71 research outputs found

    Formação Docente no Curso de Licenciatura em Química da UERJ na Visão de seus Concluintes

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    neste trabalho apresenta-se os resultados da investigação que teve por objetivo conhecer o perfil dos concluintes do curso de Licenciatura em Química da UERJ e suas pretensões profissionais e acadêmicas. Visou também conhecer como eles avaliam a contribuição que as disciplinas deram a sua formação, como professor, e a frequência do uso de estratégias de ensino, de recursos didáticos e de instrumentos de avaliação. Os aspectos positivos do Curso, na opinião dos concluintes, e suas dificuldades no decorrer da Graduação também foram levantadas. Os resultados apontaram que somente 20% dos concluintes pretendem seguir a carreira de professor do Ensino Médio. Na percepção dos concluintes, as disciplinas do campo da Química contribuíram frequentemente para que tivessem uma formação sólida e abrangente, apenas, 50% considerou que o mesmo se deu na área pedagógica. Foram identificadas fragilidades e potencialidades no Curso que podem contribuir para debates visando a melhoria de sua qualidade educativa

    Gadolinium ecotoxicity is enhanced in a warmer and acidified changing ocean as shown by the surf clam Spisula solida through a multibiomarker approach

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    Funding Information: This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) , through the project Climatoxeel ( PTDC/AAG-GLO/3795/2014 ), by the Junior Researcher contract ( CEECIND/03517/2017 ), both awarded to Tiago F. Grilo, and the strategic project UIDB/04292/2020 granted to MARE and through project LA/P/0069/2020 granted to the Associate Laboratory ARNET . The work was also supported by the European Union's operation program Mar 2020 through the research project CEIC ( MAR-01.04.02-FEAMP-0012 ) awarded to Joana Raimundo. The Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit UCIBIO was financed by national funds from FCT ( UIDP/04378/2020 ). This work was also supported by the European Union through the grant ERC-2016-COG-725034 -ecotox awarded to Inês João Ferreira. Cátia Figueiredo acknowledges the FCT-PhD grant SFRH/BD/130023/2017 and the Early Career Research Grant awarded by National Geographic Society. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Humans have exhaustively combusted fossil fuels, and released pollutants into the environment, at continuously faster rates resulting in global average temperature increase and seawater pH decrease. Climate change is forecasted to exacerbate the effects of pollutants such as the emergent rare earth elements. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the combined effects of rising temperature (Δ = + 4 °C) and decreasing pH (Δ = − 0.4 pH units) on the bioaccumulation and elimination of gadolinium (Gd) in the bioindicator bivalve species Spisula solida (Surf clam). We exposed surf clams to 10 µg L−1 of GdCl3 for seven days, under warming, acidification, and their combination, followed by a depuration phase lasting for another 7 days and investigated the Gd bioaccumulation and oxidative stress-related responses after 1, 3 and 7 days of exposure and the elimination phase. Gadolinium accumulated after just one day with values reaching the highest after 7 days. Gadolinium was not eliminated after 7 days, and elimination is further hampered under climate change scenarios. Warming and acidification, and their interaction did not significantly impact Gd concentration. However, there was a significant interaction on clam's biochemical response. The augmented total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation values show that the significant impacts of Gd on the oxidative stress response are enhanced under warming while the increased superoxide dismutase and catalase values demonstrate the combined impact of Gd, warming & acidification. Ultimately, lipid damage was greater in clams exposed to warming & Gd, which emphasizes the enhanced toxic effects of Gd in a changing ocean.publishersversionpublishe

    Ocean warming, acidification, and rare earth elements exposure triggers a superior antioxidant response and pigment production in the adaptable Ulva rigida

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    European Union's operation program Mar 2020 through the research project CEIC (MAR-01.04.02-FEAMP-0012). Inês João Ferreira acknowledges the European Union research grant ERC-2016-COG-725034-ecotox. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Anthropogenic increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations will lead to a drop of 0.4 units of seawater pH and ocean warming up to 4.8°C by 2100. Contaminant's toxicity is known to increase under a climate change scenario. Rare earth elements (REE) are emerging contaminants, that until now have no regulation regarding maximum concentration and discharge into the environment and have become vital to new technologies such as electric and hybrid-electric vehicle batteries, wind turbine generators and low-energy lighting. Studies of REE, namely Lanthanum (La) and Gadolinium (Gd), bioaccumulation, elimination, and toxicity in a multi-stressor environment (e.g., warming and acidification) are lacking. Hence, we investigated the algae phytoremediation capacity, the ecotoxicological responses and total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents in Ulva rigida during 7 days of co-exposure to La or Gd (15 µg L−1 or 10 µg L−1, respectively), and warming and acidification. Additionally, we assessed these metals elimination, after a 7-day phase. After one day of experiment La and Gd clearly showed accumulation/adsorption in different patterns, at future conditions. Unlikely for Gd, Warming and Acidification contributed to the lowest La accumulation, and increased elimination. Lanthanum and Gd triggered an adequate activation of the antioxidant defence system, by avoiding lipid damage. Nevertheless, REE exposure in a near-future scenario triggered an overproduction of ROS that requested an enhanced antioxidant response. Additionally, an increase in total chlorophyll and carotenoids could also indicate an unforeseen energy expense, as a response to a multi-stressor environment.publishersversionpublishe

    Environmental monitoring platform based on a heterogeneous wireless sensor network

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    Abstract – In museums, to conserve the existing artwork is a vital issue. To achieve this purpose, it is fundamental to monitor its environment, either in storage or exhibition rooms. The deployment of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can help to implement these measurements continuously, in a real-time basis, and in a much easier and cheaper way than when using traditional measuring equipments and procedures. This is the main objective of the WISE-MUSE project, which uses WSNs for monitoring and automatically controlling museums’ environment and structural health. In this paper, the implementation and the final results of the WISE-MUSE project, which was carried out in two particular museums located in Madeira Island, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Funchal and the Madeira Whale Museum, are described. Among other important contributions, we emphasize the development of new environmental monitoring and controlling devices, an emergency doors’ controlling device, as well as the development of three new tools for monitoring, visualizing and managing WSNs, which bring some considerable advantages when compared with other commercially available solutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    DIBMA nanodiscs keep α-synuclein folded

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    α-Synuclein (αsyn) is a cytosolic intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) known to fold into an α-helical structure when binding to membrane lipids, decreasing protein aggregation. Model membrane enable elucidation of factors critically affecting protein folding/aggregation, mostly using either small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) or nanodiscs surrounded by membrane scaffold proteins (MSPs). Yet SUVs are mechanically strained, while MSP nanodiscs are expensive. To test the impact of lipid particle size on α-syn structuring, while overcoming the limitations associated with the lipid particles used so far, we compared the effects of large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) and lipid-bilayer nanodiscs encapsulated by diisobutylene/maleic acid copolymer (DIBMA) on αsyn secondary-structure formation, using human-, elephant- and whale -αsyn. Our results confirm that negatively charged lipids induce αsyn folding in h-αsyn and e-αsyn but not in w-αsyn. When a mixture of zwitterionic and negatively charged lipids was used, no increase in the secondary structure was detected at 45 °C. Further, our results show that DIBMA/lipid particles (DIBMALPs) are highly suitable nanoscale membrane mimics for studying αsyn secondary-structure formation and aggregation, as folding was essentially independent of the lipid/protein ratio, in contrast with what we observed for LUVs having the same lipid compositions. This study reveals a new and promising application of polymer-encapsulated lipid-bilayer nanodiscs, due to their excellent efficiency in structuring disordered proteins such as αsyn into nontoxic α-helical structures. This will contribute to the unravelling and modelling aspects concerning protein-lipid interactions and α-helix formation by αsyn, paramount to the proposal of new methods to avoid protein aggregation and disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    THE HEALTH SCHOOL PROGRAMME: A HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGY IN PRIMARY CARE IN BRAZIL

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    Introduction: the Health School Programme (HSP) should be understood as a permanent development process. In this context, the actions of a policy aimed at children and adolescentsare paramount in the HSP. Objective: to identify and describe the actions developed by the Family Health Group in the HSP, from the National Programme for ImprovingAccess and Quality of Primary Care (PIPCAQ). Methods: this cross-sectional research used secondary data collected fromthe 17,202 groups who joined PIPCAQ in 2012. Results: all regions showed significant results concerning the execution of school activities. the Northern region was the one that performed most school actions (80.5%), followed by the Northeast, Midwest, South and Southeast, respectively. However, some items, such as professional training in education and health work need to be streng the ned. Conclusion: HSP in Brazil has mobilised significant actions, even though it has not happened in homogeneously in all Brazilian regions

    Effect of the dual endothelin receptor antagonist bosentan on untreatable skin ulcers in a patient with diabetes: a case report

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Refractory skin ulcers are a major burden in patients with diabetes. Their pathogenesis is multifactorial, and data increasingly implicate endothelin as a mediator of diabetic macro- and microvasculopathy. Here we describe the first reported case of an endothelin receptor antagonist being used to successfully treat refractory skin ulcers in a patient with diabetes.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>An 85-year-old Caucasian man with a 30-year history of type 2 diabetes developed multiple skin ulcerations, including a right heel ulcer. Despite appropriate treatment, the ulcer showed little improvement and the risk of amputation was high. The patient was treated with the dual endothelin receptor antagonist bosentan. After three weeks of treatment, major improvements were observed, and after 21 weeks, all ulcers had healed. No abnormalities were observed during monitoring of blood pressure, erythrocyte sedimentation rate or serum aminotransferase levels.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In patients with refractory ulceration associated with diabetes, bosentan may be of real benefit, especially in terms of amputation prevention. This case supports the proposed role for endothelin in the pathogenesis of skin ulceration in diabetes and is suggestive of a potential benefit of bosentan in this patient type. This case report is of interest to diabetologists and dermatologists.</p
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