Seismic analysis of four solar-like stars observed during more than eight months by Kepler

Having started science operations in May 2009, the Kepler photometer has been able to provide exquisite data of solar-like stars. Five out of the 42 stars observed continuously during the survey phase show evidence of oscillations, even though they are rather faint (magnitudes from 10.5 to 12). In this paper, we present an overview of the results of the seismic analysis of 4 of these stars observed during more than eight months.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the ASP proceedings of "The 61st Fujihara seminar: Progress in solar/stellar physics with helio- and asteroseismology", 13th-17th March 2011, Hakone, Japa

A controvérsia sobre o uso de alimentação 'alternativa' no combate à subnutrição no Brasil: analysis of a controversy The policy and politics of alternative food programs in Brazil

É consensual a urgência de eliminar a subnutrição infantil no Brasil, mas como fazê-lo é motivo de debates. O Programa de Alimentação Alternativa implementado pela Pastoral da Criança da Confederação Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) e financiado pelo governo federal e organismos internacionais é um exemplo típico de tais controvérsias. Os críticos do programa têm apresentado "evidências científicas" de que existem problemas de ordem nutricional com os produtos utilizados (partes desprezadas de alimentos) no preparo daquele alimento alternativo ou multimistura. Os proponentes do programa, por sua vez, também se utilizam do mesmo instrumental acadêmico para "demonstrar" o valor nutricional dos produtos utilizados.Este artigo é uma reconstrução e análise do conteúdo e contexto desta controvérsia.<br>The urgency to solve infant malnutrition in Brazil is undisputed. Policies to achieve that, however, are not consensual. The Alternative Food Program, put forward by the Catholic National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops' Children Pastoral with the support of various federal organizations and international agencies, has been the focus of heated debate. Although the initiative per se has much to be praised for, program opponents argue that nutritional problems in food byproducts have been "demonstrated" by scientific research. To counteract their critics, program proponents also point to scientific results that have just as well "demonstrated" the nutritional value of the used products. The present article reconstructs and analyzes the content and context of this controversy

(Re)significações culturais no mundo rural mineiro: o carro de boi - do trabalho ao festar (1950-2000)

Este artigo versa sobre a reinvenção de uma das atividades de trabalho mais comuns ao mundo rural do interior de Minas Gerais. Nesse cenário, o carro de bois era parte integrante de uma economia de subsistência, cujas relações sociais eram mediadas pela interação do homem com a natureza. Na década de 1970, com as transformações econômicas, quando o cerrado torna-se terras produtivas em grãos para exportação, o carro de bois é celebrado em festa popular e as práticas sociais em seu entorno são (re)figuradas, (re)significando sociabilidades e memórias de um tempo que não mais existe.<br>This article argues about the reinvention of a common work activity from the agricultural world in Minas Gerais countryside. In this work activity, the ox-cart was integrant part of a subsistence economy, whose social relations were mediated by the interaction of the man with the nature. In the 1970's, with the economic transformations, when the open pasture becomes productive lands in grains for exportation, the ox-cart is celebrated in a popular party and the social practical related to it is transformed, earning a new social meanning and memories of a time that does not exist anymore

AAV-mediated neuronal expression of an scFv antibody selective for Aβ oligomers protects synapses and rescues memory in Alzheimer models

International audienceThe accumulation of soluble oligomers of the amyloid-β peptide (AβOs) in the brain has been implicated in synapse failure and memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Here, we initially show that treatment with NUsc1, a single-chain variable-fragment antibody (scFv) that selectively targets a subpopulation of AβOs and shows minimal reactivity to Aβ monomers and fibrils, prevents the inhibition of long-term potentiation in hippocampal slices and memory impairment induced by AβOs in mice. As a therapeutic approach for intracerebral antibody delivery, we developed an adeno-associated virus vector to drive neuronal expression of NUsc1 (AAV-NUsc1) within the brain. Transduction by AAV-NUsc1 induced NUsc1 expression and secretion in adult human brain slices and inhibited AβO binding to neurons and AβO-induced loss of dendritic spines in primary rat hippocampal cultures. Treatment of mice with AAV-NUsc1 prevented memory impairment induced by AβOs and, remarkably, reversed memory deficits in aged APPswe/PS1ΔE9 Alzheimer's disease model mice. These results support the feasibility of immunotherapy using viral vector-mediated gene delivery of NUsc1 or other AβO-specific single-chain antibodies as a potential therapeutic approach in Alzheimer's disease