The ITA Space Center and Its Role in Space Education in Brazil

This paper presents the ITA Space Center and its mission in the formation of human resources and in the research and development of space products. In 2012 the first aerospace engineers were graduated at ITA, and since then many efforts have been done to improve the engineering education. The first effort was the development of AESP-14 CubeSat project, then the development and launch of ITASAT, a 6U CubeSat. These two projects showed that small satellites projects provide a good learning approach once students were deeply involved in the development process. These two projects opened the opportunity for the creation of the ITA Space Center (CEI -acronym for Centro Espacial ITA in Portuguese). Inside its facilities the ITA Space Center provides capabilities for the development of small space projects such as electronics, software engineering, mechanical design, and simulation with the aid of systems engineering and project management. By means of the graduate and undergraduate programs the ITA Space Center is providing education and integration with the industries and other partner organizations. In developing and delivering space products, and fostering higher education in space, the ITA Space Center is accomplishing of its proposed mission

"Mini-hospital Veterinário"

O objetivo é transmitir de forma lúdica os conhecimentos de guarda responsável, cuidados com os animais e zoonoses ao público infantil. Esse projeto é articulado através de modelos didáticos, que simulam um animal doméstico ou selvagem, para que as crianças tenham contato direto com os problemas rotineiros que os afetam, e as possíveis soluções que devem ser tomadas para o bem estar do animal. São simulados alguns ambientes internos do hospital veterinário (por isso o apelido "mini-hospital veterinário"), como o setor de isolamento de doenças infecciosas, o setor de cirurgia, o setor de clínica médica, e um laboratório para realização de exames. As crianças têm participação direta na execução das tarefas e resolução dos problemas. Os participantes são divididos em grupos de 5 e as atividades são posicionadas de um modo que possa ser realizado um rodízio adequado para a resolução dos casos clínicos. Para que o rodízio ocorra como planejado, é fornecida para as crianças uma ficha de controle de atividades. Os modelos didáticos foram confeccionados pelos alunos do projeto. Para as crianças se sentirem como médicos veterinários foram também confeccionadas vestimentas em TNT, e são utilizadas toucas e máscaras descartáveis e luvas de procedimento. A maioria das crianças que participam se mostra muito empolgada e, durante cada atividade, surgem diversas perguntas por parte delas, mostrando que o interesse pelo tema é despertado. Com os ensinamentos ao público infantil, além de garantir uma geração mais consciente e madura a respeito dos temas abordados, é possível melhorar a conduta de quem realmente pode mudar o presente, os adultos, pois as crianças transmitem o que aprendem a seus familiares. Os professores dessas crianças, mesmo não sendo o público alvo, também se interessam em aprender, pois muitos dos temas são importantes e de baixa divulgação popular. Ao fim, a análise da última atividade proposta, que consiste na pergunta sobre o que elas mais gostaram e na elaboração de um desenho, possibilita perceber o que mais chama a atenção do público alvo, que são as atividades com mais atrativos, ou seja, que permitem maior participação ativa. Assim, podemos melhorar nossos modelos e a forma como os conceitos são transmitidos, a cada grupo de crianças que participa. O objetivo de se colocar esta atividade no REA é o "Mini-hospital" possa servir de base para outras Universidades que queiram desenvolver projetos semelhantes

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Panoramic snapshot of serum soluble mediator interplay in pregnant women with convalescent COVID-19: an exploratory study

IntroductionSARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy can induce changes in the maternal immune response, with effects on pregnancy outcome and offspring. This is a cross-sectional observational study designed to characterize the immunological status of pregnant women with convalescent COVID-19 at distinct pregnancy trimesters. The study focused on providing a clear snapshot of the interplay among serum soluble mediators.MethodsA sample of 141 pregnant women from all prenatal periods (1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters) comprised patients with convalescent SARS-CoV-2 infection at 3-20 weeks after symptoms onset (COVID, n=89) and a control group of pre-pandemic non-infected pregnant women (HC, n=52). Chemokine, pro-inflammatory/regulatory cytokine and growth factor levels were quantified by a high-throughput microbeads array.ResultsIn the HC group, most serum soluble mediators progressively decreased towards the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy, while higher chemokine, cytokine and growth factor levels were observed in the COVID patient group. Serum soluble mediator signatures and heatmap analysis pointed out that the major increase observed in the COVID group related to pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, IL-12, IFN-γ and IL-17). A larger set of biomarkers displayed an increased COVID/HC ratio towards the 2nd (3x increase) and the 3rd (3x to 15x increase) trimesters. Integrative network analysis demonstrated that HC pregnancy evolves with decreasing connectivity between pairs of serum soluble mediators towards the 3rd trimester. Although the COVID group exhibited a similar profile, the number of connections was remarkably lower throughout the pregnancy. Meanwhile, IL-1Ra, IL-10 and GM-CSF presented a preserved number of correlations (≥5 strong correlations in HC and COVID), IL-17, FGF-basic and VEGF lost connectivity throughout the pregnancy. IL-6 and CXCL8 were included in a set of acquired attributes, named COVID-selective (≥5 strong correlations in COVID and <5 in HC) observed at the 3rd pregnancy trimester.Discussion and conclusionFrom an overall perspective, a pronounced increase in serum levels of soluble mediators with decreased network interplay between them demonstrated an imbalanced immune response in convalescent COVID-19 infection during pregnancy that may contribute to the management of, or indeed recovery from, late complications in the post-symptomatic phase of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women

Educomunicação e suas áreas de intervenção: Novos paradigmas para o diálogo intercultural

oai:omp.abpeducom.org.br:publicationFormat/1O material aqui divulgado representa, em essência, a contribuição do VII Encontro Brasileiro de Educomunicação ao V Global MIL Week, da UNESCO, ocorrido na ECA/USP, entre 3 e 5 de novembro de 2016. Estamos diante de um conjunto de 104 papers executivos, com uma média de entre 7 e 10 páginas, cada um. Com este rico e abundante material, chegamos ao sétimo e-book publicado pela ABPEducom, em seus seis primeiros anos de existência. A especificidade desta obra é a de trazer as “Áreas de Intervenção” do campo da Educomunicação, colocando-as a serviço de uma meta essencial ao agir educomunicativo: o diálogo intercultural, trabalhado na linha do tema geral do evento internacional: Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue

Health-related quality of life in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in the different geographical regions of Brazil : data from the Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group

Background: In type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) management, enhancing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is as important as good metabolic control and prevention of secondary complications. This study aims to evaluate possible regional differences in HRQoL, demographic features and clinical characteristics of patients with T1DM in Brazil, a country of continental proportions, as well as investigate which variables could influence the HRQoL of these individuals and contribute to these regional disparities. Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional, multicenter study performed by the Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group (BrazDiab1SG), by analyzing EuroQol scores from 3005 participants with T1DM, in 28 public clinics, among all geographical regions of Brazil. Data on demography, economic status, chronic complications, glycemic control and lipid profile were also collected. Results: We have found that the North-Northeast region presents a higher index in the assessment of the overall health status (EQ-VAS) compared to the Southeast (74.6 ± 30 and 70.4 ± 19, respectively; p < 0.05). In addition, North- Northeast presented a lower frequency of self-reported anxiety-depression compared to all regions of the country (North-Northeast: 1.53 ± 0.6; Southeast: 1.65 ± 0.7; South: 1.72 ± 0.7; Midwest: 1.67 ± 0.7; p < 0.05). These findings could not be entirely explained by the HbA1c levels or the other variables examined. Conclusions: Our study points to the existence of additional factors not yet evaluated that could be determinant in the HRQoL of people with T1DM and contribute to these regional disparities

Educomunicação, Transformação Social e Desenvolvimento Sustentável

Esta publicação apresenta os principais trabalhos dos GTs do II Congresso Internacional de Comunicação e Educação nos temas&nbsp;Transformação social, com os artigos que abordam principalmente Educomunicação e/ou Mídia-Educação, no contexto de políticas de diversidade, inclusão e equidade; e, em Desenvolvimento Sustentável&nbsp;os artigos que abordam os avanços da relação comunicação/educação no contexto da educação ambiental e desenvolvimento sustentável