Conjunto de recomendações para decisores políticos e partes interessadas : sumário executivo

Este Sumário Executivo é baseado no Set of Recommendations to Policy Makers and Stakeholders (Deliverable D6.6 - Creative Little Scientists) que se encontra acessível em www.creative-litt le-scientists.eu. O Projeto Creative Little Scientists consiste num estudo comparativo, financiado pela União Europeia (UE) com a duração de 30 meses, em nove países participantes: Bélgica, Finlândia, França, Alemanha, Grécia, Malta, Portugal, Roménia e Reino Unido. O projeto Creative Little Scientists procurou retratar as políticas e as práticas na educação em ciências e matemática, em crianças entre os 3 e os 8 anos de idade, bem como o potencial para fomentar a criatividade e o ensino/aprendizagem baseado em investigação/inquirição/experimentação

THE PRODUCTION OF LONG ANAL FILAMENTS BY THE BAMBOO NODE MEALYBUG, ANTONINA SP. (HEMIPTERA: COCCOIDEA: PSEUDOCOCCIDAE), AS A RESPONSE TO LACK OF ATTENDING ANTS

THE PRODUCTION OF LONG ANAL FILAMENTS BY THE BAMBOO NODE MEALYBUG, ANTONINA SP. (HEMIPTERA: COCCOIDEA: PSEUDOCOCCIDAE), AS A RESPONSE TO LACK OF ATTENDING ANTS. Bamboo node mealybugs, Antonina sp., in the absence of attending ants, were observed to produce long waxy filaments both in the field and in the greenhouse. In contrast, ant-attended mealybugs had only very short filaments or none at all. Ant exclusion experiments confirmed the field observations. The available data suggest that the long filaments are an adaptation for the dispersal of honeydew in the absence of solicitous ants, so as to avoid drowning in the accumulating honeydew or suffocation due to development of sooty moulds. Key words: Poaceae, Gramineae, Bambusa, damage, filament structure, Sternorrhyncha, Anoplolepis longipes, Dolichoderus, Oecophylla smaragdina, Polyrhachis, Solenopsis geminata, Monomorium

Owner reports of attention, activity, and impulsivity in dogs: a replication study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>When developing behaviour measurement tools that use third party assessments, such as parent report, it is important to demonstrate reliability of resulting scales through replication using novel cohorts. The domestic dog has been suggested as a model to investigate normal variation in attention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behaviours impaired in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The human ADHD Rating Scale, modified for dogs and using owner-directed surveys, was applied in a European sample. We asked whether findings would be replicated utilizing an Internet survey in a novel sample, where unassisted survey completion, participant attitudes and breeds might affect previous findings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using a slightly modified version of the prior survey, we collected responses (<it>n </it>= 1030, 118 breeds representing 7 breed groups) primarily in the United States and Canada. This study was conducted using an Internet survey mechanism.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Reliability analyses confirmed two scales previously identified for dogs (inattention [IA], hyperactivity-impulsivity [HA-IM]). Models including age, training status, and breed group accounted for very little variance in subscales, with no effect of gender.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The factor invariance demonstrated in these findings confirms that owner report, using this modified human questionnaire, provides dog scores according to "inattention" and "hyperactivity-impulsivity" axes. Further characterization of naturally occurring variability of attention, activity, and impulsivity in domestic dogs may provide insight into genetic backgrounds underlying behaviours impaired in attention and associated disorders.</p

Hands-on science: science education with and for society

The decisive importance of Science on the development of modern societies gives Science Education a role of special impact. Society sets the requirements rules and procedures of Education defining what concepts and competencies citizens must learn and how this learning should take place. Educational policies set by governments, elected and or imposed, not always reflects the will and ruling of Society. The School as pivotal element of our modern educational system must look behind and beyond imposed rules and regulations and persistently seek a permanent and open relation with Society, in all its dimensions, assuming and defending its crucial role on the development of Society and humankind. Aiming to contribute to an effective implementation of a sound widespread scientific literacy and effective Science Education in our Schools and Society at large, the Hands-on Science Network promotes a number of meetings and conferences open to the widest range of contributions on different pedagogic approaches with the common goal of promoting an effective learning of Science. This book gathers a number of interesting works presented at the 11th International Conference on Hands-on Science held in Aveiro, Portugal, July 21 to 25, 2014. The different chapters covers a wide range of topics including different strategies on connecting school’ science education with society and on synergetic relations between Society and Science Education, reports on good practices on formal as well as non-formal or informal science education, ICT tools, IBSE, active learning and hands-on pedagogy. We believe that the materials herein are a rather useful tool to assist teachers and educators as well as all interested in Science Education and its impact on the development of our Societies

Pri-Sci-Net: 45 atividades IBSE de aprendizagem das ciências para crianças dos 3 aos 11 anos

Este livro é uma compilação de 45 atividades de Pesquisa/Investigação/Experimentação em Ensino das Ciências (IBSE), que foram desenvolvidas no âmbito do projeto Europeu Pri-Sci-Net para uso livre por professores de toda a Europa. Elas foram projetadas especificamente para educadores e professores do 1.º ciclo e 2º ciclos e podem ser implementadas com crianças com idades compreendidas entre os 3 e os 11 anos. As atividades foram projetadas principalmente para servir de inspiração para as atividades de pesquisa/investigação/experimentação e podem ser organizadas para as crianças nas salas de aula normais e não é necessário implementá-las exatamente da maneira que são apresentadas. Não são necessários equipamentos científicos especiais e não há necessidade de serem especialistas científicos para executá-las. O que é importante é promover o processo de investigação

Effect of a Home-Based Exercise Program on Indices of Physical Function and Quality of Life in Elderly Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients.

Background: Patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) exhibit muscle wasting and impaired physical function which can be reversed with regular exercise, but accessibility to exercise programs for this unique population is lacking. We assessed the efficacy of a home-based exercise program on a broad range of indices of physical function, quality of life (QoL), and cognitive decline in patients with MHD. Design and Methods: Twenty-eight MHD patients, mean age 66 ± 7 years, were randomized to a 12-week home-based, case-managed aerobic and resistance exercise program or to usual care (13 exercise and 15 usual care). Comparisons were made for peak VO2, ventilatory inefficiency, 6-min walk test (6MWT), 1-min sit-to-stand (1STS), muscle strength, body composition, QoL, and cognitive measures. Results: Peak VO2 improved significantly in the exercise group (p = 0.01 between groups); exercise time improved by 41 and 36% at the ventilatory threshold and peak exercise, respectively (p &#x3c; 0.01 between groups), but there were no differences in ventilatory efficiency. Trends for improvements in 6MWT and 1STS in the exercise group were observed, but no differences were observed in strength or body composition. Among measures of QoL, general health determined by the SF-36 improved in the exercise group, but there were no differences between groups in cognitive function. Conclusions: MHD patients improved exercise capacity and some indices of QoL following a 12-week home-based exercise program. Home-based exercise is feasible for patients undergoing MHD and may help to obviate accessibility barriers to regular exercise

On the Impact of Routing and Network Size for Wireless Network-on-Chip Performance

Wireless Network-on-Chip or WiNoC is an alternative to traditional planar on-chip networks. On-chip wireless links are utilized to reduce latency between distant nodes due to its capability to communicate with far-away node within a single hop. This paper analyzes the impact of various routing schemes and the effect of WiNoC sizes on network traffic distributions compared to conventional mesh NoC. Radio hubs (4×4) are evenly placed on WiNoC to analyze global average delay, throughput, energy consumption and wireless utilization. For validation, three various network sizes (8×8, 16×16 and 32×32) of mesh NoC and WiNoC architectures are simulated on cycle-accurate Noxim simulator under numerous traffic load distributions. Simulation results show that WiNoC architecture with the 16×16 network size has better average speedup (∼1.2×) and improved network throughputs by 6.36% in non-uniform transpose traffic distribution. However, as the trade-off, WiNoC requires 63% higher energy consumption compared to the classical wired NoC mesh

Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes

Our aim was to evaluate how human beliefs affect working dog outcomes in an applied environment. We asked whether beliefs of scent detection dog handlers affect team performance and evaluated relative importance of human versus dog influences on handlers’ beliefs. Eighteen drug and/or explosive detection dog/handler teams each completed two sets of four brief search scenarios (conditions). Handlers were falsely told that two conditions contained a paper marking scent location (human influence). Two conditions contained decoy scents (food/toy) to encourage dog interest in a false location (dog influence). Conditions were (1) control; (2) paper marker; (3) decoy scent; and (4) paper marker at decoy scent. No conditions contained drug or explosive scent; any alerting response was incorrect. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used with search condition as the independent variable and number of alerts as the dependent variable. Additional nonparametric tests compared human and dog influence. There were 225 incorrect responses, with no differences in mean responses across conditions. Response patterns differed by condition. There were more correct (no alert responses) searches in conditions without markers. Within marked conditions, handlers reported that dogs alerted more at marked locations than other locations. Handlers’ beliefs that scent was present potentiated handler identification of detection dog alerts. Human more than dog influences affected alert locations. This confirms that handler beliefs affect outcomes of scent detection dog deployments

Aetiology of allergic rhinitis in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTIn a 1993 survey, allergic rhinitis was identified as the most common allergic disease in Hong Kong, affecting 29.1% of schoolchildren. Recently (1995), the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) also reported 44.5% current rhinitis among Hong Kong teenagers. Our objective was to study the aetiology of allergic rhinitis in Hong Kong using serological tests of allergen sensitization. In 57 allergic rhinitis patients and in the same number of age- and sex-matched controls the following were measured: serum total IgE, mixed aeroallergen IgE (Phadiatop™) and specific IgE versus house dust mite (HDM), cockroach, cat and dog dander, mould mixture (Penicillium, Cladosporium, Aspergillus and Alternaria species) and four local pollens (Bermuda grass, Timothy, ragweed and mugwort). Compared with controls, allergic rhinitis patients (26 males, 31 females; mean (± SD) age 25 ±11 years) had a significantly elevated serum total IgE concentration (mean ± SEM: 496 ± 88 vs 179 ± 38 kU/L) and an increased proportion of positive Phadiatop (95 vs 33%) and specific IgE tests versus HDM (90 vs 44%) and cockroach (42 vs 9%; Mann-Whitney U-test and χ2 tests all P < 0.005). There was no significant difference in sensitization to other allergens tested. House dust mite and cockroach are ubiquitous in Hong Kong with a warm, humid climate and crowded living conditions. Their identification as aetiological agents of allergic rhinitis should help in the development of environmental strategies for reducing the inhalant allergen load to prevent and control this prevalent and costly health problem in our community

SILAC-based phosphoproteomics reveals an inhibitory role of KSR1 in p53 transcriptional activity via modulation of DBC1

BACKGROUND We have previously identified kinase suppressor of ras-1 (KSR1) as a potential regulatory gene in breast cancer. KSR1, originally described as a novel protein kinase, has a role in activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases. Emerging evidence has shown that KSR1 may have dual functions as an active kinase as well as a scaffold facilitating multiprotein complex assembly. Although efforts have been made to study the role of KSR1 in certain tumour types, its involvement in breast cancer remains unknown. METHODS A quantitative mass spectrometry analysis using stable isotope labelling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was implemented to identify KSR1-regulated phosphoproteins in breast cancer. In vitro luciferase assays, co-immunoprecipitation as well as western blotting experiments were performed to further study the function of KSR1 in breast cancer. RESULTS Of significance, proteomic analysis reveals that KSR1 overexpression decreases deleted in breast cancer-1 (DBC1) phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that KSR1 decreases the transcriptional activity of p53 by reducing the phosphorylation of DBC1, which leads to a reduced interaction of DBC1 with sirtuin-1 (SIRT1); this in turn enables SIRT1 to deacetylate p53. CONCLUSION Our findings integrate KSR1 into a network involving DBC1 and SIRT1, which results in the regulation of p53 acetylation and its transcriptional activity