Hard News Cognitive Shift: from Facts to Narratives

This article discusses whether and how hard news stories represent the immediate reality. It suggests that random bits of hard information morph into episodic intrigues when audiences cognitively assemble a disorderly media flow of information into a chronological episode. Active audiences proceed this way, it is assumed, because the narrative frame (the plot construction) is a powerful cognitive device which people naturally use to organize diffuse and confused social reality. Five preliminary hypotheses on how random hard information turns into subjective coherent intrigues are presented. The paper concludes that hard news configures unstable intrigue matrixes rather than neat narratives. Those matrixes seem to be exploratory foresights about the chaotic reality rather than tangible imaginary stories, however

CONFLICT AS A STRUCTURING CATEGORY OF THE POLITICAL NARRATIVE: The case of the Jornal Nacional

This article explores the hypothesis that the meta-category “conflict”centralizes and structures newscasts based on a bipolar framing.Characters from the political scene are placed successively againsteach other, interweaving the narrative texture. Conflict is taken asa pre-category preceding that which will become news, from whichother subcategories (protagonist, antagonist, enemy) derive. Thus,news coverage not only represents political reality, but delimitsand institutes it as well. The empirical analysis presented in thearticle focuses on the coverage of a recent political scandal by theJornal Nacional, the main television newscast in Brazil

ALGOMETER FOR ASSESSING PRESSURE PAIN THRESHOLDS

Muscular and joint injuries and localized pain can be occasioned during sports practice. Although the reliability of palpation techniques (to evaluate muscle and joint tenderness) has improved and algometers have been developed1, they do not simulate the palpation technique and real time measurements are not possible. A new pressure algometer to determine pressure pain thresholds in real time has been developed, to be used in diagnosis and injury treatment evaluation of athletes

Effects of FGF-2 and EGF removal on the differentiation of mouse neural precursor cells

Cell therapy for neurological disorders has advanced, and neural precursor cells (NPC) may become the ideal candidates for neural transplantation in a wide range of diseases. However, additional work has to be done to determine either the ideal culture environment for NPC expansion in vitro, without altering their plasticity, or the FGF-2 and EGF mechanisms of cell signaling in neurospheres growth, survival and differentiation. In this work we evaluated mouse neurospheres cultured with and without FGF-2 and EGF containing medium and showed that those growth factors are responsible for NPC proliferation. It is also demonstrated that endogenous production of growth factors shifts from FGF-2 to IGF-1/PDGFb upon EGF and FGF-2 withdrawal. Mouse NPC cultured in suspension showed different patterns of neuronal localization (core versus shell) for both EGF and FGF-2 withdrawal and control groups. Taken together, these results show that EGF and FGF-2 removal play an important role in NPC differentiation and may contribute to a better understanding of mechanisms of NPC differentiation. Our findings suggest that depriving NPC of growth factors prior to grafting might enhance their chance to effectively integrate into the host.As terapias celulares para doenças neurológicas têm avançado e células precursoras neurais (NPC) surgem como candidatas ideais para o transplante de células neurais em muitas doenças. No entanto, trabalhos adicionais devem ser feitos para determinar o ambiente de cultivo ideal para a expansão in vitro das NPC, sem alterar sua plasticidade, e os mecanismos de sinalização celular do fator de crescimento epidérmico (EGF) e fator de crescimento de fibroblasto 2 (FGF-2) no crescimento, sobrevivência e diferenciação da neuroesfera. Nesse trabalho avaliamosNPCcultivadas na presença e na ausência de FGF-2 e EGF e mostramos que esses fatores de crescimento são responsáveis pela proliferação das NPC. Também foi demonstrado que a produção endógena de fatores de crescimento alterna de FGF-2 a fator de crescimento de insulina 1 (IGF-1) e fator de crescimento derivado de plaquetas b (PDGFb) após remoção de EGF e FGF-2. NPC de camundongo cultivadas em suspensão mostraram padrões de localização neuronal distintos (centro versus borda) tanto no grupo controle como no grupo sem EGF e FGF-2. Juntos, esses resultados mostram que a remoção de EGF e FGF-2 exerce importante ação na diferenciação de NPC e possivelmente contribui para melhor compreensão dos mecanismos envolvidos na diferenciação. Nossos achados sugerem que, privando as NPC de fatores de crescimento antes do transplante, talvez aumente as chances de que as células efetivamente se integrem ao hospedeiro.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de FisiologiaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de BiofísicaUNIFESP, Depto. de FisiologiaUNIFESP, Depto. de BiofísicaSciEL

Acute traumatic subdural haematomas : study of 110 cases

Apresentamos uma série consecutiva de 110 pacientes com hematoma subdural agudo traumático (HSDA) admitidos no serviço de emergência do HBDF no período de 1°-janeiro a 1°-dezembro-1994. Todos os pacientes foram atendidos de acordo com o mesmo protocolo. Houve predominância do sexo masculino (79%), com idade variando entre 14 e 70 anos, sendo os atropelamentos (34%) e os acidentes automobilísticos (20%) as causas mais comuns. A maioria dos pacientes (85,7%) foi admitida muito grave, com 8 pontos ou menos na Escala de Coma Glasgow (ECG), o que influenciou diretamente na mortalidade. A tomografia computadorizada de crânio foi o exame diagnóstico de escolha que mostrou serem as contusões e o inchaço cerebral ("swelling") as lesões intracranianas associadas mais freqüentes. A cirurgia foi realizada em 45,1% dos pacientes, e, em sua maioria, através de craniotomia fronto-têmporo-parietal ampla, com drenagem do hematoma, seguida de plástica da dura-mater. Em 54,9% as condições clínicas não permitiram a realização da cirurgia; neste grupo, cerca de 69,6% estavam em coma profundo à admissão, com 3 pontos na ECG. A letalidade cirúrgica foi de 61,2% e esteve diretamente relacionada à condição clínica inicial e à idade do paciente. A letalidade, incluindo todos os pacientes cirúrgicos e não cirúrgicos com HSDA, mesmo aqueles admitidos já com sinais de falência de tronco cerebral, foi de 79,5%. Além destes pacientes que faleceram, cerca de 7% evoluíram sem seqüelas ou com seqüelas mínimas; outros 11,4% com seqüelas de moderadas a paves e 2,1 % permaneceram em estado vegetativo persistente. Nossos dados estão de acordo com os da literatura no que se refere a elevada taxa de morbidade e mortalidade dos pacientes com HSDA.We report a series of 110 patients with acute traumatic subdural hematoma (ASDH) admitted at HBDF emergency within 1994 (January Is1 to December PJ.All patients were treated according to the same protocol. There was a predominance of males (79%), with ages ranging from 14 to 70, being car accidents (20%) and car-pedestrian accidents (34%) the most frequent causes The majority of patients (85.7%) was admitted in very serious condition, with a score of 8 points on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) or lesser, which directly influenced the mortality rates. CT scan was the diagnostic procedure of choice, and it showed contusion and brain swelling to be the most frequent associated intracranial lesions. Surgery was carried out in 45.1% of cases and, in most instances, through an ample fronto-temporo-parietal craniotomy, with hematoma drainage and dural reconstitution. In 54.9% of cases, clinical conditions did not allow surgery and in this group, 69.6

Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli

Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts.  Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins.  Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets