A construção de uma nação: entre a conservação e a mudança no século XX brasileiro

This article aims to study the contradiction between the racialist theories of the late nineteenth century and the thirties of the 1930s to build a modern nation state and autonomous capitalist development. In other words, the present work will analyze the difficulties of thinking about the modern state in a country that had been impregnated by racialist theories that not only condemned the possibility of development but also related specifically to the Brazilian population. In order to elucidate this reflection, we turn to literature, especially Aluísio Azevedo's book O Cortiço (1890), where the construction of two black characters demonstrates how racialist theories spread in various fields of knowledge: Bertoleza, a black enslaved woman, and Rita Baiana, stereotype of the sensual mulatto. We also appeal to authors like Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, Gilberto Freyre, Florestan Fernandes and Carolina de Jesus.Este artículo apunta a estudiar la contradicción entre las teorías racialistas de finales del siglo XIX y el anhelo de la década del 30 en construir un Estado-Nación moderno y con el desarrollo capitalista autónomo. En otras palabras, el presente trabajo analizará las dificultades de pensar el Estado moderno en un país que había sido impregnado por teorías racialistas que no sólo condenaban la posibilidad del desarrollo sino que también versaban específicamente sobre la población brasileña. En el caso de la construcción de dos personajes negros, la construcción de dos personajes negros demuestra cómo las teorías racialistas se difundieron en varios campos del conocimiento: Bertoleza, mujer negra esclavizada, a la luz de la literatura, en especial al libro O Cortiço (1890) de Aluísio Azevedo, y Rita Baiana, estereotipo de la mulata sensual. También recurrimos a autores como Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, Gilberto Freyre, Florestan Fernandes y Carolina de Jesús.Este artigo visa estudar a contradição entre as teorias racialistas do final do século XIX e o anseio da década de 30 em construir um Estado-Nação moderno e com o desenvolvimento capitalista autônomo. Em outras palavras, o presente trabalho analisará as dificuldades de pensar o Estado moderno em um país que havia sido impregnado por teorias racialistas que não só condenavam a possibilidade do desenvolvimento como também versavam especificamente sobre a população brasileira. A fim de elucidar essa reflexão, recorremos à literatura, em especial ao livro O Cortiço (1890) de Aluísio Azevedo, onde a construção de duas personagens negras demonstra como as teorias racialistas se difundiram em vários campos do conhecimento: Bertoleza, mulher negra escravizada, e Rita Baiana, estereótipo da mulata sensual. Recorremos também a autores como Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, Gilberto Freyre, Florestan Fernandes e Carolina de Jesus

Amygdala responses to emotionally valenced stimuli in older and younger adults

ABSTRACT—As they age, adults experience less negative emotion, come to pay less attention to negative than to positive emotional stimuli, and become less likely to remember negative than positive emotional materials. This profile of findings suggests that, with age, the amygdala may show decreased reactivity to negative information while maintaining or increasing its reactivity to positive information. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess whether amygdala activation in response to positive and negative emotional pictures changes with age. Both older and younger adults showed greater activation in the amygdala for emotional than for neutral pictures; however, for older adults, seeing positive pictures led to greater amygdala activation than seeing negative pictures, whereas this was not the case for younger adults. Older adults experience less negative affect than younger adults in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Carstensen, Pasupathi

Chimeric symbionts expressing a Wolbachia protein stimulate mosquito immunity and inhibit filarial parasite development

Wolbachia can reduce the capability of mosquitoes to transmit infectious diseases to humans and is currently exploited in campaigns for the control of arboviruses, like dengue and Zika. Under the assumption that Wolbachia-mediated activation of insect immunity plays a role in the reduction of mosquito vectorial capacity, we focused our attention on the Wolbachia surface protein (WSP), a potential inductor of innate immunity. We hypothesized that the heterologous expression of this protein in gut- and tissue-associated symbionts may reduce parasite transmission. We thus engineered the mosquito bacterial symbiont Asaia to express WSP (AsaiaWSP). AsaiaWSP induced activation of the host immune response in Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, and inhibited the development of the heartworm parasite Dirofilaria immitis in Ae. aegypti. These results consolidate previous evidence on the immune-stimulating property of WSP and make AsaiaWSP worth of further investigations as a potential tool for the control of mosquito-borne diseases

O efeito da veste PediaSuit na marcha de crianças com Paralisia Cerebral: Estudo de Casos / The effect of the PediaSuit vest in the gait of children with Cerebral Palsy: Case study

Introdução: A encefalopatia crônica não progressiva da infância (PC) é caracterizada pela presença de distúrbios motores com frequentes déficits de mobilidade. Objetivo: Avaliar o efeito da veste do método PediaSuit, que funciona como um exoesqueleto, no padrão de marcha de 3 crianças com PC. Metodologia: Trata-se de um estudo observacional, transversal de amostra de conveniência aprovado pelo comitê de ética protocolo CAAE 40506720.2.0000.5382. Foram avaliadas pelo Sistema de Classificação da Função Motora Grossa (GMFCS), medida de função motora grossa (GMFM) e inventário de desabilidades (PEDI) 3 crianças com diagnóstico de paralisia cerebral. O efeito da veste PediaSuit foi observado pela Edinburgh Visual Gait Scale (EVGS) por 2 avaliadores experientes. A adaptação ao uso da órtese foi realizada em duas sessões prévias a coleta de dados. Resultados: Participaram 3 crianças com 2 anos e 8 meses, 2 anos e 5 meses e 6 anos, GMFCS III, II e I, GMFM 35,1%, 36,3% e 95,6% e PEDI 124, 40 e 264, sendo a maior pontuação possível 297. Houve efeito da veste do PediaSuit nas variáveis referentes ao quadril (p=0,01) e tronco (p=0,03), sendo que todas as crianças melhoraram o alinhamento de tronco, reduziram a inclinação pélvica e normalizaram a angulação do quadril com a roupa.  Não houve diferença significativa no joelho e tornozelo embora 2 das 3 crianças tenham melhorado a dorsiflexão e flexão do joelho na fase de balanço. Conclusão: A veste do PediaSuit se mostrou eficaz como unidade de suporte para alinhar o corpo e restabelecer o correto alinhamento do tronco e quadril das crianças deste estudo.

A case of inflammatory ascites

Even ascites appears mainly as sign of portal hypertension in patiens with liver cirrhosis, in some case depends on a different lying condition such as right congestive heart failure, peritoneal carcinomatosis or tuberculosis. In these cases, paracentesis represents the key tool for diagnosis. We report a case of cardiac ascites in a 71-years-old woman who developed in four-month an abdominal distension. Preliminary exams showed exudative ascites related to portal hypertension, a pelvic mass with caseous apparence, and inflammatory status ad an elevation of CA-125. Successive evaluation exluded peritoneal carcinomatosis or tuberculosis, underlyng a tricuspidal regurgitation. The literature on ascites has also been reviewed

Maria Nallino (1908-1974) and the Birth of Arabic and Islamic studies at Ca’ Foscari

This essay, based on bibliographic and archival material, focuses on the academic figure Maria Nallino, a scholar whose voluminous body of work ranges from classicism to modernity with equal fluency and expertise. Daughter of the famous Orientalist Carlo Alfonso Nallino (1872-1938), whose work she gathered and actively promoted, her arrival at Ca’ Foscari (1962) inaugurated Arabic and Islamic studies in Venice

Disruption of semantic metwork in mild Alzheimer's disease revealed by resting-state fMRI

Subtle semantic deficits can be observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients even in the early stages of the illness. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that the semantic control network is deregulated in mild AD patients. We assessed the integrity of the semantic control system using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in a cohort of patients with mild AD (n = 38; mean mini-mental state examination = 20.5) and in a group of age-matched healthy controls (n = 19). Voxel-wise analysis spatially constrained in the left fronto-temporal semantic control network identified two regions with altered functional connectivity (FC) in AD patients, specifically in the pars opercularis (POp, BA44) and in the posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG, BA21). Using whole-brain seed-based analysis, we demonstrated that these two regions have altered FC even beyond the semantic control network. In particular, the pMTG displayed a wide-distributed pattern of lower connectivity to several brain regions involved in language-semantic processing, along with a possibly compensatory higher connectivity to the Wernicke's area. We conclude that in mild AD brain regions belonging to the semantic control network are abnormally connected not only within the network, but also to other areas known to be critical for language processing

"I know that you know that I know": neural substrates associated with social cognition deficits in DM1 patients

Myotonic dystrophy type-1 (DM1) is a genetic multi-systemic disorder involving several organs including the brain. Despite the heterogeneity of this condition, some patients with non-congenital DM1 can present with minimal cognitive impairment on formal testing but with severe difficulties in daily-living activities including social interactions. One explanation for this paradoxical mismatch can be found in patients' dysfunctional social cognition, which can be assessed in the framework of the Theory of Mind (ToM). We hypothesize here that specific disease driven abnormalities in DM1 brains may result in ToM impairments. We recruited 20 DM1 patients who underwent the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" and the ToM-story tests. These patients, together with 18 healthy controls, also underwent resting-state functional MRI. A composite Theory of Mind score was computed for all recruited patients and correlated with their brain functional connectivity. This analysis provided the patients' "Theory of Mind-network", which was compared, for its topological properties, with that of healthy controls. We found that DM1 patients showed deficits in both tests assessing ToM. These deficits were associated with specific patterns of abnormal connectivity between the left inferior temporal and fronto-cerebellar nodes in DM1 brains. The results confirm the previous suggestions of ToM dysfunctions in patients with DM1 and support the hypothesis that difficulties in social interactions and personal relationships are a direct consequence of brain abnormalities, and not a reaction symptom. This is relevant not only for a better pathophysiological comprehension of DM1, but also for non-pharmacological interventions to improve clinical aspects and impact on patients' success in life

Plataforma Ensinando o Lattes / Platform teaching Lattes

O grupo do programa de educação tutorial em Odontologia (PET Odontologia - UNESP) da Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Faculdade de Odontologia de Araraquara, São Paulo, Brasil, com o apoio de seu tutor e vice-diretora, criaram e publicaram uma plataforma voltada para graduandos, intitulada “Plataforma Ensinando o Lattes”, em junho de 2020. Para ensinar o correto preenchimento da Plataforma Lattes, o material didático foi produzido em PDF e publicado via internet. Composto por tutoriais simples, instruções básicas e dividido em dez módulos, abordou os itens mais utilizados da produção curricular durante a graduação. A plataforma foi divulgada nas redes sociais do PET Odontologia - UNESP. Observou-se que a “Plataforma de Ensino Lattes” atingiu um grande público. Recebeu 1.051 acessos no Instagram e, entre eles, 106 usuários salvaram o documento. O site contabilizou 635 visitas. Os resultados mostraram que a “Plataforma Ensinando o Lattes” constitui um material instrucional de grande valor para os graduandos na construção e atualização do currículo