in the field of electron microscopy and associated techniques, methods that have greatly contributed to the current knowledge on the structure and function of different cell biology models but are rarely made accessible to most students. In this work, we propose a strategy to increase the engagement of students into the world of cell and structural biology by combining 3D electron microscopy techniques and 3D prototyping technology (3D printing) to generate 3D physical models that accurately and realistically reproduce a close-to-the native structure of the cell and serve as a tool for students and teachers outside the main centers. We introduce three strategies for 3D imaging, modeling and prototyping of cells and propose the establishment of a virtual platform where different digital models can be deposited by EM groups and subsequently downloaded and printed in different schools, universities, research centers and museums, thereby modernizing teaching of cell biology and increasing the accessibility to modern approaches in basic science.</p></div

3D representation of the monocyte used on 3D printing.

<p>(A-F) Virtual sections from a serial tomogram of a monocyte obtained from serial electron tomography. Bar 2 μm. (G-I) 3D representation of the model, showing the cell nucleus (blue), plasma membrane (light pink), mitochondria (green), lysosomes (purple) and phagosomes (Orange).</p

3D representation of the neutrophil used on 3D printing.

<p>(A) Transmission electron microscopy of a thin section of a neutrophil. (B) Segmentation of different internal structures, (C) model showing the main structures segmented form the previous images and (D) virtual model resulted from image vectorization (artificial increase in the z scale). Primary granules (orange), secondary granules (white), nucleus (green), rough endoplasmic reticulum (blue), endoplasmic reticulum (red), mitochondria (purple). (E) Printed prototype of the neutrophil 34,000 times larger than the virtual model.</p

3D prototypes obtained form a virtual model of a monocyte.

<p>(A) Virtual model of a monocyte generated by serial electron tomography. (B) The resulting in a prototype 15.000 times larger than the virtual model. (C) Printed prototype being manipulated by a student and (D) on a table.</p