A carta náutica de Piri Reis (Piri Reis Haritasi), 1513

Ottoman Admiral Piri Reis designed his nautical chart based on a body of knowledge that was already widely disseminated in the Mediterranean and on new information brought back by Portuguese navigators. This article presents the sources used to make the Piri Reis map, thoroughly quoted against other charts of its time, and reveals certain aspects of Portuguese mapmaking practices in the 16th century.Piri Reis, almirante otomano, elaborou sua carta partindo de conhecimentos já amplamente divulgados no Mediterrâneo e de novidades trazidas pelas navegações portuguesas. O artigo apresenta as fontes utilizadas para confeccionar o mapa, minuciosamente cotejadas com outras cartas de seu tempo, trazendo à tona diferentes aspectos da prática cartográfica portuguesa no século XVI

Mundos em miniatura: aproximação a alguns aspectos da cartografia portuguesa do Brasil (séculos XVI a XVIII)

This paper discusses the challenges of "miniaturizing" the world in Portuguese cartography at the dawn of the Modern Age. It draws attention to the process of amassing experience and geographic knowledge, and their deployment in the cartographic representations of Brazil throughout the first three centuries of its colonization

As capitanias hereditárias no mapa de Luís Teixeira

By means of the known map of Luís Teixeira, we analyze the evolution of the hereditary captaincies in their first 50 years. It was found that this map, despite its historical and cartographic value, has several mistakes and inconsistencies. There are errors with regard to the border lines, donatories and historical events. From the cartographic point of view, as other maps of the time, it is quite accurate in latitude but not in longitude. With regard to the dating, task made mainly by the examination of the names of the donatories, it can be said that coexist data from different times and the best explanation for this is that the author collected the most data in 1574 and then updated some information in 1586, but not all. To examine this question, we made an analysis of the evolution of these territories, whose information are dispersed. And this propitiated rectify some knowledge; by example the fact that the Bahia captaincy, in the first years, be constituted only by the city of Salvador; and about the categorization of village or cities, that is not made in the base of the greater or lesser size or importance, but by the fact of be created by the donatory or by the crown. These mistakes may perhaps be explained by the character of the map, similar to some roteiros of the time, and show in a practical way an interesting lesson, yet known theoretically: a map, no matter how beautiful and how historical it is, it can not be considered as an accurate portrayal of the reality or as a photography of the time: as any historical document, should be read carefully and with critical sense.Partindo do conhecido mapa de Luís Teixeira, apresenta-se a evolução das capitanias hereditárias nos primeiros 50 anos. Constatou-se que esse mapa, apesar de seu valor histórico e cartográfico, possui diversos equívocos e inconsistências. Há enganos com relação às linhas divisórias, aos donatários e aos acontecimentos. Do ponto de vista cartográfico, como outros mapas da época, ele é suficientemente acurado em latitude, mas pouco em longitude. Com relação à datação, feita principalmente examinando-se os nomes dos donatários, pode-se dizer que coexistem dados de diferentes épocas, e a melhor explicação é de que o autor coletou dados numa época (1574) e depois atualizou algumas informações (1586), mas não todas. Para examinar essa questão, foi feita uma breve análise das vicissitudes desses territórios, cujas informações se encontram dispersas. Isso permitiu retificar alguns conhecimentos, como, por exemplo, o fato de a Capitania da Bahia, nos primeiros anos, ser formada unicamente pela cidade de Salvador, e que a categorização em vilas ou cidades não se dá pelo maior ou menor tamanho ou importância, mas pelo fato de serem criadas ou pelo donatário ou pela coroa. Esses enganos talvez possam ser explicados pelo caráter do mapa, comparável a alguns "roteiros" da época, e podem mostrar de forma concreta uma interessante lição já conhecida teoricamente: um mapa, por mais belo e histórico que seja, e por mais louvado que tenha sido, não pode ser considerado simploriamente como um retrato fiel da realidade, uma fotografia da época: como qualquer documento histórico, deve ser lido com cuidado e sentido crítico

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

A carta náutica de Piri Reis (Piri Reis Haritasi), 1513

Ottoman Admiral Piri Reis designed his nautical chart based on a body of knowledge that was already widely disseminated in the Mediterranean and on new information brought back by Portuguese navigators. This article presents the sources used to make the Piri Reis map, thoroughly quoted against other charts of its time, and reveals certain aspects of Portuguese mapmaking practices in the 16th century